REVIEW: Thank the heavens & keep the faith! Ray’s first theatrical review since August & he’s getting all RELIGULOUS!

Religion has been as helpful to man in his quest for knowledge and enlightenment as anal sex has been to incontinence; every time you give it a go, you have weaker grasp of reality and inevitable disaster follows.

As you can see, I have a fairly combative view of all religions. I look at the universe and our majestic planet, or the intricate weavings inside our recently-unearthed genome, and I marvel at the intelligence, beauty, and tranquility of a loving Creator. I look at any of the religions claiming to represent him/her/it (as to not offend anyone, of course) on the planet, and I cringe at their disgusting, blasphemous misrepresentation.

Bill Maher, a staunch and unapologetic atheist (although I think he almost prefers “rationalist” instead, since atheist implies religious overtones), feels all religions are a “neurological disorder” of Biblical proportions, so to speak. In his new film, RELIGULOUS, he travels the world with director Larry Charles in search of answers to the entire God question and the perilous vacuum hiding behind it.

While the film does focus almost too heavily on so-called “Christian” religions based supposedly on the Bible, Maher attempts even-handedness by tackling Jewish, Muslim, and Mormon faiths as well. Along the way, assorted roadside weirdos and backwater nutjobs appear to give their humorous and occasionally terrifying religious views. This broad and fairly scattershot look at these religions - often for the sake of humor - works in part because Maher’s anger and frustration lies with the entire group of them, rather than one in particular. To him, the garbage dumping from the top spire at the Vatican is just as insane as the actor playing Jesus in a Bible amusement park, and so they are equally eviscerated.

The main problem with the film from my personal viewpoint, having studied the Bible for many years, is that he simply doesn’t have all of his facts straight concerning some things.
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Categories: Bill Maher, RELIGULOUS, Reviews

Travis Wright talks BLADE RUNNER 2

Last week, fanboys and I’m sure some film historians were aghast with the news that at one time EAGLE EYE writers Travis Wright and John Glenn had been hired to write a sequel to Ridley Scott’s early 80’s classic BLADE RUNNER which would set out to answer the many mysteries that play their part in making the first movie so full of longevity.

Soon after Wright made the announcement (which he coincides was a mistake) of the seqeul, Glenn came out and publicly stated he no longer had anything to do with the project. But what of Wright, was he still working on a sequel to one of the most critically lauded science fiction films of all time, or as I said at the time was it dead before we even knew anything about it?

Wright has attempted to answer these questions in an e-mail to /film…

• He confirms that he was paid by Warner Bros. to come up with a script for BLADE RUNNER 2, a job he soon wishes to fullfil but reiterates that no script has ever been written as of yet.

• He confirms that John Glenn hasn’t worked with him on this particular project for years but does admit that he could receive a screenplay credit depending on how much of his ideas end up in any potential finished script.

• Working with the original movie’s producer Bud Yorkin, both Wright and Glenn pitched many ideas for how the sequel should go but were turned down by the studio. This was between 2003 and 2005.

Questions he wanted to explore with his sequel…

What does it mean to be human? That’s the central question in life and the paramount question in Science Fiction.  More pointedly: Is or isn’t Deckard a replicant? What happens to Rachel?  What are the off world colonies like? What happens to replicants once Tyrell is killed by one of his creations?

Outside of BLADE RUNNER, he has been writing a “space movie on the epic level of STAR WARS” titled THE THIRD FLOOR and has been working closely with Bud Yorkin on it.

Categories: Blade Runner 2, Blade-Runner, Movie News, Travis Wright

Columbus Short in talks for LETHAL WEAPON 5

It’s on… Joel Silver is fast tracking LETHAL WEAPON at Warner Bros and has begun talking to potential actors for the first Shane Black scripted movie in the series since the original 1987 Richard Donner directed classic.

STOMP THE YARD lead Columbus Short has told IGN that he has spoken with Silver about the role of Murtaugh’s son (Danny Glover’s characters son) and mentions both Glover and Mel Gibson in his interview, as if both vets are already on board.

After a good amount of false starts, this new attempt to crack a LETHAL WEAPON return may just be happening and I’ve been all for it since Shane Black handed in his screenplay, I have complete faith in his ability to write the best possible movie for this franchise.

More so than ROCKY, RAMBO, DIE HARD… I say LETHAL WEAPON has the most chance of working today. It was never about how fit or strong you were, it was about being charismatic and funny, with a smart themed screenplay behind you. Neither Glover, Gibson, Black or hell, even Richard Donner are over the hill, they could all still do this.

via - coming soon

Categories: Columbus Short, Danny-Glover, Lethal-Weapon-5, Mel-Gibson, Movie News, Richard-Donner, Shane Black

Is Paul Andrew Willaims directing 28 MONTHS LATER?

The great news coming out of the Stiges Film Festival (no, I’ve never heard of it either) is that Paul Andrew Williams, the director of the low budget British splatter THE COTTAGE is being lined up to direct 28 MONTHS LATER.

That’s the third part of the “LATER” series of zombie movies which seems to be taking it’s cue from the cinema of George A. Romero by continually moving forward and changing the landscape environment of the zombie afflicition as it spreads throughout the world.

28 MONTHS LATER was briefly spoken about just after 28 WEEKS LATER opened but despite WEEKS LATER being majorly well liked by those who saw it (I was damn near in love with the movie last May), a sequel was not put into motion for because it didn’t make enough money.

But since then Danny Boyle has been vocally active about getting the series up and running again and they may well have convinced a studio there is still lots of life left in this franchise. And I would agree, the way the last movie ended I would love to see the invasion on other countries and the the idea of a 28 YEARS LATER is just so cool to think about.

I wanna see two more movies from this franchise. But I will say, the new guy, Mr. Williams, will have to take it up a major gear to live up to the high standard the last movie set. You can read my review of his film THE COTTAGE HERE.

source - arrow in the head

via - filmstalker

Categories: 28-Months-Later, 28-Weeks-Later, Danny-Boyle, Movie News, Paul Andrew Willaims

“Pretty little Anna, you’re not going to ruin this for me” - THE UNINVITED trailer!

Elizabeth Banks made a great horror victim in the 2006 B-Movie SLITHER but in a complete reversal of fortune here she is playing one helluva bitch stepmother in THE UNINVITED, the first studio feature length movie from the directing brothers Charles & Thomas Guard.

It’s a remake of the popular 2003 Korean movie A TALE OF TWO SISTERS, a movie that was an effective chiller from the peak of that awesome few years of Korean horror where you were getting six or seven genre pieces that were pissing on anything Hollywood had to offer. The movie was about two sisters who, after spending time in a mental institution, return to the home of their father and cruel stepmother.

They have kept the same plot for the remake…

Everything that doesn’t involve Banks, I’m not sure I’m fond of. Most explicitly how much the 2.19 minute trailer gives away. The direction feels a little hoaky, the acting from the two young leads feels a little sloppy and the trailer is more than a little confusing to follow.

But all in all, it just looks like the typical Hollywood remake of a very good Asian horror. See MIRRORS, THE EYE, etc, if you liked those - you know what your getting yourself in for here.

THE UNINVITED opens January 30th but not until May 29th in the U.K.

Categories: A-Tale-of-Two-Sisters, Charles-Guard, Elizabeth-Banks, Movie News, The Uninvited, Thomas-Guard, Trailers

Major, Major, Major, QUANTUM OF SOLACE spoilers in Sunday’s DAILY MAIL!

It’s unfortunate that with only three weeks until the release of QUANTUM OF SOLACE that the end fate of one major character from the film has been revealed in a National British Newspaper.

The images came in yesterday’s Daily Mail as part of their “Life” magazine supplement and I’m absolutely shocked that the producers at Columbia pictures would be so forthright in releasing such a major spoiler for their upcoming film. Though I can see why it would drum up interest.

WITH ONLY 3 WEEKS AND CHANGE UNTIL QUANTUM OF SOLACE OPENS IN THE U.K, CAN YOU RESIST FINDING OUT WHICH MEMORABLE BOND MOMENT, QUANTUM OF SOLACE HAS LIFTED?

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Categories: Daniel-Craig, Marc-Forster, Mathieu-Amalric, Movie News, Olga-Kurylenko, Quantum of Solace, gemma-arterton

Cult Actors #10: Dwight Frye

He had a laugh like fingernails down an icy spine and a 1000 watt stare that could power a crazy house. Dwight Frye, the effete character actor who made his name in films like DRACULA (1931) and FRANKENSTEIN (1931), was one of cinema’s first lunatics. He giggled his way out of a world of gothic castles and macabre murders and left his demented precence locked inside the dark recesses of our minds. It’s easy to imagine him waiting between takes in a straightjacket.

He was known as a crazy, but before heading west to Hollywood, Frye was acclaimed for his versatility on the Broadway stage. He could disappear into a role and turn his hand at anything from comedy and drama to musicals and vaudeville.

His boyish looks saw him cast as, “the son” in a 1922 production of SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR and in 1926 he appeared opposite Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi in the comedy THE DEVIL AND THE CHEESE. Three years later Frye was voted by critics as one of the 10 best actors of the legitimate stage. He had the makings of a star.

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Categories: Cult Actors, Dwight Frye

Bill Murray reveals his GHOSTBUSTERS 2 resentment

Speaking for the second time about the potential GHOSTBUSTERS 3 on Oct 3rd, Bill Murray told reporters at a New York Press Conference that the movie “could happen” but more interestingly he also reveals why it hasn’t happened in the near two decades since the last film.

It’s all because he was “disappointed” with how GHOSTBUSTERS 2 was developed and how the final cut ended up on screen.

“We did a sequel, and it was sort of rather unsatisfying for me, because the first one to me was the goods,” Murray said. “It was the real thing. And the sequel, you know, was … it was a few years later. There was an idea pitched. And it was like, well, they got us all together in a room. We just laughed for a couple of hours. And then they said, ‘What if we did another one? Here’s an idea.’”

“So they had this idea, but it didn’t turn out to be the idea when I arrived on the set. They’d written a whole different movie than the one [initially discussed]. And the special-effects guys got it and got their hands on it. And it was just not the same movie. There were a few great scenes in it, but it wasn’t the same movie. So there’s never been an interest in a third Ghostbusters because the second one was kind of disappointing … for me, anyway.”

Which has partly played in Murray’s rejection of any GHOSTBUSTERS 3 movie in the two decades since the last film.

Though as he said a few weeks ago, the wounds have healed and he hasn’t ruled out returning for this new script being written right now under the guidance of Harold Ramis.

“There’s two fellows from The Office that are writing a script, but I’ve yet to see it,” Murray said while promoting his upcoming family fantasy movie, City of Ember. “And I’m more involved with, you know, trying to get the dessert we ordered at lunch than I am with the new Ghostbusters sequel. But it’s possible. It’s a great idea that they hired these two guys to do it, because I think it’ll be a … it could be a fresh look at it. And it could be funny.”

Again, it’s encouraging. Murray, it seems, is a fan of The Office. And those guys might just be the guy to getting him back into this series.

source - sci-fi wire

Categories: Bill-Murray, Ghostbusters II, Ghostbusters III, Harold-Ramis, Movie News

REVIEW: Mike suspects GOMORRA holds hidden riches…

Last week I was lured to a screening of GOMORRA by the following tagline “Power, money and blood: these are the ‘values’ that the residents of the province of Naples and Caserta confront every day. They have practically no choice, and are forced to obey the rules of the ‘System’, the Camorra.”

What I expected was a gritty gangster flick, a ground level in-your-face portrayal of the criminal violence that is endemic to many regions of this Western European nation that has inspired so many a Hollywood mafia movie.

The opening scene didn’t disappoint: a beautifully shot sequence in a tanning salon (what an innovative way to stylise a shot!) saw a group of cocky Italian mafioso types talking big. They were confident, powerful and clearly in control of their area. But no sooner had director Matteo Garrone built these assumptions than he snatches them from underneath us as a group of armed rivals burst in and begin eliminating their enemies.

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Categories: Gommora, Reviews

Trade magazine says Chris Nolan signed for BATMAN 3

I guess I can’t avoid this story when Production Weekly, a trade magazine no less with many inside studio sources, have this week listed BATMAN 3 on it’s development site with Chris Nolan’s name attached to direct.

Presumably that means he has scribed his signature on the next film’s contract. It’s also claimed that pre-production will begin in February, which is a good six months earlier at least than the time between BATMAN BEGINS and THE DARK KNIGHT.

Does this count as the official confirmation that we were waiting for?

I would suggest it certainly indicates that Nolan might not be directing another film between BATMAN 2 and 3 and what we do know for sure is that Nolan hasn’t been as quick announcing his follow-up to THE DARK KNIGHT as he was with BATMAN BEGINS.

By October 2005, we knew that Nolan was to work on THE PRESTIGE as his next movie and both Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman were already announced as being in talks for the film. This time around, we barely know what his next film will be, with small mutterings it could be a feature based on the classic 60’s Brit t.v. show THE PRISONER.

Now of course this is not 100% proof that Nolan won’t be doing another, more personal film but I say there is some smoke there. I can buy that very early development will begin on BATMAN 3 in February/March with casting then to follow in the Summer and production beginning in late 2009, for a Summer 2011 release.

That would give Nolan a bigger post-production time than he had with THE DARK KNIGHT but why not, you have to believe the budget for this one is going to be bigger than the last. Warner Bros. will be chucking millions and millions to get Nolan to do this movie soon, the still young director (38) might just like the idea of finishing his trilogy soon and then leaving his fantastic Bat-legacy behind for someone else to have a go.

Categories: Batman 3, Christopher-Nolan, Movie News, The Dark Knight