I loved Crank a lot. As excerpted from last year’s "Best Of" list, where it ranked as #11 of 2006: "The most manic and fucking insane major release of the year, this little bastard is amazingly crafted entertainment, fueled by genius and powered by nitrous oxide and semen. Jason Statham spends an hour and a … Continue reading →
It’s all gone wrong for Todd Phillips, hasn’t it? After the scandal of Frat House (the 1998 documentary about college fraternities that allegedly contained staged sequences), Phillips rebounded with the sporadically funny Road Trip and the zeitgeist-capturing Old School. Suddenly, he was redeemed. And just as suddenly, he was back on the canvas following the … Continue reading →
The fests keep playing, which would seem to be where all the interesting movies are at, but nowadays October is just a likely to house a winner as loser. But more on that in a minute.DON’T CALL IT A COMEBACKIsn’t it funny how the Farrelly brothers spent ten years pissing away their good will? After … Continue reading →
The new Iron Man teaser poster just looks like a Transformers 2 poster. It’s like someone at Paramount is just recycling ideas – did the design guy really want to get home early and beat all the traffic on the highway? I would like to donate a concept to Paramount, for free: A black poster. … Continue reading →
Studios have often been willing to shift release dates for films that might comment too directly or crassly on current events, but I can’t remember an example of a picture being delayed because it could get several of its lead actors killed. (Not that directors haven’t been killed for the content of their films before: … Continue reading →
The first trailer for Sweeney Todd, Tim Burton’s adaptation of Kevin Smith’s favorite musical, is here, and it does its damnedest to hide the fact that it’s a musical. You only get a hint of singing, and that’s in a sequence that appears so highly stylized that many people might think it’s a dream or … Continue reading →
Before Len Wiseman came aboard, the worst thing the Escape from New York remake had going for it was a generic action script. Now, it just got the cinematic equivalent of herpes. This began as a rumor at AICN, and has now been confirmed by IESB: Wiseman is off Escape from New York, and Brett … Continue reading →
One of these days, I really have to see the Wallace & Gromit movie. Not that I’m exactly concerned about purity when a sorta-indie jumps up to the majors, as Aardman Animation did with Dreamworks, but Chicken Run nearly put me off my feed with respect to the animation house, and I was afraid that … Continue reading →
There’s something automatically humbling about riding public transportation in Los Angeles. Your personhood and independence in this town is very closely tied to your vehicle ownership, which means you get a lot of weird looks from people in passing cars when you’re standing at the bus stop. There’s a PSA campaign on the Los Angeles … Continue reading →
Is Will Ferrell naked with a goofy wig still funny after all these years? New Line hopes so – that’s the entire premise of the teaser trailer for Semi-Pro, Ferrell’s new comedy set in the world of 70s basketball. I think they set it in the 70s so that it would be plausible that a … Continue reading →