Apr 30, 2012

Brand new trailer for "The Dark Knight Rises"

Hot on the heels of the latest installment in TDKR viral campaign we have the new trailer. There are a couple of shots we've seen before but also a lot of new footage. Get ready for heaviosity on a Gothamic scale! Here it is. Enjoy.


"The Dark Knight Rises" arrives in theaters July 20th.

"Dark Knight Rises" viral campaign: "Wanted - Batman"

Perhaps the good people over at Warners are feeling a little left out lately what with all the hype surrounding the release of the excellent "Avengers" film as well as the groundswell of interest in what looks to be Ridley Scott's triumphant return to sci-fi. In an effort to swing the spotlight back their way they've come up with a new twist in the Dark Knight Rises viral campaign. If you go to the movie website you'll be greeted by the image at left.

Click your way through and you find yourself knee deep in "official" police documents outlining the case against "John Doe aka Batman" including a nifty wanted poster.

I'm sure the folks at Warner Bros hope this new campaign helps to locate some of the attention that has eluded them lately. Perhaps it never would have slipped away in the first place if they hadn't chosen a villain who generates more snores than web searches.

"The Avengers" - 2012 - movie review

"The Avengers" is one of the best superhero movies I've ever seen. Arguably the best. Towering above most of the competition it's an action packed, superbly written and directed superhero epic with a top-notch cast that never forgets to be fun.

If the movie has a weakness it's that you need to go in with an understanding of not only of who these characters are but what they've been up to in previous films. There's no time for backstories (that's what the individual films were for) and director Joss Whedon doesn't pretend otherwise. If you have that understanding, or are okay with simply accepting what's put in front of you regardless, you're in for nearly 2 and 1/2 hours of comic book movie making the way it should be.

The story is basically this: Loki, last seen plummeting to oblivion at the end of "Thor", conspires with the Chitauri to bring the pain down on earth, his brother's beloved adopted planet. Loki wants revenge, the Chitauri want the tesseract, a cube of unimaginable power that will help them spread death and destruction across the galaxy. (Certainly we've seen that storyline before in the first "Transformers" film but The Avengers is so well done I'm not of a mind to take the writers to task for that narrative transgression.) Loki's plan discombobulates S.H.I.E.L.D. forcing Nick Fury and company to take the extraordinary step of recruiting all the superheroes in their stable to form a team to take on the threat. Problem is, the kids don't necessarily play well together. Being the alpha dogs in their respective neighborhoods they've never really needed to cooperate and when they're thrown together here sparks fly. Loki is aware of this and does his level best to drive wedges between them. This strategy culminates in a bitch session of mythic proportions as the various players take turns tearing into one another while at the same time questioning the motives of Nick Fury. Needless to say though when push comes to shove they band together and shove back, hard.

The danger in a film like this is that the "Shakespeare in the park" elements (to borrow Iron Man's toss-off assessment of the conflict between Thor and Loki)  will weigh down what should be a roaring good smackdown flick (see "The Dark Knight") but fear not, for the Avengers have within their midst ready made comic relief in the form of the aforementioned Tony "Iron Man" Stark. At one point stodgy old Captain America attempts to dress him down by asking "Is everything a joke to you?" Thank goodness the answer to that is mostly yes because his razor sharp quips continually work to balance the mood. The other characters are given their own opportunities as well and I must say that nothing in recent cinema has caused me to laugh louder than a brief but priceless interaction between the Hulk and Loki late in the film. This short scene is a perfect example of a device director Joss Whedon sprinkles throughout the movie where interactions occur that could go either way. Sometimes he breaks left, sometimes he breaks right but, since effort was taken to create both dread and levity you never really know which way things will go. Whedon understands that the element of surprise requires the coin have two sides; a seemingly simple but oft-forgotten element in storytelling.

Another big plus of the storyline is that it isn't cluttered with numerous baddies. Loki is the focus throughout. All you need to know about the evil army he employs is that they have their own agenda. Though Loki's plan exposes a dark side to the people who ostensibly 'control' S.H.I.E.L.D. that fact simply sticks in your craw as potential fodder for subsequent installments in the franchise. And they are coming sure as dawn follows dusk.

The Avengers manages to pull off the rare feat of giving everyone in a loaded cast of characters relevance. The only characters that could be seen as perhaps being out of place among the gods, uber-mutants and flying 22nd century war machines are Black Widow and Hawkeye. But even they are given their own parallel plot points which serve to give the audience someone in the superhero pantheon to relate to. It would have been nice to give them a more meaningful role in the ultimate victory like the Hobbits had with the victory over Sauron, but that's a small quibble indeed when the entirety of the film is considered. And while I'm quibbling I'd just like to state for the record that Thor is a god, not a demi-god as is stated in the film. A demi-god is the offspring of a god and a human. Thor is a pure blood Asgardian. Methinks his demotion here has little to do with simple error and everything to do with Marvel and Disney not wishing to alienate potential audience members who might subscribe to the one-and-only god myth. This is illustrated in an exchange between Black Widow and Captain America when Black Widow states; "You should probably sit this one out. Those guys (Thor and Loki) are from legend. They're basically gods." and CA replies "There's only one god and I doubt he dresses like that."

Quibbles aside The Avengers fires on all cylinders right from the get-go. Though it's undoubtedly a special effects film the effects serve to inform the story rather than becoming it. It never drags at any point during it's 2+ hours. It's exciting, funny and engaging and should more than satisfy fans of the comic books, (as well as the previous 'setup' films), while wetting their appetites for future installments. I'm seeing it more than once. You should too. 



Apr 29, 2012

"The Avengers" kick butt around the world

Setting box office records nearly everywhere it opened Wednesday Marvel's "The Avengers" has posted a 5 day international total of $178 million. That's more than "Battleship" has accumulated in its first couple of weeks and is approaching the 5 week international total for "The Hunger Games", which it should pass in just a few days.

Marvel's long-anticipated superhero epic opened at #1 in every market it entered and while the $178 million 5 day total is certainly impressive it has to be mentioned that the movie has yet to debut in the potentially huge markets of Russia, Japan and Communist China.

The Avengers opens stateside on May 4th and with presale tickets going through the roof looks to become the years first real blockbuster.

New 3 minute international trailer for "Prometheus"

After a series of teasers and slightly longer trailers that upped the tease Ridley Scott and Co have finally released a full length trailer for "Prometheus". This one is nearly 3 minutes long and while it does include footage from the earlier trailers it also contains a lot of stuff never seen before, including some nasty little buggers that look like they're up to absolutely no good.


Prometheus begins its overseas rollout May 30th, opens June 1 in the UK (as seen at the end of this trailer) and June 8th in the US. Can't wait.

Apr 28, 2012

Fox promises not to "compromise" Prometheus

During a Q&A at cimenacon Fox CEO Tom Rothman was asked about what MPAA rating Ridley Scott's "Prometheus" may wind up with. Scott himself has expressed disdain for the rating agency stating flatly that they need to "get their house in order". He's also said that he believes that using recent history as a guideline he thinks his new sci-fi film would probably receive an "R" rating. But because big studios are hell bent on the bottom line and an R rating could potentially cut into overall profit there's been some speculation that Fox could force Scott to edit his feature in order to receive the more box office friendly rating.

When Rothman was asked about the issue though he implied that Fox will not be hacking up the movie just to procure a PG-13 tag.

“I can assure the fans—I’m very aware of their concern—absolutely they can take it that the film will not be compromised either way. So if that means that the film is R, then it’ll be an R. If it’s PG-13, then it’ll be a PG-13, but it will not be compromised.

[For] Prometheus, it would have been very easy—in fact probably in Chapter One of the Executive Handbook, if I ever read such a thing, it would say, ‘Go ahead, make a straightforward prequel to Alien.’ That would have been the easy thing to do. Prometheus is the more challenging thing to do. It’s bolder, it’s original, it’s in the universe, but it’s not a literal story-based prequel to Alien, it’s a wholly new science-fiction entry from Ridley Scott, who hasn’t made a science-fiction film in 30 years.”


Only time will tell if Rothman is a man of his word and the film we see is the film Ridley Scott wants us to see. In the meantime Mr Rothman be warned: the head is watching...

2 new "Avengers" clips

Though "The Avengers" has already launched in a slew of non-US markets Marvel continues to press forward with their publicity campaign for the May 4th US rollout. At this point it seems kind of unnecessary since presale tickets for the comic book blockbuster have already been greater than presale demand for all of Marvels previous efforts combined. Still, if the studio wants to keep leaking clips we'll keep posting them. These 2 are called "Together" and "Balance". Enjoy.




Apr 27, 2012

"Battleship" - 2012 - movie review

The good folks at NASA, having nothing better to do since their budget was decimated by Congress and the Space Shuttle fleet retired, decide to send a friendly "how do you do" signal to what they determine is a planet far out in space capable of sustaining life. 5 years later they get a response in the form of an alien armada hell bent on destruction. As it happens the bulk of the alien force lands within spitting distance of a slew of naval ships conducting war games in the Pacific.

On board one of these ships is a rebel without a cause named Alex Hopper, dragged into the navy by his militaristic brother in an effort to straighten him out. The aliens set up a magnetic field around a portion of the battle group and set about to decimate it. They nearly succeed but for the fact that their carnage has resulted in young Alex finding himself in command of the last remaining ship. Can he rise to the occasion and save mankind?

That's the basic premise of Peter Berg's "Battleship". It doesn't get any more complicated than that and that's probably a good thing. It's probably also a good thing if one doesn't enter the theater to see a movie like this expecting logic because you're not going to find it here. For instance; how is it that NASA gets a physical response to their friendly invite in a scant 5 years? Unless there has been some radical re-writing of the laws of physics that I missed the speed of light is pretty much the universal speed limit. Given that and given that the closest possible habitable planet that we currently know about is some 40 or more light years away, and given that physical beings can't travel at the speed of light, it would take centuries (at the very least) for anyone, even a highly advanced civilization, to receive our signal and then physically travel the distance back to us.

But I digress because I'm not here to simply trash this movie. You can't trash trash (can you?) and that's exactly what Battleship is, though I mean that in a good way, sort of. It's a big, loud, silly piece of Hollywood trash-ertainment that, to its credit, doesn't pretend to be anything else. It should be noted too that it bears no relationship to the boring board game that lent it its name. Oh sure there's the alien ordnance that's hilariously shaped like those little pegs you stick into the board while playing the game and there's a (way too long) sequence about 2/3 of the way through where a pathetic contrivance results in everyone staring at an electronic grid with battleships on it while the principals call out co-ordinates in an attempt to 'sink' their enemy, but that's it. And those elements are so over the top as to be almost self parody.

Battleship is strictly here to feed the shark in all of us that wants to see blood in the water and to that end its a fairly successful piece of work. It's not science fiction, it's not even particularly good fiction as there's nothing in the screenplay that isn't taken from some other source. From the robotic 'balls of death' that could have come straight out of "Transformers" to the "Iron Man" suits the aliens wear to the whole "ne'er-do-well finds himself when the chips are down" theme and the hackneyed love story Battleship is an amalgam of pop culture cliches wrapped in a thick, warm blanket of professionally done CGI. It's better than Transformers II or III and that's basically because the script, as mentioned above, was kept simple. My one beef was they way they handled the aliens. All we discover about them is that they're here, they resemble humans and they're bad. I found myself  wondering why they are so pissed off. (Maybe it's because they've been picking up our trashy tv shows for several decades and decided enough was enough when they learned Britney Spears is going to be a judge on next season's X-factor.)

While I'd rather watch a film with a simple, comprehensible storyline any day over one that throws narrative threads around herky-jerky in an attempt to seem like art there's a downside to making things too simple or cliched (as is the case here) and that is that the major players don't have much to do except stand around looking alternately shocked and resolved. That's not the actor's fault though. They pretty much do what they've been paid to do: Liam Neeson appears for a few minutes at the beginning and end and says some words. Taylor Kitsch as Alex Hopper remembers not to look at the camera, Brooklyn Decker is unappealing enough to be a convincing "girl next door" and the luscious Rhianna is, well, she's in the movie.

The bottom line is I didn't go into "Battleship" with any expectations and as a result found myself fairly amused (once the first half hour passed into merciful oblivion). It does what it does pretty well though what it does is neither important or ground breaking or, for that matter, even very interesting. I didn't leave the theater wanting to demand a refund but I doubt I'll be back for a second look any time soon.

Apr 25, 2012

New "Prometheus" featurette

This one is hot off the presses and includes not only footage of the Master at work but breathless testimonials to his masterousness (I invented a new word). Best of all there are several new snippets of film from the movie included.




Prometheus opens wide June 8.

"Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" - movie review

"Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" comes from the "Jaws 2" school of film making. For those of you who missed that (less than) venerable effort that school's motto goes something like this: "Strike while the iron is hot. All other considerations secondary." And boy have the makers of GR2 taken that motto to heart.

The first Ghost Rider film was an unexpected gem of sorts. It was pretty well crafted, fun as hell and rooted firmly in the lore of the desert southwest where the ghost town was practically invented. The film floated on a sea of ready made mythology with the cursed Johnny Blaze roaming the horizonless landscape of the desert night aboard his trusty stead, a chip on his shoulder the likes of which hadn't been seen since The Man with No Name wandered into that little town by the lakeshore.

This new effort eschews any such firm footing. It seems the film makers were confident that the Ghost Rider mythology was a stand-alone affair that could be plopped down anywhere and plugged into the local zeitgeist. In this case somewhere in Eastern Europe.

Well they were wrong. Divorced from the desert landscape and the unspoken mythological underpinnings that made the first film click Ghost Rider 2 stumbles out of the blocks, never gets back on its feet and drags itself across the finish line long after most of the audience has gone home.

Everyone involved needs to take their share of the blame for this one including Cage who mails in his performance to a degree that's startling even for him. As for directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor I can only assume they were asleep during most of the production as the film has no momentum, no kick and what passes for 'fun' here is a repeated cut back to JB pissing fire. In a move that smacks of desperation they even try to dredge up some semblance of the chaotic energy of their "Crank" films by having Cage go through a few minutes of Jason Statham-like facial contortions. It's as though they woke up after shooting wrapped, took a look at what they had and panicked.

"What are we gonna do?"
"I know! We'll call Nick back to do some of that facial contortion stuff like Jason did in Crank and then we'll insert a minute of it anytime things get too dismal."
"Hey, good idea!"

Not really. A better idea would have been to admit defeat and shelve the project.

"Samsara" - trailer

Shot entirely in 70mm in 25 countries over the course of four years Samsara marks the return to the screen of Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson whose previous work "Baraka" was widely hailed for its visual spendor. The film contains no dialogue or text. Only moving pictures, and looks pretty amazing.



"Samsara" opens August 24th.

Apr 24, 2012

The top 10 movies for the weekend of April 20 - April 22, 2012

1) Think Like a Man $33.6 Million
2) The Lucky One $22.5 Million
3) The Hunger Games $14.6 Million
4) Chimpanzee $10.6 Million
5) The Three Stooges $9.7 Million
6) The Cabin in the Woods 8 Million
7) American Reunion $5.4 Million
8) Titanic 3D $5 Million
9) 21 Jump Street $4.7 Million
10) Mirror Mirror $4.4 Million
The number one movie a year ago this week was Fox's "Rio" which held on to the top spot for a second week with $26.3 million.

Poster art for Roger Corman produced "Piranhaconda"

Who could ask for anything more? Part flesh-eating fish, part supersnake all phallic symbol the piranhaconda sets its sights on bootylicious babes foolish enough to wade into its lair. Who will win this war of sexual symbolism starring Michael Madsen and Rachel Hunter?

A December 15 release date came and went with no film which sparked rumors of a halt in production. Those rumors were addressed on the film's IMDB page where a person claiming to be director Jim Wynorski posted the following:

"As the film's director, I can assure you the picture is alive and proceeding along very well. There was never any halt in production, only several impatient people who put release dates down on the internet that we could never physically meet. See you in May with the completed picture. Fans will love it."

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Apr 23, 2012

The powers that be at DC talk "Before Watchmen"

Collider has a piece on The Los Angeles Festival of Books where DC Comics honchos Dan DiDio and Jim Lee discuss the upcoming "Before Watchmen" film. The two have some interesting things to say particularly about Alan Moore and just what is it that drives them to do a sequel (prequel) of a movie that wasn't exactly a box office juggernaut.

image copyright DC Comics
Read the article here.

First trailer for tsunami film "The Impossible"

J.A. Bayona (The Orphanage) directs this big budget telling of the 2004 Asian tsunami through the eyes of a family that was there. The trailer, intended for the Spanish market, is dubbed into that language but looks like it will be pretty spectacular. "The Impossible" is slated for release in Spain in October though there's no specific US release date yet.


Apr 21, 2012

Full trailer for Cronenberg's "Cosmopolis"

Robert Pattinson stars in this tale of a young New York billionaire whose day goes horribly wrong.

Off the beaten track trailer of the day - "The Thieves"

This one's from Korea and is not dubbed so you kind of have to guess what's going on. My guess is that a group of super-intelligent, super-hot professional thieves (complete with smarmy smiles galore) has been brought together to pull off the job of a lifetime. Just a guess.


Apr 20, 2012

New "Battleship" clip

I'm still waiting for the clip where someone cries "You sunk my battleship!" but in the meantime (and while the film plays in countries all over the world not named the US) I'll have to be satisfied with what they parcel out. Like this clip courtesy of the good people at comingsoon.

Guy Pearce signs on for "Iron Man 3"

Guy Pearce is experiencing a career surge of late. "Lockout" in which he takes an unlikely turn in the action hero seat is currently in theaters and doing reasonably well. "Prometheus" in which he plays legendary (fictional) businessman Peter Weyland opens wide on June 8th and now Variety reports that Pearce has signed on to play Aldrich Killian a character from the Iron Man comic book story "Extremis" for the upcoming "Iron Man 3".

Pearce will play alongside Robert Downey Jr and Ben Kingsley who, it was announced recently, will take on an as-yet-unspecified villain role for the picture.

Apr 19, 2012

Mickey Rourke and Rosario Dawson to return for "Sin City 2"

Rosie and Mickey ready to return to Sin City
Hollywood types are like politicians, you just can't trust much that comes out of their mouths. In this case though that's a good thing.

After stating that he had little intention or interest in returning to Sin City when and/or if a sequel was ever made, Mickey Rourke has pulled an apparent about face. In an interview with MTV Robert Rodriguez was asked about casting for the now officially upcoming "Sin City: A Dame to Kill For" and stated "I just had lunch with Mickey [Rourke] this weekend. He's all excited to come back". Go figure. Rodriguez also said that Rosario Dawson is "pumped" to return as well. That's two pieces of good news for us fans of the original. Let's hope there's more similar casting news to come.

Apr 18, 2012

"The Avengers" - Iron Man vs Thor

The clips just keep on comin' from the folks at Marvel. Here's another one with Thor and Iron Man apparently having a little family style disagreement.


Apr 17, 2012

"Hotel 69" - trailer NSFW

Here's an interesting little ditty out of that hotbed of debauchery, Singapore. Not sure which Singapore this is supposed to be about because the one I've been to is a damned police state. Still if Americans can dream about being superheros I guess Singaporeans can dream about unfettered sexual expression of the degrading kind.

So here it is, via the good folks at twitchfilm. And, in case you've been living under a rock that "NSFW" in the post title means "not safe for work".



New "Prometheus" viral clip

If the film maker releases a piece of information about a character for all the world to see before a film is released does that count as a "spoiler"? And if a website re-posts that information is that website also guilty of revealing spoilers? I'd say "no" but I'm sure there are many others who hold a different view. So, in that spirit I'm going to say that the following clip contains, what some might consider, a huge spoiler. So think carefully before you click play.

Apr 16, 2012

"Savages" - trailer

While I'm not normally a fan of Oliver Stone this one looks interesting. John Travolta, Salma Hayek and Benecio Del Toro star in this southern California tale of a couple of native pot growers who run afoul of their Mexican competitors.



"Savages" arrives in US theaters July 6th.

The top 10 movies for the weekend of April 13 - April 15, 2012

1) The Hunger Games $21 Million
2) The Three Stooges $17 Million
3) The Cabin in the Woods $14.7 Million
4) Titanic 3D $11.9 Million
5) American Reunion $10.4 Million
6) Wrath of the Titans 6.9 Million
7) Mirror Mirror $6.8 Million
8) 21 Jump Street $6.5 Million
9) Lockout $6.2 Million
10) Dr Suess' The Lorax $3 Million

The number one movie a year ago this week was Fox's "Rio" which debuted in the top spot with $39.2 million.

New "Avengers" clip - "Loki Imprisoned"

This new clip focuses on a verbal confrontation between Samuel Jackson's Nick Fury and Tom Hiddleston's Loki. It's more than a little reminiscent of the clip released a few days ago with Tony Stark taking his turn trying to talk Thor's brother out of his dastardly plan for earthly domination. Still it looks great.



"The Avengers" is due in theaters May 4th.

Apr 15, 2012

New images take us inside "Prometheus" - Also: Ridley speaks

Collider has posted a set of new "Prometheus" images (including several that are hi-res) that take us on a tour of the spaceship. Hot on the heels of the new images a screening was held in London of 13 minutes of footage from the film for a selected audience. Totalfilm has a report on the footage as well as a Q&A with Ridley Scott and Noomi Rapace that followed. BE WARNED: The totalfilm report includes some potential spoilers.

Here are a couple of the Collider images. To see the whole set, click here.



"Titanic" sails into box office history

Unlike the ship "Titanic" the movie refuses to sink.
15 year old "Titanic" is showing the new kids what real box office clout is all about. The 3D release of James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster has pushed the film past the $2 billion mark in worldwide box office, making it only the 2nd film in history to accomplish the feat, (the other of course being Cameron's "Avatar"). Over the weekend Titanic sank the competition, including overseas weakling "The Hunger Games", largely on the strength of a $58 million opening in communist China. That total represents the biggest opening weekend in history for the totalitarian state beating the previous record of $55 million set by the third "Transformers" movie. The 3D release has now grossed $190 million worldwide and shows little sign of slowing down any time soon.

Apr 14, 2012

Off the beaten track trailer of the day - "Cyborg: Rise of the Slingers"

I'm imagining the discussion that led to this one...

"Hey! I got a cool name for a movie."
"Is it cooler than your last one, "Toenails and Tissues"?
"Yeah way cooler. Listen to this... "Cyborg: Rise of the Sliders".
"Hey that's not bad. How much money do we have in the coffee can?"
"Last time I checked around $130."
"That should be plenty. Lets get to work!"

Ladies and gentlemen I give you "Cyborg: Rise of the Sliders".

Apr 13, 2012

"Prometheus" the spaceship

Ridley Scott and Co's ramping up of the publicity campaign for Prometheus continues apace with the latest installment being the below image of the ship that gives the movie its name. Personally I'd rather see some detailed background on the alien craft designed by Giger all those years ago that's finally being given the power of flight for this film, but I'll take what I can get.

A high res version of this image can be found over at IGN.


"Prometheus" opens wide June 8th.

"Red Lights" - trailer

Cillian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver play investigators out to crack the secrets of one of the worlds best know so-called "psychics" played by DeNiro.



Red Lights hits theaters in the US July 13th.

Apr 12, 2012

Sin City 2 officially a go

A month ago Robert Rodriguez let slip his belief that the long-awaited "Sin City" sequel was ready to go. Lot's of people including Dwight McCarthy himself, Clive Owen, expressed more than a little skepticism. Well, today it's official. Dimension Films has announced that the necessary deals have been finalized and casting is to begin immediately. All the major players, including Rodriguez, Frank Miller, producer Alexander Rodnyansky and Bob Weinstein, chimed in to lend weight to the announcement. The sequel will be called "Sin City: A Dame to Kill For" after the Frank Miller story of the same name though, as previously announced, it will include other story lines as well.

Here is part of the official press release from Dimension:

Filmmakers Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, along with producer Alexander Rodnyansky, have announced that production will commence on the highly anticipated sequel to 2005’s Sin City, entitled Sin City: A Dame To Kill For. The film will be produced by AR Films and Quick Draw Productions, financed through AR Films U.S and released domestically by Dimension Films.

Read the whole release here.

"Looper" - trailer

Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars in this futuristic thriller about a hit man whose targets are sent back in time to him. It seems 30 years beyond what his character experiences as the "present day" time travel has become fairly routine. Of course shadowy organizations take advantage of this by sending those they want eliminated back through time to face JGL, thereby neatly disposing of the evidence. It all works well until one day his target is his future self.



"Looper" opens September 28th.

Apr 11, 2012

New "Avengers" clip - "Head Count"

This one is a twist on the previously released "head count" clip.



"The Avengers" opens wide on May 4th.

Off the beaten track trailer of the day - "Topaz Duo"

I'll let their own vimeo blurb speak for itself.

"Meet Topaz Duo, Quantum Exorcists who travel the Middle-East fighting Alien forces with the power of love and customised musical weaponry. The battle to save Earth begins tonight!"

Apr 10, 2012

Dreamworks secures funding to continue

"Hey buddy! Can ya spare a few hundred million?"
It seems a little hard to believe but Dreamworks Studios, producers of Academy Award winners "American Beauty" and "Gladiator" along with a slew of highly successful animated films including the "Shrek" series has had to go back to its business partner Reliance ADA out of India for more financing just to keep the doors open. The new deal will allow Dreamworks to stay in business but with a pretty dramatically cut back release schedule. The new deal requires Dreamworks to focus solely on big, tent-pole movies or small budget affairs. Nothing in between. As such the studio will produce 8 to 10 movies over the next couple of years including two films in 2012: "People Like Us" and "Lincoln".

Gary Ross decides not to direct "Hunger Games" sequel

There was speculation that a deal between Lionsgate and Hunger Games director Gary Ross would be made any day now, announcing Ross would be back for the Hunger Games sequel "Catching Fire". Turns out there was an announcement alright but it wasn't what a lot of people wanted to hear because Ross has decided to move on. Here is part of the statement he released through Lionsgate.

"Despite recent speculation in the media, and after difficult but sincere consideration, I have decided not to direct Catching Fire. As a writer and a director, I simply don’t have the time I need to write and prep the movie I would have wanted to make because of the fixed and tight production schedule."

There is no word yet on who Lionsgate has in mind to replace Ross.

Apr 9, 2012

The top 10 movies for the weekend of April 6 - April 8, 2012

1) The Hunger Games $33.1 Million
2) American Reunion $21.5 Million
3) Titanic 3D $17.2 Million
4) Wrath of the Titans $14.7 Million
5) Mirror Mirror $11 Million
6) 21 Jump Street $10 Million
7) Dr Seuss' The Lorax $5 Million
8) Salmon Fishing in Yemen $.9 Million
9) Housefull 2 $.84 Million
10) John Carter $.83 Million

The number one movie a year ago this week was Universal's "Hop" which remained in the top spot for a second week with $21.2 million.

Ben Kingsley in talks to play "Iron Man 3" villain

According to Variety 68 year old Ben Kingsley is in the final stages of negotiations to play the villain in the upcoming 3rd installment of the Iron Man franchise. But, in spite of the fact that many believe he'd be perfect for the role of The Mandarin, Variety says he's more likely to play some as-yet-unnamed baddie involved in the spread of evil nanobots.

Apr 8, 2012

More images from "Prometheus"

The river keeps on flowing when it comes to images from Ridley Scott's upcoming "Prometheus". Unlike the trailers however that were fairly heavy in "Alien"-related imagery, the still shots that have emerged tend to focus on other aspects of the story. These new images, courtesy of the Prometheus Facebook app are no exception.






Prometheus opens June 8th.

"A Fantastic Fear of Everything" - trailer

Simon Pegg's been a busy boy lately with this being his latest effort. The film is a dark comedy about a children's author who's trying to make a name for himself in the world of crime fiction but can't stand the ghosts stirred up by his research.




"A Fantastic Fear of Everything" opens June 8th.

Apr 7, 2012

"The Hunger Games" - 2012 - movie review

The Hunger Games begins as an After School Special version of the post apocalypse and morphs into a big budget version of "Saw" with mysterious behind-the-curtain forces seeing how far young people will go to save their own skin. Along the way it attempts to be a kind of condemnation of the evils of reality tv (perhaps the thing it does best, though in this case that's feint praise). How and why the entirety of the Hollywood PR machine got behind this milquetoast effort is a story that would make a much better film than the one here.

The Hunger Games purportedly takes place on a post-nuclear-apocalypse earth where a relatively small number of humans have survived. Thing is if this is the post apocalypse earth then sign me up. Clean air and water, lush forests, and perhaps most magically of all: high speed rail in America! Woohoo!

We're told that the post apocalypse peace was hard-won and in order to maintain it one young man and one young woman from each of 12 districts are chosen to fight to the death on live TV. Why such a gruesome spectacle would occur and what it has to do with maintaining the peace are the most important questions raised in the film yet the movie gives them virtually no time. At one point Donald Sutherland's "President Snow" will spout a few appropriately cynical words about how its better to have games that produce a winner then simply execute a bunch of people to keep the masses in line, (because a winner generates "hope") but that's it. After that the movie descends into big budget Saw-land.

As mentioned the film's most effective guise is that of a put down of the celebrity obsessed "reality" tv culture. Watching the hicks from the sticks go through the fatting-of-the-calf routine where they're primped and preened and dropped into the (temporary) lap of luxury is not unlike following someone through the American Idol star making process where any actual talent they may possess is smothered in the effluence of Simon Cowell's wet dreams about glamor and fame. It's supposed to point out how the high and mighty use tv as a weapon to mollify the masses and make them forget about the drudgery of everyday life but in reality (so to speak) the show and the selection process that leads up to it do nothing but remind the downtrodden just how downtrodden they are. So what's the point? The Hunger Games tv show is supposed to provide opium for the masses not reason to revolt. Isn't it?

So as a commentary on how the innate blood lust of the people is co-opted by the powerful and used as an opiate to keep them controllable it's pretty poor. (Plus the idea has already been done. It was called "The Running Man".) Once the "games" begin it gets even worse because at that point the film becomes little more than an exercise in watching kids kill one another. Like I said it's like watching "Saw". Now if watching people do unspeakably cruel things to themselves and others is what floats your boat then The Hunger Games is the movie for you.

The film also fails as a condemnation of the puppet-masters pulling the strings behind the curtain because it fails to tell us who these people are and how they came to be. All the hints however point to them being descendants of what Newt Gingrich and his cabal are fond of calling the Liberal Elite (LE). Let's go down the LE checklist shall we and see for ourselves. They're urban (check). They wear decadent clothing and hairstyles (check). They seem to have no interest in family (check). They control the media (check) and they're corrupting our youth (check).

And what about their opposite numbers? Could they be interpreted as being those middle Americans the nasty liberal media types are always using as social guinea pigs? Let's do the Middle American Social Guinea Pig (MASGP) checklist and see. They come from the backwoods (check). They seem decent law abiding folk (check). Families everywhere (check). The young ladies dresses do not raise above the knee line (check). Sexually repressed (check).

However just when you're ready to set up a gallows in the square and take those damned liberals to task for ruining everything you perhaps remember that the last time you watched Jerry Springer there weren't a lot of Harvard Square types in the audience and, as a character says early on "No audience, no show."  Also, The Hunger Games is very big business and very big business is the traditional stomping ground of Adam Smith's progeny. And the downtrodden in their tattered clothing could be seen as those who used to belong to the middle class but have been dumped into poverty by the triumph of the Reagan agenda. So who knows? It seems the author is falling back on the standard cop-out: we're all to blame.

So exactly what do we have here with "The Hunger Games"? Well, first of all we have consumer product intended to fill the market void left by the end of the "Twilight" series. That much is pretty clear. But what about the movie itself? What is this film trying to tell us?  That the powerful are corrupt? Well, duh. That we're easily hypnotized by the boob tube? Knew that already. That reality tv is the new gladiatorial games and the tv sound stage the new Colosseum? Well, I think most people knew that already too.

Maybe what The Hunger Games is really trying to tell us is that if you take a bunch of well-worn themes, repackage them in a shiny new box with an attractive young lady's face on it and toss it into a media void you'll get boffo box office. Wanna be script writers of the world take note.

Apr 6, 2012

New "Battleship" footage

Universal has released a new clip from their upcoming wanna-be blockbuster "Battleship". Methinks a far more accurate title might be "Transformers: The Next Generation".

Apr 5, 2012

New "Prometheus" images released

AVPGalaxy has posted 18 new high quality images that have been officially released by the "Prometheus" production team. The images range from familiar to brand spanking new to behind the scenes shots of Ridley Scott and Co hard at work.

Below are a couple that have been optimized for this blog. Click here to see the whole set of higher-res images.



Prometheus arrives in theaters June 8th.

Bond gets a new girl

Greek beauty Tonia Sortiropoulou joins Daniel Craig in "Skyfall"
Relatively unknown Eurofox Tonia Sotiropoulou has been added to the cast of "Skyfall" according to multiple sources and the actresses' own tweets.

In the film Sotiropoulou will reportedly occupy a relatively short amount of screen time near the beginning of the film, during a sequence when Bond's body is smuggled into Istanbul after he is believed to be killed.
 
Bond 23 is currently in production with a release date of November 9.

March 2012 sets new domestic box office record

Boxofficemojo reports that March 2012 was the best March in the history of the US movie business with total reciepts of $940 million. That topped the previous "best March ever" in 2010 when the domestic box office take was $832 million. The surge in domestic box office was driven primarily by two films: "The Hunger Games" and "Dr Suess' The Lorax" which earned $420 million between them. What's interesting is that had Disney's "John Carter" performed even close to expectations we would be talking about a billion dollar March.

On the whole 2012 is shaping up to be a very promising year indeed with a slew of potential box office monsters lurking on the horizon. They include "The Avengers", "Prometheus", the third and final Christopher Nolan helmed Batman flick "The Dark Knight Rises" and Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey".

Apr 4, 2012

"To Rome With Love" - trailer

Fresh off the critical and commercial success of his ode to the city of light "Midnight in Paris" Woody Allen is at it again; using an historic European capital as the postcard backdrop for a romantic comedy. This time the city is Rome and from the trailer it looks like the title alludes to Allen's feelings about the Eternal City as much as it may to any plot points.



"To Rome With Love" opens June 22nd.

New tv spots for "The Avengers"

Two new tv spots for Marvel's "The Avengers" have hit the airwaves. In the first Tony Stark gets into a d**k measuring contest with Loki which culminates in the memorable line "We have a Hulk!". The second is a refresher course in the Avengers lineup, just in case anyone forgot.

"The Avengers" hits theaters a month from today (May 4).

Clip 1: "Headcount"




Clip 2: "We need a team"

Apr 3, 2012

The top 10 movies for the weekend of March 30 - April 1, 2012

1) The Hunger Games $58.5 Million
2) Wrath of the Titans $33.4 Million
3) Mirror Mirror $18.1 Million
4) 21 Jump Street $14.8 Million
5) Dr. Suess' The Lorax $7.7 Million
6) John Carter $2 Million
7) Salmon Fishing in Yemen $1.2 Million
8) Act of Valor $1 Million
9) A Thousand Words $.9 Million
10) Journey 2: The Mysterious Island $.8 Million

The number one movie a year ago this week was Universal's "Hop" which debuted in the top spot with $37.5 million.

Apr 2, 2012

Hammer Films greenlights "The Woman in Black" sequel

"The Woman in Black" was a good old fashioned ghost story that delivered on it's promise both as a film and at the box office. So it's no surprise that Hammer Films has decided to push forward with a sequel. Variety is reporting that the next installment will be titled "The Woman in Black: Angels of Death" and will be set 40 years on from events in the original, making it highly unlikely that Daniel Radcliffe will be back for a second go. Too bad because he did an admirable job with the original which was his first major post-Potter film.

She's baaack!

Full trailer for "Total Recall"

The original 1990 film version of the Philip K. Dick story was, to me, one of the most disappointing big budget sci-fi movies I've ever seen. The effects were hokey, the lighting was terrible and Ahnuld just didn't have the acting chops the story required. So I'm glad that this particular film has been remade. This new version with Colin Farrell and Jessica Biel looks promising.



"Total Recall" hits US theaters August 3rd.