This is shameless self promotion, but hey.....
Monday, March 2, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
The Vault of Horror Presents the First-Ever Cyber Horror Awards!
After weeks of debate and downloading, the balloting for the 2008 Cyber Horror Awards, the very first horror film accolades bestowed by online horror bloggers/writers, is complete. I'd like to thank the wide spectrum of talented and discerning participants who took part in voting on the nominees.The results are in, and as many foresaw, the story of these awards' first year is the story of an unlikely foreign film that took the online genre community by storm in 2008. Let the Right One In captured seven of 12 CHAs, including every category in which it was nominated.
For a more detailed look at the winners, head over to the official page of the CHAs, but if you want to cut right to the chase here at the good ol' Vault, here you go:
Ray Harryhausen Award for Best Visual Effects
The Ruins
Albert S. D'Agostino Award for Best Production Design
David Hackl, Repo! The Genetic Opera
Tom Savini Award for Best Makeup
Greg Nicotero, Diary of the Dead and Mirrors
Bernard Herrmann Award for Best Score
Johan Soderqvist, Let the Right One In
Karl Freund Award for Best Cinematography
Hoyte Van Hoytema, Let the Right One In
Curt Siodmak Award for Best Screenplay
John Ajvide Lindqvist, Let the Right One In
Linnea Quigley Award for Best Supporting Actress
Lizzy Caplan, Cloverfield
Dwight Frye Award for Best Supporting Actor
Vinnie Jones, The Midnight Meat Train
Vincent Price Award for Best Actor
Kare Hedebrant, Let the Right One In
Jamie Lee Curtis Award for Best Actress
Lina Leandersson, Let the Right One In
David Cronenberg Award for Best Director
Tomas Alfredson, Let the Right One in
Val Lewton Award fort Best Film
Let the Right One In, EFTI
There you have it, dear readers, the horror blogosphere's take on the very best of 2008. I'd like to specifically thank the excellent writers who joined me in this exciting experiment:
- Iloc Zoc of Zombos' Closet of Horror, 2008 Rondo nominee for Best Horror Blog
- Wes Fierce of Horror Film Magazine
- Vince Liaguno of Slasher Speak, horror novelist
- Max Cheney of The Drunken Severed Head, 2008 Rondo nominee for Best Horror Blog
- Casey Criswell of Cinema Fromage and Bloody Good Horror
- John W. Morehead of Theofantastique
- The Lightning Bug of The Lightning Bug's Lair
- Jeff Allard of Dinner with Max Jenke and Shock Till You Drop
- Justin of Send More Cops
- Gary D. Macabre of Blogue Macabre and The Many Faces of the Frankenstein Monster, 2008 Rondo nominee for Best Website
- BC of Horror-Movie-a-Day
- Peter Hall of Horror's Not Dead
- Unkle Lancifer of Kindertrauma
- John Kenneth Muir, horror critic (Booklist Editor's Choice)
- Pax Romano of Billy Loves Stu
- Scott Weinberg of FEARnet, Cinematical, Horror.com and Rotten Tomatoes
- Brian Matus of FangoriaOnline
- Corey of Evil on Two Legs
ENTRE LES MURS (THE CLASS)
Written by Francois Bégaudeau, Robin Campillo and Laurent Cantet
Directed by Laurent Cantet
Starring Francois Bégaudeau
Sit still and pay attention because class is now in session. This year’s winner at Cannes for the Palmes d’Or and Academy Award nominee for Foreign Language Film contender, ENTRE LES MURS (THE CLASS), is a surprisingly engaging experience considering what you are actually watching unravel on screen. Francois Bégaudeau is a teacher and a novelist. He wrote a book about his experiences teaching teenagers in a troubled Parisian neighborhood, translated that into a screenplay and now finds himself playing a version of himself in the film. It is now our turn to attend his class and watch in amazement as the games play out. The film rarely leaves the school grounds but it keeps its audience focused at all times, which is a lot more than I can say for Bégaudeau and his students.
Calling what happens in Bégaudeau’s classroom a game is a gross understatement. It is more like a war of minds and egos. The teachers all go in at the beginning of the session feeling defensive and preparing themselves for the worst, therefore often fulfilling their own prophecies. The students, well, it isn’t that they are so uninterested in learning; they just care more about social status and fitting in. So they spend the time they should be conjugating verbs coming up with witty quips and trying to look big and tough in front of their recess buddies. And with 30 or so of them and only one teacher, the odds are far from being in Bégaudeau’s favor.
The entire cast is stellar, as is required in order for the cinema verité approach to be believable. This is all the more impressive considering the majority of them have never acted before, including Bégaudeau himself. ENTRE LES MURS is a great film, funny one minute as the banter flies through the room like a renegade spitball and distressing the next, when the realization that scenarios just like this are happening all over the civilized world. It is also a heck of a lot more entertaining than I remember school to be.
Directed by Laurent Cantet
Starring Francois Bégaudeau
Sit still and pay attention because class is now in session. This year’s winner at Cannes for the Palmes d’Or and Academy Award nominee for Foreign Language Film contender, ENTRE LES MURS (THE CLASS), is a surprisingly engaging experience considering what you are actually watching unravel on screen. Francois Bégaudeau is a teacher and a novelist. He wrote a book about his experiences teaching teenagers in a troubled Parisian neighborhood, translated that into a screenplay and now finds himself playing a version of himself in the film. It is now our turn to attend his class and watch in amazement as the games play out. The film rarely leaves the school grounds but it keeps its audience focused at all times, which is a lot more than I can say for Bégaudeau and his students.
Calling what happens in Bégaudeau’s classroom a game is a gross understatement. It is more like a war of minds and egos. The teachers all go in at the beginning of the session feeling defensive and preparing themselves for the worst, therefore often fulfilling their own prophecies. The students, well, it isn’t that they are so uninterested in learning; they just care more about social status and fitting in. So they spend the time they should be conjugating verbs coming up with witty quips and trying to look big and tough in front of their recess buddies. And with 30 or so of them and only one teacher, the odds are far from being in Bégaudeau’s favor.
The entire cast is stellar, as is required in order for the cinema verité approach to be believable. This is all the more impressive considering the majority of them have never acted before, including Bégaudeau himself. ENTRE LES MURS is a great film, funny one minute as the banter flies through the room like a renegade spitball and distressing the next, when the realization that scenarios just like this are happening all over the civilized world. It is also a heck of a lot more entertaining than I remember school to be.
CHE
Written by Peter Buchman and Benjamin A. van der Veen
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Starring Benicio del Toro, Demien Bachir, Catalina Sandino Moreno and Franka Potente
Ernesto Che Guevera: To survive here, to win, you have to live as if you’ve already died.
Steven Soderbergh, the Academy Award winning director of TRAFFIC, would like you to meet someone you already know. He insists though that you only think you know this man and furthermore, that it will take a little over four hours to get to know him the way one should. That man is Cuban revolutionary leader, Ernesto Che Guevera, and Soderbergh’s film is simply, CHE. Broken into two parts, the first entitled “The Argentine” and the second entitled, “Guerilla”, CHE seems daunting on the surface but once you break past that, it is a engrossing experience that is much more forthcoming and straightforward than you would have expected. I admit, I too expected a pompous overwrought work, given the run time and subject matter but Soderbergh continues to impress me with his subtlety and his touch, soft yet still commanding.
Over the course of the two films, Soderbergh gives us Guevera’s rise as a revolutionary and his ultimate and subsequent demise. Guevera is given to us via Benicio del Toro, a man who was practically ignored during awards season for no good reason that I can figure. Del Toro is a patient and practical Che. He understands his mission; he understands its importance concerning the greater good of his country; and he understands that he is just one man making up a much larger whole. Del Toro plays Guevera with such delicate restraint and an untold inner depth that is very rarely allowed to pass his guarded surface. It is an engaging experience to watch him embody this historical figure’s skin and it is his practically perfect performance that gives roots to a film about a man with no specific roots to plant.
CHE is not just about the man but also a telling history lesson that plays out as naturally as one would hope an epic of this size would. And while Soderbergh’s portrayal is decidedly fair and frank, his film is a might stronger than that.
GRADE: B+
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Starring Benicio del Toro, Demien Bachir, Catalina Sandino Moreno and Franka Potente
Ernesto Che Guevera: To survive here, to win, you have to live as if you’ve already died.
Steven Soderbergh, the Academy Award winning director of TRAFFIC, would like you to meet someone you already know. He insists though that you only think you know this man and furthermore, that it will take a little over four hours to get to know him the way one should. That man is Cuban revolutionary leader, Ernesto Che Guevera, and Soderbergh’s film is simply, CHE. Broken into two parts, the first entitled “The Argentine” and the second entitled, “Guerilla”, CHE seems daunting on the surface but once you break past that, it is a engrossing experience that is much more forthcoming and straightforward than you would have expected. I admit, I too expected a pompous overwrought work, given the run time and subject matter but Soderbergh continues to impress me with his subtlety and his touch, soft yet still commanding.
Over the course of the two films, Soderbergh gives us Guevera’s rise as a revolutionary and his ultimate and subsequent demise. Guevera is given to us via Benicio del Toro, a man who was practically ignored during awards season for no good reason that I can figure. Del Toro is a patient and practical Che. He understands his mission; he understands its importance concerning the greater good of his country; and he understands that he is just one man making up a much larger whole. Del Toro plays Guevera with such delicate restraint and an untold inner depth that is very rarely allowed to pass his guarded surface. It is an engaging experience to watch him embody this historical figure’s skin and it is his practically perfect performance that gives roots to a film about a man with no specific roots to plant.
CHE is not just about the man but also a telling history lesson that plays out as naturally as one would hope an epic of this size would. And while Soderbergh’s portrayal is decidedly fair and frank, his film is a might stronger than that.
GRADE: B+
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: In Your Face, Jonas Brothers!
Last year around this time, a certain teen queen unleashed her “Best of Both Worlds” concert to theatres in 3D. Having been billed as an exclusive one-week engagement, little girls everywhere came out in droves to catch Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus do her split personality thing up on screen to the tune of over $30 million. A year has passed and the smart folks at Disney decided to get another teen sensation back on the screen in 3D, only to find that audiences would opt to watch a man in grandma drag go to jail instead.
No, THE JONAS BROTHERS: 3D CONCERT EXPERIENCE could not topple TYLER PERRY’S MADEA GOES TO JAIL at the box office this weekend. This is even after Perry’s most successful film to date suffered a 60% drop over last week. Worse yet, the young Jonas siblings opened on almost twice the screens as Montana/Cyrus did and made less than half the cash. There was no urgency to catch the show opening weekend with some looming empty threat that the film would only be playing for a week, mind you. (It should be noted that as soon as Montana brought in the green last year, the one-week engagement was extended indefinitely.) It was a solid showing but it seems to me that there must have been a lot of little girls who just decided to stay home. Besides, the Jonas Brothers that big and in your face, 3D styles, would be pretty frightening, I think. For a boy band, they’re really not that cute … or profitable apparently.
Last week’s winner of 8 Oscars, including Best Picture, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, saw its already impressive gross improve another 45% this week. Albeit not my pick for Best Picture of the year, this is clearly the people’s favorite. In its 16th week in theatres, it shows no signs of stopping. It is Fox Searchlight’s first Best Picture winner and it is now their widest release to date. The Danny Boyle film has plenty more market internationally to conquer, home video sales still ahead and it will certainly surpass THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON to become the highest grossing Best Picture nominee from this year.
A couple of other big Oscar winners saw serious gains this week too. Both added hundreds of screens to capitalize on their Oscar visibility and both saw promising results well into their domestic runs. Audience favorite, Kate Winslet, took home the Best Actress Oscar for THE READER and the Weinstein Company sleeper hit saw its grosses increase 10% over last week for a grand total of just over $27 million. Not bad for a movie that seemed doomed to fall away into obscurity until it garnered five surprise Oscar nods. Focus Features’ MILK earned Oscars for Best Original Screenplay (Dustin Lance Black) and Best Actor (Sean Penn) did even better, increasing 37% over last week and bringing its cume over $30 million 14 weeks into its domestic run. Both other Best Picture nominees, THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON and FROST/NIXON saw its returns dwindle this week as neither garnered any serious screen time during the telecast.
You don’t have to be an Oscar winner to perform well in limited release though. Foreign Language Oscar losers, THE CLASS and WALTZ WITH BASHIR continued to see their grosses grow despite missing out on the crown. And in completely non-Oscar related news, Joaquin Phoenix’s supposedly last film, TWO LOVERS, tacked on about 60 screens and soared over 500% and critical darling, GOMORRA, improved over 140% over last week with an average that would rival any title in the Top 10. You don’t want to mess with the GORMORRA boys.
NEXT WEEK: Everyone will be watching to see if THE WATCHMEN is worth all of this overblown hype as it opens on over 3500 screens. Given that there are no other wide releases expected next weekend, I guess people think it’s going to be big. The question now is how big but my question is rather why anyone cares at all.
Source: Box Office Mojo
Panik ATG Crew Show
Rooftop don, Panik of London's infamous ATG crew is doing a show at the Pure Evil Gallery on March 5th. Should be a good 'un!
Banksy Update
Gillett Square, London
(Nice use of the wall-grate for the speaker)
Just off the A1 before the M1 motorway.
These pics came online just last night and are apparently the work of Banksy.....Thanks to the sickos on the Banksy Forums for being so eager!
Dinoaurs F***ing Robots Dot Com
A great new site has started and needs all the support it can get. www.dinosaurfuckingrobots.com is a brilliant site dedicated to exactly what it says on the tin. Go forth and enjoy its retardedness....
[VIA]
Shanghai Skatepark Rocks
China have caught on to the sports of Skate & BMX with the opening of their biggest parark last year. The SMP park is 45,000 square feet of adrenaline-fuelled fun with a viweing deck of 12,300 sq ft!! All it need now is some good graff covering the place!
2min. clip of the Levis Team Riding At Shanghai
Transparent Fish Head
These images are of a deep-water fish called the Barreleye (Macropinna microstoma)which has a transparent head and strange tubular eyes. It has extremely light-sensitive eyes that can rotate within his transparent, fluid-filled shield on its head. The fish's tubular eyes, well inside the head, are capped by bright green lenses and look very spooky. The two spots above the fish's mouth are not the eyes: those are olfactory organs called nares, which are analogous to human nostrils.
[VIA]
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