Archive for the ‘video’ Category

Movie Review: Vampire Effect

Saturday, November 24th, 2012

Vampire Effect
Directed by Dante Lam and Donnie Yen
Written by Hing-Ka Chan and Wai Lun Ng
Starring Ekin Cheng, Charlene Choi, Gillian Chung, Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, Edison Chen, Jackie Chan, Mickey Hardt

If you like Hong Kong supernatural martial arts films, you’ll probably enjoy Vampire Effect (AKA Twins Effect, since the two female leads are evidently in the same pop band). Modern-day vampire hunter gets cute new partner who clashes with his cute sister, who just happens to be dating an Emo vampire prince whose essence a vampire king wants to eat to unlock a vampire grimoire. Martial arts ensue.

You know, the usual.

Jackie Chan has an extended supporting role that’s pretty much unnecessary, except you get to see Jackie Chan fight vampires. He’s third-billed and gets about 15 minutes of screen time, so it doesn’t even make Top Ten Most Dishonest Uses of Jackie Chan’s Name on the DVD Cover list. (I’m looking at you, Drunken Fist Boxing.)

This hasn’t gotten great reviews, and it’s not a patch on the best work in the genre by the late, great Ching-Ying Lam. The romance subplot drags a bit. The pace and style of the film does rip off the Blade movies…which in turn were ripping off Hong Kong action films, which ripped off everything they could lay their hands on, so par for the course. But it’s funny, and the action scenes work, which is pretty much all I ask as a threshold for enjoyment for this kind of film.

The “sequel” Twins Effect II is evidently a historical martial arts epic with much of the same cast, but none of the same characters.

Supposedly the American DVD (I saw it on-demand) has some scenes chopped that hinder the continuity. When it comes to Hong Kong action films, continuity does not rank high on my list of requirements. I saw the version with lots of martial arts.

Mythbusters Public Service Announcement: Avoid Dropping Frozen Turkeys

Wednesday, November 21st, 2012

Another Thanksgiving-related Public Service announcement: Try to avoid dropping a frozen turkey on your foot or your pets. You know, just in case you were planning on doing that for grins. At the very least you might want to wear shoes when you pull that sucker out of the freezer.

From the title, I was hoping they would recreate the turkey drop episode of WKRP in Cincinnati, but no such luck.

William Shatner Would STILL Like You To Avoid Setting Yourself on Fire

Tuesday, November 20th, 2012

Just as I did last year, I bring you a public service announcement from William Shatner: try not to set yourself on fire while frying a turkey:

For those with low Shatner thresholds, the advice is:

  • Don’t overfill the pot with oil.
  • Turn off the flame when lowering the turkey into the oil.
  • Always fry your turkey away from your house.
  • Properly thaw the turkey before cooking.
  • Use a grease-approved fire extinguisher.
  • If you’re going to fry a turkey, this is pretty sound advice.

    And now, new for this year: The remix!

    And remember: It can even happen to professionals, as last year Sambet’s Cajun Cafe managed to burn themselves down frying turkeys.

    The Cthulhu Mythos, Played for Laughs

    Saturday, November 17th, 2012

    Dwight and I were watching episodes of Night Gallery, and in addition to the extremely good “They’re Tearing Down Tim Riley’s Bar” (with a fine turn by the late William Windom), we also watched “The Last Lecture of Mr. Peabody,” in which a professor of comparative religion lectures on The Great Old Ones, including reading aloud from the Necronomicon, with somewhat predictable results. The Mythos is mostly played for laughs and in-jokes (including students named Lovecraft, Bloch and Derleth), but it may be the first time the name Cthulhu was ever mentioned on network television.

    It’s a little broad, but it does have its charms:

    The episode was written by Jack Laird, who seems to have adapted a number of Lovecraft stories for Night Gallery.

    A deeper appreciation (and the nifty following screen grab) can be found here.

    Ruin: A Cool Looking (And Completely Stupid) SF Short Film

    Saturday, November 17th, 2012

    So I stumbled across this short, very professional looking CGI animated science fiction film on YouTube:

    What a rich, zesty collection of illogical stupidity!

    1. You want to loot possibly valuable artifacts. What’s the best way to do that? Toss containers out of tall buildings!
    2. Why? To open them up? Why not just use the cuts anything electric sword you whip out later in the film?
    3. Why did you park your motorcycle out in the open where you had to run a long distance to it when the scary twin turbo fan hunting craft comes flying in? Shouldn’t you have tried to hide it nearby in the first place?
    4. If that thing just wants to kill you, why doesn’t it fire its machine gun or drones at you when it first sees you, rather than waiting until you get on your motorcycle?
    5. How come those futuristic seeker drones can’t travel any faster than a motorcycle?
    6. Why doesn’t a craft with expensive, ineffective drones not have cheaper, simpler, much faster and more-effective surface-to-ground missiles?
    7. If you’re flying along on your motorcycle at top speed, how come your gimme cap never flies off?
    8. You know that scene when you jump off your motorcycle and jab the craft with your electric sword? Unless you’ve got a cyborg body, you just broke a whole mess of bones. Momentum doesn’t just stop working so you can pull off a deeply improbable, cool-looking stunt.
    9. To quote the South Park episode with Michael Bay: “Those aren’t ideas, those are special effects!” “I can’t tell the difference.” “We know.”

      Hey Wes Ball: Your animation rocks, but you suck as a screenwriter. Maybe in addition to all those animation and sound guys you credit, you might want to hire an actual writer.

      They’re supposedly making this into a feature film. Hopefully they’ll remove some of the stupidity.

    “Why Doesn’t MTV Play Music Videos Any More?”

    Monday, November 12th, 2012

    And here’s the very NSFW answer:

    (Hat tip: Moe Lane)

    Shoegazer Sunday: Echodrone’s “Under An Impressive Sky”

    Sunday, November 11th, 2012

    Here’s Echodrone’s “Under an Impressive Sky,” with a video assembled from lots of tasty atomic testing footage (which, if I’m not mistaken, is from the 29 kiloton Apple-2 atomic test performed under Operation Teapot on May 5, 1955 (5/5/55).)

    For more Echodrone, see here.

    For more information on atomic testing, see Samuel Glasstone’s The Effects of Nuclear Weapons.

    Shoegazer Sunday: No Joy’s “Pacific Pride” (plus the Czech film Daisies)

    Sunday, November 4th, 2012

    Today’s dose of Shoegaze comes to you from all-girl Canadian Shoegaze duo No Joy for their song “Pacific Pride.”

    Interestingly, their video seems to be taken entirely from the 1966 Czech surrealist/absurdest film Daisies, which I was previously unaware of, but which seems to have quite a cult following. It shows up on the list of 1,001 movies to see before you die (which is a pretty good list), and looking at clips, it’s tempting to say that acid arrived in Czechoslovakia a year before the Summer of Love, as it looks pretty trippy, a film where the sixties became The Sixties. It also appears to be part of the Criterion collection Eclipse Series 32: Pearls of the Czech New Wave.

    I think I’m going to have to see this some time.

    The whole film is available on YouTube so, hey, here it is.

    Looks like you’ll need some 3D glasses for part of it…

    Shoegazer Sunday: Lemon’s Chair’s “Swallowtail”

    Sunday, October 28th, 2012

    Here’s another beautiful song from Japan’s Lemon’s Chair. However, “Swallowtail,” unlike most of their songs, is available in the U.S. on iTunes, and I think it’s my favorite of their work.

    This is the fourth Lemon’s Chair song I’ve put up, and yes, I like them a lot.

    Halloween Horrors: That’s Just How I Monster Roll

    Thursday, October 25th, 2012

    Enjoy the teaser trailer for Monster Roll, an indy film about sushi chefs vs. sea monsters that’s about to do a Kickstarter.