Derzkiedni: Russians Running Wild!

Merry Christmas ya filthy animals. If you have been continually visiting this page looking for new posts, I applaud you. Chris has posted some nice thoughts about Rocky Balboa, which I should see by the end of this week.

I came across a movie trailer for a russian film, Derzkiedni. Even though "parkour" has been around for several years now, it is becoming all the rage on the movie screens. "Banlieu 13" aka "District B13" did it a couple years ago with the inventor of parkour David Belle, and the opening action scene of "Casino Royale" really popularized it because I know most Americans were wowed by that chase scene and kept telling me "i have never seen anything like that".

Now, the Ruskies are on board. While this trailer is totally in Russian, it does pose some important questions to me. What is up with that fat kid? What is up with the love interest's face? Do all Russians look that puny? What happened to the Ivan Drago-like race of super white men Russia is supposed to be full of? What happened to the mohawked spinning piledriving bear wrasslin giants? Come on Russia...you need to bring it like you brought it during the Cold War!

The movie itself looks pretty pedestrian, but it does seem to have some impressive stunt work.

Link to the movie home page

better link to the Rapidshare direct download site

Barely a Review: Rocky Balboa

30 years after the original took the nation by storm, Sylvester Stallone is back on the big screen in the iconic role of Rocky Balboa. The fact that Stallone was able to make this movie was a huge hurdle to clear. The fact that it's an honest to God good movie is an even greater feet of strength.

ROCKY BALBOA is a throwback to the original. The over-the-top theatrics of ROCKY III and IV (which I love) are nowhere to be seen as Stallone plays the character with gentle touches that make him seem more human than ever before. Stallone is smart enough to realize that the story of a near 60-year old man fighting a champion half his age is absurd, but if you can make the character grounded and likeable then the audience will go along for the ride.

This film washes out the bad taste left in the free world's mouth after ROCKY V. The series has come full circle. It started as an underdog story and it ends in the same fashion. It's not a perfect film but its flaws seem small compared to the joy in watching the series find solid footing before it rides off into the cinematic sunset.

Daybroken

Well ABC has decided to take a nice steaming Christmas dump on those (few) who were enjoying the hell out of their series "Daybreak." The show which starred Taye Diggs as a cop framed for murder and forced to relive the same day until he could clear his name has been pulled from the network's schedule.

The ratings have been low for the show but when a network starts a series like "Daybreak," which they touted would run from start of the story to finish, and then kills it midway through they are really fucking themselves in the long run. Why should I start watching any "serialized" show that runs on ABC from here on out?

Word is that episodes of "Daybreak" will show up on ABC's website but that doesn't cut it. I'll sit through clips of stuff online but it's not the way I like to engage myself with hour long television shows. To watch something online for more than 10 minutes makes no sense if it won't end with multiple money shots. Hopefully the show will find a home on DVD.

You may have noticed the picture with this entry featuring the cast of "According to Jim." That's because this Wednesday at 9PM, "Daybreak's" former time slot, you can catch repeats of Jim Belushi's fascinating examination of the modern family. Joy to the world indeed.

Sleeper Cell Awakes

Last year at this time Showtime premiered their mini-series "Sleeper Cell" to little fanfare. Since that time the show remains one of the best kept secrets on television but the critical praise it garnered was enough for a new batch of episodes beginning tonight at 9 under the banner "Sleeper Cell: American Terror."

To say the show is simply about terrorism doesn't explain the half of it. "Sleeper Cell" is perhaps the most interesting depiction of not only those in charge of stopping terrorism, but the actual terrorists themselves. One of its great gifts is the way it lulls you into a comfort level to the point where you actually like the members of the terror cell, then they'll do something that'll turn your stomach and remind you how far they'll go for their cause.

"Sleeper Cell: American Terror" will run a new episode each night between tonight, December 10th thru December 17th. Viewers with access to Showtime On-Demand have the ability to watch all the episodes starting this evening. Though I say that's cheating.

Olyphant Targeted for Hitman

Timothy Olyphant is getting quite the reputation for picking up roles vacated by other actors. He landed the part as the main villain in LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD when Jeffrey Wright dropped out and now he has been cast as the lead in a proposed HITMAN film based on the popular (Are they? I'm not really up on what games are popular anymore, "Frogger" sure was sweet) series of video games.

For a while the role of the kill-happy Agent 47 had Vin Diesel's name on it. Diesel's loss is his A MAN APART co-star Olyphant's gain who might be able to use this chance to jump into leading man status. Not sure why Diesel isn't attached to the project, perhaps he's more attached to being irrelevant.

Low blow, I know.

MyTube: Speechless

Well, I know I have called many of my previous YouTube posts "the best one ever". I probably overuse that title, and here we go again.

If I know our audience, and I think I do, I think you are going to fall in love with "Terminator vs. Robocop". No more explanation is needed. All we need to do now is sit in thanks of the genius behind this and his adept editing skills. Look for uses of footage from several other action classics! Part 1 and Part 2 follow...with a Part 3 IN THE WORKS!!!

(My only real issue lies with the winner of both struggles. I think we all know who would really win...)

Ricky, I mean Rick Schroder joins 24.

As the new year approaches, so too does the new day of "24." The show has assembled a great group of guest stars for the upcoming 6th season and apparently there are still more actors needed to either help save the world or blow it up.

The newest addition to the cast is Rick Schroder. He'll be playing CTU operative Mike Doyle, described as Jack Bauer's "go-to man in the field" which I think translates to "will die horribly." Schroder joins a roster for the new season that already includes Peter MacNicol, James Cromwell, Kal Penn, and Powers Boothe as the Vice President (if only!).

The 5th season of "24" arrives on DVD tomorrow. As much as I like the show I stopped buying the seasons after the first 2. The DVD set contains a short prequel for the new season which can already be seen on Youtube here.

Stallone: Revealed!

I’m not a big fan of Aint It Cool News. I don’t like the site’s design, the talkbacks make me weep for humanity, and those animated scenes at the top showing Harry Knowles in famous movie moments make him look far better than the slob he actually is. But I do give credit where credit is due and they have started running a feature that has been a lot of fun to read.

Apparently Sylvester Stallone contacted Knowles and wanted questions from his readership. So starting last Friday Stallone has been answering 10 questions a day about everything from the upcoming ROCKY BALBOA to what was the proper way to use the 3 seashells from DEMOLITION MAN. Supposedly there will be 200 questions answered and so far Stallone has been going into good detail with his responses.

You can check out the first 10 questions here. There has been a new batch of 10 added each day and if they stay on schedule there will be enough new ones to keep us occupied until ROCKY BALBOA is released on December 20th.