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 MoreSex and the City: The Movie – Not a Review
Fact: Sex and the City: The Movie is a terrible film. It’s predictable. It’s un-cinematic. It’s everything we should despise in a TV series’ leap from the boob tube to the silver screen. That’s what the film person in me says. But damn if the Sex and the City fan in me didn’t enjoy the hell out of the flick. Sure, I didn’t gasp audibly when Big opened the doors to Carrie’s new closet like 90 percent of the audience. But I took it as a sign that I’m still actually a guy. (Hurray for gender stereotypes!) What I did love, though, is that even after such a deliriously perfect series finale, spending two and a half hours with the girls in their city felt as naturally fun as it ever did. For anyone who has ever marathoned a...
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 MoreLucas on Indy 5, or Why I Didn’t Want an Indy 4 in the First Place
Most people don’t believe me when I tell them that I’m not going to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. After the Star Wars prequels, I feel like seeing anything George Lucas touches is a betrayal to cinema. I would have no problem with Lucas making movies to sell toys or T-shirts or whatever, if only Lucas (in this case the film’s executive producer with a story credit) loved making those movies. I don’t think he cares. I think he actually hates it. Now Lucas is coming out with his plans for an Indy 5. Anyone could see this coming the moment Shia LeBeouf was cast. Here’s the quote: I haven’t even told Steven or Harrison this…But I have an idea to make Shia [LaBeouf] the lead character next time and have Harrison [Ford] come...
Read MoreTV not on TV, We Need to Talk
I just signed up for TheWB.com, Warner’s new Hulu-inspired streaming video website, with the hope that I’ll finally get a chance to re-watch the WB’s Everwood series, seasons two through four. (Those seasons are unavailable on DVD because Warner won’t shell out the cash to pay music royalties.) I haven’t received registration information yet, and like the Hulu beta, I’m sure it will take a few days. The problem is, when I am registered, I’ll have one more way to watch TV without having cable. Between the network TV websites, TV shows on DVD, new sites like Hulu and The WB, and other…ahem…unofficial Internet distribution channels, that old lie I like to tell myself – I don’t watch TV – is becoming less and less true. Sure, I’m not watching cable or network broadcasts, but my laptop is working...
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 MoreGet Email Updates
