In the future Earth is a large stone mason's yard.
The person responsible for this excellent low budget short film, which depicts a gladiatorial arena in which combatants have three minutes to off each other, is video director Ross Ching and you can view more of his work on his Vimeo page. The one thing which sets this short apart from the rest are the light sabre special effects with shadows and reflections included. Take a look for yourself…that is unless the force is weak within you.
Joined a gym this January have we? New year’s resolution is to get fit and loose weight is it? Well here’s a little motivational video featuring Hollywood actor and all round British nut case Tom Hardy working out in a gym using just his own body weight. Hardy used these exercises, under the supervision and guidance of personal trainer Patrick Monroe, to gain impressive bulk for his role as infamous prisoner Charles Bronson in the movie Bronson. Do try these at home…if you can be arsed.
Yep it’s pretty much official January 2011 sucks the big one. First Pete Postlethwaite, then Gerry Rafferty followed by boxer Gary Mason and now film director Peter Yates. Ok, Yates may have been aged 82 but by today’s standards that’s still quite young…at least that’s what we’re maintaining.
Yates was of course responsible for one of the greatest detective movies/car chases in cinematic history with Bullitt, a film which pretty much introduced the world to Steve ‘the cooler king‘ McQueen. He also directed the underrated sci-fi fantasy Krull, the Nick Nolte thriller The Deep, which was a big box office success on account of it’s opening shot featuring actress Jacqueline Bisset underwater in a white see-through t-shirt, and the gritty cult 70s crime noir flick The Friends Of Eddie Coyle, which starred Robert Mitchum, which if you haven’t seen, (probably because it’s currently unavailable in the UK), you should make a point of seeking out. In honour of Peter Yates here’s that infamous car chase in it’s entirity along with trailers for his aforementioned other films.
Don’t waste your money and spend those two hours doing something more important and infinitely more exciting than sitting on your arse with silly glasses on in the dark watching this boring, instantly forgettable, poorly scripted, boring, badly acted, confusing technological mess of a $150 million movie. You may disagree of course…did we mention that this film was also boring?
Hollywood star Wesley Snipes, best known for appearing in films which are usually a crock of shitequite popular with the movie going public is to start a three year prison sentence on December 9. The actor has been free on bail since he was convicted of tax evasion back in 2008 and has been trying all this time to overturn the charge, but his appeal has been ignored. Apparently Snipes didn’t pay taxes on the $38 million dollars he was reported to have earned.
U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges, who ordered Snipes to start serving his sentence on Dec 9 wrote: “The Defendant Snipes had a fair trial … The time has come for the judgment to be enforced” At which point Snipes jumped up onto his desk, threw open his leather overcoat, produced a shiny samurai sword and growled: “You can put a cat in an oven. But that don’t make it a biscuit” before beheading the Florida judge.
We have fond memories of watching Leslie Nielsen in the cinema reducing us to tears of laughter with his loaded one liners and extraordinary range of physical comedy for a man of his age. Trying to get a breath in between the jokes during the first Naked Gun film is an experience we now use to gauge the actual funniness of present day comedy movies…unfortunately very few have matched that standard. He was very much a large part of our movie going lives as we were growing up and his character Lt Frank Drebben would always make us laugh no matter how cheesy or corny the wordplay joke was. Rather than witter on about how fantastic we thought the man was here are a few cherry picked examples of his greatness. RIP Leslie Nielsen.
Here’s a little video we made based upon a mobile text conversation between two of the crew here at HMS Friday. It’s concerning the untimely death of Lost Boys actor Corey Haim…and Buck Rogers.
Movie giants Warner Bros are mulling over an idea which could see a full length feature film, (possibly all CGI), centred around the infamous Looney Tunes Acme Corporation, a company responsible for supplying Wile E. Coyote with all the crazy gadgets he has ever used in his, somewhat calamitous, attempts to snare The Roadrunner. Other outrageous products from Acme, (which stands for A Company which Makes Everything), have popped up in various other cartoons but our favourite here at HMS Friday is The ACME Batman Outfit: Guaranteed For The Life Of The User. If you want to know more about this story chart a course for Slashfilm.
Film director Michael Bay has encountered yet more real-life drama on the set of his latest and third installment of his beloved Transformer’s franchise. Following a tragic accident involving a female extra who was left brain damaged after a piece of flying metal from a stunt sequence hit her on the head on the set of Transformers: Dark Side Of The Moon, a stunt driver has now written off the Bumblebee car after colliding with a police SUV. The accident, which was caught on film, happened as a veteran police officer was racing through the film set to answer an emergency call in the city of Chicago where…Whoah! Wait a minute. You mean these robots aren’t real?
Sad day for all of the crew here at HMS Friday as Stephen J. Cannell a prolific televison writer and producer has passed away at the rather premature age of 69. A man responsible for creating such amazing TV which shaped, influenced and inspired many a Saturday afternoon, his list of impressive credits include: The Rockford Files, 21 Jump Street, Wiseguy, The Commish, The Greatest American Hero, Silk Stalkings, The A-Team, Hunter, Baretta, and the awesome Hardcastle & McCormick.
Apparently Mr Cannell was dyslexic and relied upon other writers known to him as his ‘mop and pail’ crew to tidy up his work before submission. He passed away at his home in Pasadena on Thursday due to complications from melanoma. If you want to know more chart a course for HERE.
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