ForeverGeek » Movies

Weekly Poll: Most Anticipated 2012 Movie?

Robin Parrish — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:00:50 +0000

This week, ForeverGeek posted our annual Movie Calendar, and this year, we selected 10 movies as our “Must See” picks for the year. Which is the one you’re looking forward to the most?

In the poll, you’ll find our 10 Must See films of 2012. (See the Movie Calendar page for the full list of more than 100 films hitting theaters this year. And we’re adding more all the time, so remember to bookmark it!)

The Only 2012 Movie Calendar You Need

Robin Parrish — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:00:40 +0000

It’s here at last — the one you’ve been waiting for. ForeverGeek is proud to present the ultimate movie calendar featuring all the movies you should care about in 2012.

The Latest…

This is an exhaustive list, but not a comprehensive one. We’re geeks, so there are no romcoms, no tear-jerkers, and no dumb kiddie flicks. (And no sparkly vampires!) Not every movie you care about from 2012 may be on this list, but every movie you should care about is here.

This page is constantly being updated with new movies and new details. Know a movie that belongs on this list? Suggest it to the list curator.

Watch for ten special films that we’ve selected as our Must-See Picks for 2012.

Change Log
2/9/12: The Bourne Legacy – poster, trailer added
2/9/12: Dorothy and the Witches of Oz – entry, poster, trailer added
2/9/12: Iron Sky – poster, release date added
2/8/12: I, Alex Cross – entry added

Click a link to jump to that month’s movies:

February 3

Chronicle
Forget the Teen Titans and the Young Avengers. Here’s what would happen if high schoolers really gained superpowers like strength, telekinesis, flight, and invulnerability. The buzz is strong for this tale of indulgence with power, and zero responsibility. Where’s Uncle Ben when you need him? Directed by newcomer Josh Trank.

The Innkeepers
A pair of amateur paranormal investigators set out to prove that a 100-year-old inn is haunted. Wanna bet they find more than the guys on Ghost Hunters? (Rumor has it you should stay through the credits for a little something extra.)

The Woman in Black
Daniel Radcliffe headlines this throwback to the days when “horror” was about chills, not torture porn. Radcliffe plays young lawyer Arthur Kipps, sent alone to a deceased client’s house to sort through her papers. But this house has been home to much tragedy and many secrets, and Kipps finds himself stalked by a mysterious woman dressed in black. Probably just a Harry Potter fan who’s still in mourning.

February 10

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
Dwayne Johnson steps in for Brendan Fraser in a sequel nobody saw coming. There’s always a chance it could be kooky fun, though the addition of Luis Guzman as the Goofy Latino Sidekick doesn’t instill confidence.

Safe House
When a CIA-operated safe house is targeted by a group of bad guys, the facility’s house-sitter (Ryan Reynolds) is tasked with the dangerous job of moving the criminal who is being hidden there (Denzel Washington) to another secure location. Seeing these two share the screen should be worth the price of admission alone.

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
It’s the Star Wars movie we all want to forget the most! Now in entirely unnecessary 3D! Lucas hopes to convert all six movies to 3D if this one proves it’s worth it. (I would have started with a better lead-in.)

Perfect Sense
It’s not often that “serious scifi” and “serious romance” cross paths, and the results are always unpredictable when they do. This one has an intriguing premise, though: a doctor (Eva Green) falls for a chef (Ewan McGregor) who’s suffering odd symptoms that affect his emotions and five senses. She investigates his illness and discovers that his case is one of many to break out in just 24 hours, all over the globe.

February 14

This Means War
Star Trek‘s Chris Pine and Inception‘s Tom Hardy are CIA agents and besties who fall for the same gal (Reese Witherspoon), forcing them to pull out all the stops to stop each other from getting the girl. Sort of like Mr. & Mrs. Smith with a love triangle.

February 17

Dorothy and the Witches of Oz
A new twist on the classic story finds Dorothy Gale a children’s author in New York City who discovers that her books are actually based on repressed memories, where now the beings of that world are entering ours, Enchanted-style. Originally aired internationally as a miniseries; this re-edited version is releasing to theaters only in the U.S. Stars Christopher Lloyd as the Wizard and newcomer Paulie Rojas as Dorothy Gale.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
The first movie wasn’t really good enough to warrant a sequel, but at least this one looks crazy enough to be fun. The guys that brought you Crank bring their over-the-top style to the franchise, allowing even Nic Cage to enjoy himself a lot more as the title character.

The Secret World of Arrietty
The revered Studio Ghibli brings their interpretation of the classic children’s books, The Borrowers. Disney distributes. Ghibli only knows how to make masterpieces, and this should be no exception.

February 24

Act of Valor
It’s a documentary shot like an action thriller. Real-life Navy SEALs are sent on a covert mission to recover a kidnapped CIA agent that leads to the demise of a complex web of terrorist cells. Strong buzz surrounds this one.

Gone
Nothing can stop Jill (Amanda Seyfried) from finding her missing sister, because she’s convinced that the serial killer who kidnapped her two years ago has returned for her sibling.

March 2

Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax
The same studio that brought you Horton Hears a Who puts their CGI spin on another classic Dr. Seuss story. Anybody else getting an unfortunate Garfield vibe from that poster?

March 9

John Carter
Disney has a lot riding on the live-action debut of Pixar’s Andrew Stanton — not the least of which is a ginormous VFX budget. Taylor Kitsch stars as Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic hero, a Civil War veteran who’s transported to Mars, where he becomes a savior figure. Hollywood’s been trying to get this movie off the ground for ages, since nearly every science fiction epic in existence was influenced by the ideas Burroughs dreamed up first. So it stands the risk of feeling “old hat” to modern audiences unaware of its pivotal place in history. Its scheduling in early March (well outside summer blockbuster season) and shortened title (it originally matched the novel’s title, John Carter of Mars) has us nervous about Disney’s confidence in the film. But our hopes remain very high.

Playback
While digging into their town’s infamous past, a group of high school students unwittingly unlock a dark secret, unleashing an evil spirit that takes possession of its victims. Stars Christian Slater, and screams “direct-to-video,” but I’m in a charitable mood so here’s hoping.

The Silent House
A chilling thriller from South America based on a true story about a girl trapped inside a cottage by someone — or something — bloodthirsty. The movie follows her actions and her rising panic, second-by-second, for the majority of its running time.

March 16

21 Jump Street
Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum attempt to revive the franchise that put Johnny Depp on the map. The old Fox TV series comes to the big screen with a more lighthearted tone. Unfortunately, it’s probably going to be funny for all the wrong reasons.

Seeking Justice
After his wife is assaulted, a husband (Nicolas Cage) enlists the services of a vigilante group to help him settle the score. Also stars Guy Pierce and January Jones.

Trailer

March 23

4:44 Last Day on Earth
What would happen to people, to society, if we all knew the exact day and time that the world was going to end? Stars Willem Dafoe.

Official Website

Brake
A Secret Service Agent (Blade‘s Stephen Dorff) is held captive in the trunk of a car and endures high-speed mental and physical torture as terrorists attempt to extract needed information from him. In other words, the feel good movie of the year.

The Hunger Games
All eyes are on star Jennifer Lawrence and director Gary Ross to see if they can bring Suzanne Collins’ runaway bestseller — a book that begged for a big-screen adaptation — to glorious life. Expect a faithful adaptation of Collins’ mesmerizing story of survivalist Katniss Everdeen, a sixteen-year-old forced into a brutal, televised competition where teenagers are pitted against one another to the death. The trailer shows that Ross has perfectly captured the future society of the books on film, but he faces a serious challenge in bringing Katniss to life. Since the book treats readers to Katniss’ inner thoughts, everything happens from her first-person perspective. Translating the core of this beloved character — whose often subtle actions don’t always betray her true feelings — won’t be easy. Lionsgate has big plans for The Hunger Games (they’re filming both sequels), but as the book’s legions of fans know, Katniss Everdeen is the most worthy successor to Harry Potter to come along in a very long time.

The Raid
Gareth Huw Evans follows-up his Indonesian martial arts flick Merantau with this stylish romp about a special forces team forced to fight their way, floor-by-floor, out of an apartment building owned by a notorious drug lord.

Trailer

March 30

Mirror Mirror
The first of two Snow White movies out of the gate in 2012 is the more lighthearted of the pair. It has the benefit of Julia Roberts as its above-the-title star, but the candy-colored production looks awfully campy, considering it comes from a director (Tarsem Singh) usually known for his visually sophisticated style. It’s the more family-friendly Snow White of 2012, but it hasn’t made a good first impression.

Transit
A family on a road trip is stalked by criminals who stashed stolen money in their car. Starring Jim Caviezel, Elisabeth Rohm, James Frain, and Harold Perrineau.

Trailer

Wrath of the Titans
Sam Worthington returns as Perseus when the gods go to war once more, but this time Zeus is captured by the Titans and must be rescued from the dark realm of Tartarus. Bigger effects, more characters, and (hopefully) better 3D. Oh, and a bizarre reunion for the two lead actors from Schindler’s List (Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes), who play godly brothers.

April 4

Iron Sky
The Nazis set up a secret base on the moon in 1945 where they hide out and plan to return to power in 2018. Supposedly a steampunk “action/comedy,” though it sounds more like a high-concept scifi flick.

April 6

The Cold Light of Day
A young American (Henry Cavill) uncovers a conspiracy during his attempt to save his family, who were kidnapped while on vacation in Spain. Also stars Bruce Willis and Sigourney Weaver.

Detention
A slasher movie about a slasher movie killer who scares a group of high school seniors. Wasn’t that the plot of Scream?

The Hunter
A mercenary, played by Willem Dafoe, is sent by a mysterious biotech company to the Tasmanian wilderness to hunt down the last Tasmanian tiger.

April 13

Bad Ass
Danny Trejo stars as a former war hero who gains fame a second time for saving a black man’s life from a group of skinheads. When his best friend is murdered and the police refuse to do anything about it, our senior citizen hero takes matters into his own hands.

Bullet to the Head
Based on a French graphic novel, this one tells the story of a New Orleans hitman (Sylvester Stallone) and a young New York City cop (Sung Kang) who form an alliance to bring down the killers of their respective partners. Also stars Christian Slater and Jason Momoa. (Can’t help wondering how many steroids it takes to sport a body like that at 65. I’m sorry, but look at his arms! Those veins are about to explode!)

The Cabin in the Woods
Joss Whedon and his former Buffy/Angel writer Drew Goddard, who also wrote Cloverfield, came up with this one, which is expected to take the stereotypical horror movie tropes and turn them on their heads. As the poster suggests, expect endless twists and turns, where the rug is swept out from under the characters (and viewers) time and again. It was filmed in 2009 but held back by the distributor for unknown reasons. Stars Chris Hemsworth pre-Thor and marks Goddard’s directing debut.

April 20

Lock-Out
An odd scifi/action mashup about a man (Guy Pierce) wrongly convicted of treason against the U.S., who’s offered freedom if he can rescue the President’s daughter (Maggie Grace) from an outer space prison (that’s right) taken over by violent inmates. Hopefully will answer the nagging question of why Maggie Grace keeps getting kidnapped in movies.

Trailer

The Moth Diaries
A teenage girl at a boarding school suspects her roommate is a vampire. And you thought you were the only one!

April 27

Headhunters
Subtitled action/thriller about an accomplished headhunter who risks everything to obtain a valuable painting owned by a former mercenary.

Trailer

The Pirates: Band of Misfits
Aardman brings us their one-of-a-kind take on the world’s recent pirate obsession, clamation style. Hugh Grant stars as the main character, who wants only to win the coveted Pirate of the Year Award. Boasts a great supporting cast that includes the voices of Jeremy Piven, Salma Hayek, Imelda Staunton, and David Tennant.

The Raven
John Cusack playing Edgar Allan Poe? Awesome. Poe trying to stop a serial killer who uses Poe’s fictional tales as inspiration for his murders? Coolness. Seriously, what’s not to love about this? It’s just a flat-out great idea. But the worst idea ever can make for a great story if it’s told exceptionally well. How many amazing-sounding premises have turned out to be stinkers because of how clumsily they were handled? We’re hoping for something inspired, but there are no guarantees.

Safe
Jason Statham, doing that “former elite agent” thing he does, must rescue a girl from the Chinese Triads and then use a unique — and highly sought-after — safe combination to somehow outwit the Russian Mafia and corrupt New York City officials. I don’t know why he does any of those things, but all that matters is that he’ll look cool doing it.

May 4

The Avengers
By Hollywood standards, The Avengers should never have happened. Marvel Studios’ audacious plan to introduce a team of superheroes one-by-one in their own movies (Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and Hulk, along with Nick Fury, Black Widow, and Hawkeye) and then assemble them dream-team style, is way too risky a proposition for Hollywood. Then there’s writer/director Joss Whedon, geek god extraordinaire, best known for Buffy, Firefly, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, and his bestselling run on Marvel’s Astonishing X-Men comic. Handing him the keys to this $220+ million kingdom is insanely ballsy — and ingenious — on Marvel’s part, since they’re allowing him to bring his vision to the screen with no interference. The Avengers is the kind of pie-in-the-sky project that fanboys drool about in their sleep. You could say our hopes are kinda high.

May 11

Dark Shadows
A longtime passion project of Johnny Depp’s, I’m not sure what to make of Tim Burton’s revival of the gothic vampire soap opera. Depp stars as Barnabas Collins, a vampire buried for 220 years who finally resurfaces to discover his descendants even more twisted and secretive than the family he remembers. It’s unknown if Burton is paying homage to the tone of the original, or playing it for laughs. Also stars Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Jonny Lee Miller, Chloe Moretz, and Jackie Earle Haley.

May 18

Battleship
Yes, it really is based on the classic board game. It pits the American Navy against an alien invasion, which for some reason happens at sea. Despite this, there’s always a chance it could be good fun, right? Right? Peter Berg directs Liam Neeson, Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgård, and songstress Rihanna, in her acting debut.

May 25

Men in Black III
The last film was ten long years ago. And Will Smith and director Barry Sonnenfeld have clashed on set, reportedly. The plot finds Agent J heading back in time to 1969 to visit a young Agent K (played by Josh Brolin, doing an uncanny Tommy Lee Jones impression). The film’s villain, Boris (Flight of the Concords‘ Jemaine Clement), travels back to kill Agent K, which will somehow set off a chain reaction that will bring about the end of the world.

June 1

Snow White and the Huntsman
The more compelling of the dueling Snow White movies releasing in 2012, this one puts a Tolkien-esque twist on the fairy tale that (gasp!) dares to take its subject matter seriously. Sparkly-vampire lover Kristen Stewart stars as a kick-butt fairest of them all (hopefully she’ll reveal hidden depths we haven’t seen yet), Chris Hemsworth is well cast as the Huntsman sent to kill her but who decides to help her instead, and Charlize Theron looks menacingly lethal as the Evil Queen. Let’s hope for a thrilling surprise with this one.

June 7

The Rift
Not much is known about this indie scifi pic, which cost a meager $20,000 to film. It comes from writer/director Robert Kouba, a Swiss newcomer with no prior credits, and an untested production company called Vantis Pictures. The plot has something to do with enormous rifts opening in the night sky, behind which something is watching the Earth.

June 8

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted
The first film had its charms, but no one involved with the sequel seemed to have seen the first one. The problem with the Madagascar franchise is that its four main characters (voices of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett-Smith, and David Schwimmer) have never been as interesting as its supporting cast (namely, the penguins, the lemurs — heck, even the barely-seen monkeys). The only way to justify a third movie is if the core four finally become characters worthy of a trilogy. At least the premise is more interesting than Escape 2 Africa, and Frances McDormand is ready to steal the show as a tough-as-nails animal control officer.

Prometheus
We have nothing but questions about Prometheus (is it Ridley Scott’s return to scifi form? a prequel to Alien? a space expedition to discover the origins of mankind??), but the one thing we know for certain about this top secret, big budget, science fiction thriller: we’re there. There’s the cast, which includes Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender, Patrick Wilson, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce, Noomi Rapace, and many more. There’s the script, by Jon Spaihts and Lost mastermind Damon Lindelof (who knows a thing or two about secrets). And then there’s Scott, whose last few films have been neither buzz-worthy hits nor huge failures. Robin Hood, Body of Lies, American Gangster, A Good Year, etc. were filed by audiences under “Meh.” Plus, he hasn’t done science fiction in thirty years (not since Blade Runner). One gets the impression he has something to prove. We’re just glad Scott’s finally making something to get excited about.

Trailer

June 15

The Woman in the Fifth
Based on Douglas Kennedy’s novel, it involves an American who’s fled to Paris after a scandal that cost him his job as a university film lecturer. He takes up with a widow who might be involved in a series of murders.

Trailer

June 22

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
When President Lincoln’s mother is killed by a vampire, Honest Abe sets out to crush the entire vampire race — and their slave-owning helpers. Sounds awesomely crazy or maybe too ridiculous to prop a big-budget feature on. But that’s never stopped Hollywood before. Directed by Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted), which gives one hope that it might be something we’ve never seen before. Based on the novel by Seth Grahame-Smith.

Brave
Still the greatest animation studio on earth (despite Cars 2), Pixar is set to continue its dominance with this new fairy tale set in the Scottish highlands. For the first time, Pixar has a female lead character (and co-director) in Merida, a princess who craves freedom and adventure. When Merida (Kelly Macdonald) defies her parents and makes an ill-fated wish to an eccentric witch, she accidentally unleashes a curse that wreaks havoc upon her kingdom. The wispy trailer looks positively enchanting. Also stars the voices of Emma Thompson, Billy Connolly, Kevin McKidd, Craig Ferguson, and Robbie Coltrane.

June 29

G.I. Joe: Retaliation
Cobra returns in force, crushing the Joes and leaving just a handful of team members alive — only one or two of whom, conveniently, were in the first movie. A new, more visceral director and the surprise additions of Dwayne Johnson and Bruce Willis to the franchise means this will either be a bold new direction, or a should’ve-been-direct-to-home-video disaster.

July 3

The Amazing Spider-Man
Probably the fastest reboot in history, The Amazing Spider-Man returns us to the beginning of the story — Peter Parker getting his spider powers in high school — and builds an entire film around that time in his life. The script is reportedly based more on Marvel’s hipper, younger Ultimate Spider-Man comics than the flagship series, and director Marc Webb looks to be going for a grittier approach to the material than Sam Raimi’s trilogy. Andrew Garfield stars as a taller, lankier Peter, with Emma Stone as not MJ but Gwen Stacey, Peter’s first love. Rhys Ifans is the flick’s big bad, the Lizard, and what little we’ve seen of the character’s design has left us unimpressed. The thrust of the new film — which is, of course, positioned as the start of a new franchise — is the journey of a young man trying to find his deceased father. Spider-Man’s popularity has weathered worse storms than a franchise reboot (do I even need to mention the musical?), so naturally we’re eager to see what Garfield and Webb’s take on the character is like.

July 13

Ted
I’m including this one purely based on Seth McFarlane’s geek cred, because otherwise it probably wouldn’t have made the list. McFarlane makes his big-screen directing debut in this off-kilter story of a man (Mark Wahlberg) who owns a teddy bear that’s brought to life due to a childhood wish. Of course, this being McFarlane, the bear in question is brash and offensive, and complicates Wahblerg’s life considerably.

July 20

The Dark Knight Rises
The most anticipated film of the year, after the critically-acclaimed, box office bonanza that was The Dark Knight. This third and final entry in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy is set eight years after the caped crusader took the fall for Harvey Dent’s crimes. Things have been going pretty swell in Gotham City in that time, but nothing lasts forever. Enter Bane, the super-strong, brilliant, ruthless terrorist leader played by Inception‘s Tom Hardy, who wants to break Batman (which literally happened in the comics, in the famous storyline where Bane broke Batman’s back). Anne Hathaway is the latest to don the pointy ears of Catwoman, and you can count on her moral ambiguity to play an important part of the story; will she be Bruce Wayne’s nemesis or his ally? Rumors suggest that the film might bring the series full circle, with the top-secret resurrection of Liam Neeson as Ra’s al Ghul, or maybe his daughter Talia masterminding things as revenge. Gotham has never been in greater danger, but while we have no doubt Batman will save the day, the lingering question is… Will he live through it?

August 3

The Bourne Legacy
A Bourne movie without Jason Bourne (Matt Damon). How’s that gonna work? The franchise attempts to reinvent itself under Tony Gilroy’s direction — who wrote the first three movies. Jeremy Renner, aka the man who is in every franchise film of 2012, is given the spotlight as a new operative with a similar background — and a mysterious connection — to Bourne. Renner’s supported by a great cast, including Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton, Albert Finney, and Oscar Isaac, but will audiences accept a Bourne-less Bourne?

Trailer

Total Recall
Len Wiseman remakes the Schwarzenegger classic with a revitalized focus on the Philip K. Dick source material. Colin Farrell takes on the Douglas Quaid role, Kate Beckinsale is his duplicitous wife, Jessica Biel the rebel fighter he falls for, Bryan Cranston the villainous Chancellor Cohaagen, and Bill Nighy the leader of the underground resistance. The biggest change from the original movie? No Mars. Everything happens on Earth this time.

August 10

Warm Bodies
When a highly unusual zombie rescues a girl from imminent death at the hands of his cohorts, their unlikely romance sets in motion a chain of events that will transform him, his fellow dead, and maybe even the whole lifeless world. And if you’re thinking, “Um… WHAT??” You’re not alone. From writer/director Jonathan Levine.

August 15

The Odd Life of Timothy Green
A family-friendly fantasy about a married couple who dream of starting a family but are unable to conceive a child. So they spend an evening dreaming up what their child would be like — and are stunned to find that very child on their doorstep one stormy night. But there’s more to magical little Timothy than it first appears. Stars Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton.

August 17

The Expendables 2
The team sets out for revenge when one of their own is cut down. Sylvester Stallone is back as writer and star, but hands off directing duties to Con Air‘s Simon West. Original actors Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Hale Caesar, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Willis are all back, joined by new additions Jean-Claude Van Damme and Chuck Norris (!!), and a pair of new, young team members played by Liam Hemsworth (Chris’ younger brother) and Yu Nan.

ParaNorman
Meet Norman. He’s considered strange by his friends and family, but in reality, he can speak with the dead. And when a centuries-old curse threatens his hometown, Norman must take on ghosts, zombies, and (oh no!) grown-ups, to save the day. From the stop-motion studio that produced Coraline.

August 24

The Apparition
A parapsychology experiment conjures up a scary apparition that terrorizes a young couple played by Ashley Greene and Sebastian Stan. Their only hope: an expert in the supernatural, played by Tom Felton (aka Draco Malfoy).

Premium Rush
Hollywood script doctor David Koepp must’ve seen bicycle messengers zipping through New York City one day, dodging all sorts of obstacles on their specialized, single-gear bikes with no brakes, and decided that there was an adrenaline movie in there somewhere. Koepp both co-writes and directs Joseph Gordon-Levitt as an agile, skilled cyclist whose last run of the day turns into a life or death chase through Manhattan.

Sinister
Yet another “found footage” film — but with a twist. Ethan Hawke stars as a novelist who travels the country, researching gruesome murders for inspiration. When he and his family move into a house where another family was murdered, he finds home videos that reveal horrifying clues about how the family died. Writer/director Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) returns to horror after his scifi bout with The Day The Earth Stood Still.

August 31

7500
Thriller that follows a group of passengers from disparate walks of life who encounter a supernatural force while on a transpacific flight. From the director of The Grudge.

The Possession
A fictional retelling of an LA Times article about an antique wooden box, purchased on eBay, that supposedly holds an evil spirit. According to the Times, the box brought terrible calamities down on everyone who bought it. The movie adds cursed family relics to the box, which present a mystery for the main character to solve before it destroys her family.

September 6

Shadow Dancer
Talk about your fascinating team-ups. The X-Files‘ Gillian Anderson stars alongside Clive Owen in this tense story of a woman who’s entrenched in the IRA alongside her husband and brothers, who decides to become an informer for MI-5.

September 14

Resident Evil: Retribution
This is the fifth movie in the Milla Jovovich action series that just keeps going and going, even though I don’t know a single person who’s seen any of them. Paul W.S. Anderson returns to the helm for this one, which goes deeper into Alice’s mysterious past, while taking her on a worldwide hunt for those responsible for the zombie outbreak. Impact Pictures promises a “mind-blowing revelation” at the movie’s climax.

Argo
When 52 Americans are captured by Iran in 1979, six of them (led by Ben Affleck) slip away and devise a risky plan to escape the country. Based on a true story that was unknown by the public for decades.

September 21

Dredd
The disappointing Sylvester Stallone adaptation wasn’t terribly faithful to the comic book, so director Pete Travis (Vantage Point) is bringing us a new movie that is. Karl Urban (who doesn’t remove his helmet for the duration of the film) stars as the title character, a futuristic cop given the authority to arrest, sentence, and execute lawbreakers right on the streets. And he has no problem doing so.

Hotel Transylvania
Dracula (Adam Sandler) opens a lavish, “five-stake” resort, where monsters and their families are free to be who they are, in the lap of luxury. On his daughter’s 118th birthday, Dracula invites the world’s most famous monsters to the hotel to celebrate, when an ordinary guy stumbles across the hotel and falls for Drac’s daughter.

House at the End of the Street
A mother and daughter move to a new town and find themselves living next door to a house where a young girl murdered her parents. When the daughter befriends the surviving son, she learns the story is far from over. Starring Hunger Games‘ Jennifer Lawrence, Elizabeth Shue, Gil Bellows, and more.

September 28

Looper
A killer who works for the mob of the future recognizes one of his targets as his future self. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, and Emily Blunt. A high-concept thriller from the writer/director of Brick and The Brothers Bloom.

Official Website

Savages
Pot growers Ben and Chon face off against the Mexican drug cartel who kidnapped their shared girlfriend. Directed by Oliver Stone, and starring Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, Aaron Johnson, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, Emile Hirsch, and Demian Bichir.

October 5

Frankenweenie
Tim Burton’s second film of the year, a Disney production, is the animated tale of a boy who brings his beloved dog back to life — with a few “minor” adjustments. Filmed in stop-motion black & white, the voice cast includes Winona Ryder, Martin Short, Catherine O’Hara, and Martin Landau.

Official Website

Taken 2
Liam Neeson’s Bryan Mills and his wife (played by Famke Janssen), are taken captive by the father of one of the kidnappers from the first film. This time, it’s up to his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) to free her mom and dad, under her old man’s tutelage and with an assist from her boyfriend (Luke Grimes).

October 12

Parker
Crime/thriller about a thief (Jason Statham) who lives by a code of honor that includes never stealing money from people who need it. Also starring Jennifer Lopez, Clifton Collins Jr., Wendell Pierce, Michael Chiklis. Written by John J. McLaughlin and directed by Taylor Hackford.

October 19

The Gangster Squad
A noir thriller based on the true life of mob king Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn), who ran Los Angeles’ criminal underground in the 40s, even owning the police and local politicians. The only ones who dare to stand against him are a secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) and Jeremy Wooters (Ryan Gosling).

Paranormal Activity 4
More paranormal, more activity. You know the drill.

October 26

I, Alex Cross
Tyler Perry steps outside of his box to portray detective Alex Cross, hero of James Patterson’s bestselling empire. Lost‘s Matthew Fox co-stars as Cross’ psychotic nemesis, who murders the detective’s wife, leading to a one-on-one match between hunter and prey. Directed by Rob Cohen and also starring Rachel Nichols, Jean Reno, Ed Burns, Cicely Tyson, and more.

November 2

Red Dawn
A remake of the Brat Pack classic, about young adults who take up arms and use guerrilla tactics to take back their hometown when it’s invaded. Instead of Chinese invaders, this time they’re the more timely North Koreans. This one’s been in the can for a while, but MGM has held back from releasing it for unknown reasons. Stars Chris Hemsworth, Adrianne Palicki, Josh Hutcherson, Josh Peck, Isabel Lucas, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

Wreck-It Ralph
Disney Animation takes a break from fairy tales to produce this story of an arcade game villain (John C. Reilly) who’s spent decades being defeated by Fix-It Felix (Jack McBrayer) and grown tired of being the bad guy. So he hops through other video games in the arcade, which include titles from all eras of gaming, to prove himself as a hero. But when Ralph accidentally unleashes a deadly enemy that threatens the entire arcade, he has to realize his dream and save the day. Veteran TV animation director Rich Moore (The Simpsons, Futurama) makes his big-screen directorial debut.

November 9

Skyfall
Daniel Craig returns at last in his third big-screen adventure as James Bond. The plot is being kept tightly under wraps, but here’s what we know: it involves M’s past coming back to haunt her, bringing MI-6 under attack. And Bond’s loyalty to M (Judi Dench) will be sorely tested along the way. Sam Mendes directs the 23rd Bond adventure, which features a phenomenal cast that includes Javier Bardem (as the bad guy), Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Albert Finney, and more. Skyfall is also noteworthy for being the first Craig/Bond movie not written or rewritten by Paul Haggis. Taking his place in that role is Gladiator‘s John Logan.

November 21

47 Ronin
Keanu Reeves knows Kung Fu. Again. This time he’s the lone Caucasian actor in a cast of Asian martial arts masters (awkward!), playing an outcast named Kai who joins a group of outcast samurai, led by Hiroyuki Sanada. Together, these 47 ronin seek vengeance on the evil lord that murdered their master and banished them all.

Gravity
Genius director Alfonso Cuaron is back in the director’s chair for the first time in six long years (dude, seriously, what’s the hold up?) for a scifi character piece — that might be more than it first appears. Sandra Bullock and George Clooney star as astronauts who are on a spacewalk when their shuttle is destroyed, leaving them tethered to nothing but one another and spiraling into the blackness of space. With no chance of rescue and dwindling oxygen, the two fall into panic. But get this bit, from the film’s official byline: “But the only way home may be to go further out into the terrifying expanse of space.” Methinks Cuaron has something up his sleeve with this one.

Rise of the Guardians
Animated film based on a series of children’s books by William Joyce, which paints Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and Jack Frost as a group of immortal superheroes. The film finds the Guardians banding together to fight an evil spirit named Pitch, who tries to take over the mortal world. Starring the voices of Chris Pine, Alec Baldwin, Hugh Jackman, Isla Fisher, and Jude Law.

Official Website

December 14

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
For years, it seemed like it was never going to happen. After one big behind-the-scenes drama after another (the departure of director Guillermo del Toro, union woes in New Zealand), the stars aligned at last, and Peter Jackson is finally back behind the camera to take us all back to Middle Earth. Tolkien’s prequel to Lord of the Rings is a more lighthearted tale, which gives the filmmaker an opportunity to show us Middle Earth before the age of fear caused by Sauron’s return to power. Jackson & Co. have split the book into two films, and augmented it with material from Tolkien’s appendices (such as the convening of the White Council), and are bringing back many of the trilogy’s actors to cameo as their younger selves. But the real action surrounds Martin Freeman’s Bilbo Baggins, who’s dragged on a quest alongside Gandalf and thirteen dwarves — a fateful trip that includes the introduction of Gollum, a showdown with the dragon Smaug, and the enormous Battle of Five Armies. Can’t. Freaking. Wait.

December 19

Untitled Osama bin Laden Film
After her critical success with The Hurt Locker, director Kathryn Bigelow returns to the Middle East for another story of modern wartime. But this one is based on some of the most important real-life events of our time: the covert U.S. mission to find and kill Osama bin Laden. It’s an unexpected choice for Bigelow, to go back to the War on Terror right after her last trip there, but her style lends itself perfectly to this true story. Her cast includes Joel Edgerton and Mark Strong.

December 21

Hunter Killer
Guys’ guys Gerard Butler and Sam Worthington team up in this Crimson Tide-ish tale of a rookie submarine captain who has to work with a veteran Navy SEAL team to rescue a captive Russian president from a Russian general intent on starting World War III. Directed by Phillip Noyce, best known for his Tom Clancy adaptations.

Life of Pi
M. Night Shyamalan was once attached to bring this beloved, bestselling novel to the big screen, but it’s Ang Lee who’s finally making it happen. The philosophical, nigh-allegorical story involves an Indian zookeeper’s son named Pi, who sets out to emigrate to North America with his family and a ship full of zoo animals. Disaster strikes and the ship sinks, but Pi survives in a lifeboat — along with a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and an enormous Bengal tiger. When Pi reaches the coast of Mexico 227 days later, his encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior has allowed him to survive while most of his animal companions are dead. He tells the authorities his story, but they refuse to believe it, so he tells a second, less fantastical version of his story. So which one is true?

World War Z
Brad Pitt is a UN representative assigned to write a report on the great zombie war, which recently decimated the planet. He sets out to interview survivors all over the world, gathering stories and recollections of human survivors of the events leading up to the war and what happened during it. Director Marc Forster has reportedly been given a ginormous budget to film the script from fan-favorite writer J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5), who adapted Max Brooks’ revered novel. No easy feat, since the unconventional book has no straightforward narrative. There’s a ton of pressure to get this one right. So how do you create a movie out of a series of disconnected, first-person reports? We’ll find out this Christmas.

December 25

Django Unchained
Quentin Tarantino writes and directs this story of a German dentist turned bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) who frees a slave named Django (Jamie Foxx) from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner and trains him as his partner. With his newfound skills, Django teams with his mentor to search for his wife (Kerry Washington).

Airborne
Mark Hamill (yes, that Mark Hamill) in this thriller set on an airplane that takes off in the midst of a severe snow storm. In the air, the plane suddenly tells the ground that both pilots are dead, and the passengers on board are dying one-by-one.

The Beasts of the Southern Wild
A big award winning indie that got rave reviews out of Sundance, Southern Wild is an unusual coming-of-age story set in a sort-of-post-apocalyptic southern Delta community called “the Bathtub.” A six-year-old girl named Hushpuppy lives there with her father Wink, but when Wink contracts a strange illness, the whole world seems to react, with rising temperatures, melting ice caps, and the unleashing of a prehistoric army of creatures called aurochs. In the midst of all of this, Hushpuppy sets out alone to find her long lost mother.

Official Website

Cloud Atlas
The next big thing from the Wachowski’s, who are adapting the esoteric David Mitchell novel with a big-name cast headed up by Tom Hanks. The movie is broken into six segments that jump to differing eras and characters; half of these segments are being directed by the Wachowski’s and half are being handled by Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run). The undercurrent idea is that a single soul keeps being reincarnated to appear in all these different times, so we kind of follow his journey over time and how his different “lives” interconnect. Also starring Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Jim Broadbent, Susan Sarandon, and others. (Don’t be surprised if its release is pushed back to 2013.)

Cogan’s Trade
Brad Pitt stars in this tale of a mob enforcer named Jackie Cogan who investigates the heist of a mob-protected poker game. Based on a 1974 novel of the same name by George V. Higgins.

The Creed of Violence
Based on a novel by Boston Teran, Leonardo DiCaprio has been circling this one for a while. In 1910, two men — an assassin and a government agent with a hidden connection to him — try to stop an organization behind an arms smuggling ring.

Grabbers
Crazy alien invasion farce set in Ireland, where natives discover that the one thing their giant, bloodsucking, tentacled invaders can’t withstand is alcohol. In order to survive, the locals have to — you guessed it — get sloshed. Which, coincidentally, they’re extremely good at.

John Dies at the End
The weirdest movie of 2012, guaranteed. It’s a metaphysical stoner concoction that has something to do with a pair of college dropouts who get hooked on a new street drug that allows users to drift across time and dimensions with each hit. Some kind of alien invasion threat is also involved, but I couldn’t tell you much more than that. Cast includes Paul Giamatti, Chase Williamson, Rob Mayes, Clancy Brown, Glynn Turman, and the brilliant Doug Jones.

Only God Forgives
The star (Ryan Gosling) and writer/director (Nicolas Winding Refn) of Drive pair up again for the story of a Bangkok police lieutenant and a gangster, who settle their differences in a Thai-boxing match. The real buzz on this one surrounds Kristin Scott Thomas playing against type as “a merciless and terrifying mafia godmother.”

Red Lights
Rodrigo Cortes, writer/director of the Ryan Reynolds thriller Buried, returns with another unconventional thriller about the world of paranormal investigation. Sigourney Weaver and her assistant Cillian Murphy play famous investigators who routinely disprove the paranormal claims of those who call on them. Robert De Niro is an infamous psychic who disappeared in the 70s and resurfaces now — and who people have a habit of dying around. A battle of wits ensues. Word out of Sundance is that Cortes made a solid thriller until its final moments, where he botched the ending.

Trailer

Robot and Frank
Another award-winning indie Sundance hit, this one was picked up by Sony and Samuel Goldwyn Films for distribution sometime this year. Frank Langella stars as a curmudgeon named Frank, a former jewel thief who gets his groove back with an assist from the robot his children buy him as a caretaker.

Official Website

Seven Psychopaths
The star (Colin Farrell) and director (Martin McDonagh) of In Bruges re-team for this film about gangsters, dogs, and psychopaths, where a screenwriter gets caught up in a friend’s plot to kidnap a dog. The eccentric cast includes Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken, Abbie Cornish, Tom Waits, and Kevin Corrigan.

Spaceless
The story of an assassin who wakes up inside a spacesuit tumbling helplessly through space, with a computer designed to keep him company until his air runs out. He must try to solve the mystery of his death, which began when he broke into an orbiting space station to carry out a hit. But the man soon begins to question his reality, unsure if he is succumbing to madness or in an artificially created environment. Directed by Cary Fukunaga. Current status of this one is unknown; no actors have been announced or production started, so it very well could slip into 2013.

Under the Skin
Jonathan Glazer, the director of Sexy Beast, heads into science fiction, taking a premise that could’ve come right out of the 70s and turning it on its head. Scarlett Johansson stars as a voraciously sexy alien in human form who preys on human men. The twist comes when she, over time, is fascinated and changed by the complexity of human beings. Her alien resolve weakening, she winds up as a kind of defender of mankind, standing against her own kind.

V/H/S
A horror anthology with segments directed by six different directors. Involves a group of Jackass-style idiots turned criminals who are hired to retrieve a VHS tape from a rundown house in the middle of nowhere. There, they find huge stacks of video cassettes that must be sorted through to find the right one. But the tapes hold a series of horrifying videos. One particularly gruesome sequence caused a man to feint at an early screening.

11 Superhero Movies That Never Escaped Development Hell

Robin Parrish — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 19:31:53 +0000

With all of the great superhero movies that there have been, there’ve been quite a few stinkers as well. And then there have been some that never made it before cameras — both promising sounding scripts and some that were so very, very bad. Here are 11 superhero films that might have been.

Batman Triumphant

A fan poster for 'Batman Triumphant'

This was a proposed sequel to the godawful Batman & Robin, with George Cooney and Chris O’Donnell returning in the lead roles. The story pitted Bats against Scarecrow and Man-Bat in what director Joel Schumacher (who directed the prior two films) wanted to be a return to the darker portrayal of the title character, rather than the goofy, technicolor kiddie flicks that the series had fallen into. But when Batman & Robin failed to perform at the box office (not to mention with critics and fans), Batman Triumphant was scrapped in favor of a series reboot — a move that gave us the triumphant Christopher Nolan films. So it sort of lived up to its name.

Batman vs. Superman

Batman vs. Superman fan art

Director Wolfgang Petersen (Air Force One, The Perfect Storm) came very close to making this one. It introduced a retired, haunted Bruce Wayne and a divorced Clark Kent who start off as friends. There’s a wedding in the story, where Bruce ties the knot to one Elizabeth Miller, and Clark — who has rekindled his high school romance with Lana Lang — is his best man. Things go south when Elizabeth is murdered by the Joker while the happy couple are on their honeymoon, sending Bruce back into the Bat-tights. Lex Luthor is also involved in some way, perhaps in an alliance with the Joker. Presumably, as the title suggests, the two heroes would at some point in the movie come to blows against one another, though I’m sure it all turned to hugs and puppies by the end. [Image source.]

Batman: Year One

Costume concept from 'Batman: Year One'

A collaboration between director Darren Aronofsky and writer Frank Miller, this was conceived as a complete reboot of the Batman film series after the disappointment that was Batman & Robin — but before Christopher Nolan was involved. Aronofsky and Miller’s script is described as a 70s period piece where they “threw out absolutely everything you know about Batman” and started over from scratch. Instead of a billionaire, Bruce Wayne is a street-dwelling orphan after his parents are killed, growing up into “a borderline psychotic who begins taking violent vengeance on street thugs.” And instead of using high-tech gadgets, this street-level Batman uses whatever junk he can get his hands on. His Batcave is an abandoned subway station, and his Batmobile is a Lincoln Continental with some added hardware. The idea of a “year one” take on Batman would carry on to the subsequent Batman Begins by Christopher Nolan, but no story elements from Aronofsky and Miller’s story would be used.

Justice League

Justice League fan art

George Miller wanted to make this film, which was the start of a proposed film trilogy, with a young cast of 20-somethings in the starring roles of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, and others. The script by Kieran and Michelle Mulroney has secret files belonging to Batman stolen by a supervillain team-up — files that describe the weaknesses of each member of the Justice League, in case of worst-case scenario where Bruce might be forced to take them down. OMACs and Brother Eye are involved, Barry Allen is murdered with Wally West taking up The Flash mantle, and there’s a big twist at the end revealing Darkseid as setup for a sequel. At first, the movie was going to be set in the same universe as Batman Begins and Superman Returns, but this was scrapped pretty early in favor of a separate continuity. [Image source.]

Spider-Man (James Cameron)

Storyboard from James Cameron's 'Spider-Man'

Cameron’s take on the web-head was similar to Sam Raimi’s first movie in broad strokes, but Cameron’s outline/script (which you can read for yourself online, or a version with storyboards here) was a darker, more nuanced origin story for Peter Parker. Peter is a repressed bully target who explodes with rage when given the opportunity, beating Flash to a bloody pulp and swinging across New York rooftops as a cathartic sort of therapy. His enemies include a new version of Sandman, who works as a sort of “mob enforcer” for Electro, a wealthy entrepreneur whose electrical powers could alter digital records, access databases, and more, and who tries to turn Peter into a fellow villain. J. Jonah Jameson owns a local TV station instead of a newspaper. Spidey’s web shooters are organic (which is where Raimi got the idea from), but manifest in a sticky wet dream one night in bed. Where Raimi’s film was candy-colored and maintained a plucky optimism, Cameron’s story is set in a world of moral greys, where doing the right thing often causes as many problems as it solves. Peter’s journey to becoming a hero is a longer one, with more mistakes along the way. He swears frequently and even has costumed sex with Mary Jane in a steamy scene atop the Brooklyn Bridge. It’s kind of hard to imagine this film in the wake of Sam Raimi’s successful trilogy, but don’t ever underestimate Cameron’s midas touch at the box office. It was an opportunity lost due to legal battles between various studios who believed they had the rights to make a Spider-Man movie. But in my opinion, despite a few odd choices, it’s ultimately a cool story, and James Cameron + Spider-Man would have made an unstoppable box office dynamic duo.

Spider-Man 4

A fan-made poster for 'Spider-Man 4'

Even though most fans were disappointed with Spider-Man 3, it was an enormous box office success, and Sony greenlit Spider-Man 4 not long after 3‘s release. Raimi wanted the villain this time out to be the Lizard, while the studio wanted John Malkovich as Vulture. Tobey Maguire and Kirstin Dunst were set to reprise their roles as well, and development was in full swing when Raimi backed out, citing creative differences with the studio. Marc Webb was brought in to restart the franchise anew, and he chose Andrew Garfield as his Spider-Man. We’ll see what they come up with next Summer.

Super Max

Green Arrow was the main character in 'Super Max'

A hot script by David Goyer & Justin Marks was the talk of Hollywood a few years ago. In it, Green Arrow has been incarcerated for a crime he didn’t commit, in an extremely elaborate, high-tech prison made to de-power superpowered criminals and hold them indefinitely. It was described as a big, complex heist film with lots of supervillains from DC Comics — and a superhero or two as well (in addition to Green Arrow). No Black Canary, but roles were confirmed for Riddler, Joker, and Lex Luthor. There’s no reason this one might not one day see the light of day, but nobody’s in any hurry.

Superman: Flyby

Costume concept for JJ Abrams' 'Superman: Flyby'

J.J. Abrams’ wildly bold reimagining of the Superman story is — not unlike Zack Snyder’s upcoming Man of Steel — a total reboot that leaves behind all past continuity and takes some major steps away from the comic book mythology. This script suffered from a now legendary leak to Aint It Cool News, where Abrams’ reinvention of the mythos was dragged through the mud and generated an enormous negative reaction from readers. Abrams’ screenplay is an origin story with the usual familiar elements. It’s the differences that rankled fans’ sensibilities, such as Lex Luthor being a government agent obsessed with UFOs who’s later revealed to be a Kryptonian himself, and a lot of “kung fu” style mid-air fights between Supes and a quartet of criminal Kryptonians. The story’s epic battle scenes had these super-beings throwing each other into buildings and creating maximum destruction through Metropolis. It was an undeniably geeky script, filled with loads of eye candy, and despite those early knee-jerk reactions from fans worried about an “unknown” (which Abrams was at the time) retooling their beloved mythology, had Abrams’ script been used, and he been allowed to direct it himself… Frankly, that’s something I’d like to see. Abrams is a fantastic storyteller and always has his finger on the pulse of what makes for awesomely cool storytelling. This was was intended as Part One of a new trilogy of films, but it was thrown out when Bryan Singer came onboard to direct.

Superman Lives

Concept art from Tim Burton's 'Superman Lives'

This one went through such a sordid series of drafts and directors, it’s hard to say how it may have turned out. The consensus seems to be that Tim Burton’s new take on the mythos (starring, of all people, Nicolas Cage) was largely based on a written-by-committee script that passed through the hands of Kevin Smith, Wesley Strick (Cape Fear, The Glass House), Dan Gilroy (The Fall, Real Steel), William Wisher Jr., and more. The story evolved through all these iterations but the common elements seemed to be Superman’s fight against Doomsday from the comic books’ “Death of Superman” storyline, which would be followed by Superman’s resurrection in a de-powered form. He would be fitted with ridiculous Kryptonian armor that could mimic his usual powers, until those powers eventually came back on their own. The movie spent a lot of pre-production money on ultimately nothing, and left several Hollywood careers in its wake, but we’re all better off with it never having gone before cameras. Crisis averted.

Wonder Woman

Costume concepts from Joss Whedon's 'Wonder Woman'

Joss Whedon, at one time seen as the perfect choice for building a female superhero (because he’d already done it several times) was going to make this movie, but Warner Bros. had no idea what angle they wanted to take with the character. Whedon tried more than one approach, script-wise, but they refused to approve anything he came up with despite providing him with zero direction. It ultimately fell apart, costing Whedon a two-year “waste of time.”

X-Men Origins: Magneto

A poster from 'X-Men: First Class' highlighting Magneto's tragic past

A Sheldon Turner script was planned for David Goyer to direct. The script was set from 1939 to 1955, and it follows Erik Lehnsherr trying to survive in Auschwitz where he meets young Charles Xavier, an American soldier who helps liberate the camp. While Xavier tries to befriend him, Erik has vengeance in his heart for the Nazis who tortured him, a difference in worldview which ultimately comes between the two young men. The film was delayed by the Writers Guild strike, and eventually replaced with X-Men: First Class, which retained some elements of the Xavier/Magneto friendship-cum-rivalry story.

Lebowski Ipsum Generator [Might Be NSFW]

Noemi Twigg — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 12:55:17 +0000

Lebowski Ipsum

It’s the end of the week, but it doesn’t mean that it is the end of the line for Lorem Ipsum generators that are not the run-of-the-mill kind. Do you remember the Lorem Ipsum Generator for Hipsters? That post also included a bonus: the Bacon Ipsum Generator.

Earlier today, I found myself playing with a different kind of Lorem Ipsum Generator. Called the Lebowski Ipsum Generator, it has all sorts of references to the 1998 comedy movie starring Jeff Bridges. I guess it’s time for another confession: I only got to see the movie very recently. And I didn’t even pay that much attention as I was working. After playing around with the Lebowski Ipsum Generator, though, I think that I shall have to watch the movie with full attention this time.

To get your filler text, you first need to specify how many paragraphs you want to generate. You can then choose to generate the text immediately or to tweak your settings. The former is obviously quick and easy, but the fun lies in the second option: “Lebowski-fy the hell out of it!” When you click that button, you’ll get to choose between text that is NSFW or “squeaky clean”, for when you are doing something for a client who may not appreciate language that will make your grandma wash your mouth with soap.

NSFW or Clean

And because I was just playing and not doing something for a prim and proper client, I did not click the NSFW button. More choices were then given. Choices that simply reinforce the need to watch the movie again.

White Russian

One thing is for sure – I do remember how that guy loved his White Russian. Just thinking about it makes me want a drink right now. This is the last step.

Pull the Trigger

So here’s my 5-paragraph Lebowski Ipsum:

Lebowski ipsum lOGJAMMIN’. Mein nommen iss Karl. Is hard to verk in zese clozes. I don’t like you sucking around bothering our citizens, Lebowski. I spent most of my time occupying various, um, administration buildings, smoking thai-stick, breaking into the ROTC and bowling. And Hill 364. These young men gave their lives. And Donny too. Donny who… who loved bowling. Okay. Vee take ze money you haf on you und vee call it eefen.

Does the Pope shit in the woods? What in God’s holy name are you blathering about? I see you rolled your way into the semis. Dios mio, man. Seamus and me, we’re gonna fuck you up. Wal, I lost m’chain of thought here. But—aw hell, I done innerduced him enough. A dick, man! And let me tell you something: I dig your work. Playing one side against the other —in bed with everybody— fabulous stuff, man.

Mind if I smoke a jay? When he moved down to Venice he had to go door-to-door to tell everyone he’s a pederast. Our basic freedoms. I don’t see any connection to Vietnam, Walter. People forget that the brain is the biggest erogenous zone. Yeah man. Well, you know, the Dude abides. Hello, Pilar? My name is Walter Sobchak, we spoke on the phone, this is my associate Jeffrey Lebowski.

Ja, und maybe vee stamp on it und skvush it, Lebowski! Vee belief in nossing, Lebowski! Walter, come off it. You’re not even fucking Jewish. You’re fucking Polish Catholic. Ja, vee could really do it, Lebowski. Mr. Lebowski asked me to repeat that: Her life is in your hands. Hardly Dude, a new ‘vette? The kid’s still got, oh, 96 to 97 thousand, depending on the options. What do you mean “brought it bowling”? I didn’t rent it shoes. I’m not buying it a fucking beer. He’s not gonna take your fucking turn, Dude.

Near the In-and-Out Burger. I did not watch my buddies die face down in the mud so that this fucking strumpet. Hey, man, if my fucking ex-wife asked me to take care of her fucking dog while she and her boyfriend went to Honolulu, I’d tell her to go fuck herself. A MILLION BUCKS FROM FUCKING NEEDY LITTLE URBAN ACHIEVERS! YOU ARE SCUM, MAN! They call Los Angeles the City of Angels. I didn’t find it to be that exactly, but I’ll allow as there are some nice folks there. ‘Course, I can’t say I seen London, and I never been to France, and I ain’t never seen no queen in her damn undies as the fella says. But I’ll tell you what, after seeing Los Angeles and thisahere story I’m about to unfold —wal, I guess I seen somethin’ ever’ bit as stupefyin’ as ya’d see in any a those other places, and in English too, so I can die with a smile on my face without feelin’ like the good Lord gypped me.

The next time you need to generate text, you know where to go: Lebowski Ipsum Generator.

Awesome Fan-made Voltron Short Film

Noemi Twigg — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:13:20 +0000

Voltron The End

For those who grew up watching Voltron, the prospect of a new Voltron movie is something that gets them going. Indeed, news about the new movie has been circulating for the better part of this year. While the new Voltron movie has been confirmed, nothing specific has been said about it. You know, like the important details such as the release date!

I guess some fans are getting impatient, and they are looking for ways to make themselves useful while waiting. If this fan-made Voltron video is anything to go by, then fans ought to be given a role in making the new film!

Called Voltron: The End, this short film was directed by Alex Albrecht, and it has already gotten the attention of Voltron fans left and right. After watching the short film, one easily understands why. Even for someone who is not such a big Voltron fan, this short film got my interest.

There is no action in the film, but what you see is Lance, the guy who controls Red Lion. He seems to have survived a battle and is hurt. He communicates with the system, which is basically what happens in the film’s entirety. The interesting thing is how he realizes that he is the only one left of the team. Yup, unthinkable as it is, it seems that Voltron has failed.

I’ll let the film do the talking. It is very, very impressive.

I don’t know about you, but if the new Voltron movie is going to be based on this and have the same feel, I have no doubt that I will make a sacrifice, go out of the house and see the movie.

New ‘Hunger Games’ Site Assigns You To a District

Robin Parrish — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 23:58:01 +0000

I’ll come right out and admit it: I’m hopelessly obsessed with The Hunger Games. I started reading Suzanne Collins’ masterful trilogy this year, and found myself unable to stop. Yeah, there’s a love triangle, but it’s the anti-Twilight. Because these teenagers don’t have time for long, emo talks about their feelings. They’re too busy being forced to kill each other for sport.

Hunger Games is set in the futuristic, post-apocalyptic world of Panem, an area situated on what used to be North America, and divided into 12 Districts. The Districts are subservient to a totalitarian Capitol that forces them to send two “Tributes” — a male and female teenager — into these brutal, televised games once a year, as a reminder of a rebellion long ago that went bad.

thecapitol.pn website

You probably already know that a movie version of The Hunger Games is currently being filmed (right here in my home state of North Carolina!), with Jennifer Lawrence in the lead role and Gary Ross (Pleasantville, Seabiscuit) directing. A teaser trailer for the movie just debuted at the Video Music Awards on MTV over the weekend, but didn’t really show much. Lionsgate, which is funding the future blockbuster, has launched a viral campaign for the film at thecapitol.pn, and it’s pretty darn cool.

It’s a website as created by the Capitol as a place for Panem residents to get information. Fans of the books can go there and login using Twitter or Facebook, and be assigned a District. (Each District is home to a different industry — like textiles, electronics, or mining.) The more people that login to your assigned District, the sooner you will all receive your District passes. It’s not clear what these passes will get you, though it seems likely it will be deeper access to the Capitol website. (I got assigned to District 3 — Electronics — which I suppose is fitting.)

Can’t wait to see what else Lionsgate comes up with to promote the new movie!

7 Movies That Should’ve Been Franchises

Robin Parrish — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 16:13:47 +0000

With all of the recycled junk that Hollywood throws at us, we’re certainly not left wanting for sequels. But where so many movies given the franchise treatment have resulted in unwatchable dreck, there are some terrific movies that just beg for sequels — cries that no one has answered.

1) The Incredibles

The Incredibles

Pixar’s given us two sequels to Toy Story and one for Cars, but when-oh-when are we ever going to get The Incredibles 2? Director Brad Bird’s confident debut with the animation studio was a tour de force of wish-fulfillment fantasy, suburban life metaphor, action, and heart. It introduced us to a whole new universe of superheroes, which was dominated by the Parr family. When superpowers are outlawed, Bob, Helen, and their three kids were forced to ignore their mission and live out their lives in mediocrity. Rediscovering their passion made for a potent lesson in the importance of purpose in our lives. Bird never had a sequel planned while crafting The Incredibles, though he’s said on multiple occasions that he’s not opposed to another installment if the right story were to come along. On the other hand, Bird recently made the jump to live-action films with the upcoming Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, an ambition he’s held for a long time. So it’s doubtful we’ll see more animation from him anytime soon.

2) Unbreakable

Unbreakable

Say what you will about M. Night Shyamalan‘s most recent work (and there’s plenty to say), but The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs were virtuoso works of art. The way he conveyed so much without words, through the silence and the faintest of his actors’ facial expressions… The man was brilliant. The Sixth Sense may have gotten all of the accolades (it was nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director), but geeks hail Unbreakable as his high water mark. Directed with bravado, using lots of long takes and experimenting with the camera, Unbreakable served as the origin story for a new kind of realistic superhero (and villain), with Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson in a pair of haunting, yin-yang roles. Shyamalan said in interviews at the time that he planned it as the first part of a trilogy. Shame we’ll never see the rest of the story — it was off to such a compelling start.

3) Serenity

Serenity

Firefly fans got some closure from their favorite TV series thanks to this big-screen outing, but the universe and characters are ripe with potential for more. Creator/writer/director Joss Whedon has moved on to Marvel’s highly anticipated The Avengers, while the Fireflyverse lives on in comic books and graphic novels, and the nine main actors have moved on to other projects.

4) True Lies

True Lies

James Cameron’s take on the spy genre was unapologetically outrageous, but highly watchable. The film’s three stars — Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Tom Arnold — have said repeatedly that they’re game for a sequel. But Cameron’s answer is that public sentiments towards “stylized adventures featuring goofy terrorist bad guys” have cooled since 9/11. It sucks for True Lies fans that he’s right.

5) Independence Day

Independence Day

Back in ’96, ID4 was just about the coolest, big-scale FX-fest to come along since Star Wars. The aliens and their huge ships were instantly memorable, which is a money-making formula that Hollywood rarely lets slip away. Unfortunately, the movie hasn’t held up over the last 15 — probably because director Roland Emmerich went off and made the same movie three more times, giving birth to the term “disaster porn” – but a sequel that delves deeper into the pathos of survivors-turned-freedom fighters (see: Falling Skies) and the culture of those locust-like aliens could have been interesting. Why not have the remnants of humanity use all that crashed alien tech to take the fight back to the aliens’ home world? Or maybe go team up with another, friendlier alien culture that’s under siege by ID4‘s bad guys?

6) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The movie weaved in and out of several of the books in the series, but left loads of material for a sequel. Its lukewarm reaction at the box office made it an underrated gem; it also starred Martin Freeman before he became the new hotness (these days he’s starring as John Watson on TV’s Sherlock and the title role in some flick you may have heard of called The Hobbit). I’d take another ride on the Heart of Gold anytime.

7) Reign of Fire

Reign of Fire

It’s a preposterous premise — intelligent dragons awakened beneath the earth rise to the surface and burn most of it to a crisp — but as with all stories, it’s the execution that makes or breaks it. And Reign of Fire, which treated dragons as vicious, terrifying, carnivorous animals without a hint of magic, worked. (Seriously — these dragons make Jurassic Park‘s dinosaurs look like fluffy bunnies.) Filmmaker Rob Bowman (The X-Files) treats his subject matter with dark reverence, depicting a group of survivors living in an old castle, carefully eking out a gritty existence while doing their best to hide from the deadly flying, fire-breathing beasts, which have risen to become the dominant species on the planet. Helping Bowman in his cause: a solid cast that includes a pre-Batman Christian Bale, a pre-300 Gerard Butler, and a crazy-eyed performance by a bald, cigar-chomping Matthew McConaughey. The movie ties up its loose ends satisfactorily, but it’s an awfully big world, and there could have been more stories to mine.

So what one-off movies would you add to this list?

13 Film Franchises That Must Die

Robin Parrish — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 12:00:57 +0000

Hollywood loves sequels. It loves them so much that they often get made instead of… you know, original stories. Here are 13 film franchises that have long outlived their usefulness — but refuse to go away.

All it would take is one really great movie to prove me wrong on any of these. Look at Fast & Furious 5; that series had run entirely out of steam, but this latest movie gave a new purpose to the old formula and won over audiences who were surprised that it was actually pretty good.

On the flip side, you’ve got dreck like Die Another Day, which proved that James Bond needed to die. But its producers opted for a total reboot instead, introducing Daniel Craig as a younger Bond at the start of his career, which resulted in one of the best Bond movies ever made — Casino Royale — and made Craig a household name.

One last thing… I’m not going near Twilight. No way, no how. Frankly, I’m scared of those Team Edward people. And you should be, too. Besides, its end is already scheduled, anyway.

Final Destination

NEXT: Final Destination 5 – August 12, 2011
It was a one-note idea the first time around. But then, so was Jason, Freddy, Michael Myers, and most of the others. Is there any genre that Hollywood is willing to milk-to-death more than horror? No genre better demonstrates that it’s easier (and lazier) for Hollywood to crank out a sequel than cook up a whole new story.

Spy Kids

NEXT: Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D – August 19, 2011
Robert Rodriguez, we all love your independent filmmaking, buck-the-system spirit. But man oh man, where do I begin? Aside from the fact that all four of these movies have been self-indulgent kiddie tripe, this new one is filled to the brim with stuff so goofy, you’re about to lose every ounce of that indie cred. You’ve got Danny Trejo appearing as a kid-friendly version of his goretastic antihero, Machete. You’ve got this inane “Aroma-Scope” thing, where viewers get a scratch-and-sniff card with their tickets, along with cues during the movie as to when to scratch and activate certain smells. Robert, buddy, I say this as someone who cares… You’re starting to make the Prequel Trilogy look good.

Alvin & the Chipmunks

NEXT: Alvin & the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked – December 16, 2011
Seriously? Another one?

American Pie

NEXT: American Reunion – April 6, 2012
Three big-screen movies. Three direct-to-DVD side stories. One done-to-death plot.

Scary Movie

NEXT: Scary Movie 5 – April 20, 2012
Believe it or not, there was a time when director David Zucker owned the modern parody film. This is the guy that gave us the still-classic Airplane! and The Naked Gun. I don’t know exactly when his work went from charming/silly wit to brainless caricature, but the glory days are long over. These “Scary” movies are so unfunny, they’re offensive to the human intellect. Actually, they’re probably offensive to the intellect of a gnat.

Men in Black

Men In Black

NEXT: Men in Black III – May 25, 2012
MiB3 has a certain fascination factor, particularly with its cast, which includes Emma Thompson, SNL‘s Bill Hader, and Josh Brolin, who’s perfectly cast as a young Agent K. And the time travel elements of the plot sound okay. But rumors coming from the set suggest that star Will Smith and director Barry Sonnenfeld don’t get along (which would explain the ten-year gap between the second and third movies). And the ho-hum, by-the-numbers second film lacked any of the original’s quirky spark. If this is just going to be another forgettable sequel, wouldn’t it be better not to utterly obliterate whatever good will viewers have left for the first one?

Madagascar

NEXT: Madagascar 3 – June 8, 2012
The first one was kinda fun, but the second one lost sight of everything that made the first movie appealing, changing the characters in weird and unnecessary ways. Frankly, Nickelodeon’s Penguins of Madagascar is mining much funnier territory, and since the penguins were the best part of the movies anyway, making more movies is pointless.

Ice Age

NEXT: Ice Age: Continental Drift – July 13, 2012
Yet another animated film franchise where the supporting cast (namely, Scrat the squirrel) is funnier than the main characters. Every time a new one comes out, we’re all thinking the same thing: “Why do they keep making those?”

G.I. Joe

NEXT: G.I. Joe: Cobra Strikes – August 10, 2012
The first movie played like a kid’s caffeine-and-sugar action fantasy — and not in a good way — despite its decent cast. The second one is ditching most of the original’s cast and characters, which screams “direct to video.” And it’s being directed by the guy that did the freaking Justin Bieber movie. Come on!

Resident Evil

NEXT: Resident Evil: Retribution – September 14, 2012
These movies exist just to give Milla Jovovich a chance to go all femme fatale. Doesn’t she already do that in every other movie she’s in? And aside from the zombie thing, what do these movies have to do with the video game they’re (supposedly) based on?

Indiana Jones

NEXT: rumors persist that the golden trio — George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, & Harrison Ford — would like to do one more
Harrison Ford is pushing 70, but he’s still got it. I’d go see him in another GOOD Indiana Jones movie. But Kingdom of the Crystal Skull proved that George Lucas won’t let another really good Indy movie happen. He and Spielberg had an utterly brilliant script by Frank Darabont, but Lucas shot it down. Why? Because of the simple fact we all know — and it pains me as a fan to say it: Lucas simply doesn’t know what makes for a good story anymore.

Jurassic Park

NEXT: a screenwriter has been hired for a potential Jurassic Park 4
The third film was unwatchable. The second film had some moments of suspenseful fun (the cracking glass scene is classic Spielberg), yet it drained all of the awe and majesty out of seeing dinosaurs on the big screen. The first film’s magic has never been replicated, but even it wasn’t as good as the book. Please just let it go, Steven. Do it for us.

Pirates of the Caribbean

NEXT: The 4th movie has made more than $1 billion worldwide, meaning that #5 is an absolute certainty
The first movie showed us characters and imagery we’d never seen on film before, and it did it with panache and crackling dialogue. Disney has tried three times now to recapture the bristling originality and magic of that first movie, but they’ve failed every time. Enough already.

16 Time Machines

Robin Parrish — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 01:15:33 +0000

Writing a time travel story is easy. Anybody can do it. Just think up a scenario where someone goes backwards or forwards in time, and interacts with the events there.

The tricky part is in making the time machine believable. Whether by science or magic, here are sixteen of the most memorably awesome (and memorably lame) time machines given to us by film and television.

The Box

Primer

Primer
2004
Primer‘s time machine was little more than a big cardboard box hooked up to some quantum mechanics techno-wizardry. I hear that the theoretical principles depicted in Primer are built on solid scientific footing, though it was way over my head. It made for a remarkably realistic means of moving through time, though: the notion that you simply sit inside this box for an extended period of time while negatively-charged ions flood the box (or something like that), after which you exit the box and find that you’ve moved backwards in time while the rest of the world kept moving forwards. Primer was a low-budget indie movie that came out of nowhere to surprise a lot of people with its intelligence. “The Box,” as the movie’s time machine was called, was as low-tech as you could get, just like the movie it appeared in. But it worked.
[Image source.]

Chronosphere

Seven Days

Seven Days
1998 – 2000
Across three seasons and 66 episodes on UPN, Seven Days told the story of a secret NSA team that had the ability to send a man back in time up to seven days to avert any disaster. The giant Chronosphere, a very NASA-like device in which main character Frank Parker rode in a space suit, was based on alien technology recovered from the crash at Roswell.
[Image source.]

DeLorean

Back to the Future

Back to the Future
1985
Possibly the most iconic time machine from modern film, and certainly the coolest. Doc Brown’s DeLorean was powered by the Flux Capacitor, which was essentially a MacGuffin — an all-important story device that’s never explained. And nobody in the audience cared. The movie was so well made, providing a perfect mix of comedy, thrills, and science fiction, that we just went with it. The two sequels got mixed reviews (the second was a major disappointment, though the third wasn’t bad), but the first movie is still near and dear to the hearts of geeks everywhere. Ready to hit 88 miles per hour, and generate 1.21 jigawatts of electricity? Then hop in the time machine with the most “style,” and hit the road. Oh, wait… Where we’re going, we don’t need “roads!”
[Image source.]

Frozen Wheel

Lost

Lost
2004 – 2010
An ancient wooden wheel that somehow tapped directly into the powerful electromagnetic energy at the core of the island, the Frozen Wheel was a very utilitarian device that generated wildly unpredictable results. Its time-traveling process was actually a side effect of two other operations it activated: moving the island through space and time, and serving as an “Exit” for whoever turned the wheel, essentially teleporting them to an exact spot on the other side of the world, in Tunisia. Like everything else about Lost, it was something without a definitive, scientific (or otherwise) explanation, requiring that you just go with it.
[Image source.]

The Great Machine

Babylon 5

Babylon 5
1993 – 1998
During the two-part, Season 3 episode, “War Without End,” J. Michael Straczynski put his distinctive stamp on the time travel concept, vowing to use it just once during Babylon 5‘s run. The science involved a supercomputer called the “Great Machine,” built by an ancient, long-vanished civilization (likely a member of the “First Ones”). The Great Machine resided on the planet that the titular space station orbited. Its original purpose was unknown, but it featured hardcore artillery, all sorts of advanced technology, and the ability to create time vortexes big enough for an entire space station (like Babylon 4, above) to pass through. The true scope of the Great Machine was never fully explained.
[Image source.]

Guardian of Forever

Star Trek

Star Trek
1966 – 1969
The portal from the classic Star Trek episode “The City On the Edge of Forever” wasn’t what I’d call technology. It was more of a god-like entity, sentient and self-aware, yet aloof from the concerns of mortal beings. Its true purpose was never revealed, and frustratingly, no episode of any of the many spin-offs or films has ever revisited the Guardian, aside from the animated series. (It was hardly Star Trek‘s only time machine, though it was probably the most memorable; plenty of space vessels, including the Enterprise itself, have traveled through time quite often throughout the decades of Star Trek lore.) The Guardian has been featured in numerous Star Trek novels over the years, but none of those are considered canon. Its origins and true purpose remain a mystery.
[Image source.]

Omni

Voyagers!

Voyagers!
1982 – 1983
Say what you will about the cheesy kids TV show, something about the handheld stopwatch-like Omni device just made sense. What could be better than a timepiece to serve as a visual cue for time travel? This nifty trinket was the tool of Voyagers, a sort of time-travelling police force who were sent in to help history stay on track when some important event threatened to go awry, such as Edison failing to invent the light bulb. No explanation was ever given for why these pivotal events sometimes didn’t happen as they should — or how the Omni devices worked — but whenever a Voyager got a red light in the upper left corner of their Omni, it meant they had to stop and set things right before they could move on. Success was indicated by a green light, the time travel controls were the dials on the outer perimeter, and the globe in the center determined the physical location where they would stop in time. Simple and elegant. I remember wanting one as a kid.

Quantum Accelerator

Quantum Leap

Quantum Leap
1989-1993
A lot of fans are still bitter that Dr. Sam Beckett never made it home. After getting lost in time due to an experiment that went way wrong, Sam found himself “leaping” from time to time and into person after person, so that he could “put right what once went wrong.” Quantum Leap introduced a supernatural/spiritual element into its quantum physics-based science, suggesting that “God, time, fate, or whatever” took control of the Quantum Accelerator, controlling Sam’s leaps into the lives of those who needed him most throughout time. His aim throughout the series was to help enough people that he might someday earn his passage back home, but the cryptic final episode stated that he never did. Poor guy.
[Image source.]

The Sands of Time

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
2010
One of the most esoteric entries on this list, the Sands of Time take the notion of time travel into the realm of the mystical. Still, there is a button on the dagger that activates the Sands, so I’m calling it a machine, darn it. Disney was hoping to launch another Pirates of the Caribbean-sized franchise with Prince of Persia, but the audience just didn’t show up. And those that did (SPOILER ALERT) hated the take-it-all-back-like-none-of-it-ever-happened ending. Yours truly included. The video game was better.
[Image source.]

TARDIS

Doctor Who

Doctor Who
1963 – Present
Easily the favorite of many a reader who’s perusing this list, the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space) is the most long-lasting time machine ever dreamed up in the annals of fiction. After 48 years, it’s still in use, having logged more screen time than any other time machine ever, and has survived eleven incarnations of the Doctor (and counting). It gets extra points for being bigger on the inside.
[Image source.]

Telephone Booth

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
1989
Borrowing liberally from the last entry in this list in its design, the phone booth used by the excellent Ted “Theodore” Logan and Bill S. Preston, Esquire bounced them around through time via technology on loan from their friend-from-the-future, Rufus. It also later transported them to Heaven, Hell, and some other stops in between in a second, far less memorable film. [Image source.]

Time Displacement Equipment

Terminator

The Terminator
1984
We never actually got to see the technology behind the time travel depicted in the Terminator films. (The Sarah Connor Chronicles TV show gave us a look at it, but that show’s canon is wide open to debate.) All we really saw was the end result: a white hot sphere of energy that would pop into existence, blowing up like a bubble, and then dissipating to reveal the traveller inside. Terminator‘s time travel always made sense somehow, and it was a brilliant creation on the part of James Cameron. You didn’t need to understand the technology to see the logic behind clothes not surviving the trip; it just made sense somehow that a violent technology that could punch a hole through time would be designed so that only organic flesh could make it through.
[Image source.]

The Time Machine

: The Time Machine

The Time Machine
1960
One of the greatest time machines of all time was this sleigh-type vehicle that was used in the movie based on H.G. Wells’ classic novel. The science explaining how it worked was never provided, though we do know it was based on real science and not fantasy. The operator moved a lever forward or backward to progress through time, and in the movie, the main character went as far as 800,000 years into the future, where he learned that humans had evolved into two separate races that were at war with one another. Another film by the same name was released in 2002 and directed by Wells’ own great-grandson, Simon. It was billed as a remake, using a similar sleigh-type vehicle, though the director reportedly saw it as more of a sequel.
[Image source.]

Time Sled

TimeCop

TimeCop
1994
For a Jean Claude van Damme movie, TimeCop had decent effects for the time, and a story that almost made sense. The thing that always left me scratching my head about TimeCop is its time machine. It was this rocket-sled-on-rails thing that you ride inside of that goes supercrazyfast to shoot you through time. Or something. So if you have to sit down, strap in, and seal the cockpit before the thing blasts you through time, why was the passenger’s arrival on the other side depicted as leisurely strolling through a time portal? At what point exactly did they stand up and start walking? And why didn’t the vehicle go with them? There was no Time Sled on the other side when they arrived, yet somehow the whole process happened exactly in reverse when travelers returned. It’s got to be one of the least logical time machines ever invented.
[Image source.]

Time Tunnel

The Time Tunnel

The Time Tunnel
1966 – 1967
Two scientists get lost in time, venturing from one historical even to another, week after week. The show itself was riddled with plot holes, but its time machine put such an indelible stamp on 60s television that it was later lampooned in the second Austin Powers film.
[Image source.]

Time Turner

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
2004
Hermione Granger’s Time Turner was an ingenious handheld gizmo that the studious young witch was allowed to use in order to be in more than one class at one time. It was clasped to a chain that she wore around her neck — a chain that was conveniently long enough to let Harry hitch a time ride late in Prisoner of Azkaban. As for how it worked… It was magic, of course. No further explanation required.
[Image source.]

$50 for Unlimited Movies at the Theater?

Robin Parrish — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 00:49:46 +0000

It’s strange and serendipitous that I stumbled across this news the day after I posted about those weird new moving seats that some theaters are trying out. Or maybe I’m subconsciously searching for this stuff just because I find it interesting. Either way, this is a good one:

Would you be willing to spend $50 a month for all-you-can-watch movies at the theater? A new startup hopes so.

It’s called MoviePass, and the idea is as simple as that: a single pass to watch all the movies you want. Your $50 will get you a month’s subscription to unlimited movies.

That’s actually a great deal when you consider that the average movie ticket price in America is around $8, which means that bought individually, $50 would normally get you entrance to just 6 movies. By contrast, if you saw one movie every day over a 30-day month, at $8 a pop you’d spend a grand total of $240.

Suddenly $50 sounds like a steal, eh?

It’s not a free-for-all, though. There are some restrictions. You can’t go to more than one movie per day. And you can only see a movie one time — so no multiple viewings of those summer blockbusters, unless you pay separately for your second go ’round. You have to wonder if you could really go to a different movie every single night of the month, though. Most weekends, somewhere between 3 and 5 new movies are released; even at 5 new movies times four weeks in a month, that’s a lot less than would be required in order to see “a new movie every day of the month.”

MoviePass says the idea is to bring a similar service as Netflix to the movie theater. The company is conducting a beta trial in the San Francisco area in July (with the intent of going nationwide in the Fall), using a web app in conjunction with online ticketing sites like MovieTickets. Then you just head down to the theater at show time and pick up your tickets using a redemption code provided by the web app. Tickets can only be purchased day-of-show.

So what do you think? Would you sign up?

Ready for a Theater Seat that Moves?

Robin Parrish — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 02:00:25 +0000

Call me old fashioned, but I just want to sit and watch a movie. 3D is nifty when it’s used properly — aka, when the on-screen characters don’t throw stuff at you — but that’s where I draw the line.

If “motion seating” company D-Box gets its way, the next big thing in movie theaters will be seats that lift, pitch, roll, and heave you around like a ragdoll.

D-Box motion seating for theaters

As if it’s not exorbitant enough to spend something like $10 extra for 3D movies, now theaters are going to want you to shell out an additional $8 for seats that belong in a flight simulator. At least there’s a control dial that lets you turn down the intensity of the movement and even switch it off if necessary. But why pay $8 for something you’re not even going to use? I’ll just go to the non-D-Box showing, thanks.

It is interesting how theaters are changing with the times. Like most other entertainment industries, your local cineplex is feeling the crunch of both the economic recession and the rise of the digital age. Movies are so easily acquired (and yes, pirated) online that more and more, people are creating their own home theaters and enjoying the comforts of watching movies without that obnoxious guy kicking the seat behind you, or the kid a few seats down who won’t shut up.

To compensate for this, theaters are coming up with creative new ways of bringing people back to the public movie-watching experience. 3D was of course a big kick in the pants, because it offered something that viewers couldn’t get at home and it gave extra profits per-ticket to the multiplex. This D-Box thing is clearly intended to appeal to the same mindset, though I’m far from convinced that moviegoers will want to be jostled about while watching the latest summer blockbuster. (I mean seriously — how are you supposed to enjoy your popcorn and slushy drink if you’re being tossed around?) It’s currently being used in limited release at theaters near Chicago with screenings of Super 8.

The play "The Merry Wives of Windsor" from the Globe in London is playing on theater screens across America, thanks to Fathom Events.

My wife and I took our 3-year-old son to his first “movie theater movie” today (Cars 2). We didn’t go to the 3D version, just the regular 2D. Didn’t want to freak the little guy out his very first time. While we were there, I noticed ads for another company called Fathom Events, which is using movie theaters to schedule nationwide “events,” which are made up of live broadcasts of everything from concerts and stage plays to business conferences and even church services. It’s an interesting experiment that gives purpose to all those movie screens and the technology they house at times when they might otherwise go unused.

Movie theaters are going to need more creative ideas like these if they are to survive the 21st Century.

But seats that move? Come on. Life is hard enough. If I really wanted to be beaten to a pulp while being entertained, I’d just hire somebody to pistol whip me when Doctor Who is on.

Cinemart: Brilliant Mashups of Art and Cinema

Noemi Twigg — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 12:00:39 +0000

I think that the need to mix two different things has always been part of human nature. The innate curiosity that is within all of us – this is what has led to the popularity of mashups. Whether you think about cartoon characters being placed in another setting or two different movies being put together – the concept behind mashups will always be something interesting. The execution, however, is a totally different story. Sometimes, you have brilliant mashup ideas that don’t exactly impress when put into paper (or digital screen).

In the case of artist Fernando Degrossi, both idea and execution are definitely impressive. He uses the term “cinemart” to refer to his work, which brings together art and cinema. (Although arguably, cinema is art.) Seriously, words will not do his work much justice, so just take a look at some of the most striking – in my opinion at least – mashups. Maybe it’s also because I actually recognize the elements in these three pieces of artwork.

That’s not to say that the others aren’t just as captivating. Here are some more.

I can’t put my finger on it, but there is something different about Degrossi’s mashups compared to what I normally see. Perhaps it’s in the choice of which characters/movies to put together. Perhaps it’s in the choice of words used in some of the artwork. Whatever it is, I keep finding myself looking at these images over and over. How cool would it be to have these displayed on your office walls? Which of these is your top pick?

Five 80s Flicks That Deserve a Cult Following

Robin Parrish — Fri, 27 May 2011 21:30:23 +0000

Fans have long devoted cult-like followings to 80s films like Xanadu, Krull, and The Princess Bride. There are so many classic 80s movies that there can’t help but be a few gems overlooked by fandom.

So if you’re a fan in search of a new hobby, you could reverse phone lookup every phone number that’s ever called you. Or, you could devote your efforts to raising the banner for these well-known films that have never quite developed the level of fandom that they deserve.

1. Scanners (1981)

Telekinesis is at the top of many a superpower wish list, and with Scanners, David Cronenberg provided something of a wish-fulfillment/revenge fantasy with loads of explosive gore for good measure. Even if you’ve never seen it, you’ve probably at least encountered a clip or two of this movie’s more memorable moments through an Internet meme. Add in a little social commentary about the fear of human deformity, and you’ve got all the ingredients of a cult piece in search of a massive fanbase.

2. Heavy Metal (1981)

It may surprise you to hear that Mr. Ghostbusters himself, director Ivan Reitman, produced this ode to the dark, kitschy side of metal/fantasy. Instead of being a single storyline, Heavy Metal is comprised of several episodes that are tied together by “Loc-Nar,” a cosmic apparition, who exercised his influence in each episode. The movie got a sequel in 2000, but it was universally panned. The original maintains a smallish number of cult followers, but it may be time for a fan revival.

3. The Thing (1982)

John Carpenter’s nail-biting classic is getting a prequel-that-might-be-a-remake (it’s not entirely clear) this October, but true devotees of the original are wondering why it’s necessary to taint with a horror film so perfect in its execution. It’s the ultimate “body snatcher”: an alien creature that consumes living things and then takes on their forms — not to mention their intellect. The alien can switch between guises at will, and its library of creatures is truly frightening. The film’s cutting edge visual effects and makeup have held up surprisingly well over time.

4. The Last Dragon (1985)

Corny? Yep. Campy? Heck yeah. Funny? Mm-hmm. The Last Dragon is a tribute to the classic martial arts films of Bruce Lee, but viewers without a sense of humor — not to mention an appreciation for a quirky, unique brand of moviemaking — need not apply.

5. Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)

Most geeks worth their salt already know that this was the first movie to ever utilize a CGI character. The infamous “stained glass window” scene introduced a CGI knight, made up of pieces of glass. The film boasts an impressive pedigree of filmmakers — Chris Columbus wrote it, Barry Levinson directed it, and its producers’ credits include big names like Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall, Henry Winkler (yep, Fonzie), Mark Johnson, and more. A fun romp through the young adult years of Holmes and Watson, the movie features a supernatural villain and that “80s teenager” vibe.

What unsung 1980s movie would you nominate for cult status?

40+ Comic Book Movies Coming Soon

Robin Parrish — Mon, 09 May 2011 21:02:08 +0000

Comic book movies are more popular than ever these days, and here’s a comprehensive list of what’s coming when. Everything known to be in the works is included here, with stuff ranging from just a few days from now, to films that we’re going to have to wait a while for.

Priest

May 2011. Big screen stories set on alternate Earths are a rare breed. This one — based on a Korean comic book — pits Paul Bettany’s “warrior priest” renouncing his vows of peace to wage war against a race of vampires in a desolate wasteland. The trailer looks cool in a Resident Evil sort of way, but far scarier than any vampire are the words “converted to 3D.”

Captain America: The First Avenger

July 2011. Marvel’s second summer tentpole film looks to be more accessible to audiences than a Norse god, and just about everyone seems to have come around on Chris Evans after seeing him in the role. Plus: Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull? Let’s do the happy geek dance! Is it July yet??

Cowboys & Aliens

July 2011. Genre mashups are usually lots of fun, even though this one appears to have very little in common with its source comic, which was a more lighthearted tale. But the cast alone — James Bond + Indiana Jones + the “it” girl from Tron: Legacy — is inspired enough to make this one required viewing.

Green Lantern

June 2011. The trailers look incredible, and Warner Bros. is so confident it’ll be a hit that they’ve already ordered a script for a sequel.

X-Men: First Class

June 2011. Call it Fox’s best chance at redemption among X-Men fans, and an apology for that dreadful third film. Bryan Singer is back in the mix for this prequel (not directing, but producing), and the original intended director of that third movie, Matthew Vaughn, gets a second shot at the franchise with what could be the launch of a new trilogy set in the 70s and 80s.

Conan the Barbarian

August 2011. Even a beloved classic like the original Ah-nuld film isn’t immune to Hollywood’s obsession with remakes. It’s unclear why a new Conan was necessary, though the film is said to hew closer to the hardcore violence and nudity of the source material.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn

December 2011. How awesome is it that Steve Spielberg and Peter Jackson are working on a trilogy together? Now all they have to do is convince the legions of viewers who are unfamiliar with their passion project to go see it. But if anybody can pull it off…

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

February 2012. The first movie wasn’t awful, just disappointing. But hey, Ghost Rider has never pretended to be Shakespeare. The directing team of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor are an… interesting choice. The duo are best known for Crank and Gamer, neither of which inspire confidence. But if they can hit all the right notes — and if Nicolas Cage can actually, you know, move his lips when he talks — Spirit of Vengeance could be fun. Here’s hoping.

The Avengers

May 2012. The superhero movie to end all superhero movies. Iron Man singlehandedly resuscitated Robert Downey, Jr.’s career. The just-released Thor is already proving to be a star-making turn for Chris Hemsworth. And all indications are that Chris Evans’ Captain America is going to be the glorious WWII superhero spectacle that the character deserves. Putting these three together in a single film — along with the Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Nick Fury — is a recipe for one of the greatest geek highs of all time. To top it off, geek god Joss Whedon is writing and directing the thing — and nobody understands character and story like Whedon does. If the corporate suits will leave him alone to work his cinematic genius, The Avengers should be a cinematic superhero triumph.

Men in Black III

May 2012. Agent J travels back in time to save the life of a young Agent K (Josh Brolin, who looks perfect as a young Tommy Lee Jones), or something to that effect; it’s all rather muddy since the movie started filming before the script was complete. Plus, word has it that star Will Smith (who likes to rework scripts to suit his sensibilities) and director Barry Sonnenfeld (the man behind all three MIB films as well as The Addams Family and Get Shorty) are not bestest buddies. The proverbial deck is stacked high against this one.

The Amazing Spider-Man

July 2012. What more can I say than what’s already been said about Marvel’s remarkably-fast series reboot from director Marc Webb (who has just one film credit on his resume: 500 Days of Summer). Say what you will about Spider-Man 3, but those first two Sam Raimi/Tobey Maguire movies nailed the character and his universe, spot-on. This one is taking a slower approach to the wall-crawler’s origin story, with a younger, high school-age Peter Parker, Gwen Stacey as his girlfriend, and the Lizard as his first supervillain. I’m not sold on that ribbed body suit either, but however it all turns out, it has to be better than the musical.

The Dark Knight Rises

July 2012. Probably the most highly-anticipated film of next year. Early buzz over the super-secret script is very strong, but the question remains: can Christopher Nolan pull off a third-and-final Batman movie that tops The Dark Knight? It’s a tall order, but I have faith.

Superman: The Man of Steel

December 2012. Zack Snyder, the man who brought you 300, Watchmen, and Sucker Punch is crafting a Superman film (with producer Christopher Nolan) that restarts the character’s big-screen adventures from scratch. Snyder’s a competent filmmaker, but I’m not convinced he’s the right choice for Supes. Nolan’s involvement gives me greater hope. Henry Cavill looks like a good pick for Clark Kent, and the rest of the cast is rounding out nicely. Amy Adams is the very definition of “plucky,” so I can’t think of a better choice for Lois Lane. [Image source.]

The Goon

In production. David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, The Social Network) is producing this CGI animated film that stars the voice of Clancy Brown as the title character. Production has been very secretive, and the film was originally scheduled for release sometime this year. But it’s unknown if that’s still the case.

Dredd

2012? It’s not often that lesser-known comic book characters who fail on the big screen are given a second chance at success. This one’s being directed by the man who helmed the terrific Vantage Point, and it’s said to be trying for a closer adaptation of the comics than the Sylvester Stallone film managed. Karl Urban plays the title character and Lena Heady is his nemesis. It’s being shot in 3D, and filmed in South Africa.

Iron Man 3

Summer 2013. The last time a trilogy hired a new director for its third film — after two wildly successful movies — was when Brett Ratner took over for Bryan Singer on X-Men: The Last Stand. But Shane Black, creator of Lethal Weapon and writer/director of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, looks like a smart choice.

The Wolverine

Delayed. Losing Darren Aronofsky was a serious blow to what’s said to be a spectacular script covering Logan’s time in Japan. Can any director possibly rescue this movie and create something as haunting and compelling as he could have?

Justice League

2013? We’ve been promised a Justice League movie before, and it never worked out. DC and Warner Bros. are claiming that they’re a lot more serious about this one. But it’s hard to see DC’s plans for a superhero team-up (which will not star Christian Bale or Henry Cavill) as anything but a knee-jerk reaction to Marvel’s The Avengers. DC has some cool characters (see Green Lantern, above), so why are they always playing catch-up to Marvel? How long will DC be the Windows to Marvel’s much cooler Apple? [Image source.]

Deadpool

In development. Reynolds rocked it during his four seconds of screen time in Wolverine, and I don’t see any reason why he can’t carry two superhero franchises. Hal Jordan and Wade Wilson couldn’t be more different, and the fact that Deadpool never takes his mask off nicely helps to solidify Reynolds as the body and voice of Deadpool, while staying the face of Green Lantern.

The Crow

Delayed. The director of 28 Weeks Later is onboard for this reboot, with Bradley Cooper considering the title role. Cooper’s shaping up to be an appealing leading man, but does he have the broody emo needed to pull off a dark avenger like The Crow? Regardless, this one’s stuck in limbo due for the moment to some ongoing legal issues.

Sin City 2

Delayed. It’s unknown when Robert Rodriguez will find the time to film a second installment of Frank Miller’s ultra-noire comic book. All we know right now is that he still plans to get to it at some point.

Runaways

On hold. Marvel Studios was once keen to launch the thoroughly original teen superhero team on the big screen, but it’s been backburnered for a while.

Ant-Man

In development. Edgar Wright (director of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Shaun of the Dead) is taking on mite-sized superhero Ant-Man for his next project. His version will star Jack Black in a comedic take on the Scott Lang incarnation. His script is all but done and expected to go into production soon. [Image source.]

Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall

On indefinite hold. Mark Millar and Matthew Vaughn are keen for a second go ’round (Millar’s already begun publishing his second volume of comics), but have lots of other projects to work through first. It ain’t happening anytime soon.

Nemesis

In development. Matthew Carnahan (brother of Joe) is writing the screenplay for this tale of a supremely wicked Batman-like billionaire-turned-villain. “What if Batman was the Joker?” is the pitch, and while it sounds great on paper, the execution (a terrorist-like villain who always outwits the good guys?) could be very difficult for moviegoers to swallow in today’s political climate.

Wanted 2

On indefinite hold. James McAvoy has stated recently that this movie is very unlikely to ever happen.

Preacher

In development. Disturbia, Eagle Eye, and I Am Number Four director DJ Caruso is reportedly helming this dark tale of a literal search for God by a creature who might be equally powerful to him. It’s been in the works forever, but seems closer to happening than ever.

Oblivion/Horizons

In development. Tron: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski created this Radical Comics title about a dystopic future where humans can’t live on the ground anymore and are forced to live above the clouds. The story begins when a surface drone encounters a mysterious woman who’s crash-landed in a lifepod on the harsh surface, where savage alien Scavengers have taken up residence. Obviously Kosinski created this with the desire to direct it himself, and it sounds intriguing, but it’s been bouncing around from studio-to-studio of late, and is rumored to have undergone a name change to Horizons. Its ultimate fate is decidedly uncertain.

R.I.P.D.

In pre-production. Ryan Reynolds is set to star in yet another comic book adaptation, this one a Dark Horse title about a law enforcement agency that polices the dead (and the undead). Oh, and the agency is run by Satan. Jeff Bridges is in talks to star as Reynolds’ partner, while RED‘s Robert Schwentke will be directing.

Fantastic Four

In development. Fox wants to reboot the Fantastic Four after the two disappointing Tim Story films, before the rights revert back to Marvel Studios. Fox’s current plan reportedly calls for an all-CGI Ben Grimm (the Thing). It’s been in the works for over two years now, so something must be holding up the process. [Image source.]

Daredevil

In development. See above re: Fox/Marvel reboot. Exact same situation here, with David Slade (30 Days of Night, Twilight: Eclipse, and Hard Candy) signed on to direct. There will be no involvement from Ben Affleck or the rest of the first film’s cast.

Black Panther

In development. Every African American actor in the free world has been rumored to play this role at some point, yet Marvel seems no closer to getting the thing made, though their interest remains strong.

Black Widow

In development. Marvel’s already considering a solo flick for Scarlett Johanson’s Iron Man 2 and Avengers character, though nothing’s been finalized yet.

Hawkeye

In development. If The Avengers does well, Jeremy Renner will likely get a solo gig for his character’s origin story. [Image source.]

Doctor Strange

In development. Another from Marvel Studios. Not much is known about their plans. [Image source.]

The Inhumans

In development. Yet another superhero team that Marvel Studios would love to add to its roster. They’re sort of a counterpoint to the X-Men, similarly mutated but in this case, they’re a different species altogether than human. Hence the title.

The Flash

In development. This one’s been in the cooker for eons, and still no movie. Warner Bros. wants to make lots of movies out of DC Comics characters, so you’d think an A-list hero like The Flash would be at the top of their wish list. But who knows if or when it will actually happen.

I, Frankenstein

In development. It’s a hard-boiled detective noire starring the monster of Dr. Frankenstein himself as a detective battling supernatural foes, from an indie comic publisher. All that’s known about the movie is that Stuart Beattie will be directing.

Crosshair

In development. You know those stories where a seemingly nice person is “activated” into a killing machine when some sort of “trigger” sets them off? Crosshair is that idea from the perspective of the person being activated, a suburban dad who knows he has 48 hours to stop the process from erasing his own personality forever and turning him into an assassin. Summit Entertainment will bring this one to theaters.

Zombies vs. Robots

In development. First we had Alien vs. Predator. This summer brings us Cowboys and Aliens. Next up on the mashup docket is this IDW comic about the last human on Earth — a young girl who’s being protected by robots from a race of intelligent, evolved zombies. Michael Bay’s production company is working on this one, though Mr. Transformers himself is not expected to direct.

The Golden Age

In development. Here’s another comic book title on Matthew Vaughn’s calendar, though this is for an Image Comics property that’s not yet published. The pitch is about a retirement home for superheroes, where a team of elder heroes is called back into action. Vaughn is looking for A-level talent to star.

RED 2

In development. Not much is known about the sequel, except that it’s in the works. And if you ask me, it’s worth making if only so we can watch Helen Mirren kick some more butt.

Back to the Future Posters by Dave Williams

Noemi Twigg — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 12:00:06 +0000

For the children of the 80s, the Back to the Future Trilogy is definitely at the top of our favorite movies list. And why not? This comedic science fiction series written by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis made us dream of being able to do whatever it is we want – even going back in time and going back to the future. Who can’t help but love Marty McFly and Doc Emmett Brown as they bumbled around in different points in time?

It is the future, and it seems that Back to the Future has not lost one bit of its luster. Late last year, Universal decided to re-launch the movie in the theaters. Earlier this year, news about a Back to the Future game was released. And some time last month, designer Dave Williams revealed the design for his latest Back to the Future poster.

This poster is still in the works – mainly testing at the printer’s for colors and such. Dave announced in his blog, however, that only 50 posters will be released – each numbered and signed. You can pre-order your poster for GBP14.99 if you’re in the UK, GBP19.99 for the rest of Europe, and GBP24.99 elsewhere.

Just like Dave’s other posters, this one measures in at 24 x 18 inches. Speaking of the other posters…

Here is the Back to the Future 2 poster.

The pricing is the same as mentioned above.

And here is the first of the series.

It’s the simplest of the three, but one can’t help but appreciate the colors used – very true to the movie’s logo. The DeLorean may not be in the poster, but those yellow “flames” say it all. Understandably, Dave quickly ran out of the original prints, but due to popular demand, he decided to re-print of the design, so you can still get your hands on one to make the collection complete.

Definitely worthy of our Dept. of Want It! Now this all makes me want to start a BTTF marathon!

Minimalist Movie Posters

Robin Parrish — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 15:00:23 +0000

Less is always more. Don’t believe me? Take a look at these movie posters by artist Matt Owen. He uses an iconic image that’s central to the film to create posters that brilliantly sum up what the whole thing’s about with just a few colors and shapes.

Most of his posters come from 80s movies, though there are a few more modern entries here and there. If you like what you see here, head over to Matt’s blog, where you’ll find several dozen more. Be sure to bookmark it — he adds new entries about once or twice a week.

I chose some of my favorites to show here… Which ones are your top picks?

All Excited About Cars 2 World Grand Prix Posters

Noemi Twigg — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 13:00:18 +0000

Cars is arguably the best animated motion picture from Disney-Pixar. Who can’t help but love Mater, Luigi, and Guido? Of course, many a kid would go for Lightning McQueen in an instant, but the film is rife with other lovable characters. So, recently, the official announcement for Cars 2 was made, getting every fan out there excited – with June 24 being marked in countless calendars all over the world. The poster was released late last year is cool enough, but the recently released retro posters of the Cars 2 World Grand Prix just blows it away.

I saw the four posters at FilmoFilia, and boy, do they look awesome! The new Cars movie is all about Lightning McQueen and Mater going around the world to compete in the first-ever World Grand Prix – perhaps not unlike the F1 today. ;)

The movie will take McQueen and Mater to the streets and tracks of Europe and Japan, hence the retro posters. Without further ado, I give you the posters.

This might very well be my poster of choice, if only because of that green, white, and red bar. ;)

I think McQueen looks a little too metrosexual in this poster, but then again, he always had that tendency, didn’t he? (If cars can be metrosexual, that is.)

For good measure, here are a few images from the official web site of the movie.

If that doesn’t get you excited, then I don’t know what will. June 24?

What Movies Look Like in Barcode Form

Noemi Twigg — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:00:37 +0000

Barcodes are the schnitz these days, even though they have been around for the longest time. Of course, QR Codes are garnering a lot of attention as well, but the good old barcodes still provide some amusement – especially if they are anything like these barcodes that the guys at Moviebarcode have created.

What they did was to get hold of some of their favorite movies (I am assuming the movies in the list are their favorites, of course) and then compressed all the images. The result? Very interesting images. Think color spectrums. Think seeing hours of movies compressed into one collage of colors. Granted, these barcodes are NOT barcodes in the strictest sense, but you’ll get the idea when you see the gallery below.

Here are 12 of the most interesting movie barcodes I found in their site. Here’s a challenge for movie geeks out there – do you think you can identify the movies just by looking at the barcode? On the other hand, if you don’t feel like taking up the challenge and just want to know what movie each barcode stands for – you know you want to! – check the list at the bottom of this post. The movie titles are presented in the same order as the images in the gallery.

I don’t know about you, but it is interesting to see how many movies seem to make use of very few colors. Take for example movie barcode number 5. It is predominantly shades of brown and black. Then again, I have been called colorblind! ;)

You can purchase prints of these movie barcodes Red Bubble.

The Only 2011 Movie Calendar You Need

Robin Parrish — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 02:13:42 +0000

2011 is going to be another big year at the movie theater. If you call yourself a geek, then this is the ultimate list of movies you need to know about in 2011. We’ve got all the biggies and lots of others you’ve never heard of — but need to. You’ll find no comedic chick-flicks, moody dramas, or “important documentaries” on this list. This is pure popcorn movie magic, baby.

If it’s not listed here, then you don’t need to care about it.

Join in the latest movies and TV discussions over at the Forevergeek forums

February

Sanctum

February 4th. AKA, Extreme Spelunking: The Movie. James Cameron produces this 3D thriller about a group of cave divers exploring the deepest and least accessible cave system on earth. Naturally, a tropical storm cuts off their escape route and the group has to find a new way out before a flash flood drowns them. At least they keep the creepy underground monsters out of this one.

The Eagle

February 11th. An intriguing cast — including Channing Tatum, Mark Strong, Jamie Bell, and Donald Sutherland — dons the togas-and-sandals of a Roman epic that finds a young centurion attempting to solve the disappearance of the real-life Ninth Legion.

I Am Number Four

February 18th. Another young adult novel-turned-movie, this time substituting teen aliens for teen vampires and teen wizards. The premise sounds nifty, if unoriginal: nine aliens, the last of their kind, were sent to Earth and raised as humans. The aliens are being eliminated one at a time by another hostile alien race, and when the protagonist finds himself next on the list, he must master his special abilities in order to survive.

Unknown

February 18th. Remember that old TV show Nowhere Man? It starred Bruce Greenwood, who geeks know best as Captain Pike in the Star Trek reboot. High-octane thriller Unknown finds Liam Neeson taking on basically the same role — a man who finds his existence erased (not even his own wife recognizes him).

Drive Angry

February 25th. I’m including this one very reluctantly, because it has a premise so bat-crazy that it makes you wonder how someone managed to sell it to a big Hollywood studio. Nicolas Cage sends his career further down the tubes in this bizarre car chase movie where he must fend off demons on the road while racing to save his granddaughter from being sacrificed by an occultist. Yeah, that’s right.

March

The Adjustment Bureau

March 4th. Matt Damon stars in this scifi-ish tale of a senator who discovers a super-secret organization is tampering with people’s memories and lives. The trailer looks creepy-cool, which is appropriate for a film based on a Philip K. Dick short story.

Rango

March 4th. I’m not too sure about this spaghetti western-influenced animated tale of a chameleon who winds up acting as the doomed sheriff of a lawless animal town. But there’s potential, because it reunites Johnny Depp (who voices the main character) with his original Pirates of the Caribbean director, Gore Verbinski.

Battle: Los Angeles

March 11th. Aaron Eckhart leads an eclectic cast in a not-quite-a-summer-blockbuster about a group of marines fighting back against an alien invasion on the streets of L.A.

Mars Needs Moms

March 11th. One of those photo-realistic CGI animation films, like Beowulf, only based on a children’s book about… Well, the title pretty much says it all.

Limitless

March 18th. Bradley Cooper and Robert de Niro square off in this speculative thriller about a slacker writer who gets his hands on an illegal drug that allows him to use 100% of his brain, thereby becoming an instant success as the most perfect version of himself. But as it always goes, soon there are shadowy forces out to get him, stop him, or… something.

Paul

March 18th. The goofballs that gave the world the brilliant Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz — Simon Pegg and Nick Frost — unleash the world’s grooviest, party-loving-est Area 51 resident, an alien named Paul. Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Bill Heder, Blythe Danner, and Sigourney Weaver join in the antics, along with Seth Rogen as the voice of the CGI title character.

Sucker Punch

March 25th. Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) presents his own fever dream of a female empowerment fantasy. Beyond that, it’s doggone hard to describe, but it looks like a huge mishmash of a fairy tale and nearly every action genre imaginable.

April

Source Code

April 1st. I’m all kinds of jazzed for this one. The director of Moon is behind this story of a soldier (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) caught up in an experimental program where he’s inserted into the final memories of a man who died in a bomb blast on a commuter train. He’s meant to discover who was behind the terrorist act, but the soldier decides to go off script and attempts the impossible: to prevent the bomb from ever having gone off.

Rubber

April 1st. An indie horror pic that — and I’m not kidding — tells the story of a sentient rubber tire that goes on a killing rampage. As dumb as it sounds, it’s getting rave reviews for its execution, which is being described as wholly original with “manic brilliance.”

Hanna

April 8th. It’s La Femme Nikita if Nikita were a young girl trained as an assassin by her father, and whose very existence is full of secrets. The title role is played by The Lovely Bones‘ Saoirse Ronan, with a fantastic cast that includes Cate Blanchett as an enemy operative, Eric Bana as Hanna’s father, and Dollhouse‘s Olivia Williams. Throw in a score by the Chemical Brothers, and how can you not want to see this?

Atlas Shrugged – Part I

April 15th. A very long-awaited adaptation of the first part of Ayn Rand’s epic novel about capitalism follows a female railroad tycoon trying to hold on to her company in a United States that’s being subverted from within. It’s an independent production (not one second of video footage has yet been revealed), but if it does well, the filmmakers would like to make two further films to tell the rest of Rand’s story. It’s no coincidence that it’s releasing on Tax Day.

Apollo 18

April 22nd. Not a sequel to Apollo 13 (though I’d totally go see that). Cleverly tying in with a real NASA mission to the moon that was canceled, the movie asks what if the mission wasn’t really canceled — but instead, evidence of it was erased because the astronauts found evidence of a deadly alien life form? Produced by Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov.

Haywire

April 22th. Get this: Steven Soderbergh is doing an all-out action movie. Yet another Nikita-like female assassin, but this one’s played by American Gladiator‘s Gina Carano in her first major role. Ummmm yeah. To handicap whatever she may lack in acting chops, Soderbergh has surrounded her with Ewan McGregor, Antonio Banderas, Bill Paxton, Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender, and Michael Douglas.

Fast Five

April 29th. Because the world will fall into despair without another Fast & Furious movie with Vin Diesel and Paul Walker. I include it because I know a lot of car geeks can’t get enough of this stuff, but just so you people know: it does nothing for the rest of us.

13 Assassins

April 29th. Japanese revenge flick about a bunch of martial arts assassins who team up to take down an evil despot. Because they were bored and there was nothing good on TV.

May

Thor

May 6th. Summer officially arrives with the first of Marvel’s two big Avengers-related superhero pics. Chris Hemsworth looks great in the title role, and Marvel hiring Kenneth Brannagh to direct was a stroke of brilliance. Bringing this character to the screen had to be a tough nut to crack, but the trailer is pitch-perfect. Bring it.

Priest

May 13th. Friday the 13th brings us Paul Bettany’s next gothic action flick from the same director that made Bettany an antihero in Legion. This time out, instead of battling angels, Bettany takes on… (wait for it…) vampires! Oooooh!

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

May 20th. Johnny Depp returns to his favorite role in an Orlando Bloom/Kiera Knightley-less Pirates movie. Geoffrey Rush is back as Barbosa, but this time they’re joined by Ian McShane as Blackbeard and Penelope Cruz as Blackbeard’s daughter and love interest for Captain Jack. Chicago‘s Rob Marshall takes the reins for this all new outing that could serve as the starting line for a second trilogy.

Kung Fu Panda 2

May 27th. Jack Black returns to his best animated role in a new adventure that finds Po and a new group of friends kung fu fighting an old enemy.

June

X-Men: First Class

June 3rd. The jury’s way out on whether this prequel’s rewind to the 1960s-era origin of the film franchise X-Men will yield something worth watching, especially since this first class of mutants includes no Cyclops, no Wolverine, and no Jean Grey. The return of Bryan Singer to the franchise (he’s producing, not directing) can only be a good thing, but I think we’re all in major wait-and-see mode on this one.

Super 8

June 10th. It’s J.J. Abrams doing his super-secret production thing with a small-budget homage to the early films of Steven Spielberg (who’s producing). All that’s known about the plot is that it has something to do with an alien escaping from Area 51. But what more do we need to know beyond “Abrams and Spielberg”?

Green Lantern

June 17th. DC Comics attempts to expand its Hollywood portfolio by introducing another major hero to worldwide audiences. Ryan Reynolds stars as a ringbearer of a different kind (think less fantasy, more scifi) in what Warner Bros. calls “the Star Wars of the DC universe.” Director Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) tries his hand at superheroes for the first time, and the trailer looks promising.

Cars 2

June 24th. Little boys everywhere are on pins and needles, pestering their parents about when this sequel will finally come, so they can buy tons of new Disney toys. The storyline — about a global race where Mater and Lightning accidentally get caught up in the world of espionage — is pretty much beside the point. All that matters are the toys. Well, that and the fact that Pixar never fails.

July

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

July 1st. The subtitle bugs me. They couldn’t have gone with Dark Side of the Moon? The trailer had me when they revealed the “real reason” Armstrong & Aldrin went to the moon, and if ever a franchise begged for 3D, it’s Transformers. The first film was a blast, but the second had no idea what it was about — and neither did we. As long as Michael Bay can curb his proclivity for racial stereotypes (those godawful twins have to go) and tell a story that makes sense, we’ll be there.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part Two

July 15th. By all accounts, it’s the summer blockbuster to beat. Warner Bros.’ well-oiled production machine hopes to deliver a grand finale that’s even more epic than the book (which was utterly beautiful). Part One was wonderfully dark and intense, but Part Two, which is said to be all action, has impossibly high expectations to live up to. Will it hit a home run? And is there anyone who doesn’t plan to be there to find out?

Captain America: The First Avenger

July 22nd. Chris Evans has it in him to deliver a perfect Steve Rogers (did you see his acting chops in Sunshine?), and Joe Johnston has it in him to give us a fantastic period piece/special effects action film (he resume includes The Rocketeer). And Hugo Weaving should be killer as the Red Skull. On the other hand, Johnston’s resume also includes Jurassic Park III.

Cowboys and Aliens

July 29th. It’s an insane premise, but director Jon Favreau wisely knew a cast of serious actors and a strong script would sell it to audiences. Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford are the headliners, while one of the guys behind Lost helped with the script. The deck is stacked, and I think we’re all primed to see how this one turns out.

August

The Smurfs

August 2nd. Humans Neil Patrick Harris, Modern Family‘s Sofia Vergara, and Glee‘s Jayma Mayes star alongside CGI versions of the cartoon classic characters, who find themselves transported to the “real world,” a la Enchanted. The Smurfs are voiced by the hope-destroying talents of Jonathan Winters (Papa Smurf), Katy Perry (Smurfette), Paul Ruebens (Jokey Smurf), and George Lopez (Grouchy Smurf), among others. This is gonna be a train wreck and we all know it.

The Darkest Hour

August 5th. There aren’t many details for this one, but it’s another Timur Bekmambetov production about a group of teens in Russia attempting to survive the aftermath of an alien invasion.

Conan the Barbarian

August 19th. Stargate Atlantis‘ Jason Momoa takes over the title character in this modern update that’s said to hew more closely to the Robert E. Howard novels than the Governator’s version did. Which means it’ll be a hardcore R film with tons of graphic violence and nudity.

October

Real Steel

October 7th. Hugh Jackman stars in this boxing flick with a twist: it’s set in the future, and all of the boxers are big robots. As directed by Shawn Levy of Night at the Museum and a bunch of rom-coms, this certainly looks to be the darkest thing he’s ever done.

The Thing

October 14th. A prequel to John Carpenter’s classic horror film bearing the same name, this one stars Scott Pilgrim‘s Mary Elizabeth Winstead as a scientist stationed at Antarctica who discovers an alien craft there. Three guesses what’s inside.

The Three Musketeers

October 14th. Why we need yet another version of Dumas’ classic, I have no idea. This one’s from Paul W.S. Anderson, who directed all of the Resident Evil movies. Yeeeeeah. It stars that kid who was Percy Jackson as D’Artagnan, Christoph Waltz (the villain in Inglorious Basterds) as Cardinal Richelieu, and Milla Jovovich as M’lady de Winter. And it’s a period piece, so of course Orlando Bloom is in it, too.

Contagion

October 21st. It’s Outbreak, only directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Which means that we will of course be there.

Now

October 28th. A high-concept scifi thriller about a future where people don’t age physically beyond 25, but must buy “time” to live beyond that. The rich can live forever, while everyone else scrapes by hours at a time. From director Andrew Niccol (Gattaca).

November

Puss in Boots

November 4th. Antonio Banderas takes the spotlight in a prequel/origin story for his Shrek character.

Immortals

November 11th. Tarsem Singh, visionary director of The Cell and The Fall, gives his take on a war between the Greek gods and mankind in this 3D visual feast.

Happy Feet 2

November 18th. The original was good fun until the second half, when it turned into An Inconvenient Penguin. Not much is known about the sequel’s plot, only that the original cast returns, along with fresh hams Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, and Pink, who takes over singing duties for the late Brittany Murphy.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part One

November 18th. Any geek who spends money to see this shall have their entire geek credibility revoked. On the other hand, respect those Twi-hards, ’cause they will cut you. But a movie in which a half-vampire baby is born by breaking her mother’s ribs can’t be all bad, can it?

The Muppets

November 23rd. It’s hard not to love the Muppets. Forgetting Sarah Marshall star Jason Segel sure does, because he’s spearheading this film — in which the Muppets fight to save their beloved theater (for like, the tenth time) — that hopes to restore the Muppets to the brilliance of Jim Henson’s glory days. Segel has promised a faithful depiction of Kermit and the gang, while enlisting a slew of comedians to make cameos and introducing a new Muppet character who serves as an entry point for new viewers (that’s him with the iPhone).

Rise of the Apes

November 23rd. A prequel to… I don’t know, all of the different movies, I guess, that depicts the intelligent apes rising to power after being subjects of genetic engineering. James Franco stars opposite (for the first time) all-CGI apes, like the one played by Andy Serkis, above. But I’m wondering the same thing you are: Why do we need another Apes film?

December

Hugo Cabret

December 9th. Martin Scorsese takes his first leap into “3D family adventure” territory with what’s said to be a beautiful, quirky tale of an orphaned boy who lives in the walls of a train station, and discovers an “automaton” — a robot (seen above) — that he believes carries a message from his father. Sounds very Neil Gaiman to me. The flick boasts an impressive cast that includes Chloe Moretz, Ben Kingsley, Jude Law, Christopher Lee, and many more.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

December 16th. Primarily notable because director Brad Bird — the genius behind Iron Giant, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille — makes his live-action debut with this action-packed thriller that finds flavor-of-the-month Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) and Lost‘s Josh Holloway joining Tom Cruise on a new adventure in Dubai. Rumor has it that Cruise may be handing off the franchise to Renner et. al. with this one, paving the way for a “new generation” of IMF agents. J.J. Abrams, who helmed the third and best entry in the franchise, produces.

Sherlock Holmes 2

December 16th. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law are back, this time facing off against the legendary Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris of Mad Men, aka Fringe‘s “Mr. Jones”). Noomi Rapace, the original Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, also joins the cast as a femme fatale. Plus, it’s a sequel, so you know… bigger, badder, with more explosions and stuff.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

December 21st. Hollywood’s version of the runaway bestseller, starring Daniel Craig and young actress Rooney Mara in the title role. Hot off his success with The Social Network is director David Fincher. Looks like a recipe for success.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn

December 23rd. The first in a trilogy of all-CGI films from a partnership between Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson. Spielberg directs this one, with Jamie Bell donning the motion-capture tights for the title role, based on the classic stories by Herge. Bonus points for a screenplay by the brilliant Steven Moffatt (Doctor Who, Sherlock).

War Horse

December 28th. Steven Spielberg looks to be competing against himself with a second film releasing in less than one week’s time (see above). But this one is a live actioner based on a young adult novel about the bond between a young man and his horse. When the horse is sold to the cavalry during World War I and sent to the front lines, the boy sets out to save him.

Join in the latest movies and TV discussions over at the Forevergeek forums

TRON Bit Paper Art

Noemi Twigg — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 16:15:28 +0000

Tomorrow is the big day for TRON fans all over the world. Have you gotten movie tickets in advance or are you going to brave the elements and queue up with everyone else?

I swear, this is the last TRON-related post I’ll put up for a while. This cool paper art is actually not new, but for sure, TRON fans will enjoy these.

Remember Bit – that character from the original movie? It is said that that “it” is the first computer-generated imagery character ever to be used in a film. While that may be debatable, the papercraft created by Tektonten is something to admire.

Quick fresher: Bit only speaks “yes” or “no” – binary, bit, 0, 1, get it? The first image with the orange shape represents Bit saying yes, while the rightmost image (the red one) represents Bit saying no. The blue one in the middle is Bit not saying anything – it’s resting state, so to speak. Want to create your own “Bit states”? You can find detailed instructions at Tektonten.

I am pretty sure you’ve already watched the 1982 movie at least once in preparation for TRON: Legacy, but here’s something to remind you of Bit.

Enjoy the movie this weekend!

Playboy Gets Its Game On – Via TRON [NSFW]

Noemi Twigg — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 15:52:01 +0000

The anticipation for TRON: Legacy is reaching new heights as the day of its release draws nearer and nearer. Speaking as one who has scored free tickets to the premiere showing here in my neck of the woods, I must say that all things TRON have been catching my eye lately. While I am not one to normally put NSFW stuff up on here (yeah, yeah), this entry was just begging to be written. Fasten your seatbelts, ladies and ~~especially you~~ gentlemen, here are two Playboy bunnies all dolled up, TRON-style.

GAME ON, that’s what the new feature on the Playboy web site is called. Real women painted with some glowing blue stuff (and not wearing much else) riding cycles that are just as eye catching – how can you go wrong with that?

Let’s add a little more kick – check out this video of parts of the photoshoot.

That’s just to whet your appetite – view the rest of the gallery at Playboy’s web site. (Remember, you have been warned about the contents in the title.)

What say you – the movie or Playboy’s take?

Hollywood Movie Posters That Might Just Ruin Your Childhood – NOT!

Noemi Twigg — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 14:00:59 +0000

Zombies, gore, and blood – these things never fail to catch the attention of people nowadays. While you can only take so much, you cannot deny that we need a healthy dose every now and then. Now, if you’re a movie buff as well, then you are in for a treat on this Friday.

Movie posters are always popular with collectors, and rightly so. This collection of unique movie posters, re-created by artist Matt Busch is going to either ruin your childhood memories or merely give you a fresh – albeit twisted – perspective. He is quite known in the poster artist circle, especially for his unique take on art. In his collection of Hollywood movie posters, he went a step further by handpainting each one instead of merely using Photoshop to make digital changes. The result? Awesomely twisted movie posters that will give you a new perspective on some of your old-time favorite movies.

Star Wars fans will either love or hate this poster – there is no in between!

The future may be bleak indeed, but with a poster like this to look at when you feel down, how can you not muster at least a chuckle?

I have very vivid memories of watching E.T. on a small TV in my aunt’s basement more than two decades ago, but nothing prepared me for this poster. You gotta love the attention to detail – look at the reflection on the knife blade!

More than the details in the images, Matt Busch has to be given credit for his play on the titles, names, and descriptions. Indiana Bones has got to be one of the best of this lot.

Yeah, his attention to the details makes these posters stand out and invites viewers to stare at each one for minutes on end just to take in the whole picture; and I think that fact says Mr. Busch’s work belongs to the Dept. of Awesomeness, yes?

Here are more posters. Let me know which one cracks you up (or rubs you the wrong way, for that matter) the most.

Pulp Fiction for Dummies

Noemi Twigg — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 13:29:31 +0000

Have you ever found yourself wishing that the events in Quentin Tarantino‘s Pulp Fiction were presented in a “normal” sequence? I suppose that we’ve all wondered at one point or another how the movie would turn out if this were done. While I don’t obsess about it, I think that would be pretty cool – I cannot deny that when it first came out, I had to watch the movie at least twice to make sense of it. The order of the events just screwed me up the first time – but that is part of the beauty of it all, isn’t it?

Unsurprisingly, I am not alone in this. A dude named Arthur Reeder came up with the not-so-novel idea of editing Pulp Fiction so that the events would unfold chronologically. I say not-so-novel simply because it probably has occurred to countless people. What makes Reeder awesome is that he actually went out and did something about it!

Armed with the original DVD, mencoder converted the film to a xvid/ac3 high resolution encoding. Kdenlive preserved the 5.1 surround sound during editing and when I was done, I had another high resolution xvid/ac3. Using Avidemux, Kdenlive, The GIMP, Handbrake, and FFMPEG the film has been re-encoded to a Xvid for everyone to download.

No need to exercise your brain trying to figure out what the heck just happened and trying to piece the fragments together. Call it Pulp Fiction for dummies, if you will. I am going to download it now at Arthur Sucks.

It Would Have Been Cooler As A Van

Darice de Cuba — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 22:15:05 +0000

Brandon Ortwein came with the creative idea of illustrating famous movie and cartoon cars as vans. Think of the Mach5, Optimus Prime or The Ghostbusters ECO. Logically “The Mystery Machine” is not listed as it has always been cool being originally a van.

Most of the converted cars are indeed cooler as a van, but the “DeLorean” and the “Batmobile” are definitely better in their original form. Notoriously missing is Fred Flinstone’s stone age car, that would be something as a van.

You can purchase each individual illustration as prints, iPhone skins(3G, 3Gs), iPad cases, laptop cases, etc. Cases with the more retro cars, like Herbie, combined with the cases blue color gives it a retro feel that goes nice with the hyper modern iPad or iPhone.

My favorite van is Speedracer’s Mach5, I used to watch Speedracer everyday and I like his car more then say Batman’s Batmobile. Which van illustration is your favorite one or which car would you like to see as a van?

Probably the Coolest Pumpkin You’ll See This Year

Noemi Twigg — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 19:05:26 +0000

Halloween’s around the corner, and holiday ~~freaks~~ enthusiasts are beside themselves with excitement. Am not one to celebrate holidays – in terms of decorating and wearing costumes and all that – but there is something to be said about Halloween decorations. Pumpkin carvings, in particular, have this thing about them. Whether they’re cute or kick ass, pumpkins for Halloween never fail to amuse.

Now check out this amazing pumpkin art. It’s a re-creation of the scene from Alien, where the alien baby bursts out of the chest (or belly?) of the guy.

Whoever created this masterpiece must have a stomach of steel. And, just in case you have no memories of this scene from the movie (I have the vaguest of memories, actually), here is an image of it.

The movie scene is definitely way more disgusting, but the pumpkin version is not too bad at all. Just imagine all the gooey pumpkin innards…

The pumpkin re-creation is not a hundred percent accurate, if you feel like being critical, but how much can you do with pumpkins??? You’ve got to give this guy cred for some serious work, I think. Now, can anyone top this? What movie scene would you want to be re-created for Halloween (using pumpkins, of course)?