Twilight Gets A Sequel...Before It Is Released

More news for you Twilight fans out there. The sequel for this movie already has been green-lit. The Movie Blog tells us:

Although this franchise already has 4 books and the big plan was always to make all of them into movies… the studios will usually wait to see how the first film turns out and performs before giving the official green light to any sequels (does anyone remember Eragon?). However, it seems that the studio has already seen enough excitement from the fans to move forward with plans for Twilight 2 (New Moon) weeks before the first film even hits the theaters.

Please lord, can we stop talking about fricken Twilight? I haven't seen the movie, I haven't read the book, but I'm already sick of the damn thing! We get it, it's a popular book series and the movie is gonna make a lot of money (Don't even try to deny it. Even if it sucks, this movie's gonna be making a lot of dough.) but the hype for this movie is unbelievable! On the other hand, just a few months ago I was flipping out over The Dark Knight, so who am I to judge?

Anyway, this doesn't come as a surprise. Whether you like it or not, Twilight is gonna make money. So it's only natural they want to get all these movies done as quickly as possible before they have to explain why their vampires keep aging despite them being vampires.

Poster for Pixar's Up

Behold, the newest one-sheet for the much anticipated Pixar movie Up, coming to theaters summer 2009. This is by far one of my most anticipated movies for next year. It seems Pixar can do no wrong, and I have a feeling this movie won't break this trend. Thanks to /Film for the heads up.

A Shot of Nostalgia: How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Missed the first one? Read it here.

I know what your thinking. "Oh, the Grinch! You mean the classic Chuck Jones 30 minute cartoon that was made in the 60's? Oh yeah, that's loaded with Nostalgia." Well, your wrong. I'm reviewing the 2000-Jim-Carrey-starring-Ron-Howard-directed version. Ho ho ho!


Before we start this, I've got something to say. I didn't think I ever would have to say this, nor am I proud of it, but I need to get this off my chest before we start. Otherwise I won't be able to do this properly. You ready?

I kinda like this movie.

Now hold your fire! I'm going to tell you why this movie doesn't suck half as hard as you think it does. First of all, let me tell you what seeing this movie was like as an 8 year old. I live out in the boonies. Our biggest movie theater hold less than 200 people, and that's in the biggest theater they got! So when you go to see a movie, there are usually not that many people in the theater, maybe half the theater is full, tops. But with The Grinch, that way not the case. The whole theater was packed! And I don't mean packed as in all the seats were full. I mean packed as in people were sitting in the aisles and climbing on the walls to get a better view over the mass of people. Never was I in a theater where the audience was this excited to see a movie until Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest a couple years later.

Then the movie started, and the audience was so responsive to everything that was happening on screen. I'd compare it more towards when I saw "Weird Al" Yankovic in concert than a typical movie screening. Cheering along with laughing consistently throughout the movie. It was incredible and my favorite movie screening I've ever attended.

But you don't want to listen to me blabber about the movie theater I was in when first saw it. You want to know whether the movie itself is good. Well, it's not great, but certainly not worth all the terrible criticism this movie gets. Lets start off with the bad stuff. The flashbacks to when the Grinch was young are awful. Yuck. Watching them are painful. And Cindy Lou Who is really annoying. She's cute at first, but soon your just annoyed they're spending so much time on her in the movie. She's simply too altruistic. She also can't sing. "Where are You Christmas?" is just a bad song, and nothing you can say will change my mind. You could tell me "If you listen to this song, I'll give 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 dollars to charity," and I'd still say no. Partly because I know you are lying. Nobody has that much money. Most of the side characters are pretty bad too. Molly Shannon, who usually makes me laugh pretty hard, just couldn't get a giggle out of me.

Now for the good. First off, Jim Carrey is my hero forever. He is brilliant in this movie. I don't even know why, but that's part of the magic of it. He's just a funny guy to watch on screen, I guess. And the supporting cast did a pretty good job for the most part. Jeffery Tambor as the mayor was awesome! I love him! His character was pretty lame and cliche, but he definitely made the most of it.

Maybe I'm just an immature person, but some of the jokes did make me laugh. For instance, when Grinch says "This could change my entire outlook on life!" to which Cindy replies "Really?", and the Grinch says "No" and promply sends her through a tube that sends her into a garbage dump. AHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHhahahahahahah heh heh a ha. Well, it was funny at the time.

I don't know. It's certainly not a good movie, but as a kids movie it has it's charms and it won't make a parent want to maim themselves alive, like some movies out there. Still, I suggest sticking to Chuck Jones' classic cartoon version. This is alright. That is timeless.

September/October=No Good Movies

I love autumn.

I love the temperature, I love the colors that trees turn, I love how it's when my birthday is (October 8th baby!), and I love how it's when Halloween comes around. Yes, fall is a pretty kick ass time of year.

What I don't like, however, is how Hollywood decides to not release any good movies within the months of September and October. Seriously! What movies have come out recently that I care about? Eagle Eye? Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist? Beverly Hills Chihuahua?!?! Come on Hollywood, throw me a bone here!

Yes, the summer blockbuster season just ended and come November the movie titles will pick up, but isn't their any movies that are good which can be released within these two months? When the only movie I'm interested in seeing for two months is Burn After Reading, then we have a problem. Over the summer I can walk into a movie theater blindfolded and probably see a movie I was interested in. And studios don't release any Oscar bait because apparently Academy members have an attention span of 2 months and can't remeber any movies that are released prior to November.

I feel lost here. Come on guys, don't spill all your crap on us during September, October, and January. Spread it out, along with the good movies, over the course of the year. Anyway, I'm just venting here. Not like I have anything better to do. It's sad when the biggest movie release of the fall is Iron Man on DVD.

Ridley Scott Directing The Forever War

Fresh off of Body of Lies, it seems that Ridley Scott's next movie will be an science fiction epic! The Movie Blog reports:

“I first pursued ‘Forever War’ 25 years ago, and the book has only grown more timely and relevant since,” Scott told the trade. “It’s a science-fiction epic, a bit of ‘The Odyssey’ by way of ‘Blade Runner,’ built upon a brilliant, disorienting premise.”

The book revolves around a soldier who battles an enemy in deep space for only a few months, only to return home to a planet he doesn’t recognize some 20 years later, Scott said.

I must say that I am very very happy about this news! Scott has made a lot of movies over the years, some good and some bad, but I think we can all agree that his best movies tend to be his sci-fi movies, from Blade Runner to, one of my all time favorites, Alien. Seeing him back in his element is really great! Plus I'm always up for a good old futuristic war movie. Lets hope this doesn't go down the Starship Troopers route.

Twilight Trailer

Yup, here's a look at the newest trailer for the movie Twilight, based on the bestselling book.

Ehhhhh...I don't like it. Certainly is a huge step up from the abysmal teaser trailer, but that's not saying much. I've never read the books, but the movie itself just looks more horrible and horrible. The cheap production value, the poor casting, acting that sends me into convulsions, it all points towards a bad movie. Which is a shame to all the Twilight fans out there. I remember seeing the god-awful Eragon, which was based on one of my favorite books of recent years, and I'm expecting a similar fallout come November.

But I'm afraid that fans will be blinded by their love of the books. Look guys, Twilight may be the best book ever written and Stephenie Meyers may be the next Hemingway, but that doesn't change the fact that your movie is gonna suck. It may be a bit pretensious to be judgeing the movie before I see it, but I'm predicting that this will get a 30-something rating over at Rotten Tomatoes.

Whatever, I'm not seeing it. James Bond beats horny vampires.

Tron 2 is 3D

If you like Tron and 3D, then do I have news for you! /Film reports:

TR2N director Joseph Kosinski over the weekend, who revealed that not only was the Comic Con test footage filmed in steroscopic 3D, but the final film will also be filmed and released using the latest in 3D technology.

Urg. I don't see why people are going loco over this whole 3D thing. To me, 3D is really really distracting and takes away from the movie experience. Roger Ebert put it best, 3D seems wrong because it is wrong, at least from a perspective angle. Things don't bounce out at you in real life, they stay put! Plus I hate the whole glasses thing. That can really annoy me halfway through a movie. The only movies worth seeing in 3D are the old explotive movies, just for the novelty factor alone.

I don't see what people are freaking out about with TR2N. I hated the first Tron. I don't see why people are so excited to see a sequel to what is a pretty bad movie in the first place. Don't get me wrong, I like Jeff Bridges. I just thought that Tron was just a mediocre movie that deserved going down in history as a flop, as it should be. Fanboys, bring it on!