Latest stash come under and gone, a swag of beanies and preview passes for Hostel: Part II from writer/director Eli Roth. Thanks to Sony Pictures for the gear to giveaway. Catch it out there from July 7.

As usual, a customary scan over the registry what made visits into the shacky rackles of the roach-infested, blood stained inn...

What is Quentin Tarantino's involvement with the film?

Executive Producer.

Writ large across the trailers and all that other material what pimps and promotes the slasher/gore/horror film. Nothing much more than paying attention.

Of the three from the first film, who survived?

Paxton. Or Jay Hernandez.

Either answer fine given it being the same person, only in the character/actor names as they usually are. To work this one out, a read up on the first film's cast list with a glance on the sequel listing matches up with only one name appearing. Of course, another method is to actually watch the first movie all the way to the end for the answer.

Not everyone needs to watch the first installment before jumping to watch a sequel. Helps, doesn't always hurt. Hardest question of the bunch.

Where do you stay when on vacation or a holiday?

Anything goes. Really, anything.

Bunker blasting, a shanty by the seaside, a relative's place, a dungeon (for those inclined), a hostel, a hotel, a motel, a ranch dressing inn. Whatever, all answers up to personal choice and selection. Not a traveller? That works too. After watching the first film, and smelling the toast from a backpackers, why chance it?

Questions pretty much of standard fare in terms of level of hunting required. Certainly not the kind of trivia markers what leave people sitting in dingy under-lit toilets watching films of prequelistic nature.

For those who won beanies, size up those skulls, the headgear looks tight.

 

Early morning into lunch on Thursday morning and out from the media preview screening of Tales from Earthsea at the Dendy Newtown with Ryano,, lunch was on stomach.

Along King Street, it's a good sort and variety if Thai and Indian are the flavour on the tongue. And for the money's worth, something affordable during the lunch period.

One stop not that far from Dendy Cinemas is Newtown Thai. Six dollars a plate and it's quite the menu to choose from. Sure, most of it is stir fried, but them's the deals in Thai food. If you don't like stir fry, you don't like flash fry, which is the same thing and rambling moot.



Stir fried garlic and pepper with rice and chicken. Clean and quick and it's a nice tasty lunch to have one day, any day, but not so many days in a row that the others on the menu miss out.

Tales from Earthsea is a beautiful and warm film. Gorgeous really, nothing less to be expected from Studio Ghibli.

 

Closing out the final part of this three part chapter in Spider-Man's life, the whole gang returns with a party of others in the mix. Quite the busload really, fitting them in takes a lot of switching back and forth. Not unlike web slinging through the city scape as the New Goblin and Spider-Man duke it out.

From there, it's just quite certain that watching Spider-Man 3 at the IMAX is the game of those with loose necks and even looser eyeballs. Eyeballs which may operate independently if given the scope of the action sequences Spidey swings through.

And such swinging, all in a flavour of style which deliberately signals just how much more fluid his actions are, how more in touch he is within. Touch too much and it's a case of emo reflux, comedic in all its glory.



Bruce Campbell is as ever a nugget of gold. Bryce Dallas Howard looking the way she does, really spot on perfect for Gwen Stacy, perfect as the foil and flip to what Mary Jane proposes in the life of Peter Parker. Still, hard to beat the chops of James Franco (Harry Osborn) across the spread of these first three movies. And Stan Lee? Yeah, well...

Forget about those who came in late, they'll always come in late. This is a movie at speed in which things move is quick, no let up save for the pauses to squeeze in the comedy. Sure, things such as characterization blaze right through with an apparent chasm between logic and motives.

Venom and Sandman, things move fast with these two as they develop during the course of the film. Not a hard task at all to follow their stories in this whole scheme of things. So many plots, so many characters, and Sam Raimi delivers it with a punch to the side of the face that keeps you asking for more.

 

Dropping on a stone last week, a box full of 3D lenticular promotional cards. Lenticular! Oh what long wait since the late 90s for a lenticular something or anything in a comic shop.

And the soundtrack to the first Spider-Man film doesn't count, even if it angle-tastic.

From Roadshow Films in flogging the new Hilary Swank movie, The Reaping:

A former Christian missionary (Hilary Swank) who lost her faith after her family was tragically killed, has since become a world-renowned expert in disproving religious phenomena. But when she investigates a small Louisiana town that is suffering from what appear to be the Biblical plagues, she realizes that science cannot explain what is happening and she must regain her faith to combat the dark forces threatening the community.

Not a lot going on when it's a slide into time to count and stack the many, many, many(!) cards in the box. One ten makes a pile and then a few more. Until those piles stack themselves so high that the Gods of Egypt will snap a cracking whip into the plebs to build upon itself, a pyramid.



All up, like the take down of the below the line of the big white sheet thing at the recent state elections, 793 cards all up. Good thing to flip over too. They work well as postcards to strangers and friends. All that ample white space and it's of a sturdy card stock to boot.

Drop in, pick one up. Or more. It's not like other people don't want to have strange things sent to them in the mail you know.

 

Bleary fusion of Sunday night crossing over and into the state that appears after chewing on disgust. However, anything in a state of wondrous angst finds a way out after watching a good Bollywood movie.

And when it's Main Hoon Na as part of the "Hooray For Bollywood" season at SBS, it's just a glorious mix of action, comedy, drama, romance, dance and song that picks the brain right up from the slumber.

The Matrix and Mission: Impossible 2 are featured as heavy riffs with the style of action—and even the not so really action packed scenes—picking up and wringing everything they can from these two films in terms of dirty faced style. Nobody hides this fact of overt homage either, referenced right in the dialogue.

Extended uses of bullet-time get bawdier with each play and the fact that it looks so serious is obscenely fantastic. Watching it, there's the thought that it can't possibly better itself. And then they throw in a song and dance number and that suspicion is dragged knuckle deep through a bed of nails.

Final fight scene features the villain, who looks a lot like Dominic Purcell, catching the first of Major Ram in his neck. Now, if that isn't some kind of skill in arm-to-arm combat worth admiring, what is?

Hilarious and heart-felt with all sorts of issues, watching clean subtitles as they swear their heads off only adds to the charm.

Clearly the best Bollywood movie ever in existence.

 

Bettie Page, bondage pin-up model for 1950s America and still to this day, an icon of the poster scene. A sweet young thing from Tennessee who moves up in the world through modelling with a risque beat.

Subject too to one of the latest giveaways through the site and released today in most cinemas, The Notorious Bettie Page, a film starring Gretchen Mol in the eponymous role.

Bettie Page was born in which Tennessee city?

Clearly the first port of call for any competition and giveaway is perhaps the steady truss of Wikipedia. According to the users' encyclopedia, Bettie Page was born in the town of Kingsport.

From the looks of the entries flying into the drop box over the past two weeks, that's what a lot of people took as gospel and the truth that doesn't lie.

However, from the Official site of Bettie Page, Nashville is where it all begins. Double backing this fact is the data sheet featured in Playboy.

Two against one, and the thinning of entries is easy.

Play the game, but learn to play it well.

 

Eagle eye and casual glance observers walking into the place to be over the last round of weeks will have noted the Ghost Rider poster on their way in.



With the landing of the box from Sony promotions, the tale unfolds a little more. One side of the giveaway involves the passes, good for two and the entire run of the film in the cinemas.



And the other half are all about the posters that can be seen underneath in the photo above. Strange thing on the back about an online magazine, Don't Panic.

Sniff the poster if you get the chance. Really smells something smashing fantastic. Nostril approach may vary.

 

Theatrical playing season was relatively short, and finding a cinema that was playing A Scanner Darkly as hard as chewing a bit of jerky that could last well over a decade from a nuclear fall out.

Taking the rotoscopic action out of the equation is to ignore one of the main reasons for walking up to the box office they some times use when they're not using the Candy Bar as the place to flog the tickets. A marvellous looking film, trippy in a most passive way, the scramble suit and the effects of drug use definitely working the bean right down to the bone.

Both Robert Downey, Jr. and Woody Harrelson's characters find themselves rambling at various times with the strict sense of paranoia as a sheer motivator of their thoughts. Kind of like watching that which makes the spoken word all the more enjoyable. Like a poetry slam without the need to have a shot of knock out juice in the hands of the judges.

 

Passes no more in the hands of the Comic Shop for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. The last of the last of the free movie passes through Roadshow Films walking out the door on the weekend.

Interesting methods of half direction and slight delusion in the give away period which sees a slight overlap into that of A Scanner Darkly.

One soul, on the Saturday toward the very end, comes face up to the offer with a slight misunderstanding on the concept of free. Bamboozling with questions, the offer comes quick and fast with a jab to the left cleft and it's not unexpected for more than a second to pass for it to sink in.

"How much does it cost for the free passes?"