video Tagged Articles at Cinematical

As much as I love James Franco (for reasons both personal and professional) I sometimes worry he's going to wear out his welcome with these shorts that keep popping up wherever you look. So far, we've had acting lessons, re-enactments of The Hills, commencement speeches, and even abstract art ... and now we've got Gucci. Over at Funny or Die, they have the latest comedy short which is presented as outtakes from the actor's turn as a spokesmodel for Gucci, and even though you know what to expect from the moment you hit play, that doesn't mean that it won't make you laugh (in my case there was even a little snorting involved).

But maybe the genius of Franco is that you can never quite guess what he's going to do next (I mean, I don't think anyone saw the General Hospital stint coming). He's still a movie star after all, though, and his upcoming roles in the Steve Carell and Tina Fey comedy Date Night, along with his portrayal of Beat poet Allan Ginsberg in Howl, guarantees that his comedic and dramatic skills won't be going to waste any time soon. But as this short proves, maybe his most memorable attribute will always be that he's never afraid to make a complete ass of himself -- a lovable quality if there ever was one.

After the jump: what Gucci didn't want you to see and another Franco classic....

If ever there was a director who truly loved rock and roll it's Cameron Crowe. The man started his illustrious career as a rock journalist and as a film maker, and he also made one of the greatest rock movies of all time, Almost Famous. Grunge legends Pearl Jam and Crowe go way back; the band appeared in his film Singles, and Crowe helped put together Pearl Jam's Single Video Theory back in 2000. Now, Crowe has made music videos in the past, but this has to be the perfect combination of band and director because nobody respects rock and roll more than Crowe ... and nobody takes it more seriously than Pearl Jam.

Back in May, the band showed up at Seattle's Showbox for a surprise concert with Crowe behind the camera shooting a commercial for a deal between the band and the discount retailer, Target -- and yes, you just read that right. I guess everyone involved was happy enough with the footage -- so happy that it became the basis for the music video for their new song, "The Fixer", included on their upcoming album Backspacer, which will debut via iTunes and Target on September 20.

Pearl Jam had infamously refused to make music videos back in 1992, and other than an animated creation for Do the Evolution (courtesy of Todd McFarlane) they have stuck to their word. I have to admit, as much as I admired their principles, I kind of missed seeing the band in action. Maybe I've been out of the Pearl Jam loop for a while, but dang if this isn't a happening little track and a pretty cool looking video -- and the coffee-drinking, flannel wearing gal who still lives somewhere inside me couldn't be happier.

After the jump: Pearl Jam's The Fixer...

It's not often that two of my favorite things come together, but Tom Cruise impersonator extraordinaire/film actor Miles Fisher has managed to do just that by combining the Talking Heads and American Psycho. Over at his personal website he's launched a musical tribute to Psycho in a video for This Must Be the Place (possibly one of the best Talking Heads songs ever written, but I digress) -- and what do you know -- I don't hate it. The song is the first release off his self-titled EP, which you can download for free if you're into that kind of thing.

All your favorite moments from Psycho get a nod, including Bateman's infamous Huey Lewis and The News speech, the business cards and facials, and we even get the creepiest three-ways ever to go on film. The video stars Fisher doing a pretty decent Bale/Bateman alongside Lydia Hearst (a model/socialite who is also heir to William Randolph Hearst) filling in as the 'hooker' in the story (I'm sure Great Grandpa would be thrilled).

Of course, last fall it was announced that Psycho was in line for a Broadway re-imagining that would turn Ellis' yuppie mass murderer into a song-and-dance man. So I have to wonder if Fisher thought he'd get in on the ground floor and get to work on his 'audition tape' a little earlier than the rest? Especially since the last time he did a good celebrity impersonation we even forgave him for taking a role in Superhero Movie.

After the jump: This Must Be the Place, and remember, this is an American Psycho tribute, so things get a little NSFW...

This might be one of the strangest videos you'll ever see on Cinematical. Over my several short years of movie coverage, I've witnessed some strange things: I actually saw Crispin Glover's "What in the hell is this" film experience What Is It?, watched Kevin Smith double over in pain from a leg cramp during an interview, and kicked Jim Carrey in the foot.

However, nothing beats Michel Gondry free-form rapping to the sounds of his son Paul beatboxing. Oh, and he's rapping about the Green Hornet's car, Black Beauty, which Sony had just unveiled after Preview Night at Comic-Con. Truly bizarre. Plus he gives us a short preview of the movie's opening scene ... and maybe the theme song?

Head after the jump to watch the video, and you'll probably understand a little bit better why this guy was so qualified to direct Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

The last time that MTV let Russell Brand near a microphone, things got a little ugly between the British comedian and teen fans of Jordan Sparks and The Jonas Brothers. But I guess all is forgiven, because MTV has announced that Brand will be back hosting the 2009 MTV Video Awards.

During last year's telecast Brand cracked wise about The Jonas Brothers' display of Purity Rings and caused a bit of ruckus over his comments. But, if you are wondering if we are going to see a more 'traditional' Brand on this year's telecast, I wouldn't worry, Brand told MTV, "This year will be a controversy-free festival of love and discrete orgasms". I guess even when he's trying to play nice, the man is strange with a capital 'S', and I can only assume that MTV is praying that Brand's unpredictability when it comes to speaking his mind will add up to some big ratings for the show.

Considering that just a little over a year ago, most of us had never heard of the strangely funny comedian, you have to admire his ability to get his name out there. Since his breakthrough role in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Brand has been piling on the projects. including remakes of Arthur and Drop Dead Fred. First up will be his reprisal of the great Aldous Snow in the Sarah Marshall follow-up, Get Him to The Greek, which will hit theaters in spring 2010, but an MTV gig will get him just that little extra bit of publicity.

After the jump; Brand's take on last years VMAs...

Guillermo del Toro's prodigious creative output makes me hang my head in shame. He's not content to just direct, write, and produce internationally acclaimed movies; he's not satisfied torturing Ron Perlman and Doug Jones with freakish makeup or giving grown adults the sobbing heebie-jeebies. No, while you've been sitting on your couch, drinking beer and playing Guitar Hero, he's splicing and dicing The Hobbit and getting ready for the first part of his vampire trilogy to hit bookshelves. Yes, bookshelves.

Del Toro and Chuck Hogan have written The Strain Trilogy, the first volume of which will be available June 2nd. William Morrow has put up a really neat video interview with del Toro about his interest in "the otherness, the scary void of an animated corpse that lusts after your blood." (He also takes a nice dig at the sexy sparkly vamps of Twilight.) Expect gory deets on "how each of the feedings of these vampires is acutely detailed and painful to read, so you will experience this sense of dread and horror..." His vamps will be "as menacing, and as real, and as absolutely disgusting and alien as possible."

"I hope you enjoy the book!" he signs off cheerily.

Del Toro is such a character that I love reading or seeing any interviews with him. I really have to commend William Morrow on doing a video interview with him to promote the book; it's a cheap, easy way to drum up buzz and it speaks really well to the target audience of The Strain. Horror fans are tuned in to the Internet as much as sci-fi or comic book fans are, and although his pre-existing fan base would seek out The Strain anyway, other publishers should follow WM's lead for innovative online marketing. There are plenty of other great books out there that are falling between the cracks.

So we all know that Spike Jonze is famous for a few things; some of us love his music videos (and with over 50 under his belt, you can't deny the man has made some of the most interesting videos over the last 17 years), some of us love his films, and there are some of us that just know him as that guy who married (and then divorced) Sofia Coppola. But if you've been a follower of his career then you know that one of his great loves is skateboarding. In the new video for UNKLE's song, Heaven, the director reedited footage from his 2007 skateboarding film, * Fully Flared -- and the result is a little hypnotic (not to mention strange), but more importantly it's pretty damn awesome.

But as much as I love Jonze's work on the small screen, I can't wait for the man to make it back into theaters. Jonze's last traditional feature was the Orchid Thief-inspired Adaptation, and the man has been steadily working over the years on everything from Jackass to concept art. But in spite of a rocky beginning, finally Jonze's adaptation of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are is inching closer to its October release date -- not to mention earning more respect after we finally got a good look at those 'Wild Things' the other day, and, as an added bonus, the first trailer will arrive in front of Monsters vs. Aliens on March 27th. But I guess until then we're going to have to content ourselves with Jonze's genius in a much smaller dose.

*Correction: Fully Flared was a group effort from Ty Evans, Jonze and Cory Weincheque.

What do you do when you need a pretty actress with limited facial expressions? Well, if Nicole Kidman is busy, I guess you call Keira Knightley (only kidding ... well, maybe not completely kidding). Believe me when I tell you I have nothing personal against the girl, but darn it if I can detect a facial movement in most of her performances other than the example provided to the right. But Knightley's 'reserved' approach to emotion might come in handy now that Variety has announced that the perpetually pouty Ms. Knightley will star as a clone alongside Carey Mulligan in Never Let Me Go, a romantic sci-fi thriller based on the acclaimed novel by Kazuo Ishiguro.

The story centers on three friends who grow up together in a posh boarding school; unfortunately for them, however, this charmed life is a short one and the three learn the disturbing truth that they have been bred for organ donation. Don't worry if this sounds an awful lot like the 2005 stinker, The Island, because unlike Bay's exploration of 'happy organs' and Xbox competitions, Ishiguro's story is much more concerned with existentialism and the meaning of humanity (not exactly Bay country).

Mark Romanek is on board to direct the adaptation, and Alex Garland (28 Days Later) is already at work on a script. Romanek made his name making music videos (even though he didn't make the cut for Monika's list) but has directed only one other feature film: the slightly underwhelming One Hour Photo. But the pressure is on, because unlike The Island, if this flick is a flop we won't be able to blame Michael Bay.

Look, I love these "Hey, I'm on the set and everything is going super awesome" reports from actors, directors and what have you, but I'm not sure what we're supposed to do with this latest one from Zack Snyder on the set of Watchmen. When I first spotted the video, on a site that promoted it as "Zack Snyder Offers a Watchmen Update!!!," I thought -- cool -- he's going to be giving us something we haven't seen before. Why else would they use three exclamation points? So then I clicked over to the video, it started playing and Snyder -- all unshaven and disheveled, as if he'd been up for 48 hours straight -- is standing in front of a door. "Oooh, is he going to open the door and introduce someone in costume?" No. He's not.

Here's what I took away from the video, which you can feel free to check out for yourself: Snyder is stoked to be directing the film, he's "excited," things are "amazing," it's been super "fun," lots of "fun," the cast have been "really cool," and he's promised more stuff in the future. Oooh, Zack, will you be standing in front of a window next time? I know, I'm being a bit of a loser about it, but I just really wish these videos would do more to get me excited about the film. Give us something! The guy looks tired as all hell, he just wrapped the first week of filming -- help him out a bit, give him a prop. All that being said, I am pretty excited about the film as I truly believe it will be unlike any of the superhero-themed flicks we've seen over the past few years. I mean, heck, it's set in a gritty and alternate 1985 -- hopefully that means Snyder will throw a little Whitesnake on the soundtrack. Little Def Leppard, maybe. See, that's what this video needed -- a Pour Some Sugar on Me intro, followed by Snyder and Patrick Wilson (who plays the Nite Owl) rocking out on set. Hell yeah! Oh well, maybe next time. Watchmen is due out in theaters on March 6, 2009.

For the record, I'm not a huge fan of the recent crop of "horror" films such as House of a Thousand Corpses, Hostel or Captivity. I prefer my horror with more brains and a little less seemingly senseless over-the-top gore. As Alfred Hitchcock once said: "There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it." I tend to agree with him. After all, he did make a few pretty good films. That said, I did actually like the first Saw film and found it to be the most clever and intelligent of the franchise so far.

Of course, my opinion didn't stop the Saw franchise from becoming hugely successful, and it shouldn't have. Many people obviously love this kind of film and that's great for them to feel that way. To each his (or her) own. Naturally, as the films were so successful, we were treated to a Saw II, III and the soon-to-be-released Saw IV. Which brings us to today and the fact that, via IESB, you are now able to watch the supposed first five minutes of the new Saw IV right now online.

After watching the footage, however, I don't know for sure if it is, in fact, the first five minutes of the film. What I can tell you for sure is that this is the same footage shown during the Comic-Con presentation given by Lionsgate. At the time, it wasn't identified as the first minutes of the film, but it's definitely the same footage. Given the quality of the video, I would bet that it was probably recorded during the Comic-Con panel even though that is a strict no-no and it was repeatedly announced that anyone caught video taping during the panels would be ejected. I guess maybe someone was able to make a recording after all. Then again, judging by the amount of time it's been up on IESB, perhaps it was "leaked" on purpose.