The CBD Team feels honored to have been awarded the opportunity to show world exclusive photo material and information on the upcoming Cinemaquette Superman Statue.

Made possible by no other than Cinemaquettes CEO George Sohn himself, you’re invited to read more about this special event in the Lounge HERE.

More brand new promotional pictures can be found at CapedWonder.com.

All the information herein was provided with permission from Cinemaquette and Mr George Sohn. More official images will follow in the coming week on their web presence at Cinemaquette.com followed by a Preorder for this statue next month.

A certain percentage of the proceeds from this will be donated to the Christopher Reeves Foundation.

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Well, I’ve managed to do it. I persuaded myself to trudge through all my used cinema ticket stubs from this year to pick my top ten films of 2009!

But despite my local cinema doing its best to serve me a diet of clichés and cheese on a weekly basis, I still found a ton (well ten) films to write home about. I have high standards. Only the best will do. So here we go…

10. Knowing

Alex Proyas’ intelligent, if slightly under-developed end-of the-world tale has much going for it. Nicolas Cage plays a teacher who discovers a time capsule sealed at his son’s school. As he unravels the mystery surrounding the documents therein, he discovers a series of predictions relating to natural disasters made when the capsule was buried in the 1950’s. Some of these predictions have already come true. And as he follows the trail to the present day, he finds many more are about to happen.

Although genuinely captivating, the film does suffer from having some half baked ideas, which leave the film feeling less ‘complete’ than it perhaps should have been. But if you’re fed up with the way Emmerich serves up the end of the world, there is much to recommend here in this thought-provoking tale.

If you’re a fan of the director’s other works such as Dark City, or the Crow, there is much familiarity both in tone and in the setting, and that’s no bad thing.

9. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

I suppose we have to be thankful that Heath Ledger’s final film was directed by Terry Gilliam. There can be few other directors who’d be able to salvage a movie following the untimely demise of the male lead. Thankfully, Terry Gilliam films are rather oblique even on the best of days, which leaves the Imaginarium no worse off for the addition of Depp, Law and Farrell in place of the deceased Ledger.

The Imaginarium is a film that is impossible to categorise. Calling it a fantasy film just doesn’t do it justice. In fact the only category I can really pigeonhole it in is “it’s a Terry Gilliam film”. So if you liked Time Bandits, Fear and Loathing, or Twelve Monkeys you’ll probably feel right at home with this.

Yes it’s a bit strange. In fact it’s very strange, as the film flips between sequences in the real World and the Imaginarium, and between Ledger and his alter egos. But it’s stacked full with visual loveliness to give your eyeballs a tickle, solid performances, and a satisfying story. A fun, charming, and well conceived ‘fantasy. A film that you should see and appreciate for yourself.

8. A Serious Man

Sy Ableman may well be the most sinister character ever presented in film. You see, Sy is a “serious man”, and what’s more he’s having an affair with Larry Gopnik’s wife. And no matter how much anger you feel towards Sy, he’ll just direct it all back at you.

A Serious Man is the latest film from the Coen brothers. And it takes them back ten years (before they made Intolerable Cruelty and Burn After Reading) to their character driven heyday of Fargo and The Big Lebowski.

A Serious Man is the story of the latter days of Larry Gopnik as his life unravels around him.
Larry is trying his best to be a serious man. He’s a professor at a local university aiming for tenure. He has a wife, and a daughter and a son rapidly approaching his Bar mitzvah. He lives in a quiet neighbourhood and is comfortable for money.

But an unfortunate chain of events begin to unfold after he rejects a bribe from a South Korean student to change a grade on a failed maths exam paper. His wife reveals she’s having an affair with Sy. The father of the South Korean threatens to sue him. His neighbour encroaches on his property. His female nexdoor neighbour starts sunbathing nude. His brother is arrested for gambling. He isn’t getting any sleep after being relegated to the local Motel. And none of the local Rabbis seem to be much help. Larry’s trying to be a serious man. But no one else around his seems to notice or even care. …

This film is worth watching for the faultless acting, and utter fist knawlingly awful encounters Larry has with Sy. It’s dark. It’s often funny. And it has a very Coen brothers ending. What more could you want?

7. Paranormal Activity

Well I reviewed this film recently so there is little more to say. Not especially original, but my goodness is it value for money!

Proof that $15,000 can go a very long way if you know the fundamental elements of what people find scary. For me, this film is the sort of uncomfortable scare machine the first hour of Halloween was. Unsettling, disturbing, and guaranteed to make short work of your nerves.

6. Inglorious Basterds

Bonjourno!

C’mon, Inglorious Basterds is a riot of a film all told. Part revenge, part men-on-a-mission; Basterds essentially boils down to a series of interconnecting stories, all subtly converging towards the films climatic, blazing inferno.

Tarantino gets back to the snappy, terse dialogue of old, thankfully remembering this time to make the characters interesting and watchable (unlike Death Proof). Following the story through to find out the fate of the characters is the ultimate reward for this two and a half hour plus movie. And it’s interesting to note who lives, and who dies.

Beautifully shot, perfectly pitched, and nicely exploitative of some old war movie clichés, this is a film I can happily sit through time after time.

5. Fantastic Mr. Fox

Wes Anderson’s latest film is an adaptation of the Roald Dahl tale of animal against farmer. The film boasts unbelievable production values. It’s filmed the old fashioned way using stop-go technology, and voiced by Anderson mainstays Bill Murray, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Michael Gambon and Owen Wilson. Also present are the talents of George Clooney, Willem Dafoe and Jarvis Cocker.

Despite this line-up, it’s easy to get lost in the moment, and forget you’ve even heard of the stars behind the characters. Fantastic Mr. Fox is a really heart-warming, and well, totally endearing multi-layered experience that I am really looking forward to seeing again on blu ray next year.

At a time when animated films are being spewed up left right and centre by the likes of Disney and Dreamworks, it’s neat to find something, well, that feels fresh and original stylistically. I’m not cussing with you here: see it.

4. Watchmen

It’s amazing Watchmen ever got made. Languishing in development limbo for years, Zack Snyder finally took the challenge of trying to film the un-filmable. And for the most part succeeded admirably. Okay, so there are several concessions made with the story in order to squeeze it in to a three-hour run-time, but that just comes with the territory I’m afraid.

Watchmen is probably the bravest superhero film ever made. Like its source material it’s visceral, at times downright brutal, and thoroughly un-compromising. Perhaps the Cold War subtext, so poignant in the source material, is lost a little in translation these days. Though I’m glad all involved resisted the temptation to set the thing in 2009.

That said, Watchmen is still an amazing movie for what it get right. The actors behind Rorschach, Nite Owl, and the Comedian are perfect. And Doctor Manhattan is flawlessly executed. The soundtrack, with the inclusion of parts of Phillip Glass’ score from Koyaanisqatsi is inspired. And the story moves along nicely, capturing all of the essential elements of Alan Moore’s original work.

Bring on the ultimate edition blu-ray I say!

3. Drag me to Hell

Drag me to Hell, simply put, is a movie that will terrify you, make you jump, make you laugh, and make you wonder why there aren’t more movies like this to go see. Drag me to Hell is a rare example of a movie that makes you remember why the fuck you love going to the cinema so much in the first place.

With Drag me to Hell, Sam Raimi goes for a balance between horror, gore and comedy. So well made is this film, that you are never quite sure what is coming next. The humour really just ‘buffers’ the scares, and lures you in to a false sense of security. I normally watch horror through my fingers, but Drag me to Hell transfixed me, I couldn’t pull my eyes from the screen, or my mind from the story.

Dark, positively black and deeply ironic humour, mixed with some neat twists and a cat killed in a sacrificial context. What more can a film offer?

2. Moon

Moon, released to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, is a dark science fiction thriller that borrows quite a bit from the genre, but still manages to be highly intelligent, mysterious and surprising all on its own.

Astronaut Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is nearing the end of a three-year stint mining Helium-3 from the dark side of the Moon. With two weeks to go all Sam wants to do is to get home to his wife and child. But he makes a discovery that leads him to question everything he has come to take for granted. And with only the Space Station’s computer Gerty (Kevin Spacey) for company, it’s clear that not everything is as it seems.

As a viewer I was able to foresee some of the twists and story turns (and there are many) before they happened. Other elements not so much, and others I got flat wrong. For sure this is a thought-provoking film, which keeps you guessing. At its heart is an emotional storyline driven by Sam’s longing to get home. But everything gets turned on its head. And as the film picks up pace towards the climax, it remembers to leave just enough ambiguity floating around to make you question everything you’ve just seen yourself.

Rockwell is thoroughly engaging, though Kevin Spacey’s voice is perhaps too recognisable for this sort of role. Still it’s credit to the film that the producers were able to get him on board for a sum probably nothing like what he would normally earn.

The soundtrack is a thing of wonder, and after only a few listens has become the best piece of science fiction music I’ve heard since Cliff Matinez’s Solaris score.

Despite the low budget ($5 million), everything about this film screams quality. There is no obvious CGI in sight, and the use of models for the ships, vehicles and bases is a revelation believe me. I loved it all the way. A must-see.

1. District 9

District 9 is the best science fiction film I’ve seen in the last ten years. In fact I’m struggling to think of anything since the Matrix that was as good as this.
District 9’s biggest draw is the way it blends science fiction and reality together in to a hybrid mockumentary. The narrative resonates on many levels because of its obvious parallels with apartheid. Writer/director Neill Blomkamp based the story on his own experiences growing up in South Africa, and that gives the film an edgy realism. Make no mistake about it; this film has no sheen or veneer like most of the science fiction pumped out these days. It’s as uncompromising and as real as it gets. If you seen the final battle sequence from Children of Men will know exactly what to expect here.
The plot is deceptively simple, and feels very comforting if you’ve ever played videogames such as Half Life or Halo. All Blomkamp and Producer Peter Jackson have done is put you in the game without the need for a controller.
Truthfully it is very difficult to describe in words how much this film sucked me in – how hopelessly immersed I became. The only way I can really put it is to say that I felt no passing of time whatsoever and no sense of my surroundings whilst the events unfolded on screen.
District Nine is an intensely satisfying experience, and I cannot urge you enough to go see it. It makes you realise just how effective science fiction can be when done properly.

If you haven’t seen it yet there is but one question to ask yourself: why?

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Steve is back with one of his finest reviews, a take on the Predator Cinemaquette!

Join him on a passionate journey into the film, the character, and Steve Wang’s work for Cinemaquette.

As always, this excellent writeup features some of his latest high-res picture material of the maquette.

Thank you, Steve!

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