Movie trailer review: Skinwalkers

Skinwalkers, another bad horror movie hitting theaters too, is a werewolf/vampire film that looks to be about as God-awful as God-damning films go (and I mean that in a completely non-religious way).
I watched this movie trailer only yesterday, but already can't remember much of the details, mainly because the trailer is so cluttered with quick MTV flashes of vampire violence... though the movie alludes to the fact that these creatures may not actually be vampires, but simply creatures that are exactly the same as vampires.
Anyway, the only redeeming part of the trailer is a quick shot of a sex scene, but even that won't draw me to this piece-of-crap. At the same time, you really can't blame the marketing department for this movie trailer, as the movie itself is probably such a mess that they needed to make it look overly-frenetic just to hide all the lousy graphics, acting and dialogue.
Movie trailer review: F
Watch the Skinwalkers movie trailer now.

Movie trailer review: Dead Silence Trailer

Dead Silence, the latest movie from master director James Wan (I say that with sarcasm), is a horror movie about dolls who kill people, or a ghost woman who kills people, etc. Wan is the director of the hugely popular Saw, though one of my biggest issues with that movie, aside from the acting, was the directing (and it's also the director's job to get good performances out of his actors).
The Dead Silence trailer is nothing to scream about, and it will be interesting to see how well this movie rides on the Saw name. I am a little skeptical, but then again, I never thought there would be a Saw franchise. The movie once again stars Donnie Wahlberg (Saw II) and some no-names as they stumble across a mystery that involves an evil woman who was murdered and who had her tongue cut out, and is mad enough as a ghost to cut out the tongues of people who get in her way.
The movie looks exactly like Darkness Falls, which was a horrible, horrible horror movie, as it has the exact same plot as dozens of other films. Even more so, the movie doesn't look like it will be the least bit scary, though I must admit dolls can be rather creepy.
I give the Dead Silence movie trailer a C-
Watch the Dead Silence movie trailer.

Amazing Race Recap: Rob and Amber are amazing

Rob and Amber are quite impressive. They have the reality TV competition gig down pat. These two are hated by many, but you have to respect them. In fact, I like them. I want them to win. I wanted them to win last time. I even wanted Rob to win on Survivor.
Here is a couple who has finished first or second place in two big reality TV shows. Rob crafted his way to the final two on Survivor, carrying romantic interest Amber on his tailcoats. Due to his backstabbing, the other loser Survivors failed to realize how good he was, and gave Amber the $1 million. Of course, Rob was smart enough to see this coming, so he proposed to Amber before the winner was announced (it may also help that she's beautiful and seemingly a good soul mate for him).
Then, having already won $1,000,000, plus whatever Rob won for second place, the two finish second on Amazing Race, losing by a hair to much-less exciting Uchenna and Joyce. Now, the two teams are back fighting against one another, and Rob and Amber are once again leading the pack. They came in first in the first episode, and this leads me to my discussion for today, which is hardly a recap of Amazing Race at all...
Rob and Amber seize the fastest flight, but end up screwed when their flight is delayed. Already more than 15 minutes behind, it looks like no first place is in store for them this week. But the combination of a task right up Rob's alley (construction equipment) and tricky navigation of the roads led the love-to-hate couple to the finish line first once again.
Props to Rob and Amber, and may they go all the way!

The Incredible Hulk takes on Toronto

Toronto has been chosen as a principal filming location for the upcoming Marvel movie, The Incredible Hulk.

The Incredible Hulk is to be directed by Louis Leterrier.

The Incredible Hulk is expected to begin shooting this summer for about four months. The cast has yet to be announced. Marvel Studios is a subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment Inc., which publishes characters including Spider Man, X-Men Captain America and Ghost Rider.

The announcement gives a boost to the local film industry which is still suffering the after-effects of a six-week strike by Canadian performers. A tentative deal between ACTRA and producers was reached Feb. 21.

The Departed wins/Scorsese finally wins!

About frikkin' time! Martin Scorsese finally takes Oscar gold for The Departed, and, amazingly enough, The Departed won for Best Picture as well. It's pretty rare these days to have a movie take home Oscar gold for both Best Picture and Best Picture, but The Departed, a genre film, a thriller, a gangster film, pulled it off.
And the best part... when the Oscar was announced for Best Picture, we were told that Scorsese calls this "the first movie he's done with a plot."
Congratulations, Mr. Scorsese... Now, I start rooting for Leo.

Dreamgirls competes itself out of competition

Dreamgirls had three separate nominations for Best Original Song... and thus three songs to spread the wealth. Combined, Dreamgirls probably had the majority vote, but alas, Melissa Etheridge wins for the rather forgettable song "I Need To Wake Up" from An Inconvient Truth.
An Inconvenient Truth has fared well tonight - not only did it win Best Song, which I must imagine is pretty rare for a documentary, but it also won for Best Documentary Feature. On top of that, the Oscars and Leonardo DiCaprio played out a great gag where Al Gore began his speech to announce his candidacy for President of the United States of America, when the Oscar music started playing indicating he had spoke too long. Unfortunately, Gore never made his announcement, and thus we are stuck with a bunch of so-so Democratic candidates.
It's not to late, Al! It's not too late!

Depressing GM robot commercial

I'm watching the Oscars right now, and am happy to see that GM changed the ending to their God-awful suicidal robot commercial. The original, which aired during the Superbowl, depicted a robot who was laid off by GM after scratching a car (so GM has no tolerance for mistakes?), funnels through a bunch of thankless jobs, and eventually commits suicide by jumping off a bridge... even though it's all just a dream. I am one who often finds humor in the tasteless and dark, but even I thought the commercial was highly inappropriate, depressing and a bad marketing move in general.
While GM should have just scrapped the commercial, the Oscars shows a different version of the same commercial, cut the suicide scene at the end. At least GM is willing to change... now how about those cars with 60 mpg fuel efficiency?

Pixar fails to claim the Oscar!

While I am disappointed in the lack of support for Pan's Labyrinth to win Best Foreign Picture, I am very excited to see that Oscar voters did not go toward the convenient Oscar choice - Pixar's Cars - and instead chose another movie. While I am quite confident that Monster House was much better than Happy Feet (though I have not seen Happy Feet), I was going to be fine as long as Cars didn't win.
If you don't know, I found Cars to be one of the most boring, lame cartoons of the year, and that's coming from a guy who has loved all other Pixar movies.

What happened to Pan's Labyrinth???

Pan's Labyrinth was sweeping up the small awards left and right, which meant one of two things: it would sweep for the big prize, or get discounted as a result.
Sadly, Pan's Labyrinth failed to make the grade for Best Foreign Picture. Did people think that by giving it a bunch of smaller awards that would make up for losing out on the big prize?
Instead, The Lives of Others won, but that movie had met mixed reactions in the U.S., while Pan's Labyrinth had received some of the best reviews of the year. In fact, Pan's Labyrinth was my #2 pick of the year, and certainly better than all of the Best Picture nominations at this year's Oscars... even The Departed.
I am hugely disappointed in the Oscar voters...

Jessie falls in river

Watch my friend Jessica take a tumble in a freezing river... Click here. Apparently she had climbed on this dude's back to get across the river without getting her feet. This is what happens, Ms. Jessica, when you try to play it safe.

February 25th Weekend Box Office

The estimates for the February 23-25, 2007 weekend are in! Sadly, once again, Ghost Rider comes in at the top spot, but it plummets 57% from a weekend ago, so that's a good sign. The Number 23 comes in second, and really doesn't do as well as I expected (of course, reviews were not kind). Here's the full roll out:

1. Ghost Rider ($19.7)

2. The Number 23 ($15.1)

3. Bridge to Terabithia ($13.6)

4. Reno 911!: Miami ($10.4)

5. Norbit ($9.7)

6. Muisc and Lyrics ($8.0)

7. Breach ($6.2)

8. Daddy's Little Girls ($5.3)

9. The Astronaut Farmer ($4.5)

10. Amazing Grace ($4.3)

Meet the Parents 3: Little Fockers

Variety reports Universal Pictures is going to start developing the comedy, Little Fockers, the third installment of the Ben Stiller/Robert De Niro comedy series; Jay Roach is also set to direct this version. Ben Stiller, De Niro, Teri Polo, Blythe Danner, Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand are all hopefuls to return.

Larry Stuckey will write the script; no release date has been scheduled for Little Fockers. Those poor little children.

Clooney, Blanchett in The Fantastic Mr. Fox

According to The Hollywood Reporter, George Clooney and Cate Blanchett will voice the lead characters in Wes Anderson's stop-motion animated, The Fantastic Mr. Fox for 20th Century Fox.

The film is an adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic children's story,about a clever fox who must outwit three mean, dimwitted farmers who try their hardest to hurt Mr. Fox and his family. Clooney would voice Mr. Fox, while Blanchett would voice his wife.

Open Water 2 DVD Review

Normally I post movie reviews at my movie website, Movie-Source.com, but since Open Water 2: Adrift is a direct-to-DVD release and thus not deserving of a database entry, I'm posting my thoughts here instead:

Open Water 2: Adrift is a pretty stupid idea for a movie. After all, the first movie, which hardly deserved a theatrical release, was about two people who eventually die floating in the ocean. Sequel fodder, I think not. Nevertheless, the sequel is here, and while it certainly deserves its direct-to-DVD release, it shows that given a slightly better screenplay and a completely different title, it could have been something.

This time around, the movie focuses on a group of three couples and a baby who go yachting in Mexico. On one pleasant day they all decide to go swimming, but forget to do one simple thing: drop the ladder. With the hull of the boat too high to climb, the six find themselves stranded only ten feet from safety but unable to attain it. As tempers flare and the blame game beginnings, they struggle to stay afloat.

Open Water 2 has a few things going for it. The concept is pretty good and believable at that. The women are pretty nice to look at. The acting isn't as horrific as you'd expect, and some of the actors are recognizable. Stretches of the movie are well paced, and the ending is also quite exciting. Overall, Open Water 2 was much better than I expected, even if that isn't saying much.

On the other hand, the movie could have benefited from a slightly better script. While there are stretches that are perfectly fine, there are moments where the characters just do stupid stuff, or react in a way that isn't very believable, or get on topics that seem rather cheesy. There's a scene where a girl freaks out and starts screaming the Lord's prayer, which seemed rather out of character and rather sudden, and another where a man manages to get his cell phone off the deck of the boat, but frustrated that the signal is nearly non-existent, he throws it away. Who in their right, fucking mind would do that? In another scene, a man starts stabbing at the hull of the boat trying to create a foothold, but the boat's owner fights with him to stop and the end result is one of the characters getting stabbed to death. Come on.

Also, I don't understand why the three men didn't attempt to combine their force to throw one of the women toward the deck. Perhaps that would have been an easy-out to this dilemma, which would have caused the movie to end abruptly.

Open Water 2 is not the disaster you'd expect it to be, but it isn't anything special, either. Compared to the original, the movie does offer some more interesting dynamics as there are more characters to share the weight of the story, but also lacks the tension that made the first one halfway watch-able. If you have nothing better to do, you could do worse, but of course this is not one you'll be flying to the video store to see.

Academy Award Oscar Nominations and Predictions

For the few who actually read this blog, here are our predictions for the 2007 (or is it 2006?) Oscars. And the Academy Award (will go) to...
Best Picture: Letters from Iwo Jima
Best Director: Martin Scorsese
Best Actor: Forest Whitaker
Best Actress: Helen Mirren
Best Supporting Actor: Eddie Murphy
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson
Best Foreign Picture: Pan's Labyrinth
Best Animated Picture: Cars (even though it sucked big time)

However, our picks (a.k.a. movies that we want to win but won't necessarily win) are as follows:
Best Picture: The Departed
Best Director: Martin Scorsese
Best Actor: Will Smith
Best Actress: Meryl Streep (but we're fine with Helen Mirren, too)
Best Supporting Actor: Jackie Earle Haley
Best Supporting Actress: Adriana Barraza
Best Foreign Picture: Pan's Labyrinth
Best Animated Picture: Monster House (because this movie kicked ass)

For all nominations and the rest of my picks and predictions, please visit our Academy Award nominations page.