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Dr Pepper have pledged to give everyone in the USA a free can of Dr. Pepper if legendary rock band Guns N’ Roses relase there long awated album Chinese Democracy. |
Archive for March, 2008
Guns N’ Roses and Dr Pepper team up?
On March - 28 - 2008
The Weinstein Company give into Fanboys on erm…’Fanboys’
On March - 25 - 2008
Star Wars Fans got what they protested for as The Weinstein Company announced in a press release that the film ‘Fanboys’ is going to get a special Directors Cut treatment with the release of two DVDs. One of the Weinstein’s cut and one of director Kyle Newman’s intended script. Read the rest of this entry »
Britney’s pain (along with other things) is CBS’s gain.
On March - 25 - 2008
To prove that Britney still has drawing power despite having her life look like an EastEnders storyline, CBS and BBC show ‘How I met your Mother’ benefited from an appearence by the former Pop Princess by getting the highest rating from the 18-49 Demographic for three years. Read the rest of this entry »
The Creator of Mambo dies at 89
On March - 23 - 2008
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Cuban born jazz musician Israel “Cachao” Lopez, credited for creating mambo, has died at 89 |
‘Horton’ does proud on Friday.
On March - 23 - 2008
The new Dr Suess adaptation ‘Horton Hears a Who’ has done a big US box office number of $10.3m. Read the rest of this entry »
Jericho ressurection cut short. Again.
On March - 23 - 2008
One axing, a ressurection campaign and a new short season later, Jericho has finally been sent to the great TV network in the sky. Read the rest of this entry »
Ubisoft aquire ‘Tom Clancy’ rights.
On March - 20 - 2008
| For the first time ever, Ubisoft, a video games developer based in France, has aquired the rights to the Tom Clancy brand from the creator himself. |
CLOVERFIELD, or Godzilla’s Cousin up in Brooklyn
On March - 19 - 2008
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CLOVERFIELD (2008) - ***1/2 out of 5 - Pretty Good |
Pointless Rundown: Don’t call it a comeback.
On March - 19 - 2008
Right, after much messing around, I’m back with the Ultimate condenced Entertainment Rundown.
The last 48 Hours have been somewhat of a mixed bag in the world of glitz and glam, but I shall try to get the most important stories onto your computer screen.
First, some sad news. The last couple of days has given us the death of Arthur C Clarke at the age of 90 and the tragic death of Anthony Minghella at the age of 54.
Arthur C Clarke is of course the writer of one of the most famous Sci-Fi Novels of all time ‘2001: A Space Oddessy’ which went on to become a succesful Oscar winning film directed by legendary director Stanley Kubrick.
Anthony Mighella is a celebrated hero of British Cinema. Not quite getting the success he deserved, he still pulled off movies people loved such as The English Patient. His last project was ‘The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency‘, based on the best selling novel, which will still be shown on BBC TV on Easter Sunday.
Both of these deaths are tragedies. One in the perspective of a great in literature and another potential great of film. The fact it happened on the same day as one another makes it all the more sad. The BBC wrote great obituaries for these two. Sir Arthur’s is here and Anthony’s is here.
On much lighter news, UK Bond fans should be jumping for joy as it has been announced that Quantum of Silence, the newest Daniel Craig fronted film, is going to be released one week ealier then in America. Instead of waiting until the 7th of November to watch it, we in the UK can see it on the 31st of October, Halloween.
It’s great in one perspective. I mean Bond is a British Icon and the fact we get to see it before America is fantastic. I look forward to seeing any new footage we get before then, but consider it a must see in my book.
Speaking of Must Sees, a trailer for comedy Tropic Thunder has finally coming out. The film has a damn fine cast which includes Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Steve Coogan and Robert Downey Jr. But that’s not what people are talking about. What people are talking about is Robert Downey Jr’s character. If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ll see he has indeed painted his face black. The intention of the role, in my opinion, is to parody actors like Dustin Hoffman who used to be masters of adapting to their roles.
The thing is, I’m not quite sure what the fuss is. I mean, what is the difference between this, which isn’t as bad as it’s made out to be, and the Wayan Brothers dressing up as two white girl. From what I’ve seen, he isn’t growing any black stereotypes or doing anything racist, he’s just adapting to his role as a black soldier. In the same way two black spies adapted to their role as white socialites.
Feel free to give your reasons below but this is something I’m seeing because, apart from that, it’s looking damn good.
The never ending saga of Justice League continues as director George Miller is on a desperate campaign to get the permission and funding off the Australian Film Society to film the epic down under. From what the article says, Miller has said that the process is taking too long and eventually, the film will be taken to a different area.
You know, it’s scary to think right now that after everyone has doubted it, an Avengers movie is more ready to take place rather than a Justice League movie. Seriously, this film has had more speed bumps then a trip down Central London. Not saying they should shoot the horse in the back of the stable, but it looks as though a group of 15 year olds are trying to get permission, not the director of friggin’ Happy Feet.
But George, you think casting Adam Brody as Flash will do? How about you try casting Michael Clarke Duncan as Balrog in the new Street Fighter movie? Now THAT is badass casting!
To more say about how stupid it is that More4 hasn’t brought the Colbert Report to the British Isles yet, Stephen Colbert’s hit show is planning on doing a special in Philedelphia where the last major Democratic Primary will take place. The special shall be called, and I’m not making any of this up, The Colbert Report: Dorito’s Spicy Sweet Pennsylvania Primary Coverage From Chili-delphia — the City of Brotherly Crunch! You’ve got to love a man who’s soon going to become the President of the United States…in film anyway.
10,000 BC topped the UK Box Office. I’m still weeping.
Oh, and because I’m marking out for it big time…
New Speed Racer posters FTW!
Before I leave, I do have to introduce a new member to the PEB family. Below, you’ll see the debut reviews from JoeGayski. Probably one of the best film reviewers not published today. His stuff is literally all over the internet, so if you get a chance, read his reviews and give him some love.
DOOMSDAY is upon us…and only in theatres!
On March - 19 - 2008
DOOMSDAY (2008) - ***1/2 out of 5 - Pretty Good
I never start reviews with such crude bluntness, but for DOOMSDAY, I must make an exception.
Go see DOOMSDAY.
Go watch it now, before it disapears from theatres.
Do whatever it takes to make this happen.
Hitchhike, steal a car, stowaway, the police will understand.
Don’t Wait for DVD.
Now goddammit before I cook and eat ya!
With what I refer to as the Internet “Nerd Clique” strangely not behind DOOMSDAY, they’re practically not pimping out the very sort of movie that they proudly would “geek” over. Without the Clique’s overt sponsorship, and the mixed/negative mainstream reception, I fear that many good people will miss out on the great matinee trash experience of 2008 that is Neil Marshall’s DOOMSDAY which is surely destined for cult glory.
The raw gritty acceleration of DOOMSDAY harkoned me back to my high school years, where my teenage self fell in love with the “post-apocalyptical” action cinema of the late 1970s and early years of the Reagan Decade. From George Miller’s MAD MAX epics to Walter Hill’s THE WARRIORS to James Cameron’s immortal THE TERMINATOR, they delivered such a brutal potency, their heroes fighting with desperate bravado, against a society that’s dying or already has collapsed.
Writer/Director Marshall must be a fan too, for his DOOMSDAY is a dramatic synthesis of that entire genre, a fan love letter. Its creative lynchpin though is clearly John Carpenter’s ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, which lifts the plot, the smoking stone cold protagonist racing against the clock, and the armies of mutants and criminals to fight through. People will complain, but its fitting considering Carpenter ripped off Sergio Leone for ESCAPE and Howard Hawks for ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13.
Funny enough, I’m sure DOOMSDAY is a better ESCAPE remake than the aborted Lens Wiseman/Gerald Butler “reimagining” could have ever been.
This is the movie that PLANET TERROR so desperately wanted to be but failed to pull off, so much that I fear Robert Rodriguez would cry if he ever watches DOOMSDAY. It wipes its ass with TERROR, then mocks it for being so crappy.
While both are Carpenter-inspired highlight reels, what prevails for DOOMSDAY beyond the homages and geek references is that Marshall delivers an organic urgency towards the threat, a convincingly dangerous world for his heroes to march through, and enough ground-level balls-to-the-walls action to make for a good testosterone, chest-pounding time at the movies.
It helps too that unlike recent would-be action heroines like Milla Jonovich and Angelina Jolie, DOOMSDAY’s lead in Rhona Mitra is a tough badass customer, regardless of her sex.
DOOMSDAY may be a son of a hundred movies, but like Freddy Krueger, it’s still a sharp deadly mother. Blood and violence is literally everywhere, with decapitations and gruesome but awesome kills that put Eli Roth to shame. When a rabbit explodes from gunfire, you know fans of splatter cinema will be very pleased indeed. Forget RAMBO.
What is really compelling is that there is a scene where the heroes drive by abandoned wrecked homes, all spray-painted with numbers, to signify to the cavalry that would never come how many residents in each complex needed to be save. A rare break from this fantasy, and an eerie intentional echo of New Orleans in 2005 after Katrina flooded the city, when many within the Federal government seriously considered simply abandoning the city and its residents.
DOOMSDAY may be a solid genre effort, but like Watergate and the Iranian hostage crisis indirectly influenced ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, Marshall’s DOOMSDAY is a picture for our time.
What put DOOMSDAY over the wall for me was Marshall’s moments of pure crazyness within such a typical action plot, the SHOOT’EM UP or THE LAST BOY SCOUT for this year. Cannibalistic urban survivalists fire up a victim, and then gruesomely rip him to shreds this side of a turkey. Mitra using her glass-eye as a helpful camera, among other uses. Naked beautiful women wielding shotguns. Malcolm McDowell ruling as a feudal lord over the Scottish Highlands of 2035 from the remains of a castle.
Yet they all are nothing compared to when the psychotic leader of the punk/glam rock maniacs in Sol finds out that his woman literally was cut down to size by the heroine. He promptly tapes her body back together, tying her to his passenger seat as he and an armed convoy of cars head off for revenge against the heroes in a highway finale this side of THE ROAD WARRIOR.
Now that’s love.
While I have some slight problems with DOOMSDAY, from the lack of characterization beyond Mitra to an uninspired climax also borrowed from ESCAPE, I other wise really enjoyed the hell out of DOOMSDAY. It’s an unjust world where lousy mediocrity like RESIDENT EVIL can make a profit, but DOOMSDAY met its own armageddon this weekend.
It’s a taunt masculine satisfying throwback to my adolescence, and I at least appreciate Marshall for the free time travel.
It’s practically a movie made for us.
