Great idea. I’m curious to see how this works. I have signed up:

When major films get released, film studios make millions of dollars. Why? Because they raise the money, so they reap the rewards.

But what if you took studios out of the equation? What if you replaced them with the crowd? What if crowdfunded filmmaking could reward the crowds instead of making studio moguls richer?

This is the Biracy Project.

Crowd Funded Film Finance | The Biracy Project.

The Bronson Maneuver – An Octocore Short from Mike McCain on Vimeo.

Nice!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjAoBKagWQA[/youtube]
A haunting tune sung by Björk with an amazing video by director Chris Cunningham. Whatever happened to him? He’s dropped off the face of the Earth. Perhaps Rubber Johnny was too much for some folks.

Learn more about Cunningham at WarpFilms.com.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWSymjhWIeQ[/youtube]

Filmed in 1976 but more relevant today.

Jason Voorhees is back and coming to get you in this trailer for Friday the 13th. It appears that the filmmakers of this remake forgot the fact that Jason is undead and showing him as fast moving isn’t as scary. His slow, methodical and relentless pace is a huge part of what made Jason so creepy. He just kept on coming. I do realize that Jason ran in a couple of the older films, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

Check it out after the jump:

[myspace]http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=45036756[/myspace]

Also, what’s ith the hockey mask already? That didn’t show up until III.

All that said, the movie looks like fun. I’ll be checking it out for sure.

Thanks to Patrick’s diligence at pestering film distributors we are beginning to get DVD copies of movies to review on the MovieSet blog. Today we got the brand new film from Dimension Extreme by iconic Italian film director Dario Argento, whom I’ve met, called Mother of Tears starring the director’s daughter Asia Argento.

Here’s the DVD’s cover:

Mother of Tears is the third in a trilogy of supernatural horror films by Argento. The first two, Suspira and Inferno, were cult classics.

Here’s the trailer:

[flv]http://mikebrowne.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/mother-of-tears-theatrical-trailer.flv[/flv]

Judging by the high production value evidenced in the trailer alone I’m thinking this may be another great film. I’m looking forward to viewing the whole thing.

Watch our blog for my review witha  surprise. Here’s a gigantic hint: We got two copies of the DVD and one is not going to be opened by us in the office. Contest details to follow on movieset.com/blog.

Apparently Pulse 2 is also on the way. Watch for a review of that after it arrives.

More and more excellent graphic novels, like Watchmen and Sin City, are being made into features films. I’m kind of excited about Fear(s) of the Dark as the film tries to stay true to the artwork of the original authors.

We were talking about shitty martial arts movies at lunch yesterday. I think I came up with the worst one – Gymkata:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Mkl9rtttog[/youtube]

When karate and gymnastics are fused you get this gigantic piece of drek! I saw Gymkata in the 80′s when I was really into martial arts and I thought it sucked then. It looks like it sucks even more now, but in a pleasurable way.

Oh wait, that sounded gay. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

The trailer begs some questons. Why are there paralell bars in an alley way? What’s with the pommel horse in the town square? Did anyone else get the feeling that Kurt Thomas was thinking, “It’s a man. It’s a man. It’s a man.” during the kissing scene?

Time to watch Gymkata again.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hM8RIYAZik[/youtube]

You know your budget is big when you have an entire highway in Long Beach outside of L.A. blocked off and that many cars are waiting for you to yell, “Action!”.

Here’s another angle with a guy who’s so clearly impressed he can only think to curse.

NSFW language ahead:

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/1617192[/vimeo]

More at the MovieSet blog.

So cool that Canada’s NFB is putting some of their film catalog online and free while others are just previews. A lot of these films I remember seeing on CBC as a child. For example, here’s the full version of ‘The Log Driver’: