Category: Actors (Page 150 of 343)

Comic-Con mess o’ stuff

July 25, 2009 /


I might have missed my Joss Whedon panel yesterday (clearly, I didn’t want it enough and failed to get in line an hour early), but lots of other folks aren’t missing a thing.

* Apparently, Robert Downey, Jr. is claiming his martial arts using, womanizing (at least that’s how I remember the trailer), and druggie Holmes is closer to the Arthur Conan Doyle character that the scads of cinematic and TV Holmesessess we have had up to now. Well, the literary Holmes did use cocaine. Let’s just say I share Luke Thompson’s differing memory on those points.

Maybe it was all a product of the squirrelly Downey sense of humor we’ve seen in so many unusual performances over the years. I’m also skeptical of why Steven Zeitchik thinks the Guy Ritchie-directed Holmes is a particularly tough sell to geeks. Isn’t Data one of our patron saints? The geeks I grew up with actually used words like “Holmesiana.” The Aleister Crowley-cult thing won’t hurt with a certain breed of gothy nerd, either.

* John Lasseter presented one of the real greats, still very active and hoping for his first stateside hit: Hiyao Miyazaki.

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Action Movies, Actors, Actresses, Comic-Con, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movie DVDs, Movies, News, Sci-Fi Movies

“Tron Legacy” trailer and a techno-whine

July 25, 2009 /

I haven’t been presenting many videos from my Comic-Con sojourn. That’s largely because they are taking damnably long to load and watch — as much as a half an hour or more for a couple of minutes. Considering the number of people here, could be simple overload, I suppose.

In any case, rather ironically considering the computer/web/gaming subject matter and because it was asked for, however, please enjoy the rather cool “Tron Legacy” trailer.

I was not a fan of the original, many years ago, and have been a little surprised by its growing cult appeal over the years. Given that this looks pretty cool, that it’s in 3-D, and has Jeff Bridges, I could nevertheless be on board with this after all. I’m a sucker for kinetic 3-D.

Back with more a more newsy type post a bit later on.

Action Movies, Actors, Comic-Con, External Entertainment, External Movies, Movies, Sci-Fi Movies

One Piece: Season Two, First Voyage

July 24, 2009 /

Call me a cynic, but “One Piece” is the most inconsistent anime ever made. When the show brings its A-game, there’s not another series around that can match its harmonious mixture of action and comedy. Unfortunately, the series also has a tendency to slip into mediocrity time and again, and in the case of the first volume of Season Two, it happens more often than you’d care to see from a show with so much potential. With only 14 episodes included on the two-disc set, it’s disappointing to discover that the first eight are wasted on a stupid story arc involving a little girl named Apis and the millennial dragon she’s promised to protect. There isn’t any real progress made other than the fact that the Straw Hats’ detour eventually puts them back on course, and in fact, most of the crew members are relegated to background duty for many of the episodes. When they finally do reach the Grand Line, however, the series kicks back into high gear. The ship (along with its crew) is swallowed whole by a giant whale, and after Luffy figures out a way to escape, he’s lured into another trap set by a group of bounty hunters posing as pirate-friendly vendors. It’s this introduction to the Baroque Works crime syndicate that hints at “One Piece” returning to its winning ways in the next volume, but it’s just a shame we had to sit through this uneven batch of episodes to get there.

Click to buy “One Piece: Season Two, First Voyage”

Actors, TV, TV Action, TV Anime, TV DVD Quicktakes, TV DVDs

Comic-Con treats and tricks

July 24, 2009 /

I’ll be writing a little bit more about the unwisely dropped direct-to-DVD festival hit, “Trick ‘r Treat,” after I return from the con. That particularly includes what I gleaned from a trio of round robin interview things with writer-director Michael Dougherty and co-stars Lauren Lee Smith (“CSI”) and Brian Cox, definitely one of the toppermost of the poppermost, acting wise. Including Mr. Cox, all very personable folks, which never hurts in show bidness.

My reaction to the film was muted by my own tiredness, but I do think there is something there. Dougherty, a co-writer on the last couple of Bryan Singer superhero projects, has an outstanding eye for creepy beauty and he certainly brings human values and humor to his horror. However, the muddy acoustics of the hall drowned out much of the dialogue for me, and the impossibility of obtaining coffee at the convention center  in the evening dulled out much of my brain. (Why, oh why, Mrs. Fields, have you abandoned me this year?) The audience reaction was, as far as I could tell, divided between wild enthusiasm and muted nitpicking. More to come.

And now, a few other more high-profile movie related con related matters live from my horrifyingly small shoe box hotel room. Also, I wonder how long I can hold out without ever setting foot in the dreaded Hall H.

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Action Movies, Actors, Actresses, Comic-Con, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News, Sci-Fi Movies, TV Action, TV Comedies, TV Dramas

“The Ugly Truth” is that no one will beat “Harry”

July 23, 2009 /

A slightly rushed Comic-Con box office preview….

This week sees the release of three movies with a certain degree of box office potential, middling-to-awful reviews, and little hope of outdoing the projected $31 million-floor for “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” The most likely runner-up, says THR‘s Carl DiOrio, is “The Ugly Truth,” which got a facially challenged 08% “fresh” rating from Rotten Tomatoes. DiOrio says the tracking augers about $20 million worth for the R-rated comedy featuring beefcake Gerard Butler and beauty Katherine Heigl.

Guinea PigAlso hitting theaters is the 3-D CGI animated “G-Force,” a critically derided action-comedy focusing on what Jason Zingale terms “the goldfish of the rodent world.” This one, of course, has the benefit of family appeal, and 3-D doesn’t seem to be hurting movies these days. Variety is calling $20-30 million, and I personally wouldn’t be surprised to see either a photo finish or a minor upset here with “The Ugly Truth.”

“Orphan” has aroused some minor controversy and outright disdain with its horror variation on the old “Bad Seed” storyline, but apparently its tracking (whatever that is, I’m still trying to figure) isn’t showing all that strongly. Ironically. This is actually by far the best reviewed of the three new releases, with a not-even-close-to-steller 50% “fresh” RT rating. Everything is relative.

Finally, a couple of smaller films are continuing to gradually grow wider as they show some promise of breaking through. Kathryn Bigelow’s highly acclaimed and buzz-heavy “The Hurt Locker” continues to roll on to what I’m guessing is a more than possible “Best Picture” nomination given the doubled number of slots this year. “(500) Days of Summer” is already experiencing what may be the start of a small critical backlash, which is seemingly inevitable with successful indie comedies. Given the track record of “Juno,” “Little Miss Sunshine,” etc., this is probably a good sign, commercially speaking.

Action Movies, Actors, Actresses, Horror Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News, Reviews

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