I just wanted to let you all know. This video featuring THE MAN HIMSELF is absolutely brilliant. This is the exact thing I am talking about in my Citizen Kane essay on Meta-textuality. Absolutely brilliant.

My favorite media theory (One I slightly self-developed) is meta-intertexuality. Its basically about how a movie is affecting you based on the medium it is conveying based on the medium the characters operate under base on how the director manipulates that medium. And how you know you’re watching a movie about a movie (or reading a book about a book) about a film maker making a movie or a news paper writer writing a newspaper being demonstrated in news reels. Furthermore, it is about how it effects you specifically because of the medium in which its conveyed via its levels of didactic truth or angles of emotional involvement.

In this case, its Kojima doing a kitcshy video about Kojima’s home-made kitchsy stuff (the ridiculous looking MGS universe, which I love but has become a tad overdone), where the coolest thing is just running around ridiculously pretending your stealthy when in reality, the AI is just too dumb to notice you or doesn’t care, knowing that he’ll probably get away with it because, in all honesty, most people just don’t care, and that its funny because we do it just because we feel cool doing it. That’s the whole reason. He just…he knows.

Especially because, up until that point, the video really sucks. No offense guys at Mega64. I’m sure that was your intention. The trigger-happy-TV video game approach is, as always, beautiful, but I know you’re just being self-referential to your own previous material, hence the disappointment in your characters’ eyes when they meet their Maker. They know they’ve been caught in a running gag, just as the series of MGS has, itself, become.

More posts will be coming later, but are coming in slowly, seeing as I have become a Stunt Pirate somewhere I can’t say, and that I have a lot going on this summer, including Kung Fu training. No joke.

This little gem has been popping up all over the internet lately, and recently Rotten Tomatoes released and exclusive director interview to help flesh out the plot.

Synopsis from IMDB.com

FRANKLYN is about four lost souls, divided by two parallel worlds, on course for an explosive collision when a single bullet will decide all their fates.

This doesn’t sound like a typical action movie, until you hear about the character, specifically the Rorschach inspired Preest,

a masked vigilante detective, searching for his nemesis on the streets of Meanwhile City, a monolithic fantasy metropolis ruthlessly governed by faith and religious fervor. Esser (Hurt) is a broken man, searching for his wayward son amongst the rough streets of London’s homeless. Milo (Bettany) is a heartbroken thirty-something desperately trying to find a way back to the purity of first love. Emilia (Green) is a beautiful art student; her suicidal art projects are becoming increasingly more complex and deadly.

Here’s the link to the Rotten Tomatoes director exclusive.

I’ll probably check this one out, it sorta rocks to the same vibes as The Crow, Oldboy, and Dark City. Those are three of my favorite films, if anyone feels like discussing ’em.

PUSH in HD

I’ve honestly become divided on this one. Recently every action movie has traded in the idea of “high strung” or “important” secret agent “foils nefarious plot” (Casino Royale was the last good example of this, Quantum of Solace is a revenge story, demoting it’s “action film” status to “revenge thriller with action”) to Super Soldier Doesn’t Remember Who He Was So Now He Has To Figure it out (Every Bourne movie, Xmen: Wolverine, and pretty much every recent video game in existence). So aside from the Jason Statham movies where, hello, the actor is Jason Statham and that’s all we need to know, we’ve either had secret agents or amnesiac super soldiers as our recent heroes. Or both, thank you Matt Damon.

Personally I’m most divided cause I’m working on my own plot dealing with this kind of character, but it’s going to be different, I promise. Everyone I’ve talked to so far sounds pretty interested.

But this new thing, Push, takes the first idea of a secret agent and the second idea of a super soldier, supposedly does away with the “I don’t remember, so I have to find out!” angle, and amps up the creativity (whatever you have to say otherwise, I’ve never seen a movie where the psychic moves the guns to attack his opponents…ok wait. X-men…WELL HE WAS A MAGNA-KINETIC SO ITS DIFFERENT!), so that we can get something different in theaters…

So I don’t know how to feel about it yet. On the one hand, the previously mentioned Djimon Honsou is in it, and that makes me flash a big dumb grin (You’re an Oscar Nominated Actor for CHRIST SAKES!) ! On the other hand, Dakota Fanning is in it, and she couldn’t even get attention by being raped. (Hound Dog). No, I’m serious, no one saw her last awful film. About being raped. And neither do I, and I don’t intend to, cause Dakota Fanning is scarier than any movie monster since the 1980’s. (That’s sure to lead to a bunch of new readers who search google for “Dakota Fanning” and “Rape.”)

On the other hand, people I know decently, regardless of our differing tastes, have told me it looks terrible but have at least admitted that’s because of the shooting and editing style, which I already figured would be a problem. NO one knows how to shoot action movies anymore, at least not interestingly.

I’m gonna make a more interesting post later. In the meantime, this is just a simple preview for Push. I’m kinda outta enthusiasm for this one, but I’ll tell ya why later.

The only thing I can really say about this one is “hrrrum.” I mean, here we have the American Martial Arts film, only this isn’t truly a martial arts film- its more like a Rocky-esque urban antihero story, Fighting is about…

A young con-artist named Sean MaCarthur runs into a bit of trouble when making a sale one day, only to be noticed by a professional scam artist (played by Terrence Howard). He is invited into the world of “Underground Street Fighting,” which is more like performance fighting for rich people’s entertainment. In the process of this he confronts his own personal morality and his need for validation, all coming to terms when his new manager decides he should throw a fight to make big money.

Fighting trailer in HD

Its a pretty simple story, and because its American Street Fighting you can expect to see some messy, hopefully under-edited action from Channing Tatum, who while is one of those typical teenage heart throb sorta guys (as seen in the less-than-crappy Step Up ) he’s more genuine in his physicality than, well lets say the guy from the atrociously received Never Back Down . I think his moves in this trailer actually proves he’s tough enough to be in an action film.

Now I doubt I’ll see this one in theaters unless I have extra money laying around and am bored or have spent too much time around the lady folk, but the B-grade caliber of the cast (let’s face it, Howard, since the whole Iron Man debacle, you’ve been booted from Oscar Nominee A-List) seems to give it some heft. Then again, having a should-have-been-awarded-best-supporting-actor-for-blood-diamond actor like Djimon Honsou in NBD didn’t really help that one either.

The film is also directed by Dito Montiel , who recently won some accolades with A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. Who knows then, it might not actually stink. Just wish the could come up with a more credible title.

Surprisingly though, I have looked on threads and people have yet to compare this to the JCVD fighter, Lionheart, which was one of his lower-budget but less craptastic features. I’ll try to put up a youtube clip for comparison.

Ok…maybe it can’t be that bad…but we’ll just have to see.

As a word of admittance, yes, as of right now I’ve wanted to post more often, and in doing so I’ve decided to make STRIKE A POSE FILMS an action-fan blog for the time being. A further announcement on this will be made ASAP.

I know I haven’t been around to do the site justice for a while, but I’m just getting used to school again. Everything will be returning to normal shortly. In the meantime enjoy another Max Payne featurette.