Posts Tagged ‘ Movies-Archived ’

I know, it’s everywhere. Even so, it’s worth posting: the first official Thor trailer. Not like that unofficial longer one that did the rounds a few months ago and absolutely is not on my site in a hidden, password protected post.

No, sir.

Looks good – now, when can we get the first Captain America one?

Marvel has released the one sheet tease for the upcoming Thor movie.

I’m still optimistic about this because of the trailer that was released that I’m not allowed to repost… and because of Kenneth Branagh’s involvement.

Even so, the lighting on the armor doesn’t help the rubbery look, does it?

Just because I could. And because I amuse myself sometimes…

Emma Stone’s gone back to blond for the upcoming Spider-Man reboot and her role as Gwen Stacy.

I’ll admit I’m still uncertain on almost all the casting that’s been announced for the new movie, but Stone isn’t a bad choice, as long as the writers are taking their cue from the Ultimate Marvel Gwen, who I seem to understand was a little more ‘bad girl’ than regular Gwen. I mean, the most interesting thing regular Gwen ever did was die. Yes, I know, Sins Past – but that story doesn’t exist in this dojo.

Still, even though Spider-Man 3 is best described as aggressively mediocre, I do think that Bryce Dallas Howard looked a little more like the comic Gwen to me.

These days, if you read Captain America it’s a fair bet that you think that Ed Brubaker is, to put it in colloquial English, the dog’s bollocks. And he is – but reading comics over the past twenty plus years, there are two other writers’ runs that I prefer on the book. Not because they’re ‘better’ writers, necessarily, but because they’re the ones I grew up with.

Don’t get me wrong, Brubaker’s run has a great hard-edged tone to it and takes extraordinary risks – such as reversing one of Marvel’s two previously untouchable deaths (Peter David had less success with kind-of reversing the other one around the same time). The comic today has an almost espionage-like tone, and that’s no bad thing – but when I was a lad, someone else was writing the good Captain as an out-and-out superhero and his name was Mark Gruenwald.

Gruenwald was a well-respected writer and editor for Marvel prior to starting his Cap run, but it’s arguable that, alongside Squadron Supreme, that it’s Cap that he’s most remembered for. His run spanned Captain America #307-443, and although not without it’s rough spots (such as Cap-Wolf and ‘Fighting Chance’) it also included a number of classic story lines.

Luckily for all of us, many of those story lines are now being collected as Marvel want lots of product on the shelf when the star spangled Avenger’s movie is released next year…

#308 is in the Secret Wars II Omnibus – okay, so this is a ridiculously oversized (and some would say overpriced) collection, and it includes only one issue of Gru’s Cap run – but it’s worth pointing out for completeness sake. Cap tries to settle back into his old life, but runs afoul of new villain the Armadillo – he’s also shadowed by the Beyonder, who is so impressed with him that he makes himself an identical body to saunter the Earth in.

Until, of course, changes his hairstyle…

Moving on…

#318-320, #358-362 is currently the first real collection of Gruenwald’s run – although the issues collected are separated by a few years. They’re in Captain America: Scourge of the Underworld – collecting the Scourge saga (also included is the Gruenwald-penned U.S.Agent mini-series, plus Scourge’s other appearances), where the eponymous vigilante is eliminating the deadwood of the villain circuit, including the infamous Bar With No Name massacre which took out a whole host of D-list villains.

#332-350 (along with Iron Man #232) are collected in the mammoth Captain America: The Captain - surely Gruenwald’s finest hour on Cap. Steve Rogers resigns as Captain America rather than work for the shadowy government Commission, leading them to replace him with John Walker. While Walker and his new partner serve as the new Captain America and Buck- er, Battlestar – Rogers eventually adopts a modified uniform and calls himself simply ‘The Captain’. (Cap #339 is also collected in the upcoming Fall of the Mutants Omnibus).

#357-364 are collected in Captain America: The Bloodstone Hunt; think of it as Cap as Indiana Jones and Diamondback as Marion Ravenwood and you won’t be far off. This story also introduces the Red Skull’s lackey, Crossbones, currently a major player in Thunderbolts.

#365-367 are collected as part of Acts of Vengeance Omnibus. Essentially a story of villains switching opponents to take down the Avengers, Cap’s issues have him fighting against Iron Man villain the Controller. These big omnibus collections are pricey, but for me are a perfect snapshot of Marvel at that time – and worth it purely on a nostalgia level, but your mileage may vary.

#398-399 and #400-#401 are included in Operation Galactic Storm Vol 1 and Vol 2, respectively.

For my money, OGS was one of the better inter-title crossovers that Marvel did around this period. Centering on the wide-spanning Avengers family of books, the story features the team – and most of the reserves – stuck in the middle of an interstellar conflict between the Kree and the Shi’ar. A spiritual successor to the classic Kree-Skrull War (and spiritual predecessor to War of Kings, for that matter), the story results in a schism in the team with Cap leading the more idealistic Avengers while the Black Knight and Iron Man head up the more…well, ‘realistic’ is the wrong word when it comes to space wars with superheroes, but you get the idea. Good, solid, comics.

#402-408…well, there’s not a lot you can say about Captain America: Man and Wolf that the cover above and this cover doesn’t say for you:

Captain America becomes a werewolf and, er, runs around the MU encountering people like Wolverine and Cable. Oh, and the conclusion ties in to the lackluster Infinity War, just to top it all off. Probably the low point of Gruenwald’s run.

#425-437 are collected in two volumes, Captain America: Fighting Chance – Denial and Acceptance. The Super Solider serum in Steve Roger’s veins begins to kill him, forcing him to evaluate what he wants to do with his final months (before suiting up in armor, obviously). I’ve got mixed feelings on the storyline, myself. On the one hand, I appreciate what Gruenwald was trying to do – and I have a fondness for Jack Flag (lately starring in Guardians of the Galaxy) and Free Spirit – but I don’t think it quite works.

There are some other storylines in Gruenwald’s run that deserve collecting – Streets of Poison (#372-378) springs to mind especially – but right now the best of his run (and, oddly, the worst) are either available or will be shortly.

As for the other writer that I like? That’s a whole other post…

It seems to be a weekend for it; Irving Kershner has died.

Kershner had an extensive resume in film and TV, but was best known for directing The Empire Strikes Back, and is widely credited, along with screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan, for making it inarguably the best of the Star Wars movies.

Kershner was 87.

Leslie Nielsen has died, aged 84.

I first knew him as the ‘and don’t call me Shirley’ Doctor in the Airplane movies…

…and, later as the inept and bumbling Frank Drebin, first in reruns of the sublimely silly Police Squad…

…and later in the Naked Gun movies, that these days are little bit odd watching due to OJ Simpson’s presence as Nordberg.

With the success of Naked Gun, he went on to star in a host of other spoof movies, many bad (Dracula: Dead and Loving It springs to mind), but I think the last time I discovered Leslie Nielsen was in his earlier dramatic roles – especially as the commander of a spaceship landing on a distant planet in the legendary Forbidden Planet. I’d seen it before, when I was younger, but never connected the dots between the movie’s square-jawed hero and the bumbling comedian of later years. It was only when I rewatched the movie to pick up on it’s Shakespearean plot that I realized that it was him.

Leslie Nielsen was master of the deadpan delivery and the goofy face, the confused pause and the pratfall. I think I need to rewatch some comedies about now…

The trailer for Cowboys and Aliens has also hit the internets, and I have to say – it looks a damn sight more enjoyable than the Green Lantern one to me which is odd given that the Cowboys and Aliens comic was terrible.

Harrison Ford appears to be channeling Tommy Lee Jones, oddly, and Daniel Craig has a face made for westerns and Olivia Wilde – well, she’s Olivia Wilde.

Sigh.

I mean…seriously, how good is this?

Via Hobo95 on DeviantArt

It’s Back to the Future‘s 25th anniversary in case you didn’t know – and the fantastic movie has enjoyed a limited rerelease in some places, although I haven’t been lucky enough to catch it myself.

As part of the celebrations, the Scream Awards 2010 include a cast reunion, and Michael J Fox has squeezed back into the Delorean for a familiar looking teaser…

And here’s the original…

via

1) An angry, gladiatorial Zod.

2) Unresolved bromantic tension between Clark and Jimmy

3) Slow motion. Lots and lots of slow motion. Possibly involving people falling and/or Lois doing some kind of dance. Or maybe Martha doing some kind of dance.

4) Voiceovers. Preferably gravelly or oddly-accented.

5) An awesome credits sequence (actually, serious about that).

6) Superman to have rock-hard abs. And to keep them permanently oiled.

7) At least one male character whose sexuality is highly ambiguous.

8 ) A Superman who sets himself apart from mortal men and the people he leads.

9) Slavish following of source comics to the detriment of a movie except for…

10) ..one key aspect changed which actually will make more sense cinematically, although it will be decried by fanboys everywhere.

I know I was away from the internets for a while, but how on earth did I miss this image of Doctor Who’s David Tennant as Peter Vincent in the Fright Night remake?

What would Roddy McDowell say?

More importantly, why isn’t there a collection of Tennant’s increasingly manic “What?”s on YouTube?

Actor Kevin McCarthy passed away this weekend, age 96.

The actor had an impressive list of screen credits, but he’s probably best known for the role of Dr Miles Bennell in the seminal 1956 movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers, a role he reprised briefly in the 1978 remake.

If you haven’t seen the movie, I highly recommend tracking it down.

The trailer for Danny Boyle’s next movie, 127 Hours, has been released, and it’s not shy about touting the Oscar-winner’s previous successes.

For the sake of movie spoilers, I’m putting the rest of this post behind a jump…

I’ve come to the conclusion that Michael Chabon was right. In his 1995 treatment for a Fantastic Four movie (available for download here) he wrote:

The world of the movie is a timeless, more innocent world, a world where Evil lives behind an Iron Curtain on the Dark Side of the planet, a world where, even in 1995, it is always November 21, 1963. Men still wear hats, kids are into hot rods and spaceships, women have bouffant hairdos, and New York City is the vibrant, shiny capital of the Free World. A Technicolor, bossa nova, Douglas Sirk world. A world where radiation is not only terrifying and evil but also capable of producing wonders and miracles. A world of amazing machinery and devices. There is wickedness, to be sure, and there are bad people, and it takes the eternal vigilance of a few stalwart champions to keep our shores from being overrun, our homes and towns from being infested from within, by the emissaries of darkness. Fortunately such champions exist: the Fantastic Four.

He’s right. As much as I like the two previous Fantastic Four movies (and I like them a lot for what they are – frothy family-friendly superhero flicks), a true FF movie that captures the spirit of the comics should be set in the 1960s.

Think of it – a period superhero movie; where else could you have Mr Fantastic’s inventions seem so amazing? Where the pogo plane wouldn’t be laughed at? Where you could poke fun at the rampant sexism evident in the early FF comic?

Chabon also thought that you should just skip the origin story entirely and have the FF as established celebrity super-heroes; I like that too.

And yesterday when I posted about January Jones being cast in the new X-Men movie, it struck me that she would make a perfect 1960s Sue Storm. Perfect. And if she was Sue, why not populate the entire cast with Mad Men actors?

Jonn Hamm as the emotionally distant, distractingly handsome super-genius, Mr Fantastic!

The aforementioned January Jones as Sue Storm, the model-turned-headstrong superhero that just wants to get married so that she can finally be kissed and not heard!

Vincent Kartheiser as the self-absorbed none-too-bright cad about town, Johnny Storm!

And as we’re skipping the origin, there’s no need to see Ben Grimm at all – which means John Slattery can use his piercing blue eyes to emote ol’ Benjy through the CGI’d rocky hide of the Thing!

Yep, I think we’ve got this all wrapped up!

It seems that Alice Eve is out of the upcoming X-Men First Class just weeks after I looked at some pictures and decided that yes, she’d make a pretty good Emma Frost.

So, goodbye Alice…but hello the really rather spectacular January Jones!

I’m surprised that Jones landed the role if only because she seems to be keeping a low profile during Mad Men‘s run – but in all honesty I consider this an upgrade in the acting department (not that I have much to judge Eve’s acting on…)

And let’s face it, in looks alone Jones matches Frost’s porcelain blonde perfectly.

Also on the cast list – Zoe Kravitz as Angel (presumably Angel Salvadore) who, according to google, dated Ben Foster, the other Angel from X-Men: The Last Stand. Spooky.

Between Jones, Oliver Platt, James McAvoy and Kevin Bacon, I’m starting to get the feeling this could actually be rather good…

Good lord.

There are no words.

Via

Per Blastr, Scott Bakula had this to say about a Quantum Leap movie at SDCC…

The good news is that Don and I will have a part in it somehow.

Don did say that as he was writing, he told me he was having trouble, ‘getting you and Dean out of my head.’ But I know he will do it.

No Scott Bakula as Sam?

No Dean Stockwell as Al?

No point.

The whole show was built around the chemistry these two actors built up – and neither are exactly retired, should a movie get an (admittedly unlikely) green light.

Some may point out that if you can recast Kirk and Spock, you can probably recast anything, but this isn’t Star Trek, this is Quantum Leap – a smaller, more specialized fan base. And if you alienate them, there’s no point at all in making the movie.

Of course, if you were to recast, there are two actors with a fair amount of experience in time travel who would be pretty good fits for the roles…

(Hat tip)

I was recently asked on Formspring if I thought Cloak and Dagger would make a good movie – and the answer, of course, is hell yes I do.

Not only are Cloak and Dagger favorites of mine, but I think their origin and dynamic would make for a great film. First off, their origin is nice and simple – runaway teens kidnapped and experimented on. It gives the characters a natural villain (their kidnapper) and a mission statement that’s easy to relate to (protecting runaways). It also offers the opportunity to have other characters spawned through the same process – like Mr Negative.

Then there’s the dynamic of the characters – rich, privileged Tandy Bowen. She’s pretty but naive and with a good heart. Tyrone Johnson by contrast is poor but honest, but being accused of a crime he didn’t commit has hardened him – but he’s still drawn to protect Tandy when he meets her.

It’s a great set-up and would make a nice self-contained movie even without the trappings of SHIELD that seem to pervade every Marvel movie these days. Hell, have the kidnapper be a disgruntled Stark researcher fired for unethical behavior if you must have a tie-in to the main Marvel movies.

The key (besides a great script of course) is finding the right Ty and Tandy. Actors who don’t look too old but can actually, you know, act. Fortunately, we have Friday Night Lights.

Friday Night Lights is a show that you should all, without exception, be watching. Consistently one of the best written, acted and produced shows on TV, it’s finally getting some recognition from the Emmy board this year in the shape of nominations for leads Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton but it’s two of the younger actors who are perfect fits for Cloak and Dagger.

Aimee Teegarden has played the Taylor’s daughter Julie since the start of the show, and she’s simply a perfect fit for Tandy. Michael B Jordan is a new addition to the cast in season 4 as the troubled Vince Howard – but again, perfect fit.

So there you are – the perfect cast for the perfect stand-alone superhero movie.

Now, if you want a script I can do that too…

The upcoming Sucker Punch released character posters and a trailer recently – now it’s time for some comic-style art from Alex Pardee…

Click on the thumbnails below for the pics in all their glory:

Via io9