Posts Tagged ‘Movies’

Robert Altman is gone.

And before you chastise me over the title, understand that I may be the only living person who liked his Popeye. Sure, Gosford Park was a huge success and Prairie Home Companion got plenty of accolades. And M*A*S*H was groundbreaking, of course, but you almost have to like that one or the other film students look at you funny. Altman had one of the most all-over-the-map careers of any director, he was known for sticking to his principles, and big name stars would fight to get in his movies. To me, he was the guy who stuck Robin Williams on the big screen with huge forearms and who knew at a glance that Shelly Duvall was born to play Olive Oyl, or possible a pipe cleaner.

But then, at least other people saw Popeye. If you want to get into really obscure, underappreciated Altman movies you'll need to go get O.C. and Stigg…

The teaser for the next Harry Potter movie, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" is now out in the wild and acting much like a Golden Snitch: it's small, fast, and difficult to see. Check it out yourself and see what you think.

First impressions: Gary Oldman looks better with long hair. Sadly, so does Daniel Radcliffe. However, Helen Bonham Carter looks totally hot all gothed out. Michael Gambon is growing on me but I still miss the other guy. And I'd really hoped for Dame Judi Dench as Dolores Umbridge, but I'll reserve judgment till I see the movie. So far it looks like they captured Potter's Order of the Phoenix teenage whinefest nicely. But hey, cut your hair and girls kiss you; Harry Potter's life lessons continue. First Equus, now this. Way to go, Daniel! A shot of Ron and one of Hermione, just to remind you they're in the movie. More Snape and more Neville can only be good. Potter zipping over London has a nice Matrix-y, Superman-y feel. July 13? What happened to the nice, dependable winter release? I need something to offset whatever cheerful abomination comes out next year to show us the true meaning of Christmas, again. (Hint: it somehow involves wacky hijinks, and usually just makes me sad that actors I like can't get better scripts.)

All in all, a tantalizing look at next summer's blockbuster and something to help tide us over until the last book comes out where Rowling just kills everybody. See ya at the movies!

So "Happy Feet" grossed more than the new Bond movie the first weekend, giving us a perfect shot for pun-laden headlines. "Happy Feet Outdance Bond," "Penguins Ice Bond," "Happy Feet Stomps Bond," "Superspy Defeated by Adorable Animated Orca Snacks," and so on. In a tight, tuxedo-clad race, "Happy Feet" pulled in an estimated $42 million over "Casino Royale"'s $40 million and the media is loving it. Ha! Big deal spy! Not so tough now, huh?

Which brings up a question for me. Why do we only care about the domestic gross? That's all that was reported, with the occasional mention of how a movie is doing in Europe. Used to be that movies were released in a staggered schedule across the world, but that's been tightened up since moviegoers with hidden video cameras started releasing their own homemade versions for free download and studios had to speed things up to get the official versions out before the pirated ones hit the streets. Now it's not that unusual for big movies to debut everywhere the same weekend, and you know what?

Add in the worldwide gross, and this weekend Bond's $82.8 million whupped "Happy Feet"'s $42.3 million without even a backward glance. Take that, you little flippered freaks!

Just sayin'.

It hung on for as long as it could, but the VHS tape is now officially dead.

We had some good times together, VHS and me. Hundreds of recorded Simpsons and X-Files episodes, some home movies, stacks of cheap movies filling my cabinets. Fast-forwarding and rewinding over and over and over, trying to find the right spot. Frustration at pulling a jammed tape out of the player only to see black tape spooling out. My never-broken habit of never, ever labeling my tapes so that finding a specific episode of anything required perseverance, a lot of fast-forwarding, and inhuman memory skills. Frantic runs to Wal-Mart for more blank tapes because Something Important Was Coming On, which would never be watched again. Good times, good times.

Fare well, VHS, in landfills and Goodwill stores across the land. And if you go on to a better place, always remember those timeless words of spiritual wisdom:

"Be Kind. Rewind."

The hotly anticipated Spider-Man 3 trailer debuts tonight, everywhere. At roughly 10 pm it will appear (deep breath) on BET, CBS, Comedy Central, Logo, MTV, MTV2, Spike TV and VH1, with promotions and commercials and teasers and whatever else they can shovel in. Along with mentions on the networks' websites, the trailer will also pop up on AddictingGames.com, AddictingClips.com, BET.com, MTV.com, IFILM.com, Nick.com, ComedyCentral.com, GameTrailers.com, LOGOonline.com, Neopets.com, SpikeTV.com, The-N.com, VH1.com, and Xfire.com, with a HD version on iFilm immediately afterwards. Ha! Just try not to see it!

Even though I'm looking forward to this movie that reunites the director and crew from the previous two successful films in the Spider-Man franchise and adds two fan-favorite, CGI-heavy villains, I plan to spend tonight sitting on my back porch, sipping a drink, enjoying the cool November breeze, and counting how many Viacom employees parachute into my yard to force pre-loaded laptops and video iPods in my line of sight.

Bryan Singer has reportedly signed on to do another "Superman" movie, due out in 2009 or thereabouts. I'm guessing he's jumping at the chance to cram in all those Christ metaphors he couldn't quite find room for in the first one.

"Critically, "Superman Returns" was disparaged for lacking in action. Singer has said he would address this concern in the follow-up."

No word on whether the great gaping holes in continuity or, you know, logic would be addressed. Maybe those will be in the third movie.

That said, I know I'll still go see it. After all, the entire 154 minutes of "what the heck is he doing" was worth sitting through just for the plane-saving scene. Give me another of those, back off on the oh-so-subtle metaphors, and for Superman's sake let him punch something.

Want to see what happens when the creative arm of an entertainment company gets confused with the legal arm? Cease and desist hijinks!

Such as Universal's recent attack against one of its "Serenity" fans. When Universal was benefiting from the free publicity garnered by fan-made products (and tacitly encouraged by the official movie Web site) there was no problem. But now that companies have bought licenses to make official stuff, suddenly those same designs, a year later, are evil and must be thwarted.

And someone at Comedy Central finally noticed that YouTube was full of "South Park," "Daily Show," and "Colbert Report" clips and boldly took action. Good thing it happened after Colbert's Green Screen Challenge was over since Colbert brilliantly used YouTube and all those frustrated video artists out there to build up his audience. Maybe iTunes video sales are lagging?

There's no question that companies have the right and the duty to protect their copyrights. But those mixed signals are getting a little loud.

In preparation for the upcoming "Charlotte's Web" movie — and as a way of bringing this controversy into the 21st century — an online petition has been set up to save Wilbur the pig from imminent tastiness. Bacon is decried as the evil it is, and suggestions for satisfying and bizarre substitutes are provided.

I think the evil adds that extra zing to the flavor of bacon, but that's just me.

An article in Variety is warning consumers about promoting the newest wrinkle in horror movie promotion from Lions Gate: real blood.

"A vial of blood from "Saw" star Tobin Bell — who plays the villain Jigsaw — was mixed with red ink and printed on a poster for the next installment in the horror franchise."

This sort of creepy advertising isn't that new, as the article mentions later on. A poster from Adidas used blood from each player of the New Zealand "All Blacks" rugby team. After comics writer Mark Gruenwald died, his ashes, by request, were mixed in with the ink for the frist collection of his comic 'Squadron Supreme." And KISS did it way back in 1977 when Marvel Comics put out a Super Special featuring the band that used their blood in the printing process.

So c'mon, Lion's Gate, this is old hat. If you really want to be a trendsetter, skip the vial and just use all of his blood. That'll get attention, from fans and authorities alike, we can finally kill this annoying franchise, and you can make a lot more posters.

No, not that one. Downey Jr. has been signed to play the comic book hero Iron Man in a new movie to be directed by Jon Favreau. He'll play Tony Stark, a billionaire industrialist who is captured and forced to create a weapon and instead creates a suit he uses to escape and, later, fight bad guys.

He's also an alcoholic, as was established in an excellent story arc decades back by David Michelinie and Bob Layton, which makes Downey Jr — a brilliant actor with his own personal demons — an inspired choice. Hopefully they won't go into Ang-Lee-"Hulk" confusing melodrama, but I gotta admit, now I'm looking forward to "Iron Man" when it wasn't really on my radar before.