While officials in Kazakhstan were initially perturbed by Borat and the adventures of Sacha Baron Cohen's Kazakh journalist in America, now one leader has thanked the filmmakers for a subsequent boost in tourism to the former Soviet republic. "With the release of this film, the number of visas issued by Kazakhstan grew tenfold," Foreign Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov told the nation's parliament. "I am grateful to Borat for helping attract tourists to Kazakhstan." Very nice! [IMDb, AFP]
The first trailer for Sacha Baron Cohen's The Dictator had Megan Fox and Kardashian jokes, but those pop culture touchstones have been replaced by Anna Faris and terrorism gags in the new, longer trailer. An upgrade? Eh, sure. Maybe. Or not: Faris's brunette pixie 'do does make her look particularly adorable, but juxtaposed with her natural poise Cohen comes off as a poor man's Adam Sandler. Like, hammy Zohan-lite Sandler.
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Ah, supercuts. Sometimes done well, too often not, the art of the pop culture-mashing video meme rarely achieves such simple brilliance as it does in this version of Lionel Richie's "Hello," as pieced together from scraps of movie dialogue here and there. It's like an alternate reality fever dream in which John Cusack's Being John Malkovich puppeteer, Elvis, Neytiri, Tippi Hedren, Gandhi, and Borat (to name a few of the folks immortalized herein) come together to record a cover of the soul-searching 1984 slow-jam.
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Dutch filmmaker Tom Six cut a striking figure last month at Fantastic Fest, where he appeared -- ever-smiling and clad head to toe in a pristine white suit, his outfit of choice -- to world premiere his squirm-inducing body horror sequel, The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence). The following day Movieline spoke with Six about the film, in which he meets the challenge of one-upping himself in the escalation of extremes in gory, grotesque detail. Upon hearing that an audience member fainted the previous night, Six professed his sympathy. He was sorry to hear it, he said with a grin. Well, maybe not completely sorry.
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