It’s that time of year again! Halloween is just around the corner and everyone’s got horror on the brain. This October we’ve got a few new releases to look forward to in theatres, including a prequel to a remake: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, and a sequel remake to a remake: The Grudge 2. As far as box office goes, these are the two frontrunners in terms of horror, which is a little uninspiring to say the least. I’m personally not looking forward to either film very much, but it did get me thinking about the J-Horror versus North American Horror debate. Of course there’s many other important contributors to the horror genre (we’ll ignore Italy for now), but as of late the Japanese Horror remakes have been rubbin’ us raw.

Personally, i’m not a big fan. I’m a little sick of the technology based terror and scary little school girls. However, one thing that I do enjoy in some of the J-Horror films I have seen (which i admit are few) is the willingness to scare in the most normal situations. When you’ve got a creature popping out at you during your mid-day bus ride, you now know that it could happen ANYWHERE. But alas, my heart belongs to good ol’ American horror. George A. Romero, John Carpenter, Roger Corman, Larry Cohen, Sam Raimi, Joe Dante, Steve Miner, Sean S. Cunningham…the list goes on and on. Great directors with great individual voices. Maybe it’s nostalgia, but the music and imagery of the classics just bring me to a place that no other genre of filmmaking can take me. There’s only four movies that have ever scared me to the bone (as a child), and they all happen to be north american: The Excorsist, John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness, Black Christmas and Mask. (alright, that wasn’t a horror movie but it still scared the shit out of me.) I just can’t relate to the unusual myth-based horror that Japan has to offer. So what do you guys think? Do you prefer the culture shock of J-Horror or a good ol’ axe in the back? Give us your thoughts here on Open Forum Friday.

If there’s one thing i know, the ‘nature documentary spoof’ genre has been dead for years…that is UNTIL NOW. My good friend Chian has been closely monitoring the progress of Bob Saget’s ‘Farce of the Penguin’s’ for at least a year now, and finally some worthy news has arose from the unusually secretive Saget camp. I guess Bob Saget is now a member of that unusual club of minor celebrities like John Stamos, William Shatner, Adam West and David Hasselhoff, who have attained noteriety not only for the film/television work they’ve done, but for simply being who they are. Anyways, the official trailer for the film is now online and ready for your viewing pleasure over at IGN. I have checked it out and I will confidently say that if you’re a fan of c-list celebrities (Saget) cashing in on the success of other filmmakers hard earned success, then you’ll LOVE this film. Honestly, it’s exactly what they said it was. They literally just talk over footage of penguins. Am I the only one that thinks this sounds more like something a couple of bored teenagers might do on a saturday night? Sadly, the film has somehow managed to round up quite the voice cast. Narrated by Samuel L. Jackson (another member of ‘the club’) and starring Bob Saget, Jason Alexander, Lewis Black, Christina Applegate, Dane Cook (UGH), Norm MacDonald and many more. If that’s enough to pique your interest, then you might want to check this one out. As for myself, I think i will steer clear of this one.

Sean is on vacation, so I guess it’s my job to pick up the slack on the superhero movie news for a day or two. As i’m sure many of you have heard, the role of Iron Man has finally been officially filled. All of the Tom Cruise haters out there can breath a collective sigh of relief because it looks like Jon Favreau has chosen Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Starks. Interesting choice I suppose. Although it seems weird to me because earlier this summer Favreau stated that this film would not get into Starks alcoholism, focusing mainly on the creation of the Iron Man suit and the hero himself. This totally seems like a wasted opportunity, seeing as Downey Jr. has spent a great deal of time in rehab and could really bring that ‘method actor’ reality to Iron Man and his inner demons. I just hope there’s no musical segments with Tony Starks lip synching Elton John songs. What do you guys think? Yay or nay? Lame or awesome?

I’m going away for the weekend so I thought I’d put up the Friday movie listings a day early. On the podcast I got everyone all excited about Children of Men opening this weekend and it turns out it’s not actually in theatres until December 25th. Total buzzkill. Instead we have to settle for Todd Phillips’ latest comedy School For Scoundrels, the unlikely team of Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher as heroic coast guards in The Guardian, or the latest indistinguishable CG family flick Open Season. But will Jackass Number Two be actually be number one for the second week in a row?

The Guardian
Keeping Mum (limited)
Open Season
School for Scoundrels
The U.S. vs John Lennon (limited)

Wingnut Films, the production company that Peter Jackson started way back in 1987 with his very first film Bad Taste, is about to jump into the world of interactive entertainment. It was announced today that Jackson and wife Fran Walsh are founding Wingnut Interactive, in partnership with Microsoft Game Studios, in order to develop two new video game series exclusively for the X-Box 360 and X-Box Live. One of the titles will be an original property, while the other will be a Halo game in collaboration with Bungie Studios, no doubt closely tied to the Halo motion picture which Jackson is executive producing. It is unclear whether or not that Halo game is in fact Halo 3, which is already deep in development and due out sometime next year.

“My vision, together with Microsoft Game Studios, is to push the boundaries of game development and the future of interactive entertainment.” Jackson is certainly not the first director to jump into the video game industry as of late, and I have to wonder whether the end result will really be as groundbreaking as they claim. Video games are still struggling to mature as a medium, and I think bringing filmmakers on board is only going to continue the trend of video games aping cinema. But on the bright side, at least it help bring more credibility to the medium as an art form. Shane Kim, a corporate VP at Microsoft Game Studios, also had this to say: “I don’t want to classify it as a game. I’m hoping to stretch the definition of interactive entertainment to go beyond the game.” Well, a guy can dream can’t he?

David Ayer, the writer and co-producer of Training Day, has landed his first directing gig with the upcoming movie Harsh Times. Coincidentally, it happens to look a heck of a lot like Training Day too, only this time around the two cops are played by Christian Bale and Freddy Rodriguez. Actually, I’m not exactly clear on whether or not they are cops in the movie… Bale’s character is described as “an ex-Army Ranger who finds himself slipping back into his old life of petty crime after a job offer from the LAPD evaporates”. Either way there’s some sort of corruption involved.

I really didn’t like Training Day much, and the fact that Denzel Washington won an Oscar for it was a total sham in my opinion. I’m not saying the guy doesn’t deserve an Oscar somewhere in there, but Training Day? Come on. Anyway, it’s amazing what a difference it makes when the same character is essentially played by Christian Bale. Suddenly I’m on board. How hypocritical of me, I know. But yeah, as gritty and urban as this movie is trying to be, I’m now looking forward to it. The movie also co-stars Eva Longoria. Check out the trailer now over at iFilm; it hits select theatres on November 10th.

Entertainment Weekly has an interview this week with Mel Brooks regarding the upcoming Spaceballs animated series. It doesn’t reveal anything terribly unexpected, but they did post the first image from the show (at least, the first that I’ve seen). The style reminds me a bit of the Clerks animated series, although I don’t think it’s the same company doing the animation (from what I’ve read the animation is being handled by the Berliner Film Companie in Germany). It is good to hear that the show will not aim for pop culture references and showbiz parody but rather more poking fun of society. The pilot episode will reportedly mirror the plot of much of the original 1987 film. Check out the interview now via the link below.

Wow, that headline sounds like it would be a great title for a comic book. Anyway, you wanted it, you got it… the weirdest that the web has to offer for this week. From a girl that was raised by dogs to an ingenious chinese takeout prank call, it’s all the low brow entertainment you can handle in one sitting and then some!

Dog Girl
Romales vs Boxer
Chinese Takeout Prank Call (Audio Only)
Machine Gun Granny
Americans Quizzed on World Affairs
Kid Prodigy on Drums
Knight Rider Outtakes
Baseball Announcer Drops An F-Bomb

Well here’s a great news headline that’s sure to have all the Jackass naysayers screaming out “I told you so!”, but before you go off blaming Johnny Knoxville and Co. for the eroding of morals in today’s youth, make sure you read the whole story. In Medford, Oregon over the weekend, a movie theatre had to be evacuated when someone started a fire in the men’s washroom by igniting a wad of toilet paper. Of course, it would be easy to assume that a bunch of no-goodniks leaving Jackass Number Two had been inspired to wreak a little havoc of their own, but it seems that the suspects in this case were actually some underagers who weren’t even allowed into the movie because of its R rating. Cinematical brings up an excellent question: do shows like Jackass create this kind of mischief, or do they just happen to appeal to kids that are already troublemakers? This also illustrates the unfortunate fact that most of the movie’s target audience aren’t actually allowed to see the movie. Just imagine how much money Jackass Number Two could have made if it had been rated PG-13!

It’s no secret that the government of Kazakhstan is more than a little bit annoyed at Sacha Baron Cohen’s portrayal of their country through the guise of his alter ego Borat and the upcoming feature film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. In fact, Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev wants to discuss the matter with George W. Bush when the two leaders meet in the coming weeks. This seems a little odd to me considering that Cohen is actually British, but hey, what do I know about politics?

This week it was also announced that Kazakhstan will be funding a movie of their own in order to help overcome the stereotypes. If they were smart, they would have made a comedy about a dumb American going around Kazakhstan and pissing people off with his ignorance. But instead they have decided to make a movie called Nomads, “about the struggle of Kazakh tribes to expel Mongol invaders”. And this is going to dispel the stereotypes, how? I guess, to be fair, it will help showcase the true history and culture of their country. The amazing thing is that the movie will have a $40 million budget, the most expensive movie ever made in Kazakhstan! That’s quite the P.R. campaign. Personally I think it would have been more cost effective if they just used recycled footage from Star Wars.

(Incidentally, if you’re interested in seeing the true Kazakhstan, check out Ewan McGregor’s reality series The Long Way Round, where he takes a motorcycle trip around the world with his buddy Charley Boorman. It’s an awesome show… I’ll be writing a review of the DVD at some point in the near future.)