Monday, February 1st, 2010

That is one of the more priceless frightened faces on a child that I have ever seen. It is also completely unrelated to anything we're about to discuss. First off, in all of the award-season chaos, many people tend to leave the Golden Raspberry Awards off of their lists. Like always, the Razzies tend to be the worst of extreme mainstream cinema, instead of being the worst of cinema, period... as advertised. Case in point, Land of the Lost lands a nomination for Worst Picture, even though it had some supporters, one being Roger Ebert. Also, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen had a terrible script, but has kept a decent fan base, and despite not being a Fellini, the movie was entertaining enough at least, to keep it off this list. Other notables pointed out in /Film's coverage include four nods for The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Sandra Bullock's nomination for All About Steve, which could couple with a possible Academy Award nomination announced tomorrow for her role in The Blind Side (which for my consideration, would fit in more on this list than any other). There is also three decade awards that is worth checking out.

Other than Bullock, not a lot of Oscar speculation coming out of the nominations for the Razzies, but another award show went down over the weekend, the Directors Guild of America Awards, in which Kathryn Bigelow took home the trophy for Best Director for her film The Hurt Locker. Cinematical's Girls on Film column focuses on Bigelow's big win, trumping her ex-husband James Cameron among others. The article also notes that Bigelow's chances on Academy gold just shot up considerably, seeing that the winner of the highest honor the DGA presents has won the Oscar 90% of the time in the last 61 years. On top of all this, Bigelow also holds the distinction of being the first female winner of the DGA Award, and is looking as a nearly positive groundbreaker as the first female to gain the Oscar in the same category.

Finally stepping away from the award stuff for a bit, /Film has an article up focusing on Kevin Smith's Twitter account, where the Clerks. director has announced he is shopping Hit Somebody, a dramedy set in the world of hockey, to Warner Brothers. They also quote Smith as referring to Hit Somebody as an equal to 1993's Chasing Amy, the quality of which he has been, for lack of a better word, chasing ever since.

Well, with all attempts of not mentioning Avatar, the fact that the Oscars are announced this week, and the aforementioned news of Bigelow's triumph over the film makes it almost impossible. Also continuing to block me from ignoring the blockbuster is the fact that the film took the top spot at the box office again this week, for the seventh time, in the process breaking the record for the highest grossing seventh weekend of all time. Box Office Mojo's weekend report also estimates that the current record holder for worldwide box office will overtake the U.S. domestic record sometime this week, beating out Titanic. Cameron's film also was the first to cross the worldwide $2 billion mark over the past week. Many may wonder exactly why all the praise for the flick, including the comically monotoned guy that posted a 70 minute review of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace on YouTube. He now has an 18 minute review of Avatar posted. Here is the first part, enjoy.

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

This isn't a promotional poster for Inglourious Basterds, featuring Brad Pitt's Aldo Raine character. It is Hot Toys newest figure due out sometime within the coming year. I found this on Topless Robot, where the article said a quote that sums up the work Hot Toys does perfectly in my head, "there are actual people who look less real than Hot Toys' action figures".


Yesterday I mentioned the rumors of Tobey Maguire being casted as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, after the story ran in The Sun. Luckily, Harry Knowles of AICN e-mailed both Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro to dispel the casting. Not that I'm terribly anti-Maguire, or even think that he couldn't actually pull it off, but that still doesn't make him right for the role, so I am happy for the moment.

A day cannot go by without James Cameron's Avatar making some sort of ripples within the cinema blogsphere. Today, an Access Hollywood story has been making the rounds, focusing on an interview with George Lucas in which the iconic director cites Cameron's latest success as inspiration to go further with the transfer of the Star Wars films to the 3-D medium. Is this a good thing? Sure, we all salivate at the original trilogy returning to the big screen and making waves at the box office again, but I still just really detest this entire 3-D explosion.

Vulture announced today that Marc Webb, the director behind the hugely successful indie comedy (500) Days of Summer, has been officially signed on by Sony to direct the reboot of the Spider-Man films. Although still being unhappy about the franchise being taken away from Sam Raimi (by his choice or the studios has not been clarified at the moment), but this is a decent step in the right direction to making this film watchable.

In the most bizarre origin story of a rumor for the day, the folks at /Film has decided that either Iron Man 2 will be taking up reshoots in the future, or that Robert Downey, Jr. will reprise his role of Tony Stark in a cameo for the upcoming Thor film, due to the fact that Downey sported the Stark-ish beard-mustache combo at the Golden Globes. Does this actually mean anything? Probably not at all, but if a crazy rumor has to be started up, might as well be from some movie geeks with at least semi-logical basis.

Monday, January 11th, 2010

The past year, this blog has been littered with casting rumors for Spider-Man 4. I woke up this morning to an AICN post where John Malkovich had supposedly confirmed that he would be playing the role of the villainous Vulture in the upcoming installment of Sam Raimi's Marvel franchise, a story I was sure would head the blog. That is until Sony's official Twitter feed announced that when the web slinger returns to the silver screen in 2012, he would be going back to high school, signaling a reboot. Then, later, Harry Knowles posted the official Sony press release announcing that Spider-Man 4 is officially dead and that Raimi, Tobey Maguire and all the old players are out. I can see canning the fourth installment of the series, but making a reboot of a fairly new, pretty well received series? I know that Spider-Man 3 has its enemies, but are we to say that this was so cataclysmically bad, like Batman and Robin bad, that it deserves to reboot the entire franchise, throwing the brilliant Raimi and the fitting Maguire to the wayside? Ridiculous.

Some better comic book news coming from the DC side of things as The Hollywood Reporter announced that Blake Lively has been cast as Carol Ferris/Star Sapphire in The Green Lantern film. I've not heard, but I doubt that Lively will take on the transformation into the Star Sapphire role that Ferris eventually plays in the comics. Still, I've not really watched Lively in anything other than her Saturday Night Live appearance, so this could be as terrible of an announcement as the above Spider-Man disaster.

The Writers Guild of America announced the nominees for their two major awards. There was really no surprise, especially with Inglourious Basterds and Up being disqualified for the writers not being part of the WGA, that (500) Days of Summer, A Serious Man and the much lauded The Hurt Locker would gain a nod for original screenplays, but two shocking picks popped up. First, James Cameron's screenplay for Avatar, which has its fair share of detractors. Even more shocking however, is the raunchy Todd Phillips comedy, The Hangover, to the delight of myself, but the chagrin of Erik Childress of Cinematical, whom broke the story for me. The category of adapted screenplay wasn't nearly as exciting, except keeping the fanboys happy with a nod for Star Trek, with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci's script competing against Up in the Air, Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire, Julie and Julia and Crazy Heart.

For a small note, I am going to try my damndest to expand my convention-going this year to visit Dragon*Con in Atlanta if my school schedule allows, but AdventureCon in Tennessee is an almost confirmed event, so I am happy to say that the tiny convention announced today that Billy Dee Williams, Lando fucking Calrissian, the black Harvey Dent and some memorable spots on Robot Chicken, will be a guest for the event.

On a final note, I saw this gallery of Star Wars burlesque featured in L.A. Weekly all over the Interwebs from a place called the Bordello Bar. Enjoy, some decently bizarre pictures.

Friday, January 8th, 2010

It seems as if there is nothing that can be done to get James Cameron out of the news. The man behind Avatar recently reached the milestone of becoming the first director to have two films reach the $1 billion mark (the other, of course, being Titanic). Still, while doing promotional appearances for Avatar in Japan, Cameron met with Tsutomu Yamaguchi, one of the last living survivors of both the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This led to much speculation that Cameron's visit wasn't just for mere curiosity, but on a future film reference. Today, Variety confirms all of the speculations with the news that Cameron has optioned Charles Pellegrino's as-of-yet unreleased book The Last Train from Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back into a feature film. With Cameron's latest film, as silly and effects laden as it actually is, gathering a huge amount of Oscar contention buzz, a serious docudrama in the vein of Titanic of the tragedies in Hiroshima is already screaming for gold. I'm sure this will pop up a lot along the line.

Whilst on the topic of Cameron, Avatar will finally have some competition at the box office in the form of Daybreakers and Youth in Revolt. Will either of the films that look unusually good for early January releases be able to dethrone the giant blockbuster? Also out today on a lesser scale is the Amy Adams starring Leap Year and the exploitation throwback that will be way overlooked, Bitch Slap. All in all, a decent week for new releases considering the time of year.

Finally, here is a weird video that popped up on I Watch Stuff from a French show doing a dance number in homage to Star Wars. Enjoy the bizarre spectacle.

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

Strolling around the Interwebs and found this gem of a picture. Hope it brightened your day as it did mine.

The big news of the day comes courtesy of an MTV interview with Natalie Portman, in which the actress spilled the news that Kat Dennings was cast in Thor. Kenneth Branaugh's adaptation of the iconic Marvel character is already shaping up a nice cast and Dennings is just the latest name to be thrown into the pot, along with Portman, Anthony Hopkins and Chris Hemsworth thus far. The big question this arises is what character Dennings will play. The article ends with the speculation that she could step into the shoes of The Enchantress.

Finally, it should be no surprise to anyone how this weekend's box office returned. The Twilight Saga: New Moon easily took the number one spot garnering nearly $143 million. The teen vampire flick broke the midnight showing record set by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince set earlier this year, and the opening day record set by last year's The Dark Knight. However, fortunately for all of us movie nerds, Chris Weitz' installment in the Twilight franchise fell short of breaking The Dark Knight's weekend record.

Monday, November 16th, 2009 (100th Post!)

My 100th post here on the Blogger account, and a decently busy day for interesting movie tidbits, so off we go. First off, The Mirror was one of the many blogs posting the accompanying screen capture of R2-D2's cameo in J.J. Abrams' new Star Trek film coming courtesy of the special effects crew from Industrial Light and Magic as a calling card that the article also claims popped up in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The article goes on for a few videos that will make your day in the cameo department, including Orson Welles in The Muppet Movie, Tom Cruise's bizarre appearance in Tropic Thunder and a compilation of Alfred Hitchcock cameos.

Variety has reported today that the rumors of MGM's financial troubles are all too true, as the iconic film company has put its assets up for sale today, which among many other important things includes half the ownership to the upcoming The Hobbit films. This is possibly panic-worthy news for any cinema fan as the entire library of films tallies in above 4,000. The article also names Time Warner, News Corp. and Lionsgate as interested buyers. In short, I'm sure this will pop up in plenty of future blogs.

2012 easily brought in the top spot at the box office this weekend with a little over $65 million. However, the biggest story may have been the success and 213% increase of the indie drama Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire that landed in the third spot this weekend, tailing the heels of Oren Peli's amazing showing of the ultra low budget horror flick Paranormal Activity as two of the more financially successful indie films to come out of Hollywood in some time. In further box office news, Deadline Hollywood has reported that The Twilight Saga: New Moon has already broke the record for advanced ticket sales, beating out The Dark Knight, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, the previous owner of the record.

Mail Online has an interesting story up about some controversy stirring up in Britain, due to the promotional poster to the comedy Couples Retreat, as the UK poster erases Faizon Love and Kali Hawk, the black couple, from the poster. Yeah, probably not the best idea.

Cinematical has a story posted on a new casting call for Spider-Man 4, referred to only as "Toddler Boy", in which among all the speculations, Cinematical even includes Cletus Kasady, better known in the comic world as Carnage. An odd estimation, but intriguing all the same as the rumored and speculated villain list continues to grow.

Edward Woodward passed away yesterday. I didn't know the British actor from a lot, other than his appearance in Edgar Wright's Hot Fuzz, so therefore I will direct you to Wright's personal site and his little tribute to the actor to find out more.

Finally, in honor of my 100th post, here is Liquid Generation's 100 Best Movie Quotes in 200 Seconds. I know that the second is Rob Schneider from The Waterboy, but trust me, 95 to 97 of the ones that follow are pretty fucking fantastic.

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.

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, September 17th, 2009

Occasionally, I'll feel the need to stop watching or reading about movies online long enough to bitch at the ol' telly during an episode of Glen Beck's Fox News program. I've often wondered exactly how the entire "death panel" thing he harps about all the time would work. The accompanying picture there, via Geekologie, says it all. On a side note, I'm sure most African Americans have to be disappointed after Barack Obama came out as a fan of The Amazing Spider-Man comics, and now wielding a light saber, he's way whiter than even Jimmy Carter.

I just read an article on Yahoo! News Canada, while covering the Toronto International Film Festival, that Nicolas Cage gave an interview and claimed to had dropped out of The Green Hornet's villainous role due to the character not having enough humanity in the script, even having the audacity to point out that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's treatment had a different take on Chudnofsky. Before I join the ranks of bloggers that are building a tower of bitch around Cage for taking basically any role given to him, be it something genius like Charlie and Donald Kaufman in Spike Jonze's Adaptation., or ill fated attempts at a Ghost Rider movie, a remake of The Wicker Man and so on and on, I do have to admit that I enjoy Cage a little and despite his inability to choose a good role, do not necessarily agree with the majority that casting the former Academy Award winner (for Leaving Las Vegas) to be the cinematic equivalent of drinking poison. Still, how much do you think Cage was kicking himself to find out that Christoph Waltz, fresh off of the huge success of Inglourious Basterds, is rumored to be filling his shoes.

Of course, Cage was at TIFF promoting Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Werner Herzog's remake of Abel Ferrara's 1992 cult classic. I have attempted not to blog much about this flick as I love Herzog and hate to talk about what is sure to be a huge failure (Cage is joined by Eva Mendes and Xzibit, need I say more). Anyhow, I ran across this older article from Vulture, indicating how much Ferrara hates Herzog for the film, and how little Herzog knows about his fellow director or the film that he is remaking. Interesting read, and despite how terrible the film looks, as always, Herzog is more of a story than the film itself.

Before we can even get over the passing of Patrick Swayze as a nation, Henry Gibson has now passed along. Among other things, Gibson starred in The Nutty Professor (Jerry Lewis, not Eddie Murphy), Nashville, The Kentucky Fried Movie, The Blues Brothers, Innerspace, Magnolia and Wedding Crashers. IWatchStuff has a decent little article about him, including a clip from Magnolia.

Variety reports that the University of Southern California will now be offering a stereoscopic 3-D course. I hate that 3-D is taking over, and want to believe that it is a fad, but most of all, I still just hope that My Bloody Valentine doesn't go down in history as the movie that changed everything.

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

Well, I said in the last blog that I would be back on Sunday, yet somehow in the past few days I've actually found something to do to keep me out long enough so that sleep is more important than blogging. Luckily, there hasn't been much movie news. Neill Blomkamp and producer Peter Jackson's District 9 took the box office, and a few other trivial things that I'll get to later.

Firstly, we'll bring Jackson back into the picture, as MarketSaw, a fellow Blogger member, has a post circulating three rather huge rumors on the upcoming film adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic tale The Hobbit, which got reported on several other major blog sites as well. To begin with, the most believable of the rumor mill, is that the films will be shot in 3-D. This really comes as no surprise seeing that Jackson was vocal during the San Diego Comic Con on converting The Lord of the Rings over to the format a few weeks ago. Another believable piece of the story is that Jackson and director Guillermo del Toro will be making the fantasy book's characters a little darker. This really comes as no surprise, especially an emphasis on Smaug, which I feel was rather dark in the first place. At the same time, I love the difference of tone from The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings, so I hope that in connecting the films in the franchise, the unique tone of the book isn't lost. Lastly, the article mentions that there will be a third film, bridging the two works, and that Jackson will return as director for the bridge movie. This gets to a point that is debatable, no matter how capable Jackson's hands are. What do you think? Also, should we trust a Blogspot? Without looking further into the MarketSaw subsite, I could easily assume it is a fledging college student/grocery store bag boy/cinephile like myself that created a massive rumor to stir up site traffic.

A story that I missed over the past few days of absence was that Robert Downey, Jr. was being rumored to play the vampire Lestat in a new film based on Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles series. Today, BSC has a few quotes from Rice herself on the topic of Downey becoming the third actor to take on the role of the lead vampire. The article still doesn't confirm or dismiss the original speculation.

Speaking of vampires, I found a rather odd item circulating the cinema blogsphere... a Twilight themed dildo. From the tiny bit of the description I could bring myself to read, I understand that it sparkles like Edward's skin, as well as having the "pale flesh tone reminiscent of a new moon's glow". Feeling left out of the apparently new "hip" thing of masturbating to Twilight, I looked up the more appropriate topic on Google search of a Star Wars sex toy. What I ended up finding was this terribly unsettling article from Landover Baptist Church's web site, about a boy having carnal relations with a seven foot replica of Jar Jar Binks.

ComingSoon has a story up that Lionsgate is developing a remake of the 1987 classic Dirty Dancing. Now, I bitch and moan a lot, but there's very few news items I report on here that would cause me to go out and protest, and I'll be damned if Lionsgate didn't pull one of those scenarios out of the hat when I just imagined someone other than Patrick Swayze saying "Nobody puts Baby in a corner".

Finally, the other day, a new trailer for the David Lynch produced, Werner Herzog directed flick My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done debuted. I have to admit, it looks watchable, but coming from the minds of Lynch and Herzog, as a team, I am quite disappointed that I'm not blown away watching this. Still, I think it is worth your time.


P.S. As an added bonus for my absence, here is the more than likely illegal way I spent an afternoon the other day, watching Martin Scorsese's 1976 masterpiece Taxi Driver on YouTube.

Friday, August 14th, 2009

Geekologie has a very impressive photo gallery of a home decked out in Star Wars memorabilia that would certainly make almost any collector, big or small, extremely jealous.

It's been a rather slow news day, topped by an article on HitFix that claims Bryan Singer will produce, as well as possibly direct, a new big screen adaption of Battlestar Galactica. I've never really gotten into Battlestar, but hey, we can't all be into everything, we just merely don't have the time. So, this news doesn't rise up anger or happiness, so I'm curious to know what a fanboy of the franchise would say. The linked article is accompanied by a picture of concept art that looks very different from anything I've seen.

Also, Rachel McAdams accidentally, or the way Cinematical put it, purposefully, yet blissfully unaware, gave the plot of The Time Traveler's Wife away during her guest spot on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I've yet to watch the clip as there is a chance I may accompany the lady to it yet, but I'm sure this doesn't help McAdams future, at least in anything that the plot should be closely guarded.

Well, it is Friday, and a big one at that. District 9 is the big talk of the week. The reviews are nothing short of amazing. Also, not only does this look to be a smart science fiction film, but it is a smart science fiction film, that at least to some point, has some influence from producer Peter Jackson. However, I have to admit, even if Jackson's name wasn't on this thing, I think I would still be stoked after watching Neill Blomkamp's short film Alive in Joburg, and watching the trailers for the flick over the past few weeks. I'm also quite excited about Hayao Miyazaki's latest effort, Ponyo. When watching the trailer, it looks like it could possibly be one of Miyazaki's worst films. The truly great thing about Miyazaki though, it looks like it could be a contender for one of the best of the year. The limited release is a bit disappointing, seeing that I am driving to Lexington (about a two or so hour drive) next week just to watch it. But never seeing a Miyazaki film on the big screen, that will be a worthwhile event. So, we have a smart, intriguing science fiction potential blockbuster, and another beautifully animated masterpiece from the king of Japanese anime. Therefore, everything else looks terrible in comparison. The unfortunate contenders include The Time Traveler's Wife. It will be a contender for the box office, but the romantic tale will more than likely fail in comparison to the rest of the weekend's fare. Not saying that as a completely bad thing, as it is a "chick flick" that quite easily put me aboard. Another movie that may have had a chance to make an impact on another weekend is the raunchy Jeremy Piven comedy about car salesmen, The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard. With Ed Helms co-starring in it, I think most will be disappointed to find it not as hilarious as The Hangover, but if it can be funny enough to overcome the hurdle of making us forget any comparison, it will exceed my expectations.

Finally, I probably won't blog tomorrow. I'm going to Dollywood. I searched for some kind of clip connecting the park and films. I found several references from TV, including American Dad!, The Simpsons, Sealab 2021 and The Drew Carey Show. I eventually read that it is mentioned on the 1992 film Captain Ron, but to post a clip of that would be insulting to any would-be readers. So, I'll just say adieu, and I will be back with a short film or something special to make up for the absence on Sunday.

Saturday, August 1st, 2009

Last year, Universal Pictures hit big with the Abba musical Momma Mia!, setting records over in the United Kingdom, and raking in a decent amount stateside as well, and almost inevitably opened the flood gates for Hollywood to begin a musical craze to try to capitalize on the film's earnings. So no surprise that Universal, via RiskyBusinessBlog, announced that there is a remake of the 1970's funky controversial look at the Biblical life of Jesus and Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar. I don't really see a remake of this cashing in nearly as much as Momma Mia! did. Can you imagine the religious groups already? In a post-The Passion of the Christ world even? There is so many people now just looking for a reason to be angry or offended at a film such as this. Yet, there is one good thing. It is rumored that Marc Webb, the man behind the wonderfully reviewed film (500) Days of Summer, may be helming the project. I have yet to see his latest effort that stars Zooey Deschanel, but if the trailer and reviews are worth anything to go on, a quirky re-imagining of this may actually be an entertaining idea. Probably not a popular one, but entertaining nonetheless.

In more remake news, Variety reports that a remake of the 1935 swashbuckling classic Captain Blood may be re-worked into the fabric of un-needed films. I do enjoy Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, but I would have to agree that a film that is nearing its 75th anniversary may be remade without a terrible argument, no matter how great it was during the original release. However, it isn't the fact that the film is being remade that bothers me, it is the direction of the story in which the new film will take. The directors, Michael and Peter Spierig, of the upcoming Daybreakers film, and writer John Brownlow is switching the tale from the high seas to outer space. Here's hoping that Daybreakers fails, and this goes straight to Syfy.

MovieWeb had an interview with Eric Bana, in which the actor reveals that he will not return as Captain Nero, the Romulan villain of the latest Star Trek film, in the sequel. If there is much to say bad about J.J. Abrams' adaptation, it is that the villainous time-travelling Romulans wasn't strong enough, speaking of course in terms of Ricardo Montalban as Khan. Not that Bana was bad, but I'm not too crushed of the grand possibilities that could come from the next film.

As you can clearly tell, it is a very, very slow news Saturday. So, if you're like me, and none of the aforementioned news bits keeps your interest alive long enough to go and have a fight on message boards across the web, you can entertain yourself by going over the San Diego Comic Con exclusives on ToyRocket. A few from Star Wars, as well as an Indiana Jones fertility idol from Mighty Muggs, some G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra stuff and a figure from Coraline make it all relevant enough to put on this blog.

Friday, July 17th, 2009

This picture showed up on I Watch Stuff today, and I could not blog without posting it. Just gives off a wonderful vibe, doesn't it?

More good news for the day, Kevin Smith's two biggest hits, 1994's independent gem, and one of my favorite films of all time, Clerks., as well as 1997's Chasing Amy will be getting the blu ray treatment. Among the extras, the Clerks. disc will feature a three hour documentary formerly only seen at festival screenings, called Oh, What a Lovely Tea Party, a behind-the-scenes taping of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back directed by Smith's wife Jennifer Schwalbach-Smith. I still personally stick with the DVD medium for the most part, unless I can find a really bitchin' VHS. But I am glad that whenever DVD becomes obsolete, that Smith's two classic raunchy comedies will be there waiting for me.

Has anybody heard that some theaters' automated telephone schedules have been giving a warning about the content in Bruno? I am just curious to what got cut for the MPAA to change the film's rating from an NC-17 to an R, considering it had to be somewhat more shocking than what the world is up in arms about. Can't wait for that DVD.

Walter Cronkite passed away today at the age of 92. Cronkite didn't have much to do with cinema, but was indeed a panelist on most of the American Film Institute countdowns and television specials on classic films, a interviewee in several documentaries, including Out of the Shadows: The Man Who Was Deep Throat, Good Grief, Charlie Brown: A Tribute to Charles Schulz and Bob Hope: The First 90 Years among others, and even provided his voice to the lackluster cartoon We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story in 1993. Not to mention receiving a load of special thanks credits that include Apollo 13 and Empire of Dreams, the documentary featured on the 4-disc 2004 release of the original Star Wars trilogy. Needless to say on tomorrow's news, none of these things will be mentioned as Cronkite's coverage of things, such as John F. Kennedy's assassination and the Vietnam War are much more important, and in that way, is why more so than anything I listed above, Cronkite is important to film. He is the news anchor of news anchors, and is the archetype that most screenwriters and authors put to use for such a character.

Finally, I mentioned Where the Wild Things Are yesterday, but a video surfaced on the web today on what a potential Disney animated version of Maurice Sendak's beloved children's work could have been like. Directed by Pixar founder and animation legend John Lasseter, it actually looks quite good. But before you get too down, go look up Spike Jonze's trailer again and you will realize that ultimately, it was a good thing this failed, or else we might not have the upcoming live action version. Enjoy.



P.S., I try to stay away from covering television on here, but since Futurama has spun-off four direct-to-DVD films, it is close enough. The A.V. Club has reported that Comedy Central is looking to recast the voice talent for the series. Look, it broke my heart when they left Adult Swim, but to keep this going with new people, it's just wrong. In my digging on more to this story, I even found a character description of Dr. Zoidberg. Does this mean no Billy West? Really!? Jesus, what's the world coming to.

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.

Saturday, July 11th, 2009

Over the past few days while I've been away from the computer, the blogsphere has been buzzing about the three finalists for the role of Hal Jordan in the upcoming Green Lantern movie. None of the three seemed to give off the vibe that they would be safe from thousands of rants and petitions from fanboys of the Bill Finger/Martin Nodell created DC hero. First, is the guy that is too known for his comedy to allow fanboys to hope for a serious adaptation in Bradley Cooper. Secondly, we have the complete surprise in Justin Timberlake, whose previous mass popularity would almost make it impossible to watch the film without imagining that the real Justin Timberlake happened by a power ring, and causing all moviegoers to lose sight of the actual character of Jordan. And finally, the best of the three, and today announced as the winner of the race, Ryan Reynolds. Although Reynolds has still had his fair share of cinematic misfortunes (i.e. the currently playing The Proposal), and is already submersed in the comic-to-film world as the character Deadpool in the horrific X-Men Origins: Wolverine and the rumored solo film for the 90's Marvel hero, as well as Hannibal King in Blade: Trinity (Should we just hope that Marvel really hated Reynolds?) . So, are we happy over this? Well, keep in mind that the film is to be directed by Martin Campbell, who made James Bond watchable again in Casino Royale. So, at least there is hope, and maybe Reynolds could actually come out of this thing a nice surprise; however, I'm mostly seeing bitching fuel for cinephiles like myself in his future.

Other things in brief, as there is a lot to talk about. Bruno came out yesterday. Although, since I live in a small town, I don't get to see it yet, even though the aforementioned Proposal is in its third week. I'll talk more about Bruno next week if it becomes available. Also, it got a great review by Roger Ebert saying that John Waters should pass the torch of trash cinema to Sacha Baron Cohen. Maybe a bit of an overstatement, but one of the highest praises I have heard in the cinema world for some time. Also missing my small Kentucky town this weekend... I Love You, Beth Cooper and Blood: The Last Vampire.

In an interview to promote Inglorious Basterds with Cinematical, Eli Roth said that an extension of the faux trailer Thanksgiving from Grindhouse, a la Robert Rodriguez' Machete is in the works.

Variety reports that Raja Gosnell (the man behind Beverly Hills Chihuahua) will be behind a live-action version of The Smurfs. So it is official... God hates Hanna-Barbera.

So, on Thursday I went to Comedy Off Broadway in Lexington, Kentucky to see Hal Sparks do stand-up. I do quite enjoy Sparks, being an alum of Talk Soup, but despite the extreme lustful giddiness and quality reassurance of the friend that put the idea on the table, I was still shocked over how funny he actually was, so I was going to share a stand-up YouTube video as an apologetic offering for not blogging (isn't it weird that I pretend I have readers?), but none could be found that wasn't obviously shot with a camera phone, so instead, here is a more appropriate video for a movie blog, Hal Sparks' cameo in Spider-Man 2, over-dubbed with Japanese.

And finally, one more surprise! Cinematical, via Vimeo, has a great video from David Berry, a rotoscope and animation artist from Star Wars has released some home videos to us collective movie nerds on the Interwebs. Enjoy.

Monday, July 6th, 2009

I suppose before I get into any kind of movie news, rants or raves, I should say welcome to my blog, Cinemarant, where I will divulge to you, dear readers, what I think of what's going on in the world of cinema, as well as news in brief as much as I can. So without further ado, let's jump right in.

How can you speak of anything in the entertainment industry without mentioning the death of the King of Pop Michael Jackson. Ever since the popular culture icon passed away last week CNN has been covering the legal battles and the upcoming funeral services more so than the civil unrest in Iran, President Barack Obama's new energy or healthcare plans, or the deaths of the seemingly endless line of celebrities that have passed along side the tabloid sensation in the days surrounding the fall of pop. So, you may be asking yourself, why would I be blogging about a musical genius/eccentric headline hopper in a movie blog? Well, there is no time to be wasted to cash in on the money train of Jackson's death, as Randy Phillips, the president and CEO of AEG Live, the company behind Jackson's British tour that was to begin next month has already told the Associated Press that he's looking to turn the 100+ hours of rehearsal footage into live albums, a pay-per-view special, and you guessed it... a documentary film. Don't get me wrong, I've been riding a non-stop news loop of the Jackson death circus since it began, and I would welcome a well-done documentary on Jackson's highs in music and lows in his eccentricities and odd behaviors, but is this just a little too soon to be talking a documentary when we don't even know the fate of his children, his estate or even the exact circumstances surrounding his death? And what kind of voice is the documentary to have? If it is to look at anything in a comical light, it is way too soon for the public to digest, and if it is to be serious, it will either be a repackaging of Martin Bashir's Living with Michael Jackson, or as bizarre and unmarketable as Wacko Jacko's personal life became in his later career. Discuss in the comments, if I get any readers if the entire Jackson thing has reached overkill yet, and your pissed off that nobody is buying the rights for an OxiClean docudrama, or if the entire thing is to be expected, he's the fucking king of pop, right!?

Also, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen took the top spot at the box office again this week, although reports have shifted between Michael Bay's cashploitation flick and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, so it is a virtual tie. Public Enemies came in third, and surprisingly The Hangover continues to keep in the top five, raking in another $11 million this weekend.

Sci-Fi Squad has a story on the development of the upcoming live-action Star Wars television series, but just cites "sources" without ever naming them. So, take the news with a grain of salt.

And finally, the red band trailer for Jennifer's Body went online today. Most of the coverage has been centered on the fact that you get to see a lot of Megan Fox in this, but the trailer looks awesome. Actually, I can't remember the last time I saw a trailer to a horror film, and became that stoked about it. Enjoy.


P.S. Speaking of Michael Jackson up there, I'm trying to spread the word of the Thrill the World event in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The event coordinator Hannah Bailey contacted me to say that Guinness World Records have been contacted to show up there for the largest simultaneous dance to Jackson's hit "Thriller". You can click here for more information on the Oak Ridge event, or just go to ThrilltheWorld.com for information on an event closer to your area. Also, it is the same night as The Grand AdventureCon in Pigeon Forge, a short drive from Oak Ridge, which among other guests will be featuring Jason Mewes from Kevin Smith's View Askewniverse. I'll promote the hell out of these two events in the upcoming months, so an apology in advance.