Tag: Zack Snyder (Page 2 of 4)

Weekend box office never sleeps, does it?

September 24, 2010 /

It’s certainly not resting this very busy weekend when the return of Mr. “Greed is Good” himself and a bunch of 3-D fantasy owls will battle for the #1 spot, with any number of other interesting things happening on the sidelines.

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The smart money seems to be pretty positive that “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” will earn in the neighborhood of $20 million and so may end up winning the weekend. At least that’s what I’m reading via jolly Carl DiOrio and the more circumspect Ben Fritz.

The audience for the latest from Oliver Stone skews fairly older, not only because it’s a topical thriller from the bombastic but literate Stone, but because it’s a sequel to a hit movie that is — shockingly for some of us — old enough that 24 year-old co-star Shia LaBeouf was barely a toddler when it first came out. That may help with the film’s longevity since older audiences tend to take their time seeing a new movie. Also, a bit of extra publicity from Gekko-man Michael Douglas‘s well-publicized upbeat battle with cancer might add to awareness over the long term. The reviews, which also have a somewhat stronger effect on older viewers, are only meh-to-okay with somewhat better response from more blue-state-centric “top critics.”

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Actors, Actresses, Animation, Documentaries, External Entertainment, External Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News

Post Comic-Con trailer insanity: “Sucker Punch”

July 26, 2010 /

Not wasting any time after a reportedly very successful debut at Comic-Con, Warner Brothers is capitalizing on the good press with the first official trailer for the film, which won’t be coming out until late March of next year.

So, after seeing all this, you might ask “so, what is this movie about?” Here’s what they said on the YouTube page:

“Sucker Punch” is an epic action fantasy that takes us into the vivid imagination of a young girl whose dream world provides the ultimate escape from her darker reality. Unrestrained by the boundaries of time and place, she is free to go where her mind takes her, but her incredible adventures blur the lines between what’s real and what is imaginary…with potentially tragic consequences.

So, here’s writer-director Zack Snyder’s elevator pitch: it’s kinda like “Pan’s Labyrinth” with hots babes, or like “Kill Bill” meets Sam Fuller’s “Shock Corridor.” For me, the jury on Snyder (“300,” “Watchmen“) is still very much out. He’s got technical ability like crazy and definite visual panache, but I’m not at all sure about his storytelling. However, if he can pull this off, I’ll have to pay my due respects.

H/t /Film.

Action Movies, Comic-Con, External Entertainment, External Movies, Movies, News

Comic-con — notes written with tired feet

July 24, 2010 /

Comic-Con has gotten so enormous and so unfriendly to writers (and, in different ways, other folks I’m sure also) that it even nearly did in a high end reporter with gazillions of studio contacts like Anne Thompson. I’ll save my no doubt semi-cynical reflections on the thing for later, but here are just a few movie stories from the con that I have time to write about it in a very brief window.

* You might consider going from Tolkien to a ride at Disneyland a major artistic comedown, but Guillermo del Toro obviously thinks otherwise and is a huge fan of what I admit is also my favorite ride at the park. The Wrap has more, oddly enough with no mention of the mansion. Was this another event? Still nice to see that the monster-loving del Toro’s uncensored speaking style hasn’t been cleaned up by PR standards and practices.

People Guillermo del Toro

Also from “The Wrap”: Dominic Patten writes that Zack Snyder’s “Sucker Punch” lived up to its name.

* I can’t watch the video here, but you can apparently see a now-bearded Joss Whedon personally confirm that Jeremy Renner will, indeed, play Hawkeye in “The Avengers.” Oh, and I guess that means that Whedon really is directing it, after all, official like.

* “The Green Hornet” is sounding a bit more fun to me.

* The perceptive and usually geek friendly Ms. Thompson was not personally wowed by “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” but she reports the audience at the screening she attended was. She does however have a video interview with writer-director Edgar Wright, which I haven’t had time to watch yet.

* I just had a bit of snafu/disappointment in terms of getting some good stuff for later on “Green Lantern” but the folks in Hall H had their geek buttons well pushed, it appears. (Not among them, a friend of mine here, who waited 2.5 hours in line and didn’t make it in, six people from the front of the line. He should have made it three hours.)

* An item having nothing to do with Comic-Con. According to a sexual harrassment suit, Casey Affleck appears to have a problem. I hope it’s only a legal one.

* Meanwhile, back in the real world where people pay to see movies, “Inception” is ruling the roost but sharing some of the wealth with the Angelina Jolie action vehicle, “Salt.”

Angelina Jolie in an arresting moment in

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

Guardians of Ga-what?

June 13, 2010 /

Of all the birds, mammals, reptiles, and insects in nature’s creation, I have to say that owls would be among the last ones I’d think to build an animated fantasy/adventure around. They strike me as being singularly inexpressive creatures, even if they can crane their necks almost as far as young Regan in “The Exorcist.”

True, Pixar has shown you can make way-better-than-decent films about even inanimate objects more than once. This isn’t Pixar, however. It’s director Zack Snyder (“300,” “Watchmen“) taking his first foray into family fare with an adaptation of the first three books in a popular young adult fantasy series. Overall, especially after taking a look at the excerpts below, I share the mixed feelings of Topless Robot’s resident wiesenheimer Rob Bricken re: “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’hoole,” but in the spirit of fair play, I’ll let Snyder try to explain why this movie will be cooler-than-cool and made of awesome.

Action Movies, Animation, External Entertainment, External Movies, Movies, News

What Else Ya Got? “The Book of Eli”

June 12, 2010 /

The Hughes brothers’ first film in nine years didn’t exactly burn up the box office, but thanks to the star power of Denzel Washington, it did manage to turn a respectable profit. Apparently, it was even enough to convince Warner Bros. to go all out with the film’s Blu-ray, because while some of the studio’s more recent releases didn’t really feature much in the way of special features, “The Book of Eli” is loaded with them.

“Maximum Movie Mode”

It’s nothing like the incredible presentation hosted by Zack Snyder on the “Watchmen” Blu-ray, but this picture-in-picture video track is still a pretty cool supplement to the film. Designed more like Universal’s U-Control feature – where a small box pops up in the corner of the screen at various times throughout the movie – the Maximum Movie Mode features interviews with the cast and crew, behind-the-scenes footage from production, as well as concept art and screen to storyboard comparisons. Additionally, you can branch off to mini-featurettes called…

“Focus Points”

…or you can view them on their own without having to sit through the entire movie. There are ten in all, each running about 3-4 minutes in length. Though each Focus Point covers a different aspect of the film, most of them fall under one of three categories: Production Design, like “Building Carnegie’s Town” and “Apocalyptic San Francisco”; Stunts, like “Underpass Fight,” “Shootout at George and Martha’s,” and “Solara Causes Mayhem”; and Character Profiles, including a look at “The Motorcycle Gang.”

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Action Movies, External Movie DVDs, Movie DVDs, Movies

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