Nicholas Cage
is known in Hollywood for being a little eccentric
and I guess the Japanese company that is footing bill for these commercials was looking for just that quality. When you get offered a chance at doing something like this, you look at the check and then you look at your pride - and then tally up which is greater. It shouldn't really worry him, no one will see it outside Japan - oh, except the millions of people who visit YouTube.
This is one epic car chase from the 1998 film, Ronin , directed by John Frankenheimer. The cast includes heavy hitters like Robert DeNiro and French star Jean Reno and the lovely Natasha McElhorne. Ronin is now well known for its car chases and this is arguably the best one. It wasn't until the Bourne films
starring Matt Damon that car chases of similar skill were filmed, a few years later.
This week Pan's Labyrinth
is released on DVD in the US. Here's the trailer for this violent fantasy tale by Guillermo del Toro. When it was originally released theatrically, it garnered amazingly positive reviews and stood out as a very original film amongst a slew of action sequels and rehashes. If you haven't seen it yet then treat yourself, but be warned that it does have a dark edge and may not be for the squeemish.
Make sure you have the sound up for this one or it won't make sense. This is a simple concept that I've seen before with different James Earl Jones dialog. From what I can gather, this seems to use dialog from Field of Dreams
almost exclusively. It's done well and shows that Star Wars parodies will never die, if you strike them down they will only become more powerful then you could imagine.
Robot Chicken
is so juvenile but that's why it's funny. You either like the humor or it's the stupidest thing you've ever seen. I tend to really like what they do. It usually involves some retro concept which totally appeals to me as someone in their early thirties. Here's George Bush discovering some decidedly dark uses for the Jedi Mind trick.
Sandi Thom is an Internet success story. Supposedly she drew her greatest selection of fans from a series of webcasts that whe did from the basement for her flat. It's interesting to note that the lyrics themselselves have caused some contoversy because of their vague and very subjective statements. Regardless of all that, Thom has found a lot of success in the UK and elsewhere with 'I wish I were a punk rocker'.
Line Rider
is a growing Internet pasttime that just seems to keep going and going. This particular course, Make Believe,
has lots of Manga influences and seems to be one of new breed of LineRider courses where the artwork has become more sophisticated.
At the end of the day it just a fun diversion but there are a lot of players out there putting a lot of time into these new courses.
The first Old Spice commercial that I saw with Bruce Campbell was pretty hilarious but this one is better. There's just something so soothing about the way that he plays Duran Duran's 'Hungry Like A Wolf' on the piano that totally sells this commercial to me. I look forward to whatever other commercials Bruce and Old Spice can come up with.
This is a short scene meant to give you a preview of the new Bionic Woman series.
This updated concept is being produced by the same team that created the new and very popular Battlestar Galactica series
that is rating so well right now.
They are obviously going for a darker edge to the show and I must say that it looks pretty intriguing so far.
Update: Here's a second compilation clip. It shows 3 short scenes from one upcoming episode.
