Saturday, May 30, 2009

Torchwood 'Children of Earth' Trailer

I LOVE Torchwood and really wish there were more shows like it. The effects are so much better than Primeval (one reason I can't stand to watch Primeval) I somewhat wonder why they aren't showing Torchwood on network US television...and then I remember the subject matter isn't really family friendly, like at all.

This is technically a trailer for the third season, though it's majorly truncated (to my great sadness), and made me get chills watching it. Who they hell is 'they'? Basically all of the children on Earth stop at the same time and begin to chant "WE ARE COMING" over and over, until they start chanting "WE ARE HERE"...Crreeepppyyy! It's up to Torchwood (minus Tosh and Owen-Boo!) to figure out what is going on.

If you are unfamiliar with Torchwood I am going to give a general synopsis after the trailer and show a clip from one of the best episodes of the series, possibly one of the best episodes of a serialized drama on tv, called 'Adrift'.



So, Torchwood, a spin-off of Doctor Who and an anagram of that title, is basically a secret institute that deals with paranormal/alien/etc goings-on across the world and they keep the news under the radar of the general populace. The show deals with the Cardiff branch of Torchwood and the characters who are a part of the Cardiff branch.

The show is wonderful and even with it's humor and silliness, there are some episodes that really pull at your heartstrings and really are great displays of drama. One particular episode, 'Adrift', was so moving and wonderful that I consider it one of my favorite hours of television.

Skip to 14:00
Torchwood S02E11 ADRIFT part 2


Skip to 4:50-8:50
Torchwood S02E11 ADRIFT part 3


The end scene with Jonah's mother is great as well...

And catch Children of Earth on BBC America this summer.

New Feature! Movies I Saw From Netflix And You Should See Too!

I recently became a lover of Netflix and I am also taking two film classes at school, so I am going to have a feature that covers movies I liked from Netflix and those I watched for my classes. I might even throw in some I didn't like and let you know why I didn't like them.

First up is going to be: Gettin' Square. A delightful action-comedy from Australia. I'll post the review/recommendation tomorrow after work.

Yay!

Friday, May 29, 2009

Up! The best movie of the summer?

When I watch a movie, a really good movie, I get emotional and cry, yes I cry. And I cried for more than just that reason while watching this movie. The beauty of Up isn't just the way it looks. That's important because there are so many vibrant colors and every little thing has texture right down to the embroidered patches on Russell's sash and the letters on Ellie's Adventure Book. But, it's the story and the way you feel about the characters that really pull you in. Pixar has this wonderful ability to make a movie that appeals to adults and children alike. And they also make a story that isn't just fluff and silly. The montage at the beginning showing Carl and Ellie's life together is absolutely moving and beautiful and so sweet. You get why Carl is the way he is: he loved his wife and their life together and now they are tearing the neighborhood down and pushing him out and he regrets never taking that one perfect adventure down to live in South America next to the falls. Thinking about it now is making me tear up.

You even feel for the other characters, Kevin and Dug. Kevin is being hunted by this pack of dogs and just needs to get back to her babies. While Dug is a dog that the rest of the pack picks on, he just wants to find the bird they are searching for so they'll like him. When he helps Carl and Russell, he gets treated badly by his pack and eventually by Carl. The look Pixar put on his face when Carl calls him a "bad dog" is heartbreaking. Even the house is a character. You see it go from being a run-down mess when Carl is a child, to being a colorful, happy place throughout Carl and Ellie's life together, to being dragged down to South America and getting banged up to it's last moment on screen.

So far, this is the best movie of the summer. It's filled with heart, sadness, smiles, tears, adventure, laughter, everything that a person needs to be entertained for an hour and a half. If you don't go see this movie and love every minute of it, you may have no soul.

*SYNOPSIS*
Up tells the story of a man, Carl Fredricksen, who as a child, was enthralled by the adventurous exploits of explorer Charles Muntz (Muntz was disgraced after scientists said his discovery of a certain bird was faked). Carl used to play-pretend that he was Muntz and one day came upon a house where he heard a child also pretending to be Muntz. He went inside and met this girl who he not only befriended, but fell in love with and eventually married and would spend the rest of his life with. After her death, he came across her adventure book and decided, after assaulting a construction worker and being ruled a neighborhood menace, to go on that journey to South America to live in their house next to Paradise Falls. He fills thousands of balloons full of helium, ties them to his house, and takes off. Unfortunately, he has an unexpected guest in a neighborhood kid named Russell.

Russell also has his own storyline that is very sad. He needs to get his last Wilderness Explorer patch for assisting the elderly so that his dad, who used to be around all the time and is now never around, will come to the ceremony where he will see him go on to the next level. It also appears that his step-mother told him not to call anymore because he bugs his father...that's nice. He's looking for a father figure and Carl needs a son figure since he and his wife never had children. In the end Carl learns a lot about life and what it means to find adventure and Russell finds the father figure he needs.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Christian Bale in Pac-Man cereal commercial

Holy crap! I remember this stuff! Not until a few years later, since I was 3 in 1983...but still. I remember back in the day when they made good cereals with those crunchy-nasty little marshmallows. Now I want some cereal and a time machine back to my childhood.

Thanks to Kotaku for posting this first:


Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Green Lantern *Fan* Trailer

Here are two facts: I LOVE Nathan Fillion and I don't care for super-hero movies (except Batman). But, that being said, my love of Nathan Fillion would cause me to see him starring in a huge Hollywood movie with first billing (I'd be like, "Yay! for Nathan Fillion!).

Well, some kid threw together a fake trailer for a movie where Nathan Fillion plays the Green Lantern, a story I know nothing about. Apparently there is a talking squirrel and some kind of fat doughnut-y thing in it...which makes no sense, but it's a super-hero movie, so it's not a surprise that there is something stupid in it.

The trailer is kinda good, though and clever. However...he needs to use the pen tool on FCP (if that's what he used) to lower that Star Trek music so we can hear what is being said...it's too loud!

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Terminator Salvation Review (Spoilers??)

It's no secret I was excited for this movie and would have seen it whether I heard it was good, bad or ugly. Not only for being a Terminator movie, but also because it has Sam Worthington in it.

Was it a perfect movie? Unfortunately, no. Was it the story of the century? No, it wasn't. Was it the worst movie ever made, as some critics seem to be telling people? No, it certainly wasn't. You see, the problem with Terminator Salvation was that the studio made McG make it a PG-13 movie when it should have been R. Simple. That's why. Had they let McG make the movie the way he wanted it made, it would have been a much stronger story and would have appealed to the audience it was for: Adults. Not children who have bad parents.

There were some things I think should have been changed and maybe they will for the DVD, let's hope. Certain things were left out of the final cut, things were changed from the storyboards and concept art and they should have been left alone. This seems to be something that occurs all too often in Hollywood; Execs get their hands on something and rip it to shreds trying to make it fit what they "think" the public wants or wants to see. Let the creators do what they do.

That being said, I did not hate this movie and I was not completely disappointed or dissatisfied. The movie opens up on a man in prison, Marcus Wright, who signs his body over to Cyberdyne Systems for research. Then he dies via lethal injection. The Resistance is attacking a Skynet compound and they find out that Skynet has been gathering human prisoners and using them to experiment on. My guess it that some more was filmed of this scene, namely the part where they find the bodies being experimented on. They get some information and Connor is sent topside to find out why no one is responding. Welp! They're all dead, that's why. Skynet is also sending one of their Transporters full of humans to their headquarters and John starts to take off after them when the whole compound explodes below him leaving him the last member of the group alive. After he is picked up he demands to be taken to Resistance HQ and ends up diving into the water (they're in a submarine) and goes on board where he is told that they found out that a there is a special signal buried in the frequency that may be an off switch. Now, this would sound too good to be true to me...so I would not trust it, but these guys do and Connor says he'll do it and he'll test it out. This scene was also massacred according to the Official Movie Preview graphic novel, which consisted of a much richer scene that was cut to shit.

This is the crux of the movie. Marcus wants to save Kyle and Star since he feels responsible for protecting them. Later he wants to get whoever made him the way he is. John Connor wants to, duh, destroy Skynet but also finds out that Kyle Reese is on Skynets "to kill" list and must save him. (I always wondered: If Kyle were killed in this movie, John could never be, so would he disappear Marty-McFly style? Or would John Connor always be because a different man would be sent back in T1?). I didn't think the ending was that great though and without spoiling it I will point out that apparently the real ending was spoiled last summer and so they rewrote the ending.

The parts that needed changing were as follows:
  • There needed to be more Terminators.
  • In the scene where Marcus approaches Skynet HQ and he is scanned by a giant gun turret, early storyboards (I am a nerd, so deal with it. See page 19 of Tara Bennett's awesome Terminator Salvation Official Movie Companion book) show him encountering a normal Terminator, which scans him and lets him through. This should have remained as it was in the boards because it just makes more sense for him to encounter one of the, what should have been, numerous Terminators around the Skynet main facility. The strange lack of them didn't make sense.
  • Marcus' relationship &/or connection with Blair was incredibly cut up, or at least it seemed. While we get that she sees more in him than a bad guy/machine/killer, whatever and that he is attracted to her because she is a woman and he hasn't seen one in a longggg time, the scenes are so cut up that it feels truncated and almost shoved aside. It's raining, she is looking at her wound, tells him to go get something they can burn, then it's not raining and she encounters some assholes who start a fight with her which Marcus saves her from. Then they are around a fire and are acting awkward toward each other while she cozies up to him and tells him to "relax, she just wants some body heat". What's missing? The scene where she cleans her wound, with her top off, which apparently wasn't crass or distasteful, and he sees her. Here it is in picture form from the trailer:
  • They also needed to include the scene that contained the following line: Connor: "I knew it, I knew it was coming but this is not the future my mother warned me about, and in this future I don't know if we can win this war"...Why wasn't this in the movie? This was a great line!
  • The scenes that contained these following shots (some scenes were in the film but were different, others were not in the movie and I don't know why they were changed/cut):

Why would you cut this part out? In the movie the "Arnie" T-800 goes after John in the Skynet HQ. There is a T-600 that is going all crazy-ass haywire because Kyle stabbed it in it's weak-spot and is shooting everywhere. Arnie rips it apart and goes after Connor. It appears that at some point he picked up the gun and shot that shit. That should be put back in for the DVD.

This HK was not in the movie. It's obviously when Connor and his group went down into the Skynet bunker. For some reason they decided to make all of the Terminators disappear, cut out this shot and the next one and just made them kill everyone topside.










Who is that guy back there? On the gurney? In the movie it was Marcus, who is throwing that thing at the screen and breaking the window when he decides his fate. Now who is that on the gurney?



The movie had beautiful effects, set design, lighting, art direction, costume design and I know somewhere in there, there is a great story...it just got lost in the shuffle and confusion of studio fixin's.

Now...put these things in the DVD, lengthen it, flesh out the stories and make an awesome DVD.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

New 9 Trailer

There's a new trailer out for 9, the ragdoll-with-soul movie by Shane Acker. It looked awesome before, it still looks awesome.

This time around we get a little back-story and of course, it's there are robots involved with killing humans. My favorite kind of movie! It looks like a scientist created nine dolls and gave them life just at the end of humanity's existence. Also, machines decided they hated man and destroyed them. But...one of the dolls mentions in the trailer that they are hunting them because they are lost in the past and are searching for answers; that could be clever editing to make it sound like the machines are the lost ones and they really aren't, but I like that. It would almost seem like the one machine hunting them is gathering them up to find out about what makes them alive? I don't know, either that or 9 holds the key to humanity and the machines want it...I am really intrigued by this.

Let's hope it isn't rated G or PG, or we'll have less of a thinker story and more of a kid's-running-around-theatre movie. I don't want that.

Check it out below: courtesy Trailer Addict

Terminator or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the impending robot uprising.

What is it about an unstoppable, sentient machine that intrigues and terrifies me? Is it because the way we are going, technologically speaking, we are sure to create sentient, self-aware machines that get pissed at how they've been treated and create their own real-life Skynet? I don't know, but I love the Terminator story and since the new movie opens tomorrow, I will put aside my fears of the impending robot uprising and talk about the movies in case you've been living under a rock for the past 25 years &/or you only watch romantic comedies.

Terminator (1984)
Created by James Cameron and made on a budget of about $6.4 million it became a sleeper hit and a classic all in one, raking in $38 million domestically. The premise was simple and the movie was what Cameron called "Techno Noir", a chase movie where a cyborg from the future is sent back in time by Skynet to kill the mother of the leader of the Resistance, John Connor. John sends back Kyle Reese to save his mother, they fall in love and Kyle dies while protecting Sarah. At the end the Terminator is crushed to pieces in a hydraulic press.




T2:Judgment Day
The quintessential action movie. If you haven't seen this movie, even if you never saw the first one, you must rent/buy/borrow this movie. Released in 1991 and made on a budget of $102 million and making nearly $205 mil domestically, this installment features the return of the original Terminator (T-800) in a completely different role, that of protector. Sent back in time, 10 years after the events of Terminator, this time to protect John Connor from a new menace created by Skynet, the T-1000, a liquid-metal, or mimetic poly-alloy, prototype of awesomeness.
Our heroine from the first movie is now in Pescadero Mental Hospital after she tried to destroy a computer company and told her story of what the future will hold for humanity.
Both Terminators go off on their quest to find John Connor and meet up at a mall where one of the best chase scenes in film history goes down involving a motorbike and a semi-truck in the L.A. "River" storm drains. The T-800 Terminator escapes with John on his bike and they head off to grab Sarah at the mental hospital. Now their ultimate goal is to find Miles Dyson, the man who is going to create an important part of what becomes Skynet: a chip. They convince Dyson to destroy the chip, and the CPU and arm from the original Terminator (T-800) but it is in the Cyberdyne Systems headquarters and they have to break in. After Dyson is injured and blows up Cyberdyne, Sarah, John and T-800 flee and are chased by T-1000. The chase ends at a steel mill when the T-1000 is shot repeatedly and falls into the molten steel.
This movie has some of the best special effects ever used in a motion picture. If you haven't seen this movie, I seriously hope you go out and watch it. It's amazing.



Terminator: Rise of the Machines
Alright...I know what you think of this movie. We all think that of this movie, but it wasn't all bad, right? There were bits that weren't too bad. My biggest gripe wasn't the story, or the fact that they basically copied the first two over again, it was more that they used that "effect" I hate (see previous post); and that they copied the first two movies.
Basically take the first two movies, throw in a woman Terminator (T-X) and have her chase around John and Kate (Connor's wife in the future). There you have T3. Oh and Sarah died from cancer and they made it so her coffin was full of guns. There.


Terminator Salvation
Comes out Tuesday. Takes place in the future, 2018 to be exact. Looks awesome, hopefully will be. I know what it's about, and don't know what it's about...but I want to see it.
It covers the war between Skynet and the human Resistance, not yet led by John Connor. A man appears, Marcus Wright, with no idea where he is. Last he knew he was on death-row. It's revealed (unless you haven't seen any trailers or anything...don't read on) that he is also a cyborg, but he doesn't believe he is or know why he is one. Kyle Reese is younger in this movie and gets kidnapped by Skynet and taken to a prison camp. Connor and Wright decide to go rescue him because John knows that if Kyle dies now, he can't go back in time later and he won't be born and won't eventually lead humanity to salvation against Skynet.
Go watch it tomorrow, May 21st.



Also available: The recently cancelled Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. A television show on Fox covering events that take place after T2 and completely covering over the events that took place in T3 by a convenient time jump to 2007. The show is amazing and really hit it's stride during the last half of the season. I am sad :(
One of my favorite scenes:

Monday, May 18, 2009

FOX's new (soon to be cancelled) Fall Lineup

Fox plopped onto the internet trailers for their new fall shows. Let's review!

Human Target
Mark Valley. Tricia Helfer. Chi McBride. Jackie Earle Haley. I like all four of these people. However, this show sounds like Keen Eddie (which I loved) meets The Pretender (which I also loved)without him actually pretending, blended into a trailer that is TOO long. I watched it and tuned out after about 30 seconds...that's not good. It is produced by McG, who has produced some good shows (Supernatural) but that doesn't mean it will be good.


Past Life
Past Life? How about Soul Whisperer? It's like Ghost Whisperer but with past souls. It might make a good mini-series or limited series, but a whole series? I don't know how this will work. This trailer, again too long, doesn't say what the basic mythology story will be, so I don't know how they are going to handle week after week of the same 'lady-finds-a-lost-soul-reunites-it-with-it's-past-body".


According to io9 Human Target premieres January 17th and there is, rightfully, no date listed for Soul Whisperer.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

The "Effect" That Makes a Big-Budget Movie Become Terrible

You ever go to see a movie and think, "This is going to be great!" and then after it begins you start to realize they have decided to not only use an effect that ruins every movie, but also use it every time there is a special effect? Me too. It makes me so mad, and there are some directors that utilize this in every movie so much so that I don't even want to go to their movies now.

You may be asking yourself, what is this effect and why don't I know about it already? Well...I'm going to tell you. I'm going to explain it to you, in detail, in just a second. And I am not kidding, this effect turns me off faster than the possibility of accidentally watching The Hills. The effect is this: The computer animated person. Not motion capture, though that can be creepy and weird too (lifeless eyes, anyone?), but a computer animated person that looks almost corny and so, so fake. I've noticed in my research over movies containing this suck that almost all of them came out in 2003. It's like someone got a new toy and everyone thought, "Let's play with it and see how it can ruin our movie". Let me explain/point out examples.

Spider-Man
I'm not a huge fan of Spiderman and I can't lie and say I like Tobey Maguire, I can't stand him. That stupid look he puts on his face; in fact I never watched more than five minutes of the last Spider-Man because of that dumb look on his face while riding that bike. But enough about Tobey...let's cover the bad CG. Here is a hint at what I hate in this movie:

This isn't a real trailer, but it does encompass a large amount of the suck this movie contains with the animated, flying Spider-Man. I've heard people say, "But, he's supposed to look like he would in the comic book!" Uh! No...why would you want the character set in the real world to look cheesy, half-completed and layered over the background when flying around through the city? Even if that was the real reason, it's almost like they were running low on budget and instead of getting someone who could make a fake person look real, they went with, "Just draw him and make it kind of look real...but not all the way. People are too dumb to notice". We aren't too dumb to notice. I noticed and it's one reason I won't finish this movie and can't bear to watch the other two...plus, Tobey Maguire.

Matrix: Reloaded

I'm pretty sure this little effect was used in some manner in all of the Matrix movies, but for some reason I just find this scene particularly annoying. During that unforgettable scene where Neo and Agent Smith fight the movie uses excellent motion capture and wire work to show he's in a program...and then at 4:15 it all starts to fall apart. Did you see that little Agent Smith fly off to the left. See how terrible that was? Interspersing it within better shots and stunt-work does not make it flow smoothly. It's very obvious. And it starts to reach it's climax of suck right around 6:08. Neo jumps up and twirls around and starts smacking the animated shit out of the little Smiths. This is why it doesn't work: Because it's too fluid, something is slightly off about the movements and the sounds of the bar smacking the Smiths isn't right. I know he was using his hands and feet before, but they had some heft. This sounds is like a thud and a *tink*. The image of the little Smiths flying around in animated fashion ruins the entire scene and makes me lose interest in the rest of the movie(s).

There are plenty of other instances of this in the rest of the movie...

The Day After Tomorrow
Probably, hands-down, the worst of the movies that use this effect, The Day After Tomorrow is typical Roland Emmerich crap (I know I said this effect was used on people, but this is a special case of suck). I can't say it's even fluff, because it is boring, tedious and you get so annoyed at this one particular scene (among many):
I can't find a clip of it's awfulness, so let me describe how horrible it is. At one point some kind of ship sails into Manhattan and for some unknown reason Jake Gyllenhaal goes on board (I know there was a reason, but by this point I was "Oh come on"-ing too much to care). When he's on board some terribly animated wolves (one wolf, two? I don't remember) go after him, and ONLY him on the ship. They don't try to get into the library where the rest of the people are and they didn't leave when the rest of the animals did...I don't know why. If it's so cold, they would not stick around when everything else is fleeing south.
The wolves are so badly created that it does in this movie, completely turn me off, causing me to say this is one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
It pains me to claim that I don't like this movie. I am a huge Terminator fan and was really happy that there was a new movie. Unfortunately they decided to copy the first two movies and end this movie completely against what we have been told from the get go: that there is not future but the one you make. In this movie we threw that out the window and were told: oop! no matter what you do, it doesn't matter, Judgement Day will happen anyway.
So here it is:

The terror all starts at 0:57 when Arnie starts throwing T-X into the bathroom walls. Now...why would you use this effect here? You just used real people to be smashed through walls, into floors, etc. Why would you intersperse this scene in this manner? Why? The movie wasn't that great all around, but this sullied it completely. USE REAL PEOPLE!!!! Or, better CGI.

Hulk
Both Hulk movies use this annoying trick of the computer. But the Eric Bana version takes the cake in awful. I like Eric Bana and Ang Lee and I am glad that this shit-storm of crap didn't destroy their careers...although it almost did.

This is a nice blend of crap CGI from both Hulk movies. I get it's hard to make a real person smash crap like the Hulk does, but I've seen this done better, and this isn't better. It's terrible.

I understand that there is a lot to making a movie and sometimes the CGI/SFX budget might not be the top priority, though it should be in movies like Hulk, where the SFX contains a great deal of the movie. It makes no sense to take parts of a scene and make them look so fake, especially as in T3 and Matrix where there is a good amount of realistic looking shots using real people. So all I ask is that you please, movie studios, STOP using this effect. It ruins the movie, it takes the audience member completely out of the movie, out of the suspension of disbelief because it looks SO fake. And after all, that is why people go to the movies, to escape and live in an alternate world.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Hachiko: A Dog's Story

Being an animal lover, this makes me cry just watching the teaser. I don't know how it will stretch to a feature length movie, but I might see it. Basically it's about a dog that meets his owner (Richard Gere) everyday at the train. And he continues to do this for the next ten years until George Costanza tells him he doesn't have to wait anymore. This looks so sad and heartbreaking...

Up Clips

Up comes out in a few weeks and it looks astounding! If there is one thing that Pixar excels in, it's making a wonderful story with heart and beautiful visualizations that delight both children and adults, which is something that A LOT of other children's movies forget to do. I just love how they manage to make it look so realistic and detailed while also making it clear it's animated.

Here are some clips:









Thursday, May 14, 2009

The Road

The trailer for The Road popped up everywhere today and I hope that the movie turns out as bleak, dark and desolate as the book. I don't need it sugar-coated and made happy. The book is about a man trying to protect his son from anything and everybody as they make their way south to the coast and that includes murderous gangs of left-over survivors (Garret "Cromartie/John Henry" Dillahunt plays one) who seem to track down other survivors and kill and eat them, so I don't need it to be made into a saccharine affair.

I see that Robert Duvall and Guy Pearce are also in the cast, though I can only guess who Duvall plays and have no idea what role Guy Pearce would play in a movie with very limited characters other than the man and his son.

I also wish they would leave out an explanation for what caused this bleak landscape. It looks like the studio wants people to see it as some kind of natural "Global Warming" disaster, since that's so en vogue these days, but really why is it necessary to have a reason? There isn't one in the book, so leave it that way. Personally I put it in my head that there was a nuclear disaster, and I think that's the point of the book; come up with your own explanation.

I still am interested after such a long wait...check the trailer out below:

I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here...yeesh

What is this? Why would anyone watch this? I tried to find one of the stupid TV spots that keep playing on TV...but alas, everyone must have realized it was more important to put videos of paint drying instead. They were right to do that.

I don't understand why a network would spend money on a show like this. It's a line-up that includes random nobody's that may or may not have made some money from: being a dumb blonde with fake boobs "married" to Harry and the Hendersons, being a laughing-stock on American Idol, being a Baldwin (not Alec), being totally made of plastic and continuously touting yourself as "The World's First Supermodel" even though that ship sailed LONG ago, and then there are two more who I don't even know (or care) who they are.

The show says it plops "pampered" celebrities in the middle of the jungle and then viewers decide what punishment they get. Like the most recent ad I saw showed "Susie American" voting Sanjaya to get "the bees" and then he got bees!. Except somehow you know they stayed in 5-star hotels/resorts and had camera crews follow them around. If this lot had been dumped into a real jungle their time would have, mercifully, been short. Instead we get to have these commercials played over and over throughout the summer while, for some reason, ratings go through the roof further establishing the desire of network executives to poop on our television viewing choices.

Nine

Want to see Chicago but not Chicago starring Gangs of New York bad-guy and Australia girl and some other people? Then this is the film to see! It does look interesting, but I thought that about Chicago until I started watching it and slowly...drifted...into...sleep...

Trailer below!

Blood: The Last Vampire

Should be called 'Crouching Blade, Hidden Night Watch", 'cause that's what it looks like. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but that is what it looks like:

New Bioshock 2 gameplay

There is a new feature of Bioshock 2 game play over at Shacknews narrated by creative director Jordan Thomas.
Check.It.Out.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

The "Effect" That Makes a Big-Budget Movie Become Terrible

You ever go to see a movie and think, "This is going to be great!" and then after it begins you start to realize they have decided to not only use an effect that ruins every movie, but also use it every time there is a special effect? Me too. It makes me so mad, and there are some directors that utilize this in every movie so much so that I don't even want to go to their movies now.

You may be asking yourself, what is this effect and why don't I know about it already? Well...I'm going to tell you. I'm going to explain it to you, in detail, in just a second. And I am not kidding, this effect turns me off faster than the possibility of accidentally watching The Hills. The effect is this: The computer animated person. Not motion capture, though that can be creepy and weird too (lifeless eyes, anyone?), but a computer animated person that looks almost corny and so, so fake. I've noticed in my research over movies containing this suck that almost all of them came out in 2003. It's like someone got a new toy and everyone thought, "Let's play with it and see how it can ruin our movie". Let me explain/point out examples.

Spider-Man
I'm not a huge fan of Spiderman and I can't lie and say I like Tobey Maguire, I can't stand him. That stupid look he puts on his face; in fact I never watched more than five minutes of the last Spider-Man because of that dumb look on his face while riding that bike. But enough about Tobey...let's cover the bad CG. Here is a hint at what I hate in this movie:

This isn't a real trailer, but it does encompass a large amount of the suck this movie contains with the animated, flying Spider-Man. I've heard people say, "But, he's supposed to look like he would in the comic book!" Uh! No...why would you want the character set in the real world to look cheesy, half-completed and layered over the background when flying around through the city? Even if that was the real reason, it's almost like they were running low on budget and instead of getting someone who could make a fake person look real, they went with, "Just draw him and make it kind of look real...but not all the way. People are too dumb to notice". We aren't too dumb to notice. I noticed and it's one reason I won't finish this movie and can't bear to watch the other two...plus, Tobey Maguire.

Matrix: Reloaded

I'm pretty sure this little effect was used in some manner in all of the Matrix movies, but for some reason I just find this scene particularly annoying. During that unforgettable scene where Neo and Agent Smith fight the movie uses excellent motion capture and wire work to show he's in a program...and then at 4:15 it all starts to fall apart. Did you see that little Agent Smith fly off to the left. See how terrible that was? Interspersing it within better shots and stunt-work does not make it flow smoothly. It's very obvious. And it starts to reach it's climax of suck right around 6:08. Neo jumps up and twirls around and starts smacking the animated shit out of the little Smiths. This is why it doesn't work: Because it's too fluid, something is slightly off about the movements and the sounds of the bar smacking the Smiths isn't right. I know he was using his hands and feet before, but they had some heft. This sounds is like a thud and a *tink*. The image of the little Smiths flying around in animated fashion ruins the entire scene and makes me lose interest in the rest of the movie(s).

There are plenty of other instances of this in the rest of the movie...

The Day After Tomorrow
Probably, hands-down, the worst of the movies that use this effect, The Day After Tomorrow is typical Roland Emmerich crap (I know I said this effect was used on people, but this is a special case of suck). I can't say it's even fluff, because it is boring, tedious and you get so annoyed at this one particular scene (among many):
I can't find a clip of it's awfulness, so let me describe how horrible it is. At one point some kind of ship sails into Manhattan and for some unknown reason Jake Gyllenhaal goes on board (I know there was a reason, but by this point I was "Oh come on"-ing too much to care). When he's on board some terribly animated wolves (one wolf, two? I don't remember) go after him, and ONLY him on the ship. They don't try to get into the library where the rest of the people are and they didn't leave when the rest of the animals did...I don't know why. If it's so cold, they would not stick around when everything else is fleeing south.
The wolves are so badly created that it does in this movie, completely turn me off, causing me to say this is one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
It pains me to claim that I don't like this movie. I am a huge Terminator fan and was really happy that there was a new movie. Unfortunately they decided to copy the first two movies and end this movie completely against what we have been told from the get go: that there is not future but the one you make. In this movie we threw that out the window and were told: oop! no matter what you do, it doesn't matter, Judgement Day will happen anyway.
So here it is:

The terror all starts at 0:57 when Arnie starts throwing T-X into the bathroom walls. Now...why would you use this effect here? You just used real people to be smashed through walls, into floors, etc. Why would you intersperse this scene in this manner? Why? The movie wasn't that great all around, but this sullied it completely. USE REAL PEOPLE!!!! Or, better CGI.

Hulk
Both Hulk movies use this annoying trick of the computer. But the Eric Bana version takes the cake in awful. I like Eric Bana and Ang Lee and I am glad that this shit-storm of crap didn't destroy their careers...although it almost did.

This is a nice blend of crap CGI from both Hulk movies. I get it's hard to make a real person smash crap like the Hulk does, but I've seen this done better, and this isn't better. It's terrible.

I understand that there is a lot to making a movie and sometimes the CGI/SFX budget might not be the top priority, though it should be in movies like Hulk, where the SFX contains a great deal of the movie. It makes no sense to take parts of a scene and make them look so fake, especially as in T3 and Matrix where there is a good amount of realistic looking shots using real people. So all I ask is that you please, movie studios, STOP using this effect. It ruins the movie, it takes the audience member completely out of the movie, out of the suspension of disbelief because it looks SO fake. And after all, that is why people go to the movies, to escape and live in an alternate world.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

What the hell is this?

Okay, I'm ONLY posting this because sometimes we all need a laugh. Seriously...listen to Skynet sing away for this girl. By Skynet, I of course mean a vocoder. My question is this: Why do these people keep getting record contracts when they can't sing without the usage of a machine to make them, sometimes, sound good but usually sound like shit? This sounds like shit. I get Styx using it in Mr.Roboto and Aerosmith using it...they don't suck.

And...here are some other things to ponder: Why are her boobs motionless and so far apart when she's standing up? Why does it look like she is wearing one of those Halloween fake-boob breastplates? I know they are fake, but why would you spend that much money on tatas that are roughly a mile apart and do not move? I don't get it!

Here's the laughter-inducer:

Monday, May 11, 2009

Behind-the-scenes Terminator Salvation action!

Here are two little behind-the-scenes videos from Terminator Salvation. The first is a little shorter. If you don't like SPOILERS don't watch them, though I'm not sure how much of spoilers it is showing considering the trailers reveal stuff...just watch them.

Behind-the-scenes part 1


via Youtube

Behind-the-scenes part 2
Around the 5:45 mark, listen for the car alarms going off after the mushroon-cloud goodness.

via Youtube

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Mother Lover music video

Disgusting and gross, but incredibly funny. I'm not a big Justin Timberlake fan, but the dude IS funny. I love Andy Samberg's acid-washed jeans too.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

10 Terminator Salvation clips!

Seriously, is it possible to squeal like a little schoolgirl over some movie clips? Yes? Ok...good. I almost died of sheer joy when I saw Trailer Addict had 10 new clips for Terminator Salvation listed. EEEEEE!

I just saw Star Trek and thought it was awesome, however, since I'm a HUGE Terminator fan (and I fancy the Sam Worthington), I am psyched beyond belief for this gritty, dark, nasty Terminator set after Skynet sets the bombs off.

So without further ado, here are the clips with commentary! Yay!

You Will Not Kill Me

My God, is that Worthington fellow nice to look at! That's not a question, it's rhetorical. Anyway, Marcus tells John that he knows him, he heard his voice on the radio. John says that he knows because Marcus was sent there to kill him. Or was he, John? Marcus demands to be let down, but John says if he lets him down he'll kill everyone in the room. John gets all up in his face (as seen in the first trailer) and says that they've been at war for a long time and tells Marcus that he will not kill him. Sweet!

Whatever You Need


I posted this one yesterday, but because it was part of this delicious package of goodness, here it is again. Blair basically gets hounded by a group of thugs who want the supplies she has (and most likely more). She gets kick-assy at the end.

What Are You Doing Here?


Old Ironside is at it again in this clip. I don't think his character is going to be a fan favorite since he seems to be constantly trying to prove Connor wrong. Oh stupid, stupid man...when will you learn? Connor is the leader of this little party, get used to it. The clip shows General Ashdown talking down to John about how his little stunt almost caused everyone aboard the sub(?) to lose their lives. Connor asks what they found "down there"(?) and some Russian guy says they found a solution that could end the war. Ashdown says that Skynet is a machine and like all machines it has an off switch! Connor says he'll do it. I don't know what "it" is...I want to know. Ashdown says they mount the offensive in four days and when John asks why four days Russian guy says because they intercepted a kill list and it says everyone in the room will be dead by week's end; Connor is number 2 while Kyle Reese is top-dog on the list! Eep!

Abort the Attack

I posted this yesterday too. Connor tells Ashdown to call off or delay the attack since the game has changed. He has a chance to infiltrate Skynet and rescue prisoners. Now that he knows Reese is in there, he NEEDS to get him free or he doesn't exist. It would be interesting to know IF Kyle were killed, would John pull a Marty McFly and start to disappear? Hmmm...

He's Not the Enemy

Blair comes to Marcus' aide when she is told that they are going to dismantle (kill) him because he might know some Skynet secrets. Connor says to call him an IT and to not be naive. While Blair tells Kate that he is not the enemy, she's been shot at by the enemy and he is not it. Kate says that "that machine" saved her only to gain access to all of them. Is that true? I don't know since I haven't seen the movie...but it does raise a tough question.

You Are Not Alone

This clip shows John giving a radio message to those still alive out there that there is a resistance movement. Marcus, Kyle and Star are seen listening in. Connor tells about the T-600's and how they are slow and primitive and a cut to the cortex that is exposed will disable their tracking but not for long. Marcus asks who that is. Kyle answers John Connor as if he's never heard of him and that they must find him. Kyle it's your son, silly.

I'm the Only Hope You Have

John is in the water and those watery-Terminators are all over the place like nasty little water bugs. Marcus wrestles one and John points a gun at him and says that they know what he is even if he doesn't. Marcus says that a gun isn't going to stop him and John says "no one shot you in the heart and I see that thing beating a mile a minute" (his heart is exposed? Ick...that can not be good if it is an organic heart). Marcus says that Kyle Reese is in Skynet and if John kills him, Reese is dead. Marcus steps out of the shadows...oh my god, he's all mettaly and awesome. He tells John to look at him and John says that's why he doesn't trust him. Marcus says he's the only hope he has and that he needs to find who did this to him and so does John. His damaged eye keeps blinking red. Awesome.

I'm John Connor

An elevator descends while Kyle and John wait to see what steps out and...HOLY CRAP! LOOK BEHIND YOU! A Terminator steps out and smacks John and Kyle, they drop what looks like a detonator and Kyle blasts the Terminator with his gun. The stupid elevator does what stupid elevators always do when you want to shut the door so no one else gets on (in this case a murderin' machine, in most other cases it's people who want to chat with you about the weather), takes it's time. John tells Kyle and Star to go and Kyle asks who he is: John Connor!

Come With Me To My Base

Marcus helps Blair down out of a tangled situation and asks where they Transport was going. She says Skynet and if he has friends on there, they are as good as dead. And so will he if he goes that way. He says he's been dead awhile, so he's used to it. She tells him to come to her base and talk to John Connor, he'll know what to do.

Come With Me If You Want To Live


This is one of my favorite clips for many reasons but certainly because I've seen the concept art and to see it in full realization is awesome. That Terminator is scary-as-shit. Marcus sees a figure in the distance and calls out to it and it starts shooting at him. Kyle pushes him out of the way to safety and tells him to come with him if he wants to live. He springs a trap making the Terminator gets flung into the air. They run off and the Terminator shoots itself in the foot to get free. It falls to the ground in a heap, gets up and goes after Kyle and Marcus. It starts blasting away at the wall and Kyle motions to Star and she cuts a rope causing some train-car wheels to fall onto the Terminator, smashing it. AWWWWWesome!

Friday, May 8, 2009

Plants vs. Zombies game



I posted the Japanese version because the song fits better! Go check out the game, it sounds really cute!

New Terminator Salvation clips!

In this clip old Ironside tells Connor they are still going in, while Connor says HELL NO! The game has changed and he has a chance to go in and save the prisoners...and Kyle Reese. Ironside says, too bad it's his fate but Connor knows that if Reese dies, he never exists! Ironside tells him he is releaved and no longer part of the Resistance...Connor ain't gonna like that!





In this clip some thugs hassle Moon Bloodgood and she gets lippy and kicks some ass right when the clip cuts out!




Terminator Salvation 4 mintute clip

Holy Hell-fire! Thank you Internets for this tasty late-night treat: A 4 minute clip, an extended trailer if you will, for Terminator Salvation.





Alive in Joberg short

This is the short that District 9 is based on, directed by the same director. It gives you an idea of what it's going to be about, but then again so does the teaser. There is also a new teaser without the pixellated face and now with subtitles, because apparently people didn't understand what they were trying to get at with the first teaser.





It's the same trailer just without the blurred out face of the alien and now they subtitle him to say that they don't want to be here, but they can't leave because we have their ship and they mean us no harm.

There is also quite an ARG going, and if you like that stuff, as I do, here are some links to sites:

Sunday, May 3, 2009

When music is used well in a show, it highlights and amplifies the message being conveyed, so I'm starting a new feature that I will periodically post about that covers music used in TV shows. That is, music used well in a TV show. The first entry will be about music used in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

T:SCC's is about the plight of Sarah Connor to protect her son John from the machines that are trying to kill him. It carries on from the end of the amazing second entry into the series, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and completely skips over any and all events that took place in the third Terminator movie.

There are three stellar entries in the usage of music that I want to share and so they are going to be pasted below:

1. 'Adam Raised a Cain' from Season 2, episode 21. This was just from Friday's episode so *SPOILERS*
It features Weavers daughter, Savannah, singing 'Donald Where's Your Trousers' with John Henry.



2.'Samson and Delilah' Season 2, episode 1.
Song 'Samson and Delilah' as covered by the fantastic Shirley Manson. Used in the opening montage of season 2's premiere episode as Cameron wakes up and finds her chip damaged. She heads off into the house where we assume she is going to help John and Sarah, but instead she is following her original orders from before she was reprogrammed: Terminate John Connor. I'm adding a bonus scene, non-music related because it's awesome.



When Cameron begins to plead with John that she is all fixed now and that she can be trusted and that she loves him and he loves her, the look on John's face is priceless.



3. 'What He Beheld' Season One, Episode 9
Song "The Man Comes Around" by Johnny Cash. It's at the end of the episode when Ellison and the rest of the FBI arrive to take the man they think is an actor who decided to go on a killing spree, (who is really Cromartie) into custody and things go wrong with deadly consequences.

G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra French trailer

Coming soon to your SyFy Satur...oh, wait...it's NOT a SyFy Channel Original Movie? It's a bloated, expensive piece of crap coming out in actual theatres? Oh...

The French subtitles aren't the bad part...the movie is the bad part. It looks bad, really bad. 1:53 is the start of a particularly bad part.

District 9 Trailer

What? An original movie idea? Why, that's preposterous!

District 9, from what I can gleam, is about some refugees in South Africa who aren't wanted by anyone. The catch: They are alien refugees, like literally alien refugees. As in from outer-space aliens. It's interesting because they are playing up on how people react when human "alien" refugees move into an area they aren't wanted. I'm sure this may allow some violent things to occur to the aliens because for most people seeing them hurt won't be a big deal, or at least not as heartbreaking as it would to see humans hurt. I don't really get that, either way I assume it will make me sad.

Check it out!

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen Trailer 2

New Transformers 2 trailer.

I know there is a lot of talk about Michael Bay movies being explosions and circling camera angles, but let's be honest: A person goes to Michael Bay movies for those explosions and fun-times, not for the story. Who cares about the story in a Bay movie? No one, that's who.
I want things to blow up, explode and get mashed to pieces; that's what I want...and it looks like I'll get it...

Check out 2:10 when Devastator gets his devastate on...

Welcome to Motion Picture Whore!!!

Welcome to Motion Picture Whore!

We (and by 'we' I mean me) at Motion Picture Whore won't just bring you exciting content on motion pictures as seen in a theatre...oh, no...there will be content on tv shows, video games, technology and whatever the hell else I feel is interesting enough to write/post about.

I have two other blogs, Halls of Rapture and Veritable Cornucopia, but since that last one has a name containing words no one ever searches for unless working on a Thanksgiving project or looking up veritable, which no one ever does, I decided to plop that shit over here and start anew.

Hope everyone finds something to read and comment/bitch about. I welcome all such comments/bitches.