“Robert Rodriguez is a man of many talents, and after turning a fake trailer into a fully-fledged film with Machete, he’s been assembling a fantastic cast in recent months for the first of two expected sequels, Machete Kills (to be followed by Machete Kills Again)
Principal photography began on 11th June, and now we’ve got our first look at one of its female stars, Sofía Vergara (Modern Family), on set, as well as the news from the writer-director’s own mouth (/Twitter) that Charlie Sheen has been cast as the President of the United States.”
Meanwhile, here’s a look at star Sofia Vergara on the set:
With over 2 million clicks registered on Youtube, there’s no doubt that Cocktail’s catchy song Daaru Desi has become rather popular in just 2 weeks.
You’d think the song’s stars Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone would agree but the truth is that both Saif and Deepika have gone on record to say don’t like the song!
The comely British actress returns to the period costume dramas where she’s carved out a respectable little niche for herself these past few years. She’s currently starring opposite Steve Carrell in the apocalyptic comedy “Finding a Friend for the End of the World.”
This time, she’s taking on Leo Tolstoy’s imposing 19th century family novel. I
recall it as the bane of a Russian lit class I took back in my undergrad days. I was always more of a Dostoevsky kind of kid anyway.
Good Lord, how I love this cult favorite about a ne’er-do-well indie band from North Carolina. It came out when I was living and working in Winston-Salem. N.C., and just seemed to sum up everything I loved about the late 1990s indie scene.
“Tony gets fired from his job. He’s not really sad about this because he prefers writing songs and playing the guitar. He meets the drummer Charlie and they decide to start a band, although Tony is afraid of playing in front of other people. He can’t even play in front of Charlie. They find another guitarist, Wynn, who enjoys fishing if he’s not playing the guitar. The final member of the band is Eric, the bass-player who is often unpredictable in his actions. They name the band Circus Monkey and want to get famous and rich. However, after some successful gigs, they begin to realize what all the big music and show business is about.”
Here’s the one and only video from Circus Monkey, the fictional band at the heart of the movie. The song is called “It Couldn’t Be Ann.” It’s amazing.
If, like I did, you grew up listening to independent music and college radio in the 1980s, then you probably loved The Replacements. The Minneapolis band led by singer/songwriter Paul Westerberg could be brilliant and heart-rending and they could also be a shambolic drunken mess.
A new movie, “Color Me Obsessed,” tracks their career, which lasted from their formation in 1979 to their dissolution in 1991. It’s directed by Gorman Bechard and takes the rare tact of featuring neither music nor interviews with the actual band members. Instead, the movie focuses on fans of the beloved ‘Mats, as they were known, and what the music meant to them.
My colleague, Will Harris, of the Virginian-Pilot runs it down:
“Bechard rationalized that the methodology made perfect sense for a film about the Replacements, whose first video, “Bastards of Young,” consisted almost exclusively of a close-up of a stereo speaker.
“I love people who spit in the face of tradition and basically just do it for themselves,” Bechard said. “If you fall on your face, you fall on your face, but at least you fall on your face trying something new.”
The director had no trouble finding other notable musicians to offer their feelings on the ‘Mats – as the band is known to fans – with members of such acts as the Goo Goo Dolls and the Decemberists sitting down in front of the camera. Still, Bechard made certain to incorporate “average” fans into the proceedings as well.
“There’s a guy who’s in the movie a lot, his name is Robert Voedisch, and when you see the movie, you’ll understand that he’s sort of the uber-fan,” Bechard said. “He literally describes the band at one point as his oxygen, and you can tell that he really means it. In a way, they probably saved his life.”
With the release date of The Dark Knight rises imminently approaching Nokia unveiled what is conceivably the final trailer for the film, and by the beard of Zeus action freaks will be satiated.
Gone is the moody off key piano playing and the sober voiceovers. In its place is a disturbingly rousing score from Hans Zimmer and the big set pieces of the movie gain a touch more clarity.
This movie to me looks amazing and I have every faith that Nolan will pull off a phenomenal end to what is the most critically acclaimed attempt to bring a childhood hero to life.
The Cineaste's Lament. 