Posted Jan 7th 2009 4:02PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Fandom, Polls
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Sean Connery did it, Joaquin Phoenix apparently did it, and countless other actors, actresses and filmmakers have talked about it at one point or another -- leaving us, along with the pages of
People Magazine, to wonder when, how or what if. It's funny, too, because you don't find many people who
want to retire from the entertainment business, simply because most either never make it, fall out of the spotlight or wind up overdosing on drugs, their own ego or something along those lines wayyy before they'd ever reach an age to retire at. But here's a good question: Could the fans at home ever force someone into retirement?
Our good friend Jenna Busch wrote a
little thing for Sci Fi Wire on nine reasons why George Lucas should retire ... like, now. Say what you want about Lucas and his career choices, but the man definitely still has his fans -- as poor Jenna is feeling the fanboy wrath in the comments section of her post. Her reasons, of course, mention Lucas' "additions" to the original
Star Wars films, the fact that he refuses to release any of his flicks in hi-def, his work on both
Willow and
Howard the Duck (two awesome guilty pleasures, in my opinion), etc ...
While I've thrown more than a few internet punches at Lucas over the years, I have to say I'm really enjoying the
Clone Wars animated show on Cartoon Network (seriously, watch it), I didn't loathe
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as much as the rest of you did, and I feel Lucas still has a few good chunks of awesomeness left in him. That said, you all (including the lovely Jenna) may feel differently. So have at it below: Should Lucas retire?
Posted Jan 5th 2009 4:02PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Horror, Fandom, Distribution, Polls
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Sometimes these movie sites make me laugh: They'll absolutely trash the remake of a classic horror film like
Halloween, but as soon as the sequel gets going, they race to throw up the first bit of casting news, or photos, or release date, as if the first flick never existed. They're excited all over again -- for what ... we have no idea. But anyway, Rob Zombie's
Halloween sequel (currently titled
H2) has firmed up a release date of August 28th, 2009, returning once again to the time of year that was very kind to it the first time around. A little unrealistic considering August is only eight months away? Sure ... but it's a horror sequel, and they can write, shoot and edit those things in like a month, tops.
Along with the release date, Zombie threw up an image of the new Michael Myers mask in its early sculpting stages on his
MySpace page (check it out by clicking the image below). It should be fascinating to watch this sequel grow, since a) the first one made a whole lot of money, but b) it wasn't successful with fans at all. Could the late summer release actually hurt the film this time around? Would it do better during Halloween season -- perhaps convincing those fans on the fence to see it because it's October and they want more horror? We're sending out a feeler to see how many of you are actually looking forward to this sequel, so sound off below ...
Posted Nov 19th 2008 5:02PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Action, Fandom, Remakes and Sequels, Polls
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If it hasn't happened already, within the next year or so Disney and 3-D technology should become BF4EVAH (or Best Friends For Ever). Just today two whoppers of announcements have been made: First, that Disney will release its classic
Beauty and the Beast in Disney Digital 3-D on the big screen in 2010. Joining
Beast that same year in Disney Digital 3-D will be the re-release of
Toy Story 2, Tim Burton's
Alice in Wonderland,
Toy Story 3,
Rapunzel and
Step Up 3D (from Touchstone). Wait, we're not done -- that was just the honeymoon. In 2009, we're looking at
Jonas Brothers 3-D Concert Movie, Pixar's
Up,
G-Force, the re-release of
Toy Story and Robert Zemeckis'
A Christmas Carol.
Oh, and regarding that last film --
A Christmas Carol -- well, Disney also just announced a deal where
Carol will kick off a five-picture arrangement with IMAX Corporation, meaning you will soon be seeing Disney on an even bigger screen in 3-D. Of course, this all leads to the biggie:
Pirates of the Caribbean 4, and a continuation of their most popular live-action franchise right now. Those brilliant minds over at
Variety seem to think it'd be a no-brainer for Disney to bring
Pirates into 3-D territory, and when
we asked Jerry Bruckheimer about going 3-D with
Pirates recently while visiting the set of
Prince of Persia (which we imagine will be one of those five films hitting IMAX screens), he said "Absolutely. I'd love to do it, so let's just see if we can work it through the production schedule with everything else."
But what do you fans of the franchise think? Would you want
Pirates 4 to go the 3-D route, or do you feel the technology would take something away from the franchise? Sound off below ...
Posted Nov 17th 2008 11:02AM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery & Suspense, Box Office, Fandom, Polls
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The week you
Twilight fans have been waiting for has finally arrived, and in just a few days from now entire worlds will collide! Yup, I'm talking about civilized people who decided to skip on over to see
Quantum of Solace in its second week versus TWILIGHT FANS GALORE! Tons of screaming pre-teen girls and their equally-as-obsessed mothers storming movie theaters across the country, demanding their Bella, their Edward ... their blood!
We kid, but it's always fun to ponder how well a hotly-anticipated film will do in its opening weekend. Could
Twilight beat
Quantum of Solace's $70 million take? Is that even possible? Or does the
Twilight fanbase appear larger than it really is? When it's all said and done, what if
Twilight fails to top $40 million in its opening weekend? Would that be considered a failure? And if not, what would be considered a failure? If
Twilight doesn't meet a certain number at the box office this weekend, could those three
Twilight sequels currently in development be in jeopardy? So many questions, so many different possibilities -- how well do you think
Twilight will do this weekend?
Continue reading Poll: How Much Will 'Twilight' Make This Weekend?
Posted Nov 12th 2008 12:10PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Action, Animation, Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, Harry Potter, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, Polls
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Pretty soon, the studios will bring the full court press in terms of marketing their big 2009 blockbusters. We've already seen Warner Bros. and Paramount try to one-up each other with regards to pushing
Watchmen and
Star Trek, and I've heard debut trailers for
X-Men Origins: Wolverine and
Night at the Museum 2 are literally right around the corner.
Angels & Demons has already shoveled out a teaser, and I'm sure
Harry Potter is just waiting for all this
Twilight nonsense to go away before he starts bringing the pain. As per usual, we're not even done with 2008, and yet all we seem to care about is 2009. Go figure.
We'll probably run this poll a couple of times prior to the
real beginning of the season, but we're curious to see what your radar looks like a few months out. Not all of these films have begun their big push yet, but it'll be interesting to see which ones are your most anticipated based on the very little we've seen so far. Below are, in our opinion, the 18 biggest blockbusters of 2009. If we left off your favorite, feel free to write her in down below. (Oh, and that's an image of my most anticipated blockbuster of 2009 up top.)
Posted Oct 31st 2008 6:02PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: New Releases, Fandom, Exhibition, Home Entertainment, Polls
It's Halloween weekend, and while you can certainly take in a new spooky flick (
The Haunting of Molly Hartley) or two (
Saw V), it seems the weekend's biggest film is a comedy. Kevin Smith's hilariously raunchy
Zack and Miri Make a Porno finally arrives on the big screen today, for those who'd rather spend this ghoulish holiday laughing at two fools from Pittsburgh who desperately try to create a DIY porno for money to pay the bills. I've seen the film and if you dig a lot of potty mouth in your comedy, then you won't walk away disappointed.
You're on your own for the other two, though word is
RockNRolla is very similar to Guy Ritchie's other Brit gangster flicks, only the faces in the cast have changed. Look for several badass characters with and without accents all vying for some sort of whatever that's worth a lot of money. I'm sure it's entertaining, if you don't mind Ritchie's repetitiveness. I know nothing of
The Haunting of Molly Hartley, except that practically no one has seen it (typical for a Hollywood horror film). That said, it probably brings the creep factor and if you're itching for some spoonfuls of spooky on Halloween, this might be the way to go.
Of course, if you live in and around New York City, I will instead urge you to go see my favorite documentary of the year (which goes into limited release today),
Dear Zachary, which is currently sporting a whopping
100% at Rotten Tomatoes. Yay!
So, what will you be watching?
Note: We've left off the Changeling, "all of the above" or "none of the above" options, so feel free to write those in the comments if that's your choice.Posted Oct 28th 2008 10:02AM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Animation, Awards, Fandom, Family Films, Oscar Watch, Polls
Will the Oscars slowly turn into The MTV Movie Awards by the time we hit, I dunno, 2011? While that might be a stretch, poor ratings and the public's desire to actually see their favorite films of the year nominated and recognized might just sway Academy voters to start showing more love toward more commercial flicks. Like, say,
The Dark Knight,
Iron Man and
Tropic Thunder -- all of which will be receiving an Oscar push in the coming weeks. Also on the agenda, Disney is cooking up a campaign for
WALL-E in the Best Picture category even though an animated film has never won the Academy's top award, so says
The New York Times. (Note: It will still be possible for
WALL-E to be nominated in the Best Animated Film category as well as Best Picture.)
But if there's ever a year for upsets, 2008 is definitely it. The writer's strike and struggling economy really hurt some potential awards contenders (
The Road and
The Soloist were pushed back to 2009), and awards buzz on others (
Changeling, Frost/Nixon) ain't exactly all that promising. So, heck, in a year where the Tampa Bay Rays make it to the World Series, I don't see why
WALL-E shouldn't slip into the Best Picture category. But how do you feel about it? Should the Oscars take a more pop-centric, mass appeal approach going forward? Or should that stuff be reserved for the Teen Choice Awards and MTV Movie Awards? And what about poor old WALL-E? Where does he fit in?
Posted Oct 27th 2008 1:03PM by Scott Weinberg
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Polls
As far as movie nakedness goes, do you prefer the comedic kind (think of Mike Meyers, John Cleese or Graham Chapman) or do your tastes run more towards the sexy stuff like Daryl Hannah, Brigitte Bardot and (sigh) Beverly D'Angelo in
National Lampoon's Vacation! I only ask because
a goofy little bracket game just went up at the
Entertainment Weekly website, and since any blog post with the word "nude" in it gets massive traffic, I just figured the game was worth mentioning on a boring Monday afternoon.
Basically you click
right here and then vote your way through a series of tourney-style brackets, picking the most memorable nude scene each time out. Of course Borat is in there, and so is Will Ferrell, so I'm thinking that EW (and voxpop.tv) should have split the titillating tournament into two divisions: The silly stuff
and the sexy stuff. Ah, but which division would Charlton Heston go in? He's both!
Anyway,
pop on in and have a PG-rated click-fest with some of your favorite cinematic skin. Better yet, go do that and then come back here to wonder, like omg how did
ACTRESS X in MOVIE Y not make the tournament!?!?! (Classy move by EW to not include Jcon from
Requiem, because I'm sorry but that IS one seriously memorable nude scene.) But if EW wants to put together another tourney, I'll cast my votes for Salma Hayek in
Desperado, Joey Lauren Adams in
Mallrats, Pamela Susan Shoop in
Halloween 2, or Bo Derek in anything pre-1989. And if I'm being honest and the topic is "most memorable nudity," I'd have to admit that Harvey Keitel buck-naked is, for some reason, forever seared across my brain. Can't even remember what movie it was.
And how the hell did they leave Ewan "Eterno-Nude" McGregor out of the contest? (For more on blatant cinematic nudity, click
here and
here.)
Posted Oct 23rd 2008 3:40PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Horror, Fandom, Polls
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Unfortunately, when it comes to
Halloween,
Friday the 13th and
Nightmare on Elm Street, we've come to that inevitable time in the life of a horror franchise when folks start thinking about remakes. Last year brought Rob Zombie's not-so-hot remake of
Halloween, and now a brand new
Friday the 13th remake is set to debut in theaters on February 13th, 2009. The first teaser trailer for
Friday the 13th (directed by
Marcus Nispel, the guy behind
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake and the much buzzed-about
Amy Grant: Building the House of Love) arrived in bootleg form yesterday, but now you can see a brand new (and different) crystal (lake) clear version after the jump, courtesy of MySpace.
Go ahead, I'll wait ...
Creepy mother's voice? Check. Teenage girl running scared through the woods? Check. Lots of darkness? Check. Jason, in full hockey mask, running after a victim? Um ... check? We missed you Jason! I just wish we could've celebrated Halloween together, instead of having to spend another year with that Halloween ball-hog Jigsaw. And that's what we want to know today: Of course it would be ideal for a
Friday the 13th movie to be released on a Friday, October 13th so that it would fall right in line with that creeptacular holiday and all, but since that's not always an option, would you rather a
Friday the 13th movie come out around Halloween or on an actual Friday the 13th? Which is cooler? Which helps better set the spooky mood?
Sound off below. (And in case you're wondering how many
Friday the 13th films actually opened on Friday the 13th, then stick around because we've got something special planned in a little bit ...)
Continue reading Would You Rather: 'Friday the 13th' to Arrive on Halloween or Friday the 13th?
Posted Oct 21st 2008 3:02PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Action, Fandom, Exhibition, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Polls
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Hmm, how do I want to be crushed to death today: by a giant freakin' robot from another planet, or by a freak-ish contraption some warped serial killer dreamt up? Chillax folks, no one has gone and created a theme park ride that kills people (except for that one time when ... and that other time ... oh, and remember that time ...). Visitors to Universal Parks & Resorts will be treated to a brand new
Transformers attraction at the parks in both Hollywood and Singapore come early 2011.
Variety tells us the ride will "use 3-D HD footage with special effects, robotics and track to place humans in the middle of a war between the friendly Autobots and evil Decepticons, who can turn into cars, trucks, planes and other vehicles." No word on whether they'll be a Megan Fox ride for adults over the age of 18, but Vegas is only a few hours away from Hollywood, so ...
But maybe you're not into a ride that tries to trick your brain with dumb 3-D images and harmless explosions. Perhaps you want something a little more ... ballsy. Well,
as previously reported, a theme park in the UK is actually planning a ride based on the
Saw franchise. Instead of silly robot wars, however, this one boasts a beyond vertical drop of 100-degree from a height of 100ft, as well as three inversions. Nutty, huh?
So which would you choose to ride first?
Posted Oct 16th 2008 5:02PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Drama, New Releases, Fandom, Polls
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While there's more than enough new content for everyone this weekend, we're going to focus on the three more talked-about films, and try to get a sense of which flicks will cause you to open the wallet. Surprisingly, if you're down for a raunchy teen sex comedy, Summit's
Sex Drive might just be your best bet come Friday night. Oh yes, I
bet you didn't see that coming. Buzz on both
Max Payne and
W. has been lukewarm, with a lot of Twitter hate being thrown at the former. Previewing
Eric D. Snider's upcoming review of
Max Payne for
Cinematical, he unfortunately has this to say: "I know we've often complained that these movies were ALL action and NO substance, but this one has gone in the opposite direction. Well, except there's not really any substance, either."
Our own
James Rocchi was a bit indifferent with his excellent upcoming W. review for Cinematical, noting: "If distance grants perspective, though, you could also argue that proximity grants immediacy, and argue that Stone's
W. is not meant as a somber, serious look back but rather a cautious, nervy attempt to peer into the recent past, a film with, in the words another Presidential candidate recently borrowed, 'the fierce urgency of now.'"
But perhaps neither of these films do it for you. If that's the case, might I suggest a little indie currently airing on Starz called
The Big Bad Swim. It's a darling of a film, and it's available through Starz On Demand through October 30th. Quiet, quirky and kinda fun. Check it out. (Paid for by Guys Who Really Dig Jess Weixler)
Posted Oct 13th 2008 12:02PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Romance, Thrillers, Fandom, Movie Marketing, Polls
Late last week, a new well-edited, well-scored
Twilight trailer arrived online and folks went nutty for it. Having been away in the middle of the woods for the past few days, I just checked it out a few minutes ago for the first time, and I'll say they definitely did a bang-up job teasing in the adolescent boys looking for a little fight in their vampire flicks. Yeah, there's a love story somewhere inside this 90210-with-fangs, but it sure as heck doesn't drown our latest piece of sizzle. (Note: We were just told
Twilight will have a final run time of 120 minutes and will be rated PG-13.)
Look, whether you want to admit it or not, young females and their moms are the predominant audience for
Twilight. They're buying the books, they're running the giant
Twilight fan sites and it's their opinion that really matters. (Note: I'm aware there are male fans of
Twilight -- and more power to them -- but understand I'm just pointing out the fact that they're in the minority here.) So I'm wondering a few things after checking out the latest trailer -- like, did it bring in any new fans, male or female? Was
Twilight's core female audience turned off by the new trailer because it didn't feature more of the love story? Did the score make it seem too creepy and horror movie-ish? Is that the tone you want?
This puppy gets two polls below (feel free to watch the trailer again after the jump), and don't be afraid to spill your feeling over into the comments section.
Continue reading Poll: So What About That New 'Twilight' Trailer?
Posted Aug 11th 2008 10:02AM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Action, Animation, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, Remakes and Sequels, Monday Morning Poll, Polls
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I'm heading out to watch
Star Wars: The Clone Wars later on today, and while a part of me is excited to be revisiting some of my all time favorite characters, the rest is sort of "eh" about the whole thing. And I'm not sure why, either. It's funny, too, because Campea over at
The Movie Blog wrote up a similar piece recently where, prior to attending this film's premiere, he was trying to figure out why he wasn't excited about going to see a brand spanking new
Star Wars movie. For him, it seems dude wasn't keen on watching another between-episode story.
Me? Not sure. I really enjoyed the last
Clone Wars series, and ever since the original flicks I've always wanted to see this time in the
Star Wars mythology played out a bit more. Honestly, I think I'm just spent on summer movies. I mean, is it just me or does it feel like
Iron Man came out seven years ago already? I'm hyped out. I'd rather spend the last days of summer watching simple comedies or dramas (especially before a heavy awards season) than with a beloved franchise like
Star Wars. So yeah, for me maybe it's the release date. A movie like this in late February, early March or early April and my excitement level is higher. End of August and, well, I'm just burnt. Still, though, I really do hope it rocks.
What about you? Are you excited for a new Star Wars movie?
Posted Aug 6th 2008 12:35PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Romance, Fandom, Exhibition, Polls
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Hey, when did the
LA Times become the new
Cinematical (
ahem ... and
ahem)?
We've got such craziness this week with two big summer films landing in theaters on Wednesday instead of Friday. No, you don't have some fancy holiday weekend coming up (sorry cubicle dude), but the Olympics
do begin later this week, and, well, some of us really want to get our Women's Swimming 100m Butterfly on. That said, those mid-weekers have a choice between the weed action/comedy
Pineapple Express and the sober adventure/comedy/romance/jeans-wearing sequel
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2.
I imagine each film has a completely different audience, with one attracting stoners, fans of Judd Apatow-produced content, comedy nuts and the
Girls Obsessed with Seth Rogen Association of America (or GOWSRAA), while the other looks to bring in pre-teen and teenage girls (and their parents) who like to watch other girls come of age and explore the rest of their lives ... or something like that. Word has it each flick is worthy of your nine bucks (I've seen
Pineapple and can vouch for its coolness), so it's really about which movie fits your cinematic tastes.
So, what are you watching:
Pineapple Express or
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2?
Next Page >
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