Frank Darabont Is No Longer Producing AMC's "Walking Dead"

     Frank Darabont is one of my favorite movie-makers, and with films like The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption under his belt, he deserves respect.  But lately he's been flaky on projects.  According to Deadline.com, Frank Darabont has stepped away from producing the hit AMC series The Walking Dead.   

      This announcement has some people confused.  And rightly so - since he conducted a successful and highly-anticipated Comic Con panel at the 2011 convention not even a week ago stating, “We’ve got people coming to the [writer's] table going, ‘Wow, we love this and we want to be a part of it, and that’s a really cool thing.’ "(tvline.com)

      As the saying goes, hindsight is ironic 20/20.  Darabont apparently has left the show because he "hails from the feature world and… never quite adjusted to the daily grind of producing a TV series"(deadline.com).  This is the part where we put on our bullshit-reading glasses and assume that, just like previously with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Darabont has bailed because the show is going in a crappy direction.  Which I'm not totally surprised about, seeing as how weak the last episode of season one was. I'm still shocked Darabont walked away from Indiana Jones though, that was a top quality film in every way and definitely would have never hurt his career.

(img source=cinecafe.files.wordpress.com/anythinghorror.wordpress.com) 

Neill Blomkamp's Viral Marketing for "Elysium"

     News flash for those who do not yet know - Neill Blomkamp is doing a follow-up to District 9, which doesn't necessarily mean it is a sequel.  We know a couple of things about this film, titled for now Elysium: Jodie Foster joins Matt Damon as the main cast, and is slated to come out in 2013.  Wow, we really don't know crap.
    Good thing viral marketing has already begun for it - or so it seems.  The biggest rumors are revolving around the following two videos.  Enjoy, and happy weekend faithful readers.

Teaser Trailer Tuesday: "The Thing"

     To be clear, this is not a "remake" of John Carpenter's A-M-A-Z-I-N-G 1982 horror classic The Thing.  The producers pitched this to Universal as a "prequel", because they thought that "remaking John Carpenter's original masterpiece would be like painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa".(imdb.com)  Whatever makes you sleep at night, guys.  Husky dogs with their skulls splitting open, a human head spider-walking across the floor and Wilfred Brimley shooting down hallways and yelling incoherently will always be the better bet for me, honestly.  And from the looks of this trailer, Mona Lisa's upper lip is looking kind of hairy. 

Movies I Watched Over the Weekend

     You'll notice I called this section today "Movies I Watched Over the Weekend", and not "COOL Movies I Watched Over the Weekend".  Because I only got around to watching two films this weekend (I know, I finally have a life...crazy), and one of those movies sucked.  Wow a 50% margin is really bad.

1. Dahmer

     Bad news first - this movie is boring and slow and poorly written.  Which is too bad, because a very young Jeremy Renner appears in it (as the monster Jeffery Dahmer himself) and as much as I like Renner and I'm sure this role helped catapult his career, this film, all nearly 2 hours of it, constitutes a complete waste of your time.  I wish I could tell you about the plot but the problem is there really isn't one.  The psyche of Dahmer is not delved into or explained; we don't even really see him cannibalize anyone, which was kind of his trade mark.  There are some death scenes, but they are drawn out and fractured between too many flashbacks and memories that are as disoriented as an epileptic seizure.  Dahmer's personal story involving his father, family, and friends, goes nowhere.  Movies about serial killers - not slasher films, but films that supposedly want to take a good, hard look at who a certain serial killer was and how they behaved and 'related' to their fellow man - all have a certain rhythm.  Dahmer is like the kid in drum line that hits the cymbal on all the off beats.

2. American: The Bill Hicks Story

      What a great documentary about a great comedian.  To start with, this documentary was put together very uniquely; it used a lot of animation and real picture merging to match the people talking in the different interviews they did with the family and friends of Bill Hicks.  Directors Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas didn't just make a film - they told the story about a real man who lived and sadly died at the age of 32 from cancer, but not before shaking up the world a bit.  Anyone who knows anything about comedy knows the name Bill Hicks.  Beginning a fruitful career at age 15 in Houston, Texas, Hicks grew to become one of the best and most talented/controversial stand-up comedians this country has ever seen.  He was bitter, smoked, drank, did mushrooms, and yelled at religious people and the government.  He resented the war on drugs and anyone in the advertising business.  He was a hero to some and a loud-mouth to others.  But he used comedy to make people listen to what he had to say.  This documentary shows the people who knew him and his story best, grew up with him, and who still miss him today.

Both of these features are available on Netflix.com instant play.

 (img sources = robsmovievault.files.wordpress.com / culturemap.com)

Vlog #2 from "Hobbit" Set

     Peter Jackson loves his helicopter tours.  And Andy Serkis looks so old!  Nevertheless it looks like the cast/crew is taking a much-deserved break from filming an epic I can't wait for.

First poster released for "Dark Knight Rises"

      View here.

     Sorry I couldn't post it here, the bastards at imdb.com wouldn't let me. :(
     Summer 2012 cannot come fast enough.

Awful Trailer of the Day - "Jack and Jill"

     Pfft, the trailer for this shit on South Park was so much more accurate. 

 

Michael Bay wrote a letter to projectionists across the country telling them how to do their jobs

          I don't care much for 3D movies.  Most of it is just my opinion (I don't like, nor do I need, my movie jumping out at me onto my lap), but there's also a practical side to it.  3D movies, if not run with the correct filters and lenses, or if they are not removed after a 3D movie, can affect 2D movies that are shown after them in the same theater.  The 3D filters cause a very heavy, dark look to 2D films; therefore, the light is dimmer and the audience of the 2D film is robbed of a perfectly lit, crisp, clear picture.  Roger Ebert has complained about this since last year, saying in a famous Sun-Times article "The Dying of the Light" that the digital age is driven by a "mania to abandon celluloid", and therefore, better picture quality, and that "short-sighted, technically-illiterate penny pinchers are wounding a great art form."
     I could not have said it better myself.  Who wants to see Bridesmaids when it looks like this?  Geez-us, that looks awful.  I need a flashlight to see that picture clearly.

     Well, fear not.  Michael Bay is here to save us all.  From himself.  His 3D robots-and-humans movie, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, released this weekend, raking in almost $400 million worldwide.  Before he released this eclipse onto American cinema, he decided to pen a letter personally to every single projectionist in the country.  Apparently his prints are "brighter", and therefore will not disturb 2D films or take away from the picture quality.  
    Listen Michael, the bottom line is this: we wouldn't have this problem if your film was in 2D.  There are theories that 3D will be a passing phase, and won't stay around much longer, but until then, people like me, who appreciate the way a movie is supposed to look, will always dislike people like you, who make millions off of 3D movie tickets.  You may be wanting to help the problem, but you're contributing to it the most.  And don't talk to America's projectionists like they're Megan Fox, okay?

(img sources/letter source = blogs.suntimes.com/ew.com)

Blast from the Past! - "Born on the Fourth of July"

     Today is July 4th, and it's no more fitting than today to talk about a film that portrays the courage and hardship of an American soldier.  Oliver Stone's masterpiece Born on the Fourth of July, one of the most intense war films of the pre-90's decade, is one of my favorite films of all time, and in my opinion, Tom Cruise's finest hour.  

     Stone's film portrays the true biography of Ron Kovic, a Vietnam veteran who went into the war against the North Vietnamese as a bright-eyed American idealist, and returned as a paraplegic on wheels, with a protest sign in one hand and a severe case of PTSD and a drinking problem in the other.  This transformation of Kovic throughout the film is sad and astounding; Stone purposefully makes the opening sequences of fourth of July parades and stout American patriotism as potent as they are overdone and cheesy, with a means only to juxtapose that world with the world of war - including Kovic witnessing the deaths of innocent civilians, children, and his own paralysis.  The battlefield, however, does not stay in Vietnam; the tragedy of his disability and awful memories of jungle warfare follow Kovic home like a lost dog, always whimpering and begging by his side.  Kovic's rage at the country that sent him proudly into war, and then turned its back on him in shame as he returned, steams and boils for years while rat-infested veteran hospitals and his own family abandon him, physically and mentally.  It is only after Kovic meets an old high school sweetheart and connects with other veterans that he is able to crawl out of denial (no pun intended here, assholes!), and fully vocalize his anti-war message on the steps of Washington, influencing generations after him.

       Tom Cruise absolutely engulfs the persona of Ron Kovic.  Whether he is shouting the word "PENIS!" repeatedly in his Catholic mother's kitchen, fist-fighting with Willem Dafoe in a wheelchair on a dusty Mexican road, or crying in ecstasy that a prostitute will spend the night with him and his immobile lower half, Cruise does anything but exploit Kovic's story - he brings it to life.  John Williams' score is an accompaniment with not enough attention or praise.  The cosmic irony of the movie is epitomized in how little Kovic enjoys in life once he is back home, the place on earth he fought so bravely to save; he even flinches and jumps at the sound of fireworks exploding in a parade welcoming him home, no doubt because they remind him of the artillery fire that killed his friends.  Scenes similar to this brought to light the issues of combat post traumatic stress disorder, which was bold for the time.  Nominated for 8 Academy Awards, and winning Best Director and Best Film Editing, this movie is a classic you can watch every year.  The powerful message behind Ron Kovic is what makes me thankful that today is the fourth of July.

(img sources=blogher.com / sodahead.com)