Political correctness it seems, knows no bounds. According to monsters&critcs.com, the great Harrison Ford has claimed that he will pull out of the new Indiana Jones project if he is not allowed to use a real whip; as opposed to a CGI one.

     According to the article, new film safety rules have changed since the 80’s, and anything deemed “dangerous stuff” must use computer graphics as a replacement for the real thing.

     Dr. Jones of course, ruled the new regulation “ridiculous” and threatened to leave the film if he couldn’t use the real thing.

     I say goddmamn right. Harrison has been doing his own stunts for years. And as the story goes, he got the scar on his chin for wielding precisely the same whip. To use a CGI whip would cost I don’t know how many dollars and frankly would be just …. lame. Notice to all studios from MoviePatron.com: grow some balls.

     Kevin Smith just doesn’t make bad films. He’s a had a hiccup or two, but nothing bad. Most of his stuff is intelligent, hilarious and thoughtful; even if it is sometimes on the juvenile side. But what is the coolest about Smith is the fact that he’s just a regular dude who loves movies…. good movies. I’ve posted a million lists on this blog, but I had to post Kevin’s because I respect his opinion and I care about what he thinks as a film maker himself (and a damn good one at that). He even listed all of his myspace friends in the credits of Clerks II and personally contacted me via a private letter regarding my review of Clerks II - - how cool is that? According to Kevin’s personal online blog, here are his top ten films of 2006. I like how he titled each selection with a “the one that…” comment. Nice.

10) Borat (The One That Actually Lived Up to Its Hype)
9) Perfume (The One That Made Me Say “What the fuck is going on?!?”)
8) United 93 (The One That Made Me Never Want to Fly Again)
7) The Last King of Scotland (The One That Made Me Never Want to Travel Abroad)
6) V for Vendetta (The One I’ll Take Shit For, Pt. 2)
5) Inside Man (The One Nobody Else Seems to Remember)
4) Clerks II (The One I’ll Take Shit For, Pt. 1)
3) Half Nelson (The One That Made Me Ashamed I Was Ever Identified as an Independent Filmmaker, Because This is Real Independent Film)
2) Little Children (The One That Would’ve Won Best Picture If Harvey Weinstein Had Released It Four Years Ago, Circa Miramax)
1) The Daparted (The One Everybody Else Liked Too)

I’m so glad he included Little Children, Half Nelson and United 93. Though I personally wouldn’t place The Departed so high or even place Borat, film is subjective and that’s cool. The inclusion of those three films proves he knows what he is talking about. Because I said so.

     According to Bloody-disgusting.com, Scott Glosserman’s fantastic vision of horror meets documentary, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon seems to have been pushed back to a March 16th date instead of the Valentine’s day release it was supposed to have, Anchorbay Entertainment has announced.
     I’m getting sick of waiting for this movie to be released. the dates keep getting pushed back further and further which means it’ll be that much longer before I can drag everyone I know to the theater to see this one again. Winner of the audience choice award at the 2006 Toronto After Dark Film Festival (and deservedly so); it is also #7 on my top films of 2006 list.
     Read my FULL REVIEW HERE

- - originally posted by Kurt on Twitchfilm.net
     The NY Times did a piece on Grindhouse today, which includes details on the project that I was unaware of; including concrete run times of each feature. Tarantino’s Deathproof is going to run 90 minutes and Rodriguez’s Planet Terror is going to run 80 minutes. There will be several ‘fake trailers’ in between the two features (as reported previously by Quentin Tarantino “Cowgirls in Sweden”, Eli Roth “Thanksgiving”, Edward Wright, and Rob Zombie “Werewolf Women of the SS”) featuring Nicholas Cage - plus the one featured prominently in the Grindhouse trailer, “They Call Him Machete” with Danny Trejo. The entire run-time of this extravaganza should be around 223 minutes. That is pushing 4 hours folks!

 
***MINOR SPOILER***

     And since the old grindhouse films were often missing reels, both filmmakers have purposefully cut out a segment of their movies. “My whole thing is to play with the audience,” said Mr. Tarantino. “I guarantee you, when it pops up ‘Missing Reel,’ the entire theater is going to scream. They might very well be screaming my name: ‘Quentin, you bastard! We hate you!’  

     ”And then the next reel starts, and all of the sudden, people who don’t like each other suddenly like each other now. ‘What happened to that guy?’ The only way to do a missing reel is, it’s got to be something you can’t wait to see.”

Trailer (downloadable 480p AVI)
The NY Times piece
She Women of the SS (Rob Zombie Faux Trailer) picture
Death Proof Photos
Planet Terror Photos
One Sheets Gallery

Grindhouse is to be released April 6th by The Weinstein Company