Tag: Universal

Podcast: Film Actually Ep 64 – Shark Night 3D

Hosts: David McVay, Josh Philpott & Richard Gray

This week David, Josh & Richard review “Shark Night 3D”. Plus they discuss a little entertainment news including Universal’s attack on their own films, Billy Crystal returns to the Oscars and they take in the new trailer for “Snow White and the Huntsman”. All this plus the final, final parody clip for “The Muppets” and a brand new Lists of Five – Five Films Where We Want The Cast to Be Finished Off Faster. Film Actually is the official movie podcast of geekactually.com.

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This show carries an explicit tag due to infrequent coarse language.

Listen or download it here or subscribe to it on iTunes

Shameless Plug Time – Make sure you check out our new comic book podcast “Behind the Panels” hosted by David McVay & Richard Gray. Every week we bring you news from the world of comic books and comic book related movies and TV. We also go into deep analysis on our favourite comic books in our Book Club style Comic Pick of the Week. Find it here on Geek Actually or subscribe for free on iTunes.

Your show notes follow:

What The Geeks Have Been Watching

A collection of other things we’ve been watching this week. Richard has been taking in the Japanese Film Festival and still had time to watch “Immortals”, “The Muppets”, “Ages of Love”, “The Orator”, “Fighting Fear” and micro reviews “Moneyball”. David also saw “Immortals” and “The Muppets” but hated “30 Minutes or Less”. Josh also saw “The Immortals” but most of his week was taken up catching up on game reviews.

Feature Film Review

‘Shark Night 3D’ directed by David R. Ellis and written by Will Hayes & Jesse Studenberg. It stars Sara Paxton, Dustin Milligan, Chris Carmack, Katharine McPhee, Chris Zylka, Alyssa Diaz, Joel David Moore, Sinqua Walls and many other expendable cast members that we have practically never heard of before.

A weekend at a lake house in the Louisiana Gulf turns into a nightmare for seven vacationers as they are subjected to shark attacks. Source: IMDB.

Our Verdict: David R. Ellis does it again, he proves that he has no idea what he is doing behind the camera. Flat characters and the most ridiculous plot reveal in recent memory. After “Piranha 3D’ proved that audiences wanted gore, boobs and fun in their monster movies, “Shark Night 3D” waters it down so much that you barely see any one munched and there is no nudity whatsoever. We have seen Disney cartoons with more edge than this soggy monster movie.

Watch the trailer here: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/sharknight3d/

Entertainment Buzz

Universal Chief Ron Meyer slams his own movies – refreshing.
http://www.movieline.com/2011/11/universal-chief-ron-meyer-addresses-tower-heist-vod-fiasco-admits-cowboys-aliens-land-of-the-lost-wo.php?page=1

The new trailer for “Snow White and the Huntsman” – Not quite what I expected.
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/universal/snowwhiteandthehuntsman/

Billy Crystal returns to the Oscars as host.
http://www.slashfilm.com/billy-crystal-oscar-host/

“The Muppets” haven’t quite finished with the parody trailers yet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScedHBmLpDs

Lists of Five

This week our Lists of Five: Five Films Where We Want The Cast to Be Finished Off Faster. Ever watched a film where you just wanted the killer to hurry up and finish them all off so you can go home? Yeah us to, here are five of them.

Just a reminder, because we never like to just make things easy on ourselves, our lists are not necessarily top five lists, they are more or a less a list of film recommendations within the theme of the list.

The Rest…

David’s “My Year With Movies” blog is on Tumbr

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Make sure you check out our new range of Geek Actually swag at cafepress.com.au/geekactually

The Reel Junkies podcast can be found at weekendronin.com

Brad and Charlie (formerly of “Movie Fan House”) are back, their new site is ReboundRadio.com and their new podcasts are “Good Day Sir!” and “Movie Match Up”

Find out more about Josh’s other stuff by visiting HipHopNetOnline.com or listen to his other show “DLC Live” go to RawDLC.com or follow him on Twitter @DoGM3At

Find more by Richard Gray by visiting theReelBits.com or follow him on Twitter @DVDbits

We are closing the show with Graeme Revell’s opening track from the soundtrack to “Shark Night 3D”.

The opening clip is from “Sharktopus”

PLEASE NOTE: We made an error in the episode, next week we will talk about “Immortals” but the feature review is actually “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1″ with special guest reviewer Robyn Smith.

November 14, 2011
Review: The Debt

[stextbox id=”grey” caption=”The Debt (2010)” float=”true” align=”right” width=”200″]

Director: John Madden

Runtime: 113 minutes

Starring: Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington, Marton Csokas, Ciarán Hinds, Tom Wilkinson, Jessica Chastain

Distributor: Universal

Country: US

Rating: Wait for the DVD/Blu-ray (?)

More info

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It seems like we have been waiting ages for The Debt, the latest thriller from costume drama king John Madden (Mrs. Brown, Shakespeare in Love, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin) to hit cinemas. A remake of an Israeli film of the same name, it was originally scheduled for a release in late 2010, and after a few festival debuts, a complex merger deal between companies saw it lost in the works for a while. Now that it is finally here, it’s got a few big drawcards on its hands: co-writer Matthew Vaughn has hit a home-run with X-Men: First Class and star Jessica Chastain has grabbed attention by appearing in almost every film of 2011.

In 1997, former Mossad agent Rachel Singer (Helen Mirren, Arthur) is honoured by her daughter at a book launch chronicling one of her mother’s most famous exploits. Together with ex-husband Stefan Gold (Tom Wilkinson, The Conspirator) and David Peretz (Ciarán Hinds, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), they were responsible for one of the most famous Nazi hunts in Israeli history. When David commits suicide, it becomes evident something is rotten in the state of Israel. In 1966, the young Rachel (Jessica Chastain, The Help), David (Sam Worthington, Clash of the Titans) and Stefan (Marton Csokas, Dream House) hunt down Nazi war criminal Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christensen, Melancholia), known as “The Surgeon of Birkenau” for his butchering experiments during the Second World War.

Despite the time-shifting, and the amazing ensemble of actors from two generations, The Debt is essentially a spy-caper with a snatch-and-grab as its core plot device. It’s a smartly written affair, of course, but it is very much tied to the tradition of films such as Steven Spielberg’s Munich or Olivier Assayas’ Carlos. While there is a human drama at the heart of this thriller, scenes where the trio must carry out some overcomplicated task in a limited amount of time are straight out of the Spy Handbook, and even James Bond has traded them in for parkour and brutal hand-to-hand combat. Yet it is these retro-inspired scenes that are the strongest of The Debt, with each character a mystery to be slowly unwrapped. Even their target seems to have some redeeming human qualities before showing his true face during some intimate moments.

Even with the strong cast of veteran actors, it is the thinly drawn 1990s setting that fails to yield any emotional impact. A broken string of the expected plagues this era, and the film fails to compensate for the amount of time we have now emotionally invested in their younger counterparts. With Hinds departing the screen far too early, the bookend builds to a ridiculous finale that not only defies logic, but betrays the carefully balanced characters of the earlier time period. A misfire to be sure in a film that attempts to be so much more, but fails to let go of the the familiar in searching for a way to explore something new.

[stextbox id=”custom”]It’s like Munich meets RED. Also fascinating to know that Jessica Chastain will look like Helen Mirren in a few decades. There’s something in that for all of us.[/stextbox]

November 12, 2011
New Snow White and the Huntsman banner

Universal has released an epic banner for next year’s Snow White and the Hunstman, the darker of the two competing Snow White films to be released next year.

Not to be confused with Tarsem Singh’s Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Hunstman is the other Snow White film, and thanks to the presence of Kristen Stewart, undoubtedly the bigger of the two. Interestingly enough, both Snow White films star women who have worked opposite Twilight stars, with Abduction‘s Lily Collins the fairest of them all in the “other” version.

The official press reads as follows: In the epic action-adventure Snow White and the Hunstman, Kristen Stewart (Twilight) plays the only person in the land fairer than the evil queen (Oscar^®winner Charlize Theron) who is out to destroy her. But what the wicked ruler never imagined is that the young woman threatening her reign has been training in the art of war with a huntsman (Chris Hemsworth, Thor) who was dispatched to kill her. Sam Claflin (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) joins the cast as the prince long enchanted by Snow White’s beauty and power. The breathtaking new vision of the legendary tale is from Joe Roth, the producer of Alice in Wonderland, producer Sam Mercer (The Sixth Sense) and acclaimed commercial director and state-of-the-art visualist Rupert Sanders.

Snow White and the Huntsman will be released on 26 December 2012 in Australia from Universal.

November 9, 2011
New theatrical American Reunion trailer

We’ve already had the red band trailer, now Yahoo! Movies has released the more socially acceptable theatrical trailer for American Reunion, the latest sequel to the American Pie films that completely ignores the string of direct-to-DVD releases over the last few years. This latest trailer makes the series look tired and predictable, particularly in light of the string of edgier Judd Apatow-esque comedies that have emerged in the twelve years since the original was released.

In the comedy American Reunion, all the American Pie characters we met a little more than a decade ago are returning to East Great Falls for their high-school reunion. In one long-overdue weekend, they will discover what has changed, who hasn’t and that time and distance can’t break the bonds of friendship. It was summer 1999 when four small-town Michigan boys began a quest to lose their virginity. In the years that have passed, Jim and Michelle married while Kevin and Vicky said goodbye. Oz and Heather grew apart, but Finch still longs for Stifler’s mom. Now these lifelong friends have come home as adults to reminisce about—and get inspired by—the hormonal teens who launched a comedy legend.

American Reunion is released in Australia on 5 April 2012 from Universal.

November 2, 2011
Trailer and images for Dr Seuss’ The Lorax arrive

Universal (via iTunes Trailers) has released the brand-new trailer and a bunch of new images from this delightful looking film, based on the classic children’s book by Dr. Seuss.

From the creators of Despicable Me and the imagination of Dr. Seuss comes the 3D-CG feature Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, an adaptation of the classic tale of a forest creature who shares the enduring power of hope. The animated adventure follows the journey of a 12-year-old as he searches for the one thing that will enable him to win the affection of the girl of his dreams. To find it he must discover the story of the Lorax, the grumpy yet charming creature who fights to protect his world. Danny DeVito will lend his vocal talents to the iconic title character of the Lorax, while Ed Helms will voice the enigmatic Once-ler. Also bringing their talents to the film are global superstars Zac Efron as Ted, the idealistic youth who searches for the Lorax, and Taylor Swift as Audrey, the girl of Ted’s dreams. Rob Riggle will play financial king O’Hare, and beloved actress Betty White will portray Ted’s wise Grammy Norma. Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax is the third feature created by Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment (Despicable Me, Hop).

The Lorax is released in cinemas in the US on 2 March 2012. It will also be released in Australia on 31 March 2012 from Universal.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_T6SsDvO7Q

October 28, 2011
80s Bits: The Thing

Welcome back to 80s Bits, the weekly column in which we explore the best and worst of the Decade of Shame. With guest writers, hidden gems and more, it’s truly, truly, truly outrageous.

[stextbox id=”grey” caption=”The Thing (1982)” float=”true” align=”right” width=”220″]

Director: John Carpenter

Runtime: 109 minutes

Starring: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David

Studio: Universal

Country: US

Rating: Certified Bitstastic (?)

More 80s Bits

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When The Thing was released in 1982, director John Carpenter had already established himself as a master of horror that could do little wrong. Coming off the quadruple punch of Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween, The Fog and Escape from New York, Carpenter’s skill was in taking the ordinary, the suburban and the concept of the “other”, and blending them together in a terrifying pot pourri of mayhem, music and madness. Based on the science-fiction story Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr, already adapted by Howard Hawks in 1951 as The Thing From Another World, Carpenter’s version not only completely captured the spirit of the 1980s, but would eventually be considered a timeless classic.

A group of Americans exploring the remote regions of Antarctica are interrupted when a seemingly mad group of Norwegians flies over the camp in a helicopter, shooting at a dog. When the Norwegians die through either accident or shooting, no explanation is given for their pursuit of the dog, who is locked in with the other dogs at the base. When the station’s dogs are violently killed, it is soon discovered that a creature of alien origin has been hiding inside it, and can take the form and characteristics of anything or anyone it comes into contact with. The crew grows increasingly paranoid at the possibility that the thing could be any one of them, and it falls to pilot J.R. MacReady (Kurt Russell) to hunt it down and destroy it before it is too late.

1982 may as well be re-dubbed the Year of Science Fiction, as a two-week period saw the release of not only The Thing, but Steven Spielberg’s E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. Indeed, the latter debuted on the same day as The Thing, which did not originally fare well at the box office, and the success of E.T. (and mixed reviews) perhaps led to The Thing‘s critical and box-office bashing. Carpenter notes in retrospect that “The movie was hated. Even by science-fiction fans. They thought that I had betrayed some kind of trust, and the piling on was insane”. Yet time has healed all wounds in a film that is now rightly considered to be one of the finest in the genre, and can proudly list the likes of Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) amongst its most ardent supporters.

The Thing taps into the twin themes of isolation and bodily invasion, two elements that may explain why the audiences’ first instinct was to recoil in horror from what they were seeing. The effects, created by Rob Bottin and Stan Winston (in the case of the dog creature), mirror the grotesque subversion of the human form typically found in a David Cronenberg film. Yet it is the isolation of the setting that results in the most chilling (so to speak) aspects of the film, much like Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining used place two year before. Here Carpenter is on familiar turf, having previously cut his heroes off from the outside world in Assault From Precinct 13 or using natural barriers (The Fog) to create confusion and alienation. That Carpenter is able to pull off what is often Dali-esque surrealism in the midst of a horror film is a testament to his craft. That spooky score by Ennio Morricone doesn’t hurt either.

Having already converted Kurt Russell, a Disney familiar of the 1970s, into badass leading man Snake Plissken in Escape from New York, Russell is the consummate anti-hero, the loveable scoundrel that was all the vogue thanks to Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Wars, the latter’s role of Han Solo being one that Russell had actually auditioned for. Whether it is a horror film, a splatter fest or just a tense psychological thriller that you are after, The Thing provides them all in spades. The recent prequel, also called The Thing, borrows so much from this original, but only emphasises just how much this seminal film got right almost thirty years ago.

[stextbox id=”custom”]With the prequel now making the rounds, if you are yet to catch up with this sci-fi/horror classic, then you are in for a treat. For the rest of us, it is the perfect way to relive some timeless fear.[/stextbox]

October 14, 2011
Review: The Thing

[stextbox id=”grey” caption=”The Thing (2011)” float=”true” align=”right” width=”200″]

Director: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr

Runtime: 103 minutes

Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Ulrich Thomsen

Distributor: Universal

Country: US

Rating: Highly Recommended (?)

More info[/stextbox]

John Carpenter’s The Thing is a masterpiece of horror and suspense, perhaps only bettered by its contemporary in Ridley Scott’s Alien. The claustrophobic 1982 film was in fact based on John W. Campbell’s short story Who Goes There?, and was originally adapted by Howard Hawks in 1951 as The Thing From Another World. Carpenter’s film carved out its own niche in the well-worn genre of bodily invasion, but this latest adaptation/prequel to the classic sci-fi yarn from director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. is designed to directly recall its predecessor. They’ve even kept the title.

When an alien spacecraft is discovered in Antarctica, an international group of scientists including paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World), is called in to help extract the frozen life-form found near the wreckage. When the being comes to life, it is soon discovered that the thing has the ability to take the form of any of the team. As the group becomes increasingly paranoid and suspicious of everyone around them, it is up to Kate and the crew’s pilot, Carter (Joel Edgerton, Warrior), to identify and eradicate the thing before they are all killed…or worse.

It is difficult to avoid comparisons with John Carpenter’s classic, largely because the new version of The Thing is structured to lead us up to the start of the original film. Much of the suspense of that earlier film came from not knowing what happened to the Norwegian camp, short of the horrible and visceral images of impossibly twisted and charred remains of creatures that couldn’t possibly be entirely human. In essence, The Thing attempts to answer the question posed in the dialogue of John Carpenter’s The Thing: “My god, what the hell happened here?”. In doing so, it continues contemporary US cinema’s obsession with explaining everything. Yet Heijningen and Eric Heisserer’s (Final Destination 5) screenplay, free of the burden of having to make its own conclusion, fully exploits the freedom it’s been given to simply create some old-fashioned suspense in guessing who will be the next to fall.

Fuelled by Marco Beltrami’s score, borrowing notes from his hero Ennio Morricone’s original, there is genuine tension in the first two-thirds of the film. The great paranoia that sets in, and the splatter-injected fear that the claustrophobia of an isolated camp engenders, leads to some terrifying moments and things that go bump, squish and boom in the dark. Never mind that the majority of the crew don’t seem to care terribly that they are walking around inside a flaming inferno, we all get the sense that anybody and anything could quite literally make our new-found friends jump out of their skin at a moment’s notice. Here it is the most faithful to the original, tapping into the same dark fears of parasitic invasion we all unconsciously share.

Even if one were to remove the film’s connections with the original, The Thing would remain a entertaining schlock-fest. Indeed, it might even heighten its strengths. It is only in the film’s final stages, which emphasises the origins and otherworldly nature of the creature, that The Thing falters and flounders before finding its way to the foregone conclusion. We have an established end point, one that will be wholly familiar to fans of the original film, and it is with this that the creators of this prequel struggle the most. Loose ends like survivors are never wholly tied up, and the location of the climactic showdown is out of step with the rest of the film. Regardless, The Thing is a high-tension horror film that impresses with a creative use of a limited location and period setting, a terrific group of characters and genuine scares along the way.

[stextbox id=”custom”]A superior horror feature from debut director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr, capturing the spirit of the original and providing a worthy companion to that classic film.[/stextbox]

The Thing is released on 13 October 2011 in Australia from Universal.

October 11, 2011
The Thing red band trailer debuts

IGN has posted the red band trailer for the remake/reboot/prequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing. Helmed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr, son of Producer Matthijs van Heijningen, this is all looking very familiar.

Antarctica: an extraordinary continent of awesome beauty. It is also home to an isolated outpost where a discovery full of scientific possibility becomes a mission of survival when an alien is unearthed by a crew of international scientists. The shape-shifting creature, accidentally unleashed at this marooned colony, has the ability to turn itself into a perfect replica of any living being. It can look just like you or me, but inside, it remains inhuman. In the thriller The Thing, paranoia spreads like an epidemic among a group of researchers as they’re infected, one by one, by a mystery from another planet.

The Thing is released on 13 October 2011 in Australia by Universal.

September 20, 2011
This Week on DVD/Blu-ray: 20 September 2011

As you may have noticed, the DVD and Blu-ray reviews that have made DVD Bits such a success over the last 13 years can are now appearing right here on The Reel Bits. As this site grew from the humble origins of DVD Bits, it only seems fair. As such, we’re bringing back a tradition that dates back to the old DVD Bits Uncut columns for those of you with long memories or access to Google.

Region 1 (DVD) and A (Blu-ray)

In the US of A, the land of milk and honey, it’s never been explained why they get to have A and 1 for their region coding. They are getting some damn fine titles this week though. There’s the comedy surprise of the year, Bridesmaids from Universal (DVD/Blu-ray, 20 September). The DVD edition comes with an audio commentary, deleted/extended/outtake scenes, while the Blu-ray comes with a stack of Blu-ray only featurettes and bonuses. For anime fans, Bandai Visual is releasing The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, the feature length version of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and a cult favourite. We should note that Madman will be releasing this one in Australia in November. Disney is also putting out the Dumbo: 70th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray and DVD, something that we have had here in Australia since June! For once, we are one-up on the US. Packed with deleted scenes, and Disney’s PiP Cine-Explore, rertro and new documentaries and an audio commentary, this is a must-own.

Region 4 (DVD) and B (Blu-ray)

Closer to home, at least for us, an eclectic set of discs are emerging for hardened cinephiles and those with more mainstream leanings as well. By that, of course, we mean Something Borrowed comes out from Sony (DVD/Blu=-ray, 21 September).

There’s a strong selection of local films coming to DVD and Blu-ray this week from Madman including the controversial Snowtown (DVD/Blu-ray, 21 September). YOu’ll find an audio commentary, deleted scenes, music clips, casting footage and more. They are also putting out the documentary favourite Mrs. Carey’s Concert (DVD, 21 September). Blue Tongue Films’ Hesher (DVD/Blu-ray, 21 September), starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Natalie Portman, bypasses cinemas and goes straight to DVD and Blu-ray from Universal this week.

With Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams out in cinemas this week as well, Umbrella Entertainment are putting out the little seen My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (DVD, 21 September) on the round and shiny discs.

Star Wars fans, still buoyed by last week’s release of Star Wars – The Complete Saga on Blu-ray, can continue the fun as Fox puts out LEGO Star Wars: The Padawan Menace (DVD, 21 September). Could it be as much fun as playing the LEGO Star Wars video games though?

Stay tuned! Next week we’ve got Rio and Essential Killing in Australia.

September 18, 2011
New Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy poster

We’ve posted every single poster to date, so why stop now, really?

Using the same digital coding imagery as the first poster of Gary Oldman, and thesubsequent batch with Colin Firth and Tom Hardy, not to mention the ones with Benedict Cumberbatch and Mark Strong, we kind of get the idea now. Regardless, this is probably one of the best poster campaigns of the year.

The film is based on the John Le Carre novel of the same name, last filmed in 1979 as a TV mini-series with Alec Guinness. Set during the height of this Cold War, Gary Oldman will take on the role of George Smiley, who comes out of semi-retirement to hunt down a Russian agent.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is released on 17 November 2011 in Australia from Universal.

September 9, 2011