I stumbled across this site last night that knows the rating for every blog or webpage out there in the blogosphere. According to them…

Based on the following criteria:
This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:

hell (5x) crappy (1x)

Nice, but I think I might start using more cusses and see if I can get us to at least an “R” rating. Though an NC-17 would be fun too.

     From time to time I end up with movie swag. Currently I’m in the possesion of new poster for 30 Days of Night. My wife doesn’t really want it up on the wall so I figured I’d give it away as part of a contest.

     All you have to do to enter is leave a comment here that says what your most hated vampire movie is and why?

I’ll be picking the winner randomly on July 6th.

     You can also enter this contest over at FilmGrotto. There is a different question there. And, yes you can enter twice… once at each site.

Update: I’ve sent a message out to Jonathan letting him know that he was the one who was randomly drawn from all entrants. I’m interested to know though what caused so few people to enter. Do you think the movie is going to be terrible? Is the poster terrible in your opinion? Or do you just not like movie posters?

     Maybe I’m in a cynical mood, but while watching this trailer I started to think that I was watching a combination of Harry Potter, Eragon, Golden Compass and any other trailer for a kid fantasy movie. Maybe I’m wrong but The Dark is Rising looks like generic fantasy.

I’ll let you decide though:

     I completely forgot about this trailer I saw before Transformers for The Bee Movie. It hardly shows anything from the movie, but it’s Spielberg and Seinfeld being funny. I thought it was great and totally convinced me to see the film that I wasn’t even mildly interested in before. I think it actually hit the web a long time ago, but I just saw it for the first time the other night. Anyway, check it out; I think you’ll find it entertaining: “I did not know that Steven and I’m thrilled for your success.”

     The next one everyone has posted today, so we might as well too. It’s for Kevin Bacon’s Death Sentence. I have to admit it looks pretty good even if the story has sort of been done before. A guy gets pissed about injustice and goes to kill the bad guys. Also, is it me, or is this like the 10th trailer this year to utilize Muse in their film?

     With the net being alive with Cloverfield rumors, puzzles and links, it seems to have given studios and fans new ideas on how to market a film. The latest for The Bourne Ultimatum sounds kind of intriguing; albeit a little too much work for me.

     Movieweb is reporting that starting Monday, July 16th, Google and Universal pictures have set up a system that allows you to log onto the intrawebs and “track” Bourne utilizing Google Search, Maps, Earth, Images, Translate and YouTube. According to the story,

     …players will track Bourne online, in the hopes that what he knows will prove helpful in their own quests. With new clues and active game play provided to site visitors each weekday — 15 in total — the game concludes on the film’s opening day. Along the way, registered users will have the chance to win amazing prizes, including the grand prize: a 2008 Volkswagen Touareg 2, designed to the specifications of the car seen in the film, as well as a four-city trip to international destinations featured in the movie and $25,000.

     Starting Monday, you’ll be able to sign up for free and gain access to exclusive clips as you prgress through the game. It sounds like too much work for me to care (especially since I think the whole franchise is a bit over-rated anyway). But I’ll definitely at least check it out on Monday and see how it starts.

     You too can play by signing up over at http://www.google.com/bourne. If you’re not in USA or Canada, there’s an alternate version of the game for you too. Just make sure to use the drop down menu on the main page to select your country.

     Once this thing takes off, I’d love to hear people’s findings and experiences as they play this game. If it turns out to be kind of cool and if I can keep the boss off my back long enough, I may decide to go ahead and track Bourne if it seems worth it. Anyone else have any interest in playing this “game”?

     Could it be that the next Transformers film to be unleashed will actually be a PREquel? It’s obvious this thing will turn into a franchise, but what I didn’t see coming would be that of a prequel. Over at Skewed & Reviewed, there’s an interview with Mark Ryan (the guy who voiced Bumblebee for one line) in which he talks about a the prequel.

S&R: Final question, have you heard anything about a sequel or been asked to be a part of future films?

Ryan: (Chuckles), funny you should say that so I will tell you what I can. I recently recorded more material for the DVD release of the film. It has to do with the Prequel that will set up the second film.

     Ok wait a minute; now I’m confused. So it sort of sounds like there will be a bonus feature on the DVD that will be something of a prequel BEFORE the next movie comes out? His sentence doesn’t seem to make much sense to me. Am I reading it wrong or am I just stupid? Anyone know what this could mean?

     If you’re not sure which character is Bumblebee (voived by Mark Ryan), here’s a picture of the hood to jog your memory:

     I have just finished watching the first series of Twin Peaks. Man have I been missing something not seeing it until now. It’s an excellent, highly addictive show and I can’t wait to get my hands on series 2 (which unfortunately isn’t available in Region 2). I just wanted to do a post on Agent Cooper’s dream from episode 2. It is the scene where he see’s the strange little man dancing and speaking weirdly (backwards?). I just wanted to post that clip here to get all your impressions and what you thought of it when you first saw it. Now remember I haven’t seen any of season 2 so don’t give away any spoilers.

     “Brilliant gold taps, virginal white marble, a seat carved from ebony, a cistern full of chanel number five, and a flunky handing me pieces of raw silk toilet roll. But under the circumstances I’ll settle for anywhere.”

Enough said.

      “You wanna know the secret to surviving air travel? After you get where you’re going, take off your shoes and your socks; then you walk around on the rug, barefoot and make fists with your toes.”

     David J. Stieve, the co-writer of Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (that movie we keep mentioning because its so damn good) was chatting with Icons of Fright and he had the following to say about a possible sequel:

“Obviously the focus of that or the metaphor involved there, as it happened with Nathan as an actor or Scott as a director, or me as a writer, it’s how do you handle that ‘freshman phenom/rookie of the year’ type thing!” Stieve poses. “That’s the symbolism at play; how does Leslie handle his success? And of course you have the whole genre-specific constructions and conventions of a horror sequel. There’s specific conventions involved with every killer that comes back. How the town reacts, who the people are that survive, and who fills what role coming around again…so there are all these very specific genre expectations for a sequel that are ripe for the picking but there’s obviously the metaphor of how does Leslie as the ‘artist’ handle his fame, does he handle it well, does he burn out too quick, keep himself in check, does he do it right? There’s a very rich soil to till from a storytelling standpoint.”

     Now while I would love to see a sequel and while I hate how much of a limited run this hidden gem was given I just can’t see it happening unless it really does well on DVD. My hope is that it does do well and I’m going to do what I can by pointing people towards it but I unfortunately feel that Stieve is just talking about something he would like to do if possible. Maybe I’m wrong and maybe the sequel is being planned already. If it is all I have to say is hell yeah I’ll be there in line to see it!

Source: Icons of Fright via Moviehole

     Starting yesterday, you can now download movies using your video game console. Microsoft and Xbox Live have signed a partnership with Disney Studios (which includes Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures and Miramax Films) to allow Xbox Live customers to rent these films as soon as they become available. Already available are titles such as Bridge to Terabithia, Miramax Film’s The Queen, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Fountain and Touchstone Pictures’ Déjà Vu. The movie can be downloaded in both standard and hi-def formats. Xbox live is the only market right now offering downloadable films in Hi-Def.

From the Xblox Live website:

Currently offering more than 2,350 hours of premium entertainment content from 15 partners, Xbox LIVE Marketplace is the only online service offering downloadable movies and TV shows in high definition. In a little more than seven months since video content was launched on Xbox LIVE Marketplace, there have been nearly 10 million downloads of entertainment content.

High-definition new-release movie rentals are 480 Microsoft Points each, and standard-definition new-release movie rentals are 320 Microsoft Points each. Classic feature films in high definition are 360 Microsoft Points each, and classic feature films in standard definition are 240 Microsoft Points. Guess what? I have no idea what this translates to in dollars, pounds or Rubles. I also don’t know what “renting” means. How long do you get to keep the download for would be my question. And Since I’m a lazy ass and have to go to a concert now, i’ll let you guys research that for me and put it in the comment section.

I don’t have an Xbox 360 anyway, so…

     Who knows if it’s real or not. I picked it up over at Flixster. To be honest, the Saw franchise, for me, turned into a steaming pile of dung after the first film. But I’m sure some may be interested, so here ya go…

     The title of this post is enough said, but here’s more anyway. I found this over at worstpreviews. Apparently this is going to be a full blown musical starring Zac Efron (some teen heart throb apparently) taking over the Kevin Bacon role and directed by Kenny Ortega (Newsies, Hocus Pocus and a bunch of crap TV shows). This is beyond lame. I don’t want to write anymore.

     Quite a while ago I posted the Fred Claus teaser trailer and was pretty excited what with Hollywood’s sarcastic, know-it-all Vince Vaughn and Hollywood’s greatest current actor, Paul Giamatti as the Claus man himself. Their witty banter and nagging of one another got me chuckling and fairly excited (though admittedly I’m excited whenever I see Giamatti’s name attached to anything). Looks like The Break-Up, but instead of Jennifer Aniston, we have PG in a big red suit and a white beard: “You’ve already torn something internally in me.” Beautiful. Here is that teaser trailer:

     BUT then a couple of days ago, I saw the new one sheet posters and nearly sobbed myself to sleep with how horrible they are and my anticipation of the film dropped. Now today, /film posts the NEW Fred Claus trailer, and I really have no idea what to think. Some of it is cringingly bad while some of it works pretty well.

     Looks sort of along the same lines as Will Ferrell’s Elf - which I also thought was just average (has its moments, but for the most part is meh). I don’t know. Any thoughts? I’m just not sure what to comment about it. It’s Giamatti so I’m there no matter what. I just hope it’s not uber-stupid as it has the potential to be.

     Originally scheduled to open on Oct 5th, Lions Gate has pushed 3:10 to Yuma ahead by a full month and will now see its wide release on Sept. 7th. According to Movieweb, the producers wanted to get Yuma in theaters before any other westerns this fall; specifically Brad Pitt’s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Lionsgate films’ Tom Ortenberg said this:

     ”We certainly wanted to be the first Western in the marketplace. More importantly, in what is shaping up to be a very impressive and crowded field of upscale commercial motion pictures this fall, we wanted to be one of the first ones out, so that everything else will be measured against us.”

     I’m not sure what Ortenberg has to do with Yuma. He’s a producer of various films, but I can’t find his name attached to Yuma anywhere. Still, he’s obviously in the know and has an obvious point. I find that when two movies of similar genre or storyline come out, most people seem to believe that in 90% of the cases, the one they saw first is the superior film.

     Even though I’m usually adverse to remakes of already great movies, this one looks to be fantastic (admittedly I’m a sucker for contemporary westerns). If you’ve not seen the trailer, here it is. And remember, you can now see the film a full month earlier. Nice!

…Details coming soon…

     All of the official Banners and buttons for the OFC top 100 are available at http://moviepatron.com/banners.html. Feel free to snatch whatever you need for posting about this project on your site.

     Ok, this newest poster isn’t really that lame, but it’s a total rip-off of Jaws and maybe a hint of The Host. SeXiVixxEN posted the news over at Flixster and I thought it had to be shown for the amazing lack of originality happening in Hollywood. As the film takes place in Australia, the only thing that is slightly clever is the tag line, “Welcome to the Terrortory.” Or maybe it’s just lame; I can’t decide. You decide for me…

Click image for pop-up of hi-res version

     Film ick has broke the story that another villian will be present in the Dark Knight. That villian is none other than Edward Nygma. If you aren’t up on your Batman villians. Nygma is the Riddler.

     They also mention that Aaron Eckhart was seen in two face makeup:

Here’s the description of the make-up:

55/40. Scarring across the nose just a tad bit. One of his eye is deformed. And little bubbles across the scarring (They’re manips that look similar). Wicked cool.

55/40? What’s the remaining 5?

     Is it just me or does it seem that there are going to be just too many bad guys once again in another superhero movie? I guess we don’t actually have anything that says Harvey Dent becomes the evil Two Face or that Nygma becomes the Riddler. Perhaps the story will focus on the Joker and just set up sequels with Two Face and Riddler. That is my hope.

     So this whole Cloverfield thing seems to have really taken the internet rumor mill by storm. A couple of mysterious websites with locks and codes (visit MoviePatron contributor, John Allison’s, little site he made up specifically to cover “Cloverfield” Update: The site is currently down during server switch) and another I found today with only a couple of pictures that you can move around the screen at http://www.1-18-08.com.

     No one really knows anything at all about the movie except what’s in the trailer. It is probably a very good educated guess, though, that the film will NOT be titled Cloverfield. This is likely just a codename or working title. I have read some rumors of the possibility of this being a Godzilla remake and also some “Lost” rumors. I subscribe to the Godzilla theory as I swear I’ve heard quite a while ago that JJ Abrams was doing something like that. But it’s certainly possible this is a completely original and new project. If I’ve learned anything frm watching the greatest show ever made, JJ Abrams’ “Lost,” it is to expect the unexpected. I read somewhere that someone thought it might be the American remake of The Host, which I personally doubt.

     Anyway - today, we get a tiny bit of insight from Trailerspy, who supposedly talked to one of the actors involved. Here’s some snippets of what this mysterious guest had to say…

“…an inside source said something about us being on 6th/Main st in downtown LA, true; However, we did not do anything on a fire escape 8 floors up. Everything was shot street level… and nothing on any fire escape.

On a take in the scene you all saw (the trailer) at + 30 seconds after impact movie time, just a couple of us were told by Mr Reeves that we are seeing a giant foot stomp down (this is at the point where the tower explodes).

Will the Military be firing? One of the Hummers in the downtown shoot had a 50cal mounted on the roof and the gunner was aiming up into the air down the block. He kept swiveling a bit here and there (as directed to do so), but if he is supposed to be firing, it will have to be CGI’d in later as not even blanks were being used. Not pertinent, but perhaps somewhere in the future of this, it will provide a better clue for us to solve this enigma.

Personally, I like that Ethan Haas thing…it kinda makes sense (to me at least) from some of the dialogue I’ve heard. On one of the nights, the #1 principle was injured during a take and had to be taken for stitches to his head (10 stitches, if anyone is counting), as the other principles “watched” the camcorder playback of the “monster”, some of the verbage they stated could lead to this ethan thing…at least in my head.”

     To me this totally sounds like Godzilla. Especially with explosions and “giant feet” and military firing into the air. But hey, I guess it could be anything.

     If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s our previous post with the embedded trailer for you to look at so you know what the hell everyone’s talking about.

     Anyone have some ideas on what the hell is going on? All I know for sure is that JJ Abrams has struck movie marketing paydirt here.