Review: The Dark Knight

NO SPOILERS

Glasgow IMAX, July 23rd:

Well, I've just seen an actual comic book world of Batman brought to life so vividly and accurately by Christoper Nolan's "The Dark Knight" - Make no mistake this is worth all the hype and record breaking over the last weekend in the US. The follow up to "Batman Begins" throws us straight into the action and does not let up from one breathtaking set piece to another! Sure, I'm a fan, I've read the comics and previously enjoyed Tim Burton's "Batman" and "Batman Returns", but this is an entirely different beast!

This is it, this is what fans of the Caped Crusader have craved since they became fans in the first place, the actors on the screen have immersed themselves totally in their roles! Christian Bale is excellent, I love his savage potrayal of the man in black, Gary Oldman is Jim Gordon, he is totally perfect in this role, while Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine lend gravitas to their lesser but important roles. Maggie Gyllenhaal improves the character of Rachel Dawes played previously by Katie Holmes and Aaron Eckhart is fantastic as Harvey Dent, the rising white knight of Gotham City.

However, the real star is Heath Ledger as The Joker, one the finest performances I've seen on the big screen. Forget Jack Nicholson, Ledger has nailed one of greatest comic book monsters and it's fitting that this was his final performance. When he is on the screen, you feel dread, you know something terrible could happen at any time, no other onscreen villain has managed this! In addition you soon realise he's not crazy, he has a plan and it's a clever one and this makes him even more frightening. Oh and the Oscar buzz is no joke either, his performance as well as the film in it's own right is totally deserved, I doubt we'll see it bettered this year!

The cinematography is excellent and you must see this in IMAX at some point as it's awe inducing, utterly fantastic! The score is excellent too, but I could go on and on, just go see this, as not only is it the best comic book adaption of all time but it's one of the best crime dramas too, only our hero wears a cowl and a cape and the villain has clown makeup.

Simply fantastic!

The Dark Knight Records!

Source: MediabyNumbers

1 - LARGEST NUMBER OF OPENING THEATRES WITH 4,366 (MORE THAN THE 4,362 DEBUT THEATRES OF PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END IN 2007).

2 - BIGGEST MIDNIGHT PREVIEW GROSS WITH $18.489 MILLION IN 3,040 THEATRES (BEATS STAR WARS EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH AND ITS $16.9 MILLION IN 2,915 THEATRES IN 2005).

3 - BIGGEST IMAX MIDNIGHT PREVIEWS SET AN NEW RECORD WITH $640,000 (INCLUDED IN THE $18.489 MILLION PREVIEW NUMBER).

4 - BIGGEST SINGLE-DAY GROSS IN BOX-OFFICE HISTORY WITH $67.850 MILLION (BESTS THE $59,841,919 SET BY SPIDER-MAN 3 IN 2007).

5 - BIGGEST OPENING WEEKEND GROSS IN BOX OFFICE HISTORY WITH $155.340 MILLION (BESTS THE $151,116 MILLION SET BY SPIDER-MAN 3 IN 2007).

6 - BIGGEST OPENING WEEKEND GROSS FOR AN IMAX RELEASE IN BOX OFFICE HISTORY WITH $6,214,061 MILLION IN 94 THEATRES WITH $66,107 PER THEATRE. (BESTS THE $4.7 MILLION SET BY SPIDER-MAN 3 IN 2007.) IMAX SHOWING AT FULL CAPACITY $1.9 MILLION ON SATURDAY ALONE.

7 - BIGGEST OPENING WEEKEND OF 2008 WITH $151.340 (BEATS INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL'S $101.137 MILLION FROM MAY 23-25, 2008)

8 - BIGGEST JULY OPENING EVER (BEATS PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST'S $135,634,554 ON JULY 7, 2006).

The Dark Knight: Record Breaker!

Source: Superherohype

"Box Office Mojo is reporting that Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight has set a new opening day record with $66.4 million in a record 4,366 theaters (including 94 IMAX theaters) nationwide.

With brisk advance sales and early sell-outs reported all week from Fandango, it looks like the latest installment in Warner Bros' Batman franchise has delivered an opening day gross bigger than the previous five movies were able to make in their opening weekends alone. Even though Dark Knight opened with roughly $7 million more than Spider-Man 3 grossed in its opening day last year, to claim the opening weekend record (currently $151.1 million) for The Dark Knight might be somewhat premature, since Spider-Man 3 opened in May with school in session, while theoretically, The Dark Knight could be more frontloaded with so much more interest and demand in seeing it opening day."

Amazing numbers for TDK, full thoughts from me after my IMAX screening on Wednesday night in Glasgow!

Review: The New York Ripper

After a long hiatus and a little more free time I have decided to start writing DVD reviews again for 10k Bullets and I will be reviewing all of UK distributor Shameless Films catalogue starting with their 1st release from October 2007 - Lucio Fulci's "The New York Ripper"

Edwige Fenech Interview from 1970

Cinema X talks to Edwige Fenech

Source: LoveLock&Load

This interview was first published in Cinema X (Vol.3 number 3) circa 1970 and re-printed in Cinema X 'Super-X Special' No. 4. It is reproduced here as published.


It's not everyone's luck to be born on Christmas Eve. But it happened to actress Edwige Fenech. The date which appears on her passport is December 24 th , 1948, and that makes her twenty-two years of age.

Twenty-two gorgeous years, may I add. Edwige Fenech is tall and slender, moves with grace and elegance and exudes class and culture to a remarkable degree. She lives in Rome , where a short time ago she moved.

“It was a talent scout who invited me to Rome ”, Edwige Fenech tells me, speaking Italian easily and correctly in a sweet, melodious French accent. “I took part in a Miss Universe contest as the representative from France and attracted some attention. I was asked to come to Italy to live and try to get somewhere in movies, and I accepted. At this point I'm very happy I came”


Luigi Cozzi: “But hadn't you already done some work in the French cinema?”

Edwige Fenech: “No. I had just had a few jobs as a photographer's model and had also done some bits in the theatre. The theatre has always been my passion, and I hoped to be successful at it one day. But the cinema came along instead, and I ended up here… I'm happy about it, however, because a whole new world has opened up to me – much vaster than the theatre. After all, that's what films are all about, isn't it?


LC: “Have you been in Italy long?”

EF: “Three years. It's a very beautiful country – in fact, I would say that Rome is the most beautiful city in the world”

LC: “Where is your family from?”


EF: “I come from Nice, just like my parents. I often go there to visit them, but when I can't get away, my mother comes down to see me. Mama is often here in Rome with me. She helps me, keeps me company and has a good time, because Rome is a wonderful city”

LC: “What do your parents think of the career you have chosen to follow? You have made ‘For Adults Only' type pictures for the most part. Wearing just the bear essentials”

EF: “They are happy at the present time and satisfied with what I have been able to do. They know it has been a hard, uphill road for me, and what success I have had has been gotten the hard way. You know, acting with almost all your clothes off doesn't shorten the road to the top. All actresses take their clothes off nowadays, but only a few get there and stay there. I feel I have arrived, and my mother is very happy about it”

LC: “But don't you feel embarrassed about getting undressed on the set?”

EF: “Oh, it's terrible. Especially the first times on the early films… I didn't know how to behave and I was frightfully ashamed. Then I resigned myself to it, rather I got used to it… after all these are things you have to do in the movies whether you like it or not. The public demands it. Certainly it's never pleasant to disrobe in front of so many technicians and fellow actors. I always have the feeling, when I get dressed again, that they are still looking at me as if I had nothing on. And I don't even want to talk about what happens in the theatres where they show my pictures… I went to see MADAME BOVARY again in a first run film theatre, and I turned as red as a beet when I saw myself naked on the screen. Meanwhile the audience began to get noisy and exchange unprintable remarks”

LC: “However, this always happens, in all movies, whenever an actress undresses. Italians as an audience are warm and expressive”

EF: “Yes, but it's not always like that. That picture (MADAME BOVARY) really upset me, but when I saw the scene with the nude buttocks in SOLDIER BLUE, I noticed that the public remained perfectly calm, wasn't noisy and made no remarks”

LC: “Well, excuse me, but that's not a very appropriate example. Candice Bergen didn't have much to do, erotically speaking, in that scene… if that pair of buttocks was really hers. It was a touch of humour more than anything else, with the wagon jolting along and the couple plastered together like slices of salami… in 500 MILLION HIT ON THE NATIONAL BANK, Ursula Andress is nude from beginning to end, but everything is done with such grace and finesse that the picture has not even been prohibited for minors of fourteen years of age. MADAME BOVARY is, on the other hand, more obvious, laying the emphasis on physical eroticism. When the leading lady emerges topless, I think the explosion on the part of the audience is quite understandable”

“Perhaps”, agrees Edwige Fenech with an embarrassed smile. Just talking about this scene makes her blush spontaneously. “I realise it's not a good film, but I also know that doing the role helped me a great deal in that it introduced me to the public by exploiting what I had to offer physically. All in all, I owe a lot of my present success to it”

LC: “Will you continue to accept these sex-kitten roles?”

EF: “If possible, no. At least, if the sex sequences are motivated and justified by the demands of the plot and aesthetic considerations, then I would say yes. But I shall say no absolutely to a picture which presents sex for sex's sake with no other justifications”

LC: “How many pictures have you made so far?”

EF: “Eighteen I believe. Yes, I'm not very satisfied with them, but I must admit they have all been important for getting me before the public and catapulting me up to where I am now. Now I am preparing myself to enter the second stage of my career, and I really would like to make a success with my talent and acting gifts rather than just with my beauty. I'm counting a great deal on a film I've just finished making, THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARD, directed by Sergio Martino on the scenario of a thriller by Ernest Gastaldi. I adore suspense films and think this one in particular is very beautiful, full of chills and special effects.

LC: “What films are your favourites?”

EF: “SOLDIER BLUE, CROMWELL and THEY SHOOT HORSES DON'T THEY? Are the first ones which come to my mind. I adore Richard Harris as an actor as well as a man. I think he's great, magnificent – he makes me dream with my eyes open”

LC: “Leaving the cinema aside for a moment, what are your preferences in life?”

EF: “I lead a tranquil, sheltered life. I have a few friends – boys who go to university – solid citizens. I like music too and almost always listen to pop records – Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding. However, when I'm alone and sad, I prefer to listen to classical music: it's more relaxing”

LC: “Do you live alone?”

EF: “I live in an apartment… which I must change, because I'm alone when my mother's not here. Do you know that thieves have tried to break in here twice? Now I'm looking for a new apartment in a safer area. It's the only thing to do, don't you think?”

RIP: Xploited Cinema

Very sad news to hear of the end of Xploited Cinema, perhaps the best Cult DVD supplier out there!

"All good things must come to an end and that time is near for Xploited Cinema! It has been years since we started selling DVDs to the best customers around the world, but we've made a decision to move on. Xploited Cinema will still be around, but we will stop carrying new products and stop stocking catalog titles.

It was a tough decision since through the years everyone here has given 110% of themselves, but it's time to slow down, rest and shift gears to new endeavors. Are we "going out of business"? Not necessarily since we will continue to ship orders in the same efficient manner we always have, but in the short term leading into the long term we will be carrying less new releases and not re-ordering older catalog titles.

Mid July will be the time when you will be noticing no new titles added to the website and older titles taken off the website once we sell out. All current pre-orders will be processed and shipped as normal. Over time you will notice older titles disappearing from the website. We recommend getting what you want now since all titles will not be re-ordered as we run low in stock or sell out.

I would like to thank all of the customers that have stuck around with us since the early 2000s. For years I have corresponded with many of you via emails and have met many of you face to face at conventions. I can wholeheartedly say that we have the best and most loyal customers a business could ever imagine.

As i mentioned before this hasn't been an easy decision since I've given as much as i could to make Xploited Cinema a successful DVD retailing website, but I just can't keep doing this for the rest of my life. We will be around in some capacity for who knows how long dealing with the day in day out activities we have always been doing. The only main change noticed will be the elimination of stocking new releases and older catalog titles. Orders will be processed in the same timely manner as in the past and order and item related questions will be answered promptly.

From the bottom of my heart I would once again like to thank everyone who has been an Xploited Cinema customer through the years!"

Tony Simonelli
July 6th, 2008

Italian Spiderman: Episode 5

Italian Spiderman: Episode 4