Archive for December 18th, 2007
Posted by: in Hollywood news
Filed under: Action, Casting, Sony, RumorMonger, Fandom, James Bond, Remakes and Sequels, Daniel Craig
.jpg) With pre-production now officially underway on Bond 22 — or 007, if you believe the wild and unsubstantiated rumors — more and more of the pieces will be falling into place as to what we can actually expect. To start things off, Bond fan site MI6 has picked up some photos from a British tabloid that show Daniel Craig racing speedboats in a Hampshire lake, and Craig reportedly let slip to someone that the script for the new film contains no car chases, so get ready for a lot of boat racing. Like most aspects of this production so far, I’m not too thrilled with this idea — boat racing has already been done to death in the Bond series and, come to think of it, even in other series like Indiana Jones. What more can be done? I guess I’ll have to give them the benefit of the doubt until I see some footage.
In other Bond news, the BBC is reporting that Cardiff University is now offering 007 studies as one of those throwaway undergraduate courses the way American universities will sometimes offer courses in Star Trek or Madonna or things like that. They never offered those at my college, by the way, though I wish they would have — I could have used the grade point boost. The Bond course is a ten-week course that examines Ian Fleming’s most famous character in terms of its significance historically and culturally.
One final note, concerning all the early speculation about Gemma Arterton being possibly cast as the next Bond girl — if anything, she looks like a Moneypenny to me. She’s 22, for starters, with a background in comedy and a very non-traditional look for a Bond love interest. I’m calling this one early — if she’s in, she’s Moneypenny.
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Posted by: in Hollywood news
Filed under: Action, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, Trailers and Clips
 UPDATE: The Dark Knight full-length, crystal clear trailer is now online and available right here. Check it out! Looks nice.
In crappy, YouTube boot-legged video! First came The Dark Knight trailer, and now someone has cleverly put that six-minute IMAX clip online as well. Ya know, part of me understands why Warner Bros. didn’t release the two clips online the same day they were in theaters with I Am Legend, and I’m sure those folks who watched the pirated copies are still going to watch the new, HD versions when they’re finally released to the online world, but it still sucks to see it for the first time in this kind of quality. Of course, you can argue that I or we shouldn’t watch it. Valid point. But how can you not watch it? It’s like asking a little kid if he’d rather open up his Christmas gifts now or later. What do you think he’d answer?
I have to say, though, unlike Ryan I really liked both the trailer and the IMAX footage. They’re calling this a Joker prologue, but we don’t see him actually becoming the Joker — this is more of a setup to show you how badass the guy is. Before everyone in Gotham City knows his name. And William Fichtner’s cameo as the bank’s boss is awesome. Love Fichtner! Love the tone. Love the idiotic baddies. And the Joker’s entrance is pretty damn cool. If this is the way The Dark Knight begins, then I’m sure we’re in store for one helluva sequel. Cannot wait. The Dark Knight arrives in theaters on July 18, the full-length trailer will most likely arrive via this link later on today, and you can see the six-minute IMAX clip after the jump (though I’m sure it will be taken down soon). Let us know what you think.
Continue reading UPDATE: The Dark Knight IMAX Footage Now Online! Trailer Finally Hits!
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Posted by: in Hollywood news
Filed under: Action, Drama, Fandom, 12 Days of Cinematicalmas, Retro Cinema
No Christmas is complete without at least one viewing of the opening scene of Lethal Weapon, in which the happy melody of Jingle Bell Rock fades into the vision of a coked-out, topless Amanda Hunsaker preparing to pay for all the sins of 80s excess with one perfectly executed swan-dive off a high-rise balcony and onto the waiting windshield of a car below. I won’t be so brash as to call it the best scene in the entire Lethal canon — the ‘death by surfboard’ sequence in Lethal Weapon 2 is tough to beat — but it’s certainly up there, and fun for the whole family. It’s also one of several Christmas-focused scenes throughout the film, another favorite of which would be the coke-deal gone bad in the Christmas tree lot, with Martin Riggs unwisely revealing himself as a cop to the bad guys before he has the drop on them — what is he, suicidal or something? — and then getting into a full-blown gunfight with several hoods amongst all those pine needles.
Lethal Weapon has some similarities with another Christmas classic, Gremlins, in that it draws a lot of its negative energy from the idea that if your life sucks, it’s going to suck a lot worse during the holidays. The film’s most resonating scene — the one for which a set trailer reportedly had to be ready-made at all times for whenever Mel Gibson felt like he could act the scene — comes with Riggs being overcome by the absence of his recently-deceased wife (those South African bastards) and putting a hollow-point bullet into his 9mm and putting the 9mm in his mouth. Just as he’s about to depress the trigger, you can hear Bugs Bunny shouting Christmas tidings on the television opposite, and it looks like it’s all over. It’s easy to overlook how good the acting is here — Mel is really firing on all cylinders in the scene. I have no idea if he’s ever done a DVD commentary for the film, but if he has I’d probably want to listen to hear what he has to say about that scene.
Continue reading Retro Cinema: Lethal Weapon
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Posted by: in Hollywood news
Filed under: Action, Drama, Foreign Language, Independent, Box Office, Cinematical Indie
 Even as Will Smith battles for his life in I Am Legend, the film is set to fight it out with Hong Kong action epic The Warlords for box office supremacy in Asia this weekend. Who will win? Will and his dog will have to come from behind because The Warlords is already ahead. Variety reports that the film “rampaged across Asia in its six territory day-and-date” premiere on Thursday.
Compared to the US, the numbers may be small, but everything is relative: $1.77 million on opening day in Mainland China, plus $1.22 million in receipts from sneak previews on Wednesday. Preview and opening day audiences in Hong Kong added $215,000 to the take, while the picture also did well in wide release in Singapore ($119,000) and Malaysia ($54,300). The Warlords also launched in Thailand on Thursday, in Indonesia on Friday, and will expand to Taiwan on December 28. Meanwhile, I Am Legend premieres in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan this weekend, according to Variety, and is expected to do well “given the foreign appeal of Will Smith and the offshore appetite for action.”
The Warlords stars Jet Li, Andy Lau, and Takeshi Kaneshiro in a film that director Peter Chan says was inspired by his watching Chang Cheh’s Blood Brothers as a young boy in 1973. He told Yvonne Teh of BC Magazine that when he revisited it as an adult, he felt that the movie was “too simple for today,” so he “started digging into history and into the background of the period of the Taiping Revolution where 70 million people were killed in a matter of 14 years.” Early reviews have been positive with some reservations (The Visitor at Twitch) and no reservations (Stefan at Twitch). Sounds like Jet Li’s record paycheck has been earned. Too bad we don’t have any word on a North American distribution deal.
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Posted by: in Hollywood news
Filed under: Action, Remakes and Sequels, Images
 Yeah, so I wasn’t too into the whole John Rambo movie until I saw the trailer. Then everything changed. There’s just something about a guy who is seriously, and not in a Kill Bill fashion, killing every guy in the goriest, toughest way possible. The trailer looks all sorts of campy, action-film awesome — fresh-looking with that feel of the action-packed ’80s where dudes like Sly, Jean Claude, Dolph, and a certain Chuck thrived. The only problem I have is with these damned pictures. Some are cool, but some, like the last one I blogged about, just slide into the goofy side of camp. And no, this isn’t because I’m “too pink” as one commenter amusingly suggested.
When I see a picture, I just want to get amped about the film, not find myself giggling — especially when it’s a bloody action movie. The still with Sly and the snake — it had some humor. The picture to the right, this one amused me even more. Courtesy of MTV, this puppy has Rambo taking aim with his bow while sporting his furrowed brow and pursed lips. Unfortunately, it looks like one of those times where you try to make the real serious face and it just tries to come off as a fake attempt. Stallone looks half tough here, and half pouty, like he’s about to just thrown down his bow and complain. Or, that a guy behind the camera is telling Sly not to laugh, and he’s trying so very hard to keep himself serious.
But that’s okay. The actual action looks all sorts of awesome, and I’m ready to see him save Julie Benz. How about you?
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Filed under: Audio/Video, YouTube, Video Junkie
The power of so-called New Media is again on display as a YouTube political attack ad makes mainstream media headlines. Wired reports that a 58-second video vilifying Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has generated 47,955 hits since Thursday on the popular video Web site. The ad, made by 29-year-old Republican Keith Emis, criticizes the former governor of Arkansas for paroling incarcerated serial rapist Wayne Dumond, who murdered Carol Sue Shields upon his early release.
Emis collaborated with a friend who specializes in video production on the YouTube clip. The video recounts the circumstances surrounding Shield’s death, beginning with a close-up of her mother, Lois Davidson, who grimly states that her daughter “won’t be home for Christmas this year.” Emis denies that he created the video to discredit Huckabee on behalf of another Republican candidate that he may support, like Fred Thompson, as some have suggested.
The YouTube piece marks the increasing influence of internet-based media on traditional media and, consequently, the American political arena, having prompted the Huckabee campaign to respond on the campaign Web site and on CNN (and posting the rejoinder on YouTube). Indeed, some pundits say the allegations that Huckabee pressed for Dumond’s premature release may prove to be politically damaging. Others argue that his clean image as a Baptist Minister will not be tarnished by a Web-based media assault. Regardless, it is clear that the supremacy of traditional media in capturing the news and informing and influencing the public is being challenged by the all-access nature of the Internet.
Then again, pundits have been saying the Internet is making a big difference in elections for 10 years, but has the Internet ever really elected a president, or has it just created hype around candidates who eventually lose? Time will tell whether the Internet decides who won the 2008 presidential election.
From Wired
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Filed under: Computers
Now we know how the robots are going to finance their revolution: Chat bots will seduce you into coughing up personal information. Cyberlover, one of these bots, is sold by a Russian company of the same name. The program targets women and convinces them to give up phone numbers, photos, and other personal info.
The program can track every target it talks to, building profiles, and managing several contacts at once. Supposedly the bot sells for only $24.95, but the front page for the software is simply a collection of dead links. According to the site, the whole operation will be back up and running by February 15.
Chat bots are primarily a nuisance, spreading spam and collecting contact information, but they are an important stepping stone on the road to true artificial intelligence. Creating a computer program that can hold a believable human conversation is the holy grail for bot creators.
The lesson to be learned is a simple one: Think twice before you give out information to a random chatty lover.
Not all chat bots are evil, though. Check out these helpful and fun ones:
- Imified - not a real proper ‘bot’ but you can access notes, calender, and contacts with this service.
- Smarterchild - This little guy knows just about anything you could ask, and can do so much we can’t even begin to explain it here.
- Virtual Secretary - like Imified with a more limited scope and packaged as a proper bot.
From BetaNews
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Filed under: Computers, Top Lists
The boys in Redmond just can’t catch a break. Every time Vista makes the press it’s pretty much so the media can beat up on the Operating System that couldn’t. And PC World has just put anoter nail in Vista’s shrink-wrapped coffin.
We love December, it’s the most wonderful time of the year: list time! PC World has released their 15 Most Disappointing Tech Products of 2007, and topping that list is Vista. Why? Five years in the making and the best Microsoft could come up with is a very shiny, slightly annoying, absurdly overpriced software package that is missing some of the most exciting features that were promised by Microsoft when the project was still called Longhorn.
To be fair, every semi-hyped gadget and technology trend made the list. Social Networks, the Zune, Leopard, the iPhone, and Office 2007 were all in there. But, we certainly agree that Vista deserves to be at the top of this heap ‘o’ crap.
From PC World
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Filed under: Cellphones
Consider the iPhone knockoff market’s bar officially raised. No longer is it enough to swipe designs and iconography, now you must master the fine art of infomercials to hock your wares. This iClone thinks different with maps, photos, a motion sensor (which apparently causes its users to keep shaking the thing like a maraca), orientation sensor, Bluetooth music playback (but apparently not stereo?), 1GB of memory (via microSD), and a whole lot of impressed, devout fans in the commercial. Video after the break.
[Via Engadget Chinese]
Continue reading Keepin’ it real fake, part CII: Chinese iPhone knockoff thinks different (with infomercial)
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
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The winner in a game of soccer is often determined by the smallest of margins, one goal dividing the victor from the vanquished. It is no surprise, then, that a source of dispute between fans, players and coaches from opposing teams has frequently been whether the ball did in fact cross the goal line on a contested shot. Luckily, the Daily Mail reports that a developing technology may soon outfit soccer balls with sensors that tell referees whether the ball has crossed the line for a score or not.
To make the technology work, wires are planted on the field around the goals. These wires emit a magnetic field, locating the soccer ball that is specially-outfitted with a sensor. When the ball is shot toward the goalmouth, an encrypted signal informs referees whether the ball crossed the line for a goal. After a successful trial at a match in Japan, officials for England’s Premier League will decide if they will adopt the technology in league play. The decision will also be put before the International Football Association Board, the body that governs tournament play across the world for events like the World Cup.
The technology’s only shortcoming, it seems, is that it will rob super-fan soccer hooligans of a long-cherished reason to fight each other.
From the Daily Mail
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