Movies

What have I done to be cursed? What has the rest of the world done to feel the wrath of God? Punish us with a flood, or the eight deadly plagues. Kill our first born children, or have locusts eat our crops and flesh. But please, God, please, why in Hell is McG directing Terminator 4, officially known as Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins???

There is a mystery in Hollywood, and the mystery is why do certain directors get hired when the studios know they’re going to develop a crappy movie? Take Paul W.S. Anderson, who struck a tiny bit of gold with Event Horizon (and maybe Resident Evil), but has pretty much given the world a bunch of pathetic poop, namely Alien vs. Predator and a few others. Of course there’s Uwe Boll, who defies all logic every time he gets a new project to work on. There’s no need to mention his projects. And why does McG, who lays claim to the entertaining but trashy Charlie’s Angels – and the subsequent God-awful (and I MEAN God-f**king-awful) sequel – get hired to do another project? Aren’t there enough directors in the world, whether they’re coming out of college or out of little film festivals or Sibera, to allow the studios to hire effective directors at an affordable price. Why would a studio hire McG, who 1) doesn’t have a real name, 2) only can direct music videos and 3) is guaranteed to destroy the Terminator franchise even beyond what Terminator 3 did?

I don’t get it. I just don’t get it. I now know that Terminator 4 is going to suck. There is no question. Thanks, McG. And thanks Warner Brothers.

The new Cloverfield trailer – which confirms the name of Cloverfield for a project that has had more rumors and buzz than any I can imagine in recent history – has found its way onto YouTube, albeit in a very low quality format. Still, it looks pretty exciting… Check it out below.

I’m excited for Atonement. Even though it is a period piece, it has good early reviews, hottie Kiera Knightley, rising star James McAvoy, and director Joe Wright, the man behind another Kiera Knightley period piece Pride and Prejudice (easily the best Jane Austen film I had ever seen – no, I haven’t seen the Colin Firth version).

The movie trailer is great, and now the studio has released three new character posters. It’s a bit surprising to have character posters for a movie like this, as it’s not one you would necessarily expect to appeal to the masses. More surprising is that the character posters are relatively edgy for a war drama… Click on the movie poster to the right to see the rest.

Yahoo! just posted the new movie trailer for Amusement, a horror movie about a bunch of young people who get killed by a serial killer clown. Clowns are creepy, there’s no denying it, and Amusement will hopefully use that creepiness to its full potential. Of course, it isn’t It (the Stephen King movie), and the killer just wears a clown mask, but if done right this movie could be entertaining.

In reality, it’s just going to be another slasher film, and the movie trailer isn’t that good. The clown really isn’t used to its full potential, although the audio track is where the real magic is. The killer’s giggling is fairly memorable.

Watch the Amusement movie trailer and see movie details here. 

Here’s new the new teaser poster for the upcoming horror movie The Eye. The movie, a remake of a Japanese horror film (can’t you tell just by looking at the poster?), stars Jessica Alba as a blind woman who regains her eyesight… except she gets more than she bargained for.

The movie poster for The Eye looks pretty cool, and I’m certainly intrigued by the project. The downside? Jessica Alba isn’t featured anywhere in the poster, ideally with fewer articles of clothing than more.

I actually watched American Gangster over a week ago, but due to mitigating circumstances (changing day jobs, trying to get a date with this one young woman, traveling to Florida for a weekend and so on and so forth), I forgot about (a.k.a. put off) writing a movie review for the picture.

Interestingly enough, I had just watched Mr. Untouchable, a documentary that interviews Nicky Barnes, one of the drug kingpins depicted in the picture (played by Cuba Gooding, Jr.). American Gangster isn’t about Nicky Barnes, but it is about another drug kingpin who gained tremendous power a few decades ago but who thanks to a dedicated cop finally had his empire destroyed. American Gangster is about two men, the cop (Russell Crowe) and the gangster (Denzel Washington), who square off, even though they rarely share a scene together or even know the other one exists.

Director Ridley Scott has once delivered a solid picture, and some critics are suggesting early Oscar buzz. While I would say that there have been better movies this year, American Gangster has the stars, the dazzle and the box office success to be a serious contender. Hear what I have to say by reading my full American Gangster movie review.

This weekend, I flew down to Florida to visit my uncle. As my uncle had a tendency to like any kind of B-grade, C-grade, D-grade or even F-grade horror movies, we ended up watching one of those movies found on those “50 horror movie” DVD packs, which are typically a septic tank of movies no one ever wants to see. Luckily, my uncle decided to be nice and chose Phenomena (also known as Creepers), an early Jennifer Connelly movie that is surprisingly decent – if not still rather cheesy.

Phenomena is about a 15-year old girl (Connelly in her pre-eyebrow trimming days) who finds herself at a private, all-girls school in Europe. Daughter of a popular actor, she has the looks and smarts to be popular herself, except she has a rare gift that is subject to making her quite weird: in addition to sleepwalking, she can also talk to insects.

Aside from the fact that the main character can control bugs not unlike Carrie could control objects, the movie is a relatively straightforward horror movie. Someone has been killing young women (and decapitating them), and young Jennifer Connelly believes that with the help of her insect friends, she can find the killer. As she learns from Donald Pleasance, the maggots found in a rotting corpse have a story to tell. It’s an early “CSI” if I ever saw one, but the film eventually relies on Connelly to make her way to the truth.

The movie is definitely cheesy in parts, doesn’t always make sense and has a few moments completely out of left field, but it is mildly entertaining. What really makes the film are a few scenes near the end. While the gore isn’t anything spectacular, there are a few gory scenes, and a sequence where Connelly is thrown into a pit of rotting carcases and maggots is especially appetizing. Also, the introduction of a deformed maggot boy who likes to tear the flesh off his own face is also a highlight.

Fans of B-grade horror movies should find some entertainment here, as Phenomena is definitely on the high end of “crappy” horror. It isn’t that good, but it isn’t bad at all.

Oh, how the tides can turn so quickly. Guy Ritchie was at the top of his game just a few years ago, with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and it’s even more entertaining “sequel” Snatch. Then came Swept Away, and in a moment his career was gone like a starfish removed after a sudden hurricane. Some blame Madonna, others blame a poor career choice, and even some just claim that the media made a much bigger deal out of it than it needed to be. But for whatever reason, Guy Ritchie hasn’t been heard from in years, and we’ve watched his latest film Revolver float around in limbo (at least domestically) for over two of those years.

Is Revolver that bad? Was the studio just afraid that releasing it too soon after Swept Away would taint its chances at box office success? It’s hard to tell, but the movie trailer for Revolver, which is now online, has me looking forward to it. Snatch was a lot of fun, and Revolver looks to be of the same vein that made Guy Ritchie so popular in the first place. When you stumble, you return to what you know works and you do it again. There’s nothing wrong with that. Sure, Revolver looks a bit different – it looks a little glossier, a little more coherent and a little less British, but it still looks like Guy Ritchie. If there’s comedy, it isn’t show in the previews.

Overall, the movie looks good. I like edgy, twisting crieme thrillers, even if they turn out to be not that great. At the very least, Revolver should be entertaining, and at its best, it will put Guy Ritchie back on solid footing.

What does bother me is that after two years of being in limbo – which in itself is a bit disconcerting – is that Samuel Goldwyn Films is only giving the film a very limited December 7th launch, not exactly a huge vote of confidence. Why not give it a wide release in January or February, when movies like this can make a bit of money?

Watch the Revolver movie trailer now.

Rambo, starring Sylvestor Stallone, hits theaters January 25, 2008, and Lionsgate has just made the new outdoor movie poster available. It’s not nearly as cool as the regular poster, but certainly still has an appeal for it. I can’t believe I’m saying this about a Stallone movie, but I’m really looking forward to this bloodbath…

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry is now out on DVD, and I’ve been gifted with a free copy. Since I thought the movie was one of Adam Sandler’s worst comedies ever, it’s not a very good gift, but a gift nonetheless.

You can read the full Chuck and Larry movie review here, but continue on to see whether the DVD is any good. The DVD features several features, all of which are quite good considering the type of movie we’re talking about. Of course, these behind-the-scenes looks aren’t as elaborate as the ones you’d find on the DVD for Pirates of the Caribbean, but they’re still pretty informative, and, at the very least, honest. One of my biggest pet peeves are featurettes that are purely promotion (“You’re going to see things in this movie you’ve never seen before”), and luckily the Chuck and Larry DVD stay away from that kind of thing. Thankfully, both Sandler and James are present in all of the featurettes as we get to see them both off camera and discussing the movie.

The stunts featurette is actually quite fun, and a nice reminder that even for a rather simple comedy such as this you can still require stunt men. Of course, none of the stunts are particularly mind blowing, but, then again, I wouldn’t willingly choose to roll down a flight of stairs with a fat guy on top of me. Another one looks at the various cameos in the movie, though it unfortunately isn’t that funny.

The real highlight of the DVD are the deleted scenes and outtakes. Considering that the movie was pretty crappy, the deleted scenes aren’t much to scream about, but there are a few funny moments scattered throughout. The outtakes, however, are quite good, and it’s always fun to watch people like Sandler messing up (or farting).

Guys, just to note: Jessica Biel is noticeably absent from the DVD.

Overall, the Chuck and Larry DVD has some entertaining features. I managed to get through all of the bonus features in half an hour, however, and I question whether there’s anything here really worth purchasing. Of course, I’d question if you were even considering buying this movie in the first place…

Al Pacino and Robert De Niro are joining forces for the first time since they squared off against each other in the highly acclaimed Heat. This time around in Righteous Kill (how cool of a title is that?), the two actors will be on the same side of the law and hunting a serial killer. Behind the helm is Jon Avnet, who hasn’t done much recently except for the defunct but critically acclaimed “Boomtown”. Older films include Fried Green Tomatoes and The War.

Four new images are available in our Righteous Kill image gallery.

Could this be the big break the two actors, especially De Niro, need? Some criticize Pacino for shouting his way through his performances, though he certainly still has fan appeal and chooses films adequately well. De Niro, however, has not done anything remarkable in what seems like a decade. Fans want to see these actors in serious films, and seeing them together in a serious film, a serial killer flick, no less, should appease them somewhat. I’m excited.

There are some movies that you hear about and hear about and hear about until you reach the saturation point and begin to believe that they will never see the light of day. Such is the case of Goal II: Living the Dream, a soccer film that was a hit overseas but has been struggling to make it to U.S. theaters since… well, I’m guessing around 1873.

Goal! (the original) was surprisingly good and well done, but it flopped magnificently in the United States. Right there, you knew that the sequels, which were already developed or in development, would have a hard time finding a distributor and release date. I thought for sure that we’d see this picture go straight to DVD, but instead the movie is getting a very small, 250-theater limited release through distributor Peace Arch Entertainment. Genius Products will handle the DVD releases.

Assuming that the sequel is even half as decent as the original, I would have gone another route: I would have renamed the film to something that isn’t nearly as cheesy (no matter how you look at the title, it is God awful) and marketed it to all those youth soccer leagues that are popular in the U.S. (how soccer continues to fail to turn those kids into adult soccer fans is a marketing travesty). Goal II: Living the Dream, with the right title and right promotion, could still have a chance.

As of now, Peace Arch plans to release Goal II sometime in the spring of 2008.

The latest remake to hit the fast track is The Day the Earth Stood Still, a reimagining of the 1951 classic about a heavily armed robot who arrives to warn of impending doom if Earth’s leaders continue their aggressive ways. The movie stars Keanu Reeves in what is sure to be his biggest blockbuster since The Matrix. Also joining him is the lovely Jennifer Connelly and the talented Kathy Bates.

I am assuming Connelly will plays Reeves’ mother and Bates the love interest. Wouldn’t that be a sight.

Anyway, I’m writing this post so I can research a picture of Jennifer Connelly to put on here, but come to think of it, where has Kathy Bates in for the last several years? Sure, she shows up sporadically, but how come she hasn’t done some big drama recently? She is one of the most talented actresses out there. Hell, do Misery 2 – I’d go watch that.

Here’s the new National Treasure: Book of Secrets movie trailer, starring Nicolas Cage. I really didn’t like the first movie (I found it long, boring and tedious), and this one looks just so ridiculous I doubt I will enjoy it. Still, this new movie trailer is a vast improvement over the original preview, which was full of camp and stupidity. The marketing department still reveals way too many of the twists (I would be much more intrigued to see the movie if they didn’t reveal that Cage plans to kidnap the President of the United States, which right there takes the film far off the believability scale), but until they hire me…