Revisiting Hulk
With Edward Norton going green in The Incredible Hulk on June 13, I thought I would revisit the 2003 Ang Lee adaptation of the Bruce Banner saga. To be clear, Hulk ’03 and The Incredible Hulk ’08 exist in two different universes. Marvel Studios has made it a point to distance itself from the 2003 flop like McCain running away from G-Dub. But when Hulk was released, I was one of a handful of people who didn’t hate the movie. Sure, the action was terrible, the CGI was a joke, and the screenplay was awful. Yet, upon rewatching the 2003 film, I couldn’t help feeling that Ang Lee found something inside the story that no other director could. Just as it was an epic failure, Hulk was an epic tragedy. Like so many other Ang Lee films, it was...
Read MoreThe Road in Erie, Pa.
Figures. Eight months after I move away from Erie, Pa., a major motion picture sets up camp in Erie’s top tourist destination. How major? Starring Academy Award nominee Viggo Mortensen. Directed by John Hillcoat (The Proposition), a notable Aussie director. Based on No Country for Old Men author Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Road. That major. I read the GoErie.com article on the production team filming The Road‘s final moments being shot at Presque Isle. But now The New York Times has an article based around the Erie shoot, complete with pictures that are obviously shoot in the sand dunes of the pennisula. Here’s the lead picture: Now, I’m not going to joke about Erie being the setting for a post-apocalyptic flick. I’ll let the NYT speak for me: The producers chose Pennsylvania, one of them, Nick...
Read MoreA Plea to Gamers: See a Movie!
Word on the street is gamers were crashing their cars through the doors of Best Buys, etc. last night to nab a copy of the video game of the year, Grand Theft Auto IV. (Note to all bosses: Your employee is not really sick today.) The last time a game this big came out was when Halo 3 hit stores last September. The media types said that the box office suffered, down big time from the previous year and killing any chance the Farley Brothers’ The Heartbreak Kid (released a weekend later) had of making any money. Now, I know this weekend is different. First, it’s the official opening of the summer movie season with Iron Man hitting theaters. Second, The Heartbreak Kid sucked. Still, with Grand Theft Auto IV ready to crush sales records, many (Nikki Finke) think...
Read MoreThe X Files: I Want to Heave
Chris Carter, apparently taking a page out of George Lucas’ handbook “How to Piss Off You Fan Base: Episode I – The Revenge of the Phantom Subtitle,” revealed that “The X Files” sequel is going to be titled “The X Files: I Want to Believe.” You know that feeling you get when you’re about to make out with someone really hot only to find out they’re your second cousin. That’s what this feels like. Thanks Chris. I was really looking forward to seeing something like “The X Files: Mulder and Scully Vs. The Werewolf.” Apparently the camp factor that helped the show in the early seasons, and disappeared with the conspiracy plot in the later seasons, is totally gone. So much for high...
Read MoreMusicians in Film – Starring The Beatles in ‘Help!’
Most fun in the world: watching a Beatles movie. No, I’m not referring to Across the Universe. I’m talking about the zany Richard Lester film Help!. Sure the comedic timing isn’t perfect and it’s absolutely, off-the-wall silly, but Help! can’t help but indulge the Fab Four’s tendency toward spirited farce. I wasn’t alive when the Beatles were around, but the high-profile DVD releases (also for A Hard Day’s Night) certainly indicate a phenomenon the hasn’t died yet. The Beatles and Elvis and good knows who else I’m missing have impressive filmographies when compared to the pop stars of our day. What do we get? From Justin to Kelly. There are also the direct-to-DVD movies starring Justin Timberlake and Jessica Simpson, but one has to wonder what has changed, culturally-speaking, to result in such blunders from our current chart toppers...
Read MoreMaking Oscar Night Interesting (Again)
Well, No Country for Old Men continues to steamroll the competition in the race for Oscar. This weekend’s Producer’s Guild of America win means it has officially won top prize from every guild. Even The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King didn’t do that. (The Peter Jackson fantasy epic lost the WGA Adapted Screenplay prize to American Splendor). While No Country for Old Men deserves every award it gets, the season is quickly becoming very boring. Is anyone even hearing a hint of dissension in the Oscar race? Well, I recently wrote an article for BlogCritics.org on how Oscar night can be interesting again. You can check it out here. It’s a quiet acknowledgment that the Oscars aren’t supposed to award the best in film. The Oscars are all about show business. When Crash won Best...
Read MoreGet Email Updates
