Star Wars retold

Here is a clip of a girl doing her best to give a recap of the original Star Wars trilogy. I'm not sure what movies she was watching, but at least she got a lot of the names right and that's more than I can say for some people.

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DVD releases for Jan. 20th

TOP PICK
- The Powerpuff Girls: Complete Series (10th Anniversary Collection)

OTHER RELEASES
- American East
- Amusement
- Center Stage: Turn It Up
- Chris Rock: Kill the Messenge
- Chris Rock: Kill the Messenger (Special Edition)
- City of Ember
- The Deal
- Emergency!: Season Five
- The Express (Full Screen)
- The Express (Widescreen)
- Igor
- Max Payne (2-Disc Unrated Edition)
- Max Payne (Unrated Edition)
- MGM: When the Lion Roars
- Moonlight: The Complete Series
- National Lampoon's Stoned Age
- National Lampoon's Stoned Age (Unrated)
- The Notebook (Limited Edition Gift Set)
- Poison Ivy 4: The Secret Society
- Repo! The Genetic Opera
- The Rockford Files: Season Six
- Saw V (Full Screen Edition)
- Saw V (Unrated Collector's Edition)
- Saw V (Unrated Director's Cut)
- Waking the Dead: Season Three

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WB and Fox shake hands and make nice

[From the Hollywood Reporter]
Warner Bros. and Fox have resolved their dispute over Watchmen, with the studios scheduled to present the settlement to Judge Gary Feess on Friday morning and request that the case be dismissed, says The Hollywood Reporter.
Terms of the agreement will not be disclosed, but it is said to involve a sizable cash payment to Fox and a percentage of the film's box office. Fox will not be a co-distributor on the film, nor will it own a piece of the Watchmen property going forward. The studios are set to release a joint statement announcing the agreement Friday.
Fox sued Warners in February of 2008, claiming copyright infringement based on agreements the studio had with producer Larry Gordon. Feess ruled on Dec. 24 that Gordon did not secure the proper rights to Watchmen from Fox before shopping the project and eventually setting it up with Warners. Feess' decision prompted settlement talks to heat up because Warners faced the prospect of an injunction stopping its March 6 release of the $130 million comic book adaptation.
While Gordon is not a party to the case, Warners is said to be pursuing the producer and his attorneys to reimburse it for the costs of the settlement.

UPDATE: Here is the official statement from both studios...
Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox have resolved their dispute regarding the rights to the upcoming motion picture Watchmen in a confidential settlement. Warner Bros acknowledges that Fox acted in good faith in bringing its claims, which were asserted prior to the start of principal photography. Fox acknowledges that Warner Bros. acted in good faith in defending against those claims Warner Bros. and Fox, like all Watchmen fans, look forward with great anticipation to this film's March 6 release in theatres.

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Durex Commercial

I could describe this video to you, but I think it's just better if you see it for yourself. I will say that this is not for the easily offended and I would make sure that your little kid isn't watching over your shoulder or they may have a question or two. Then again, there's no time like the present to have a talk with your kids, and look...visual aids!

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Watchmen hearing is dismissed -Good news?

[From the Hollywood Reporter]

A scheduled Tuesday court conference between Fox and Warner Bros. attorneys has been cancelled, fueling talk that a settlement in the contentious Watchmen case is imminent.

Fox sued Warners last February, saying the studio infringed on its rights to make the comic book adaptation. In December, when federal judge Gary A. Feess ruled that Fox has distribution rights to the film, Warners faced the prospect of having the film's March 6 release blocked.

Settlement talks between the two sides became serious over the weekend and continued to heat up yesterday.

A settlement could cost Warners tens of millions of dollars as Fox is reportedly asking for upfront fees as well as a percentage of the back-end.

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MATRIX PONG

I really wanted to put a new video up today, so I went back to an old favorite that I'm sure many of you haven't seen. When I first saw this 4 years ago it blew my mindgrapes. Here it is -Matrix Pong:

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DVD releases for Jan. 13th

- 'Til Death: The Complete Second Season
- Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Chipettes
- Appaloosa
- Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach
- Ben 10 Alien Force: Season One, Volume Two
- Breakfast at Tiffany's (Paramount Centennial Collection)
- Brick Lane
- Brideshead Revisited
- Dallas: The Complete Tenth Season
- Funny Face (Paramount Centennial Collection)
- The Henry James Collection
- Hit and Run (Unrated)
- House of Payne, Volume 3
- Little Britain USA
- Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America
- Matlock: Season Two
- My Best Friend's Girl (Rated)
- My Best Friend's Girl (Uncut)
- My Bloody Valentine: Special Edition (1981)
- Reba: Season Five
- Supercop
- Swing Vote
- Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys (Full Screen)
- Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys (Widescreen)
- Underworld & Underworld: Evolution Double Feature
- Walker, Texas Ranger: The Sixth Season
- Without a Paddle: Nature's Calling

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The first Mighty Muggs of 2009

Here is newest wave of Marvel Mighty Muggs (Wave 6) coming in March. It looks like Hasbro is trying a little more personality into their upcoming waves. No complaints here. Logan and Sabretooth look amazing.
On their way to the toy shelf this month are G.I. Joe (Wave 1) and Indiana Jones (Wave 2), followed close behind by Transformers (Wave 1) in February and G.I. Joe (Wave 2) in March.

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BIG BUCK BUNNY

Recent winner of the Audience Award at the Holland Film Festival, Big Buck Bunny shows that even a nice guy can be pushed too far. This very impressive and entertaining film comes The Blender Institute and was created entirely with open source software for all to enjoy.

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RED BAND TRAILER FOR 'SLAMMIN' SALMON'

Broken Lizard is back with another serving of hot buttered comedy in the tradition of Super Troopers and Beerfest (and to a lesser extent Puddle Cruiser and Club Dread). Their latest project is Slammin' Salmon about a group of waiters in a contest to win $10, 000 for bringing in the most money in one night. Joining the five man troupe of Stolhanske, Soter, Lemme, Heffernan, and Chandrasekhar this time around are Michael Clarke Duncan and Cobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother). Now don't forget , this is a RED BAND trailer, so it may not be suitable for all audiences -just fair warning. There is no release date for this film as of yet.

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The Mask for Halloween 2

Here is a peek at the new mask for Rob Zombie's Halloween sequel tentatively titled 'H2'. From the look of things it would appear that Zombie was smart enough to go with a weathered version of the same mask instead the constant second-rate replacements they kept using in the original series. They've even added a huge gash from the bullet wound that Myers received in the first film. You've got to love continuity.

On another note, the sequel has been moved from it's original Halloween release date to a more familiar August release to mirror the first film. I guess they figure they'll get more revenue from the summer crowd than the Halloween crowd.

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DVD releases for Jan. 6th

TOP PICKS:
- Frisky Dingo: Season 2 ***Amazingly underrated show from Adult Swim***
- Pineapple Express (Two-Disc Unrated Edition)

OTHER RELEASES:
- Babylon A.D. (Single-Disc Edition)
- Babylon A.D. (Special Edition)
- Bangkok Dangerous (2-Disc Special Edition)
- Bangkok Dangerous (Full Screen & Widescreen)
- Barney: Be My Valentine
- Barney: Once Upon a Dino Tale
- Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.0
- Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia
- Bob the Builder: Race to the Finish
- Disaster Movie (Full Screen)
- Disaster Movie (Unrated Widescreen)
- Doctor Who: Episode 118 - Four to Doomsday
- Doctor Who: Episode 27 - The War Machines
- Duckman: The Complete Series
- Duckman: Seasons Three and Four
- Eden Lake
- The Films of Michael Powell
- IMAX Ultimate Collection
- Mannix: The Second Season
- Midnight Movie
- Pineapple Express (Rated Single-Disc Edition)
- Pineapple Express (Single-Disc Unrated Edition)
- Ping Pong Playa
- Righteous Kill
- Transformers: Animated Season Two
- The Tudors: The Complete Second Season
- The Wackness
- The Waltons: The Complete Eighth Season

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Pixar's Burn-E

For those who loved Disney/Pixar's Wall-E, the animation house serves up a bonus treat with Burn-E. Exclusive to the video release of Wall-E, Burn-E gives you one last peek into the Wall-E-verse. Of course, just in case you haven't gotten around to buying said DVD, don't fret. Here is Burn-E in all it's pixalated glory. Enjoy.

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Nolan North as Deadpool

Here's a look at Nolan North rocking Deadpool in the upcoming Wolverine vs Hulk DVD.

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Why aren't you watching THE CLONE WARS?

If you missed The Clone Wars series on the Cartoon Network I highly recommend giving it a chance. Yes, I am a Star Wars dork who grew up with the original trilogy, but like many I was monumentally disappointed by the three car pile-up that was the prequel trilogy. However, this new series produced by George Lucas is better written and a lot more fun than the last three films. As a kid, I was always mystified by the Clone Wars when Obi Wan mentioned them in "A New Hope". Were the Jedi fighting against the clones? Was the war over the ethics of Cloning? Who knew? Finally our questions would be answered in the prequel trilogy and they completely skip over them! This series finally shows it in all it's droid, clone, and jedi butt-kicking glory. First, this isn't kid stuff. Sure its premiere was the most watched series premiere in Cartoon Network's history, but it's rated PG. There is a surprising amount of violence in this show, people get blown away, run through with light sabers, and clone troopers get mercilessly sucked out into the vaccume of space. Also, this show doesn't just focus on Obi Wan and Anakin, (By the way, the animated Anakin is a much better actor than Hayden Christensen!) many Jedi are spotlighted like Plo Koon, Kit Fisto, some guy named Yoda, and there is even an episode focusing on a group of Clone rookies! And yes, one episode did feature Jar Jar Binks, but just one! And with 10 episodes aired that's a pretty good ratio. Also, I gotta say I am a big General Grevious fan, and we didn't get to see nearly enough of him in the films. In the series he is pretty much the central bad guy, and he is a great villian with one of the coolest voices ever. Cartoon Network has been showing Clone Wars marathons during the holidays, a great way to catch up when the new episodes start in January, so check it out already!

[Entry by Jeff Beckley -Hopefully, the first of many. ]

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RESIDENT EVIL: DEGENERATION

Have you ever sat around playing Resident Evil and thought, "Wow! This stuff is better than that crap that they've been putting in the movies. They should just CGI a movie like this". Well, speculate no more. It's here.

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TROOPS [1998]

I know this piece is ten years old, but it's held up well over time. This was probably the first really well done parody I had ever seen online. Troops is a Cops parody featuring Stormtroopers (well, technically Sandtroopers) on Tattooine in a couple of very familiar scenarios from the original Star Wars film. It shows that these misunderstood Imperial soldiers were just, you know, doing there duty to keep the peace. Nothing wrong with that, right? Oh, and for you MST3K fans, if you pay close attention you'll notice that the officers have recovered a certain Mr. Tom Servo from the Jawas sandcrawler.

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Will we get to watch the Watchmen?

It was the movie they said would never get made, and now it looks like it may be the movie that never gets seen. With it's March release date looming, there's a chance that the Watchmen movie may not see the light of day until 2011 or beyond. The Warner Bros. property (DC Comics is a subsidiary of WB) has switch hands from Fox, to Universal, then Paramount where it is finally being produced together with Warner Bros. and during that whole time not a peep came from Fox. In fact, Zack Snyder had signed to helm the project and the film was deep into production when bits of the movie started showing up online and causing quite a buzz of excitement. It wasn't until that point, when the movie was all but completed and fans were primed to finally see Watchmen that Fox called foul claiming that they still held certain proprietary rights to distribution of the film (that WB wasn't even aware of). Now Fox has taken the matter to court and apparently is less interested in settling than they are keeping the film from being released at all. To complicate matters more, on Christmas Eve the court ruled that Fox did in fact hold certain rights the film, but all of that was between Fox and producer Lawrence Gordon who brought the property to Fox in the first place. It's Gordon and not WB that is liable here, but he refused to testify in the initial hearing and now the judge, Gary A. Feess has ruled that any information that Gordon has that would go against the judge's ruling is not allowed. That means that if it turns out that WB is within their rights and all wrong doings are between Gordon and Fox, that will no longer matter. In fact, the man who took the property from Fox to Paramount (Gordon) isn't even a defendant in what's going on. The person responsible and who cashed in on the deal is not liable. Yeah, that sounds like justice. In actuality, the judge even decided to rule in favor of Fox without a hearing. When laywers for WB protested the lack of due process, the Judge Feess stated that he planned to move on to the question of remedies rather than fight the issues again. The problem with that is that if WB is within their rights to distribute this film, which is the main issue, then remedies are incidental. There is a court date set for January 6, 2009 to try to get this settled before the March 6th release date, but Fox has no intention at this time of letting this film see the light of day and Judge Feess has stated that the release of the film could very well be blocked if the dispute isn't settled in time. So, Fox decided not to make a film, they were cool with it going to Universal, they were cool with it going to Paramount, they were alright with Warner Bros. (who actually owns the property)/Paramount finally making a film out of it, but when it was clear that this film could be lucrative they decide that they still have the distribution rights to the property. They're like a little kid who doesn't want a toy until they see someone else enjoying it. Of course, I can't blame them since Fox is notorious for not being able produce a blockbuster movie anymore. Fox claims it never fully relinquished story rights from its deal made in the late 1980s, and sued Warner Bros. in February. Warner Bros. contended Fox isn't entitled to distribution. Warner Bros.' attorney said Monday he didn't know if an appeal was coming, but thinks a trial is necessary and a settlement unlikely. In my opinion I believe that 20th Century Fox thought that if they waited until Warner Bros. had already financed the film and production was all but complete to stake a claim that they would have WB in a corner and gain incredible leverage, which at this point seems to be the case. So, now what do they want? You know, Fox has been begging WB for the rights to distribute the old Batman TV series for years, maybe they can just trade distribution rights straight up. Hey, a guy can dream, can't he?

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"9" Trailer

I recently posted the animated short "9" on GeekSexy from the Animation Show series and made mention that creator Shane Acker was currently in a deal to make "9" a full-length feature. Well, apparently production is much further along than I thought since just a few days ago an official trailer for the film was released online. So, here it is, the first trailer for the upcoming animated film "9":

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Miller's solo directorial debut has no Spirit

We've all seen the fantastic trailers for The Spirit movie and immediate comparisons to Frank Miller's own Sin City come up. The pulp feel. The classic vernacular. The colorful characters. I guess the biggest difference between the two is that Sin City was actually good. The Spirit, although visually breathtaking, has nothing else to offer. The story is empty. The acting is flat. But, man, is it pretty! And for that reason many people will hear how extremely bad this movie is and they still won't be able to stay away. Don't say you weren't warned. I guess the best part about all the negative reviews is that now people have a better chance of walking into the theater expecting Batman and Robin and come out feeling like they saw The Dark Knight (well, maybe Batman Returns). Unfortunately, I did not have those expectations. I couldn't wait to see this film. I couldn't understand why it was going to be in black and white when Will Eisner's classic stories consisted of vibrant hues and colorful suits, but I thought, "Frank Miller knows what he's doing. Look at Sin City. Even if it ends up more like another entry in that series, I'm cool with that." Well, it turns out that it was Robert Rodriguez who knew what he was doing with Sin City. Don't get me wrong, Miller can paint quite a pretty picture and tell a heck of a story, but when it comes to getting the most from his actors...did I already mention that he paints a pretty picture? The only real kudos for this film would have to go to cinematographer Bill Pope for delivering a film that is actually more enjoyable with the volume off. Miller originally refused to direct this picture when he was approached at his good friend Will Eisner's funeral. Even when accepted he had no desire to make this film, he just didn't want anyone else to because he didn't want anyone screwing it up. I guess he wanted to save that embarrassment all for himself.

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All-new Monsters vs Aliens trailer

Here is the all-new, all-different trailer for the upcoming Dreamworks Animation picture Monsters vs Aliens, now with more fiber!

[FIRST LOOK: MONSTERS VS ALIENS]

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A Wish for Wings That Work

With the Christmas season upon us I thought I would share with you one of my favorite Christmas movies off the beaten path, A Wish for Wings That Work, starring Opus the penguin and Bill the psycho cat from Berkeley Breathed's Bloom County and Outland comic strips. Based on his 1995 book, the story was adapted for television in 1991. Since then it hasn't made many appearances, but you may catch it randomly every couple of years. Of course, it's been on video since the early 90's and finally came to DVD last year, but you can catch all three parts right here. A Wish for Wings That Work features the incomparable Frank Welker who is best known as the voice of Fred and sometimes Scooby-Doo in the Scooby-Doo cartoons, not a one-trick pony, Frank has also provided the voices for characters such as Hefty Smurf, Wonderbug, Dynomutt, Shmoo, Iceman, Donkey Kong Jr., even Megatron and Soundwave from the original Transformers cartoon. Welker is a walking who's-who of cartoon history, but I digress. Here he just has the insignificant role of Santa Claus in a Christmas movie. Oh, yeah, and that isn't enough, Robin Williams is the voice of Kiwi...but he's credited as "Sudy Nim" just for the fun of it. Anyhoo, here it is, A Wish for Wings That Work:
[PART 1]

[PART 2]

[PART 3]

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RETRO CLIP: THE HULK

This is a quick look at the classic Hulk cartoon from 1966's Marvel Super Heroes series. Here is the first episode: The Origin of the Hulk.

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