It’s been said that if you screw up once, it’s a mistake, but if you do it three times it’s a style.

Don’t get me wrong, Submarine is a good film with a strong voice, but that’s not to say it’s not without pros and cons.  With a unique tone, interesting characters, and distinctive editing, director Richard Ayoade obviously had a strong vision for this film from the beginning.  The only problem was with the main character, Oliver Tate, who was written as such an offbeat character that there were times at which he was hard to relate to.

Submarine is a film full of feature film newcomers.  Ayoade makes his narrative feature debut as writer/director, a departure from his career as a TV actor and director.  Both of the young actors, as well, come fresh to the big screen.  Craig Roberts, playing Oliver Tate, takes on his first feature lead in this film (he has since starred in Jane Eyre), and Yasmin Paige, coming only from small parts in obscure films, gives a surprisingly beautiful performance as his love interest, Jordana Bevan.

Daniel Day Lewis is a badass. The There Will Be Blood star is infamous for never breaking character during a film’s production, and it seems that his latest portrayal of the iconic American president in Steven Speilberg’s Lincoln is no exception.

Spotted at a local cafe in Richmond, Virginia by Michael Phillips, this image has been making the rounds as the first glimpse of what this film could look like.  Even though he’s enjoying his meal in jeans and a turtleneck, his hair an makeup certainly make a spot-on Abraham Lincoln.

Take a look at the candid image in full after the jump.

Never underestimate the power of experience.  Fresh off directing a couple episodes of King of Queens, Michael J. Weithorn make his feature film debut with A Little Help. I’m all for new talented writer/directors (Mark Webb), but unfortunately, while I do see potential for some creative ideas in this film, he probably should have tried out a few shorts before diving head first into a feature.

It felt like highly produced sit-coms episodes strung together.

In the film, Jenna Fischer plays Pam…. sorry, Laura, a dental hygienist who must deal with the aftermath of the sudden death of her unfaithful husband.  With her family almost forcing comfort and support down her throat, she soon discovers that her son has been lying about his father’s death to his friends at school to make him sound cooler.  The film has all the elements in place, a solid story with good casting, but ultimately fails to come together as a cohesive unit that keeps the audience engaged the whole time.

When they first seated the cast and crew of the new Adult Swim animated comedy Black Dynamite at my table, I don’t think they realized we were there for the roundtable discussion.  Spending the first 5 minutes of the interview talking about YouTube videos and their co-star J.B. Smooth spitting all over the recording mic, I honestly was just enjoying seeing them hang out.  Eventually, they realized I was there for the interview and we got down to business.

Among those at the table were executive producer Carl Jones, best known for producing The Boondocks on Adult Swim, co-executive producer Brian Ash, and cast members Kym Whitley and Michael Jai White, who you can check out  in Matt Raub’s video interview later.

Quick background:  the Black Dynamite animated series is actually a spin off of a 2009 blaxploitation spoof.  Starring a lot of the same cast including Michael Jai White and Byron Minns, the film premiered at Sundance that year.  Director Scott Sanders shot the movie on Super 16 film as a direct homage/satire of the cult genre from the 70s.  Here is where I would give a quick plot recap, but I will never word it better than the description found on the official website:

“When ‘The Man’ murders his brother, pumps heroin into local orphanages, and floods the ghetto with adulterated malt liquor, Black Dynamite is the one hero willing to fight all the way from the blood-soaked city streets to the hallowed halls of the Honkey House.”

Tucker & Dale vs Evil is a comedy horror film about two hillbillies on their dream vacation to a cabin in the woods who get mistaken for kidnappers when they try to help out a girl that fell into the lake.  Completed in 2010, this film has had a tough time finding a distributor after it premiered at Sundance.

I sat down with the director, Eli Craig, to talk about his experience with this film.  The conversation started off light, with him telling me about the new trailer that was premiering that weekend at their panel in Hall H.

The Flickast: So are you having a good weekend?  Have you gotten to experience Comic Con at all?

EC: I haven’t.  I’ve just been doing these interviews.  But I do want to go check it out.  My 5 year-old son is in there somewhere running around with a chainsaw and a hillbilly costume.