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Showing posts from May, 2010

Bad News for The Hobbit Adaptation...

This is some of the worst movie related news I've heard in quite a while. Due to continuing delays in the production, Guillermo del Toro has withdrawn from directing The Hobbit. When it was officially announced that Peter Jackson would not be filming the LOTR prequel (or in the film version's case prequels) I was disappointed but not surprised considering all of the financial issues that arose post LOTR. Then I was excited when they announced that Guillermo del Toro would take Jackson's place at the helm of The Hobbit. His work on films such as Pan's Labyrith, the Hellboy films, and to a lesser extent Blade II really showed off his amazing imagination, style and design creation that made him a perfect fit to adapt further stories from J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth. The only good news that comes from this announcement is that del Toro will remain a co-writer of The Hobbit screenplays (along with Jackson, Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyens). Here's hoping that Th...

Review - Shrek Forever After (3D)

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Shrek Forever After (2010), PG, 93 minutes - The fourth and supposedly final installment in the Shrek franchise focuses on Shrek's life after the events of Shrek the Third. On the day of his children's first birthday we find Shrek having a bit of a mid-life crisis. He loves his family but misses the days when he could do what he wanted, when he wanted, and not be interrupted or distracted. Enter Rumpelstiltskin. He offers to trade Shrek one day like the day he craves so much in exchange for one day from Shrek's childhood that he can't even remember. Shrek thinks this is a good deal and signs Rumpelstiltskin's contract. He then falls into an alternate universe where he never married Fiona, doesn't know Donkey, and can go about his life as a scary old ogre. As one can imagine, Rumpelstiltskin's deal wasn't on the up and up. Shrek quickly learns that he's been duped and has until the end of the day to trigger the contract's exit clause or ...

Review - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009), NR, 152 minutes - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is based on Swedish author Stieg Larsson's first novel in his Millenium Trilogy titled 'Men Who Hate Women' (we silly Americans found it necessary to change the title). Many good things have been said about this trilogy, but I have yet to read it myself. I found myself having to decide whether to watch the movie then go back and read the book(s), or add the book(s) to my growing list of things to read and then watch the film at a later date. Two things helped me make my decision: 1) an old college friend Kerri (check out her book blog here ) both highly recommended the book and thought I should go ahead and see the movie first (this was a good call, as I'm not the world's fastest reader). 2) the Grandin Theatre, which is about a mile down the road (and the only theater around that ever screens such foreign films) began showing it this weekend. Suffice to say, everything ...

Rental Review - The Slammin' Salmon

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The Slammin' Salmon (2009), R, 90 minutes - The Slammin' Salmon is brought to us by Broken Lizard - the same group that provided us with Super Troopers and Beerfest. While not being as movie quote friendly as either of those two, it is a pretty entertaining restaurant based comedy. The Slammin' Salmon an upscale seafood restaurant owned by Cleon 'Slammin' Salmon (Michael Clarke Duncan) the heavyweight champion boxer. He ran up a $20,000 gambling debt to the leader of the Yakuza on a recent trip to Japan and has to come up with the money by the next morning. He instructs his restaurant manager that the waitstaff must have a record night so that he can come up with the cash to pay off the Yakuza (the restaurant record is in the neighborhood of $15,000). After the waitstaff gets off to a slow start, he sweetens the deal by offering a $10,000 bonus to the waiter/waitress who brings in the most money. 'Isn't that counterproductive?' you ask? Well, y...

Review - Robin Hood

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Robin Hood (2010), PG-13, 140 minutes - The latest Ridley Scott/Russell Crowe collaboration is not the Robin Hood story we've all grown up with. Instead it's an alt continuity story of how Robin Hood became the outlaw that robs from the rich and steals from the poor that we are all familiar with. When you get right down to it, Ridley Scott's version is a prequel that mixes up character's histories while they still filling the same roles within the story. Russell Crowe stars as Robin Longstride. That's right, Longstride. Not Loxley as in previous incarnations. Longstride actually poses as Robert Loxley at Sir Walter Loxley's (Robert's father) request after Robert and his fellow knights were killed in an ambush as they attempted to return the recently deceased King Richard's crown back to the palace (he was killed in battle). It seems like an odd request, but Sir Walter (Max von Sydow) knows that if news of his son's death reaches the public, t...

Great Marvel Omnibus Link

MarvelMasterworks.com - I came across this link today while I was trying to look up the actual release date for the Brubaker/Lark Daredevil Vol. 2 Omnibus (was 5/5/10, is now 6/3/10) and figured I'd share it with those of you who also have an inner comic book nerd. It's not just a list of all of the Omnibus releases from Marvel, it's also a list of all of the printings and variants that have been available. It also provides links to various retail locations (i.e. Tales of Wonder and Amazon ) from which these great collections can still be purchased.

Review - Iron Man 2

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Iron Man 2 (2010), PG-13, 124 minutes - Iron Man 2 kicks off the 2010 summer movie schedule with a bang. It's bigger, louder, wittier, and more action filled than the original. Version 1.0 however, is still the superior story. Robert Downey Jr retains his role as Tony Stark/Iron Man in a film that sees the character struggle with even greater levels of fame (after his admission of being Iron Man at the end of the first film) and deteriorating health (his body has an adverse effect to the element powering the arc reactor in his chest), while trying to stave off a new threat to his 'privatized world peace'. Downey Jr continues to be the perfect embodiment of Tony Stark. Mickey Rourke (Ivan Vanko) and Sam Rockwell (Justin Hammer) provide the villainous combo hellbent on tearing down Tony Stark and his legacy from the ground up by using variations on his own technology against him. If it sounds familiar, it's because it is. The decision to go with virtually the s...

A few movie related tidbits...

Just a few quick thoughts before I camp out in front of Bruins/Flyers game 3 tonight: Hugo Weaving is confirmed as the Red Skull in the upcoming Captain America movie - This has been rumored for a while now but is finally official. Honestly, I can't think of a better fit for Captain America's arch-nemesis. While I am a Chris Evans fan, I have my doubts about whether or not he's the right guy to play Steve Rogers, but there is no doubt that Hugo Weaving will be a great Red Skull. Looking forward to this! Ron Howard set to direct big screen adaptation of Stephen King's Dark Tower series - This is also wicked sweet news. I have yet to get around to reading King's fantasy/western series, but I have read Marvel's graphic novel adaptations which have been quite good thus far. I can't think of a Ron Howard film that I didn't like, so this has me excited too. Matthew Vaughn to direct X-Men: First Class - First let me say that I like have really enjoyed t...

Review - Deftones - Diamond Eyes

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So I've never really been one to review music (and I don't really plan on making a habit out of it). Partially because my tastes tend to run a little harder than most people I have regular contact with, and partially because I've never been one to get too hung up on lyrics. If I like the tune or the beat, I'm a happy camper. Having said that, I'm really digging the new Deftones album 'Diamond Eyes'. It actually releases tomorrow (May 4), but my pre-ordered copy came in today's mail (although I must admit, I've been enjoying a downloaded copy for almost two months now). In my opinion, it's their strongest album since 'White Pony' ten years ago. 'Diamond Eyes' actually represents the second album that Deftones has worked on since 2006's 'Saturday Night Wrist'. They were well into recording Saturday's follow up in 2008 when bassist Chi Cheng was in an auto accident that left him in a coma (he remains in a minima...

Rental Review - Fantastic Mr. Fox

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Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), PG, 87 minutes - The past couple of months my NetFlix queue has bogged down. Seemingly everything that I want to see has been a new release to the home video market and as a result has popped up on my queue as 'a long wait'. Well, I've finally waited out the 'long wait' and the majority of my queue is available again so it's time to get back to burning through a couple NetFlix movies a week. One of these movies was Fantastic Mr. Fox - a stop motion animated, Wes Anderson directed movie based on Roald Dahl's book of the same name. I remember a time in my youth when reading through any and all Roald Dahl books you could was the cool thing at school. Fantastic Mr. Fox is one that I never got too. I have no idea how the film compares to the movie, but there is little doubt that the on screen version is a Wes Anderson film. The tone and humor falls right in with other Anderson flicks such as Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, or...