The Amazon horror-comedy series is about a team of part-time paranormal investigators who team up to uncover and film ghost sightings across the UK, sharing their adventures on an online channel for all to see. The show reunites longtime collaborators Simon Pegg (Mission: Impossible – Fallout) and Nick Frost (Fighting with My Family), who have worked together on several terrific projects.
Frost plays Gus, one of two members of a ghost-hunting duo that uncover and film paranormal sighting across the U.K. who stakes out haunted churches, abandoned hospitals, and similar locations using homemade ghost-detecting gadgets. As the two uncover a conspiracy that could threaten the human race, their experiences grow more frequent and terrifying. But what about Simon Pegg? Well, details surrounding Pegg’s character Dave are currently unknown but the trailer might be able to shine a little light on that.
First they had a show in the UK called Spaced, which was a bit hit or miss, but worth a watch. Then, in 2004 the creative team of Nira Park, Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost made a movie; Shaun of the Dead. It was a huge cult hit and created for them a loyal fan following here in the states. Three years later they returned to make Hot Fuzz. This was maybe even better than Shaun of the Dead, though met with less fanfare. Shortly after that Wright, Frost, and Pegg made a short without producer Park which was included in the Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino double feature Grindhouse. In 2011, Pegg and Frost reunited with Park to do the movie Paul, but Edgar Wright this time was not involved. So now, the four of them are all back together again for what looks to be another gem; The World’s End (not to be confused with This is the End).
We all know what’s slated for Phase 2 of the Marvel movie plan. The ambitious three year plan will culminate in The Avengers 2, which is due to melt your eyeballs on May 1st, 2015. One of the big questions though is what characters will be introduced in the sequels (Iron Man 3, Thor 2, Captain America 2) and the new flicks in the fold (Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man) that might be involved in the Avengers sequel. Right now we’re going to concentrate on two of the heroes that could make their way into the lineup: The Vision and Ant-Man.
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First, the Vision stuff. There’s been a lot of chatter about the Vision and who should be cast. Vin Diesel has been the one major actor that wants to throw his hat in the ring. According to GammaSquad, the Diesel himself posted a profile pic on his Facebook of the Vision before taking it down.
Obviously if we got our news from Facebook pages, all I would gather is people like to shove political views down my throat, claiming their intelligent views are supreme despite the fact they can’t tell the difference between the words “your” and “you’re”. Basically we’re going to take this with a grain of salt. While I have no doubt that Vin is lobbying heavily for this role, we are going to take the ‘wait and see’ approach. After all, he’s not even the popular choice to take on the role. That would be…
Agent Coulson himself, Clark Gregg. Despite the creepiness of seeing someone take the initiative to plant the seed in our heads with the image above (courtesy of Comics Alliance), you have to admit it would be cool despite the fact that it would go against the extremely convoluted comic canon, which frankly there is no way they’ll adhere to anyhow.
Of course, we all know what happened to Agent Coulson in The Avengers, and if you don’t, stop reading right now and go watch the damn movie. Regardless, Nerd Reactor asked Clark Gregg about the upcoming S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show. For spoiler reasons, I’ll let you know that the link throws out Agent Coulson’s status in the Avengers movie in the first sentence so *SPOILER ALERT* I guess.
Now let’s explore what Gregg had to say about the Vision:
“You know the Vision is synthetic with a soul, sort of, and he’s an amazing character who I loved when I used to read those comics. I love the idea of Coulson as that guy, but I don’t know if that’s in the cards.”
I love Agent Coulson. He felt like part of the team, having brought them together for the finale, and being in all the films because Samuel L. Jackson can’t be the only one building his IMDB resume by the minute. Again, this would defy the comic continuity, but who knows, I think we can trust Joss Whedon to make the right decision on this one, right?
As for that next character, Ant-Man. We know that Edgar Wright is doing At World’s End with his boys, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost right now. Where does that land the Ant-Man movie? SlashFilm is saying that we could see it in two different scenarios: After The Avengers 2 movie, or perhaps even in the middle of Phase 2. The biggest indicator is that they are citing sources stating that after Thor 2 is done filming, that Ant-Man will occupy the same lot immediately afterwards. Of course, he’d also be into post-production on At World’s End so this could prove to just be wishful thinking. Marvel also seems to want to keep to the schedule of two Marvel movies each year, and with Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 occupying 2013, and Captain America 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy taking on 2014, there might not be enough room for Ant-Man.
However, if we stick to the Vision showing up in the Avengers sequel, we NEED Hank Pym to show up and set the stage – so stay tuned. I’m sure we will have more news as it comes because it seems to be coming out at a good pace now with the hype slowing building.
The Avengers has decided to earn a decent amount of change over the last week (probably the GDP of most small countries but minor details) so what’s next? Obviously we have Iron Man 3, followed by Thor 2, then Captain America 2, and another Avengers, but could there possibly be something more added to the mix? Edgar Wright shared a pic on his twitter detailing that since Disney and Marvel are all going Scrooge McDuck and diving and swimming in their profits, they decided to give Wright some confidence in his Ant-Man project. Yes, that one that has been in the works seemingly forever. But it would make sense to get him to the next Avengers movie. Also money talks. That too.
But first, and possibly more importantly, it looks like Edgar Wright is reuniting with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost to finish what they started. They are coming together again to write and shoot The World’s End by the end of the year for a Spring 2013 release. Yes, you may geek out. Details you ask? Look below my friends via EW and Deadline:
20 years after attempting an epic pub crawl, five childhood friends reunite when one of them becomes hell bent on trying the drinking marathon again. They are convinced to stage an encore by mate Gary King, a 40-year old man trapped at the cigarette end of his teens, who drags his reluctant pals to their home town and once again attempts to reach the fabled pub, The World’s End. As they attempt to reconcile the past and present, they realize the real struggle is for the future, not just theirs but humankind’s. Reaching The World’s End is the least of their worries.
Yep. it’ll be cool. I’m glad Edgar Wright has a few jobs because we need him out there. Just because Scott Pilgrim solidified him as one of my favorite directors out there. He’s out there for the greater good. The greater good.
Yep, that happened. Simon Pegg has a new movie out and at first, I feel like this was some YouTube random trailer made from some fanboys they made with Final Cut. And I’m not saying this is a knock on the film itself but it’s…I don’t…what the hell is going on?
The movie is called A Fantastic Fear of Everything and Simon Pegg (who’s apparently fearing a barber and proper hygiene in this movie as well) is an crime novelist that cannot escape his past as a children’s author. I assume his demons are personified by this creepy rodent creature that keeps popping up in the trailer. So I assume he must go out into the world, and in a very british humor type of way, dick around, meet a girl, clean himself, find out she probably has some sort of weird idiosyncratic thing that she’s been hiding from the world. After all, there’s no such thing has a hot girl that falls for the loser (movies have totally ruined my perception on reality, DAMN YOU), but they accept each other’s flaws and live happily ever after in a flat on London with his insecurity just chilling on the couch, having tea and crumpets or whatever stereotypical food you want to substitute in there. I feel like I come off skeptical and cynical of the prospects of this movie. Does that show? I blame the British ironic humor that this trailer subjected me to. Boom. Deal with it.
Note, I like Simon Pegg, I think he’s brilliant and I’m glad he stepped away from whatever Mission-Trek-TinTin movie he has been working on. Although if Kirsten Dunst and Megan Fox show up in this movie, we all should just walk away.
Everyday on the news, you hear about some gang that killed a lady walking home from work, or kidnapped a child and sold her for a couple of keys of cocaine. To us, this has become the norm. To me, that’s a little bit screwed up, but that’s a whole different conversation for a different post. The thing you don’t hear about gangs doing is surviving alien attacks. Now that is some news worthy shit.
London, England is known for its young gang problem, and in the film Attack the Block, we meet some of the personalities that make up this demographic. On her way home from work, Sam (Jodie Whittaker), a young lady in medical school, is mugged by a group of young hooligans who hail from what is known as, The Block. The four teens, who are known as Pest, Jerome, Dennis, and their leader, Moses (Alex Esmail, Leeon Jones, Franz Drameh, and John Boyega, respectively), unknowingly live in the same building as Sam. They take orders from the boss of a local drug dealer, Ron (Nick Frost), named Hi-Hatz (Jumayn Hunter). Ron’s friend, Brewis (Luke Treadway), is a rich-boy, budding zoologist with more street smarts than he lets on. All these characters are connected by one place, The Block, which is the central location of a sudden alien attack.
Attack the Block is a fast-moving, brutal, funny, and action-packed horror comedy from the producers of Shaun of the Dead. With a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a mere 6.8 on IMDb, I wondered whether or not this movie was going to be good. It seemed like viewers didn’t enjoy it, yet it attained critical acclaim. Regardless, I pressed play with an open mind, and let the dirtiness of London wash over me.
I’m here to report that, as far as I’m concerned, Attack the Block is pretty damn cool. Starting off unevenly, with some cheesy dialogue and a confusing introduction to the characters, I was afraid that this was going to be a long 89 minutes. But, once the film hit the 15-minute mark, it seemed like everything switched into high gear, and it didn’t let up until the end credits rolled. The film’s low budget was not noticeable at all, as the monsters were extremely well constructed and scary. The acting from the hooligans was surprisingly accurate and well-rehearsed, especially from the lead, John Boyega, who looks like the illegitimate son of Mike Tyson and Denzel Washington. The writing is quick and layered, and the camerawork doesn’t rely on shaky-cam at all. Don’t get me wrong, I love shaky cam, but it wouldn’t have worked in this film, and I’m so glad they didn’t use it.
Above all, Attack the Block is both a great action movie and a social commentary on the state of the projects in London, as well as this generation’s desensitization to such extremes that it causes them to go out and fight the monsters as opposed to hide from them. I’m probably way off when it comes to this, but I’m trying to be deep, give me a chance here.
Regardless of my bad explanation of the film’s social commentary, you should most definitely watch Attack the Block when you get the chance, you won’t be disappointed.
Attack the Block. Like Stomp the Yard? Verb the Noun!
“It’s inner city versus outer space.”
I’ve got to say I’m not sure about this one. Seeing as it is from the producers of Shaun of the Dead (which I love) and Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World (which I don’t hate) this flick could have some potential. Here’s the basic plot from IMDB:
A teen gang in South London defend their block from an alien invasion.
Sounds complicated. Here is the first of the 2 trailers.
As per usual, here is a movie of the times. Like Shaun of the Dead which was timed perfectly with at the beginning (you could argue was a catalyst toward) an entertainment zombie boom, Attack the Block is poised to ride the wave of movies that are focusing on Aliens invading, and kids coming together for the adventure (Super 8). However, the Alien invasion movies have not really been catching much steam like the zombie infestation.
The other night I saw the new Simon Pegg movie Paul. Wasn’t sure what to expect from this one, but Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz (both Simon Pegg movies) were both good enough to make me give this a chance. Not that I normally need such a track record to see a Sci-Fi movie…
This is the story of a little green man, and his escape from our Government. All he want’s to do is go home, you know, like another little spaceman we met in the 1980’s. During his escape he happens upon a couple of sci-fi geeks from England whom he convinces to give him a lift, and obviously ends up bonding with.
The premise is simple, it’s basically a ‘road trip’ movie for the Science Fiction genre, and that’s a movie with a very specific target audience. But one that has the potential to appeal to a much broader set. Sure, it geeks it up. It was full of references to comic books and other movies, but for the most part, they are references everyone will get. You’ve seen E.T. right?
The thing that really surprised me though, was for a comedy, how good the visuals really were. The character of Paul himself was excellent. Like Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, but more natural looking, more fluid. I suppose they’ve improved on the technology since 2003, but I was honestly impressed, and special effects are not so easy to impress me with anymore. I think it comes back to expectations, when you see a Battle LA or something like Tron: Legacy, you know the effects are going to be great, so the only way they can ‘wow’ you, is in a bad way. If you notice them because they suck. But for a comedy? These far exceeded expectations, to the point you almost forget Paul isn’t really there with the actors, but instead its Joe Lo Truglio on his knees, covered in motion capture sensors.
Speaking of the cast, it was outstanding. In addition to my main motivations for wanting to see this: Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the movie also features multiple alum from Arrested Development – Jeffery Tambor plays ‘Adam Shadowchild’, a famous Sci-Fi writer, and Jason Bateman is the lead G-Man that’s chasing our protagonists.
Bateman & Tambor on the set of Arrested Development
Then borrowed from the current SNL cast, we get Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader. Wiig plays the one-eyed love interest for Pegg, and Hader, along with the aforementioned Joe Lo Truglio, play Bateman’s underlings. Then, the behind the scenes antagonist, whose voice should be immediately identifiable to Sci-Fi fans, is played by Ellen Ripley herself – Sigourney Weaver.
Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig together in ‘Adventureland’
Now I’ve already mentioned that Joe Lo Turglio actually played Paul, this is because the heavily advertised star handling Paul’s voice – Seth Rogen, was busy filming The Green Hornet. He later added the voice work. Now, I’ve talked to a few people lately that said they were just burnt out on Seth Rogen, and for that reason they didn’t really want to see this, but I have to tell you, I thought he did an excellent job. The voice, for me at least, came off a natural and I really enjoyed it.
The movie, ended up actually being more touching and heartfelt than expected too, but not in an overly cheesy manner. Director Greg Mottola (whose resume totally explains how he was able to land this cast) flew under the radar a bit here. He wont get the attention or credit he deserves because of the subject of the movie, but this turned out better than I expected, and I certainly enjoyed it more than his most acclaimed film – Adventureland.
I’m gonna give this movie a very strong 3.5 Bears. Not the funniest comedy I’ve ever seen, and it starts off a little slow, but it is definitely worth a watch.
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