Herding Cats in IKEA

Herding 100 cats in an IKEA UK store for an ad. Will they sharpen their claws and give the humans a run for their money?

Below is the behind the scenes.

Resident Evil 4 Teaser

Directed and written: Paul W.S. Anderson.
Starring: Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Wentworth Miller.

How did news of Resident Evil 4: Afterlife pass me by?

The end of Apocalpse was left open-ended but it great to see Alice (Milla Jovovich) and Claire Redfield (Ali Larter) are back. with the addition of Chris Redfield (Wentworth Miller). Afterlife is set five years after the first film, including of the usual stumble and groan type, there’s mutated zombies which are a bit cooler.

A bonus is that it seems kinda like Kill Bill, as swords hugely feature in the trailer. This film is also earmarked with the filmed exclusively for 3D tagline, let’s see how that works out for them.

Zombies + Swords = A very good combination.

My question is why keep shooting after you’ve jumped out the window?
Hitting cinemas in tomorrow.

Glee Season Two Teaser

Looky looky! They’ve passed the Regionals, next is the Nationals in New York. Gleek fans of the musically talented kiddies will be very happy to check out the teaser trailer for season two, due to start airing in America on September 21st.

Robyn covers Björk’s Hyperballad

I’m unbashed Björk fan, so checking out Robyn covering Hyperballad at last night’s Polar Music Prize show in Stockholm was essential. Oh, the pressure when Herself is front and centre. Check out her outfit from top to toe!

This years, the Polars recognised Björk and Ennio Morricone for their contribution to music. Past recipents of the prize include Sir Paul McCartney, Quincy Jones and Sonny Rollins. Anyways, enjoy!

Nom-Con Saturday Special

I was looking forward to Nom-Con all week and with press pass in hand, I trundled through the double doors to Ireland’s newest anime convention. One of the first things I noticed was that over 80% of the attendees at Nom-Con came decked out in their finest cosplay gear. I caught sight of characters from Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Ouran Host Club, Dante from Devil May Cry, Peter White from Alice In The Country of Hearts (with an over-sized pocket watch) and of course Naruto and Lolita fashionistas. Everyone took pictures of each other’s cosplay outfits, it was great to see and feel a community spirit of like-minded fans.

The Trade Hall was doing impressive business too with attending companies such as Beez Entertainment, Zen Pop and Genki Gear just to name a few. I picked up the second volume of the manga Alice In The Country of Hearts for €8  and the entire season of Cowboy Bebop for an impressively cheap €30 price-tag. The Trade Hall was filled with people throughout the day, when I asked traders they said ‘Business was okay.’ This is a slight understatement as people were laden down and clutching onto their purchases.

(l-r) Claire Thompson, Autumn McCullogh and Emma O’Neill cosplaying as members of Ouran High School Host Club.

I called down to the anime screening room and managed to catch 20 minutes of Trigun and fell in love with the series. It’s been on my list for some time but I never got around to watching it.  Vash the Stampede and co. has been bumped up in line for purchasing and I’ll end up with a fatal case of the lol’s. I managed to catch another series called Angel Beats! which left me confused and bemused about it.

Ducking out from Angel Beats!, I managed to catch the Zen Pop Panel about publishing comics and breaking into the industry. I was surprised to find that at least one of their members create their comics all by hand with no digital editing or rendering software whatsoever and that another member of the group is to sit her Leaving Certificate next year.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s line-up at Nom-Con with Lolier Than Thou, a gameshow-esque to find the biggest fan of Lolita fashion at Nom-Con this year and of course the gaming and anime screenings running all day.

Sharon Nolan as Charmander, everyone’s fave Pokémon.

The Walking Dead TV

I’m working my way through the comic books of The Walking Dead. So I’m keeping my thoughts on this quiet until I’ve finished the series. So far it looks like the TV series is loyal to the comics.

The Triplets of Belleville/Les Triplettes de Belleville

The Illusionist/L’Illusionniste directed by Sylvain Chomet, is being released at Smithfield’s Lighthouse in Dublin today. We thought we’d take a look at his previous feature-length work The Triplets of Belleville/Les Triplettes de Belleville. This film was a collaborative work between France, Canada, Belgium and the UK and it was nominated for two Oscars.

At the bopping of the opening tune, you know there’s a party and you’re heading to it. We’re introduced to Madame Souza, a grandmother trying her best to please her listless young grandson. He has a passing interest in pianos so Souza plays the piano horribly, when that doesn’t succeed she buys him a puppy. Nothing is too much to please the young boy. She discovers that bicycles are his thing, so she buys him a tricycle. Many years later, her grandson has grown up and she helps him to train for the Tour de France.

At the Tour de France, her grandson gets kidnapped by the mafia and taken to America for a betting ring. Madame Souza gives chase in her little pedal boat after her grandson. Grandma meets the Triplets Belleville – and I like their style – everything can be sorted with a grenade. Comic relief is served up by Triplet Belleville’s OCD. Nods to inanimate objects including fridges, papers and hoovers.  Seasons pass and the quartet play ensemble at a restaurant where the mafia boss attends. Together the four women and Bruno the dog strive to free her grandson from the clutches of the mafia.

There is hardly any speech in this film, it’s not required to understand the intention of the characters. The lack of speech relies on the emotive response and actions of the characters. At times Madame Souza driove me demented with the whistle but it’s understandable as it conveyed her wishes without speech; speaking what she wanted would have detracted fom the film somehow. Everything is over stated in this film. If it’s tall, it’s too tall, large, it’s extra extra large.

If this film is high standard of the rest of Chomet’s work then I’m looking foward to The Illusionist.

Verdict: A fascinating film.

Rating:  

Directed by: Sylvain Chomet

Written by: Sylvain Chomet

Voices of: Béatrice Bonifassi, Lina Boudreau, Michèle Caucheteux, Jean-Claude Donda.

Age Rating: 13+

The Triplets of Belleville/Les Triplettes de Belleville on IMDb

Slow by Rumer

Let’s kick off this review by trotting out all of the Rumer comparisons. Tipped the next Karen Carpenter and Carole King, she has a heavy mantle to assume. Even Burt Bacharach is a fanboi. Tall billing for a young singer, indeed!

And onto the Slow, Rumer’s debut single. It’s impossible to ignore Karen Carpenter in Slow’s world-weary, pop maneuvers.

Rumer cites a starry team as influences – amongst the inevitable nods to Carpenter and King, up pops unexpected references to Cilla Black, Roberta Flack, Smokey Robinson and the entire cadre of the Laurel Canyon in the 60s. Those influences shine through in Rumer’s vocals. Smooth like glossy marble she defines arches for the structure of the Slow to sit on. One wonders what Rumer would sound like a capella or with just a brush of a snare.

Just like its companion video, Slow is steeped in languid moods. You can smell the Summer sun. Accompanying percussion cuts softly through piano and guitar, but Rumer pulls the tune out of itself before it becomes predictable with a soft punch of her feathery vocals. Undeniably, Rumer is a star in the making.

Slow goes on release on August 23rd. Free download of Rumer’s cover of Paul Simon’s Long, Long Day.

Rumer plays Dublin’s Academy on October 16th supporting Joshua Radin.

Label: Atlantic Records

Rumer interview (beware, it autoplays!)

Rumer’s Myspace

Comeback Kids

Kanye has always been a dichotomous figure: great production but lazy MC skills and irrelevant lyrically, even the production values have began to slip in recent years as he expanded his empire and began collaborating and working for so many other fledgling stars, especially his friends signed to the G.O.O.D label. Here however, we’ve something reminiscent of his “College Dropout”. Warm and soulful, it’s hard not to bop along. Granted the track straddles the line between familiarity and simply emulating the music he made his name with but it certainly is nice to see.

Having never warmed to the previous track “Bang Bang Bang” by Ronson and his Business INTL, this collaboration with Ghostface Killah just flows in a way it never could. Whereas the first was trying too hard (Sorry Q-Tip, we all make mistakes), this works on a far simpler level, especially given that Ronson sings the midsections himself. Now I’m looking forward to the September 27th release date just a little bit more because I can see beyond the calculated cool of “Version” to “Here Comes The Fuzz”.

Jedward Topless

I’m guilty, my mouth watered.

Source