News

Who’s fastest? That’s the question explored in the latest MotoGP documentary from filmmaker Mark Neale, his follow-up to Faster and The Doctor, The Tornado and the Kentucky Kid. Motorsports have been featured in a few docs recently, with TT3D: Closer to the Edge and Senna having been released in the last year or so. Great timing, then, for the release of Fastest.

The film opens with a breathtaking final lap from a MotoGP race. The two lead riders enter the final lap neck and neck. Trading the lead several times, they keep the crowd guessing until the very final corner. To a viewer more accustomed to Formula 1, where races are generally won through tactics and track conditions, and overtaking is a rare and precious thing, it is a revelation.

Fastest revolves mostly around aging superstar Valentino Rossi. Known as The Doctor, he is the sport’s biggest icon,...

Michael Fassbender will (literally) bare it all in this winter’s indie drama, Shame. However, he’s thereafter going to get his ass handed to him by none other than Mixed Martial Arts (Mma) sensation Gina Carano, in Haywire – a new action-thriller from eclectic filmmaker, Steven Soderbergh.

Haywire was designed first and foremost as a showcase for Carano’s ability to portray a (deadly) force of nature onscreen – and, judging by the latest trailer for the film, it should easily do just that.

Soderbergh reunited with screenwriter Lem Dobbs (The Limey) for Haywire, which boasts an all-star cast that (besides Carano and Fassbender) includes Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas, and Bill Paxton, among others.

The first Haywire trailer focused on succinctly summarizing the film’s plot, which basically amounts to a standard variation on previous ...

Click to continue reading ‘Haywire’ Trailer #2: Shorter, Faster, & More Butt-Kickin’...

Milan Records has announced a soundtrack release for the documentary Fastest. The album features the score composed by tomandandy (Resident Evil: Afterlife, The Strangers). The soundtrack will be released digitally on November 1, 2011 and a CD version is scheduled for a December 6 release and is available for pre-order on Amazon. Audio clips from all tracks on the album can be checked out after the jump. Fastest is directed by Mark Neale who previously helmed the 2003 documentary Faster. The movie about the intense and thrilling reality of the MotoGP World Championship, documenting a pivotal moment in the sport was shot around the world in 2010 and 2011 and is narrated by Ewan McGregor. To learn more about the film, visit the official movie website.

Amazon.com WidgetsHere’s the album track list:

1. Racer Head

2. Stampede

3. Valentino

4. Fastest

5. R Ace Weekend

6. Stampede 2

7. Tavilla

8. Colors

9. Duel

10. Strange Turn

11. Lucky / Unlucky

12. Charged

13. Broken

14. Faster

15. Isle

16. Race...

Warwickshire bike racer Cal Crutchlow joined fellow riders including Bradley Smith, Chaz Davies and Eugene Laverty at the premiere of new film Fastest.

Several sports presenters and a capacity audience of over 1,200 MotoGP fans, including Keith Flint of The Prodigy, also attended today's event at the Empire Leicester Square, London, which was hosted by Eurosport commentator Toby Moody.

BBC presenter Matt Roberts (on left with Cal Crutchlow right) said: "Great movie. What really comes through is the riders' perspective... and Rossi's savage determination."

A sequel to petrol-head hit Faster, and shot around the world in 2010 and 2011, Fastest distils the thrills of the MotoGP World Championship into a maximum-speed, full-length documentary feature. It's directed by Mark Neale and narrated by actor and motorbike enthusiast Ewan McGregor.

Neil Spalding of Eurosport said: "Mark Neale has done motorcycle racing a massive service. Fastest is brilliant, it is the MotoGP I know. If you like bikes,...

This week on Movie B.S. with Bayer and Snider we’ve decided movies are good! First up, “Super 8″ from the creative genius minds of J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg. It’s a classic, fun ride. Next up is “The Tree of Life” from the creative genius mind of Terrence Malick. You have to bring something to the table to enjoy this movie about life, God and the universe, and you should make sure to see it in the theater. See this film. Only Jeff saw “Beginners” and you should too. Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer are fantastic. We update the box office challenge and all signs point to Jeff not having to shave Eric at the end of the summer.

Qotw – Tell us your experiences of someone’s like or dislike of a movie making it impossible for you to have a relationship/friendship with that person.

Email – moviebspdx@gmail.

"With his Bud Cort haircut and morbid sensibility, Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts) is too smart for Swansea, Wales, an industrial city mired in some seriously mid-80s Thatcherite doldrums," begins Vadim Rizov at GreenCine Daily. "The trouble with Oliver is that he knows he's clever, which could justify anything: surreptitiously monitoring his parents' sex life, taunting an overweight girl to make local cutie Jordana (Yasmin Paige) notice him as a real livewire, or trying to trash the house of downhill neighbor Graham Purvis (Paddy Considine) who may be having an affair with mom (Sally Hawkins). Fortunately, Submarine, Richard Ayoade's feature debut, is aware of Oliver's self-justifying nature and the ways it could warp him…. Acutely aware of the long tradition of films about disaffected young men coming to terms with themselves, Ayoade doesn't duck the precedent: instead, like Oliver…, he nods to seemingly every single precursor. There's a 400 Blows-quoting dash across the beach,...

Each week within this column we strive to pair the latest in theatrical releases to the worthwhile titles currently available on Netflix Instant Watch.

This Friday theaters will see a romantic tale based on a best-seller, an Oscar-nominated foreign-language drama, and a pair of films from two of cinema’s most successful self-aggrandizers. Whether or not you choose to test the hype of these much discussed features, we’ve compiled a collection of films sure to pique your interest, including some sweeping romances, some daffy comedies, a few self-centered documentaries, and some highly acclaimed foreign features.

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Water for Elephants

Based on the New York Times bestseller by Sara Gruen, this drama centers on a young veterinarian (Robert Pattinson) who finds an unlikely home and unexpected love within a traveling circus. Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz co-star.

If you like your bodice-rippin’ romances to leap from the page to screen, check...

Disney animation snatches top spot from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, while Burlesque is music to audiences' ears

Disney's fine animation Tangled usurped Harry Potter to preside over a dreary weekend at the Us box office. Tangled added an estimated $21.5m (£13.7m) to stand at $96.5m. It will have little trouble crossing the $100m mark this week and is looking good for Disney, especially when you consider it is one of the contenders to win the Oscar for best animated feature. A nomination can bring in as much as one quarter of a movie's final box office so this is nothing to be sniffed at – especially when the film reportedly cost $260m to make.

The fact that Tangled plunged some 56% from its Thanksgiving weekend debut shows how weak the chart is this weekend. Deathly Hallows itself tumbled 66% for $16.7m and has amassed $244.2m after three weekends. It's dropped off...

In a rare occurrence, the No. 2 movie last week became the No. 1 champion this week, and it's all about hair.

"Tangled," starring Mandy Moore as the voice of Rapunzel, unseated "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1" from the No. 1 spot with $21.5 million. So far, the sweet and charming Walt Disney Pictures release has raised its domestic total to $96.5 million ("Tangled" movie review)

But don't feel sorry for our favorite young wizard. Even though the film slipped to No. 2 with $16.7 million, part one of the last "Harry Potter" chapter has earned $244.2 million domestically, and is still the reigning king overseas.

The seventh title in the "Harry Potter" franchise grossed $54.4 million last weekend, and has raised its overseas box-office total to $469.1 million. Not too shabby for an unfinished film right? ("Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1" movie review)

Sharing the No. 3 spot were the musical "Burlesque" starring Christina Aguilera and Cher,...

Renner for Raven and Perhaps Battleship: Jeremy Renner will star in James McTeigue's (V for Vendetta) next film The Raven with Ewan McGregor also in talks to join the cast. The period thriller is described as a fictionalized account of the final five "mysterious" days of Edgar Allan Poe's life. The story will follow the famous writer as he joins the hunt for a serial killer whose murders are inspired by his stories. I expect Renner is in line to play Poe. The Hurt Locker actor is also in talks to play the lead role in Peter Berg's Battleship as well as having "no fewer than five meetings to star in another project, which he declines to reveal." He will need to decide between the two as both shoot this summer, whatever the mystery film may be at least that much is known. [New York Times]

Waltz Drinks Penn's...

This week:

Avatar makes it four in a row; Willem Dafoe heads to Mars next week; Maggie Grace and Billy Bob Thornton move Faster with Dwayne Johnson; The Sitter makes it to the big screen; Polanski’s The Ghost Writer gets a release date and James Franco finds that there isn’t a mountain high enough to stop him working with Danny Boyle in 127 Hours.

Box Office

James Cameron’s Avatar was number one for the fourth weekend in a row with a mighty take of $48.5 million. With a huge $429 million in the bank domestically, the film is now the highest grossing film of 2009 and is already on its way to being the second biggest of all time (domestic) after Cameron’s own Titanic. On a worldwide level the film has now banked $1.3 billion and it looks like it might just beat Titanic’s final gross of $1.8 billion.

Meanwhile, Robert Downey Jr...

NEW YORK -- Slamdance Film Festival president Peter Baxter has joined producer-manager Robert Schwartz and Cleveland-based businessman George Ketvertis to launch the Slamdance Media Group. The newly launched shingle will encompass both distribution and talent management units and has already inked a home entertainment output deal with Ventura Entertainment, a division of Ventura Distribution. The venture's theatrical distribution arm is being dubbed Slamdance on the Road. That division has snapped up domestic rights to two films so far: the motorcycle racing documentary Faster and the Slamdance standout Better Housekeeping.