Kevin Smith is about to make everyone’s greatest desire a reality. Well, as long as that desire is to see Buckaroo Banzai and the Hong Kong Cavaliers finally take on the World Crime League. Yes, the promise that was made to all of us in 1984 will finally be fulfilled: Buckaroo Banzai is returning!
Continue reading Kevin Smith is Bringing Buckaroo Banzai Back for More Adventures
When news that a remake to Robocop was coming out, the internet almost imploded with the sheer volume of venom and bile that was unleashed. The original Robocop has always had a warm place in the hearts of fans. The clever mix of ultra violence, angst and social commentary meshed well to give us a truly stunning piece of ’80s cinema. So it’s understandable that there may be a certain amount of tension when a new version is released. Even this reviewer was slightly nonplussed by the news, and when shots of the new suit came out face palms were felt all around the world. It looked pretty dire and people could hardly believe they were thinking of using this version over the classic silver suit Peter Weller wore. It did not really exude confidence in the new film. Well now it is time to put up or shut up because the new trailer is out. See what you think below.
So there you go. Now I do not know how this trailer went down with everyone else, but personally, I liked it. The tone still seems to be dark, but not as gritty as the original. The darkness is still there hidden under all the shiny metal and techno heavy visuals. Hopefully it will not suffer the same fate as the Total Recall remake, where the futuristic look over shadowed the fact that the film somehow managed to take all the fun out of the movie and made it a dreadful bore. This trailer is anything but that, with the action coming at you thick and fast and for once you can actually see the events as they take place, rather than say the Transformers franchise where the gleaming metal battles all gel into a CGI mess.
Let’s not forget about the cast, and boy what a cast. Samuel Jackson, Michael Keaton, and Gary Oldman are just a few of the names involved, and they certainly seem to be enjoying themselves. Unlike the OCP from the original where most of the people working for the company were dicks (and we loved them for it, who can forget Dick Jones, Bob Morton and Clarence J.Boddicker), here it seems Oldman is to be the scientist with a heart, while Keaton is chewing up the scenery in a more corporate way than his predecessors.
Giving Alex Murphy and his family more screen time seems to be a good call as it adds a nice dynamic to the tale. How do decide if your husband should be given a new lease on life but lose some of his humanity? These clips with the family should make for some touching scenes in the movie if the trailer is to go by.
The new designs look great. ED 209 has been slightly revamped, and as much as I love the old clunky model I am interested to see how this new, more streamlined version will fare on-screen. The new suit after all the moaning does look good in action. The visor sliding up and down adds a nice element, and again helps to keep the human side of Robocop visible more. The scene with numerous Robocop models taking on the Alex Murphy Robocop certainly interested me and the voice is spot on. The main downside to this is there is no police presence in the trailer that I could see. So the dynamic that Murphy and Anne Lewis had in the original seems to have been removed to focus more on Alex Murphy’s family issues. I can see the point, but it does not mean that I a tinge of remorse we are going to lose that side of the movie. But that’s what happens with change.
Let’s just get one thing clear in our minds. This is never going to be Paul Verhoeven Robocop. That movie is irreparable. But much liked other remakes that have worked (Dawn of the Dead, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Star Trek) it has taken the core idea and given it a different spin. Do we forget about the original Texas Chainsaw movies now that the remake has been made? Of cause not. Both live together in cinematic harmony and both have their own fan bases. Could we have room for two Robocop’s? I believe so, but only if the film is good. The last thing we need is another shitty remake. Fingers crossed this will be the former rather than the later, and if it lives up to the promise of the trailer we could be in for a treat. No matter what, Peter Weller’s iconic turn in the role of Robocop will never be forgotten, but maybe we can find a space for Joel Kinnaman portrayal too? I would like to think so, we’ll just have to look past that PG-13 rating first…
It’s about that time; that time being just long enough in between Star Trek teasers and trailers that people started to get ready to actually see the movie to have its secrets revealed to them, which means it’s also time for them to release a big, “show-everything-basically” trailer internationally that more or less spells out the plot of the film. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great trailer and all, but it’s had sort of a reverse effect of making me less excited. Now Benedict Cumberbatch is so clearly just an original new villain for the series, rather than some updated or remade villain like we were all thinking a while ago. On top of the basic plot being revealed, (Cumberbatch is mad at the Federation while destroying things and getting revenge; Kirk & Co are the only ones to help), it’s also more or less telling us that we’re not getting interesting reinterpretations of older characters rather it will continue it’s own new path. Which I have mixed feelings on, but here, judge for yourself first:
While I like the idea of the Star Trek franchise moving forward and creating all new everything to complement and refresh the franchise for new and old fans alike, a part of me still wishes to see everything old, but new again. We’ve been teased with Klingons and Kahn and whatnot for so long, just little hints at these things make us salivate. It raises the question, is it bad that they’re seemingly not going this way? At this point I can’t really decide one way or the other, I’m just glad the movie still looks good. I’m also glad that apparently Peter Weller is in the film, which was a shock to me, but a happy one because I f***ing love Robocop. I’m also glad that cute blond girl they’ve been showing in the trailers up until now definitely gets in her skivvies, because I’m a disgusting man-pig.
I’m sure there’s probably a bit more that the more hardcore Trekkie could get into, but more or less, this trailer was full of a lot of repeated footage, with some new stuff added in between. It’s nice to get a thematic preview of what the movie will be, and if it still turns out somehow that Cumberbatch actually IS a new version of an old character, it’ll still be surprising reveal. Maybe they are playing some double-negative-mega-reverse-double-bluff with us about his character all along? OH GOD I DON’T KNOW ANYMORE! Let’s just have the movie come out already okay? I don’t think my heart can take this much more. Especially if it includes cute blonde girls half-naked in their underwear.
{Amanda- while the guys have their moment with the cute blonde, excuse me as I geek out over a new poster, ooooohhhh Benedict Cumberbatch!}
And because once is never enough… in German!
To fans of all things Batman, get excited. The conclusion to the animated adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns is set to be released on January 29, 2013. To temporarily satisfy our appetites, a clip from the film has recently been released.
We were first given The Dark Knight Rises, Part 1 in September of 2012. It sets up the four issue story originally written by Frank Miller in 1986. It is one of the most definitive Batman story lines ever, and has shaped and colored the character we’ve seen in the modern Batman film interpretations. We owe a lot to this book, and it has been exiting to see it in its animated format.
Part 1 set up the story of a retired Batman who has been out of the crime fighting game for ten years and now thought by many to have been nothing more than a myth. A new mutant gang has taken over the city, and Gotham has found itself worse off than ever before. With the spunky encouragement of Carrie Kelley (AKA Robin), the Dark Knight finds his final reason to don the cape and cowl.
Part 2 completes the story and sets up one of the greatest battles of all time, Batman vs. Superman, as well as the resurrection of his rivalry with the Joker. The newest clip shows that 55-year-old Batman clearly still has it. His fighting style has evolved to such a gritty, brutal force, but still displays all the things we loved so much about Batman to begin with.
Part 1 was received with great reviews sitting with a 7.9/10 rating on IMDB. I would say the only issue that I can take with this series is the complete overhaul of voice actors I have grown up with. I am a child of the 80s so when I think of animated Batman, I think of Kevin Conroy, and Mark Hamill. However, I can appreciate the need to evolve and change things up to revive the series, and stay fresh to new audiences. The Dark Knight Returns features Peter Weller (Robocop), Ariel Winter (Modern Family), and David Shelby (Dark Shadows) as Gordon.
As stated earlier, if you love Batman, you’ll love The Dark Knight Returns. If you weren’t already, get excited for Part 2 late January!
Here comes another noteworthy Fringe promo. They’re going full bore into preparing us for this whole flash forward thing they showed us last season, this time with a more viral video approach rather than a straight up preview. As we know, the Observers turned from an interesting story element of the mythology of the show, to the forefront of the threat to humanity as we know it. They have become the one, big bad, unifying thing that ties all of the “Fringe” events of Fringe all together in its entirety. The promo itself is fairly simple, with an Observer describing “Residency protocol”, which is just code for the installed curfews on us. He also frequently references “A scan”, which as we saw last season, is tantamount to a horrific psychically induced death, a la Scanners. In fact, assuming it’s intentional, I’m fairly positive it’s a reference to that film.
But of course they can’t show this on TV, but we all know that’s what they mean.
Here’s the promo:
I’m really antsy for this season to come already, as Fringe is a show that is truly unique. Never has a show gone from being truly awful, like it was in Season 1, to one of the best examples of Science Fiction in recent memory, and by far the best Sci-Fi show on television today. If you had asked me that the fifth season of this show would be as good as it is, and be where it is, in relation to the first season, I would have slapped you for trying to trick me into continuing to watch a terrible show. It took the coaxing of several friends repeatedly telling me “it gets better, it gets better, just watch it!”, to trudge all the way though the full first season. When I did, I got to that admittedly pretty clever and enticing last episode, which opened up the show in such a beautiful and revelatory way. It’s climb in quality since then has been exponential, and created some of the best hours of TV I’ve ever seen. Season 3’s “White Tulip“, featuring Peter Weller, also known as goddamned RoboCop, is an incredibly moving and brilliant time travel story that never manages to lose its emotional center, or get bogged down with technical minutiae. That episode alone puts Fringe up in the echelon of brilliant modern TV shows, alongside Battlestar Galactica, Lost, the first season of Heroes, Doctor Who, Carnivale, and even The X-Files.
The flash forward in this season isn’t exactly a new idea itself, as Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse employed the same tactic for its season finales, for both its seasons. Unfortunately, Dollhouse was a muddled, plodding, slow paced show that never found its footing, and meandered about for the whole first season until that decent finale. It’s a bummer that the finale, which might as well have been an entirely different show, was a much better show than Dollhouse ever was. Then Season 2 rolled around, and went back to the same boring, plodding pace, and that was enough for me. Fringe has taken the sudden flash forward concept and ran with it. What will happen to our Fringe team? What happened to Olivia in between now and then? And will the Observers be stopped? Will timelines be changed? Can they be changed? Is there truly no fate but what we make?
There’s even a few noticeable Easter eggs in the promo, that compelled me to grab screenshots for you to analyze and speculate further. Enjoy!
Goddamn, I wish it was September 28th already.
It’s official. On September 25th 2012, multitudes of Bat-fans like myself will be able to experience the splendor that is Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns… in high definition! That’s right, the first part of the animated version, of perhaps the best Batman story out there will be available to watch over and over again. The Dark Knight Returns may be one of, if not the best Batman story out there, and also one of the best comic book stories as well.
Check out the trailer below as some of the best scenes from the comic are played out before our very eyes. In particular, Batman’s fierce brawl with the leader of the Mutants:
Definitely epic. The part with Batman rising out of the mud is simply chill inducing in it’s badassery. My favorite clip is probably the all too brief glimpse of the Joker’s lips smiling while he is watching the re-emergence of Batman unfold on the TV. As good as part one will be, part 2 will be the one that I’ll be most excited for in 2013.
Aside from what looks like top notch animation, the voice of Batman sounds pretty excellent even after being spoiled for years by the tremendous job Kevin Conroy has done. Peter Weller of Robocop fame seems to have the old man Batman voice nailed down tight. Weller also has a damn decent voice cast behind him. Ariel Winter from ABC’s Modern Family will be playing Robin, and Wade Williams and Michael McKean will also be voicing characters.
Anyone else as stoked as me about this release? Anyone never read the Dark Knight Returns and still interested? Sound off below!
Grizzly Bomb 