How About A Sunday Link Dump With Simon Pegg Taking A Dump?

David Goyer signs on to direct the completely unnecessary X-Men spinoff, Magneto. Goyer is a terrific screenwriter, but judging by his directorial work on Blade 3, the guy shouldn’t even be allowed to direct traffic in a third-world village with two cars.

More X-Men spinoff news as the ultra-hot Anna Paquin discusses the upcoming Wolverine movie.

Trailer for the animated adaptation of the “Death of Superman” saga, Superman: Doomsday:

Curious about today’s title? Yeah, thought so. It’s all about Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz star Simon Pegg’s new flick.

Finally, here’s your first review of Michael Bay’s Transformers.

Hot Fuzz Review…Sort Of…

I know I promised a review of Hot Fuzz, but I simply haven’t had the time or the energy to do it. To be quite honest, I am literally at a loss for words when it comes to this film, so in lieu of an actual review I’m just going to say that it’s absolutely brilliant and laugh-out-loud hilarious.

Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost carry over everything that made Shaun of the Dead so cool, adding a dead-on parody of ridiculously over-the-top American buddy cop movies, complete with obnoxious crash edits, thunderous sound effects accompanying mundane activities (like opening a door), and gratuitous dramatic camera pans around the male leads.

There’s also plenty of outlandish gore, memorable characters (the two douchebag detectives known as “The Andys”, and Timothy Dalton’s sleazy grocery store mogul come to mind), and hilarious banter between Frost and Pegg. Yes, this mini review sucks ass, but trust me…just go see the freakin’ thing already. It’s awesome.

Speaking of awesome, the guys over at Aintitcool have posted a sweet gallery of Pirates of the Carribean 3 character designs by ILM artists Aaron McBride and Crash McCreary. Even if you aren’t a fan of the series, you have to be impressed by this incredible artwork. Simply stunning.

‘Heroes’, You Disappoint Me…

SPOILERS AHEAD!

If you haven’t seen the April 23 episode of Heroes, skeedaddle!

 

Soooooo….we’ve got an ex-hero with a delusional messiah complex who wants to manufacture a huge catastrophe in New York City (in this case, a human bomb), that will kill millions of people, with the intent on using the resultant collective grief to “bring people together” in the bonds of hope for a more peaceful future. Hmmmm….now where have I seen that before?

Oh yeah…IN THE F**CKING COMICS MASTERPIECE IT WAS RIPPED OFF FROM!!! Wow. Despite the fact that this show is just the X-Men without the costumes, I really thought they were trying to do something creative and original with this series. Well, hell, they had me fooled for a while. Nice one, Tim Kring.

Grey Hulk? First Pics Of The Joker? Sunday Link Dump Time!

It looks like Edward Norton’s Hulk is going to be colored grey instead of green. This decision isn’t as sacriligious as you might think, since the orginal incarnation of the character had a grey pigmentation until problems with the coloring ink forced Marvel to switch it over to green. The Hulk was also grey for a period of time in the early 1990’s when he became intelligent and adopted the “Mr. Fixit” persona. Personally, I don’t give a shit if the Hulk is tie-dyed with a giant orange afro, as long as Ang Lee is nowhere near it.

Hey kids, want to see the first pictures of Heath Ledger as the Joker in the upcoming Batman Begins sequel, The Dark Knight? Well, tough shit. People in Hell want Klondike bars, but they ain’t gettin ‘em. However, here’s some pics of someone who may or may not be Heath Ledger with green hair standing around in a parking lot. Amazing!

The official Transformers website has some new wallpapers, featuring Optimus Prime and an unrecognizable mess of jagged metal blades Megatron.

David Goyer discusses the Y: The Last Man film, and that ridiculous Green Arrow-meets-Prison Break movie.

Finally, whip out your wands and check out the International Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix trailer:

Hot Fuzz!

Hot Fuzz is in theaters this weekend! Look for my review (hopefully) by Monday evening.

Matthew Fox is Racer X!

 

Aintitcool has the scoop. Cool bit of casting!

 

Big Pimpin’

Hey all, when I’m not blogging I like to dabble in some original creative endeavors. My latest project is a four-panel webcomic called Boxcar Astronaut. It’s been described as a “Calvin & Hobbes for the Star Wars generation”. Anyone who’s ever turned an old appliance box into a spaceship in the ol’ backyard or used a wiffle bat for a lightsaber when they were kids should appreciate this comic strip. I hope you all will go and check out the first five strips (a new one is posted every Sunday morning) at the Myspace page as well as the Comicspace page. Please leave comments and feedback!

My (Very) Brief Thoughts On Sopranos, Grindhouse, And Other Random Stuff

Jeepers, I suck. I’ve been neglecting this blog like crazy lately. I’m going to start work on another mega-article like the LOST Vs. Heroes Vs. Battlestar Galactica piece, but until then I’ll just comment on a few things that I’ve seen lately:

I thought the first two of the “final nine” episodes of The Sopranos were both excellent. The first episode back wasn’t very eventful but it was a really nice character study and I think some big seeds were planted when Bobby’s first hit managed to tear a piece of his shirt off (DNA evidence anyone?). The second episode was jam-packed with lots of different things going on. We saw the hilarious premiere of Christopher’s mob/horror film “Cleaver”, more in-fighting with the New York crew, and the death of Johnny Sack. It’s going to be fascinating watching how the Christopher/Tony dynamic is going to play out over these last few episodes. I still think Christopher is destined to be fitted for some cement shoes. The second show also featured one of the greatest Chrissy quotes of all-time: “Issac Newton invented gravity because some asshole threw an apple at his head!” Classic.

I never got around to posting a full review of Grindhouse, and I apologize for that. Overall I thought Robert Rodriguez’ portion, Planet Terror was a total blast. The audience was completely into the over-the-top violence and gore as well as the tongue-in-cheek humor. Everyone was laughing and shrieking with delight. All of the fake trailers were fantastic, and The old-school drive-in ads and lead-ins were great too.

Then, Tarantino’s Death Proof started up and absolutely deflated the audience. I’m not sure if it was just because I attended a midnight showing and the crowd was getting tired, but you could hear a pin drop in the damned place. I love Tarantino’s films and I know a lot of die-hard Tarantino fans are defending the artistic merit of four women sitting around spouting page after page of verbose, inconsequential dialogue, but boring is boring in my book. Quentin, Death Proof was fucking BORING. Sorry, dude.

So far I am really impressed with Marvel films and their casting decisions. Their first production, Iron Man, has an incredible cast with Robert Downey Jr. in the lead role. Now they’ve gone out and signed up one of the most underrated actors working in Hollywood today, Ed Norton, to star in The Incredible Hulk. I’m really looking forward to his portrayal of Bruce Banner. In a fair world he would’ve played Daredevil, too.

Finally, just to touch on those Sam Raimi/The Hobbit rumors, I think if anyone not named Peter Jackson could pull this adaptation off, it would be Raimi. That having been said, I’d like to see him stick with the Spider-Man films because he is the heart and soul of that franchise.

Oh, and one more thing… looks like the fourth Indy film has a title: “Indiana Jones and the City of Gods”. Hmmm….I’m thinking Ancient Greece?

‘28 Weeks Later’ Trailer & More In The Sunday Link Dump

First up, from the “No shit, Sherlock.” file: Shia LaBeouf confirms that he is in Indiana Jones 4.

Mel Brooks and Buck Henry sign on as creative consultants for the Get Smart movie starring Steve Carrell and Anne Hathaway. Nice of the studio to throw a bone to the two guys who actually created the freakin’ property.

Here’s a link to all the Spider-Man 3 trailers, including a new “final” version.

Trailer for 28 Weeks Later. Personally I can’t wait for 2016 when they release “28 Millenniums Later”.

And that’s about it, folks. It’s been a slow week as far as hot stories go. I’ll leave you all with another hot picture of Rose MacGowan. Don’t say I never did anything nice for ya.

I Want ‘Firefly’ Back, Dammit!

Sweet Mother of God, will someone please call Joss Whedon and tell him to get on the phone with the higher-ups at the Sci-Fi channel and DEMAND they give him a contract to produce new episodes of Firefly? The crew of Serenity is languishing in lame projects and roles that they simply don’t fit into. Zoe played a housewife in a God-awful Chris Rock vehicle, Wash creeped me out as a muderous pedophile on CSI, and worst of all, Captain Mal is about to star in a soon-to-be-cancelled FOX mideseason replacement called DRIVE-a lame Cannonball Run ripoff. *sigh* This is all WRONG! I want to see a Sunday  night lineup of Battlestar Galactica at 9 and Firefly at 10, and I want to see it now, damnit! It would be the shiniest night of TV ever!