Archive for the 'Commentary' Category

Blade 4 Needs a Re-Boot, Not Wesley Snipes

Published by Andy on March 6, 2010 in Commentary and News. 22 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

I might be the only person on the planet that actually enjoyed Blade: Trinity. But I blame that on my man-crush of Ryan Reynolds, my lust for Jessica Biel and my thorough enjoyment of Blade and Blade II. I have no problem with more Blade films hitting theaters, but I do have one request: No more Wesley Snipes. Yes, according to MTV, Snipes has a raging boner for more Blade, (you can read/watch his full comments here) but the highlights are as follows:

He has a thinly veiled disdain for Blade: Trinity director David S. Goyer.

  • He wants a larger, more multi-racial cast.
  • If a fourth film is made, it will reflect a maturity and better understanding of the genre.
  • All I have to say to that is, WTF? I think Wesley has an over-inflated sense of his worth.

Hopefully the folks over at New Line realize that the love of all things vampire is cresting right now. I think they have a small window of opportunity to go back to the drawing board and re-boot the Blade franchise, i.e. Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Incredible Hulk, and really inject some new life into a kick-ass comic book character. In order to do that, Snipes has to go.

What do you think? Want more Blade? Want to see a re-boot?

Dennis Lehane Talks Shutter Island Ending

Published by Andy on March 6, 2010 in Commentary and News. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Shutter Island is the first novel by Dennis Lehane I’ve ever read and I loved every page of his deftly crafted thriller. I haven’t read Mystic River or Gone Baby Gone, but I enjoyed both movies immensely and my love of those two films actually prompted me to give Lehane’s writing a chance. After giving snaps and a circle to Shutter Island, I picked up Any Given Day and it’s waiting patiently on my bookshelf. As soon as I finish Stephen King’s Under the Dome (sometime in 2012 probably), I’ll give it a whirl. I’ll also be wondering if Any Given Day has a surprise ending. Fans of Lehane can see a pattern now, especially with the three works I mentioned above.  They all have a juicy WTF finale, a revelation or realization that leaves most readers slackjawed and wondering how they missed the clues.

This brings me back around to Shutter Island. Fans of the book were probably relatively pleased with Martin Scorsese’s celluloid adaptation. I gave Shutter Island a solid B and felt it was a virtual step-by-step translation from page to screen. Many critics and patrons have cried foul at the films twist ending, but those points miss the point. It’s not gimmicky. It’s not cheap. It’s not thrown in by mistake for convenience.  The ending is connected to the soul of the book and is supported by immense character study and depth. Perhaps that is why it isn’t cheap and tawdry.

Continue reading ‘Dennis Lehane Talks Shutter Island Ending’

Even Johnny Depp Thinks 3-D Movies Suck

Published by Andy on March 3, 2010 in Commentary and News. 8 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

I’ve opined many times on this very website about how I think 3-D was, is and will always be gimmicky, irrelevant and 100 percent lame. I have yet to see a movie, including last year’s darlings, Avatar and Up, where the three-dimensional technology enhanced the experience and story, making the feature unequivocally better. I can also say without hesitation there is no soon or yet to be movie that has piqued my interest because it will feature 3-D. I hate it and I hope it dies a quick and painful death.

Another reason I hate 3-D is I can’t even recognize it onscreen. Say what? Yeah, I have amblyopia – commonly referred to as “lazy eye” – which means the brain doesn’t fully acknowledge the images seen by the amblyopic eye, which, in my case, is my right eye. I wore a patch when I was really little and it went away until I was about 17 or 18. As of today, it’s just something I live with. And I’m not the only person suffering, as much as 5 percent of the populations suffer from amblyopia, with up to another 12 percent suffering from some degree of stereoblindness, which is the inability to see depth properly. That’s why Johnny Depp won’t be seeing Alice in Wonderland in 3-D. He recently told Entertainment Weekly, “I’ve got a weird thing where I don’t see properly out of my left eye, so I truly can’t see 3-D.”

What are your thoughts on 3-D movies nowadays and in the future? Yay or nay?

Johnny Depp Needs A Rest From Wonderland

Published by Dan on February 23, 2010 in Commentary. 13 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Early word on Alice in Wonderland is that it’s wretched. Not that early buzz matters when pressed up against the hairy-chested brawn of studio marketing and Johnny “loved by all” Depp– (doing his best impression of Elijah Wood).

To celebrate, Obsessed with film rolls out the Alice In Wonderland red carpet with an interesting take on Johnny Depp and what he’s become “at the hands of Tim Burton”.

In the last five years, Depp has made the following films: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the three Pirates of the Caribbean, Public Enemies, and Alice in Wonderland.  In only one – Public Enemies- could anyone argue that Depp played a recognizable human character that wasn’t a complete cartoon. The rest of those performances are shallow, one-note performances lacking in the depth that made some of his earlier craziness so enduring. Even his Jack Sparrow characterization, much vaunted by a stunned public at the time, is lunacy without any real point.

Amen.

Since Depp’s re-arrival amidst his much ballyhooed performance as Pirates of the Caribbean’s Jack Sparrow, the guy’s become the every man’s favorite actor. The general gushing about his acting skills as based solely on Captain Jack has always bothered me. Probably because it comes off as a false analysis of greatness: A cheap card trick that leaves the audiences giddily clapping with flat hands when the real magic was to be found elsewhere. When Johnny Depp was first cast as Jack Sparrow, was anyone talking about Depp as an all-star headliner off of his previous films The Libertine or Secret Window? Continue reading ‘Johnny Depp Needs A Rest From Wonderland’

Rating the 2010 Super Bowl Trailers

Published by Andy on February 7, 2010 in Commentary and Trailers. 7 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints on winning Super Bowl XLIV in what may have been the most boring NFL championship since, well, the last time the Indianapolis Colts went to the Super Bowl in 2007. And while I love football as much as the next dude, I won’t lie – I anticipate the commercial breaks in the hope I’ll see some genius advertising or some phenomenal movie preview.

This year’s commercials and trailers were ho-hum, except for the Google “Search On” ad (who thought you could tell a love story using a search engine in less than a minute?), the Doritos “House Rules” commercial and the Careerbuilder.com “Casual Friday” spot, the rest were either bizarre, unfunny or beyond stale (Bud Light, I’m talking to you).  Even more glaring was the absence of trailers for Iron Man 2, The A-Team, Clash of the Titans, Toy Story 3, Shrek Forever After, Despicable Me and Tron: Legacy.

Here’s a rundown of the movie trailers shown during Super Bowl XLIV. Click the movie name to watch the preview.

Continue reading ‘Rating the 2010 Super Bowl Trailers’

It’s Official, Avatar Now the Box Office Shiz Niz

Published by Andy on February 4, 2010 in Commentary and News. 16 Comments Tags: , , , .

James Cameron must have a direct line to God or something, because the naysayers (including me) guffawed at the ballooned budget of 1997’s Titanic and predicted it would bomb at the box office. Instead, as we all know, Titanic became the worldwide and domestic box office champ, a record that’s held until today when, ironically, another big budget Cameron epic booted the iceberg-doomed ocean liner from number one to number two. And yes, I will admit, back on December 17, 2010 I didn’t think for a moment Avatar would be the highest grossing ever by February 4, 2010, less than two months since its release.

Now the question is what, if anything, can knock Avatar from it’s perch and will the Oscar success Avatar could see on March 7, 2010 fuel its earnings even further? Dan thought The Book of Eli might give Avatar some competition a few weeks ago, but Eli got kicked to the curb by the Na’vi by more than $10 million. I don’t think From Paris with Love, which Dan will review this Friday, has the chops to take down Avatar, but the Valentine’s Day weekend could see Avatar slip in the rankings, as The Wolfman, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief and Valentine’s Day hit multiplexes and will suck some audience away from the 12-foot smurfs of Pandora.

At any rate, congratulations to James Cameron and his crew. Avatar is a great movie and it will be fun to see how high it will climb the charts. Again, I’m amazed Titanic has been eclipsed. I always thought it would be untouchable, sort of like John Stockton’s NBA all-time assists record. I wonder how long it will take for another movie to match Avatar’s success. Perhaps the bigger questions is what makes Avatar so special?

Why Nobody Cares About Independent Movies

Published by Dan on January 27, 2010 in Commentary. 5 Comments Tags: , , , .

If an independent movie plays in an independent cinema and no one goes to see it, did it really exist?

On last Friday’s KVNU Movie Show, we were asked why a community like Logan, Utah couldn’t have a successful independent cinema. Moving away from Logan, the heart of the question was really: “Why don’t mass audiences support independent film”? I gave some quick answer about how it’s marketing and awareness and word of mouth and when independent films have almost none of the above, no one cares.

In many cases, blissful ignorance in the face of something awesome is a bummer. Specifically, EVERYONE missed The Hurt Locker in 2009. Sure, it’s now harvesting eyeballs on home video, but two months ago even the mention of The Hurt Locker left most people looking dumbfounded. Thankfully, in the background, the movie raced to the top of the Oscar nomination list, which is sure to open it to more of the curious.

So what kept people from seeing The Hurt Locker when it was screening at indie  theaters (and megaplexes) across the country? And why don’t larger audiences, in general, give three craps about seeing anything that’s not hogging up at least three screens at the agoogleplex– especially when everyone says they “looooove movies”?

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Avatar Set to Sink Titanic’s Longstanding Box Office Reign

Published by Andy on January 25, 2010 in Commentary and News. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

So three weeks ago on the KVNU Movie Show I stupidly claimed Avatar would be hard pressed to beat Titanic’s longstanding box office record of $600,788,188 and wouldn’t even come close to the iceberg-doomed ship’s grip on the all-time worldwide box office of $1,842,879,955. Sure it was making some noise in December, but recent box office trends suggested it would drop by 50% or more in consecutive release weeks. I was confident in my opinion.

Color me corrected. As, Tyler notes below. Avatar wants me to suck it.

Avatar will break both records and break them quite handily, most likely in the next two weeks, if not sooner. Considering James Cameron’s space odyssey will get nominated for – and possibly win – the best picture Oscar, would it be insane to suggest Avatar could come close to the $700 million mark domestically? More importantly, what is the driving thrust behind all the interest? Is this the work of more expensive tickets (3D and IMAX), or is this simply a magical movie?

Listen, I gave Avatar a B plus. I loved it. But did I think it would be the eventual all-time box office champ? Not in a million years.

Please, discuss – I’d like to know everyone’s thoughts on the matter.

‘Avatar’ to Andy: Suck it!

Published by Tyler Riggs on January 25, 2010 in Commentary and News. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

Andy, three weeks ago: “Avatar has no chance of upending Titanic.”

Andy, two weeks ago: “It’s very unlikely that Avatar will replace Titanic as the top grossing movie of all time.”

Andy, one week ago: “Avatar could beat Titanic.”

Andy, today: “Pwned.”

The socialist Canadian Broadcasting Company reports:

James Cameron’s 3-D blockbuster Avatar has toppled one of the many records set by his earlier epic, Titanic.

Kapuskasing, Ont.-born Cameron’s science fiction extravaganza spent a sixth consecutive week atop box offices in markets around the globe.

Its total haul of $1.288 billion US internationally (not including North America) has knocked Titanic (with $1.242 billion) to No. 2 — after the historical romance had reigned as champion for more than a decade, according to estimates from Avatar distributor, 20th Century Fox.

zOMGWTFBBQ!!!!!1111111one.

I guess it could be said that Titanic’s record has sank like…well…

Avatar Wins Weekend Box Office and Golden Globes

Published by Andy on January 17, 2010 in Commentary and News. 7 Comments Tags: , , , .

Avatar hauled in another $41.3 million at the box office this weekend and leapfrogged Star Wars to become the third highest grossing domestic release of all-time. Another weekend like this and it will assuredly pass The Dark Knight. All of the sudden passing Titanic, something I thought was impossible last week, isn’t so insurmountable now. Plus, you have to expect a surge of interest with Avatar winning best picture and best director at The Golden Globes this evening. I’m a little split on whether or not I should be surprised in that regard. I loved Avatar, but personally, I would have given the nod to The Hurt Locker or Inglorious Basterds before handing the awards statue to the Cameron and his cadre of 12-foot tall blue aliens.

Oscar nominations will be announced February 2, 2010 and the awards telecast is on March 7, 2010, so we’ll see how much momentum the Golden Globe win gives Avatar heading into Hollywood’s biggest and most prestigious awards ceremony. Personally, I think Avatar has the best picture Oscar wrapped up, but then again I was hoping Slumdog Millionaire would receive a swift kick to the cinematic balls. Next to Shakespeare in Love, Slumdog Millionaire was one of the most over-hyped, bland best picture winners in recent memory. I’d probably stick Crash into that basket, too.