Validation can be a sweet thing. With Neill Blomkamps’ name forever attached to the defunct Peter Jackson/Fox/Universal Halo project, the director may have had a little more to prove with his big-screen directorial debut. Blomkamp’s previously deft incorporation of realism and fantasy as played out in a wide variety of commercials and shorts shouldn’t have left any doubt to his skill, or at least an idea that he was a director to be on the watch for. As he expands …
Author: Dan
Jared Hess. A man birthed from the Mormon Movie massacre of 2002-2004 and shot from the cannon of obscurity to cultural zeitgeist with Napoleon Dynamite. A man subsequently handed the reigns to an underrated and unappreciated Jack Black Luchador comedy from Paramount and then…. silence. Until now! Jared Hess is back with the comedy Gentlemen Broncos– the epic tale of a young sci-fi writer’s quest to overcome the plagiarizing forces of old sci-fi writer Ronald Chevalier (as played by Flight …
The Bible can be creepy. Take Revelations, with its symbolic dragons, falling stars, blood moon, apocalyptic horsemen and the “God Hates Fags” guys. There’s also the story of Jesus’ run-in with a guy who’s possessed. Jesus asks his name and the guy responds “Legion- for we are many”. Of course, Legion subsequently gets a spiritual punch in the face, hops into a bunch of pigs who then squeal/gargle their way into a Red Sea dirt nap, but that didn’t stop …
You may remember Andy’s note from a few weeks ago when Fox announced it would be screening a chunk of James Cameron’s Avatar in select IMAX 3D Theaters across the country (and wooooooorld!). In a pretentiously named move to make an event out of a film whose hype machine seems to be getting a very, very slow start in creating general audience awareness (or even gernal anticipation), 20th Century Fox has now assigned a date to “Avatar Day” and it’s… …
I may not have said it before, but I’ll say it again anyway: Satan abounds in the hearts of those not moved by the trailers for Where the Wild Things Are. That may be going a little far, but I’m big time into hyperbole, so it stands. In what seems like just yesterday, when the first WTWTA trailer hit, I had this to say: “Viewing the just-released trailer now– two years later– I couldn’t be more enchanted with the potential …
You may not have heard, but despite poor, poor, poor, poor, poor buzz, GI Joe did pretty well this last weekend and enjoyed almost $60 million hard earned American dollars shoved into its battle-ready G-string. Internationally, Joe did even more– $100 million in Francs, Euros, Pounds, Yen and other assorted monetaries worth more than the dollar. I’d like to say GI Joe‘s success came from the fact Andy and I really enjoyed its ridiculous silliness, so I will. As a …
Each summer, studios drop a late-season, B-grade thriller into theaters in hopes of seeing it make a run at a dark horse weekend. 2005: Into the Blue and Red Eye. Last year: Death Race and Mirrors. Two of those four qualify for a the Showcase of Shame and both, incidentally, were not released in 2008. But so much for old memories. It’s summer 2009 and this year we’ve got A Perfect Getaway. Written and directed by the very capable craftsman …
With all the flaccid outrage (read: Why didn’t I get invited?) by critics over Paramount’s decision to screen G.I. Joe to only a handful of audiences and critics (including CHUD’s spot-on review by Devin Faraci) and KSL’s Doug Wright mistakenly reporting director Stephen Sommers quit the project (he didn’t- nor was he ever fired), a huge question remains: “OK, but is it any good?” The short answer: Yes. Remember Stephen Sommers pre-Van Helsing? He’s back with a GI Joe that’s …