Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Let’s take back our Theatre

I must say that I have not been so thoroughly impressed by a trailer before.

As you may already know from reading this blog, I’m looking forward to seeing The Expendables this August 13th. And I must say that after watching this trailer, I feel even more motivated to see this film.

According to the above trailer, my very manhood is on the line here. This trailer has issued a challenge to us men to go out and make The Expendables a more successful film than Julia Roberts’ Eat, Pray, Love. If we men cannot succeed we don’t deserve to be called men.

Personally I feel that this trailer is probably the most brilliant trailer I’ve seen. Not only was a laughing when I saw this trailer, it did kind of make a lot of sense. I’ve noticed an increasing number of female focused films. Not that it’s a bad thing, but the more male oriented films have been steadily on the decline. Sure there are still a lot of action films, but they have been designed to be appealing to both sexes and not just males.

You have to wonder how the people over on the Eat, Pray, Love camp will react to this trailer. It would be interesting to see if they will respond to this challenge with a similar challenge to women. Then again, women are usually a bit more sensible than that, so I think us guys will be pretty well ignored as normal.

But it is interesting to imagine that the women care, isn’t it?

VIA

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Sucker Punch Looks Awesome


Trailer for Zack Snyder's 'Sucker Punch' - Watch more horror

This film looks awesome.

I can’t wait to see this film when it releases next year. I have to wonder how someone could even come up with this concept. It has everything from Dragons, airplanes, sword fighting, gun fighting. Zack Snyder has out down himself with this one. I really hope that the trailer lives up to the movie.

In any case, we’ll have to wait.

What if Evil Won?

I have to say I’m intrigued.

As you already know, DreamWorks’ Megamind is releasing shortly and features a hero and villain who are constantly engaged in combat with each other. But what would happen if the villain was allowed to win? From the above trailer, it appears that in MegaMind that will be just the case.

Personally, I find the idea of evil winning kind of intriguing since it never gets explored in film. For the most part, good always wins in the end. So it will be pretty interesting to see just where this film goes.

VIA

Monday, July 26, 2010

Is Thanos in Thor?

thor-20100725041245339

It would be great if he was.

This past weekend, The San Diego Comic-Con took place in San Diego which brought with it a lot of movie news. The most intriguing of which, (well most intriguing to me) is whether or not Thanos will be in the Thor movies. Marvel over the weekend revealed that Odin, Thor’s father, has the Infinity Gauntlet as part of his collection.

The Infinity Gauntlet may not ring a bell for many people reading this so I’ll give you a bit of a rundown of this item. The Infinite Gauntlet appeared in the Marvel Miniseries by the same name back in 1991, and was created by Thanos, who during the Thanos Quest miniseries, gathered the Infinite Gems (powerful items) together and put them in a Gauntlet. In the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos sets out to win the love of Death by fulfilling her wish for him to kill half the Universes population. The remaining heroes gather together to take on Thanos and reverse what Thanos has done.

The Infinity Gauntlet to this day is still probably one of my favourite Marvel Storylines and Thanos is probably my favourite hero/villain character. If Thanos is, in Thor I know I’m not missing this movie.

Thano is a really interesting character that who was not only strong, but had a high level of intelligence. In many cases, Thanos was several steps ahead of his opponents, but he had one weakness, he never really wanted to win. So if he hatched a evil scheme for the most part he would end up sabotaging himself slightly which would lead to his defeat. This not wanting to win at evil slowly led him to eventually become a hero rather than to remain a villain.

Personally, I think Thanos would be a great addition to Thor or perhaps the Avengers movie. Whichever the case, I hope he makes it into one of these films since I would love to see him on the big screen.

VIA

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Hangover In Thailand

Can’t wait. And no I’m not going to Thailand.

As you already know from a previous post, The Hangover, the most successful ‘R’ rated comedy ever is getting a sequel, but the only question was, where would The Hangover 2 take place? After all they can’t go back to Vegas again and have it feel as new and original as the first Hangover.

So I’m glad that it has been announced that The Hangover 2 (as I call it) will be set to take place in Thailand. As for if all of the original characters will be making the journey to Thailand, that part hasn’t been confirmed. I just hope that they have a great story as for why the guys decided to go to Thailand.

VIA

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Second Time Around and Still Non the Wiser

***Warning this post contains spoilers. Read ahead at your own risk.

inception-posterI guess I’ll need to see it a third time.

Unless you missed it, you probably know that Inception released this past Friday and its worked to create a lot of discussion online. It seems like all the film sites and social news sites are obsessed with trying to figuring out Inception and its many mysteries. Inception has been described as Christopher Nolan’s best work thus far which is quite high praise given that Chris has the Dark Knight under his belt, a film that was much loved by fans and reviewers alike.

So does Inception live up to the hype? I think so. Not only is Inception a great film, it’s a film that has really caused a lot of thought, as Chris has presented us with quite the paradox in Inception. There are a lot of unanswered questions with this film and they were quite intentional. On the surface Inception starts out with a simple idea, what if people could enter your dreams and steal your ideas? But then the film quickly moves to turn this concept on its head. What if someone instead of stealing your ideas, could instead place an idea in your mind? The film follows Cobb who is the best extractor in the world (someone that can enter people’s dreams and steal their ideas), as he and his team attempt to plant an idea into Robert Fischer Jr. to dissolve his inherited energy empire.

Inception brings us very deep into the mind of Cobb, who we find is a tormented soul following the death of his wife, who was a fellow dreamer. Cobb’s wife Mal crops up from time to time throughout the film as Cobb struggles to control his subconscious memory of her. It’s made very clear to us the audience that Mal represents Cobb’s guilt, which leads her to pop up just to sabotage his plans. Mal pops up so much in fact that Cobb has decided sometime before the start of the film, not to be involved in the creation of the environments of the dreams as to prevent Mal from knowing the dream.

All in all, Inception is a very masterfully made film that has brought up a lot of questions. Questions that I hoped I could be cleared up with a second viewing. Questions like is Mal real? Does Cobb really have kids? Is the whole film a dream? To be completely honest, I still struggle with these questions and others, so I thought that I would just give my thoughts on these ideas and others.

Is Mal real? I think she may simply be a figment of Cobb’s imagination. Why? The film never really gives us any real evidence of her existents other than Cobb’s memories. Now you might point out here that Arthur says he meet her before she died and that she was a very lovely women, I’ll get to that. During the film we find out that Cobb spent a lot of time in Limbo an area that is completely empty other than constructed objects by the dreamer. It is my thinking that Cobb in his loneliness created her. As for if Cobb has kids, I think you probably can guess my answer. I don’t think they are real. If Mal isn’t real then Cobb couldn’t certainly have kids. Also, in the end when we finally get to see the Cobb’s kid’s faces and they haven’t aged nor have they changed clothes. We only see Cobb’s kids in his dream state and at the end were we are left with the question of whether or not if Cobb is still dreaming? I personally think he is still dreaming. Why? We need to remember what the totem was designed to do, tell you if you are in someone else's dream as only you know nuances of your totem, but what the film doesn’t seem to specify and with good reason as for whether a Totem could be useful for telling if you are still dreaming. If you know what the nuances of your totem, can’t you simply recreate it in your own dream, I think so. That is why Mal’s Totem kept spinning when it was used in Limbo. Also, we never actually see the Totem fall. As Cobb draws away from the Totem it seems as if it my fall, but then we don’t actually see it fall. Perhaps it would have fallen if Cobb remained by it, but as he moved away it just kept spinning. In truth, we will never know the answer as Chris decided to cut away as it appears it may fall.

Is Inception all a dream? I kind of think so. Why? In Inception we are introduced to the idea that dreams aren’t necessarily very detailed, but they feel real. And that is the impression that I was left with when viewing the story. One thing that you might notice is that every character in this film seems to go by only one name. Just check out imdb. The only characters that has more than one name is Robert Fischer Jr. and Maurice Fischer. Every other character has one name and each character seems to have a particular meaning as it comes to the subconscious. As Roger Ebert pointed out Adriadne (Ellen Page) is the name of the women in Greek mythology that helped Theseus escape from the Minotaur’s labryinth. Could Adriadne simply be a product of Cobb’s mind to help lead him out of the dream? Earlier in the film, it was established that Adriadne as an Architect (the person responsible for building the dreams) is to build a labyrinth, to prevent the subjects subconscious from finding them.

Then again, perhaps I’m just talking out of my butt. Whatever the case Inception is a complex film that really is worth a few viewings to try and put together your thoughts. So what are your thoughts? Are you as confused as I am?

Bill Murray Thinks Ghost Busters 3 is a Crock

ghostbusters-poster-c10281195 Why is this news?

Over the past months, if not year, Bill Murray has been quoted in a number of sources as saying that he believed that Ghostbusters was a crock, but yet every time he says it, its reported as if its news. Bill doesn’t like the idea of a Ghostbusters 3 film, so much so that he only agreed to be a part of it if they killed him off early on.

Yet this time around it appears that Bill Murray may be right. Apparently in a recent interview with GQ magazine, Bill commented on the fact that Harold Ramis’ film Year One which failed at the box office last year, had an effect on whether or not Harold will be give the go ahead to do a Ghostbusters 3. According to Bill, Harold had employed the same writers that wrote Year One to also write Ghostbusters 3, which logically had a negative impact on Ghostbusters 3.

If in fact Harold Ramis and the same writers of Year One are working on Ghostbusters 3, I think I’m going to have to agree with Bill here, they need to get some new writers and perhaps change directors. Sorry Harold. Year One wasn’t the greatest film ever. Having seen Year One I would have to put it in the ok pile, which is not what I want in a Ghostbusters film. Ghostbusters 3 needs to really hit it out of the park, or its better off not happening. At lest that is how I feel.

VIA

Does this Look like the Face of Wolverine?

taylor-lautner-new-moon(1)

Look at that fearsome grin.

I know that many of you probably heard of Taylor Lautner and Twilight, the incredibly popular film series based on the book series by the same name. As you know, Taylor has been making some pretty big waves in Hollywood these days playing a werewolf who seemingly doesn’t like to wear a shirt.

Certainly Taylor isn’t exactly your Hollywood tough guy, but could he play one, even if it was just for a cameo. Would Taylor be the slightest bit convincing as a Tough guy? Probably not, but this still hasn’t stopped none other than Bryan Singer to suggest that Taylor Lautner could possibly play Wolverine in a cameo for X-Men First Class.

Now some of you are probably laughing right now, but apparently this suggestion was no joke. In an interview with Joblo.com Bryan Singer confirmed his suggestion, which leads me to the obvious question, “Bryan Singer are you crazy?” Bryan Singer is the same director that brought us great films like Unusual Suspects, X-men 1 and 2. But it appears that after Superman Returns he has kind of lost it. I just hope he gets it back sometime soon.

VIA

Faster

Welcome back Rock.

It seems like yesterday that the Rock (Dwayne Johnson) stopped laying the “Smack Down” in the WWE and started acting. (Not that I miss him as a Wrestler.) Dwayne Johnson showed a lot of potential back then, moving into the world of film and actually doing a really great job as an actor. Films like the Rundown and even the cheesy “The Scorpion King” really set Dwayne up to be a big time film actor. But something seemingly went wrong over the years and Dwayne started to fade off into children’s comedy films. For a while I thought that Dwayne might simply drift off into obscurity. But then came the above trailer.

I have to say, Faster is looking to be just what Dwayne needs to get his career going. From the trailer, Faster is looks to be an amazing film and if it pans out that way this November when the film releases, maybe we’ll be seeing a lot more of the Dwayne.

Let’s all cross our finger that this will happen.

VIA

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Free Bumpers for all

apple-logo1 Isn’t it great? Well Apple thinks so.

On Friday, after weeks of anger at Apple and their iPhone 4’s reception issues, Apple finally decided to hold a press conference to address the issue. As I felt, Apple instead of going with a complete recall decided instead to give everyone a free case. Now I’m not certain that the case will make everyone happy, but it should help out. Whether the free case will be enough to solve Apple’s reception issues, is still uncertain.

What is certain is that Apple seems to have decided to cover up their “self made debacle” as Rim called it, by trying to drag in their competitors. Apple, during their press conference, decided to compare their drop in signal with that of their competitors if their phones are held in a certain way. This has greatly angered Apples competitors (HTC, RIM, etc.) who have all fired back with data of their own proving that Apple was lying about their numbers.

Why Apple would pick a fight with its competitors it pretty obvious? Apple wants to try and divert people away from the real issue that Apple decided to ship a phone with problems. This is why Consumer Reports could not recommend the iPhone 4, even though it gave the phone its highest rating.

Apple really needs to start minding their own backyard, or this reception issue could really spin out of control if its allowed to do so. I’m starting to think a recall might be Apple’s safest choice. What about you?

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Will Apple Recall the iPhone 4?

apple-logo1 That seems to be the question.

In case you haven’t heard yet, Apple has been having some pretty big problems with their new iPhone 4 and reception. A couple of weeks ago, I put up a post addressing the iPhone issue, whereby if you held the phone in your left hand there was a possibility of seeing your iPhone’s reception drop to zero (well at lest the bars). This issue has blown up incredibly online and in the main stream media resulting in some class action lawsuits.

All of this has lead Apple to hold a press conference tomorrow at 10am PST to address the issue, which is somewhat surprising as Apples reaction up to this point was to simply suggest that people hold the phone differently. Exactly what Apple will do tomorrow is uncertain, but rumours of a possible recall were enough to send Apple’s stock tumbling.

In any case, let’s ask the big question, is this reception issue as big of a deal as its made out to be? No. Anyone that watched or listened to last week’s Twit podcast already knows about this, but for those that missed that episode I’ll explain. What this reception issue kind of boils down to is how Apple decided to calculate their bars. Apple decided to use a calculation that would show the most possible bars even in normally lower reception areas. So anyone with an iPhone 4 would show full bars until they were in an area that had really poor reception. What aggravated the issue was the fact that because the antenna is on the outside of the phone, which would actually give the phone better reception, it also allowed your hand to be able to interfere with the reception of the phone. This is why a simple piece of tape was enough to fix the problem.

Personally, I feel that Apple needs to do something, but if Apple decides to do a total recall it would be a bit much. Apple should give everyone bumpers or some aesthetically pleasing piece that people can place on their phones so that it doesn’t take away from the design of the device.

What do you think? Are you angry with Apple?

Is it Gargoyles or Not Gargoyles?

Gargoyles I hope that it’s the first.

Yesterday, to my great excitement, I learned that Disney was planning to create a Gargoyles movie. Now for those that don’t know, Gargoyles was an amazing animated series that took place during the 90s, which featured these mythical creatures that would turn to stone during the day, but would fight crime and evil at night. Gargoyles was a series that I think pretty much surprised everyone, as the show was much more mature in nature than the other Disney animated series of the past. But alas it ended.

Yesterday news emerged that Disney was planning to develop a Gargoyles live action film. Personally I’m not a fan of live action films of animated series, but I was prepared to make an exception because it was Gargoyles. Well at least that is what I thought. There appears to be some confusion as to whether or not this Gargoyles film is in fact tied to the animated series or not.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, which seems to be the source of these stories, there is no mention of the animated series. And if you take time to read the post, it appears as if there is no link between this project and the animated series or the link is very uncertain. Hopefully in the coming weeks, Disney will move to clear up this confusion.

So until then, I’ll just keep my fingers crossed that this film will indeed by my favourite Gargoyles.

VIA

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Now This is a Phone

htc105

Well actually it’s just a concept phone, but it’s pretty.

If they would only make this phone I might have no other choose other than to buy it. I’m really liking the minimalism of this design. Phones like these just show you how much the competition has already caught up to Apple’s iPhone. A few years ago, no phone could touch the iPhone, but now every phone is almost like it. It must burn Steve Jobs to see what phones people are coming up with.

The whole design of this phone and the UI are amazing. I’m not sure if I like the Alarm clock idea, but I know that people that travel will probably appreciate this feature. In any case, I hope HTC decides to put this phone into production, or creates a phone very similar to this one.

What do you think? Do you like the look of this phone?

VIA

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Darth Vader is not Welcome at Lucas Films

darth-vader Man this is a bad situation.

Growing up Star Wars was one of those franchises that had a great impact on my childhood and many others. (And you know what it still does.) Every so often I like to fire up the DVD player and pop in one of the Star Wars films. I have a great level of respect for what George Lucas and those behind the film accomplished.

It’s just unfortunate that some clever accounting practises have screwed many of the actors of these films and continues to screw them. Over the years there have been a number of reports from actors, etc. that they do not receive any residuals for any of the films due to the fact that the original films haven’t made any money. (Ya right.) And thus the actors will not receive any residuals. That is what David Prowse commented on in a recent interview with Slash film, which unfortunately appears to have upset Lucas Films so much so that they have now officially banned Dave from all Lucas Events.

That is right. Because David commented on his screwed up situation, he got banned from all Lucas film events. I can’t begin to tell you how wrong this is. But apparently these practises are very common in Hollywood, which is disappointing. I hope David gets some better treatment. And I’m not alone. It appears that some people have decided to create a petition to get David unbanned. So if you feel as out raged as me just head over to http://www.petitiononline.com/DProwse1/petition.html and sign the petition.

VIA

Clash of the Titans 2?

clash-of-the-titans-1210sm Why?

I’ll admit that I actually kind of liked Clash of the Titans. I know a lot of reviews hated it and even some of my friends, but I didn’t mind it. Sure it wasn’t the greatest film ever, but it did the job for me. But now there is talk of a sequel to Clash of the Titans and I have to wonder why.

Sure the film was very successful at the box office, but the story ended. There was no sequel to the story ever written, so I have to wonder where the story would go. Spoiler: Hades was defeated, the Krakken was killed, the relationship between man and Gods seemed to have improved slightly from the ending. Where can they go with this character? Sure it makes good economic sense to make a sequel, but I’m not convinced that there is a good story reason to do so.

I’m glad to hear that they plan on trying to change Sam’s character up a bit so that he can play someone slightly different, but I still don’t see a point in a sequel other than to make money.

What are your thoughts?  Do you want to see Clash of the Titans 2?

VIA

Monday, July 12, 2010

Edward Norton is a Jerk

Incredible_Hulk_Poster_2 Well that is according to Marvel.

Wow this is kind of a surprising turn of events. Anyone that watched the 2008 film Hulk knows that the film was pretty amazing. Hulk was a big step up from Ang Lee’s The Incredible Hulk, but unfortunately it didn’t do as well at the theatre as Ang Lee’s version. It has been the assumption that the Hulk franchise might get cancelled due to how well it had preformed previously at the theatre.

That is why we believed that there wasn’t a new Hulk film announced up until now. That is why it has come as a big surprise that the real reason for the delay in the next Hulk film was that Marvel was considering replacing Edward Norton. Even though Edward Norton did an amazing job as Bruce Banner it appears that his off screen antics were what sunk him. It is no big secret that Edward Norton likes to have “some influence” in the way that the films that he is in are produced. But it appears that Edward may have over done it this time. Marvel in their statement said,

“We have made the decision to not bring Ed Norton back to portray the title role of Bruce Banner in the Avengers. Our decision is definitely not one based on monetary factors, but instead rooted in the need for an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of our other talented cast members. The Avengers demands players who thrive working as part of an ensemble, as evidenced by Robert, Chris H, Chris E, Sam, Scarlett, and all of our talented casts. We are looking to announce a name actor who fulfills these requirements, and is passionate about the iconic role in the coming weeks.”

In other words, Marvel felt that Edward Norton's controlling nature would interfere with what they wanted to accomplish with the Avengers so they are removing him. Edward must have been a big enough jerk on set to have them decide to not have him in the Avengers. In many ways, I’m a bit disappointed to see Edward Norton gone from the Hulk. Edward did a really good job, but I do understand Marvel’s decision.

What this means for the next Hulk is uncertain. In this statement we at least know the Hulk will be in the Avengers, but will Marvel want to cast another actor for a third Hulk film? Three actors in 3 movies, I’m not sure if that is a great thing, but personally I would like to see if the Hulk could move on without Edward Norton.

What do you think? Should Marvel keep Edward Norton?

VIA

Congratz Spain

In case you missed it, Spain won the World Cup.

Spain played a pretty close game with the Netherlands this afternoon (which I unfortunately missed most of it due to work), which ended in a overtime victory for Spain. Personally I was hoping that the Netherlands would take it, but Spain pulled it off so I got to give it to them.

And just in case you’re wondering, I’m never going to doubt the predictive capabilities of an Octopus again. Congratz Spain.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Happy Canada Day!!!!

Canada_flag_map Happy Canada Day!

To all my fellow Canadians I wish you all a great day. Some of you may be taking a long weekend, and to you I hope you have a great weekend.

To my American friends I hope you enjoy your weekend as well. I know your holiday is a few days away, but I’ll wish you a great weekend as well.

I’ve decided to take some time off again, so I won’t be posting for the rest of this week and next week as well. So I wish you all a great weekend and a great week.