Ray Harryhausen passed away last week. This has been noted by people more qualified than I to discuss the master of stop-motion magic—Rick Baker, Adam Savage, Todd Masters, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and more. The superhuman talent and perseverance evident in a Harryhausen effects sequence can easily be seen in countless visual effects artists since he first brought his creations to frame-by-frame life on the big screen. That makes sense. So how can I really say anything of worth when I say that I was also profoundly influenced by the artistry of Ray Harryhausen? With modesty, and a story about Clash of the Titans. Continue reading…
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Ray Harryhausen and Me: A Life of High Adventure and Escapism
Things That Change You Forever
I have a ghost story of my own. At least, I have a ghost-cat story.
My final year as an undergraduate was spent in relative splendor. My friends and I lucked into tenancy in the house of a professor on sabbatical. Twelve foot ceilings! Built in bookshelves! Three cats! Real, grown-up furniture! Wait… let’s get back to the cats. The professorial family had three cats and a dog, though the dog was sent to a friend with a farm (later, they told us later that we clinched the lease when they told us that cat care was part of the deal and our response was, “Aw, we don’t get the dog?”).
So. Three housemates, three cats. One morning around the (solid oak!) table, we were chatting about the cats’ sleeping habits. Two of the cats routinely slept in my room, the third with one of the others. Feeling a little left out, the third roommate said, “That’s okay, because Ghost Cat slept on my bed last night.” Continue reading…
Secret Agent, Detective, Genius, Jerk: Modernizing Sherlock Holmes
A man with dark wavy hair wakes up in an iron-framed bed in the middle of a windowless room. He leaps out from under the white sheets and stares intently at a corner of the white ceiling. Suddenly, gracefully, he spins to defeat an invisible opponent in four swift motions, finally falling to his knees in front of an empty chair, hands outstretched.
There’s something about the way Benedict Cumberbatch plays the lead role in the BBC series Sherlock that seems like it could be Holmes’ fantasy version of how a brilliant detective behaves. Continue reading…
My New Weapon of Choice
In April, the Guttersnipes like to mix it up a little. This month, Comics Editor Carol Borden writes about romance.
“You hit him with a frying pan,” he said to her. “How come you didn’t grab a knife?”
“The frying pan was closer.” Her eyes slid away. “It’s not like I had time to pick a weapon. It’s not like the frying pan is my weapon of choice.” –Agnes And The Hitman (27)
Growing up in a town where Elvis was sighted post mortem, I despised and mocked The King. Now, I have held wakes in his honor. I used to only like punk. Then I used to say I liked everything but country. Now I don’t even bother arguing that I’m listening to “Americana,” not country. It is a truth universally acknowledged that something I once despised I will come to appreciate and, often, love. So when both Chris and alex recommended Jennifer Crusie, the author of many romance novels, and in particular her collaboration with Bob Mayer, Agnes And The Hitman, I knew I needed to read it. Continue reading…
Midnight Madness 2011
The line-up for the Midnight Madness Programme at the Toronto International Film Festival has been announced and the Gutter has some trailers and images for the films! Smuggler (directed by Funky Forest‘s Katsushito Ishii); The Day; Livid (from the directors of A L’Interieur/Inside); Kill List; The Incident; God Bless America (directed by Bobcat Goldthwait); Lovely [...]
The History and Art of the Title Sequence
A couple of looks at the art and history of film title sequences.
Cartoon Trailers!
Cartoon Network has trailers for the upcoming animated shows, ThunderCats and Legend of Korra, the sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender as well as an extended look at Green Lantern: The Animated Series with a short peek at the LEGO Ninja show, Ninjago.
Summer Fun Time Reading ’11
It’s summer time and instead of beer bottles exploding out of coolers in a shower of refreshing ice, bikini-clad hotties and fireworks as we know it should be, everything is wilting and perhaps even melting. As far as I can tell there are only two possible explanations—Hot Lava Monsters have readjusted the earth’s thermostat to [...]
Congratulations Bruce Leung Siu-Leung!
Fantasia Film Festival honored Bruce Leung Siu-Leung with their Legendary Kung Fu Star Award. He started his career as one of many Bruce Lee imitators before moving on working as an actor and action choreographer in films and television throughout the 1970s and 1980s. In the 2004, Leung returned as the Beast in Kung Fu [...]
A Song of Determination
“The Wong Fei-Hung Theme,” aka, “A Man of Determination,” might be the best known Chinese song outside the Chinese-speaking world. Here it is, in Cantonese, as the opening to Once Upon a Time in China, in George Lam Chi-Cheung’s music video and as karaoke for George Lam fans who read the Roman alphabet, as an [...]
Could They Beat Up China Mieville?
Have you ever looked at someone and wondered, “Could they beat up China Miéville?” Now you have your answers, in story form.
Heroic Trio
Every April at the Gutter, the editors write about something outside their usual domains. This month, Comics Editor Carol Borden writes about stars of action cinema. I like ladies of asskickery, women who can throw a punch or wield a sharp pointy weapon, preferably both. Since it’s April and we mix things up here at [...]
100 Years of Manhwa
An excellent gallery of images and collections, as well as historical context on 100 years of Korean comics.
Slashing Cinema
Wendell Jamieson writes about Japanese sword fight films for The New York Times: “I recently asked my sensei, then and now, Noboru Kataoka — himself an actor who goes as Ken Kensai — to name the greatest sword fight film of them all, and he answered, The Sword of Doom without missing a beat.”
Happy Birthday, Sonny Chiba!
Today’s JJ Sonny Chiba’s birthday and so it might be a good time to see what our friends at Teleport City have been writing about him.
“So Why Can’t I See You Kicking His Ass?”
John Kreng finishes the fallacies of why filmmakers make action so hard to see with the punches, kicks and elbow smashes of his thoughts. And you can see the whole thing here. (via ShelfLifeCC)
Most Anticipated Asian Films of 2011
Wildgrounds breaks down their most anticipated films of 2011.
Two Samurai
Tatsuya Nakadai and Toshiro Mifune take a break from filming Sanjuro. Enjoy the juxtaposition of their Meiji era costumes against a 1960s city street.
Happy Birthday, Bruce Lee
This week would’ve been Bruce Lee Jun-Fan’s 70th birthday. Here’s a little memoriam we’ve put together in his honor: His screen test for the role of Kato in The Green Hornet (includes him doing forms in a suit); the opening credits for the Cantonese print of Enter The Dragon; a Time Magazine photo essay; and [...]
Heros de las Artes Marciales
Laurie’s Wild West brings you pulps from Franco’s Spain.
RIP, Wong Tin-Lam
Veteran Hong Kong actor, producer, writer and director, Wong Tin-Lam has died. His work in tv and film spans the 1950s through the 2000s. Gutter readers are probably most familiar with Wong’s work for Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Fai like The Mission and Election (as well as comedies like Fat Choy Spirit and My Left [...]
How Hollywood Killed Stunts
Salon has an excellent piece on the death of stunts in Hollywood movies, exploring everything from the history of film stunts, the reliance on CG effects and new-fangled “intensified continuity” editing. The piece also mentions Michelle Yeoh, Tony Jaa, Zoe Bell and Yakima Canutt. (Thanks, Brian from Shelf Life CC).
Mustachio!
The top 25 video game mustaches.
For Jean-Claude on his 50th Birthday
Mubi has a lovely, thoughtful post on Jean-Claude van Damme in honor of his 50th birthday. ” But what does that make of an action-star-inverse like Van Damme, who’s at his most interesting when he’s at his most vulnerable and who does not, unlike Stallone or Willis, wield that vulnerability as a weapon, but presents [...]
« go back — keep looking »Of Note Elsewhere
At Sequart, Julian Darius makes the case that Star Trek: Into Darkness damages the Star Trek franchise and that “Starfleet must be destroyed.” (via Mike White)
“It’s easier to tell the same stories everyone else does. There’s no particular shame in it.
It’s just that it’s lazy, which is just about the worst possible thing a spec fic writer can be.
Oh, and it’s not true.”
Kameron Hurley writes about lazy writing, cannibal llamas, female soldiers, and women here. (Thanks, James!)
Patton Oswalt’s multi-franchise super-movie described in his Star Wars filibuster from Parks and Recreation, animated.
Corrigan Vaughan writes an open letter to “Fans of Geek Things“: “I appreciate that you think I have a nice rack and that some of you even find my friends and I to be pretty. That’s very kind. I’m not, however, super in love with the fact that having a rack at all seems to preclude me from being considered a ‘real’ fan.”
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