New TMNT Look Revealed... Sort Of

I understand the nostalgia that some filmmakers have for being able to turn things like "what does so-and-so look like?" into the equivalent of a plot-twist... but I really don't know why anyone bothers today except in cases where a character's appearance actually IS meant to be a surprise. There are too many moving parts to big movies now, and trying to keep something like what your main character(s) look like secret isn't practically feesible: It's going to get "revealed" by merchandising materials or production art or a thousand other things, and suddenly you lose control of your all-important "first-impression" moment and instead people's first exposure is a potentially subpar version.

Case in point: According to a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fansite, the thing at the right is a children's Halloween costume-kit for Michaelangelo in the new Michael Bay-produced TMNT movie... and if so, it now gets to be the way we'll be introduced to Bay's (and director Johnathan Liebesman's) version of the heroes:

First reaction: Not loving the basic idea of the head - too human, too much from the school of "people can't relate without a humanoid face to focus on" creature-design - but a plastic Halloween mask is no way to judge that. The rest of the suits (the fansite claims to have pics for the other three), apparently, are a stretch-fabric onesie with a "stuffable shell" that functions as an attached backpack - making these the most utilitarian-useful Halloween costumes ever ("Just put the candy in my shell!")

Otherwise? It's instantly recognizable as "Mikey" orange mask and all but with extra accountremants (workout shorts, a sweater worn as a belt, sunglasses, tattoos, surfer/skater neck jewelry) that reflect his familair personality. I don't hate this at all. I'm fond of the "identical but for colors/weapons" look from the comics etc for how it ties in with the Japanese/American fusion aspect of the characters, but as an alternate take this makes sense. And the DIY-grubbiness of it fits - I like the implication that these guys have "scavenged" their own personal looks.

The look also lines up to-the-letter with a written description of toys from awhile back, which also matched up with most of what I'd been hearing about the production post-"Alien" script: That the aim for the look was to keep the masks, weapons and standard looks but further differentiate them by body-type (Mike being smaller than the others, Raphael being a "tank," etc) and clothing/gear choices. This Mikey looks exactly as described, so I imagine subsequent pics will confirm the others: Leonardo wearing Japanese/samurai-style fencing gaurds to some extent, Donatello wearing/carrying lots of tech and gadgets, Raphael in Muy-Thai style cloth/rope padding, etc.

PULP CATHOLICISM #052

Hey, everybody! Believe it or not, this post marks the 52nd Pulp Catholicism cartoon. That means I’ve been posting one of these things every Wednesday for a year now. They haven’t all been great, but at least they’ve been consistent, right? As I mentioned in a previous post, if page hits are any indication, Pulp Catholicism is actually one of the more popular things I do here at The B-Movie Catechism, which is kind of odd since this is ostensibly a movie/television blog and not a web-comic. But hey, if you like’em, I guess I’ll keep cranking them out till the well runs dry (or until enough people beg me to stop). My thanks to you all for putting up with me while I scratch my cartooning itch. I’ll see you next time.

Expiration Watch: THE PUBLIC EYE

I'll go ahead and predict right now that this will be among the least viewed�and least searched for�of my blog posts. But, hey, no one said trumpeting the obscure is about getting attention, right?

One benefit of the high licensing fees Netflix pays to stream popular movies is that a lot of lesser-known (and thus, cheaper) titles are acquired which get to make a case for themselves long after their initial release. These can be anything from last year's Drinking Buddies, a low-gauge indie charmer starring Jake Johnson and Olivia Wilde, to films from 30 or 40 years ago that have somehow faded into obscurity. Case in point: 1972's The Public Eye (released in England as Follow Me!)

Along with being the final movie by British director Carol Reed (The Third Man, Our Man in Havana, Oliver!), The Public Voice was written by playwright Peter Shaffer (future scribe of Equus and Amadeus); stars Mia Farrow�between high-profile roles in Rosemary's Baby (1968) and The Great Gatsby (1974)�and Topol, Oscar-nominated the year before for Fiddler on the Roof; and boasts a score by John Barry, who was already well on his way to legendary composer status by virtue of his James Bond films. In other words, A-level talent across the board.

So, what happened? Why has this amusing, and occasionally trenchant, comedy-drama been almost completely forgotten?
Read more �

Big Picture: "Blecch, Dull Tests"

Huh. Knew I forgot to post something today...

The Escapist : The Big Picture : Blecch, Dull Tests

WEEKLY NEWSREEL

Good evening Mr. & Mrs. Catholic, and all you other Christians at sea, welcome to another edition of the Newsreel. Despite all the budget cuts around the globe, some scientists are still securing grants to conduct studies. Let’s take a look at a few, why don’t we.

DATELINE: LONDON - According to a semi-serious study published in the British Medical Journal, “James Bond's famous catchphrase ‘shaken, not stirred’ may have stemmed from his inability to stir his drinks due to an alcohol-induced tremor affecting his hands.” Basing their assumptions on Bond’s alcohol consumption in Fleming’s original novels, the researchers determined that 007 drank more than four times the recommended limit of alcohol and probably had the shakes because of it. “We have shown that Bond's alcohol intake is of sufficiently high frequency and duration to cause such cerebellar damage,’ the researchers said. ‘He was unlikely to be able to stir his drinks, even if he would have wanted to.” We suppose that’s just another reason the Catechism suggests we cultivate the virtue of temperance to help us “avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine.” After all, we wouldn’t want a vice to cause us to develop the shakes right as we’re trying to disarm that nuclear warhead in the depths of Fort Knox.

DATELINE: QUEENSLAND – By comparing the demographics of the survivors of the Titanic and the Lusitania, researchers at the Queensland University of Technology have determined that “the time people have during survival situations might affect whether they behave selfishly or socially.” According to the study published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, male passengers who had a longer time to consider their impending doom tended to act more chivalrously and in line with social expectations, whereas those who had little time to think things over seemed to follow an every man for himself course of action. As the article explains it, “when facing danger, a person's brain creates a surge of adrenaline, helping them to react quickly. This fight-or-flight reflex may last a few minutes. Not until the immediate threat has passed or the brain hormones stabilize do higher-order thoughts, such as social considerations, come back into play.” From a Catholic standpoint this seems reasonable, as the Church, following Aquinas, recognizes self preservation as a fundamental good. The Catechism notes that “love toward oneself remains a fundamental principle of morality. Therefore it is legitimate to insist on respect for one's own right to life. Someone who defends his life is not guilty of murder.” But quoting the Gospel of John, it also reminds us that “greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” In short, while the men who abandoned ship on the Lusitania shouldn’t be judged too harshly, those who remained on the Titanic so women and children might live are to be praised.

DATELINE: THE INTERNET – A massive online survey of 39 people indicates that humans may use the same aural clues to determine the emotional states of babies as they do that of dogs. According to the results, “shorter calls—whether human or dog—were regarded as more emotionally positive than longer calls; and higher pitched samples were rated as more emotionally intense than lower pitched sounds for both species.” Why bother testing the obvious, you might ask? Well, “by following these same simple rules, they conclude, it may be possible to develop easily recognized artificial emotions in social robots.” Yes, it looks like scientists are already doing their best to find a way to make Spike Jonze’s Her a reality. You can read the reviews by Sr. Helena & Catholic Skywalker to find out why that might not be such a great idea.

And on that cryptic note, we’ll leave you, as always, with the immortal words of the great Les Nessman. Good evening, and may the good news be yours.

War Pigs

It's pretty-much impossible for "300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE" to be as good as it's trailers have been, right?

19th Prix Lumières Winners

With what seems was a more serious ceremony, at least from previous years, but unfortunately unlike what happened in previous editions, there was no live streaming the foreign press based in Paris gave their awards and the big winner is excellent La vie d’Adèle – Chapitres 1 et 2 that now not only has a Palme d'Or but also a Panther and wouldn't surprise me if movie also gets a César. Great.

The Prix spécial de la Commission supérieure technique de l’image et du son that honors the best cinematographer was given to Thomas Hardmeier (AFC) for L' Extravagant voyage du jeune et prodigieux T.S. Spivet de Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

The Jury Special Prize went to Grand Central by Rebecca Zlotowski.

Winners are not listed yet at official site but eventually will be here as well as the video of the ceremony that yes, obviously will watch when becomes available. I'm listing winners from Prix Lumières Twitter account here and news from Allocine.

Winners are in *BLUE.

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12/18/13
Today the foreign press based in Paris announced the nominations for the current edition that honors French and Francophone films. Award ceremony will be January 20. 2014 at 9:00pm in l'Espace Cardin.

Leading the pack is Quai d'Orsay by Bertrand Tavernier with 5 nominations followed by La Vie d'Adèle and 9 mois ferme with 4 nods each. It is simply fantastic to find Léa Seydoux nominated along great performances by Juliette Binoche, Catherine Deneuve , Emmanuele Seigner as even if her role is less "colorfull" than of her protagonist, she has an outstanding performance in Kechiche's Blue is the Warmest Color.

Perhaps I'm a bit strict but agree with these nods as even when Adèle Exarchopoulos has an extraordinary performance, I can't place her along the Best Actress nominees, so it is great that she is nominated in the Newcomer category, which obviously will win even do there are other extraordinary performances in category, like the ones from Pauline Etienne and Marine Vactch.

Best Film
9 mois ferme by Albert Dupontel
Grand Central by Rebecca Zlotowski
*La vie d’Adèle – Chapitres 1 et 2 by Abdellatif Kechiche
L’Ecume des jours by Michel Gondry
Quai d’Orsay by Bertrand Tavernier
Renoir by Gilles Bourdos

Best Foreign Film in French
Aujourd’hui by Alain Gomis, France and Senegal
*Les Chevaux by Dieu de Nabil Ayouch, France, Morocco, and Belgium
Le Démantèlement by Sébastien Pilote, Canada
Dead Man Talking by Patrick Ridremont, Belgium, France, and Luxembourg
Gabrielle by Louise Archambault, Canada
Le Repenti by Merzak Allouache, Algeria and France

Best Director
Gilles Bourdos for Renoir
Albert Dupontel for 9 mois ferme
Michel Gondry for L'Ecume des jours
*Abdellatif Kechiche for La vie d’Adèle
Bertrand Tavernier for Quai d'Orsay
Rebecca Zlotowski for Grand Central

Prix Heike Hurst to Best First Film
Au-delà du sang by Guillaume Tauveron, France and, Japan
Comme un lion by Samuel Collarday
En solitaire by Christophe Offenstein
*Les Garçons et Guillaume, à table! by Guillaume Galienne
La tête la première by Amélie van Elmbt, France and Belgium
Nous irons vivre ailleurs by Nicolas Karolszyk

Best Screenplay (Original or Adaptation)
Le passé by Asghar Farhadi
Quai d’Orsay by Bertrand Tavernier
9 mois ferme by Albert Dupntel
La Marche by Nabil Ben Yadir
*La Vénus à la fourrure by Roman Polanski
Arrêtez-moi by Jean-Paul Lilienfeld

Best Actress
Juliette Binoche in Camille Claudel, 1915 by Bruno Dumont
Catherine Deneuve in Elle s’en va by Emmanuelle Bercot
Sandrine Kiberlain in 9 mois ferme by Albert Dupontel
Emmanuelle Seigner in La Vénus à la fourrure by Roman Polanski
Christa Theret in Renoir by Gilles Bourdos
*Léa Seydoux in Grand Central by Rebecca Zlotowski AND La vie d’Adèle – Chapitres 1 et 2 by Abdellatif Kechiche

Best Female Newcomer
Pauline Etienne in La Religieuse de Guillaume Nicloux, France, Germany and Belgium
*Adèle Exarchopoulos in La vie d’Adèle – Chapitres 1 et 2 by Abdellatif Kechiche
Alice de Lencquesaing in La tête la première by Amélie van Elmbt
Candy Ming in Henri by Yolande Moreau
Vimala Pons in La fille du 14 juillet de Antonin Peretjatko
Marine Vactch in dans Jeune & Jolie by François Ozon

Best Actor
Michel Bouquet in Renoir by Gilles Bourdos
Guillaume Canet in Jappeloup by Christian Duguay
Romain Duris in L’Ecume des jours by Michel Gondry
*Guillaume Galienne in Les Garçons et Guillaume, à table! by Guillaume Galiene
Thierry L'Hermitte in Quai d’Orsay by Bertrand Tavernier
Tahar Rahim in Grand Central by Rebecca Zlotowski

Best Male Newcomer
Pierre Deladonchamps in L’Inconnu du lac de Alain Guiraudie
Paul Hamy in Suzanne by Katell Qquillevere
Tewfik Jallab in La Marche by Nabil Ben Yadir
Vincent Macaigne dans La fille du 14 juillet de Antonin Peretjatko
*Raphaël Personnaz in Quai d’Orsay by Bertrand Tavernier AND Marius de Daniel Auteuil
Niels Schneider in Désordres d’Etienne Faure

Have seen a few films but there are some that I'm looking forward to see soon. If you wish to read the news available only in French go here or go to Official Site but nominations are NOT up yet.