My college buddy Greg was visiting from Shanghai. At his request we ended up watching the latest Indiana Jones film. I'm surprised to say that I really dug it!

This is the first "Summer" film I've seen this year (nope, haven't seen "Iron Man"). I knew little to nothing about that film which was probably the best thing I did. I'm notorious for spoiling films by reading too much about them prior to their release. Lately, I'm spending less and less time following films and it's indirectly resulted in fully enjoying the films I choose to watch.

The film isn't perfect (what film is?) but its positives far outweigh the negatives. Some of the more CGI-focused visuals were unnecessarily over-the-top but it was all counter balanced with some good old-fashioned physical stunts.

I forgot how much of Indiana Jones is driven by action. At times it felt like a silent film whose story was completely told by the action and reactions of the characters. The fact that all aspects of the action on screen were conveyed clearly and dynamically attests to Spielberg's superior sense of Direction.

I also came to realize the importance of Indiana Jones on our pop-culture psyche. The English have James Bond. We have Indiana Jones. On so many levels Indy embodies the American Spirit. He's got the cowboy hat. He's constantly exploring new ideas (which fittingly come from naive interpretations of foreign cultures). He acts before he thinks and miraculously escapes the most dangerous of situations. I love the purity and timelessness of it all. And when you carry through the symbol of Indy, his discovery in this film is a very fitting one (even if they reveal far more than I would have hoped).

Love the Lone Wolf & Cub comics... but I also have a soft spot in my heart for the live action films.

A total of 6 films came out from 1972-74. My favorites are definitely the first 3. While the comics tone is fairly straight, the movies are super exploitative and cheesy. And it works!

I love how good Samurai films play up the calm stillness before the chaotic bloodshed. At times, the Lone Wolf series did it as good as the best of them.

Lionsgate and Frank Miller debuted Eisner's "The Spirit" trailer at NYCC this past weekend. What was shown was closer to "Sin City" than Eisner's pulp masked adventurer stories, but I loved it nonetheless.

Will Eisner and Frank Miller both have a passion for cartooning, the City, and women. As Eisner matured as an artist, he began to explore more sophisticated concepts like City life and comic narrative. Miller's maturing process was short-lived. After doing seminal works like "Dark Knight Returns" and "Daredevil: Born Again", Miller said, "to hell with it" and commited to elevating the sex and violence of American comics flirted with to sophisticated levels of style. His evolution was polarizing. Ironically it was his embracement of these more juvenile trappings that brought him success in Hollywood.

The teaser hints that what Miller's developed for Eisner's "The Spirit" is a nice mix of the purest elements of modern Miller and early Eisner. Too bad we're going to have to wait until 2009 to see the final product.

Here's the teaser (in HD, so please be patient!):

I had the great pleasure to watch Wong Kar Wai's "My Blueberry Nights" on the big screen. My, what a gorgeous film. I love how Wong captures a wide range of American life with the perspective of an outsider. I've heard the film hasn't been getting very good reviews but I'm not really sure why. The performances were very good. I wanted to hate Norah Jones (I actually did for the first few seconds) but I quickly fell in love with her character. There were solid performances all around. And, as usual for Wong Kar Wai, the movie is visually stunning.

I was surprised that Christopher Doyle (the master Cinematographer that often works with Wong) was not involved on "My Blueberry Nights". The visual language of the film seems to borrow heavily from Doyle and Wong's previous work.

The movie is a romance, so I don't recommend it to people who can't stand getting a little emotional (sorry Jerry, this film ain't for you!) but for everyone else, I definitely feel it's worth checking out.

Below is a HD version of the Trailer. It takes a little longer than the typical YouTube video to load, but Wong Kar Wai's visuals demand the better resolution!

I just came across the trailer and website for Tarsem's latest film, THE FALL. Tarsem is best known for doing R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion" video and THE CELL movie with Jennifer Lopez. From what's being shown of The Fall, this film will be just as visually rich.

Below are the trailer, a clip I found on YouTube and the gorgeous opening image on the website. I highly recommend you check out the gallery on the website.

Ang Lee can stick to doing "Brokeback Mountain". This is the Hulk that I've been waiting for!

As much as Gobi has tried to convince me that the original Hulk film was a good film, I hate the pseudo-intellectual art film approach Ang Lee took. All I want in a Hulk film is Hulk destroying a bunch of stuff and fighting monsters.

It looks like the director of the "Incredible Hulk" understands this. I also love the Dale Keown (creator of Image Comic's Pitt) take on Hulk's look.