This One May Take More Then a Day...

Kiefer Sutherland of "24" fame is back at it, this time saving the president from Michael Douglas...neivly. That's right, Jack Bouer appears to be the one being led blindly into a web of lies without having a clue this time. The Sentinel stars Douglas as a man who started an investigation into a possible presidental assassination attempt, and is in turn framed to appear to be the one who committed the crime. This one has potential. I'm a bit late in reporting this possible gem, but you can check out the trailer for this promising thrill-ride here.

REVIEW: X-Men

So, watching the new trailer for X-Men: The Last Stand got me all fired up, and I found the previous two installments on sale. I'd seen 'em before, but it'd been awhile. Here's my review for the first one, with a follow up on the second one soon.

This one opens with a cool scene where we see a German concentration camp and a boy being seperated from his family. In his rage, they boy manages to complete crush the metal gates before he is knocked unconcious. Enter Magneto.

Now, this is definately one of those "swallow some major scientific bull$#!t we feed you, and try not to dwell on it" movies. AKA it's a comic book movie. If you go into this expecting anything more, you're going to be sorely disappointed.

But it does manage to give itself a semi-deep plot. A girl unable to experience human physical contact for the rest of her life manages to get into the heart of a rough-and-tumble loner with blades in his hands. Magneto, with the power to move metal at will, is after these two, and a psychic bald guy in a wheel-chair takes them both under his wing.

Before I go on, here's a quick run down of the characters.

Professor Charles "X" Xavier- Extremely powerful psychic, can control minds
Magneto- Can control metal at will by creating and altering magnetic fields
Wolverine- Can regenerate amazingly fast. Experiments done on him grafted metal to his entire skeleton, as well as giving him claws that come out of his hands.
Rogue- when touching any other person's skin, she absorbs their life force and, in the case of mutants, their powers
Storm- Can control the weather
Cyclops- Shoots lasers out of his eyes, but can only control with glasses/goggles thing on
Jean Gray- Mild psychic powers, can move stuff with her mind
Toad- Scales walls, really long tongue, green, shots goo stuff out of his mouth
Sabretooth- ummmmm, big, strong, has small fangs, growls some
Mystique- can shapeshift to anyone at will

The plot manages to be mysterious, and there's never a lot of down time. Props to Bryan Singer for keeping the movie moving. I think the whole shapeshifting thing is used WAY to much (which is my complaint with M:I 2 as well, but that's a different review). I also think the emotional aspects of the movie could have been a bit more involved. You manage to get a feel for all the characters and their very different personalities. You understand that these are very different people with their own thoughts and motives. But it only flirts with real emotional depth. They definatly could've done some more to get us feeling bad for Rogue and her "can't touch anyone" problem.

All in all it's action moive, pure and simple. Decent, if straightforward, plot with fun and emotionally believable characters. A plot twist and a bit more depth is all that stands in the way of this film going from above average to outstanding.
RATING: 8.0/10

Bring On the 40-Year-Old Non-Virgin

Here's the basics for Basic Instinct 2: it's all about sex and violence. And apparently Sharon Stone didn't think they kept enough of the former in there. After seeing an early cut of the film, she asked why all the crazy stuff she did had been editied out. She demanded that the editors funnel in all the nudity back into the movie. So, if you're into seeing a 40-year-old woman naked again, and again, and again, and again....etc., check out this movie.

There's also an R-rated promo reel. Check it out here. If you want to see what plot the movie actually has, here is the standard trailer.

Laserbeams and Whips

Rick McCallum recently dropped some news on a couple exciting propositions. First off, George Lucas approved an Indy 4 script, and despite Spielburg's claims that he's lying low for a year, the script has been sent on to Steven for some polishing.

Also, Rick tells us that the Star Wars TV show has been approved, and is going to be much darker then the lastest movies. Holy hell, darker then Episode III. Rick hints that there may be some bounty hunters to start of the season. Sounds like so kick-ass news for us fans.

Pan VS. Lt. Cpt. Hook

So there's this plan for a remake takish thing on Peter Pan, where Pan is a psycho boy with these crazy powers, and Hook is a cop trying to take him down. Interesting. I enjoyed Hook with Robin Williams, never watched the new Peter Pan cause of its horrible reviews. This sounds like it could be a kinda cool story if done right. If not done right, it could be one of the worst movies to have graced the big screen. Tread carefully.

REVIEW: Ultraviolet

So, I think I'm gonna start reviewing movies, new and old, that I've watched recently. This will help my audience of about two see where I'm coming from with what news I choose to relate.

My first victim is Ultraviolet.

Lemme' sum up the story: ass kicking, ass kicking, holy f@*k it's a kid, ass kicking, ass kicking, holy f*$k the kid's dying, ass kick, ass kicking, ass kicking, rounded out nicely with a good kick in the ass.

From this, you can tell that if you're looking for profound, thought-provoking experience, you will be sadly, sadly disappointed. The plot twists in this movie are about as crazy and unexpected as an interstate.

However, have I mentioned the plethoria of sweet ass-kicking that goes on in this movie. She's hot, her clothes change at random, and about 500 people die a horrible death at her hands. It's intense and insane. There's a way awesome motercycle chase that is beyond belief and has some of the craziest, best looking stunts I've ever seen in a movie. I wouldn't want to spoil the fun.

I was a bit disappointed in a couple of the mass killings that happened at the end. Was the director tired of showing fight scenes, or did he run out of ideas. They showed you there was about to be a fight, and then positioned the camera to just ahead of where the fight was taking place, so you could hear it all, and then see her walking triumphantly out of it. But you never got to see the fight itself. While kind of a cool effect, I question the reasoning behind it.

Oh, and Violet, the main ass kicking character, she's the only character you see bleed in the entire movie, and she's the one who wins. That was bit backwards to me, but it was only rated PG-13.

I found out that the directer was basically revoked of his directorial duties when almost done with the movie, and the studio cut it up and pieced it together as they saw fit. I wonder if the original had a bit more story and gore to it, both of which would've upped this movies value greatly.

FINAL WORD: An excellent popcorn flick with lots of awesome action and crazy stunts. Watch it, enjoy, but don't expect any stellar action or deep character/ plot development.

RATING: 7/10

Ninjas in a Half-shell

TURTLE POWER!!! Dude, I love the ninja turtles, and they're making a comeback. I guess they did already once a few years ago on tv, but get this. Warner Bros. just bought the rights to the turtles, and they're gonna make a new CGI movie, grittier then any of the previos incarnations. Now, that doesn't mean it's going to be too hardcore, since one of the films involved them time traveling, and the other featured them rapping with Vanilla Ice. Still, they were entertaining, and I'm excited about this one.

EDIT: They've set a release date for March 30, 2007.

Van Damme still at it

You've seen him kicking ass in thousands of movies, every one of which has about the same plot, and that is, kicking ass. Well, he's at it again.

Jean-Claude will be playing a Combat Vet who's just spent the last 3 years fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, who is hired to be a bodyguard to a former World Heavyweight Boxing champ to protect him and his family against a Rap Music Mogul. He sets up a team called "The Hard Corps", complications arise when the boxer suspects that his sister may be in love with the bodyguard.

Yeah...sounds a bit odd to me. Not sure that one's gonna make it. Will the world ever tire of seeing him kill mindless henchman and henchman, all in stretchy pants and no shirt.

Spielburg's takin' a vacation

Sadly, Indy 4 is going to have to wait. Not only is it being passed off to another script writer, but Stephen Spielburg has announced he's going to take a break from directing for a year. That's a bummer, cause his s#!t usually rocks. Havn't seen Munich yet, but can't wait for the DVD relase. I'll just neglect to mention some alienish type adaption of a book he might possibly have attempted to make into a major motion picture earlier this year, but my memory's fuzzy on that one.

3 MAJOR movie trailers

X3: The Last Stand, The Praire Home Companion, and M:i:III all realeased new trailers yesterday, and because of my ungodly slow internet, I havn't been able to check them out yet. Ok, so most people wouldn't consider The Praire Home Companion a major movie, but I enjoy the show when I get the chance to listen in, and I hope the movie is good as well.

Get the goods before me on all these trailers:

X3: The Last Stand
M:i:III (Japanese trailer)
A Praire Home Companion Movie

EDIT: I'm checking them out here at McD's where they have high speed wireless. I have to say, I'm really, REALLY excited about X3 now. That looks really sweet. Praire home companion also looks entertaining, though I doubt those who never listend to the show would enjoy it much. As for M:i:III, AOL is not cooperating with my mac. *--Insert String of Profanity Here--* Anyway, I'm outta here.

Gangta Portman

Oh my God. I just got done watching this at Joblo.com. Everyone knows our sweet like senator from Naboo, Natalie Portman. But I bet here's a side of her you've never seen, which she introduced to the world on SNL.

Check out the clip here.

Awards Buzz!!!

That's right, tonight was the night. One of the biggest movie awards of all time was announced tonight. It's: The Razzies. That's right, your official awards for the worst movies of the year. Here's the big winners:

Worst Picture: Dirty Love
Worst Director: John Asher / Dirty Love
Worst Actor: Rob Schneider / Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
Worst Actress: Jenny McCarthy / Dirty Love
Worst Supporting Actor: Hayden Christensen / Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Worst Supporting Actress: Paris Hilton / House of Wax
Worst Screen Couple: Will Ferrell & Nicole Kidman / Bewitched
Worst Screenplay: Dirty Love, Jenna McCarthy
Worst Remake or Sequel: Son of the Mask
Most Tiresome Tabloid Target: Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Oprah Winfrey's Couch, The Eiffel Tower & "Tom's Baby"

Rocky VI Teaser

JoBlo poses a good question, how is it that Rocky VI scores a teaser on an official Stallone website, and no one knows about it?

Well, word is finally out, and here is the clip. I personally havn't been able to see it because of the crappy internet I'm on for the next week. JoBlo seems to be under the impression that it'll be taken down soon. So, good luck.

EDIT:It does appear to have been taken down, though the message I'm getting gives me the impression that the whole site was dismantled. Not sure what's goiing on. Keep trying if you're feeling adventurous.

Bond's New Wheels

Bond is driving a Ford, and 14 million pounds. Ford has paid seven times what bond himself is being paid to get thier vehicle in the film. This time around his car of choice, the movie being a prequel, is a 1960s Ashton Martin DB5.

James Cameron Interview

A cool interview last night over at AICN. James Cameron talked about his upcoming project 880. Turns out, it's a remake of Avatar. I don't know much about this film, so I'm gonna do some digging and find out more about it.

He also talked about his new technology for the film, which seems to be all about doing it in 3-D. That's pretty awesome. It appears he's going to do some other film trilogy before 880/Avatar.

So yeah, I'll look into the films he's doing, but the technology already sounds cool. Check out the interview here.

Goth Spidey Update

Well, it appears when I said that you could see the Green Goblin mask in the Spider-man teaser poster, I may have spoken to soon. Here's a pic that has the area in question colored some. But there's dissent.



You can join the debate here. You'll need a joblo.com account.

Jack Black RULES!!!

Just cause I'm a Jack Black fan, here's a link to some news about his new project A Nacho Libre, with the Napeoleon Dynamite director. Beck has signed on to do the music

By the way, if it weren't for Jack Black, I would've ignored this altogether. I think Dynamite was one of the worst things to have ever happened to film. IT ISN'T FUNNY!!! Period.

This movie may have potential. It's about some monks who actually want to be wrestlers in Mexico. And, it's Jack Black. Though I'm much more excited about his Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny. I'll put up more news on that project as it comes up.

The Code in Trouble

According to Dark Horizons, the highly anticipated flick version of "The Da Vinci Code" may be in trouble. Apparantly there is some plagarism suit for the book, which may completely scrap the mostly-completed movie. Bad news for them.

Goth Spidey, Take Two

Alright, I wouldn't normally post fan art, but the AICN guys have a point. Here's a manip of the Spiderman poster released this last Friday.
Now, I never read much of the original comics, but this is a bit more the like the Venom suit used in the comics. Personally, I like the suit in the first poster better, but this is decent. I just like the more direct link between Spiderman and Venom when you use the same suit, just black. Decide for yourself though. You can compare by scrolling down, or checking out the "Spidey Goes Goth" article.

The Networks Shift

UPN + WB = The CW

FOX (Network Television - (UPN + WB)) = Fox 2

So yeah, UPN and WB are gonna combine to form the CW (C for 'CBS' and W for 'Warner'). It's pretty much gonna combine the programs they want from the two networks. Fox hears this news, and steps in to create 'My Network TV.' It's gonna be mainly formed of the shows dropped in the UPN/WB merge.

So let's analyize this for a moment. Merging UPN and WB creates one less network on televison, and is going to come at the cost of losing some shows. My Network TV shows up to pick up the shows that were once casualities to said merger. So, we're back to having the number of networks with the exact same shows. Does this have anyone else asking, what the hell's the point?

So that's not exactly movie news, but movies are often shown and TV, and I figured it might affect someone, somewhere. If it does, please tell me how. Hell if I can figure out why it might.