Category: Movies

Will You Marry Me?!?
Everything a Chick needs to know she can learn from Star Wars.

Weekend Box Office
“The Sum Of All Fears” tops the Weekend Box Office charts.

Kung-Fu Pandas
Dreamworks has a concept for you: MASTER P, KUNG FU PANDA. The film will be total CG. In the story, a gang of snow leopards invades a bamboo jungle and the animals must find a prophesied warrior to defend them. That warrior comes in the form of a lazy panda who must become a kung fu master.
Hee hee hee!!!

Wow! That’s A Lot Of Punctuation!
Ah yes, it’s a weekend where I will be walking a walk for charity, but even though I can walk the walk, no charity will be given to the 2 new films bowing at a multiplex near you. Nope, if they deserve critical lambasting, then I shall be the lamb that bastes them!
The first lamb to the slaughter? Well, it’s the latest Tom Clancy book starring Jack Ryan to make it to the big screen. The Sum Of All Fears has Ben Affleck picking up where Harrison Ford picked up for Alec Baldwin and starring as Jack Ryan.
Now before I pass judgment on this film, I think I want to see it again. Y’see, everyone in the group I was in thought it was a great, interesting film. I thought that it was simply a grown- up, less cartoonish version of Independence Day. Now that wouldn’t be a bad thing if the film was clever, taut or gave us a reason to care other than the fact that we love the character of Jack Ryan.
But it doesn’t,…at least it didn’t the first time I saw it. I will definitely see it again soon as I love the character of Jack Ryan, but The Sum Of All Fears just didn’t hook me and I have to admit that at one point during the film I was thinking that if a studio put together a box set of director Stephen Frears’ films, they could call it “The Sum Of All Frears.”
But then the movie hooked me again…
So a mixed review on The Sum Of All Fears after one viewing, but consider me back in line already!
After I see Undercover Brother again, that is! I don’t suppose I’ll laugh harder this summer, at least until I see Austin Powers in Goldmember.
Undercover Brother was hilarious! Just hilarious! It is to Blacksploitation films (a genre I love) as Austin Powers is to the James Bond franchise. The trailers, which are aimed at a least-common denominator audience, make the film seem less clever than it actually is. Undercover Brother needn’t be a guilty pleasure – it’s made with enough savvy to be appreciated on its own terms. There are laughs aplenty, and, as a bonus, viewers don’t have to worry about being subjected to farts, urine, feces, semen, or any of the other foul substances that have overrun modern-day comedies.
As I said, and I quote: “I don’t suppose I’ll laugh harder this summer, at least until I see Austin Powers in Goldmember.”
And that latter laughfest opens on July 26th!
In the interim, I am back in line this weekend to see if The Sum Of All Fears gets better the second time and to just laugh and enjoy myself watching the exploits of Undercover Brother. Maybe I’ll see you there!
Enjoy the popcorn and I’ll see you at the movies!

Not A Literal Trip! Just A Figurative One.
It’s day 212 on the set of “The Matrix” sequels. Wanna take a trip to see what is going on?

STAR WARS: EPISODE II EASTER EGGS
The Star Wars films are brimming with so much detail, that they require
multiple viewings to soak it all in. First time screenings are to watch
the main characters and the core story, but with subsequent viewings
it’s hard not to let your eye wander and take in some of the extras.
Sometimes, the details are intentional elements meant to remind you how
the galaxy fits together. Other times, it’s an unintentional flub that
illustrates the complexities of filmmaking (keep track of the color of
the clothes that PadmÈ packs on Coruscant in Episode II, for example).
And, on occasion, the filmmakers purposely put in a little visual joke
to reward sharp-eyed (or in some cases, sharp-eared) movie-goers.
Here’s some of the things to watch for the next time you go to see
Attack of the Clones.
Trundling along the streets of Mos Espa as Anakin and PadmÈ
go to meet Watto is none other than R5-D4, the grumpy astromech
from Episode IV that blows its stack in front of Luke.
What has become a tradition of sorts is the “Wilhelm,” the
affectionate moniker given to a very distinct scream sound effect
used in all of the Star Wars films (and quite a few non-Star Wars
films too). In A New Hope, it’s the stormtrooper that plummets
down the Death Star chasm. In Episode II, it’s a Naboo soldier
thrown in the opening explosion of the film.
The very first shot of Episode II has an homage to another
sci-fi classic as the camera tilts up to the crowded orbital
traffic of Coruscant. “That shot had been executed in 2001: A
Space Odyssey,” explains John Knoll, one of Episode II’s
Visual Effects Supervisors. “I put an Orion space plane
flying in there.”
Star Wars continuity purists will have a hard time
explaining just how an X-wing fighter and TIE fighter got
into the speeder chase over Coruscant.
By now, many have spotted the familiar Millennium Falcon-style
Corellian freighters docked on Naboo. “It was George Lucas’
idea,” says VFX Supervisor Pablo Helman. “He said something
like, ‘should we dare go there?’ And we did.” In addition to
those saucer-shaped freighters, expanded universe fans might
be able to spot a Corellian bulk freighter, the same model as
Talon Karrde’s Wild Karrde.
It appears that Fett genes and low headroom don’t mix. In
an homage to the classic Star Wars misstep, wherein a
stormtrooper bangs his head on a low-hanging door, Jango
Fett also takes a wallop on the noggin — complete with
sound effect — as he enters the Slave I after
tangling with Obi-Wan.
“There’s these big cow-like creatures called shaaks that
Anakin rides on Naboo,” explains Knoll. “The shaaks got to
be a bit of a joke with the crew. I put one in the asteroid
sequence, in a reference to Ken Ralston [visual effects artist
in the classic trilogy] having put potatoes and tennis shoes
in space battle scenes previously. So there’s a shaak there,
but it’s got the asteroid shader on it with craters. You really
can’t see it unless you start to look at it and see the
legs and snout.”
“There may be a shaak on fire during the Clone War,” hints
Ben Snow, another of Episode II’s Visual Effects Supervisors.
“It was almost a competition. Can anyone get a shaak in
their scene?”
Of course, for every confirmed Easter Egg, there are dozens of imagined
ones (Luke’s landspeeder? Sebulba? Darth Maul? Joey Fatone?). Keep a
close eye on the screen during your next viewing, but remember: your
eyes can deceive you; don’t trust them.

The Fourth INDIANA JONES Movie Has A Release Date!
Coming Attractions is reporting that the OFFICIAL release date for the next INDIANA JONES movie will be July 5th, 2005. Apparently this is a very reliable source for them, and they say they “do not have any doubts” as to it’s validity.
Director/writer Frank Darabont has officially signed to pen the script for the next Indy movie.
Here’s to hoping the other three movies are out on DVD by then.

Theron Ready to Pull THE ITALIAN JOB
Charilize Theron is in negotiations to join Mark Wahlberg for THE ITALIAN JOB, a remake of the 1969 movie of the same name that starred Michael Caine and Benny Hill.
In the new version, which takes place in L.A. and Italy, Charlie’s (Wahlberg) robber gang stages a traffic jam so that they can steal back a safe of gold that was stolen from them by a double-crossing associate. Theron would play Stella, a safecracker and driver. Stella’s also Charlie’s love interest and the daughter of his mentor.

Bowie Dusts Off ‘Ziggy Stardust’ Movie
Ziggy will soon play guitar again when Cowboy Pictures begins a national reissue of the David Bowie concert film “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.”
The film will open July 10 at New York’s Film Forum, followed by a national rollout this summer and fall.
D.A. Pennebaker (“Don’t Look Back”) captured Bowie’s final live performance as Ziggy Stardust at the Hammersmith Odeon in London in 1973, filming Bowie both on stage and backstage.
Bowie’s album “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars” celebrates its 30th anniversary June 6. To mark the occasion, EMI will release an enhanced version of the album containing an additional CD with outtakes and demos.
Bowie will release a new album, “Heathen,” on June 11, the first release under a new distribution deal with Columbia Records. Additionally, the Museum of Television and Radio in both New York and Los Angeles will next month begin a three-month Bowie retrospective.

“X-Men 2” Lures Cumming to Role of Nightcrawler
While Marvel’s wall crawler “Spider-Man” continues to rack up summer grosses for Sony, Fox has added a Nightcrawler to its Marvel franchise “X-Men.”
Alan Cumming has signed to join the X-Men mutant superhero roster, playing a shadowy blue-tinted superhero with a tail whose great gift is the ability to teleport from one location to another. At the same time, “Tadpole” star Aaron Stanford has been set to play Pyro, a mutant who becomes part of the junior X-Men team. He has the ability to manipulate fire.
Once again directed by Bryan Singer, “X-Men 2” will begin production in Vancouver on June 17. Returning is the original good guy cast of Patrick Stewart, Halle Berry, James Marsden, Hugh Jackman, Anna Paquin and Famke Janssen. Also back is Ian McKellen as the villainous Magneto.