Watchmen fanboys can sleep soundly at night knowing that there will be tons of collectable knickknacks to coincide with the release of the feature film. My favorite of the goodies is a nifty 1:24 scale replica of the Owl Ship (shown above) and of course there are plenty of action figures too: Read more…
How come there’s a William Shatner cameo in Fanboys but not in the upcoming Star Trek XI flick? And speaking of Shat did you know that he once saw a UFO (not!): Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 17, 2008 in Star Trek
The previous bootlegged Star Trek XI trailer did bring me back to the good old days of poorly duplicated VHS tapes that had a magical quality. But that said this official trailer does show off the spaceship battles much better. I’m sad that Shatner won’t be in this film, but man sign me up to stand in line on opening day!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 17, 2008 in Star Trek
It’s hard to get a percentage of the Star Trek fanboy mindspace these days with everyone zombified with J.J. Abrams brilliant viral marketing campaign! However this promo for the remastered series (which has already be on the air for a while) does the trick nicely by using an enjoyable sense of humor. Found via TrekMovie.
Today is the birthday of Academy Award-winning director Martin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese (born November 17, 1942). Someone I know once mentioned that the test of a great film is that if you catch it in the middle playing on TV that you’ll sit down and watch the movie to the very end even though you’ve seen it time after time before, and Scorsese always comes to mind when I think about that. Most people think of him for his more gritty films like Raging Bull and Goodfellas, but what’s amazing about Scorsese is also his music documentary work like The Last Waltz and No Direction Home. Also as a fanboy I love the fact that he’s also been so involved in film preservation. Happy Birthday Marty!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 17, 2008 in Pulp Fiction
There’s a wonderful series of articles in the latest New Scientist magazine on the future of the science fiction genre which features quite a few well know authors on the subject including William Gibson: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 17, 2008 in Japanese TV
What’s great about Anime is that for the last 40 years it has introduced Japanese pop culture to a very wide global audience. Now while it’s true that J-pop has done very well in Asia, it’s never reached the critical mass that Anime has reaching everywhere from Russia to South Africa. While I wouldn’t expect Japanese gameshows to inspire the same depth of fandom, I think it could very well open the door to a different demographic that Anime might not include: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 17, 2008 in Animation
It’s starting to look like there is a very good chance for Hollywood to produce a Robotech film, although the project can still get shot down. After the Speed Racer film I have mixed feelings as to if Hollywood can get the film right, although on the flip side many fanboys seemed happy with the Transformers films. To me it’s not a question of special effects which Hollywood can do well, but if they can make the story and casting work: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 16, 2008 in Science
Up until this moment I always regretted not being an astronaut — but the idea of having to drink urine to explore outer space is giving me second thoughts: Read more…
This video mash up of the Muppets and Pulp Fiction got me to thinking: What I liked so much about this film was that it wasn’t based on any existing book, it was an original story. In fact like all good films of the crime genre it has very little to do with crime — and is all about people. I’d love to see Quentin Tarantino get back to basics again, although being a fanboy I’ll gladly stand in line for anything he directs.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 14, 2008 in Star Trek
What’s insulting about this trailer is that EVERYBODY knows that when William Shatner was playing Captain Kirk back in the 60s that he rode a motorcycle everywhere!
It’s 007 season again and countless fanboy hours will be wasted debating the merits of who was the best James Bond of all time — a sad process of sorting out the pecking order of a sad line up that started with Sean Connery and ends with Daniel Craig. And while I have my favorites in the role, the best James Bond of all time for my money is Patrick McGoohan. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 14, 2008 in Animation
I just caught an Adult Swim promo for The Drinky Crow Show which is based on Tony Millionaire’s indie comic strip Maakies. The animation looks pretty good and the theme song is by They Might Be Giants which scores extra points in my book. The show is set to premiere on November 23, 2008.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 14, 2008 in Science
While the photo above looks pretty, it’s no ordinary snapshot — in fact within the red dust is the very first photo of a planet that’s outside of our solar system. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 13, 2008 in Comic Books
I admit I had my doubts, but this trailer looks like the real deal. Of course this doesn’t guarantee anything, I’ve seen plenty of trailers where the film was a letdown — but Watchmen now looks promising to say the least. Yes if there’s an alternative universe where Terry Gilliam directed the film I’d want to see that instead, but living in this universe I’ll say that this don’t look too shabby (he says as he wipes fanboy drool from the corner of his mouth).
Side Note: I even like the voice over effect! It’s hard to carry that off without being corny (example: Blade Runner), but here it works, and works well at that. I hope not to be let down, but this looks like they may have a shot at making a breakthrough superhero film noir movie the likes that haven’t been seen since since the 1989 Batman film directed by Tim Burton.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 13, 2008 in Animation, Cinema
20th Century Fox is spending over $100 million to make the Dragonball movie and yet you’re telling me that these leaked photographs is what I can expect? I’m getting this bad “straight to video” feeling looking at these images. Above is Chow Yun-Fat as Master Roshi, and below is Emmy Rossum as Bulma. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 13, 2008 in Star Trek
Despite the speed of my RSS reader I first learned about the Enterprise redesign via an angry chain email from a fellow fanboy who was quite pissed that J.J. Abrams was ruining everyones beloved starship. Well it seems the reaction was so bad to the new designs that movie production designer Ryan Church posted a online defense of fan criticism: Read more…
Long before the Nintendo DS there was the Game & Watch (ゲーム&ウオッチ Gēmu ando Wotchi) which were handheld games produced between 1980 and 1991. What’s funny looking at these commercials is that the Japanese ad above seems to be much more honest about what the product is, while the American ad below (which is from 1983) uses rather elaborate animation and shows the product in action for just a few seconds. Also notice how the Japanese ad is more aimed at young adults while the American ad is just for kids. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 12, 2008 in Comic Books
I’ve been reading that the ending of the Watchmen film will be different than the graphic novel, however these six character posters give me quite a bit of hope. I had my doubts about the casting but this is starting to look right! Above is the poster for Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley), and below are the posters for Ozymandias (Matthew Goode), Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman), The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson) and Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup). Read more…
Someday in the future spaceships will make use of talented but perhaps blind engineers to rescue the day? Yes it sounds like the character Geordi La Forge from Star Trek: The Next Generation, but no it’s the year 2008 and our hero is Marco Midon who works for NASA: Read more…
Baldev Raj Chopra was a unique Bollywood director because he was able to relevant social films that still appealed to popular tastes. Shown above is Naya Daur from 1957 which shows post-independence India where Industrialization is slowly creeping in. The plot deals with the conflict between rich and poor which Chopra brought to the screen during his career: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 11, 2008 in Animation
Frankly I’m still a bit let down from last year when the Academy picked glossy Ratatouille over the more interesting Persepolis. This year fourteen films were submitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, of those only three lucky picks will make the cut to be in the best animated feature category. This year the films come from every corner of the world, although as an anime fanboy I’m very happy to see two entries from Japan! Here’s a guide of who’s who this year: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 11, 2008 in Science
Everyone is mourning the loss of the Phoenix lander due to the harsh Martian winter, however I’m quite impressed with how this mission lasted much longer than anyone could have predicted: