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Posted by Bob Muir on Feb 12, 2015 in Cinema 
Guy Ritchie has proven he can do period movies like Sherlock Holmes, and this trailer shows why. WB has revived the classic “spy-fi” TV show The Man from U.N.C.L.E. as a movie, starring Henry Cavill (Man of Steel) as Napoleon Solo and Armie Hammer (The Lone Ranger) as Illya Kuryakin. The American and Russian must team up to stop an organization that threatens both country in the middle of the Cold War. It’s nice that they didn’t feel the need to update the setting to modern times, but ironically, with current US-Russian relations, they almost could have. But that means we get to see modern action mixed with 60s style, which I’m always down to watch. Read more…
Tags: Spy, Warner Brothers
Posted by Bob Muir on Feb 12, 2015 in Cinema, Videogames 
On the surface, this trailer for Hitman: Agent 47 isn’t too bad. There’s some decent action, and it seems that Agent 47 is being portrayed as a villain this time. That makes sense, because he, you know, kills people. But something about the whole thing feels off. Isn’t stealth a major part of the game series this is based off of? It seems that got lost along the way, so unless the action and story is particularly impressive, I doubt this will please either fans or non-fans, just like the first movie. Read more…
Tags: 20th Century Fox, Hitman
Posted by Bob Muir on Feb 11, 2015 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Quick recap: when the company was going through hard times, Marvel sold the film rights to its most popular characters, which meant when they started making movies, they needed to turn their B-list heroes into stars. They’ve reacquired some of those rights, but X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man have remained in the hands of Fox and Sony. But since Sony’s Spider-Man movies have been floundering — The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is just awful — they’ve been talking to Marvel to try and get things back on track. Thankfully, they finally have a deal, and it’s great news for fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Spider-Man’s back. Or almost back. Read more…
Tags: Marvel, Sony, Spider-man
Posted by Ben Huber on Feb 9, 2015 in Cinema 
Sound and foley often is brushed over when people think about the work that goes into movies — but when it’s absent, you can suddenly feel that something is wrong; the movie world doesn’t feel quite as real. Quentin Tarantino is the epitome of style, but Jacob Swinney on Vimeo decided to put together a supercut not of the director’s visuals, but his sound. It easier to catch it isolation, but there’s a ton of great work here. There’s some of the obvious picks like the slurping of a nearly-empty soda… and other smaller bits like the sound of a cigarette. Check out the video below! Read more…
Tags: Quentin Tarantino
Posted by Ben Huber on Feb 7, 2015 in Cinema 
Despite getting support from actors like Tobey Maguire, Hollywood’s Robotech adaptation has languished for ages. It honestly seemed like it was dead — but, here we go again — Warner Bros’ Hollywood Gang is revving the engine again and producers Gianni Nunnari and Mark Canton have nabbed the scriptwriter (Michael Gordon) behind 300 and G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra to begin writing it. We’ll see if it actually goes anywhere, this time. In similar news, Animal Logic Entertainment is attempting to start an Astro Boy film. Producer Zareh Nalbandian said, “We actually see him in the same league as an Iron Man.” Uh, hmm, okay. How about we just make a Pluto movie, instead? Read more…
Tags: Astro Boy, Robotech
Posted by Bob Muir on Feb 4, 2015 in Cinema, Star Wars 
Fans are still salivating over Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens coming out at the end of the year. But don’t forget, Disney wants Star Wars to become an annual thing, similar to how their subsidiary Marvel is constantly putting out something. There have been at least two stand-alone movies mentioned, the first of which will be directed by Gareth Edwards. Though it still doesn’t have a name, it just got its star: Felicity Jones. The actress is currently Oscar-nominated for Best Actress for playing Jane Hawking in The Theory of Everything, so that’s a good pick. Meanwhile, Chris Weitz has taken over writing duties from Gary Whitta, who wrote the first draft. Now we just need to, you know, find out what the movie is about. Read more…
Tags: Disney, Star Wars
Posted by Ben Huber on Feb 1, 2015 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Is there any actor who has fit into a role as perfectly as J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson? So many fans loved his portrayal of the cantankerous and outspoken EIC of the Daily Bugle that they’ve basically begged for him to return. I mean, how often do you get to see an actor and character pair transcend “movie universes” and reboots? Simmons could be the first and best! In a recent interview with Howard Stern, Simmons was of course asked about another Spider-Man movie: “I just heard that we…that’s a possibility.” When asked by Stern if he’d do it, Simmons replied, “Absolutely.” What Spider-Man film is Simmons talking about? Well, that’s anybody’s guess at this point. Read more…
Tags: J.K. Simmons, Spider-man
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 31, 2015 in Cinema, Hobbies and Collections 
You’re probably not surprised to see more Lego video games announced. But, that said, I have to bring it up because a Lego Jurassic Park game is one of them. It’s titled LEGO Jurassic World, but will actually let you play through all four movies in the game. This means that for the first time ever (correct me if I’m wrong), you’ll be able to play as Lego Jeff Goldblum. This is wonderful news! I hope this game features as many characters as possible (Lego games usually do…) but the next most important question is: can I play as a dinosaur? We’ll have to wait and see. Lego Jurassic World is coming out in June. Oh, and there’s also a Lego Avengers game, based on Avengers and Age of Ultron. Whatever! Read more…
Tags: Jurassic Park, Jurassic World, Lego, The Avengers
Posted by Bob Muir on Jan 28, 2015 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four reboot is not part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, just like X-Men and Spider-Man. A lot of Marvel fans are upset about that and would rather Fox hand the rights back over to Marvel so they can make a proper adaptation. But that’s not happening, so let’s look at what we’ve got. Despite all the talk of stupid decisions like Doctor Doom being a blogger and a fantastic team being “grounded,” this actually looks pretty good. Despite being Marvel’s first superhero team, a lot of the aspects of the comic could seem more like a horror story; one guy gets turned into a monster! It’s not a bad idea to move their origin from space to an alternate-dimension experiment, taking inspiration from Ultimate Fantastic Four. So while I’d prefer this to be a lighter, more “out there” story in the vein of Marvel’s other films, I have to admit Trank and Fox’s version doesn’t look half-bad. Read more…
Tags: 20th Century Fox, Fantastic Four, Marvel
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 26, 2015 in Animation, Cinema 
I’m going down the list of classic cartoons that have been rebooted as CGI films, and I’m actually surprised the Jetsons hasn’t happened yet. We’re running out of cartoons though… soon we’re going to be scraping the bottom of the barrel with Snorks or something! Anyway, I digress… Warner Bros. is putting together a Jetsons animated theatrical film, and they’ve nabbed a scriptwriter for it as well in Matt Lieberman. About two years ago, Kanye West said he was creative director on a Jetsons film, but I highly doubt this is the same project now. But yet — if Kanye was involved, I’d be somewhat interested! Are the Jetsons on the cusp of making a comeback? Read more…
Tags: The Jetsons
Posted by Bob Muir on Jan 21, 2015 in Cinema, Fandom 
Now that all three films are out, let’s just say what we all knew from the start: The Hobbit did not need to be stretched out over three movies. Not only is there so much filler and weaker subplots about ancillary characters, it all distracts from Bilbo’s charming tale of adventure. And just as was expected, fans are stepping in to fix the problems of the “trilogy.” The first new cut, The Hobbit: The Tolkien Edit, is from “tolkieneditor” and comes in at 4 hours (or 4.5 hours with the credits). His goal was to try to make the movie resemble J.R.R. Tolkien’s original book, so things like the investigation of Dol Guldor, the Tauriel-Legolas-Kili love triangle, a lot of filler moments or filler action scenes, and much of the Pale Orc (Azog) subplot and Laketown scenes are all gone. Read more…
Tags: The Hobbit
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 19, 2015 in Cinema 
I don’t have anything against reboots per se, but when so many films coming out are reboots or sequels, it feels like losing one isn’t too big of a deal. Screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith had been attached to a Gremlins reboot a while back, and since then we’ve heard just about zero. Seth said, “I think we just ran out of steam.” Hmm, maybe its for the best? He continues, mentioning Steven Spielberg and director Chris Columbus: “It’s something I would love to come back to, but right now Steven’s making two movies back to back and Chris Columbus is busy. We’re all taking a five-minute break on that.” That’s ok! I think we’ll make do in the meantime. Read more…
Tags: gremlins
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 16, 2015 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Rumors are fun! You also can’t always take them seriously. But this one has some heft behind it: over the past month or two we’ve seen tons of leaked Sony emails and an abundance of rumors that all point to Sony being in talks with Marvel. They want to do something with Spider-Man… but as usual with giant corporations, they’re getting hung up on all the little details. However, Da7e from Latino Review is reporting that according to their sources, the Marvel and Sony deal has gone through, and Spider-Man will feature in Avengers: Infinity War Part 1. It will not feature Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man. Still, it’s hard to really believe this until we see it, because hey: it still sounds almost impossible for the two behemoths to agree. But I sure do hope that this all works out in the end! Read more…
Tags: Marvel, Sony, Spider-man
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 16, 2015 in Cinema 
Don’t lie, dear readers: I know you’ve all been on the edge of your seat waiting to see which films get snubbed this year! Which of your favorite films will be totally ignored, or related to a simple Best Sound Mixing nomination?! Well, I’ve included the full list below, but there are a few curious choices here. One omission of note is the lack of The LEGO Movie in the Best Animated Picture category (although Isao Takahata’s The Tale of Princess Kaguya did thankfully get a nod). Another surprise is the number of noms for American Sniper, which is probably at the top of my list titled “Films I Couldn’t Care Less About.” Check out some salient tweets and the full list below! Read more…
Tags: Academy Awards, The Oscars
Posted by Bob Muir on Jan 15, 2015 in Anime, Cinema 
Disney has first pass at releasing Studio Ghibli’s films, but lately it seems that if Hayao Miyazaki isn’t directing, they’re not as interested. GKIDS stepped in to release From Up on Poppy Hill and The Tale of Princess Kaguya. It seems they’re doing it one more time for When Marnie Was There, the most recent and possibly last film from the famed anime studio. GKIDS is planning a spring 2015 theatrical release and the usual award submissions; the distributor also purchased the home video and TV rights, so expect a Blu-ray release later this year. Read more…
Tags: GKIDS, Studio Ghibli
Posted by Bob Muir on Jan 14, 2015 in Anime, Cinema, Videogames 
The theatrical adaptation of Persona 3 continues with Persona 3 The Movie #3: Falling Down. The anime movie will be released in Japan on April 4, only a few months from now. It’s not yet clear whether there will be a fourth film or if Falling Down is the final film in the series, but judging by this new teaser, we’re getting close to the end. Meanwhile, we’re still waiting on a Western release for the second movie in the series, Midsummer Knight’s Dream. Seeing as it will be out on Blu-ray and DVD in Japan on March 11, I predict a release later this year. Read more…
Tags: Atlus, Persona 3
Posted by Bob Muir on Jan 14, 2015 in Cinema, Star Wars
After watching the Star Wars prequels, I think everyone agrees that the new Star Wars trilogy is safer in any hands but those of George Lucas. And yet, if things had happened differently, we could now be anticipating/dreading Lucas’s version of Star Wars Episode VII (now Star Wars: The Force Awakens). Lucas confirmed he had begun planning the next three Star Wars films, but that he only planned to direct the first one. Episode VII would have been released in May 2015, then he would have sold Lucasfilm, perhaps so he wouldn’t feel tempted to direct. But Lucas realized this trilogy would be another ten-year commitment, which is admittedly a ton of work. Disney entered the picture at the right time, and Lucas realized it would be better for him not to develop the new trilogy at all, leaving it completely to others. Of course, Lucas remains a consultant on the movie, but maybe that’s how it should be: offering some new ideas or reference that the actual creative team can choose to use or ignore as they please. Read more…
Tags: Disney, Episode VII, George Lucas, Star Wars
Posted by Bob Muir on Jan 13, 2015 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Were you already sold on Avengers: Age of Ultron after the first trailer? If so, don’t bother watching this second trailer. It’s got a lot of new, tantalizing footage, but all that will do is spoil you a bit more for the actual film. But if you were somehow on the fence, or you just don’t care, then soak up more shots of returning characters, big action, and dozens of little things to speculate endlessly on. Look, Age of Ultron doesn’t need much more promotion at this point beyond the final weeks before its release. It’s the sequel to one of the biggest films of all time, so people are going to go see it. But if you can’t get enough, expect more trailers and hints in the coming months. Read more…
Tags: Avengers: Age of Ultron, Marvel
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 12, 2015 in Cinema, Hobbies and Collections 
Awards season is coming up, so a few Blu-ray featurettes are starting to show up online as part of the promotion cycle. One of the more interesting ones I’ve caught is a behind-the-scenes look at some of the CGI and real-life LEGOs that were used in The LEGO Movie. It might surprise you how many real LEGOs were used in the film! It’s a pretty cool process and the amount of care and detail put into everything is astounding. I hope that any future Lego movies can have the same amount of attention and love put into them… and not devolve into quick cash-ins. Video embedded below! Read more…
Tags: Lego, The LEGO Movie
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 11, 2015 in Cinema 
We’re starting to get a clearer picture of what Phil Lord and Chris Miller have in store for the upcoming Lego Batman Movie. In a recent interview, the writing and directing duo spoke about the film and Lord said, “I think the movie is really exciting because it’s about, ‘Can Batman be happy?’ … Batman is the ultimate in white people problems.” This is probably true, and definitely funny angle to take for a Batman movie. Miller revealed before that “every era of Batman filmmaking will be acknowledged” which implies we could see cameos or references to Christian Bale, Adam West, and Michael Keaton… which would be grand, I think. “He’s like, ‘oh, I’m so rich and handsome, women like me and I’ve got a Maclaren! Something about my parents!” Read more…
Tags: Batman, Lego, The LEGO Movie
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 10, 2015 in Cinema 
Liam Neeson has enjoyed a bit of a renaissance as an action hero thanks to Taken and other similar films — especially since he seems to start in two or more every year. The latest one of these is Run All Night, in which Neeson plays a mob hitman who must protect his son from waves of violent gangsters after he witnessed something he wasn’t supposed to see. Drama! The idea that it takes place over one night could be enough of a hook, though. Also in Neeson news: he says he wants to play Qui-Gon Jinn again! “I don’t know [how he would return], unless you went back in time or he becomes a hologram or something. He’s a Jedi, anything could happen, it’s Star Wars world!” Yes, Mr. Neeson, it is Star Wars world. How about a movie where Qui-Gon needs to rescue his family from Coruscant mobsters? Hmm? Read more…
Tags: Liam Neeson, Star Wars
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 10, 2015 in Cinema 
Neill Blomkamp has been in the news recently with his shelved Alien film idea, but never mind that — a film he’s finished is coming out soon. Chappie is a robot with a revolution intelligence and the ability to think and feel freely. Of course, not everybody thinks that’s a great idea, as you might expect. There’s a great cast here: Dev Patel, Sharlto Copley, Sigourney Weaver, Hugh Jackman, and Ninja & Yo-Landi Vi$$er. Yes, that’s correct: Die Antwoord is in this movie. This trailer is way more action-heavy than the previous cutesy one. Perhaps that may bring in more mainstream audiences? Check out the trailer below! Chappie comes out March 6th. Read more…
Tags: Chappie, neill blomkamp
Posted by Bob Muir on Jan 8, 2015 in Cinema, Television 
I thought for sure that we wouldn’t see Marvel’s Daredevil series until May at the earliest, or more likely sometime this summer. But no, Marvel has announced that all thirteen hour-long episodes will be available on Netflix starting on April 10. That’s soon! Knowing Marvel, they’ll probably be starting to slowly drop more teasers for the show until we finally start seeing some trailers and promotion, maybe as soon as February. I’m curious to see how this may fit in with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which will still be airing at that time, and Avengers: Age of Ultron, which releases less than a month later. But as usual, I’m most interested to see Marvel introduce a character I don’t know much about, having steered clear of the poorly-rated Ben Affleck film. Read more…
Tags: Daredevil, Marvel, Netflix
Posted by Bob Muir on Jan 7, 2015 in Cinema, Comic Books 
First promised back in 2006, Ant-Man has been on Marvel’s back-burner for years before going through several changes to the creative team. But surprisingly, not much has changed besides the loss of Edgar Wright. Ant-Man still promises to be a comedic heist movie in a superhero shell, though sadly, that doesn’t really make it across in this first teaser (human, not ant-sized). While the footage looks good, there’s little humor, with the trailer being cut like a normal superhero film. The shrinking bits look well-done, but I’ll admit, I was expecting more from this first look. Nothing looks wrong, but for a film about a more obscure superhero with a strange name/power, Marvel really needed to sell this better to those who have doubts. Still, have a look, and hope that the next trailer is more suited to the film they’re promoting. Read more…
Tags: ant-man, Marvel
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