Tonight's Special Guest: Bonzo

We are all Bonzo.
ps- these thirteen seconds are taking all day
SDROG

TEN: Priest (2011)

1. Look at that poster! Blue tinted Underworld (that I hate) riff with that British dude and a whole lot of Screen Gems mediocrity on display. Wake me when it’s over… oh, wait this is pretty cool. Alright! So number one is that it was much better than I expected.

2. It was much better than I expected because I haven’t read the comics. People who like the comics hate this. I like the story so I just ordered the comics Volume 1. So if nothing else it introduced me to a new thing. Unlike Constantine, who trotted out Shia LaBeouf, so I don’t care how awesome Hellblazer is supposed to be, there will forever be that association.

3. Listening to the Christopher Young sound track as I type this up, and I really dig Christopher Young. I remember him from back in the day doing those great Hellraiser soundtracks. Now he does a lot of Raimi’s stuff. And the soundtrack has some great organ. Listen to the first track here http://youtu.be/KxzCVWH6s3g . It is sort of generic, but has a BIG EPIC MOVIE feel to it. And that was something I was not expecting from this…

4. THIS THING IS BIIIIIIIG, it is bleeding out money and mood. It feels like a big deal, like there is a whole new kind of world opening up here. You feel like you are watching a big movie, it’s all so well shot and composed and pretty to look at, not just another glorified Sci-fi movie (or Underworld sequel). One reason it feels so big, is that…

5. This world is a cobbling together of a lot of other movies. You can sort of watch it and click off the references, Blade Runner, Judge Dread, Matrix, Underworld, Eastwood Spaghetti Westerns, Mad Max, THX 1138, Aliens, and pretty much any totalitarian state drama you’ve seen. Because I like all those movies, it didn’t care. Especially the Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome ending, didn’t see that coming (I never watch trailers anymore).

6. Maggie Q! She is the best actor in the film, she has the best character, she has the most interesting story. I remember seeing her in Die Hard 4 and going, whoa, she’s good, and in this she runs away with the movie, leaving Paul Bettany standing around wondering where his movie went, I’ve seen him good in other stuff, but here he’s just a Keanu graphical element moving around the screen. Maggie Q owns this.

7.Karl Urban, never cared for this guy until his dead on Bones in Star Trek made me a fan. And he is really cool in this. Sergio Leone Cowboy Vampire.  

8. We’re running out of space here, so we’ll combine the two awesome supporting cast members, Brad Doriff playing an old west snake oil salesman, makes you think that the people making this movie must actually like watching movies. And Christopher Plummer, who has never been bad in a movie, and I shudder to think that one day movies will no longer have surprise bit cameos by Chris Plummer. Then what? Let’s hope Malcolm McDowell stays 58 forever.

9. Out of space. I must tell you how much I loved the animated opening that sets up the world. Kind of a Genndy Tartakovsky type thing (I just looked it up, it was him, never mind). So it starts with this awesome Tartakovsky animated thing that sets up the whole world and I kind wish they had done the whole thing in that style.

10. SHOWSTOPPER! It’s appropriate, it stops the show, it involves dynamite, a jet powered brushed metal motorcycle, Road Warrior imagery, and Maggie Q owning the movie. It’s the climax, and it be really cool.

BONUS – The scene with Brad Doriff and Karl Urban was great! A great pairing up and I love any scene dealing with greed and betrayal and comeuppance.

Uncle Roy and the bird mask

Splat!

TEN NEW NEW NEWS ABOUT CLOWN VERSUS MONKEY!

Long time coming, but here we go!

1. Firing on all cylinders. Having a great work flow with Jonas Ferreara. I gather the materials and process the layers, and he puts them together and renders them up.

2. I have had some call to arms, still need a sound editor to place sound effects and mess with sound levels. If you have an editing program and would like to through down, let me know!

3, The other missing link is some one to add blood splats and lighting into the shot. Two necessities in life,

4. The dropbox is working like a charm, we are all pulling from the cloud, the project files are in space, making it so much easier then driving footage all over town. FUTURE!

5. Even with the 2 day gigs, now that the kids are in school I have this pristine silence in the morning to process the footage, it is a bizarre feeling.

6. Also, something about the project is just clicking now, the rendering, the workflow, how the characters should move. It wasn't coming together in my head until suddenly, the switch flipped and I understood how it should go. Jonas F. has been invaluable on this.

7. We have two rendered scenes to show, both need some sound tweaks and a prop animated, so expect a preview of those soon.

8. By the way, the motion capture on After Effects is best if you use little ping pong balls with x's on them as tracking points. Other then that it is crap.

9. I gave Jonas his first clown footage this morning!

10. If you want personalized emails on the progress, shoot me your request to clownvsmonkey@gmail.com. Also get on our fanpage at facebook! CLICK HERE!

FIGHT EVIL 
SDROG

TEN: John Carpenter's The Ward - 2011

John Carpenter's The Ward

1. Antiseptic, the whole movie looks like it was scrubbed down with some terrible smelling germ killer. The frame is clean and ordered and lobotomized, and has had its nails cut to the meat, the dipped in Lysol. This is a good thing. It is the cleanest movie ever.

2. Camera Movement, the little guy just goes and goes and goes, it was a thrill, at no time does it sit there and think, we are always in the action, and with the characters.

3. Scary, they jump at you, but there are nice build ups and smashes, nothing revolutionary, we didn’t reinvent the genre here, but it is effective at making you go, “here it comes, here it comes… wait, where isAHHH! Stop being a jerk movie!”

4. Amber Heard, a lean mean mothering machine. She comes in and takes care of business. She is good here, and has a wonderful bit with an ax versus ghost. I was glad the movie went there.

5. The ghost make up was great! KNB, and the skin is what gets you, just the most disgusting rotting translucent dead wrap you’ve seen. Amazing. It looks pretty great.

6. The chick from Kick Ass is in this, Lyndsy Fonseca, and she has the best acting bit, where she has to convince everyone that she is sane and ready to go home. A great little moment in the movie.

7. Does it all work, no kids, sorry. Like in Insidious, we have a knock down drag out climatic fight scene in this, which is a well done fight scene, but seems to be thrown in out of, “oh we need something exciting to happen here”. It just doesn’t fit with the quiet trapped feeling of the rest of the movie.

8. The big reveal at the end has been done before. You go, “Cool! Just like in that other movie.” I like how it was done here, it makes more sense than it did in that other movie (and I love that other movie), because the characters here seem to jive more with the concept, but it has a "been there, seen that" feel. But if you are 17 and have only seen two movies, I’m sure it will be really cool for you.

9. The whole thing works as more of a quiet little drama. The emphasis is on the characters and the messed up situation. It is a nice situation for a horror film, one that is simple but once you find yourself getting into it, you do start asking, “Hey what would I do, they are really screwed here”. You can tell THE MASTER was more interested in working with this ensemble and making an intimate film verses trying to put his name on top of some A-list “I wanna make the next Iron Man movie”. I respect him for being who he is and not giving a shit what others may think. I’ll stop now before I devolve into fanboy idolatry.

10. SHOWSTOPPER! The death by electro shock was such an awesome fusion of CG, mood, practical make up, performance, tone, music, menace, blood, and polished amber concrete. A great horror highlight.

BONUS – The location here, a state run mental institution, is always one of my favorites, and in this flick, when it goes to night, and there are lightning storms outside, and the orange security lights are on, and all that scrubbed metal and gleaming polished concrete floor, it is a thing of horror movie beauty.

Apex

Monkey in the Garden of Good and Evil

Just in from Jonas Ferreira, the beloved editor! Give this guy a round of applause!