OK, I’m not going to lie to you folks, I’m sort of in a crunch time watching as many Oscar nominated films as I can before the roundtable picks are due and right now I still have the following to watch; Junebug, Transamerica, Pride & Prejudice, North Country, and The Constant Gadener. As you can see that list is rather heavy in the female lead/supporting roles that were nominated and in order to make any type of real prediction I’m going to need to see them all (if this column is late, you now know why). On top of all that I’m fighting one mean stomach bug right now also. So in place of an opener I’m going to use this time to respond to some reader mail.
From Richard M:
Don’t forget that he was in Traffic, also.
That ofcoarse is regarding to my listing off of Topher Grace’s films. And I can’t believe I over looked it, especially since it’s one of the movies I have written down that I want to pick up next week when Criterion re-releases their DVD of it. Shame on me. Well played Richard… well played.
From Craig M:
I have no problem with Daniel Craig as James Bond. He seems to have a reasonably good film background from what research I’ve done, even though most of it is unknown in the States. But then nobody had heard of Sean Connery before he was Bond either and we all know how that worked out.
Exactly, people can’t seem to over look the fact that he’s unknown over here and doesn’t have the right color hair or chiseled good looks. Having seen him in both Layer Cake and Munich last year he has a vast amount of talent that I think could respark what the franchise has been missing. Then again it’s all really relying on the script at this point as to whether or not fans will enjoy it as there’s suppose to be quite a few reworkings from the original novel.
From Musa K:
Your Excellency Sir,
I know that this letter will come to you as a surprise.I am Musa Kehinde, the only surviving son of Mohammed Kehinde, who died on December 17th, 2005 over the trouble that is going on in my country between America and other militant group who are loyalists of Saddam Hussein. As you can understand, I am from Iraq. Before my father died he told me about US$15.5 Million he deposited with a security company and he handed over the certificate of deposit to me. At present, I am in search of anybody who would assist to transfer the money into his account for me to come over there and invest as well as I complete my education. I got your contact details through from the net. Dont be worried because i am contacting you in good faith. I confided your reliability and capability of handling this transaction in me. If my proposition is considered, for assisting me to transfer this money to your account, we will offer you 30% of the total fund, and 5% of the total will be set aside to cover any expenses incurred during this transaction, 75% will be for my family to invest in your country under your supervision. For detailed information, you can contact me direct. I would appreciate confidentiality and honesty in our correspondence. your immediate response will be highly welcomed.
Best regards.
FINALLY! Free at last, free at last! I can quit this gig and buy my own island now. Oh, wait a minute, this is another one of those damn spam messages. Damn it… well on with the column… I guess.
Columns
Back again this week we have McCullar taking a look at the weekends top ten at the box office. I’m shocked on two three counts 1.) Madea’s Family Reunion is #1 2.) Running Scared is #9 and 3.) Mike went a whole column without giving Walker a verbal beatdown.
Rob has a column up about ninjas this week. The fact that it’s about ninjas alone should make each and every one of you click and read.
ML is apparently too cool to hang out with the rest of us when we put up our predictions as he used his column this week to post his own thoughts on this weekends outcomes. Well, now he’s not getting an invite to the movie zones cookout this summer.
Travis is unveiling a new column titled The Weekend Tease that will take a look at all the new films coming out on Fridays. One by one the bottom of my column is becoming redundant.
Movie Reviews
Michaelangelo reviewed Running Scared this week and I guess he was the only person to watch it based on the box office. It still looks like a film worth checking out by reading his review even if box office receipts don’t necessarily agree.
Scott reviewed Madea’s Family Reunion which is this weeks box office champ. I still can’t understand how this and the original movie did so well. I guess the message is clear, write a screenplay about a black man in drag and rake in cash.
And lastly we have a review by Travis for… holy shit Firewall. Man that was one movie it seemed no reviewer here wanted to touch with a 50 foot pole. How did the (relatively) new Harrison Ford movie make him feel? read his review and find out.
DVDs
Scott put up reviews for two new DVD releases, Pride & Prejudice and Separate Lies, one is on his best of the year list while the other would probably land somewhere in the middle.
We have an early review up by Travis for the Just Friends DVD due out on Tuesday. Did he like it or would he rather it just stay friends with the rest of his collection? read his review and see.
Rob has a review up for Mirrormask. It’s still a movie I’ve been wanting to catch but his review leaves me a little less motivated to rush out and see it ASAP.
Last this week Hevia has a review for the 50th anniversary edition of Lady And The Tramp. It’s a classic, does the DVD do the film justice? read his review and find out.
Features
One feature we have up this week is Travis’ Top 10 of 2005 and he makes a good point about waiting until Oscar season to post year end lists. In fact he kind of makes me want to go back and rewrite my own top ten since I’ve seen so many that deserve to be on it since January. Any ways back to Travis’ list, he posted it in two parts due to the fact he saw over 100 movies in the theater last year. What does he consider to be the best film of 2005? You’ll have to read and find out.
News
Cameron Confirms Project 880 is Avatar
In a recent interview with Ain’t it Cool News James Cameron has confirmed that his secret project is in fact going to be a retooled version of Avatar. Avatar is a film that Cameron has been wanting to do ever since he wrapped on Titanic, the story is set on an alien world dealing with a budding romance between a female alien and a human-alien hybrid. The love story is set against a growing war between two species. You know, reading that description I’d be laughing at some poor sap who’s about to tank his career with such a crazy idea for a movie but the fact that Cameron is so dedicated to getting it made sure does make me interested in what he plans to do with it. I mean really in all of his films he hasn’t once let me down, so why question him now? It’s still unknown to him as to what he plans to shoot first, Avatar or Battle Angel Alita (which will be a trilogy) as both films are near and dear to him. Then there’s also his recent film Dive that he just signed on to make. That James Cameron is a busy man.
Disney Going Back to its Roots
Ed Catmull and John Lasseter who will soon be taking over feature animation production at Walt Disney studios are already hard at work trying to get back as many of the 2D animators that were laid of recently as possibly as they plan to rejuvenate hand drawn animation. Hallelujah! Man, just when I though I couldn’t possibly respect and admire John Lasseter more than I already do he goes and does something like this. It’s so nice to see some creative minds working on restoring the house of mouse back to the way it once was. Bob Iger who replaced Michael Eisner as Chief Executive also has a part in restoring creativity to the company and it seems is actually listening to his workers on what to do in order to make the company better.
More Spoofs on the Way, This Time in the Superhero Variety
Dimension has bought the rights to a screenplay that will spoof on the latest superhero craze. they might be going to David Zucker for a director seeing as they had a project together that was very similar to this one that never got off the ground. For the love of god I hope they don’t go to Zucker, don’t get me wrong he damn near invented the genre but that was decades ago and what’s funny to him isn’t necessarily what modern day viewers see as such. Just look at Scary Movie 3, nowhere near as good as the previous two with the exception of maybe 3 or 4 scenes. I’m a little surprised that after the abysmal Date Movie studios would even want to consider doing spoofs at this point, but well it looks like I’m wrong about that.
Fox Releases in High Def but for a Price
Twentieth Century Fox is now toying with the idea of making its new releases available to the public within 60 days of their theatrical release in High Def over cable and satellite. In order to view these movies however it’s going to cost upwards of $30. The reason according to News Corp President and CEO Peter Chernin is that with the rise in home theater systems viewers are getting desperate for high-definition fare. Yeah, until HD-DVD and Blu-Ray get released in mere weeks, those guys at Fox really didn’t plan this one through. Had it been a year ago they might be on to something, as it seems now though they missed the boat entirely.
DiCaprio Flies a Kite
Warner has picked up Kite which is going to be made through Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company. It will be loosely based on true life stories and be set in the California prison system focusing around a prison guard who gets caught up in a web of corruption and violence, DiCaprio is expected to star in the project.
Lionsgate is Feeling a Little Blu
Lionsgate has released a list of their first line-up of Blu-Ray titles and the list includes the following; Crash, Lord of War, The Punisher, Saw and Terminator 2: Judgment Day on launch day with Resevoir Dogs, Total Recall, Stargate, Frank Herbert’s Dune and The Devil’s Rejects expected to be released a few weeks later. The most interesting piece of news with these is that May 23rd is the expected day for them to hit stores indicating that is when Sony will start selling Blu-Ray Disc players. The selection is definitely going to make fans happy as all 5 launch titles will look great in High Def. I wonder if Lionsgate will release Lord of War in it’s correct aspect ration this time.
Coming Soon to a Book Store Near You: The Da Vinci Lawsuit
It seems that The Da Vinci Code writer Dan Brown is in some hot water due to an on going investigation that he plagiarized a non-fiction book titled “The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail”. The co-authors of the book (written in 1984) are claiming for a breach of copyright due to the fact that the structure of both books are so similar. If the judge upholds the claim Sony may have to delay or even be forced to never release the film which was expected to be a hit this summer. Sony has put so much money in to the production of the movie expecting such a huge pay off this could put a mighty big dent in to their pockets. It’s more than likely the film will get released but we’ll have to wait and see at this point.
Top 10 at the Box Office
1. Terry Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion Review Here
2. Eight Below Review Here
3. The Pink Panther Review Here
4. Date Movie Review Here
5. Curious George Review Here
6. Firewall Review Here
7. Final Destination 3 Review Here
8. Doogal
9. Running Scared Review Here
10. Freedomland Review Here
New Releases in Theaters
16 Blocks
Ultraviolet
Dave Chappelle’s Block Party
Aquamarine
Joyeux Noël [limited]
On Store Shelves This Week
– Controversial Classics Vol. 2: The Power of Media
– Dog Day Afternoon Two-Disc Special Edition
– The Ice Harvest
– Lady and the Tramp: 50th Anniversary Edition
– Network 30th Anniversary Two-Disc Special Edition
– Pride & Prejudice
– Three… Extremes
– Walk the Line
– Where the Truth Lies
– Yours, Mine and Ours
And that’s it for me this week, don’t forget to send those e-mails.
