Rockstar Games' Manhunt 2 Has Been Rejected By The BBFC

The BBFC have passed their judgment on Manhunt 2 from Rockstar Games - and they've denied it a certificate. Expect the Daily Mail to be reporting on this tomorrow - with a very different bias.

Any of those Hostel 2 haters out there want to weigh in on this one? There must be one or two cliches about moral decline you haven't belaboured entirely yet.

Do you think the fact that Manhunt 2 is a game has affected the outcome here? I know several parents who wouldn't let their kids watch, say, Hustle and Flow but let them play Grand Theft Auto.

Nikki Had A Little Lamb

Remember the scene in Heathers where Winona Ryder's character places her fingers in her ears and sings Mary Had a Little Lamb so loud that she can't hear what is being said to her? So she won't have to face the reality she's being confronted with?

This story will probably remind you of that.

It started when Nikki Finke called Hostel 2 disgusting without ever having seeing it. This blatant display of prejudice stoked my ire, so I posted the following:

Why not be outraged and e-mail her a challenge? Such a venomous spitball of reactionary hate deserves some kind of rebuttal.

She then e-mailed me, and I replied - both parts of which can be read in a previous post.

And of course, the conversation went on from there. She e-mailed me saying:

[EDIT: I have deleted the content of her e-mail as it was offending some readers that I had included it (they'd rather her replies be deleted and replaced only by my comments on them. Weird). Suffice to say, she accused me of failing any mature dialogue between the two of us and remarked that she was amazed by my inability to believe people are offended by torture porn. Of course - her mistake there is twofold: one, I can most definitely believe it; two: she has categorised Hostel 2 as torture porn. Which is a daft label for any mainstream horror film at best, innacurate at worst and - definitely - applied without her even having seen the film. You can infer the rest of what she said from my reply e-mail which follows in a few lines]

And as far as I'm aware, I can reproduce the above as I please because, frankly, relevent excerpts are valid reportage. [EDIT: So I did reproduce her e-mail until people wanted it gone, so I removed it rather than offend readers]

I replied to her e-mail with the following:

As far as I can see it, Nikki, you are most definitely free to do the following:

a) be offended by torture porn
b) urge people to not reward that kind of disgusting moviemaking

What you have done, and have (here at least) damaged your reputation by doing, is

a) declared a film 'disgusting' and insinuated it is without merit, without even seeing it first

b) attempted to prejudice other people similarly

Go see Hostel 2, then review it however you wish. That simply won't be the same thing as slurring a film you haven't even bothered to watch before slamming it with a very serious label.

And some (many? most?) would say, slamming it with this label most innacurately.

The end to this I would recommend is your actual review of Hostel 2 based upon a viewing of the film and an admission that all of your previous comments were not based upon the film at all, but rather your prejudiced assumptions.

Meanwhile, one reader of this site sent her the following:

Dear Nikki Finke

I'd like to submit my future review of the last ever Harry Potter film. It's not yet finished, but it is disgustingly magical. Almost magic porn. I've not seen it, but it is amazing. It puts me in mind of Hostel 2 save the violence is swapped with fluffy owls, the blood with magic dust and the boobies with pulsating long wands. I hope Warner don't mind my advance review, but it seems that you don't mind reviewing films before they've been seen. You've lost all credibility in our eyes.

The final e-mail - so far at least - has come from Ms. Finke. Here's the important bit:

[EDIT: Of course - I deleted this also. She said it was shameful that I reproduced her e-mail - seems that she too would simply like me to report her opinions without actually allowing her a quote. Then she said that her reputation was 'fine' - well, not (as I said) with me. I don't presume to speak for anybody else. And then she announced that she'd filtered my e-mail address so that anything I sent her would go staright to her trash folder. And... er... as far as any of you know she could have called me a motherf*cker, threatened death to Muslims/Christians/Hindus everywhere (delete as appropriate) or implied that anybody with homosexual urges should be gutted, turned inside out and worn as a hat - but you'll never know exactly what she said, only my version of it, because the world has voted and that was their preference. Anyway... the key bit was her trashing any correspondance from me, ensuring my e-mail went straight to her trash]

But, readers, your e-mails will not. You can drown out Mary Had a Little Lamb. But please, please don't spam her or send her anything thoughtless. This is only worth doing if you argue your case logically and sensibly.

The point has been made now and Nikki Finke has had her prejudice exposed. She is a woman with a platform from which her opinions of films and filmmakers are broadcast far and wide and, as far as she's concerned, it's okay for those opinions to be nothing more than unsubstantiated attacks. Her perjurious rants can spread and discolour public opinion of a film and, sure, most people won't see anything wrong with that but I'm afraid I do.

If Ms. Finke requests, I think I will remove all of the content of this post that comes from her e-mails. Instead, I'll just paraphrase her comments and print my recounting of her points instead. Maybe she'll go that way and sacrifice her own voice in this debate, let me substitute a second-hand version of her reactionism. Perhaps she thinks that will in some way undermine my argument.

Back to the real issue: readers, why not go see Hostel 2 when it opens next weekend and form your own opinion after you've actually seen it? According to those that have seen it, it's really very good. I've seen the first one and, as I'm sure you know, I found it to be one of the best films of 2006.

Rat Finke A Boo Boo

I asked you to e-mail Nikki Finke about her comments regarding Hostel 2. I don't know if anybody did, but I do know she e-mailed me. Here's the full text of her mail:

[EDIT: Except, actually, it is apparently preferable for me to paraphrase her comments rather than repeat them verbatim - that's what people leaving comments and sending e-mails have told me. So I have delted the text Nikki Finke sent, as requested by the baying hordes, and will tell you instead just what it was she was going on about.

Her evidence for Hostel 2 being 'disgusting' (applied as a clear perjorative) consisted of two easily dismissible points - one, that the first film was thoroughly 'miscreant' (which is debatable, anyway, but at least appears to be based upon her viewing of the first film - unless anybody knows better and can tell me she hasn't even seen that one); and two, that Eli Roth has commented on how the second film is more violent. Well, Ms. Finke - Hamlet and Macbeth are more violent than a touring stage production of Scooby Doo and his Amazing Van-Lovin' Gang but that doesn't render either of them disgusting.

She commented on Roth being proud that Hostel 2 is disgusting. I dare say he is: he wouldn't want to make a film about such suffering, pain and cruelty without these things disgusting the audience. That's very different, of course, than the film being disgusting in a negative way. And if Roth says 'disgusting' there's his Barnum-and-Bailey hyping of the film to take into account too... he's certainly not taking an uninformed pot-shot at the film from some morally questionable viewpoint.

She calls the film unreasonably violent and misogynist. I question how misogynist the first film was, and certainly the second, as I have yet to see it - but I'm sure that Hostel, part one, is not unreasonably violent at all. In fact, I think it was rather reasonably violent. What's unreasonable about torture and murder being painful, visceral and stomach churning? Would she rather it was dressed up like mass murder in less searching and responsible films - The Matrix, Die Hard 2, Lake Placid?

Finally, Ms. Finke says she will support the induglence of a creative vision but not necessarily like it - which, of course is fine. The problem is her blind condemnation of this vision and it's fruits without any evidence or genuine knowledge]

So, of course, I had to reply. Here's my reply:

If you haven't seen it, you simply cannot say it is disgusting.

You can say that you expect it to be disgusting, even that you'd bet your life on it being disgusting, but you cannot say that it IS disgusting.

How a film about torture can be described as 'unreasonably violent' I'll never know; and, of course, violence and torture are as valid a subject matter for a film as anything else.

'Torture porn' - please.

I'd love to see your comments after you've seen Hostel 2. I've no doubt they'd be the same but at least then you'd have something substantial to base your case upon. And should your case still not be based upon the film, you'll have given us another good flash of your true colours.

I suspect the film itself will never play much of a part in forming your opinion.

And, so far, that's that. Please do add any further comments you have by e-mailing them to Ms. Finke (nikkifinke at deadlinehollywood.com) and why not add me to the cc field? (brendonconnelly at yahoo.co.uk)

Movie Minesweeper - The Almost Everything Is A Movie Minesweeper These Days Edition

- JoBlo have a YouTube clip from after the credits of Pirates 3. Clearly, the clip was obtained illegally (not by JoBlo, but the original uploader) but, on the upside, it'll save you sitting through the end credits when really, all you'll want to do is get out of there and restart your circulation.

- MTV are bringing back Unplugged. The new epsiodes will apparently include Mary J. Blige, The Police, Bon Jovi, Kenny Chesney and John Mayer.

- Mark Verheiden has announced that his Teen Titans script will find the kids at 'an interesting (and universal) crossroads in their lives'.

- Twitch were on an absolute role today. They've had pictures from Be Kind, Rewind (Mos Def and Jack Black about to bust some ghosts, it seems); Daybreakers; Eastern Promise; and Doomsday.

- Feed have Mike Maguire's Comcast ad. Download it and watch it 'all big' for the best effect.

- On June 10th, the Prince Charles Cinema will be given over to a reprise of the Hot Fuzztival. Hard Boiled at 11am, The Last Boy Scout at 1.45, Point Break at 4.30 and then (!) at 8pm, Hot Fuzz with a live audio commentary from Edgar and company.

- The Poor Things schedule is being rejigged just so Lindsay Lohan can be in the film. What a waste of effort.

- Broken Lizard's next will probably be The Babymaker.

- Time Magazine's Ocean's 13 interviews are a nice, sparky read.

- IESB loved Hostel 2 too.

- Animation Magazine have some clips from the US version of Creature Comforts.

The I Say 'Bank Holi-', You Say 'Memorial' Edition

- Want to preview the soundtrack to Ocean's 13, see some stills and read an interview with David Holmes? Sure you do.

- There's a rumour that Batman might be down at the London Eye today. On a bank holiday? Don't think so. Bet you a quid this was dreamt up by Red Ken's tourism elves.

- Yet another computer-generated Star Wars trailer... this time for an upcoming combo-edition of the Lego Star Wars games (fun but really very slight - no depth to them at all, really).

- Pirate copies of Hostel 2 have turned up, with the name S. Mooridian watermarked into the print. At least we know who is going to be fired/blacklisted/executed for their part in this. There's little point me telling you not to go near pirate DVDs and so on, but I will anyway. Don't.

- Cannes has closed up for a year, awards were given, reputations made.

- The murder of cricket coach Bob Woolmer looks set to inspire a new film from Mahesh Bhatt. Bizarrely, he plans to dramatise the real murder investigation in the context of a fictional love story.

- You can directly download the trailer for Larry Fessenden's The Last Winter. It looks truly great and apparently it is.

Movie Minesweeper - The Too Early Edition

- Aint it Cool have some new Transformers posters. They are, essentially, close ups of robot faces.

- A basic outline of the next Hulk film has appeared online.

- Alex Cox has written a piece for The Guardian about film stars turned directors. He doesn't think this can lead to success - and, of course, he doesn't mention Robert Redford anywhere in the piece. Quiz Show alone is living proof that Cox's argument won't stand. He also tears into One Eyed Jacks which is, in fact, really very good indeed. Even Ken Branagh has proven himself to be Cox's equal, if not superior, as a director. And don't get me started on Alex Cox's attempts to act...

- America Olivo is to appear in Iron Man as 'Dubai Beauty' - she says so on her official site. But... who is America Olivo anyway?

- Peter Jackson does a good job of making Halo sound dead but The Dambusters sound great in a new interview.

- Dana Gould's The Last Larry sounds a wee bit like Shaun of the Dead: the Series. More promisingly, he's writing Alternadad about a father trying to stay hip and cool in the eyes of his kids.

- New EU rules might curb the import of some American shows because they're simply too laden with product placement.

- Scorsese seems to be gearing up to shoot Silence in Japan.

- Stephen Susco has found a 'awesome' spoof of The Grudge, perhaps two and a half months too late.

- Two clips from Hostel 2 are up on the MTV Movies Blog, so if you're in the US, you can watch them... me... I just have to imagine. [EDIT: BllodyDisgusting have seven clips, and I can see those ones. Do they include the two MTV snippets?]

- Also at MTV, Daniel Wilson discusses Bro-jitsu.

- Joe Kosinski looks set to direct Logans Run. Bryan Singer has better things to do now, I suppose, than argue with Joel Silver. Previously, Kosinski has directed cut-scenes for video games, including Gears of War. I've seen those ones and... well, I'm not excited about this decision, I can tell you. But then, see... with Joel Silver calling the shots, what was I to expect?

- TVSquad have plenty of info on Heroes season 2. You might even call these bits and pieces spoilers, if you're delicate about that kind of thing.

- The lastest Sound of Young America is an interview with Marty Kroft. It's confirmed that Land of the Lost doesn't yet have a director attached, though Will Ferrel has definitely been cast.

Movie Minesweeper - The New Music Edition

- There was a clip from Harry Potter 5 on Ellen t'other day and HPana are hosting it on their site. Download the WMV file directly or settle for YouTube.

- There's a big screen version of Mama, I Want to Sing! coming and so far signed to appear are Patti LaBelle, Lynn Whitfield and Ciara. Two out of three 'aint bad.

- Nuri Bilge Ceylan's next film is to be Daydreams, a crime thriller. Climates is just coming out here on DVD in the UK, so go, queue it now if you haven't seen it already.

- Richard Gere is to produce and take the lead human role in Hachiko: A Dog's Story. A remake of a 1987 Japanese film (with a title that translates to approximately the same thing) the story's origins are apparently some true events - though beyond 'man takes in a dog, they bond', I have no idea what these events are. Can anybody shed some light?

- Tim Rice is setting lyrics to Tchaikovsky for Nutcracker - The Untold Story. And it gets worse: Elle Fanning is the lead, backed up by John Turturro (as the Mouse King) and Nathan Lane, while Andrei Konchalovsky is directing. This one runs an icy finger down my spine.

- Back From Hell at last, the Hughes Brothers are lugging about an increasingly full diary. The latest addition is The Book of Eli, a post apocalyptic yarn about a man who may somehow be able to save humanity with the titular book - this could be The Postman, could be Escape From New York... let's face it, it's erring towards The Postman on current evidence. Their other projects (if you want a reminder) include a film version of Kung Fu and The Ice Man, about a serial killer who fits snugly into a new role as a mafia hitman.

- Brett Ratner is to film lots of carnival jollity in 3D. Waste.

- Lucasfilm deny any plans to issue the Star Wars trilo... er... trilogies (?) on either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD.

- CHUD have pretty much confirmed that Karen Allen will be in Indiana Jones and the Most Likely to Be City of Gods... and that - SPOILER ALERT - she's the mother of Indy's son.

- Ken Branagh has indeed joined the cast of Valkyrie. Meanwhile, that film's co-scripter Christopher McQuarrie will see his World War I script No Man's Land go before cameras couretsy of Mark Cuban and 2929.

- Aint it Cool are hosting one Transformers ad, IESB are hosting the other. Yaaaaaaaaaaawn.

- The NY Times seem to believe the Tintin trilogy will be released in 3D. I mean, I assumed as much, but this is the first real suggestion that it has been somehow announced to somebody somewhere. They also tell us that Jackson is directing the first film in the sequence, Spielberg the second and... the third? Well, will it be Frank Darabont? Only time will tell.

- Nintendo have lined up a truly amazing list of composers for their upcoming Smash Bros. Dojo game.

- Some new, some old, some spoilery, some not safe for work - more images from Hostel 2 have turned up.

- Sony are to co-produce a whole new slate of films with Stephen Chow.

- Rachel McAdams lies about her age. Why? In a few years, it's only going to make it look like she's aging prematurely. Silly girl.

- Glen Kenny quite liked Bouelverd de la Morte. Best of all, he's quite clear on how it differs from Death Proof.

- There are more No Country For Old Men clips out there. Gotta catch 'em all.

Movie Minesweeper - The I Have To Rush Off To Work Edition

- The Red Ballon is headed back to Cannes. Lovely.

- 5 full minutes of Hostel 2 are to play before Bug in American cinemas.

- Jon 'Duckie' Cryer is to star in Tortured, a thriller to be directed by Nolan Lebovitz.

- Scott McCloud is to speak at Siggraph this year. Understanding Comics is the one book I recommend without fail to each and every one of my film students.

- There's a nice Magicians featurette online now.

- Stuntman Mike's Death Proof car is for sale on e-bay.

- Time Out have some 28 Weeks Later clips. In case you were thinking of going to see it, these should put you off.

Even More Hostel 2 Snaps

These Hostel 2 pictures are a fair bit less spoilery than the last bunch. Perhaps.

Direct Download Link For Massive Hostel 2 Spoiler Scene

No sooner do I post my suppositions on a Hostel 2 spoiler and... well, here's a direct download link to a video clip that gives away a massive spoiler for the film. View at your peril - and don't watch it at work, it's gory and features nudity.

Nab it now before it's too late.

Spoilertastic Hostel 2 Images

Look at these Hostel 2 images carefully and tell me they aren't stuffed with spoilers... or, possibly, they're cleverly constructed to mislead. The bottom one is giving me a real Countess Bathory vibe. In a few weeks, we'll see how right I am.


Thanks to Gray Digger for sending them over.

Hostel 2 Site Now Live

The Hostel 2 official site is now live. Hard to navigate - on my browser, at least - but live.

Direct Download Link For New International Hostel 2 Trailer

You can download the new Hostel 2 trailer right now. Remember to right-click and rename the filename to anything.wmv to get it to play.

Good trailer, isn't it?

A Rush Of Blood To The Head

The IESB have added two new Hostel 2 images to their gallery. Do they spoil anything? Judge for yourself...

Hostel 2 Hits A Nerve With The NY Times

The NY Times are making all sorts of spurious connections between Hostel 2 and the Virginia Tech shootings, and pretending Lionsgate are in some way exploiting the tragedy by sticking to Hostel 2's previously announced release date. Tiresome stuff and really very desperate with it.

If part two is anything like part one, this new Hostel is going to provide some much needed commentary on violence, America's attitudes to violence, and the kind of ingrained cultural prejudices that lead to such sickening, blinkered, ignorant nonsense as Old Boy being held up as a catalyst for mass muder. While Hostel is confronting issues head-on, critics of such violent films are hiding from the truth and scapegoating cinema. In certain circles, films like Hostel provoke interesting and informed debate, and in others... The NY Times, Nikki Finke and their ilk trot out the same reactionary wails of foaming hysteria.

The NY Times piece also includes comments for Roy Lee, the producer of proposed American Old Boy and Battle Royale remakes. In this section, the journalist, Michael Cieply, spuriously claims that Battle Royale is a Japanese videogame, not a film - why is this person even allowed to write about films? Was he even listening to his interview subjects?

Cieply has been a film producer himself, in the past - though Alleycats Strike is his only credit on IMDB. At the very least we can be relieved that period is over.

Yahoo Buzz Boo Hoo

As I saw on SlashFilm, Yahoo's Buzz Log have compiled a countdown of the twenty most searched movie releases due this summer. Unsurprisingly, Spider-Man 3 tops the list, followed by Transformers and Shrek the Third. DOA: Dead or Alive is at number 10 - despite being available on DVD in the UK already. I dare say this is down to quite lascivious intent on the part of the search artists - they should just import the disc and get just what they want from pause, zoom and A-B repeat.

Which reminds me: I need to add it to my rental queue.

Underdog clocks in at 17, above Hostel 2 at 18. That was shocking enough. More surprisingly, Ratatouille has only made it to 19, with Knocked Up coming in at the bottom.

Curious.

As for Google, the two gaining queries in their latest weekly Zeitgeist report (week ending 21st April) that have movie connections are number 9, Alec Baldwin and 10, Shia LaBeouf.

Direct Download Link To Hostel 2 Full Trailer In Quicktime

Looking better than the flv version of a few days back, the Quicktime version of the full Hostel 2 trailer can now be downloaded directly.

Here are some lovely stills. The scene with the TV set (up top here) should ring bells to anybody who listened to the commentary tracks on the first DVD.

Hostel 2 Trailer That Plays Worldwide

Here's a Hostel 2 trailer you can download and watch anywhere in the world, bypassing the 'lock' on MTV's site that prevents it from playing outside of the USA.

It's hosted on a Russian site, which evokes golden memories of the cold war.

Nice to see some Jedi action, however briefly, and I'm pleased to see the German angle is being kept up too.

[EDIT: If that link is bust - as it sometimes is - try Slashfilm, who have the flv file on loan from me]

Grind House 2

So, what are going to be the films to make up the second Grind House double feature?

Talking to VH1, Eli Roth discusses Thanksgiving:

The trailer was so much fun. It's all gore and nudity. It's all money shots, bodies being chopped up and people being stabbed and cheerleaders stripping on trampolines. It's three minutes of pure happiness. The feature will never live up to the trailer unless we just do 90 minutes of that. For Grind House 2 I think there's a very strong chance of shooting it. Quentin and Robert and the Weinstein Company love the trailer so much they're already asking me, "Where's the script for Thanksgiving?"

(He also suggests he turned down Die Hard 4, The Hulk and Halo to make Hostel 2)

And, in another chat, Tarantino spells out his plans for the future:

There's all these subgenres in exploitation movies and cinema in general that we like, and this gives us a license to explore them all ... I do have an idea in my mind for an old-school kung-fu movie that would be shot in Mandarin ... there would be a long version of it, with subtitles and all serious. Then I would cut another version way down, like they did in America, and dub it! Not to make it look silly, but you can't help but benefit from its humorous quality.

If the audience screams for Thanksgiving and Don't! or Werewolf Women of the S.S., and Rob, Edgar and Eli want to do it, we're all down.

And the then confirms, once more, that his next film will be Inglorious Bastards.

Eli Roth Busy On... Hostel 1

As well as wrapping up post on Hostel 2, Eli Roth is at work on a new DVD of the first Hostel. We all knew it was coming. He promises it will be good, however:

I was putting together a lot elements today for the Hostel special edition DVD. Sony wants to do one and my feeling is I'm all for it, but it has to be great and have so many extras people really feel they got their money's worth and that Sony didn't double dip. It's gonna be awesome.

Something else he says, however, suggests that the making of the second Hostel film wasn't as fun as that of the first. What will this mean for the quality of the film?

...watching all those deleted scenes made me sad. I missed them. I missed filming with them. With Jay and Derek and Eythor and Barbara. There's a lot of great sh*t that got cut for time that I still love. I wish I could shot that film again. It was one of those magical experiences where everything came together. Seems so far from me now. And yet I'm still in it in a weird way. Crazy.

As I understand it, a different cut of the film was planned for a long time but now, it's been relegated to a series of deleted scenes and an alternative ending in isolation. One of the main reasons is the structure of the two films together, with the second film's plot depending quite strongly on how the first film ended.