One of my favorite films of all time the Errol Flynn Robin Hood gets the Blu-ray treatment on August 26, 2008.  A classic tale of Sherwood Forest. Robin Hood robs the rich to aid the poor, tries to rid England of Prince John’s tyranny and gain the hand of the lovely Maid Marian. Errol Flynn is eternally charming as Robin in this rousing family adventure that co-stars Olivia de Havilland and Claude Rains. Starring Errol Flynn, the premiere swashbuckler of the sound era. Includes ALL special features of previous release! Winner of 3 Academy Awards® and nominated for Best Picture.  Has resonated over the decades. Selected in 1995 for preservation in United States Film Registry.  One of the few major 1930’s motion pictures filmed in color.

If you are a fan of Harry Potter, here’s an interesting game, it’s called Wizard 101 and is a new MMORPG that lets you take on the role of a young Wizard. It looks pretty cool, the game is for the kiddy set, but that didn’t stop HP from crossing over. It’s pretty amazing that there hasn’t been an HP MMORPG. How cool would that be? KingsIsle Entertainment has released a video in four parts exploring the creative process behind Wizard101. The game is currently in beta and thousands of beta testers of all ages have now joined the large cast of fantastical in-game characters for adventure and magic spell-collecting fun. Over the coming weeks, beta testers are invited to play the game and provide feedback to KingsIsle in advance of Wizard101’s expected release in the third quarter of 2008. For more information on the game, and to sign up for the beta test, please visit http://www.wizard101.com/. Take a look after the break.

Read the rest of this entry »

The folks at Midway release some new tasty screens from their upcoming Sandbox game This is Vegas. Midway wants this game to be basically GTA Vegas. Personally, I’m not a fan of Sandbox games, I need my hand held. It’s looking pretty good.  Take a look at the screens and press release after the break.

Read the rest of this entry »

The trailers and clips released online for Hancock promise a superhero dramedy with an edge – and, for the first half of the film it delivers just that. Watching the drunken superhero get the bad guys while toting up millions of dollars in property damage is, at first, diverting and new. When he saves a PR whiz named Ray Embry [Jason Bateman], Bateman persuades him to change his image – first by doing jail time, second by treating people with more respect, and third by wearing a spiffy spandex outfit that looks like something out of the X-Men movies. Of course, being the rotten example that he is, before he can completely remake his image, Hancock develops the hots for Ray’s beautiful wife, Mary [Charlize Theron].

So far, so good. Hancock, in its first half, comes off as an effort to make a movie about the kind of hero that Marvel [Spider-Man, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk] does so well – the hero with superpowers and regular people’s problems. But now, we come to Hancock’s kryptonite. Like Superman, Green Lantern and so many classic superheroes, Hancock does, indeed, have a weakness – a weakness that’s telegraphed by several clues scattered through the first half of the film.

Therein lies the problem. After carefully setting up Hancock as one thing – a superhero – the revelation of his weakness changes everything, and not in the most sensible of ways. As I watched the clues develop, my first thought was, “oh, no. They wouldn’t…” Then, when it happened, I thought, “oh, no! They didn’t” – followed closely by, “golly-gosh-all-hemlock-gee-whiz-to-pieces! They did!” I won’t give the twist away, but I will say that, when you add up all the species of life and types of minerals there are on this planet, Hancock’s weakness is so hugely, disproportionately coincidental that, had it been used in a real comic book or graphic novel, the writer would’ve been laughed out of every comics shop in North America – just for starters!

As a result, the second half of Hancock is filled with mayhem of all sorts that, essentially, robs the film of the charm and wit that helped build up the first half. The shame of it all is that Smith, Bateman, and Theron give really good performances as the film disintegrates around them – and Peter Berg’s direction is precisely what it should be throughout. The problem with the script is that writers Vincent Ngo and Vince Gilligan seem to think that, because Hancock is a superhero movie, they can do anything they want. They’ve forgotten [if they ever even thought about it] that the best comics and graphic novels are set in universes that have rules – and adhere to them.

Sadly, the last half of Hancock, full of sound and fury as it is, totally undercuts the first half of the film’s effectiveness. In the end, Hancock may not be an average superhero, but his movie never reaches that level.

Final Grade: D+

You know it’s the 4^th of July when you are sitting in a theater watching a Will Smith movie. Last week, I complained that Hollywood is trying desperately to turn James McAvoy into a leading man and I said he doesn’t have the “it” factor. Well one week later we see a full on display of a leading man who has that quality. And it’s surprisingly enough - Jason Bateman. He is what makes this mess of a film somewhat watchable. Now I’m not denigrating Smith because whatever you say about him, he also has that “it” factor where you would watch him read a phone book.

But Bateman is a real find. I loved him in Juno, but here I think he finally goes from being a cult favorite from Arrested Development (which I don’t get why people love it) to summer blockbuster status. I don’t think he’s ready to take on a leading role, but he’s great. Maybe it’s due to the fact that he’s the only likable person – the do-gooding, tree hugging, save the world PR guy Ray Embrey, who, after being saved by the foul mouth, alcoholic anti-Superman John Hancock decides he can turn Hancock into a real Hero.

The problem with the film, besides the fact that I was sitting next to these two girls who wouldn’t shut the f up, is it’s a ½ hour movie stretched to 90 minutes. Usually summer blockbusters have great 1^st and 2^nd acts, but lousy finishes. Hancock is the opposite. The first hour of this film is painfully slow, devoid of any heart, plot or reason for existing. The trailers and clips of Hancock walking around and flying drunk gets tired in the commercials, now imagine an hour of that. We see Hancock drink bottle after bottle of whisky. We see him tearing up streets just taking off and landing, we see him picking his nose. It’s a one note movie for the first hour; which is why Bateman’s manic performance comes as a breath of fresh air. Rumor has it Director Peter Berg wanted the movie to be edgier than this final cut. If edgier means another 20 minutes of a drunken Will Smith I would pass.

Hancock lacks a driving plot, villains and people we actually can get behind. The movie picks up in the 3^rd act when Hancock finally becomes the Superhero he’s meant to be and we finally get to uncover some of his back story, his history with Ray’s wife Mary (Charlize Theron). There’s an interesting, tragic love story that gets thrown in and here we start to see the beginnings of some interesting ideas that slowly started to suck me back into the film. It would have been fantastic if the studio had the guts to actually kill off Hancock at the end.

If Hancock didn’t try so hard to be “edgy” and “different” it could have been a winner. Instead with the only villain in the movie being a Whiskey bottle it barely registers as a blip on the radar. Though, I still loved Jason Bateman in this. Whatever you say about Will Smith he brings it with every role he takes on and you can tell that even here he’s really intense.

Final Grade D

EM Review
By Michelle Alexandria
Originally Posted 7.2.2008

Today I participated in a call with Battlestar Galactica’s iconic Six (Tricia Helfer) to talk about her role in the July 10 premiere of USA’s new hit show Burn Notice. Of course Galactica came up as well and we got some great tidbits from her. The transcript from the call will be coming later this week. To wet your appetite. Here are some little tidbits.

• Tricia will be in 7 Episodes of Burn Notice playing a mysterious spy. She’ll be in the first two episodes of the season, the season finale and a couple in 2009.
• Her character is the public face of the organization that burned Michael.
• She really liked the being on the set and said it was a real welcoming environment.
• She talks a bit about the difference between Vancouver and Miami, Fl. Said she had to get use to it being sunny in Fla.
• She has a list of DVD Sets that she wants to watch since she doesn’t watch much television. She likes quirky shows like Madmen and Weeds. Is currently watching Dexter, 24, and Arrested Development.
• When asked if she uses the word Frak in her every day life she no. Primarily because her character on Galactica rarely says it. But Frak has become part of other cast and crew’s vocabulary.
• She didn’t have to audition for the Burn Notice part. Matt called her up and said he had a part for her.
• She’s shooting a pilot for a new Fox Television show called Inseparable. She’s playing a Psychologist to the lead. It’s about a cop who was shot and paralyzed. He develops a split personality one that’s crippled and the other one who isn’t. She’s not in the Pilot episode that much because they are establishing the main character.
• She was great to talk to, wasn’t at all squeamish about talking about BSG and what her post BSG life will be like.
• She will be at Comic-Con as part of a Cylon/Human couple. Doesn’t know if the Burn Notice folks will be doing anything.
• She hasn’t been following the looming strike.

EM Interview Highlights

By Michelle Alexandria
Originally Posted 7.2.2008

The folks over at Marvel.com have posted some nice new poster shots and a trailer from the upcoming Punisher: War Zone movie. The trailer looks really cool, if not a little B "Listy." I’m still not sold on Ray Stevenson as the lead. While watching the clip, I kept thinking, that should be Thomas Jane or even Dolph. "Punisher: War Zone" comes to a theater near you on December 5! Check out the trailer and the other photos Here.

"Joel, sometimes you gotta stop being a Pussy and just say ‘What the Fuck.’"  Remember where you were when you first saw the classic Risky Business? This was the film that changed a generation and launched Tom Cruise into the stratosphere. Risky Business was that perfect storm of timing, edge, story, and one of the best movie Soundtracks - ever. In celebration of it’s 25th Anniversary the folks at Warner Home Video are tripple dipping and bring us a brand new DVD Deluxe edition set and a Blu-ray edition. Check out the full press release.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hey, that kid from 90210 is in a Direct to Video movie. The only thing that Kelly Reyes (Melissa Keller) has ever thought about was playing beach volleyball.  Then one day when a mysterious reporter named Holden (Brian Austin Green) comes into her life, strange events start to happen to her, as well as to the people around her.  As Kelly becomes skeptical of Holden, she still must maintain focus and prepare for the biggest match of her life.  Is she being paranoid, or is there something darker to this mystery man? Check out the clippage and the full press release.

Read the rest of this entry »

The fifth and final magical season of I DREAM OF JEANNIE is here July 8.  In the show’s final season, watch as Jeannie (Barbara Eden) and her master, Tony (Larry Hagman), finally say "I Do" in one of television’s most memorable weddings.  This time watch as Jeannie is crowned Queen of her own country, Dr. and Mrs. Bellows meet Jeannie as Major Nelson’s fiancee, and Tony’s house gets a ‘mad’ makeover!  Making her final appearance, Jeannie’s wicked twin sister tries to wreck the newlyweds’ marriage, while Dr. Bellows’ nephew discovers Jeannie’s secret and Tony becomes the spokesperson for his own canned chili.  Plus Dr. Bellows finally catches Major Nelson, an astronaut with a genie!  With 26 hilarious episodes featuring such guest stars as Farrah Fawcett, Jim Backus, Dick Wilson, Jackie Coogan and Dick Van Patten, the complete fifth and final season will have fans forever dreaming of Jeannie.  Take a look at some clippage after the break.

Read the rest of this entry »