Category: Movies

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Neill Blomkamp Is Making Alien 5!

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So on January 1st of this of this year Neill Blomkamp, the director of District 9 and the soon to be released Chappie, showed off some sweet images of an Alien movie idea he had been kicking around.  You can see them all on his Instagram account here.  Then he dropped the bomb that if he wanted to make the movie Fox had already said he could.  He just wasn’t sure that he wanted to take on such a big project, and after the failure of the Halo movie I can see why.  I guess someone at Fox found a check big enough to convince him to try.  Alien 5 is a go.

Fox is still making Prometheus 2, but with the mixed reception the first film got, they are no doubt doubling down on this very lucrative franchise. I wish Mr. Blomkamp the best of luck because his concept art looked amazing!  Just in case you need any more convincing to be excited for this movie here is Ripley in a Space Jockey mask!

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Shmee Tours The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel!

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Mrs. Shmee and I recently sat down and watched The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.  What can I say it was Valentine’s Day weekend.  It was directed by John Madden (think Shakespeare in Love not football), and released by Fox Searchlight here in the good ol’ US of A.  This film is as predictable as they come, and it hits you with a lot of schmaltz.  Though with the quality of the of the cast and director it ends up being pretty good anyway.

The idea behind this movie is that a group of old English people can’t afford to live in Britain, so they all reply to an advertisement for a retirement home in India.  The home the titular Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and India are not what they expected, but they will grow and become better people for it.  You know the usual stuff.

The writing really was the weakest part of this film.  It is so cliché, and all the characters are very cookie cutter, but for the most part it does the trick.  It was just a shame they couldn’t elevate it at all.  Had they put a little more effort in this movie it could have been wonderful instead of the usual lovable mush.

The actors are all British film royalty, so even in their basic roles, they are amazing.  They make this movie much better than it should be.  I mean when you have Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, and Tom Wilkinson just to name a few, the movie is always going to be watchable.  Unlike the writers, they do elevate this film.

John Madden you can tell was inspired by filming in India.  It is lavishly shot.  The color and the throngs of people really come though.  It was also nice that he didn’t just show all of India as a giant slum like a lot films like to do these days.  To be fair there are a couple of slums in this movie, and I would guess in India as well, but I am pretty sure that there are nicer parts of the country as well.

Between the actors and director, this film is worth a watch, but if you are expecting something amazing, I am sorry to disappoint you.  It is fun and sweet, but not much more than that.  The sequel is about to hit theaters, so I wonder if it fixed this issues of film, or if they get worse (I am guessing since it is a sequel they get worse).

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The Paladin has some thoughts…

One of my favorite movie scenes is from the Fugitive 2: Fugitive Harder at the end when Wesley Snipes is cleared of his tax evasion charges (I may be misremembering the movie) and he’s asked how he feels. “Righteous,” is his response, “I feel righteous.” I’ve always like that because it’s always struck me as profound, from that point on that character is right with the world and their own self. This isn’t just relegated to fictional characters, its universal to us all, in fact Movie Stars are not immune to this. Robert Downey Jr., who also starred in Fugitive 2: Nickel Plated Sissy Pistol, went from superstar to poster child for Betty Ford and then back again – thanks in part to a little role in Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang (WHAT?).

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Kevin Costner is another movie star whose career seemed destined for greatness and then just went into a Tin Cup (HEYO!). After The Bodyguard or Prince of Thieves most people probably can’t name another Costner movie (If you haven’t seen Open Range you are the reason Westerns are dead…). Waterworld was an obvious misstep that moved Mr. Costner out of sync with the rest of the world… he wasn’t righteous anymore (Event though he totally was in Open Range and the Postman… grumble… grumble).

The wife and I just watched Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit and 3 Days to Kill recently and I was struck at how much I enjoyed watching Kevin Costner. In Jack Ryan, he’s the dangerous and mysterious mentor to Chris Pine’s Jack. In 3 Days to Kill he’s the lovable assassin you’ve always wanted… errr, irascible anti-hero you like rooting for. In Jack Ryan he’s in control, in his element, and the needed guide to the hero. In 3 Days he’s in and out of his element, not always in control, and ghoss darnit you just like rooting for him sometimes. You can watch either of these films on Netflix and I recommend that you do – Jack Ryan is a smart spy thriller done with style and smarts (Kenneth Branagh does another excellent job behind the director’s chair) and 3 Day to Kill can be a little uneven at times but the Luc Besson written and McG Directed piece is actually very fun and a little charming (Why don’t you like the bike?).

Maybe Kevin Costner’s career gets a small bit of redemption if somebody reads this and at least give these and future movies with him in it try. Perhaps other actors and actresses, who careers seem irreparably damaged by bad films (cough… Billy Zane… cough) might get a second or third chance, because isn’t that the type of story we like? That moment when they can step out and be asked, how does it feel and the can answer, “Righteous.” Just a thought.

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How Many Comic Book Movies Can We Watch?

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Starting this year, there will not be a year with fewer than three comic book movies in the next five years.  Some of those years have as many as seven comic book movies.  Now that is great news to me, but will the public at large start to get sick of them?  I mean there are more than thirty movies based on comic heroes in some form of production.  Probably a lot more than that.  That number is based on what has been announced.  I know I will watch them all, but I am a nerd and for me this is my movie renaissance, but for everyone else when do they say “enough!”?  I am guessing around 2017.

My reasoning is that once DC’s slate of films really starts there will just be too many of them on the market.  There will be a hero flick every other month.  If I was in marketing that is a statistic that would worry me.  Four seems about right.  That is one Marvel movie, one X-Men/F4 movie (still Marvel I know, but Fox’s Marvel), one DC Movie, and then something from someone else, like Dark Horse.  That way everyone gets a big movie, and all their stories keep moving forward.

I only bring this up because I want to see superhero movies keep being made, and I really don’t want them to over saturate the market.  We have been fine up till now, but that is because DC and Fox didn’t have their acts together, and they could only get a movie out every couple of years.  With both of them now running full steam ahead, we are going to see every hero, major or minor, hit the big screen, and I just don’t think it is going to work out the may movie studios hope.