Screenhead

You ever have one of those weird cultural experience where you’re looking at something REALLY REALLY SUPER IMPORTANT to some other culture but you don’t understand one bit of it?  So you’re trying to be polite while they dance around and set each other on fire or drink each other’s urine or something and you’re convinced that they’re all just completely bonkers?

That’s exactly what Seventh Moon is like.

Lions Gate sent me out a copy of this, the third of four installments in the latest go-round of the Ghost House Underground series, and it’s a doozy, I’ll tell you that much.  See, Seventh Moon is all about the seventh lunar month in the Chinese calendar.  And in that month, they have this big whopping festival in which they burn paper and sacrifice whatnot so that the spirits of the dead–let loose from hell in a very Halloween-style fashion–can hunt up the living and find some new recruits.

Now, this is actually a pretty scary idea, and it’s done fairly well, but there were so many stretches where I had no idea what was going on.  It was creepy, yes, but mostly it was creepy because I didn’t understand it.  And considering it was written by the director of The Blair Witch Project and produced by Haxan Films, also of The Blair Witch Project, it wasn’t that surprising that half of the movie was sort of lost in sheer gobbledygook.

Oh, and when they actually busted out “this map is useless” in the opening minutes, I about bust a gut.  Shrieking laughter through my tears, I asked if they were planning to kick it in the river next.

Sadly, though, the Blair Witch cinematography is back in full force also, with plenty of bouncy camera action to vaguely revolt you.

That was the biggest problem here–it was a good idea, just not done very well, but a lot better than I expected from Haxan.

So the Screenhead Ten Scale responds to the shock by handing the spooky boogeymen of Seventh Moon a six out of ten.  it wasn’t particularly bad, but there was plenty wrong with it, too.

The Cup of Tears film trailer. Dir. Gary Shore from Gary Shore on Vimeo.

 A Cup of Tears is almost like an Irish folk lore in itself, interesting trailer with lots of visuals that seem surreal. The story is about a scorned geisha who creates a magical cup made of tears that causes any man who drinks from it to fall into a permanent sleep. One night the cup is stolen, setting off a chain of events that threatens civil war amongst the clans. Taro, a gifted samurai, sets out to find the cup and one who can break the spell.

This is not a Disney movie; it’s a true, very realistic Chinese movie about Mulan, quite different from the American animated version that had a talking dragon and cute singing Chinese warriors.

I’m downright baffled by this, but apparently, if you’re looking to catch Saw VI, which we just reviewed today, in Spain–you’re going to be headed for the red light district.  It’s rated X, you see, and that puts it in the same classification as porn.

I personally remember how shocked I was to hear that, back in the late sixties, a similar fate had happened to the original Night of the Living Dead.  That sucker plays on early-afternoon network television today, so standards have been at least somewhat relaxed.

There’s not much word out of the Spanish government as to why they’re freaking out quite so epically (is “epically” a word?  Well, if it wasn’t already, it is now!), but chances are Lions Gate will take that ball and run with it.  “Forbidden in Spain”…”Some countries just can’t handle the horror”…lots of good taglines there.

But what could possibly make Saw VI that objectionable?  Well…you’ll find out….

This is Final Solution first teaser trailer, and I thought it would be perfect for the Halloween season. Enjoy! 

During the Second World War in Nazi occupied Denmark, local fishermen helped Jews flee to the neutral grounds of Sweden. The trip was not cheap and came at an even higher price for the Landau family who were forced to leave their youngest daughter Emma behind. Here she would be hidden by her mother’s friend, waiting for a chance to follow her family.

The Nazis employed fishermen of their own to ferry the fleeing Jews to a remote and hidden Extermination Camp deep in the dark forests of Sweden. This became the fate of Emma´s entire family.

As time passed, Emma grew up watching the Nazis lose the war, the powers in Europe shift and her mother’s friend pass away. Never getting any news about her family´s fate, she decides to follow their trail and uncover what happened to them in Sweden. But what she and her friends found was evil beyond their wildest imagination.

Su Qi-Er (Man Cheuk Chiu), a wealthy man living during the Qing Dynasty, loses his fortune and reputation because of a conspiracy against him. He is forced out onto the streets. Su dedicates his life to martial arts and rises again as a patriotic hero known as the “King of Beggars.”

True Legend is directed by Chinese filmmaker Yuen Woo-Ping, the fight choreographer on all three Matrix movies and Kill Bill.

Fans of the Che Guevara road movie The Motorcycle Diaries will be pleased with this news. Director Walter Salles and writer Jose Rivera will team up again, this time to adapt the modern American novel ‘American Rust’, penned by Philipp Meyer. Scott Stuber (The Break-Up, Role Models) will produce.

American Rust is Meyer’s first novel, and it tells the tale of two childhood friends, Isaac and Billy. Set in a dying steel town in Pennsylvania, a murder is committed that involves the boys, and through betrayal and arguments, leads to a split in the friendship that may affect the rest of their lives. The novel has been lauded by critics, with comparisons made with the likes of Cormac McCarthy and William Faulkner.

While The Motorcycle Diaries was an entertaining film, many criticised it for distorting events to glorify and idealise the young Che, despite the reality being far from that (and of course the problem that the revolutionary became overly vicious in his later years). Meyer’s novel is praised for its ability to find drama in the drab and downbeat lives of a decaying community, and if a film adaptaion merely tries to replicate the main plot points, it may indeed miss the point of the tale. Regardless, it will be an interesting prospect so see how a Brazilian director and a Puerto Rican writer take on a story of an American community.

Seems like Rec is well on its way to becoming a franchise–not only has the sequel already bowed in Spain to a fairly respectable opening weekend, but Rec 3 now has its own website just established.  The website, which can be found here, has just one word on it:

Proximamente

Which, if you speak Spanish, or just in case you don’t, translates roughly as “soon”.

I have to admit that I’m terribly happy about such an idea.  I loved both the first Rec and its remake, Quarantine, and having seen the trailer for the second Rec, it too looks like a gigantic dose of fun on a bun.

Sadly, there is no word about when Rec 2 will make its way to the United States (in anything other than festival form), and there’s only Proximamente as far as word co when Rec 3 will be released at all.  So there’s plenty of news yet to come on this series, and you know we’ll be watching every second.

Don’t let the French scare you away from A Prophet trailer. The visuals are awesome and draw the viewer into the story.  Un Prophete or A Prophetin English is directed by French filmmaker Jacques Audiard (See How They Fall, A Self-Made Hero, Read My Lips). The original screenplaywas written by Abdel Raouf Dafri and Nicolas Peufaillit. The revised screenplay is by Audiard and Thomas Bidegain. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and was  picked up by Sony Pictures Classics for distribution. A Prophet limited release date is set for February 12th, 2010.

John Woo’s Red Cliff domestic trailer looks breathtaking and spectacular.  I am awed by the crispness of the cinematography.  Apparently, the movie has been edited down to one film for the United States, which Woo intended to do all along.  Some may not be happy about his decision, but it’s still an epic and the film will draw more people to the theaters.