KGB Productions

So I finally saw the Oliver Stone's film "Savages", and though I wasn't too sure how I'd like it I came away not hating it.  A film about narcotics trafficking can be one that leaves you kind of numb (no pun intented).  When we see the violence and the horror that drugs do it's hard to look at.  Look at all the other films dealing with drugs or the criminal behavior of dealing drugs.  Most if not all have a sense of doom, and we know that there are no happy endings here.  Oliver Stone on the other hand makes me believe and in some way care about the characters I am about to watch.   Stone does this by showing us sides of his characters that we can identify with.  Our three main protagonists are Ben played by Aaron Johnson , and Chon played by Taylor Kitsch .  Two buddies who are like brothers and have gone into the marijuana growing and selling business.  Both are two sides of a coin.  Ben is the more sensitive and enligh...

So Took the family to see Battleship.  By the trailers and the coming attractions it looked like fun.  I know, I know you're thinking why go to a movie that is based on a game of all things.  Well one it was hot, and two I thought the boys would get a big kick out of it.  Plus the director was Peter Berg , and I'm sort of a fan of his.  He's come a long way since being an actor on the TV series Chicago Hope.  I did like the movie The Kingdom, and I thought he was a pretty good action/adventure director.  In Battleship Berg pushes the genre and comes up with a solid action piece. Is the movie fun?  Yes when it gets going.  It does take a bit for the movie to get going.  In that time we are introduced to the characters.  A lot of them are one dimensional, but we all have seen these character types before so we're all familiar with them.  There are the two brothers.  One a screw up and the other the serious one.  ...

I had to mull this one over.  I'm a Tim Burton fan.  I like his movies.  Burton's movies are sort of subversive to me, and I like his humor.  While watching the movie I was struck at what type of movie it wants to be.  In the beginning it did feel like a straight horror/suspense type movie, and then it goes astray.  But I had to say I liked it.  Near the end I did feel Burton was going over the top, but it fits the film.  I love Johnny Depp , and he is one of America's true jewel.  In this film he does reach for the balcony in his acting, but then again this film is based upon a soap opera from the late 60's early 70's.  I understand what he was going for, and he really made me laugh with his performance of Barnabas Collins. I know some critics seem to think Burton is re-hashing the same old thing he's done before, but I disagree.  I think Burton's style keeps evolving, and I think what Burton did here is what ...

So it's been a movie waiting to be seen ever since it was announced.  My boys were eager to see it, and so a family outing to the movies was planned for Saturday.  From all the hype and all the publicity was the Avengers worth seeing?  The answer is a resounding yes.  Clocking in at 2 hours and 22 minutes the Avengers is a movie with a lot of action packed into it.  After all it's not just one superhero we're dealing with but 6, and there's a lot of story to tell.  The story is simple.  The Earth is in peril by the demi-god Loki (Thor's brother), and an alien race who has decided to help Loki take over the Earth.  With that the Avengers starts and doesn't stop until the final minutes of the movie.  The battle scenes are extrodinary, and the banter between the superheros is funny at times.  Joss Whedon the movies director does a nice balancing act of humor and action.  My boys were mesmerized by the action and enjoyed the fil...

Turner Movie classics re-broadcasted the movie "Harry & Tonto" last night, and after viewing the first few minutes I was hopelessly captivated again by the story.  The movie is a favorite of mine, and as I am growing older it seems to speak to me even more.  I've reviewed the film already so I won't re-hash why its a classic or why the movie works. Instead I''ll just speak to it's authenticity and it's refreshing view of older people.  Paul Mazursky's direction is so well done that you feel that you may be actually looking at a documentary instead of a feature film.  Art Carney's performance is flawless, and ever so real.  The film speaks about today even though it was made back in 1974.  The characters that inhabit the film are all funny and seem to be cut from a bit of reality that even speaks to us today. When one character talks about a coming "depression" you only have to think about the Wall Street banking crises of ...

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Roger Corman. Mr. Corman has produced and directed over 300 films and he's never lost a dime from his movies. Books have been written about him , and even two documentaries have profiled his life and work. Corman's World is the latest documentary that interviews many different people about Corman and his productions. The documentary is a great piece of an era that has long gone by. If you know nothing about Corman then after watching this film you'll know a lot about him. For us fans there isn't much new here, but there are scenes of him receiving his academy award for lifetime achievement which is pretty neat. The film is fun, and it's great to hear Roger get his due. He says some things that make pretty damn good sense, and he is not what you might expect from your typical movie producer. I would have loved to know a little more personal things about Corman. I mean he and Julie (his wife) raised three children while h...

This sounds fantastic and looking forward to seeing it. Cinema at it's best.

Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 – Whats New? I'm a big fan and user of Adobe Premiere.  I love the program and I have done some really cool stuff on it.  I know Final Cut seems the rage, but I first used Premiere way back when and felt really comfortable with it.  The new upgrade is even better.  The above link will take you to Dave Basulto walking you through some of the new improvements of the software.  He's an awesome filmmaker. Tak a listen!

Not a bad piece of filmmaking! If you're into film noir or just plain crime drama's you might like to take a look at it. Available on VOD.

Read an article about this film and from the trailer it looks interesting.   The filmmaker ( Justin McConnell ) is pretty honest about the production of the film.  He tells that for less then 40K they made the film so they could get the film into shape to create a screener, which in turn would be available for sales at the AFM market .  He says a lot of interesting points about indie filmmaking.  These days it's pretty rock bottem budgets out there and even tougher to sell your film to distributors.  It's nothing I haven't heard before, but for a filmmaker to honestly say what it's like out there in the film market seems pretty refreshing, so you have to respect him for saying it.  I always believed if your producing a product your overhead has got to be low, and all the money you spend better get onto the screen.  It's a crowded market out there and you have to stand out, so you better have a hook for the movie or dist...

Here Ed Burns says it simply.  Not bad advice.

I went to the movies Sunday to see Martin Scorsese's movie Hugo.  To say that I liked the film would be an understatement.  In Hugo Scorsese uses his love for cinema to tell a tale of a young boy and old man who have lost something and how they re-discover it again together. George Melies is a favorite filmmaker of mine.  I remember seeing some of his films as a small child, and they always struck me as fantastic.  The craft that Melies uses in his films is extraordinary, and I was always frustrated that documentaries of early cinema didn't contain more of George Melies.  Here Scorsese does this in a fictional film, while at the same time giving us the history of George Melies, and his films. I just hope that when the DVD comes out that maybe it would be accompanied with a documentary of George Melies and his work.  Maye even some of his films could be included.  It would be so worth it. The following video was from Sunday Morning on CBS, and it ...

Here's something I found interesting.  I like Canon's support, and have never had a problem with any of their products.    Canon EOS C300 Digital Cinema Camera from B&H Photo Video on Vimeo .

Das Fraulein is a Swiss production about Slavic émigrés living in Zurich.  It is a simple and yet touching potrait of  immigrants living in a culture not their own. The film concentrates on three women.  Mirjana Karanovic is Ruza, a Slavic émigré in her fifties, who years ago transplanted herself from her native Serbia to Zurich Switzerland over 30 years ago.  She runs a canteen in the city and she trusts no one.  She lives a life of loneliness, and isolation.   She and her Croatian associate, Mila (Ljubica Jovic) are confronted with the arrival of Ana (Marija Skaricic), a much younger Bosnian drifter, who enchants Ruza with her fresh spontaneity and zest for life.  It is between these three women that the movie focuses on.  The film is about barriers breaking down, and how through the interaction of others we change. Writer/director Andrea Staka's Das Fräulein paints an exceptionally sensitive, multi layered, and richly textured por...

I was interested in seeing the latest Mission Impossiable because I had heard that they filmed certain sequences in IMAX, and I wanted to see the results.  I've seen several films in IMAX and have always come away from the experience at just how clear the images are.  The filmmaker Brad Bird makes good use of the process, and the film really looks great. I've been a big critic with studios making or re-making films in 3D.  It feels very gimmicky, and there still are those stupid glasses.  My little one hates them, and doesn't like watching a 3d film with them.  Avatar was amazing, but in the hands of a filmmaker like Jim Cameron there is no doubt that he uses the technology to his advantage, and to the films advantage. The IMAX experience is similar but I have always come away from an IMAX experience that seemed breath taking.  The imagery, and the sound is fantastic.   The story is simple.  This is not just another missio...

I know, I know.  Long time, but I'm back and the first movie I review is a kids film.  Having children of my own they have grown up with Alvin, Theodore and Simon, so when this film hit the theaters you know I had to go. This is the third.  Yes the third film in the series of the chipmunk movies.  Each one is cute and interesting, but they are defiantly geared to the children.  In this film Dave and the boys along with the chipettes go on cruise.   Yes you remember them from the second movie don't you?  Anyhow the chipmunks get shipwrecked on an island after disobeying Dave ( Jason Lee ).  Dave and Uncle Ian ( David Cross ) also get shipwrecked on an island, and need to find the chipmunks.  That is of course if this is the same island as where the chipmunks are, and if you're thinking it isn't then I have a bridge to sell to you in Brooklyn. The movie is a bit of slapstick, and moral lesson for the kids.  Sure we laugh when ...

I had a chance to go to the CCW conference this week again, and update myself and talk to others about content & communication.  I find the conference interesting and I learn a lot by talking to vendors, and other technicians and artists who are in the field of communication.  Many provide content to the web, and that content is spilling over to other traditional media such as cable, and network.  One of the seminars was titled: " So What Comes After File-Based Work Flows?  The Next Generation ".   I found it interesting what others are doing, and how they are doing it.  Media is getting faster and that ability to become immediate is changing the landscape of how people consume different types of media.  Maybe it's just the way human beings are.  We think that knowing something immediately will give us an edge or help us. What I was excited about is that the web has knocked down barriers between countries, people, and ...

The Exorcist was a film that showed me that horror could be filled with terror, and the unexpected.  I saw this film at a relatively late age.  I was way too young when it first came out, but I had heard stories about the film.  Whether these stories were true it didn't really matter.  It fed the myth of the film in my mind, and when I finally saw it I was amazed at the artistry of the film.  From the direction to the cinematography the film "The Exorcist" is a film that deserves mention here.  Based on the William Peter Blatty's 1971 best-selling theological-horror novel of the same name the movie remains pretty faithful to the book. Having seen the film later in life I did become obsessed about the cinematography of the film.  Owen Roizman was the cinematographer, and from the first shot to the last shot the film is a masterpiece in cinmatography.  I'm not going to say much more about the film because it's all been said before.  T...

I saw Evil Dead where it was meant to be seen. A drive-in. I had heard about this film from some of my classmate’s back in high school, and I read everything I could put my hands on about the film. Fangoria magazine was my pipeline to the fantastic, and for a teenager with an over active imagination, and a thirst for all things movies Fangoria was the magazine to read. That and " Cinemagic " magazine. A magazine devoted to filmmaking. The stories about how "Evil Dead" was made fascinated me. A bunch of guys going out into the country with some film equipment and their cast and crew and making a film. What they came back with was a film that hit a nerve with audiences, and it became a success. Sam Rami and his gang made cinematic low budget history when they made their film "the Evil Dead". A film with very few characters, and a simple plot. My film professor was right in a way. If you want to make an interesting film take some buddies and film some ...

If I had to name one film that blew my mind when I was a teenage it would have to be "Dawn of the Dead".  George Romero's " Dawn of the Dead " is a film that is on so many levels it boggles the mind.  A horror film, a satire on society, a statement on consumerism, and a sequel.  That's what "Dawn..." is and in lesser hands it would not have been effective, but because the filmmaker is George Romero this film hits the audience on all levels.  I was about 14 years old when this film came out, and it was one of the hardest films to see for me back then.  Released without a rating it only played in several theaters, and if you were not accompanied with an adult you didn't get in.  I saw it in Germany while visiting my aunt, and in Europe it was called "Zombie 2".  Argento had made a film called " Zombie " previously and called his cut of Dawn "Zombie 2".  Little did I know that there were two versions of this film.  ...