Monday, November 9th, 2009

I've been following the rampant rumor mill that is speculating on whom will be Peter Parker's next villainous foe in Sam Raimi's looming Spider-Man 4. First, after it was announced that Bruce Campbell would return to the film franchise with a bigger role, fans instantly expected/wanted him to portray Mysterio. Next, Dylan Baker announced that the role of Dr. Curt Connors would return, giving many fans reason to believe that he would finally get to take on the transformation into The Lizard. However, Mania has thrown another villain into the pot today, saying that Rachel McAdams is up for the role of the Black Cat. The article also goes on to say that Raimi and company are currently looking to cast another male villain, possibly debunking the aforementioned two rumored, or at least adding a bit of confusion as the general consensus has been that a scaling down on the amount of villains occupying screen time would be cut back after the clusterfuckedness of Spider-Man 3's ending. Also, it was rather hard to get an image for the Black Cat, as Google Image returned back more pornography tributes for Felicia Hardy's alter ego than any other comic femme on the net. So, yeah, if you're into that, knock yourselves out. Anyhow, the picture I eventually found is courtesy of Kevin Smith's product site, Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash, as an avatar used for a signed copy of Spider-Man/Black Cat.

Three films debuted in the top five at the box office this week, with Robert Zemeckis' 3-D holiday film A Christmas Carol taking the top spot, and The Men Who Stare at Goats and The Fourth Kind garnering third and fourth respectively. This week also serves as the first time that Oren Peli's smash sleeper Paranormal Activity dropped in sales, landing at the five spot.

Fellow Blogger account Entertainment Web posted a massive gallery of a LEGO diorama of the ice planet Hoth as seen in The Empire Strikes Back.

Finally, with the ridiculous hysteria of The Twilight Saga: New Moon surely to take over the blogsphere in the coming weeks, it was refreshing to see a decent parody (replacing vampires with Frankenstein's monster[s]) of Twilight on Saturday Night Live the other night, that has been posted all across the Interwebs, our link coming the way of I Watch Stuff. Also, a decent job by Taylor Swift spoofing Kristen Stewart's constant lip biting.

Monday, September 14th, 2009

After reading about two years of depressing tabloids, I thought I would be more prepared for Patrick Swayze's eventual passing at the hands of pancreatic cancer. Instead, I'm a grown heterosexual man eating ice cream, near the stage of weeping, watching the 80's icon stand up to stodgy old Jerry Orbach. Swayze leaves behind a memorable body of work including Dirty Dancing, Next of Kin, Road House, Ghost, Point Break, Too Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, Black Dog, Donnie Darko and one of the better Saturday Night Live sketches of all time alongside Chris Farley among others. Swayze had the uncommon ability to balance carrying the Fabio complex of being manly to the point of comedy, self-parody and actual acting skills in a classy and memorable fashion. Rest in peace.

In an attempt to tear myself away from the proverbial tear-stained pottery wheel, a few decent news stories in the land of cinema to bring the spirits up comes our way... First, Access Hollywood interviewed Bruce Campbell recently in which the cult film icon spoke of the upcoming Spider-Man 4, which supposed to begin shooting early 2010. When asked about his role in this film, he responds that director Sam Raimi has a much bigger role in mind. The rumor mills have all been salivating at how plausible and obvious of a decision it would be to have Campbell play the villain Mysterio. One can only hope.

Also making rounds in the rumor circuit is Christoph Waltz of Inglourious Basterds fame. The actor, who has been heavily touted as a huge Academy Award contender, has been mentioned, via DeadlineHollywood, as the replacement for Nicolas Cage as the baddy in Seth Rogen's The Green Hornet. I said earlier in the week when it was announced that Cage would be dropping out of the picture that it could turn around to be a wondrous Stephen Chow to Michel Gondry type change, and if they can nab Waltz, who deserves all the praise he is getting from Basterds, Rogen's superhero flick will have pulled another good-to-great crew change.

I can't believe that 9 garnered just $10 million at the box office, landing behind Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All by Myself. At least it didn't flop as bad as Sorority Row, which landed a debut at the six spot with just slightly over $5 million.

Last night, despite the absence of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs or Ben Folds being nominated, the MTV Video Music Awards played a sinister trick in the pre-show on my heart by introducing the Muppets into the mix, as Kermit the Frog escorted Lady Gaga (clad in a costume fit for a background character in Hellboy, plus a performance that included dancing cripples, vaginal piano playing and Carrie-esque blood covered female, so I sickenly, disappointingly can't even call it a terrible happening). Anyhow, aside from the whole Twitter drama regarding Kanye West's douchebaggery, the award show focused on film a bit, by debuting trailer's for The Twilight Saga: New Moon and the Michael Jackson documentary This is It. Instead of displaying any of these trailers, I opted for a challenge to any readers that I have. In Janet Jackson's tribute to her brother that opened the show, much of the video for "Scream" was shown and I noticed that some anime is prominently displayed in the background. I can't find anywhere what anime it is, although the Answerman on AnimeNewsNetwork says that it is often claimed to be Akira, although there has never been confirmation. Happy hunting kiddos. Oh, on a side note that I find interesting about the VMA's, big names in film that have won in the technical awards include Steve Barron, David Fincher, Tarsem Singh, Mark Pellington, Spike Jonze, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, Samuel Bayer, Dylan Tichenor and the Brothers Quay.

Finally, to close today's blog, a few of the most memorable Swayze moments.

Patrick Swayze - Chippendale
by tressage