My first question going into this film was; Does anyone rent videotapes anymore? Do kids these days even know what they are? Alright, that was two questions. And for the movie to work you really have to suspend that disbelief. Let me back up, there is some more disbelief you will need to be suspending, but I need to tell you the plot first. Mike and Jerry (Mos Def and Jack Black respectively) are taking care of a run down old video store/thrift shop for elderly old Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover) while he’s away. Somehow along the way Jerry gets magnetized. Yeah, you read that right, he becomes magnetic. Granted, it’s not as much as a logic leap as a store still renting video tapes, but it’s still a pretty huge hurdle if you’re looking for realism. Aaaaaanyway, Jerry erases all of the tapes in the store by his mere presence. *HEY! That’s why they made them rent video tapes! The plot line wouldn’t have worked if they had DVDs/it this took place this century. * Now, people are coming in to rent movies and these guys don’t want to see the old man’s store go our of business, so they decide to grab a video camera and make their own versions of famous films (Ghostbusters, Rush Hour 2, Robocop and plenty of others). Throw in some evil corporate developers trying to have the store demolished and some evil corporate show biz lawyers trying to shut down our boys and you’ve got yourself a movie.

So what did I think? Michael Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) does a sometimes masterful job directing here. The montage scene in particular is incredibly well-done. There is a whimsical and almost fantastic feel to nearly everything about the film, which somehow works to help you get around the absurd storyline. Even though the movie takes place in a horrible neighborhood that is barely one step up from the projects (maybe just a step over). This is a neighborhood where the thugs merely glare at you rather than beat you into a puddle of your own blood and piss. This is a neighborhood where people still seem to know each other. Alright, that too may be harder to believe than Jack Black becoming magnetized. However, even though I “bought it” I still felt like it was lacking something. It felt like it could have been funnier. Many of the funniest parts have been seen on the trailers, and once you’ve seen a couple of movies get “Sweded” (what they call their movies) the joke has kind of played out. I didn’t get bored, but I wasn’t really busting a gut laughing either. Gondry did do a good job of taking this goofy idea and giving it some soul and meaning, but more on that later.

Mos Def keeps working his way up my “Actors I Really Enjoy, But Don’t Go Out Of My Way To See” list. He’s almost on my “Actors That I Will Be More Inclined To Watch A Movie Because They Are In It” list. I really hope that his real voice isn’t that borderline retarded voice that he used in 16 Blocks (and slipped into a few times in this) though. He brought a simple-minded sincerity to the film without making it too sappy. His initial refusal to do, and later outrage at being part of, the Driving Miss Daisy remake is one of the few (and nicely underplayed) darker moments of the film. Damn, I really wish I had thought of a better way to put that. Jack Black is in good form here. He is a much better sidekick than lead, and in this he gets to slip into that more comfortable skin. Don’t believe me? Watch School of Rock, then watch High Fidelity. See what I mean? In Be Kind, Rewind Black gets to act like his usual goofy self, but he pulls it back a few notches from his more recent performances, and that is a good thing. He and Mos Def have a decent chemistry and his spastic insanity was a nice foil to Def. Danny Glover was alright I guess. It’s hard not to like an actor playing the lovable old man about to get tossed out on his ass by the corporate developers. Mia Farrow is actually still cute. It’s in a crazy old lady kind of way, but anyone that publicly speaks out against Woody Allen is aces in my book. Hell, for that I’ll say she still looks gorgeous. I should mention that Melonie Diaz was great as the woman in their lives. She was realistically pretty, and about as intelligent and savvy as you could expect for anyone from this world.

WONDER TWIN POWERS ACTIVATE

For probably the most commercial movie of Michael Gondry’s career he managed to work some covert anti-commercial messages into it. He is clearly opposed to the gentrification of the movie/video business, or what he sees as his art. The statements run rampant through the film, that what these guys are creating is just as valid, if not more (to their community) as anything Hollywood produces. Our heroes suffer the futility of fighting the system (corporations, lawyers, Hollywood) to be find the triumph of art over adversity (that soul and meaning I mentioned earlier). This was a good movie, but not a great one. I don’t think it really hit on all cylinders, but when it did it nailed it. It could have/should have been funnier, but at least the drama wasn’t over played or out of place. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon all in all.

RATING: 7/10

I swear, you best be knocking that shit off or I will knock dem teeths right down your throats.

I’ll be the first to admit that I have not been a big proponent of a new Indiana Jones movie. I think “Last Crusade” is just a rehash of the far superior “Raiders”, and I really didn’t want to have my wonderful memories of my favorite movie hero to be tarnished by seeing him as an old man. I have heard plenty about this and through it all I’ve been skeptical.

Well, YAHOO has given us the first real peak at what we can expect right here:

I have to admit that I totally started to geek out when I heard the strings start to hum and the Paramount logo morphed. Then we get that silhouette:

I ask you, is there any more iconic image than this? It just says it all. So yeah, they had me thinking positively about the project for a change.

The trailer stayed strong with some good swinging, punching and crashing. All important staples of the franchise. Indy is clearly older, and I could have done without the “I’m too old for this shit”esque comment, but I totally expected it.

The things that worked best for me though were the familiar things. Obviously the stuff mentioned above, but maybe my favorite thing is the location. My favorite sequence from any Indy movie is the opening of “Raiders”. Nothing captures the spirit and excitement of Indiana Jones better than that scene in the temple where he steals the golden idol (a replica of which adorns my TV cabinet in my living room). I’ve always wanted to see more of Indy in South America and it looks like Steve-o and Georgie Porgie finally listened to the threatening Candy-Grams I’ve been sending them and sent Indy back where he belongs. You just can’t beat a South American temple full of BOOBY TRAPS! Especially with hordes of angry natives chasing him.

It is a delight to see Marion back at his side (she always was the only one for him), even if it looks like she might have had some “work” done. I’m no Shia-Hater, but I really wish they had gone with a grown-up Short Round for Indy’s sidekick in this one. Sure you wouldn’t have the whole familial thing going on, but I’d like to think Indy didn’t just leave the kid on a doorstep somewhere.

Just from the glimpse we get here it did seem like some of the backgrounds were a bit to CGI looking, which really disappoints me. Hopefully that can be corrected in post-production. But that is really the only complaint I could offer at this point.

So here we are, he’s older, probably wiser, definitely a little slower, and clearly gray, but he’s still clearly Indy. I’m more positive about it now, but still a little cautiously optimistic.

28 Days Later x Mad Max (Escape From New York) + Lara Croft = Doomsday

Sound cool? Hell yeah it does.

Neil Marshall is one of those directors that I will watch anything he does just because he did it (there are only a few of those). Every since a buddy lent me a copy of Dog Soldiers (British soldiers fighting werewolves) about five years ago I’ve been a fan. He doesn’t have a huge body of work, but what he’s got speaks for itself (he also wrote and directed The Descent).

So what is Doomsday? Well, a virus wipes out millions so “they” decide to build a wall around Scotland and ship everyone that’s infected inside the walls and leave them to die. Man, they really fucking hate Scotland over there. 25 years later the virus is spreading again and “they’ve” seen that people inside the wall are still living, meaning the virus has a cure (or a resistant strain). Enter Rhona Mitra, (who looks enough like Kate Beckinsale that she is taking over the lead in the Underworld films) as a scientist, soldier, ??? (does it matter?) as the leader of a team of soldiers heading into the quarantined land to find this cure. Oooops, it’s now a post-apocalyptic living hell (Mad Max, Escape From New York) and the residents are not happy with the people that left them there to die.

With a cast of actors like Bob Hoskins, Malcolm McDowell, Sean Pertwee and of course Ms. Mitra, and such an exciting director behind the lens this is one that will have me in the theater, chomping down on my popcorn and snow-caps on opening day.

Psycho punks, manic car chases, gun battles, sword fights, and a hot chick, if that sounds like something you could dig then go check out the

Hey, run your cute little ass over to one of the bestest horror sites out there, Arrow in the Head and get a look at the official poster. Below is a sneaky peek.

I can’t tell you how much I truly, truly hate writing this story. According to CNN Heath Ledger was found dead in his Manhattan Apartment today.

Ledger’s housekeeper found him dead in his Manhattan apartment, New York police said.

He died at 3:26 p.m., they said.

The New York Fire Department received a call at 2:27 today responding to a “cardiac arrest call” in New York.

They found an unresponsive male dead at the scene.

At just 28 years old the actor was turning into one of the finest actors in Hollywood. Having been already nominated for an Academy Award for his role in “Brokeback Mountian” he had carved out an eccentric and fascinating career. I personally first noticed him when I saw “10 Things I Hate About You” one Easter Sunday in theaters. I enjoyed the movie, but the first thing I said when leaving was, “That guy is going to be a huge star.” He was also the best thing about “Monster’s Ball”.

I am deeply saddened as a movie fan and a fan of his that we will not see what could have become of this incredibly talented young actor. I am deeply saddened as a human being that he leaves behind a young daughter.

Ledger’s next screen role is that of The Joker in the upcoming Batman film “The Dark Knight”, possibly the most anticipated movie of 2008, and one of the most anticipated performances in recent memory. I have heard that it is nothing short of amazing. He leaves behind a truly remarkable legacy for such a young actor. May he rest in peace.

***UPDATE***

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

The sleeping pills Heath Ledger was reportedly taking have been embroiled in controversy in Australia, where hundreds have had bizarre and potentially dangerous reactions to the drug.

Called Ambien in the US, the tablet is marketed as Stilnox in Australia…

In November, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) reduced pack sizes and updated its warnings on the drug to protect people from its “worrying and potentially dangerous adverse effects”…

Reports suggest that Ledger may have been suffering for pneumonia at the time of his death, with some speculating the drug may have reacted with his condition…

But Sydney general practitioner Dr John Gullotta, of the Australian Medical Association, said such a reaction with Stilnox would be “extremely rare”.

“In the product information (for Stilnox) they do actually caution against use in people with severe respiratory conditions, and pneumonia can obviously cause respiratory problems,” said Dr Gullotta, who could not comment on the specific case.

So, there is one theory.

Sundance Film Festival is going on right now. For those of you that don’t know, one of the main points of the Festival is for independent film makers to get their films in there, show them to distributors and (hopefully) have distributors purchase the rights to – duh, distribute them. Word is no one is buying this year. I don’t know if this year’s crop just isn’t that great or what, but it doesn’t help that he majority of films that were purchased last year turned out to be big humping flops. Well, I don’t know about the rest of the movies, but one of my most anticipated upcoming films, the adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s novel CHOKE, done got bought up. Woo-frigging-Hooo!

Never heard of it? Silly goose, I told you guys about it HERE. Fox Searchlight, the company that brought us the Indie hits, “Napoleon Dynamite”, “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Juno” have wisely snatched up the rights to “CHOKE” for a cool $5 Mil. That is wonderful news. They know better than any other company out there right now how to handle this type of film and from all I’ve heard that movie is really great. Sam Rockwell is one of the best “unknown” actors out there- scratch that, he is one of the best actors out there, period; and this movie seems like a perfect vehicle for him. I truly can not wait to see it.

Rope of Silicon has an interview with director, Clark Gregg, and some footage from the film HERE. I’m not going to bother explaining what it’s about. The clip does it so much better than I could. You have two choices, check it out, or be a twat. You must choose, but choose wisely.

Well, it’s finally here kiddies. Months of anticipation, meted out through a now infamous viral campaign, and what do we have to show for it? A big fucking monster movie. That’s pretty much exactly what I wanted. Were all of our questions answered? No. Like, what the bleeding hell is Slusho, and why should I give a shit? If you followed the viral marketing at all you are no doubt all too familiar with Slusho. Give it up, it’s nothing but a t-shirt. That’s all it has to do with the movie, some tool in a Slusho t-shirt for 2 seconds. I’m very glad I never wasted my time following the “clues” on all the random viral sites. Now that all that nasty viral talk is out of the way, I can get onto the actual movie.

Between a gigantic monster and heavy artillery, one place you do not want to be.

What happens when a catastrophe of Godzilla proportions hits a “real world” New York city? Director Matt Reeves takes us on a shoddy runaway mine-cart of a ride and tries to show us. What we get for our money is real destruction, real violence and real victims. There are no buildings blowing up with a zero casualty rate. We feel very clearly that people are dying, left and right, and there is nothing anyone can do about it – but run. I made a note to myself before going in not to dwell on the camera work, well that is impossible. The whole story is told through the camera work, moreso I think than the actors. Reeves clearly wanted this to be an intimate experience so he went the “Blair Witch” meets “Godzilla” route. I think it was a great idea and it paid off. We get the experience of a monster movie, not a big flashy F/X extravaganza that feels like a bunch of people running from a tennis ball on a stick. That’s not to say we don’t get special effects, we do, and plenty of them. The monster makes plenty of appearances, and he gets his close-ups in. But more importantly we get to see what it would look like and feel like if we were the hopeless souls stuck in this nightmare. A word of caution however, if you have any issues with motion sickness you might want to sit this one out, or hit the Dramamine. I was getting a little queasy a few times and I have a stomach of steel. This style did enable them to get some crazy, original and effective camera angles and techniques though. The night vision scene was one of my favorite parts of the film.

Rob (Michael Stahl-David) is moving to Japan. His friends throw him a going away party and wouldn’t you know it, it’s the same night this Beasty Behemoth decides to make his presence known. Since Rob’s best friend, Hud (T.J. Miller), was video taping the party he decides to bring the camera with him and document the event as they try to escape from New York. (Snake Plissken wouldn’t have ran from that thing.) Throw in an odd love story between Rob and his friend Beth (Odette Yustman). Basically, they’ve known each other forever, they eventually have sex, Rob is a prick and doesn’t call her for a month because he is moving to Japan. After the attack Rob gets a call from her on his cell phone that she is trapped in her apartment and seriously hurt. So now, rather than getting the hell off the island Rob has Hud and a couple of ladies trekking across Manhattan with him to find Beth. Also, the videotape that they are filming the carnage on was the one that Rob and Beth recorded their perfect “day after” date on, so those images keep cutting in and out through the film. Really, I could have done without the love story. Rob acted like an ass to her so I didn’t care about them as a couple. It did give the characters a good reason to traverse the city under the insanity of this attack, but that was it. I just never felt it from them. Of all the actors in the film the only one that really stood out at all for me was T.J. Miller. Since he is the one filming we hardly ever even see him, but his commentary kept things moving along and gave us laughs at just the right moments. Even without seeing his face he felt more human and real than anyone else to me.

We’ve been going about this all wrong. This Cloverfield monster is okay. He’s a sailor, he’s in New York, we get this guy laid we won’t have any trouble.

So we’ve got our crew going all over Manhattan, from the subway tunnels to skyscraper rooftops in one harrowing ordeal after the other. But what about the monster? Does he deliver? I certainly thought so. Don’t expect a ton of grand shots of a towering beast trampling triumphantly through the city. This is not that kind of movie. He seems more out of place than evil. He clearly doesn’t belong here, and he really isn’t too crazy about all these things blowing up on him. And can you blame him? We see him (or maybe her, but for our purposes here him) plenty, but it’s not shot like a typical monster movie. I’m not going to go into great detail here about how he looks. See it for yourself. I liked it, it was somehow both unique and familiar. He also has some pets (well, probably parasites, but who are we to speculate on their relationship?) in the form of some wicked-ass demon-crab-scarab-dog things that are pretty scary themselves. The whole film is done strictly from the perspective of the people we are following. We know only what they know, and they don’t know shit. We never learn where the monster came from, what it is or… well, you’ll just have to see it.

It’s not a perfect movie, the characters didn’t do much for me. The thought of a guy being able to film all of this while surely losing control of his bodily functions was a bit of a stretch for me. One character in particular suffers a near fatal injury and yet makes what can only be described as a miraculous recovery in no time. I thought it started rather slow. We get it, people love him, it’s a party, gimme some chaos already! The camera work is tough to stomach at times. But the Big Ol’ Monster made up for all of that, and the action scenes were quick, intense and came at a steady pace throughout. I really enjoyed the lack of explanation as well. Most movies over explain things these days, taking all of the fun and fantasy out of it. Cloverfield just lets us enjoy the mayhem without having to analyze it. All in all, worth the price of admission for anyone looking for an exciting way to spend the evening.

RATING: 7.5/10

I told her to take the Dramamine.

Alright ladies (and some of you guys) time to brace yourselves and pretend you’re not melting in your seat. Variety is reporting that Christian Bale is in negotiations to star opposite Johnny Depp in Michal Mann (Heat) helmed “Public Enemies”. Johnny is already signed to play the infamous bank robber John Dillinger, and Christian Bale should be playing the FBI Agent that hunted Dillinger down, Melvin Purvis. Production is scheduled to begin in March at Universal.

I don’t know about you, but two of Hollywood’s biggest stars, and best action-heroes in a gangster movie directed by the guy that gave us “HEAT” sounds pretty goddamn awesome. And I gotta say, Depp isn’t a bad likeness for JD

The folks at /Film have gotten their paws on some production notes for Cloverfield wherein we gets us some more clues about the Big Bad Baby in Cloverfield. Really, it’s a baby. JJ says so himself. And the movie is a love story. A fucking love story? Please.

Reeves also skillfully interweaves an important storyline throughout the film, that of Rob and Beth’s (Odette Yustman) earlier relationship. Hud is unknowingly taping over an earlier recording Rob had made with the camera of intimate, quiet time spent with his mate. “You see their loving gaze. It’s this small love story,” says Reeves.

That Reeves would be director Matt Reeves. But you guys want to hear about the monster. Straight from JJ Abrams mouth (allegedly):

The concept for the monster (affectionately known simply as “Clover” in-house) is simple, says Abrams. “He’s a baby. He’s brand-new. He’s confused, disoriented and irritable. And he’s been down there in the water for thousands and thousands of years.”

And where is he from? “We don’t say – deliberately,” notes Goddard. “Our movie doesn’t have the scientist in the white lab coat who shows up and explains things like that. We don’t have that scene.”

Not only is the creature disoriented – he’s downright angry. “There are a bunch of smaller things – humans – that are annoying him and shooting at him like a swarm of bees,” observes Reeves. “None of these things are going to kill the monster, but they hurt it and it doesn’t understand. It’s this new environment that it finds frightening.”

Sooo… it’s a love story with a baby monster in it? Great. But wait, don’t forget the parasites! They’ve gotta be kick-ass right?

And because of that, the idea of the parasites was born. “They’re these horrifying, dog-sized creatures that just scatter around the city and add to the nightmare of the evening,” Abrams says.

Ok, so now it’s a love story complete with a lovable baby monster and it’s pets? Still no word on the Incredible Bloating Woman in the trailer. To read the whole article, which has a lot more info click that little pointer of yours riiiiight HERE.

For more production photos lick the screen HERE. Clicking might work too, give it a try.

Now, if only I could remember that release date…