Category Archives: Movie News & Opinions

Movie News & Opinions

Terminator 5 In The Works, Now With More Arnold Schwarzenegger!

Leave a comment

I’m probably one of the few hundred or so people who actually quite enjoyed Terminator: Salvation. While it wasn’t the thrilling all out war that was promised from the opening scenes of Terminator 2, it still whetted my appetite pretty thoroughly for more Terminator movies and I was pretty ready for the franchise to come back strong. Unfortunately like I previously said, I was one of the very few who liked that movie, and what with the infamous Christian Bale blowout on set, it seemed like the Terminator franchise was doomed.

Fortunately it seems like the rights to the franchise were picked up by Skydance Productions, and progress is being made on the five-quel.

via [Deadline]

[quote] Skydance Productions and Annapurna Pictures have set Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier to script the next installment of The Terminator franchise.[/quote]

The good news about this is that #1) We’ll be getting a new Terminator movie, and in the spectrum of things, that’s something I’ll always be thankful for, and #2.) the talent involved is interesting to say the least. Patrick Lussier is a name known to genre fans, who most recently unleashed the wonderfully insane Drive Angry on the unsuspecting public. Laeta Kalogridis wrote Shutter Island, which I found to be pretty enjoyable. But the last bit of REAL good news, is that the ol’ Governator himself will be returning to the franchise!

via [BleedingCool]

[quote]Briefly: our man Patrick Dane is down at the London junket for The Last Stand and he reports back, in short, that Arnold Schwarzenegger will be appearing in the next Terminator movie. Arnold said so himself.[/quote]

My real point of contention here is going to be where exactly the movie will take place in the Terminator timeline? I think the only logical place to take it would be to show us the time machines actually being invented, and The Resistance trying to stop Skynet from building the time machine to go back into time, so the Terminator’s remains won’t be found by Cyberdyne, so there will be no Skynet in the first place. The problem with that would be with no Skynet there’d be no Resistance to stop Skynet, so then Judgement Day would still happen and there’d be The Resistance who’d stop the time machines and…

Well now my nose is bleeding so I’m gonna stop there. But a Terminator movie that delves into the mythology of the chicken/egg time travel situation when it comes to how Skynet came to be sounds great. Really have it go into detail about time travel, explain how it works and iron out some of the kinks/plotholes from T2 and forward. Plus have an aged Michael Biehn in there somehow, along with aged Arnie, (presumably from the alterna-future?), and you’d have the beginnings of a time travel story that’d really be something.

I'm sure he could use the work too.
I’m sure he could use the work too.

I’m basing this on nothing but pure speculation, since there’s really no story or script details at all at the moment, but you can bet when there is, my weird mind will be racing with possibilities. At this point there’s so many places they could go with the story, and I’m really hoping they don’t screw it up monumentally.

Of course, that’s if the movie ever actually gets made. Clearly you can see I hope it does.

Oh if only...
Oh if only…
Movie News & Opinions

Spielberg Planning ‘Gremlins’ Return…

Leave a comment

From reading the title of this piece, I am going to take a guess that you have had two responses to this news. One must be a response of absolute joy, because there is a chance Gizmo and co will be back on our screens. The rest of you may be thinking “In what form?” Well it is a valid question and one that you might not like the answer to.

Vulture have reported that Warner Brothers Pictures and Amblin Entertainment (Steven Spielberg’s company) are trying to get a reboot of the franchise off the ground. Apparently Spielberg has had this in mind for a while, but his budget estimates were considered too costly for anyone to take a chance on. The film is certainly not something that is 100 percent confirmed right now, but Vulture’s sources say that there is a good chance this could get the ‘go ahead’ soon.

Gremlins Poster

Is this a good thing however? Most fans of the original movies are going to want to see Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates reprise their roles, as well as strictly puppet Gremlins with no CGI. However reboots do tend to like to ditch the original casts (aside from a little cameo here and there) and go with younger actors, so they can cater their story to a younger, youthful market that has never seen the movies. Also I have horrific visions of a CGI Gizmo leaping out of our screens in poorly put together 3D, but this could just be me. This is also yet another remake in a cinematic sea already full to the brim with retreads and re-imaginings. What is wrong with having a good old-fashioned sequel?

Gizmo

Positives though include the fact that Spielberg seems passionate about this, and if he is involved in a producer role again, then that gives us older fan boys and girls hope that he can infuse this with the same magic he and Joe Dante did with the original. Maybe there is a place for Zach and Phoebe t0o, as the parents of a child that gets a Mogwai perhaps? If CGI is needed then hopefully it will be as good as movies like Ted, where the CGI was seamless. Very little is known for sure, so watch this space for more information when we get it.

gremlins movie remake mogwai

Movie Trailers

Dead Man Down: New Trailer with Farrell and Noomi Rapace

Leave a comment

Dead Man Down is a crime thriller starring Colin Farrell, Noomi Rapace, Dominic Cooper  and Terrence Howard. The film marks the English-language debut of Danish filmmaker Niels Arden Oplev, who previously directed Rapace in the Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It’s due to be released on the 8th of March. And we have the trailer…

The plot is as follows: Victor (Colin Farrell) is an enforcer to a New York City boss, Alphonse Hoyt (Terrence Howard), who was responsible for the deaths of his wife and daughter, an act that Victor seeks revenge for. Victor turns detective when his boss is
under threat from an unknown killer. During this he is seduced by Beatrice (Noomi Rapace), a woman from across the street who saw Victor murder someone, who blackmails him into helping her with her own search for vengeance. I’m telling you this as the trailer doesn’t make it all that clear.

Dead Man Down Trailer Noomi Rapace
Noomi Rapace [via Rope of Silicon]
I don’t know what to make of this trailer. Sure, it’s got two good-looking actors as the leads (and they’re reasonably good at acting, which is always a plus) as well as action and romance, and it may turn out that the actual film is quite thrilling, but it looks so, well, drab. I think it’s aiming for arty. It just doesn’t quite hit it. It’s got something missing.

The most interesting thing about this trailer is that it features a cover of Shine On You Crazy Diamond by Kendra Morris. I’m not one hundred per cent sure who she is but she’s done a fantastic version of the classic Pink Floyd track. Even so it still seems at odds with the trailer. I’m guessing it was to go with the arty vibe.

What did surprise me though was to find out that it was produced by WWE studios. I didn’t even know they had a film production company! They seem to make mostly wrestling videos and films with wrestlers in acting roles. In Dead Man Down the wrestler in question is Wade Barrett, who has a bit part as Kilroy. He’s also from Preston in Lancashire.

Dead Man Down Trailer Wade Barrett Terrence Howard
Wade Barrett & Terrence Howard [via Contactmusic]
So that’s Dead Man Down. A film I might see if it gets good reviews,but not solely on the strengths of this trailer.

Dead Man Down Trailer Poster
Movie Poster via ComingSoon
Movie News & Opinions

Kaleb Lechowski Short Film ‘R’ha’ Is An Impressive Look at Aliens vs Robots

Leave a comment

Uproxx has showcased a new and exciting short by a new 22-year-old German director called Kaleb Lechowski. Later this month he is arriving in Los Angeles and this little feature is a hell of a calling card for him. The plot involves a mainly one piece scene where an alien has become trapped by a robot interrogator who needs vital information from him. While watching this please take note that Kaleb made this entirely himself, with CGI over a seven month period.

After watching this the obvious parallels between The Terminator franchise have to be mentioned, but the robots themselves look a lot more like the robotic creatures from The Matrix trilogy. They have an organic fluidity to them that makes them fascinating to look at and quite terrifying. The alien looks very much like an oceanic creature with its smooth lines and gill like curvatures (even though we know their home world looks mostly land based). The plot has a hint of Star Wars to it as well; it unfolds like Darth Vader’s interrogation of Princess Leia in A New Hope.

r'ha alien interrogation

The solo setting works incredibly well in helping to put the focus on the two leads. Also the way these two characters manage to grip us and keep our attention without actually having a lot of facial features is amazing. While watching this I was enthralled throughout. It is easy to see how this piece was going to end however, with the mechanical creature’s references to how inferior organic life can be, becoming something even crueller than its creators could ever be because of its lack of emotions or empathy. The short looks stunning and the voice acting by Dave Masterton really needs to be commended as it shapes these characters and helps to give them life. Hopefully this will not be the last time we hear from Kaleb, as this piece in six minutes has created a sense of tension and amazement a lot of movies fail to achieve at all.

r'ha robot

Movie News & Opinions

The Return of the Hot Tub Time Machine?

Leave a comment

Are you yearning for more time traveling tales, but found films like Looper a little bit too serious for your liking? Then you may be happy to hear that MGM (right back after almost suffering bankruptcy) have a sequel planned to their 2010 comedy Hot Tub Time Machine. Hollywood Reporter had this to say about the proposed film.

[box_light]The company is in what insiders characterize as “exploratory talks” with Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, and Clark Duke to reprise their roles for the follow-up. Corddry could end up being involved in fashioning a script with Steve Pink, the director of the original who is in talks to return to direct the sequel. John Cusack, who also starred in the original, is not involved at this point.[/box_light]

While not much to go on at the moment, we do know that almost all the creators and stars of the first movie will be involved, meaning that the sequel will still have that nice mix of tragedy, tears, comedy and vomit we all loved seeing before. A shame about John Cusack’s supposed lack of involvement, but it is incredibly early and there is plenty of time for things to change. We do not even know yet if any of the supporting cast will return like Chevy Chase’s quirky handyman character.

010HTM_John_Cusack_015

The main question that needs to be asked is “Do we need a sequel at all?”  The film did make a profit at the box office, with 50 million dollars made on a 36M budget, so it certainly has its fans. But the film was very self contained as it is and you may be wondering where is the tale going to go from here? Well, I have some ideas. The script could pull a Back to the Future 2 on us and have the guys travel forward in time to check to see if their lives are still great or to help out their kids in the future and then they find out that something is amiss. Alternatively they could go back to the 80’s, because of their actions in the first film they could have changed the present so much that it is on the verge of collapse and needs to be set straight again. At this point it could be anything. Though I am still not convinced that a sequel is actually needed, it is not going to stop me going to the cinema if it comes about. The original was a nice, quirky comedy that mixed adult humor with a glamorized view of the ’80s we all wish were true and had a great cast of characters that harked back to the days of Animal House and Police Academy. You never know, they may even get to pop Motley Crue in the film again which is never a bad thing.

We’ll keep you updated as the story develops.

Movie Trailers

Trailer Roundup: Danny Boyle, Halle Berry, and Jackie Robinson…

Leave a comment

42

42 is sure to deliver the amazing true story of the first African American to play Major League Baseball during our modern era, Jackie Robinson.  Typically, I find these films to be depressing because they uncover some of the filth our nation has been responsible for in the past.  However, it should also be incredibly triumphant demonstrating a first hand occurrence of when segregation began to deteriorate in this country.

Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) receives guidance from Brooklyn Dodgers Team Executive Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) as he breaks the color barrier of Major League Baseball.

Director:  Brian Helgeland

Stars:  Harrison Ford, Alan Tudyk, Chadwick Boseman, Kelley Jakle, Nicole Beharie, Christopher Meloni, and T.R. Knight.

Release Date:  April 12, 2013

Continue reading Trailer Roundup: Danny Boyle, Halle Berry, and Jackie Robinson… →