It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Simon Pegg & Nick Frost – Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz have to be two of my favorite comedies of the last decade. So when I saw this video of the duo chatting about their time spent working with the legendary Steven Spielberg on Tintin, I LMAO.
Yes, I’m a sci-figeek. I loved the original Alien and Predator movies. But I’ve been kind of lukewarm to the Alien vs. Predator movies of late. They’re ok, but not great. (I have some hope for the upcoming film Predators however.)
When I stumbled upon AVP: Redemption and learned that it was made by fans, I knew I had to check it out. And honestly, it’s better than some big budget flicks I’ve caught on the big screen.
When Legion hit theaters in January 2010, I understood from the trailers what the movie was about. The angel Michael (Paul Bettany) has come to Earth to countermand an order from God to kill all of humankind, including the child that might bring about its salvation. Still in the womb, the child’s mother – a girl named Charlie (Adrianne Palicki) – is working as a waitress at a diner in Paradise Falls, a speck in the middle of nowhere. Michael must save the kid from an army of angels and God’s wrath, or mankind is doomed.
Ah yes, our extermination. We, like the cockroaches we abhor, have spread across the Earth devouring resources and abusing our gift of free will. As Michael says in one scene, “The first time God lost faith in Man he sent a flood. The second time… he sent what you see outside.” Like our world is a giant Etch-a-Sketch and God wants to shake things up to erase us from the planet.
And, like cockroaches, we’re not such an easy race to erase off the map.
Though largely panned by reviewers far and wide, I liked Legion. It doesn’t have the philosophy of The Prophecy from back in the mid-90′s. But it takes a simple premise (The Apocalypse), a chance of redemption (an unwanted child), an interesting battleground (a diner in the middle of nowhere), and shows us angels like we haven’t quite seen them before.
Plus, if you add in the interesting cast of characters – Michael (Bettany, Iron Man 2, The Da Vinci Code), simple mechanic/protector Jeep Hanson (Lucas Black, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift), inner-city tough guy Kyle (Tyrese Gibson, Death Race, 2 Fast 2 Furious), unlikely mother-to-be Charlie (Palicki, TV’s Supernatural), Dad simply trying to get to Christmas Howard Anderson (Jon Tenney, TV’s Brothers & Sisters and The Closer), bitchy wife Sandra (Kate Walsh, TV’s Private Practice), bratty wild child Audrey (Willa Holland, TV’s Gossip Girl and The O.C.), ex-military fry cook Percy (Charles S. Dutton, TV’s Roc, Alien 3), diner owner Bob Hanson (Dennis Quaid, Pandorum, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra)… and one ticked off angel Gabriel (Kevin Durand, Robin Hood (2010), X-Men Origins: Wolverine)…
Honestly there were so many different demographics represented by the population of the diner and its visitors that it was the perfect place to stage a heavenly battle. Anybody who thinks America isn’t diverse hasn’t been watching our movies I guess!
Now I know there are those people who didn’t like this film. I get it. It’s certainly not perfect. And it does get a little preachy and take itself too seriously from time to time. But this is an extremely visual film co-written and directed by a visual effects guy – Scott Stewart. Stewart has been involved at The Orphanage and ILM doing visual effects since the mid-1990s on such movies as Mars Attacks!, Sin City, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Superman Returns, and others. So it came as no surprise to me that this would be an effects-heavy film.
What did surprise me was how old school many of the effects were. Yes, we had scenes where peoples’ faces were vibrating as they were possessed by angels and where characters like the Ice Cream Man (played beautifully and far too short by Doug Jones – Hellboy, Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Pan’s Labyrinth and many others) transformed into grotesque beings attacking the diner. But then you had more subtle scenes with lightning and fog where you’d catch brief glimpses of the hordes of possessed beings in the dark and simple explosions as gunfire, gasoline, and vehicles met briefly to light the night.
Is this a film for you to think deeply about your own mortality? No. Definitely not. Is it a film to enjoy as you learn bits and pieces about the battle and watch as cool effects grace the screen? Yes. Definitely. If you’re looking for deeper spiritual or philosophical discussions, I recommend you check out The Prophecy and its sequels.
Included with the DVD are three short extras – “Creating the Apocalypse,” “Humanity’s Last Line of Defense,” and “From Pixels to Picture.”
“Creating the Apocalypse” provided a great segment about how they made Jones into the Ice Cream Man. What a process… With four prostheses, Jones ran from the ice cream truck towards the diner and jumped into the air. How he was able to pull that off is beyond me. Hearing Jones talk about the preparation alone was worth watching. The cast and crew seemed to appreciate his efforts even though he was just in that one scene. I have to admit to being more freaked out by the mechanical baby that was built for the film than the Ice Cream Man. At a bit more than 23 minutes, this is a very detailed look behind the scenes at how they did some of the movie magic.
Where the last feature dealt with the effects, “Humanity’s Last Line of Defense” focuses on the ensemble of actors. It’s quite obvious that the director and crew wanted to have the best group of actors they could get for these roles. It’s kind of fun to think that Bettany really wanted to be in an action film and fire machine guns. The mutual respect and admiration between the cast and crew was obvious as you hear Quaid, Bettany, Gibson, and others talk on set.
And in “From Pixels to Picture” you get a better understanding of the amazing efforts that went into the visual effects not only in post-production, but during the production on set. These visual engineers had some serious challenges integrating live action stunts with computer generated effects to create a number of seamless scenes. Between Gladys, the crazy possessed old lady on the ceiling, and the swarm of flies as they try to drive a character to the hospital, they did a great job in merging old school matte paintings, light, and shadow, with CG for the film.
Legion is definitely not for everybody. It’s rated R for bloody violence and language. But I found it to be an entertaining mix of religion, horror, and story. Be sure to check it out on DVD and VOD today!
This article first appeared on BlogCritics.org here.
Though I still don’t mentally lump myself in with the “media,” I have to admit I probably belong to that amorphous blob now. So when I see statements like this from the Geekosystem:
“Despite — or maybe because of — the almighty publicity blitz that has accompanied the movie since December, KICK-ASS has been garnering surprisingly good reviews… But one influential reviewer is dragging down those numbers, and the film’s backers have to be taking notice: Roger Ebert.”
The thought that Ebert’s review is dragging anything down is hilarious to me. His review brings some sobering thoughts to KICK-ASS, but in the grand scheme of things – I’d say that most of the folks who weren’t going to see the film anyway might agree with him and those of us who were looking forward to seeing a film completely disconnected from reality providing satire on the concept of super heroes in the real world will still go see it in droves.
But this is what I love about movies, and art in general. Art is perceived differently by everyone who views it. And that fact doesn’t invalidate the work of critics and reviewers, because those efforts can provide a common framework for individuals to hang their own experiences on and construct their own opinions.
Roger Ebert provides a valuable service to many folks who value his opinions. I’m among them. And in this case, I tend to agree with him to a point in that parents should not bring their children to see KICK-ASS. If you bring your kids to see the film, I would question the decision from my perspective, but if you’re prepared for the potential consequences (whatever they are for your kids), more power to you.
So the fact that people are up in arms about Ebert’s review “dragging down” approval numbers for the movie is amusing to me. Yes, he’s voiced an opinion that is different than most of the other reviews. That doesn’t invalidate it. He is just approaching things from a different, just as valid, point of view.
Let’s look at this from a different perspective…
Did Roger Ebert see the film? Yes.
Did he like the film? No, he gave it 1 star.
Does he explain the premise of the film and why he didn’t like it in a public post? Yes. Read it here.
Is Ebert’s review going to make me not want to see this movie? Heck no.
In the world of publicity, is even bad publicity good? Yes, I think so. Ebert’s review in the eyes of Lionsgate will probably be mana from heaven, as it is generating word of mouth about the film in the media (and yes, I’m contributing to this word of mouth).
Ultimately all movie-goers must choose whether to a) see the film themselves and b) who to share the film with. Am I taking my kids to this movie? Heck no. Am I even taking my wife to this movie? Heck no. I’ll take my best friend, we’ll have a good time hooting and hollering and then I’ll write more.
Until then – make your own decision whether to see the film or not.
–Fitz
p.s. Here’s a couple of KICK-ASS books in case you want to know more about the comic the film is based on and how they made the film…
Grave robbing. These days it doesn’t happen much. But in the 19th century it was a booming business, even if it was highly illegal. For writer/director Glenn McQuaid’s directorial debut, I have to say though the setting and story were in a horror style, it was the comedy that shined through for me. For a first-time director, it was top-notch.
I Sell the Dead follows the path of Arthur Blake, a 19th century historical figure known to steal bodies from cemeteries and coffins throughout England until his eventual capture. In the movie, Blake (played by Dominic Monaghan of The Lord of the Rings, Lost, and Flash Forward) decides to weave a tale for the strange priest, Father Duffy (Ron Perlman of Hellboy and Sons of Anarchy) who comes to talk to him before his hanging. Add to that the unique character of Willie Grimes (Larry Fessenden, who also produced the film), the body thief who trains young Angus in the art of body snatching, and Dr. Vernon Quint (Angus Scrimm of Phantasm fame), the doctor for whom Angus and Willie steal the bodies… It’s a unique cast.
However, the strange non-supernatural characters like Dr. Quint and Father Duffy are only part of the equation. When corpses run low due to better security measures, you start getting more creative in where you look for bodies. What happens when you encounter a good looking corpse stabbed with a stake through the heart? Do you remove it to take the body to the good Dr. giving you so many problems? Or what happens when you encounter strange creatures that like to eat your flesh and don’t react quite the same way living things do when you chop off their limbs…
The horror bits were balanced out with the gallows humor throughout the production. It seemed more in the spirit of Evil Dead than a serious film. Don’t let that stop you from watching though – there’s plenty of blood and violence to go around.
Included with the DVD is an I Sell the Dead comic book that follows the story as well, in a slightly more artistic fashion. That said, the special effects in the movie were perfect. Understated in many places, but just enough so that when certain things happen later on (like the slitting of a throat or stabbing in the forehead) they have a bit more shock value.
In addition, you get two bonuses on the DVD – “The Making of I SELL THE DEAD” and “Visual Effects Behind the Scenes.”
According to “The Making of…”, the film was shot in New York, and there was an incredible amount of work that went into simply getting ready to shoot. The props alone must have taken weeks of preparation. Filming on location as opposed to on a controlled set makes things much more challenging to do, but obviously the cast and crew had a good time and worked hard to make the film great!
And in “Visual Effects Behind the Scenes” you get a chance to see how they took the location-shot footage and introduced computerized effects to fill in the blanks (like Willie holding his disembodied head in his hand during one scene). Storyboarding and 3D computerized animatics made it easier to try and plan for the unexpected, but it’s fascinating to see scenes progress from drawings to cartoons to live action in the movie.
IFC Films has released two of my favorite films in recent months on DVD – Dead Snow and now I Sell the Dead. Who can pass up a horror-comedy about zombies OR grave robbers? Be sure to check them out at your favorite retail or rental counter.
–Fitz
p.s. Check out this film and others at Barnes and Noble!
Ninjas. They capture most young men’s attention at an early age. And some of us never outgrow that fascination. With 2009′s Ninja Assassin, those of us bitten by the ninja bug get a bit of an adrenaline boost. Ninjas plus decent story, fair acting, amazing choreography, buckets of blood, and more decapitations, lost limbs, and stabbings than you can count makes for a great movie about these tightly wound assassins.
The movie follows the life of Raizo (Rain) as he learns how to be a ninja at a school run by the Ozunu Clan, a secret society of trained killers. His master is Ozunu, played masterfully by Sho Kosugi, who has played ninja masters since the early ’80s with Enter the Ninja, Revenge of the Ninja, and many others. Clearly Ozunu’s school is one of hard knocks – learning not only how to become a killing machine but how to control your fear, pain, and even your rate of healing. There is no coddling here.
Raizo is treated kindly by Kiriko (played as a young girl by Kylie Goldstein and as a teen by Anna Sawai), who helps him through some tough times. She tends his wounds and opens his heart with a little kindness. When she refuses to hurt another student after winning a training bout, Ozunu cuts her as punishment and she starts seeking a way out of the school. Unfortunately, her exit plan doesn’t work well and she pays the ultimate price…
When Raizo himself is tested, he finds that he can kill at Ozunu’s command, but that he can’t stand himself after he’s done it. He rebels and starts a campaign against the clan.
Bring into this the investigations of Europol agents Mika Coretti (Naomie Harris) and her superior, Ryan Maslow (Ben Miles). Mika stumbles across a mystery she can’t resist and the two begin investigating killings around the globe seemingly paid for by 100 lbs. of gold.
To say the least, the ninja clans are not happy with being investigated and try to stop the agents dead in their tracks…
Ninja Assassin was a fun ninja movie. Not since films like Enter the Ninja and American Ninja have we seen these denizens of the night really cut loose in a big way.
If you don’t like blood, I’d advice that you skip this one. It flows freely. And if the blood doesn’t get to you, the unbelievable beheadings, chopped limbs, and generally being stabbed, sliced, or diced in myriad ways might. Definitely not what I’d recommend as a family film.
However, the story worked for me. Written by J. Michael Straczynski and Matthew Sand, the script has a solid beginning, middle, and great ending. The end answers the question that many of us ask as kids – who wins a battle between a group of ninjas and a bunch of heavily armed and armored commandos. Director James McTiegue did a great job weaving past and present into a seamless narrative that propels us into this violent but very cool world.
Overall this was a fun, violent movie about ninjas in the modern world. Throw in some blood, amazing fight choreography, and a decent story and it holds together nicely.
Also included on the DVD were some deleted scenes. Like many collections of such scenes, quite a few were cut with good reason and a few I might have left in. But it’s always interesting to see what doesn’t make the final version.
Be sure to check out Ninja Assassin at your favorite rental or retailer counter!
Depp was great as the truly mad Mad Hatter. Stephen Fry’s voice for the Cheshire Cat was spot on and I think Alan Rickman as the voice of the perpetually stoned Blue Caterpillar was divine casting. Add to that the fact that Carter and Hathaway as the Red and White Queens seemed to really dig into their roles and the unknown quantity of Wasikowska who did a great job through the movie as an older Alice finding her way in the world and you have a great movie that should hold up to repeated viewings.
Rating:
That said, I don’t understand why the heck it needed to be in 3D. Did Disney really need the extra $3 per ticket for 3D glasses?
And somehow it’s managed to make $400 million worldwide in two weeks at the box office. According to Box Office Mojo, $208.6 million of that is domestic, meaning a whole lot of people have sprung for $3 disposable 3D glasses.
But why? Watching the film, really only one scene (the one in the trailer where the Hatter rolls two bolts of cloth towards the audience) stood out as being 3D. That really wasn’t worth an extra $3 for the ticket for me.
Add to that the bizarre looking animation every time Stayne got on or off his horse and I was left really scratching my head.
Honestly I think I might have enjoyed it more without the film being in 3D. I guess that’s what I’m getting at.
And the fact that there are so many more movies coming out this summer in 3D for no apparent reason just makes it seem like a gimmick to get more people spending more money at the box office, which kind of skews all the box office $$ for me since you’re paying more for a ticket from the start. How to Train Your Dragon, Clash of the Titans, Shrek Forever After, Toy Story 3, and Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore are on the 3D bandwagon for the next few months… Most of them are for kids and they’ll like the gimmick, but why Clash of the Titans?
Do we really need all this 3D? I don’t think so. I hope the fad wears off soon and we get to watch some good movies and not wear those dang glasses!
It’s not a secret. I like zombies. Maybe not if one tried to gnaw on me like a piece of fried chicken, but I like stories about zombies whether they’re on TV, in print, or on the big screen. So when I heard about Dead Snow last year after Sundance, I knew it had to go on my “To See” list. It finally comes to DVD on February 23, 2010 and I got a sneak peek!
What’s it about? Take one part traditional horror plot with teenagers or 20-somethings, add a vacation cabin in the Norweigian Alps, and… Nazi zombies? Really!? Yes, Nazi zombies. And these guys aren’t messing around…
As the movie starts, we see a girl running through the trees and snow being chased by something or several somethings. It’s not clear what the “somethings” are, but you know they can’t be good. The music used for the opening sequence was an inspired choice and I only wish I knew what it was, but I can’t seem to find the soundtrack anywhere. We’re then introduced to the
beautiful people – four guys and three girls – heading up into the Alps for some skiing, snowmobiling, and fun. And yes, there’s a girl missing – one of the guys’ girlfriends was meeting them up there.
Everything is happy and cheerful until the obligatory weird local guy comes to the door in the middle of the night one night and regales them with stories of the Nazis and locals who had clashed 60 years before. During World War II, a Nazi company occupying the area were driven deep into the mountains and presumed to have frozen to death. He even has the gall to complain about the coffee he’s given as a guest. Once he leaves, everything gets rolling pretty quickly.
Honestly, I think this zombie movie has everything I could have wanted in a horror movie. Cute girls, humor, a bit of T&A, and zombies with a lot of personality. It even includes a zombie attack in the outhouse. Not only is it a gory, bloody mess, but it pays homage to some of the great horror movies of the past, including two of my favorites – Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2. When I saw the chainsaw come out of the shed, I burst out laughing.
Let’s talk about the zombies a bit. These aren’t your usual slow, brainless variety. For 60+ year old zombies, these guys are darn fast. The makeup artist did an amazing job providing unique faces for each zombie and I felt like each zombie actor provided a bit of personality to their characters which was awesome.
If you’re not into blood and guts, I would recommend staying away from Dead Snow. But I was constantly amazed at the variety of ways that zombies and campers could be killed or mutilated. Until this movie, I have never seen a man’s head get ripped apart. In one scene, they actually had a girl awake as a group of zombies pulled out her intestines. Fake blood was used aplenty in this film, liberally splattered across the landscape and the actors.
Also, I have to say that the subtitles didn’t detract from the film at all for me. Usually the actors weren’t talking during the fiercest action scenes, so you weren’t constantly bobbing your head up and down as you tried to keep track of what they were saying and what was happening on screen.
In my new order of zombie favorites, I’ll have to put Dead Snow in my top 5, along with Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, Resident Evil, and Army of Darkness. Be sure to check it out at your favorite retailer or rental store when it hit shelves February 23!
Today I heard from the Sundance Institute that there is a “cinematic rebellion” seeking a groundswell of support from the community. As someone who love the creative spirit Sundance embraces each year, I will join the rebellion… Click below to spread the word far and wide!
Check out the free short film (CHONTO by Carson Mell), the opening scene of the about-to-premiere Tamra Davis film Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child and music from John Forté and Capybara… What’s not to like about this rebellion?!?
I thought this was interesting. Saw the new Karate Kid trailer from Sony Pictures starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan. It doesn’t look as bad as I expected. As a child of the 80′s, I remember the first one and it’s tough to forget “wax on, wax off” even after all these years.
Have to admit I like the chopsticks, fly, flyswatter scene.
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There used to be an Amazon ad here, but since Amazon and the state of Colorado can't agree on how to handle taxes, they've blocked my affiliate account. From now on or until this is resolved, links to products will be through Barnes and Noble.
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