Slowly but surely, OldBoy is making its away across America, where it will most likely go straight for the jugular of our country’s moviegoers and leave audiences shaken in its wake.  IGN recently hosted the premier of the North American trailer, in both QuickTime and Windows Media flavors (though I trust you know which one to pick).  Hopefully it’ll come somewhere near Lincoln, because I’m dying to see it on the big screen (if only to hear the audience squirm when Choi Min-Sik chows down on that octopus).  IGN also has some stills of the movie, which you can find here.

And just for completeness’ sake, here is my OldBoy review.

A couple of MP3s from a couple of hott releases for you.

First up is a track from the new Out Hud album, Let Us Never Speak Of It Again, which is due out on March 21.  The track is titled “How Long” and you can download it here.  Sorry, you’ll have to wait until March to hear the oh-so-impishly titled epic “Dear Mr. Bush, There Are Over 100 Words For Shit And Only 1 For Music. Fuck You, Out Hud” in its entirety (but you can find a clip here).

I’ve been listening to the album for awhile now, and it’s solid.  It’s quite a bit more polished and smoother than S.T.R.E.E.T.D.A.D. (just wait until you hear “Old Nude” in all of its slinkiness).  It’s not nearly as skronky, but it’s just as insidiously catchy, perhaps even moreso.  My full review will be appearing in the coming weeks.

On April 12th, Starflyer 59 will be releasing their new full-length, Talking Voice Vs. Singing Voice.  Click here to download “Something Evil”, which is a little slower and quieter than what you might expect from the band, especially considering last year’s I Am The Portugese Blues.  I’m digging those spooky, breathy BGVs in a big way.

Update: Apparently, Amazon is no longer playing the trailer.  No need to panic, though.  The lovely people at Twitch have dug up this lovely hi-res QuickTime version.

I’ve been sick since Tuesday afternoon and am just now getting back on my feet, so this morning has been a mad dash to get caught up on all of the stuff that’s happened since I became bedridden.  Right near the top of my list was catching the new trailer for the upcoming Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie.

It’s been awhile since I’ve read any of the books, but I absolutely loved them.  I’m not a rabid fan by any means, but even so, anytime a book as quirky, offbeat, and well-beloved as Hitchhiker’s is made into a movie, there’s going to be concerns.

Much of what I’d heard was promising, and the teaser that came out last year certainly seemed to have the right tone.  But now that the official trailer is out, I can honestly say that I’m one giggly little schoolgirl.  Head on over to Amazon and you’ll see why.

My only complaint, other than the fact that the trailer is only available as Flash, is that we don’t get to hear Alan Rickman as Marvin the Paranoid Android.  But other than that, I love it.  It looks fantastic, perfectly capturing the zany humor and not burying it under loads of CGI and special effects (which look great too).  Needless to say, I can’t wait for April 29 to come around.

Whee!!!  I got home yesterday, and what should be waiting for me but nice big envelope from those lovely folks at Palm Pictures, containing not one, not two, not three, but four DVDs.  Several of them have already been reviewed elsewhere on Opus, so I’ll just post a few thoughts on each.  However, before I begin, I just want to give some major props to Palm.

I’ve always been of the opinion that Miramax should be banned, by international law, from acquiring the rights to any more Asian films.  If such a blessed event ever occurs, than Palm gets my vote as their replacement.  So far, they’ve done a pretty bang-up job with all of the films they’ve released, giving them the respect and integrity that they deserve.

That’s right… no editing hack jobs to dumb them down for American viewers, no stupid artwork (I would love to get a poster of the sleeve artwork for Last Life In The Universe), no horrible dubbing jobs, no endless shifting of release dates, and best of all, no damn hip-hop soundtracks.  Basically, just think of everything that Miramax does to their Asian releases, and then picture the exact opposite behavior.  Palm, you done good.

Whew, not that I’ve got that off my chest, on to the DVDs.  As of right now, the only one I’ve sat down and watched all the way through is Last Life In The Universe (which was just as good as I remembered - more on that in just a bit), but I’ve skimmed through the other 3 just to see what’s on them.  Here goes…

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Crass commercialism or just ultra-sweet?!?  Take a minute and watch this new VW Golf commercial, featuring an updated version of “Singin’ In The Rain” where Gene Kelly is popping and locking, and decide for yourself.

Actually, it’s the inimitable David Elsewhere (you know, the guy in those freaking awesome Kollaboration videos) that’s doing the popping and locking.  The equally inimitable Jason Kottke just posted an interview with Elsewhere, which is worth another minute or two of your time.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I suddenly feel the urge to practice my robot.

I realize that, by now, everything that could be said about The Arcade Fire probably has been said. And so I’m not going to say another word (at least as far as this particular blog entry is concerned). Rather, I’ll just let you see for yourself, by linking to this clip of the band’s recent appearance on Conan O’Brien.

Note: The video clip is an AVI file, so please act accordingly.