Movie Haiku - Doom

www.doommovie.com


Dir: Andrzej Bartkowiak


Cast: The Rock, Karl Urban, Rosamund Pike, Dexter Fletcher


Something's loose on Mars

big guns in dark corridors

films of games bore me


soulmining rating: **

Movie Haiku - Transporter 2

www.transporter2movie.com


Dir: Louis Leterrier


Cast: Jason Statham, Alessandro Gassman, Amber Valletta, Jason Flemyng


He must protect boy

how can this sequel be good?

love stupid fight scenes


soulmining rating: ****

Movie Haiku - The Exorcism Of Emily Rose

www.couldthishappentoyou.co.uk


Dir: Scott Derrickson


Cast: Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson, Campbell Scott, Jennifer Carpenter


Priest on murder trial

did the devil possess her

or was she just ill?


soulmining rating: ****

Movie Haiku - Flightplan

www.thefilmfactory.co.uk/flightplan


Dir: Robert Schwentke


Cast: Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Sean Bean, Erika Christensen


No snakes on this plane

just some crazy passengers

and a missing girl


soulmining rating: **

The loveGods at the Pavilion Theatre

Another loveGods show. I really respect the way they've built up a grass roots following in Brighton, and guitarist Artie and PA Kate are genuinely sweet, friendly people. The band really seem to embrace their music, but I'm increasingly worried about singer Deah. There's no doubting she's a fierce vocal talent - although that affecting American accent is starting to tire - but she also possesses a huge ego. There's a fine line between being a confident, ballsy performer and a spoilt diva. I just hope she takes the former path. Musically the band sound ever more accomplished, but really start to fly when they take a few changes and try something different, like on their radical reworking of Gershwin's Summertime and their Professional Widow rip-off Disco, by far their most adventurous and gleefully enjoyable song of the night.

Note to self: You will get very drunk very quickly if all you've had to eat all day is four slices of toast.

The Proposition Q&A

Jason Wood interviews John Hillcoat & Nick Cave

Director John Hillcoat and writer / composer Nick Cave turned up at the Duke Of York's for a Q&A after a preview screening of their new movie The Proposition. Hove resident Nick bounded onto the stage with a cry of, "Hello neighbours!" and intrigued the audience by confirming that he and John are now collaborating on a romantic comedy set in Hove. "It's not romantic. Or funny," added Nick.

Movie Haiku - The Proposition

www.columbiafilms.com.au


Dir: John Hillcoat


Cast: Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston, John Hurt


Cave's gloomy western

sent to kill psycho brother

fantastic head shot


soulmining rating: ****

Gboogleedbok!

Polly sent me this message earlier in the week:

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

Yaeh, and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Friday's Frights

Mike with From Dusk Till Dawn's Sex Machine!

Just a few bits and pieces that I wanted to round up this morning.

Mike and Russ were lucky enough to bump into make-up / special effects maestro Tom Savini in The Cinema Store on Wednesday afternoon. Apparently he was a lovely fella and even spoke to Jim on the phone!

Speaking of the Eat My Brains crew, they've just published my review of Jenifer, Dario Argento's Masters Of Horror episode, here.

Congratulations to a couple of other FrightFest friends who this week picked up awards at the British Independent Film Awards ceremony at the Hammersmith Palais - Neil Marshall who won the Best Director award for The Descent, and Jake West who won the Raindance award for Evil Aliens. Well done guys!

December Live

Man, it's been a bit of a lacklustre Autumn / Winter run in on the live scene. There should be loads of cool bands playing around this time of year but I've found it really tough to come up with much to recommend this month. Anyway, here's the few highlights for December:

01/12 - Tonight it's your Rory Bremners at the Dome. Is he still funny?

02/12 - Feeder are playing at Brighton Centre. I missed them at the Dome last time around but they went down well, and their singles are generally pretty good.

03/12 - I'm going to a preview screening of The Proposition at the Duke Of York's which will be followed by a Q&A with the director John Hillcoat and writer / composer Nick Cave. After that's done it's straight to the Pavilion to check out The loveGods for the final time this year.

08/12 - LCD Soundsystem return to Brighton after their gig at the Concorde at the beginning of the year - this time they're at the Event. How come we're not selling tickets, Dave?

09/12 - Ben Elton is doing his new stand up show at the Dome. Is he still funny?

12/12 - It's a quick return for Stereophonics after their show here in August... they're playing at Brighton Centre this time with support from The Subways.

14/12 - Another Brighton Centre date, this time the first of two nights of Little Britain. Will we all piss ourselves laughing, or will that just be Mrs Emery the incontinent granny?

And that's about it for 2005. Looking ahead to January I've just noticed that Daniel Kitson has announced two shows at the Komedia, so it looks like that will be the first big night out of 2006.

Rufus Wainwright tickets

This is why they're called 'thermal tickets'

Yes, our tickets are made out of fresh Gremlins - put them in direct sunlight and they will burn.

We had it all at the Rufus Wainwright gig tonight. Burnt tickets... lost tickets... people who'd bought stolen tickets outside and had to be chucked out... and one poor lady who'd booked through Get Me Tickets and had been ripped off. Don't ever book tickets through them, they're a bunch of dodgy touts who source their tickets after taking people's orders - and often fail to deliver the goods, as our lady found out tonight. They've recently been investigated by Watchdog, as you can read here.

As for the guest list, well we had Damon Albarn in this evening, Keane's Tom Chaplin (and the family of one of the other Keane chaps), plus the Brighton contigent of the lovely Astrid Williamson and the ever-affable Tim Booth. The only downside tonight was that I didn't get to see any of the show!

Movie Haiku - Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire

www.gobletoffire.co.uk


Dir: Mike Newell


Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Robbie Coltrane


Hormones are raging

enters tri-wizard contest

harder than sports day


soulmining rating: ****

FrightFest does Brighton

Front row (L-R): Rachel, Graham, Rich, Mike and Russ
(photo from www.frightfest.co.uk)

I had such a good laugh on Saturday night with the FrightFest crowd in town as part of Brighton's Cine-City festival at the Duke Of York's cinema. Mike and Russ from Eat My Brains came down for the weekend, and we met up with Rich and Graham - who'd driven down from Romford - in Circus Circus at the start of the evening. FrightFest organisers Ian and Paul soon joined us, Ian regaling us with tales of falling asleep on public transport after too many beers, Paul mainly occupied with his new girlfriend, Honey. Director Jake West introduced himself and proved to be a friendly, jovial chap, which made me feel bad for dissing Evil Aliens so much - but at least I was able to praise his work on the excellent Anchor Bay Phantasm documentary. With a few more FrightFest regulars travelling down, including Rachel from Guildford who we took under our wing after her other friends abandoned her, there was a real feeling of 'extended family' in the pub and this transferred over to the cinema where the audience clapped and cheered their way through the three films on offer. District 13 was the most popular with its mad French stuntmen jumping over buildings without the use of wires or CGI proving to be a big hit. After a specially written message from Dario Argento, his Masters Of Horror episode Jenifer was a little disappointing - delivering more laughs than scares, but it was funny hearing the shocked reactions of the girls sat in the row behind us. In between films Ian and Paul were on hand to give out t-shirts, posters plus the latest Killing Time fanzine, and they also dragged fan Sian onto the stage to display her new FrightFest tattoo. The final film was Boo! which was originally due to play at August's event - it had some good visuals but was let down by wooden acting and dire dialogue, although after a few pints this was all quite amusing. After the last film Mike, Russ and I cracked open some more bottles of beer back at home and wound down watching Hell Comes To Frogtown on video, a dead cert for a future Zombie Club session. All in all, a great evening!

FrightFest Movie Haiku - Boo!

www.kismetent.com/films.html


Dir: Anthony C. Ferrante


Cast: M. Steven Felty, Trish Coren, Rachel Melvin, Dee Wallace Stone


Haunted asylum

laugh at bad acting and script

no applause just boos


soulmining rating: **

FrightFest Movie Haiku - Jenifer

www.mastersofhorror.net


Dir: Dario Argento


Cast: Steven Weber, Carrie Anne Fleming, Brenda Jones, Julia Arkos


Saves her from axeman

great body but freaky face

likes to eat pussy


soulmining rating: ***

You can read my review of Jenifer on Eat My Brains here.

FrightFest Movie Haiku - District 13

www.banlieue13-lefilm.com


Dir: Pierre Morel


Cast: Cyril Raffaelli, David Belle, Tony D'Amario, Dany Verissimo


Leap across buildings

stop neutron bomb, save sister

Escape From Paris


soulmining rating: ****

Killing Time

Just a quick plug for the new Killing Time fanzine. Issue Two has just been published and features articles on directors Rob Zombie, Ti West and Craig Strachan, alongside comment on the recent zombie craze and the demise of Pinhead. Plus, there's a cool Shaun Of The Dead stencil for next year's pumpkin carving and a great spoof advert for Woodloids - "It's going to be a lousy night!"

All this can be yours for a mere £2.50 - get your copy via Paypal here and do your bit to support these guys.

Eubankrupt!

Sometimes the headlines just write themselves.

Yes, Hove's grandest resident, Mr Chris Eubank, declared himself bankrupt yesterday.

You can read the full news story on Yahoo here.

Movie Haiku - The Hidden Blade

www.kakushiken.jp


Dir: Yoji Yamada


Cast: Masatoshi Nagase, Takako Matsu, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Yukiyoshi Ozawa


Can't marry the maid

ordered to kill his old friend

samurai life sucks


soulmining rating: ***

Whatever happened to...?

Continuing the occasional series of actors who have mysteriously vanished from our screens...

3. Rick Moranis

I caught a bit of Ghostbusters on Channel 4 the other night and Rick's name sprung to mind. We all remember him from those two films, and Honey, I Shrunk The Kids and its endless sequels, but surely he must have other work? IMDB lists his last role as one of the vocal talents in Brother Bear but that was two years ago...

So, whatever happened to Rick Moranis?