Seperado: wild wild welsh

A few of us watched Seperado! at the weekend in the IFI - it's a movie made by Gruff from the Super Furry Animals. It documents his road trip around Argentina as he plays some shows and goes in search of a long lost Welsh cousin. Turns out a load of Welsh people emigrated there in the 1880s and there are whole towns with Welsh names and people speaking Welsh, which is kinda bizarre. It's a pleasure to watch as he drives about in amazing scenery, puts on shows to rooms of polite bemused locals while donning his power ranger helmet and generally acts as amazingly weird as usual. The soundtrack is full a bunch of his solo stuff too. Swoon.

If you are in any way of fan of SFA or Gruff (how can you not be?) I'd highly recommend checking this out.



http://www.separado.co.uk/
http://www.gruffrhys.com/

A plethora of Three Amigos clips

"In a way, all of us have an El Guapo to face someday - for some, shyness might be their El Guapo. For others, a lack of education might be their El Guapo. For us, El Guapo is a big dangerous guy who wants to kill us. But as sure as my name is Lucky Day, the people of Santa Poco can conquer their own personal El Guapo, who also happens to be the actual El Guapo!"












Blue Shadows on the Trail mp3 (yousendit)

More Three Amigos quotes here

I'm on a big Steve Martin buzz at the moment so expect more KT-80 cliporamas coming soon.

I get older...

Woody Wooderson = dreamboat central. If you haven't seen Dazed and Confused get thee to a moving picture rental emporium tout suite!(that's french for pronto)

I Must Break You... Rocky IV Workout Mix

When I was younger I never bothered getting a CD walkman or a mini disc player - they just didn't make any sense to me. I had a vision of what a music player should be like and I knew somewhere in my heart of hearts that someone else in the world would have the determination to invent it if I could...just... hang on. Et voila - here I am, covered in touchscreen mp3 players.

I love that feeling when you realise FINALLY someone has invented what you were looking for. I got that feeling the other day when perusing deadly blog Genevan Heathen (a great mix of 80s movies, fun and hip hop) and saw one of their deejays Matt Foley has made a 20 minute work out mix inspired by RockyIV - replete with the classic tunes and inspiring quotes from the movies. It's a beautiful thing, just like the movie.


http://genevanheathen.blogspot.com/

Chris Morris' terrorist comedy: Four Lions

Chris Morris (Brass Eye, Nathan Barley) has written and directed his first film - a satirical account of 4 hapless young British muslims attempting to become jihadis:



It's getting mixed reviews but I love Chris Morris more than is probably healthy and the movie was shortlisted for the Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Narrative Award, whatever that is. So I can't wait to check it out. You should come, dollsnatch, it's going to be totally fucking Mexico.

Tron. And on... and on...

Tron was on in the IFI as part of the current Jeff Bridges season - I hadn't seen it before - to my eternal shame - it is basically my ideal film. Jeff Bridges (young, dreamy) plays Flynn - a computer programming genius who got shanghaied by The Man (who stole all his rad computer game ideas) and wants to hack into The System to find the evidence. Unfortunately The System has other ideas and zaps Flynn into a computer gaming world where anthropomorphised computer programmes are pitted against each other gladiator stylee and Flynn and his friend Tron have to save the day. It is completely ridiculous and the graphics are amazing - particularly considering it was made in 1982. Definitely worth a look - especially as they are making a sequel called Tron Legacy due out in December and you want to be able to follow the plot, right?

Check out the trailer in all its 80s glory:


P.S The IFI is also playing The Big Lebowski at 2pm on Sunday 28th February. The Dude abides.

Groundhog Day - the movie not the day

I don't actually care that it's Groundhog Day I just want to play clips from the movie as it is one of the best things ever.

This is the needle-nose Ned Ryerson scene:






Rita: You speak french?
Phil: ... Oui.

Zoltar versus Zandar

Alas, Zoltar versus Zandar is not an ultra hip new electro duo (although it should be) it's just me comparing a really cool wizard with a really awful one. Zoltar is the one from the movie Big and is pretty much where it's at in terms of wish granting wizardry. Creepy, dark, knows his stuff, gets the job done, works even when not plugged in, disappears right after. He's like a fortune telling carnival assassin. I couldn't find the clip from the movie but a guy called Roger Hess from Minneapolis has created an amazing replica from scratch - you can check it out here:



According to Hess, the one in Big was just a prop so he set about building a working replica in his basement - you can see the movie one briefly at the beginning of the trailer:



What a film. Now. As for Zandar - check out this joker:



An old Captain Birdseye lookalike masquerading as a glorified magic 8 ball in a snow globe getting young girls to run their hands over him to gain meager and extremely vague tidbits of information with which to stroke their fragile teen egos? Yuck. Also, he had to get cards printed with "The Wizard Could Be Wrong" on them. I've a question for you Zandar - How is Zoltar so much better than you?

Climaxxx xxxmas countdown no.4: Silent Night, Deadly Night

Whoever said Christmas is all hugs and twinkly lights and mince pies? Certainly not ol' Gramps from one of the opening scenes of Silent Night Deadly Night:



Poor Billy ends up on a Christmas themed 80s teen slasher rampage:



It's a shame really. He was quite the catch otherwise:

16 days left (to make sure you're not on the NAUGHTY/PUNISH list!)

Homage to Teen Wolf

Here is a ridiculous trailer for Teen Wolf - check out the comedy robot voice they give him in the beer keg scene -



Here's the actual scene - he sounds more like the rabbit from Donnie Darko which is great. You gotta love those 80s trailers though.



I don't remember watching this cartoon but the opening sequence is pretty cool:
( and catchy)



And you can get your 3 teen wolf moon t-shirt here.

Dan Deacon meets The Life Aquatic

This is a great video for Dan Deacon's song Paddling Ghost directed by Natalie van den Dungen. featuring a little pirate ghost and a slightly creepy but strangely endearing Dan Deacon puppet in a Steve Zissou role.

and speaking of Steve Zissou (any excuse) :




The tune Steve is dancing to is called Ping Island - it's by Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo. He composes for movies and video games among other things such as painting and even hosting a drawing segment for kids on the best kids' show ever: Yo! Gabba Gabba.

Mark Mothersbaugh - Ping Island ( YSI )

Horrorthon 2009

My favourite time of year is coming up - Hallowe'en and the annual Horrorthon in the IFI - this October bank holiday weekend - 22nd - 26th.

I am a big fan of 80s teen slasher flicks with ridiculous themes - such as 'April Fool's Day' so I can't wait to see ' Silent Night - Deadly Night' - about a deranged teen in a Santa suit who goes on a killing spree...



They are also showing Gremlins which is pretty damn Christmassy too - but I'm not complaining. I just hope it means that for the surprise movie they will show 'New Year's Evil ' and not SAW VI. (Yuck)

There are tonnes of movies on including Romero's Day of the Dead - BEST ZOMBIE MOVIE EVER - social commentary and amazing zombieness - and Joe Pilato - the actor who plays the psycho soldier guy - will be there at the screening.


These are just a couple of the movies that I am into but you can check out the whole list here:
IFI Horrorthon 2009 screenings

John Hughes R.I.P

John Hughes directed/wrote/produced some of the best movies of the 80s and 90s:



R.I.P.

John Hughes at www.imdb.com

Zombie News

Zombie Nazis on Ice! Why didn't I think of that?