Never mind that "Game Over," the new animated sitcom on the UPN Network, isn't very good. Perhaps disappointed viewers can produce something better. UPN is giving them the tools for the task, in the form of a free video game that's more than a game. It's also an introduction to "machinima," a gaming-inspired technology that may become as vital to filmmakers as colored ink was to Walt Disney.
Sydney, Australia -- Police shut down a public screening of a U.S. movie banned in Australia because of its explicit sex and violence, sparking outrage from free-speech advocates.
"Ken Park", a provocative film by "Kids" director Larry Clark and Edward Lachman, catalogues the dysfunctional lives of teenage skateboarders in the suburbs of Visalia, Calif.
Bullet Time was just the beginning. F/x guru John Gaeta reinvents cinematography with The Matrix Reloaded.
You'll be seeing a lot of Agent Smith this year. Neo's man-in-black nemesis returns on May 15 in The Matrix Reloaded, the continuing story of a young hacker who learns that the apparently real world is an elaborate computer simulation. In November, a second sequel, Matrix Revolutions, will take up where Reloaded's nail-biting climax leaves off.
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Directed by Peter Mettler
(Not enough gambling or LSD for my taste)
While the movie description is "a transcendental film by Peter Mettler," it incorrectly states "transcendental" instead of "boring". This docu-diary, was shot by Mettler in his globe-trotting journeys between 1996 and 1999. While soul-searching, is more than an hour longer than it needed to be. It clocks in at over three hours, and in that time, Mettler takes us to four main locations (Toronto, Las Vegas, Switzerland, and India, respectively), all the while shaking the camera like a monkey with A.D.D. and a bout of seizures. Harsh? Try sitting through three hours of this. And yes, I understand it was a hand camera doing a world tour, although there was at least one scene which looked steady-cammed.
Even when he's nowhere near the building, he's still the biggest newsmaker at the CHUM Television nerve centre on Queen St. W.
Moses Znaimer officially relinquished his various roles at CHUM Ltd. on Friday . from an undisclosed location, outside of town . bringing to a close speculation about his future with the company he helped build from a small regional broadcaster to a burgeoning, innovative national network with an international profile.
He'll continue to be associated with CHUM as director, chairman and executive producer of Learning Skills Television and The Learning Annex in Alberta, obscure properties he and CHUM jointly own.
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Q: Tell me what was your reaction to Michael Moore's acceptance speech at the Academy Awards.
Ebert: I heard him give the same speech the day before at the Independent Spirit Awards, where he stood up straight, and looked the audience in the eye, and took his time. It got a good response, although that audience was more receptive than the academy. But I have a feeling an acting coach could have analyzed his performance at the Academy Awards and said he was prompting the Academy to dislike his speech because he hunkered over the microphone, and he talked too fast and defiantly, as if he was trying to get it out before he was stopped. His body language and his verbal language all kind of sent the wrong message.
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Picking up where Episode II left off, the saga of the Clone Wars will continue through animated shorts premiering this year from the Cartoon Network and Lucasfilm Ltd. Star Wars: Clone Wars will be a series of 20 animated shorts that will air on the Cartoon Network in 2003-2004 between other programming.
Helming this new series is Genndy Tartakovsky (see Three-Minute Epics: A Look at Star Wars: Clone Wars), the acclaimed creator of "Samurai Jack" and "Dexter's Laboratory." The episodic shorts will be two- to three-minutes in length and will air exclusively on Cartoon Network at regularly scheduled times beginning this fall.
The epic Clone Wars dominated the final years of the Galactic Republic, as Jedi-led clone troopers battled against the evil forces of the Separatists. Joining already established Star Wars characters in the series will be several new and ruthless adversaries.
"We are incredibly excited to be working with Lucasfilm in creating an animated story that extends one of the world's most beloved entertainment properties," said Sam Register, senior vice president of development for Cartoon Network. "Cartoon Network's creative team will work hand-in-hand with Lucasfilm to make sure that our common vision for Clone Wars thrills Star Wars fans around the world."
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Like the United Nations, the Republic has no armed forces of its own, but instead relies on a group of warriors, the Jedi knights, to "keep the peace." The Jedi, while autonomous, often work in tandem with the Senate, trying to smooth over quarrels and avoid conflicts. But the Jedi number only in the thousands--they cannot protect everyone.
What's more, it's not clear that they should be "protecting" anyone. The Jedi are Lucas's great heroes, full of Zen wisdom and righteous power. They encourage people to "use the Force"--the mystical energy which is the source of their power--but the truth, revealed in "The Phantom Menace," is that the Force isn't available to the rabble. The Force comes from midi-chlorians, tiny symbiotic organisms in people's blood, like mitochondria. The Force, it turns out, is an inherited, genetic trait. If you don't have the blood, you don't get the Force. Which makes the Jedi not a democratic militia, but a royalist Swiss guard....
In all of the time we spend observing the Rebel Alliance, we never hear of their governing strategy or their plans for a post-Imperial universe. All we see are plots and fighting. Their victory over the Empire doesn't liberate the galaxy--it turns the galaxy into Somalia writ large: dominated by local warlords who are answerable to no one
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This fantastic film by Fritz Lang has been restored to a reasonable facsimile of the original version. Not a bad job, considering a good chunk of the film was destroyed or lost after being drastically cut three weeks after its 1927 German release. In this release, lost scenes are replaced with a description of what would have been there, with the underlying music continuing through the missing sections. The original 1927 orchestral score is also present, and effectively punctuates the dramatic scenes (and unfortunately, may lull you to sleep in the quieter scenes).
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