AICN & Twitch Present International Eye Candy! Nicolas Lopez's SANTOS! Gay Zombies! Russia's ADMIRAL KOLCHAK and More!

Yes, kids, once again it is Todd from Twitch here with your bi-weekly dose of the best and brightest from the world of film. And by best and brightest I do, of course, frequently mean the strangest and most unusual, though there is the occasional title in there you could show to mom as well. You got it, it’s time for another edition of International Eye Candy. But before I get to the Eye Candy proper I should point out that when it comes to trailers at Twitch these days it’s all about the festivals as we’re hosting as-near-to-comprehensive-as-humanly-possible collections of trailers for a pair of major festivals. The biggest fest in North America – that’d be the Toronto International, right here in my own back yard – is running right now and we’ve got a hefty selection of trailers for participating, all nicely sorted by program here in the Trailer Park. And for all of you genre hounds hungry to see what’s coming to this year’s edition of Fantastic Fest, well just take a gander at the INTERGALACTIC TRAILER FORCE 9000! It’s got all of the good things that a growing boy needs. Enough of that, now, on to the Eye Candy! This time out we’ve got animated Argentinian hit men! South Korean go-go bands! German terrorists! Brit criminals! Russian boxers! Japanese acrobats! And, because his fans demanded it, Dolph Lundgren rocking a drum kit. Onwards! What the hell, let’s get things started with Dolph, shall we? The big Swede, believe it or not, is currently directing his fifth feature film, titled COMMAND PERFORMANCE. The gimmick? Lundgren plays a former biker turned rock band drummer who must save the Russian President, the President’s family and a rival band when they are all kidnapped by a terrorist group at a charity concert. No shit. The world is a better place because this exists. Ad now we head off to Spain where a trailer for the stunning KING OF THE HILL has FINALLY arrived. This was one of my absolute favorite films of 2007 – I saw it almost exactly a year ago at the previous edition of TIFF – but footage has been hard to come by despite it having quickly sold for distribution all around the world. With this one you’re really better off the less you know about it going in so I’m not about to spill any details but the trailer is finally out there. Check out the trailer here Another of my favorite films of last year was THE SWORD BEARER, a bleakly gorgeous Russian arthouse-superhero-bloody vengeance flick from director Philip Yankovsky that we were proud to screen at Fantastic Fest 2007. For my money Yankovsky’s the cream of the current crop of Russian genre film makers, a guy who started in the industry as a child actor – he worked with Tarkovsky as a kid! – and just seems to have film in his blood. Well, Yankovsky’s back, this time with an amnesiac boxer revenge flick titled ROCK HEAD. In the lead? Real life heavyweight champion boxer Nikolay Valuev, who is an absolute beast of a man. As was the case with SWORD BEARER the first ROCK HEAD trailer looks to have been cut from footage that hasn’t gone through post production yet, a bizarre only-in-Russia practice that I don’t understand at all, so the video quality isn’t the best but it gives you a good sense of what he’s up to this time out. Expect future trailers to sharpen up considerably. I wouldn’t want to get hit by this man. We’ll stick with Russia a little while longer, this time with Aleksandr Melnik’s NEW LAND. Picture LORD OF THE FLIES with adults and you’re not all that far off. It’s a social experiment in which a remote island is populated entirely with hardened prisoners who are left to freely organize their own society. Shockingly enough it doesn’t seem to work out all that well. Hey, look! Sociopaths like to kill each other! Aaaand one more from Russia, this time the handsome naval epic ADMIRAL KOLCHAK, which features NIGHTWATCH star Konstantine Khabensky – you might also recognize him from WANTED – in the lead role. This thing looks to have pretty much everything you could want in a war epic: a potent leading man, massive scale action, impressive production values and enough attention paid to the characters that you might actually care once the bombs start falling. Very nice. Take a peek here Sure, the Russian admiral’s got a big ol’ ship with big ol’ guns but how would he cope with, say, an angrily attacking whale? This is the question posed by visually sumptuous Thai fantasy epic QUEENS OF LANGKASUKA. SHUTTER’s Ananda Everingham and BORN TO FIGHT’s Dan Chupong star alongside copious sea creatures, treacherous pirates, sinister assassins, black magicians and more in this one. Lots and lots of pretty pictures, that’s for sure … Ride a manta ray here! Okay, time to get a little more serious with the full theatrical trailer for German docu-drama DER BAADER MEINHOF KOMPLEX, the true story of the home grown terrorist organization that spread chaos throughout Germany in the late sixties and early seventies through the liberal use of explosives and assassinations. The first teaser for this one made the IEC an issue or two back but this full trailer is even more impressive. The cast looks very strong, the production end is impeccable, the action quotient very high. This is definitely one to watch out for. Check the teaser and trailer here And now to Argentina for something more serious, still, the independent drama PROPER EYES, which has been scooping up awards at South American festivals. It’s the story of women shooting a documentary about prison wives and it just looks to be everything you’d want from a little indie drama: good cast, well shot, strong story. A change of pace from the rest of the stuff in the column, to be sure, but a welcome one. Get yourself some culture Now it just wouldn’t do to have you thinking that independent Argentinian film is nothing but serious drama, nope can’t have that. And to prevent that from happening I am happy to present you with BOOGIE, the animated version of a popular – and ultra violent – comic about a misanthropic, aging hitman trying to prove that he is still at the top of the heap despite the arrival of some younger rivals. Head shots abound. Check it out here I’ve got nothing to set this one up at all, really. It’s Bruce LaBruce’s gay zombie movie OTTO; OR, UP WITH DEAD PEOPLE and it’s got a brand new, extended trailer. Ever wondered what gay zombie love would look like? Well, wonder no more because LaBruce is here to show you. Hey, they can get married, why shouldn’t they get to be undead, too? Retro music movies seem to be the thing in Asia right now. Singapore’s 881 was a big local hit, BATTLE ROYALE’s Chiaki Kuriyama is starring in upcoming Japanese entry GS WONDERLAND and out of Korea you’ve got GO GO 70’S. And, really, that’s all you need to know. Impressive period detail, a slamming soundtrack and big lapelled clothing. It’s like your dad’s yearbooks, only Korean. Get your 70s freak on here Normally a major staple of the Korean film world there are only two horror films being released there this year. The first – GOSA – we’ve linked to here before and has gone on to become a major hit. The second? This film, LONER, built around the increasingly common issue of extreme social isolation. Production values are very high, there’s nary a trace of the overdone, once ubiquitous Asian hair-ghost, and the cast looks strong. What’s not to like? Lights down, volume up and let ‘er roll. Austinites will be able to see PROMEDIO ROJO director Nicolas Lopez’ latest soon enough when it takes it’s bow at the upcoming Fantastic Fest but for those of you poor, sad souls who won’t be able to attend here’s a little something to either tide yourself over or torment yourself with, depending on your state of mind. It’s the full trailer for Lopez’ big budget – huge budget, by South American standards – superhero comedy SANTOS. Comic book author drawn into parallel dimension to battle his own creations? Yes, please. Check it out here From the ridiculous now to the sublime, the sublime in this case being the trailer for Nicolas Winding Refn’s true crime picture BRONSON. Refn, for those unfamiliar, is the director of the absolutely brilliant PUSHER films – films that I believe stand as the absolute finest trilogy of crime films ever produced. Refn’s a genius and this time out he puts a very Kubrick spin on the life of notorious English criminal Charles Bronson – a violent, unpredictable man who was finally put away for a theft valued at about thirty pounds and held on that conviction now for about thirty years. I won’t say which of these you should watch if you only watch one of them, but, well, you know … This one’s essential viewing. And, finally, we come to the end of yet another edition of International Eye Candy with the trailer for upcoming Japanese blockbuster K-20. An adaptation of an adaptation of Edogawa Rampo’s famous Fiend With Twenty Faces character, the film stars massive international star Takeshi Kaneshiro (you know him from HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS) as a circus acrobat set up to take the fall as notorious thief and master of disguise, the Fiend With Twenty Faces. To save himself Kaneshiro must escape from prison and discover the identity of the real fiend. Special effects on this one are handled by ALWAYS director Takashi Yamazaki – an outright digital genius – who is helping to create an immersive steampunk oriented world for it, Kaneshiro seems born for this hero stuff and the whole package just looks fun, fun, fun. Unmask the fiend here!