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#63 April 2004
| CLUB
NEWS
JUST READ ALL THE CLUB NEWS TV NEWS
EVENT
NEWS
LITERARY
NEWS
MOVIE
NEWS
MOVIE
NEWS
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DAVA’S DELVINGS….
MOVIE REVIEW by Dava Sentz ACTION FIGURE
NEWS
MUST SEE MOVIES
DVD
NEWS
INTERNET NEWS
FAREWELLS
ICS CALENDER
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| MRS. VOORHEES STRIKES AGAIN!
And this time it was not with a sharp object. Instead, she serenaded Gary Roberson to open his surprise 50th Birthday party. Gary did not even realize that he was the subject of her rendition of Happy Birthday until his mother, Ruth, told him. Talk about shocked! Balloons, a lunch platter, cake and ice cream materialized afterwards to round out the party atmosphere. The party was courtesy of Mrs. Roberson, with lots of leg work from Barry Murphy (who also provided the great Betsy Palmer tape) and various other board members. Thanks to all who helped put the party together (and thanks to all of the club members who were able to keep the secret!) And Happy 50th Gary! We’re glad to have celebrated with you! BIRTHDAY HONORABLE MENTIONS
THE MAN TO BEAT
WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT 1954?
LATE NIGHT LOTR
WELCOME, JOHN ERB!
WELCOME, JANIS DELLMAN!
CINEMEDIA EXPO
COLLECTOR EDITON CALENDARS AVAILABLE
NEWS OF OUR NEXT MEETING
GREG MANK IS IN THE BUILDING
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| ENTERPRISE COULD GET A FOURTH
There is a rumor that UPN will green-light a fourth season of Star Trek: ENTERPRISE, but will only give the struggling SF series a 12-episode commitment. ENTERPRISE could earn another 12-episode order if the ratings for the initial dozen episodes merit it. The retooled ENTERPRISE, bolstered by heightened action and the Xindi arc, has performed reasonably well against such stiff competition as the Fox juggernaut AMERICAN IDOL and The WB's popular SMALLVILLE. It was still unclear whether or not longtime Trek executive producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga would continue to run the show if it does return. A final announcement about the fate of ENTERPRISE is expected within the next two weeks. DOCTOR WHOOO DR WHO? ECCLESTON IS DOCTOR WHO?
PICARDO MAY RETURN TO SG-1
NO BUFFY IN THE END
KINGDOM DROPS AND MOVES
FRANKENSTEIN GETTING SET
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| April of 2004: Johns Hopkins
Film Festival 2004.
For information about submitting films, check out the submissions page. Please note that the submission address and JHFF phone number have changed since last year. The fest will be held during. Exact dates will be posted as April approaches. Prices : $3 – Show $5 - Day Pass $15 - Festival Pass *Free admission for JHU students, faculty, and employees with valid Hopkins ID.. May 28-31 2004: BALTICON 38 At
the Wyndham Inner Harbor Hotel.
June 4-6: Moonlight
Rising 2004: A Con for all you Buffy Fans
July 9-11: Shore Leave 26, Hunt Valley, MD July 30-August 1: Otakon 2004, The Baltimore Convention Center August 13-15: Horrorfind,
Hunt Valley, MD.
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| RAY HARRYHAUSEN - AN ANIMATED LIFE Billboard Books
2004
Review by G.R. We’ve all heard the ad line “If
you only see one movie this year...”, and the same can apply to this new
treasure, just released in the U.S. by Billboard Books - “If you only buy
one book this year...”
MANGA FROM HEAVEN
This month another publisher gets into the manga business. This time it’s Del Rey, the science fiction division of Random House, as part of their deal with Kodansha. If you sign up for their newsletter at their website, you’ll get a nice little explanation of some of the history of manga and the trend of it being released in the US. They’re all retailing for a price of 10.95. Showing their good taste in titles, they have two by Clamp, both of which involve extensive character crossovers from previous Clamp works. “Tsubasa RESERVior Chronicles, which uses characters from “Card Captor Sakura” to tell an adventure story about the young magician Syaoran Lee and the princess of Clow, Sakura. Also being released is “xxxHOLIC” which has a title that leads us to believe that it’s about something else (like perhaps the adventures of the good-nature pervert Hideki of “Chobits…). But in reality, “xxxHOLIC” is about a young man who is haunted by visions and goes to a witch named Yuuko for help, and in return he has to work in her freaky store and help with her freakier customers. This series also crosses over with the Tsubasa Chronicles; apparently the ladies of clamp are clearly trying to confuse us. (Or boost sales, but it’s not like they need the help). Previously at the center of some controversy was “Negima! Master Negi
Magi” by Ken Akumatsu (“Love Hina”). Del Rey was hoping to draw in some
Harry Potter fans with this title about a young magician who goes to Japan
to teach English in an all girls school. However Del Rey panicked when
they noticed Akumatsu’s tendencies to have some fan-servicey mild nudity
(nothing to explicit, everything important is covered), so they asked the
author to touch up some panels. This would have gone unnoticed until it’s
release if
“It's not you Bernie. I guess I'm just not used to being chased around
“ Animals are fine, but their acceptability is limited. A
“The only person who could miss with this gun is the sucker with
the
If any ICS members would like to share their view on a recent book that they’ve read – fiction or non-fiction, please email it attn betsy at ICSBETSPOTS@aol.com. |
| HELLBENT FOR HELLBOY
Ron Perlman, who stars as the title character in the upcoming comic-book adaptation HELLBOY, said that the finished film exceeded his highest expectations. "Wow," he said "How cool. It's more so when you're involved in it. It's the most it can be when you're the title character." Perlman was the first choice to play Hellboy for del Toro, the film's director, and Mike Mignola, creator of the original comic book. Upon meeting to discuss the movie, HELLBOY creator Mike Mignola and director Guillermo del Toro decided to reveal to each other their choice for the lead role of Hellboy. They both said at the same time, “Ron Perlman.” HELLBOY director Guillermo del Toro fought a long battle for him to play the title demon-gone-good in his big-screen adaptation of the Dark Horse comic book. "Guillermo could have made the movie on many occasions if he wasn't hellbent on having Ron Perlman play Hellboy," the actor said. "There was such a magical coming together of forces along the way that made this so sweet for me and for Guillermo." Perlman said that he had no trouble identifying with the big red guy. "Let's examine, if you will, what Hellboy does in this film," Perlman said. "He drinks beer. He smokes cigars. He f--ks around with the guys he works with to the point where he drives them up the wall. He's a wiseass. He's a wisecracking dude. He trash-talks the people that he's fighting against for life or death. He's constantly in this kind of mode like, 'Is that all you've got?' There's nothing similar to him [in] me." In HELLBOY, Perlman plays a demon conjured by the Nazis, but raised by a kindly professor to protect the world from evil as an agent of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. For the actor, the character was not only personally gratifying, but also reminiscent of one of his most notable roles: Vincent in the 1980s television series BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. "It's weird that I got to play the Beast, and it's also weird that I got to play Hellboy," he said. "Although, maybe not so weird, because, you know, there's my whole life, particularly the real early years, growing up, finding a way to manage what I felt was monstrous about myself. ... Grappling with what I thought was monstrous about me was ultimately the most defining thing about who I ended up being in life. And I have a true attraction to the people who are grappling with that problem." 007 FOR BROSNAN AGAIN
ZATHURA BLASTS OFF
TILLY SPAWNS SEED OF CHUCKY
MORE VETS TO JOIN BATMAN
MACLAINE, CAINE ARE BEWITCHED
SPIDEY 2 CRAWLS EARLY
GYLLENHAAL GOING GREEN?
SMITH DELAYS RANGER DANGER
BLACK JOINS KING KONG
SAND AND SANDALS FOR $$$
URBAN KITTY CAT
GET YOUR DECODER RINGS!
DAVA’S MOVIE DELVINGS A SPOTLESS MIND MEANS AN EMPTY SOUL
The latest installment of Charlie Kaufman's warped brain cells and uniquely adapted by director Michel Gondry, Eternal Sunshine tells the story of Joel Berish, (Carrey) and his attempt to erase wild child girlfriend, Clementine, (Winslet) from his mind. We, the audience, are taken on a kind of reverse journey of Joel and Clementine's turbulent romance, through the perspective of Jim Carrey's unconscious brain. As the events of the relationship unfold before us, Joel comes to realize that he does not wish to forget his ladylove, and fights with all he has to keep Clementine from slipping away forever. As he struggles to keep her hidden in the deep creases of his subconscious, in the real world, Clementine is being swept off her feet by Patrick, (Wood) a deceitful but love struck lab technician who has taken over Joel's memories. In addition to a highly intriguing plot, the movie also makes use of an extremely talented cast. Considering the track records of both Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, it would seem that the pair would make an unlikely and unbelievable couple. After all, Winslet has made a career out of award winning, sophisticated dramas like Titanic, while Carrey has traditionally chosen the path of mindless comedies such as Bruce Almighty. And yet, as you watch them together, it feels as though the colaboration was always meant to happen. It is nearly impossible not to be taken by Winslet's free spirit, while Jim Carrey delivers a performance worthy of Man on the Moon praise. Topped off with the outstanding support of Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood, and Tom Wilkinson, to name a few, Eternal Sunshine is a perfect ten. After viewing this film, I cannot say that I recommend the actions taken by Jim Carrey and his co-stars. If it's one thing I've learned from the experience, it is that any memory, whether good or bad, is a precious keepsake. I realized that we should embrace the finer events of our lives, and learn from those, which have given us grief. They should never be forgotten, even for a moment. But, the concept does make for wonderful entertainment. Eternal Sunshine equals eternal bliss. |
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To the members of the Imaginative Cinema Society: It’s been a great privilege to know so many of you, some going as far back as the closing days of that last cinema club - and it’s been a thrill to see how this club has grown from that small group in the Baltimore Public Library to what it is today. I figure if we could survive THE HEADLESS GHOST, nothing short of Al Qaeda can stop us now! With that in mind, I’d like to thank
all of you for your kindness and generosity at my 50th birthday celebration,
Saturday night - especially if I was ignorant and didn’t get to thank you
personally before you left. I was sort of in a daze from the shock of it,
all evening long!
Seriously, though,
-Gary, 50 |
| April 2nd HELLBOY
PG-13
Cast: Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Selma Blair (Liz Sherman), John Hurt (Professor Bruttenholm), Doug Jones (Abe Sapien), David Hyde Pierce (voice of Abe Sapien) Premise: A Nazi experiment goes awry in 1944, and the child of Satan, Hellboy, is taken by the U.S. Now, the adult Hellboy, an investigator of the paranormal, is sent on a mission. Accompanying him are other agents, including Liz, a pyrokinetic woman Hellboy has feelings for, and Abe Sapien, a mysterious amphibian hominid. April 16th KILL BILL
2 R
May 14th TROY
R
May 21 SHREK 2
May 28th THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW
PG 13
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FORTUNE COOKIES DELIGHTS!
Satoshi Kon’s latest film (PERFECT BLUE, MILLENIUM ACTRESS) is a departure from his past themes of fantasy becoming confused with reality; TOKYO GODFATHERS is a more feel-good mainstream audience oriented film. Three homeless people in Tokyo, an alcoholic, a drag queen and a runaway teenager discovered an abandoned child and embark on a quest to reunite him with his parents. No English dub was made for this film, there is only Japanese 5.1 audio with subtitles (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese). Widescreen presentation, and several extras, including a “making of” feature, theatrical trailers, and an character illustration postcard. TEXHNOLYZE VOLUME 1:INHUMANE AND BEAUTIFUL, released by Geneon,
04/06/04. SRP 29.98, also with limited edition collector’s box, 39.98
KAZE NO YOJIMBO VOLUME 1, released by Bandai Entertainment, 04/27/04.
SRP 29.98
SAIKANO VOLUME 1: GIRLFRIEND, released by Viz, 04/27/04 SRP 29.98
AZUMANGA DAIOH VOLUME 1, released by ADV films, 04/27/04 SRP 29.98,
also available with box (and lapel pins) 39.98
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| YOU’VE GOT “GMAIL” ???? by Chaz
Yup, that’s right, Google is getting into the free email market with their version of free email called “Gmail”. AND get this: you get 1 gigabyte of storage. That’s a thousand megabytes to you computer lemmings out there. No more out of space in-boxes such as Hotmail and Yahoo. It also has some mighty powerful search capabilities. Now comes all the reasons and gotchas. First of all, Google, the number one search engine in the universe, has big bad Microsoft on their tail. So it is not surprising for Google to try something like this. About Gmail As part of Google's mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful, we're testing an email service called Gmail. Gmail is a free, search-based webmail service that includes 1,000 megabytes (1 gigabyte) of storage. The backbone of Gmail is a powerful Google search engine that quickly recalls any message an account owner has ever sent or received. That means there's no need to file messages in order to find them again. When Gmail displays an email, it automatically shows all the replies to that email as well, so users can view a message in the context of a conversation. There are no pop-ups or banner ads in Gmail, which places relevant text ads and links to related web pages adjacent to email messages. Contextual ads. But we will get back to these. Gmail uses Google search technology to automatically organize and find messages. And because Gmail includes 1,000 megabytes of storage, a typical user won't ever have to worry about deleting mail. Everything just gets archived so it can be found again if needed. There are other differences in the way Gmail provides access to your email. For example, Gmail automatically groups an email and the replies to it as a conversation. That means you always see a message in its proper context. Gmail's other distinctive features include a labeling system, a spam reporter and a system for filtering your mail as it comes into your inbox. Used this way, search enhances the efficiency of email, so its thought that it's a natural area for Google to offer a service. Now I probably won’t be using this service myself, because I don’t use free email as my primary email service. Most folks who use free email services like Yahoo or Hotmail do so for various reasons. Either they haven’t figured out how to configure Outlook Express to communicate with their ISP’s email server or they want an extra email account separate from the prying eyes of their family, or they just plain like lots of email, especially when they can have a cutsie little name like IamDufus278@hotmail.com. Regardless of the reasons, Gmail is about to arrive, although Google hasn’t announce an actual launch date. Here’s several reasons to be a little careful about jumping on the Google bandwagon. I use a Yahoo account, because I can easily configure it to check my email with my primary ISP, Verizon. Google’s Gmail won’t have that feature. Now some of you may say, “Who cares, we still get a gig of space”. Well along with that space comes what Google calls contextual advertising. What is that??? It isn’t pop-ups, it is much more scarier (to me). Here’s an example of contextual advertising: you send an email to a friend about the upcoming DVD release of the 1933 King Kong (as if any other existed) using Gmail. Google could track via a keyword like “DVD” or “King Kong” and send you relevant advertising from either a DVD company or a DVD company offering a special sale of “King Kong” on DVD. That might sound cool, but there are definite privacy gray areas here. You need to stop and think about whether you want someone looking over your shoulder even if it is an automated, non-intrusive process, filtering your email in order to send you advertising? Fellow ICS’er Charlie Wittig sure doesn’t, but hey, you’re an adult (I think), so make your own decision. CLICK HERE FOR THE GMAIL PAGE view it and have some fun. NETFLIX ANNOUNCES VOD (Video on Demand)
SO YOU’VE DECIDED TO BE EVIL EH?
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| Ralph E. Winters, who received best-editing Oscars for KING SOLOMON'S
MINES and BEN-HUR, has died. He was 94.
In addition to his two wins, Winters received four other Academy Award nominations for best editing; for KOTCH, SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS, QUO VADIS? and THE GREAT RACE for Blake Edwards. He was a favorite of director Edwards and worked for him on 10 other pictures, including 3 of the Pink Panther movies. His more than 70 film credits also include GASLIGHT, LITTLE WOMEN, ON THE TOWN, JAILHOUSE ROCK, BUTTERFIELD 8, THE HAWAIIANS, HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING, THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR, THE FRONT PAGE (1974 version), KING KONG (1976 version), ORCA AND 10. Winters' last editing credit was on the 1995 action-adventure film CUTTHROAT ISLAND. Frances Dee, lovely leading lady and second lead of Hollywood productions
from the 1930’s through the early 50’s has died at age 94. She was married
to the late actor Joel McCrea for 57 years, making it one of Hollywood's
most durable unions.
Robert Pastorelli, the actor best remembered for his six-year run as
Eldin Bernecky, the eccentric painter on TV’s MURPHY BROWN, has died.
Mercedes McCambridge, a versatile character actress with a strong, resonant
voice, who started in radio and went on to Broadway, film and television,
has died at age 85.
Rene Laloux, French animator and director of Science Fiction Fantasy
films, has died.
Peter Ustinov, who won supporting actor Academy Awards for roles as
the gladiator-school owner in SPARTACUS (1960) and as the small-time British
black-marketeer in TOPKAPI (1964), has died at age 82. He also won three
Emmys for his television roles, as well as a Grammy.
Jan Sterling, hard boiled film noir dame and blond beauty in movies
of the 1940s, '50s and '60s, has died. Sterling appeared in more than 40
motion pictures, sometimes in starring roles but more often as a significant
supporting player. Her filmography includes
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by John Ward Where have all the monsters gone?
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| ICS CALENDER –the Month in review
April 2nd HELLBOY film
A good one to start the month off with!
April 5th The Full
Moon out tonight.
April 16th KILL BILL 2 film
The one John Ward has been waiting for!
April 16th THE PUNISHER film
Beware of the Man in Black!
Saturday April 24th at 5:30 P.M – ICS meeting with guest GREG MANK
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