Well for a start, you get Aaron Sorkin to write, David Fincher to direct and Trent Reznor to score it.  There, you have my attention..

Favourite trailer of the year so far by a country mile.  Just love the feel of this - the two teasers have been brilliantly understated too.  Casting looks spot on, say what you like about Timberlake but Jesse Eisenberg does the twitchy geek better than anyone.  I doubt Mark Zuckerberg will be flattered, and it's based on a pretty contentious book, but as I said, you already have my ticket.

 

Tags: fincher, awesome, geek, movies, trailer, want
Categories: Geek | Movies | trailers | want

Just a quick update as I'm keeping my eye on this one - it's the remake of "Let The Right One In".  As I mentioned before, I really don't see the point of this other than to prevent the dumb from having to read subtitles, which is the stupidest excuse I've ever heard.  However, the first trailer seems to have the right mood, but again it seems to just be a shot-for-shot do-over.  If they went back to the book for more inspiration that's one thing, but being the US market you can guarantee that the will omit *that* shot which was a major shock in the original (hope I've made you all curious enough to check it out now, heh) as it would be too controversial.

Having said that, it does feature a couple of very good child actors, Chloe Moretz who has already proven herself fearless in "Kick-Ass", and Kodi Smit-McPhee from "The Road", who has the same odd look as the boy playing Oskar in the original.  I may be wrong.  I'm not holding out hope though and if I hear too much negative I'll give it a miss rather than tarnish the original.

Anyway - trailer:

Tags: geek, opinion, rant, vampires, trailer
Categories: Geek | Movies | Opinion | rant | spoilers | trailers | vampires

About time for another catch-up of upcoming movies of interest (to me anyway, I know no-one else reads this).

JJ Abrams new "secret" project -"Super8".  This is being virally marketed much the same way that Cloverfield was.
Only a teaser so far but looks interesting at least:




Fresh insanity from Japan, for an upcoming animated TV show called "CatShitOne".  Based on a Manga series called "Apocalypse Meow", it's basically a war movie with cute animals representing different countries.  There is more details on the Wikipedia page




Very excited about this next one.  It's Luc Besson's latest project "Les Aventures Extraordinaires D'Adèle Blanc-Sec", and looks like a female Steampunk Indiana Jones, with dinosaurs.  It's French, but the trailer is subtitled.  Personally I think this looks amazing:

Next is George Clooney's latest "The American".  Clooney is one of my consistent favourite actors, he really has that "old Hollywood" charm about his work and this is no exception as it feels very much like something from late 60s / early 70s in tone and style.  Sign me up for this one:




I know next to nothing about The Green Hornet, except for the Bruce Lee conection to the old TV series.  Main draw for this is the director, Michel Gondry, who was responsible for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and a number of amazing music videos.  There are a couple of flashes of his trademark camera tricks here, and the trailer looks quite good fun, but we'll see:




"Predators" is the sequel to the 80s classics.  Hopefully going to wipe away all memory of the AvP movies and get back to some great action - starting with a good director and a stellar cast is a positive start I think.  Adrien Brody, Lawrence Fishburn, Danny Trejo... I'm there when it opens next weekend




Finally, this just landed today - teaser trailer for the latest from David Fincher.  Called "The Social Network", it's the story of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook.  Just having Fincher attached guarantees my ticket:

Tags: awesome, fincher, geek, graphic novels, japan, movies, sci-fi, space, video, trailer, youtube
Categories: Geek | Movies | Sci-Fi | trailers | want

I thought I'd focus on a couple of games for a change, as I haven't really touched on gaming here on the blog.  I'm not much of a gamer, I have a good spec PC and a PS3 but don't spend very much time on either in a gaming capacity.  What few games I do play are normally older titles and I take my time with them.  I'm not in the habit of rushing out to the shops on launch day to get something only to finish it later that day.  However, occasionally there are things that pique my interest and convince me to open my wallet for a title as soon as it's available.  Just so happens there are a couple of those this month.

Split/Second
I do like racing games.  I'm not the best at FPS on PC and downright rubbish at them on console - just cannot do the shooting thing with a joypad, but I guess that is down to lack of practice.  Anyway, Burnout has always been a favourite of mine, and this looks like a natural successor.  It's from the developers of a game called "Pure" which I have still to check out.  I played the demo on a friend's 360 the other evening and it seems very promising - it was a bit slow and the handling a little sluggish but I assumed 1) It's a demo and 2) gotta be an early introductory level.  Didn't put me off at all.  Here's some footage:

 

Prince of Persia - The Forgotten Sands
I loved and finished "Sands of Time", really enjoyed but got stuck on "Warrior Within", and own but still haven't played the last eponymous "Prince of Persia" title.  I was a bit put off by the "no death" scenario from that one, but having been assured that it's very good I do want to get around to trying it - I've owned it since January 2009 for pete's sake!  Told you I wasn't an active gamer...  Anyway, this seems more like a return to form - here's a preview.

 

Now, this isn't really my thing but looks cool anyway - Mechwarrior!!!  Big armoured walking tanks blowing the crap out of other big armoured walking tanks.  I remember the original versions and this definitely looks the business compared to those.

 

For all old-school Mechwarrior fans, the free version of Mechwarrior 4 is now available for download, but the site seems to have been flattened by traffic at the moment

 

Tags: games, robots, trailer, want, weapons
Categories: Games | trailers | want

About time I got this finished - apologies for the delay but I'm here now so here goes:

Centurion
I'm including this one as I've just recently seen the new trailer and it looks pretty good.  Another movie about the real-life disappearance of the 9th Legion in the Scottish Highlands.

The Losers
Another comic book adaptation but not a superhero in sight.  Instead this could be a "grittier A-Team" as Dark Horizons put it.  Trailer looks at least promising and Peter Berg has a couple of solid movies behind him

Paul
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost - enough said.  Admittedly without Edgar Wright, but still count me in for this tale of UFO buffs finding an actual escaped alien just outside Area 51.  No release dates or trailer yet.

Predators
Sequel from Robert Rodriguez, who has a lot of credibility riding on this one.  Please let it be good!

Scott Pilgrim vs The World
What Edgar Wright did while Pegg and Frost were making "Paul".  This is likely to be the major geel hit of the summer, and as I know nothing of the plot or the original comic book I'll leave it there.  Trailer imminent.

Shutter Island
Scorcese does psychological horror.  Saw the trailer for this in front of "The Wolfman" this weekend and liked the look of it - an on-form Decaprio and an adaptation from the writer of "Mystic River" and "Gone Baby Gone" make this a must see I think. Hoping for good brooding fear rather than constant jump-shocks (yes "...Wolfman", I'm looking at you...)

Toy Story 3
Pixar.  Enough said.  Check out the trailer

Tron:Legacy
The original is legendary for properly introducing the world to computer generated effects.  The teaser from ComicCon shows the updated light-cycles.  This will be something to see in 3D Imax no doubt.

So that's that.  I highly recommend you check out the full list on Dark Horizons, as I've only scratched the surface here with a few that appealed to me.  The original list is very detailed and a terrific bit of work.

 

 

Tags: awesome, comics, movies, sci-fi, spoilers, trailer, video, youtube
Categories: Comics | Geek | Movies | Sci-Fi | spoilers | trailers | Web

I considered writing a short piece looking back at 2009, but eventually decided against it as it was a pretty lousy year for me all in all.  On the work front, a major crisis in February didn't help, I lost some long-term friends through that, but did make some new ones so I guess that balances out.  It was an odd year that I'd rather put behind me.

There were some great movies last year though - most notably "Zombieland", "Let the right one in" (definitely my film of the year), "The Hurt Locker", "Watchmen" (the 4-hour full version anyway), "Benjamin Button", "Up", "Star Trek", "District 9", "Terminator Salvation" (not a good Terminator film, but a good generic action movie), "Moon", "Sherlock Holmes", and of course "Twilight" (heh, just kidding folks!!!).  There were some others I saw which I thought were ok, a couple of outright disappointments, and some which I missed which I will definitely be getting on disc (Coen Bros "A Serious Man" being top of that list).

All in all a pretty good year for movies, even most of the big "blockbusters" were actually worth the time and money of going to the cinema.  3D is seemingly back in a big way, only time will tell if it's going to stay a gimmick used to cover up lazy plotting and lack of characterisation, or if it will actually be used inventively to enhance a great film instead of just shoving things in your face because it can.

So, 2010.  "Dark Horizons" movie site has been running a multi-part guide to the upcoming movie goodness for the next year, so I thought I'd post a few things that have caught my eye:

Number one on my can't-wait-for list is "Kick Ass" - just wait until the Daily Mail get a load of Hit Girl, a foul-mouthed 12 year old chopping bad-guys legs off.  Here's the second trailer, but I seriously recommend checking out the Red Band trailer:

"Kick Ass" - UK April 2010(?)


The re-imagining of the A-Team just looks like fun...
"The A-Team" - UK July 2010


One of my earliest cinema memories is Clash of the Titans, and I'm a bit protective of it.  However, the director Louis Leterrier didn't make a bad job of "The Incredible Hulk" (which I liked very much until the two very badly done CGI monsters started smashing the city up at the end) so here's hoping.
Clash of the Titans - UK March 2010


"The Eagle of the Ninth" - in 140AD an entire Roman legion disappeared in the highlands of Scotland.  I remember reading about this when I was at school so it has my attention - plus it has Kevin MacDonald directing, who made the excellent "Last King of Scotland" and "State of Play".  No trailer or UK date yet.

The Expendables - as Dark Horizons says "Stallone's $80 million tribute to 80's action cinema is a much-anticipated love letter to a time when men were men, computer effects were non-existent, and hard R-rated violence and politically incorrect humour was the norm.".  Might just have to switch my brain off for this one:


Inception is Chris Nolan's follow-up to "The Dark Knight".  He seems to be keeping his cards close to his chest with the odd but striking imagery in the trailers.  Definitely one to see on as big a screen as possible:
"Inception" - UK July 2010


The first Iron Man movie was a hoot-and-a-half, this looks to follow on nicely.  Anything with RDJ in it is high on my list anyway:


Dark Horizons sums up "The Killer Inside Me" nicely - "Everyone figures Lou Ford, a West Texas sheriff, to be a normal kind of guy. They don't see the ruthless, sociopathic murderer underneath and as victims pile up, suspicions begin to emerge.".  Extended trailer below really piques my interest.


That's enough for now - part two to follow.

Tags: awesome, coen bros, geek, movies, opinion, reviews, sci-fi, space, trailer, watchmen, youtube, zombies
Categories: Geek | General | Movies | Opinion | Sci-Fi | trailers | Watchmen