Renzo Gracie on knowing himself truly and completely

Since competing in MMA makes you learn so much about yourself, Renzo Gracie has used it as a path of self-discovery:

"I will die shitting on my pants like everybody else, but knowing who I was...Knowing for sure and truly who I was."

Chris Weidman on hard work and luck

Chris Weidman on hard work:

I believe that when preparation meets opportunity, I guess that's what you consider luck; so it's just hard work.

Cats after anesthesia

This is a funny animated gif of two cats falling around after they've just waken up from an anesthetic. They kind of look like two friends who have just come back from the pub.

EDIT: Apparently, this isn't caused by anesthesia. Instead, it is the result of cerebellar hypoplasia, which is basically a disorder that prevents their Cerebellum from reaching full maturity. In case you didn't already know, the Cerebellum is the part of the brain that controls motor control. Fortunately, cats who have cerebellar hypoplasia are still known to go on and live happy lives.

Napoleon Dynamite playing Tetherball

This is an animated gif of Napoleon Dynamite playing Tetherball by himself. Typically, this gif is used as a metaphorical reply whenever somebody wants to express loneliness or describe something that they regularly do by themselves.

Water Balloon Prank Fail

This is a funny animated gif of failed prank. Somebody decides to throw a water balloon at a kid. Said balloon fails to burst when it hits the kid in the back of the head, knocking him onto the ground. This is one of those gifs that you inevitably end up watching a dozen times over.

Floyd Mayweather on using your talents and skills

Inspiring words from Floyd Mayweather:

Everybody is blessed with a certain talent, you have to know what your talent is...you have to maximize it and push it to the limit.

Alexis Ren

This is an animated gif of model Alexis Ren, who currently works for Nous Models in Los Angeles, USA.

Floyd Mayweather quotes from the Howard Stern show

One of the most telling things Floyd Mayweather said during this interview was about his bronze medal he won at the Olympics. He says he didn't win the bronze, he received it:

"You only can win a gold...I don't even got it, I don't know who got it...I'm not impressed with it. I was born to be a winner"

He unflinchingly has the mindset of a winner.

 Other quotes from the interview:

"You have to relax...Take your time and go out there and get the job done. Always keep your composure"

"I just got the will to win at life"

"TMT is about being rich at heart"

Slam dunk in a lecture hall

This is a funny animated gif of some sort of slam dunk prank in a college lecture hall. A black dude is standing there, looking around confused before another two guys jump up out of nowhere and perform a slam dunk over his head. The students jumping up in the background make this gif.

Kid with sunglasses sitting at computer

This is an animated reaction gif of a kid sitting at his computer wearing sunglasses while he bobs his head around as if he doesn't have a care in the world. Typically used as a "deal with it" reply gif. This one is looped so that it looks like he is continuously taking off his sunglasses.

Lexi Belle

This is an animated gif of adult actress Lexi Belle dancing in a pink sports / athletic bikini.

Conor McGregor: Everything works, every move

Conor McGregor on learning from everyone:

Everything works. There's a time and place for every single move, no matter what it is...That's the approach I take.

Roxanne Modafferi on shooting for the stars

Chris Weidman on confidence and hard work

Chris Weidman on the correlation between hard work and confidence:

It's all about confidence...And you're not always going to feel confident, but all that matters is when you step in that cage, when you touch those gloves, that you're confident. And I think that all literally comes from hard work. If you're not working hard every day, you're not going to feel like you really belong in there and deserve to win.

Lauren Cohan

This is an animated gif of British actress Lauren Cohan posing during a photo shoot. She is probably most famous for her role as Maggie Greene in the TV show The Walking Dead.

Bianca Beaucham

This is an animated gif of Canadian fetish model Bianca Beaucham posing on the beach in tight black spandex (at least I think it is called spandex, I'm not really too knowledgeable when it comes to this type of thing, so please don't get offended if I'm wrong).

The Big Show crying

This is an animated gif of WWE wrestler The Big Show putting his hands on his head and crying. His real name is Paul Randall Wight, Jr and he hails from Tampa, Florida.

Hank Schrader - Shocked

This is an animated reaction gif of Breaking Bad character Hank Schrader sitting on the toilet and looking extremely shocked after he figures out something huge and life-changing. If you haven't watched the show, you should most definitely do so.

Okay, lets ride

This is an animated reaction gif of Nicolas Cage emphatically saying "Okay, lets ride!" This is from the movie Face/Off (1997), in which Cage portrayed the characters Castor Troy / Sean Archer (the movie revolves around his identity being switched).

The Madness, Sketched!

All Cheerleaders Die

Francis Foster made some very nice sketches of the 2013 Midnight Madness program at his Tumblr page, Sketchy Musings. Click through to see reviews of the films and more sketches every day.  

All Cheerleaders Die

The Green Inferno

The Station / Der Blutgletscher

Afflicted

Oculus

Almost Human

Rigor Mortis

R100

Why Don't You Play In Hell?

Chris Weidman on believing in yourself

11 minutes into this video Chris Weidman talks about self-confidence:

Believing in yourself at this stage of the game 99% of everything.

Mike Tyson on friends and enemies

 

Mike Tyson on friends and enemies:

"Everybody you fight is not your enemy and everybody that helps you is not your friend"

Jon Jones on manifesting dreams with the Law of Attraction

Jon Jones on manifesting dreams in his reality:

I really feel like a walking testimony of like if you set your mind to things, how things can come true for you. I feel like I'm like, like the law of attraction. I feel like I'm living that life wholeheartedly. Everything that I've looked for out of life, it's come to be so far...I'm working hard, I'm not getting lucky, I'm earning things...I feel like a living testament to how you can just put your mind to anything and make it happen. 

Emmanuelle Chriqui

This is an animated gif of a bikini-wearing Emmanuelle Chriqui taking off her skirt (not sure if they have another name for beach-ware). Ms Chriqui is from Montreal, Quebec in Canada. She has acted in movies such as You Don't Mess with the Zohan and 5 Days of War. Fun fact: She acted in Are You Afraid of the Dark? back in 1996.

Bill Haverchuck

This is an animated gif of Freaks and Geeks character Bill Haverchuck showing his friends "how to dance sexy". This was from the Freaks and Geeks episode "Noshing and Moshing", which was S01E15. Bill was portrayed by Santa Monica actor Martin Starr.

Ainett Stephens

This is a hot animated gif of Ainett Stephens. Ms Stephens is a Venezuelan model and TV personality who hosted the TV shows Azzardo The Match and Tintoria.

Carrina Vargas

This is an animated gif of model Carrina Vargas. Ms Vargas is a Suicide Girl / model who describes herself as being of Cantonese / German / Mexican descent.

Lisa Morales Hula Hoop

This is an animated gif of a bikini-wearing Lisa Morales playing with a hula hoop. Morales is a TV personality / model from America and she has been featured in magazines such as Maxim. You can follow her on Twitter here.

The Guardian Reports On The Madness!

Overcome by the Madness, audience member toy with the very globe!

The Guardian reports on Midnight Madness and gives our own MM Photographer, Ian Goring, a mention. Midnight Madness does make dreams come true!

When it first began 25 years ago, Midnight Madness was "a little bit more rough and tumble, and the audience was, like, drunk and stoned and rowdy", says Geddes. "But after a while, realising that what they were seeing was the crème de la crème of genre films, it built this kind of genre sophistication." 

The poster boy here is Eli Roth, whose groundbreaking horror Cabin Fever came out of nowhere in 2002 to earn not only audience devotion but some of the year's biggest sales. Writing in this month's Hollywood Reporter, Roth was effusive about how Midnight Madness changed his life. Other films to make their name at the Ryerson cinema include Ong-Bak, Hostel and The Raid. (Geddes: "I think I can accurately boast that I'm the first person to get 1,200 people into a cinema in North America to watch a film from Indonesia.") 

Fittingly for Tiff, Midnight Madness hasn't just been a springboard for directors. "There was one kid I would run into," Geddes recalls. "Shy, quiet kid. He always asked to take a picture of me and the director after the film. Then one year he sent me the pictures – and they were beautiful. He and his father drive in every day from Niagara Falls, an hour's drive away, see Midnight Madness and drive back. So I ended up getting him a media press badge – he's now my official paparazzi. He even took pointers from the other photographers, so now he knows how to get a star's attention: 'Over here, look over, to the right …'"

Read more here.

Midnight Madness Memories: Robert A. Mitchell, Midnight Madness Junkie

 

Iko Uwais interviewed by Robert Mitchell at The Raid World Premiere.

 

A few days ago, we posted the memories of MM Photographer Ian Goring, today we're sharing the first Midnight Madness screening of another MM Blogger who you don't hear from much around here, MM Interviewer, Videographer and Man On The Scene, Robert A. Mitchell. This was originally published on the 2008 Midnight Madness blog as, "The Genesis of a Midnight Madness Junkie, (a.k.a., The Night I Met Prachya Pinkaew)." ~The Editor

 

Howdy All.

As a way of introducing myself, and also to take a little time to do a some reminiscing, I wanted to talk about my first Midnight Madness screening.

It was a Saturday, the second day of the 2003 film festival and the second year I was attending. I was set to watch two films that day. The first was Takeshi Kitano's latest film Zatoichi at the Elgin theater theater at the base of Yonge street followed by a screening of Alien with Sir Ridley Scott in attendence. That is already an amazing day of cinema. Little did I know what the night would bring. Suffice to say Zatoichiwas amazing and I wasn't the only one who must've thought that because several days later the film would win the audience award.

Leaving the theater and stepping into the bright early September daylight I slowly wandered up Yonge street bopping in and out of stores looking at DVDs. My mind wandering, thinking of the amazing sword sequences I had just watched.


By five o'clock I found myself standing in what was supposed to be my second and last line up for a film that day. Perhaps because of kismet, the unifying field or just one of those things, the woman who stood directly in front of me had stood directly behind me hours earlier while I waited for Zatoichi.

We began to talk about many different films and she asked me if I would be going to Midnight Madness that night. I replied that I had heard of Midnight Madness but that I had never gone. She then informed me that there was a film playing that night entitled, Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior.

Since my teenaged years encompassed skateboarding, eating pizza and watching kung fu films every Saturday, I was always up for a good martial arts film, but, alas, I did not have a ticket. The woman informed me she was a volunteer and that she would use one of her vouchers and procure me a ticket. True to her words she came back from the box office with a ticket for Ong-Bak and what would become my first Midnight Madness film.

Oh yeah, the Alien reissue was amazing and, not only was Sir Ridley Scott in attendence, but Yaphet Kotto sat in the audience with us and watched the film ... but I digress.

Cut to INT.: The Uptown Theater Saturday night around 11PM.

 With the usual energy that comes with a warm Saturday night, this particular night had the added excitement of a world premiere. The crowd had changed, they were younger and much more enthusiastic. Although it was a long day and I was fighting exhaustion, one could not not get caught up in the moment and feed off the energy that you were surrounded with.

We were finally seated in the amazing theater that was the Uptown 1 (see above photo (R.I.P)) and a man came onto the stage and introduced himself as "Colin Geddes, the Midnight Madness programmer" to a huge amount of applause and cheering. He then went on to relate a tale of seeing Ong-Bak at the buyers market at the Cannes film festival and that Luc Besson, the director of La Femme Nikita, had already bought the film.

Colin Geddes then introduced the director of the film, Prachya Pinkaew, who had almost not made the screening due to being held up by customs and had to resort to taking a cab from the airport to the theater to make the screening on time. In fact, he had had no time to stop off at the hotel to unpack his luggage. When Prachya stepped out and onto the stage you would never have known that a mere hour or so before he had been on a plane coming from the other side of the world.

With the introductions finished the house lights dimmed and the curtains were slowly drawn and little did we know what we were about to see. You could look in a thesaurus and no amount of adjectives could ever do Ong-Bak justice. The film was completely and utterly amazing. When the final credits rolled and lights came back on, sitting in that theater - which was now in the wee hours of Sunday morning - you knew you had just witnessed the emergence of a new talent unleashed upon the world. The star of the film Tony Jaa without a doubt would become the next big action star.

As Colin and Prachya came back onto the stage the crowd rose in a standing ovation and if you had ever been in the Uptown 1 you can attest to how many people that was.

After the Q&A I stumbled out of the theater and into the night, dizzy from the amazingness I had just watched. Wandering around the local neighbourhood I popped into a store and bought a chocolate milk, when the thought crossed my mind to double back to the theater and see if I could get a picture with the director.

Outside of the box office stood Colin  and Prachya with a few other people. I approached them and asked if I could have a photo. Colin then snapped a picture at a crazy angle and the moment was captured.  I'm the dork with the red beard standing beside one of the greatest action directors to emerge in the twenty first century.

I don't speak a word of Thai and I believe Prachya didn't speak much, if any, English. But, when I said to him that Ong-Bak was the best fighting film I had seen since Drunken Master II, a flicker of recognition passed through his eyes. We had bridged the language gap through action films.

When the house lights came back on that Sunday morning I immediately thought to myself how many times are you going to be in a world premiere audience and be able to say I was there the night the world was introduced to the next big thing. In an instant I was hooked and have been attending Midnight Madness ever since. This will mark my sixth year.

I also would like to thank that volunteer for taking me to my first Midnight Madness screening.

What Did People Say About WITCHING AND BITCHING?

I think we all needed a few days to fully process what we saw at the Ryerson on Saturday for the world premiere of Alex de la Iglesia's Witching and Bitching and the final night of Midnight Madness 2013. The Spanish director's film, completed almost days before, blew the audience away and, as always, they had a lot to say about it!

It was a wild ten days of bloody glaciers, haunted mirrors, zombie cheerleaders, and whatever Why Don't You Play In Hell was, and it was great to find out what the Midnight Madness audience thought about the lineup, screenings, and the Q&A.  And, of course, the inflatable Spider Man.

Until next year!