The Dumb Are Mostly Intrigued By The Drum

A couple of friends of mine went to Coachella last month and they mentioned that Prince had done a cover of Radiohead's hit song Creep. I knew that eventually that would hit the internets and we'd all get a chance to listen to it. Well, apparently the videos went up but were quickly pulled by Prince. Radiohead heard about the performance and were happy that the guy performed it but were upset that he had asked You Tube to pull the video since they owned the song. So the big question now is who's got the right to what when it comes down to copyright and ownership. Hmmmm....I think Prince is gonna lose this one (wadda jackass, IMO. He's the one making money off of others!). Check out the full story over here at CNN and let us know what you think.

You Can't Stop Me Now is the title of this joint off RZA's upcoming album, Digisnacks. And the timing couldn't be any better. It's like RZA drops this little gem a day before the Fresno Blogger Olympics in my honor to destroy all. Now it's on like Voltron. Yeah, I'm still gonna suck but it's good to draw on some inspiration, right? Gotta keep positive. If you dig the video, check out the behind the scenes vid for some insight into the making of the video.

So a glimpse of the film is here....and it's very R-rated so bewarned as it is NSFW. Kevin Smith has said that not a single frame of this teaser will be in the final movie but rather it serves as an introduction to the film, as to not spoil too much for the audience. I could only imagine this is how casting for a porno goes like. Word is that a full trailer should be attached to the upcoming Judd Apatow comedy Pineapple Express. Until then, enjoy! Also, check out Quickstop Entertainment for Quicktime and other versions of the teaser for your consumption.

And it's a red band at that! The Coen Brothers follow up No Country For Old Men with this little film starring George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, John Malkovich & Brad Pitt. Enough babbling, go here to check it out!

Hmmm...I hope this is going somewhere but here it is for your consumption.

Fresnocentric bloggers over at Fresnocentric.com have posted up a wonderful write up on last Thursdays mixer which happened over at Full Circle Brewery (damn, I fell in love with those Russian Stouts; 11% is A-okay in my book!). Also included are some video clips for your entertainment. We met a lot of cool people and I hope that many more of you guys can make it out to the next one, which is tentatively planned for June or July. Check out the story here!

Slashfilm has posted this excellent story in which they document the latest news in the upcoming Watchmen film from director Zack Snyder. The news that it turned out to be this 4-hour long superhero epic shouldn't be a surprise, but now we'll have to see what the studio will do with it. The fact that they will be releasing The Black Freighter as an animated feature on DVD around the same time the film drops in theaters is a positive note but any sane studio would balk at releasing such a high risk film with no major stars, no mainstream bankability and risk a high priced box office bomb. I certainly hope that both the studio and the fans put faith in the project and release the film and support it. I'm not a hardcore fan of the graphic novel, but to see how passionate the filmmaker is to get the story on the big screen inspires me and we all need to support that kind of drive. Check out the article for all types of new info. (That picture up there comes from Aintitcoolnews)

Let's make this spoiler free and simple, huh?

Rank of Indy movies for me
1. Last Crusade
2. Raiders Of The Lost Ark
3. Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
4. Temple Of Doom

So you can take that for what it's worth. Didn't see any Fresno in the film (all that for nothing?) but Eagle Field made it in there for a whole 3 seconds or so (w00t! w00t!). It's good clean fun for the whole family and I didn't want to hurt Shia by the end of it....okay, I did, but those are personal reasons. And you know how old people run? Their gait is just a bit different from that of a younger person. Well, Indy kinda had that gait as he ran around and deep down, it made me a bit sad. Don't get me wrong, he's still Indy...just a little, well.....old. I feel old just watching him. There were some amazing shots in the film and although it had it's short comings, it was still over all and enjoyable flick.

Indiana Jones: TKOTCS – 3 Stars (out of 5)

Coming over from Filmz.ru (via slashfilm.com) is this beautiful trailer. Why can't we get stuff like this over here? Anyways, beware as there are bloody head shots, a sex scene and some outright crazy gun violence jam packed into this little extended trailer. Are you cool with that? I knew you would be. Go over here to check it out. (and those keys and tooth flying through the air up there spell out "Fuck You" in Russian)

Australia
Did I spell that right? Oh, nevermind. So director Baz Luhrman is back...yeah, so we haven't seen him do a damn thing since Moulin Rouge so his follow up better be damn good, right? Not a huge fan of musicals myself, I'm not on the Rouge train (you'd think with such a close spelling of name being right in th title, I'd be all over it) and the only thing of value from Luhrman in my book is Romeo & Juliet which was only cool because of John Leguizamo. The trailer has some beautiful imagery, though and I am a sucker for that. But it's good to see Wolverine and Dr. Chase Meridian in a movie together. Check out the trailer here and see for yourself.

The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor
Fuck, couldn't they just put a "3" at the end of that one? Really, do we need that long ass subtitle? I guess Rob "Pizzaboy" Cohen gets what Rob Cohen wants. So yeah, lets go to the scorecard: Brendan Fraser-Rachel Weisz+Maria Bello+Jet Li= semi anticipated. The trailer looks aight, there are some cool shots in there but check out the trailer here and let us know what you think.

My Winnipeg
From director Guy Maddin comes this little personal film of his. Really, I can't say much about it but it does seem to draw on the desire for a person to leave their hometown and venture out into the world. Kinda sounds familiar, huh? Check out the trailer here and discover this little gem and take it for what you will. I will def watch this!

So you live in or around Fresno, your interested in or already making films and you like to get your drink on (but not too much, right?). If this describes you (shit, even if it doesn't) feel free to join other like-minded individuals tonight, Thurs. May 22nd at 7pm over at Full Circle Brewery (great place, BTW. Awesome beer!) in downtown Fresno for a mixer put on by the Fresno Filmmaker Forum. What more can you ask for? Film, drinks, downtown. Sounds like a winner to me so I'll be out there but I'm not exactly a "mingler" so I'll just sit back and troll around as I pound beers. I wonder how many times the pharse "Indiana Jones" will uttered tonight? Hope to see you guys there!

"So where's this mythical swede?" one might ask. Well, it's not here yet. Sorry. But it's coming, sweatergod. In the mean time, why not listen to our newest, latest & awesomey (yup, awesomey) podcast! This week, fellow The DUmb contributors Robert Anaforian & Martinez join me in welcoming back special, special guest Bryan Harley from AMF Productions. This episode we chat about that new Indiana Jones movie coming out, Iron Man box office, future Marvel movies, City of Ember advance screening mini-review, embarrassing movies that we like to watch, Uwe Boll vs. Michael Bay, movies that made us cry, bag on "classic" films and other random goodness. Just another day in the office. Thanks to lateupdate.com for hosting the podcast!

Download The DUmb #5 Here!

So Shia is becoming a big star now. Here, he teams up with his Disturbia director D.J. Caruso again for this little thriller. Teaser looks good, but I'm still not sold on Shia as a big action star. He's got too much bumbling idiot in his face. Nyup! Check out the trailer here.

When we went to Wondercon in Feb., James McAvoy was there talking about the film and he brought and extended scene with him. It wasn't that great. It actually dampened my hopes for the film. The FX looked pretty lame, some of the shots were questionable and some of the black artifacts coming through looked like it had in fact been shot digitally (this is the first feature film to use the Red Camera) so I took and put the film in the loss column right then and there in order to be pleasantly surprised if the film is actually decent. But this new featurette posted over at Empire got my hopes up a little. To see Mark Millar talk about the transition and to hear him say that he had his fears too actually made me push the film back over to the win column. Of course, we'll just have to wait and see what transpires once it actually drop in June.

Not a part of me wants to see this film (the negative reviews don't help). I will see it, but it'll probably be until it is released on DVD. But if your of the camp that hails Shyamalan as genius, well, go check out the new red band trailer here at IGN. There were some cool images in the trailer that stood out, after all there's nothing like seeing a man get meat waffled by a lawnmower, ejected from a speeding car & an arm getting bitten off by an angry animal (all these things are in the trailer so beware). Too bad there a whole lot more to making a great film.

I decided to head on over to Fandango this morning to see which theaters here in town would be doing midnight screenings for Indiana Jones this week and on the front page I saw this story teased on their home page called On Location with the subhead of "See where Indy 4 filmed, from Brazil to Hawaii to.....Fresno?" Yeah, I wouldn't had believed it either if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. Also, they've posted some cool pics from the local shoot that I had never seen and they dropped some fun facts in that Harrison Ford flew his own plane to Eagle Field (which is playing a Peruvian airfield, apparently) to do his shots there and they mention Savannah’s Café over at Chandler. That's pretty effin' cool! Anyways, check em' all out over here. So anyways, who wants to go to a midnight screening at Edwards this Wednesday night? Let's do this!

Full steam ahead with promotion of The Wackness as yet another trailer has dropped, which you can check out here. And as if I haven't felt so good about watching a non-nerd film in a long time (kinda hard to rival the Iron Man hype) I went over to the updates web site this morning and saw the catalog of music that they have displayed there: So many classics! Oh my God, if they released a soundtrack with all these songs, I would have to double check and make sure the producers hadn't downloaded one of my playlists and slapped their logo on it. It's uncanny how many of those songs are on my everyday rotation (yeah, I'm an old school nut and I live in the past so sue me). Click here to head on over to the Official Site and be sure to check out all the links they have (in the Links & Reviews section, duh!) to You Tube videos of some classic hip-hop videos!

Well, it's pricey at $599 but it's LIMITED EDITION which means it's worth it (keep telling yourself that.....keep telling yourself that)! Lookit how cool that Gun Metal Gray color looks! Yeah, but for the price they could of at least thrown in an 80 GB hard drive and maybe that MGS4 branded Bluetooth headset. But if you must, head on over to Konami's Web Site here to get all the info on how to pre-order the system.

I was surfing Yahoo! news when I came across this little news story about how a new law going into effect this Thursday in Los Angeles is trying to make it illegal for Taco Trucks to stay in one place for more than 1 hour. Apparently, this law has existed for quite sometime now but previously, the fine was only $60 if they stayed for a half hour. The new law will jack that fine up to $1,000 for 1 hour of non-movement and possibly even jail. So what happens now? That's where the organization Save Our Taco Trucks comes into play. They have hired a lawyer and vow to keep doing what they've been doing. So what do you think? Will we ever see such an ordinance come into effect here in Fresno? Or is there even something already in place? All I know is that I love those Tacos Trucks and I'll be buying one of these shirts to help support our Trocas! Be sure to head on over to the saveourtacotrucks.org site here and sign the petition to help stop the insanity from spreading up here. Also, check out the Facebook page here for more info. For those of you affected by this dumb law, enjoy your last legal taco tonight and just know that we'll scarf down a couple of tacos for you tonight when I visit my local Taco Truck. Those shirts are just too bad ass.....

So the hype machine for Indy 4 is rolling as I recently heard about Dr. Pepper cans having images of the icon on them. So over at indianajones.com they've posted a new feature on director Steven Spielberg doing what he does so best. Now, it might just be the fanboy in me there were some shots in there that look like they were shot at Eagle Field out in Firebaugh. Now, I've been to the location many times as a child and recently as a grown-ass man (what, I loves me some WWII history) and I'd be willing to bet that shot up there is from there. Anyways, the video is cool, nothing special, but if you'd like you can search and find some other local shots in it.....or just stop being a fanboy and just wait for the damn movie to drop in a week or so. Head on over to SlashFilm for the embedded video.

Sony Europe has always put out some very weird & controversial ads and that might be because of how lax Europeans are when it comes down to nudity and language. So this ad shouldn't come as a surprise but as always, here in the good ol' U.S. of A....we're just not used to it quite yet (well, at least most of us, as it may seem). So if your interested in seeing what a man would look like if he had a thumb instead of a penis, go for it and head on over to Joystiq here to see the full ad, which was created by Sony Europe's ad agency TBWA\Wien. Beware....this is the most NSFW EVAR! Even though, technically, it's not a cock you'll see, it's very easy to mistake the image as something offensive if your prude of a co-worker sees you eyeing the image. Enjoy!....or not.

Well, with imminent release of one of the biggest releases of the year in the video game world in Metal Gear Solid 4 (but not going to get as much hype as that other game) news about the franchise has started to boil over in certain circles. The latest coming out of Kotaku is that Kojima-san (creator/director of all things Metal Gear) is interested in having P.T. Anderson helm the film adaptation of his beloved franchise. P.T. Anderson, director of Punch-Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood and Magnolia directing and action-adventure film based on a video game. Hmmmm...although I'm going to lean to slashfilm.com's side and agree that they might have meant Paul W.S. Anderson (director of awesomeness such as Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil & Aliens Vs. Predator) which would suck cause that hack would most certainly bring no justice to the franchise (his wife Milla Jovovich might be perfect for the role of Meryl, though). But if the guy was in fact NOT misquoted, lets all sit back and imagine a P.T. Anderson Metal Gear film, shall we?

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

While there has been no official word or offers made, there has been speculation that Brad Pitt's name is bieng tossed around over at Marvel to play the mighty Thor. As some of you may or may not have heard, the official date of June 4th 2010 has already been set for the films release on the big screen. With director Matthew Vaughn's holding deal expiring, the film doesn't have any solid director on lock either. It'll be interesting to see how this unfolds and who get's to rock the helmet and swing the ol' Mjolnir into villains heads. I don't know about his acting skills, but Triple H looks like he should be walking around with a giant hammer. -partymarty

This film has already wrapped up production in November, so why the hell is "The Fresh Prince" standing in Times Square with a production crew, in his Hancock gear 7 weeks from the films released date? Could this be the sign of a crap-tacular film to come? Quite possibly. WTF is Spike Lee doing?? Rumor has it that Hancock failed to get a "PG-13" rating from the MPAA after two submissions, each time coming away with an "R". The fact that it currently holds an R-rating makes me want to see it even more. Peter Berg tells the New York Times: “We had statutory rape up until three weeks ago.” Wanna see Hancock bust a super-hero load?? If that isn't enough, wait till you read the rest of the article here. Ferfuxsake! -partymarty

Well if Samuel L. Jackson isn't the busiest dude in the business, I don't know who is. Seriously. If he's not starring in a movie as a cop terrorizing his neighbors, or Nick Fury-ing up some Iron Man credits, he's popping up in yet another movie I'm itching to spend my dollar bills on. Exclusive pics of Sam Jack as Octopus, The Spirit's nemesis in the Eisner/Miller comic/movie, drops via Comic Con Magazine. The Spirit was also given a new release date a few weeks ago bieng moved up from early 2009 to Christmas Day 08'. -partymarty

Warner Bros. drops two new Dark Knight TV spots during the season finale of Survivor yesterday. You can haz the both of them right here thanks to Moviebox.net.
-partymarty

So while I was all jazzed up to be overwhelmed and see this amazing comeback to a storied franchise, I sat for about 93 seconds and waited....something is going to happen...something...but no. Maybe they're just saving all the exciting bits for the flim, huh? Much fun as wandering around in the snow is with 50 of your best friends standing in a straight line...

If having Kevin Smith on your Myspace friends list doesn't cry out "FANBOY!", I don't know what does. Above, direct from Smith's Myspace Blog, is an exclusive pic from the new Zack and Miri film that's currently in the works with the first official test screening coming this Tuesday. Smith also claims to have a teaser ready to post up upon his arrival from his trip back east after getting his poker fix on at the Jersey "Stash" May 15th. He claims to have five seats left so if you're interested in throwin down some cards with him, email donkey@viewaskew.com. I don't know about you, but I can't wait to see what kind of madness you get when you mix Seth Rogen and the View Askewniverse. I'm guessing this teaser will be online in about a week and a half from today, but, you can find out by periodically checking out quickstopentertainment.com.

The playas over at 1Up.com have the world exclusive first video of actual game play from what will undoubtedly be the Xbox 360's biggest winter game release, Gears Of War 2. So why am I still talking? I don't know, go up there and hit play, dammit!

Well, if you needed something to look forward to on Monday (besides returning to work, of course) word comes that a new trailer for the X-Files sequel (1st official trailer) is to drop. Don't know when but as soon as it does, come back here to get all the info. Still can't get over that I Want To Believe subtitle but whatever....

Run, don't walk. Check it out over at Yahoo! here in HD. Also, scope out the poster down after this. Enjoy!

Word comes from Variety (via Joystiq) that the oft rumored Bioshock movie is finally moving ahead and with a big name in the likes of Gore Verbinski (Pirates Of The Caribbean, The Ring) at the helm. According the the article, Verbinski is aiming for an R-rating on the film. Guess we'll be witnessing some little girl harvestin' going on the big screen when this film is finally released. You guys have any suggestions for casting?

Aintitcoolnews has posted 2 early reviews for the upcoming summer blockbuster, Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull and *surprise, surprise* they aren't very positive. Now, I haven't gone through and read the reviews thoroughly myself (I'm trying to stay spoiler-free here) but the headlines for the posts speak for themselves. Interested in seeing what these guys had to say? Head on over here for the first one and here for the second one but beware: there's bound to be spoilers in there. So will this affect my plans to go see it? Nope, I'll take it as a sign to lower my expectations and that'll probably let me enjoy the film even more....hopefully.

Not as cool as Mighty Muggs (yes...yes they are) but man, these figures look pretty cool. The new (the released a Wolverine already) Upper Deck Subcasts are for pre-order over at Sideshow Collectibles for $75 and you can go here to check out Iron Man and here for Spiderman. C'mon....you know you got an extra $75 laying around!

The Rocker
Hmm...this trailer didn't get a laugh outta me. Not even close. But it's got Rainn Wilson (Dwight from The Office) in the starring role (doesn't he look like Jack Black in some of those shots?) and I'm sure many of those fans will go see it strictly for that but I'm not sure if dude is willing to carry an entire movie. Check out the trailer here and judge for yourself.

Igor
Being kinda of an Igor myself (just ask Diana) this trailer connected with me. The animation looks....good but it's nothing for Pixar to lose sleep over. Of course, what it comes down to is story and the med scientist play on the usually trite Science Fair rings good with me. Check it out over here and let us know what you think.

Parkour is awesome! Sometimes when I see these guys jumping around the landscape like I would imagine Mario would if he were a real person, I tell myself "I need to lose some pounds so I, too, can pull off cool ass shit like that." But I never do so I'll have to make due with a digital representation. A video game iteration of the sport has been attempted in the past but Mirror's Edge is the first game in which the sport has been featured. After months of speculation and very boring screenshots, the first gameplay video has been released the other day at Sony's European Playstation Days event and man.....this looks awesome. Blending some Portal-type first person gameplay along with some action sequences all running on the Unreal Engine....color me interested! Check out the trailer and keep an eye for the game when it released later this year for both the PS3 & Xbox 360.

Although I thought S3 wasn't as good as the 1st & 2nd seasons, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia is still 10x better than most of the shit that's out there right now (except for that long ass title). The set will be released on Sept. 2nd so make note and then head on over to IGN.com for more info on the set and the special features that it'll come with.

Audition
A Film By Takashi Miike
Now usually I am not into whats "in" at the moment. Young kids these days like their Souljah Boy, Air Force Ones, and 5 Gum. They also love them some Asian horror movies. Well in the case of Takashi Miike's fine film, one could say it accidentally started the trend. The way I came up on this film was sort of by accident. With nothing else on the tele, I stumbled onto Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments. It does not matter what number this was slotted in, what does matter is that a scary S.O.B. like Rob Zombie, confessed this was "disturbing" to watch. That's like B-Real pointing at a Marijuana Plant and telling you never to smoke it because he thinks it's too strong. You owe it to yourself to watch it, future emotional trauma aside. The movie will start like a Romantic Comedy, but don't let that fool you. Watch it all the way through.


Get More Audition Trailers at TerrorFeed.com

Check it out Audition at Netflix

Tokyo Police Club
These dudes are from Canada, can give a shit if they are making sense
when singing, and replicate arcade synthesizers from the 70's
for no apparent reason on any of their tracks. TPC has been around
for some years now, but thankfully they have not fully blown up yet.
Think of them as the equivalent of Portishead, Interpol or even
Ghostface; you know they kick ass but the rest of the world is yet to
catch on. So before your mom is talking about them in a new soda
commercial, discover them now! If you need further convincing, I ask
you to name a band with the guts to perform on Letterman with a
drum setup like the one found on the second video below (1:55).
Dude is still saving for the rest of the set.

No game review this week but rather the man fends off accusations of him "sucking" from readers and internet trolls. And the outcome? PURE GOLD!

Before we go any further, the Wu game was made in two weeks(so they say). Other wise it looks worth a try as it takes the core Wu on a mystical dungeon crawling adventure.
Props to Tales of Game studios for recognizing the Wu and creating this gem. Download The Sewer Goblet here.



Also, be sure to peep T.O.G.'s other game, Barkley Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden. They say they spent over a year on this it has much more of a finished look to it. Download

So the upcoming Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is full on in productionand here is the hotness herself, Moon Bloodgood as Det. Maya Sunee. Finally a shoty worth posting from this future trainwreck of a movie. hopefully I'm wrong and It will be a campy good time, or it could even be good in the traditional sense.
Check the official blog for a few other pics, cast(Michael Clark Duncan, Kristen Kreuk- you left Smallville for this??) artwork and whotnot.

A couple of months ago, a controversy was brewing over in Mecca (aka Aintitcoolnews) concerning the Americanization of an apparently much beloved British series called Spaced which starred Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz): Fans were pissed that none of the original creators had been consulted with as far as doing the American version. That prompted me to look into the series (as it was hyped up to be very cool & funny) and I found some episodes to watch and much to my delight, the thing was great! I've never been a big fan of British TV comedies I guess cause I'm too stupid but the mix of comic book humor, video game violence and over-all witty banter rivaling that of a lost Kevin Smith script really sealed the deal for me. Fast forward a couple of months and now the American version has taken the back seat (for now) and today, the announcement of a proper US release for the series on DVD has come forward with a host of special features including commentary from director Quentin Tarantino, director Kevin Smith & screenwriter Diablo Cody among them. Check out the full story & details over here at Aintitcoolnews.com. Check out the video of one of my favorite sequences from the show. Gotta love the paintball blood he spits out towards the end.