A Star Wars Parody That Isnt Nauseating

Star Wars parodies can be the absolute worst. Just hearing the opening credits with people's rinky dink, second rate bullshit give me douche chills.

Against all odds, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost made something real funny.  When dudes are wearing garbage can lids on their heads, you know its gonna be good.

Now THESE are the droids I've been looking for.

Philadelphia Eagle Owner/Oscar Winner

Jeff Lurie has been called many things, and as owner of the Philadelphia Eagles I'm sure not all of them have been nice. After last night, he can now be called "Academy Award Winner".

Lurie, who's worth a billion dollars, owns a production company that produced "Inside Job" about the financial crisis.  Unlike his Eagles, the documentary was able to go all the way and win the big one.

Hopefully Lurie gets the acting bug and takes on the roll of "owner willing to pay all-pro players to come to the Eagles" this offseason.

Pay the man. Seriously.

Spider-Man : Best. Week. Ever.

So first, we see that Pete gets a spot on the Fantastic Four The Future Foundation and an ultra slick new white and black costume, and now the Spider-man reboot can officially be called "The Amazing Spider-man".  Pretty...pretty.....pretty good.

I'm excited to read the new FF, but the variant cover above confuses me.  Obviously everyone on the cover  is excited that Spidey is on the team, but aren't they a little TOO happy? I mean, Johnny Storm just died guys.  Tone it down a bit. The team consists of 3/4 of the Fantastic Four, the two Richards kids, and then I'm lost.  I suppose that's a gargoyle, 2 mutant birds, a flying alien monkey head, some other stereotypical looking aliens, and a Sleestak lurking under Sue Storm's underarm?

The new teaser picture for Amazing Spider-Man looks awesome.  His costume doesn't look like he made it in his bedroom like in the comics, but for the first time in a long time it looks like he's wearing web shooters. Pretty cool.

The Big LEGO Lebowski

What can I say? I'm a sucker for a good LEGO recreation. This isn't as good as some others, but at least it doesn't involve Star Wars or some weird european dance groove.

Movie Shinfo

Instead of streaming a twitter account that tells you everything on a site you're already reading, I'm going to replace my twitter stream with "Movie Shinfo". The twitter account is run by my good friend/bitter enemy, Zack, who has agreed to wear a fake goatee and sunglasses and take over my husband/father duties in the likely event that I die soon.

Follow MovieShinfo here.
Follow Zack's life shinfo here.

Sucker Punch - The Art of the Film

Titan Books is offering a limited edition collectible book signed by director Zack Snyder (Watchmen, 300, that awesome My Chemical Romance video). Here's the press release:

From Warner Bros. Pictures and directed by Zack Snyder, Sucker Punch hits movie screens in March 2011. To celebrate the release of this extraordinary epic action fantasy, Zack Snyder and Titan Books are offering fans an unprecedented opportunity to secure a spectacular limited edition of the official tie-in book ahead of the release of the eagerly awaited film.

The movie looks cool, I like Zack Snyder's work a lot, but what I'm most excited about is seeing Alex Pardee's work from the movie in the collection. I've met Alex through ETID, and I've been a fan of his ever since. You can order it here.

Hit the jump for more info about the book. 

Arthur Remake

Wazzzzzzzaaaaaaaap.

I'm not a huge fan of the original "Arthur". The movie is 90% Dudley Moore acting drunk (acting?), slurring his sentences, and laughing ear splittingly high. So, there's probably room for improvement.

Russell Brand looks funny, Jennifer Garner is hot, Helen Mirren is uptight and stuffy.  Win/win/win!

Captain America, Fuck Yeah

X-Men : First Class

I've held out little hope for this movie since reading details, and this trailer doesn't really get me all hot and bothered. I got into this a couple weeks ago, but in case you're too lazy too read another post or just forgot what I said : I think releasing an X-men movie without a cast of familiar X-men is a bad move, especially with all the comic book movies out there.

Robin a Legit Rumor Now?

Den of Geek is reporting that a place called "Grand Ledge" was being scouted as a location for the new Batman movie, "The Dark Knight Rises". More importantly, that location was described as a "hideout for Batman sidekick Robin".

They went on to point out that Joseph Gordin Levitt has been casted in an unnamed role and speculated that the role could in fact be Robin.

If you think that I'm above an "I told you so" post based on an unconfirmed rumor, you clearly don't know me at all.

Update : Film School Rejects is also speculating that Robin could be in the movie and played by JGL, but unfortunately no one is using the image I created...yet.
(via Den of Geek)

Cowboys and Aliens May Feel Familiar

Everyone likes to see actors and directors grow and expand outside of their typical roles. However...what's so wrong in sticking to what you're good at?

Jon Favreau went from directing 2 Iron Man movies to Cowboys & Aliens, a film that involves a story from a comic book, a hero that wears a cool blue glowing thing on his wrist that shoots stuff, and a bunch of cool CGI and explosions.  Daniel Craig plays a bad ass with a gun and Harrison Ford plays a guy that looks awesome in a hat. Its not exactly unfamiliar territory for any of them, but it feels like a safe bet that this movie will be entertaining.



(graphic via The Daily Blam)

Superman Likes Tea, Who Cares?

Henry Cavill was cast as Superman today, which poses an interesting question : "Who the hell is that guy".

I'll do my best to answer that...Superman is an alien who crash landed in the country, was raised by farmers, has a secret identity that involves glasses, and can fly/lift stuff/burn stuff with his eyes/reverse time by spinning the earth backward and is basically has no vulnerabilities. Bad joke aside, I hate Superman. He's as vanilla as comic book characters come.  The "only weakness is Kryptonite" thing is played out.

More Spider-man Reboot Stuff

Some of the action scenes from the original Spider-man movies looked  like a PS2 game.  Complete garbage.

It looks like they're looking to fix some of those issues in the reboot by shooting more practical effects, which I think is awesome.

Here's Spider-man doing some real Spider-man type stuff.  I'm pretty sure this clip will need some color correction before it makes it's way to theatres.

Super Clerk.

Before Bryan Singer's "Superman Returns" hit the screens in 2006. We had all heard rumors of another film to be helmed by Tim Burton called "Superman Lives" which would star Nicolas Cage. However, due to disagreements with script and budgets, Burton left the project to direct Sleepy Hollow. After other directors, scripts, and stars came and went the film was finally scrapped in 2001.

In the last few years, leaked concept art and costume designs have surfaced all around the internet. While "Superman Returns" did become quite forgettable, I am happy that was the movie that made it to the theaters as opposed to the one with this guy.

Believe it or not "Superman Lives" ill fate began way before H.I. McDunnough threw on this set of PJs. Kevin Smith, director & comic book lover, tells his experience with this deathship of a film. Although I can't say I am a huge fan of all his cinematic efforts, Smith is a great raconteur. This story may be a bit long but it does paint a very real and humorous look at the Hollywood studio system.

Enjoy.

No strings attached. Well one string...

Natalie Portman is out doing promotion for a movie about having sex without commitment.



Now she is pregnant.

Cue Irony.

The Dark Knight Rises Casting Shinfo

Big news from "The Dark Knight Rises" today; Anne Hathaway has been cast as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, and Tom Hardy has been cast as Bane. No Riddler or Killer Croc, so I'm sure Batman nerds are bummed, but Catwoman and Bane were a good choice.

Anne Hathaway as Catwoman

Finally, a love interest that doesn't involve Katie Holmes or what's his name...Maggie Gyllenhaal. Anne Hathaway doesn't come off as the Catwoman type but I'm all for non-traditional casting.

Tom Hardy as BANE

Knightfall is probably one of my favorite story arcs. In it, BANE travels to Gotham to fight Batman but realizes that he can't win a fair fight, so destroys a wall at Arkham Asylum and lets all the crazies loose (including Joker, Scarecrow and Zsasz). It takes months for Batman to round them all up, and when he finally succeeds his is suffering from extreme exhaustion. He cruises back to Wayne Manor and Bane is just chilling in his house. So, Batman is weak, BANE knows his secret identity, and they're about to fight in his own crib. BANE winds up literally breaking him over his knee. Unfortunately, BANE has fallen short in just about everything he's been in since his introduction. 

If they follow the Knightfall story, you could see a bunch of cameos of other villains, which would be cool.

From The Mind Of DER (Why WATCHMEN Failed At The Movies)

This is not a new concept.
A story suffering from a book to film adaptation.
It's going to happen. The deck is stacked. Real world time and resources against endless imagination where the only restriction is when words cease to fall on the page.
Most of the time we take it with a grain of salt and are willing to sacrifice a little to see some portion of a tale we loved come to life.
However, some are doomed from the start.
This is the first installment in a series of:

WHY THEY FAILED AS MOVIES : WATCHMEN

X-Men First Class Picture

This is the first official photo, and for me its pretty meh. I'm surprised that FOX decided to go the prequel route over a complete reboot.  To have an X-men movie without Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Iceman feels like a bad idea. Watchmen taught us that getting too "comic booky" can be a bad thing at the box office, and when casual fans sit down to watch the X-men I assume they'll want to see the heavy hitters and not Havok and Azazel. I'm sure no one will complain, but does anyone outside of comic book nerds know who Emma Frost is?

I am Jack's Complete Lack of Surprise

Watterson (with a shaved head...hmm...)

Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes, has never licensed anything C+H related except for the collections of the comic. Coffee mugs, shirts, stickers with Calvin peeing on stuff...all bootlegs. The amount of money that Watterson gave up in marketing rights either makes him an artist with incredible integrity, or a dummy. Either way, a club that forsakes money and "the man" may very well interest Mr. Bill Watterson.

Or he watched someone else bootleg his property and got bummed out.

Alien Prequel

Hollywood obviously read my blog yesterday about the Police Academy reboot I casted and want to get in on the fun of casting actors and actresses that could possibly be interested in starring in movies that may or may not get made.