Nuff said!

Photo by Katarina G.

Walking into the Ryerson last night for the North American premiere of [REC] 2 I noticed the film's tagline, "Would you go back in?" on its poster. I pointed it to a friend and said that I almost didn't want to. WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN!!?!! There was soooo much bad stuff left in the building after [REC] (1).  Of course I didn't consider going home for a single second. I was there to get scared. I wanted to see how bad things were going to get in the sequel.

I'm pleased to report that the film was fantastic. One of the most enjoyable sequels I've ever seen, and a film which now ranks highly on my Best of TIFF 2009 list. It's very true to the first film while at the same time turning a lot of my expectations on their heads in a fun and creative way.

Though we we were the first public audience in North America to see [REC] 2 in its entirety, we weren't the first to see the film's opening scenes. We received this report of this amusing projection flub from earlier in the day:

So I'm sitting in the Scotiamount at 9AM this morning to see Alain Resnais' LES HERBES FOLLES, and the theatre (as is typical for weekday early-morning hows and light-hearted French romances) is packed with old folks.  Of particular note is how mean and angry these elderly sum'b*tches are, shouting down the weaker-voiced TIFF programmers to "speak up!" or "use the microphone!",  but I digress.

Anyhoo, the lights go down.  The program starts.  The familiar TIFF trailers.  A Bollywood musical number as the Toronto tribute.  Then ...

... The Filmax logo.

I think "that's kinda odd" but who knows, maybe a French auteur like Resnais needs Spanish funding nowadays.  It's around this time that I motice the soundtrack seems to be moaning ... Panting ... In fear.

Oh sh*t.

Then the Filmax logo disappears with a video flicker.

Oh no.  These old people are gonna get [REC]2 ...

I was on my feet and halfway through the aisle when the familiar night-vision ending shot filled the screen.  Could I get to a TIFF rep before anything f*cked-up happened?  While I would have genuinely enjoyed seeing these people get a little shaken up so early in the morning, any delay with LES HERBES FOLLES would have cut into my ENTER THE VOID plans, and that dog just won't hunt, monsignor.

I holler out, "It's the wrong movie!" and the theatre checker is on her walkie almost immediately.  OF course, the movie is still playing. kind-hearted guy that I am, I offer a well-meaning "ummm ... if you people are easily scared -- don't watch this part", WHAM! And the cute reporter is
yanked away.

I've never seen so many old people take to the air like that.

Later,
Mike

Anyhoo... Do not miss the repeat screenings or [REC] 2 because if you don't you're going to be waiting at leeeeeeeast until early next year before you get scared by it. GO BACK IN! GO BACK IN!

 ...

GO BACK IN!

[REC] 2 repeat screenings:
Thursday September 17 12:30PM SCOTIABANK THEATRE 4
Saturday September 19 6:15PM AMC 3

Bong Joon-ho has a new film called Mother at TIFF this year and it's one of the best I've seen at the festival thus far. More akin to Memories of Murder than The Host or Barking Dogs Never Bite, Mother tells the story of an over protective mother (the astonishgly great, Kim Hye-ja) whose adult son with a mild mental disability, Do-joon (Won Bin) is arrested for the murder of a teenaged girl. When the police coherce a confession from Do-joon without taking his mental disability into consideration and close the case, it's up to Do-joon's mother to investigate futher herself in order to find the real killer and save her son.

I could go on and on and on about how and why Bong Joon-ho is my favourite Korean filmmaker, and why you need to see Mother on the big screen, but how boring would that be? REALLY BORING!

Mother has its North American Premiere tomorrow night at the Elgin at 6, and screens twice more before the festival is done. Showtimes below.

Watch the trailer here!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off for a triple bill of Bad Lt.: Port of Call, New Orleans, Vengeance, and [REC] 2.

Mother screening times:
Wednesday September 16 6:00PM VISA SCREENING ROOM (ELGIN)
Thursday September 17 2:00PM VARSITY 8
Saturday September 19 6:15PM ISABEL BADER THEATRE

I have to rush off to a screening shortly so I can't say much about The Loved Ones (it's probably best that way), other than it was so much more than the program's "dark horse". It absolutely slayed last night, and is currently in my mind as one of the best films I've seen during the 11 years I've been going to Midnight Madness.

The Loved Ones screens two more times and I urge you to absolutely not miss it.

September 15th - 3:30 @ Scotiabank 2

September 17th - 6:30 @ Varsity 4 

So much glitter.
So much blood.

Tomorrow at 6PM, George A Romero will be at Yonge and Dundas Square to welcome the "Special Director's Cut Edition" of the Toronto Zombie Walk, and to introduce a free screening of his original zombie classic/masterpiece, Night of the Living Dead.

More important than that though, the event is to celebrate the fact that Mr. Romero after years of living in Toronto has finally got his hands (through legal or illegal means, I can't verify) on a Canadian Citizenship card!  Isn't that crazies? (sic, and I'm sorry for that)

To commemorate the event and to welcome him to Canada officially, an award (pictured left) will be presented to Mr. Romero.  The text engraved on the base went through many drafts and many discarded suggestions.  The final inscription is below, but personally I think that my ignored (sniffles) suggestion would have looked much better below the bloody zombie hj that rests atop it.

George keep our land gory and diseased.
O Canada, we stand on guard for zombies.
- O Canada (revised)
TIFF and the Toronto Zombie Walk congratulate longtime Torontonian, George A. Romero on becoming a Canadian citizen.
Presented on September 12th, 2009.

Here's what made the award in the end.  It's okay, I guesssss.

And don't forget that the North American Premiere of GEORGE A ROMERO'S SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD is later that night at... When else? Midnight.

Karyn Kusama, the director of this year's opening Midnight Madness film, "Jennifer's Body" took some time to answer some of my questions about the film, her excitement for screening the film at Midnight Madness, horror films, and more.

Jeff Wright: Jennifer's Body" is having its World Premiere at Midnight Madness, which is known for its enthusiastic audience. Are you looking forward to being able to premiere the film in front of 900 rabid horror fans? It's going to be a very different experience from your past premieres.

Karyn Kusama: Are you kidding, I am gritting my teeth in anticipation of our Toronto premiere!  I came to the festival in 2000 with my first film, "Girlfight", and I have very fond memories of the supportive, enthusiastic film-goers who came out to see my maiden voyage.  This festival is clearly designed for movie-lover's of all kinds, so the idea of all these horror fans coming out for "Jennifer's Body" warms my heart.  For real.

JW: "Jennifer's Body" is the first horror film and comedy you've made.  In fact each film you've made has been your first film of a different genre. I guess with only three features that's not entirely unusual or unheard of but is it important for you to work in a new genre with each new film?

Ong Bak 2 has no connection whatsoever to Ong Bak aside from it starring Tony Jaa. So if you haven't seen Ong Bak yet, you can wait until TIFF is over to rent it.

[REC]2's a slightly stranger case. [REC]2 takes place fifteen minutes after the end of [REC], so it's ideal if you've seen the original film but if you haven't... Have you seen Quarantine? Quarantine is an American remake of [REC] (and a pretty faithful one at that) so if you've seen it, you're set. Be the envy of all your Quarantine-loving friends and find out what happens next. Hint: A badass SWAT team with big guns enter the building to evict the building's remaining tenants.

[Rec]2 screenings:

Ong Bak 2: The Beginning screenings: 

I  might be wrong (too lazy to fact check) but I think that Panique au village (A Town Called Panic) is the first G rated film to play Midnight Madness. No blood and guts in this one, gang, but it makes up for it by being wall-to-wall insanity. Check out the trailer below to see what sort of hilariously accented French nonsense is going to hit the screen when Cowboy, Indian, and Horse come to the Ryerson on Friday, September 18th.

Check out the trailer here!

More...

Hitoshi Matsumoto's second film, Symbol is one of this year's Midnight Madness selections, and promises to be one of the strangest of the program's history. Coming from the writer/director/star of 2007's Dai-Nipponjin, nobody should be surprised.  The film opens in Japan a couple days before screening at TIFF so unlike most films at the festival its marketing campaign is in full swing.  Of course, it's a weird one.

First are the two teaser trailers that have been released:

Teaser 1

Teaser 2

The poster:

Thanks to Jason Gray for the tip on the Hello Kitty promotion. More images of Kitty (is that too familiar?) in Matsumoto's pyjamas can be found linked off of his blog entry.

Bloody Disgusting reported today that JT Petty, director of The Burrowers is going to be working very soon on a film for Dark Sky Films and Larry Fessenden's Glass Eye Pix entitled, There's No Place Like Home.  I'm glad JT's getting back behind the camera so quickly.  I'll see anything he makes at this point.

Check out the full story here.

Tonight's the last night of TIFF, which means the final night of Midnight Madness.  The closing night film is often the one that packs the most punch.  It's the ticket you should buy without even knowing what it is.  Just trusting that it'll blow you away.  Last year's closing film was A l'interieur.  This year it's Chocolate, the new film from the director of Ong-Bak.  If that doesn't excite you, there's a free screening of the People's Choice Award winner at the Elgin tonight that I'm sure you're bound to love.

Chocolate is sold out, but come out early and sit in the rush line.  You never know how many people are going to come down with some sort of debilitating illness, twist their ankle while hyping themselves up for the movie by kicking the air in their underwear... To be honest with you, I'm having a hard time coming up with reasons why anyone with a ticket would miss the screening but there's always a chance, and it's worth taking.

Tonight is going to be the first time a North American audience is going to see Jija Yanin's badassery in all its 35mm glory.  If you've seen the trailer, you KNOW that this is going to be one of the most exciting displays of martial arts that you'll see this year.

And don't worry about the NEXT generation of martial arts superstars because I found them on youtube.  The video was taken at the Thai premiere of Chocolate even.

EDITED at 6:30pm: Well it looks like Slumdog Millionaire, a film I really liked, won the People's Choice Award.  Egg on my smartassed face.

I'm risking missing Acolytes' last screening in order to write this quickly, but I'm stunned that nobody's chimed in yet about how stunning Franck (sic) Vestiel's Eden Log is.

Screening last night for the first time in North America, but having played a bit around the rest of the world during 2008, the think I kept hearing was how slow, cold, and uninvolving it was.  Prepared for the worst, I made sure I was well rested and ready for a slow film.  From the film's first image until  its last, I was completely riveted.  Gorgeous visually and unraveling its mystery at a perfect pace, the film surpassed every single expectation I had for it.  Once the festival's done I'm going to read a bunch of Eden Log reviews and make mental notes about whose reviews I can trust and whose I perhaps no longer can.

Vestiel and his crew have made, on a on a paltry budget for a sci-fi film, one of the best looking films of not only Midnight Madness but TIFF.  Hopefully Eden Log finds its audience when Magnolia/Magnet release it, and I absolutely can't wait until Vestiel's next film.

The North American premiere of JCVD (the opening night film of Midnight Madness) has now happened and I'm willing to bet there's a lot of people out in the city right now, still talking about it.

The things you've read are true.  Jean-Claude displays some impressive acting chops, it's one heck of a gooooooooood lookin' movie, and has a handful of scenes that are going to stick with audiences for a long time.  Not just the well documented by now monologue scene where Jean-Claude lays it all out.  The opening action sequence was the perfect way to start of Midnight Madness 2008.  I don't want to say anything more than that because its full of subtle choreography and tone switches that just need to be seen.

Before the screening, Colin asked the sold out crowd how many people hadn't been to Midnight Madness before.  The number of hands that went up was incredible!  I bet Borat brought in a similar new amount of new audience members two years ago.  Those of you who just had their MM cherry popped by JCVD, you absolutely need to come back on Sunday night for Not Quite Hollywood (that's the Oz-sploitation documentary that Colin described as being full of boobs and car crashes).  You'll be full fledged Midnight Madness converts in no time.

I'm sure the other bloggers will be chimming in with their thoughts and photos and video of the Q&A, but that's my quick recap of tonight before I go to bed.  Gotta be up bright and early for tomorrow.  I'm seeing five films.

p.s.

The director of 2006 Midnight Madness? S&Man, JT Petty returns to Toronto this year and to Midnight to screen his latest film; the horror-western, The Burrowers.  JT agreed to let me ask him some questions for the blog.  Here they are with his answers.

JW = Jeff Wright (that?s me)
JTP = JT Petty

JW- The Burrowers is as much a western as it is a horror film.  At any point while writing or editing, did you consider making it seem like they actually were after Indians until the full reveal of the creatures?

JTP- There were some ideas early on about having a Dusk Till Dawn-style shift in gears midway through, but I don?t think that works when you?re dealing with a completely original monster.  In Dusk Till Dawn, you can say ?Holy shit, it?s vampires,? and everybody knows exactly the rules and mythology of that creature.  I wanted to aim at more of an Alien kind of feel, where characters are trying to deal with a new situation, putting together piece-by-piece exactly how fucked they are.

There's only one Clancy Brown, and that's all there can be.

JW- Clancy Brown is sort of the John Wayne of your movie.  Can you talk a bit about how amazing Clancy Brown it?

JTP- Clancy Brown kills the Brain Bug.  I?d find Clancy Brown some mornings drinking his orange juice in front of a fresh pile of ears.

JW- This is your second time in only three years having a film in Midnight Madness.  S&Man was screened in 2006 and now again this year with The Burrowers.  S&Man was one of my favourite films at TIFF that year but it still hasn't been released.  Any news on that?  You should maybe send Clancy over to the home of whoever's to blame and have him strongly suggest that they do the right thing.

JTP- All the producers on S&Man have gone into hiding, for fear of threats far better than any I could invent.  I think all the legal wrangling necessary is finally getting within range, and hopefully it?ll be out in the world soon.

JW- In addition to making films, you write children's books (and video games).  Who's the better writer?  You, Madonna, Jamie Lee Curtis, Gloria Estefan, or J.K. Rowling?

JTP- I?d have to say Madonna.  I remember when I was six and that old guy who lived behind the Rite-Aid would read to me from her Sex book.  Was actually where I discovered a key cast member for The Burrowers.

JW- Any plans to adapt one of your books into a film in the near future?

JTP- I?m just now polishing up the script on an adaptation of Clemency Pogue: Fairy Killer for the Jim Henson company.  And I had a short story called Grapefruit Spoons published, that?s being worked into the Faces of Death remake.

JW- Is there anything to end the interview that you want people to know about The Burrowers?  Maybe the horrible things you'll do to the next person who calls it a Tremors knock-off before they've seen it?

JTP- Nah, every once in a while I try to get worked up enough to get mad at nerds.  But it?s in a nerd?s nature to be mean, and they are, after all, my people. Monsters are cool and the Old West was terrifying; I?m actually baffled that there aren?t more horror/westerns around for people to accuse me of ripping-off.

JW- I'm really looking forward to the screening.  I think that the film's going to surprise a lot of people in a really excellent way.  Thanks for answering my questions.  See ya soon!

It?s always exciting when a director returns to Midnight Madness with his new film.  Takashi Miike?s premiered so many of his films in the program since Fudoh in ?97 that I?ve lost count, Christopher Smith returned in ?06 with Severance after Creep played just two years before, Dario Argento returned last year for a fourth time with Mother of Tears, and the list of returned directors goes on and on including Shinya Tsukamoto, Johnnie To, Peter Jackson, Tsui Hark, Wilson Yip, and Scott Reynolds.

This year?s Midnight Madness program includes two directors making their first return trips.  The first is Prachya Pinkaew (?03?s Ong-Bak) with his new muay-thai action-fest, Chocolate, and the second is JT Petty (?06?s S&Man) with his haunting western, The Burrowers.

If Chocolate is on par with Ong-Bak (and word has it that it might even be better) the roof of the Ryerson theatre is going to have its roof blown off on Midnight Madness? closing night.  I?m anticipating the whole program but Chocolate is up near the top of my list.

JT Petty?s The Burrowers isn?t going to blow the roof off like Chocolate.  It?s still coming down, don?t worry.  With its gorgeously shot western landscapes, and subterranean monsters, The Burrowers is going to burn a giant hole in the roof at its leisure.  When an early synopsis for the film hit the net, horror fans seemed to have dismissed it as a Tremors knockoff.  Don?t do that.  It?s so much more.  I think that both S&Man and Soft For Digging are fantastic films but neither prepared me for the beauty, performances, and bassassery of The Burrowers.  If you must use Tremors as a reference point when discussing the film, then think of it as The Searchers if the natives were the tremor monsters and if John Wayne was Clancy Brown.

Also to note is that Calvaire (MM 2004) director, Fabrice du Welz returns to TIFF this year with his sophomore film, Vinyan, which is in the Visions program but was also programmed by Colin Geddes.  Don?t miss it.  As well, as I mentioned in a prior post, Kim Jee-woon (00's The Foul King) has made the leap from Midnight Madness to the fancy red carpet, Roy Thompson Hall treatment of the Gala program with his new film, the kimchee western, The Good, the Bad, and the Weird.

The Midnight Madness program was started and programed by Noah Cowan in 1988.  Cowan programed Midnight Madness until 1997 when he brought aboard current MM programmer Colin Geddes to co-program and then take over the program the next year.  Cowan climbed the TIFF ladder to the position of co-director, and as of this year is now the artistic director of the Bell Lightbox.

I excitedly asked Noah some questions about the origins of Midnight Madness, its growth, his favourite MM memories, AND MORE.  Check out the interview below.

JW = Jeff Wright

NC = Noah Cowan

JW- Could you talk a bit about the origins of Midnight Madness, its growth period, and how it went from being a fringe program to one of the most well attended programs of the festival?

NC- It sounds like a hippie happening when we recount it now but in that first year, 1988, a bunch of misfits and freaks around the office started watching anything that the "respectable" programmers thought too outre or gross. Piers also got into the spirit of it and solicited a few films for us to see. The first year of screenings did better than anyone thought they would and that really leveraged our ability to solicit new films in the following years. Growth was rapid, aided by an explosion in interest around genre cinema and commercial cinema from Asia. It helped that people like Gaspar Noe and Quentin Tarantino became devotees of the stuff we were showing and of course the Bloor Cinema and the crowd it attracted made it uterly different than the rest of the event.

Steve Sayadian (writer/director of Dr. Caligari) and Noah Cowan stand outside the Bloor Cinema on a September evening in 1989.

JW- Three out of my first four TIFF films were MM films, and the next year I started to branch out into seeing stuff from other programs.  When you originally conceived the program, were your hopes for it to be a gateway program for a younger audience?

NC- Yes Moonie-style recruitment was the idea from day one. A kind of freak vacuum for the Festival.

JW- Do you still remember when you first saw films like Tetsuo, Meet the Feebles, Swordsman II and Man Bites Dog? It must have been thrilling to discover these films and then to put them in front of the MM audience.  What are some of your favourite discovery moments from when you were programming the Midnight Madness program?

Pray that one day (night?) Peter will return to Midnight. 

NC- Those films were definitely all highlights from the first "Golden Age" of Midnight Madness and all three involved a certain amount of serendipity. Tetsuo came about because I had become friends with this strange girl in Japan who ran the Pia Film Festival. It's now a pretty big deal but then it was supporting the most bizarre new filmmakers in order to sell a really popular fanzine. Anyway, Tetsuo won their Festival and I asked her about it. She just sent me the print without telling Shinya Tsukamoto the director and threatened to kill me if we didn't show it. Fortunately it rocked. Meet The Feebles was righting a past wrong. Jackson's first film had been submitted in year's past and we hadn't figured out how to programme films like that (or Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark, which ended up somewhere in front of the wrong audience). So it was really making up for lost time. Swordsman II and Man Bites Dog both required subtle negotiations with the rights holders. The late David Overbey was instrumental in making that happen; he loved the programme, mostly I think because it meant we were showing more Asian films and he was kind of a freak himself.

JW- What's your favourite Midnight Madness moment?  A favourite guest, reaction to a film, or just the wildest night in general.

NC- The best by far was Michele Soavi, upon seeing the endless lineup for Dellamorte Dellamore when he peeled out of the taxicab and yelled "Call Me An Ambulance". Karen Black was also pretty amazing. Apart from leaving acres of chicken bones in her hotel room dresser drawer, she admitted she identified with the woman in a filmy pupa for "reasons she can't explain".

Still from the NFB produced educational film, NOAH'S PARTY (1989).

JW- Were there any films that you saw too late, or for some reason or another couldn't get for the program that you wanted badly?  What's the big fish that got away?

 NC- I cannot recall any really. It wasn't like we went out with a list of films and tried to get them. It wasn't that organized. I think Colin has had more issues around this as distributors have become fussier about how genre films get launched.

JW- Are there any filmmakers that you'd love to see make a Midnighty film who're known for a different kind of filmmaking?

NC- Of course - Angelopolous would make a great ghost film, Apichatpong could make a slow motion slasher pic. But honestly it feels like just about everyone cool has dabbled in blood of late...von Trier, Danny Boyle, etc.

JW- One last question since I'm sure you've got a lot of work to do before September.  Kim Jee Woon's The Good, The Bad, and the Weird is a Gala Presentation this year.  Is this the first time that a director has "graduated" from Midnight Madness (The Foul King, MM2000) to the Galas?  What makes it even better is that The Good, The Bad, and the Weird looks like it's a blast, and would have been at home at Midnight too.

Kim Jee Woon's The Foul King

NC- Probably is, although Bernard Rose came close a couple of times.

JW- Thanks so much for your time!

For my money, the best Midnight Madness screening happened in the Uptown 1 on September 16^th, 2000.  Note: Any date that I write in my blog posts will have been researched.  I?m not the rain man of Midnight Madness.  I didn?t know much about the film in advance.  I knew that it was a Japanese film by a first time director with a background in music videos.  I knew it featured a rock band called Guitar Wolf (this was post-Wolfman Jack but pre-Wolf Parade, AIDS Wolf, Wolf Eyes, Wolfmother, etc.) who wore sunglasses, leather jackets, and loved combing their hair.  And I knew it had zombies and UFOs in it.  Obviously I wanted to see it, and obviously the film was Wild Zero.

Before the film started, someone passed a box of maybe a dozen special pastries down the row in front of me.  An incredibly kind gesture, I thought.  A couple minutes later, once the tarts had all been eaten, an audience member stood up and asked the crowd if anyone had seen a box of pastries; that his box of special pastries had gone missing.  My faith in humanity was tarnished a bit by the fact that they weren?t the person who shared them?s to share, but I didn?t cry or anything.  I?m sure that soon after WILD ZERO started, the pastry maker realized that he didn?t need them anyway.  98 minutes of rock ?n roll, flaming microphones, zombies, guns, UFOs, and true love later, the entire Uptown was high.

Best poster ever?

The moment I got home, I rushed to my computer to find out if Wild Zero was available on video in Japan yet.  All I could find was a 3^rd or 4^th generation VHS copy with no subtitles.  My love for the film had no boundaries, so I ordered it anyway and for a year or two, that?s how my friends and I watched it.  In 2003, Synapse Films released the movie on DVD in North America, and the world became a better place for it.

Colin and Wild Zero director, Takeuchi Tetsuro visit the Matador for some after hours music (and probably a few beers purchased out of a hockey bag in the alley).

One last anecdote about the screening at the Uptown?  During the Q&A, director Takeuchi Tetsuro was asked when his next film was coming out and what it was going to be about.  Tetsuro explained that he?d spent nearly every cent that he had on Wild Zero and that he needed to make that back before thinking about another film.  The audience member who asked the question got up onstage and gave Tetsuro twenty dollars out of his wallet.  Eight years later and Tetsuro still hasn?t put that twenty dollars towards making his next film.  The way I figure it, he owes that guy a new movie already or twenty dollars plus interest.  My fingers are crossed for a new movie.

One of things is not like the other.  One of these things just doesn't belong.

The star of Double Impact has a film at TIFF this year. 

Colin?s already written about it but I?m sure some people are still in disbelief.  Click on this link (note the tiff08.ca domain to authenticate it as real information), read it, and come back to this page.

www.tiff08.ca/filmsandschedules/films/jcvd

Now say to yourself or to the person nearest you, 'The star of Lionheart has a film at TIFF this year.'

In JCVD, Van Damme stars as himself in a story that?s loosely based on his recent years out of the spotlight and the personal and financial troubles that have plagued him.  This isn?t the first time however that Van Damme has played the role of Van Damme.  In 1996, he guest starred on an episode of Friends as himself.  NBC yanks down any and all clips from their shows off of YouTube so I can?t link to a clip but the gist of the appearance (via the surfacing of a long ago buried memory) is that David Schwimmer?s monkey is appearing as the disease carrier in Outbreak 2, which stars the Muscles from Brussels himself.  Courtney Cox has a crush on him, but when she and Jennifer Aniston meet him, JCVD hits on the former Mrs. Brad Pitt rather than poor Courtney.  I don?t remember what happens after that, but I'm pretty sure there wasn't a kumate for Jean-Claude's heart like there should have been. 

I may not appreciate his role in the near destruction of Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam's careers, and haven't see much of his latest output but I have had great times watching the films of Jean-Claude Van Damme.  When I was younger I couldn't get enough.  Bloodsport, Kickboxer, Cyborg, and Lionheart were all thouroughly enjoyed in my basement.  I saw Double Impact at a dollar theatre in Florida when on vacation with my family and loved it. 

Last year, a friend and I sat down to revisit Bloodsport.  To see if it still had the magic for us that it once did.  There was an audio problem with my DVD player and Bloodsport began without sound.  Bloodsport Day had been planned a week or so in advance and we were both short on time to reschedule. 

"Should we just watch it without the sound?"

Neither of us wanted to be the one who said 'yes', so the decision was made without speaking.  We sat there for an hour and a half with a pizza and a couple colas, silently examining the filmmaking, the acting, and the martial arts of Bloodsport.  Once the end credits started to roll, neither of us really knew what to make of the experience but it's one that I hesitantly recommend to you all now.  A warning though.  Beware the bedroom eyes of Jean-Claude Van Damme!  They're intense..

Earlier this year in Cannes when Jean-Claude was in town to promote JCVD at the film market, he put on a show for his fans and the paparazi from his hotel balcony that makes it nearly impossible to deny.his charisma. 

He wasn?t quite as friendly when he was there in 1992 though when he ran into his Universal Soldier co-star, Dolph Lundgren.

JCVD is already one of the most anticipated films at this year's TIFF and if early reviews are to be believed, it's with good reason.

I've got a couple more clips of Jean-Claude to post as we get closer to the opening night of Midnight Madness and the North American Premiere of JCVD.