The Investigator vs the Op

The inherent problem with Sherlock is that you can't really relate to him in all his intellect and prowess. 

But the Hammett detective is the every-man with an ugly mug and bad disposition to match. He is solitary but dedicated to his code with the Continental Op. He's smart but not by education - he's earned his intuition to duck after being hit in the head one too many times.

Red Harvest

www.amazon.com

When the last honest citizen of Poisonville was murdered, the Continental Op stayed on to punish the guilty--even if that meant taking on an entire town. Red Harvest is more than a superb crime novel: it is a classic exploration of corruption and violence in the American grain.

Sherlock: Season One [Blu-ray] 
Benedict Cumberbatch
$27.49 

Sherlock: Season Two [Blu-ray] 
Benedict Cumberbatch
$27.23  

Sherlock: Season Three (Blu-ray) 
Benedict Cumberbatch
$32.99 

Action and Dialog

Sometimes I have to separate the writing of action and dialog in order to find my flow. Action is all visual to me, as if I'm blocking a scene on set and replacing dialog with "blah, blah, blah" so that I'm not hung up on words. But when I write dialog it's ALL about the word choices. I'm constantly reevaluating which words work best for a given situation, or how many times I've used a word in a scene, or what words a specific character would use based on his/her background. So my drafts can sometimes be long paragraphs of action descriptions with very little dialog or long exchanges of dialog with little to no descriptions. I then go back and insert the missing component whether it's action or dialog. This method helps me identify the right tone and pace, and sometimes allows me to vomit words onto a page then sort things out later.

#fbpro

Separation of studio and critic

Critic Armond White mentions how many critics feel they are part of the movie industry when they are/should not - they are journalists. 

I should add that when I am critical of a film there is some notion that I am broadcasting a report to friends but that is secondary to my examination of what I personally like/dislike as both an audience member and a filmmaker. It is all in developing my own personal taste and style so that I can direct my own creative decisions with conviction. #blog

Lone Wolf

It's tough going from the kinetic excitement of production to the solitary quiet of writing. One can be a physical challenge: waking up early, chasing a schedule, creatively trouble shooting. The other can be a mental challenge: blocking out distractions, motivating yourself to sit and write, organizing hundreds of thoughts.  #blog

NINJA 2

NINJA 2 is ONLY GOD FORGIVES in an alt universe where the Thai police chief (same actor) is a p***y and the American is a Karate god. And just  like the 1st one this movie feels like it belongs in the 80's where the revenge plot is so simple (and attempts an equally simple plot twist), the drama is so over played, and the action goes on and on but feels the same throughout. Even as the character fights through Japan (which doesn't look much like Japan), to Thailand, to Myanmar the action all feels homogeneous and conventional (though some of the choreography looked cool). There's no Muay Thai, there's no Lethwei, there's not even much "Ninja" - everyone just seems to know Karate or some derivation of it. It was nice to recognize Kane Kosugi - I remember him as a boy in PRAY FOR DEATH. #sse #gnetx

Ninja II [Blu-ray]

www.amazon.com

Casey Bowman s life of domestic bliss has been shattered by a savage act of violence and must fight to avenge as well as survive. His target: a sinister drug lord flooding the streets with deadly meth cooked at his remote jungle factory

Cloud Writing

Ugh, 3rd day of sick kid, house cleaning, and general sluggishness. The actual script writing is taking a hit but I'm seeing the scenes play out in my head, in my dreams, and on my toilet. #gnetx

Sam K. Yano

Writer/Director/Cinematographer - Sam K. Yano has worked as a feature cinematographer for films like TAKAMINE, SALAD DAYS, and SAKE BOMB and wrote the feature film SAKI. He is currently writing and directing various projects in LA.

ARGO

I liked ARGO. I can see how people think it's overrated but I think it does well to contrast the absurd of Hollywood with the drama of Middle East tensions. And in the end it decidedly remains true to the drama and without falling into WAG THE DOG territory.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1024648/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Argo (2012)

www.imdb.com

Directed by Ben Affleck. With Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Alan Arkin. Acting under the cover of a Hollywood producer scouting a location for a science fiction film, a CIA agent launches a dangerous operation to rescue six Americans in Tehran during the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran in 1...

*sky *gnet-x *sse

Getting back into it

Talk about out of shape, I'm averaging about a page a day in script writing. Of course I'm also spending countless hours replaying scenes in my head and I tend to embellish on details which is just how I write.

NEW WORLD

Closing out 2013 with NEW WORLD - a top notch organized crime thriller. Imagine THE DEPARTED/INFERNAL AFFAIRS taking a completely different turn in events but with just as much drama & tension. This is the kind of film Hollywood has forgotten how to make, instead relying on bloated budgets and flashy CGI. Speaking of CG, the few composites that are in this film are not very good but luckily the plotting & performances take center stage. I did sense something aesthetically different about this film and realized that NEW WORLD was shot digitally (and with the Red One no less) whereas most Korean films that I admire were shot on 35mm film. In this case I think it worked well to inject a contemporary immediacy to the South Korean dominance of modern techniculture (and cinema, in my opinion).

Sin-se-gae (2013)

imdb.com

Directed by Hoon-jung Park. With Jung-Jae Lee, Min-sik Choi, Jeong-min Hwang, Seong-Woong Park. Story about a conflict between the police and the mob through the eyes of an undercover cop.

JDB

Theme Stated

ABCS OF DEATH

In the ABCS OF DEATH, "D is for Dogfight" is nicely shot and "L is for Libido" (by Timo Tjahjanto of V/H/S 2) is amusingly effed up. ALL the Japanese segments (F J & Z) are incomprehensibly bizarre and completely insolent in a funny way. "X is for XXL" and "Y is for Youngbuck" are mildly entertaining and most of the rest vary from bland to annoying to incompetent.

The ABCs of Death (2012)

imdb.com

Directed by Kaare Andrews, Angela Bettis, Hélène Cattet. With Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Iván González, Kyra Zagorsky, Lucy Clements. A 26-chapter anthology that showcases death in all its vicious wonder and brutal beauty.

FROZEN

Saw FROZEN a month ago with Minami and was pleasantly surprised it was a musical (it's about time Disney musicals made a return). The songs are great fun & memorable and so Minami got the soundtrack from Santa. The story & tone are very reminiscent of a light version of WICKED the Musical (on top of the presence of WICKED alum Idina Menzel). The film does feel rushed as it jumps through the childhood story and then races through the one day of reckoning, but it's for the better - Minami was captivated the whole time.

Frozen (2013)

imdb.com

Directed by Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee. With Kristen Bell, Josh Gad, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff. Fearless optimist Anna teams up with Kristoff in an epic journey, encountering Everest-like conditions, and a hilarious snowman named Olaf in a race to find Anna's sister Elsa, whose icy powers have trap...

THE TERROR LIVE

I also saw THE TERROR LIVE (Korean thriller) at SDAFF and admittedly fell asleep during parts of it (which I hate doing). That wasn't completely the film's fault because I was tired from a full day at the film festival. I did admire the film's concept of epic disaster contained in one location - most of the film takes place in a high rise radio station office where the main character witnesses wanton destruction of the city from his window. But it cheats on certain shots and leaves the office for key dramatic shots which I think breaks the whole suspension of disbelief. Also the film just assumes that a high-powered remote bomb can pretty much be placed in anything and anywhere (like in a small headphone ear piece). That felt very Looney-Tunes to me and I just couldn't buy into it without any technical explanation.

Deu tae-ro ra-i-beu (2013)

www.imdb.com

Directed by Byeong-woo Kim. With Jung-woo Ha, Kyeong-yeong Lee. Young-hwa Yoon, once a top, national news anchor, gets demoted to radio news. One day, a call comes in during his radio show threatening 

DRUG WAR

I saw DRUG WAR back at the San Diego Asian Film Fest and now it's available on Netflix streaming. It's been awhile since I revisited Hong Kong gangster films and this one was a great twist on all the machismo machinations of old - you never quite know if the main character is acting on calculation and/or desperation. Regardless it all leads to one big entertaining gaggle f***.

Du zhan (2012)

imdb.com

Directed by Johnnie To. With Louis Koo, Honglei Sun, Yi Huang, Michelle Ye. A drug cartel boss who is arrested in a raid is coerced into betraying his former accomplices as part of an undercover operation.

DEVIL'S PASS

What is with these high-profile directors doing BLAIR WITCH style found footage horror films like Barry Levinson's THE BAY and Renny Harlin's DEVIL'S PASS? Everything compelling about the DEVIL'S PASS's back story is apparently true - everything that is lame is the fictional answers to all the question surrounding the mystery. The last 3rd of the film is all about the surviving characters finding inane clues that ridiculously inspire pages of exposition as to what each clue means. But the most unfortunate offense is the annoyingly bad acting on top of the bad writing - just unbearable at times.

Devil's Pass (2013)

imdb.com

Directed by Renny Harlin. With Holly Goss, Matt Stokoe, Luke Albright, Ryan Hawley. Five young filmmakers retrace the steps of a doomed group of hikers in pursuit of an unsolvable mystery.

RED DAWN

Unfortunately the RED DAWN remake just continues to miss its mark as it progresses to its limp ending. I'm a big fan of the 1984 original which sets up an unthinkably epic invasion but then simmers down to a grey character piece about kids being thrown into an adult conflict (and becomes less about the politics of the conflict itself). One of the biggest problem with this remake is that it replaces the rural North American landscape of mountains & snow with a generic urban battlefield. This really deadens the idea of a Middle-America front where local kids can use their backyard as an advantage.

Red Dawn (2012)

imdb.com

Directed by Dan Bradley. With Chris Hemsworth, Isabel Lucas, Josh Hutcherson, Josh Peck. A group of teenagers look to save their town from an invasion of North Korean soldiers.

HFR Hobbits

I'm going to have to do a "do over" for the HOBBIT 2. I saw it in 3D IMAX HFR (High Frame Rate) and the HFR made it look like a live telecast of a stage production. It's not that I didn't appreciate the pristine clarity of having more frames, it just didn't fit the subject matter. HFR makes sets look more like sets, it makes makeup look more like makeup, and it makes CGI look more like CGI. If it were a Discovery Channel documentary then HFR shots of nature would probably be breathtaking. Hold that thought - HFR would be incredible for porn! Seriously! And as sharp and as detailed as the Red Epic imagery was in the HOBBIT, I'm sad to say that the IMAX photography in THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE was so much more impressive (despite the movie being inferior).

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

imdb.com

Directed by Peter Jackson. With Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Ken Stott. The dwarves, along with Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey, continue their quest to reclaim Erebor, their homeland, from Smaug. Bilbo Baggins is in possession of a mysterious 

MAN OF STEEL

MAN OF STEEL has the unique distinction (along with THE DARK KNIGHT RISES) of being a film that I'm absolutely shocked at how much I dislike it. Just the idea that Kryptonians were photon gun wielding, dragon riding, melodrama queens was hard enough to get past but then the fragmented story telling, the blatant product placements, and barrage of uneven VFX just made the overly serious tone so laughably unjustified. There were some notions that I liked but most of those are inherent to the Superman legacy and not unique to this film. I still think DKR is worst but the idea that the two film worlds will merge in the upcoming sequel (with the same creative team) makes me a bit nauseous.

Man of Steel (2013)

www.imdb.com

Directed by Zack Snyder. With Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Diane Lane. A young itinerant worker is forced to confront his secret extraterrestrial heritage when Earth is invaded by members of 

BLACKFISH

BLACKFISH is great - it really captures a wide range of emotions as it profiles both the human and killer whale players. In this respect this film succeeds where a film like GRIZZLY MAN is limited in how it can explore the aggressor animal as a unique personality. And it's quite haunting that a 3 time killer can still be visited at the park.

Blackfish (2013)

imdb.com

Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite. With Tilikum, Dave Duffus, Samantha Berg, Dean Gomersall. Notorious killer whale Tilikum is responsible for the deaths of three individuals, including a top killer whale trainer. Blackfish shows the sometimes devastating consequences of keeping such intelligent an...

AHS: S2

AMERICAN HORROR STORY Season 2 had a decent start with episode 1. Like season 1 the story seems to just regurgitate well established horror tropes but Jessica Lange's performance and the hyper kinetic editing really propel things forward. The effect is quite fascinating.

American Horror Story (TV Series 2011– )

imdb.com

Created by Brad Falchuk, Ryan Murphy. With Evan Peters, Jessica Lange, Lily Rabe, Frances Conroy. An anthology series that centers on different characters and locations, including a haunted house, an insane asylum and a witch coven.

THE PURGE

THE PURGE is an exceedingly frustrating film to watch but you'll probably watch it to the ending just to see what happens. Character's make bizarre decisions and waffle to the plot's convenience. That's not to say some of the situations aren't compelling, it's just based on such a flawed sense of reality. THE MIST is a much better twisting of the human condition and THE STRANGERS is much better home invasion horror film. But I do appreciate that this film makes me want to punch my TV - at least I'm feeling something.

The Purge (2013)

imdb.com

Directed by James DeMonaco. With Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Max Burkholder, Adelaide Kane. In the future, a wealthy family is held hostage for harboring the target of a murderous syndicate during the Purge, a 12-hour period in which any and all crime is legalized.

ONLY GOD FORGIVES

There's definitely something curious about ONLY GOD FORGIVES but ultimately it wasn't for me. I get it when maybe one character is stilted and morose and brooding but when everyone is like that it just makes the film hard to watch. I guess I'm in the DRIVE camp.

Only God Forgives (2013)

www.imdb.com

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. With Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vithaya Pansringarm, Gordon Brown. Julian, a drug-smuggler thriving in Bangkok's criminal underworld, sees his life get even more 

THE YELLOW SEA

I didn't hate CHASER but was left wanting so I passed on THE YELLOW SEA until now (a year later). I thought it was going to be another depressing drama but this movie is a brutal cluster f*** of an action-thriller with so many cringe worthy twists. It hurls the main character into so many impossible situations and even though his escapes are improbable at times they're all so bloody entertaining. And it all feels fairly organic in its grit and shaky cam unlike other slickly stylized K-thrillers like OLDBOY or MAN FROM NOWHERE - though this film is certainly in the same class. Axes and knifes go ape-shit in the film!

Hwanghae (2010)

imdb.com

Directed by Hong-jin Na. With Jung-woo Ha, Yun-seok Kim, Seong-Ha Cho, Man-shik Jeong. The story of a cab driver in Yanji City, a region between North Korea, China and Russia. His wife goes to Korea to earn money, but he doesn't hear from her since in 6 months. He plays mah-jong to make some extra c...

THIS IS THE END

The porn mag argument between James Franco and Danny McBride in THIS IS THE END cracked me up. That's the kind of argument I look forward to having with my "friends."

This Is the End (2013)

www.imdb.com

Directed by Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen. With James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel. While attending a party at James Franco's house, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel and many other celebrities are faced with the apocalypse.

THE CONJURING

After a few false starts and exposure to many spoilers, I still enjoyed THE CONJURING. Even after knowing of specific scares I still felt creeped out and the melodrama at the end worked for me. PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, EVIL DEAD (remake), even INSIDIOUS want to be THE CONJURING but fall short on their gimmicks (SINISTER is another good film that delivered beyond its gimmicks).

The Conjuring (2013)

imdb.com

Directed by James Wan. With Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Ron Livingston, Lili Taylor. Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse.

GRABBERS

GRABBERS certainly has the ambition to be the Irish TREMORS but ultimately lacks the ensemble cast and memorable characters. The "stay drunk to survive" is brilliantly silly but there should've been much more humor about it and at least another level of cleverness to truly be a TREMORS contender.

Grabbers (2012)

imdb.com

Directed by Jon Wright. With Richard Coyle, Ruth Bradley, Russell Tovey, Lalor Roddy. When an island off the coast of Ireland is invaded by bloodsucking aliens, the heroes discover that getting drunk is the only way to survive.

Hard Cover or Kindle?

An unexpected dilemma! Should I get the hard cover or Kindle version of "I Think I Am in Friend-Love With You" by Yumi Sakugawa :: Comic Book Artist + Illustrator. I'm leaning towards the hard cover because I like the tactile feel of illustrations on paper but then I'm also a committed Kindle user. Argh! The digital divide is making me do a mental JCVD split!

I Think I Am In Friend-Love With You

www.amazon.com

I have a confession to make. I think I am in friend-love with you.What's friend-love? It's that super-awesome bond you share with someone who makes you happy every time you text each other, or meet up for an epic outing. It's not love-love. You don't want to swap saliva; you want to swap favorite...

From where I sit

I spent hours researching and writing about what it means to record video in a movie theater - the laws, the industry, the etiquette, the social impact. It's all very fascinating, but in the end if the debate is taking away from the experience of the movie, well then it's all lost on me as a filmmaker.

RIP Syd Field

Syd Field's book SCREENPLAY was my film school before I went to film school. Sad to hear he's gone.

Influential Screenwriting Teacher Syd Field Dead at 77

variety.com

Syd Field, the influential screenwriting teacher who taught a generation of top scribes how to shape feature films, died Sunday at his home in Beverly Hills. He was 77. According to a release from ...

EVIL DEAD - a little late to the party

I really liked the visual palette of the 1st half of EVIL DEAD but thought it got muddy by the end. This re-did is not a bad film but I think it's been somewhat invalidated by recent advents like CABIN IN THE WOODS and the proliferation of zombie movies and TV. If this is supposed to be a "re-imagining" for a "new generation" then it has to be a little more self-aware of where horror movies are at and not just turn up the dials on sound, gore, blood, sfx, etc, etc.

Evil Dead (2013)

www.imdb.com

Directed by Fede Alvarez. With Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Jessica Lucas, Lou Taylor Pucci. Five friends head to a remote cabin, where the discovery of a Book of the Dead leads them to unwittingly summon up 

SAKE-BOMB Theatrical Premiere

Tonight's the night. SAKE-BOMB the film I DP'd goes live at the The Downtown Independent theater in LA until the 11/14. And this Sunday the film will screen in San Diego at the San Diego Asian Film Festival. I'm sicky-vicky (as Minami likes to say) but I'll try and be there to stir up some trouble.

Join

SAKE-BOMB Los Angeles Theatrical Premiere!

Today at 9:30pm

The Downtown Independent in Los Angeles, California

You were invited by Junya Sakino

The Rifkin Effect

Director Adam Rifkin (REALITY SHOW) is funding his latest film penned by Penn Jillette (Penn & Teller). Perfect for a little Halloween cheer - reserve your spot on the project now!

Director's Cut by Penn Jillette and Adam Rifkin

fundanything.com

"Director's Cut" is a crazy idea for a movie. It's scary, funny, and very meta. I want a movie that gets my blood racing, makes me laugh but also gives me something to think about, with maybe a little sexy thrown in. Hollywood doesn't make many movies like 

PS: That's me with Adam Rifkin at SXSW 2013!

Pictures & Photos of Sam Yano - IMDb

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1313135872/nm2740656

View photos of Sam Yano on IMDb!

Pacific Rim

PACIFIC RIM: Got the 3D Bluray but watched it in 2D since I'm the only one that had 3D glasses. I was hoping to like it in a MATRIX way (being blown away visually and conceptually) but I only liked it in an INDEPENDENCE DAY way (visually impressive but conceptually never got deeper than the premise offered up in the trailers). 

And I think it didn't appeal to Japanese audiences because the film chose to focus on the "human" story rather than making the robots and monsters the main event. The robots had some distinction but still took a backseat to their pilots and the drift system. The monsters had some physical variations but were basically generic bad guys with no unique motives. In fact the plot was almost exactly INDEPENDENCE DAY which in itself was nothing special other its scale.

Which is all too bad. I would have liked to seen a film where the giant robots and kaiju combatants were distinctly characterized over the self-absorbed soap operas of their pilots (other than Idris Elba - which was just him being him - I thought the acting was abysmal).

PA4

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4: Nothing new here - if anything it's a regression of the series. At least part 3 led to an interesting revelation at the end - part 4 just reiterates the same premise with a different setting. I'm not sure what's so "unrated" about the unrated version.

Just a Note 2 you

PSA: I'm selling my Samsung Galaxy Note 2. We had great times - a majority of my posts and tweets came from this phone. Au revoir mon cheri!

Samsung Galaxy Note II SCH-I605 - 16GB - Titanium gray Verizon Smartphone EXTRAS

www.ebay.com

Samsung Galaxy Note II SCH-I605 - 16GB - Titanium gray Verizon Smartphone EXTRAS in Cell Phones & Accessories, Cell Phones & Smartphones | eBay

iOS7 isn't heaven

I have to say, I don't care much for iOS7 (on my iPad). It's glitchy with my existing apps and just feels like a 2nd rate Android experience rather than something unique or different. I sound a little whiny and somewhat of an Android fanboy but I'm always about moving to tech that either does what I want or inspires me to adopt to how it does what I want.

Good Side Effects

For the slow 1st half of SIDE EFFECTS I had to remind myself it was a Soderberg joint so it'll all pay off. And yeah, the 2nd half was so much more enthralling. Not his best but always amazed by his minimalist filmmaking, focusing on performance and plot. But it's so hard to finance these kinds of films these days - I hope Soderberg doesn't quit.

Side Effects (2013)

www.imdb.com

Directed by Steven Soderbergh. With Rooney Mara, Channing Tatum, Jude Law, Catherine Zeta-Jones. A young woman's world unravels when a drug prescribed by her psychiatrist has unexpected side effects.

The real AFTERSHOCK

A way, way better AFTERSHOCK titled movie. Now this film takes natural disaster and drama and punches you in the gut.

Tang shan da di zhen (2010)

www.imdb.com

Directed by Xiaogang Feng. With Daoming Chen, Chen Li, Yi Lu, Fan Xu. The epic story of a family separated as a result of the Great Tangshan Earthquake of 1976.

Not Shocked

Execution was bad. AFTERSHOCK just felt off in tone, from the DSLR cinematography to the awkward drama to over-the-top genre mishmash of cliches. And whenever something heavy falls on someone does it always have to fall on their legs, pinning them to the ground? It happens like 5 times to 5 different people!

Aftershock (2012)

www.imdb.com

Directed by Nicolás López. With Eli Roth, Ariel Levy, Nicolás Martínez, Andrea Osvárt. In Chile, a group of travelers who are in an underground nightclub when a massive earthquake hits quickly learn that reaching the surface is just the beginning of their nightmare.

Livescribe 3 vs Note 3

My Livescribe Smartpen is of the old tech world and I passed on the Sky Wifi Smartpen because it wasn't so smart in how it implemented wireless connectivity. I had also bought into the Galaxy Note 2 which completely digitized my note taking (though it was more functional as a Smartphone than a Smartpen). Now the 3rd iteration of the Smartpen is on the horizon and I personally look forward to it because it uses Bluetooth to pair with the single most valuable tech I own, my phone. Writing on paper may sound senseless for an aggressively digital person like myself but paper still represents a wider frame for drawing and I have yet to find an app that integrates audio recording and note taking as neat and efficient as Livescribe has done. 

Livescribe 3 smartpen appears in FCC filing, can't wait to digitize your doodles

http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/...

Now that we've got those naming suits out of the way, it's time to get down to brass tacks. With "brass tacks" involving a new smartpen, in this

Finally someone gets it

You're damn straight no one knows directing more than the cinematographer! And that's this guy... *I'm pointing to myself... with both thumbs*

Directing Movies: Few Know More Than the Cinematographer

variety.com

Few people on a movie set have more knowledge of what it takes to direct a film than the cinematographer, but commanding talent and developing a project aren't always included in the skill set.

Replay Movie Week!

Started my replay movie week with THERE WILL BE BLOOD went right into ZODIAC and topped it with CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER - all held up on 2nd viewing, all are excellent case studies.

Missing Mama

MAMA is a good film that could've been great. It definitely rang in the creep factor but starts to drag when you realize there's not much more to the intriguing premise. It feels like it plateaus midway through and then wants to be more sentimental than horrific. I really wanted to shit my pants with this one - it's not bad, it just missed the mark for me.

Mama (2013)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2023587/

Directed by Andrés Muschietti. With Jessica Chastain, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Megan Charpentier, Isabelle Nélisse. Annabel and Lucas are faced with the challenge of raising his young nieces that were left alone in the forest for 5 years.... but how alone were they?

SADAKO 3 strikes out

Ugh, SADAKO 3D was infuriating. Lit like a hooker's bathroom, shot like a community access soap, written like a pop culture guide to haunted tourist attractions - the poor CG integration was enough to raise Harryhausen from the dead. It was so inconsistent across the board - as if this was the RING mythology passed through a classroom of 6 year olds before reaching me. Time to revisit the Verbinski version and the ending of the original Japanese version to sober up.

Sadako 3D (2012)

www.imdb.com

Directed by Tsutomu Hanabusa. With Satomi Ishihara, Kôji Seto, Tsutomu Takahashi, Shôta Sometani. Akane is a high school teacher who hears a rumor from her students that there is actual footage on the Internet of someone's suicide. The footage is said to drive anyone who sees it to also commit suici...

ZERO DARK THIRTY

All politics & facts aside I really enjoyed ZERO DARK THIRTY - a thought provoking dramatic build to a popcorn action movie end. From a filmmaking standpoint I think JACK REACHER (though they're different movies) tried to do the same juggling act but failed.

Man From Reno

And now a message in Japanese from the school I teach at... ISMP 12,13,14期生に手伝ってもらった長編映画『Man From Reno - Renoから来た男-』が只今キックスターターキャンペーンやっています！キックスターターは、プロジェクトに対して賛同してくれる人たちから募金をし、そのプロジェクトを支援するというシステムです。今回、Man From Renoでは、ポストプロダクションに必要な予算をキックスターターで集めています。とても精力的に活動していて、主演女優藤谷文子さんとデイブ監督によるライブQ&Aや、締め切りカウントダウンパーティーも行います。今後の映画の製作資金集めなどにとても勉強になるかと思います。是非チェックしてみて下さい！
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/daveboyle/man-from-reno

MAN FROM RENO

www.kickstarter.com

A Japanese author & small town sheriff team up to solve a murder mystery in San Francisco. Watch the video for new footage!

BBs5

I didn't even realize I was on the last episode of Breaking Bad s5 on Netflix & it all just ended. I enjoyed season 5 but it kind of came & went without a bang.