In my time at Bam Kapow I wrote multiple articles on the impending remake of The Crow. For those not in the know, The Crow was an early 90’s comic book action movie set (though not filmed) in Detroit, in which a spirit of vengeance comes back from the dead on Devil’s Night and rains havoc on the city’s worst scum. When I was 12 it was maybe the coolest thing ever. The lead character, Eric Draven, was played by Brandon Lee. The son of none other than the Legendary Bruce Lee.
In the movie Eric, who along with his girlfriend, had been killed the year before, and a mystical crow brings him back to exact revenge for the woman he failed to protect, his fiancée Shelly. He is impervious to pain and seemingly can’t die. He oddly befriends police officer Winston Zeddmore when he isn’t murdering people or scaring junkies into taking care of their kids.
He proceeds to hunt down the people who had a hand in destroying his happy life. From Steve Crosetti the pawn dealer that paid for Shelly’s jewelry to T-Bird(played by the guy in the video below), the gang leader that tossed him out the window to his death. Eventually Eric works up the ranks to T-Bird’s boss ‘Top Dollar’, who is played by Michael Wincott, who is creepy in everything. It’s all very entertaining.
Tragically however, Brandon was killed while filming the movie, due to a mistake with the prop gun. This in truth probably added to the mystique and helped make it more of a success. It cost only $15 million to make, but grossed near $100 worldwide. And as someone who spent 5 years behind video store counters, I can tell you it did quite well in the VHS after market as well.
But like most good ideas, it was bogged down and played out by not 1, not 2, but 3 terrible sequels, and a remake in 2000 that like 54 people actually saw. It has a 3.9/10 on IMDb. All of these movies obviously absent the star of the first film.
Now, Hollywood, never to let something die is trying once again. This time the budget will surely exceed that of the previous 5 movies combined, as will the advertising. But with Lee in the grave for nearly 2 decades, who should portray our protagonist? Well, after years in development, we may have an answer to that.
Bradley Cooper.
Cooper is in talks, and appears to be set to play Draven in this most recent reboot. I don’t dislike Cooper by any means. He was funny in The Hangover and Wedding Crashers, and I always liked him during his days onAlias. But to be honest, I’m having trouble seeing this…
What do you think about this? I guess I’d be ok so long as it still takes place in Detroit and is shot here…
Superis the latest in a long line of superhero movies. But it’s not like Superman or Captain America, even if his name and appearance draw comparisons to both. It’s more like the underrated Kick-Ass or Defendor. The synopsis is below:
After his wife falls under the influence of a drug dealer, an everyday guy transforms himself into Crimson Bolt, a superhero with the best intentions, though he lacks for heroic skills.
Rainn Wilson plays the Crimson Bolt, and is joined by Ellen Page (Left), who plays his sidekick. Liv Tyler plays the wife and Kevin Bacon the drug dealer. The movie also features Captain Malcom ReynoldsNathan Fillion.
It’s from the IFC, so it’s likely to be less funny and more depressing than the trailer would indicate, but I hear it’s worth a watch. Here is the trailer:
The reason I say you’ll never see this is bcause this isn’t a wide release thing. It’s gonna be hard for a lot of you to find this, but I know in the Detroit Area it’s opening this Friday at the Royal Oak Art Theater. I think I’ll be there.
America’s greatest hero is back. No, I’m not talking about Captain America, or Neil Armstrong, or even Audie Murphy. I’m referring of course to Jack Bauer. And yes, I know he is played by a Canadian actor, but nobody’s perfect. Kiefer Sutherland has announced that everyone’s favorite indestructible Special Agent will be back next summer. However this time, he’s moving to the big screen.
There really isn’t much info out yet except that it’s supposed to start shooting in January and should be released sometime next year. Aside from Jack himself, it’s not clear who else might pop up, but as far as I’m concerned, the only other person that needs to appear my favorite computer analyst and yours, Chloe O’Brien!
The show ran for 8 seasons, and I was a huge fan from start to finish. I’d be remiss however, not to admit that the first 4 seasons were considerably better than the last 4. The show just didn’t have the same feel after David Palmer…
But despite declining viewer ship, as well a poor reviews towards the end, 24 still entertained the Hell out of me and I do miss it. Truth be told I wasn’t heartbroken when it got canceled. The show had sort of run it’s course, and how many shows now get 8 seasons to do so? Plus there was always talk of this movie happening so I didn’t really feel as though I was losing some of my favorite characters as with other canceled shows.
Now originally when they talked about this, they did so in a manner that would’ve exceeded ‘Awesome Levels’ by so much movie projectors would’ve exploded. One of the early drafts for the movie was titled: Die Hard 24/7. It would have featured both John McClane and Jack Bauer thus making my head explode along with the projector.
I am happy though they’ve decided to keep the franchises separate. This way we 2 get movies instead of just one. With that, let me just say I’m very excited for this movie.
If you were a fan of the recent Tron: Legacy movie, then there is no doubt that this is the graphic novel for you. Betrayal not only explains what occurred in the first Tron movie, but covers the time span between that movie and the inevitable betrayal of Flynn by his codified likeness utility Clu.
Deadline reports that Universal will be making a movie based on the short story “8 O’Clock in the Morning”. It is the same story that was the basis for the Sci Fi cult classic They Live. It will be directed by Matt Reeves, who also helmed Let Me In and Cloverfield.
If you haven’t seen They Live, or at the very least don’t even know what it is, then I advise you start living and watch it. The story is simple. A drifter played by Rowdy Roddy Piper(yes, the wrestler) stumbles upon some sunglasses that can spot aliens that are living amongst us. Not only that, these ugly-looking bastards are mind numbing and controlling us through subliminal messages that make us into consumers who only value material goods. Piper of course goes on a rampage with my hero Keith David after they enjoy an epic 5 minute fight scene (cut with the South Park parody). It may be long but trust me, it’s five minutes well worth the time:
So even though this new movie is based on of the same story as They Live was, it’s not going to follow all of the elements from the John Carpenter version. That means no alien revealing sun glasses, and more than likely, no Roddy Piper! Blasphemy if you ask me.
They will instead opt to skip the glasses and rely on our protagonist having a ‘sudden realization’ and spotting the aliens after his epiphany. I feel like they really could have capitalized off of the 3D fad with this one. They is one of the few movies where the 3D glasses could’ve really been put to good use, maybe taken it a step further too. Perhaps they could have layered the film by having the 3D glasses serve the same purpose as the ones in the movie. You take them off, regular human on-screen, put them back on – formaldehyde face! Ah what could have been.
No word yet on expected release date, but there better at least be a Roddy Piper cameo in the movie somewhere.
If you check out the video below you won’t find a better movie quote…ever! And long before Duke Nukem I might add…
You have to think about the landscape of the horror genre in 1996. Several years removed from its last smash hit and fading, Horror fans wanted a reason to go to the theater. The genre was in trouble, and the most successful horror movies of the decade to that point were Silence of the Lambs, Misery, and Flatliners. All released in 1990, and none of which are traditional ‘Horror’ movies. It seemed the old school ‘slasher flick’ had been all but killed the in the late 1980s. Done in by endless sub-par sequels to movies like Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Friday the 13th. Audiences had become fed up and the box office reflected it. So when Scream came out, and grossed over $100 million, it was a big deal.
I felt the Laser line background screamed 1990.
I think it’s easy to forget how big a deal it was now, 15 years removed from its release, because of what came after. Scream fell victim to the same formula that killed its predecessors: Too many mediocre (if not downright terrible) sequels and copycats. In recent years I’ve been involved in discussions where this movie will be brought up and someone will lump it in with the garbage that followed. That however, is simply not fair. Scream was a head above anything that followed through the rest of the decade. From I Know What You Did Last Summer (& it’s own sequel) to Urban Legend (& it’s terrible sequel) to Scream 2 & 3, no movie I can think of has been so copied so quickly.
Scream set a standard for a while. It wasn’t just another teenage slasher flick, it was self-aware. It was a satire of the entire genre that it unintentionally revitalized. They did everything from straight out referencing movies like Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street by name, to talking about the director of their own movie in a fictional manner. All the while, more subtly throwing nods back to the classics. Skeet Ulrich’s character, ‘Billy Loomis’ should sound familiar to Hitchcock fans who will remember the boyfriend ‘Sam Loomis’ from Psycho. You might also remember one ‘Dr. Loomis’ in the Halloween movies. We get a cameo from The Exorcist star Linda Blair as a reporter, and Sheriff Burke was played by Joseph Whipp. Mr. Whipp doesn’t have much luck protecting kids apparently, as he was also a cop on Elm Street 12 years earlier.
This also came out at a time when it was rare to get A-List cast in a horror flick. I mean, this is what you did to start a career, not once you were established. And make no mistake, in 1996, Drew Barrymore was a bona fide A-List actress and I don’t think she gets credit enough for the success of this movie either. Scream catapulted almost the entire cast into furthering their careers. Neve Campbell and Courtney Cox were already TV stars, but this made them house hold names. Plus David Arquette, Jamie Kennedy, Matthew Lillard, and Rose McGowan all went on to have success after this.
The story was simple enough, small town high school students are being terrorized by a serial killer. He wears a mask and calls to taunt his victims on the phone. That aspect is what has been most played up in spoofs and re-imaginings. So much so that phone companies reported the orders for ‘Caller ID’ tripled after the release of the movie. As the movie progressed and we learn who the killer is (are) we are regaled by the lack of motives. Sidney (Campbell) survives and we’re actually given a pretty satisfying end to the movie. So much so that a sequel really doesn’t make sense. Of course that didn’t stop them from making one.
In fact the movie became watered down by not 1, but 2 sequels. A watchable, but not good sequel in Scream 2, and then the abortion of a movie that was Scream 3. The second movie followed Sidney (Campbell) and Randy (Kennedy) off to college where the movie was once again packed with a good cast and similar formula. In this fictional universe there is a movie based on a book by Gale Weathers (Cox) about Sidney and the events from the original film. This movie with-in a movie is called Stab. Stab inspires a copycat killer to start stalking Sidney and recreating kills from the original killer.
This one has a cast that including Jerry O’Connell, Rebecca Gayheart, Jada Pinkett (Smith), Omar Epps, Heather Graham, and ‘Charlie’ from The Mighty Ducks. It also featured Buffy herself – Sarah Michelle Gellar, and future Arrested Development star Portia de Rossi. But the best parts of the cast were the 2 actors who weren’t yet widely known. First Liev Schreiber, who reprised his role (of about 10 seconds) from the first movie as Cotton Weary, and most importantly, my favorite actor on television – from Justified Raylan Givens Timothy Olyphant.
In the 3rd movie we were heavy on cameos and big names, like on substance. At the time I did enjoy the presence of Jenny McCarthy and the cameos Carrie Fisher and by Jay and Silent Bob, but I don’t remember enjoying much else. Scream 3 was so bad it not only killed the franchise for the next decade, but the whole genre for a couple of years. After the ware-out provided by all the copies, it wasn’t till the Japanese Horror Invasion started in 2002 with The Ring that the genre felt fresh again.
That quickly faded however, and they went back to the well. This time with a gluttony of remakes. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (& horrible sequel), The Amityville Horror, Friday the 13th, The Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, Nightmare on Elm Street, and an entire franchise reboot of Halloween.
Now, here we are in 2011, just a few days from the release of Scream 4. The first chapter of the franchise in over a decade, and just as before we’re not short on names. From Sookie to the Cheerleader to Annie Edison, this looks to be full of beautiful women in precarious situations. The most important one of course being my Uber-Crush: Kristen Bell.
I can’t really predict any true level of quality here, but I will say I’m expecting it to be better than the 3rd one was. As long as they’ve worked on it for, they must have learned something from the 3rd movie.
Well I can already say that I hate these new ‘movie geek’ kids. Lame ripoff of my favorite character in the series Randy. They just seem to convoluted to be likable, but I guess we’ll find out Friday.
Anyhow, I’m going to see this opening night because of my attachment to the franchise. I’ll be doing so in hopes it’s not terrible, because I’ve already committed to seeing it a 2nd time with my Secret Agent/G-Man buddy Dave. We watched all the other ones together back in High School, so it only seems fitting that we do this one as well.
“Yes Kristen, obviously I agree. VERONICA MARS was a better show than TRUE BLOOD is.”
Grizzly Bomb 