Tag: Shaun of the Dead (Page 2 of 3)

Whatever you don’t, don’t watch this while carving the turkey!

November 26, 2009 /

Now, embedding this particular video today might be in slightly poor taste…okay, it’s actually and definitely in deliriously bad taste…but if I’m going to post Eli Roth’s hysterically disturbing fake trailer for a thankfully non-existent seventies slasher flick called, “Thanksgiving,” what better day is there to post it? You’re probably not at work, but FYI, NSFW. Slasher violence, culinary gore, gratuitous grainy film stock, and gruesomely brief sex and nudity follows.

And here’s a brief but fun little promotional film covering the fake trailers shot for Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s “Grindhouse” by Roth, Edgar Wright (“Shaun of the Dead“), and Rob Zombie (“The Devil’s Rejects,”). Shame the damn thing didn’t make any money.

Mr. Roth and I are of similar ethnic/religious background and, though I’d probably be too squeamish to see an actual Eli Roth horror film based on the holiday that kicks off the Days of Atonement  — and I’d definitely be too chicken to cross the ADL picket lines that would be set up in front of every movie theater and video store that dared to feature it — but I love his idea for a Rosh Hoshannah-based slasher flick. I even have a tag line ready: “May you be inscribed in the book  of…death!” All I need to do know is to figure out the Yiddish for “bwa-ha-ha-ha” and I think we’re halfway to another trailer.

External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Humor, Movie Comedies, Movies

Mouse reshuffles, Leo the lion on the block, and other tales

November 11, 2009 /

* In the real world Obama appears to be rethinking Afghanistan; in the cable TV world Lou Dobbs is relieving CNN of his xenophobia and is threatening to go into politics while The Onion has the real scoop. Meanwhile in the movie world, Disney’s new chairman, Rich Ross, is reorganizing. It sounds as if technology will be leading the way in the new regime. Also, the structure of the organization will resemble more a television network, we’re told, than a movie studio. Once upon a time that might have worried me, but these days TV is hardly any worse than movies. I’m not sure if that’s good news about TV or bad news about movies. (A little of both?)

* The lion of Hollywood has been a bit mangy for a long time now. Peter Bart reports that MGM is about to be sold and the whole thing, 4,000 titles and all, is worth about $1.5 billion, which would be a lot of money to you and me but to a once mighty film studio sure sounds paltray. One factor, even the older titles in the library ain’t what they used to be, either. The studio’s signature titles: “The Wizard of Oz,” “Gone With the Wind,” and “Singin’ in the Rain” are now available on Warner Brother’s DVD along with a good chunk of their best known classics.  The ghosts of Culver City’s glory days are restless tonight.

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* Apparently being a movie critic these days is such an unstable, lousy position that some of the best known reviewers are jumping ship and becoming film festival programmers. Yesterday, it was Newsweek’s David Ansen. Today, it’s the L.A. Weekly/Village Voice’s Scott Foundas. Anne Thompson has the depressing news that might nevertheless be creating more opportunities for some of the better known online folks.

* The fruits of my compatriot Will Harris’s London sojourn are appearing in the form of some extremely worth-your-time interviews. First with writer/director Richard Curtis of the criticially underrated “Love, Actually” and the soon to be released “Pirate Radio.” Also roly-poly movie superstud and general all around good guy Nick Frost of “Shaun of the Dead,” etc., as well as “Pirate” newcomers Tom Sturridge and Talulah Riley gets the Harris treatment as well. Bob says collect ’em all.

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Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Mad Men, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas, TV Sci-Fi

A “Kick-Ass” marketing campaign?

November 6, 2009 /

What’s looking to be almost certainly the most controversial comic book movie of 2010 is starting to take its marketing campaign into high gear with the release of posters for “Kick-Ass.” For those of you not in the know, it’s Mathew Vaughn’s adaptation of Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr.’s comic book about a teen (Aaron Johnson, who’ll also be playing the young John Lennon in “Nowhere Boy”) who decides out of the blue to be a superhero — only he doesn’t get bitten by a radioactive animal, nor does he spend 10 years turning himself into the ultimate ninja. Following his lead, a few presumably less than stable “heroes,” to be played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse (“Superbad“), Chloe Moretz (“(500) Days of Summer“), and Nicolas Cage, get into the act. Ultra-violent hijinks ensue.

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As you can see, we have four separate posters here that might be together on large billboards (those of us who live in L.A. may well see some huge version of this on the Sunset strip) and can also be displayed separately.

I don’t know the comic book, but as mentioned here before, there’s been definite buzz around this project based on some clips that showed this year at Comi-Con. Moreover, director Matthew Vaughn was once best known as Guy Ritchie’s producer, but he stepped confidently out of his shadow and emerged, in my opinion, the less showy and better director with the 2003 crime thriller, “Layer Cake.” As with 2007’s underrated/underseen romantic fantasy-comedy, “Stardust” the screenplay is credited to Vaughn and English TV presenter Jane Goldman. I also like the fact that so far Vaughan has made three very different movies in three different genres.

According to Peter Sciretta of /Film, comparisons are flying with this one, particularly to “The Matrix” and also, according to a unnamed friend who saw it, “Shaun of the Dead” — presumably in terms of the sense of humor. Still, considering the possibility for social satire and the touchy spectacle of young people and ultra-violence, my mind is going towards Kinji Fukasaku’s film of “Battle Royale.”

I understand a trailer is coming next week. Also, according to Rick Marshall of MTV, there is a web site (iamkick-ass.com), but what I’m seeing there right now is just pure whiteness. Not terribly kick-ass. Stay on the lookout, I guess.

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

Weekend box office: “Zombieland” to lift horror comedy curse, apparently

October 2, 2009 /

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There was a time — I think it was, I don’t know, two weeks ago — when horror comedies were supposed to be, now and forever, box office poison. “Too funny to be scary and too scary to be funny” was the not so intelligent line. Such was the Hollywood conventional wisdom, until someone went and made a horror comedy that struck a chord.

So, apparently the peanut butter of horror can be blended with the chocolate of comedy if you have lots of action and sufficient gore, the trailer for the movie in question is funny enough that audiences will be sold on it as a more or less straight comedy…and, oh yeah, almost everybody who can stomach seems to love it. Such certainly seems to be the case with “Zombieland.” The flick, which features indie stars Jesse Eisenberg and Abigail Breslin, is eliciting excitement both from industry types and critics who have graced it with an 89% “Fresh” Rotten Tomatoes rating (just two points shy of 2004’s instant zombie comedy classic, “Shaun of the Dead.”)

Still, for yours truly who loves comedy horror but has a well documented issue with gore, particularly of the zombie variety, this means a probable long period of movie procrastination followed by a small bonanza for our nation’s distillers. For top-billed costar Woody Harrelson, though, it means a comeback. Jolly Carl DiOrio of THR and Andrew Stewart of Variety guess that it will gross somewhere around $20-$25 million or perhaps further north in over 3,000 theaters. If it wasn’t such a busy weekend, I might think it could do even better.

As for the number two spot, I gather most of the prognosticators expect yet another very good weekend for the animated family hit, “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs,” but after that, the playing field gets a bit crowded. For one thing, Pixar is making things interesting with 3-D redoes of “Toy Story,” and “Toy Story 2” being released as a double feature. It’s a pretty awesome package of family entertainment and I could see it cutting into this weekend’s “Meatballs” take.

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

Zombies, Ondie, Polanski, and a neglected cell phone

September 29, 2009 /

Movieland abides.

* Anne Thompson thinks “Zombieland” just may break the horror comedy curse — given the success of “Shaun of the Dead,” there may be something about zombies that just somehow outweigh today’s horror fans’ fear of anything remotely humorous. Anyhow, the short clip and others (Ms. Thompson has some more) looks good. Still, as Mr. Squeamish guy who had to get dead drunk to watch the original “Dawn of the Dead,” every time a movie with a certain amount of gore gets good enough word-of-mouth/reviews, I get conflicted. Not easy being me. Right now, though, I’m thinking this one might be worth sneaking the contents of my bar into the theater for, even if I’m already concerned the “nut up or shut up” catchphrase could get very old very quick.

* Ondie Timoner’s terrific and ominous new documentary, “We Live in Public,” opened in L.A. last week. I wrote a mammoth interview post on it, it did good business this weekend according to Box Office Mojo and, dang it, I’m claiming I gave it the PH bump! (If it’s good enough for Colbert….) Anyhow, you still have time to check it out before the run ends Thursday.  With some decent luck, many more engagements all over the country may follow.

* If you’re a member of the “lock ’em up now and show no quarter” side of the Roman Polanski debate, you’ll be happy to know that the 76 year-old director is likely to be in a Swiss jail for a period of weeks as he fights extradition.

* The video of Hugh Jackman skillfully dealing with the incessant ringing of some fool’s cell phone during a live performance as co-star Daniel Craig waits patiently has been everywhere. Since “here” is part of “everywhere,” here it is, via Cinematical.

Actors, Documentaries, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movie Comedies, Movies, News, Sci-Fi Movies

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