There are flubs that can be fixed: the reflection of a glass panel between Indiana Jones and a hissing cobra, matte lines surrounding swooshing tie fighters, Greedo shooting first. But when the flub in question involves a glaringly obvious stunt woman in a shaggy wig crashing through a pane of glass, short of reshooting the … Continue reading
When Entertainment Weekly reported earlier this week that Dreamworks/Paramount was planning to preview Tim Burton’s big screen rendition of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, it seemed wrong. Geek god Burton attending (to the best of my knowledge) his first Comic Con with footage from one of the year’s most anticipated … Continue reading
What the hell is it going to take to get you geeks worked up over Robert Zemeckis’s performance capture rendering of the anonymously penned epic poem Beowulf? It’s the foundation of everything y’all hold dear. The Lord of the Rings, Dungeons & Dragons, Mazes and Monsters… none of it would exist without this watershed work … Continue reading
It’s been four years since Carl Franklin directed his last feature, the above-average thriller Out of Time (worth watching for its crackerjack second act alone). Though toplined by Denzel Washington, the film limped to a $40 million domestic gross, i.e. $10 million short of the production budget. Factor in tepid foreign box office, and it’s … Continue reading
"I had to stand up for myself alone. And you know what they did to me. Until all men stand up for what they believe in, the same damn thing can happen to any one of you!"– B. Pusser The in-depth speculation which has fast-tracked this four-part series to Pulitzer glory will henceforth be replaced … Continue reading
A year after hosting the panel of the 2006 San Diego Comic Con (and two months after launching the biggest film to date of 2007), you’d expect Sony to cut back on their Spider-Man plans for this year’s big geek festivities (btw, Saturday is completely sold out, so tough luck if you were planning to … Continue reading
There’s more plot in this IESB-hosted trailer for Michael Dougherty’s Trick ‘R Treat than there was in the entirety of Superman Returns (which Dougherty co-wrote with Dan Harris): you’ve got Anna Paquin making like Little Red Riding Hood at a costume party (and being stalked down a tree-lined lane), Dylan Baker menacing the fat kid … Continue reading
I’ll admit it: Seth Rogen landing the lead in Sony’s long-dormant Green Hornet project did not initially strike me as a great idea. Much as I love Seth and believe he’ll be making great comedies for decades to come, the superhero parody already feels tired. It predates the ascendancy of Marvel Films: The Tick (animated … Continue reading
Cate Blanchett is the best thing that ever happened to Shekhar Kapur. Nine years ago, their Elizabeth was a modestly produced portrait of The Virgin Queen’s rise from tentative ruler to ruthless monarch. The film has its fans, but I’m not one of them; yes, the performances are uniformly great, but Kapur’s overheated direction smothers … Continue reading
For today, Tom Rothman, we are cool. I don’t know if this was a Rothman decision or more of a Hugh Jackman/Lauren Shuler Donner move. Doesn’t really matter. Whoever’s responsible, they done good. Gavin Hood is a great director who’s about ready to make a leap to the A-list this fall with Rendition, a politically-charged … Continue reading