The Weekly Movie Pulse

Archive

OK, it’s been seven days so that must mean I have another column to write, or I’m gonna be killed by some little demonic girl for watching a tape. You know, I never really did understand The Ring, not the premise I got that I just didn’t quite understand the point of it since it was a remake of a relativly new film. There was a four year space between Ringu and The Ring, well that and a language barrier that’s apparently too hard for some to get over. Wow, that quickly turned from a welcome in to a rant didn’t it? Might be a new record.

Quite a bit of news came out in the past few days that makes me glad I got a late start on the column this week so I can cover them. Studios are busy getting ready for the Academy Awards in nine days so next week will probably be about something other than news. But for now I was able to dig up a few new things and a few I missed last week. But before we get to that… the pimps.

First thing we have up is a Contest for you to enter for the chance to win a prize pack courtesy of Paramount Pictures. Included in the prize are DVDs for Elizabethtown, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and The Weather Man. Not bad for only having to answer one question. Click the link email in your answers and good luck.

Columns
Rob returns again with more Peter Sellers goodness. This week he takes a look at The Return of the Pink Panther along with The Pink Panther Strikes Again in R0BTRAIN’s Bad Ass Cinema. These were by most considered the best of the Panther series, and had the series ended with them it would probably be held in higher regard these days.

McCullar popped in this week with the Weekend Box Office to unleash his wrath on all the shitty movies that are somehow in the top ten. Seriously folks, what the hell is your problem when you have that much suck taking so much of your hard earned cash? Where are all the Oscar nominated films?

Back again this week after his three part Oscar feature Brad returns with Mondo Culto. Only this time taking a look at four films made by the duo of David DeCoteau and Charles Band. With titles like Nightmare Sisters, Creepozoids, Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama, and Dr. Alien you know you’re in for a good read.

Kennedy has a new column up that takes a look at certain effects in film that piss him off from a logic sense. And I’ve got to agree with him on the whole thunder and lightning thing as well as the automatic guns used in movies that magically never over heat.

Movie Reviews

When I first heard about Eight Below I simply brushed it off as Walker slowly slipping in to Cuba Gooding Jr. territory, but IP’s own Travis Leamons seemed to enjoy it in his review. Well all the parts that didn’t involve Paul Walker anyways so maybe I was half right.

Anyone remember Twisted from around two years ago? Great cast, got a lot of promotion, released around Oscar season, starred Samual L. Jackson and really really sucked? Well it seems like he’s at it again this year with Freedomland. Michaelangelo McCullar saw the movie this week, is it as bad as Twisted was? Read his review and find out.

The last new release review we have this week is by Sawitz and is for Date Movie, it’s scary to think this was only a couple million away from being the #1 movie in America. Spoof are a tough thing to get right, and when they are they really click. Then we get ones like Date Movie that miss every single mark.

Wow, what a bad week for new releases that was huh? Thankfully the craptastic months of January and February are almost behind up and we can look forward to better movies in the coming weeks, like V for Vendetta. Well except next week since there’s only really one movie that seems to be worth checking out and that’s Running Scared which is getting surprising reviews for a Paul Walker movie.

DVD Reviews

First up we have a review of Julia by Kennedy. It’s hard to believe that after all this time the movie is just now getting it’s first release on DVD while other less deserving movies have been out for years now. Be sure to read ML’s review of the DVD.

Next is a review for the Academy Award nominated Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit by Travis. It took the creators five years to make the movie, the least you can do is read Travis’ review on why you should see this movie as soon as possible. He also posted a review of Just Like Heaven.

Mike checked out the DVD for Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room and his review just makes me want to watch it even more now. The DVD seems to be packed for a documentary too.

Last up this week is two reviews by me that I mentioned in last weeks column, Thumbsucker and The Best of Youth. I can’t recommend these two films enough. Both are not only intelligent, but also are highly rewatchable.

Not much in the way of quantity but the quality for DVDs this week surely makes up for that. Just an observation but we’ve done 27 DVD reviews so far this month, that’s more than one a day so don’t try saying there’s nothing to read here, go check em’ out.

News

Oh Warner I Can Never Stay Mad at You

Not even complete yet and Warner has already ordered a sequel to Superman along with one for Batman, not really much of a shocker considering every movie these days gets a sequel but nice to know they’re already gearing up for them. What’s really interesting is that up until this point Batman had no guaranteed sequel, there were options on the stars if they ever planned to move forward with the franchise but not much else. Kind of puts all those Joker rumors in to perspective on how pointless thy were huh? Sure there were probably talks between Nolan and Warner on who they’d like for the role but I doubt anything beyond a brainstorm happened since it was never guaranteed the sequel would happen anyway.

The two directors have yet to be signed to direct the movies but with all the work each is doing for Warner it’s doubtful they won’t want to return. Singer is currently in post production on Superman and will then begin setting up for his remake of the 70’s classic Logan’s Run. I don’t know what the deal is with Singer, after Usual Suspects he showed so much potential and then he goes and does 2 X-Men movies, then Superman then a remake of an old scifi film then back to Superman. He seems to be pigeonholing his talent by not branching out much. The sequel is expected to be released some time in 2009.

It’s unknown when the pigeon Batman sequel will start production but they’re aiming for a 2008 release window. Nolan has said he hopes for there to be a 3 year space between each film and it seems the studio may do the same for Supes. That’s rather smart of them, having one follow the other then a year with neither keeping each franchise fresh. Right now Nolan is directing The Prestige which features fellow Batman stars Christian Bale and Michael Caine.

Friday the 13th Prequel Gets a Director

Last week was the announcement this week we get the director, and I have never even heard of the guy which could be a good thing. Planned to helm the picture is Jonathan Liebesman, he’s only directed Darkness Falls and the upcoming Texas Chainsaw Massacre prequel. I still don’t know what to make of this entire project, I do know however that I was much more intrigued back when Quentin Tarantino gave New Line the idea to jump start the series again. But ever since he backed out of things it’s been bad news after bad news. Still can’t understand how they plan to cast, film and edit the movie in roughly eight months.

You can talk about the movie in the forums here.

More Dinosaurs in ’08

Frank Marshall told the press recently that Universal has a script for Jurassic Park 4 which they’re very pleased with. They see it as a possible 2008 release, right now the plans are for it to get underway once the fourth Indiana Jones film is completed. Yeah because that Indy film is really on a roll production wise. As for the Jurassic Park franchise, it’s been on a rather steady downfall ever since the first one. The second one is related to the book by name only for the most part and the third one was just bad. Having not read the script and having no clue what the plot is I can only hope they’re going back to the drawing board and trying to understand what made the first movie so great. Because if this turns out to be any of the horrible ideas I’ve read over the past few years on what the 4th instalment will be about we’re in for one craptastic sequel.

What do you think about this news? Share your thoughts on the sequel here.

Spider-Man 3 Rumors Continue to Run Rampant

Yep as if the Venom rumor hasn’t been running around enough lately Sony has released it’s very first teaser poster for the film with Spidey sporting a very familiar black costume. Now this is getting interesting, since day one Raimi said he never cared much for the Venom character he said it was too boring. Yet now the way the movie is going it seems he’s using Venom as a mirror image of Spider-Man only showing what would of happened to Peter if things went wrong. Sony may as well come out and say that Topher Grace is playing Brock already. Speaking of which he’s been getting a whole lot of flack about being in Spider-Man 3, that he’s more suited for Electro than to wear the symbiote suit. I like this casting, a whole lot actualy, it goes so well with the whole mirror image concept. Yet some can’t get over the fact that it’s “Eric Forman” playing the part. Am I the only one who watched him in P.S. or In Good Company or even Win a Date with Tad Hamilton? Well I was probably the only one to watch that last one but the guy has talent people.

anyways, here’s the poster: (you can click on it to get a larger look)

I have to hand it to Sony for releasing this photo because it sure does stir up a lot of theories, like perhaps that’s not Spidey at all, maybe it’s Brock and the symbiote taking the shape of Spidey. Then again I really do hope for Peter to get to wear the suit before it gets in the hands of Brock. There’s also a possible hidden image of a Goblin face in his eye, could just be smoke and mirrors though. Or maybe it’s just a regular red/blue Spidey pic put in greyscale…

There’s a discussion going on in the forum about this and has been for some time now which you can read (and post in) here. Share your thoughts on the casting, or the fact the film is quickly getting very crowded. I’d like to know if I’m not the only one who likes Topher Grace for the role of Eddie Brock/Venom. Now that I think about it, I wonder how they’ll handle his voice. Would it be just plain Topher or perhaps something more akin to the animated series.

Uwe Boll… the Man is a Walking Contradiction

Uwe Boll had an interview with eurogamer recently and he went on about… you know what? Nothing I could write would equal the comedic gold in the interview itself. So go here and read the entire thing, it’ll bring you to tears.

Those are Some Pricey Pieces of Cloth

Some guy paid over $100 thousand dollars for the two shirts featured in this years Academy Award nominated Brokeback Mountain. He won the shirts in an online auction featured on eBay that helped raise money for The Children’s Charity of Southern California. When asked about the purchase Tom Gregory (the winner) stated that “They really are the ruby slippers of our time” and plans to never wear them and to keep them on the hanger, entwined and that it was “the most fun thing he ever bought.” I can’t help but read this and see the guy as someone hoping for the movie to win the award for best picture and then sell it off for triple the price to some place like the Smithsonian somewhere down the line.

More Bond News Than You Can Shake a Stick at

This past week has given us just about everything we’ve been wanting to know about the new Bond film, so here you go:

The Girl

Eva Green has been cast to play the next Bond Girl, I’ve been hearing a whole lot of complaints about this casting for some reason. People complained for years about the lack of talent when it comes to Bond Girls they finally get a talented up and comer and then shit all over the idea because she doesn’t “look” the part. What do you want? After the terrible job Halle Berry did with the role last time they needed to breath new life in to the female role just like with Bond himself. The relative new comer from France has only really been in two films that I’ve seen, Kingdom of Heaven and The Dreamers. Both roles showed how talented she was even if both films themselves had their faults. I’m looking forward to the 4 Disc Kingdom of Heaven Director’s Cut that’s getting released in May that’s suppose to have a lot more of her in it which should help get a better sense of her acting ability.

The Bad Guy

Also revealed this week is who’s going to play the role of Le Chiffre which was formerly played by Orson Welles in the 1967 version of the film. The man who is now going to fill that role is Mads Mikkelsen who I’m sure most of you like me was met with a resounding “who?” Yeah I don’t have a clue of who the guy is either but he was in that King Arthur movie that was released a few years back starring Clive Owen and Keira Knightley. Who names their kid Mads?

The Car

Here’s a look at the new Aston Martin DBS that will be featured in the movie:

The Lousy Fighter?

During his first fight scene of the production star Daniel Craig had two of his front teeth knocked out by a stunt man. The injury was so bad they had to fly Craig’s personal dentist in from the states to Prague where they were shooting in order to put caps where his teeth used to be. The “injury” won’t hold up production as Craig will only require a mouth guard when fighting on screen from now on. You know it would be rather easy to go on about how “James Bond got hurt, James Bond doesn’t get hurt! Daniel Craig is teh Suxxor as Bond!!1!!11eleventyone!” but he’s an actor just like all the rest who played the part, not a stunt guy. Angry fans have been waiting for a moment like this to comment about what a horrible choice he was for the part. I know I’m not the only person who likes Craig as Bond… right? Right?

Top 10 at the Box Office
1 Eight Below Review Here
2 Date Movie Review Here
3 The Pink Panther Review Here
4 Curious George Review Here
5 Final Destination 3 Review Here
6 Firewall
7 Freedomland Review Here
8 When a Stranger Calls Review Here
9 Big Momma’s House 2 Review Here
10 Nanny McPhee Review Here

New Releases in Theaters
– Running Scared
– Doogal
– Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion
– Tsotsi (limited)
– Little Fish (NY, LA)
– Unknown White Male (NY, LA)
– Trudell (NY)

On Store Shelves This Week
– All the President’s Men (Two-Disc Special Edition)
– Domino
– Erik the Viking (Director’s Cut)
– A Father… a Son… Once upon a Time in Hollywood
– First Descent
– Left of the Dial
– The Memory of a Killer
– Midnight Cowboy (Collector’s Edition)
– North Country
– Pulse
– Rent
– Separate Lies
– Twist of Faith
– The Weather Man

And that’s it for me this week, don’t forget to send those e-mails.

Currently residing in Washington D.C., John Charles Thomas has been writing in the digital space since 2005. While he'd like to boast about the culture and scenery, he tends to be more of a procrastinating creative type with an ambitious recluse side. @NerdLmtd