Everybody loves “Up” and that was etched in stone over the weekend when theatergoers anxious to see Pixar’s new computer animated masterpiece poured in $68.2 million, knocking “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” out of first place and dropping “Terminator Salvation” to fourth place. “Star Trek” stayed strong in the fifth spot, with a four week gross of $209.5 million. Frankly, I can’t see “Up” relinquishing the top spot anytime soon, either. I don’t think upcoming releases “Land …
Category: News
And by revealed I mean James Cameron’s Avatar has released some concept art that’s not just lame set/bluescreen shots or images destined to be yanked by Fox studios. This is real, approved stuff– replete with Camerony future-military/fantastic fingerprints. Beholden (and click to beholden bigger): I’m a sucker for anything military/future military, so seeing stuff like this just fills my nerdy heart with unabated gid. I’m still not buying into the incredibly verbose hype that’s echoing off any mention of Avatar, …
In a perfect underlining of why Pixar’s closest rival and unfathomable moneymaker creatively sucks and hates the audiences who still shovel gobs of cash into their slackjawed maws, Dreamworks Animation announced their ambitious plans to crap out five new animated features every two years. This shouldn’t be hard, considering the total rehash and ugly character design each and every one of their films tend to plop on eager audiences every year. With the exception of the charming Kung Fu Panda, …
Its official, folks – Christian “It’s F***ing Distracting” Bale and his “Terminator Salvation” action extravaganza was not only beaten by “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” at the box office this past weekend, but was soundly spanked like a whiny, petulant child, which, in Bale’s case, might be somewhat true. And thus it can now be etched in stone: The Fandango Five can suck it. NATM: BOTS, as it’s called by text messengers everywhere, earned a weekend gross …
Quentin Tarantino and the cast of “Inglorious Basterds” are at the Cannes Film Festival and early buzz from Roger Ebert and CNN seems to be good, especially if you’re someone who isn’t keen on brutal violence pasted on the silver screen just for kicks. It seems this Tarantino film has more talking than gore, of course this is also a war movie and sometimes war violence is treated with kid gloves because, well, it’s war. And war is hell. And …
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 …
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 …