Wild Tangents
Marc talks about life in Nashville, life as a Catholic and life as a geek.

I have to say that I haven’t really had a desire to go see this movie “Walk Hard: The Dewy Cox Story“. It really seem a bit sophomoric to me and I’m a little gun shy after “Good Luck Chuck“, which while the previews didn’t imply it at, was an appalling movie. I have to say though, they have really put together an impressive press kit to promote it. The folks over at hitchmagazine.com got one of them and here’s what they had to say.

Normally, presskits I receive for new movies are just a boring little book of boring production notes with a CD of stills that’s not good for much of anything. Exception: the box just that just arrived for WALK HARD. I shudder to think of the cost-per-piece of this one. Photos of what’s in the “Cox Box” await you after the jump.

I doubt if I’ll go see this movie, but it’s still a pretty interesting press kit…

Technorati Tags: movies

Yes, another one. I can’t believe they’re remaking “The Day The Stood Still“. This is just….wrong….

From the SciFi Wire.

Twentieth Century Fox has staked out a Christmas 2008 release date for its upcoming remake of the classic SF movie The Day the Earth Stood Still, Variety reported.

The movie, which will star Keanu Reeves, was originally slated for May 9, but the film hasn’t begun production yet, with potential strikes looming in Hollywood.

Fox also has three other summer movies in the works, the trade paper reported.

The movie will update Robert Wise’s 1951 original, about the visit of an alien who warns Earth to change its violent ways or face destruction.

Technorati Tags: movies

Well, it sounds like there will be yet another adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune.

C.H.U.D. reported a rumor that a new movie version of Frank Herbert’s classic SF novel Dune may be in the works. The site cites Byron Merritt, who runs the official Dune novel forums and is a member of the Herbert family.

It’s already been done not once, but twice. I think I preferred the SciFi Channel’s version a little better. While David Lynch’s version was fun to watch, he managed to take an already weird story and make it too weird.

I’ve made the mistake of judging movies before knowing too much about them before, so I won’t take that risk now. But it will be interesting to see who’s involved.

Technorati Tags: dune, movies, scifi

That’s right, this past Saturday i went out and watched the latest in my favorite action franchise, Live Free or Die Hard. And if Laura wants a review, she’ll get a review. It was a great ride too. It had everything you would expect from a Die Hard movie. It had action. It had humor. It had John McClane. But best of all, you got to see Justin Long get punched in the face. As an action movie goes, I could find little fault with this one. It was fast paced and kept you waiting to see what would happen next. All the actors were great in their roles. The exception being Kevin Smith, who was nothing more than a distraction. There was lots of humor, especially inside jokes. By the end of the movie, Justin Long was cracking one liners with Bruce Willis (the best of them).

The only other complaint I have about the movie (besides the presence of Kevin Smith) was that at times it was pretty obvious some of the dialogue had been re-recorded. It’s a well known fact that the producers decided to try and appeal to younger audience. Part of that was ensuring a “PG-13″ rating. I am wondering if the re-recording was done to help this. Excessive language can result in an “R” rating, especially the excessive use of one word in particular. They might have cut these out in order to get the “PG-13″.

Anyway, I highly recommend it. I thought it was good way to close out the series, until I head Bruce talking about possibly doing more. I guess we’ll see what the future holds.

BTW - I’m not the only “pseudo-cool dude” that liked it. Check out Thomas McKenzie’s “one-minute review” of the move. Better yet, subscribe to his “HajjPod cast”. It’s one of my favorites.

Technorati Tags: action, diehard, movies, yippekayay

In case you’ve been under a rock for the past few, today is an exciting day. I’ve been waiting for this day for along time. I’ve seen the ads and the stand ups and the promos on TV. I wish I weren’t traveling so I could go stand in line and fork over my money.

Unfortunately I’ll be leaving Pittsburgh right around noon. I’ve got about four layover in New York City, then I get back in Nashville around 9am. I’m not looking forward to this travel day.

But I know that I can probably go tomorrow and fork over my money. It’ll probably be less crowded. Or I might wait until Monday. It’ll really be slow then. I might even have the the theater all to myself.

Oh wait. You looked surprised when I said “theater”. did you think I was talking about the iPhone? Well no, I’m waiting for the version that’s not a phone myself. I am hoping that the next version of the iPod will be just like the iPhone, but without the phone part. We’ll see.

No, the point of the post is that today is opening day for “Live Free or Die Hard”. The Die Hard franchise is one of my favorite movie franchises and I real excited to see episode four. Hopefully I’ll be able to get to the theater next few days to see it.

Technorati Tags: iphone, iPod, movies, diehard

Suzette and I just went to see Ocean’s 13. I have to say it was a joy to watch. I can’ find any fault with it. Acting, story and filming were all excellent. It was just so entertaining. Like the two previous movies in the franchise, it really doesn’t take itself seriously at all and you shouldn’t take it seriously either. I wouldn’t really call it a comedy, but it was full of humor. With Al Pacino joining the cast, there were plenty of inside “Godfather” joke as well. I highly recommend this movie. Go see it it…..today!

Technorati Tags: movies

Suzette and I saw it Friday. It was really good.

You should go see it, or else…..

…the cat gets it!

It was almost as fun watching and hearing the kids in the theater as it was watching the movie. One little girl around the age of two or three kept saying, “I’m so excited!” before the movie started.

Technorati Tags: movies, shrek

You know, I’m not fond of remakes. I’ve made that clear already. I gotta say, I’m really not happy this idea either.

Eddie Murphy is attached to star in Columbia Pictures’ big-screen adaptation of TV’s Fantasy Island, playing multiple roles, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The movie would be based on the TV series that ran from 1978-’84 and starred Ricardo Montalban.

Described as a family-oriented comedy, the project will be written by Jay Scherick and David Ronn, who most recently teamed with Murphy on Norbit.

Whatever…..

Technorati Tags: movies

This movie is easy as far as the recommendation. If you get a chance to go see it, don’t. The reasons for this negativity are not so easy to say. They’re easy to see, it’s just hard to say it. As someone who loves film, it’s just hard to say when a movie is so bad. But sometimes it must be said. This movie suffered for a horrible script, both dialogue and plot. It seems these days that a script full of expletives is always a good substitute for a good story. This movie takes that theory to extremes. Halle Barry’s character dropped enough “f bombs” to make Tony Montanta blush. Once the movie got started, well…..it never got started. It just ran slow as those annoying turtles on the Comcast commercials. I kept waiting for it to pick the pace and become exciting. I’m glad I didn’t hold my breath. It actually got slower at the end, which is fortunate since navigating the plot twists and turns gave me a bad case of whiplash. The only redeeming quality with this was of course the acting. Even with the horrid script, Bruce Willis and Halle Berry still gave outstanding performances. I just wish they had better material to work with.

Technorati Tags: movies, rant, reviews

I recently whined and moaned about the ongoing trend in Hollywood to remake everything thing that comes to mind while complaining about the proposed remake of “The Day The Earth Stood Still”.

Well, I am saddened that three (almost in a row) stories from SciFi Wire are about new plans for remakes. I hate this….

• Goyer Updating Scanners

  Yes, the David Cronenberg classic with exploding heads and Michael Ironside method acting is about to be ruined.

• Get Smart’s First Look

  Yes, the beloved 60’s cult TV show is about to be ruined.

• Barbarella To Be Revived

  As much as I like the band Duran Duran, I never really liked this one. But many folks did. It was a cult classic just like the other two one this list. For all those people that liked it, it’s about to be ruined.

Please Hollywood! Get a new sense of creativity!

Bonus cool points go to anyone who can cite the reference I made in the post title. It’s one of the few good remakes out there.

Technorati Tags: 60’s, 80’s, movies, scifi, tv