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My prayers have been answered! Walter Hill's underrated masterpiece Streets of Fire is finally coming to Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory.
As you can see from my current and long-standing website banner, I'm a huge fan of the 1984 action MTV musical. The film flopped upon its initial release but became a very popular and influential movie over in Japan, where it helped shape many video games and famous anime titles such as Bubblegum Crisis and Megazone 23. Meanwhile in America, the public was more in tune with its soundtrack, most notably Dan Hartman's "I Can Dream About You". It has since developed a big cult following and has several famous admirers such as director Edgar Wright.
This isn't the first time the movie is presented in high definition however. The film was first released on the ill-fated HD-DVD, where it retained the less-than-stellar recent video cover art of Michael Paré holding a rifle and Diane Lane holding on to his arm. Expect a new beautiful cover for the film from Shout! Factory, along with a flip-side cover of the original poster art.
This fantastic announcement did dash a recent plan for myself doing a personal listicle of films I want to come to Blu-ray, with Streets of Fire naturally taking the top spot. I do expect to compile it together some day so be on the lookout for it.
Great news, Batman fans!
It has been announced that Batman: The Killing Joke will be premiering on the big screen all over the nation a week before its expected direct-to-video release. Thanks to Fathom Events, the film adaptation of the controversial comic book story will have an one night only screening on July 25. This will be the first time since Batman: Mask of the Phantasm in 1993 where a DC Comics animated film will be in theaters.
Tickets will be made available starting on June 17.
2015 will certainly be a great year for horror writer-director Eli Roth. First, his newest film Knock, Knock premiere at this year's Sundance to some critical praise and won over the Internet when its official trailer premiered online. Now, he's gets to pull a Spielberg and have two films come out in the same year. His previous film The Green Inferno, long postponed due to in-fighting between its production companies and a resident of my MIA movies list, is set to be released to the general public.
Blumhouse Pictures, through its new genre label BH Tilt, now owns the distribution rights and plans on setting it a blaze on September 25. In movie theaters I mean, not some weird type of anti-consumeristic display of the worthlessness of the products generated by the film industry. Anyway, joking aside, Blumhouse and Universal Pictures retrieved the film from Worldwide Entertainment and Open Road Films, who were engaging in a blood feud over who's to pay for the film's marketing, causing it to be pulled from theaters mere weeks away late last year.
Despite my cheering for a film that was finally able to escape distribution purgatory, The Green Inferno will be a hard pill to swallow by the general public. The film is a modern take on the infamous Italian cannibal films of old but with no despicable animal killings this time around. Unless the public wants to celebrate Halloween early and/or still have the stomach for dark violence, the movie will only find its audience with gorehounds and Roth defenders.
I generally don't do these superhero movie updates anymore for a couple of reasons. First, you can easily find this info everywhere, on every single movie, comic book, or entertainment site, all regurgitating the same facts or rumors before then putting a little personal sidenote to make it "original". Secondly, unless there's more to the story or some backstage drama going on like the Edgar Wright/Ant-Man dilemma, I don't really have anything to really explore upon or truly make a comment on.
That all being said, this is a pretty big deal to note in web history. As reported by Marvel Studios themselves, the film company has reached a business agreement with Sony Pictures, which will allow the character of Spider-Man to enter into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Despite the firm handshake and the allowance of heroes and villains to appear in either studio's films in the future, Sony will still retain the film rights to Spider-Man and have total creative control over its franchise. With the announcement, Sony also stated that the next installment of Spidey's adventures will come out on July 28, 2017. Anyway with Comics Alliance's helpful SuperMovies chart can see the potential problem with that date but the two studios have already figured that out. Since the tentative The Amazing Spider-Man 3 (or something else?) is now coming out on that summer day, the previous occupant Thor: Ragnarok is taking Black Panther's spot on November 3, 2017, which then causes that film to take over Captain Marvel's spot on July 6, 2018, which then causes that film to take over Inhumans's spot on November 2, 2018, which causes that film to be moved to July 12, 2019. See why I don't like to do these new stories?
Bottomline, this is the best outcome for both brands. Marvel gets to have their prized champion back under the wing to a certain extant while also keeping Sony happy. Meanwhile, Sony gets to piggyback off the continuing successful future of Marvel Studios, while also allowing the studio to have a full chance at rehabilitating their cornerstone franchise after a boringly dismal reboot, a horrible sequel, dwindling popularity and lower-than-expected box office grosses.
As with many who are wishing and hoping after hearing this breaking news today, I too desire that Spidey pops in Captain America: Civil War and is the Miles Morales version of the character, thus saving us from another whitebread hero, another Peter Parker, and another origin story.
I wanted to hold off from speaking my mind about this giant controversy until the game of musical chairs finally ended.
Back on May 23rd, cult comedy writer-director Edgar Wright announced that he was leaving his duties for Ant-Man, the first movie of Marvel Studios' Phase 3 line-up. The news was burned off over the weekend in order to distract the world at large but many caught on and foamed profusely through the mouth. Wright helped shepherd the project into fruition for over a decade, as he and his buddy Joe Cornish wanted to do justice to the superhero on the big screen. The business split between Wright and Marvel was uncovered somewhat to be over his script and direction, though Wright has continued to remain mum.
After much online bile spewed at them, with many misguided commenters labeling this decision as the first step towards Marvel's downfall, the studio picked a replacement director. They really wanted Adam McKay, the writer-director of the Anchorman movies, but he tweeted out that his scheduled was busy but not enough so as he would later be announced today as its script director. Another top pick was David Wain; this strange contender makes logical sense, since Wain and Ant-Man's star Paul Rudd are best of buds, and he would possibly fit as a suitable substitute for Wright, since he too has an eclectic taste and view on comedy.
Unfortunately, it was proclaimed today by Marvel that Peyton Reed is the new director. Everybody had the same reaction: Who? Reed hasn't made a feature film in over six years, instead doing a couple of television episodes for sitcoms, but he's best known for Yes Man and The Break-Up.
I will say this first: I do hope he can pull off this project and make a fun movie. Now, let me be mean: Reed is no auteur, nor has a distinct presence in Hollywood. Those two comedies of his made money but were quickly forgotten about months later. Honestly, has anyone beyond a USA or TNT viewer had anything to say about either film today? Supporters of Reed do bring up that he also did the teen classic Bring It On and the rom-com pastiche Down With Love. Those are fair points but the former movie's auteur was its writer Jennifer Bendinger, who would later create the cult girl power flick Stick It, while the latter movie banks solely on the viewer's knowledge of the fluffy sex comedies of the 60's, hence why it floundered at the box office.
But again, I do wish Reed makes this whole thing work. For you see, even if Wright stayed on, the film's biggest problem is the main character himself. I frankly hate the character of Ant-Man; his powers are really stupid to comprehend in other visual mediums and his very rough comic book history has always put him right next to Cyclops and Mr. Fantastic at the top of numerous "Most Hated Marvel Characters" lists. More importantly, it seems that none of these people noticed the common man's view of the superhero and realized that paying for a ticket to see something called "Ant-Man" is highly embarrassing. Hell, there was even a film released this year literally called Ant-Boy, and it was a frivolous kids' movie.
So, let's just wait and see what happens at this year's Comic-Con and when the first trailer hits the web.
...and an obvious one at that: The Man of Steel sequel will be called Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Notice anything? I just said it is a sequel to Man of Steel and yet Supes isn't first billed, instead being passed over by the Ben Affleck-starring, heavily-marketable Batman. The long-form title even negate itself, first promising the audience that it will feature the two heavyweights battle it out but oh wait, nevermind, because this is just a stepping stone/one-film-build for the Justice League movie. If Marvel did this strategy, Iron Man 2 would have been called Iron Man in Armor Wars: P.S. The Avengers is Still Happening & Thor is Coming to Earth.
Director Zack Synder posted the above photo through his twitter account, giving us the first look at Ben Affleck's Batman and another view of the redesigned Batmobile.
As expected, Batman's costume will be more in-line with the vision of Frank Miller when he crafted The Dark Knight Returns: Bulky body suit, short ears, and a giant bat emblem. No word on whether on or not his black underoos will be present (very likely no). Honestly, the outfit is pretty cool, even though I am sick of the prolificness of Miller's influence on superhero media today, especially in the case of DC's doom-and-gloom works.
To still be a petty nitpicker, Snyder could have shot any pic to go viral and the one he choose to put up has Batman with a sad face. I guess the massive despair of the world of Man of Steel will continue, regardless of the public outcry. Let's continue to wait and see whether Synder and his awful cohort Goyer will deliver another terrible film or blow everyone away this time around.
In other news, Channing Tatum has been cast as Gambit. Gambit, the skinny Cajun mutant of the X-Men. A really odd choice you got there, 20th Century Fox. I have turned a new leaf with Tatum and now see him as a very capable performer, who at least keeps trying to experiment and expand his range. I'm more concerned with the fact that someone thought that Gambit could hold his own movie in this day and age. Expect him to throw charged-up playing cards, talk about his Bayou days, tell his brother Bobby to shut up, and wipe away the memory of Taylor Kitsch. Poor Kitsch still can't catch a break.
When it comes to Warner Bros. and DC Comics for the past five years, you can always expect some insane stupidity when it comes to their business decisions. From Green Lantern being a colossal turd (featuring an antagonist made of turds), to the retrospectively lame ending to the Dark Knight trilogy, to last year's Man of Steel killing off the mystique of Superman, to these ongoing news stories of Man of Steel 2/Justice League? being delayed constantly and Zack Snyder selecting some iffy picks like Ben Affleck as Batman and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. Well, now we have one of the biggest bombshells to be delivered to the public by Snyder.
Jesse Eisenberg has been cast to play Lex Luthor in the next untitled DC Comics movie. He apparently won't be the central villain but he'll be groomed in the background behind some other super-roidy-magoo (Jason Momoa and Dwayne Johnson are currently being considered).
Unlike Marvel Comics, who often expertly makes a dream cast for their movies, Snyder and abysmal writer David Goyer seemingly want to do their own weird twisted version of the popular DC universe. So, instead of a bald actor easily capable of playing power-hungry, imposing madmen like Bryan Cranston, they hired Eisenberg instead, to essentially play a rip-off of his Oscar-nominated role as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network.
I do really like Eisenberg as an actor and I loved him as Zuckerberg, hence why I gave him Best Actor honors in 2010. But him as Luthor? I can see it in some form but it just blows my mind how bad this miscasting is.
First off, there's the hair situation. He could keep his hair and be a slight variant of the crazy haired mad genius of Luthor implemented pre-John Byrne. If he cuts it all off, which some internet folks have already done so through Photoshop, he'll just disturbingly look like a Neo-Nazi or make everyone crave for Michael Rosenbaum of Smallville fame to play the character again.
Secondly, and more importantly, this will be just another DC movie iteration where a handsome super-jock ultimately defeats a nerdy, thinly-muscled villain. Where have we seen this pathetic rivalry template before? The fiasco that was known as Green Lantern.
Thirdly, just picture Eisenberg in Luthor's famous super-armor. No buys indeed.
I keep repeating myself after every one of these breaking news, proclaiming that I wholeheartedly believe that Snyder and Goyer will deliver another terrible film. Maybe I will have to eat crow and it will completely work on the cinema screen. But this latest casting decsion firmly shows these two numbskulls are from Bizarro World. I now rather want to read a book account of all of this production turmoil than actually see the final product.
Oh, and Jeremy Irons is our new Alfred. Not much to say about that.
Back when the Oscar nominations were first announced, I went on a mini-tirade on the inclusion of a song called "Alone Yet Not Alone", from the same titled movie, into the Best Song race. I complained about how the awful Christian ditty sneaked its way on to the ballot, thanks to the scuzzy insider practices perpetrated by one of its creators, Bruce Broughton. Late breaking news tonight has shown that justice was served harshly for this black eye.
In a rare act of punishment, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has removed the song from contention, due to the disgusting conduct of Broughton. No other song, sadly, will be taking its place.
Deadline has the full story here and Entertainment Weekly has some more notes here. Suffice to say, I'm overjoyed with the Academy's decision.
I can now be relieved that a second round of favors will not allow it to win come Oscar night. Now, if only that crummy U2 song was removed...
Breaking superhero casting news: Gal Gadot has been selected to play Wonder Woman in the upcoming Man of Steel sequel. Right now, nearly everyone around the world and web have the same thought: Who? Gadot is more well known for her recurring role in the Fast & Furious series.
My opinion will not be brief: I was really pulling more for Gadot's Fast & Furious 6 co-star Gina Carano to play the final pillar of DC Comics' Trinity. However, unlike a lot of people right now, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt until we all see her in the final cut. In case you don't remember, Wonder Woman has never graced the silver screen at all. There's no other film actresses before Gadot to compare to, unless you count Keri Russell's voice-over performance in the direct-to-video film done by Warner Bros. Animation. Plus, it's not fair to compare/contrast with her television iterations (Lynda Carter, Susan Eisenberg, Adrianne Palicki) because there are many clear distinctions between performing for the small screen and the cinema. Finally, it's not like The Dark Knight and The Man from Krypton had a perfect start in film; both Batman and Superman were unable to be blessed with master thespians in their film debuts (serial actors Lewis Wilson and Kirk Alyn respectively). So I tentatively wait to see how she walks into the role of The Goddess of Truth. Unfortunately, as stated before when Ben Affleck was announced as Batman, I still currently believe Snyder and Goyer will deliver another terrible film.
Many people approved this. So much for being the angsty alternative to Sam Raimi's vision.
Good News! The Wolf of Wall Street isn't being delayed as previously feared, thus justifying why I don't like writing posts around rumors. The film is to come out on Christmas Day, filling up the Dragon Tattoo/Django slot for those movie-going adults looking for non-white samurai or Southern fried gothic flicks.
Bad News! There's another body to add to the pile: The Monuments Men has been moved to 2014, removing it from the Oscar competition.
According to The L.A. Times, George Clooney and crew were rushing to finish it, the same reason as a lot of these fall movies. Instead of half-assing it, Clooney and the studio decided to push the movie to a new date next year so the visual effects could be properly implemented. The article even states that at the time of interviewing him, Clooney was getting ready to record the score(!). He also stated that he wasn't really expecting any Oscar buzz for it; apparently, he hasn't seen the latest trailer done by Sony's marketing department, which removes the humor in the first trailer in favor of sweeping music and important mission statements about art and life in the second one.
To make delay matters worse, this continuing news story has often gone hand-in-hand with the news about the return of "Harvey Scissorhands", the crude yet justified name for producer Harvey Weinstein in relation to his treatment of re-cutting foreign films for the American brain dead, one of which is The Grace of Monaco.
Also, yes, Jack Ryan will be coming out, though it too may be delayed. However, I won't write another one of these for it because the trailer is so incredibly boring (Paranoia 2?) and I simply don't care.
Major bad news for many Oscar watchers and those who write up seasonal overviews: several major films expected to compete for next year's awards have chosen to throw in the towel.
Foxcatcher and Grace of Monaco have both been delayed to an unspecific time in 2014. The former had its trailer leak out yesterday before it was quickly removed and its delay was made official. The latter film, which was designed to give its actress some easy nominations, will instead have to wait.
The worst news has been the rumors surrounding the highly anticipated The Wolf of Wall Street. It has been speculated that Martin Scorsese needs more time in the editing room, meaning no dancing DiCaprio for anyone this Christmas season.
Other than post-production problems, or the fact that they may actually suck, it seems all of them were pulled out due to the perceived expectations of other Oscar hopefuls, including next week's Gravity and the acclaim train that is 12 Years a Slave. A logical understanding, even though we are still getting ghastly swill like The Book Thief. Sometimes, a delay can benefit a release: The Great Gatsby was moved to this summer and though it drew mixed critical notices, the film was profitable with audiences and is expected to sweep up a few production awards.
Now, can someone prove to me that Jack Ryan is coming out?
Breaking superhero casting news: Bradley Cooper has been selected to voice Rocket Raccoon in next year's Guardians of the Galaxy, as announced tonight by Marvel Comics. The actor was the long-rumored choice for the role.
Like last week's announcement, my opinion is brief: I really like Bradley Cooper as an actor (hence why he was my top male pick of last year). I believe James Gunn will deliver another eccentrically exciting film.
In late breaking news for the night, Ben Affleck has been selected to play Bruce Wayne/Batman in the upcoming untitled Superman/Batman film. It has also been announced that the film will come out on July 17th, 2015.
My opinion is brief: I love Affleck as a director. As an actor, I'm not so hot. I still believe Snyder and Goyer will deliver another terrible film.
For of those of you who haven't been weened on golden film lore, The Day the Clown Cried is one of the most highly anticipated films ever to not be released to the public. The film was a passion project for comedian turned director Jerry Lewis that proved to be a major death kneel for his career and the biggest source of his derision. Its plot revolves around a deadbeat clown who is captured and imprisoned by the Nazis during WWII and the film climaxes with an infamous ending, where Lewis' character leads a group of children into a concentration camp's "showers". Remember, this is supposed to be a wacky comedy from a man who didn't know the meaning of subtle.
Over the weekend, a YouTube user by the name "unclesporkums" was noticed for uploading a short making of documentary of the film. Taken from the Belgian website Cobra.be, where it was originally posted back on April 9, 2012(!), the video mostly consists of three gags set at a circus: a candle that refuses to light Lewis' cigarette, a paper airplane that "comically" becomes real off-screen, and a juggling act. The latter is shown raw as Lewis is constantly flummoxed by the juggling and the mis-steps of his crew. The rest of the footage shows him working behind the camera, applying his make-up, and having a soft-ball conversation about the idea of temporary music, complete with a pretentious statement of it being something passed down by Charlie Chaplin and the silent era.
This is a great find for cinephiles and may once again lead to many asking the grumpy star to finally bring the film out from the vaults.
Well, I did one for Tiger Mask, I might as well do one for another anime adaptation.
Gatchaman was most widely known here in the West as Battle of the Planets, then later as G-Force, in the early days of television anime exports. Given the Japanese nickname of "Science Ninja Team", the group fought the evil army of Galactor, using the weapons and features of their color-coded bird outfits when karate didn't get the job down. When it came over to the States, the anime was widely stripped away of its more controversial features, such as the heroes fragrantly killing their opponents or the fact that the their recurring adversary Zoltar was transgender.
The film adaptation, coming courtesy from Toho Studios, looks to be pretty lame, as judged by its trailer. The signature costumes are more bulky and non-flattering, it has the budget of an average Power Rangers episode, and the finale apparently will be set in a dark cave to hide the shortcomings of the set. Not even a "homage" of the The Avengers 360° spin can generate any excitement. If all of the melancholy and angst doesn't draw you in, maybe the theme song by BUMP OF CHICKEN will!
...and he looks like a hardcore Power Ranger, certainly not in a good way.
For those of you not in the know, Tiger Mask is a Japanese comic book character whose popularity and legacy continue to reverberate today. He is a super-powered professional wrestler who fights for the forces of good and the orphanage that he protects and grew up in, against the evils spewing from the Tiger's Cave. The character's manga and later anime television series were also notable for featuring cameos from actual professional wrestlers from the JWA promotion, such as the legendary Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki.
Though he peaked in 1971, the character was later adapted into the Japanese wrestling (puroresu) scene, first played by Satoru Sayama. Starting from his amazing debut match, thanks largely to the innate skills of Sayama and his opponent the Dynamite Kid, the possible joke became a overnight superstar. The persona of Tiger Mask has been handed down to several others, including Mitsuharu Misawa, Koji Kanemoto, and the current fourth iteration. Capitalizing on the success, the villainous Black Tiger was also devised for the ring, usually with a foreign (gaijin) wrestler under the mask.
Beside the squared circle, Tiger Mask has remained in the spotlight thanks to the popular Tekken video game series, featuring the homage character of King in all entries. In recent years, there have been many news stories of unexplained gifts being given to orphanages and other child-related charities, all bearing the name of "Naota Date" (the real name of the character).
Coming out this November, this will be the first live-action film adaptation of the character. From the recent 30-second trailer clip, it looks very worrying. The tone and costume design seem to be following the same problems that plagued the Casshern and Devilman films: everything's depressing and the outfit is overtly complicated. The last shot, the thing that is supposed to get us excited for the film, is the main character shedding a tear on his mask. Thrilling.
Goddammit, not again! It seems that every time I do a film season overview, something highly expected of mine gets instantly re-scheduled.
As first reported by Shock Til You Drop, the remake of Carrie, originally set to be released on March 15th, has been moved to October 18th.
Theories for the delay include more time for post-production and effects or a better schedule and timing. The latter makes more sense, since October is the right time for horror movies, not to mention the film's better chances of succeeding over the dilapidating Paranormal Activity series. Also, the film would originally receive a second place box office placement at best, after the expected success and second week holdover of Oz: The Great and Powerful.
Am I really disappointed for the delay? No, not really but it still stinks and leaves a gap open in March; I'm absolutely not going to watch The Incredible Burt Wonderstone instead. However, if the delay is for re-shoots with the cast dancing Debbie Allen style and singing "Kill the Pig! Kill the Pig!" and "Cracker Jack!", then the film will certainly be a hate-watch experience.
So, get used to seeing the following poster (with the bottom left text blurred out) hanging around your theaters for a long time this year.
The eastern half of America is reeling from a truly devastating hurricane, political-mania is still running wild with only a week away from Election Day, and now, the world of entertainment thought it was to best to drop a major bombshell that will impact the landscape of the field. Announced today, The Walt Disney Company has bought up Star Wars.
What did it cost to buy the king of all franchises, despite a multitude of fan outrage since the prequel misfires? $4.05 billion worth of cold hard cash and stocks. The Star Wars franchise now shares the company of Pixar and Marvel Comics as the next major juggernaut in the field of family entertainment to be under the Disney brand.
But it gets better/worst: They have also announced plans for Episode 7! Holy crap! The expected film is to come out in 2015 and is sure to follow the aftermath of Return of the Jedi and/or one of the many, many, many future stories written, drawn, or played about since the 1983 film. Of course, the beloved trio of the original films will probably be replaced for a "new generation" of heroes.
This major development comes after the major news story early in the year where George Lucas was said to be stepping down from the responsibilities of his company in order to start crafting more personal projects, such as this year's Red Tails.
We are indeed witnessing major business and pop culture history being made today.
