The man was so talented that they were able to take his rehearsals and make it into a major box office movie, Boycing of course about the late great Michael Jackson.
The success of the movie“This is it” proof that MJ is and always will be the indisputable “King of Pop”.

“MICHAEL JACKSON’S THIS IS IT” made motion picture history as the highest grossing concert film of all time. And now, the two-disc album companion to the movie Michael Jackson’s This is It released by Sony Music’s Epic Records makes its first week debut in the #1 spot of the Billboard Top 200 album chart, as well as the Soundtrack album chart. U.S.

If the Michael Jackson rehearsals could create such an impact imagine what would have happened if he had been able to do the show itself.
Before he died tickets to his concert had already started to go through the roof and believe it or not after he died many fans elected to keep those tickets as souvenirs whether than return them for a refund.
Such was the greatness of the Man Michael Jackson.

Let’s bring it closer the home, despite the fact the MJ has passed on, he continues to be one of the popular reoccurring characters I voice imitate on my PBoyce Show radio show every Saturday on 98.1 FM. Such was the greatness of Michael Jackson.

So have you seen “This is it” yet? And I don’t mean any cheap down load on a 24 inch screen either, (I will not call certain people name) make sure and get into the cinema and see it on the big screen and Dolby stereo surround sound.
Viewing the last production of MJ deserves nothing less; such was the greatness of Michael Jackson!

Jason strikes again! And so does the remake syndrome

I see that on February 13th 2009, a remake of Friday 13th slashes its way on to our cinema screens, note it is not another sequel as the 13 others before but a remake of the original.

It seems to me that the Hollywood has reach the end of its creative cycle and is finding it increasingly hard to produce any thing new that is good, hence they are going back to the good old classics favorites we grew up with.

Evidence can be seen in the proliferation of remakes which are now being churned out by the tinsel town movie making machinery.

There are so many old movies and TV series that are being remade its amazing, Starsky and Hutch, Knight Rider, Battle Star Galactica, Beverley Hills 90210 and Charlie’s Angels.

They also remade Psycho, the avengers and Mission Impossible; of course some of these remakes were so bad the original should not have been touched at all. (Look what they did to Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho”)

Let’s not forget all the classic songs that are now being sampled and released to a new generation as though they are new.

What is the significance of this? Does this say that in this millennium Hollywood and indeed the world has peaked and reached the end of its creative cycle.

Let’s not forget the new installments of Rocky and Rambo, plus a Terminator 4 is now in production as you read and we have the Terminator TV series. 

The entertainment events of our past are now the highlights of our future.

I am sure there are quite a few more remakes you can add that I might have missed and like Arnold they are now promising …..

“I’ll be back”

It was intriguing and riveting, for thirty minutes I was glued to my chair awaiting the outcome of this suspenseful tale.

What am I blogging about? An Episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents which I was watching yesterday on the AMC classic cable channel.
The classic Alfred Hitchcock series are example that class is for ever while form is only temporary , these shows first aired in on television back in 1955 that was 53 years ago, I was not born yet and my mother would have been 10.
But yet the Alfred Hitchcock series have withstood the test of time and continue to be a regular staple on television through out the world.

What is unique about the series is  it featured some major names that some are now long gone, Joseph Cotton Vincent Price, Robert Redford, Burt Reynolds, William Shatner,Charles Bronson Dick Van Dyke to name a few. You also see some actors who became stars later in bit parts like Clint Eastwood etc.
What is also outstanding was the opening credits with the signature ‘funeral March” song and the dark humor dead pan delivery of Alfred Hitchcock himself as he did both the intro and the extro to the programs.

I am quite a fan of Hitchcock I find him inspirational not only because of his Director skills but also in the way he marketed himself.
He is a director who managed to be even better known than the movie stars he directed.
So for better or worse my name usually becomes a focal point of attention when I am involved in a production regardless of who else is involved.

Some years ago, I read 1300 pages of an Alfred Hitchcock biography so I am quite an expert on his life movies and the same series.
When next you see the old black and white show starts up and the larger than life Hitchcock steps in with is dead English delivery “Good Evening” keep tuned in, you will not regret it…

Click on below link for some humorous Hitchock intro and extros and the famous theme ….Until next time Good Night

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajRpxpYRNwY

Remember watching Kung Fu in the Plaza?

Asiba you seem to have been quite a theatre (Cinema) pimp, who spent quite a bit time in the pit, when I first started going to the cinema that’s the only part of the cinema I went. For one pit admission was $2.50 which was the lowest ticket price.
As far as I was concerned, you saw the same movie as the people in the circle and the balcony.
Let me explain how cinemas were segregated up through out the 60’s and 80’s The pit was the area right in front of the screen then there was a barrier midway which separated and created the “circle”, the balcony speaks for it self.
I can’t tell you what the ticket prices of the circle and balcony was cause I never went there… I was always a cheap Ali Singh from school.
Of course if you had a date you could not take her in the pit, which would be dissing the girl, your friends would laugh at you, and her, and you could forget any baby making activities you might have in mind. Fortunately for me I never had a date back then, or unfortunately.
Some times I would pay for the pit and sneak into the circle when the attendant wasn’t looking. Girls seemed to frown on that too.
I spent most of my time in the Olympic cinema, which was close to the buses, and then I watched kung fu and spaghetti westerns in the Empire and Plaza.
Westerns like “The Good the Bad and the ugly” “Trinity is still my name” and “A Fistful of dollars”

Kung Fu Starring Silver Fox, Wang Yu and Sonny Chiba in “The Drunken Master” “Snake and Crane Arts of Shoalin and “The Big Boss”.

Remember people use to say how the Roxy had in chinks?
When ever any technical malfunction happened in any cinema in Barbados people would shout “Roxy”! ….
The Globe and Vista were considered up market cinemas at that time, that’s where you took a girl when you wanted to impress her..
And here endeth my Boyce Voice Bajan Cinema nostalgia for the day…..

Here’s an interesting Shontelle interview sent to me by a friend you will find interesting, She mentions meeting Rihanna in a sub military organisation re cadets; Also Shontelle talks about working with Beanie man and how incredible he was, she also talked about when she worked with Peter Boyce and how fantabulous I was but they edited it out, Damn them like ass.. She also gives Barbados a good plug click and check it out you are not busy…..

The infamous old Empire Theatre

If you are old enough you might remember the significance of the above times, 12.30, 4.30 and 8.30.
Years ago in the hey day of the cinemas In Barbados those were our standard movie  show times.  

Back when there was bare cinemas in Barbados, the Plaza Olympic empire and Roxy Cinemas in addition to the Globe and others. When you feel like “Gine in de theatre” there was a range of options to choose from.
Back when the only place you could see a movie was in the cinema so you had no freaking choice.
I remember standing in this incredibly long line outside the Olympic waiting to see the musical “Grease” back in 1978.
There were neither video tapes nor any DVD technology that we had access to back then.
You either got into the cinema and saw John Travolta and Olivia Newton John dancing on the big screen or you didn’t see them at all.

So to service the hungry throngs of Bajan movie goers, it would be a standard that from Wednesday to Saturday movie show times would be 12.30, 4.30 and 8.30.  So “theatres” would have generated quite a bit of revenue back then. Now cinemas has been impacted by several factors including technology.
So we no longer have the proliferation of cinemas which once dominated, gone are the days of the Plaza, Olympic, Empire,Vista and the Roxy is now a supermarket.
Gone are the days of 12.30, 4.30 and 8.30….!

Would you beleive the Roxy is now a super market?? Lord come fuh yuh world

Why so serious?
Put a smile on that face…
That one of the blurbs to the latest Batman flick “The Dark Knight” and that’s exactly what the movie does; it puts a smile on your face in a Gothic kind of way, compliments of Heath Ledger who does a brilliantly evil personification of the joker. It is to die for…
“The Dark knight” puts the other Batman Movies in the shade; the concept has stepped up a notch above the simplistic comic book plots utilised before.
The plot has twists, turns, and surprises, Watch out for the appearance of the gruesome “two face” character and how he becomes villain number two of the movie.

The star of the movie is not Christian Bale as the Batman, Yes he is the Dark Knight, but he is over shadowed by Heath’s ghoulish Joker.
The joker is tight! Check out his pencil disappearing trick,  this morbidly humorous clown is really effective.  Some how he manages to inject a comical flair into evil deeds like blowing up a hospital. The Joker’s make up is intriguingly imperfect and it adds to his ghoulish mystique.

Maybe what makes the joker so brilliantly fascinating is the knowledge that since Ledger died just before the movie’s release, there would be no sequel to his performance.
Did you see Heath’s in the controversially gay “Broke Back Mountain”? I didn’t, from what I heard about the movie it did not sound like something I could stomach. Therefore my first introduction to ledger as an actor turns out to be his farewell performance, as the joker in the Dark Knight…

Why so serious? put a smile on that face…. Go out and see “The Dark Knight”

As a collector of movies I have became quite concerned with this new format I now hear about movies now available in Blu Ray. Let me expand.
I started collecting movies from back in the 80’s so I have quite a collection of movies on the old VHS video tape format. All legitimate mind you, there’s no place for pirate copies in my collection. For those of you who don’t know what a VHS tape looks like, look at this….

So on VHS I have titles like Terminator 1 & 2, First Blood, There’s Something About Mary, Bowfinger, Face Off, Blues Brothers and more, like over 30 movies which for Barbados is quite a collection.

Then in the 90’s something came along called DVD Format, so then I had to switch to movies in this new improved format, had to buy a DVD machine then starting with the “Matrix” some of the same movies I had on the old VHS I had to re-purchase on the improved digitized DVDs albeit with extra features.

            My “Matrix DVD

So now I have quite a collection of DVD movies and feeling good, now I hearing bout something called Blu Ray. What the ass is Blu Ray now?  Now do I have to get a new Blu Ray machine and change my movie format again? Cheese on Bread!
I went checking up on this new Blu Ray Crap and here’s what I found….

Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of the world’s leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers (including Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson). The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. The format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. This extra capacity combined with the use of advanced video and audio codecs will offer consumers an unprecedented HD experience.

I think for the time being I will skip that new HD experience; you could go bankrupt trying to keep up with technology. I think we should all make a stand and stick with the DVD format till we die, it’s cheaper…

Where were you when Michael Jackson’s Thriller music video made its debut on television 25 years ago?

In 1983 Thriller was unleashed on to television screens thrilling audiences with its special effects and thrilling dance moves. Veteran movie director John Landis directed it, he had been specially chosen by Jackson because of the work he did in “An American Werewolf in Paris”. Michael wanted Landis to change him into a horrific werewolf like what he had seen in that movie.

Thriller started a phenomenon that exists up to now. You would have seen its influence in Madd’s effective 2004 stage presentation “Hard Ears” which featured dancing ghouls.

Click below and take a look at the perennial music video which has with stood the test of time and continues to be effective up to now. Happy 25th Birthday to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”!

Michael Jackson-Thriller

Heres one of the hardest Barbadian videos you will ever see, directed by Selwyne ‘Get Bizi’ Browne of Zotikos Studio.

This is a music video to Keisha Christain’s song “Totally Unacceptable” which tells the story of a woman who comes home unexpectedly and finds her man in bed with another female, her reaction becomes the basis of the storyline.

I find the video effective because it uses “real” looking people to portray the characters, the man looks like the “guy from next door”. The acting is superb and really brings you into the action, the editing and camera angles also enhance the on screen violatile situation.

Watch for the effective use of a “Matrix” effect in the video, it is to die for…

When you see the impressive work done by Selwyne Browne in this video you are left wondering “How can Barbadians be doing creative video work to this level and it is not being seen on our local CBC TV?
That is a question which begs to be answered….