Monday, March 30, 2009

ANIMATION MONDAY

FREAKY ROBOTS: THE GREAT DEBATE


TEEN GIRL SQUAD: EPISODE 1


SETH MCFARLANE'S 'THE BARTENDER SAYS...'

Sunday, March 29, 2009

GUITAR HERO GREATEST HITS

I know there are plenty of you out there who wish that the creators of Guitar Hero: World Tour had gotten on the ball a lot sooner with the whole four person ensemble format, so that you could have enjoyed all the classic songs from the first releases the same way. Well, don't fret (get it?) because Activision is hard at work to bring you Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits -a compilation of the all of all the fan favorites from Guitar Hero 1-3 and Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's.

On the downside there is no doubt that there will be a handful of great songs that will slip through the cracks of this 'best of' offering, but I'm sure that the final playlist (of 48 songs) will have more than enough to keep you sated, plus whatever downloadable content may come later.
All of the modes from World Tour will be in the package, including eight player online battle of the bands, the Guitar Hero music studio, the rockstar creator and, of course, career mode. As an added incentive Greatest Hits will be turning away from the 'cover tracks' they used the first time out and utilizing master tracks for the new game. This, along with the newer features from WT (improved hammer-ons, pull-off mechanics, sustained notes, three-note chords, the touch-sensitive slide bar, the addition of Bass Guitar tracks) means that the note play for each song will play differently than in the first offerings. So, if you think you've already mastered all the songs, think again.
Though no official playlist has been released at this time, eight songs have been confirmed: "Them Bones" by Alice in Chains, Queen's "Killer Queen," "Nothin' But A Good Time" by Poison, Rage Against The Machine's "Killing in the Name," "I Wanna Rock" by Twisted Sister, Joan Jett and The Blackhearts's "I Love Rock N Roll," Heart's "Barracuda." and Dragonforce's "Through the Fire and Flames!" (The monster track from GH3). Expect Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits (or GH:GH) to be available for Wii, Xbox 360, PS3 and PS2 this June.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

ICE AGE 3: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS

Here is the new trailer for Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs coming to theaters (in 3-D) on July 1, 2009 and I must admit, it looks pretty good.
[Hit the HQ button for better quality]

BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM

Here is walk-thru of one of the incredible areas from the upcoming Batman: Arkham Asylum game coming soon to the PS3 and Xbox 360. I know that Batman games in the past have had a tendency to disappoint, but this game looks like it may have the goods. Take a look as one of the creators gives you a first-hand look at this impressive game.

For more information and features visit www.batmanarkhamasylum.com.

Dora's Unwelcomed Makeover

Dora the Explorer's getting a makeover and mothers are not happy about it. A couple weeks back Mattel announced that the little cartoon star would be growing up, which didn't seem to rile too many people up, but once a promotional photo of the tween Dora started circulating parents immediately voiced their disapproval. Phone calls to Mattel and Nickelodeon started pouring in and online petitions started popping up everywhere asking what's next: "Dora the fashionista with stylish purse and stilettos?" Apparently, parents don't want a figure that their little girls look up to dressed in pumps and a miniskirt (unless it's the latest Bratz doll).

Mattel assures parents, though, that this more mature Dora is aimed toward tweens who may have grown up with Dora, but have moved out of the original show's demographics. This newer version is here to teach young ladies what's really important in life: Shopping, fashion, gossip, makeovers, and that looks are all that matters. Don't worry moms and dads, the younger, more innocent version isn't going anywhere. The original sweet little Dora and Boots will still be there to entertain your little ones...for now.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

'THE GOON' MOVIE

We finally have a look at David Fincher's upcoming movie The Goon from Dark Horse Entertainment and Blur Studios. Fincher will be producing the new CG-animated endeavor which should hit theaters early to mid-summer of 2010. Not much info on the cast and crew has been released at this point, including the director, but I guess we can always hope that Fincher will take on that role himself. David Fincher is of course the director of such critically acclaimed movies as Se7en, Fight Club, Panic Room, Zodiac, and last year's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, in case you were wondering.
For those unfamiliar with The Goon, it is a noir comic published through Dark Horse Comics. Created by Eric Powell in 1999, the comic follows the unusual happenstances of a nearly unstoppable powerhouse brawler (The Goon) and his tough and scrappy sidekick (Franky) who collect and enforce for notorious, yet mysteriously absent mobster Labrazio. While Goon goes toe to toe with everything from ghosts to mad scientist to giant spiders who welch on payments, his main foil is the Zombie Preist and his mob of undead cohorts who terrorize the townsfolk who live around Lonely Street. This book has a little of everything -paranormal, science fiction, horror, comedy, and plenty of action. If you're looking for an enjoyable read, you can't go wrong with The Goon and with Fincher helming the upcoming movie I think we're in for a real treat.

MORE FROM DISNEY/PIXAR'S 'UP'

Here is a new clip from Disney/Pixar's 'UP' coming to theaters May 29, 2009. In this pretty funny clip Russell is having a bit of a...personal issue and Carl is feeling less than accommodating. Poor Russell.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE trailer

Here is the new trailer for Spike Jonze's interpretation of the literary classic Where the Wild Things Are (and no, that doesn't mean West Hollywood).

Sunday, March 22, 2009

VENTURE BROS. SEASON 3 ON DVD

After months of waiting, one of the coolest shows to ever come out of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block finally re-emerges with the release The Venture Bros.: Season 3 on DVD (and for the first time on Blu-Ray). This is one show that never seems to disappoint with it's quirky storytelling and outrageous characters. No two episodes are alike -at all, and yet there is a solid continuity throughout. I would recommend this series to anyone who has felt that Adult Swim has been falling short of it's former glory and is looking for something more. And if the release of the season 3 episodes wasn't enough, tell me that this isn't the coolest DVD cover ever. In case you don't recognize the style it's based off of the old Atari 2600 packaging art, which is doubly ironic because of the very popular game for the 2600 titled Venture that didn't even come with said standard Atari package art because it was produced by Coleco for the 2600. Now THAT would have been even cooler, but it's still awesome none-the-less. If I could just get it in poster size...

Sam Raimi's Drag Me To Hell: New Trailer



Drag Me To Hell is in theaters May 29th from Raimi's Ghost House Pictures. Not sure if I'll dig this based on the trailer alone but I'm willing to give it a shot. If Raimi can pull this off I might just forgive him for Spidey 3. Well, maybe.

Please be Rated R. Please...

DVD releases for Mar. 24th

Friday, March 20, 2009

CLIP FROM 'WHERE THE WILD THING ARE'

Here is a clip of test footage from the upcoming movie Where the Wild Things Are. Director Spike Jonze will be bringing the ever-popular children's book by author/artist Maurice Sendak to life. The story (for those of you who aren't familiar...both of you) is about a young boy named Max who likes to cause mischief and is sent to bed without any supper. During his solitude he creates a new world filled with monsters who live wild in the woods and crown Max their king after he basically beats them in a staring contest.


The first adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are was in 1973 [see below] and then in 1983, Disney actually planned production on a CGI version of the story to be directed by John Lasseter (founder of Pixar), but it never made it past test shots. Jonze's live-action version of the classic is set for release on October 16, 2009 (my birthday). Hopefully we'll have a trailer to post here sometime in the near future.

SUPERMAN/BATMAN NEXT TO GET THE ANIMATED TREATMENT

DC has been consistently putting out top-notch direct to DVD animated movies since the release of Justice League: New Frontier and it looks like that trend won't be stopping anytime soon. Following the release of Green Lantern: First Flight in July, DC is gearing up to take on one of my favorite DC stories of all time, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies. Originally written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by the amazing Ed McGuinness, the Public Enemies storyline kicked off the highly successful Superman/Batman series (a revamp of the classic World's Finest Comics title which ran from 1941 to 1986 and featured Superman and Batman team-ups). The premise of the storyline was that then president Lex Luthor declared a state of emergency for the planet when a mysterious astroid of Kryptonian origin was discovered rocketing toward the Earth. Never one to miss an opportunity, Luthor immediately places blame solely on Superman claiming that he is responsible and that the only way to stop the impending doom is to stop Superman. President Luthor then puts an exhorbinant bounty on Kal El's head, which brings out all the big gun villians trying to cash in on the job. Through it all, Batman faithfully sticks by his side and risks it all to save his friend and in the story you see just how different and similar the two are at the same time. It's the subtle way that these two seemingly different personalties overlap that's the real appeal to this story. If that aspect gets overlooked for the feature you'll lose the heart of the story and it will just become another all action/no substance movie. Public Enemies is the story I use to introduce new readers to comics. It's entertaining, it's enthralling, and the artwork is just fantastic. There is no release date set yet for Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, but I would recommend to anyone with a love of comics (or even a slight curiousity) to go out and pick up the storyline in TPB today.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Friday, March 13, 2009

Another Day, Another Remake: Stephen King's It

In an effort to destroy yet another piece of my childhood, the Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Warner Bros. plans to film Stephen King's "It" for the big screen.

You may recall that we already have a perfectly good adaptation of this book in the 1986 ABC miniseries that starred John Ritter, Harry Anderson, Annette O'Toole, Richard Thomas and Tim Curry as the evil clown Pennywise.

The story follows a group of kids who encounter a creature called It that preys on children and takes the form of a sadistic clown. They encounter the creature twice - as children and again as adults. Remember that scene where Tim Curry was in the sewer. That really freaked me out - actually it still does.

The remake is being written by Dave Kajganich who wrote "The Invasion" remake and is attached to the "Pet Semetary" remake and the "Escape from New York" remake. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Kajganich does not have a lot of original ideas in his head.

"It" without Tim Curry is like remaking "A Nightmare on Elm Street" without Robert Englund. You just don't do it. You listening to me Warner Bros.? Probably not.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

ROURKE AND JOHANSSON SET FOR IRON MAN 2

Well, it looks like Marvel continues to pull it's head out of it's ass. As it's been announced following the re-signing of Samuel L. Jackson that Mickey Rourke is now back on board. Apparently, Marvel has realized that the a follow-up to their biggest blockbuster to date (nearly $600 million to date) deserves spending a couple of extra bucks and has upped the offer to Rourke from the slap-in-the-face initial $250, 000 to a more respectable amount. Sources say that Rourke will be playing the Russian Iron Man baddie Crimson Dynamo, who for some reason will be amalgamated with non-related character Whiplash. Peculiar.

In other Iron Man news, for those who were holding to hope for Emily Blunt to still be able to slide on the dark leather and play Russian spy turned superhero Natasha Romanov (The Black Widow), well let it go. It's now been officially announced that Scarlet Johansson will be doing her best to squeeze into that skin-tight suit. I guess she figured after The Spirit she needed to try her hand at good comic book movie. Or maybe she thought this way she could go home to hubby Ryan Reynolds and compare notes on who plays the better assassin in a Marvel movie (since Reynolds is playing the merc-with-a-mouth Deadpool in the upcoming Wolverine film). Unfortunately, Blunt could not work around a previous obligation to Fox as previous mentioned. We all know how accommodating Fox Studios can be, just ask Warner Bros. and the crew of Watchmen.

Finally, in somewhat related news, Marvel has announced new release dates for a number of their upcoming properties. At one time Marvel had Iron Man 2 and Thor coming out fairly close together in 2010, with Captain America and The Avengers movies following suit in 2011. The studio has now decided to spread the movies out a bit, giving them a better chance for summer revenues without competing with itself (which makes it weird that Thor and Captain America are a month apart).
The new release dates are:
Iron Man 2- May 7, 2010 (still)
Thor- from July 6, 2010 to June 17th 2011
Captain America: The First Avenger- from May 6, 2011 to July 22, 2011
The Avengers- from July 15, 2011 to May 4, 2011.

Spider-Man 4 (Sony)- May 6, 2011 (just 2 DAYS after the release of The Avengers movie!)

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

WHO WATCHED THE WATCHMEN?

Well, Zack Snyder is two for two with comic book movies. Warner Bros. Pictures' Watchmen dominated the box office on it's opening weekend, but was held back by its long 2 hour and 43 minute running time which resulted in less showings. This film version of the popular graphic novel of the same name earned an estimated $55.7 million from 3,611 theaters, for an average of $15,413 per location. With a $150 million budget, Watchmen marks the third-highest March opening of all time, trailing just behind Snyder's own 300 ($70.9 million) and Ice Age: The Meltdown ($68 million). It's opening weekend numbers are also the sixth best for an R-rated film. IMAX theaters brought in an estimated $5.5 million of the film's $55.7 million opening, which is the company's best opening-weekend numbers after The Dark Knight's $6.3 million. Internationally, Watchmen topped the box office as well with $27.5 million from 5,097 theaters in 45 markets. Worldwide, the film has earned $83.2 million after three days. Not bad for a movie that was never going to get made.

HOWARD THE DUCK on DVD

Maybe it's not the greatest comic book movie ever made, but I'm sure that there are plenty of people out there who will rejoice in the fact that Howard the Duck makes it way to DVD today for the first time in the U.S. Just imagine, now a whole new generation can watch Lea Thompson make out with a duck (see, and you thought her wanting to french her son in Back to the Future was sick). Never heard of Howard the Duck? Well let me catch you up a bit...

In 1986, George (make sure that kids like it) Lucas took an endeared Marvel comic icon and turned him into the biggest joke in comic (and Lucas) film history. Howard the Duck, although a bit unorthodox for a comic hero was actually a respected character in the Marvel comics stable. First appearing in 1973's Adventures into Fear as a secondary character for the Man-Thing, his popularity soon took off and Howard was given his own title. Howard the Duck's eventual cult following was so huge that in 1976 he became an actual nominee for president of the United States under the banner of the All-Night Party. Just ten years after that historic event Lucas brought us Howard the Duck the movie and left millions of people scratching their heads. Today, Howard the Duck is still considered the Gigli comic book films (sorry Batman and Robin), but still seems to find its niche with some fans. OK, fine. So, maybe Howard the Duck is considered one of the worst films of all time, but I'm not afraid to say it. I love this movie, and I always have. I don't remember if I ever saw this in the theater, but I can tell you for a fact that my friends and I watched it on VHS more times than I can count and we loved it every time. If you're a fan of Howard the Duck comics (which I am) you probably would not enjoy anything about this film unless you can just take it for what it is and enjoy it for all it's horrible goodness. Come on, any film with Lea Thompson, Tim Robbins, Holly Robinson and 8 guys starring as one 3-foot tall duck can't be all bad, can it?

Monday, March 9, 2009

MANATEES, EVIL QUEENS, AND GIANT LIZARDS

It's Monday, and despite the current changes to the site I still wanted to try to keep on pace with some of my entries, including the Monday morning animated threesome...or something like that. Anyway, here they are. Enjoy

The first short today comes from Katie Wendt, a student at the Rhode Island School of Design. It's just a simple traditional animation done in pencils, but it's pretty cute.
A MOMENT OF COMPASSION AND UNDERSTANDING IN THE LIFE OF A MANATEE


Animator Allan Dye created this cartoon about the adventures of a small girl with an even smaller attention span. A.D.D. Jane was a finalist in the 2008 Flash Forward Finals and the grand prize winner of the MyToons animation contest.
A.D.D. JANE


And finally, I am going to end with a short that I used to love to watch as a kid whenever it happen to pop up on television, which wasn't very often...
BAMBI MEETS GODZILLA

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Watchmen Opening Credits

Like most of you, I've been letting Watchmen bang around in my brain since I saw it yesterday. One thing we can all agree on, the opening credits were an incredible accomplishment. Not sure if Zack Snyder should be considered a "visionary" (as the commercials keep telling us) but the opening (created with a company called yU+Co) are simply unforgettable.

Take another peek:

Breaking Bad returns to AMC this Sunday

"Breaking Bad" is the best drama on television, period. It tells the story of Walter White, played by the amazing Bryan Cranston, (the Dad from "Malcolm in the Middle") as a high school Chemistry Teacher who discovers he has stage 3 cancer and has 2 years to live. Walter is married, has a son with cerebral palsy, and another baby on the way, so the only way he can provide for his family after he's gone is to... cook crystal meth of course!
I know what you're thinking, this sounds super depressing. Sure, it's dealing with some heavy material, but there are plenty of laugh- out- loud moments as well. The show opens with Walter running around in the New Mexico desert in his tighty whiteys wearing a gas mask! The humor is never forced, it usually comes from ackward moments in life we all can relate to.
It's rare when a show I love actually wins awards, but Bryan Cranston won the 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, and he is backed up by an amazing supporting cast. Aaron Paul plays Jesse Pinkman, one of Walter's former students who dropped out, and is now his partner in the drug business. Dean Norris plays Walter's obnixous brother-in-law who also happens to be a DEA agent. Dean Norris is a highly underrated character actor you might remember from "Phantasm", "Total Recall", and "Starship Troopers."
Wonderfully written, perfectly cast, it doesn't get much better than this. Season 1 is now available on DVD if you need to catch up, and season 2 is premiering this Sunday on AMC.

Friday, March 6, 2009

FINAL WOLVERINE TRAILER

So, here is the final trailer for the upcoming Wolverine movie. You'll obviously notice the cameos of Cyclops, Emma Frost, and Gambit (now with his patented black and red eyes), but pay even closer attention to how they've completely jacked up Deadpool. He now apparently has his own claws and optic beams and is rumored to also have teleportation powers along with his normal healing abilities. From what I've been able to gather, Stryker is trying to build a Weapon XI (Deadpool) to take down WEAPON X (Wolverine) and Deadpool is an amalgamation of other mutants powers. Since Ryan Reynolds does not play the 'Deadpool' that fights Wolverine (Reynolds seemes to be credited as Wade Wilson, Deadpool's real name) I'm hoping that instead Reynolds helps take down this 'Deadpool' and afterwards is like, "There's only one Deadpool, B**ch!", but it's Fox so they probably actually screwed the coolest character up. What the heck, it's still got to be better than X-3. Am I right?

WATCHMEN: Saturday Morning Cartoon

Okay, so by now most of you know that Watchmen isn't exactly a property for kids (even though plenty of unsuspecting parents will wander into theaters with their bright eyed chitterlings), but if it was it would probably end up looking something like this animated short from Harry Partridge. Then again, we did get Police Academy, Toxic Avenger, and Robocop cartoons, so you never know. Warner Bros., please don't...

New Star Trek Trailer




To be perfectly honest, I'm not a huge Star Trek fan. I liked "The Next Generation" and "Deep Space Nine" but but never really got into the other shows, even "The Original Series" (blasphemy!). However, the footage from this new film has got me pumped. Have there ever been more exciting Star Trek trailers?

Plus, if even a casual fan like myself is counting the days until this hits theaters, it's going to make a boatload of cash.

Can I suggest a replacement to the defunct 'Countdown to Watchmen' clock?

Star Trek, directed by J.J. Abrams, is due May 8th, 2009 from Paramount.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Watchmen in 17 Minutes



Some guy over at Eisentower30.com spliced together all 17 minutes of Watchmen footage that has been released from clips, US and International Trailers and arranged them chronologically. I can wait one more day so I'm not going to watch it but I bet you will.

Enjoy:

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Daft Punk to score Tron 2.0

Talk about a match made in heaven. Upcoming Film Scores is reporting that the French electronica duo has been tapped to score the upcoming film starring Olivia Wilde, Garett Hedlund, Beau Garrett and Jeff Bridges (!) reprising his role as super genius Kevin Flynn. It will be directed by Joseph Kosinksi and written by "Lost" screenwriters Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz.

The film is a sequel to the 1982 cult classic (kind of refreshing in these remake/re-imagining crazy times) and will feature Wilde's character battling the Master Control Program. Bridges will play the villain (you can tell because leaked footage show him with a beard ala Iron Man).

Daft Punk have written music for films in the past but this will be their first shot at composing a complete score.

I'm in as long as they find a role for this guy:

Monday, March 2, 2009

WATCHMEN: 6 Minutes to Midnight

Warner Bros has just released a new 10-minute interactive trailer for Watchmen on 6MinutesToMidnight.com. After deciphering a series of Rorschach images given to you by...well, Rorschach, you are treated to exclusive content for the upcoming Watchmen film. I will give you fair warning, though -if you've been worried about being exposed to too much Watchmen footage just before the movie comes out then DO NOT watch the content offered here. I only watched three seconds of the footage and I'm already worried that I've ruined the movie for myself. But, you know, it's up to you. What the heck do I know?

3-D TVs Coming 2010

[reported from /film]

No sooner has Blu-Ray seen off HD-DVD with it’s knobbly knocking stick than another format war starts brewing in, quite literally, the R&D labs. According to a report in Video Business, Panasonic are looking to launch their first 3D-ready HD sets in what they hope will be an industry-wide standard, and will do so as soon as next year.

It’s probably pertinent to tell you right away that while Panasonic aren’t the only manufacturers working on a 3D standard, they are the ones in league with James Cameron. That alone has very possibly won them any upcoming format war before it even reaches the shop floor. Their system does indeed sound really brilliant, but so do the others, in their ways…

Ye olde 3D system used red and blue anaglyph glasses and is obviously already possible on home TVs of all kinds. When the most recent cinema hits have been repackaged for home consumers the 3D has been downgraded to work in this format. Or, rather, not quite work in this format because, frankly, the system is a bit of a dog. It doesn’t work consistently and a very significant percentage of users report that they don’t feel it works at all for them. I can’t believe that Dreamworks dare pollute the public idea of 3D with their Monsters vs. Aliens ad at the Superbowl, and fear they may have confused a large number of viewers with their tacky specs and substandard TV 3D.

But did you know that the new, polarized lens system is already possible at home? There already are ways to line up players and sets and specs to get the same 3D effect you’d get at a screening of, say, Coraline. It just isn’t standardized and until it is, there aren’t going to many major releases.

Here’s a brief run down of the three big players likely to duke it out in the coming months and years:

Panasonic’s system uses a Plasma and the same specs that you get at a Real-D screening. I know this system works, because I’ve seen it in action.

Samsung’s system has been around a while without much content. However, they also have a kind of conversion engine pending that will turn 2D into 3D on the fly - though this is likely to be very problematic and certainly won’t be the optimum solution, not least because it takes control of the stereo elements out of the hands of the filmmakers.

Hyundai’s system uses a polarising sheet over an LCD screen, which is likely to be the cheaper option and will also side step the various issues with Plasma screens (as well, of course, as the various benefits). This system is already on sale in Japan and will be running in Britain very soon with Sky TV planning to steadily ramp up their 3D output over the coming years until they can broadcast a very size-able chunk of the London 2012 Olympics in stereo-vision.

The closest thing to a set standard so far is in Panasonic’s pocket. They already started coding Blu-Ray discs with left and right eye fields and pledge to release Avatar on a 3D disc next year. At the moment, the Panasonic demo discs require a pimped up player that can tear through twice as much data per second than normal. Hopefully this won’t be the case with the release software as asking consumers to replace their newly minted BD decks is simply not going to fly.

Video Business have embedded a recent YouTube video in which Cameron briefly mentions collaborating with Panasonic on “high quality” 3D for the home. It seems to be software, not hardware, that wins format wars, but perversely, it’s the price of hardware that determines how far a media standard will infiltrate the marketplace. While Avatar is very likely to win the war for Panasonic, this success will be in vain if they don’t price-up for the Yous, Mes and Everyone we Knows out there.

If you have the right kind of 3D glasses, the Panasonic logo that James Cameron is conjuring out of thin air at the top of this post will fly around room and poke you in the eye.

QUICK BITS: REMAKES & SEQUELS

After posting this week's DVD releases and seeing Ace Ventura Jr. (which I had been able to put out of head until then) on the list, I decided that with so many remakes and sequels on the horizon, I might just do a quick run-down of what the studios have in store for your viewing pleasure.

J.J. Abrams is currently toying with an idea to expand on last year's Cloverfield. Details are non-existent at this time, but Abrams was quoted as saying, “We have an idea that we thought was pretty cool that we’re playing with, which means there will be something that’s connected to Cloverfield, but I hope it happens sooner rather than later because the idea is pretty sweet.”

Iain Softley is currently casting for a musical remake of his 1994 biopic Backbeat, following the early years of the Beatles and more specifically Lennon's best friend and Beatle-for-pretendsies Stuart Sutcliffe.

Producers Ray Haboush and Brian Yuzna are planning a remake of their cult horror film Re-Animator in 3-D, minus original director Stuart Gordon, that is.


Street Fighter opens to an astounding opening weekend

When I say 'outstanding', I mean outstandingly horrible. Street Fighter: The Legends of Chun Li, the newly updated version of the classic video game franchise opened this weekend to a box office draw of a mere $4.6 million, just a tad bit shy of its $60 million budget. To put in perspective how miserably this movie did, the original Jean-Claude Van Damme cheesefest did $6.9 million for it's opening weekend way back in 1994, when ticket prices were much lower -and they were only working with a $35 million budget. Of course, this is only the opening weekend. I'm sure it will make plenty more in the next few weeks to surpass it's remaining budget. It's not like there's any movies premiering this coming weekend that would take anymore draw from Street Fighter's box office returns. Well, I guess there is the Watchmen movie this Friday, but I mean who the heck wants to see that -am I right? Oh, Kristen Kruek, I bet Smallville doesn't look so bad now, does it?

EATING LIKE A BIRD

To give GeekSexy some semblance of order, I've decided to make Monday mornings new cartoon day. What better way to kick off your work week than with a smile. From now on, I will try to have three new toons up every Monday morning. Let's see how well I do with that, shall we? Have a good week.

The first cartoon today is Eating Like a Bird from animator Curtis Carey. Enjoy.

A GENTLEMEN'S DUEL

Next up, from Blur Studios comes A Gentlemen's Duel; proving that women make men do stupid things.

PROWLIES AT THE RIVER

This third cartoon is a long-time favorite of mine. From Australian animator Adam Phillips, Prowlies at the River is just one installment in a series of cartoons featuring the mischievous little anti-hero Bitey. Phillips is currently working on feature-length version of his Brackenwood series, so you'll probably be seeing Bitey and the rest of the characters again sometime in the near future, or if you want to see more now, just go to www.oohbitey.com.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Star Trek exhibit in the Motor City

Of all the strange new worlds the Enterprise and her crew have explored, I'm sure nothing could have prepared them for... Detroit! The Detroit Science Center has a new Star Trek exhibit- "This multi- city touring exhibition contains the world's most comprehensive collection of authentic Star Trek ships, set re-creations, costumes and props from 5 television series and 10 films over the last 40 years."
And they're not kidding, I just went, and they have some amazing stuff, there is a re-creation of Captain Picard's quarters complete with all kinds of trinkets, even that goofy flute he used to play! There are tons of costumes, from Scott Bakula's uniform in "Enterprise", to 7 0f 9's skintight jumpsuit from "Voyager". They have the borg ship, all kinds of weapons, tricorders, and the transporter room, where you can actually see yourself get "beamed up", but I have to say my personal favorite was a Klingon captain's chair! What better place to watch your T.V. from?
They recreated the bridge from the original series, and my buddy and I sat in Sulu and Chekov's seats. Neither of us sat in Captain Kirk's chair, you know why? Repect.
Tickets are $18.95 for adults and $14.95 for kids and seniors, and if you like Star Trek believe me it's worth it. The exhibit will run until September 7th so you have plenty of time to check it out this summer.