Fox Searchlight sent me eight featurettes for the movie Mr. Fantastic Fox. I found this one to be the most interesting of them all, so enjoy!
Then, I watched this one, below, and found it to be the most interesting one of all. Which one do you like?
Michael Jackson’s spirit keeps shining at the box office in This Is It while Paranormal Activity takes second place. The holiday season is approaching and The Christmas Carol opens today. Let’s hope for a great Christmas with wonderful movies to entertain us.
1. Michael Jackson’s This Is It
$32,646,810 — $43,855,342
2. Paranormal Activity
$20,589,825 — $88,829,870
3. Law Abiding Citizen
$10,618,948 — $54,700,598
4. Couples Retreat
$8,985,755 — $89,551,510
5. Where The Wild Things Are
$8,324,373 — $65,043,335
6. Saw VI
$6,956,487 — $24,220,442
7. Astro Boy
$4,628,934 — $12,484,701
8. The Stepfather
$4,267,061 — $25,615,070
9. Amelia
$4,233,878 — $9,539,710
10. Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant
$4,132,385 — $11,844,175
(Source)
It’s extraordinarily difficult to write a review of a movie like The Fourth Kind because it’s not really a movie so much as it is an agenda.
Clearly, someone desperately wants us to believe that what we’re seeing is actually really really REALLY REAL, and won’t be satisfied until, my guess is, we start pestering our Congress critters for answers. I’m not sure. Because I’ve never left a movie so utterly confused, and I’ve seen David Croenenburg movies.
This one follows Dr. Abigail Emily Tyler, who is played by Milla Jovovich, who actually TELLS us that’s what she’ll be doing in the beginning of the movie. And we’ll be following her around as she conducts a sleep disorder study on the people of Nome, Alaska. Now, Nome is downright infamous for being hard to reach, but apparently it’s also got a serious missing persons problem, and it’s somehow become the FBI travel destination of choice, garnering over two thousand official visits when neighbor Anchorage, who has something like seventy times the population, rates only about three hundred visits in that same time frame.
Now, it’s hard to tell at first glance just how much of this is real and how much of it so utterly fake as to be a complete pantload, because the movie is trying so very desperately hard to convince us that EVERYTHING WE SEE IS HAPPENING FOR REALS, YO, by virtue of running split screen so often I thought I was watching 24. They’ll do two splits and three splits and four splits and four splits with rotating frames. It got to the point where I wondered, is this a movie or a Final Cut Pro demo? And they’ll run, almost ad nauseum, “real footage” alongside footage of the actors, to try and cement that belief.
I’ll freely admit that this is some creepy stuff–when that guy started levitating I got a little freaked out, and Abigail Tyler “herself” under hypnosis was a cold chill up my spine but do I believe this actually went down? No.
See, one great line from the movie that manages to describe the movie in its entirety is where one of the “patients” is muttering that he’s okay, and “Dr. Tyler” swings in with “Are you trying to convince me or yourself?” And that’s exactly what I thought of this movie. Yes, okay, you’re going to RELENTLESSLY show me this “real footage” and insist, as loudly and vociferously as possible that it’s real, and frankly, I kind of doubt it.
Folks, this has allegedly been going on since the year 2000. But somehow it took almost TEN YEARS for someone to exploit it? Come ON. We’re talking about a Hollywood scene so desperate that TWO GARFIELD MOVIES looked like a good idea but we’ve got allegedly actual footage of a woman shrieking that she’s god in SUMERIAN and NO ONE’S ran with that ball yet?
The Screenhead Ten Scale joins me in a dismissive back of hand “bah” to this creepy but horrendously disjointed fright fest and acknowledges that the idea is pretty scary but forces my suspension of disbelief engines to glow white hot and give off an ominous whining noise. Thus, it hands this incredulous horror romp a five out of ten for being creepy yet not even vaguely credible.
Well…here we go. Rumors about the next Transformers movie have emerged, and anything short of Michael Bay actually putting a proton cannon in his own mouth and tabbing the firing stud will be something of a disappointment.
But you’ve got to admit, the guy has made thinking big into an art form. Long term Trans fans may not be wondering, but everyone else might wonder what’s next? The answer may already have been given away via the Transformers 2 DVD, found on an Easter egg.
Here, let’s have some fun. Guess the new secret huge feature for Transformers 3!
A. For some reason, QUINTESSONS! Finally!
B. Megatron will finally make the big move to Galvatron.
C. Out of nowhere, UNICRON!!
The answer, of course, is C. Michael Bay must have some kind of mental disorder in which he must do everything bigger and louder than he did it before, and when he can no longer do bigger and louder, he must move on to something else.
Although I did enjoy Unicron, I’d still personally love to see those fabulously schizophrenic Quintessons get a piece of the action somewhere. Why, I might even look forward to a Michael Bay movie if that were so!
Today I want to personally thank the Miller-McCune Group for blowing a whole lot of time and personnel dollars to engage in some serious spreadsheet fun, all meant to reveal one of the greatest truths of the media universe–not all critics are created equal, and some of them just love or hate things unaccountably.
As a token of my appreciation, the Miller-McCune Group will be receiving a large novelty pre-voided check for one hojillion dollars.
Anyway, they’ve built a whole lot of interesting graphs here revolving around a smattering of data from Metacritic, the critic amalgamation site that gives you a general idea of what a whole bunch of critics said. On a side note, as though anyone would want that–I mean, come on…half the point of reading film criticism is to enjoy the wordplay and the clever comparisons and whatnot. If you wanted raw numbers you’d play with a calculator. You want the advance word from a person you can trust.
Some other interesting points include that Michael Wilmington might want to sleep with one eye open lest he be branded a quote whore sometime in the future (most of his work seems to be positive, and interestingly, so does Roger Ebert’s! Ebert a quote whore? Say it ain’t so!), Marc Savlov is a tough act to please, and Rene Rodriguez and Mick LaSalle seem to have the best balance of positive and negative work.
Look, I’ve said it before–the best thing you can do is find a critic you can trust. And the only way you can do that is not with charts and graphs, but rather with a long term commitment and regular readings. Find the one you know you can trust, and stick with them. It doesn’t matter if it’s here at Screenhead or somewhere else (though we’d prefer it if it were here at Screenhead), just as long as you can trust it.
You’ll never guess who, of all people in the UNIVERSE, wants to star in a romantic comedy! Let’s just say it’s probably the most unlikely person you can imagine–let’s have a little fun and see if you can guess who!
A. Artie Lange
B. 50 Cent
C. Bruce Campbell
The answer? Shockingly, it’s B! FITTY CEN! Can you believe this? After the sheer number of craptacular games and albums he’s put out, he actually wants to star in a romantic comedy. I mean, come on now…I’ve heard some idiotic ideas in my time, but this second rate halfwit in a romantic comedy? That’s one of the dumbest ideas I’ve heard since “John Kerry, reporting for duty.” ! And this is how he put it:
“I’d do a romantic comedy if I liked the script. But it has to be believable and I have to feel I can bring the character to life.”
Kinda like you “brought your character to life” in that horrendous game you put out about the crystal skull a month or so ahead of Indiana Jones, Fifty? Yeah, okay…call me when you discover reality.
No, really.
There’s a short film on YouTube–in retrospect it never should have been this big of a surprise–called The Horribly Slow Murderer With The Extremely Inefficient Weapon.
And as Jack Cucchiaio finds himself running from his life from the poorly armed maniac, he finds himself in a race against time–an extremely slow race, granted, but a race nonetheless!–to find out the truth behind this killer before the killer can finish his deadly, extremely long term, project.
I about laughed myself stupid watching this. Seriously–these are guys who know their horror movies, because they’re frantically mocking virtually every convention ever involved in a horror movie. Watching this horribly slow murder go down was just hilarious. And yet at the same time, a little creepy. They really knew what they were doing, and so I recommend it openly. The movie itself actually drags on, much like the killing itself.
So does the Screenhead Ten Scale, which knows a laugh when it sees it. Short film or no, this is hilarious stuff and absolutely deserves its eight out of ten.
On behalf of Overture Films, Screenhead presents a new production still featuring Radha Mitchell from The Crazies, starring Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Danielle Panabaker and Joe Anderson. Quite a bit has been posted here about The Crazies, which opens February 26, 2010.
The story is about a small town where everything is safe and happy…until suddenly it isn’t. In a terrifying tale of the “American Dream” gone horribly wrong, four friends find themselves trapped in their hometown in The Crazies, a reinvention of the George Romero classic directed by Breck Eisner from a screenplay by Ray Wright (Pulse, Case 39) and Scott Kosar (The Amityville Horror, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre).
Divorced… with Benefits?… well, It’s Complicated!
On behalf of Universal Pictures, Screenhead is excited to let you know that the new trailer and one-sheet for Nancy Meyers’ upcoming comedy about love, divorce, and everything in between, has just debuted online. It’s Complicated stars Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin – they are hilarious. Come Christmas Day we will find out if love is truly lovelier the second time around…
If anyone has ever seen Nancy Meyer movies, you know you are in for a treat. This trailer proves it. Go to Apple to see the new trailer!
There’s no shortage of science fiction that predicts a future far too unknown and unexplored to the common man, and usually those kinds of work are initially dismissed, only to become cult classics, no matter what medium they are told in. We’ve compiled a list of ten sci-fi movies that were ahead of their time in almost every aspect.
10: Gattaca (1997, IMDB link)
One of the finest “thinking-man” sci-fi of the last few decades, Gattaca features a vision of a society dominated by genetics. Andrew Niccol’s semi-dystopian story introduces a society where genes are not as means of eradicating deceases, but as way of classifying a human being from the day they’re born, in other words; genetic racism.
9: A Clockwork Orange (1971, IMDB link)
Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, an adaption of the novel by Anthony Burgess, showcases a thought provoking aspects of a dystopian society where youth gangs ruled, where violence and rape were the everyday norm. The relentless in portrayal of violence and psychological disorder has secured the film the title as one of the most sinister and dark science fiction films ever made.
8: Dark City (1998, IMDB link)
A somewhat sleeper hit of the late 1990s, ofter referred to as “the best film of 1998″ by Roger Ebert, Dark City is a neo-noir dystopian story about a man discovering he lives in a world controlled by beings with telekinetic powers. The movie loosely inspired works such as The Matrix, both in visual style and storytelling.
7: The Terminator (1984, IMDB link)
James Cameron’s first movie (unless you count “Piranha 2″), was an instant hit in 1984, raking in almost $80 million on a $4 million budget, and forever establishing Arnold Schwarzenegger as an action star. The Terminator popularized the aspect of “time travel”, and ever since then, if a movie included time travel, comparisons were always made to The Terminator.
6: Solyaris/Solaris (1972, IMDB link)
Andrei Tarkovsky, one of the most celebrated Russian filmmakers, made his breakthrough on the international scene with Solyaris, better known as Solaris outside of Russia. The movie centers around the planet Solaris, where a team of scientists have discovered an intelligent life form that begins to mess with their psychological state. The movie was remade in 2002, and was met with a lackluster reception.
5: Blade Runner (1982, IMDB link)
Ridley Scott’s sci-fi noir was a flop when it was initially released, shrugged by both audience and critics. But since then, its reputation as one of the finest sci-fi films ever made only increases year by year, as it’s constantly found on the best selling DVD lists around the world.
4: The Matrix (1999, IMDB link)
Undoubtedly one of the most stylistic and original films of the 1990s, The Wachowski brothers’ The Matrix not only had a story and concept unlike most sci-i films of its era, but featured visual effects that spawned a whole new categories, from “bullet time”, to its use of martial arts, The Matrix remains at the top of the list of any die hard sci-fi fan.
3: Star Wars (1977, IMDB link)
George Lucas space adventure was unlike anything anyone had seen, the movie took audiences by storm, instantly spawning rip-offs around the world, trying to cash in on the hysteria. It was so new that most studios in Hollywood initially passed on the idea, Star Wars has since spawned a whole universe, spanning everything from films, to books, games, and of course, merchandise of every kind.
2: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, IMDB link)
Widely considered as the greatest science fiction film ever made, A Space Odyssey was not only one of the most complex and interpreted films of its time (and still is), it also featured visual effects never before seen, the renderings of space ships were on par with Star Wars, which was released a good ten years later.
1: Metropolis (1927, IMDB link)
Fritz Lang’s dystopian sci-fi epic Metropolis was not only the most expensive film made at its time, but also the first ever true science fiction feature film. The art deco style and visual effects were so ahead of their time, there wasn’t anything like it for the next two decades. Despite its visuals, the movie wasn’t well received, and Fritz Land himself wasn’t satisfied with it, and it took a while — decades, really — before it was established as a cult classic, and one of the films that was far ahead if its time.