Caged - 1950 prison film

This award-winning film has haunted me since I stumbled across it as a child and watched it on the small B&W TV in the kitchen. I never knew what it was called until recently. This must have been my first exposure to the idea of prison in general and women's prison in particular.

Caged on IMDB

movie bliss

O-MG. I just had one of the best times at the movies! Little Miss Sunshine is unbelievably great. Family of dysfunctionals road trip an unlikely girl to a beauty contest. SLAYED me. I could not even consider getting up during the credits, I was undone with laughter.

And on the way, the previews - oh, the previews! Fast Food frigging Nation has been made into a movie! Wwwwwwwoooooowwwwww! Words fail me.

Then there's The Hoax , a book publishing scam story, looks terrific. Scammer finds the bigger he tells 'em, the more the execs buy it. This book will sell more copies than the bible, Richard Gere says...you can feel the snowballing...

Movie: My Super Ex-Girlfriend

Before you're oversaturated with the advertising just around the corner, check out the movie trailer on this film (NOT the TV trailer version with the annoying announcer). Combine superpowers with wacked morality and emotional instability and how can you go wrong? Well, it all hinges on the writers, and while trailers can be misleading, when this one sneaked up on me in the previews before The Devil Wears Prada, and I was rolling (that's old-school for ROFLOL). More accurately, I LMAO. Looks like Uma will be delightfully typecast as a (super)hero from now on. No complaints there.

ETA: Okay, I saw it, and there's a reason this flick never made mainstream. Oh well, still a funny concept.

Krrish - India's first superhero?

According to Wikipedia, "Unlike recent reports, Krrish is not India's first superhero: his predecessors include Marvel's Cerebra, Indra, Karima Shapandar and Neal Shaara and DC's Maya, as well as Spider-Man: India and the heroes from Virgin Comics and Raj Comics."

That said, here's an article out today by Justin Huggler, from the New Zealand Herald, with vital details on powers, costume, etc.

India's first superhero creates huge song and dance

"India has its first homegrown superhero in the form of Krrish, Bollywood's answer to Superman - an Indian with remarkable powers who travels to Singapore, saves the world from a mad scientist, gets the girl (played by Priyanka Chopra) and regularly breaks into song and dance numbers. The opening of Krrish in cinemas at the weekend attracted extraordinary attention, with India's 24-hour news channels giving over entire evenings to preview the movie. . .

... Krrish is the first Superman-style superhero: a being gifted with extraordinary powers and a ridiculous costume.

... Krrish is more a mix of Superman and Spiderman. Like Superman he is so strong he can leap over buildings; like Spiderman he can climb them. His costume - ill-advised given the heat in India and Singapore, where the movie is set - is black leather, complete with a face-mask.

... The film is a sequel to Roshan's 2003 hit Koi Mil Gaya, India's first science-fiction movie, which gave extraordinary powers to Rohit, an ordinary Indian. Krrish is the story of Rohit's son, Krishna."

The Great Diet Coke & Mentos Experiment

What happens when you combine 200 liters of Diet Coke and over 500 Mentos mints? It's amazing and completely insane. This tightly-choreographed performance-art science experiment is a hysterical and spectacular mint-powered version of the Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas, brought to you by the mad scientists at EepyBird.com. This video is quickly catapulting into cult classic status. Experiment perform by Fritz Grobe (the short one) & Stephen Voltz (the tall one).

Not only is this performance completely awesome, the music is fantastic, too. It is my pleasure to plug the New Hampshire group Audio Body. This video is their first big break. They're selling their CD for a flat $12 to anywhere in the U.S. I'm lifting to tracks 2 & 8 right now.

Film: The Peaceful Warrior

From the trailer, this movie looks like it has potential. I've never read the book. It'll be interesting to see how a movie exposes the inner life of a solo athlete on the screen. The protagonist does the rings. I always wanted to do the rings. I even called around town when I was a kid, looking for a teacher, but was told "We don't train girls on the rings."

From The Peaceful Warrior Movie website:

"When a talented athlete suffers a serious injury, he looks to a mysterious stranger to help him heal both his body and spirit. Based on the best-selling novel, Way of the Peaceful Warrior, PEACEFUL WARRIOR stars Nick Nolte, Scott Mechlowicz, and Amy Smart."

Sita sings the blues

This is one of the best things I've ever run across on the internet. Possibly genius animator Nina Paley's labor of love: "Sita Sings the Blues" is an animated feature based on Sita's adventures in the ancient Indian epic the Ramayana. It is posted in bits that actually played for me without any problems, instantly, no lags or buffering.

...Words fail me. Go see this.

the evolution of King Kong's "woman"

The more I think about this version of KK, the more I like it (that of it which I saw). It really fleshes out the character of Kong, the action sequences are heartpounding, the spectacles are spectacular, the careful send-up to the '30s original was a brilliant decision. This despite the many problems with the story (it's a horrible story (manifest destiny, et. al); seriously, why would Kong be interested in anything that small? Why does Jack Black only use one facial expression?). The website is a marvel in Flash techology, very nice trip. I don't understand why I can't find my favorite image from the film anywhere, the rear view of Kong and Anne sitting side by side, looking out at the gorgeous sunset and scenery. Seems to me that would be a main image used in marketing. I'd like it for wallpaper. I like how they developed the Anne character. Here's a nice commentary on her evolution, tho I disagree with one point: the insects are marvelous.
ETA: Emma was graciously thanked me for this entry in an email and confirmed that this was not an assignment. Great to hear from you, Emma!

Kong's inamorata evolves: Bimbo to sexpot to heroine
By Emma Trelles - South Florida Sun-Sentinel - January 1, 2006

Excerpt (follow link for full piece)
A heroic heroine: Besides many disgusting insects, Jackson's 2005 flick offers the millennial Ann (Naomi Watts) -- a self-sufficient woman with integrity. She relies on her vaudeville skills (albeit questionable ones, but we're talking intent here) to defuse the strain between her and her captor, and she adapts quickly to her new digs on the island. In one scene, she settles next to Kong on his mountain perch and admires the sweeping vista and sunset. This beauty is an activist: She is horrified at Kong's enslavement, and not only does she try to block his capture but she also boycotts all of the hype surrounding his NYC debut.

She is a product of the era that fashioned her -- namely the 21st century, also a time when courtship often lacks giddy romantic overtures. Perhaps this is why Jackson chose to include a ludicrous sequence of Ann and Kong night-skating across an icy pond in Central Park. Maybe Jackson drank too many mai tais while editing the movie -- this is just one scene of several that a right-minded director would have shorn off. Or perhaps he thought a female viewer might find solace in that sort of thing, so starved for romance that we, Ann included, find it easier to connect with mythologized movie love than with the real thing.

Andy Serkis: Gollum & Kong

Yes! A story on the man behind the bodies and motions of movie creatures, the model for Gollum and King Kong - Andy Serkis

Of Gollum and Kong
Andy Serkis gets inside characters' heads

NEW YORK (AP) -- In computer-generated bodies not his own, Andy Serkis has starred in two of the most humongously budgeted films of the decade. Serkis, who stands 5 feet, 8 inches, plays the role of Kong in Peter Jackson's $200 million-plus "King Kong." As he did for the "precious"-hungry Gollum in Jackson's $300 million-plus "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, Serkis' human performance has again been transformed by computer graphics into a fantastical creature. As with Gollum/Smeagol, each movement of the actor's was meticulously captured and enlarged into the computer-generated image that is the hulking, roaring Kong. Even Serkis' yawns and frowns were adapted to the facial structure of the gorilla's.

click to read interview

ETA
Saw the movie Xmas eve - excellent, everything you'd want, tons of eye-popping action scenes. Left while Kong was still King. Screw this Manifest Destiny, kill-the-monster crap. As it was, I still got a full movie-length experience, and it was perfectly good that way.

Film - Beautiful Boxer

The film Beautiful Boxer has raked in awards. The actor playing the lead spent a year preparing for his depiction of Parinya Charoenphol (Nong Toom), a famous Thai kickboxer who believed he was really female and went for it. I haven't yet seen this unique film (it's at Amazon), but looks like it'd certainly be memorable. The image above shows the actual person, from ages 12 up to 21.

From the official web site -
Based on the true story of Thailand's famed transvestite kickboxer, Beautiful Boxer is a poignant action drama that punches straight into the heart and mind of a boy who fights like a man can become a woman. Believing he's a girl trapped in a boy's body since childhood, Parinya Charoenphol (affectionately known as Nong Toom in Thailand) sets out to master the most masculine and lethal sport of Muay Thai (Thai boxing) to earn a living and to achieve his ultimate goal of total femininity. Touching, funny and packed with breathtaking Thai kickboxing sequences, Beautiful Boxer traces Nong Toom's childhood, teenage life as a traveling monk and grueling days in boxing camps. Shot in 9 provinces across Thailand and in Tokyo, the film also features a series of explosive matches where Nong Toom knocks out most of his opponents in Thailand and Japan.
Beautiful Boxer has been officially selected for the Panorama Section of the 2004 Berlin International Film Festival. It’s the only Thai film in the 2004 Panorama. Directed and produced by Ekachai Uekrongtham, the film stars Asanee Suwan, a real-life kickboxing champ as Nong Toom. The role earned him the 2004 Supannahongsa Award (Thailand's equivalent to the Oscar) for Best Actor.

Superman digitally castrated!

Superman's bulge worries movie bosses
from Ananova

The new Superman is giving movie bosses a headache - because of the size of his bulge. They fear Brandon Routh's profile in the superhero's skintight costume could be distracting, reports the Sun. Hollywood executives have ordered the makers of Superman Returns to cover it up with digital effects. The Sun's source said: "It's a major issue for the studio. Brandon is extremely well endowed and they don't want it up on the big screen. "We may be forced to erase his package with digital effects."
Brandon, 26, has taken over the superhero's cape from the late Christopher Reeve. Wardrobe artists have had to fit him with a special codpiece for the new film out next year.

This pic is circulating on the net now, but no word on whether Routh's manhood has been reduced in it. Frankly, I don't see what the fuss is about. One thing's for sure, Routh won't ever need to leap tall buildings to get girls' attention after this publicity.