Guess which one’s an Oscar winner

With lots of new films hitting DVD today, there’s something for every discerning fan of cinema.  Besides The Paperboy (pictured above) we’ve got new films with Jake Gyllenhaal, Patton Oswalt, Danny Trejo, and Olivia Thirlby.  There’s films about universal soldiers, imposters, fat kids, phone-sex workers, and samurais.  There’s warriors of witchcraft and witch’s brew, and even one of this year’s Oscar-nominated films.

The DVDs:
End Of Watch
The Paperboy
Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning
Nature Calls
Death Race 3: Inferno
Searching For Sugar Man
For A Good Time, Call…
Nobody Walks
The Imposter
Officer Down
Tai Chi Zero
Fat Kid Rules The World
Hara-Kiri: Death Of A Samurai
Hansel & Gretel: Warriors Of Witchcraft
Night Of The Templar
Derby Dogs
Hold Your Breath
Dead Sushi
Witch’s Brew
Zombie Ed

Streaming: Check out your choices here.

Can’t remember which one of these films is an Oscar-nominee?  Continue reading to find out.  Want to know why nobody walks?  Maybe it’s because fat kids rule the world, but you should continue reading just to be sure.  If you don’t really care and just want something to stream on Netflix, click the link above, but you’ll be missing out on a movie that gets the Dove Seal of Approval, despite featuring attempted vehicular manslaughter and scenes of people being covered in human excrement.  The choice is yours. Read the rest of this entry »

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Listen on the player above, or download this week’s episode as an mp3 here (right-click, “save as.”)

Holy crap, a real filmmaker on the Frotcast! In which we talk about movies and everything! This week, we talk to John Hyams, director of the new Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, which is actually getting pretty good reviews and is currently available on VOD (it hits theaters next month). Of course, John also directed The Smashing Machine, an MMA documentary about Mark Kerr shot back in the heyday of Pride (you can also find that online), which was basically an open invitation for me to dork out super hard and ask all about Bas Rutten, Renzo Gracie, steroids, the Yakuza, and the days of legal headbutts. But he’s also got some good stories about shooting movies in Bulgaria, stories about Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren, etc. In addition to John, we talk a little about Cloud Atlas and Flight (reviews to come shortly) and about Brendan’s trip to Kauai, where he saw where they filmed Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones, got evacuated for a tsunami, and took the zipline tour which was the basis for the South Park episode. Show me those shakas, brah.

THE LIVE FROTCAST AT UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO (SPONSORED BY TALL TALE PRODUCTIONS) IS THIS WEEKEND! SATURDAY AND SUNDAY! IT REASON TO SHOUT! PREPARE YOUR ANUSES!

HEY! Like the show? Nominate us for the Stitcher Awards. That would be hella swell. Subscribe on iTunes (PLEASE RATE THE PODCAST!). Email us at frotcast@gmail.com. Voicemail us at 415.275.0030. Follow me on Twitter. Follow Ben on Twitter. Follow Bret on Twitter. Download the Stitcher App and stream the Frotcast to your iPhone or Android device. Fan us on Facebook.

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Do it, Jean-Claude! Do the splits and blunt his sword with your flexible groins!

If you think Johnny Depp is the only famous actor getting into the face-paint game, think again, hotshot. Karate-kicking daddies Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren are both greased up like Kiss rejects for Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, whose red-band trailer just hit the web (cut by the director, John Hyams, who also did the landmark MMA doc The Smashing Machine). It also stars Van Damme’s son, Kris, Roy Jones Jr. and Andrei Arlovski, making it sort of a less-old Expendables. You might rightly expect whatever number Universal Soldier this is to be a direct-to-DVD sh*tpile, but this one has, surprisingly been picking up largely positive reviews. Indiewire went so far as to say it’s better than Skyfall. Hey, if a Dredd movie can be good I’ll believe anything. So far, Jen Yamato’s is the only mildly negative one on RottenTomatoes, but that’s why I always put up the “NO GIRLS ALLOWED” sign on our couch cushion fort before we watch Dolph Lundgren movies. GIRLS! YUCK!

Maybe girls would like these movies more if they just gave them less bellicose titles – like Universal Soldier: Tickle Fight, or Assassins 3: Shabby Chic. Just an idea. You can keep that one.

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MTV reports that although a Universal Soldier 3 movie is going forward and Van Damme is signed on, Dolph Lundgren will not be involved.

“I don’t know if they want to make it a video release or theatrical,” [Van Damme] said.
Actually there are a lot of question marks, like is he really starring in the film or is this a glorified cameo?
“I’m just going to do 10 days.”
Hmm, so what about Dolph Lundgren? He’s back, right?!?
“I told them, guys bring in Dolph! They said there’s no more value [to cast him]. I said, ‘it will have value with me!’”

No value?  Hello, he’s the only selling point.  We can’t accept Van Damme as the old Van Damme now that we know his meta-fictional personality.

So we’ve got a cast and crew in place. Now how about a story? Asked about the plot, Van Damme said “It has to do with something in the past.” [MTV]

Indeed it does, Jean-Claude, indeed it does.  (picture caption: “I will… motiwate you?”)

Today in rumors, CinemaBlend reports the possibility of a non direct-to-dvd sequel to Universal Soldier (there’ve already been two direct-to-TV sequels and a theatrically-released fourth that ignored the TV movies).  It might possibly star Jean Claude Van Damme and also maybe Dolph Lundgren, possibly.  (See ten awesome minutes of the original after the jump).

The original Universal Soldier first hit theaters back in 1992, directed by now king of the disaster movie Roland Emmerich and starring then relevant Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme. Jean-Claude plays a super soldier who breaks free from his killing programming and goes on the run, pursued by another super soldier played by the muscles of Dolph Lundgren.

Jean-Claude Van Damme, who starred in the original Universal Soldier, is in talks to topline this new one. Right now they’re developing it as a DTV project, but if they get him and if some of Van Damme’s other upcoming projects like Full Love do well, there’s a chance it could end up becoming a theatrical release. There’ve been whispers that Dolph Lundgren may be involved too, though that’s little more than a rumor at this point.

I can’t imagine either of these guys have a super busy schedule.  It should be fine as long as they don’t shoot late on Tuesday, because Tuesday is fajita night. Dolph Lundgren fuckin loves fajitas.