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.

Friday, July 31st, 2009

I have read for some time that Fox has been trying to get a new prequel to Ridley Scott's 1979 science fiction masterpiece Alien off the ground for some time. I never got too excited about this. Both Scott's original and James Cameron's sequel Aliens were incredible films, and I am one of the few who even quite enjoyed David Fincher's spot in the series in the mostly negative-reviewed Alien 3. However, not even talking about Alien Resurrection (a disappointing effort from Jean-Pierre Jeunet, one of the men behind the fantastic The City of Lost Children), I figured that the two Alien Vs. Predator films had officially killed off the franchise once and for all. Any and almost all fans of Scott's original concept would have feared that any new installment would have been going down the same road as these colossal cinematic failures. Yet, today Variety gave all the fans of the original series hope when it was announced that Scott would return to direct the prequel. The man behind the screenplay will be Jon Spaihts, which I'm not familiar in the least with. Let's hope he holds a candle to Dan O'Bannon, Ronald Shusett or Walter Hill.

Speaking of director news, Variety again, has a blog up saying that Walt Disney Pictures is close to bringing Rob Marshall aboard to helm the fourth installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Marshall doesn't seem like a great choice to take on the comic swashbuckling stylings of the series, having previously directed the high profile musicals Chicago and the upcoming Nine. Yet, before Gore Verbinski stepped behind the camera of the first three films, he was mostly known for the American remake of The Ring. Also, after At World's End, which felt so disappointing following quite a smarter sequel in Dead Man's Chest than anybody was prepared for, maybe a new direction needs to be taken. So long as Johnny Depp comes back as Captain Jack Sparrow, we'll at least have a decent performance to look forward to.

Following the theme of Disney, the official Walt Disney Animation website updated some stills of the visual development of the 2010 film Rapunzel. I personally cannot wait until some kind of visual is released from King of the Elves, an animated Disney adaptation of a Philip K. Dick fantasy short story. Either way, the fact that Disney is focusing on hand drawn animation again is enough to make any movie fanatic happy, no matter what genre you generally favor.

I am slightly disappointed with Seth Rogen. A few weeks ago he was all in the tabloids after an exchange of words and jokes with the writers of HBO's Entourage. Now, Us Magazine (I shudder at even having read a story from their site), reports that while promoting Funny People on Howard Stern's Sirius XM radio show, Rogen and director Judd Apatow spoke about their co-star in Knocked Up and her claims that the film was sexist. We all know that Heigl's only asset is her looks after all of her quite public squabbles with the writers of Grey's Anatomy. So, can't Funny People sell itself without getting free publicity beside of a an attempted shot at catching Miley Cyrus' underage snatch by a paparazzo?

Anyhow, speaking of Funny People, Apatow's latest film, starring Adam Sandler, Rogen, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman, Leslie Mann and a few other legitimately funny people, came out today. Judging from the trailer, it looks like Sandler's first good film since Punch-Drunk Love, and possibly the first film of his that will make us laugh since Happy Gilmore. Great reviews are also pouring in. Of course, as I write this, I am also trying to plan out where I can go see the film, because although I'm almost certain that the film will take this weekend's box office, the fact that it is the best reviewed film coming out today on Rotten Tomatoes, not to mention the draw of both Sandler and Rogen, my local Carmike Cinemas have chosen to not get this film, instead filling our theater with Aliens in the Attic. I had hoped, that for the sake of a bright future, humanity would cause this thing to flop. The trailer looks absolutely abysmal. RT gave the film a 25%, which makes me feel like it is the most overrated film of the year thus far. I mentioned yesterday how ecstatic I was for children's cinema this year with the upcoming releases of Where the Wild Things Are and The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Yet, what the anticipation these films gives does for children's cinema, this film takes out, rapes it, name calls it's mother, and shits on its face. I sincerely hope that this doesn't take the box office this weekend, destroying any shock value that G-Force gathered when it overtook Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince this past weekend. Anyhow, bottom line, if you have any other theater to go to, boycott your local Carmike. The longer I keep this blog, the more any readers that happen upon it will learn of my grave distaste for our local cinema. Oh, another option this weekend is The Collector, a mediocre-looking horror flick, as well as the documentary Not Quite Hollywood, chronicling the days of ozploitation, the name given to exploitation films out of Australia. It will most certainly be a very overlooked, entertaining gem for any fan of the exploitation era, as some of these films never reached us stateside. You can check out the trailer (which is NSFW, and probably best not to embed) at the official site. Enjoy.