Thursday, October 29th, 2009

Still trying to post something relevant to the Halloween season, I dug out two countdowns of the scariest films of all time, the first is an unranked look at 20 great genre films at the hands of Entertainment Weekly, originally published in 2004, the second a top 10 from MSN Movies. Of course, there is plenty of similarities, the classic pictured Exorcist, as well as John Carpenter's Halloween, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho and Tobe Hooper's, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Still, there are a few interesting choices on both lists, most strikingly the appearance of David Lynch films. The bizarrely creepy voyeur Lost Highway on EW's countdown and the nightmarish surrealism from 1977's Eraserhead on MSN's list. Enjoy.

Another spot on EW's list is Jonathan Demme's 1991 Oscar-winning masterpiece The Silence of the Lambs. This is in no small part due to Anthony Hopkins brilliant performance as Hannibal Lecter. So it would seem the perfect time to pass along an article from The Hollywood Reporter that confirms Hopkins will add the role of Odin, Thor's father and ruler of Asgard to his repertoire of roles in the upcoming Marvel film Thor.

Currently, I'm reading an interview with Ridley Scott in Empire to see if he spills anything interesting about the Alien prequel he is set to direct down the line. I'm a bit saddened that it sheds light on nothing at all.

I mentioned yesterday that I was searching for Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll, starring Andy Serkis, whom received a nod at the British Independent Film Awards for his performance, yesterday. Well, I regret to report that I can find nothing. When searching YouTube, if a trailer exists, it is trumped by actual videos of Ian Dury, in which the film is a biopic of. IMDb also currently lists the project as "in production", so hopefully I'll eventually grab this for a post.

Finally, the wait for a big trailer for James Cameron's Avatar is over. I resisted the temptation of posting a bootlegged low quality version last week. If you decide to actually watch this thing, please do it full screen. As a note, I actually hate when people talk about how awesome Transformers was, because it was all effects with no substance. I mean, there is plenty of films that put a good deal of bang in both categories, but after watching this trailer, attached to the huge buzz of the theater experience this will bring, it may be the only film I am really going to champion on effects alone. Not saying I'm ruling out a decent storyline, but really, there is too much eye candy in this to really care about Sam Worthington's legs, allegories to Native Americans or similarities to FernGully: The Last Rainforest's environmentalist bravado.

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

With Halloween drawing ever nearer, I've been researching something more in the spirit of the times to post on my blog, and I ran across a great countdown of the 28 most horrifying film scenes of all time, courtesy of Total Film. Of course, the list doesn't completely stay within the genre of horror, as the infamous Divine coprophagia scene that closes John Waters' cult filth manifesto Pink Flamingos, that is picture is among the list dwellers. Also outside of the horror genre is the American History X curb stomp, the entire duration of an incredibly nauseating Martin Scorsese short The Big Shave, the eye slice in Luis Bunuel's surreal masterpiece Un Chien Andalou, and the lashing of Jesus Christ in The Passion of the Christ among others. Still, there is plenty of horror fun on the list at the hands of The Last House on the Left, An American Werewolf in London and Misery. A really incredible list, with video links to every scene if you're bored, and in a rather morbid mood.

In other news today, Empire posted the nominees for the British Independent Film Awards. I'm not extremely familiar with all, or hardly any, of the flicks that garnered nods. Regardless, the film Fish Tank led the pack with eight nominations, while more importantly for this blog, Duncan Jones' Moon picked up seven, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Sam Rockwell, which will certainly build a little steam towards Rockwell getting the big Oscar nod. Also, I am currently searching through YouTube to find the trailer to one of the films nominated, Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll, which was honored in the form of Best Actor for Andy Serkis. The title and Serkis is enough to have me interested.

Finally, I spoke of Scorsese's appearance on the brilliant Total Film countdown up there. It may seem kind of weird to have the famed director of Taxi Driver and The Departed on a countdown of horrifying scenes, but once you think of the brutal realism usually displayed in his films, his two places in the countdown (the other being the buried alive scene from Casino) seem right at home. So what would happen when Scorsese ventures into the realm of horror? Well, a new trailer for his latest, the upcoming Shutter Island, hit the Interwebs today and looks as creepy as one could imagine. Leonardo DiCaprio stars, and it has jumped right on top of the most anticipated films for 2010 in my mind. Enjoy.

Shutter Island - Exclusive Trailer

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

The casting for Michel Gondry and Seth Rogen's 2010 superhero flick, The Green Hornet, has been one of the more fascinating since I've started keeping a movie blog. Today, I learned that, despite principal photography and filming actually taking place now, the casting news thickens. First off, Rogen, in an interview with MovieWeb, has confirmed that Anvil, the Canadian metal band that gained prominence with this year's documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil, will play a band for the film. Also, Rogen announced that Edward Furlong has also been added to the lineup, although he would not confirm in what capacity.

A lot of things to cover today, so moving more quickly, an online petition has been started to get Sam Rockwell a nod for this year's Academy Awards, as the sponsor feels that Moon will be overlooked due to the film being director Duncan Jones' directorial debut, and nowhere near the promotional buzz needed to trump the other films that will be campaigning. I absolutely hate how political the Academy Awards are, as it really comes down to the best campaign, and not the best performance. Anyhow, without seeing Moon, I have to say that I hope Rockwell lives up to the praise, but I can't have an extreme opinion as of yet.

MarketSaw announced today that The Lizard will be the only villain in Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man 4. This is good news for Dylan Baker fans (assuming that I'm not the only one), but makes us have to question what the expanded role of Bruce Campbell will be. Also, it has to be noted that the source is MarketSaw, which reported last week that Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola will both direct a chapter in a sequel trilogy of George Lucas' Star Wars saga. Trustworthy?

At midnight, or a few short minutes from when I'm writing this, the highly anticipated Michael Jackson documentary This is It debuts at theaters. I still have my doubts about this rushed doc's quality, but who can resist the spectacle?

Paranormal Activity took the top spot at the box office this weekend, beating out Saw VI in its opening weekend. This is a breath of fresh air to anybody like myself who thinks that the Saw series has finally run its course, as well as anybody that is just generally excited about independent films gaining widespread success.

Movie-related Christmas ideas have already began pouring in, as DVDSnapshot, courtesy of a link from Cinematical, has posted the details and contents of The Mel Brooks Collection, a nine disc Blu-ray compendium of comedy, which will include such films as Blazing Saddles, History of the World: Part I, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Silent Movie, Spaceballs and Young Frankenstein among a few others.

Finally, I had a decent weekend whilst not blogging as I partook in several October activities including taking in The Rocky Horror Show live at Berea College, a corn maze and attending The Grand AdventureCon in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. We actually set in on two panels, one for Mickey Dolenz (of Monkees fame) and one for Kevin Nash, So Cal Val and Traci Brooks of TNA. I'd like to say I brought back some exclusive knowledge for my blog, but I don't think any of their cinematic careers, if they even exist much at all, are flourishing at the moment. Still, when looking up to see if they were going to be in anything, I ran across the fact that Dolenz was in Rob Zombie's re-working of Halloween, which I didn't know, and this picture...

That is So Cal Val in Princess Leia's infamous slave girl get-up. And yes, it is from a site dedicated to cosplay of that one costume (and does border of creepy most of the time). Even though my only readership is my fiance and another straight female, I think even they would appreciate such a site.

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

When Sam Raimi announced a few weeks back that Bruce Campbell may play a bigger part in Spider-Man 4 than what he has previously done during the film franchise, the rumor mill began to circulate on what villain Campbell could play, most Internet bloggers settling on Mysterio as the most popular possibility. As much as I think this would be a great idea, and would be a step in the right direction to save Raimi's big screen saga of Marvel's web blaster after Spider-Man 3 was met with lukewarm reviews, I have to admit that I was a little disappointed that this news probably meant Dylan Baker and his character of Dr. Curt Connors, was going to be denied the transformation into The Lizard and a major part. Maybe I'm more biased when it comes to Baker than I am the character of The Lizard. Sure, Campbell is awesome, but ever since watching Todd Solondz' dark comedy Happiness, I have felt that Baker is one of the more underrated actors in the cinema industry. But according to an article at Ugo, I may be wrong as Baker confirmed that he will be returning to play Connors once again, although he wouldn't say if he would be receiving a larger part this time around. Of course, I would like to see both characters, but with the biggest complaint of the third installment being villain overload, one would have to expect that changes will be made, and only one main villain, a la Dr. Octopus and the most critically-acclaimed entry, Spider-Man 2.

Yesterday I gave a link, via SlashControl, to watch The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas for free. Despite being on the SlashControl web site, the video was hosted by Hulu, the best, and possibly only legal way to watch good quality, free films online. Well, that is until next year, as Entertainment Weekly broke the news today that Hulu will eventually start charging for services. Honestly, like Hulu doesn't make enough money off of advertising sales.

If you never go, 80sTees.com is one of the better sites on the Interwebs to purchase clothing. Anyhow, I found a link to this awesome "Three Teen Wolf Moon" shirt. Great.

On Cinematical's Shelf Life column today, author Todd Gilchrist took a look at Robert Zemeckis' 1997 science fiction film Contact. I'm kind of shocked to say, not only have I never see the movie, but until tonight after reading Gilchrist's appraisal of how the film holds up nearly thirteen years down the line and searching some reviews on RottenTomatoes and Roger Ebert's web site, I didn't really even know much about it. Despite enjoying Zemeckis and Jodie Foster, the face value of a science fiction flick co-starring Matthew McConaughey is just off-putting enough to not be interested in. Still, I just watched this opening sequence, and now I think I'll put this as top priority to rent. Anybody ever see it? Worth watching? Overrated? Underrated?

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

When did the 3-D fad go too far? Well, I think it came with the release of The Final Destination. However, there is still some good things to be done with 3-D. I'm looking forward to James Cameron's Avatar, the annual Halloween release of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas in Disney Digital 3-D is nice, and whenever I visited the Blogger account MarketSaw, and thought that I read a headline that the original Star Wars trilogy would be re-released in 3-D, I was halfway excited. Yet, the complaints and raves that was swirling around in the ol' noggin was soon abolished by wondering who the hell runs the MarketSaw site, and how reliable are they, seeing that the rumor I'm about to repeat has made its way around the blogsphere, as I first saw it on MovieWeb. Anyhow, after scanning down from the title, I realized the article actually states that George Lucas and company is contemplating a third trilogy in the Star Wars canon, all to be filmed in stereoscopic 3-D. The article goes on to say that Lucas would just have a production credit with the new films, and that Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola are being considered as directors of installments in the trilogy. Excited? Well, the article seems to doubt itself at the end, so don't get too bent out of shape. Oh, the accompanying picture to today's blog is just about as great as you can get, so if its apparently kosher to throw out crazy bits of info, I'll go ahead and drop Martin Scorsese's name in the hat to create the trifecta of new directors.

A story that to me is almost as absurd, but awkwardly true is that, via IWatchStuff, The Weather Channel has decided to start showing weather-related films, beginning with The Perfect Storm, and including Deep Blue Sea(?!). I mean, at least it makes sense for VH-1 to air Purple Rain, but Deep Blue Sea!? How does that work? And even if it came be considered a "weather movie", has it even got an audience? Is this for ratings? Ridiculous.

SlashControl was showing The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas for free today. Seeing that I'm writing this quite close to midnight, the link was broken. Still, it may be worth checking the site out, who knows what the free movie of the day will be tomorrow. And if you're really bored, the top five most watched movies includes the late Patrick Swayze in Black Dog, what looks to be a few softcore porn flicks and an old Sherlock Holmes movie.

An interview with David Duchovny over at The Daily Beast hints at a third X-Files film, but it is basically just Duchovny speaking on how much he would enjoy returning to the character of Special Agent Fox Mulder one more time. This is at least something to make my fiance's day a little happier if she reads this before work.

Finally, a good Cinematical article by Jessica Barnes is up on movies you feel that only you enjoy, her pick being About Last Night. I have two. The first being Howard the Duck, as the movie is pretty much considered one of the worst ever made on several review sites. I don't know if it's the nostalgia behind enjoying this as a kid or what. I do know a few people that like this, but according to Internet reviews, we are a rare breed. Also, we have Spider-Man 3. Sure, Venom was in the movie for only fifteen seconds, and was met with a demise that didn't even tip the iceberg of what the David Michelinie-created villain deserved. On the flip side, the transformation of Eddie Brock to Venom in the bell tower was a decent scene, Flint Marko was a pretty decent villain, and as much as everybody hated the cheesiness of it, all of the corny extras oozed Stan Lee's personality and wasn't so farfetched from any of the other stuff we had seen from the film's predecessors. So, anyways, join in on that discussion.

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

During the Halloween season, there is always a plethora of places I want to go, including and not limited to, Halloween film festivals, corn maizes and supposedly haunted places to do a ghost investigation. One thing that I never really think of, especially seeing that I'm in the part of the world that cinema usually overlooks, is filming locations to classic horror fare. Turns out that in Morristown, Tennessee, roughly an hour and half away, was the site of Sam Raimi's classic 1981 The Evil Dead. Sadly, the site has a no trespassing sign up, but you can visit this web page to see pictures of the remnants of the burnt cabin if you would rather set online and look over risking jail time. They're also selling vials of earth and burnt cabin remnants. Anyways, this may warrant a stop on the next trip through the area.

Cinematical has a great countdown today of the seven best horror themes. A fitting countdown for the month that includes The Exorcist, Halloween and Psycho, among others.

Collider recently interviewed Jackie Earle Haley to debunk rumors that the actor will return to the DC Universe, this time to play Sinestro in the feature film adaptation of The Green Lantern. The good thing though, Haley didn't say he was uninterested, just was without invitation. So, we know Haley is a great actor, but with Haley being known to comic fans as Rorschach, would this be seen negatively? I mean, sure the man playing Hal Jordan, Ryan Reynolds, is also known as Deadpool, but that was in the horrific and very forgettable X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Still, I think Haley may be the best name I've heard thrown around for the role, so hopefully if casting hasn't already gotten underway, the folks over at Warner Brothers/DC will take a look at the positive buzz and consider this.

Speaking of superhero casting, until a sequel to The Dark Knight is either in theaters or completely confirmed to be dead, rumors will run rampant on who will be casted as the new villains. Well, this has been on my mind today as I had an off day from work and school and spent the entire day not moving from playing Batman: Arkham Asylum. Sure, I may have jumped aboard a bit late on this, but I can't get over how brilliant the character of Harley Quinn is. There is a overabundance of message boards you can go to in order to find who the public wants to play the villainess if she were to ever hit the big screen, such as this one from Newsarama, showing how truly terrible casting directors the general public would be. Anyhow, who do you think would make a good Harley? Of course, there is the veterans to the role, Arleen Sorkin, who voices The Joker's stalker-esque female companion in the aforementioned game as well as Harley's most widely known incarnation in Batman: The Animated Series. I also didn't think Marielle Guerber was a slouch in her version of the role in the dark French short Ashes to Ashes. The perfect voice, and possibly the perfect look if it had been shot right after the Wachowskis' Bound would have been Jennifer Tilly. Still, I can't really think outside the box on this one as reading down any list, they all seem absurd. Conversely though, I originally thought the same when I heard Heath Ledger's name mentioned, and that is now the reason that the future of Christopher Nolan's incredible reboot of the franchise is now in question... because he could never be duplicated. Anyhow, I'm going to get back to the game.

Monday, October 19th, 2009

One of the most unfortunate things about living in the part of the country that I do, is that spectacular looking films, such as Robert D. Siegel's Big Fan, didn't come within a hundred miles. Still, the Patton Oswalt starring dark comedy has been championed in this blog for sometime as I wait with bated breath for the DVD release. While I wait, via Cinematical, the independent sports flick has nabbed three nominations (Best Feature and nods for Siegel and Oswalt's work respectively) at the Gotham Awards, honoring the best in independent cinema. Two other films that are high priority on my list to catch-up on when they finally hit store shelves is Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker and the Coen Brothers' latest, A Serious Man.

Speaking of A Serious Man, the flick took a decent leap in the box office this week, taking an 84% rise, still only netting it in the top 15. Also, Paranormal Activity still continues to climb its way to the top, landing at number three this weekend, taking sales up 148%, after a 1000+% increase last weekend. Still, the top story is that Spike Jonze's incredible Where the Wild Things Are took the top spot easily with approximately $33 million. Law Abiding Citizen and The Stepfather also debuted within the top five, which if not for Wild Things getting such a great release, would be cause to shoot ourselves in the head in honor of intriguing cinema, such as the 35th spot, Black Dynamite, which essentially will go unnoticed.

On the topic of Where the Wild Things Are, I was left with affirmation that Jonze is, in fact, one of the greatest geniuses in modern movies. The director of Being John Malkovich has really done no wrong thus far in his career, and prior to film, he has helmed such wonderful music videos as the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage", Fatboy Slim's "Praise You" and Wax's "California". So, it was definitely a shock to see an article on Cinematical highlighting a short film Jonze had done with douchebag extraordinaire, Kanye West, entitled We Were Once a Fairytale. It is hard for me to believe that, despite the high level of talent behind the camera, West could do anything remotely entertaining... on purpose. This thought continued as the embedded YouTube video provided by the link was taken down due to noncompliance in the form of a copyright claim from West himself.

Variety ran a story today about the possibility of reviving the failed attempt of a Broadway adaptation of Brian De Palma's classic horror flick Carrie. I don't really see why this wouldn't work. Actually, this makes me wonder why, when speaking of great Halloween staples in the same vein of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, why Carrie doesn't get some costumed midnight showings around this time of the year. Given, the Stephen King adaptation isn't nowhere near the same amount of fun as Rocky Horror, but the kitschy horror, and what would surely be a plethora of prom dress clad moviegoers doused in pig blood in the audience, definitely makes for at least one hell of an opening act. The Variety article also gives me reason to put up the prom scene clip from the movie, which has been on my mind recently, stemming from a rather comical incident during classes the other day. Enjoy.

Sunday, October 18th, 2009 (Short Film Sunday: Halloween Extravaganza)

This is the last Short Film Sunday I'll be posting before Halloween, seeing that next Sunday I will be hoarding nerdy memorabilia from The Grand AdventureCon in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. So, with the aforementioned information, I figure I should do a bit of a Halloween extravaganza, and put together three decent shorts that embody the spirit of the Halloween season.

First up, is the original short that inspired the feature length version that we are all a little more familiar with, Saw. The short, which was directed by James Wan and was written by and starred Leigh Whannell, the team behind the big screen version that would come out a year later, was actually made as nothing more than a pitch from Wan and Whannell in an attempt to be picked up from a movie studio and acquire actors. Of course, this short and the original film are actually good entries into American horror, so don't let the overkill of Saw VI, due out this coming weekend, or the announcement of an upcoming 3-D Saw VII, or even the VH-1 reality series Scream Queens ruin this for you. The short can now be viewed by the uncut edition of the Saw DVD.

Second, we get a little more child friendly with a 1929 short directed by the one and only Walt Disney and animated by the brilliant Ub Iwerks, The Skeleton Dance. The short was actually made just a year after Mickey Mouse's debut screen appearance, via the short Plane Crazy. The little film, part of the Disney Silly Symphonies series of shorts, has became a Halloween staple over the years, being named among the 50 greatest cartoons of all time in a survey of a thousand animation professionals, compiled by historian Jerry Buck, and Carl W. Stalling's score pops up on Disney Halloween CD's all over the place. A nice little fact, just nineteen days ago was the eightieth anniversary for this short.

Finally, if there is one short that embodies Halloween more than any other, it has to be Michael Jackson's Thriller. Some people may consider it a music video more so than a short film, but Wikipedia and IMDb are among the sites that count this as a film, albeit a TV film according to the latter. The video was definitely the first time filmmaking and music video would merge, and possibly the only time it would on such a magnificent level. The short is directed by John Landis, just fresh off of doing An American Werewolf in London, and co-stars Ola Ray (who, incidently will be one of the guests at the aforementioned AdventureCon) and the voice of horror icon Vincent Price. The short, which tells the story to the tune of Jackson's eponymous track off of one of the greatest albums of all time, Thriller, of a couple that leaves the showing of a horror flick due to the young girl being frightened, only to end up in a nightmare of walking, dancing undead. Of course, the short/music video will be bigger this year than ever after the passing of Jackson a few months ago. Adding to the hysteria of Wacko Jacko's October legacy is the fact that Thrill the World is expecting its biggest turn-out ever, which will attempt to break the Guinness World Record of most people dancing in sync to Thriller simultaneously the world over. Also, This is It, the documentary on the finals days of Jackson's life is set to come out just a few days before Halloween. Enjoy.

Thriller - Michael Jackson

Friday, October 16th, 2009

I was flipping around the telly today, and caught somebody mentioning the Darth Vader gargoyle on Washington National Cathedral. I attempted to find a news story that would have prompted the newscaster to bring up the piece of architecture, but to no avail. Still, last year I went on a vacation to Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and as much as I absolutely hated D.C., especially in comparison to Baltimore, one of my highlights was the drive-by on the tour bus of the beautiful National Cathedral. Of course, I had no clue that this was part of the huge church, which was the venue for John F. Kennedy's funeral. Kind of neat, and may even cause me to go back to D.C. once I take the inevitable return trip to John Waters' hometown.

Aside from this random find, the only real news for the day is the week's Friday releases. Of course, topping the must-see list is Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are, which looks brilliant and has been getting the critical acclaim to back up the amazing looking trailers and featurettes we've been seeing that past few weeks. Also out this week, the sequel to what I felt to be an underrated movie, the anthology Paris, Je T'Aime, came out today, called New York, I Love You. The movie definitely has the talent to match its predecessor, but I just don't see it recapturing the magic of the Coen Brothers' or Sylvain Chomet's entries, and as for critics, anthology films are usually dismissed anyhow, so I don't see this flick getting much exposure. There is also a nice blaxploitation throwback, Black Dynamite, out today. I've not heard much about the movie, but I'm a huge supporter of exploitation homage films, so I'll at least keep an eye on the reviews. To a lesser extent, Law Abiding Citizen looks watchable and The Stepfather being a horror film in October stands a decent chance of gaining a following, but I doubt anything special.

A few random thoughts on the rest of October in film for my local area. Next Saturday, here in Harlan at the Old Hall Gym, as if anybody that will come across this doesn't already know about it, there will be a free showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight. Since I can't find anywhere near that is doing a good Rocky Horror live show, this looks to be the next best thing. Also, the next day I will be attending The Grand AdventureCon in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, which will be taking place the whole weekend.

Finally, since it is a slow news day, and we are drawing closer to Halloween, LiquidGeneration has a good video up of their top 25 horror flick kills. Enjoy the link.

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

I have to admit, I enjoy the first Saw movie. This whole new subgenre of "gore porn" was in its infancy, and James Wan and Leigh Whannell actually seemed to care as much about plot, as they did the imaginative ways to implement a modern day Herschell Gordon Lewis gorefest. Now, we are almost at the release date of the sixth installment, with a seventh announced, due out next year, and to say that the franchise has gone stale, catering more to teenage boys with mental complexes, with complete abandonment of story, or horror for that matter, is an understatement. I mean, the movies even spawned a show in VH-1's Celebreality line-up to find a star for Saw VI for Christ's sake. Let's just say, as much as we all may tire of Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees, we haven't seen their likenesses alongside Flavor Flav, that douchebag that killed Jasmine Fiore and New York in the same television line-up. Terrible. With that said, I also generally like 3-D. As a gimmick, take for instance this very NSFW trailer to Tom DeSimone's raunchy exploitation 3-D Prison Girls, it works great. For big budget events, it at least gets us excited, case in point James Cameron's upcoming Avatar. It also isn't that bad of an idea for a traditional showing, a la Disney's annual release of the 3-D treatment of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. However, this overkill of everything 3-D is killing me. With both of these generally good things, turned this cinephile's biggest maddening movie peeves, it is no surprise that ShockTillYouDrop has announced that Saw VII will indeed be shot in 3-D format. Is anybody honestly going to be excited for this?

Further destroying any hopes for me to write anything but some bitches and moans today, IWatchStuff posted an interview with Bill Murray, in which he states that Harold Ramis may have overstated Murray's possible return to the character of Peter Venkman in the possible Ghostbusters 3. It's not that Murray is completely against doing another film, but thinks the script should at least be better than Ghostbusters II. Really though, wouldn't we all be mad if Murray would return to something cheap. This is actually good news, masquerading as disappointment.

MovieWeb has the official list of the submissions for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards. I really know nothing about any of the possible nominees. In fact, I've only heard of a few like Joon-ho Bong's Mother, Havana Marking's Afghan Star and Miguel Littin's Dawson, Isla 10. Of course, this award, more than any other at the Oscars, is the most political and usually many good films get left out. For instance, Tomas Alfredson's brilliant Let the Right One In got snubbed at last year's Oscars and Guillermo del Toro's beautiful Pan's Labyrinth didn't get the nod in 2007. One movie I have heard a lot about this year not present in the list is the South Korean horror flick Thirst. Anyhow, this is always just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Oscar displeasure, so stay tuned for those rants.

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

So, in the movie world, Captain Lou Albano may have been known for a few B-movies and the occasional wrestling VHS from the 80's you'll pass by in the video store, but he did have somewhat of a starring role in Brian De Palma's Wise Guys, so I feel it is relevant to my blog to mourn the loss of the man that is more famously known as the guy with the bitchin' beard in most Cyndi Lauper's videos, the iconic wrestler and wrestling manager (he's in the WWE Hall of Fame) from when the World Wrestling Federation was worth watching, and for playing Mario in TV's The Super Mario Bros. Super Show. So in honor of Albano, and since the Internet is evil, the video for "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" will not embed, so here is a link. Also, check out Geekologie's article on the captain to see a few clips and a link to another article with full episodes of the Super Show on Kotaku.

MTV has an article up in which Jon Favreau confirms that he will not be sitting in the director's chair for The Avengers. Kind of a bummer, as clearly Iron Man was the best cinematic adaptation to come out of Marvel Comics yet. The title of the article would lead the reader to believe that some information on possible tie-ins Iron Man 2 with the rest of the Marvel universe would be confirmed, but Favreau really just tells us what will not happen. Still, a decent a read.

I think I may have been the only person to think that I Love You, Man wasn't the funniest movie of all time, at least if I am to believe some of the message boards I frequent. Anyhow, the cause for my disappointment in the movie may be that I just expect more from Paul Rudd and Jason Segel. Not to say that the movie wasn't funny, just in comparison to Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Role Models, films that came out in the same year as I Love You, Man, it just didn't have the same level of laughs. The high points of the movie though? Lou Ferrigno and Rashida Jones. I don't know much of Jones, other than her stint on The Office; however, after reading an article on Variety today, her nerd points just went up. Not only does Jones have a comic book created by her, starring her likeness, Frenemy of the State, but she is also currently writing a screenplay treatment for an Universal Pictures adaptation. Time to look up Frenemy of the State.

Finally, IWatchStuff has an interesting video up, supposedly done by Jordon Mechner, a writer for the Prince of Persia video game series, as a pitch trailer to movie studios. Actually makes me anxious to see Mike Newell's upcoming cinematic version. Enjoy.

Prince of Persia movie pitch trailer (2003) from jordan mechner on Vimeo.

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

It seems like the news front of Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson's upcoming The Hobbit film adaptation keeps getting slower and slower, and slightly worrisome with the news of MGM's possible bankruptcy in the horizon. Still, Empire has given us a tiny morsel to quench our thirst for the time being with an interview popping up with Gandalf himself, one of the great actors of our time, Sir Ian McKellen. Among the things McKellen indulges us is his expected timeline of what is to come, that filming is expected to go 383 days, that he has serious doubts about the rumors of Viggo Mortensen and Orlando Bloom making cameos and almost a confirmation that Andy Serkis will be back to play Gollum. He also talks about the similarities between del Toro and Jackson, and defines both of their styles as "artistic autism". The article continues along to inquire about the long rumored X-Men Origins: Magneto, in which McKellen says he has yet to read a script.

In other news, the drama between Michael Bay and Megan Fox continues ever on, as PopCrunch covers a story that has been circulating around more on the celebrity gossip circuit than the blogs of cinephiles like myself, as many reports are saying that Bay wants to kill off Fox's character in the third Transformers in the first few minutes, via a gory death scene to get back at the actress for comparing him to Hitler. Why is this bogus? Fox will be paid millions, so regardless how much killing her character off in a floundering movie franchise, in what would surely be the best scene of the flick, would hurt emotionally, Fox would probably reap more benefits than the director, known largely to everyone as a douchebag, could.

A bizarre article on Cinematical that jumps in on the argument of children's films of the past few years carrying too left-wing of a message was posted today. One of the films covered is WALL-E (I suppose for the environmentalist mentality?). The article's author, Jette Kernion, sums up pretty much all of my thoughts, albeit a little cleaner, of how ridiculous it is to insinuate that WALL-E is pumping out the wrong message. Is it just me, or is Republicans getting crazier than ever lately? Then again, free health care, and family friendly cartoon-endorsed anti-littering and anti-laziness is how the Third Reich began also.

Every three days, I make it a point to read Cracked's top Internet picks, I would suggest everyone else that would find themselves bored enough to read my ramblings on cinematic happenings to do the same. Anyhow, pertaining to my blog, a great countdown from AskMen on the top 10 legendary movie guns is up, including Cherry Darling's prosthetic in Planet Terror, Ash's Boomstick from Army of Darkness and the .44 magnums toted by Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry.

Monday, October 12th, 2009

What is one of the worst concepts for a big budget movie you've ever heard of? Today, I'm sure Variety broke a story that has to be right near the top. Adam Cooper and Bill Collage, the men behind the comical, albeit forgettable Accepted, plans on making a new re-imagining of the story of Moses, as told by the Holy Bible's Book of Exodus, in the same green-screen technique as Zack Snyder's 300. The article goes on however, to note that Cooper and Collage is hoping to give the film more of a feel comparable to that of Snyder's adaptation of Frank Miller's comic, possibly crossed with Braveheart, instead of anything similar to Cecil B. DeMille's classic 1956 The Ten Commandments. Terrible idea.

Speaking of terrible ideas, LatinoReview posted an interview with Roland Emmerich about the possibility of Independence Day 2. Also, the article pretty much confirms that Will Smith will not be part of the movie. Sadly, no mention of Jeff Goldblum. I will admit that I actually like the first Independence Day. Given, the movie may not have been Citizen Kane, but if modern critics will let the two Transformers slide, ID4 was nothing short of a masterpiece in such respect. Anyhow, despite enjoying the original, I don't really see any feasibly entertaining way a sequel could come to fruition.

On to the more hopeful news, we7 has posted the title song from the soundtrack of The Fantastic Mr. Fox by Jarvis Cocker. I'm quite amazed that the two family films I've been extremely stoked about, this film and Where the Wild Things Are, also have two of the better soundtracks of the year. I posted the audio files for Karen O's soundtrack work for the former a few weeks ago. I don't know too much about Cocker, as I've actually read more about him than I have listened. Still, enjoy the link.

Couples Retreat took the top of the box office this weekend. The movie still looks terrible, but ever since I found out Peter Billingsley is the director, I've found it my duty as a lifelong fan of A Christmas Story to watch it. Perhaps the best story on the box office charts though is that of Paranormal Activity, a flick that is still technically in limited release had a 1,384% increase in sales and took the fourth spot.

Sunday, October 11th, 2009 (Short Film Sunday: Runaway Brain)

Today will be the first Short Film Sunday that I have posted since the ever-lengthening Halloween season has began. So, in honor of the time of year, as well as a story from Cinematical earlier in the week on Epic Mickey, I thought I would go for a no-brainer with Chris Bailey's 1995 animated horror-homage short starring Mickey Mouse, Runaway Brain.

The aforementioned story was that Pixar Animation is rumored to be considering adapting the new imaginative upcoming Nintendo Wii game, Epic Mickey, into a feature film. The game, due out next fall, looks strikingly well for a Wii game, and is already in talks to be developed to Play Station 3 and Microsoft XBox 360. The plot of the story is that some of the more jaded characters in the Disney animation canon is angered at Mickey Mouse's endearing and undying cultural status, led by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks' original creation, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, begin wreaking havoc on some of the more beloved Disney stories. Back to the Cinematical article about the consideration of putting the game's intriguing plot on the big screen, it caught my eye as special due to the fact that it will be the first time the newer generation will see a charming version of Mickey, which, in the last few years has become more synonymous with any other symbols of conglomeration or bastardry. In fact, the last time I was happy to see Mickey on screen was during his brief cameo in 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit. So, it brings up the question, could the cutesy mouse be entertaining enough to keep the attention of children once again in a new generation outside of Kingdom Hearts and in the cinematic world?

Well, I may had answered that question myself when I was reading my latest copy of Geek Monthly, and saw the ad for Medicom's figure for Runaway Brain (as pictured up above), and remembered the nice little short that accompanied by A Kid in King Arthur's Court and George of the Jungle, as well as being on the home video release for A Goofy Movie. Of course, before I watched it again, I didn't recall it being as good as it was. Some of the finer points missed during my younger, more innocent days, is the fact that Mickey is playing a Mortal Kombat style game with characters of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, that Kelsey Grammar voices Dr. Frankenollie (which Wikipedia tells me is named for classic Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston), the frame that mimics the poster for The Exorcist, and a nice Wilhelm scream.

As for the director Chris Bailey, he has yet to take a jump into feature films, but is best known outside of this short, which played at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, for being an animator on The Little Mermaid and The Lion King. So, without further adieu, enjoy Runaway Brain.

P.S., since I've not been blogging as of late, a bonus short for today. After talking about Oswald up there, I thought I would give him his moment after I found the famous 1927 short that brought the character to prominence, Trolley Troubles, directed by Disney himself.

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

The blogging has been nonexistent this week. Not for lack of news, as I have broke away from all my finals work to read around the cinematic blogsphere; however, I have not thought it wise to really blog for myself. I'm also rather tired today, as I've been waking up a bit early here and there to finish up papers, but I thought I would drop an extremely quick blog to allow any readers (ha!) that the blog still goes on. So, for now, here is a great video that puts my stress at ease, Nicolas Cage's terrible acting displayed via out of context clips from The Wicker Man... enjoy.

Monday, October 5th, 2009

'Tis a slow week for blogging due to it being finals week. Despite missing the last three days, there has not been a lot of cinematic news pumping through the blogsphere. This may be due to the fact that instead of blogging or digging up some kind of casting news to bitch about, cinephiles actually have a few decent options in theaters this weekend. Taking the top of the box office was Zombieland, which was shockingly great. I expected it to be comical, but from the wonderful opening credit sequence set to Metallica's "For Whom the Bells Toll", I was hooked. Also, I don't think it is a huge spoiler to say that Bill Murray cameos in the film, as whenever I searched Zombieland on Google search, all that came back was Murray's name. Anyhow, the short amount of time may be one of Murray's best comedic performances since Groundhog Day, try to digest how awesome that compliment was.

Other than Zombieland, there was five other very watchable releases that is definitely on my must-see list. First, the Coen Brothers' most recent dark comedy A Serious Man, which showed up disappointingly outside of the top 25 on the box office charts, but still looks incredible. Pixar re-released Toy Story and Toy Story 2 as a 3-D double feature for a two-week engagement, kicking off one of the best autumn movie seasons for family films since the 80's. In addition, Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, Whip It!, which is garnering what some feel surprising critical praise in a coming-of-age comedy set in the world of roller derby girls, and starring Ellen Page. Michael Moore's most recent documentary, a commentary on the current state of our country's economic woes, Capitalism: A Love Story opened up as well. Finally, the least of the big releases of the weekend, Ricky Gervais' fantasy/comedy that has been getting some undeserved criticism for being "atheist propaganda", The Invention of Lying, landed in the top five of the box office.

Not only has the blog sites not had time to bitch about casting news, or worry more on the fate of Marvel comic to film adaptation this week for raving over the decent batch of quality flicks, but another independent horror movie, Paranormal Activity, has been taking off with some good old fashioned word of mouth advertising. Apparently, Twitter has been a big help to the film, and if you visit the official site of Oren Peli's debut feature, that was originally made in 2007, you can demand that it be shown in your area. I thought, due to the mockumentary style, that it looked somewhat interesting, but with such an early fan following, who wouldn't want to see this?

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

The ongoing modern battle of wits between Hollywood's biggest douchebag, Michael Bay, and the attractive psychopath, Megan Fox, will apparently continue as, via Bay's personal blog, there will be a Transformers 3, in which Bay, Fox and Shia LaBeouf has been confirmed. Bay's blog also confirms that the screenplay is finished, mentions that he is currently meeting with ILM and Hasbro and also leaves a predictably douchey Bay message towards Fox. Of course, the bickering between the two has been way more entertaining than either of the first two Transformers, so here's hoping for a full on meltdown for the filming of the third.


Yesterday, I linked to a picture of Seth Rogen's stuntman on the set of The Green Hornet. Today, Splash News has a picture of Rogen in costume for the role, as well as the first look of Jay Chou as Kato.

I am quite dreading to see what the American version of Let the Right One In (the title will be changed to Let Me In for the remake) will be like. I have been preaching the graces of Tomas Alfredson's near-perfect flick to everyone since I watched it earlier this year, and I know that despite having Matt Reeves on as director (the guy that helmed Cloverfield), I just imagine of all the things that would be changed. For one, the names of Oskar and Eli has been changed to Owen and Abby. That is enough to make me want to boycott this thing. Still, Cinematical announced that some casting news for the feature, including Richard Jenkins as Hakan and Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloe Moretz taking the roles of the children. I don't know anything about the two younger actors, so I can't bitch too much about it yet. Still, I'll keep my eyes peeled. On a side note, after a quick visit to Wikipedia, I found out that Moretz will also be a co-star in the much anticipated 2010 big screen comic adaptation Kick-Ass.

BadTaste, an Italian movie site has an interview with Quentin Tarantino. I tried to watch it, but save me, with no subtitles I just couldn't do it. Still, reports on ComingSoon, Cinematical and MovieWeb indicate that Tarantino teases us with a brief mention of the possibility of a third Kill Bill film. A much more hopeful story than the bastardization of Let the Right One In.