Pulp Cinema, a little outfit that I am helping out with will be doing a free screening of Akira Kurosawa’s samurai classic Yojimbo at The Broad Street Ministry on February 6th  at 7pm. The film will be presented in 16mm and is in Japanese with English subtitles.

If you’re not familiar with story of Yojimbo it’s about a ronin (a masterless samurai), played by Kurosawa regular Toshirō Mifune. One day he arrives in a small town currently in the clutches of competing crime lords, who all make their money from gambling.

Yojimbo means bodyguard in Japanese, and the samurai craftily pits both crime lords against one another to eradicate them as they both vie to win him as their bodyguard.

Check out the trailer below!

You may not know the name Nick Murphy but if you are an avid reader of the site or just into video games in general you are more than aware of his handiwork. Nick won a Geek Award last year for his trailers for Zelda (1987) and Indie God of War, and he has now tackled the game that seems to come on every electronic device from Nooks to microwave ovens these days… Angry Birds.

I spoke with him about directing his newest trailer and what goes into creating these little viral masterpieces. You can check out his newest parody at the end of the interview.

So how did you get started doing these game parodies?

I got hired working for the company Gamervision, they were setup already and they were like a video game news site and they had some web video content. They had this idea of combining Mario Brothers, but as Inglourious Basterds since the film was to come out.

So a friend of mine worked there and was like, I know my friend is a filmmaker lets bring him on. So they brought me in and I did it and it got like 300,000 or 400,000 views so it got passed all over the place and went pretty viral.

So right after that, they paid me for my time working on that, and they were like we want to hire you full time. So we kept making shorts.

It started there and we tried to keep that momentum going. It was a lot of fun.  I love it but it is such a niche thing. I am always trying to find that guy that loves video games, but loves movies the way I do too.

What do you think goes into a good video game mash-up trailer?

It’s hard because someone else did an Angry Birds thing and it has like 11 million views. But they did it in a way where it is super over the top. It’s like Michael Bay doing it. There was this government program that manufacture these birds to fight these pigs, who are the enemy.

For us that was an easy joke. We wanted to challenge ourselves and try and incorporated it into the real world. They came out with this Mortal Kombat realistic, gritty web series, so we thought if they can come out with something like that we can make Angry Birds gritty and visceral I guess. That is what I wanted, could this be a real thing?

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When Steven Soderbergh isn’t threatening to retire from directing, he is one of the more interesting directors out there working today. This is probably because he always seems to balance his big-big budget work with smaller introspective and thought provoking films.

Haywire is his newest big budget entry starring Gina Carano, Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas and Michael Douglas. The film is the story of a freelance black ops operative Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) who is betrayed, setup, and is now out for revenge.

We have 25 GOFOBO passes for 2 to a screening Tuesday, January 17th @ 7:30PM at the Ritz East. Wanna Pass? Simply leave a comment with your favorite Steven Soderbergh film by midnight Sunday the 15^th and the first 25 will be checking the film out for free.

Check out the trailer (SFW) below and the first 5 minutes of the film here (NSFW)

No cameras, camera phones, or other recording devices permitted in screening. Seating is on a first come, first serve basis. Theatre capacity is limited and passes won do not guarantee seating. (So please show up early!) Theater is not responsible for overbooking. Ticket holder and guest must enter theater together.

After checking out Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol at the Tuttleman IMAX at The Franklin Institute, I went back a week later to take a tour of the projection booth and talk with some of the fine folks who work there. What I found was the folks that manage and work in the theater are not just IMAX geeks, but really knowledgeable film geeks in general.

I also decided to interview the projectionist Matt Lorenz about what it’s like working with the format and took some pics of the booth to share. Being as interested in film as I am, I had a lot of fun chatting with Matt about working with one of the hottest formats out there right now.

So how did you become the projectionist at the Tuttleman IMAX?

Wow, that’s interesting. I was unemployed and I had done some theater work in live performance, doing sound engineering and that sort of thing. I actually applied to be one of the ticket takers and what they call a console operator here. What the entails is essentially working in all the theaters and the planetarium, introducing the shows and that sort of thing.

A projectionist position opened up and I got it. A lot of it is very specific training. So unless you studied IMAX somewhere else, a lot of it is just having some technical know-how and being able to learn it. It’s almost like assembly line work in terms of its repetitive motion, but once you understand how it works its pretty easy.

What kind of training did that entail?

Again, it’s very specific especially with a lot of the soundtrack stuff, computer knowledge is important. Some math skills are kind of important in terms of when you are trying to sync up soundtracks you need to count frames and break it down into minutes and seconds. So not complex math but you need to think not abstractly, but when you’re assembling film there are a lot of things you have to keep in mind in terms of head and tail and emulsion.

We train for a month before we can run any film. I was trained by the chief projectionist here and pretty much just followed him and did a lot of practice running films in the off hours, so that if anything went wrong there is not a live audience in there. It’s really just getting to know the equipment here. (more…)

Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol continues to kill it in theaters. And while I may not be chasing down terrorists or jumping off of buildings, I’m currently rocking one of the several Giorgio Brutini styles featured in the film. Unlike my assortment of sneakers, I prefer most of my dress shoes (or boots in this case) to be the opposite of garish and showy.

I find that the plain-toe is simple enough to go well with any kind of pants, while the six-inch zip-up boot offers up some nice ankle support. Style 660141 as it’s known, is made with 100% calf leather, which breathes well enough to wear all day. While I may not be kicking any bad guys in the face with them, my feet feel fine after a day of going to and from the cube farm or walking around town.

Other shoes featured in the film include Style 660451 loafers with tassels, and Style 130811 (under the GBX brand name) two eyelet oxfords. See if you can spot them.

Contraband is the latest film from Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur, probably best known for his film A Little Trip to Heaven. The film stars Mark Wahlberg and Kate Beckinsale and is a remake of the Icelandic 2009 film Reykjavík-Rotterdam, one of the biggest budgeted Icelandic films of all time. Fun fact… it actually starred Baltasar Kormákur, Contraband’s director.

The film is the story of Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg) who abandoned his life of crime long ago, but after his brother-in-law, Andy botches a drug deal for his ruthless boss, Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi), Chris is forced back into doing what he does best; running contraband.

Chris must settle Andy’s debt and things get heated up when Chris has only hours to reach the cash. Chris must use his rusty skills to navigate the treacherous criminal network of drug lords, cops, and hit men before his wife Kate, and their two sons become targets as well.

Wanna check out Contraband Tuesday, January 10th at 7:30PM at the Ritz Five? Simply leave a comment and the first 30 people will be checking out the film.  Passes will be sent out tomorrow morning. In the meantime checkout the trailer below.

No cameras, camera phones, or other recording devices permitted in screening. Seating is on a first come, first serve basis. Theatre capacity is limited and passes won do not guarantee seating. (So please show up early!) Theater is not responsible for overbooking. Ticket holder and guest must enter theater together.

You might recognize Michael Heneghan as director of the Geek Award winning animated film The Romantic. Well after the festivities were over at the Geek Awards there was some talk of me helping to produce his next full-length animated feature.

What you see below is small look at things to come. This short is part pitch and part Christmas card for the upcoming animated feature Burp’s Christmas.

The film will tell the story of the Burp family, a family in need of healing. Young Walter and Elijah lost their parents in an accident and are now living with their grandparents, Charles and Norma. The film will tell the story of their struggle to make ends meet, learning to laugh again and keep keeping the Christmas magic alive for another year.

Enjoy!

The Darkest Evening of the Year from Michael P. Heneghan on Vimeo.

As far as films go I really can’t say a lot for 2011. It was a year that will live in infamy as the year with the most sequels and films based on pre-existing properties than any other before it. And sadly, I really don’t see this as a trend that is going away any time soon.

So here is my top ten list for the year. It wasn’t easy, and not because there were so many great films, but because there were just so many damn mediocre ones. Meh.

10. Marvel Films: Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor: Marvel is on a winning streak few in film have ever seen. The films they continue to churn out are fun to watch, well made and are a credit to their genre. The only question is will their endgame in The Avengers live up to all their hard work to this point.

I would hate to be the one to break that winning streak, you know? Don’t let us down, Joss.

9. Super 8: Watching this film I felt like I was 10 years old again. J.J. Abrams somehow does Spielberg better than Spielberg has in a long time and shows us there still maybe hope for the summer blockbuster.

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Santa Claus. Jolly, a little on the heavy side, affinity for milk and cookies, you can hang out with him at Target or Macy’s this time of year? You know, that guy. Well, here’s the thing – he actually doesn’t live at the North Pole, he may have another job, and there are actually hundreds of ‘em. I know. Sorry about that. That doesn’t make the idea of Santa any less magical though, and this Kickstarter aims to prove it.

Friend of Geekdelphia, former Haddon Heights mayoral candidate, and accomplished filmmaker Tommy Avallone is at it again, putting together a project that pledges to follow around five of these Santas for an entire year, chronicling what the other 364 days are like in the life of the big man in the red suit. Tommy provides a little more detail:

I Am Santa Claus is a documentary that poses a question about a ubiquitous holiday figure that few parents ever ask themselves; “Whose lap is my child sitting on?”

We plan to document an entire year in the lives of a handful of real-bearded professional Santa Clauses to find out what the rest of the year is like for a man who perpetually looks like Jolly Saint Nick. In the process, showing them for who they actually are; flawed, flesh and blood men who feel an overbearing responsibility to protect the integrity of the spotless, untarnished reputation of the “Red Suit.”

So c’mon, you know you’re curious. I mean honestly… how does one man eat all those cookies and not just go into a food coma for the rest of the year? Here’s your chance to find out and help one of our area’s coolest dudes make another great flick in the process.

The Project: I Am Santa Claus, a Documentary

Creator: Tommy Avallone

The Sweet Spot: $5 gets you another holiday card to add to the pile, but the real good stuff starts at the $50 mark. That’ll get you the card, a special thanks on the site, the official soundtrack, and a DVD copy of the film. If you really feel like spreading that Christmas cheer you can get in at the producer level for $500+.

Funding Deadline: January 19th, 2012

More Info: Check out the website or Kickstarter project page for ongoing project updates, find Tommy on Facebook, and read up on one of his previous projects, Calendar Girl, right here on Geekadelphia.

Every Monday Geekadelphia features a Kickstarter created by locals. Check ‘em out and support our local geek scene. If you have a project that you’d like featured on site, contact geekadelphia@gmail.com

Even though Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is the fourth installment in the franchise, it may very well be the best film to come out of the series since it debuted back in 1996. Brad Bird, who is better known as a mainstay at PIXAR and the director of The Incredibles, gives us a refreshing and humorous sequel that really shows what a property such as this can be in the right hands.

I checked out the film in Philly’s own Tuttleman IMAX at The Franklin Institute.  Not only do I feel this is this the optimum experience for seeing the film, due to quite a few action set pieces shot in the IMAX format, but it is also the only theater in our area lucky enough to be screening The Dark Knight Rises Prologue… which is well worth the price of admission alone.

The film stars Tom Cruise once again as IMF agent Ethan Hunt, this time out to save the world from a nuclear holocaust after he is framed for blowing up the Kremlin. He does this with the help of Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton and the always-hilarious Simon Pegg. If the main baddie happens to look familiar to some of you, it’s probably because he is played by Michael Nyqvist, who also played Mikael Blomkvist in the Swedish film adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Simon Pegg steals the show and gives the film some severe geek cred while Tom Cruise is well… Tom Cruise.  Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol succeeds by being well aware of what it is, and not taking itself too seriously. The film is often times almost a parody of itself, which makes some of the insanity just a little easier to swallow at times. I really enjoyed this film much more than the last 2 films before it.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol gets a 3.75 our of 5 stars.

It’s over! Thanks for playing.

Last week, the Franklin Institute started showing Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol in their awesome IMAX theater and as a bonus, the trailer for the Dark Knight Rises trailer.

And at tonight’s screening, the first 200 people will get this awesome limited edition MI: Ghost Protocol print. You can catch the movie in IMAX tonight at 6:50pm, 9:25pm, and midnight.

The Franklin is the only theater for miles that’s showing this right now (next nearest is in Atlantic City), and they were kind enough to dish out a pair of tickets for us to giveaway here on the blog.

Want to score a pair of tickets? Just leave a comment about your favorite installment in the Mission Impossible franchise, and I’ll select one of you at random around noon. I’ll email you and you can let me know what time you can check out the flick.

Easy as that. Good luck!

Franklin Institute
222 North 20th Street 19103
(215) 448-1200
www.fi.edu

There are few current literary franchises that have had the same cultural impact as Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Series. If you haven’t read the books, you have probably at least seen the Swedish films based on the novels.

I was a fan of the books and loved the Swedish film adaptations. When rumor started circulating that of course there was going to be an American take on the books, I was seriously suspicious. That is until I heard David Fincher was going to tackle it fresh off The Social Network.

The film stars Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara as Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander, an unlikely pair of individuals trying to piece together a murder that happened almost 40 years prior. You might remember Rooney Mara as the girl who steals the show and dumps Mark Zuckerberg in the opening scene of The Social Network.

We only have 10 passes for 2 to check out The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Monday, December 19^th at the Ritz East at 7pm. Wanna check the film out 2 days early? Simply comment with why you’re the biggest Millenium Series fan by midnight December 17th and I will be picking ten comments to check the film 2 days early. Good luck and check out the trailer below!

No cameras, camera phones, or other recording devices permitted in screening. Seating is on a first come, first serve basis. Theatre capacity is limited and passes won do not guarantee seating. (So please show up early!) Theater is not responsible for overbooking. Ticket holder and guest must enter theater together.