The Adventures of Future Robin Hood!

Robin Hood is set for a comeback, not only with Ridley Scott‘s sure-to-be-epic Robin Hood, starring Russel Crowe (possibly the last time he will star in a Scott film), but with another film that “re-invents” the whole Robin Hood story one step further with…Robin Hood and the Future!

Robin Hood has been through various re-inventings in the past (at one point he was even a fox), and this one, while not being a Disney Musical nor a terrible BBC series, seems a little absurd. However, while details are still very scarce at this stage, it has been confirmed that The Dark Knight producer, Charles Roven, and 300 producer, Craig Flores, are going to be producing the film, which at least promises us some decent action scenes. Nicolai Fuglsig is currently set to direct, who as far as I can tell is an unknown, and the script is being written by Jason Hall.

With 300 and the Dark Knight producers teaming up, hopefully we can get a bit of Dark Knight Vigilante-ness, some 300 slo-mo action scene-ness, and some good old fashioned Robin Hood in space with lasers-ness. Awesome.

Filed under: movies, Yet to be released , action, adventure, future, movies, Robin Hood, science fiction, space

Ridley Scott set to direct Alien Prequel

About time. It seems that while Aliens were fighting predators, predators were fighting pride and prejudice, and pride and prejudice was fighting zombies, someone finally came to their senses and put Ridley Scott in the director’s chair for the new Alien Prequel.

Since Variety reported the news, a little bit of sanity has entered the mix. Up until now, the Alien franchise had been going into a steady downfall, and I didn’t really think it would get much better with a prequel which, by the way, was originally going to be directed by Carl Rinsch (an unknown). God knows what happened to Rinsch, but with Scott back in the director’s seat I couldn’t care less, the franchise is going to return to the director who made it so awesome to begin with!

Also from Variety, we get a bit of a glimpse into the prequel’s storyline:

The film is set up to be a prequel to the groundbreaking 1979 film that Scott directed. It will precede that film, in which the crew of a commercial towing ship returning to Earth is awakened and sent to respond to a distress signal from a nearby planetoid. The crew discovers too late that the signal generated by an empty ship was meant to warn them.

Not overly complex, but neither was the first movie. With Scott on board, the franchise has been given a second chance…And hopefully we’ll never see Aliens battling predators again.

Filed under: movies, Yet to be released , alien, coming soon, movies, predator, Ridley Scott, science fiction

Red Cliff

The film Red Cliff, which should be in cinemas now in most Western countries, is a Chinese film portraying the battles that took place in China leading up to the Battle of Red Cliffs (208/209 AD). Now, normally a movie that has received such high critical acclaim, is rumoured to have great action scenes and is based on historic events is just begging to be seen, and I would see it but…Margaret and David At The Movies (I know, I used them in my last post too) said there’s one better.

You see, Red Cliff, as released in Western countries, is released as a 2 and a half hour movie, whereas the original was released across Asia as two movies released 6 months apart and combined it ran for 4 and a half hours. Now, I know not everyone would be willing to sit through a 4 and a half hour movie, but as David said, cutting down on almost half of the original is “akin to screening half of Lawrence of Arabia”. I’m sure either version would be great, but now that I know that there’s a longer, potentially better version of Red Cliff, I’m tempted to try and find myself a copy of the Asian version before I see the Western version in the cinema.

Filed under: movies , action, China, History, movies

Review – Drag Me To Hell

Rating: 3/5

This is a little odd for me, I hadn’t planned on seeing Sam Raimi‘s latest film, Drag Me to Hell, and horror generally isn’t a genre I appreciate, but a few nights ago I happened to be near a cinema with some friends, we decided we should see a movie and Drag Me To Hell was all they had on and against all expectations, I liked it. It was vile, bloodthirsty, incredibly disgusting, at times disturbing, it was a very sick piece of work, and I liked it.

Raimi has returned to his roots with this movie, and blends a sick fusion between horror and comedy that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Drag Me To Hell was far from being a deep and meaningful masterpiece, but it did what it was supposed to do, it shocked, frightened and even made people laugh. Raimi knows what his audience is there for, they’re there for the thrill, the chill, and, well, I probably couldn’t say it better then he could, so here’s how he describes his ideal horror audience to Margaret and David At The Movies:

unlike an art crowd who goes in with a little bit of a – oh, their nose up a bit and a prove-it-to-me attitude, the horror crowd comes in, like arms open, thrill me, chill me, give me your best shot. You know, they really want to embrace the film.

I couldn’t put it better, and while there’s nothing wrong with watching art movies, or being a part of an art crowd, different movies need to be approached differently. Some movies need to be proven, like your art films, while others are just like rides, and Drag Me To Hell was one hellova ride.

Filed under: movies, Reviews , comedy, drag me to hell, horror, movies

Michael Jackson Film

Michael may be dead, but that isn’t stopping the King of Pop from appearing in another feature length film.

AEG Entertainment, the company that released Michael’s last rehearsal videos after his death, is in talks with Sony Pictures about the possibility of a new Michael Jackson movie. I’m not entirely sure how this will work, but they plan on using the footage from the rehearsal videos and an alternate version of “Thriller” to make the film. To me, it sounds as if they plan on making some kind of documentary movie, because a feature length music video of Michael’s rehearsals hitting the cinemas doesn’t seem likely, but hey, it’s probably too soon to speculate just yet anyway.

Capitalising on Michaels’s last rehearsal videos seems like a strange tribute to his life, but then again, everythingthat happens in that world celebrities live in seems a little strange to me.

Filed under: movies, Yet to be released , celebrity, michael jackson, movies, music

The Asylum – Mockbusters

Today I want to focus on the little known movie production group, The Asylum. Sound familiar? Maybe you’ve seen it’s logo stamped on some direct-to-video releases? Maybe you wandered over to what you thought was Snakes on a Plane, only to find that what you were looking at was actually Snakes on a Train, or perhaps you thought it was Transformers, only to find out you were holding Transmorphers. You see, Asylum is one of the few film companies that produces mockbusters (as you may notice that almost all the examples on this wiki page are Asylum made movies), they make money by piggybacking on the success of other movies.

Amongst some of their titles are: 18 Year Old Virgin (piggybacking on 40 Year Old Virgin), The Terminators (Terminator), Da Vinci Treasure (The Da Vinci Code), Alien Vs. Hunter (Alien Vs. Predator) to name a few.

Admin from the Asylum (From the comments of this page):

Thankfully, our mothers don’t even know we make these films.

They think we’re drug dealers.

I have to admit, when I found out about these mockbusters, I decided I had to see one and decided on Alien Vs. Hunter (it had a pretty cool cover design, everything’s all green and science-fictiony). The first thing I noticed was that they must have blown most of their budget on that cool cover design and the helicopter fly-over for the opening credits, because the rest of the movie was seriously underbudgeted. The special effects was terrible, the dialogue was amongst the worst dialogue I’ve ever heard, and the entire plot was, well, you decide, it went a little like this: People discover alien and hunter, someone dies, everyone runs to the town hall…They then decide the best thing to do is go out again into the forest where the alien is…Someone dies, back to the town hall…They then decide the best thing to do is go out again into the forest where the alien is… And so on and so forth. The Novelty of watching something so poor wore off fairly fast, and I decided to stop watching when they decided to go out into the forest for what seemed like the 100th time.

Filed under: movies , alien vs. predator, movies, sci, science fiction, snakes on a plane

Indiana Jones 5

It seems there’s one more sequel to squeeze out of this franchise, and just recently it’s been confirmed: there will be an Indiana Jones 5.

Harrison Ford and Shia LeBeouf are set to hit the big screens in 2011 as Indiana Jones and Indiana’s rock’n'roll son in what is sure to be a box office hit. Amongst fears that LeBeouf would be stealing the limelight and replacing Ford as the film’s central character, it has since been confirmed that Ford will be returning one more time to take the lead role (hopefully for the last time). Ford himself has said “…we need to make this one soon. We’re not getting any younger” and there’s no denying that, Ford is currently 67 and it looks like this may be our last chance to see Harrison reprise his role as Indiana Jones.

So should it be done? Let them, not only is this our last chance to see Ford portray Indiana Jones before some future Hollywood “genius” decides to remake the entire franchise, this may be their last chance to see a good Indiana Jones movie. After The Temple of Doom, which in my opinion has been the worst of the entire Indiana Jones collection, they made The Last Crusade, which was brilliant, in 2008 they made Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which was terrible, and now they’re making Indiana Jones 5, so who knows…If it follows this pattern, no. 5 may be alright.

Filed under: movies, Yet to be released , action, adventure, indiana jones, movies

Review: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Rating: 4/5

Kids dealing with school stress, emotions, infatuations, and experimenting with mind-altering “potions”? Sound Familiar? Well, aside from the “potions” I could be describing the lives of real-life high school student, but instead I’m describing the life of Harry in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the latest of the Harry Potter movies. It may have been a bit rushed in places, it may have even had too much romance for my tastes, but there’s no denying this is one of the must-watch movies of 2009; it was fun, exciting, and didn’t quite suck as much as the last few did.

The new Harry Potter movie was everything I expected it to be and more, it was darker, gloomier and slightly scarier then the past few Harry Potter movies, yet it was also unexpectedly funnier as it explored the teenage emotional rollercoster and the ups and downs of the Hogswarts relationships. Sure, the whole tension between Ron and Hermione seems to be way over the top, but let’s be honest, what high-school infatuation isn’t way over the top?

As usual, there’s a new addition to the staff at Hogwarts with the introduction of Professor Slughorn, and Jim Broadbent plays the role perfectly. The usual cast are very much the same, and while none of them were ever great actors to begin with, they’ve come a long way from the confused, awkward kids they were in the first movie and Rupert Grint in particular, who has the role of Ron Weasely, has improved greatly, which is to say he can now act.

All in all, I’m happy I decided to go and see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, darker, funnier, and a must-see movie.

Filed under: movies, Reviews , fantasy, harry potter, movies, review

Just thoughts on Harry Potter

Just a quick post before I head off to see Harry Potter (probably won’t be able to write about it until tomorrow).

The Harry Potter series seems to be getting darker and darker, in fact, we know the movies are going to continue getting darker and darker since the books are already out…And I was thinking, this is great for the generation who grew up with Harry, they mature as the Harry Potter series matures, but what about the next generation? Will they be able to read/watch the first book/movie and then have to wait a year before they continue onto the second?

Not complaining though, whatever J.K. Rowling is doing, it seems to be working. After all, she is one of the richest people in the world.

Filed under: movies , fantasy, harry potter, movies

On the Horizon – Aliens and Predators

Fortunately, it doesn’t look like there will be any more cross-overs between Alien and Predator in the near future, however, as many of you would already know, they’re stories are far from over yet.

The new Predator movie, Predators, is set to be produced and co-written by Robert Rodriguez (Planet Terror, Spy Kids), who only knows how to make bloodthirsty horror/action movies and family friendly children’s movies…Fortunately, Predator falls well within one of those themes. The basic plot is said to involve a group of humans being trapped upon the Predators’ home world, and as Graeme McMillan from io9.com has pointed out, this is a lot like how a group of humans were trapped on the Alien home world in Aliens. Oh well, should still be fun.

Less is known about the new Alien movie coming out, apart from the fact that Ridley Scott, while producing, will not be coming back to direct as he did in the original. Carl Rinsch, a relatively unknown director, is taking the reigns. While I think a lot of people would prefer Ridley Scott to direct, it seems Carl has the job, so all we can do is sit back and give this guy a chance, and hopefully he brings Alien back to its former glory.

So is that it for Alien and Predator, no  more cross-overs? Well, we can’t rule out an eventual resurrection for the Alien vs. Predator franchise, but for the mean time it seems that Alien has seen the last of its cross-overs. Predator, however, is a different story…It seems that Predator is set to make a cross-over into, uh, a nineteenth century England setting in Pride and Predator. A Jane Austin romance and a Sci-Fi action/thriller? Really, it’s like they were meant to be.

Filed under: movies, Yet to be released , movies, science fiction