A Nightmarish Reboot

The new Nightmare on Elm Street movie is a more blatantly sadistic “Freddy,” and a great pulse pounding reboot of the film series.  After umpteen sequels you might think the content and storyline of a new ‘Nightmare’ movie would be stale; more re-hashed ways of offing defenseless teens – more driveled one-liners by our pal Freddy – but director Samuel Bayer (anybody remember the Metallica videos from the early 1990’s?) and writers Wesley Strick & Eric Heisserer (Arachnophobia and Final Destination 5) work magic with Wes Craven’s original concept.  The neighborhood of Elm Street keeps the same 80’s look of the original film series.  The story line, although consistent with the theme of the Freddy films, still seems fresh and inventive.  Noted film composer Steve Jablonsky renders a musical score that reinvents the eerie sounds of Elm Street while adding his signature style of rhythmic vibrating bass tones (Want a sample of his talent?  Check out the new trailer for “Jonah Hex” starring Josh Brolin & Megan Fox; it’s his score from 2005’s ‘The Island’).

The new ‘Elm Street’ keeps the story of our favorite crispy villain and his horrendous exploits to unleash a barrage of steel-fingered dismemberment on the inhabitants of Elm Street.  The film also stays consistent with the heroine who appears in the film series, Nancy Holbrook (Rooney Mara “Youth In Revolt”).  Nancy is your typical socially-awkward teen as she’s always been.  This time she’s an artist with struggling visions of despair driving her brush nightly as she feverishly attempts to avoid sleep.  With friends around her suddenly dying in strange ways, and her dreams  slowly engulfed by a menacing burnt figure, she begins to piece together the ‘who’ and ‘why’ this nightmare is playing out on the residents of her street.    Our villain Freddy (Jackie Earl Haley “Watchmen”) relishes in his power to whisk through her dreams to torment her, while taking extensive trips into her friends to systematically slice and dice them in clever and inventive ways.  The film draws on the clichéd quick music jumps to send your heart fluttering, but it becomes a ‘rope-a-dope’ on the senses.  Just when you think it’s as simple as a cat jumping across the screen – you suddenly get a fright that is completely unexpected.  The hidden jewel of this film is the storyline.  You get engrossed in where the writers are taking you and the spin they put on Freddy’s motive for stalking these hapless teenagers.  Freddy’s banter is hard edged and offers very little comedy (“Why are you screaming?  I haven’t even cut you yet!”).  It’s all about the business of terrifying and shredding for this Freddy who finds a morbidly gory way of dealing with the films resident hottie Kris (Katie Cassidy of 2010’s ‘Melrose Place’).  As the film moves, you start to wonder how fresh they can make each death dream sequence, yet each one is a visual spectacle that culminates in the inevitable downfall of another angst ridden teen; you will not be disappointed.

The steady-cam film work gives you the constant impression Freddy is walking with or behind every character you see at all times.  The score brilliantly plays off each tension filled moment and culminates in a auditory sensory shock almost as potent as the visual one you get with each characters demise.  The film runs a bit short at 90 minutes, but why waste time with filler when you have content written this well.

“A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010)” is rated R for strong bloody horror violence, disturbing images, terror and language.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Transformers director Michael Bay may be adding a dimension to the third installment in the hugely profitable action series.

In interviews following the release of last year’s remarkably successful Transformers 2: Revenge Of The Fallen, Bay hinted at a slight distaste for the rash of recent 3D blockbusters, regarding them as “gimmicks.” However, it now seems that he is looking into 3D technology to possibly be utilized during the filming of Transformers 3, set for release by summer of next year.

During an interview on Starz’s In The House, Bay touched on the rumors:

“It’s a process we’re testing with some ‘Transformers‘ scenes,” he said. “How successful it is with my movie in terms of a lot of real stuff coming out of the frame, real dirt, real complicated little particles coming towards the lens, because hopefully that process will work. I’ve seen some tests that look great on other movies. I just want to see how it looks on my footage.”

Bay has also elaborated occasionally on his reasons for not jumping into Hollywood’s 3D  party:

“The way I shoot is too aggressive for 3D cameras. It’s a time consuming thing,” said Bay. “Who knows… It might be a fad. I’m kinda old school. I’m old school because I like to shoot on film. I like anamorphic lenses, and that is old school.”

However, many people are speculating that Bay may only be looking into the “process” of converting his film into 3D in post-production, which would barely affect his on-set filming style at all, and could only hope to increase the already guaranteed huge returns.

Look, I’m not sure anyone knows what “old school” Bay studied at, considering his penchant for gigantic robot action and explosion-overkill that leaves his audiences senseless and reeling (and most often, not in a good way,) but I guess it’s commendable that he at least wants to save time an money during shooting. I guess you need to take all the precautions you can with your equipment when your entire career already relies on insanely expensive destruction.

So let’s take a vote: Transformers 3 in 3D or not? (And we WILL be accepting votes of “kill the whole series, please.”)

Here is the second trailer to be released for the upcoming A Nightmare on Elm Street remake (reboot?) starring Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen). Unlike the first trailer this one really gets to the action and shows us just how terrifying Freddy’s terrorizing will be.

What are your thoughts on this Michael Bay reboot? Any fans of the original Nightmare excited about this? Better yet, any fans of the umpteen sequels to the original want a reboot? Personally I’m more of a Michael Myers fan (HELLO, So I Married an Axe Murderer) so it seems a little too timely that the Nightmare franchise would reboot after the success of Rob Zombie’s Halloween (let’s not talk about Halloween 2) but Money Talks isn’t just a movie starring Chris Tucker and Charlie Sheen. See Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy in A Nightmare on Elm Street this April 30, 2010.

Check out the trailer below:

Paramount Pictures has signed a “first-look” producing deal with Platinum Dunes, the horror trio of Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form.

Bay had this to say about the link:

“We offer a valuable service to the studio, especially with all this turmoil going on in the business right now, in that we do things cheaply, and we’ve had a lot of success with it. Through the first two Transformers films, I’ve gotten to know the studio very well, and I’ve got a good rhythm with them. I’m excited about this.”

It’s the first big deal that new Paramount Pictures president Adam Goodman has made since he gained that title. About Fuller and Form’s impact upon the horror genre, he said that they “have consistently created excitingly commercial movies that have proven to be a formidable force at the box office. We look forward to a long and productive partnership with them.”

The low-budget producers — who operate on a low budget only by Hollywood’s definition of that term — desire to branch out into action/thriller films with this new deal in place.

For now, though, they have two projects in place to produce: The Butcherhouse Chronicles, which has been pitched as “Breakfast Club in a haunted house” by writer Stephen Susco (The Grudge), and Property of the State, about “about a young white-collar criminal whose attempt to straighten out his life is imperiled by an obsessive and menacing parole officer.”

It seems that sticking to a clear plan of action in Platinum Dunes has paid off in spades for Fuller and Form; time will tell if this deal means any big changes in their horror remake scheduling.

Action movie director Michael Bay appears again, in the form of his own message board for his latest announcement. He comes out with what is the latest on the third film in the Transformers movie franchise, along with a snippet for actress Megan Fox to read:

Well its official: We have a great Transformers 3 story. The release date is now July 1st 2011. Not 2012.

Today is Day One. This morning started with an ILM meeting for five hours in San Francisco. Currently I’m flying with writer Ehren Kruger to Rhode Island to talk to Hasbro about new characters.

P.S. Megan Fox, welcome back. I promise no alien robots will harm you in any way during the production of this motion picture. Please consult your Physician when working under my direction because some side effects can occur, such as mild dizziness, intense nausea, suicidal tendencies, depression, minor chest hair growth, random internal hemorrhaging and inability to sleep. As some directors may be hazardous to your health, please consult your Doctor to determine if this is right for you.

Pain and Gain is right after shooting of Trans 3.

Michael

Now it appears that the Hasbro toy line inspired soon-to-be trilogy will obviously start locking in for full on filming sometime next year with its brand new 2011 release. The latest installment, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, took over worldwide and made a hefty profit with an estimated $832 million. Thanks to Coming Soon! for this bit of news.

Just read this at the Hollywood Reporter and I hope it is true. I loved the first two “Bad Boys” movies and think they are great action flicks and some of the best mindless fun I’ve seen on the big screen.

Columbia Pictures is developing a third installment of the high-octane “Bad Boys” franchise, tapping Peter Craig to pen the screenplay.

The hope is to have a script that would reunite director Michael Bay, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. At this point, with the project in the early stages, none has a deal to return.

The “Boys” movies feature Smith and Lawrence as Miami detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett, caught up in cases involving car chases and explosions.

The first “Boys,” released in 1995, helped launch Bay as a director and Smith as an action star even though it was not a fire-stamped blockbuster — it grossed $66 million domestically and $141 million worldwide.

The sequel, released in 2003 when Bay and Smith’s stars had risen, grossed $138 million domestically and $273 million worldwide.

All parties have expressed a willingness to return if a story can be hammered out. One potential hurdle, however, would be the costly deals with the players.

Undoubtedly due to the success of Michael Bay’s little art house Transformers pictures and Stephen Sommers’ surprisingly entertaining G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (not to mention a whole slew of popular LEGO-themed video games), we might be in for a Warner Bros. LEGO film.

Variety is currently reporting that writers Dan and Kevin Hageman are crafting a family-oriented LEGO movie that will combine animation with live action in “an action adventure set in a LEGO world.” Dan Lin, who is currently  producing Sherlock Holmes and Robert Rodriguez’s new family film Shorts will produce the film under Lin Pictures.

The aforementioned Transformers and G.I. Joe have been the testing ground for box office success drawn from toy-based films, and with the second Transformers film gathering over $800 million in gross revenue, the floodgates have opened for a variety of franchises to try out the cinema waters.  With a built-in audience derived from family-friendly film seekers and a seemingly ubiquitous presence of LEGO products in every child’s toy chest, Warner Bros. is sure to have at least a modest success on their hands.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is the film that just won’t die. Just when you think that the headiness of its debut was over, boom, the damn thing picks up steam and is closing in on becoming the biggest movie of the year.

Not bad for a film that can not find a friend in the press.

The critic/audience gap aside, our pals over at Moviemistakes.com alerted us to the obscene amount of blunders made during production. MM counted 40 mistakes, which makes the Michael Bay feature the “most mistake-ridden movie of the year”, surpassing the 19 goofs from Angels & Demons.

Any chance to post a pic of Megan Fox, I will take it.

My favorite mistake: When Sam is brought to the cemetery to meet Optimus, you can see the green mark on the grass where Sam is supposed to stand while talking to him.

Check out the site for more goodness.

While you’re here, how about you check out Atomic Popcorn’s review of the film from our crack staff of cinematic bloviators?

Matthew Snider – “Bay does know what he is doing whether you like him or not; he put together some of the cleanest actions shots around, if you ask me.”

Philip Barret – “As much as audiences believed a man could fly in 1978, they’ll certainly buy that Spielberg and Bay are keeping the Autobots hidden somewhere in an abandoned Hollywood lot.”

Erik Buckman – “One can have all the BOOM, hotness and amazing special effects they want but if the story is a mind-numbing waste of time, then the movie is an epic fail. Exhibit A: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”