Tagged: Die Hard

Oni’s ‘Scott Pilgrim’ Takes on Hollywood

Oni’s ‘Scott Pilgrim’ Takes on Hollywood

  • News
  • August 31, 2008

The film adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Oni Press series Scott Pilgrim begins shooting this fall for a 2009 release. While Michael Cera (Juno) has been attached to star as Scott, Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Live Free or Die Hard) is set as Ramona V. Flowers.

Shaun of the Dead’s Edgar Wright is on board to direct the film, formally titled Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, from the screenplay by Michael Bacall and Wright.

The series consists of six black and white digest-sized graphic novels and tells of 23 year-old Scott’s quest to vanquish Ramona’s evil ex-boyfriends to win her heart.  Starting in 2004, four of the projected six volumes are currently in print.

Winstead told Moviehole, “Yeah! It’s going to be really cool. I’m such a fan of Edgar’s — I can’t believe I’m going to be involved with it. I’m extremely excited about it. I actually just started Kung-Fu training for it today! I’m hoping to be pretty bad-ass by the end of it.”

Live Free or Hairspray Hard by Ric Meyers

Live Free or Hairspray Hard by Ric Meyers

  • News
  • November 18, 2007

When I was attempting to explain the joys to be found in a good kung-fu film in my Martial Arts Movie books, I suggested that the exhilaration of a great wushu battle is only really comparable to the delights of a good movie musical. Both feature operatic emotions with balletic energy. I was reminded of that comparison when watching Hairspray, one of my three favorite summer o’07 films (Ratatouille and Superbad were the others). I admired it so much I even included it in my Inside Kung-Fu magazine media column (after all, the word “kung-fu” actually means “hard work”).

   

Now the DVD is out, and in a two-disc “Shimmy and Shake Edition,” too. After the too-few extras on the Ratatouille and Help! DVDs, it’s nice to find a release with the reams of special features about the kung-fu I so enjoy. There’s two audio commentaries – one with star Nikki Blonsky and director/choreographer Dan Shankman, and the other with two producers (Neil Meron and Craig Zadan). The latter is a little more informative but the former is a lot more fun.

   

Joining them on the first disc is a “Hairspray Extensions” featurette that lives up to its title – in that it shows six musical numbers as they were built, step by step, from rehearsal to filming. For Dancing With the Stars fans, there’s also a “Step by Step Dance Instructions” featurette that carefully and completely teaches you two of the film’s signature boogie-woogies. Finally, there’s a “Jump to a Song” feature which allows you to avoid all those pesky dialog scenes.

   

Then there’s the second disc, which balances extensive and exhaustive “making of” docs (on the music by Marc Shaiman, who also composed the South Park movie, dancing, design, costumes and cast) with historical context featurettes on the original non-musical John Waters film, the actual Baltimore TV dance show the film was inspired by, and the Broadway musical that was adapted from Waters film. But, as they say on TV, that’s not all. Rounding out the second disc are a bunch of deleted scenes, including an evocative song that was cut from the film (probably wisely – though effective, it clearly slowed the film’s pace).

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Transformers with a side of Ratatouille

Transformers with a side of Ratatouille

Box Office Mojo’s weekend movie estimates show that Transformers made a whopping $67.6 million, including $22 million on Friday alone. The total gross so far is $152.5 million since Wednesday. Per theater grosses were $16,853, more than double what the next ranked film, Ratatouille, took in.

The Pixar rat did okay, though, with a weekend haul of over $29 mil, and a per-theater gross of $7,367. So far, it’s made more than $109.5 million.

The other top-tenners are Live Free or Die Hard ($17.4 million), License to Wed ($10.4 million), Evan Almighty ($8.4 million), 1408 ($7.14 million), Knocked Up ($5.19 million), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer ($4.15 million), Sicko ($3.65 milion) and Ocean’s Thirteen ($3.525 million).

Knocked Up, which cost abou $30 milion, has earned more than $132 million so far this summer, making it the most profitable non-documentary film on the list so far.

Monday’s box-office breaks records

Monday’s box-office breaks records

Don’t people have day-jobs?  Accordiing to Variety, Transformers made $8.8 million on Monday, playing on 3,050 screens around the country.  Today, it adds another 500 screens, and will probably make even more money.  The studios behind the movie (Paramount and DreamWorks) hope to earn more than $100 million by Monday, in what they describe as a 6 1/2 day weekend.

Ratatouille earned $7.5 million.  Live Free or Die Hard made $4.3 million.

Transformers stars upcoming ComicMixer Mark Ryan as the voice of Bumblebee.

MOVIE REVIEW: Live Free Or Die Hard

MOVIE REVIEW: Live Free Or Die Hard

Well, after 12 years John McClain is back in full force with Live Free or Die Hard, the fourth sequel in the series, and the sixth sequel to come out this summer. I have to say going into the flick I wasn’t expecting much, especially after seeing the trailer, which only made me believe Ric Meyer’s micro-review in saying that this isn’t a Die Hard sequel, it’s actually the unwritten sequel for Unbreakable. So between that and the fact that this is the first Die Hard film to receive a PG-13 Rating, I was less than excited for it.

Having that frame of mind, I think I was able to enjoy the film much more. I wasn’t looking for a direct comparison to the first three movies, I just wanted a good John McClain movie, and that’s what I got. The biggest issue with Bruce Willis’ character is that Willis himself has so drastically changed his acting style in the last 12 years, that it’s like asking Walt Disney’s head to unfreeze itself and start drawing exactly like he used to. Granted the fun loving, swearing Bruce Willis that we remember from the first flicks is long gone, and we’re left with the bald, grumpy old man Willis who looks like he has to force himself to smile, but we all just have to change with the times, and even McClain has to age.

Following the formula of With a Vengeance, our hero is accompanied by a would-be sidekick, who fights spends a good chunk of the movie deciding whether or not this is a battle worth fighting, and of course breaking out of his mold by the end of the movie to become someone super cop John McClain can respect. This time around, we get Mac Boy Justin Long as the cowardly super hacker Matt Fuller. Long played the role just as any sidekick should, by accentuating the heroism of…well, the hero.

Also along for the ride were Maggie Q and Tim Olyphant as the evil duo. Everywhere I go, guys are falling in love with Maggie Q, and until checking out this movie I didn’t know why. She manages to play the seductive-yet-deadly henchwoman very well. And as per usual, Olyphant oozes charisma as the bad guy in this picture. I’ve been following this guy since Gone in 60 Seconds, and I’ve had nothing but good things to say about each of his roles.

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Ratatouille, Die Hard on top

Ratatouille, Die Hard on top

Box Office Mojo reports that Ratatouille is the top-grossing film this weekend, as expected, with grosses of more than $47 million.  This beats Live Free or Die Hard, which earned a tad over $33 million.

"But wait," you say.  "Die Hard 4 opened on Wednesday.  Didn’t the real fans go then, driving up the gross?"

Well, I certainly went on Wednesday.  However, even with a jump start, the total gross thus far is a mere $48.178 million. 

Other films in the top ten are (in order) Evan Almighty, 1408, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Knocked Up, Ocean’s 13, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. Sicko and Evening.  I find it interesting that, on average per-theater earnings, Ratatouille is tops with $11,986, while Sicko is second with $10,204, ahead of Bruce Willis at $9,727.

Spider-Man 3, with a ranking of 12, has a per-theater average of only $985.

MICRO-REVIEW: Live Free Or Die Hard

MICRO-REVIEW: Live Free Or Die Hard

This is not actually a sequel to the Bruce Willis films where he stars as John McClane. This is actually a secret sequel to Unbreakable, where Willis stars as invulnerable hero David Dunn. Somewhere between Die Hard 2 and 3, the characters switched places.

We encourage Live Free viewers to comment.

Martian Child showing its literary roots, sort of

Martian Child showing its literary roots, sort of

  • News
  • April 4, 2007

One of the films that might get lost in the 10 billion dollar summer is a little film called The Martian Child, based on the Hugo and Nebula award-winning story by SF writer David Gerrold which, despite the title and pedigree, isn’t really a science fiction story. It stars John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Joan Cusack and Richard Schiff, and will be in theaters June 29th so that it can be mercilessly crushed by Live Free or Die Hard.

And while I realize that it won’t have all the neat merchandizing opportunities that Spider-Man 3 will have, based on the promotional image on the website (reproduced here) and used heavily in the trailers, all I can say is:

Nice product placement, guys.

MATT RAUB Reviews Doctor Who season 3 premiere

MATT RAUB Reviews Doctor Who season 3 premiere

  • News
  • April 1, 2007

The Doctor is back, and not only does he get a new companion but a new Sonic Screwdriver to boot! I just set my peepers on a back-to-back marathon of last year’s “The Runaway Bride” and the brand-spanking-new season 3 premiere, “Smith and Jones”, and I figured I’d drop in to throw down my two cents on the episode. Be forewarned, there are some spoilerific parts to this review, so if you decide you want to wait until Sci-Fi finally airs the show in 2023, then I’d turn away now.

From the first episode in season 1, I was a huge fan of Billie Piper as Rose Tyler, I thought she was gorgeous, and had incredible range. Though there were a good 12 episodes or so where she cried through the majority of the program, I still couldn’t dislike her. With that said, I was pretty hesitant to like this new companion, the intelligent and attractive medical student Martha Jones, played by Freema Agyeman. We first get a taste of Agyeman in last season’s “Army of Ghosts” as she was one of first victim of the Cybermen. We now find out she was the cousin of Martha Jones, and that’s a clever touch.

Looking back, this episode can very easily be put in stark comparison to season 1’s opener, “Rose.” Much like in that episode, the majority of this episode is exposition on our new companion’s life, an unexpected conflict, and the random entrance of the Doctor to save the day. Also, there is a scene very reminiscent of “Rose” where the Doctor grabs Martha’s hand and tells her to run…sound familiar? Of course, the doctor is still pining over the loss of Rose, but as established in “Runaway Bride,” it was time to find someone new.

The concept: the hospital where Martha Jones works gets transported to the moon. The Doctor, posing as the meandering patient John Smith, discovers that the transportation as by an intergalactic rhino-police (that’s intergalactic police that look like rhinos, not intergalactic police that only police the rhino population). The transportation was to single out a fugitive that they believe is hiding out in the hospital. The Doctor and Martha jump on the case to find the criminal and get the inhabitants back to Earth before they all lose oxygen.

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