The year was 1982, affectionately called “The Spielberg Summer” by the media (because E.T. and Poltergeist were barnstorming the box office), and MGM was facing bankruptcy. It bet the house on Poltergeist, directed by Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and produced by Steven Spielberg, and claimed victory as the supernatural thriller grossed $76 million domestically, literally saving the studio from filing Chapter 11. 27 years later, Poltergeist is unbelievably dated, campy and generally silly from beginning to end, but …
Month: October 2009
“We have the rights on a worldwide basis to do Paranormal 2 and we’re looking to see if that makes some sense.” That quote comes from Paramount Pictures chairman, Brad Grey, and I can tell Mr. Grey, without hesitation, that making a follow-up to Paranormal Activity would be a terrible mistake. Not only does it have a 99.9 percent chance of bombing at the box office, but making it would tarnish the sheer genius and creativity of the first movie. …
You may not remember The A-Team, but director/writer Joe Carnahan does and, as we mentioned a couple weeks ago, they’re escaping from the Los Angeles underground to make some coin as soldiers of fortune in a theater near you. If you have a problem, if no one else can help and if you can find them, maybe you can call… The A-Team. Until then, you can take a glance at this first official Photoshop of A-Team 2101, which, incidentally, looks …
Perhaps you’ll be cheering the Aggies to victory numero dos against the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs on Saturday afternoon at Romney Stadium. Or if an afternoon of college football isn’t in the cards, then maybe you’ll go hunting, or maybe you’ll just buy some beer and sit home watching re-runs of Ace of Cakes all weekend. Either way, if you’re like 99.6 percent of Cache Valley, you’ll be hitting up one of the three first-run theaters, or you’ll be holding up …
Forget aliens, vampires, and werewolves. Screw zombies and gremlins. And don’t even think about Nessie, Bigfoot or Freddy Krueger; Paranormal Activity scares the crap out of viewers by asking the simple and uncomfortable question: What happens when you sleep? One thing is for certain, after watching this movie last weekend in a theater packed with squealing girls and laughing dudes, not much happens when I sleep. Because I don’t anymore. I’m too busy looking for demons that are going to …
You know who is a workaholic? Clint Eastwood. The dude is pumping out movies lately like nobody’s business. And the great thing? They are movies that actually don’t suck. So, not only does he work his bahookey off, but he picks his projects wisely. Check out this track record since 2003: Mystic River (2003) Million Dollar Baby (2004) Flags of our Fathers (2006) Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) Changeling (2008) Gran Torino (2008) And now, in limited release in December, …
Okay, try not to poop your pants out of excitement, but two new Avatar images have hit the web and they show us…duh duh duh…absolutely nothing. I’m not expecting much, but really? These are supposed to make me excited? Just another shot of Jar Jar Binks lost cat-people cousins. I wonder if at any point during Avatar they’ll find the dead remains of that blue-skinned, belly-shirted hoot-a-rific Jedi who obviously died on the jungle planet featured in James Cameron’s first …
I’ve been tepid thus far on my anticipation of and my desire to see The Wolfman, but this new, edgier, darker trailer has piqued my interest enough that I have circled February 12, 2010 on my calendar. Not literally, of course. I’m not that nerdy, but you get my point. Delays in the release of The Wolfman have fueled my skepticism, and I’m also not a big fan of Joe Johnston (although I did like October Sky), but a cast …
As I’ve said many times before, The Road is one of my most beloved novels of all-time and a movie I’m anticipating greatly. The cast – Viggo Mortenson (Eastern Promises), Charlize Theron (In the Valley of Elah), Guy Pearce (The Hurt Locker) and Robert Duvall (We Own the Night) is top notch and the source material (Cormac McCarthy) is pure gold. Still, even with a pre-release 88% on RottenTomatoes, I can’t help but think The Road is going to be …
Back on October 13th, I introduced AATM.com readers to a trailer for the film festival darling, Precious. And when I say darling, I don’t mean light and fluffy, like last year’s Slumdog Millionaire. Precious is a gritty look at life in the slums via an overweight, abused, pregnant (for the second time) teenager. It’s bleak, harsh and unrelenting and rightly so. Topics raised in this movie aren’t specific to color, sex or gender. And the movie and performances from Mariah …