The Rant

Hey all, there has not been much happening lately in Hollywood, so I decided to just sit back and rant about random things, with no particular rhyme or reason, be it things I like or dislike, and in no particular order so here it goes.

Video game movies, they almost always suck, why is that? Because games are not supposed to be made into movies, they are supposed to be played.......Romantic comedies are always the same-boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, funny stuff happens, boy and girl break up for some stupid reason, they regret it, fix the problem then get back together, and that my friends is B O R I N G.......Why doesn't anyone realize that Clark Kent Is Superman? He parts his hair differently and wears glasses, THAT'S his disguise, he doesn't even change his voice, yet NOBODY makes the connection, oh and add to the fact that Clark is never around when Superman is, man the people of Metropolis are really stupid.......How many times are they going to remake "The Bad News Bears"??? They made 3 movies with the Bears, then proceeded to make "The Mighty Ducks", "Little Giants", "Ladybugs", "The Replacements", "Rebound", which were all good to mediocre movies, but the formula is exactly the same in every movie.......Do the people who make horror movies realize that making people jump is NOT scary, I have never walked away from a "slasher" movie scared, a horror movie has to induce fear, you have to walk away from it afraid, or at the very least mentally affected in some capacity, THAT'S what a horror movie should do.....I cannot remember a time in the last ten years that I saw a comedy that made me laugh so hard my stomach ached, there have been a lot of funny movies out, but none that made me laugh that hard, the last one I remember was in 1996, "The Nutty Professor".......I miss the days when visual effects were NOT done thru a PC, but with models, masks, costumes, spaceships looked way more real then they do with CGI, everything just looked better. CGI works some of the time and can do a lot that old school visual effects couldn't, but I am sick of CGI being used for EVERYTHING........Christian Bale is the best Batman that has graced the big screen, but he will most likely not be the last.......I will NEVER in my lifetime see "The Flintstones In Viva Rock Vegas" because they committed the ultimate sin in my eyes, they had the Great Gazoo in the movie and Harvey Korman DID NOT provide the voice which would be bad in any case, but is 100 times worse because Harvey Korman IS IN THE MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whew, well I feel better now!!!! This might just become a regular thing here at Movie Talk, it was really fun to write and I hope you enjoy reading it, please feel free to leave comments on anything I ranted about, as always I welcome opinions.

Interview With Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan has made quite a name for himself in Hollywood. Of course, being director of the biggest movie to hit the big screen in quite some time helps, that movie of course is "The Dark Knight". Ever since it became a worldwide phenomenon, there has been talk about the next installment of the Batman series, where the story will go, will the Joker return, will there be new villians, who will play them, and of course, every bit of that talk has been just that, talk, nothing more. The LA Times Geoff Boucher sat down for an interview with the director, here is a snippet of it-

GB: "The Dark Knight" is closing in on $1 billion. How do you get your arms around that kind of success?

NOLAN: I can’t get my arms around it, to be quite frank. It’s mystifying. It’s terrific but at the same time it’s a little abstract, the numbers are so big. The biggest thrill for me would be, with the number of people who have gone to see the film, how "The Dark Knight" stood on the shoulders of the first film, how we were able to build the audience up and build the story up from the first film.

It's a really good interview, one I will be following, because it is in three parts. Nolan is a very good film maker. Aside from the Batman movies, he made the highly acclaimed "Memento", as well as 2006's "The Prestige" about rival magicians, and if you haven't seen either, I strongly suggest you give them a viewing, because the guy has talent that reaches beyond the Batman movies. It will be interesting to see the direction that the next Batman movie will take, assuming there will be one. Nolan seems to indicate that with the right story there will be another, but he doesn't exactly confirm there will be another. There is a part of me that cannot wait for another installment, but then there is a small part of me that says why try to top "The Dark Knight". Think about the pressure and expectations that Nolan and company will be under, how do you top the performance of Heath Ledger, and the overall accomplishment that "The Dark Knight " was? One answer is maybe you shouldn't try. I know most people would disagree with that, but when you try to top what is considered to be your best work, you run the risk of tainting that work. Not that I think Nolan would make a bad Batman movie, but I would totally understand if he wanted to walk away from Batman and do other things.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE INTERVIEW

The New "Underworld" Movie

I am a big fan of both "Underworld" movies. Most of the time I am reading that a lot of people loved the first, not so much the second. I thought both of them were really good. I agree the first one is the better of the two, but the second is still solid and entertaining.

When I heard that Kate Beckinsdale was not reprising her role as Selene, I was a bit hesitant about a third installment. But after seeing the trailer for "Underworld:Rise Of The Lycans: I have to say that I am a bit more optimistic. It has the look and feel of both movies, and Rhona Mitra looks like she will fill in quite nicely as Selene. The always awesome Bill Nighy will be reprising his role as Viktor, which is awesome, he was great in both films. Well, he is pretty much great in whatever he does. Check out the trailer and see what you think, if you have any comments, as always, feel free to leave them.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TRAILER

The Hulk-Villain

Yep, that's what I said. The Hulk was always "misunderstood", but in the comic book series "Ultimate Avengers" he was the bad guy, the one the Avengers had to fight, as he was going on a rampage and had to be stopped. Well it seems that idea is being thrown around as a storyline for the 2011 "Avengers" movie. Read about it in an article over at MTV's Splashpage, in which the reporter is talking to Marvel studios President of Production Kevin Feige-

“Here’s the thing — it is all in the planning stages, but certainly if you look back to any number of ‘Hulk’ comics, or ‘Avengers’ comics, or ‘The Ultimates’ comics or the ‘Ultimate Avengers’ DVD that we released, it certainly makes a hell of a sequence,”

I saw "Ultimate Avengers" and it was extremely cool, in fact you should check it out, it may be an animated movie but it plays out like a regular film, one I would love to see come to the big screen in live action. It was really cool to see the different super heroes fighting the Hulk, and the outcome of it all was.....well I won't spoil it for you but it was very cool. Now, Edward Norton who played Bruce Banner in this years "The Incredible Hulk" has had his problems with the film, and the studios, taking his name off of the writing credit he had for the film and not doing much in the way of promotion when the film was being released. That would seem to be a problem, but in this case it really is not. In "Ultimate Avengers" when we even saw Bruce Banner, it was not for very long. So replacing Norton would not pose much of a problem, even though I thought he did a very good job in the movie. With the exception of a select few, every actor is replaceable. The "Batman" movies have done it 4 times, 007 has been played by 5 actors, and even the Hulk has been played by 2 actors in 2 movies. But "The Avengers" is a long way off so who knows what will happen in that time, we still have a few other movies to introduce us to the other Avengers, but as I have said in previous posts, "The Avengers" could wind up being the ultimate super hero movie, if everything leading up to it is handled right.

Sam Jackson & "Iron Man 2"

Read about this in an article over at Movieweb. Those of us who stayed until the end of the credits of "Iron Man" were fortunate enough to get a glimpse of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, the man who puts together the super hero team the Avengers. It was a really cool, albeit short scene to introduce the character and give us a hint of what is to come, that of course being the scheduled 2011 release of "The Avengers". Well it seems that according to Jackson, Nick Fury will have even more screen time in "Iron Man 2". From the article:

"As a matter of fact, Iron Man director Jon Favreau spoke to me at the Scream Awards last night, and told me that Nick Fury would have a much more prominent role in the second one (Iron Man 2)"

That is great news. Jackson is perfect to play the part, as he was the model for the character in the "Ultimates" comic series anyways, so to have him play it is just what Marvel wants. We should see more information about the Avengers in "Iron Man 2". If Marvel studios does this right, "The Avengers" could turn out to be the ultimate super hero movie. There are two other movies about Marvel heroes in the works, "Thor" and "The First Avenger:Captain America", both of whom are members of the Avengers. So there will be 3 movies to build up to the Avengers movie. That's a lot of pressure on Marvel studios, but if they continue the trend they started with this years "Iron Man" and "The Incredible Hulk", I don't think we will be disappointed.

More on "Star Trek"

Well, recently I posted that a new trailer for 2009's "Star Trek" will be hitting theaters next month. Well, now Paramount has released some more stills from the movie, and so far I am pleased with what I am seeing. Keep in mind though, these are just images, I have no idea of the acting ability of the cast, nor do I know much about the story or anything else. But going just on the images, it's looking pretty good so far.

Click here to see the images from movieweb.com

Now, I will say that i was a bit skeptical about Karl Urban playing Dr. McCoy, because Urban is a buff muscular dude, and Bones was a normal skinny guy. But after seeing the pics, I have to say he has the look pretty down. Zachary Quinto, playing Spock, is pretty much dead on as far as looking the part. In fact, most of the cast look like the characters they are supposed to be playing. But that is not enough, I have said it a million times before, they have to act exactly like the characters, something more important than looking the part. I like the look of the uniforms, right out of the original series but with a slightly modern feel to them. The bridge of the Enterprise looks very different from the TV series, which I don't have too much of a problem with. I have said it before, the movie doesn't have to look EXACTLY like the old Star Trek, but it does have to FEEL like Star Trek. The look is important, but, in my opinion, not nearly as important as the feel of the movie. Hopefully more images from the film will start emerging, and I hope the new trailer will give us even more insight into this new vision of Star Trek.

Batman Rumors

Since the mega success of "The Dark Knight", there have been rumors floating around like crazy, making fans drool with anticipation. I, for one, have not believed one word of what I have heard, and for one simple reason. The movie was still in theaters, and already there were rumors about the next movie, it is extremely rare that casting for a future installment of a franchise takes place before the current film is out of the theaters. People got so excited at the thought of Johnny Depp as the Riddler, or Phillip Seymour Hoffman as the Penguin, Angelina Jolie as Catwoman, and rightfully so. But no matter how successful a movie is, the people involved usually want to take a break, or do something different before jumping right in and going ahead with the next installment. Reading an article over at MTV's splashpage, screenwriter David
Goyer talks about the rumors circulating about the next Batman movie-

“It’s all B.S.,” he said. “ALL of it.”

That means, no, Nolan has not signed on (yet). No, there is no casting, let alone TALK, of villains, and, no, nobody is certain to return.

“Chris and I haven’t even talked about it. He quite understandably is taking a long, long vacation and wants to purge himself,” Goyer said.

Exactly what I have said all along, it is way to early to start talking about the next movie when the last one is barely out of the theaters. I realize that people are chomping at the bit for another Batman movie, and will jump at any bit of information that starts to float around. But you need to be realistic, and those who have been drooling over all the rumors floating around, time to come back down to earth. When there is an announcement from Warner Brothers, or Christopher Nolan, then I will get excited. Until then, it's all pure speculation.