Has the pain of the end of Lost faded yet?  (Click here for my thoughts on the finale.)  Wanna rub some salt in the wound?  Then be sure to check out this video compilation of all the questions Lost left unanswered.

Here’s another great video from collegehumor.com: a Star Wars google ad parody.  SO FUNNY!!  This is well worth two minutes of your time.

Movie adaptations of Philip K. Dick stories have a pretty terrible track record.  But I’m pretty excited about this one.  Click here for a trailer for The Adjustment Bureau, starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt (who really should have been the Black Widow in Iron Man 2).

Has Rob Reiner finally made another good movie?  Check out this trailer:

I’m intrigued by that sweet trailer.  Rob Reiner had one of the great winning streaks of all time when he directed This is Spinal Tap, The Sure Thing, Stand By Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Misery, and A Few Good Men.  But with the exception of The American President, it’s been a long, loooong dry spell since then.  Here’s hoping that Flipped represents the master’s return to form!

Whee, still more great trailers to see!  Here’s the second peek at Scott Pilgrim vs The World (about which I must admit I know very little, but these trailers have hooked me), as well as our first glimpse at Part One of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

CHUD is running a fantastic list of the Worst CGI in History that is sad, funny, and well-worth your time.

See you all back here tomorrow!

I have an extensive series of posts, that will be running over the course of the next month, in which I write about my revisitation of Arthur C. Clarke’s four-novel Odyssey series which began in 1968 with 2001: A Space Odyssey — as well as the two film adaptations (of 2001 and 2010).  On Wednesday of this past week, literally moments after I had typed the final words of my review of Mr. Clark’s fourth and final Odyssey novel, 3001: The Final Odyssey, I read the sad news that Mr. Clarke had passed away at the age of 90.  What sad news.  This detailed obituary from the New York Times is worth a look.  Mr. Clarke was a giant in the world of science fiction, and he will be sorely missed by all of his fans world-wide, including this one.

Some big trailers have hit the web recently.  Check out this terrific new trailer for Iron Man 2, as well as this intriguing glimpse at the I-can’t-believe-this-actually-got-made sequel to Tron.  How great is Bruce Boxleitner in that trailer?  How about that glimpse of (newly-minted Oscar winner) Jeff Bridges?  Both films look fantastic, and I fervently hope they both can deliver.

Speaking of Jeff Bridges, I wanted to direct your attention to this great recent piece from aintitcoolnews.com, in which Jeff Dowd, the inspiration for “the Dude” in The Big Lebowski, waxes poetic about Mr. Bridges.

And speaking of films I hope will deliver, here’s a sneak peek at Robert Rodriguez and Nimrod Antal’s upcoming movie Predators.  Is it possible that we might finally be getting a truly kick-ass Predator film that can hold its own with the Arnold Schwarzenegger original?  I am beginning to hope…  (At the very least, they have settled on a phenomenal title, one that echoes James Cameron’s Aliens, the sequel to Ridley Scott’s film Alien.)

Finally, all of the fans of Lost out there need to be sure to check out my favorite article of the month: The Real Problem with Midichlorians.  I COULDN’T AGREE MORE WITH THIS ARTICLE.

OK, enough looking back on 2009.  Let’s look forward to 2010!

Quite a number of intriguing new previews for 2010 movies have recently appeared.  Let’s take a look…

Let’s start with one of the greatest things I have seen in a long time.  It’s the trailer for Ricky Gervais’ next film, Cemetary Junction.

Bring on the Schindler’s List jokes!  Oh my.

Hot on the heels of that, in terms of unbridled awesomeness, is the fantastic new trailer for Kick Ass. Click here to check it out.  Kick Ass is a terrific comic book (click here for my thoughts on the series), and I am overjoyed at the way that trailer indicates that directer Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, Stardust) and his team have brought the book to life.  Can’t wait.

Another film that I can’t wait for is Christopher Nolan’s Inception:

I don’t have any more of a clue of what the film is about, after watching that second trailer, than I had after watching the first.  But who cares.  I relish not having the entire film spoiled by the trailer.  And Christopher Nolan (Memento, The Dark Knight) can pretty much do no wrong in my book.

Next, in the “does this REALLY exist??” category — Disney has actually made a movie version of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice??  And it stars Nicolas Cage and Jay Baruchel (who I will follow pretty much anywhere after his terrific work in Judd Apatow’s short-lived TV series Undeclared)?  And it also stars Monica Belluccia and Alfred Molina???  Is there any hope that this could actually be any good?  Sigh, probably not.  Take a look and judge for yourself:

Speaking of Jay Baruchel, click here to check out the new red-band trailer for She’s Out of My League, a comedy in which he’s starring.  Don’t know much about this flick, but it looks like it might be amusing.

Red Riding is a trilogy of films based upon the true man-hunt for the “Yorkshire Killer” who terrorized England in the ’70s & ’80s.  I am fascinated by this project — a trilogy of interlocking films, all being released at once?  Wild!  I hope this plays here in Boston.  Check out the trailers for all three films, each named for the year in which they take place: 1974, 1980, and 1983.

Finally, you all know that Robert Rodriguez is actually making a full-length movie of Machete (one of the fake trailers from Grindhouse), right?  Check out that original Grindhouse trailer once again in all its NSFW glory, and ponder the potential wonder of the feature version.

Lots of great Lost analysis out there.  Click here for EW’s Jeff Jensen’s in-depth write-up of the season 6 premiere.  I’m a big fan of “Doc” Jensen’s weekly Lost write-ups — they’re always insightful and ridiculously detailed.  Click here for Mr. Jensen’s interview with Lost masterminds Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindeloff, and click here for collider.com’s interview with Mr. Lindeloff.  Both contain some tasty morsels of hints about what awaits us in season 6.  (And here’s a great interview with Mr. Jensen himself in which he discusses Lost’s final season.)  On a less serious note, check out this very funny (and also super-detailed) review of the season 6 premiere from bestweekever.tv.  (The graphic of Jacob’s note to the Temple-Others is phenomenal.)  Lastly, this review of the premiere from chud.com is worth your time.  This dude has a Lost re-watch blog that I often checked out while conducting my own Lost re-watch project.  I hope you all enjoyed my extraordinarily lengthy list of the burning questions left hanging after Lost’s first five seasons.  Can’t wait for tonight’s episode!

Click here for a terrific interview with comedian Patton Oswalt.  Click here for the Onion A.V. Club’s interview with Aziz Ansari.  Both are great conversations with two very smart and funny individuals.

Speaking of interviews, for anyone out there who loved A Serious Man as much as I did (read my review here), you MUST read this phenomenal interview with Fred Melamed.  Mr. Melamed is the actor who portrayed Sy Ableman, one of the my favorite new characters that I saw created on screen in 2009.  The interview is a hoot, particularly when Mr. Melamed declares his effort to “bring the pompous, Jewish, overweight, rabbinic figure back to the center of American sexuality.”

Bill Waterson, the amazingly talented creator of Calvin & Hobbes, is well-known for having pretty much disappeared from planet Earth following the end of his beloved comic strip.  He hasn’t granted interviews, he hasn’t appeared at conventions or other gatherings of comic strip artists, and he hasn’t allowed any licensing of his characters.  So die-hard Calvin & Hobbes fans like myself took notice when he agreed to an e-mail conversation with a reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer.  Click here for the question-and-answer exchange!

This is very disturbing. Back to the Future Part III is officially ruined for me forever.

That’s all for today!

News broke yesterday that Sam Raimi’s planned Spider-Man 4 has been scrapped, and the studio is going ahead with a total reboot of the series.  DeadlineHollywoodDaily broke the story.  Personally, I’m bummed by this news.  Though Raimi & co. broke my heart with the atrocious Spider-Man 3, the first two Spidey flicks were so great that I really wanted to see him come back and try to return to the greatness of those first two films.  I hate that his run on the character is ending on such a low note, and the idea of rebooting a series that is only eight years old and wildly successful just seems insane to me.  But hey, I’m the guy who also wants to see Bryan Singer make another Superman film.

I have not read any of the Twilight books, nor seen the movies, nor do I have any intention of doing so.  But this piece over at CHUD about why Breaking Bad (the fourth and final Twilight book) MUST be made into a movie is absolutely hysterical.

Behold the weirdest wedding video I have ever seen.  This dude had his friends in the wedding party act out scenes from Superman II.  I am at once awestruck and disturbed.

Speaking of slightly-insane Superman fans, a few weeks ago I stumbled upon photos of this guy who decorated his office cubicle as the Fortress of Solitude.  Check it out:

You can find the full story behind his crazy construction project here.

Then there’s this incredibly bizarre stop-motion animated interview with Fantastic Mr. Fox director Wes Anderson.  Except Wes Anderson is played by Jason Schwartzman.  You read that right.  Check it out.

In case you haven’t seen it yet, a super-cool new trailer for Iron Man 2 came out last month.  Take a look.  I was an enormous fan of Iron Man (read my review here), and have high hopes for the sequel.  Don’t break my heart, Mr. Favreau!  (By the way, in re-reading my review of Iron Man, I can see that I was sure that the Mandarin would be a key villain in the sequel.  It’s not looking that way… so I’m wondering whether that character factors into the story at all.  I certainly hope he does!)

Speaking of trailers, let me lay a few more on you.  Here’s a sort of weird new trailer for Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe’s latest collaboration: Robin Hood.  Take a look.  This seems like familiar ground for Scott and Crowe, and I can’t say that I have been lying awake at nights waiting for a new version of the Robin Hood story.  That being said, it’s Ridley Scott, so of course I’m interested.  Let’s see what he’s got.

Here’s a phenomenal short trailer introducing the character of Hit Girl from the new film Kick Ass.  I have quite enjoyed this comic book series from Mark Millar and John Romita Junior (read my thoughts on the series here), and am really jazzed to see the film adaptation.  Here’s a longer trailer that was released late last year.

Do we really need a Shrek IV?  Do I really believe it’s the final chapter, as the new trailer for Shrek Forever After promises?  No and no.

It’s been fascinating watching and reading about people’s wildly differing responses to James Cameron’s Avatar since its release last month.  (You can read my mostly positive review here.)  I mentioned the film’s familiar (and, when you boil away all the sci-fi trappings, fairly simplistic) white-man goes native story-line.  In addition to being a bit disappointing narratively, some have pointed out a larger issue with that type of story — and I must admit, this is something that has been bugging me a bit as well.  Annalee Newitz over at io9 has written a fascinating piece that explains this far better than I ever could.  Her article is called “When Will White People Stop Making Movies Like Avatar?” It is well worth your time.

Speaking of Avatar, here’s a fascinating article comparing the finished film with the 144-page treatment for the project (originally titled Project 880), that James Cameron wrote after finishing Titanic.  It’s an intriguing glimpse into Mr. Cameron’s original intentions for the film.

Lastly for today, here’s word that Seth McFarlane would love to do an extended parody on Family Guy of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (in the style of Family Guy’s recent hour-long parodies of Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back).  That would be a ton of fun, I think.  Here’s hoping Paramount’s lawyers let the project happen.

Love that photograph.  (I first saw it here.)

My friend Andy recently pointed me in the direction of a terrific web-comic called XKCD.  It’s a self-described web-comic of “romance, sarcasm, math, and language.”  My buddies who work in the computer world picked this comic as their favorite.

Here’s an interesting article that compares various shows’ original pilot episodes with what actually made it to air.  I was particularly intrigued since I recently saw Joss Whedon’s original, unaired pilot for Dollhouse that was rejected by FOX (it was a special feature on the season one DVD set), which Steph and I agreed was FAR superior to the pilot that aired (and, frankly, superior to ANY episode that actually aired during the first season!!  The two episodes that FOX never aired, that pilot and the epilogue episode Epitah One, were far far better than any of the 12 episodes that were actually broadcast.  But that’s a blog for another time…)

Here’s an interesting list of one fella’s thoughts on the 10 best series of the 21st century so far (2000-present).  Some interesting choices there.  Love his description of season 1 of Battlestar Galactica (though beware a spoiler for that season’s shocking finish if you’ve never seen it!).

Click here for an absolutely fascinating, lengthy look into Spike Jonze’s almost decade-long effort to bring Where The Wild Things Are to the big screen, from the New York Times.  I cannot wait to see what he has created.

There’s a really intriguing new trailer out there for Up in the Air, the new film from director Jason Reitman (Juno, Thank You For Smoking) and starring George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Jason Bateman, Danny McBride, and Zach Galifianakis that looks spectacular.

Last year I wrote a piece that I called My Farewell to Heroes, in which I vowed to stop watching that incredibly disappointing show.  Luckily (judging by the consistently terrible reviews that the third season of the show got) I was able to stick to my vow.  Life is just to short to watch shitty TV.   Anyways, there’s an amusing review of the third season DVD set up at DVDactive.com (a terrific DVD/Blu-Ray site) by someone who shares my disdain for the show.  Worth a read.

I’ve breen pretty down on the movies of summer 2009.  My feeling has been that this was one of the more disappointing summers in recent memory.  But a recent article by Devin Farici over at Chud, listing his 10 best movies of summer 2009 just might cause me to change my tune.  I haven’t yet seen Moon, Away We Go, or World’s Greatest Dad (missed ‘em in theatres, but I hope to check out all three on DVD), and I just didn’t have much interest (sorry, Devin!) in Drag Me to Hell.  But I must admit that any summer that saw the release of Star Trek, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Funny People, District 9, Up, and Inglourious Basterds can’t be that bad.  Still, it’s hard to forget the disappointments of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Terminator: Salvation, Year One, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

See you all back here tomorrow!

Welcome back to Motion Pictures!  We’ve got lots of great stuff coming your way in the next few weeks (including my LENGTHY dissertation on Inglourious Basterds, coming on Wednesday).  For now, let’s see what sorts of fun stuff has hit the web recently:

James Cameron has finally made another movie!  And after almost two years of teases, we have at last been graced with a trailer — check it out here.  I don’t hate Titanic — not at all.  I happen to think, though, that it’s one of Cameron’s weaker movies — because I absolutely adore the two Terminator Films, Aliens, The Abyss, and True Lies.  Those five films are all pretty much masterpieces, in my book, so I have been bummed that Mr. Cameron has gone a decade without making a new film.  But that drought is finally at an end!  Let’s hope Avatar is good…

Some other interesting trailers have hit recently:  Here’s a glimpse at the long-delayed The Wolfman.  It’s got a great cast (Benicio del Toro, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Hugo Weaving, and Emily Blunt) but the year-long delay and lots of rumors of problems with the film have me skeptical.

Then there’s the latest Michael Moore joint, Capitalism: A Love Story.  Check out the trailer here.  That should be interesting…

Earlier this month, when I was looking for an image of the crows from Dumbo for my Transformers cartoon making fun of the ridiculously infantile (not to mention offensive!) Skids and Mudflap, I came across this fascinating list of the Nine Most Racist Disney Characters.

In a recent interview with Europe’s Sky TV channel, Quentin Tarantino listed his twenty favorite movies of the past twenty years.  It’s a pretty bizarre list, hence Chud’s article titled Is Quentin Tarantino Totally Fucking With Us?  (Unlike the author of that piece, I for one was THRILLED to see Unbreakable on that list!!)

Finally, take a gander at this:

Been there, man.  TOTALLY been there.  I can’t wait for this!  Might have to bite the bullet and sign up for HBO for a few months so I can see the much-heralded Seinfeld reunion…

Some great new trailers have hit the web in recent days, and they have quite a lot in common with one another in some fascinating ways.

First up, we’ve finally been given our first substantial glimpse into what Terry Gilliam has cooked up in his new film The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, and, as one might expect, it is spectacularly bizarre.  I cannot wait to see Heath Ledger’s final performance.  Click here for the trailer.

Is that not enough cinematic weirdness for you?  Then check out the trailer for Tim Burton’s version of Alice in Wonderland.  That man was born to make this movie.  I just hope it has a little more life to it than Burton’s version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory did.

Are we on a roll yet?  Continuing the theme of visionary directors adapting famous books, take a peak at the newly-released second trailer for Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are.  That looks absolutely marvelous, doesn’t it?

Finally, speaking of visionary directors adapting famous books, here’s a long-anticipated (by me, at least) look at Peter Jackson’s adaptation of Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones that is absolutely haunting.  Can’t wait.

Battlestar Galactica vets Hamie Bamber (Lee Apollo) and Tahmoh Penikett (Helo) will be together again on the season 2 premiere of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse! Click here for more details.

Speaking of Dollhouse, any interview with Mr. Whedon is always worth a look, and this piece contains some tantalizing glimpses at the unaired Dollhouse episode “Epitah 1″ (which screened at Comic-Con and sounds super-cool) as well as hints at a sequel to Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (one of my favoritest things ever)!!

So wow, Capone over at AICN has a report from Peter Jackson covering about 10,000 upcoming projects, all of them enormously exciting!!  Click here to get an update on The Hobbit, District 9, The Lovely Bones, Tintin, and more!

The Sci-Fi channel (urg, I really don’t want to call it Sy-Fy) has posted video from all of its Comic-Con panels.  Perhaps, like me, you couldn’t care less to watch video of people talking about Stargate: Universe — but be sure to check out the full hour-long panel about Battlestar Galactica: The Plan and Caprica!

Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill will be lending their vocal talents to The Simpsons?  Awesome!  Here’s some additional info that came to light at Comic-Con on the season’s upcoming 20th (20 years!  Unbelievable!!) season.

I am disappointed, but not terribly surprised, to read that Kevin Smith might have to change the title of his upcoming buddy cop movie (starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan), A Couple of Dicks.

By all accounts, the Iron Man 2 panel was pretty awesome.  (Click here for a description.)  Why can’t some of this footage be found on-line??  Grrr.  But here’s another interesting tidbit of Marvel movie news: some hints about the line-up for the upcoming Avengers movie!  Some interesting choices.  I really hope that they use Millar/Hitch’s magnificent Ultimates series (which I reviewed here) as the basis for this film.

Since Comic-Con is also a place for news about, you know, comics, I’ll close with a piece of comic-book news that should get any true comic fan very excited:  Planetary #27 is finally being released in October!!!  Can it possibly live-up to the hype generated by the years-long delay?  We’ll see!

So, wow!  After the recent Comic-Con the web has been flooded with all sorts of teases about upcoming movies, TV shows, and other geeky goodness.  Here’s some of the best stuff that I’ve found:

After so many years of speculation and false starts, the sequel to Tron is finally, actually happening!!  Check out the STUNNING trailer here.  It’s going to be in IMAX 3-D??  I’m THERE.

I cannot believe they’re actually making a Jonah Hex movie.  (And with Josh Brolin, no less!)  Check out the poster.

The ending of Lost revealed?  Um, not quite.  Check out this video from the Lost panel!  Quite a lot of additional footage from that panel can be found here.  For some reason, Michael Emmerson’s fake audition for the role of Hurley isn’t included, but you can find that here.  Funny stuff.

Here’s a pretty bad-ass trailer for Season 2 of The Clone Wars.  I actually found the first season to be fairly watchable, and this glimpse at the next season looks pretty promising.

You know what it takes to sell real estate?  The same thing it takes to re-make one of the most brilliant TV shows of all time.  Well, AMC’s version of The Prisoner, starring Ian McKellan and Jim Caviezel, is nearly upon us.  Check out this lengthy trailer.  I must say, that looks pretty damn intriguing!

Amongst all of this glorious fun is the extraordinarily troubling continuing story about the newly-resurrected Futurama’s uncertain future.  This report from the Futurama panel at the con is grim indeed.  Can’t everybody just make nice already?!!

That’s all for now — have a great weekend everybody!!

Here’s a fascinating/hilarious article assessing the Ghostbusters‘ Risky Business Plan.  Those of you in finance, take note!  And, speaking of Ghostbusters, here’s a link to 50 Reasons Why Ghostbusters Just Might Be The Greatest Film of All Time.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles show-runner Josh Friedman has a lengthy, funny, and sort-of-sad assessment of the cancellation of his show that is worth checking out.

Here’s an interesting piece about the Seven Director’s Cuts That You Didn’t Realize That You Wanted.   I DEFINITELY would love to see an alternate cut of The Fountain!

I loved this article about the 10 Most Polarizing Films of the Last Decade.  I strongly disagree with some of his opinions (I really enjoyed both Watchmen and Fahrenheit 9/11, while I had absolutely no patience for Eyes Wide Shut), but I was THRILLED to find someone other than me who loves the criminally underrated Vanilla Sky!!  Follow the link and join the debate.

Here’s another great list: The fine folks at DVDActive.com (one of my favorite DVD-related web-sites) have put together their list of the 10 Franchises That Deserve Better.  It’s a great read, and I am in full agreement with most of their choices.

Did you happen to catch William Shatner’s appearance on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien last month?  Check out the clip on Trekmovie.com.  It’s worth watching for the insanity of the last 30 seconds.

Have a great weekend, everyone!  See you back here on Monday!

Good news, everybody!  Futurama lives!!

So Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck) is joining the cast of 24 next season?  Time for the Battlestar Galactica actors to learn what the members of the ensemble from The Wire have discovered: they’ll never again be in a TV show as good.

Did you see The Daily Show’s John Hodgman’s uproariously funny speech at the 2009 Radio and TV Correspondents’ Dinner?  Not to be missed.

A nice farewell to Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles can be found on Composer Bear McCreary’s excellent blog, as he lists his 15 favorite moments from the show.  (They are all excellent choices.)  This show had its flaws, to be sure, but I am really disappointed that we won’t be getting a third season.  (By the way, Bear was also the composer for the reinvented Battlestar Galactica throughout its run.)

Speaking of The Terminator, the fine folks over at filmschoolrejects.com have posted an interesting list of 20 Things We Didn’t Like and 10 Things We Did about Terminator: Salvation.

I don’t play videogames, but I must admit that this trailer for Lucasarts’ new Star Wars: The Old Republic trailer is ridiculously cool.  I wish we’d seen half that much bad-assery in the prequels…

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog has made his first appearance on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien!  Watch him make fun of some hippies here.

Have a great weekend, everybody!  See you back here on Monday!

Click here for a terrific three-essay series that delves into the first three Indiana Jones films.  These are all really well-written pieces, filled to the brim with love for the cinematic adventures of Dr. Jones.

Clever tourists wrecking the world one monument at a time.  Don’t think — just follow that link.  You won’t regret it.

Click here for a fascinating list of the twenty best non-fiction books for people who think they hate to read non-fiction.  I need to get on this, having only read two of the items on this list!

I’m not exactly recommending this lengthy essay, because I disagree with it wildly, but it’s sort of bizarrely fascinating two see two individuals who really don’t seem to like Star Trek at all go on an enormous length about it as they revisit the first six Trek films.  (Well, one of the two authors seems to be a fan, but he doesn’t seem to put up much of a fight whenever the other one bashes the series.)

Speaking of Trek, here is a link to a lengthy, fascinating Q & A that’s been going on over at Trekmovie.com between Star Trek screenwriters Bob Orci & Alex Kurtzman and a number of fans who, like me, had lots of questions about elements of the new movie’s plots.  I really respect Mr. Orci for engaging with the fans in this way — though I feel most of his responses are pretty flimsy.  Check it out and see what you think.  (UPDATE:  Still MORE Q & A with Mr. Orci & Mr. Kurtzman can be found here!)

It’s pretty obvious that the new Star Trek movie was pretty heavily influenced by the action and dynamism of Star Wars.  But have you considered just how deep those similarities run?  Shocking!  (And hysterical.)

Let’s close with three intriguing trailers: Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Junior, the bizarre-looking Nine and (can you believe it?) Toy Story 3.

That should keep you all good and busy until tomorrow!  See you back here then!

Big dumb summer movie trailer alert!  It’s the new trailer for Transformers 2, filled with lots of robot smashing action, and the new trailer for G.I. Joe, filled with Ninjas and, um, Eiffel Tower smashing action!  Sigh.  Hard to believe these two iconic and beloved cartoons of my youth are both now big-budget blockbuster movies coming out this summer.  Wouldn’t it be amazing if there were both really awesome?  Isn’t it sort of sad to know that they definitely won’t be?

For a peek at a movie that might actually be good, click here to check out District 9, the new sci-fi flick directed by Neill Blomkamp and executive produced by Peter Jackson (The Lord of The Rings).  Color me intrigued.

Keeping up with the trailers, here’s a glimpse at the new film from Francis Ford Coppola, Tetro.  I never saw his last film, the critically-demolished Youth Without Youth, but this looks really interesting.  It’s a new film from Francis Ford Coppola!  Of course it looks interesting!

Did you know that Robert Rodriguez is working on a new Predator film??  If it happens, it’ll be called Predators (in a clever nod to James Cameron’s sequel to Alien, entitled Aliens).  Check out the tantalizing details here.  I need to see this movie RIGHT NOW.

So it’s been ten years since The Phantom Menace, huh?  Here’s an interesting look back.  I agree with this fellow’s thoughts about the two Phantom Menace trailers (among the finest trailers ever crafted), but I certainly don’t think anywhere nearly as highly of that dreadful turd of a movie as he does.  (You can read my memories of first seeing Episode I in theatres here, and my thoughts on the movie looking back almost a decade later here.)

Did you not have enough Star Trek content here on the site for the past two weeks?  Then check out this great piece from the Onion A.V. Club: “Space Racism is Bad and 17 Other Not-So-Subtle Lessons Learned From Star Trek.”  If you’ve never seen it before, you MUST scroll down to the clip of William Shatner’s Kirk reading the Preamble to U.S. Constitution in selection #12, from the absurd Trek episode The Omega Glory.  ”WE… the… PEOPLE… not written for thekingsorthechiefsortherichorthepowerful but for ALLTHEPEOPLE!”  Classic Shatnerian magnificence. 

Since seeing J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek film, I’ve been enjoying reading all the different reactions on-line and in the press.  I always enjoy Alexandra DuPont’s film reviews when they appear (not often enough to suit me) on aintitcoolnews.com, and her take on the new film is well worth your time.  (I remember well — and agree with entirely — her spot-on evisceration of Star Trek: Nemesis, which she quotes at the start of her review.)  Star Trek author William Leisner (who wrote a terrific novella in Pocket Books’ recent Myriad Universes series, reviewed by yours truly here) has a terrific opposite take, giving a right-on-the-money account of all the problematic plot holes in the film.  Trek author Geoff Trowbridge (who also wrote an installment in Myriad Universes) has a similarly interesting take.  My own views (click here if you missed my full review) are somewhat in the middle.  I share a lot of Ms. DuPont’s love for the film, but my enjoyment was lessened by all the plot holes that Mr. Leisner and Mr. Trowbridge list.  

That’s all for today — See you back here tomorrow!

Let’s begin the day by my pointing your attention to two great pieces recently from The Onion A.V. Club: this article about 25 great albums that work best when listened to from start to finish, and a spirited defense of the recent seasons of The Simpsons that lists 10 episodes from the past 5 seasons that stand among the series’ best.

If you haven’t seen it yet, click here to watch the new trailer for Sacha Baron Cohen’s new movie Bruno.  For a little more detail on some of the sequences that you get glimpses of in the trailer, click here for a terrific write-up of the 25 minutes of footage that screened a few weeks ago at SXSW, the theatre-owners convention.  How is he able to still fool people with this stuff after all the publicity that surrounded Borat?

I am not a big fan of Broadway musicals.  That is putting it mildly.  So I’m not exactly doing cartwheels at the news that there is a Spider-Man musical in the works.  And I was completely befuddled to read that they’re working on a musical based on Groundhog Day!  What a bizarre notion.

By the way, speaking of Spider-Man, has director Sam Raimi admitted what was immediately apparent to discerning movie-goers about an hour into the film — that Spider-Man 3 was just terrible?  Well, sort-of.  Click here to read his interesting comments.  Since a Spider-Man 4 seems inevitable, this gives me a smidgen of hope that perhaps we will see a return to the high quality of the first two Spidey films.  What could possibly go wrong, right?

Harlan Ellison is a brilliant Sci-Fi author.  He’s also responsible for one of the finest hours of Star Trek ever committed to film: the Original Series episode “The City on the Edge of Forever.”  He is now suing Paramount and the WGA.  You have got to read his hilarious press release all the way to the end.

So there’s going to be a James Bond museum?  And I thought Christmas only came once a year.

Finally, did you know that some people are getting all bent out of shape about a Chuck Jones Looney Tunes print that parodies Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper?  Well, they are.  In these troubled times, aren’t there more important things that we should be worrying about?  Like the enormous size of the nacelles on the U.S.S. Enterprise in J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek movie??

Have you seen this?  Jon Hamm (Mad Men) plays Lex Luthor in this short from Funnyordie.com, asking for bailout money for Luthorcorp.  Genius!

Out-there director Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) is making a film of Maurice Sendak’s beloved childrens’ book, Where The Wild Things Are?  What an insane, inspired notion.  Check out this wondrous trailer.  This is a movie I need to see.

Speaking of trailers I really want to see, I didn’t know anything whatsoever about Sam Mendes’ (American Beauty) new film, Away We Go, before I saw this new trailer (mentioned at the Motion Captured blog over on HitFix.com).  It stars John Krasinski (Jim from The Office) and Maya Rudolph (from SNL), and now that I’ve seen the trailer I am very excited for this film!  

I love this new poster for J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movie.  I need this in my home.

Speaking of Trek, there’s been some interesting pieces posted on-line lately about the use of Bryan Tyler’s magnificent score for Children of Dune in the trailers for the new Star Trek film.  This article summarizes the confusion nicely.  I am fascinated by this stuff.  Tyler’s score was also used extensively in the first trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  I loved both of the Sci-Fi channel’s Dune mini-series, and it tickles me to hear snippets of the score being used all over the place these days!

Come back here tomorrow to read my thoughts on a terrific older film from director Guillermo del Toro, The Devil’s Backbone!

So have you all seen Watchmen yet?  I am eager to hear people’s thoughts.  Roger Ebert has seen it twice, and after his first review he felt he needed to go back and write about it again.  Pretty interesting.  Speaking of Ebert, I really loved reading his recent tribute to his partner, Gene Siskel, on the tenth anniversary of Gene’s death.  Don’t leave that page without watching the video of the two of them on the Howard Stern show, which is posted at the bottom.  

George Lucas has apparently begun casting his Star Wars TV show.  Be afraid.  Be very afraid.

Have some money to burn?  Then have you considered adorning the wall of your home or office with this damn dirty ape?

In anticipation of the new Star Trek movie, Devin Faraci over at CHUD has been reviewing every single original Star Trek episode.  (Or, at least he was, before the pace of his articles slowed to a crawl.)  But he seems to be back with his review of episode 17, “The Squire of Gothos.”  This episode is, for some reason, considered a classic of the Original Series, but in the cold light of 30 years of hindsight, we must acknowledge that it’s pretty bad.  Anyways, Devin’s reviews are always HYSTERICAL, and this one is no different.  

Let’s end where we began, with Watchmen.  Was my lengthy pre-movie-release dissertation on some of the themes of the graphic novel not in-depth enough for you?  Well then have I got the web-sites for you.  Clear your afternoon’s schedule, and the click here and here.

Don’t forget that, since January, I have been on a new schedule in which I ALWAYS post a new blog on Friday (even though there is no new cartoon on that day).  So don’t forget to check back every Friday to see what’s cooking here!  Coming up tomorrow is a look at some of the great DVDs that I’ve been watching recently.  See you then!

Haven’t done one of these in a while…

Here’s some of the fun stuff floating around the interwebs these days:

The Simpsons has moved to HD!  This has apparently necessitated a change in the show’s iconic opening credits sequence, which has remained constant for 19 years.  (Can you believe it’s been that long??)  Fear not, fans, the new credits sequence is quite spectacular.  It follows the general pattern of the old opening, bringing us through Springfield — from Bart writing on the blackboard to Homer working in the plant to Lisa in band class to Marge shopping with Maggie, etc etc.  But there are a LOT of great new gags, and new appearances by many of the popular characters who weren’t around when the show originally launched (Groundskeeper Willie, Otto, Ralph Wiggum, Pattie & Selma, Sideshow Bob, Apu and his Octuplets, and many more).  And the new animation is terrific.  If you missed yesterday’s episode, check out the new opening by clicking here.  Note that the couch gag is, of course, just this week’s version — that ending joke will continue to change every week.  By the way, after watching this clip, do you find yourself missing Bleeding Gums Murphy?  (He’s one of the characters Bart used to skateboard past, who has now been removed.)  Don’t worry, he’s still there!  Check out the pictures on the wall behind the kids in Lisa’s band class…

Just like the year when there were two asteroid-hitting-the-earth movies (Deep Impact and Armageddon) or the year when there were two volcano movies (Dante’s Peak and Volcano), this year there are two Mall Cop flicks coming out.  Perhaps you, like me, chose to pass on Paul Blart: Mall Cop, starring Kevin James.  But you might still be interested in Seth Rogen’s much, much darker take on the idea.  Click here to see a trailer for Observe and Report.

Speaking of trailers, Quentin Tarantino’s let’s-go-kill-some-Nazis flick Inglourious Basterds (yes, that is how the title is spelled) has a teaser trailer that was just released.  Click here to check it out.

Is Joaquin Phoenix melting down before our eyes, or is this all some kind of hoax for the documentary that Casey Affleck is apparently filming about Phoenix’s attempt at a rap career?  I have no idea, but click here to watch his truly bizarre appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, and judge for yourself.

If you’re a Watchmen fan who is chomping at the bit for the movie to be released (Match 6th is coming!!), then you definitely need to click here to watch the teaser for the Tales of the Black Freighter direct-to-DVD release. 

Finally, I encourage you all to bid a last farewell to the great Ricardo Montalban, who passed away last month, by clicking here to watch Robot Chicken’s Star Trek II: The Opera.  Brilliant.

Not to distract anyone’s attention from MotionPicturesComics.com, but I wanted to point out to y’all that Drew McWeeny, one of my favorite writers over the years at Aintitcoolnews.com, is now writing for HitFix.com and his blog (about movies, DVD, and lots of other fun, related stuff) is definitely worth checking out.  I’ve always enjoyed Drew’s writing over the years (he was known as “Moriarty” over on AICN), particularly his articles on all of the many many DVDs that he watches.  Those DVD pieces, in particular, were among my inspirations when I started this blog.  

McWeeny’s new blog attracted a lot of attention last week when he posted a lengthy open letter from one of the producers of Watchmen about the on-going litigation between Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox over the film (and Fox’s attempts to stop Warners from opening the film as scheduled in March).  If you are at all interested in this story, you should click on that link and read this fascinating letter.  Another recent post of interest drew my attention to a phenomenal evisceration of Ben Stein’s recent “documentary” Expelled (if you haven’t heard about this film, it’s a defense of creationism and an attack on the theory of evolution) by none other than famous film critic Roger Ebert.  This is an older article (Expelled was released last year), but it is a terrific read.

But enough of all that — let’s talk about the first four hours of 24’s much-delayed seventh season (it was supposed to have launched LAST YEAR at this time, but was scuttled by the writers’ strike), which premiered on Sunday and Monday nights.

I have made no secret of my opinion that, for some time now (since, oh, I’d say about season four) 24 has been crying out for a total reinvention.  Keep Jack, keep the adrenaline-pumping real-time format, but start telling some entirely different types of adventures.  For too long now, 24 has been telling the same types of stories over and over and over again, usually involving some variation on the following themes:  a terrorist captures someone and forces them to help with a nefarious plan… Jack tortures someone for information… there’s a lot of technical talk about access codes and opening sockets and someone gaining access to a weapon or a code or a piece of equipment that they can use to menace the United States… Jack winds up on his own with no one to trust, because there’s a mole or multiple moles in the government agencies trying to stop the bad guys… and meanwhile there’s a lot of intrigue in Washington involving the President trying to make some big decisions about important world affairs but getting undermined by personal business and/or the machinations of his various staff members.  Any of this sound familiar?

Upon viewing the made-for-DVD 24 movie Redemption a few months ago, I was at once encouraged to see Jack in a new locale in some new situations (involved in a brutal conflict over in Africa) and disappointed to see the reappearance of too many old 24 tropes (torture, moles in Washington DC, etc.).

So how were these first four hours of 24: season seven?

Well, as with Redemption, it’s quite a mixed bag.  Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot to like.  There are some interesting new faces, such as Annie Wersching as FBI Agent Walker, Colm Feore as first-man Henry Taylor, and Bob Gunton as White House Chief-of-Staff Ethan Kanin.  In particular, I thought Cherry Jones acquitted herself very well as the new President, creating a very different type of chief executive from the ones we’ve seen on 24 in previous years (even though she’s confronted with a lot of the same plot developments).  John Billingsley was one of my favorite things about the rather mediocre Star Trek: Enterprise, and I enjoyed seeing him as the hapless sucker kidnapped in the exciting opening moments of hour one.  I hope we see more of him.  

I am intrigued by some of the mysteries raised in these early episodes, and I was pleasantly surprised by some nice connections with Redemption — in particular, after getting to know the President’s likable son in that DVD-movie, I was much more engaged than I might otherwise have been in the story of the circumstances surrounding his mysterious “suicide.”  Best of all, I am thrilled to see Tony (”soulpatch”) Almeida back on the show.  As ridiculous as his resurrection might be, he is a dynamic and beloved character, and his presence brings a lot more oomph to all of the standard bad-guys-make-threats-and-do-menacing-things-using computers-in-small-dark-rooms scenes that might otherwise be rather boring.  I was pleased at how early on the writers got Jack and Tony face-to-face — their scenes together were a ton of fun. 

I also enjoyed the number of nods to events in previous seasons.  From the questions asked of Jack before the Senate committee to Tony’s reference in an argument with Jack to the death of Teri from way back in season 1, I really enjoyed that attention to detail.  While I think 24 needs to abandon the story-lines that have characterized all of the previous seasons, that doesn’t mean I want the show to ignore their existence.  I like it when there is some sense of continuity to Jack’s adventures.

So what’s not so good?

Primarily I am disappointed that, in just these first 4 hours, the show has already fallen back too often on the old, familiar story crutches of the type discussed above.  OK, we’re not in CTU anymore, but the set-up in the FBI office seems to re-create almost exactly the same dynamic.  We have all the same computer monitors and ringing phones and “quirky” (read: annoying) agents.  (I guess Janeane Garofalo really studied the acting of Mary Lynn Rajskub when they both appeared on The Larry Sanders Show, because Garofalo portrays quite a Chloe-clone here.)  And yes, there’s apparently yet another mole.  Jack wasn’t back in the field for five minutes before he was convinced that he and the newly-introduced Agent Walker had to do everything on their own because NONE OF HER SUPERVISORS COULD BE TRUSTED.  I have seen this story a billion times on this show so far, and I am beyond bored with it.  Give me something new, please!

I was also disappointed by how quickly the story of Jack on trial for his crimes was jettisoned.  OK, I know he wasn’t really on trial, he was just appearing for questioning, but I was intrigued by the idea of some of Jack’s actions finally coming to light, and in seeing how he would defend himself.  But we only got 2-3 minutes of this in the first hour, before Jack got pressed into service to help the FBI.  What a waste of a great story idea.  Obviously Jack is going to get back into action sooner or later, but I would have really liked to have seen that pushed back a bit so that we could have spent more time with the Senate interrogation.

Frankly, for several years now 24 has been exhibiting what I can only term storytelling-attention-deficit-disorder, and the quick abandonment of the Jack-on-trial idea is just one example of this.  The show has become so pre-occupied with being fast-paced and twisty that it can’t seem to stick with any given storyline for more than a few minutes.  (BIG SPOILER ALERT now, so proceed at your peril.)  Here’s another example: after the first night, I was starting to get excited by the idea of Tony Almeida as a terrorist.  24 lives or dies, in my opinion, on the quality of its villain, and I was enthusiastic about the idea of Tony being Jack’s nemesis this year.  But only a short time into night two we found out that, surprise surprise, he’s not really evil he’s just undercover.  What a letdown!  Why couldn’t we have let Jack and Tony face off for a few more episodes before getting this reveal?  Bigger question: why couldn’t the show have displayed some guts and let Tony ACTUALLY BE EVIL?  Wouldn’t that have been a much bigger twist than the “revelation” that he’s really a good guy after all?

I must also note that, while I praised some of the nice connections with Redemption, there were also a lot of inconsistencies.  For example, hour one’s opening Senate scene didn’t flow at all from the end of that movie.  In Redemption, Jack seems to be consumed by guilt over all that he has done over the years.  Yet, in the opening minutes of this season, when he’s testifying, we’re back with the old familiar I-am-right-and-you’re-a-fool-for-daring-to-question-me Jack Bauer.  I had thought, after Redemption, that maybe we were finally seeing a little depth in Jack, that at last he was beginning to wonder whether the ends really do ALWAYS justify the means.  But there was none of that questioning, none of that complexity, in the Jack Bauer we were reintroduced to in season seven.  This Jack Bauer doesn’t seem all that different, frankly, from the Jack we met back in season one — tough, stubborn, and willing to do whatever it takes to get things done.  Maybe that’s what makes the character so popular, but I for one would prefer to see some additional colors added into that characterization, here in the seventh season of his show.  

Finally, there’s Tony’s plan to smash up some airplanes by fooling them into thinking that he’s air traffic control and then directing them to make course corrections that put them on course to crash.  I might think that was a clever, ingeniously evil plot if I hadn’t already seen it in Die Hard 2 back in 1990.  Sheesh.  (They should have gone full-out and just hired Colm Meany as one of the airplane pilots!!)

Bottom line — these first four hours were four hours of reasonably well-executed 24 adventures.  There is a lot of excitement to be had, but there’s no denying that we’re seeing just more of the same familiar 24 stories that we’ve been seeing for six seasons now.  Without the major re-invention that I’d been hoping for, I am concerned at just how long the show can sustain the energy of the stories currently being told, no matter how interesting things might seem in the season’s opening hours.  (Finding a way to sustain the excitement throughout all 24 episodes of the season has always been the show’s greatest challenge.)  For now, I’m still on board  – let’s see where things go.

The folks over at aintitcoolnews have posted something very cool — a slightly tweaked version of the new Star Trek trailer.  It’s basically the exact same trailer, with one big glorious change made to the very last shot.  This isn’t a fan-made hoax, this is a real first glimpse at something cool from J.J. Abrams’ new movie.  Now, this addition to the trailer could sort of be considered a spoiler, so beware (although this particular plot point has been pretty common knowledge since the movie was first announced over two years ago, and I have no doubt that it will feature heavily into trailers that will get released closer to the film’s opening).  Anyways, it’s pretty neat, so check it out here.

I have a lot more to say about the Star Trek trailer, but I’m holding it in for now.  In the mean-time, there have been a LOT of words about the trailer written all over the web, and here are my two favorite pieces so far:  Devin over at CHUD (Cinematic Happenings Under Development) identifies a lot of the fears that long-time Trek fans like myself have over the new film, while Moriarty at AICN expresses a much more optimistic and excited view (which is where I’m at when I’m not getting insanely crazy over the idea that this new film seems to be ignoring established Trek continuity like the back-story that Robert April was the first captain of the Enterprise.)  OK, deep breaths…

In other news:

Wired Magazine has an amusing article on The Five Awesomest TV and Movie Spaceships.  I still think the refit U.S.S. Enterprise (from the first 6 Star Trek movies) is my favorite, but this fellow’s picks are pretty good, too.

There’s a neat new motion-poster out for the new Terminator movie.  See the thing in motion here (give the image a minute to get going), or click here to see a still of the poster’s final image.  Cool poster, but if this movie winds up actually being any good I will be stunned.

Can someone explain to me why Fox isn’t making lots and lots of X-Men sequels?  OK, the third one stunk, but it made a lot of money, right?  There are so many great X-Men characters and comics that are just waiting to be made into awesome films — what’s going on?  Instead, Fox is making spin-offs (there’s the Wolverine movie coming out this summer, inexplicably titled X-Men Origins: Wolverine; and they’re also working on an Ian McKellan-free Magneto spin-off titled, oh yes, X-Men Origins: Magneto), and now word comes that Fox is gearing up for an X-Men PREQUEL.  Read Variety’s story here.  A PREQUEL?  Ugh.  I am sick and tired of Hollywood’s current fascination with prequels.  Come on, make a real SEQUEL!  Give us the real Phoenix saga!  Give us Days of Future Past!  Tell the story of the Trial of Magneto, or the Mutant Massacre, or any one of a hundred other great tales from the comics.  Is Patrick Stewart too expensive to get back for more movies?  No problem!  Either re-cast the role, or just tell stories without him.  (Again, all Fox has to do is look to the comics for inspiration — Chuck was constantly getting written out over the years, because the writers had a hard time threatening the X-Men when they had an all-powerful telepath on their side.  There was a great storyline in the 80’s, when Xavier was in space or something, during which a reformed Magneto actually took over Xavier’s school before ultimately succumbing to his more violent impulses.  That would be a FANTASTIC movie!)  Same goes for Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and Halle Berry as Storm… if Fox can’t get them back, either re-cast the roles or tell stories without them.  There are PLENTY of other mutants around.  It seems to me that some new X-Men sequels would be a license for Fox to print money, so I just don’t know what’s holding them up…

OK, deep breaths…!!

Let’s end on a more optimistic note.

Can it be?  Do I dare to dream?  Is the long-rumored Arrested Development movie inching closer to actually happening??  Here’s what the Hollywood Reporter has to say, and some follow-up from Ron Howard.  I think I just blue myself.  

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I will be posting a new cartoon tomorrow, as well as (if all goes well), my thoughts on the new 24 TV-movie, Redemption.  So be sure to check back here after having your fill of turkey.  See you then.