Monday, December 31, 2018

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch Movie Review © 2018 Dan's Movie Report

Above: Bandersnatch (C) 2018 Netflix!


Greetings valued Dan's Movie Report readers, I would like to wish you all a happy New Year. Full disclosure, I have never watched ANY of the Black Mirror shows prior to this. I come to this interactive film as a fan of a variety of entertainment. Netflix represents an opportunity for film makers and content creators the world over to ply their craft. It is forcing older media to be more creative, and in 2019 will bring the biggest blockbuster ever for Scorcese.
Exciting times ahead, big risks as well.

The Black Mirror interactive movie represents for me as a viewer, the opportunity to watch an entire season of programming with a variety of scenarios. There is 5 hours of content, on this even though it says 1 hour and 37 minutes. Stick with it, choose all the options. I am not going to be a jerk and spoil it but for me when I saw Chloe Bruce as a stunt person, I needed to find that option, wow! I will liken Bandersnatch  to a choice between the light, the dark and the Netflix path, if the viewer has not reached the credits on all three paths then congrats you have more work. Wait, too hard you say, I understand it, you can be one of the apparent 45 million who have watched Bird Box, which I have not seen, mostly due to the tremendous amount of unusual content, and the amazing Tidelands series. 

I plan to watch Bird Box of course but again, Netflix is checking if its viewers want to see more happy, sad, action, violence, and or emotional stories. Black Mirror is their own personal playground, a rabbit hole or a mountain, you decide, jump or not, do or not.

Overall the interactive film as a whole is a huge step to Netflix,they are learning their audience. Big risk, as the stock has taken a hit after the Summer high. It is exciting times in this bustling world to “Netflix and Chill!!” Black Mirror: Bandersnatch Rates a mind bending - 9 out of 10!

Subscribe today! www.netflix.com
2019 will be amazing, get ready for Wu Assassins as well!
 

Thursday, December 27, 2018

Director Daniel Zirilli's Hollow Point! Updated News!! Dan's Movie Report!!

 
Above: Latest poster for Hollow Point


Greetings valued Dan's Movie Report readers. Director Daniel Zirilli has posted on his social media that the action film he shot last summer is in picture lock. For those readers who are unfamiliar with the term it means the film has completed running time and film editing, but has to then go through sound design, score, and other audio enhancements. Daniel reports that the sound design and score will take approximately one month to complete and to expect screenings and release information to follow shortly thereafter.



Starring Luke Goss ("Blade II," "Hellboy: The Golden Army"), Juju Chan ("Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny"), Michael Pare ("The Infiltrator," "The Lincoln Lawyer"), Bill Duke ("Mandy," "Predator"), Dilan Jay, Roger Guenveur Smith ("Do The Right Thing," "Dope"), Gary Cairns ("Hero Wanted," "Daylight's End"), Natalie Burn ("The Expendables 3," "Mechanic 2") and Jay Mohr ("Jerry Maguire," "Street Kings"), "Hollow Point" is an action-packed revenge thriller from director Daniel Zirilli ("The Asian Connection," "Crossing Point") and screenwriters Chad Law & Evan Law ("Daylight's End," "The Hit List") — with A Mariana Ortigoza.  Hollow Point is produced by Adel Nur. Working on musical score is Nicholas Rivera, he has worked with director Daniel Zirilli prior on Time Rush.

Keep reading Dan's Movie Report in 2019 for more on the film! The coverage will include cast interviews, a new interview with director Daniel Zirilli, and a chat with Nicholas Rivera, about scoring for films! Plus more photos and videos~~

In the mean time please check out the initial official post about the Hollow Point including the plot synopsis @ http://dansmoviereport.blogspot.com/2018/07/hollow-point-in-production-official.html

Special thanks go to Daniel Zirilli for filming these two very cool promo videos live on the set of Hollow Point, the first one is of Director of Photography Carmen Cabana Second video is of actress Natalie Burn in character!



Please check out the film's Facebook Page @ https://www.facebook.com/hollowpointfilm1/


Get ready for action in 2019 on Dan's Movie Report, your home for in depth exclusives!

Monday, December 24, 2018

Dark Kingdom (Dragon Kingdom) (2019) Movie Review (C) Dan's Movie Report

Above: Poster from IMDB


Greetings valued Dan's Movie Report readers. Hope all of you are having an amazing holiday season. Literally out of left field comes the second film in the Knights of the Damned series. Producer/Director/Writer/Actor Ben Loyd Holmes wore so many hats on this film that he deserves a medal for rescuing this film from the abyss. Usually the companies releasing the films push out screeners, press releases, promos etc... Sadly this never happened for Dragon Kingdom.

Distribution issues aside, Dragon Kingdom represents a huge step forward from Knights of the Damned. Bigger scope, better lighting, more engaging story, and the best part, copious action. Again, Dark Kingdom this is an ultra low budget film, thus I rate it in a comparison to films with similar budgets.

Dragon Kingdom opens with a village basically wiped out due to “Furies”, a race of people like zombies yet they are high functioning, and move fast. They fight berserk style with no real method. The small group of Knights assist the Princess of the town to evacuate to the nearest castle. Of course in her possession is some dragon egg, which the dragon comes to retrieve, yeah this film has everything. Incidentally, the VFX are decent for a micro-budget film and do not detract from the story.

Interestingly enough, not every creature the group encounters on their quest through the Dark Kingdom is malicious by nature, sometimes a softer approach is needed hah, no spoilers. The film essentially is a quest, yet the path is the find, so many creatures including one who is a mixture of a cyclops. ram, bear, and human.

Wait, I know what my readers are thinking, what is the focus on Dragon Kingdom, HA the focus is action and that is where the film really shines. Their are a band of crazy female warriors, a Dark Kingdom ruler, and some more mythical beasts to vanquish. Just about every weapon is used and Zara Phythian has a pretty bad ass fight near the end, Ben vanquishes his shirt as for his fight toward the end with the lugubrious, and loquacious Dark Kingdom ruler.

Ben and Zara are stepping up their acting game in Dark Kingdom. Actually the acting is decent from all of the principal performers. Rebecca Dyson-Smith as princess Elizabeth undergoes a transformation, from delicate flower, to somewhat of a more forceful leader, and she shows the proper emotion for her character development throughout the film.

I have a few small complaints: one is the somewhat lack of urgency to leave the original village, and rather methodical movement through the Dark Kingdom. The second complaint is that some of the fight scenes are filmed to close to the performers. The final complaint is a mild spoiler, a character who can shoot arrows with accuracy is taken early on in the quest and is like just gone, and kind of written out of the story. I feel that her character would have offered an interesting dynamic later on in the film. Ben provided me with insight, on why this happened, understandable, but a bit dissapointing. 

Quips aside, Dragon Kingdom is pretty entertaining, nah it is not a deep story, but some clever monsters, and action, coupled with a tight running time of under 86 minutes including credits crawl, is def worth a watch. For the issues this film had with distribution and woeful lack of promotion, it deserves to be more widely seen. Dragon Kingdom rates a 7 out of 10.


Official Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/orderofkings

Watch for new interviews with Ben Loyd-Holmes and Zara Phythian in 2019!

Friday, December 21, 2018

Tidelands (2018 Netflix Season One) Review (C) 2018 Dan's Movie Report

Above IMDB poster for Tidelands


Greetings valued Dan's Movie Report readers. About a year ago actress Jet Tranter who I interviewed for Lady Bloodfight alerted me to a new Netflix series called Tidelands. Incidentally Tidelands is the first series to be produced by Netflix in Australia, this is a big step towards global expansion for the company.

Tidelands season one includes 8 episodes approximately 40 minutes in length and flows more like a series of 3 movies at appx 4 total hours of running time. One episode flows into the next and what is cool is that there is very little title sequencing just a small montage and then it goes right into the previous scene where it left off. I feel that 8-10 episodes for most seasons is plenty and many 13 episode seasons are too long and overthink the story and can lose some of the audience along the way, if the stories are not entertaining and engaging.

Tidelands opens right up with a young lady Cal, played by Charlotte Best who was wrongly convicted of murdering someone by setting a fire. She spent 10 years in Jail and now released she discovers many things about the area she grew up in. Ancient secrets curses, Tidelanders (water people like mermaids who can live for 100s of years) and Sirens. The other complication is her brother is mixed up in some drug ring, this plot is not explored too much, but adds a side wrinkle to the story.

The big bad silliness is Elsa Pataky as Adrielle Cuthbert. She plays a “Queen” of the Tidelanders hell bent on summoning the original mother Sirens. Yes it is as crazy as it sounds, Elsa is a great actress, I first saw her in El Arte De Morir AKA The Art of Dying, she did a great job in that film, and I know she has it in her. This was the perfect portrayal of an Ice Water princess! Elsa did the dangerous icy stares and looked devilish most of the time, and her time included killings and passion!

The external scenes in Australia were shot with care and scope. I wish more was shot in the ocean, but enough water was on the show and some of the effects were pretty cool. By filming series such as Tidelands in various locations they can, give the audience a sense of feel for the town or parish they are in.

Hard to classify the series style wise. Leaning towards mythological more than crime drama, the series also has several action scenes, but not over the top to detract from the story. The audience is brought into the story, also through a seer, Queen Abrielle is able to look into the future so some deft foreshadowing takes place.

Overall Tidelands is a great series, yet very violent and sexual, not for kids. The show offers a unique and entertaining story wrapped up into a well dressed package. Tidelands rates a very strong 8 out of 10, def worth a binge watch! Thanks again to Jet Tranter for turning me on to this series, please check out our older interview @ http://dansmoviereport.blogspot.com/2015/04/actress-jet-tranter-interview-exclusive.html

Subscribe or sign into Netflix @ www.netflix.com


Elsa Pataky Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ElsaPataky


Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Actress/Model Kelly Tandiono Interview (Exclusive) (C) 2018 Danny Templegod for Dan's Movie Report



Above Image: Kelly Tandiono

Greetings valued Dan's Movie Report readers. As most of my followers know, I research films and TV shows from all over the world looking for unique talent to spotlight and interview. Thanks to my buddy Ron Smoorenburg, who worked with Kelly Tandiono on the new HBO Asia series 'Grisse' I connected and present a brand new interview. Kelly chats about Grisse and some of her modeling and hosting work on Asia Top Model.



DMR: Chat a bit about your childhood, and your first jobs in modeling?



KT: As a child I have always been a Tomboy I was very active and sporty. I even used to fight with boys but they always end up running away because I was pretty good at fighting. I never thought I would end up being a model nevertheless an actor. I started my modeling career in Singapore while I was in University, initially as a part time job. I didn’t know I was pretty good at it until I was booked by Calvin Klein himself during a casting in Singapore for my first runway as a model. Until one day when I graduated, I started to travel around the world and started my career as a professional model.



DMR: Did you attend a modeling classes or seminars?



KT: I learned everything by doing, though I wished that I did attend a modeling school. It would have made my career progress even further. 

Above Photo: Hakim Satrio https://www.instagram.com/hakimsatrio/


DMR: How did you get cast in Asia's Next Top Model?



KT: It was very funny, I actually got a message from Facebook telling me that they would like to meet with me as a possibility to be a model mentor and judge on Asia’s next top model season 4. I was pretty surprised and actually thought it was a hoax but thankfully I replied, met the team and I got the job. 



DMR: I watched a couple of episodes of the show online, seems like in the Asia version the models are more active, what are your thoughts about the show did you watch prior to going on the show?



KT: I have to be honest, I don’t really watch reality TV shows, but for this show, before I was offered the job to be a model mentor on season 4, I actually casted for season 2 and wanted to be part as a contestant confident enough I could win it but I didn’t make the casting. I guess god had a bigger plan for me and I’m very thankful for that. I believe this show gives the contestant a chance to shine and proceed further on their career as a professional model.



Above Photo: Hakim Satrio https://www.instagram.com/hakimsatrio/


DMR: Cool Story, I saw that the models had to do a lot of sequences that involved some action did you discuss your ideas with the producers since you were a mentor and judge on season 4.?



KT: Yes of course I did every episode we would sit down and discuss with the team. 



DMR: Speaking of Models and Supermodels, please chat about the formation, ideas, and goals of the Supermodels Project. What made you want to join, and or help form the project?



KT: Supermodels Project is a project that came true for me as a model. I always had a dream of opening up my own school so I could share my experience, knowledge and passion with others. So I and another 3 Indonesian supermodels joined forces to build a character building school that just opened up this April 2018. This school not only teaches modeling but also acting, public speaking, sports, culture, nutrition and many more. For more information you can check our website at www.supermodelsproject.com or our instagram @supermodelsproject 

 Above Photo: http://www.erieknjuragan.com/



DMR: On to Grisse, just watched the trailer for HBO's Grisse, very cool looking series like a U.S. Western, can you discuss how you auditioned and got the part on the show?



KT: My agent, Fly Entertains in Singapore actually got this casting for me. I casted for this and met the director Mike Wiluan and writer Rayya Makarim. I am very happy to have met these talented people, and very fortunate chance to have the opportunity to work with them. 



DMR:   Chat about your Grisse character name and brief description?



KT: My character name is Hidayat. Hidayat is a quiet, abrasive and cautious lady, but can be very aggressive at times. She possesses a masculine name and character as a result of years pretending to be a boy to avoid unwanted attention. Her family was murdered and evicted forcibly from their village. She had nowhere to go but to join the rebels. In order for her to join she had to maintain her guise as a boy to be allowed to fight, that is why she has good fighting skills. 




DMR: Chat about some of the action training you had to do for the role.



KT: I always love training because this makes you better and stronger. I would always come to the choreography studio everyday to work out and bug my choreographer Kazu and Eko to train me. I realized that martial art training makes me happy and gets me in good mood even if I am always in a good mood. I learned new techniques and even got the chance to work with Ron Smoorenburg he has amazing moves though I got punched accidentally during the take because my reaction was too slow. It was awesome!!!



DMR: Did you get to do any stunts, wire-work, I did see that you had some fighting.



KT: For the fighting I did it myself but I wish I did the slings and fire jumps but the production team had stunts to do that as a lot of the moves are very dangerous and they prohibit the cast to do so. Safety was their first priority.



DMR: I saw the listing is for HBO Asia only and an 8 episode series are there any plans that you have heard of to expand the series to more episodes and to the U.S. Eventually?



KT: I believe you can watch it on HBO GO, HBO HD and HBO OD for US and Europe. For the second season that would be up to infinite studios and HBO.

Above: Kelly in the Puma ad, please check out the one minute video, after reading the interview.


DMR: Speaking of training, I know you are a brand ambassador for Puma and your commercials are really bad ass to say the least, are you given the chance to have input on them? If so, what were some of the ideas you discussed with the producers if not, chat about concepts and how they were filmed like length of time to film the commercials and shooting schedules etc...



KT: Yes usually we would have briefings. I would usually give ideas such as the poses, photographer, make up and outfit. 

Above: Kelly shows of her sexy side. Image: Natasha Estelle  https://www.instagram.com/natashaestelle/?hl=en



DMR: That is very good being able to have creative input. I am curious about the Indonesian film market in 2018 with the recent success of The Raid films and the actors from the films enjoying some Worldwide spotlight how has it helped the industry and has it helped newer actors get parts as well?



KT: ,Yes thankfully with movies like the Raid it has helped the industry for Indonesian actors to be offered and be allowed a chance to play in a Hollywood Productionand not only that recently an Indonesian film has been cooperating with Fox international production and HBO. 



DMR: Chat about your career path, After Grisse do you have any new TV or film projects in the works?



KT: The project that I am working on right now is an action movie Gundala an Indonesian superhero movie based on a comic book. Directed by Joko Anwar a screenplay production. 






DMR: Perhaps end the interview with some advice to young models and actresses, just starting out in the business. Is there anything you wish you had done at a younger age or not done as a younger person in the business?



KT: I am actually very thankful to have achieved a lot of things in life but the one thing that I would have done earlier is to go to a film school. I am in the entertainment industry but there are so many things and terms that I am still unaware of so never stop learning, meet as many interesting and inspiring individuals as possible, and don’t forget to dream. Dream big and never lose hope, always remember dreams don’t work unless you do.

Thanks Kelly! What an interview! 
Definitely follow Kelly's social media official outlets and watch for more exclusive material in the coming months on Dan's Movie Report.

To Watch Grisse-  http://hboasia.com/HBO/en-sg/shows/grisse/







Sunday, October 14, 2018

Echoes (2018) Movie Review (Short Film)



Greetings valued Dan's Movie Report readers. A couple of years back I reviewed Kenneth Mader's Displacement. The mind bending near future sci-fi drama blurred the lines for genre and tone, essentially launching the career of the fantastic actress Courtney Hope. Fast forward to 2018, Mr Mader is back with a hard hitting psychological terror short entitled Echos. The 23 minute short is long enough to tell a story but short enough to comfortably watch and see a possible expansion of the concept. A teenager who is haunted by past memories, serves as the background, young actresses Cameron Crates and Campbell Crates exude real confidence considering their youthfulness.

Echoes is about the atmosphere and mood more than action and flash. Trust me, this is a good thing. The cool thing about the two Kenneth Mader films I have reviewed, they force the viewers to ponder the possibilities and plot twists. In Echoes I see a future feature film or limited mini-series. The haunting imagery, sparse yet poignant dialogue, and characters can easily be expanded to flesh out a much longer film.

Time is taken on lighting, background, and some special ghosting effects, to add to the overall quality of the film. Many times on indie short films corners are cut due to expenses and or shooting time, this can severely hamper their quality. Just because a film is lower budget, no reason the passion and quality should be lacking.

Writer Julie Kimbrill Ishaya and Kenneth Mader provide the story, I am interested to ready and view more of her work as well. Actually seems like her and Kenneth Mader gel in style and ideas. I hope the two of them write a feature film together.

Finally, I am not going to spoil the plot, nor any character development. Echoes is best watched a few times, in fact, the images inside your mind, about the film may change. Breathe deep, check out Echoes, I highly recommend the film, Echoes rates a 8 out of 10.


For more information on Kenneth Mader please visit the official Mader Films website! https://maderfilmstudios.wordpress.com/

Friday, October 12, 2018

Leaving Eden Descending CD Release Tour!!! EXCLUSIVE!!



Greetings valued Dan's Movie Report Readers!!! Hot Rock band Leaving Eden prepare to depart from the Boston Area on a Hot Trip to Florida to begin their tour for the new CD on Dark Star Records: Descending!!


For the latest information please visit the official band page @ www.leavingeden.com

Watch for Exclusive material and giveaways, soon on Dan's Movie Report!