The first stills have been released for Kevin Smith’s first foray into horror, Red State.

The film (which is now Sundance-bound for 2011) boasts an interesting cast, some of whom pop up in the images here. Surely the first thing which springs to mind when viewing these is how thin John Goodman looks!

He stars alongside Kyle Gallner, Melissa Leo, Dermot Mulroney, Michael Angarano, Steven Root, and Michael Parks, in the story of a group of kids who encounter a crazed preacher (based on Fred Phelps, founder of the Westboro Baptist Church) and his minions. Kill Bill actor Parks plays the twisted religious leader, and he can be seen on the third image down.

Judging by his daily tweets and podcast sessions, Smith seems to be fairly confident that he has a decent film on his hands, although he was equally in praise of Cop Out during its production.

We’ll find out if he’s managed to put it off when the film is shown to an industry audience in Utah, this coming January.

Images courtesy of Dread Central. You can click the images below to enlarge.

Last weekend saw the latest installment of the Harry Potter franchise surpass all the previous movies’ performances at the box office to lead the weekend with a US opening of around $125 million. This was a massive success for Warner Bros, making them the leading box office performing studio so far this year. With only Tangled offering any real competition the following weekend, the success is sure to continue.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is part one of a two part adaptation of JK Rowling’s source novel. Splitting one film into two parts has become an increasingly popular habit in recent years, and with part two of Deathly Hallows sure to match its predecessor financially, it looks like a winning decision. However, I have to ask the question – is this recent trend an attempt at providing the right platform for epic tales to be told, or is it a shameless cash-in employed by greedy studio execs?

There are clear reasons why using this technique is a good idea, particularly in the case of Deathly Hallows. It’s important to point out that as a film (or films) primarily aimed at children, there is a necessity to keep Harry Potter at a reasonable duration. The stories appeal to children as young as four or five. Expecting children of this age to sit still for an epic of Lawrence of Arabia proportions is unrealistic, and would even be irresponsible. Deathly Hallows is a very long book, and whilst adaptations of novels are frequently condensed for cinematic adaptation, as the last installment of the series there was a responsibility to the fans to encompass the whole of the source material.

The problem occurs if there is not a natural stopping point in the middle of the book. Chopping any coherent story halfway through the middle presents a very real problem. Books, like movies, tend to be written in three acts. By making a film based on the first 50% of a novel, you risk creating a movie with an unbalanced structure. If there isn’t an exciting cliffhanger somewhere around the midway point, as well as a tangible sense of character progression, a part one movie will end with a whimper rather than a bang. This can be very much subjective though, and depends on what your idea of a good ending for a first part is. Do you want to be left hanging, desperately wanting more? Or do you want some form of resolution to the events of the story up to this point? The ideal is, obviously, some combination of the two.

Cutting a movie up, or specifically choosing to make a particularly long movie so as to show it in two parts, can be far preferable to the ‘cash-in’ sequel. With Harry Potter, the filmmakers could be confident that the movie would be a big draw, so there was no financial risk involved in making two movies. It is a lot harder to make this kind of decision with an original property. You can have no real assurance that a single movie will recoup costs, so to spend the extra money on a longer shoot, and all that is involved, is a major risk. This is how we end up with the cash-in, the inferior sequel. All the good ideas are encompassed in the first movie, and a satisfying conclusion is provided. Then, when the movie experiences big box office success, attempts are made to tack more of the same on in a follow-up or two, as in the Matrix and Pirates of the Caribbean series.

I would much rather see a great idea split into two parts, thoroughly exploring all the different facets of the story, than be subjected to a mediocre attempt at a sequel. There is also a very practical aspect to shooting two films back to back. The sets, locations and cast are all in place, and well organised principle shooting can be completed in far less time than two full shoots would add up to. This makes it far more cost effective, and also helps avoid the inevitable continuity problems. Warner Bros have been very canny in producing the Potter films in short order, meaning the principle actors have not aged too far in advance of their characters, and therefore been able to portray their parts (reasonably) believably.

I think it is fair to say that the most prominent examples of ‘double dipping’ have actually been honest attempts at effective management. Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill was originally conceived as one movie, but being Tarantino, the screenplay ran very long. This led to the producers making the decision to show the film in two parts, so as to let the whole story be seen without audiences being put off by a butt numbing duration. The reverse was true with Tarantino’s Grindhouse collaboration with Robert Rodriguez. Originally meant to be shown as a double feature, Death Proof and Planet Terror were released separately in the end.

The story of Mesrine, the infamous French gangster, was wisely made in two parts rather than one movie, allowing sufficient length to tell as much of the man’s fascinating story as possible. The resulting Killer Instinct and Public Enemy No 1 were fantastic examples of cinematic storytelling. One film that could have benefited from being split into two parts was Red Cliff. The full feature is over five hours long, and was shown in its native land in two portions. Here in the West however we were given one movie, with an astonishing 90 odd minutes cut out to ensure that audiences could endure it. I would have much preferred to see the full story in two parts, as in Steven Soderbergh’s Che Parts One and Two.

Harry Potter has been very successful at the box office, and the vast majority of fans have been ecstatic with the quality of the movie. They will be overjoyed that they still have one more Potter film to enjoy, and will be eagerly looking forward to the final, final installment. I think that the decision to make two movies instead of cramming a rich and popular concluding story into one overlong film was the right decision, and one that was made for the right reasons. There is definitely a place for the two part movie, and as long as the technique is not overused, which up till now it has not, then I will continue to welcome this method of epic filmmaking.

Bazmann-You can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/baz_mann

The IMDb250. A list of the top 250 films as ranked by the users of the biggest internet movie site on the web. It is based upon the ratings provided by the users of the Internet Movie Database, which number into the millions. As such, it’s a perfect representation of the opinions of the movie masses, and arguably the most comprehensive ranking system on the Internet.

It’s because of this that we at HeyUGuys (and in this case we is myself and Barry) have decided to set ourselves a project. To watch and review all 250 movies on the list. We’ve frozen the list as of January 1st of this year, find it here. It’s not as simple as it sounds, we are watching them all in one year, 125 each.

This is our 22nd update and my next five films watched for the project. I had a few double bills this week starting with Magnolia that I watched directly after Boogie Nights (which unfortunately doesn’t feature on our IMDb List) which got me in the mood for Paul Thomas Anderson’s brilliant movie, I then did the Kill Bill fims back to back which was the most amount of fun and finished off with a Woody Allen Double bill that was enjoyable but a very similar experience when watching them so closely after one another, but that didn’t ruin the enjoyment of such well crafted comedy movies.

No. 211 – Magnolia (1999) – Rating 8.0

Epic Genius from Paul Thomas Anderson, from it’s wonderful start with the tales of coincidences and happenings, then the superb one take tracking shot introducing us to a bunch of characters to its bonkers conclusion with raining frogs, Magnolia is a jaw dropping and wonderful film.

In a nut shell:- Magnolia spans a day in the life of a group of residents in San Fernando Valley in California with lonely policeman Jim Kurring (John C. Reilly) who falls for a drug user Claudia (Melora Walters), who in turn has issues with her father and quiz-show host Jimmy Gator(Philip Baker Hall) whose show ‘What Do Kids Know?’ has genius child star Stanley (Jeremy Blackman) going for a record number of wins whilst former star of the show ‘Quiz Kid’ Donnie Smith (W.H. Macy) craves love, money and braces as nurse Phil (Philip Seymour Hoffman) tends to a dying television tycoon and founder of the ‘What Do Kids Know’ show Earl Partridge (Jason Robards) whose young wife Linda (Julianne Moore) agonizes over their relationship and his condition as Nurse Phil, on Earl’s request, tries to find his exiled son Frank T.J. Mackey (Tom Cruise) who teaches ‘‘Seduce and Destroy’’ classes to men.

The plot expands on these characters and their situations to build a fascinating intertwining story and the performances are, without exception, superb with Tom Cruise delivering an outstanding performance as T.J. Mackey and fully deserving of his Oscar nomination for his role. But overall the film’s genius lies in Paul Thomas Anderson’s brilliant directing forging a truly addictive movie which weaves the stories together so easily letting us bond with each character enough so they aren’t one dimensional and all offer something solid to the brilliant to Magnolia, Anderson also uses Aimee Mann’s songs to wonderful effect particularly when each character sings a line from her amazing song ‘Save Me’ that builds up to the Froggy finale.

An incredible film and one of my favourite all time movies and in my opinion not as watchable as Boogie Nights but very dam close. Check out the brilliant opening to get you in the mood.

No. 134 – Kill Bill Vol 1 (2003) – Rating 8.2

Tarantino returned after a six year hiatus since the release of Jackie Brown to make the superb Kill Bill and dam was it a wondrous return to movie making from one of the greatest directors of all time.

Kill Bill is Tarantino’s tribute to so many genre’s like the Shaw Brothers martial art movies, Japanese Samurai, westerns, Kung Fu and Manga comics that was considered too long by Miramax so it was cut into two parts and whether that is right or wrong is a personal choice, I could easily have watched the four hour film at the cinema but I can understand as they equally make two fine movies as the pacing is so different from Volume 1 and Volume 2.
Kill Bill stars Uma Thurman as the Bride who after being kicked about and shot in the head by Bill and her former colleagues/assassins (the Deadly Viper Assassin Squad) awakens from her coma to find a metal plate in her head and a baby no longer in her belly so she starts to plan a revenge that will take her to each of her former friends and kill them one by one finishing with Bill. Simple.

The story is fantastic and stylistically told in the typical Tarantino Non-Linear way with Volume one dealing with The Brides recuperation from her coma and her fights with No.2 on he Death List Five, Vernita Green ‘Copper Head’ (Vivica A Fox) and No.1 on the list, O-Ren-Ishii ‘Cottonmouth’ (Lucy Lui) with their fight at the House of Blue leaves turning into one of the finest and goriest fights seen in years and one that delivers enjoyment, excitement and wonderment in abundance but what else would you expect from the mind of Tarantino and the choreography of Yeun Woo-Ping. What’s great is we never see Bill throughout the first Volume and only hear his voice and it adds a wonderful menace and anticipation to seeing the second part.

The sub plot of The Bride getting a samurai sword from Hattori Hanzo played by the legend Sonny Chiba is a wonderful moment as to is the inclusion of Gordon Lui who played Johnny Mo the leader of O-Ren-Ishii’s army of body guards who get slaughtered in the House of Blue Leaves in the movies most memorable scene which all kicks off with the Brides fight with the excellent sadistic Gogo Yubari played by Chiaki Kuriyama from Battle Royal fame completes a wonderful cast.

The dialogue is not at your typical quotable Tarantino level but Kill Bill hints at a fun side and complete personal enjoyment to Tarantino’s directing which blossoms further in his later films of Death Proof and Inglorious Basterds which makes Quentin Tarantino easily one of the most satisfying directors of this generation to watch. Kill Bill gave me one of the most enjoyable films on the list so far, it’s just pure fun, incredibly cool especially if you get the references to his previous films or to the genre’s that he is showing so much love for and of course a fabulous soundtrack that always accompanies his films that show off each scene to its full potential. Mixed in with the amazing film is an incredibly well animated back story to O-Ren-Ishii and how her parents were murdered and she became a ruthless killer, It’s so good I wanted to see 2 hours of it and that it was made by the legendary Production I.G company of Ghost in Shell, Patlabor and specifically Blood: Last Vampire that The Kill Bill sequence takes its style from, its just a wonderful moment of the film.

Kill Bill is all kinds of awesome and will always be a favorite of mine that will always catch my eye when scrolling through the TV guide or browsing by DVD collection, love it, will always love it and if you haven’t seen it you will love it too.

Check out the Full Uncut and in colour House of Blue Leaves fight below: BEWARE contains a whole lot of BLOOD

No. 205 – Kill Bill 2 (2004) – Rating 8.0

Kill Bill Volume 2 split opinions, maybe because people wanted more of the same from Volume 1 but people do forget that Kill Bill was intended to be one film and so repeating the action beautifully shown previously would have been a mistake in a one movie film which is why we have a more story and character driven second part which for me adds so much to the Kill Bill story.

So what we get in Volume 2 is a back story of The Brides training with Pei Mei, the events that led to the wedding day massacre, her encounters with two more on her Death List Five being Budd and Elle, her hunt and final showdown with Bill and the reveal of the Brides name is Beatrix Kiddo. All parts of Volume 2 offer something uniquely Tarantino and again show his fondness and appreciation for classic martial art movies, especially with the Brides Training with Pei Mei as the character is a reoccurring legend in a few classic old kung fu movies and brought to life wonderfully by Gordon Lui (Johnny Mo in Vol 1) who Bill takes Beatrix to for training but we come across that story line later after she hunts down the next name on her list, Budd ‘Sidewinder’(Michael Madsen) who gets the better of her, sticks her in a coffin and buries her which is where we come back to her training with Pei Mei who we find teaches her how to punch through wood at short distances (How many people at least tried it when they got home!?) it’s very cool and we also learn why Elle Driver wears an eye patch due to betraying Pei Mei.

Before I describe the whole film as I love it so much, Elle kills Budd for Beatrix’s Hanzo Sword and then Beatrix has an awesome fight with Elle which ends in a way that must be setting up a reference to Zatoichi with Elle becoming a blind Samurai in a sequel, Lets hope so as long as they bring in Beat Takeshi in some role! The wonderful ending comes all too soon where Beatrix comes face to face with Bill played by the legend David Carradine and her daughter she presumed dead and with a phenomenally cool face off with Bill including a brilliant Superhero speech about superman concluding with the outrageous ‘Five point palm exploding heart technique’ from Beatrix.

Apologies for the randomness of the review, I had such a blast remembering all the fun parts, acting and cool little moments in Kill Bill I just rambled on, So conclude….Again another superbly made from Tarantino, supremely acted by everyone and incredibly entertaining from start to finish, Kill Bill should be classed as one film but both definitely deserve to be here as individual movies too.

No. 132 – Annie Hall (1977) – Rating 8.2

Annie Hall is the first of my Woody Allen double feature and one of the first films I ever saw of his many years ago and is easily one of his funniest and accessible films he’s made. Woody Allen pretty much always play the same character and like Charlie Chaplin’s ‘the Tramp’ it’s hard to get bored of him as he is likable, funny entertaining and in Annie Hall it doesn’t come much funnier.

Annie Hall was the film that denied Star Wars from getting the Oscar it deserved back in 1978 and after watching it again my head understands why but my heart never will. Looking back at his failed relationship with Annie Hall (Diane Keaton), Alvy Singer (Allen) looks back at his relationship with her and also reflecting at his life, relationships and his attempt to get Annie Hall back.

Allen really is at his best in this film, breaking the forth wall to speak to the audience about things that annoy him like pretentious people talking in queues or asking questions about relationships and doing random questioning with couples walking down the street asking what they see in each other which adds an original comedic look at how relationships work and most ring true. There are some hilarious moments like when Alvy and Annie first met where Annie takes him back to her apartment in a death defying car journey and when they get there they talk for hours and in one moment their real thoughts are shown as subtitles as they chat intellectually which is a real joy.

The two characters bond and fall in love but their careers and their maturity differ as time passes with Annie becoming a successful singer and with LA calling her they eventually split as Alvy refuses to leave for the city of LA from the city he loves, Alvy soon realizes that he still loves Annie and heads to LA to convince her to return with him to New York but fails so he returns home to write a play about their relationship where he eventually wins her back.

Annie Hall is a brilliant comedy full of clever takes and anecdotes on relationships full of real characters and some great lines that keep coming throughout the entire film. There is one brilliant cameo by Christopher Walken who plays Annie’s brother Duane who confesses with complete straight sincerity to Alvy his desire whilst driving to turn into oncoming traffic and witness the destruction and sound of it all after which Duane is asked to drive Alvy and Annie to the airport, it’s one of the funniest moments of the film watching Alvy sit nervously in the car watching Duane. The film overall is clearly a semi autobiographical film and one of Allen’s finest movies, it’s clever, funny, well directed, intelligent, honest and entirely entertaining which is something very hard to come across these days as gross out humour, intelligent comedy and predicable story lines seem to dominate the comedy genre so if you fancy something unique and different try Annie Hall a true masterpiece of “Rom-Com” that offers so much with what seems so little effort.

Check out the brilliant opening below.

No. 216 – Manhattan (1979) – Rating 8.0

There will be arguments lasting a lifetime as to what film is Woody Allen’s best, with the brilliant Annie Hall and Manhattan the only films from Allen on the IMDb250 list it’s very likely these two will be most peoples pick, personally I’ve always had a soft spot for Sleeper but out of Manhattan and Annie Hall I think Manhattan just scrapes it as it’s Woody Allen’s finest achievement as a director although a little too similar to Annie Hall for my liking.

Allen plays comedy TV show Writer Isaac whose having a relationship with a 17-year-old girl (Mariel Hemingway) after his latest marriage fell apart when his wife left him for another woman. His ex wife (Meryl Streep) is writing a tell-all book which causes great anxiety that his personal life will be exposed including the accidental running over of his wife’s lesbian lover. His best friend and a married man Yale is a married man having an affair with Mary (Diane Keaton) who decides to break off the affair and stick to his wife pushing Mary on Isaac instead who is having doubts of his high school girl relationship claiming “I’m older than her father, can you believe that? I’m dating a girl, wherein, I can beat up her father”.

Isaac is then involved with two different relationships, one with an almost mid life crisis choice of an adoring teenager and one with a mature intellectual more suited to his own personality and so Isaac has to choose the one who can offer him the love he so desires in the city that he loves.
Having watched the film directly after Annie Hall and writing these reviews about a month after seeing them I’m finding it hard to distinguish between the two as their topics of relationships and the lead character being the quick talking funny little guy with glasses being very similar and I’m sure a few identical jokes appeared in both films and if it wasn’t for the different filming styles then maybe I wouldn’t have been so positive of Manhattan.

Manhattan is however a great film, its story and characters are unique, interesting and entertaining and when seeing the beauty of Manhattan never looking so gorgeous when shot in its wonderful black and white style from the flawless cinematography Gordon Willis (The Godfather, Annie Hall) and the opening sound of Gershwin blaring out then it makes Manhattan one of the most visually stunning films from the IMDb250 list.

You can find Barry’s next update next week, catch you in two.

Don’t forget, you can follow our progress on Twitter at http://twitter.com/baz_mann and http://twitter.com/Gary_Phillips

Ho Ho Ho! It’s that time of the year for giving and receiving and if your having trouble finding the perfect gift for your loved one then i will hopefully mention something that will help fill that stocking in time for 25th December.

I’m going to run down my top Blu-Ray films, Top DVD’s, Top TV Boxsets and Top anything else that I think are must haves this year.

We’ve added links to Zavvi.com who are currently offering free delivering on everything so make sure you check them out.

BLU-RAY and DVD FILMS

I’ll start with Blu-Ray/DVD films. Blu-Rays have reduced in price incredibly in the run up to Christmas and if you shop around then you will find all sort of deals like 2-4-1′s or 2 for a nice low price, and it’s still not to late to get them in time for Christmas.

1. Inglourious Basterds – Tarantino is back to his creative best in this incredible homage to the war buddy film creating one hell of a story with brilliant characters and one of the all-time greatest film villains. It”s brutal it’s funny and it’s film making at it’s best, Tarantino and the entire crew have so much fun and so will you.
   Set in an alternate version of nazi germany  Brad Pitt leads a crack crew of jewish Nazi killers on a revenge mission. intertwined with the story of a french-Jewish girl who survived the slaughter of her family, it’s a glorious Tarantino story.
   Blu-Ray – approx £15
   DVD – approx £10
   




2. District 9 – Neill Blonkamp brings one of the films of the year in the surprise hit District 9. With faultlessly designed aliens, super huge geeky weapons and a gripping imaginative story the film offers a brilliant world to escape to, especially after your christmas dinner, and beautifully brought to the screen by Blonkamp. The lead actor Sharlto Copely is stunning as Wikus and is going on to play Murdoch in the new A-Team movie and you will see why in this outstanding film.
   Blu-Ray – approx £15
   DVD – approx £10
   




3. Moon – My movie of the year, this is film making at it’s imaginative and creative best and a shear delight to watch. Staring just Sam Rockwell and the voice of Kevin Spacey as a robot who are based on the moon mining on a three year contract, when the contract is almost up and Sam is ready to return home to his family strange things start to happen. It’s amazingly made by Duncan Jones and Sam Rockwell puts in a performance worthy of an Oscar that is long overdue. A future classic
   Blu-Ray – approx £15
   DVD – approx £10
   




4. The Hangover – Probably one of the funniest films this year and many years before it. It’s made stars of it’s cast and been one of the surprise successes of the year, in fact it’s so good it’s getting a sequel.
   It’s dirty, it’s shocking and it’s what my stag doo could have been.
   It’s the perfect film for the Boxing Day blues and guaranteed to make your granny laugh and for your granddad to want a trip to Vegas. A fantastic film with so may laughs, the perfect gift.
   Blu-Ray – approx £15
   DVD – approx £10
   




5. The Bourne Trilogy – How is this so cheap! It’s the Bond Beating Jason Bourne on Blu-Ray, all three films The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and the Bourne Ultimatum in stunning Blu-Ray for a ridiculously low price.
   Jason Bourne loses his memory and over the three films unravels who and why he is. Filmed on location in so many amazing countries Doug Liman and Paul Greengrass bring Bourne to life in one of the finest Trilogy’s ever made.
   Matt Damon is perfect and partakes in some of the most stunning fight sequences, car chases and stories committed to film. What a bargain.
   Blu-Ray – approx £18
   




6. Terminator Salvation – By no means a good film or a decent Terminator movie but never-the-less it’s a reasonable action movie that will entertain at least and definitely show off your new Blu-Ray player and HD TV to the max.
   Christian Bale takes on the role of John Connor as he struggles to survive the war of the robots and Skynet and takes through the next chapter of the Terminator franchise. The plot is poor but the action enjoyable enough to please the stuffed bellies and slightly tipsey family members after Christmas dinner who want to switch off for a couple of hours.
   Amazing Blu-Ray transfer and an ok film worthy of any christmas wrapping paper.
   Blu-Ray – approx £15
   DVD – approx £9
   




7. Drag Me to Hell – Sam Raimi is back behind the camera making a horror film after a long stint of seven years making the Spiderman Trilogy, and what a return it is.
   Fans of Raimi will be pleased that he has created one of the best horror movies in recent years and he’s back  to his roots of the Evil Dead movies by using cool camera angles and tricks t great effect. With a strong story and fine acting it’s a movie for Christmas evening for when the hyperactive kids have gone to bed.
   Blu-Ray – approx £16
   DVD – approx £10
   




8. Star Trek XI – The Best Star Trek film ever made? arguably yes and definitely yes for non-Trekies as J.J.Abrams brings us the 11th Star Trek film the most accessible Star Trek  film ever made. Staring Chris Pine (Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Eric Bana (Romulan Baddie, Karl Urban (the perfect young Bones) and Simon Pegg (Scotty) all loving and enjoying their roles in this reboot of the Star Trek series are all fantastic and do the franchise proud.
   A film for the entire family and a truly surprising treat for those non-fans of Star Trek and a great great Blu-Ray experience.
   Blu-Ray – approx £18
   DVD – approx £9 – £15
   




9. Time Crimes – One of the most enjoyable and flawless time traveling films ever made that came out of nowhere and is still an unknown entity to the masses.
   The incredible Spanish movie takes on the tricky story of time traveling and does it better than any film i’ve ever seen using a great plot, amazing paradoxes and dilemmas and with perfect pacing that doesn’t let logical or illogical story slow it down and allow it to confuse.
   It’s a stroke of genius and i can’t recommend it enough.
   Not one for the family but definitely one for the alert minded pre christmas day booze.
   DVD – approx £5
   




10. Let the Right One In - The best Vampire relationship film ever made bar none. Better than that Twilight rubbish that’s getting all the attention at the moment and one of the finest films of the year. Staring two young kids in the lead roles who stun with their performances of this excellent Swedish vampire story that amazes from start to finish. It takes on all the known rules of vampires like daylight killing them and what happens if a vampire comes in uninvited  and showcases them brilliantly.
    With a finale in the swimming pool that is truly incredible it will go down in history as a classic horror film, get it now (Very cheap) before the American remake ‘Let me in’ comes out 2010 WHY!
    Blu-Ray – approx £9
    DVD – approx £5
    
    A few more to mention
    Some films that didnt make the top 10 list but also worth a mention:-

11. Transformers : Revenge of the Fallen – For me a terrible film but worth a panic buy if your desperate for a gift and you have bought all the other movies above! but only then buy this film. Full of action, huge transforming robots and terrible dialogue and acting.
    Blu-Ray – approx £17
    DVD – approx £10-£13

12. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince – Not seen this but i’ve been informed that it’s a corker so well worth a buy for the fans of the series
    Blu-Ray – approx £17
    DVD – approx £8

13. Kill Bill 1 & 2 – The stunning Tarantino two part revenge movie. Full of  action and OTT blood and gore in the first part and then full of revenge with a plot and cool dialogue in the second part. Well worth a grab for a christmas present and dead cheap for two great films.
    Blu-Ray – approx £15
    DVD – approx £7
    
    
14. Watchmen – The incredibly made comic book adaption of the unfilmable Watchmen. Zack Snyder created a stunning film that was probably too long for non fans but still a superb style over content superhero movie. I loved it maybe your receivee will too.
    Blu-Ray – approx £17
    DVD – approx £7-£11

15. Wall-E - Better than this years UP! and my favorite Pixar film ever. It’s low down on the list mainly because everyone should already own this masterpiece Oscar winner from the most talented film studio in the world. centered on a lovable little robot that cleans for a living on a deserted Earth who goes on an adventure into space, it’s flawless story telling.
    Blu-Ray – approx £11
    DVD – approx £8
    




16. Public Enemies -Michael Mann directs Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Academy Award winner Marion Cotillard in the story of legendary outlaw John Dillinger.
    A good yet slightly disappointing film which could have been so much better.
    Blu-Ray – approx £16
    DVD – approx £10
    




17. Red Cliff - John Woo is back to his best for his most outrageously amitious epic movie yet. The Han Dynasty is facing its death in third century China, and the emperor raises a million-man army against two kingdoms that are hopelessly outmatched. Tony Leung stars and John Woo is on fire.
    Blu-Ray – approx £9
    DVD – approx £14 !

    TV SHOWS

1. House Season 1-5 – One of the finest TV Shows ever made with one of the most surprising performances from Hugh Laurie who has grown into one of the most respected actors in America with his portrayal of Dr Gregory House, a miserable drug addicted genius rare disease specialist.
   The series has grown from strength to strength and has produced some of the most incredible episodes of TV ever made.
   If you haven’t seen it at all and were put off by Hugh Laurie’s American accent, don’t be it’s actually suits him by the time you get into season one, so buy it now, if you have seen it and don’t have season five buy it now! It’s TV at it’s best.
   DVD – 1-5 Boxset approx £50
   Each Season approx £12-£20
   




2. Arrested Development – One of the finest comedy shows ever made that was cruely cancelled after 3 series, although the cast and crew knew this before filming had concluded so ridiculed the decision in the final few episodes which was hilarious.
   Staring Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, Will Arnett, David Cross and more it’s about an extended family brought together after the arrest of the father of the family. It’s sometimes bonkers but always hilarious with some of the best characters of any comedy show made. I still miss it.
   DVD – 1-3 Boxset approx £21
   Each Season approx £15
   




3. Lost Season 1-5 – What can i say, the best TV show ever made and coming into it’s final season in February 2010 it’s a must have addition to any collection.
   Following the adventures of the survivors of flight 815 on a remote island thats surrounded in mystery, hatches, smoke monsters , Dharma and many more it’s a stunning watch and incredible production.
   This is the perfect show with a fine cast, i would love anyone who got me this for christmas if i didn’t have it already!
   Blu-Ray individual boxsets- approx £34 – £45
   DVD 1-5 Box set – approx £80
   Each Season – approx £16 – £33
   




4. Breaking Bad – One of the best unknown TV shows of the last few years. Currently awaiting it’s third season to air in 2010 it’s been getting rave reviews and winning awards and one of my favorite shows ever.
   Staring Bryan Cranston as an over educated chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with lung cancer, realizing he doesn’t have enough money to support his wife, unborn daughter and a son with cerebral palsey after he dies so he enters the drug trade creating the purest form of Meth with an old student called Jesse and so starts off on the path of the criminal underworld. The performance of Bryan Cranston is remarkable as his condition deteriorates through the series as he becomes more involved with the characters of the drug world.
   Stunning stunning TV.
   DVD Season 1 – approx £16
   




5. Family Guy Season 8 – One of the most successful animated TV shows ever made and for me a Simpson’s beater. It’s controversial, it’s hilarious, it’s rude, it’s also hit and miss at times but still provides more laughs an episode than most comedy shows. It’s been cancelled once and brought back to life due to popular demand and it shows why as each season gets better and season 8 is the best so far.
   So follow Peter Griffin and his family on this excellent boxset and if you haven’t seen Family Guy before now is a great time to start.
   DVD Season 8 – approx £18
   Each Season – approx £10 each
   




6. Life – You can’t beat BBC nature programs and Life is another can’t miss nature documentary. The series takes a global view of the specialised strategies and extreme behaviour that living things have evolved in order to survive. Narrated again by the incredible and soothing voiced Sir David Attenborough, he guides us through some of the most incredible nature filming ever seen and like the excellent series ‘Planet Earth’ it’s in glorious HD on Blu-Ray which is how you should buy it if you have the technology to do so because it’s truly incredible to watch and are guaranteed to see something you have never seen before in nature. Phenomenal stuff.
   Blu-Ray - approx £35
   DVD – approx £29

7. The Sopranos Season 1-6 - The Soprano’s is regarded as one of the best TV shows ever made and rightly so. All 6 seasons are full of Tony Soprano and his two lives, One of his family and the other of the mafia family. It has arguably the best written episodes ever shown on TV and some of the most memorable characters and likeable characters I’ve ever seen. If your a fan of mafia movies then your going to love it, If your a fan of family Drama’s then your going to be pleasantly surprised by the depth and detail it enters the world of family issues and drama. Multi award winning and incredibly enjoyable from start to finish, this is a must buy gift.
   DVD Season 1-6 – approx £80
   Each Season – approx £16
   




8. The Wire Season 1-5 – For some reason The Wire has been like marmite when I try to introduce people to it. Some have gone on to buy every season, some have told me it’s pants after 2-3 episodes and that’s the secret to enjoying the Wire, get to episode 4 or 5 and this show will embed itself into your brain and never leave until you finish the entire series. It’s begins slowly and picks up so much momentum that if it was a snowball rolling down a hill it would end up the size of 45 houses. The characters, the plots, the subject matter is so well portrayed on screen that it’s easy to believe that the Wire is based on real life events. It’s unlike anything else on TV and it’s the best of it’s kind ever made. Genius.
   DVD Season 1-5 – approx £60
   Each Season – approx £16.

9. Curb Your Enthusiasm season 1-6 - The best comedy series on TV for me. I’ve never laughed out loud so often whilst watching Larry David in Curb your Enthusiasm. Those that don’t know, Larry David was the Co-Creator of the amazing Seinfeld TV show and Curb follows on in a documentary/improvisation format showing the life of Larry David and the appalling situations he gets himself in whilst living his life in LA. Larry gets himself into the most hilarious situations that get more controversial as the show goes on and you can’t but laugh.
   With cameos from numerous celebrities  that all seem to not mind getting involved in embarrassing scenarios, it’s a pure joy to watch and fantastically entertaining. I cannot recommend it enough.
   DVD Season 1-5 – approx £57
   Each Season – approx £13
   




10. Battlestar Galactica season 1-4 on Bluray – A bit pricey this one but if you like your Sci-fi with a fantastic story then Battlestar Galactica is for you. I was slow getting on board to this series as i thought ‘What have they done to my beloved 80′s Battlestar’ and i shouldn’t have worried. Battlestar Galactica remake is one of the most incredible TV shows ever made. The first three seasons are incredible with some episodes that truly amaze with it’s creativity, shock and awe stories and production values. The plot is similar to the original but it’s been turned on it’s head with the Cylon’s now taking on human forms which are unknown to the survivors of the war and this add’s an incredible sense of paranoia and fear to the characters of Battlestar Galactica. The actors take time to grow into their roles but by the end of season 1 they are in full flow and when season 2 kicks off it launches into it’s own and takes its position as one of the best ever shows and well worth forking out for someone you love (hint to my wife).
    Blu-Ray complete Boxset – approx £115

    A few more to mention
    Some TV shows that didn’t make the top 10 list but also worth a mention:-

11. Friends Complete series 1-10 – You know the story, you know the characters. It’s one of the most popular comedy series ever made that completed ten consistently funny seasons that followed Chandler, Monica, Joey, Ross, Phoebe and Rachel and their lives living in New York. The perfect gift and such a bargain.
    DVD Season 1-10 – approx £45

12. Fringe Season 1 Blu-ray – The incredible sci-fi show from the minds of J J Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. A special FBI agency is created after a series of unexplained, often ghastly occurrences that are occurring all over the world and the team use unorthodox ‘Fringe’ Science to investigate. It’s a lot better than it sounds and is in fact is one of my favorite new shows of the last year.
    Blu-Ray – approx £40

13. Rome Complete Series – The stunningly made Rome TV Series season 1 & 2. Rome is about the saga of two ordinary Roman soldiers and their families and covers the intimate drama of love and betrayal, masters and slaves, and husbands and wives, it chronicles epic times that saw the fall of a republic and the creation of an empire and is an incredible watch and well worth a purchase for christmas.
    Blu-Ray – approx £47
    
    
14. Madmen season 1-2 – Another slow and genius TV series that is incredibly well written and supremely produced. Set in the 1960′s and focusing on Don Draper who is the creative director at an advertising company and his life in and out of the office. The show brilliantly shows the changing social values of America. It’s a stunning show and fully deserving of it’s numerous awards.
    Blu-ray – approx £40
    DVD – approx £30

15. Heroes season 1-3 – Heroes started off with one of the finest first series to debut on TV. It had great characters, a great story and superheroes a plenty. Each episode expanded on the numerous characters story-lines which were unveiled in a comic book like presentation. With superb special FX and strong stories it was a surprise that it went down hill in the second series but it did eventually pick up again for season 3 to get it back on track but nowhere near as good as the first season. Well worth a buy.
    Blu-Ray – approx £85
    DVD – approx £64

That should be enough ideas to complete your christmas present shopping. There is no better way to say i love you than buying a film or TV series for your loved ones, So hurry up as there is not long to go!

Blood: The Last Vampire fights its way to Blu-ray and DVD November 2. The movie is a slick and stylised English adaptation of the hugely popular cult hit anime series of the same name. The movie is full of blood and gore, so in celebration of this release, we have compiled a short list of some of the bloodiest films to date. Chances are, if you loved these films and relished the blood, then you will love Blood: The Last Vampire. The name speaks for itself!

Blood: The Last Vampire (2009)

It is clear to see that Blood: The Last Vampire sticks true to its gory genre. In many of the scenes, Saya is surrounded by a group of demons. The creativity of their deaths is the winning factor here, for example in one scene she decapitates a demon by throwing a metal grate at it, and slices another in half to create an upward blood fountain, always escaping the blood spurts after killing someone. Ultimate gore!

The Shining (1980)

In The Shining Wendy sees blood rushing out of elevator doors which sloshes down the hallway. What puts this scene onto our list is the sheer amount of blood on display! It is a sea of blood. It flows like a river and encapsulates the viewer. It’s pretty shocking for a film of its time, and a timeless classic to this day. Not to mention the rest of the films climatic expertise and creepiness.

Blade (1998)

Perhaps one of the most creative uses of blood is seen in Blade. Picture the scene ““ clubbers dancing away at a night club, when blood starts spraying out of the fire sprinklers all over the patrons below. To your typical clubber, it’s pretty sick. However, naturally there are some vampires in the club, who are thrown into ecstasy, and start to gyrate with each other under the slick red rain. Enter Blade, who proceeds to kill the instantly identifiable vampires by shooting and stabbing them. Lots and lots of blood, in a contemporary setting, what more could a horror fan want?

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

In A Nightmare on Elm Street we witness an unbelievable amount of blood in a very familiar place- one’s bed. Dragged into the middle of his bed by the infamous Freddy, Glenn is literally sucked into the underworld. Following his being dragged down into the depths, copious amounts of blood then spray aggressively onto the ceiling. The Blood shoots out of it like a geyser, or a high powered pressure washer. It’s all pretty surreal and strangely amusing to watch. His screaming mother only adds to the dark humour.

Kill Bill (2003)

When one thinks of bloody films, of course Kill Bill comes to mind. Specifically the scenes from The Bride where “˜88′ crazy suited men try to kill her, but get a little more than they have bargained for. And the highlight of this bloody battle? When The Bride kills one of the 88′s by pulling his eye out completely. She also does a break dance move and cuts the shins, ankles, and legs of the 88′s, spraying their blood everywhere. That girl can move, and it is mesmerising yet stimulating to watch!

Saw (2004)

Another high contender in the gore stakes is the Saw collection. In one particular scene in the first Saw, Amanda’s head is in a reverse bear trap. There is a key to unlock it, but it’s buried in the guts of her seemingly dead roommate. In true Saw fashion, Amanda is expected to use a knife to retrieve the key from his stomach. The next few minutes see her riffling through his liver, intestine and other organs. As one can imagine, this is quite a messy job and she ends up covered in his blood and guts. Several points for creativity!

Scream (1996)

No horror movie list would be complete without reference to the ultimate classic, Scream. Let’s take the Casey Becker scene. She is running from the killer and, well, she doesn’t get very far. He stabs her in the chest, slits her throat, and then continues to stab away until she couldn’t be any deader, and his knife couldn’t be any redder. He kills her brutally with a kitchen knife! Lovely and lots of blood for good measure too.

Final Destination 2 (2003)

Final Destination 2- or actually any of the Final Destination collection- wins where gore is concerned. In this particular scene we see another incredibly gruesome and original death take place. A woman is involved in a car accident that causes a piece of pipe to break in her car. Whilst fire fighters use machinery to free her from the mangled car, the airbag goes off and the back of her head is thrown onto the broken pipe. Her death is unexpected and sudden, leaving her with a pipe coming out her forehead, with brain matter and a pool of blood streaming down her face.

Hannibal (2001)

Another master of creativity would be Mr. Hannibal Lecter. Remember the scene where he tied up Detective Pazzi with duct tape in Hannibal? Having secured one end of a rope round the detective and the other around a separate chair, he sliced his abdomen and threw him off a balcony. The rope around the chair stopped Pazzi mid fall, but not his guts. These kept falling, out through the hole in his stomach, and spilled onto the ground below as the force of gravity took its toll. What an ingenious, blood-thirsty, gory way to kill.

Carrie (1976)

Carrie takes blood to the high school movie. A geek that falls victim of the bitchy girls at school thinks she has finally overcome it all when she wins the coveted title of prom queen. Unfortunately for her, some of her tormentors manage to tip a bucket of pigs over her whilst on stage, in front of the entire student body. The neat thing about this scene is the realism, the fact that it could actually happen. As Carrie stands dripping in blood, the scene is compounded by the awkward silence that follows and the true horror of her situation comes to light.

Blood: The Last Vampire is out on Blu-ray and DVD November 2

http://www.bloodthelastvampire.co.uk/

Tarantino is renowned for setting his films in his own personal Tarantinoverse, giving us the Vega Brothers in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction and Alabama from True Romance is discussed in Reservoir Dogs as hooking up with Harvey Keitel’s Mr White. It’s a novelistic trait among other favoured by Tarantino which gives his cinematic world tangible depth, and its a pretty cool trick.

No surprise then that in a recent appearance on an Italian TV programme Tarantino discusses returning to Kill Bill once again. There’s been a lot of talk of an anime film, echoing the awesome sequence of the origin of Lucy Liu’s O-Ren Ishii which would be an interesting turn for Tarantino. There is evidence from Tarantino himself that he wants to return to the world in 15 years to pick up the story of the daughter of the Bride, B.B.  being hunted by Nikki, the daughter of Vernita Green, who witnessed death of her mother at the hands of The Bride.

I’m all for another Kill Bill film, and if in a couple of decade’s time we get another volume of the Kill Bill saga I’ll be happy.

Check out the interview here, via /Film.