A little over a week ago Jay posted about an upcoming documentary entitled Side by Side, which focuses on the ongoing debate in film circles about analog versus digital film-making. Now Jay was being more than a bit hyperbolic when he called it a “war”, as its been apparent for sometime that analog film is hardly the present, let alone the future of cinema. Films have long been edited digitally, a growing number of theatres are equipped with digital sound systems, and increasingly, more and more films are being shot on digital cameras. If this is a war, its long since won.

But while the end of this conflict is hardly in doubt, I still find the debate to be fascinating. Granted, the most visible segments of this debate are the directors and DP’s who make the movies, and supply you with the thrills and chills that keep you coming out to the theatre week after week. But the digital vs analog debate hardly ends there, and that’s where I come in and I thought that I could shed a bit of light on my side of the cinematic coin.

Cinephiles cry out about the loss of film citing the lower picture quality and the dangerous precedent set on the levels of their oh so precious film grain, but frankly, after being in the film exhibition business (i.e. movie theatres, for those unencumbered by the burden of industry jargon) for over a decade, I see digital as a welcome upgrade. And in some instances, a god damn savior. Here’s why.

Read more »

The Woman in Black
Directed by: James Watkins
Written by: Jane Goldman (screenplay), Susan Hill (novel)
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Janet McTeer, Ciarán Hinds

Recipe for a Hollywood horror flick: pick a screenplay with a vaguely creepy-sounding title like The Woman in Black. Be sure the writer included one or all of the following: portraits with the eyes scratched out, little kids’ drawings, antique toys, etc. Next, shoot everything at half exposure. Then pick a quiet weekend to release and collect your fifty million dollars. Repeat. It’s a racket that works like a charm, and isn’t going away until the audience does.

The Woman in Black stars ‘Arry Potter ‘imself — Daniel Radcliffe — as Arthur Kipps, an adolescent English estate lawyer bound unluckily for a haunted house in the boondocks. Kipps’ job is on the line, which accounts for his eager beaver attitude upon arrival, and dogged insistence on seeing the property, even against the behest of, oh, everyone in town. You know where this is going.

Read more »

It doesn’t seem like Hollywood’s fascination with micro-budget horror films will be fading anytime soon. After the success of The Devil Inside last month, and the recently announced sequels to Paranormal Activity 3 and The Last Exorcism, we now have yet another horror sequel on the way. According to Heat Vision, James Wan’s Insidious will also be getting a follow-up of its own. The news should come as no surprise since Insidious was easily one of the most profitable films of 2011. It made $97 million on a $1.5 million budget.

Read more »

The new Super Bowl commercial for The Hunger Games has gone online over at Yahoo!, and well… if this is all we can expect from this year’s Super Bowl trailers, it could end up being a pretty boring game! Once again it consists primarily of footage we’ve seen before in other trailers, however, I will say that has a little more energy and urgency than the previous promos. It also has a little more Stanley Tucci, which is obviously a good thing. Lionsgate recently announced that The Hunger Games will be getting released in IMAX but for one week only. Will you pay a little extra to watch it on a really big screen? The movie hits theatres on March 23rd; check out the Super Bowl spot after the jump and see what you think.

Read more »

Now that Brad Bird has proven that he can handle a live action film just as well as an animated one, everyone is on the edge of their seat waiting to find out what he will choose for his next project. We’ve been hearing for years about 1906, a disaster movie he’s been wanting to direct about the massive earthquake that hit the city of San Francisco, but as of last year he was still rewriting the script and trying to reduce the scope of the film. However, now this week we are hearing reports that he may be circling another project that was once supposed to be a Robert Zemeckis gig. The movie is called Here There Be Monsters, and it is a historic epic about John Paul Jones, a naval commander during the American Revolutionary War. There is a twist, however… the story also involves giant sea monsters!

Read more »

When a studio buys the sequel to a movie before the first one even hits theatres, that’s generally a pretty good sign. In case you haven’t heard all the buzz surrounding Gareth Evans’ The Raid, the insane Indonesian action movie was a big hit at TIFF and Sundance, and now Sony is building even more hype by picking up the rights to its proposed follow-up, Berandal (“thug” in Indonesian), without even waiting to see how the first one will be received by the general public. They also already have an English-language remake in the works. The Raid star Iko Uwais will reteam with Evans for Berandal, which will supposedly have a bigger budget, although that’s not necessarily saying much (the original was shot for just $1 million).

Read more »

For the few people out there who won’t be completely consumed by Super Bowl weekend, here’s a quick rundown of what’s happening in theatres: a bunch of punk-ass kids get superpowers in Chronicle, Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski save the whales in Big Miracle, and Daniel Radcliffe takes on his first post-Harry Potter starring role in the horror flick The Woman in Black. It should be interesting to see who comes away victorious at the box office, especially since The Grey’s primarily male audience will probably be busy elsewhere. Magnolia will also release both The Innkeepers and Kill List in select theatres after giving them a month of video-on-demand, and Madonna’s historical romantic drama W.E. also gets a limited release. What will you be watching this weekend?

• Chronicle
• The Woman in Black
• Big Miracle
• The Innkeepers (limited)
• Kill List (limited)
• W.E. (limited)
• Perfect Sense (limited)
• Windfall (limited)

Great Scott! It’s the fourth episode in our continuing series of premium podcasts, and this time around we decided to double back and rewatch another staple of ’80s cinema: the Back to the Future Trilogy! The first film is obviously a classic, but some people seem to be divided over whether or not the sequels are worthy continuations of the story or just pure cash grabs. In this episode we analyze time travel paradoxes, reflect on Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale’s vision of the future, discuss our preferred Jennifers, and decide once and for all who made the better contribution to the series soundtrack: Huey Lewis and the News or ZZ Top. You guys might not be ready for this podcast, but your kids are gonna love it.

» Download It Now!

This series of premium podcasts was created to help support the regular weekly Film Junk Podcast. Head on over to Bandcamp and download the full episodes now for a minimum donation of just 99 cents. As always, let us know if you experience any technical difficulties or if you have any other suggestions for future specials. Thanks for your support!

Jessica Chastain (The Help) and Joel Edgerton (Warrior) are two of the more buzzed about actors working today, so it’s no surprise that they would have their choice of interesting projects. However, their latest career choices could offer something truly unique. The two have signed on to star in a double-feature film project for Myriad Pictures entitled The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: His and The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Hers. The films explore a couple’s relationship during a difficult time in their marriage. The His film will capture the perspective of Edgerton’s husband character, a restaurant owner, while the Hers film details the perspective of Chastain’s wife character who decides to go back to college. William Hurt is also in negotiations to join the cast in an unspecified role. The project is the brainchild of Ned Benson (In Defiance of Gravity), who wrote the two scripts and will direct both films.

Read more »

I suspect more than a few readers may disagree with the winner of last week’s poll, but what can I say… the Film Junkies have spoken! Sean Penn’s Into the Wild was voted the Best Wilderness Survival Thriller, and while many of us would agree that it’s a great film, it does fail two out of the three main criteria for this category (those being “survival” and “thriller”). I suppose it’s my own fault for including it in the poll, but both Deliverance and Cast Away ended up being very close to winning as well. The Edge and 127 Hours tied for fourth place followed by Touching the Void. Way down at the bottom of the list, Adam Green’s Frozen received just 1.3% of the votes. Do you agree with these results?

1. Into the Wild — 17.8%
2. Deliverance — 17.1%
3. Cast Away — 16.4%
4. The Edge — 12.8%
4. 127 Hours — 12.8%
6. Touching the Void — 10.2%
7. Alive — 6.9%
8. The Perfect Storm — 2.3%
8. Open Water — 2.3%
10. Frozen — 1.3%

I want to make it clear right up front that this next story is nothing more than a big fat rumour, but since Star Wars fans are willing to argue over just about anything, I figured it might be worth mentioning. We all know that George Lucas has been working on a live action Star Wars TV series for quite some time now, but back in 2010 he announced that the series was being put on hold for a few years because it was not yet economically feasible. With a proposed title of Star Wars: Underworld, the series is expected to fill in the gap between the prequels and original trilogy by focusing on the seedy underbelly of the Star Wars universe. Now this week there is a rumour floating around the web stating that the show might introduce a sci-fi element that has been completely absent from Star Wars up until now: time travel. Is George Lucas getting ready to go back to the future?

Read more »

For anybody who’s sick of hearing about Beauty Day around here, don’t worry…it’s almost over! The life cycle of the film has now entered the ‘home video’ stage, which means it’s just about dead (or depending on your perspective, about to be ‘reborn’?). So for all of you who haven’t had a chance to see it yet (which is a lot of you), here’s an opportunity to own your very own copy on glorious DVD! (Note: at this point there are no blu ray plans. Sorry.) As an avid DVD/Blu Ray collector, I must say that I’m pretty proud of this release as it’s absolutely STACKED with lots of great bonus features, including an audio commentary track featuring a couple Film Junk regulars. On top of that, we’ve got a bunch of deleted scenes that are actually good enough to have been included in the film, AND some original Cap’n Video Show clips! Check out the list of over 100 minutes of bonus features:

- Feature length audio commentary with director Jay Cheel, Ralph Zavadil, and Robert Buick
- Feature length audio commentary with director Jay Cheel, Sean Dwyer (Film Junk.com), Reed Farrington, Frank Knezic, and Kurt Halfyard (Twitch.net, Row Three.com)
- Deleted Scenes
- Cap’n Video’s 20th Birthday Special
- Original Cap’n Video Show Clips
- Interview Clip

Yup, all of this great stuff for a only $15 (USD) plus shipping. (Note: due to limited shipping options through Canadian Paypal, I’ve had to increase the price of the DVD for international buyers to $17 to adjust for additional delivery costs. And yes, this disc is region free.). Just click the button below, choose your destination, and soon you’ll be having yourself a BEEAUUTTYYY DAYYYYYYYY!

Ship To (Price Includes Shipping)

North America $20.00 USD International $22.00 USD