Monday, August 3rd, 2009

After all of the critical acclaim to Hayao Miyazaki's earlier films, such as Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, Howl's Moving Castle and several more classics of Japanese anime, you have to wonder why the animation master's latest film, the upcoming Ponyo hasn't gotten more attention. Not only does Miyazaki have an outstanding resume, including an Academy Award and some of the highest grossing anime in America or otherwise, but the film caters to a family audience, and without really knowing anything about Ponyo, I think it would be safe to say that it would be a much more intelligent and entertaining story than the currently playing family fare Aliens in the Attic. And to top it all off, Walt Disney Pictures has the U.S. distribution rights for Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli's stateside releases. Whatever the case, due to lack of promotion, I've suffered through a Japanese and French trailer thus far, and finally the English speaking trailer is out for what will surely be just another masterpiece in the immaculate career of Miyazaki. Enjoy.

@ Yahoo! Video

Variety announced today that Steven Spielberg will be behind a remake of the 1950 Henry Koster fantasy classic Harvey, which starred James Stewart. I read on a message board, sparked by Spielberg's latest job, complaints that Hollywood has ran out of original ideas. It is fair to say that some of Spielberg's best work has been written straight to the screen with the Indiana Jones series, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. Yet, it's not like he hasn't made a name for himself by adapting stories before, with classics such as Jaws, Jurassic Park and Schindler's List. So, it's not that devastating. I also don't really think anyone can outdo Stewart as an actor, but the film is 59 years old, was produced during the Hays Production Code and doesn't get nearly the recognition it deserves. Therefore, I don't think a remake, especially in the capable hands of Spielberg, is a cry of blasphemy.

Speaking of remakes, sequels, reboots, or whatever the hell is going on with George Miller and his Mad Max franchise, the famous Australian character could be coming back. SciFiSquad reports that Jeremy Renner dropped the bomb that he was meeting with Miller and taking a screen test for the film. More importantly than Renner's casting though, it gets this film out into the blogsphere. Good idea or bad? I'm leaning towards bad, as the last good action/exploitation film remade for current day Hollywood was the wretched Death Race. Who can't see the same thing coming here?

Cinematical debuted the poster to The Open Road, starring the unlikely pairing of Justin Timberlake and Jeff Bridges. It's a baseball movie about a minor league pitcher and his estranged father. I've yet to see a trailer or read anything further, but here's hoping this will be the first good baseball movie since Kevin Costner was a legitimate award contender.

Funny People took the box office as expected, with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince keeping the second spot, edging out G-Force by approximately $400,000. The biggest shock of the week is that the Bollywood film Love Aaj Kal hit the fifteenth spot, grossing higher than new releases Adam, The Cove, Thirst, Lorna's Silence and the documentary that I hyped on Friday Not Quite Hollywood... combined. Quite the impressive feat from a film that as far as I've seen, has completely slid under the radar, and I've yet to hear any critic or blogger speak of it.

Finally, via The Detroit News, Michael Moore claims that his upcoming film Capitalism: A Love Story could be his last documentary. Don't get me wrong, I actually enjoyed Canadian Bacon, but I think Moore is more entertaining being an asshole to our government.

Monday, July 27th, 2009

Well, thus begins the week of movie blogging after the San Diego Comic Con. With the endless news flowing out with feverish fluidity that made every blogger out there, be it the big timers at Cinematical or AICN, or the nobodies like myself whom, with giggly ecstasy write about our passion of cinema to a handful of readers if that, it makes the week after seem completely dead and void of any real news. But before we put the conventions of all conventions behind us, MaximumPC has a huge 600+ picture gallery of the excellent cosplay that went down. The one pictured, admittedly has more to do with the fact that somebody actually cosplayed as PedoBear than anything in the movie blogsphere, although to make it relevant, I found him sexually badgering some of the Disney movie princesses, in which the cosplayers could be of questionable age.

On to some news... the biggest of the day is the shock that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince didn't take the box office for the second straight weekend. I don't think anyone expected the live action/CGI combination of hamster secret agents in G-Force could outdo the absolutely massive and fanatic fanbase of the highly anticipated sixth Potter film. Completely mind-boggling. On a lighter shock for myself, The Ugly Truth beat out Orphan for the third spot. I just didn't see a lackluster romantic comedy that has been panned making more money than a horror film that good or bad, had a bit of a draw. So, what do you think for next week? Will Funny People take the top spot? Will Half-Blood Prince not take a huge drop from this week, and capture it again? Or will G-Force get two weeks as number one over these other blockbuster events? Let's hope against that last one at least.

MTV's movie blog has a bit of a surprising casting rumor. MTV had an interview with Robert Rodriguez about his upcoming film Machete, in which the director wouldn't confirm or debunk the rumors earlier this month about the possible casting of Robert De Niro and Jonah Hill, but added another name to the already motley crew of possibilities with Lindsay Lohan. The controversial tabloid grabbing actress was said to have a role waiting if she wanted to partake. How could Lohan not take it? She would be perfect for an exploitation film, as her acting wouldn't be on a spotlight, and is one of the few ways she could rejuvenate the minuscule film career she has left. But then again, do we want this? Couldn't Rodriguez, even if he thought he needed a publicity stunt, go elsewhere for someone that has already been in films that are more suited to the exploitation fan's tastes? Who knows.

Finally, The Hollywood Reporter confirms that Mila Kunis has been cast in Darren Aronofsky's upcoming supernatural story of dueling ballerinas, Black Swan, with Kunis taking the villainous role, that has been hinted might actually just be part of the main character's sub conscience. That main character has already been confirmed to be Natalie Portman. Excited about Aronofsky's latest head trip yet? I'll have to admit that I wasn't as hot about The Fountain as everyone else, although I absolutely love Requiem for a Dream, Pi and The Wrestler. I don't think there is any denying however, that even if I don't deem the movie a classic, it will certainly be worth a view.

P.S. I may or may not post tomorrow. I am going to King's Island just outside of Cincinnati. Since the park isn't owned by Paramount any longer, I don't think I'll find anything pertaining to my blog, but I will look diligently for nougat of something to post on here.

Monday, July 20th, 2009

It was no big shock when Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince took the top spot at this weekend's box office, raking in nearly $78 million, approximately $60 million more than the second spot Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. However, the big news in the box office report today wasn't the sixth Potter film, but in the number five spot, Todd Phillips' raunchy comedy The Hangover. Coming in at around $8 million, the film hangs on to the top five, beating out high profile films Public Enemies and The Taking of Pelham 123, despite being released later. Not only does the film hang on for some extra glory, it surpassed Beverly Hills Cop as the top grossing R rated comedy of all time, and behind only The Passion of the Christ and The Matrix Reloaded as top grossing R rated film of any genre. The film deserves it, and let's hope this catapults Zach Galifiankis' career past ever doing a film like the upcoming G-Force ever again.

The Hollywood Reporter has taken a look at DC Comics' upcoming films. The list is very impressive, although it doesn't elaborate on really anything. It announces that The Losers has started principal photography in Puerto Rico, and stars among others Watchmen's Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Star Trek's Zoe Saldana. I don't know much about Losers, so I can't comment too much about the casting news, but seeing that both of them did justice to geek relics thus far, I imagine the fans can't be that upset. The article also mentions The Green Lantern news of Ryan Reynolds' casting, as well as name dropping Jonah Hex. Possibly the biggest news was all as brief as possible, David Howard and Robert Gordon are writing a version of Bizarro Superman, a sequel to the film Constantine is in the works, and two concurrent screenplays for a solo shot of The Green Arrow are being worked on. Charles Roven is already looking into producing a big screen adaptation of The Flash, and Akiva Goldsman will be behind a version of the Teen Titans. Yeah, that last one worries me a little, but all in all, a bundle of possible great news from DC, and I'm going to go look up The Losers as soon as I'm done blogging.

More really awesome news for the day. TheOneRing has posted pictures of the re-building of Hobbiton, getting us all way too psyched up for The Hobbit to more than two years away.

Saw VI has a motion poster. I am going to throw a prediction out, that this poster will be more intriguing and entertaining than the actual film.

In real world news, today is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. If you haven't already been today, Google is themed for the event, giving a link to an Apollo 11 search, which while looking through it, came upon a story on how sad it is that Stanley Kubrick will go uncredited for the famous video of the landing. I like that this conspiracy theory will never die. In other news of the occasion, Cinematical has a poll up requesting our favorite moon movie. Out of the choices is the 1902 Georges Melies classic A Trip to the Moon, the wonderful Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey and the recently released Moon. Sadly, The Adventures of Pluto Nash is also a choice and holds 5% of the vote. Here's hoping that those five percent were either joking, and will be weeded out via natural selection in the next few days or so. Oh, by the way, despite loving 2001, Melies' monumental milestone of a film was my pick. The current leader is Ron Howard's Apollo 13, which isn't too shabby either.

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

It will not be my custom to review movies, that is not what I'm about. I'm thinking about eventually opening a new blog for the sole purpose of reviewing some of my more favorite films; however, I live in a very small town that doesn't get a lot of movies, in addition to working and being a full time student, to review films in a timely manner is nearly impossible, and let's be honest, bitching is more fun. But then there are cases like last night's midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth film in J.K. Rowling's epic wizarding franchise. Remember how I said bitching is more fun. Well, lucky for me, there is fuel aplenty for any fan of the books, so let's get to some of my biggest peeves, no Potterverse (is that a term yet?) pun intended. Oh, I suppose there needs to be a spoiler alert, hypothetically and probably illogically assuming here that a) Somebody will eventually read this and b) Anybody that is prepared to read a rather drawn out complaint about the film adaptation has yet to read the book and know the plot for themselves already.

First off, my favorite character in the book or film series is Professor Severus Snape. In the films thus far, Alan Rickman has perfectly played the deadpanned semi-antagonist, but in the books, we really get a feel of the character, and feel sorry for him no matter what hideous act we think he has done throughout the series. Rowling herself even referred to Snape as a "gift of a character" on Snape's official fan site. So, with a true anti-hero that is in the story's namesake (after the revelation that Snape is indeed the Half-Blood Prince, the story might as well be called Harry Potter and Severus Snape), I was prepared for a wonderful performance from Rickman in the film. Instead, I felt like crying when on the drive home, I realized that Potter newcomer Jessie Cave (as Ron's love interest Lavender Brown) had more screen time and lines.

Getting further into my argument, I could trample all over Steve Kloves' script as it seemed it left out a lot of important parts (i.e. the funeral of Albus Dumbledore for Christ sake!, the three leads trying to find out who the Half-Blood Prince is, anybody caring that Harry did the sectumsempra spell on Draco Malfoy, etc., etc.), the importance of some of the book's big players (Neville Longbottom has one sentence in the film, and the delightful Natalia Tena as Tonks, as well as David Thewlis' Remus Lupin is nearly filler characters), and many, many other things, but I think the bottom line on it all, is that I'm disgusted with the overall way the film franchise has been handled. Since the success of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the films have been more about how much money could be made, and catering the films to teenagers, especially in a post-Twilight (I think this would qualify for a "dystopian") society. Whenever you read the books, the awkwardness and corny jokes are there, it is part of Rowling's style, and it is one of the more charming things about the book, but as the characters grow older and the original readers gets older, the books became more mature. Not creating a Dark Knight atmosphere, but the subject matter of the latter books are definitely not the same as when young Harry first came to Hogwarts. Instead of letting the films get more heavier, Kloves' script attempts to push the teen relationships more than the crucial storyline, and even there, we're not given some of the more iconic scenes from the book (i.e. Harry breaking up with Ginny at the Dumbledore's funeral.) This type of thinking is undermining to America's teenage demographic. What makes Ron and Hermione's flirtatious beginnings and eventual relationship such a nice element in the novels are the adventures and hardships they share with Harry. And to cut out Harry's break-up with Ginny seems to be destroying the teen romance card push Kloves and director David Yates was hoping for. To take out the heavier moments is insinuating that all the teen audience cares about is senseless snogging and cute anecdotes here and there.

However, it's not all bad. The cast, as always, is superb. Rickman, Michael Gambon, Jim Broadbent, Maggie Smith, Thewlis, Robbie Coltrane, Timothy Spall, Helena Bonham Carter, Julie Walters. Not to mention the young leads Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, even the less expierenced Evanna Lynch is perfect as Luna Lovegood. However, I have not heard much praise for young Tom Felton, who plays Draco. I don't know if Susie Figgis, the casting director of the first film, knew what she was doing when she cast him, but Felton grew up to be one creepy-looking bastard. Also, as always, John Williams gives an incredible score. At the film's heart, it still is a summer blockbuster, and when in the middle of the action, your attention is brought to how wonderful the score is, it is an excellent achievement.

Now, I don't feel bad for making this a rather long blog, seeing that I was absent yesterday, but are you ready for Potter overload? A few news items...

Half-Blood Prince has set the record for a midnight show, defeating The Dark Knight and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith easily.

Guardian is reporting that the Vatican has decided that the sixth film will not send you, the viewer, to Hell, as the others have been condemned. Interesting.

If you're sick of Potter and his pals, here is a link to see The Empire Muggs Back, a collection of Mighty Muggs toys to be auctioned off to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Awesome set of toys.

Finally, The Grand AdventureCon in Pigeon Forge, Tennesse, the closest comic book convention to my neck of the woods, have added a few more names to the guest list. David Barclay, the chief puppeteer of Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi and Maria de Aragon, best known as Greedo from A New Hope.

Monday, July 13th, 2009

This past March, I was averaging around 80% of all conversation being devoted to the Zack Snyder-directed adaptation of Alan Moore's classic graphic novel Watchmen. A lot of people I spoke to decided to dislike the film because of the change in the story's ending, although since it kept the central themes of Moore's writings, and the fact that the first 150 or so minutes of the film was nearly spot on perfect, it more than forgave the ending of a film that I feel is the best of the year, thus far. Notice that I put "nearly" spot on up there. Well, that's because the few things that Snyder did leave out for the theatrical version have either been teased or promised for the director's cut of the DVD, due out July 21st. Of course, one of the main events of the buy will be the deleted scene of Hollis Mason's murder, which shockingly, Warner Brothers has released on the Internet. Unfortunately, WB has disabled embedding of the clip, so here is the link for the YouTube video. Enjoy the clip, because like the rest of the film, it is unbelievably perfect.

Speaking of Snyder, I read a while back that he was shockingly going to put out his first PG-13 film with Sucker Punch, described in a previous Cinematical article as "Alice in Wonderland with machine guns". However, the chances of achieving the rating has just got slimmer as the blogsphere has been all abuzz due to a Metro UK story claiming that newly confirmed star of High School Musical fame Vanessa Hudgens will "strip naked" in the film.

Remember after it was announced that Raja Gosnell would take over a live-action version of The Smurfs, I said God hated Hanna-Barbera? Well, it was announced today, via Variety, that the wonderful cartoon Hong Kong Phooey will be next in-line for the live action/CGI hybrid silver screen fix, directed by Alex Zamm, whose last picture was the direct-to-video Dr. Dolittle: Million Dollar Mutts. So yeah, that statement is now official.

Yesterday we took a look at a very impressive fan film in Ashes to Ashes (check it out if you already haven't). Today, Cinematical ran a story on the mother of all fan films, 472 people breaking up Star Wars into 15-second intervals, to make a hodgepodge mesh of different styles and interpretations of the film. Headed up by Casey Pugh, this could be ingenious, or the worst idea ever. Either way, it will certainly be interesting.

Natalie Portman was announced to be the big screen version of Jane Foster, the love interest of Thor. I'm not extremely knowledgeable on the Thor comics, so I don't know if this is a good call or not, but I quite love Portman, so it could definitely be worse.

Bruno took home the top of the box office this weekend. I have been trying to distance myself from reviews, in fear that I may ruin some of the better jokes. The sad thing is, I fear that with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince dominating this weekend, my local theater might just decide that it isn't even worth toying with anymore, as the second week intake up against the upcoming blockbuster will certainly be pitiable compared to this week.

And finally, speaking of the newest installation of the Harry Potter series, I will not be blogging tomorrow as I am to head out of town to a decent theater to take in the midnight showing. I will be back on Tuesday, probably with plenty of rants, and maybe with something a little special I can dig up as an offering for my absence.