Wednesday, May 30, 2012

NEWS ROUNDUP Ver. 7


NEWS ROUNDUP Ver. 7

BLADE RUNNER

     In an interview with The Independent, director Ridley Scott said  “I don’t think it’ll be Harry [starring in the film]…But I’ve got to have him in it somewhere. That’d be amusing.”  It's nice to see that Scott's work on Blade Runner is finally getting the respect it deserves finally, as well as Scott trying to get as much of the original staff back for the sequel.

RANDOLPH CARTER

     Charles Cutting has posted a link to his comic The Dream Quest Of Randolph Carter to be read for free. To read it just click the link below. While the work isn't based on any one story by H.P. Lovecraft it does draw inspiration from his works.
The Dream Quest Of Randolph Carter

THE WORLD'S END

     Details are coming out about the next Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost collaboration. The film is about five friends who decide to try to do a epic pub crawl to a bar called World's End. But what seems like a trip down memory lane turns more into the fight for the future of mankind. It's Wright and Pegg and Frost. What more needs to be said!

CLARICE

     Now for something that leaves me scratching my head, Lifetime network is making a Clarice Starling series based off of Thomas Harris's FBI agent of which Jodie Foster won an Academy Award for playing in the film Silence Of The Lambs. Wonder if it's going to be coming on the same nights as the Hannibal series is?

THE WALKING DEAD

     The first official picture of Michonne, played by Danai Gurira, is finally up and I must say she looks like she'll do just fine in the sword wielders role as you can see from the photo above.


Monday, May 28, 2012

MEN IN BLACK III


MEN IN BLACK III (2012)
US
Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld

CAST:
Will Smith - Agent J
Josh Brolin - young Agent K
Tommy Lee Jone - Agent K

PLOT:
     Agent J travels in time to MIB's early years in the 1960s to stop an alien from assassinating his friend Agent K and changing history.


REVIEW:
     So here's a film that I wasn't sure about seeing. I loved the first film because it was a smart take on the hidden world around us. Also, it was fun and didn't take itself too seriously. The second one was just, how do I put this. Hmm....lousy and not really fun at all. So here we are ten years after the second film and fifteen after the first. I do have to thank the heat that is in the Gulf Coast for helping JeNee and I seeing this as it was too damn hot to really do anything else.


     I still find it hard to believe that this is the same Josh Brolin that played Brand in The Goonies all those years ago and how his acting has improved ten fold since then. It's a good thing that it has improved due to the whole film hangs on Brolin's performance to imitate and to project Tommy Lee Jones' character and it's nearly flawless. Brolin has the small little ticks and swagger down to play a much younger Agent K and makes the film seem whole with nothing out of place. Will Smith returns to the role of Agent J and it seems like a beat wasn't missed with Smith reprising his role of a smart mouthed agent who still doesn't quite understand everything around him though he knows enough. One of the test for this movie is how Brolin and Smith would play off of each other as it would have to seem as if they don't know each other but at the same time a familiarity would have to be there and they both do wonderful jobs as friends that don't know they are yet.


     The third Men In Black movie brings back what was missed completely in the second one and that was the fun. A lot of this is from the back and forth of J and K in the past with J learning that what he was used to in the future is not available in the past or is so new that it doesn't work properly yet. But it is also the story and layers of mythology it brings back from the first film that was missing from the second that create a added layers of the world that makes it more believable as well. From the supposed aliens in the present such as David Beckham to Lady GaGa there is something always to see. Even in the past the fun continues with celebrities the story calls aliens with special attention paid to Mick Jagger as an alien who is only out to impregnate as many human females as possible. Yet what brings the wonderment that was present in the first film to this film is Michael Stuhlbarg's Griffin who can see multiple realities at the same time and shows to be weary of his ability, as he calls it a pain in the ass, yet is always amazed by some of the paths he is shown and is in awe of others. He is the heart of the film and the series in general. But the soul of the film and the thread that ties the whole series together happens toward the end of the movie and is bittersweet and also makes so much sense why what happens in the first film does happen does with Agent K picking J as a partner.


     I would be remiss to not mention the actual on screen aliens created by Rick Baker. While some of the designs are only so so on some of them, I understand his decision to make them the way he did. The film mostly takes place in the past and with that past there was cleaner lines and less convoluted designs and a more primary color palettewhich is present in the film. I actually found the simpler designs to be a nice change of pace. I also liked how the big bad in this film was basically a alien biker with a real bad attitude. Yet at the same time the only place in the film he feels threatening is when Boris the Animal is first introduced. Another downfall of the film is some of the scenes with Emma Thompson. How they talked her into doing one scene I'm still trying to wrap my head around. It's just embarrassing to watch as an audience member as well as seeing someone of Thompson's acting ability do something like this. Men In Black III is a nice throwback to the first film while moving the story forward in a very loving way while respecting the film series and the movie goers that wanted to see a fun summer movie

BEST DEATH:
     Well they all pretty much go splat.


BEST LINE:
     Is there anybody here who is NOT an alien?

FUN FACTS:
     The scene with Knuckles the Alien that appears in the trailer is not in the actual on screen film.

     Special effects supervisor Rick Baker appears in a cameo as an alien with a exposed cranium .

     Josh Brolin who plays a young Agent K (real name Kevin Brown), is only 21 years younger than Tommy Lee Jones.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

NEWS ROUNDUP Ver 6


NEWS ROUNDUP Ver 6

EXORCIST
     In just the completely wrong category, the remake of The Exorcist has been green lit. But, it won't be in theaters. Instead it is going to be a mini-series on TV and concentrate more on the "emotional" impact of what is happening. Enough said of this one......

ROBOCOP

     In some good news in response to the previous story, Gary Oldman has joined the cast of the Robocop remake. His role will be the creator of Robocop who has a moral dilemma between helping the machine find it's lost humanity and the needs of the corporation backing the project.

THOR 2

     In some casting news for the now in production Thor 2, and movie that adds Mads Mikkelsen to it's cast automatically gets better right away. His supposed role would be for the Executioner, the constant companion to the Enchantress. For the Loki fans, he is scheduled to be in the film as well.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

     On another Marvel comic movie front, there is rumor going around for a Guardians Of The Galaxy film now. The basis for the group is they came together after two back to back wars in the reaches in space left a void that is easily filled by conquerors to keep that from happening.  I don't care what the team will be, but if they don't have Rocket Raccoon, the foul tempered, anthropomorphic, gun loving raccoon I'm not watching it!

MAD MAX

     Charlize Theron let slip in a interview recently that filming for Mad Max: Fury Road will start next month. I just have to say after this film has been in pre-production for the past five years, it's about damn time!

TOONAMI
     What looked like a nice thank you from Cartoon Network on April Fool's Day could have possibly been a test run for the return of Toonami starting tonight. Two new animes are joining the line-up as well. These are:
 DEADMAN WONDERLAND:

   A young boy in the future is convicted of slaughtering his class and is sentenced to life imprisonment in a massive theme park like prison.

 CASSHERN SINS:

   A cyborg with no memory of the past is on a quest to find out what happened to the world that has become full of poison and how the human race is almost extinct and how he might have caused it.

Friday, May 25, 2012

DARK SHADOWS


DARK SHADOWS
US
Directed by Tim Burton

CAST:
Johnny Depp - Barnabas Collins
Michelle Pfeiffer - Elizabeth Collins Stoddard
Eva Green - Angelique - Bouchard

PLOT:
     An imprisoned vampire, Barnabas Collins, is set free and returns to Collinwood Manor to find that his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin. The dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better.


REVIEW:
     I'll go ahead and say that I haven't seen any of the Dark Shadows series. None of it. From the original black and white to the remake from 1991 on NBC. What I knew about the series was that it was a soap opera through and through. Pretty much except for that I really knew nothing about the series or what it was about except it was based around the supernatural. Not a bad premise to base a soap around in my opinion.


      For those that aren't used to watching daytime soap operas the film will more than likely seem like a chore to watch at times. The reason for this is because director Tim Burton made the film with that in mind. Let me explain of what that entails. While most movies are story based, soaps are played out like serials from the 30's and 40'. That means that action is usually put to the back for more dialogue to move the story along. Whether that means by drama or comedy, it all basically goes. Though I should also mention that comedy in most soaps are used sparingly. And now we come back full circle to Dark Shadows and the failure of the previews for the movie. First and foremost Dark Shadows isn't a comedy. Yes it has comedic elements to it, but those come from more of the situations that Johnny Depp's character Barnabas Collins happens into to. Usually from trying to find someplace to sleep that is out of sunlight more than anything else. Other than those scenes there's mostly only drama with everything coming to a head at the end of the movie.


     Johnny Depp is probably one of the more recognizable actors around thanks to playing some oddball roles and enjoying it. Just look at The Pirates Of The Caribbean movies for proof of that.  Yet his portrayal of Barnabas Collins just doesn't work.Yes, sometimes playing someone as odd for the sake of it is understandable, but this time it is over done. This film was bound to either sink or swim with Depp's performance and this one sinks due to it. He plays Barnabas as a stuffy uptight prick of a used to be man who can't get the stick out of his ass. The biggest problem with Baranbas is that you just don't care about the character. And when  Barnabas does get interesting the movie is just about over. Maybe if Depp had added some humanity into his character the audience might have felt something for him and make the time investment in the film worthwhile. As it is, he's just, well boring. Eva Green, as Angelique Bouchard, does in my opinion the best job in the movie as her story makes her the one that was wronged and she has to show that in every scene. From running a company that pretty much owns the town the story takes place in, to making sure that every generation of the Collins family is cursed in some form or the other. Whenever Green is on screen she steals every scene. From the over-the-top facial expressions to when she speaks quietly, she understands the pain that Angelique felt when she was first scorned. While some of Green's acting is over the top, it goes to help her character in the long run and also makes her character seem the most human in the movie.


     The look of the movie is nice. There really isn't no shots that really stick out for most of the runtime for Dark Shadows though. As I mentioned before, most of the real interesting parts of the film happens at the end where all the story lines converge. The worst part of all this is waiting for something to happen in the movie. All this is made worse by Depp's preening and posturing during these waiting times. There's just something missing from this film that is easy to point out and that's the weirdness that was the old Tim Burton. The actual estate of Collinwood is a perfect set and setting for so much to happen at and in, yet we're giving boardrooms and jetties instead.  The one true bright spot as I said was the end of the film where Depp reigns back in his acting and makes Barnabas finally likable and the house comes alive in more ways than one and the Collins' curses that are mentioned before in the film are finally all shown. But all this is too little too late to save the film from being pretentious mostly thanks to the Barnabas character and Depp's portrayal of him. I know this might look like a hate piece against Johnny Depp but it is not. I just know he can carry a movie with ease but in this one he just doesn't seem to care.  

BEST DEATH:
     If only this happened at the beginning of the film the movie might have been different.
 

BEST LINE:
     Woof!

FUN FACTS:
     The film shipped to theaters with the name "Night Moves".

     The producers scoured the UK and Maine to find an appropriate fishing village to film Collinsport in, but couldn't find one that fit. Thus they constructed the whole town from scratch in Pinewood Studios.

     Quick rundown of Tim Burton and the stars of the Dark Shadows and the amount of films they've done with the director:
  Johnny Depp - 8
  Helena Bonham Carter - 7
  Christopher Lee - 5
  Michelle Pfeiffer - 2

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

NEWS ROUNDUP Ver.5


NEWS ROUNDUP Ver.5

THE WALKING DEAD:

     Not a lot has been mentioned by me about The Walking Dead, that's partly due to I don't want to spoil too much for myself. Another reason is because the production does a decent job of keeping things tight on the set. Well this popped up on-line recently about two new characters that will be in season three of the show. The first is Manuel, a Hispanic who shows tendencies to be a good leader plus has a sense of humor. The second is Harold, a stoic male who's trying to create a place for himself in the zombie infested world. Hm. Wonder which of the two are going to be killed off the quickest. With The Governor being in this upcoming season I'm pretty sure a quarter of the cast won't see season four.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY:

     Well the basis for season two has been released and this season is placed in an institution ran by Jessica Lange's character. The cast is pretty much in place and includes James Cromwell, Jessica Lange, Chloe Sevigny, Evan Peters, and Zachary Quinto among others.

FINAL GIRL:

     Abigail Breslin has landed the lead role in Tyler Shields movie about a pack of feral boys who pick the wrong female for their next initiation.

LOBO:

     In a bit of an oddity yet one that I would watch with ease if it turns out to be more than a rumor. Supposedly one of the DC comic properties that might be made into a film is the story of a intergalactic bounty hunter with a really bad attitude and that takes shit from no one, not even Santa Claus. The role right now seems to might be going to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

PROMETHEUS:

     In a bit of genius advertising for a film, the abandoned Saint-Martin subway stop in Paris has been turned into a mini LV-426 for a promotion for the upcoming film. Also the onslaught of 15 and 30 second promos for the film are airing on television with one 30 second spot being very interesting but creepy for a quick shot it shows.

Friday, May 18, 2012

NEWS ROUNDUP Ver 4


WARNING!! POSSIBLE SPOILER AT THE BOTTOM OF PAGE

RETURNING WRITER

     Hampton Fancher is in talks to return to write the sequel to Blade Runner, which he helped write the original as well. Now there has been talks about the sequel or reboot for the film for years it's nice to see that something might come from it finally. And that finally has been confirmed as being a sequel with Ridley Scott possibly returning to direct as well!

AVENGERS 2

     With work already starting on the Avengers' sequel, it turns out that the studios wouldn't mind having Joss Whedon back to direct again. I myself would love to see this happen, yet I also know if the studio doesn't like the asking price Whedon asks for they'll get a different director. I hope that doesn't happen as we won't have scenes like Hulk cold-cocking Thor out of blue because their earlier fight which added so much levity to a very serious situations in the film.

THE GREEN INFERNO

     Eli Roth it seems is getting back into directing this fall once his new film starts shooting in South America. The plot isn't out yet, but I'm sure it won't be long before we know the story.

SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR

     Even though production hasn't even started on the Sin City sequel, the studio has already given it a release date. So I guess we can say that all the principles are in place to start right away. Oh, the release date is October 4, 2013.

THE 4TH REICH

     What type of week would it be without mentioning a Nazi zombie film. This one has been in development hell for over years but it looks like it's finally going forward into production. As a side note since Sean Bean just joined the cast I think I can safely say that it seems like Bean will add to his impressive list of in movie deaths once again, but I don't care because it's Sean Bean. He got stabbed last year and instead of going to the hospital like most people would do, the man instead went to the pub for drinks.I just have to say that is the definition of a bad-ass.

WOOL

     The online book by Hugh Howey about a future where the remnants of humanity live in a silo underground but the criminals all volunteer to go clean the air filters on the outside even though it's a death sentence and the sheriff who wonders why they all  volunteer openly. Ridley Scott and Tony Scott bought the rights to make the movie based on Wool. I think I want to see it already just based on that.

PROMETHEUS

     For those that missed the more spoilerific thirty second promo, count your blessings as it without a doubt it spoils at least one bit in the film and I thank 20th Century Fox for pulling it almost right away. As you can see above the international poster for Prometheus has been released as well. Now I can't say if it really spoils anything but then again it seems the makers of the marketing campaigns for films just suck now as the usually spoil at least half the movies that come out or just don't get the films at all. The really interesting thing about the above poster though for those that didn't notice it is the date. It looks like America might get to see the film two days earlier maybe.
  

GENOCYBER


GENOCYBER (1994)
JP
Directed by Koichi Ohata

CAST:
Akiko Hiramatsu (Japanese voice)  Anna McKay (English voice) - Elaine
Akiko Hiramatsu (Japanese voice)  Rosemary Elliot (English voice) - Diana
Shigeru Chiba- Radonekku

PLOT:
     As the nations of the world begin to merge, world peace is threatened by the private armies of individual corporations. The Kuryu Group has just discovered a weapon that will tip world power in their favor.

REVIEW:
      So here we have an anime I watched almost twenty years ago and I still have memories of it. One of the things I wanted to do with the reviews I do is of course let people know about the newer genre films, yet also the older films I watched in the past, and there is a lot of them. But to do the reviews for the older ones justice I have to re-watch them to refresh my memory of them . Hence why there's more new film reviews more than older ones. I am trying to get older films up though so just stay with me and think of when they do pop up to think of them as a treat, or a blast from the past if you will. I still can't believe it's been almost twenty years though and here's to the past.

     While some things age well with time, others do not. Genocyber is odd because it does stand the test of time and at the same time it doesn't. The setup for the series is one of brilliance as there is talk of a alternate universe of shadows and images.  Every so often that universe is shown as a bleak landscape of barren red rock and red skies filled with lighting. Yet there is no shadows or otherness that was talked about. Instead we are shown one of the two main characters stuck in a organic bubble with her head sticking out of it. Nothing else is shown of the others that was mentioned. And the time there is kept to a bare minimum. The one thing that could be the gateway for the series to become something more and interesting is thrown away.

     Another downfall of Genocyber is that there is almost no plot to it that can be followed what so ever. You are introduced to characters that say a word or two or you spend half the show with them that gives hints and says that they've been following one of the characters around for years only to be killed out of the blue for no purpose. The story for Genocyber is one of the worst I've been privileged to watch in a long time. The story is jumpy and inconstancy throws Genocyber against every wall it could find to see what could stick or just to see if they could make a stew out of different stories if they were thrown together. The story of the two sisters if it was given a chance could have been the main story and could have made this a more character driven story. Instead the two main lead's, the sisters,  story is given a total of what felt like one minute, and the gore and violence is given the main story instead and character development is thrown out the window. I wished that this would have held up since it's release but it doesn't and instead it just seems like it's an excuse to kill things in an animated world in a way not possible in live action films.

BEST DEATH:
     The detective's vivisection nightmare. 

BEST LINE:
     I'm hooking a human subject up to a PSI-scanner.......We can clearly see all sorts of images and shadows displayed. This is known as the "Mind Shadow". Withing this shadow lies a still unexplored universe.

FUN FACTS:
     Genocyber is the first part of a five anime OVA (Original Video Animation) series.

     OVAa were known to be more violent and risque than regular anime due to it didn't have the strict restrictions as anime that aired on television in Japan had.

     Genocyber  referenced the cult anime film Chojin Densetsu Urotsukidoji or known in the U.S. as Legend Of The Overfiend.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

NEWS ROUNDUP Ver 3


PROMETHEUS
     It wouldn't be a week if I didn't have some Prometheus news it seems. This one is just a rumor still at the moment, but we might just get to see a very familiar face in the film at some point. I'll believe once I see it though.  Below is also a short video from the film of the Prometheus landing. It's not much but it's so beautifully shot and put together.


GRIMM

     In a bit of good news, NBC has decided to give the slow starting yet finally getting interesting series about a hunter of myths that's also a police detective a second season.

ONCE UPON A TIME

     Another interesting series that premiered last year that was on the bubble of being cancelled. Well I'm happy to say that this also was renewed for another season. After this past weekend's season final I really can't wait till the next season starts as it hinted at a much larger scale than what the first season was. A third season is going to be a tougher sale I think.

THE RIVER

     This one I pretty much figured would be cancelled and it pretty much looks like it is.

FRINGE

     JeNee and I were on a trip with a couple of friends when we were showed an episode of Fringe and I fell in love with it then and there. And it looks like Fox likes the viewers of the multi-universe series enough to give it a 13 episode final season. Thank you for not screwing this series like you did Firefly!

ALCATRAZ

     Then Fox goes and does something that makes no sense afterward and cancels one of the most interesting time drama I've seen since Life On Mars was on ABC. Even worse for this one is that the season ended on a cliffhanger.

SUPERNATURAL

     Coming back for an eighth season is the Winchester brothers. Only thing I have to say to this is "Good".

HAVEN

     The missing SyFy series will be back  finally in the fall after a extended time off. If you haven't watched this yet, it's a must watch.

DARKCHYLDE

     And in movie news also, the Wildstorm comic series from the 90's that was supposedly being turned into a film, might still be made (maybe, yet I'm not holding my breath for this to come to fruition). To see test footage that was shot for the film just look below. The reason why this is interesting is due to who might be directing the film which the poster gives away.