Thursday, July 22, 2010

Judge Dredd: Retry/Remake/Remodelled/Rejoice!


I'm a big Judge Dredd fan eversince the 70s when it was featured in the excellent weekly the British action comic 2000 AD (which later become 2000 AD and Tornado when it was bought over). Judge Dredd was the ultimate lawman of the 21st century, casting a very big shadow over criminals in Mega City One, the future version of New York City. He was a righteous dude who kicked ass big time, hovering along with his huge computerized bike, blasting away perps and delivering one-liners way before Arnie made it cool to kick and one-line. He epitomized the law in all its soul-less-ness. And it was coooool. So it was with great disappointment when the Judge Dredd film failed to do justice with its Sly Stallone version; it was okay, but it wasnt really Judge Dredd, was it? He took off his helmet, something which the real Judge Dredd has never ever done. (except maybe when he goes to the loo - even then its questionable whether he does that either). So yeah, the film version of his super cop was not accepted fully. 

Until possibly now: bleedingcool.com reports a remake of the series with Karl Urban donning the helmet and mounting the bike. This is definitely a good thing as 28 Days Later / The Beach writer Alex Garland will have writing creds for this. If they do it well, we can expect a whole new range of characters not just from the Judge Dredd universe, but also from the 2000 AD comic universe, as they're pretty cool, like the fighting robots known as the ABC Warriors, as these guys pre-date the Transformers by several light years. So yeah. Looking forward to this.

Latest Thor Pics!!

I'm not a big superhero-to-movies fan, but I am getting some kinda buzz with some new releases of Thor's pics on the net. So check out slashfilm.com pics and links here and also over here. The first pic sees Thor looking buff-and-messed-up having a strong grip on his hammer (that doesn't sound quite right, does it?), and the other pics shows the denizens of arsgaard with Anthony Hopkins looker dapper in his buff Odin-suit and Thor in his super-hero outfit. Its all good ... 

Previous review:here.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

On the Wire

Some new movie updates you should be interested in ... 

The Boys (action/comedy/superhero)

An Adam McKay flick on the management of reckless and dangerous superheroes by an elite ops group who keeps them in line, and if need be kill them, based on the Ennis & Robertson comic book adventure. Into this mix comes Simon Pegg (he of the Shaun of the Dead), Hot Fuzz fame) as Wee Hughie, the latest recruit. Laughter ensues. Check out the whole write up here. This looks like a great, original idea kinda movie. How you lose when you have two running themes which practically heats up the box office: superheroes, and comedy. AND, you mix it up with military tacticle stuff. What can go wrong? If done properly, not much.

Transformers 3 (2011) (action/tech/robots)

Are you ready for the 3rd installment of the gleaming robot ass-kicking fight-fest? Ready or not, its coming. Aintitcool.com has it covered with some pretty decent pre-production photos here. The good news (for fanboys) is that its coming next year in 2011, the bad news is that uber-babe Megan Fox will NOT be on board. In her place will be Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, which, from the pictures shows certain HIGH hotness level. Will she be able to kick-ass in the hot-babe dept which our beloved Fox has been doing overtime for in the past 2 Transformers installment? We can only wait, hope, and see ... 

Mission Impossible 4 (2011) (action/spy/thriller)



In the spirit of never-ending sequels, we have another sequel in the MI franchise. Tom Cruise is set to reprise his role as Ethan Hunt, and more interesting is the return of Benji Dunn, played by Simon Pegg, the lab tech expert who backs up Hunt on his missions. Read it from the Hollywood Report . Despite the downturn of Tom Cruise appeal in the world of entertainment, my money will still be on him to deliver high quality kick-assory, which is A. Non-stop, and B. High grade. Thats good enough for me. Helming it will be Brad Bird, he of the Pixar range of action comedy cartoons The Incredibles, Ratatouille, The Iron Giant etc. Hmm. Interesting, to say the least ... Could it be that the underlying darkness of the previous MIs will be replaced with something more fantastical? More elaborate? And how will it gel with JJ Abrams written effort for this sequel? Aha ... 

Sunday, July 18, 2010

The 100 Best Horror Films from Best Horror Movies. Com for 2010


The For horror-freaks out there - thought I'd share with you the top 100 horror movies of all time from best-horro-movies.com, which is pretty insightful is you ask me. Check it out here. For those too lazy to hyper jump to the link, this is the brief summary: 

....

So there you have it, the list of what scares us silly from 100 all the way up to 1. What I'm really curious is this - why hasn't anyone ever topped The Exorcist as the scariest movie of all time? I guess the writers and directors nowadays seek to scare people by adding more gore, and using CGI in almost everything. Real horror has its roots in terror, and terror stems from the generally accepted idea of unimaginable things waiting in the dark for us, waiting to spring out shrieking. Most often it is not visual, but something imagined and the trepidation that comes with it. The build-up, the tightening of the screws, the final payoff and the basic intention of the evil itself as something with its own intelligence.
Having said that, would you be able to watch The Exorcist ALONE, at NIGHT, in a DARK HOUSE? Give it a try, I DARE you ...

Ong Bak 3 (2010)


Ong Bak  effectively put Thailand on the global map of awesome kick-assness. Who can ever forget Tony Jaa smashing open a motorbike helmet off a poor guy's head with his elbow? Or giving a big white dude the double elbow smash on his noggins clocking it effectively? We felt the pain because there was no special effects used. This fighting continued with Tom Yam Goong where a central scene had the camera follow Jaa non-stop for more than 10 minutes without editing as he ran up a huge spiraling staircase kicking ass all the way up. 

The Skinny: Following directly from the end of Ong Bak 2, where our hero Tien (Jaa) is beaten to a pulp by Ghost Crow (dude who looks like a dudette dressed in a drag from the deepest bowels of hell) he is taken away in chains by the evil king whereupon he has his ass whupped big time thereby convincing us the viewers that he will never ever avenge his father ... but he's a plucky kinda guy after all so obviously he's not going to take it lying down. The dude is after all, destinied to kick ass ... 

The Helmer: Tony Jaa

The Casts: 
The Prediction: Ong Bak 2 was an impressive effort from Jaa himself as he wrote and directed a mini epic scale medieval actioneer. The ending of part 2 kinda crapped it for most, as there were rumours that the movie ended there due to budgetry constraint. As a result most thought it just ended there, with Jaa's hero dying at the hands of his enemies without avenging his father's death. But apparently that is not the case. Part 3 seals the deal with a closure, neatly wrapping up a pretty decent martial art trilogy. When you think about it, theres not many trilogy of kick-assness. Unless if you consider Chuck Norris' MIA series as a trilogy of sorts for ass kicking.

The Awesomeness of the Expandables: Countdown Begins ...


This is an update of new trailers for the Expandables, Sly Stallones action epic. AKA, kick-ass extravaganze AKA, bare-knuckle bonanza AKA massive dynamic awesomeness. Check it out at Apples link which displays the 4 trailers of the much awaited fight-fest.

Read the previous review here.

Release date: 13th August 2010

Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa aka The Malay Chronicles: Bloodlines (2010)



Films have the ability to recreate ideas and shift perception about almost everything; it can redefine the image of a nation, catapult actors into superstardom and change the history of movie making for any country. Provided the movie is groundbreaking and well executed. The South Korean movie industry had their pivotal turning point with espionage actioneer Shiri   , a North vs South, spy-vs-spy tale injected with romance in 1999. Similarly with Thailand and their stomach churning real-action bone-cracking fight-porn Ong Bak in 2003. So what is Malaysia's turning-point movie that can change history? Has there been one? Sadly, no. Until now that is. Possibly, with Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa, also known as the Malay Chronicles: Bloodline.


The Skinny: "Based loosely on the 16th century historical document entitled ‘The Malay Annals', ‘The Chronicles of Merong Mahawangsa' is an action-packed epic feature film, with mythical characters, magical moments and dazzling visual-effects sequences. Merong Mahawangsa was a descendant of Alexander the Great, a renowned naval captain and traveller who came to Asia several hundred years ago." Synopsis taken from The Film Catalogue.

The Helmer: Yusry A Halim - Cicak Man 2: Planet Hitam (2008), Cicak Man (2006)
The Casts: Stephen Rahman Hudges (Malaysia/UK), Jing Lu (UK), Gavin Stenhouse (UK), Hendrik Norman (Sweden), Craig Fong (Australia). Other local talents also includes, Dato Rahim Razali, Wan Hanafi Su, Ummi Nazeera, Khir Rahman, Nell Ng, Keith Chong, Jehan Miskin, Deborah hanry, Ravi Sunderlingam, Kuswadinata, Mano Maniam and Faiz Aizuddin Azmi.

The Prediction: This big budget (by Malaysian standards) movie is the brainchild of brothers KRU, the extraordinary Norman, Edry and director Yusry. Best known early in their career as rap singers for group KRU. Nowadays, they're mainly in the business of producing new talents and making movies. This movie looks pretty good going by the trailer, although the pale sheen of CGI somehow shines through the hectic scenes drops it several notches below a full-fledged epic. Having said that, it would be good if the whole movie expands on the promise of what we've seen in the few minutes shown.

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