Berlin Film Festival wants Iron Sky!

Yesterday it was announced that the independent sci-fi comedy 'Iron Sky' is finished and will be heading to Berlin as soon as February!

'Iron Sky', a film about Space Nazis on the moon, has been selected by the Berlin Film Festival. Director Timo Vuorensola broke the news in the latest trailer which shows us some new and positively insane footage.

The 2012 Oscar Nominations Are In!

It's that time of year again. The Academy Awards are coming up and they finally released their list of nominations. Martin Scorsese's 'Hugo' is in the lead with 11 nominations, followed by 'The Artist' with 10, most of which are in the bigger categories. I think it's safe to say the latter film will be this year's big winner.

Before I go I want to point out one oddity. 'The Adventures of Tintin', which recently won a Golden Globe for Best Animated Picture, has not been nominated by the Academy. This probably has something to do with the motion-capture technique which some say isn't a genuine form of animation.

On the bright side Steven Spielberg's long-term collaborator John Williams did get nominated for Best Original Score for both 'War Horse' and 'The Adventures of Tintin'. Talk about a lucky year!

See the full list of nominees after the jump!

Demonic new poster for 'We Need to Talk About Kevin'

The guys at Ain't It Cool News got to reveal the latest poster for 'We Need to Talk About Kevin'. I've already seen the film and its great. Fortunately, they also created a great poster to go along with it. The vintage look and the green reminds me of another horror classic, namely 'Rosemary's Baby'.

Next time I'll 'Drive'

'Drive' is one of those movies I missed. For some reason I didn't check it out when it was still running in the theaters. So seeing it on many critic's and film fan's best of lists this year made me curious, had I missed something big? Well, the opening did impress me. The rest of the movie? Not so much.

The film as directed by Nicolas Winding Refn tries to be something it is not. The plot, about a talented Hollywood stuntman who also has a job as a getaway driver, is strong. The first scene demonstrates this potential and is clearly the best in the film. The Driver (Ryan Gosling) has to keep two robbers out of the hands of the police. He employs various ingenious methods to outsmart his pursuers. The entire scene sets up our hero and keeps us on the edge of our seat. 

The film appears to be inspired by Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns with Gosling portraying a character like The Man With No Name or Harmonica. But somehow this doesn't work. Unlike Eastwood and Bronson Ryan Gosling has the charisma of two dead fish. His character doesn't come off as a righteous man with a past but more like a deranged sociopath. 

In fact many of the film's characters come off as strangely inhuman. They seem so detached that this film would be a perfect sequel to 'The Invasion of the Body Snatchers'. The best and most human performance in 'Drive' comes from Bryan Cranston. He is The Driver's employer; a somewhat miserable cripple with warm feelings for his surrogate son. 

Much has been made of the film's silences. Like the performances themselves these feel unnatural and forced. It's as if Refn told the actors to pause for at least five seconds after each line was spoken. Don't get me wrong, silences in films are perfectly fine but they should serve a purpose. The way they are used here is really quite pretentious. 

All in all, 'Drive' isn't a good film. It aims too high for its own good making it into an insincere and tedious movie. It's a shame, really, because underneath all the style there is a great flick. 'Drive' could have been a perfect exploitation film if it had just known what it wanted to be. Now, it's nothing more than a wasted opportunity.   

Would you donate to get Nazis on the moon?

No, this isn't some weird conspiracy theory, rather it's the premise of the movie 'Iron Sky'. The project originated from Finland where a group of amateur filmmakers set out to use the internet to get their movie financed. On their website Wreck a Movie the producers established an online community of film fans. People connected to this community could donate money or otherwise aid the filmmakers.

The film's concept is ludicrous. In the last days of the Second World War the Germans execute a secret mission. Their plan is to use their anti-gravity technology to colonize the moon. Amazingly, they succeed and while old Adolf is blowing his brains out in Berlin his sympathizers are bouncing around the moon. In the film we'll see what happens when the vengeful Space Nazis return.

I've been following this production ever since I saw this enticing teaser back in 2008. Due to the nature of the project it took a long time to get started. But judging from the trailer they released in 2011 things are going quite well for director Timo Vuorensola. This is the first time we've seen footage from the actual film and it looks like it won't take itself too seriously. Which is a good thing, after all 'Iron Sky' is about goddamn Space Nazis...

Spoiler! John Dies at the End

There are some crazy films out there. Just take a look at the trailer for 'John Dies at the End'. It's an adaptation of the equally insane novel by David Wong aka Jason Pargin. Don Coscarelli is directing, you probably don't know him but he's behind 'Bubba Ho-Tep' a horror film about an old Elvis Presley battling an Egyptian mummy.

Anyway, 'John Dies at the End' is a special brand of crazy. The whole story revolves around a drug called Soy Sauce which causes its users to drift in and out of other dimensions. Two losers called John and Dave have to stop the inhabitants of these strange worlds from invading ours.

Planes, planes and more planes in the Red Tails trailer

Before 'Saving Private Ryan' and 'The Thin Red Line' came along American World War II productions were pretty much all the same. They were patriotic action films about self-sacrifice and bravery. Movies like 'The Longest Day' and 'Battle of the Bulge' celebrated America's greatest generation.

But as audiences changed war films became more thoughtful and began to reflect on the emotional and psychological effects of conflict. By 2001 the idea of creating a jingoistic film about war became almost unthinkable.

So now George Lucas, known to many as the creator and eventual destroyer of 'Star Wars', gives us 'Red Tails'. The film, as directed by Anthony Hemingway, tells the story of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen; a crew of fighter pilots composed entirely out of African Americans.

There's some very corny stuff in this trailer but nothing I haven't seen before in those old fashioned war films. In addition the cast seems solid and the special-effects look extraordinary. 'Red Tails' seems like a film you need to see on the big screen.