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Rebooting a Nightmare on Elm Street - is this really necessary?
Michael Bay is the criminal behind the rebooting a Nightmare on Elm Street and we have to ask the question: is this really necessary? Is Wes Craven all out of ideas? Is it really that dangerous for Hollywood studios to invest in an original idea? Obviously, a remake of nightmare on Elm Street is an automatic payday - we respect that from an investment standpoint, but jeez - Freddy vs Jason wasn't THAT long ago! Let a franchise breeze, for F's sake! But it's too late now, Freddy Krueger is already set to start lurking theaters again with an all new cast and a new Freddy. Guess no one is concerned that Robert Englund brought something special to the roll...
Apples and Oranges: Putting the Star Trek vs Star Wars debate to rest
If you've ever been brave enough to go to a comic book convention (known as comic cons), science fiction convention or anywhere else nerds congregate (Comp USA?), you've probably heard people arguing which is a better franchise, Star Trek vs Star Wars. The truth is, you might as well debate whether an orange or an apple is a yummier snack - it's really a matter of taste. To be blunt, though, it's not just a matter or taste, we're really talking about two entirely different things, or genres, of fiction. Star Trek takes place in a mythic future in somewhat familiar locals, if only in name (especially San Francisco) while Star Wars inhabitants reside, "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away." True, while Star Wars does contain many elements of science fiction, it is ultimately a fantasy, a swashbuckling adventure of good vs evil while Star Trek is more gadget and politically oriented, unraveling the mysteries and technologies to save the day in the most entertaining fashion possible. Even the newer Star Wars prequel universe, which is much more political centric with an ongoing civil war, is still more swashbuckling, force using, bigger bang bludgeoning, than, say, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, a film that revolves around a plot of intermingling factions conspiring together to assassinate leaders of two governments.
There you have it, geeks. You can lay down your phasers and lightsabers - the battle is a draw.
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
It's difficult to separate the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince from the novel, but we'll do our best. We feel that this was not the smoothest of adaptations and with so much left out, it would be a bit difficult to follow. Read more... or check out more from our Movie Reviews Blog
Acting Oscars dominated by politics
Any time the film that wins best picture, namely, Slumdog Millionaire, doesn't get any acting nods, we have to take a closer look at who did win and what films they were in. So, Sean Penn won for Milk and Kate Winslet for The Reader - both actors are established veterans with undeniable talents. We know Winslet was great in the Reader, but to date, haven't seen Milk, but its right at the top of our list. Not to ruin the movies for you, but Penn plays a gay rights activist and Winslet plays an SS World War II war criminal - both topics close to the social conscious of Hollywood. Slumdog Millionaire was really good, and its more of an ensemble movie, but really, not even any nominations? So, did the Academy award the best actor and best actress awards to two very talented veterans in films that are close to their hearts or were they really the best performances of the year? It's pretty hard to beat Meryl Streep, you know what we're saying? We haven't seen The Wrestler yet, but Mickey Rourke is supposed to blow your mind. Anyway, its really an open question, something for debate... enjoy!
Star Wars Lost Scene
The YouTube below from BrokenToe shows what appears to be a low budget opening to Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope. Read more...
Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs
Futurama is back with another feature, and we're so pleased. Oh yes, so pleased! Read more...
The Incredible Hulk
This movie wasn't especially incredible, but it didn't move like a rusty gate, and that's more than we can say
for 2003's The Hulk. Read more...
On DVD: Strange Wilderness
What a piece of crap.
Despite a strong cast whose credentials inspired us to site through this, it's simply a road movie gone wrong. Read more...
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Strap on your swords, kiddies - it's time to go back to Narnia. And this time, they'll be no skimping on the violence. Read more...
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
We heard a lot of bad reviews from the media and friends, but we maintain that none of them have sat through an
Indiana Jones movie since the last one came out. Read more...
Iron Man
After seeing 88 minutes, we probably would have cheered for Iron Man if Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark took his lab assistant robot to the park for a game of fetch. Read more...
Movie box office charts from Mar 21 - 23
There wasn't a damn thing to see this past weekend (or this weekend). We stayed home, as the new movie reviews we posted will attest. As you can see from the link, the top grossing films at the box office weren't exactly making the ten bucks jump out of our wallets. Even though Horton Hears a Who got great reviews, we just weren't interested. Tyler Perry's new movie is out, but if you've seen one, you've seen them all. Shutter? We think not. Drillbit Taylor? No chance in hell. 10,000 BC? We can wait till this masterpiece is on DVD. Oh well, summer will be here soon - we can watch stuff blow up then.
Check out the box office charts for the numbers and the sad list of movies thats out right now.
Hulu.com is out of beta testing
The TV/Movie site hulu.com is now out of beta testing and is available to the public. You have to watch 15 second Chili's ads, but that's it. Is this the first bit of declining traffic for YouTube? Could be... Try out Ice Age - if you want to watch a movie intended for 'mature audiences', you have to create an account and log in.
New Star Wars movie is animated, out this August
As if Indiana Jones in May wasn't enough, a new Star Wars movie is coming out this August. Star Wars: The Clone Wars is not a live action movie, but rather computer animation. This story seems to take place in between the films Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, just as the Star Wars: Clone Wars short animated series did. There is a pretty sizable gap in the animated series, so we figure the narrative plugs in there. Here's an article from USA Today that makes mention of Anakin having a padawan learner named Ahsoka. Our two guesses about this film: 1: Ahsoka will die, 2: we'll get an explanation for the scare Anakin sports in Episode III. Check out the USA today link, there's a screen grab from the film.
We didn't watch the show, we're just going to talk about the Academy's choices.
Check out the complete list of winners here.
We can't tell you how pleased we are with No Country for Old Men winning best picture. Sure, Michael Clayton had a bit more of a satisfying ending, but No Country was really good. We were also very pleased with Daniel Day Lewis winning for There Will Be Blood - he was so entertaining! Of all the films nominated for best picture, we think we'll re watch that one first. We'd about washed our hands of the Academy Awards after they gave best picture to Return of the King, but this was a nice redemption year for them. Kudos, we say.
NY Times' LYNN HIRSCHBERG writes about actors performance
We wanted to point out a great article in the NY Times by LYNN HIRSCHBERG, which talks about some actors who had a good 2007 and also criticizes a few actors that keep doing the same thing.
We wanted to point out one quote, but go read the whole article, its worth it.
With comedy, especially, breakthrough performances often become templates: a cinematic persona is born, and that persona moves from scenario to scenario. When Will Ferrell played Ron Burgundy in “Anchorman,” he forged a certain absurd, overconfident, slightly dim, hugely funny personality that has re-emerged, with slight variations, in “Talladega Nights” and “Blades of Glory.” Ferrell may switch from Nascar to figure skating, but he sticks with the same character. The same is true of Vince Vaughn (the brilliant motormouth of “Wedding Crashers” is nearly indistinguishable from the character he plays in “Fred Claus”), Owen Wilson (slacker deadbeat extraordinaire, ever since “Starsky and Hutch”) and Ben Stiller, who broke through in “There’s Something About Mary” as the nerd who experienced every one of the (male) audience’s most humiliating anxieties and still got the girl. Stiller has been playing that part — more or less — ever since.
Very true! We're so glad somebody finally said this about these guys.
CNN article has link with classy title
CNN has an article posted about the death of actor Heath Ledger (The Patriot, Brokeback Mountain). If you're not familiar with CNN.com's postings, they include links to video that corresponds to the article. One of the links is titled, "Watch Ledger's body being removed".
Wow. This envokes 2 questions: First, is it necessary to witness the authorities remove Mr. Ledger's body from his Manhattan residence and secondly, couldn't they tack this on to their other video link, "Watch a report about Ledger's death"? We understand it has become common practice to cut away from the broadcaster's talking head to a shot of the deceased being removed, but its totally unnecessary. No public interest is served by this.
Head over to our movie review page - we're adding lots of reviews as fast as we can: Charlie Wilson's War, Boogie Nights and more.
We had expectations after we saw the trailer for this movie, and they were met. Head over to our Movie Reviews page for our take on Juno.
National Treasure not to be cherished
We weren't expecting Shakespeare, but jeez. Head over to our Movie Reviews page for our take on National Treasure: Book of Secrets.
Spiderman 3 is number 1 in 2007
Nielsen.com has posted their top 10 lists for 2007, and it isn't pretty. Head over to their site for the full list.
This list is pretty amazing; not an original idea in the top 5; all sequels! Only two original ideas in the top 10, and their both Disney movies... jeez. When is this entertainment crisis going to end? Do the corporations truly have to much creative control, or are they afraid to green light something risky, or maybe it's the writers who are afraid to bring something daring to the table? But we can't blame them - we all gots bills ta pay.
Wheels on 2 Hobbit movies finally rolling
We read an article in The New York Times and apparently two new movies from the Lord of the Rings universe are in the works.
This has been an ongoing legal battle, but it seems to be finally resolved. In any case, the new movies (yes movies) will apparently first detail the events of The Hobbit and then bridge the gap between that novel and the first Lord of the Rings novel. Does this mean they'll have to dig into the Appendices? We're pretty well versed on the LOTR universe, having read the books as well as The Similarion, but we're not clear what major events happen in between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring.
We also won't say that having Peter Jackson involved is the best news we've heard. We're glad he's not writing or directing - we got a bit sick of them adding on their own bits of drama, like the fake deaths (Frodo in Fellowship during Moria or Aragorn in Towers) and what not. While he does have executive producer power, we hope that it will insure an overall visual quality that we've come to expect.
'The Golden Compass' opens Dec 7 to controversy
The Dallas Morning News reports that there is an anti religious message in the novel the film is based on. We'll try to see it this weekend and let you know, but, in any case, it is just a movie, so lets all try to relax. We'll have a review posted soon. Check out The Golden Compass official site here.
Movie Review - Futurama: Bender's Big Score
Ah, straight to DVD; the hallmark of class. But what're ya gonna do? The DVD market is a huge money maker, and Futurama fans are loyal. You can check out or review of Futurama: Bender's Big Score here, or check out our movies page here.
Terminator 4 to star Batmans' Christian Bale
It appears they are, in fact, going there. It sounds like Christian Bale is going to play the 30 something John Conner in the lastest installment which apparently will take place during the 21st century war against the machines. Check out the article here.
Another sequel; Hollywood's fear of originality continues. We didn't think too much of the third installment, but we do like Bale a lot, so maybe some former glory can be restored to this franchise.
movie review: Beowulf
Beowulf is playing in a variety of formats: standard, 3D and IMAX 3D. Check your local theater for what they're actually showing; if your theater doesn't have a digital projection room, than no 3D for you! Check out the Beowulf official site here. Check out our review of Beowulf or see other reviews on our Movie Review Page.
movie review: No Country for Old Men
Check out our review of No Country for Old Men here or see other reviews on our Movie Review Page here. Check out the official site here.
Movie Review: Lions for Lambs
Check out our Movie Review of Lions for Lambs. Visit the official site here. Be sure to make fun of the critic who said the film was 'dramatic'. Wow. Bet they were up all night working on that one.
Michael Kay Hates Fred Clause
Early Monday evening, listeners of The Michael Kay Show were treated to a damning review of Fred Clause, which Michael Kay had seen and not enjoyed. He said he didn't not laugh once and had paid $11 for his ticket and sounded pretty disgruntled. He invited his listeners to send him $5 (an amount he settled on after brief discussion) as he had just done them a service and saving their time and additional $6 for not seeing the movie. We've seen the commercial and agree, it does look pretty bad but we'll let ya'll have that one for free. =)
P2 opens November 9
So did you like this movie better the first time you saw it when it was called Enough? (We won't bother with the million other incarnations of the "and now, she's going to have to fight back" movie formula.) Yes, we do agree Rachel Nichols is a beautiful young woman, but we're not sure if she's $10 per ticket bad movie beautiful (can't really think of any woman that are, actually). We didn't see, this, we have no intention of seeing this, so unless someone sends us a review, we're going to assume this is more mindless crap that comes out, ironically enough, during a writer's strike. Check out the official site if you want anyone walking past your computer to ridicule you. (Trust us, they will.)
Movie Review: American Gangster
Head over to our Movie Reviews Section and check out our take on American Gangster. Check out the official site.