The Burrowers (2008)

This is one of those movies where if you blink, you'd miss it because its small enough to just disappear beneath the weight of its more expensive cinematic brothers. But if you do miss, it'd be a loss as its a gem of a movie which deftly balances between the spirit of a western flick and that of good old fashioned creature horror film, the kind which makes your skin crawl and make you look behind your back every few minutes. 

The Skinny: Its the wild wild west in 1879 and a posse of cowboy hunters and a small military unit set out on a search and rescue mission to seek and rescue a family believed to have been kidnapped by a group of native Americans (thats right, injuns). What they encounter is something else altogether, something which lives under the earth and comes out for feeding at night ...things known as 'the Burrowers'.

The Helmer: JT Petty -  Blood Red Earth (2008), The Burrowers (2007 TV), S&Man (2006), Mimic: Sentinel (2003 V), Soft for Digging (2001)

The Casts: Clancy Brown (John Clay), Karl Geary (Fergus Coffey), William Marphother (William Parcher).

The Verdict: This is a great movie. Excellent cinematography, great script, good atmosphere. It succeeds in establishing a rounded western at the same time coincide with a solid horror flick. But what takes it above the norm for western-meets-horror genre, is that it is unapologetic. Don't expect the 'right' turning of events, or the characters to do the right thing. It is focused on one thing only, and that is to depict the story on a what-if basis: What if horrible underground life-sucking creatures were to terrorize the wild wild west?

Trailer 
Great Write-Up 

Battle: Los Angeles (2011)

War movies generally have not changed over the years. There are generally 2 levels of engagement for the audience: one, on the up-close and personal level, where you get to know the soldiers and first person sense of hell, that war brings about, and two, the actual battle itself and the shooting of guns and missiles. This is applicable to almost all war related movies, save of course for a few exceptional ones like Brian de Palma's 1989 anti-war flick Casualties of War. Apart from that, the message imparted is this: war is hell and there no one is actually the victor. The only difference is the enemy the hero army faces and how they are depicted which in this case are aliens.

The Skinny: Marine Platoon led by Marine staff sergeant battles with aliens on the streets of LA. 

The Helmer: Johnathan Liebesman - The Killing Room (2009), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), Rings (2005 V), Darkness Falls (2003), Genesis and Catastrophe (2000).

Casts: Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodrigez, Michael Pena, Lucas Till, Joey King 

Release Date: 11th March 2011

Prediction: War movies are generally a hit-and-miss thing. Because its both drama and action rolled so closely together that one slip will lead it disastrously into either one of the sides. And for each war movie that comes out, the expections are high in terms of raw action. Of late, the look and feel have been strongly dominated by Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan's jerky, hand-held camera style of film making. Which we may expect from this movie as well in order to portray realism. Be that as it may, the premise though not exactly new (see: War of the Worlds, Independence Day, Mars Attack etc) is fresh in the wake of post-Iraq war movies where the action is always backed by the empty desert sands. I'm just curious to know how the aliens look like - the gooey messy type or the highly efficient shiny-suited bug-eyed type.

Cowboys and Aliens (2011)

Nowadays it seems that its tough going in Hollywood to come with completely new fresh ideas; either its a remake from a TV series back in the 80s, a sequel, an adaptation from a comic book or a game-to-film remake. Which is why new ideas backed by big budget tend to make big sense at the box office, such as Inception  which was a surprising hit to date. It also helped that it was penned and helmed by Nolan the Great. Which brings us to the new upcoming western sci-fi, Cowboys and Aliens slated for release next year, based on a 2007 online-only graphic novel by Alana Joli Abbot. From the outset, its a great combo - you have cowboys and Indians and you have aliens: two very opposite concepts melted together. You have had cowboys and dinosaurs with the 1969 The Valley of Gwangi  where cowboys battled dinosaurs, and you had the 2007 cowboys vs zombies with Undead or Alive concept so if cowboys were to mix up with aliens, its just a progression of where you place your cowboys because cowboys can be almost anywhere. The charm of cowboys (and indians) have always been the innate sense of freedom and rugged living. In a sense, cowboys (and indians) are timeless. Cowboys are cool.

The Skinny: Gunslinger with amnesia must set aside differences with local town sheriff, a drifter, Apache warriors and bandits to prepare for war with invading alien forces.

The Helmer: Jon Favreau - Iron Man 2 (2010), Iron Man (2008), In Case of Emergency (2007 TV), Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005), Elf (2003), Life on Parole (2003 TV), Undeclared (2002 TV), Made (2001), Smog (1999 TV), Bad Cop, Bad Cop (1998 TV).

The Casts: Harrison Ford (Col Dollarhyde), Daniel Craid (Zeke Johnson), Olivia Wilde (Ella), Noah Ringer (Emmet), Walton Goggins.

Release Date: 29th July 2011.

The Prediction: This looks like a pretty big picture with Jon "Iron Man" Favreau helming the reigns, with JJ Abrams scribe partner for Fringe - Alex Kurtzman and Roberta Orci writing the script, Harrison Ford as town tyrant, and Daniel Craig as the amnesiac gunslinger hero taking on the aliens. What I find curious is the overall treatment of this project - we have a fun premise with lots of potential to bleed into sequels, but we have some pretty heavy set individuals involved in it. When we think Ford and Craig, we think SERIOUS SHIT going down. Not some heehaw adverturesome-tomfoolery-ness. Because the very idea of aliens attacking the wild wild west? Its too fun to be serious.

But. 

The ingredient is pretty damn tasty. It has everything you need to excite your bojangles: shooters, aliens and Apache warriors vs aliens. Whatever it is I'm looking forward to this.

Avengers Movie Update

The biggest thing to hit mainstream cinema (with exception of Cameron's 'Avatar') is the seamless creation of the Marvel comic universe. First in the line up is the Hulk followed by Iron Man (inserted in its movie fold are Nick Fury and Black Widow) followed by Thor and right up after that Captain America. You roll them all up and what do you have? The Avengers. Chud.com  has the scoop on this, you can read it here. Suffice to say, it is a comic geek's wet dream in real-time 3D. What more can they ask for? Maybe Captain Kirk making out with Ripley of Alien fame? They wish! Anyway, this is the line up for the Avengers: 

Iron Man - Robert Downey Jr

 

Nick Fury - Samuel L Jackson

Black Widow - Scarlett Johannsen 

Thor - Chris Hemsworth 

Captain America - Chris Evans 

Bruce Banner - Mark Ruffalo

Hawkeye - Jeremy Renner 

Helmed by Joss Whedon of Buffy fame, and the underrated Firefly sci-fi series (which was filmed into the very excellent Serenity.

Pretty interesting casting isnt it? I personally like Ruffalo in place of Edward Norton as the green mean machine. But I am wondering if the X-Men franchise is included in this universe because it would make sense to have the whole shebang in on this alternate universe. I can just imagine the eyes of the studio owners lighting up and going "kerching"! 

It looks good though - great writer/director on board with an intelligently made choice of actors. This is the big one for 2012. 

Devil (2010)

I like M Night Syamalan despite the universal hatred poured on him when he failed to deliver I-see-dead-people-like shock endings in his movies subsequent to Sixth Sense. But who wants to be constantly shocked? People just want a good movie based on a good plot, delivered in good style. I liked The Village, the :Lady in the Water, The Happening. I found them to be original, intriguing and importantly, compelling; it made me stay till the end. It was not a rehash of some half remembered TV series, nor was it inspired from video games. It was a stand alone. Which is why I'm really looking forward to his latest written effort here. 

The Skinny: 5 office workers stuck in an elevator discovers that one of them is the devil. Horror ensues. 

The Helmer: The Brothers Dowdle

The Writer: M Night Shyamalan - The Last Airbender (2010), The Happening (2008), The Lady in the Water (2006), The Village (2004), Signs (2002), Unbreakable (2000), Stuart Little (1999), Sixth Sense (1999), Wide Awake (1998), Playing with Anger (1992)

The Casts: Chris Messina, Geoffrey Arend, Caroline Dhavernas, Matt Craven

The Prediction: This is the first of the installment of Shyamalan's Night Chronicles, a series of stories penned by the man himself. It is good.

Official Site and Trailer

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.