Damaged Goods?...and Lost!

A couple of really great articles over at io9 I happened to stumble upon:

In the post "Which Summer Movies Did the Writers' Strike Hit Hardest?", they go over some of the warm season's biggest releases and if the writer's strike affected them for better, or for worse. They start off by showing how the strike affected many TV shows, for example: Lost survived unscathed, Heroes...well not so much. Star Trek, Terminator and Transformers are just a few of the movies they asses the damage of the strike for.

















The other article was a succinct, great review of the first two episodes of the new season of Lost, without giving away spoilers. Great to hear that my boy Danny Faraday will be getting some more screen time, apparently a few with Sawyer. I can't wait to hear the nicknames Sawyer will come up with in the banter between him and Jeremy Davies' brilliant but skittish physicist.

Looking Ahead to '09

Another part of Dark Horizon's list of notable 2009 releases are up, with a few I will be looking forward to:

The Fighter, opening some time in 2009 was being developed for a while, but it looks like Darren Aronofsky's follow up to The Wrestler will make it to the big screen. Starring Mark Wahlberg and Brad Pitt, the movie tells the story of Dicky Eklund, a talented fighter that turned to crime and landed in prison. Eventually he turns his life around and helps train his under performing half brother. With Aronofsky's success with The Wrestler, another sports themed movie might serve him well. Wahlberg has trained for a year getting into shape, so hopefully the combination of all this talent will make the film a contender come awards season. And Darren Aronofsky went to my high school, and he is the man.

Green Zone, starring Matt Damon and directed by Paul Greengrass, this film hopes to break the streak and be a successful drama about the Iraq war. The film is based on the book "Imperial Life in the Emerald City", and follows CIA agents as they search for evidence of weapons of mass destruction. If you're a fan of the Bourne franchise and Paul Greengrass' handheld, documentary style film making, this picture should be right up your alley. Has a lot of potential with Greengrass, Damon and the very talented Amy Ryan (see Gone Baby Gone, and The Office).

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, obviously the interest in this movie depends on if you can stand Harry Potter or despise him. I can stand him, and I will be looking forward to the releaseof this film, which was delayed from this past winter season to July 17th. The film should be one of the best in the series, with director David Yates returning as director, and Prince being one of the best books in the series. Either way, it will make a shitload of money this summer.

Howl, opening sometime in 2009 is a movie I hadn't heard much about, but looks interesting stars James Franco, and concerns the obscenity trial launched to censor Allen Ginsberg's controversial 'Howl'. The movie has animated segments mixed in from the book/poem and will deal with issues of morality and censorship. I haven't seen Milk, but from what I have heard Franco was excellent, and he should bring the same quality of work to this film. The stellar supporting cast includes David Strathairn, Alan Alda, Mary Louise Parker, Jeff Daniels and Paul Rudd.

The Human Factor, after seeing Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino, I will definitely be interested in seeing what he will do with this film. Eastwood directs this film, which covers the campaign by rugby star Francois Pienaar and President Nelson Mandela to secure the 1995 Rugby World Cup to give the whites and blacks in South Africa a common cause to rally around as the country was trying to heal from the wounds of apartheid. If that's not enough, the movie stars Matt Damon, and Morgan Freeman. If that isn't enough to garner some Oscar buzz, I'm not sure how else to go about it.

Wikipedia Page That May Only Interest Me #2

While trekking out to Howard Beach yesterday in Brooklyn, it came up in conversation that former mob boss John Gotti lived out there. Naturally, I looked up his Wikipedia page, and i might only be interesting to me.

John Gotti, commonly known by the media as "The Dapper Don" and "The Teflon Don" after the murder of his former boss Paul Castellano, was the boss of the well known Gambino crime family, one of the Five Families in New York City. He became widely known for his outspoken personality and flamboyant style that eventually caused his downfall. In 1992, Gotti was convicted of racketeering, 13 murders, obstruction of justice, hijacking, conspiracy to commit murder, illegal gambling, extortion, tax evasion, loansharking and other crimes and was sentenced to life in prison where he died 10 years later.

Brand New Pictures: Public Enemies, Watchmen and More

It's the new year, and that can mean only one thing: brand new photos! Entertainment Weekly has a gallery full of pictures previewing some of the biggest releases of 2009 including Will Ferrell in Land of the Lost, the Michael Mann directed Public Enemies and Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are.

Christian Bale geared up as the grown up John Connor in Terminator Salvation.
Another one of Bale sneaking up on an unsuspecting Terminator.
John Travolta (mutton chops and all) taking charge in the Taking of Pelham 1-2-3.
A very blue collar looking Denzel racing down the streets of NYC.
Johnny Depp looking dapper as infamous criminal John Dillinger in Public Enemies.
Christian Bale as the dashing federal agent Melvin Purvis.
Depp contemplating his next move, with a nice souvenir on his arm.
A beautiful shot of Max chasing a monster in the long awaited Where the Wild Things Are.
A tender moment with Max and his crown.
Jeffery Dean Morgan as Edward Blake, aka The Comedian, in Zack Snyder's Watchmen.
Michael Cera and Jack Black in the sure to be absolutely hilarious, Year One.
Will Ferrell, Danny McBride and Anna Friel watching as danger lurks above in Land of the Lost.
Hugh Jackman looking rather angry as Logan in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Zach Snyder on Watchmen

Here's a video of director Zach Snyder
talking about his upcoming film Watchmen.

I hope and pray this movie will get released on time.

Hello 2009

Happy New Year to everyone. On Dark Horizons there is a nice list of notable films that will be released in 2009. It's just part one of the list and here are some of the movies on it that I will be looking forward to:

Adventureland, the new comedy from Superbad director Greg Mottola. The film is set in the summer of 1987 when a recent college graduate (Jesse Eisenberg) takes a job at his local amusment park. Ryan Reynolds, Kristen Stewart, and Martin Starr are also featured in the film.

Avatar, James Cameron's sci-fi epic starring Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana. Worthington plays an ex-marine who is thrust unwillingly into an effort to settle and exploit an exotic planet rich in bio-diversity, who eventually crosses over to lead the indigenous race in a battle for survival. Although we will have to wait all the way til December to see the movie, it looks as though it's going to be great. Cameron will finally be back in the directors chair, and from what I've seen from footage of Terminator: Salvation, Worthington has got the goods.

The Boat That Rocked, which will be released in the later half of '09 stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Kenneth Branagh. I hadn't heard much about this movie, but the premise sounds interesting. In 1966, radio stations broadcast rock and pop music to up to 25 million people in the UK from ships anchored in the North Sea, outside of any national jurisdiction. The comedy tells of one such group of DJs at the forefront of the UK pirate radio movement.

Away We Go, is a film that has alot of potential. Directed by Oscar winner Sam Mendes, and starring the talented John Krasinski (The Office), and Maya Rudolph (SNL) as an expectant couple as they travel the U.S. in search of a place to put down roots and raise a family. The premise doesn't sound all that exciting, but hopefully the combination of an excellent director (Mendes), and a well rounded cast (Krasinski, Rudolph, Toni Collette, Jeff Daniels, Allison Janney and Catherine O'Hara) will make for a quality movie.

Best of '08

This isn’t necessarily a top ten list, but more of a list of stuff that I came across over the course of this year that I felt deserved a little bit of love. Better late than never I suppose.

Best Albums:

Death Cab For Cutie, Narrow Stairs
Coldplay, Viva La Vida
Keane, Perfect Symmetry
Wale, The Mixtape About Nothing
Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III
Kanye West, 808s and Heartbreak
Girl Talk, Feed the Animals
MGMT, Oracular Spectacular
N.E.R.D., Seeing Sounds
The Stills, Oceans Will Rise

Best Tracks:

"Viva La Vida" - Coldplay
"See You In My Nightmare feat. Lil Wayne" - Kanye West
"Again & Again" - Keane
"Cath..." - Death Cab For Cutie
"I'm Not Going to Teach Your Boyfriend to Dance" - Black Kids
"Queens Get the Money" - Nas
"Snow in California" - The Stills
"The Perfect Plan" - Wale
"Free Fallin' (Live)" - John Mayer
"The World We Live In" - The Killers

Boycott What?

Being up at 4:15 in the morning isn't necessarily a good thing, but I was on io9.com, and i found something that made me feel a bit better about being up so late. The article is a great rant about any fans that are planning to boycott Fox in light of the possible delay of Watchmen.

They bring up a pretty good point: what has Fox put out that anyone was really dying to see anyway? Max Payne, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Jumper? These are just a few examples they give.

One movie they have upcoming that is actually anticipated is X-Men Origins: Wolverine which will be released in May. I think the film looks good, but I have to agree with io9 that the movie is starting to look like a way to create a whole new batch of X-Men movie spinoffs by introducing a bunch of secondary characters like Gambit, Emma Frost, and Deadpool.

Hopefully the idea of a boycott will end up being a moot point because Watchmen will be released on time. Only time will tell...

And speaking of time, like three paragraphs down io9 writes in regards to Fox's former flameouts: "These are not just movies you're better off renting. These movies are the reason there's a 4:20 in the morning as well as the afternoon — they probably look pretty good if you're both sleep-deprived and stoned." Both of which i am.

More Watchmen Baby Mama Drama

With everything that has been going on with Zach Snyder's Watchmen, one wonder's how likely it is that we will see the film when it's due to be released on March 6th. According to the Associated Press an attorney for Fox says the studio will seek an order to delay the release of the movie.

There's a story on Cinematical titled "Why We Will See Watchmen on March 6th". I sure hope they are right. They think that Warner Bros. will pay whatever it is they need to get the movie released on time. Clearly a lot of time and money was put into the film, and I do not think Warner's will want to lose it or allow it to be delayed.

On io9 it seems that they think fans probably will not see Watchmen on March 6th. As of right now it is obviously just speculation, but imagine the how outraged the loyal fan base of Watchmen would be if they could not see the movie they have been so anxiously waiting for.

I pray that a settlement can be reached, because I am dying to watch the Comedian burn through Vietnam, Dr. Manhattan travel to Mars, and Rorschach grapple and crawl his way around the city.

Transformer Sequel Details... Finally!

By Matt Jussim

Finally, after all the trailers, exclusive photos, and footage of Watchmen, Terminator: Salvation, and Star Trek, that have come out over the past six months, there’s something we all can get REALLY excited about.

The buzz is finally starting to grow on one of 2009’s biggest releases: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has finally gotten the “exclusive” treatment with Empire Magazine releasing the first official images of the film, and in USA Today with a report from the set. And the pictures look fantastic.

A gallery of pics from Empire shows Shia LaBeouf (bandaged hand and all) running with the always stunning Meagan Fox away from what looks like certain danger. There’s a pic with a car flying through the air, and awesome tank fight, a badass shot of Optimus Prime and a couple with some army rangers and more tanks. The best ones of all though are shots of the crew filming at the Pyramids in Giza, which will serve as the climax of the film. The Great Pyramids look unbelievable, and it is a definite upgrade in location from the first films climax, which took place at the Hoover Dam and the creatively named Mission City.

The sequel to 2007’s blockbuster Transformers looks to be bigger and even more explosive than its predecessor. The USA Today article describes the plot and some details of the story.

This time around, Sam (Shia LaBeouf) has learned a secret about the origins of the Transformers and their ancient history, which leads to the Decepticons to pursue him rather than wanting to kill him. The rest of the world meanwhile is still dealing with the aftermath of the events in the first film, and tries to figure out which of the creatures to trust, while an international coalition has allied itself with the Autobots.

The movie will introduce new characters, including some important Deceptions: Soundwave, a communications expert, and Devastator, whose arms and legs are built from other Transformers (can’t get any more poetic than that). The good guy Autobots will have Jetfire, a former villain whose age and failing physical state leads him to help Optimus Prime’s crew.




















The film’s action sequences seem as if they will be extremely realistic due to the fact that the movie has the seal of approval from the U.S. Department of Defense. This allowed director Michael Bay and his crew to film at the Army’s New Mexico missile range, and also to follow jets and fighter planes as they navigated through the skies. Some of the equipment used were two A-10 Thunderbolt II “Warthog” tanks; six F-16 Fighting Falcons; 10 armored Humvees; the Army’s Golden Knights parachute team, two armored personnel carriers and two missile launcher vehicles.

The near $200 million dollar production will feature 40 robots, and as I mentioned before the filmmakers were granted permission to shoot not just around, but also actually on the 5,000 year old Great Pyramids for the first time ever.

I was a huge fan of the first movie, and from the looks of it, the sequel is going to be even more exciting and action packed. Along with LaBeouf and Fox, the sequel will star returning cast members Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, and John Tuturro. Newcomers include Matthew Mardsen as a Special Forces ranger, Isabel Lucas as a girl at Sam’s college and The Office’s Rainn Wilson will have a cameo as a university professor.

The first teaser trailer for the film will possibly debut in February during Super Bowl XLII. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will be released on June 26th, 2009.