New Trailer For “Starship Troopers: Invasion”

Starship Troopers has always been a polarizing franchise. The original Heinlein novel split readers down to whether or not it was pro or anti-fascism, or even a pro or anti-war novel. Even the titular 1997 adaptation saw its fair share of criticism for being mindless, overly gory and disrespectful of its source material, and alternatively being a cleverly made satire of fascism and militaristic jingoism disguised as a brainless action movie. (This years Battleship accomplishes the same feat, despite its source material being a damned board game.) Over the years however, Starship Troopers has developed into its own franchise, with it’s own set of sequels, albeit terrible ones. It was only a matter of time until someone decided to try to reclaim the franchise, and bring it back from straight to DVD hell in one way or another, and surprisingly, it has, this time in CGI form.

Wow. CGI Denise Richards looks different. Better? You decide.

That’s right, the film is being made entirely in CGI animation, by anime director Shinji Aramaki, who is known for his designs for mechs and powered exoskeletons for many anime series. This should ring a bell for fans of the novel, as the mechanized suits played a substantial role in the novel, and were unseen in the original film. However, the trailer indicates that it seems to directly pick it’s continuity from the first film, ignores it’s awful sequels, and furthers the direction of the original characters story, rather than reinterpreting and/or re-imagining a new adaptation of the book entirely.

It’s like a feature length videogame cutscene you can’t play!

The trailer shows Johnny Rico, who is now a battle hardened, eyepatch wearin’ , scarred roughneck, ready to rumble and barking out orders. We also see brief clips of soldiers attacking the bugs, ships flying, and a glimpse of the powered suits that the novel featured. The actual plot of the film takes place 10 years after the events of the Starship Troopers, and we see that Carl Jenkins, originally played by Neil Patrick Harris, has taken the Starship John A. Warden on a secret mission, and of course, ends up going missing. This leads to Rico sending off the Troopers on a rescue mission, where they’ll surely uncover new, horrifying and awesome bugs to kill. Also returning, is the character of Carmen, who was previously played by Denise Richards, and is now going to be joining Rico on the rescue mission, and possibly rekindling whatever broken romance she had with Rico from the first film.

How could you not love that face?

Some might think CGi is a strange direction to take for a sequel, but it’s not without precedent, as there was a mostly forgotten, and short lived CGI television series, called Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles, that skewed much closer in tone to the novel, than the film itself. However, this film seems to preserve the satirical spirit of the original film, with Troopers spouting out famous one liners, “C’mon you apes! You wanna live forever!”,  and even keeping the famously propagandistic  line, “Would you like to know more?”.

Behold! Paranormally gifted Col. Carl Jenkins! Previously played by Neil Patrick Harris! HAIL!

WIll they survive? Will they stop the bug menace once and for all? Will they make an entertaining and watchable film? It remains to be seen, as no hard release date has yet been confirmed, just a “Summer 2012”.  We’ll inform you as soon as there is more info, because we’re all sure that you Would Like To Know More!

Grizzly Dailies – Neighborhood Watch, Looper, and Bullet to the Head

Welcome to Grizzly Dailies! A new feature where we will cover a bunch of movie news in the manner we love. Jam packing a ton of links and info in one post so you don’t have to waste your valuable time (and ours) by combing through a ton of articles!

And if you are unaware of the term ‘Dailies‘ don’t expect this feature every day. It’s a film term and not a promise. Just wanted to get that out there.

Grizzly Review: A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas

Everyone loves racist jokes. Everyone loves pot jokes. Everyone loves racist pot jokes (it’s true don’t deny it). These three facts may be an explanation behind the strangely successful Harold & Kumar franchise, which is now on its third film. The other strange thing about the franchise is that it’s one of the only, if not the only successful franchise led without a Caucasian character in a lead role. I’m sure there are others that I’m forgetting, but that’s really not important.

In A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, six years have passed since the previous sequel, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantonomo Bay. On an unrelated note, considering that both Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle and Escape From Guantanomo Bay take place during the same week, and the first Harold & Kumar came out in 2004, the whole 6 years passing thing is extremely close to being accurate as far as the time-lapse. Not very important, but I felt like sharing, now back to the review.

Harold (John Cho) has since married his dream girl Maria (Paula Garcés – Below), who now wants to have a child. Kumar (Kal Penn), who was dumped by his girlfriend Vanessa (Danneel Ackles), now lives alone spending his days getting high and talking to his annoying neighbor, Adrian (Amir Blumenfeld, in what should be his breakout role).

Christmas Eve rolls around, and this is where the fun begins. Harold’s very scary and very Mexican in-laws are in town for the weekend, led by their patriarch, Mr. Perez (Danny Trejo), bringing with him an extremely important and cherished tree that he’s been growing for eight years for this specific Christmas. Harold just wants to show to him that he’s a responsible husband and won’t ruin Christmas.

On Kumar’s side of things, with nothing to do, he decides to go out with Adrian, but hours before doing so, Vanessa drops by to give Kumar a little news; she’s pregnant. On top of all that (yes, there’s more), a package arrives for Harold who hasn’t lived in that apartment for almost five years. With all this on his mind, Kumar and Adrian head to Harold’s house to drop off the package and get out of their as soon as they can, but of course, we know the formula by know, that’s not going to happen.

Basically, to shorten the sequence, Kumar leaves the package on the front stoop and tries to get out clean, he ends up slipping on ice, Harold hears it, comes out, greets him, and invites him in for coffee. Kumar reluctantly agrees only to see that Harold’s new house is, and I quote, “not s**ty.” Harold and Kumar, after their awkward introductions, finally get around to opening the mysterious package, only to find a ridiculously large joint with the words “I killed Bob Marley” written on the side of it (I’m only kidding about that last part). Kumar immediately begins smoking the joint, and Harold forces him to throw it out. The joint, accompanied by some slick movie magic, is thrown out of the window, to only boomerang back into another open window, placing itself neatly on the cherished tree, thus lighting it on fire. Here’s where the adventure begins.

I won’t explain all the things that happen next, but I can say one thing; it’s funny as hell. The Harold & Kumar films, as mindless and raunchy as they may seem, are for the most part expertly plotted, smartly written, and extremely funny films, this being no exception.

The only thing that I thought was more or less distracting was the overall change in style. I can’t quite put my finger on everything that was different, but it’s like watching a sequel or a remake to your favorite movie. It’s probably good, but it just isn’t the same. Another distracting element was the almost constant use of slow-motion and 3D. Unfortunately, I was forced to see the film in 2D, as well as sober, so I probably only got about 1/10^th of the effects that every stoner with a pair of 3D glasses did.

But for all the stylistic changes, the addition of new and hilarious characters, including Thomas Lennon as Todd, a naïve father who inadvertently involves him and his even funnier baby girl Ava in Harold and Kumar’s misadventures, as well as the return of all the old characters, notably NPH (whose cameo may be his best yet) and Rosenberg and Goldstein (whose cameo scene will have fans of the original in stitches), make this 3^rd outing better than it has any right to be. Additionally, the use of meta-filmmaking makes for some even better laughs than almost any joke in the film. The real genius of this 3^rd Harold & Kumar film, is that, it will most likely please fans of the original, but it also makes room for millions of new fans who have not yet been introduced to the antics of this lovable stoner duo.

4/5 Bears

EVERYTHING GLEE! Catching You Up With GLEE News. The Contest, the Concert, the Emmys, and Glee: Season 3!

At this point in their careers, it is safe to say that the creators of Glee have turned everything they touch into gold. Glittery, shimmering gold. But according to The Hollywood Reporter, only 455,000 viewers tuned into Oxygen’s new show. The Glee Project premiered Sunday night at 9pm. This show begins by putting 12 people between the ages of 18-22 into a contest which includes vocals, acting, dancing, as well as taking direction. Every week the group has a guest judge. The first week’s guest judge was Darren Criss (Blaine Anderson). At the end of every week, the bottom three contestants are chosen to perform in front of the creator of Glee, Ryan Murphy.

I watched the premiere episode, and I have to say I liked it… but there were quite a few problems with it…

First off, I am not sure who was in charge of advertising for The Glee Project, but I have obsessively watched every single episode of Glee, not only at the time it was aired, but multiple times afterward. I can honestly say that I wasn’t quite sure what The Glee Project was when I was going to write this article. I had seen commercials about it, but they all said to go to a website, or download an app for more information. This show is much like American Idol, without seeing all of the embarrassing moments that everyone watches those types of elimination shows for. I think that if this show had been properly advertised, the premiere would’ve done better. In fact, I may have made an event of it. Hell, I would have auditioned.

Incognito

Secondly, the most interesting parts of the show were not drawn out as much as they should have been. They had a guest judge – one of the lovable gays from the show, and barely showed him when it aired. He worked with one of the contestants on his vocal, but you only see about a minute of them working together. I am not sure why they did that, but I would have wanted to see more Blaine…

The show needs a lot of work. As a Glee fan, I hope it does get better.

In my second piece of exciting news, Executive Producer Ian Brennan has said he wants to create an episode in Season 3 to feature Bruce Springsteen. It is rumored that The Boss might play Finn Hudson’s uncle on the show, which would be perfect!

Glee has already had fantastic guest appearances, such as Britney Spears, and a recurring role as a substitute teacher played by Gwyneth Paltrow. Not to mention Neil Patrick Harris, Kristin Chenoweth, and Uncle Jesse himself – John Stamos as a dentist.

I am very excited about my next order of Glee business. On June 13th, I attended a fantastic concert at the Palace of Auburn Hills (Home of the Detroit Pistons). One so fantastic, and full of so much talent (and so many 12-year-olds) that they must have made a fortune off of this show. I am, of course, talking about the Glee Concert. During this performance, all of the Glee cast members stay in character (Kurt is gay, Brittany is dumb, etc…).

This concert could not have been done better, in my opinion. The only critique is that it was a somewhat short show, but I understand that most of the fans had a long hard day of junior-high mathematics to attend the next morning.  The cast pulled out all of the fans’ favorite show-stopping moments, including when Brittany was Britney Spears, when Kurt did the ‘Single Ladies’ dance, when normally disabled Artie gets out of his wheelchair and does the ‘Safety Dance’, and my personal favorite of the night, Amy Winehouse’s ‘Valerie’ sung by Santana Lopez (played by Naya Rivera). Of course, my favorite performer is always Finn Hudson (played by Cory Monteith). You should see him sing live. He has a permanent O-face. It is extraordinary. Overall, the show was very well put together, with very intricate dance moves, and even special video recorded appearances by Jane Lynch and Matthew Morison.

I am not the only person to have seen the show…not by any means. But according to the Chicago Sun Times, one journalist has lost her job for fabricating details about the Glee Live Show on June 3rd. Chicago Sun-Times TV critic Paige Wiser had gone to watch the concert with her son and daughter. According to Wiser, at one point in the concert her daughter threw up and her son fell off of a chair. Under the stress of her job, she made a snap decision to continue the writeup of the concert and fabricate some details, even though she did not stay for the entire show. A reader noticed inconsistencies in her report, which lead Editor in Chief Don Hayer to announce Wiser’s dismissal in a note posted online on June 9.

He wrote in that note: “Accuracy and honesty in reporting are essential parts of the promise we make to our readers. We regret the incident and apologize.” Wiser said that she is ashamed, and admitted responsibility. “I’m at fault. I do understand what a big deal this was. I am ashamed, and it’s just a matter of making bad decisions when you’re exhausted.”

For my final bit of information for you, I give you the host of this year’s Emmy Awards: Jane Lynch! I have to say, after seeing her on Saturday Night Live, I am looking forward to how she will put her spin on hosting an award show such as this.

Lynch won “Outstanding Supporting Actress” last year, and has been nominated for a Critics Choice TV Award “Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series”, which she would definitely deserve. The Emmys will air September 18 on FOX.