Movie News and Views July 28, 2009 Trailer Edition

“The Collector” – An ex-con goes to steal from his employer only to find the employer’s family held hostage by a masked killer who has intricately placed traps in their country home. Opens July 31, 2009

“I Can Do Bad All By Myself” – Another Madea story, this time she stops a 16-year-old girl and her brother from looting her and sends them to live with her hard-drinking nightclub singing aunt. Opens September 11, 2009

“Jennifer’s Body” – Megan Fox stars in a high school horror film (written by Diablo Cody) about a girl who uses sex to kill teenage boys. Opens September 18, 2009

“Ninja Assassin” – Asian pop star Rain is one of the world’s deadliest assassins, taken from birth and trained in a secret society. When his best friend dies he breaks free, vanishes, and waits to exact his revenge. Opens November 25, 2009

“The Book of Eli” – Denzel Washington is a lone man who is trying to bring society redemption through knowledge culmed from the aforementioned book. Gary Oldman is the sheriff of a small town determined to take the book. Opens January 15, 2010

“Hot Tub Time Machine” – Four college friends return to a ski lodge, complaining about their lives when they discover their hot tub takes them back to 1986. Stars John Cusack and Rob Corddry. Opens February 26, 2010

“Alice in Wonderland” – Walt Disney produced and Tim Burton directed 3-D story based on the books. Stars Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Sheen, and Alan Rickman. Opens May 5, 2010

“Dorian Gray” – Based on the novel, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” about a man (Ben Barnes) who becomes the subject of a painting. He pursues a hedonistic lifestyle and the painting changes while he looks exactly the same. Coming soon!

“Tron: Legacy” – Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) is the son of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) who must venture into a computer game’s world to find his father who has disappeared. Also stars Olivia Wilde. Coming soon!

Movie News and Views January 20, 2009 Inaugural Poster Edition

 

 

All the movie news fit to blog!

 

–         Good news for Zack Snyder/ “Watchmen” fans. Warner Bros. and Fox have reached a settlement over the movie. For those who don’t know the backstory Warner Bros. gave the go-ahead to do a “Watchmen” movie. Late in the game a contract was found dating back to the Nineties which showed that Fox had distribution rights on the graphic novel. Fox threatened to halt distribution while the WB was too far into production to stop the movie (i.e. it was almost in post). The settlement is reportedly $5-$10 mil from WB upfront to Fox, then an additional 5-8% of the theatrical gross.

–         A new prequel for “The Thing” will involve what happened to the Norwegian scientists (who were dead at the beginning of John Carpenter’s “The Thing.”)

–         Keanu Reeves has been confirmed for the “Cowboy Bebop” movie.

–         Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke will be in “Iron Man 2.”

–         Joaquin Phoenix has officially left acting to be a rap star. Chronicling his adventures on video is his best friend Casey Affleck.

–         J.K. Simmons will reprise his role as J.J. Jameson in “Spidey 4.”

–         Reshooting on the upcoming “Wolverine” movie DOES NOT mean previous shooting went bad. Several actors’ schedules couldn’t clear until now.

–         Roland Emmerich (“Independence Day,” “The Day After Tomorrow”) is slated to direct Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” trilogy.

–         Pioneer will stop making Laserdisc players after 3000 for the year. This is surprising since I didn’t realize the players were still being made, and a movie hasn’t been pressed on LD since 2000.

–         Samuel L. Jackson may not play Nick Fury in the upcoming “Nick Fury” and “Avengers” movie. Apparently, contract negotiations have broken down due to the paycheck Jackson was requesting.

–         Jackie Chan will play “Mr. Miyagi” in the “Karate Kid” remake starring Jayden Smith (Will Smith’s son).

–         “Transformers 2” info: The Decepticons will use Devastator (from the Constructicons) and the Autobots will use Superion (constructed from the Aerialbots).

–         Warner Bros. has put DC Comics movies on hold.

–         The next Superman movie will have a new villain.

–         Relative Media has purchased Rogue Pictures from Universal.

–         A homeless man was cast in Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes” movie.

–         Bollywood is set to remake “Back to the Future.”

–         “The Terminator” has now been submitted for preservation in the US Film Registry.

–         Jay Mohr changes his name to Jay Ferguson Cox Mohr, due to his wife Nikki Cox.

–         Bruce Boxleitner and Jeff Bridges will return for the next “Tron” movie.

–         VHS is done. The last movie to be released on it was “A History of Violence.”

 

 

Top Five Hacking Movies

Another fun day here at the Film Guys Online / Chasfilm Productions Office of Cinematic Research. Since last week we tackled evil computers, this week we profile the other side of computer “evil”: hackers.

 

TOP FIVE COMPUTER HACKER MOVIES

 

Please note that this is just a list. Feel free to throw in comments on your faves, or the ones I may have overlooked.

 

5. Hackers (1995) – Why not begin with a movie simply called “Hackers?” Johnny Lee Miller is Dade Murphy, a kid caught hacking, sentenced to not being able to touch a computer until his 18^th birthday. With newfound friends Kate Libby (Angelina Jolie) and Emmanuel Goldstein (Matthew Lillard) they come upon a plot to unleash a computer virus orchestrated by Eugene Belford (Fisher Stevens). They must evade the Secret Service and stop Belford from releasing the deadly virus. Overall, not too bad of a movie.

 

4. Sneakers (1992) – Robert Redford is Martin Bishop, a man with a hidden past who is now working as a “security specialist.” With help from his team of Dan Akyroyd, Sidney Poitier, River Phoenix, and David Straithairn, they recover a black box that has the possibility of decrypting every known code to man. On their trail are NSA agents led by James Earl Jones. With a top-notch cast, this “heist meets hacking” movie is worth checking out. (Watch for the scene where the guy sits on an actual Cray supercomputer.)

 

3. Enemy of the State (1998) – Will Smith is Robert Dean, a lawyer who accidentally receives evidence of a political assassination. On the run, he’s unmercifully being tracked by Thomas Reynolds (Jon Voight) and his team of NSA agents that include Jack Black and Jamie Kennedy. His survival comes from teaming up with Bill (Gene Hackman), a guy who lives “off-the-radar” by being paranoid enough to cover his tracks. Mixing action, adventure, spying, espionage, paranoia, conspiracies, and computer hacking, Tony Scott delivers in this thriller. (Note: The film was “inspired” by the Hackman movie, “The Conversation.”)

 

2. Tron (1982) – A hacker (Jeff Bridges) is sucked into a video game world where the computer’s Master Control Program rules. He must fight to survive the sadistic games created by the MCP so he can get back to “reality” and stop the MCP from taking over the real world. Along the way he aids Tron (Bruce Boxleitner), a security program whose goal it is to stop the games and vanquish the MCP. Although a little dated for now, “Tron” was ahead of its time for computer graphics in 1982. And c’mon, the Light Cycles were cool.

 

1. WarGames (1983) – I can’t even begin to calculate how many times I’ve watched this movie. If you haven’t seen it, “WarGames,” is about David Lightman (Matthew Broderick), a kid who hacks into computers for fun (and to change the occasional bad grade). When he finds a “back door” into a military computer, he activates a program called Joshua which begins simulating World War III. Taking Jennifer Mack (Ally Sheedy) along for the ride he hunts down Joshua’s creator, reclusive scientist Stephen Falken (John Wood) in order to stop nuclear war with the Russians. Fun movie. Watch for Michael Madsen in the opening scene. Directed by John Badham, who also directed “Saturday Night Fever.”

Welcome to the Machine

“Welcome my son… welcome, to the Machine…” – Pink Floyd

 

This week at the Film Guys Online / Chasfilm Productions Office of Cinematic Research, we bow down to our Electronic Overlord, the Computer. Whether it’s PC or Mac, these business machines mean business. Let’s take a look at the

 

TOP 5 COMPUTERS TO FEAR

 

5. HAL 9000 (“2001: A Space Odyssey,” “2010”) – Short for Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer, HAL could take you to the deepest depths of outer space and then have you sucked out the airlock. It’s all part of its master plan…

 

4. Colossus (“Colossus: The Forbin Project”) – I blame Forbin. Here a guy creates a supercomputer and it links to a Russian supercomputer called Guardian. And the supercomputers take over the world. Good job there, Forbie.

 

 

 

3. Master Control Program (“Tron”) – What can a computer bent on world-domination in the real world and sadistic slaughter of programs within the video game realm do if you piss it off? Suck you into the world it controls. Good luck, and don’t crash your Light Cycle into the wall. End of line.

 

2. Skynet (“Terminator,” “Terminator 2,” “Terminator 3”) – For those who don’t know the mythos, August 29, 1997 a computer called Skynet “woke up” and nuked civilization. What people were left went underground and the machines began taking over, finally creating a Terminator to destroy mankind and take out the leader, John Connor.

 

1. The Matrix (“The Matrix,” “Matrix Reloaded,” “Matrix Revolutions”) The most evil computer of all has already enslaved mankind, turning humans into “batteries” to continually power it. Neo, the One, is wakened from the world he was plugged into and must find a way for humanity to strike back.