Coolest Movie You Never Saw

Right now I'm watching Six String Samurai, a post-apocalyptic-rock 'n' roll-samurai movie. I have to say it is the weirdest, quirkiest movie I have seen in a long time (and yes, that includes Lost Skeleton of Cadavra). I can't believe I've never seen this before.

Let's see if I can do the plot justice.

Basically, in 1957 the USSR dropped the bomb(s?) on the US and took over. The Free City of Las Vegas exists in the middle of the Wasteland and is ruled by the King (yes, Elvis). 40 years have passed and the King is dead. So aspirants are travelling to LV to claim the throne. One of them is the samurai sword wielding, kung-fu mastering, six-string toting Buddy Holly-esque man named Buddy. On the way he encounters the Kid, who tags along against his wishes; bounty hunting bowlers; mutants in a pickup truck with a catapult that shoots super-balls and vinyl records in the slowest car chase I've ever seen; the Windmill People and their god (appropriately named the Windmill God); a cannibal suburbanite family; and Death with his posse. Oh, and the soundtrack is done by the Red Elvises, a Russian band whose genre can best be described as Slavic-Rockabilly-Surf music.

You with me?

In terms of outright strangeness, I'd have to say only the City of Lost Children is a better movie. Yes, that's a good thing.

Venom!

I just saw the Spider-Man:III trailer.

I knew about Sandman, but, but, but...

The Venom Symbiote!!! (<- the three exclamation points are for super excited goodness) That was my favorite story arc back when I was collecting.

I feel like I'm in full-on high school geek out mode! (dear lord, I'm hyperventilating)

More Humor Impaired

I have to say this is a bit of an overreaction.

Borat beware: Accept an invitation by a top Kazakh official to find out what the country is really like and you could be in for a nasty surprise.

"I'd kill this impostor on the spot," said Eltai Muptekeyev, who makes his living in Almaty by posing for photos with a blindfolded falcon clinging to a thick leather glove on his hand.

Lighten up, Francis. Look for the funny. People are just too God-damn sensitive these days. Perhaps people in the US are thick-skinned, or we are more willing to laugh at our foibles. I do know, that if a movie came out lampooning the US, we'd be the first in line. And probably laugh the hardest. Regardless who made the movie.

These people seem to get it.

Aigul Abysheva, a third-year linguistics student at Almaty State University, said she at first was "disgusted" by Borat's jokes, especially by his "chain of importance" — where dogs and horses are higher than women.

"But then I realized he was making fun of ignorant people, no matter where they come from," she said. "The real target of Borat's movie is a couch potato who believes that Kazakhs drink horse urine."

Kazakhstan's deputy foreign minister, Rakhat Aliyev, recently extended an invitation to Borat to find out the truth about Kazakhstan.

"He can discover a lot of things. Women drive cars, wine is made of grapes and Jews are free to go to synagogues."

He also said his compatriots were overreacting.

"We must have a sense of humor and respect other people's freedom of creativity," Aliyev said in a recent interview with Kazakhstan Today.

Every thing I've seen or read about this movie (going this weekend to see it) fails to describe it as mean-spirited. Thoroughly enjoying his Ali G character, I like to think that Sascha Baron Cohen is slyly poking fun and teasing our Kazakh neighbors.

You know, kind of how friends do with each other.

Double O - Bad Ass!

Oh hell ya!

I just got done watching this trailer, and let me say one thing:

Oh please, oh please, oh please, let this not suck.

Ever since Golden Eye, I wanted an edgier, darker James Bond. Golden Eye hinted at it. But alas, the Brosnan Bond slid into the surfacey fluff all the Bonds had (except for Lazenby in On Her Majesty's Secret Service). Please let this Bond be the merciless tool of the state, a container of a cold, dark rage held barely in check. Please let this Bond be Ian Flemming's and not EON Production's.

I don't know who Daniel Craig is, but he looks (at least in the promo photos) like more of a thug than the previous Bonds. Someone who will smile in your eyes while pulling the trigger.

Let it be true. Let it be the Bond I've always wanted to see --less gadgets, more pathos.