Time to head to the multiplex and catch another wicked pissah of a flick. Hope the previews are good.
AZM ally Mike Dent just sent me this double trailer for Hard Revenge Milly and The Masked Girl, both hit theaters August 9 in Japan.
Wow! Milly looks fucking insane! Masked Girl feels like a campy, after-school tokusatsu flick with school girls. Doubt that either will get released here, but they look pretty fun. I wonder if it’s a double feature.
Hell Boy II opens this Friday and to celebrate, AZM regular Tyler Anderson sent over a few clips of Hell Boy chatting with James Lipton. It’s an interesting campaign. I like the Lipton segments much better than the one where Hell Boy is playing video games or the one where he meets Wolf from American Gladiators. Here’s another with James Lipton.
Five fingers? I only count four. Ah well.
Um… now I’m creeped out. When James Lipton says “yesss” like that, it makes me think someone just asked him if he’d like to munch on the femur of a small child. EEK!
Oh well. Here’s a PSA with Hell Boy reminding us to never judge someone based on their color.
Awe! He loves cats!
And finally, here’s Hell Boy auditioning for either a boy band, reality show, or combination there of.
You can tell Ron Perlman had some fun with these. Neat little campaign although the trailer pretty much sealed the deal for me. Actually, the first movie sealed the deal for me. I will see anything with Guermo Del Toro’s involvement.
Borat and Burgundy, together at last!
Sacha Baron Cohen with play super sleuth Sherlock Holmes with Will Ferrell playing Doctor Watson in an untitled comedy from Columbia Pictures.
Well, there’s nothing to do but play the caption game. I suspect the movie title will be along the lines of Sherlock Holmes and the Case of [insert caption] or something to that effect. So have at it!
[Via Variety]
AZM regular Devin Wolfe sent over news that comic scribe Mark Millar is interested in penning the next Superman movie. Coming off the high of wanted, it seems Millar is ready to get his movie on. And it sounds like Hollywood may be listening. According to Millar:
That Superman news is interesting, isn’t it? In the interests of clarity (because I’m sure this will be picked up somewhere) a very well known American action director heard about my love of Superman, approached my and asked me to team up with he and his producer to make a pitch for this. We’ve been talking for several weeks now and, if this is going to happen, we’ll know by Christmas. He has huge pull at WB so fingers crossed. But this is nothing more than a huge US name pulling me into his fold and making me part of a package.
That could be a lot of fun. Loved his run on The Authority and Ultimates and though I think Civil War wasn’t the best in the world, it was still entertaining. At this point, I’m ready for a complete revamp of the Superman movies. I felt Return sacrificed good story telling to fit into continuity and pay tribute to the original films. I think a writer like Millar could have made it work. I like the way much of his work reinterprets standard superhero tropes. And honestly, after Return, the Superman franchise can use all the help they can get.
[Via Super Hero Hype]
AZM ally Mike Dent sent me this trailer for an indy Tokusatsu film entitled G. Now I may not know Japanese, but I’m certain “G” stands for “GODDAMNGENIUS!” This looks like such fun.
I wonder why the giant monster genre never really caught on here. We’ve got King Kong and now Cloverfield and that’s about it. Both did fairly well at the box office, but we’ve yet to see more giant States side monsters. Instead, we get those dumb fucks making Disaster Movie. I’d even settle for a few giant monster B movies. You know, someday, when I’m old and have amassed a redonkulous amount of wealth, I shall produce naught but giant monster movies!
[Via Justice Ace]
Way back in the day, long before the era of foofy foofy, Bridget Nielsen starred in one of the worst cult classic fantasy films of all time, Red Sonja. Not even Arnold Schwarzenegger, who a year earlier destroyed the box office as The Terminator, could save this abortive attempt to breath life into a dying genre. It’s amusing, kinda. Ernie Reyes, Jr. plays an annoying spoiled prince which is sort of funny. Maybe. If you’re high while watching the thing. Very. High. Hmmm… shitty 80’s movie that has since become a cult classic? Let’s remake the thing!
Robert Rodriguez will produce Nu Image/Millennium’s remake of Red Sonja with Rose McGowan as the lead. My familiarity with the character is cursory. I saw the original waaaay back in the day and I’ve only seen the covers of the comic so I have no idea if there’s anything more to her than a big sword and even bigger bags of happy fun. There might be some material there for Rodriguez and crew to mine, but I doubt it. The original was a dumb movie and this remake will probably be a dumb summer movie. Although it would be nice to see a female warrior not strapped into an impossibly tight and completely impractical skimpy leather studded bikini, this is probably not the film for that. This is probably the movie that will indeed feature the female warrior strapped into an impossibly tight and completely impractical skimpy leather studded bikini with dialog to match. Not that there’s anything wrong with Rose McGowan strapped into tiny leather, but I can get that for free on the internet.
Who knows, you might end up seeing it in the actual theater if absolutely nothing else was playing except for Uwe Boll’s latest. However, I suspect that if anything else is playing that weekend, including a Love Boat movie, you’d probably go see that instead.
[Via Variety]
AZM regular Kevin Bahrt tracked down this piece indicating that Louis Leterrier, the director of Incredible Hulk, would like the fans to decide if the Hulk should join the Avengers or if the Avengers should fight the Hulk. If you haven’t seen the movie, ignore the following quote:
I would love to see [the Hulk become the villain that fights the Avengers] because I think the best villains are always the ones whose agenda you understand. They’re not synthetic to us in a way; they’re not these one dimensional bad guys.
That’s why I left the door open for whoever’s going to direct ‘The Avengers’ with our last shot. Edward and I, we consciously decided to make the last shot of the movie when he opens his eyes and he smirks at the camera. Is he enjoying it? Is he malicious? That’s what’s great about Edward. You don’t know if he’s a good guy or bad guy. He’s always on this edge and we’ve been sort of surfing that edge, that very thin edge during the entire movie.
So that last shot of the movie, if you decide that he’s smiling, in control, then he’s a good guy, that’s ‘The Hulk 2.’ If Hulk is a failure, then he looks up and smirks and that’s eventually the Hulk of the Avengers — the uncontrollable beast that they need to team up to stop.
Since Spider-Man, the Marvel movies have sort of blended 616 and Ultimate continuity leaning heavily towards Ultimates. Couple that with the fact that Hulk has fought pretty much every single Marvel character at least once, if not more, it kind of makes sense to have him tangle with the Avengers. Still, I’d like to see a classic villain get some screen time.
So, sport’s fans, do you think the Hulk should join up and assemble or do you want to see Hulk fight absolutely everyone?
[Via MTV Movie Blog]
Mikey D must be a glutton for punishment. One, he sent over this god awful trailer for Disaster Movie. Two, he’s started up his own blog, The Movie Nerd, where he will dig up more shit movies like this so that we don’t have to. We here at AZM applaud your sacrifice, Mikey D.
As for the movie, Tuesday must be confused Jami day because I don’t get it. Seriously, how do these fucking things get made? Who are the sick fucks who pay money on purpose for tickets to see these movies, again on purpose, in the theater? Why are they not going straight to DVD? Look, I’m not against parodies. But these shitball movies aren’t even funny. They just take scenes from other movies and reenact them badly. It’s funny on YouTube. Sometimes. Mostly because I don’t have to pay for YouTube. On the big screen? Blech.
And yet they keep being made. I would like to think that audiences are slightly more sophisticated than this, but apparently, I’m in the minority. I fully expect to see another one of these bullshit wastes of film early next year.
[Via The Movie Nerd]
I wasn’t too impressed with Ozymandias’s costume when the photos were released and it seems I’m not alone. Although my biggest problem was the lack of gold, most people point to Ozy’s Bat nipple action as a major flaw. AZM regular Tyler Anderson dug up Zack Snyder’s response to the criticism:
Do you think that I don’t…would that be an accident? If you don’t acknowledge sort of the…where comic book movies are right now. If you can’t like, in the same way that ‘Watchmen’ [graphic novel] referenced and took apart the comic book genre and comic book heroes. You have to make some reference to those same decisions that were made, in cinema.
If you think that fact that Ozy’s costume has nipples is a mistake, or that we don’t understand the design…to me that’s just crazy. You just need to pay more attention.
Yes yes, clearly we dislike the costume because we’re not paying attention. Huh?
I don’t understand the point about where comic book movies are right now. Bat nipples are so last decade. The new Bats has no nipples, there were no X nipples, no Daredevil nipples, and Hell Boy only has nipples because he’s manly and shirtless. Snyder’s right. I don’t get it.
[Via Comics 2 Film]
This morning as I woke up, I seriously considered calling in sick to see Wall-E every single day of the week. Unfortunately, I came to my sense. But I seriously love this movie that much. I fully expect to see this multiple times in the theater to obsess over every little detail. Pixar has seriously taken movie making to a new high.
Characters
Wall-E is so freaking adorable. He’s such a hopeless romantic. He looks at everything with new eyes. Even the most mundane object that we might toss away is a new found treasure to Wall-E. On an Earth that is now covered completely with garbage, every day becomes an adventure in discovery. You can’t help but smile at such innocent wonder. And it makes Wall-E instantly lovable.
Eve is the uptown girl who doesn’t recognize the wonder that surrounds her. She’s not really aloof or snobby, just too busy to notice the little things that Wall-E sees. When he finally manages to get her attention, she begins to open her eyes to the world around her. Her laugh just lights up the screen.
The first half of the film is almost a silent movie, but you don’t really need dialog because the interactions between Wall-E and Eve are so real. The eyes of both characters are just so expressive and communicate so effectively. Getting a rusted box and a futuristic iPod to emote is no simple task, yet Pixar manages to make it look so natural and sincere. You’ll forget that they’re computer generated images and grow to love them as characters. Absolutely amazing.
Plot
Wall-E is a romantic comedy and accidental hero’s journey all in one. It’s true, you pretty much know how the romantic aspect will turn out from the previews. But Wall-E’s hero journey may surprise you. I love how everyone he interacts with begins to challenge their own perceptions of their surroundings. And it’s all deliciously by accident. Wall-E stays true to his character throughout. In a lot of similar films, some kind of deus ex machina comes in at the last second to imbue the hero with power overwhelming to defeat the enemy and save the day. Not here. Wall-E remains Wall-E til the end.
There’s also a fairly heavy environmental message that underlies the whole piece. Fortunately, Pixar doesn’t bash you in the head repeatedly to get the point across. Instead, they’re content to let the story, Wall-E and Eve to take center stage. But the message is clear. Take care of the Earth because it’s the only one we got. Kids will absolutely love the characters while us old folk can appreciate that added depth.
Visuals
This movie is absolutely gorgeous, certainly the best visuals Pixar has created to date. The environments are so immersive and photorealistic and the camera work has such a natural feel that you forget you’re watching something 100% computer generated. There are some live-action human sequences added in here and there. This is the first time that Pixar has used that technique, but it somehow works and didn’t jump me out of the film. Disbelief suspended completely.
The animation is brilliant. The robots have such personality all communicated through their movements. You can tell exactly what their thinking and feeling. You’ve never seen such emotion from bits of metal.
Sound
The soundtrack is so touching and at times very poignant. I teared up at a number of scenes where the pathos was expertly punctuated with the soundtrack. The soundscape of the world is just as powerful. Every little background sound, the whirls, the dings, the little rumblings, everything is so perfectly crafted to just suck you in. I found myself listening to the film as intently as I was watching.
Waaaal-EE
With Wall-E, Pixar demonstrates a mastery of film making that few real life studios have achieved. And though I fully expect Dark Knight and Hell Boy 2 to absolutely obliterate the summer box office, Wall-E will stay with and inspire me far after this summer movie season concludes. I will so cherish it for years to come. You must, must, MUST see it in theaters as soon as possible.
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