Hitler! Stalin! Ming The Mercyless! Names that live on in the annals of infamy. There’s no denying it; people love a good villain, and remember them too! So why are so many of them..well… a bit shit? We run through some of cinema’s baddest muthas and discover that they really aren’t all that great! In fact, most filmic menaces are a bunch of yakkety idiots with nothing better to do – it’s The Worst Villains In Cinema!
We’ve seen his heart, we’ve seen his nipples, we’ve even seen him pork his girlfriend in the middle of a shopping mall to a standing ovation. And now we get to see Jason Statham’s bloody ludicrous hitman Chev Chelios..in 3D!!
Fuck yeah.
Speaking to the slightly more respectable dudes over at TheFilmStage, Crank Co-Writer and Director Brian Taylor spilled the beans on the further adventures of The Stath’s mechanical heart/jacked-up-on “Chinese Shit” indestructidude: “I already have a storyline in place for Crank 3 – I think it’ll be in 3D”.
What peril remains to trouble a man who survived falling 10,000 feet from a helicopter? More importantly, what strategic McGuffins will be dropped to keep the baldy hard-man functioning this time round? Being 3D, we’re betting on fireworks and/or long, pointy objects.
While Mel Gibson is starting to look more like a crinkle-cut chip than an action hero these days, Casino Royale director Martin Campbell is obviously having a ball jumping him through hoops, redirecting his classic BBC series with explosive aplomb. It seems lessons learnt from Bond have been packed in, so while there is believable motivation and characterisation here, the film benefits immensely from the lack of filler that stretched and slowed the TV version – occasionally with amusing side effects if you’re familiar with the original. There’s no time here for Gibbo to sit about watching TV or crying on the hard shoulder here. Not when there are mysteries to be solved and exposition TO BE SHOUTED.
An Expertly-rendered preview of Worthington as Dracula...
It may finally be time for vampire-kind to shake of f the blousy Twilight romantic image –with MTV reporting that big bad Sam Worthington is in talks to don cape and widow’s peak in the Batmaningly titled Dracula: Year Zero.
Worthington’s been enjoying a skyrocketing profile this year despite his appearance as a half-man-half-convoluted-storyline in the ailing Terminator franchise, while popping up as demi-god Perseus in the ‘not-testing-well-apparently’ Clash of the Titans doesn’t seem to have hurt his cred either. Oh..and of course, there’s a certain animated biggest movie ever as well…
Variety first let slip that a new movie was on the cards detailing the exploits of Transylvania’s most famous export (Cheeky Girls notwithstanding), with Alex Proyas behind the lens. Rather more worryingly, the script comes from the haunted pens of Matt Sazama and aptly-named Burk Sharpless, famous for the intergalactic shit-fest that was the Flash Gordon reboot, and details Vlad Tepes.Esq’s fist steps towards virgin-eating immortality.
Do you think Vlad needs another do-over after the appalling Dracula 200? Or are Vampires passé –is it all about Werewolves and Ghost-Ninjas this year? Let us know!
Mention Asian cinema and the first countries that normally get talked about instantly are China, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea. Very rarely will Malaysian cinema come to mind, and save for some hardcore South East Asian cinéphiles, one would be hard-pressed to think of any noteworthy titles to speak of.
People always ask me what would be a good introduction to Malaysian cinema and I must admit that it is an interesting question. One could easily hark back to the period of P.Ramlee and the Shaw Brothers, or even the heyday of melodrama in the 80’s.
But in light of the current turbulent cultural, social and political climate of Malaysia, I believe the groundbreaking work of the late Yasmin Ahmad is what truly captures the essence of Malaysian storytelling via film. Check out this essential Yasmin Ahmad viewing:
