About time for another catch-up of upcoming movies of interest (to me anyway, I know no-one else reads this).

JJ Abrams new "secret" project -"Super8".  This is being virally marketed much the same way that Cloverfield was.
Only a teaser so far but looks interesting at least:




Fresh insanity from Japan, for an upcoming animated TV show called "CatShitOne".  Based on a Manga series called "Apocalypse Meow", it's basically a war movie with cute animals representing different countries.  There is more details on the Wikipedia page




Very excited about this next one.  It's Luc Besson's latest project "Les Aventures Extraordinaires D'Adèle Blanc-Sec", and looks like a female Steampunk Indiana Jones, with dinosaurs.  It's French, but the trailer is subtitled.  Personally I think this looks amazing:

Next is George Clooney's latest "The American".  Clooney is one of my consistent favourite actors, he really has that "old Hollywood" charm about his work and this is no exception as it feels very much like something from late 60s / early 70s in tone and style.  Sign me up for this one:




I know next to nothing about The Green Hornet, except for the Bruce Lee conection to the old TV series.  Main draw for this is the director, Michel Gondry, who was responsible for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and a number of amazing music videos.  There are a couple of flashes of his trademark camera tricks here, and the trailer looks quite good fun, but we'll see:




"Predators" is the sequel to the 80s classics.  Hopefully going to wipe away all memory of the AvP movies and get back to some great action - starting with a good director and a stellar cast is a positive start I think.  Adrien Brody, Lawrence Fishburn, Danny Trejo... I'm there when it opens next weekend




Finally, this just landed today - teaser trailer for the latest from David Fincher.  Called "The Social Network", it's the story of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook.  Just having Fincher attached guarantees my ticket:

Tags: awesome, fincher, geek, graphic novels, japan, movies, sci-fi, space, video, trailer, youtube
Categories: Geek | Movies | Sci-Fi | trailers | want

About time I got this finished - apologies for the delay but I'm here now so here goes:

Centurion
I'm including this one as I've just recently seen the new trailer and it looks pretty good.  Another movie about the real-life disappearance of the 9th Legion in the Scottish Highlands.

The Losers
Another comic book adaptation but not a superhero in sight.  Instead this could be a "grittier A-Team" as Dark Horizons put it.  Trailer looks at least promising and Peter Berg has a couple of solid movies behind him

Paul
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost - enough said.  Admittedly without Edgar Wright, but still count me in for this tale of UFO buffs finding an actual escaped alien just outside Area 51.  No release dates or trailer yet.

Predators
Sequel from Robert Rodriguez, who has a lot of credibility riding on this one.  Please let it be good!

Scott Pilgrim vs The World
What Edgar Wright did while Pegg and Frost were making "Paul".  This is likely to be the major geel hit of the summer, and as I know nothing of the plot or the original comic book I'll leave it there.  Trailer imminent.

Shutter Island
Scorcese does psychological horror.  Saw the trailer for this in front of "The Wolfman" this weekend and liked the look of it - an on-form Decaprio and an adaptation from the writer of "Mystic River" and "Gone Baby Gone" make this a must see I think. Hoping for good brooding fear rather than constant jump-shocks (yes "...Wolfman", I'm looking at you...)

Toy Story 3
Pixar.  Enough said.  Check out the trailer

Tron:Legacy
The original is legendary for properly introducing the world to computer generated effects.  The teaser from ComicCon shows the updated light-cycles.  This will be something to see in 3D Imax no doubt.

So that's that.  I highly recommend you check out the full list on Dark Horizons, as I've only scratched the surface here with a few that appealed to me.  The original list is very detailed and a terrific bit of work.

 

 

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Categories: Comics | Geek | Movies | Sci-Fi | spoilers | trailers | Web

I considered writing a short piece looking back at 2009, but eventually decided against it as it was a pretty lousy year for me all in all.  On the work front, a major crisis in February didn't help, I lost some long-term friends through that, but did make some new ones so I guess that balances out.  It was an odd year that I'd rather put behind me.

There were some great movies last year though - most notably "Zombieland", "Let the right one in" (definitely my film of the year), "The Hurt Locker", "Watchmen" (the 4-hour full version anyway), "Benjamin Button", "Up", "Star Trek", "District 9", "Terminator Salvation" (not a good Terminator film, but a good generic action movie), "Moon", "Sherlock Holmes", and of course "Twilight" (heh, just kidding folks!!!).  There were some others I saw which I thought were ok, a couple of outright disappointments, and some which I missed which I will definitely be getting on disc (Coen Bros "A Serious Man" being top of that list).

All in all a pretty good year for movies, even most of the big "blockbusters" were actually worth the time and money of going to the cinema.  3D is seemingly back in a big way, only time will tell if it's going to stay a gimmick used to cover up lazy plotting and lack of characterisation, or if it will actually be used inventively to enhance a great film instead of just shoving things in your face because it can.

So, 2010.  "Dark Horizons" movie site has been running a multi-part guide to the upcoming movie goodness for the next year, so I thought I'd post a few things that have caught my eye:

Number one on my can't-wait-for list is "Kick Ass" - just wait until the Daily Mail get a load of Hit Girl, a foul-mouthed 12 year old chopping bad-guys legs off.  Here's the second trailer, but I seriously recommend checking out the Red Band trailer:

"Kick Ass" - UK April 2010(?)


The re-imagining of the A-Team just looks like fun...
"The A-Team" - UK July 2010


One of my earliest cinema memories is Clash of the Titans, and I'm a bit protective of it.  However, the director Louis Leterrier didn't make a bad job of "The Incredible Hulk" (which I liked very much until the two very badly done CGI monsters started smashing the city up at the end) so here's hoping.
Clash of the Titans - UK March 2010


"The Eagle of the Ninth" - in 140AD an entire Roman legion disappeared in the highlands of Scotland.  I remember reading about this when I was at school so it has my attention - plus it has Kevin MacDonald directing, who made the excellent "Last King of Scotland" and "State of Play".  No trailer or UK date yet.

The Expendables - as Dark Horizons says "Stallone's $80 million tribute to 80's action cinema is a much-anticipated love letter to a time when men were men, computer effects were non-existent, and hard R-rated violence and politically incorrect humour was the norm.".  Might just have to switch my brain off for this one:


Inception is Chris Nolan's follow-up to "The Dark Knight".  He seems to be keeping his cards close to his chest with the odd but striking imagery in the trailers.  Definitely one to see on as big a screen as possible:
"Inception" - UK July 2010


The first Iron Man movie was a hoot-and-a-half, this looks to follow on nicely.  Anything with RDJ in it is high on my list anyway:


Dark Horizons sums up "The Killer Inside Me" nicely - "Everyone figures Lou Ford, a West Texas sheriff, to be a normal kind of guy. They don't see the ruthless, sociopathic murderer underneath and as victims pile up, suspicions begin to emerge.".  Extended trailer below really piques my interest.


That's enough for now - part two to follow.

Tags: awesome, coen bros, geek, movies, opinion, reviews, sci-fi, space, trailer, watchmen, youtube, zombies
Categories: Geek | General | Movies | Opinion | Sci-Fi | trailers | Watchmen

Ok, own up.  Who has kidnapped Guy Richie and replaced him with someone who can make appealing movies?  Seriously, I only decided to go see this because of Robert Downey Jr (who along with Ed Norton is my favourite actor working today), but I have to hold my hands up and say that I loved it.  Not something I've been able to say about a Guy Richie film since "Lock, Stock...".  Getting rid of that sinewy hag (Madonna to you and me) has clearly done the man good and the creative block has been lifted.

RDJ and Jude Law are both on top form - and it's really not often I have good things to say about Jude Law, believe me.  RDJ is clearly loving every minute of this re-imagined character and makes it completely his own.  This is not Holmes in the classic Basil Rathbone / Jeremy Brett tradition.

Sherlock Holmes is a lot more fun than it has any right to be.  They seem to have taken inspiration from a couple of places.  Firstly and most obviously, Holmes has basically become Batman.  He's off-the-chart smart but he also fist-fights, is stealthy, and survives explosions that would have killed normal people.  Sounds tacky but hey this is fantasy and it works well.  Having done a bit of digging however, it seems that in the original books and stories, Holmes was an accomplished fist-fighter and martial artist, so clearly this interpretation has gone back to the basics but then taken a different path from earlier adaptations.

The second inspiration seems to me to be from "House", the medical drama starring Hugh Laurie.  Now, given that "House" is directly inspired by Sherlock Holmes, things have come full circle.  It's most obvious in the Holmes / Watson relationship, which mirrors quite closely the House / Wilson relationship in the TV show.  If you're familiar with the show you'll see what I mean when you watch the film. 

The plot, about a practitioner of Black Magic, walks a thin line - at times it could go either way but for me it never slipped over into ridiculous.  Instead it reminded me of some of the classic Hammer Horror movies, like "The Devil Rides Out", as did the main villain (an excellent Mark Strong who I had never heard of until now).  It's intriguing, and you don't have the ending telegraphed to you, which makes a change.

Special effects - top notch.  There is a sequence with a boat which was especially spectacular, and the look of London is astonishing.  The whole film looks lush.  Even Mr Richie's trademark slow-fast-slow editing doesn't detract - in fact this works really well when you're being shown Holmes train of thought through flashback or flashforward.

So there you are, go see it.  This is definitely on my must-buy list for the New Year, hope they can get the BluRay out before Summer - but I may well go see it again at the cinema before that, that's how much I liked it.

Trailer below:

Tags: awesome, geek, movies, opinion, reviews, trailer, youtube
Categories: Geek | Movies | Opinion | Reviews | trailers | TV

Been a little while since last update, but I've a couple of things to share which have appeared on my radar recently. First the movies:

Clooney and McGregor in "The Men Who Stare At Goats". This is based on a book by Jon Ronson (who I highly recommend as an author if you want an interesting and intelligent non-fiction read), following his investigation into the true story of the American military Psy-Ops experiments... yes, it's all true. Looks hilarious, and a George Clooney is a favourite actor of mine, especially in comedy roles, this is a must see:

Next up is "The Box". This is an adaptation of a Twilight Zone episode, brought to you by Richard Kelly. Kelly is the man behind the awesome Donnie Darko (which REALLY needs a Blu-Ray release soon please!) and the awful Southland Tales (great trailer, horrible movie). So it's a shot at redemption I guess:

Guess what's next? Yep, vampires!!! As every other movie at the moment is either zombies or vampires that was a pretty easy guess - but this is a bit different. It's "Daybreakers" and has been getting some decent reviews lately, and there is no teen-angst and no walking around in daylight all sparkly! Seems much more in the mould of Blade 2, so its one I'm looking forward to but I have no idea when it will make its way to the UK.

Finally I'll leave you with a link to check out.

http://www.drakortha.info/#/dc-chronicles/4535926375

This is a site where someone is producing Machinima movies using Fallout 3 as the engine. They're not bad at all and worth a few minutes of your time if you're interested in fan-films.

Tags: movies, sci-fi, trailer, vampires, youtube,
Categories: Geek | Movies | Sci-Fi | trailers | vampires

There's been a flurry of interest in Google Wave this week, mainly people desperately trying to get hold of invites to the initial beta programme.  Google released 100,000 invites, and all of these people could invite 5 friends to the next test.  This, quite predictably, led to madness on eBay within minutes - but also has led to spammers jumping on the bandwagon, so be aware if you get an invite by mail from someone who probably doesn't have an invite themselves...

So anyway, what's all the fuss about?  Well, you could watch the whole amazing Developer Preview but its a bit long so here is something significantly shorter - just about 2 minutes total in fact and gets the point across nicely

So there you have it, Google Wave in a nutshell.

Anyone got a spare invite?

Tags: geek, tech, youtube, want
Categories: Geek | tech | want | Web