ESSENTIAL CHUD: THE APPENDIX – DAY THREE
It was obvious a long time ago that 50 Cent saw himself as more than a rapper. The guy has been branding himself and G-Unit like a seasoned marketing executive, and part of that plan means diversifying, so we’ve had to suffer through a couple of embarrassing forays into the world of acting from the … Continue reading
November ’06 was a pretty big month for video games, primarily thanks to the drooling/panting anticipation of the XBOX 360 exclusive Gears of War. The merits of the game can be debated all day long by brand loyalty soldiers and the people who love to incite them, but fact is, Gears of War jumped to … Continue reading
After a good bit of time idling and doing practice laps, Speed Racer appears to be picking up a decent bit of momentum as it prepares to head into a major box office battle where it’ll take endless left turns with the likes of Iron Man and the next Narnia flick during the May kickoff … Continue reading
The rights to The Green Hornet, a character best known today for his 1960s TV that introduced America to Bruce Lee in the racially insensitive role of Kato, have been bouncing around Hollywood for years now. Universal had him, but they decided that a comic book character from the 30s who was unknown to anyone … Continue reading
Tom Cruise’s United Artists is looking more like a way to get the publicity-challenged actor work more than anything else*. The newly revived UA made Lions for Lambs, a Robert Redford drama about the military, its first production, and Cruise got a job in that. Now UA has bought a WWII thriller for Bryan Singer … Continue reading
Cineastes the world over have been rejoicing at the news that Francis Ford Coppola is back making movies – and back making personal movies – with Youth Without Youth, based on a novel by Mircea Eliade. Expectations have been tempered, though, as Coppola has begun showing the film, first to friends and colleagues and now … Continue reading
Who would win in a fight between a swarm of locusts and Hilary Swank? That’s a rough one, ’cause Hilary lookin’ DUFF! The Reaping is the Oscar winner’s horror flick, finally being released after a bit of a date change two-step, the tale of a woman who has lost her faith and is forced to … Continue reading
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints was one of the biggest film surprises I got last year. Based loosely on writer/director Dito Montiel’s own experiences growing up in ethnically mixed Astoria, Queens in the 1980s, the movie is a perfectly evocative glimpse at a New York City now lost to history. But like all the … Continue reading
UPDATED AT THE BOTTOM! When his son Goro was named director of the upcoming Ghibli Studios adaptation of Ursula K Le Guin’s Tales From Earthsea, fears about Hayao Miyazaki’s retirement grew. Would the most celebrated living animator give up active creative participation in Ghibli films? Today, the answer is definitively, wonderfully, ‘no’. Toho Studios has … Continue reading