Spanish filmmaker Alejandro Amenabar may not have a lot of notoriety outside certain film circles, but his work tends to get picked up by Hollywood and subjected to Americanized remakes. You can thank him for the surreal Vanilla Sky and the spooky The Others– both if which he wrote, one of which he directed (The Others). Alejandro’s latest (English spoken) film, the toga’d and sandalized Agora, which debuted at Cannes this week, stars Oscar winner Racheal Weisz and is all …
Author: Dan
It’s Tuesday, which means the shelves of your local digital entertainment purveyor are freshly stocked with the latest DVD/Blu Ray releases– aka- a great way to spend yourself into the poorhouse. One of the larger releases today (besides the eyeball impalation-fest My Bloody Valentine) is Valkyrie. Riddled with delays and production anxiety over Tom Cruise cooties and Bryan Singer’s post-Superman Returns fallout, the film had a modest run in spite of the drama and saw moderate success. However, I know …
There’s nothing more to be said about Twilight: New Moon. It’s coming up super-fast, women get all swooney at the thought of it and guys wonder why because vampires are dumb. There’s nothing much to say about the poster, either. It’s the one the Twihards have been waiting for– a beefy and defensive Jacob, a “morose is the new black” Bella and a pouty, slouchy Edward– all ready to adorn your wall, desktop wallpaper or both.
Robert Zemeckis and his motion capture animation. The Polar Express and Beowulf were both dry and stiff experiments in using “actorly animation”* to tell fantastical tales of creepy hobos, jumpin’ hot chocolate guys, a kid with the most annoying voice in the known universe and naked Norsemen and the long-tailed Angelina Jolie yuck-mouths they knock boots with. While both stories had their original mystique, the animatic execution was cold and detached. Zemeckis’ next animation project (remember when he did actual …
In a recent red carpet interview, Terminator creator James Cameron had some exciting stuff to say about the upcoming Terminator: Salvation: “It doesn’t look like it’s going to be an embarrassment.” He’s out to get you HYPED! Sign me up for a Friday/Saturday double viewing. Luckily, Pizza Hut has a little more skin in the game and is giving you a glimpse of a scene from the movie (which, from a visual standpoint, looks ominously ethereal)– complete with McG introduction …
Mathematics have never been my thing– which makes the nonsensical and winning equation of Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus explode into all kinds of sense: Sharks are rad. Lorenzo Lamas is lame. Deborah Gibson was once rad, but is now lame. The infinitely stalled Meg movie would have been rad, but the book is lame and Tentacles was never rad and always lame. In math-talk, that’s Sharks – Lamas – Gibson – Meg + Meg – Tentacles = 0 = …
A few years back, 2D Disney animation (ie- “cartoon animation”) was suffering diminishing returns, while newfangled “computer” animation was creating a magical land called Jackpot City. Disney nixed their film animation division after Home on the Range and shoveled time and effort into their CG division, churning out unforgettable classics like Meet the Robinsons, Chicken Little and The Wild. Luckily, Pixar big man and animation lover John Lasseter (Toy Story, Cars) was put in charge of Disney animation when Pixar and …
I probably don’t need to go into a rant on video game adaptations and their track record of pooptitude– it’s a simple cinematic fact (to date) and exists as its own rule– right along side Penelope Cruz equaling Box Office Poison and an assurance of a Matthew McConaughey romcom (is there any other kind?) containing shirt misplacemant and drawling “aawwwwll raaaighhhhts”. Still, high hops have been foistered in the form of Prince of Persia, the film based on the climbing, …