DVD Review: Urasawa Naoki's MONSTER, Episodes 1-15

DVD Review: Urasawa Naoki's MONSTER, Episodes 1-15


DVD Review: Urasawa Naoki's MONSTER, Episodes 1-15

Posted: 22 Jan 2014 02:00 AM PST

(To all the people who thought Hitler wasn't quite blond enough: wait until you see Johan...) A surgeon is on the run from the law for crimes he didn't commit, while hunting for the real murderer. Is this The Fugitive? No. This is Urasawa Naoki's Monster. And be afraid. VERY afraid. A 74-episode anime series that aired in 2004 and 2005, Monster is quite famous and has picked up many awards. It is slowly but surely coming back in the news, as HBO has apparently hired Guillermo Del Toro to create a live-action version for them. But while English-language versions of the anime have been broadcast in the past, it was actually difficult to get your hands on an English-friendly DVD-set, the release rights even...

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Sundance 2014 First Impression: THE RAID 2 Is More Epic Than We Ever Imagined

Posted: 21 Jan 2014 11:36 PM PST

What is perhaps the most anticipated film of 2014, at least for most of us at Twitch, made its world premiere this evening at the Sundance Film Festival and suffice to say, the sequel does not disappoint. Clocking in at two-and-one-half hours, The Raid 2 greatly expands on the world created by Gareth Evans in the first film The Raid: Redemption. With the expansion of the world comes so much more action, so much more imagination, and so so SO much more violence. This is not a movie for the faint of heart. In fact, the film actually had to be paused at one point and the lights brought up so one man who had lost consciousness could be removed (he eventually walked out...

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Quentin Tarantino's THE HATEFUL EIGHT Is Now Shelved

Posted: 21 Jan 2014 07:30 PM PST

Just a week and a half ago, we reported the first details of Quentin Tarantino's possible next Western, including its title (The Hateful Eight) and the name of two actors the writer/director wanted on board (Christoph Waltz and Bruce Dern). Today, Deadline is reporting that Tarantino is shelving The Hateful Eight because the script was leaked after he gave it to a small number of actors. "I'm very, very depressed. I finished a script, a first draft, and I didn't mean to shoot it until next winter," said Tarantino who now might be publishing the script but definitely not directing The Hateful Eight as his next film. The report also states that it was Bruce Dern, Michael Madsen, and Tim Roth who were given copies of the script...

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DVD Review: VIKINGDOM Deserves A Proper Viking Burial

Posted: 21 Jan 2014 06:00 PM PST

Right off the hop I have to say that Vikingdom is a real slog to get through. It is almost a staggering two hours long! Just as a common-sense rule, no action film should be two hours long. Period. And the real shame of it is that so much of this run time is taken up with a lot of talking. I thought I was in for an over the top treat when the opening credits rolled to the sound of heavy metal. Ah, I thought, here is a movie that does not take itself seriously and I can sit back and have a bit of fun. Sadly, I was misled by those opening riffs. None of the acting is very good. I almost feel bad for...

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Sundance Speed Dating With... WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS Filmmakers Taika Waititi And Jemaine Clement

Posted: 21 Jan 2014 05:00 PM PST

Writer/director/actor Taika Waititi, who's been at Sundance before with Boy (2010) and Eagle vs Shark (2007), comes back with something altogether different. Co-written and co-directed with Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Concords), What We Do in the Shadows is a vampire mockumentary about four vampire flat-mates "living" it up in Wellington, New Zealand. If chatting with these two for 15 minutes is any indication of what it might be like to be on set with them, I'm going to offer myself as an unpaid PA on their next film just to experience it. Here's more of Twitch's Sundance Speed Dating...Twitch: At what age did you know you wanted to be a filmmaker?Jemaine Clement: Is this the kind of thing you ask on a date?Taika Waititi: The...

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DVD Review: OLD GOATS, Still Butting Heads On Life, Love, And Friendship

Posted: 21 Jan 2014 04:30 PM PST

An antidote to the steady stream of movies about aimless twenty-somethings, Old Goats revolves around a trio of older gentlemen dealing with issues that never go away: the fear of commitment and intimacy, the yearning for an adventurous life, and the desire for love and friendship. Enacted with amateur brio by Britton Crosley, Bob Burkholder, and David VanderWal, the trio, conveniently named Britt, Bob, and Dave, are at different stages of retirement life. Dave has been retired for about six months; he has a lovely wife and a beautiful home, but he has not yet adjusted to retirement. He becomes friends with Bob, who is quite a bit older but is still feisty and energetic and busy; in addition to various volunteer activities, he also...

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Sundance 2014 Review: LISTEN UP PHILIP Asks For Sympathy For The Asshole

Posted: 21 Jan 2014 02:30 PM PST

A few years back Alex Ross Perry caught the eye of many in the American independent scene with his second feature, the delightfully awful (or is that awfully delightful?) The Color Wheel. A sibling road tripper with the penchant for the bizarre and eccentric, Perry's dry, bitter humor amused me to no end, his characters running the neurotic gauntlet from self-centered assholes to self-loathing, very broken people. Truth be told I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this odd 16mm odyssey.Listen Up Philip charts a similar path, though it drops much of the bizarre qualities I enjoyed so much about his previous work. There are little touches as such, and Jason Schwartzman remains his usual self-destructive best, but whenever the film shifts away from...

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Sundance Speed Dating with... LOVE IS STRANGE Writer/Director Ira Sachs

Posted: 21 Jan 2014 01:00 PM PST

Ira Sachs has been bringing queer cinema to the screens since 1996, making him one of the few pioneers who have challenged the status quo of Hollywood's (and the indie world, for that matter) white, hetero-dominant stories. For this year's Sundance, he has brought Love Is Strange, starring Anthony Molina and John Lithgow. It's a sadly sweet story about a gay couple on the verge of their marriage after 39 years of being together (because, well, now they can) who are forced to live apart for a little while.Twitch: At what age did you know you wanted to be a writer/director?Ira Sachs: I started to come to Sundance when I was 14 because my father lived in Park City. When I was a junior in...

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Sundance 2014 Review: Thumbs Up For Roger Ebert Doc LIFE ITSELF

Posted: 21 Jan 2014 12:30 PM PST

If you do what I do -- cherish film and have the chutzpah to tell other people what you think about them -- then you're almost certainly indebted to Roger Ebert. I've documented at length the effect that he had on both my personal and professional life previously, but for any cinephile, in some way you have to confront the work of Ebert.He was much more than the binary position of his thumb, of course. Gregarious, hard headed, an alcoholic, and a champion of innumerable films and filmmakers, he was a person of great contradiction, the sum totaling up to the life of a remarkable man.Steve James' documentary Life Itself does as good a job as anyone could have done in presenting these contradictions. It...

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THE RAID 2 Trailer: One Cop Vs. The Entire Underworld (And Then Some)

Posted: 21 Jan 2014 12:00 PM PST

Here's the U.S. trailer for an upcoming action movie from Indonesia, a sequel entitled The Raid 2. You might have heard about it. The film will have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival tonight, and we expect to hear some more from Utah at that time. As a reminder, here's the official synopsis: He thought it was over. After fighting his way out of a building filled with gangsters and madmen - a fight that left the bodies of police and gangsters alike piled in the halls - rookie Jakarta cop Rama thought it was done and he could resume a normal life. He couldn't have been more wrong. Formidable though they may have been, Rama's opponents in that fateful building were nothing...

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THE FIRST WAVE Is Just The Beginning. Watch David Freyne's Short Film Now.

Posted: 21 Jan 2014 10:00 AM PST

Director David Freyne has seen the future and it's not friendly. No, the Irish director has released his short film The First Wave online and the film, which serves as a precursor to a proposed feature, posits a gritty and realistic take and the viral outbreak that leads to a zombie apocalypse.Following the outbreak of an aggressive virus, a young woman awakes in a hospital bed. As the horrifying events that led her there are revealed, it becomes clear that the cure is just the beginning.This is quality stuff and at just seven minutes long there's no compelling reason for you not to take the time to watch. Check it out below....

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Check Out The Black Magic Heroes In The First Trailer For JORGE AND ALBERTO VS THE NEOLIBERAL DEMONS

Posted: 21 Jan 2014 09:30 AM PST

It was back in October that we first brought word of upcoming Brazilian-Argentinian co-production Jorge And Alberto vs The Neoliberal Demons. Backed by the Brazilian genre festival Fantaspoa the horror comedy is directed by Argentina's Quintana Brothers from a script co-written by La Memoria Del Muerto director Javier Diment, who also stars.Jorge (Gonzalo Quintana) and Alberto (Valentín Javier Diment) are two sorcerers that live in Buenos Aires. Jorge works as an assistant in a courtroom and Alberto's glory days are long passed him. Everything indicates that the eclipses of Saturn will bring bad luck and, just before that, they are visited by the president of Argentina, who puts them on a dangerous mission: rescue her daughter from the hands of the Judge Fayó and stop...

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Review: THE STRONG ANGEL INN Has A Serious Drinking Problem

Posted: 21 Jan 2014 09:00 AM PST

Addiction is a relatively familiar topic in the film world. Even though it might seem quite impossible to depict such a horrible and consumptive, yet extremely human illness without any actual experiences, over the years many artists tried to deal with that enormously difficult subject in a more or less meaningful way. Undeniably, cinematic history is filled with unforgettable and strikingly valuable pictures that tried to expose the problem through very vivid imagery and gut-wrenching narratives that were often meant to work as respectable and provocative cautionary tales. Films such as Leaving Las Vegas, Days of Wine and Roses, The Lost Weekend (my personal favorite), Trainspotting, or Shame cover various sides of the terrifying disease that is addiction in most expressive and often groundbreaking ways, and...

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Penélope Cruz And Julio Medem Buddy Up For MA MA

Posted: 21 Jan 2014 08:30 AM PST

News out today in Spain is that Penélope Cruz will star in ma ma, a Spanish language flick penned and to be directed by Julio Medem. Already in pre-production, principal photography begins sometime this spring in Spain. It will be Medem's first full-length feature since Room in Rome in 2010.Fellow Spaniards Luis Tosar and Asier Etxeandia will be popping up alongside Cruz, while Basque composer Alberto Iglesias, Oscar nominated three times including for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, will tinkle the ivories and such things for the musical score.  Cruz will play the lead of Magda, a woman who will apparently share with her family and close friends "unsuspected scenes of humour and of delicate happiness." Madrid-based Morena Films will produce with Cruz and Medem down...

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Sundance 2014 Review: CALVARY Is A Tragic, Devastating Masterpiece

Posted: 21 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

John Michael McDonagh's 2011 directorial debut The Guard was one of the stronger debut films of recent years, combining as it did McDonagh's fabulous script, a strong but not overwhelming sense of visual style and a blazing performance from leading man Brendan Gleeson. Three years later McDonagh is back with his sophomore effort, Calvary, and as strong as his debut picture already was this is a massive step forward, a complex and emotionally devastating picture shot through with wry dark humor and - once again - an utterly arresting performance from Gleeson. Clearly the is a creative collaboration with the potential to yield remarkable fruit for many years yet to come.Gleeson is Father James Lavelle, parish priest to a small coastal village. Lavelle is a...

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Sundance 2014 Review: COLD IN JULY Is Dank And Sweaty And Fabulous

Posted: 21 Jan 2014 07:00 AM PST

Stake Land and We Are What We Are director Jim Mickle exits his customary horror territory and heads for something altogether darker with grimy crime thriller Cold In July. Adapted from the novel by Joe R Lansdale, Cold In July has been Mickle's end game for years now, a true passion project developed and honed while working on other projects with Mickle biding his time and waiting for the day he would finally have the chance to put it before cameras. That day has come and it was absolutely worth the wait.We begin with a domestic nightmare, meek businessman and father Richard Dane (Michael C Hall) - a picture framer by trade - awoken in the middle of the night by the sound of an...

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Get Behind The Scenes Of Christophe Gans' BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Posted: 21 Jan 2014 06:30 AM PST

Pathe Films has posted a making-of video for Christophe Gans' adaptation of the fairy tale Beauty And The Beast, featuring an interview with the director and screen writer Sandra Vo-Anh.  Unfortunately, its in French so those who don't know the language will not be able to understand what their saying but atleast there are some stunning visuals on display throughout the video. In addition, the music video entitled "Sauras-Tu M'Aimer" with The Voice's season 2 winner Yoann Fréget performing, has some more footage and it looks spectacular.1810. After the wreck of his ships, a financially-ruined merchant exiles himself in the countryside with his six children. Among them is Beauty, his youngest daughter, a joyful girl full of grace. One day, during an arduous journey, the...

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Sundance 2014 Review: Though Still Very Funny, THE TRIP TO ITALY Is A Pale Imitation Of The First

Posted: 21 Jan 2014 06:00 AM PST

Michael Winterbottom's The Trip was an enormously pleasant surprise. The 2010 UK TV series - also cut into feature form for the international market - was built on what appeared to be the flimsiest of premises, featuring British comics Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan as barely fictionalized versions of themselves as they drove around northern England reviewing restaurants. All the premise promised was two very funny friends driving around and riffing on one another and while it delivered that in spades it also delivered far more in the form of a surprisingly melancholic and richly rewarding performance from Coogan wrestling with the toll his lifestyle had taken on himself and his family. The Trip was something of a perfect storm - a very, very funny...

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Radius-TWC Nabs North American Rights For THE NIGHT COMES FOR US

Posted: 21 Jan 2014 05:30 AM PST

Terrific news for fans of action cinema coming out of Indonesia. Radius-TWC, the boutique label of The Weintstein Company, have bought the right for Timo Tjahjanto's The Night Comes For Us, starring The Raid: Redemption alumnus Joe Taslim and Yayan Ruhian. The deal was negotiated by Radius' Tom Quinn and Jason Janego and XYZ Films' Nate Bolotin and Nick Spicer. This crime thriller centers around a mobster (Taslim) who returns to his local crime family in Jakarta only to find himself trapped in a word of betrayal and chaos.  According to RADiUS co-presidents Tom Quinn and Jason Janego: "Timo and Gareth are leading the way for a whole new generation of genre directors. We're big fans of theirs and couldn't be more excited to come aboard...

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Sundance 2014 Review: THE BABADOOK Is A Promising Debut From An Obvious New Talent

Posted: 21 Jan 2014 05:00 AM PST

Australian writer-director Jennifer Kent makes a promising debut with The Babadook, a dramatic horror film that plays havoc with the ideals of family life and the love of a mother for her child.Amelia has not had it easy. Once happily married she lost her husband in a vehicle accident nearly seven years ago. Worse, the accident occurred while he was driving her to the hospital to give birth to their son, Samuel. And so what should have been one of the happiest days of Amelia's life became one of the worst, her child becoming a living reminder of what she has lost. It's a scenario that has clearly taken a toll on the weary woman and Samuel has not been immune to its affects, either,...

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