Director: Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, A Life Less Ordinary, The Beach, 28 Days Later)
Writer: Alex Garland (The Beach, 28 Days Later)
Producer: Andrew Macdonald
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Chris Evans, Michelle Yeoh, Cliff Curtis, Hiroyuki Sanada, Benedict Wong, Troy Garity
MPAA Rating: R
Running time: 108 min
read my spoiler disclaimer

reviewed by Andrew James
     Director Danny Boyle seems to love to take on scripts in which the main thrust of the story always takes a strange turn in the final quarter of the film, thus deteriorating the overall quality of the movie by one or two potential stars. With Sunshine, he seems to have not learned from his past mistakes and takes a potentially 5 star film and drives it into the ground making just another mediocre space adventure that won’t come close to my top 10 of the year I don’t believe.

     
Taking place in 2057, Sunshine joins the crew of Icarus II: a space vessel bound for the sun with one mission: deploy a theoretical explosive device into the sun, thus reigniting it before it can die out and all of humanity is lost. Earth lost contact with the first Icarus space vessel and it was lost for unknown reasons. The crew of Icarus II has vowed to not let that happen with their mission.

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     Thanks to worst previews, we get our first glimpse of what the new Hulk character will look like via a panel discussion at Comic-con. They also report over there that Edward Norton himself, who’ll be playing Bruce Banner in the film, actually wrote the screenplay for the film. I didn’t realize this until now. IMDb doesn’t make any mention of this, but they’ve been wrong before. With a great cast including William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson and one of the more under-rated actors out there: Tim Roth, this should prove to be at least an interesting film to talk about and will most likely be way better than the attrocious Ang Lee vision of the Hulf from a few years back.

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Current Mood: Angry & Angry

     Well, as everyone knows, part of the greatness that is the Grindhouse experience was the inclusion of faux trailers for movies that don’t really exist. But according to ESplatter, these great trailers will NOT be included in either of the DVD releases. This, my friends, pisses me off!

     While I look forward to seeing the extended version of Death Proof, plus all the extras included for both films, I will not be spending twice the amount of money to see a butchered version of the movie that is only half of what it was in the theater.

     I can pretty much guarantee that 6 months to a year down the road we’ll be seeing a restored verion of Grindhouse that includes both PT and DP as one film along with the trailers in between. Then maybe I’ll pick it up. But to be honest, the studio has f’d up this campaign from the beginning, that I’m not sure I can support it. On one hand I really love this movie and want to see it again and again and would love to support it, but on the other, I don’t want to encourage studios to do this sort of thing. So as of now, I won’t be purchasing the hacked up version of the movie. If it comes out the way it should in the future, I may decide otherwise. But until then I am boycotting this pathetic excuse of a DVD release.

Works for me.

     Earlier today I did a couple of posts about the new site related to The Dark Knight. The countdown finished and a new page came up. Well - again user “Colin” - pointed me back towards that page a little while ago and to my suprise I found that it had changed. On the page is gave you a picture of a Gotham City Police Report saying that the Joker was dead but it was clearly a joke in and of itself to get the police to back down and stop looking for the Joker. Anyway upon browsing the page I saw a little flickering box next to part of the text and decided to click on it and to my surprise and sheer delight it was a teaser trailer. Here is instructions on how to see it:

• Go to www.whysoserious.com
• Click the little flickering box shown next to the arrow in the following picture:

• Enjoy the PERFECT teaser trailer for what is shaping up to be one heck of a movie!

EDIT:

     Or you can watch the smaller, inferior version of the trailer, but I encourage you to watch the bigger on on the site, here:

     Here’s a site I used to travel to way back in the day (at least 10 years ago). It’s been around forever and is a cool site. I completely forgot about it until I remembered it in a dream I had last night…

MovieQuote.net

     There are nine genres. Within each genre are ten movie quotes. Guess the quote correctly and you get to put in your own quote. Each quote has commentary and hints built in. It’s a fun time waster. Check it out.

     This is just an update as to what’s going on with the WhySoSerious? website I did a post about a few hours ago. When the countdown reached zero I tried refreshing the page and it took almost 5 minutes to load. Then suddenly another page appeared with another paragraph of instructions (written as if it’s the Joker who’s writing it) and a submit box below, presumably for input of a password.

     Also below that box there is a smaller sentence that says “My wannabes” and when you click on that this appears:

     The error message that appears I at first thought that it was something wrong with my computer but as I did it multiple times and it came up as the same thing I realize that it is on purpose. Or maybe you have to be within a certain range, of the location which I have now learned is in San Diego (across from the currently going on Comic Con), to gain access to the page.

     If you have any information on it please leave a comment. Man, this ad campaign for The Dark Knight is killer!

     Back in college, during my vampire obsessive stage, I started renting the video tapes for the 60s/70s soap opera series entitled “Dark Shadows.” It wasn’t quite what I thought it would be. Kind of slow and boring… with just a bit of camp and cheese mixed in. I think now, however, I would be able to get more into it.

     Anyway, I was reading over at worst previews that Johnny Depp plans to team up with Warner Brothers to develop a feature length movie version of the series. Apparently Depp has been “obsessed” with the show since it aired back in the day; especially with the vampire patriarch of the show, Barnabas Collins (pictured above).

from worstpreviews…

Over 1,225 episodes, “Dark Shadows” was a highly atmospheric, spooky soap that featured gothic horror staples like vampires, monsters, witches, werewolves, ghosts and zombies. The show has a continuing rabid fan base that populates Dark Shadows Festival conventions. Numerous TV revivals of the series and pic adaptations have been attempted over the years but none with as high-wattage a star as Depp.

     Yes, it wasa SOAP opera, but also had vampires and witches and the like. I’d now be interested in re-investing some time with the show if I can find it on DVD. This way, I’d have a much better frame of reference once the movie comes out (a deal was just recently struck with the show’s original creator - Dan Curtis - and WB).

     Anyone else watch this show?

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The Dark Knight is a film I am eagerly anticipating. Batman Begins was one of the best films I had seen in ages (and it now sits firmly within my top 20 films of all time) so this sequel I would literally kill to see. Just recently (today if I’m not mistaken) a new website promoting the film has went online - this one can be found at - www.whysoserious.com. It’s basically similar to website where we saw a picture of Aaron Eckhart as Gotham DA Harvey Dent only given a Joker makeover. This time round the website has a lot more to it, including a couple of paragraphs about hiring people for some sort of job - I am still unclear about it myself (And also some sort of countdown(?)). Head on over to the website and decide for yourself.

(Thanks to user “Colin” for the heads up on this)

copy and paste job from Fox News:

     Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, who made history and chemistry together in “Titanic,” are coming back to the silver screen.

The pair, sources say, have signed on for Winslet’s husband Sam Mendes’ film version of Richard Yates’ classic novel of unhappy domesticity in the suburbs.

No, it’s not called “American Beauty.” Mendes already made that movie, and it won the Oscar. It’s “Revolutionary Road,” the 1961 novel many people thought “American Beauty” was based on or borrowed from in the first place.

I do recall asking “American Beauty” screenwriter Alan Ball back when his movie was coming out if he’d been influenced by the Yates novel. He professed to not having read it.

read more by unwrapping the text…
UNWRAP TEXT or SHOW **SPOILER**

     Found the new poster for the newest Tim Burton film, Sweeny Todd, over at Depp Impact. My one word review of the poster… intriguing.

click for larger

     As big of a SW fan as I am (bigger than anyone I know personally); I know that I am but a padawan compared to some of the crazy-ass fans out there that know everything, and I mean EVERYTHING about Star Wars. On casual Fridays at the office they dress up like Boba-Fett; and they know exactly how many square feet of titanium it takes to plate a Class II Star Destroyer.

     If this describes you, The Weinstein Company is running a contest for the “ultimate Star Wars fanboy” to coincide with the release of their film, “Fanboys”. Which is an adventure/comedy about a bunch of over the top Star Wars junkies trying to see an early screening of Star Wars: Episode 1 back in 1999 - starring Seth Rogan, Sam Huntington and Kristen Bell.

     To enter, all you have to do is uplaod a short video explaining or showing why you are the ultimate SW fan at fanboycontest.com. Dailymotion users will be voting for their favorites throughout the competition; and the producers will choose the winner from the 10 finalists that received the most votes by the users. The winner gets a walk on cameo within the film, plus their uploaded video will appear on the extras portion of the DVD release.

     To read more about this event, click on the contest link above, or check out the source at movieweb.

     We are just about at another weekend and I am curious what is on everyone’s plate for movies. I have moved my “movie nights” from Thursday nights to Sunday nights now (after thinking about Kurt’s comments) I decided that late Sunday night is just a better time. But that is neither here nor there, what is important is what everyone is planning on seeing this weekend.

     Unlike most people I have yet to see that movie about wizards that is currently out. I think its called Harry Potter (Movie Patron review). I’m going to be catching that on Saturday afternoon with the Wife so that doesn’t really count but perhaps you still have not seen it either and it is your movie of choice.

     Getting a wide release is Danny Boyle’s Sunshine. I’d really like to see this but I don’t believe it will be showing here so I’ll probably have to wait a bit to see it.

     Andrew’s glowing review of Rescue Dawn (Movie Patron review) has my expectations even higher than they already were for this movie.

     And finally, the cartoon about a bunch of people with jaundice is coming out this weekend. I’m pretty sure The Simpsons is going to be what my friends will want to see.

     So here is what I’m going to try to do. Saturday afternoon I’m going to head out to Harry Potter with the wife, Sunday afternoon I’m going to try to catch Rescue Dawn and Sunday evening I’ll be at The Simpsons. Right now Harry Potter and The Simpsons are pretty definite. If I can’t make Rescue Dawn I’ll be seeing it next Friday afternoon on my day off.

     I think this weekend is a bigger weekend for movies than the July 4th one. Perhaps they aren’t all big block buster type movies but I think they are all better movies.

     So anyways, what are you going to see this weekend?

     Never did get around to seeing Guy Ritchie’s last film, Revolver. But after the greatness that was Lock Stock and Snatch, I’m more than eager to see his return to film making. I also never saw the remake of Lina Wertmuller’s 1974 comedy-drama Swept Away which starred Madonna and was also directed by Ritchie. Word is that it is atrocious though.

     Anyway, reports today indicate Guy Ritchie has just been assigned to direct The Gamekeeper for Warner Bros. studios. Apparently this is his comic book series? Well, once RocknRolla is finished filming (which looks like classic Ritchie returning to his roots), he’ll be moving on to this new project.

     I’m not one for comic book films, but since this isn’t a super hero movie and since Ritchie produces these comics himself (ala Frank Miller - Sin City, 300), I’m very much looking forward to Ritchie getting back on the horse, so to speak.

here’s the plot outline from monsters and critics:

     ”…the story features a gamekeeper on a Scottish estate with a dark past. When his secrets return to haunt him, and the alleged killer of his son reappears, the gamekeeper uses all his tracking and nature skills to hunt down his prey, wherever they go.”

     Time for another random, pointless post.

     Have you ever been watching a film and then half way through you realise that the character you have been watching is played by an actor you know and they look so different that you didn’t even notice it was them? In other words what actors have been in a film where they look so different that you didn’t recognise them straight away? Or even if you do recognise them but they just look so different than they normally do. Here is a bunch that I could think of:

Cameron Diaz in Being John Malkovich

 John Hurt in The Elephant Man

 Gary Oldman in Hannibal

 Charlize Theron in Monster

Christian Bale in The Machinist

     That’s all that really come to mind. I’m sure there are tons more, feel free to point any out.

 Cinecast Episode 56 [123:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

this episode:
Rescue Dawn, Black Sheep, La Vie en Rose - DVD releases and trailer talk.
…and as always our signature tangents.

Unwrap the complete Show Notes by clicking on this link…

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     I might not be the biggest fan of the movies but I’m going to give bonus points to this poster for originality. I enjoyed Saw and Saw 2 but never felt the need to see Saw 3. Now we have another poster for Saw 4 and the studio has told us that Saw 5 and 6 will be coming. I really think they are beating a dead horse here now.

     No matter what though I do think the poster is quite original and almost humorous. I’d never put it up on a wall but its still kind of cool.

source: First Showing

     Over the past few months I have been delving into the world of David Lynch. I just can’t get enough of the man’s mind and his films. Anyway I was recently browsing YouTube for any videos that I hadn’t seen already of interviews with David Lynch. I watched a few of them and he spoke very cryptically - as he always does….or does he? It seems that he has broken that trend by finally giving an answer that was as straight as an arrow. Take a look for yourself:

     Hey guys, I’ve decided to start pasting my reviews on the blog for a while and see how it works out. I’m doing this for two reasons. 1) It allows for comments and discussion on the film. 2) The blog has an automatic RSS feed that I can export anywhere I want to - like facebook. They won’t be stickies that stay at the top of the page, they’ll just be another post like everything else. I’ve also included a “jump to” feature instead of the “unwrap text” for these so that loading times on the blog will be quicker for people.

What better way to start a blog review than with the first five star film of the year?

Dir: Werner Herzog
Star: Christian Bale, Steve Zahn, Jeremy Davies, Toby Huss
PG-13
126 min

reviewed by Andrew James
     Sorry for the length of this review, but so much has to be said; all of which is positive. While I completely respect his work, I’ve never been a huge fan of Werner Herzog. Several of his movies, to me, are just straight-up boring and others feel like they’re trying too hard to be something they’re not (especially his documentaries - Grizzly Man and Incident at Loch Ness). With Rescue Dawn, that seems to have changed and seems to be the least “Herzog-ian” of all his films. This works for the best as Rescue Dawn is one of the best of the year so far.

     
Adapted from a previous Herzog documentary, Little Dieter Needs to Fly, Rescue Dawn is the feature film version of Dieter Dengler; a young military pilot, who on his first mission in the Vietnam conflict gets shot down over Laos and is taken prisoner by the enemy. While in the POW camp, Dieter and five other prisoners find friendship, comraderie and strength enough to try a daring escape and make their way back through the treacherous jungle to safe soil.

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