Elsewhere, 2/5

Sally Shapiro will be releasing Remix Romance Vol. 1, which will feature remixes of every track from Disco Romance by the likes of Junior Boys, The Cansecos, and Juan Maclean — more details here.

Watch the trailer for The Battle of Red Cliff, the upcoming John Woo historical action epic starring Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro. I’m with Grady Hendrix: the trailer looks pretty good, if a little on the generic side. Here’s hoping Woo can recapture some of the magic.

Watch the trailer for Mongol, the Oscar-nominated Genghis Khan biopic starring the great Tadonabu Asano.

Also courtesy of Twitch, the new trailer for An Empress And The Warriors, the Tony Ching-directed martial arts epic starring Donnie Yen, Kelly Chen, and Leon Lai.

And finally, Twitch reviews CJ7, the latest from the crazy mind of Stephen Chow. “CJ7 is his loving tribute to Hollywood’s Cinema Of Spectacle, particularly the sci-fi genre. You’ll find a lot that’s familiar in the film, and that’s not a particularly bad thing because a Stephen Chow movie is almost like a movie-buff’s trivia game. CJ7 is clearly made in the mould of films like E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Batteries Not Included, and other such films.”

Brett McCracken on Lost’s fixation with time and fate: “I don’t know what is going on on Lost (I never really have), but I do know that it is still the most consistently thought-provoking show on television.” Renae and I watched the third season on DVD while she was in the hospital, and I totally agree. Every time I thought the show had become gimmicky or sunk to self-parody, something happened that had me captivated all over again.

Paste Magazine lists “The Art House Powerhouse 100”, the 100 most powerful folks in the world of independent cinema.

Andy Whitman on the commercials from the 2008 Super Bowl: “Every year I am mystified by the marketing genius of Madison Avenue. Yesterday was no exception. We saw a girl sitting on a mountaintop strumming an acoustic guitar and singing a nondescript tune about something or other. What any of it had to do with Doritos is beyond me. We saw the most vicious racial stereotyping ever. God help you if you’re Indian, Chinese, or Mexican. They are coming to steal our women.” My wife and I only watched snippets of the game — we watched Discovery’s MythBusters marathon instead — but based on what I did see, I totally agree.

Also on the Whitman tip: he’ll be speaking at the 2008 Cornerstone Festival. Buy your tickets now.

From the New York Times: “…according to design experts, [Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama] have left a clear blueprint of their personal style — perhaps even a window into their souls — through the Web sites they have created to raise money, recruit volunteers and generally meet-and-greet online… The differences between hillaryclinton.com and barackobama.com can be summed up this way: Barack Obama is a Mac, and Hillary Clinton is a PC.” For the record, I absolutely love the look, feel, and atmosphere of Obama’s site.

Art, Worship, and the Bible: “No wonder non-Christians often remark on the ugliness of our churches — an ugliness that is off-putting to anyone sensitive to beauty. [Christians] have forgotten that beauty is not achieved, as some argue, just to draw people into the church, but because it is a form of praise to the God who designed and created magnificent mountains, delicate flowers, and our beautiful children.” Via