Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Scary!

This should do better than Spiderman 3. You think?

Friday, May 04, 2007

REVIEW: Spiderman 3

I loved it.

They did a great job of putting three antagonists in the story and tying up all the loose ends in the finale. That’ quite an accomplishment. There was also the right blend of soap opera and action in the film, very suitable for Spidey.

Great special effects. Great credit sequence. The villains were all handled well.

My only complain was Spiderman did more of his stuff without his mask. It was really a bit too much, if you ask me. I know actors hate wearing masks because they want to show their acting, but please, this is a Spiderman movie. And Peter Parker gets plenty fo face time as it is.

The humor was all well handled. All in all, I think I like this one the best of the three. They managed to continue the story in a logical, believable way while bringing closure to the Harry Osborne story. 

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Iron Man’s Suits

Some early shots of Iron Man’s old and new suits from the upcoming movie. They look pretty good.

Also, check out this makeup test shot of Heath Ledger as the Joker for the new Batman film. It’s a decidedly darker version of the Joker. 

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

The New FF Trailer

It looks a lot better than the first movie, but that’s not saying a whole lot.
Wow, I didn’t know about this!

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Spiderman Videos

The movie opens this week. So in light of that here are various videos celebrating Spiderman. I never saw the Jack Black one. Pretty funny. 

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Roger Ebert

I used to chat with Roger Ebert back in the 90s back when I was on Compuserve. He’s a nice guy. Very approachable. For the last year he has not been on his TV show or has even written many article. Now he talks about why (sort of), including some pictures that will tell you a lot. Good luck, Roger. 

Sunday, April 22, 2007

New Harry Potter Trailer

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Real Grindhouse Trailers

Those were the days. When bad movies were fun.

Monday, April 09, 2007

Review: Grindhouse

I grew up in the 1970s and was a huge movie fan even then. I would go to at least one movie a week back in the day. And I freely admit watching a lot of trash cinema, which used to play as double or triple features at cheap, run down theaters known as the Grindhouse.

The one I sometimes went to was called the Los Angeles theater. It was in downtown San Diego where the Horton Plaza mall is now. You could see three movies for two dollars. They were usually crap, and teh theater was frequented by all sorts of weirdos, but those were the days. It was an experience seeing movies there. People talking back to the screen. Films breaking, or having reels missing.

So when Robert Rodriquez and Quentin Tarantino announced this film, I was very excited. They wanted to recreate that experience. And they more or less succeeded.

Did I like it? Yes. With qualifications.

They made the film look all scratchy, with missing bits and it even melts in one place. There were fake trailers and bumper ads for fake restaurants and so on in the middle. But I think they blew it by having some actors with piecings, excessive tattoos and cell phones. You didn’t see any of that back then.  And the cell phone didn’t exist in the 70s.

The two stories in the film take place now, not the 70s. But by recreating the look and feel so much, they should have gone all the way.

Of the two films, I think Tarantino understood the old films the best. His “Death Proof” is about a serial killer who uses his stunt car to kill women. Things go bad for him when he chases after some female stunt drivers. Unlike Planet Terror, the Rodriquez film, Death Proof keeps it scratches and gimmicks to a minimum. It’s more talky, which is how a lot of those older movies were. The characters are more realistic. It felt more like an homage than a spoof.

Planet Terror felt like a spoof, and it seemed very modern in its excessive gore and non-stop action. He also laid on the scratches and breaks to an almost excessive degree.

Overall I enjoyed it and there were times where I felt like I was back in the 70s, but then they ruined it by having some character show up with extreme tattoos or a pierced face.

Because it didn’t do well, they are talking about splitting it into two films and releasing them separately. So I went to see it before that happened. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a double feature and it was a fun time.

Not everyone liked it. The theater was mostly empty and some walked out in the middle. It’s not for everyone, but I think it’ll be a cult film.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Kurt Russell Interview