Blarbus

Ironclad

This evening I stumbled across an intriguing synopsis for an upcoming English film by the name of Ironclad:

"A ragtag group of Knights Templar hold out for months against the hard-fought siege of Rochester Castle in the thirteenth Century. Set in the time of King John's signing of the Magna Carta treaty, the group struggles against the King to defend the freedom of their country."

Congratulations, England.  You just nailed my demographic with a rail spike.

It's purportedly a medieval remake of Seven Samurai, the classic holdout film by Japanese film god Akira Kurosawa.  If it turns out to be even halfway decent (which, after glancing at the cast, I'm guessing it will be,) I'll have no choice but to cross off another entry from my list of movies I need to make some day.

You can find more info here, including a strange, half-baked "raw footage trailer" that I suggest be taken with a grain of salt:

 http://ironclad-movie-trailer.blogspot.com/

By the way, if you were intrigued by the use of my term "holdout film" and you have a lazy weekend coming up, I invite you to watch the following movies back to back to get a better idea of what I'm talking about:

Seven Samurai (1954)

Zulu (1964)

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

The Nest (2002)

INDY!

    The Indiana Jones IV trailer has been released!  I must admit, I wasn't expecting too much.  The hurt was deep from the Star Wars prequels.  But I now have renewed confidence that Spielberg and Lucas are a fail safe, transcendental combination.  How do they do it?  I look at this trailer and it's as if the action adventure flick, which has seen hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of repetitious iterations over the past few decades is suddenly fresh and new.  But there's not even anything fresh and new in this trailer!  Magic, or expert craftsmanship?  Maybe it's just Harrison Ford.

I don't think there's any question as to where you can find me on May 22nd.