Robin Hood – ***1/2
Directed by Ridley Scott
Starring Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Max von Sydow, Mark Strong, William Hurt
Release date: May 14, 2010

Contemplate all you want. Debate and quarrel with director Ridley Scott’s primitive vision of one of the world’s most celebrated and decadent of men: Robin Hood. Men of charismatic demeanor such as Errol Flynn (1938), Sean Connery (1976), and Kevin Costner (1991) all managed to make evident the unalterably essence of cool that Robin Hood conveyed. Director Scott disrupts that essence, disintegrating it completely and allowing his vision of Robin Hood to be a dynamic mixture of both barbarian and comforter. Some will see this barbarism as an incredulous act when tacked on to such a time-honored icon. But this is exactly Scott’s intention. He wants to depict Robin Hood before he actually earns the name Robin the Hood by responding not to the whimsicality and glorious luster previous manifestations of this character took participation in. This is Scott adapting a scheme from the superhero genre; the prologue enlightening us on how Robin became the man we all know him by now. When he is stripped from all the external charms he comes at you, thanks to Russell Crowe’s wonderful performance, like an irresistible torrent that leaves you mute and silent, but also wild and boisterous.

Robin Hood instills what has been rudely banished from the action epic picture in the last decade, and that is the grandeur, size and, most importantly, the emphasis on humanity. Scott, who has intertwined humanity with the most radical of individuals (non-humans in Blade Runner and drug lords in American Gangster), has an acute eye for that which makes the heart ache and he promulgates this discovery in a robust fashion, slowly developing scenes that are frankly beautiful. He sees the emotional factor that most directors drown out with excessive action scenes [...]

It’s always entertaining to see and hear the gushing praise of a legend in the film or TV industry toward a popular show or movie or anything of significance.

Recently, the man behind the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, George Lucas, did just that by sending a letter to Lost producers including Carlton Cuse, Damon Lindelof, J.J. Abrams, and everyone else who have put so much work into creating such an amazing ride over the past six years.

Continue reading to check out George Lucas’s letter to Lost in-full.

In the letter, Lucas speaks about how he didn’t exactly know where he was heading with Star Wars and how impressive it is to create such a complex show yet still keep track of everything they had done since day one. He even shares the secret to this success as it worked on Lost and Star Wars, explaining that you just really need some “father issues” and homages to previous stories. [...]

The biggest television networks have been firing on all cylinders this week, choosing what shows to renew, what new shows to add, and what titles would be executed via cancellation.

The busiest of the powerhouse networks have been ABC and NBC, who extended and killed off some big names in their lineups. The biggest of these was easily NBC’s Heroes, which people have expected to get canceled for a long time now, but it just kept on going. There were thoughts of bringing the show, which lost its appeal by the end of the second season, back for one more closing season. Instead, NBC decided to just end the show now, but they may still do one more special finale to wrap up whatever might need wrapping up in the world of Heroes. The network also ended Law & Order (but renewed spinoff SVU) and medical dramas Mercy and Trauma.

On ABC’s side of the court, they decided to cancel a bunch of shows, including their “next Lost” hopeful, FlashForward. [...]

Back in March, Quirk Books announced that they’d be releasing the zombie-Star Trek mash-up Night of the Living Trekkies on September 1, 2010, but at the time, the final artwork for the book wasn’t available [see Trek Meets Zombies In Quirk’s Upcoming ‘Night of the Living Trekkies’].

Now, Quirk has released the final artwork. Check out the cover art here at right (click for larger, full view).

This new scifi/zombie tale, which was written by Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall, is “Galaxy Quest and Dawn of the Dead as hordes of undead attempt to feast upon the attendees of a Star Trek convention, but a group of Trekkies fight them off using what they learned from old Star Trek episodes.

Our Trek uniform-wearing cover model, a zombie with a sports sack, is wearing a pin that says “No Kill I” and holding the detached arm of his victim who obviously will not live long and prosper. Also, it looks like these ill-fated Trekkies are attending an event called Wrath of CON.

Night of the Living Trekkies is available now for pre-order right now [...]

It would be difficult for anyone to find an odder pairing than screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and the bumbling hero in Kung Fu Panda, but according to reports, that’s a match that has occurred recently.

Apparently Kaufman was brought in by DreamWorks to pen some touch-ups to the existing script for Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom, the sequel to the surprise animated hit of 2008. Kaufman’s spit-shine of the script, written by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, is completely out of the realms that he usually works within.

Kaufman is best known as the writer of two of my own personal favorite movies, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. He also wrote Being John Malkovich, Human Nature, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and Synecdoche, New York, which he also directed.

The original Kung Fu Panda featured the voice of Jack Black as an overweight clutz of a panda bear named Po who somehow ends up being dubbed the Dragon Warrior, the highest of possible distinctions for a kung fu warrior to achieve. [...]

Back in February of 2009, it was announced that Samuel L. Jackson had signed a gigantic 9-picture deal with Marvel Studios, which would see his Nick Fury character showing up in the various upcoming blockbusters that would lead to The Avengers in 2012, and possibly even a S.H.I.E.L.D. movie.

In a recent interview with Radio Big Boy, Jackson was asked about the different movies he would be appearing in for Marvel. The actor first confirmed that though Fury was in Iron Man 2 and would be in Captain America: The First Avenger and Avengers, he would not be appearing in Kenneth Branagh’s Thor. After that, Jackson went on to make quite the unexpected statement that might just get fans excited.

Here’s what Jackson said in the interview:

The Avengers should start shooting some time next year, and then some time after that there’ll be a big S.H.I.E.L.D. movie.

Now, before you get too excited, it is to be stressed that this isn’t anything set in stone. A S.H.I.E.L.D. movie wouldn’t be at all shocking considering the contract that Jackson signed with Marvel and how Nick Fury was the top-dog of the organization. [...]

Some exciting news out of the DC Comics camp this morning. Fan favorite Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, Essex County, The Nobody) will be writing a new ongoing Superboy comic!

Lemire will be teaming with artist Pier Gallo on the new series later this year. Fans will get their first taste of the book in August with a one shot co-feature in Action Comics #892.

That’s one of Gallo’s sketches here at right.

DC’s Source Blog asked Lemire what to expect from the series [...]

In case you’re not aware, a brand new chapter in the ultra-popular Fallout video game series is on the way, and it’s called Fallout: New Vegas. The game is a follow-up to 2008′s Game of the Year-winner Fallout 3, which was developed and published by Bethesda Softworks, which is one of the very best — if not THE very best — video game-producing brands on the planet today.

Bethesda is only publishing Fallout: New Vegas this time around, leaving the developing duties to Obsidian Entertainment, which has people who had a hand in making Fallout 2 way back in the day. The game will obviously take place in Vegas, bringing the title back to its roots…not to mention giving us the chance to do some post-apocalyptic gambling!

Many of the bigger video game titles that get released also offer a special limited Collector’s Edition of their game, which comes with lots of cool extras and collectibles from the game and making it the ultimate option for die-hard fans of a game or franchise. [...]

G.I. Joe Cobra II #4
Writer: Mike Costa and Christos N. Gage
Artist: Antonio Fuso
Color: Lovern Kindzierski
Letterer: Chris Mowry
IDW Publishing
Price: $3.99
Release date: April 28, 2010

It’s finally happened. It only took us more than a year, but Cobra Commander has finally shown up officially in an issue of IDW’s G.I. Joe series, and I’m really surprised his first appearance was in an issue of G.I. Joe Cobra, but here we are. Really though, he’s not the focus of this issue. The focus as always is on Chuckles, the undercover agent for the Joes, and on his mission, and we reach a big point in that mission in this issue, as Chuckles, and his teammate Chameleon are able to get out a valuable Cobra asset, but not without casualties.

G.I. Joe Cobra continues to be the standout series since IDW took over the property. The action continues to be exciting, and Chuckles continues to be an interesting character, with a dilemma not seen executed so well since Ed Brubaker’s Sleeper. Each issue makes you feel worse for him, and each issue sees him dig himself deeper into a hole. This issue is no different. If you like some espionage mixed in with your G.I. Joe, this is a series you will enjoy. It’s definitely not a “traditional” G.I. Joe series, but they have the main series if that’s what you’re looking for. This has characters you may know, but it’s told in a more realistic kind of way. Writers Mike Costa and Christos Gage have created a series that has me coming back for more with each issue [...]

Iron Man 2
Directed by Jon Favreau
Starring Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, Mickey Rourke, Scarlett Johansson
Release date: May 7, 2010

The summer movie season blasted off this past weekend with the release of the eagerly awaited Iron Man 2, the sequel to Jon Favreau’s 2008 blockbuster that launched Marvel Comics’ iconic armored adventurer onto the big screen in bravura fashion and made a bona fide movie star out of Robert Downey, Jr., surely one of the single most brilliant casting achievements in modern event cinema.

The original Iron Man also marked a turning point in the history of films based on the legendary Marvel superhero stable: for the first time, the company, which had seen its classic hand-drawn heroes and villains adapted into films ranging from the great (Spider-Man 2, X2: X-Men United, Blade) to the mediocre (the Fantastic Four movies, Daredevil), to the flat-out awful (Blade: Trinity, Elektra, Ghost Rider, the Roger Corman-produced Fantastic Four, the 1990 Captain America), decided to take back control of their celluloid destiny and finance and produce their own films in order to ensure that characters such as Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor who’ve been cooling in the Valhalla of Development Hell for more than a decade would get the most faithful, highest quality cinematic treatments made with the best creative and acting talent money could buy.

In 2008 Marvel produced the smash hit Iron Man and followed it a month later with the superb The Incredible Hulk, which didn’t do as well at the box office as Iron Man , but was still a damn fine flick and the best film adaptation of the character to date (although I have a lot of admiration for Ang Lee’s 2003 version even though it went off the rails full speed in the last twenty minutes). Now that the company is self-financing its own superhero movies for the first time they had license to do something that had been previously unheard of: crossovers [...]

Back at the beginning of April, an amazing short film called Pixels by Patrick Jean and Paris visual effects studio One More Productions was unleashed on the world. In the video, the classic video games of the ’80s invaded Earth in all of their pixelated glory and basically take over the world (Read: Atari Apocalypse: ‘Donkey Kong’ & Other Classic Arcade Games Invade New York In ‘Pixels’).

The short video spread like fire, making it one of the more popular videos we’ve seen in a long while. And now that popularity is glowing brightly, as it has been announced that a new feature-length movie will be made based on the concept. Adam Sandler and his Happy Madison Productions are developing the movie with Jean, and they’re out to Columbia Pictures to set the project up with the studio, which has a first-look deal with Madison.

be sure to click over to the other side if you haven’t seen the short film, Pixels yet.

This could really go in any direction, but at the moment, it sounds like the plan is to make a “Ghostbusters-like” action comedy in which all of the classic video game objects and characters of the past from Pac-Man, Frogger, Tetris, and Donkey Kong come out of their games and go nuts on real life. It’s like the anti-Tron! [...]

DreamWorks is currently developing a remake of the 1985 horror film, Fright Night, and a pretty impressive cast has now been formed. Anton Yelchin (Star Trek, Terminator Salvation) was already a member of the cast, and now he is joined by Toni Collette (The sixth Sense, The United States of Tara) and Colin Farrell (In Bruges, Miami Vice).

The movie follows a horror movie fanatic named Charlie who suspects that his new neighbor is actually a vampire. Obviously no one would possibly believe these suspicions, so Charlie has to go to the host of his favorite late-night horror TV show, Fright Night, Peter Vincent.

Yelchin will be playing the suspicious horror fanatic neighbor, with Collette playing his mother. Farrell will be playing the role of Jerry Dandrige, the curious neighbor who Charlie believes to be a vampire. Chris Sarandon (The Princess Bride) played the same role of Jerry in the original ’85 version. [...]

Nu Image and Millennium Films have released the first teaser poster for their upcoming video game adaptation, Kane & Lynch.

The movie stars Bruce Willis as Kane and Jamie Foxx as Lynch; and though they’re on the poster, they’re not really on the poster, so don’t expect to see just how the superstars will look in the movie just yet. Fans of the title are itchy-curious to see just how the two will look in comparison to the video game characters…especially when it comes to Foxx’s Lynch.

Head on over to the other side to see the first teaser poster from Kane & Lynch. Don’t forget your guns.

Details on the movie aren’t known, but the game follows Kane, a death row inmate who escapes along with a completely psychotic and schizophrenic fellow-inmate named Lynch. After the daring breakout, the two men are brought to meet a group of men, including Kane’s former best friend. Kane is told that he has three weeks to locate, retrieve, and return what he had stolen, or his wife and daughter would be murdered. [...]

Ultimate Comics Avengers 2 #1
Writer: Mark Millar
Penciler: Leinil Francis Yu
Inker: Gerry Alanguilan
Colorist: Laura Martin
Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99
Release date: April 28, 2010

And we have a new winner for most unwieldy title ever. Not that it has anything to do with the quality of the book, but Marvel should really drop the “Comics” part from their Ultimate titles. I’m just saying. Anyway, let’s talk about the actual issue — Ultimate Comics Avengers 2 #1.

Nick Fury continues to assemble his team of black ops super-heroes, and this issue he goes after the Punisher. We see him do his thing in brutal fashion, until Fury is able to trick the Punisher and arrest him. The Punisher is then offered a choice, join the Avengers, or go to jail, and I think we all know what Punisher’s answer is, (otherwise, we’d have a pretty boring series).

I’m kind of surprised Mark Millar hasn’t written more stories featuring the Punisher before. He seems like the perfect character for Millar’s style of over the top violence, and Millar makes good use of him here. This is a Punisher who is the best at what he does, and what he does is shoot the crap out of a ton of people. The first eight pages of this issue are an orgy of violence, and are filled with classic Punisher action. It’s a Millar-written story, so it’s not surprising that the action is well done [...]

It’s no secret that Starz has a lot of faith in their original series, Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Before the show’s first season even began, a second season had already been ordered; but unfortunately, some difficult complications arose when the show’s star Andy Whitfield was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

Whitfield is expected to make a full recovery, and he’ll even be able to play a small part in this prequel, but the show’s second season is in the midst of a significant delay due to the illness. Instead of wait their star’s return to health, Starz has decided that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to use the time to film a 6-part prequel series to the show. This prequel will begin filming this summer in New Zealand, and is expected to air in January.

The prequel will center around Batiatus (John Hannah) and Lucretia (Lucy Lawless), two crucial characters of the show, and the establishment of the House of Batiatus and the gladiator Champions that were made there. [...]

Last week the internet was on fire with rumors that a teaser trailer for Cloverfield 2 might be accompanying the arrival of Iron Man 2 when it was released last weekend.

As you can read at the bottom of our post on that rumor, there was also the chance that it could instead be a collaboration that J.J. Abrams was doing with Steven Spielberg, which would be a nod to the master film maker’s science fiction and horror work in the ’70s and ’80s. In either case, it was very clear that movie fans had something to be excited about for the 2011 summer movie season.

After that, we received an exclusive spy report of the mysterious trailer, which made it clear that it was without doubt the Spielberg collaboration. And though many were saddened that it was not Cloverfield 2, that sadness will quickly be replaced by excitement when you witness the teaser trailer here and now.

Grab your hand-held camera — just in case — and be sure not to miss a frame when you click over to the other side to watch the trailer for J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg’s Super 8. [...]

When it comes to the sequels in a juggernaut franchise, it’s only a matter of time before money becomes the main focus of the talent involved, and complications develop.

And so it begins.

As you all know, Summit Entertainment wants to split the final movie in their series, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, into two parts so that they can cover more of the story and of course, so that they can make a few hundred-million dollars more to their bank account. But why has this two-part movie always been “hoped” for and not an official decision? Money, naturally.

When Twilight was first being made it had a big following behind the books, but the movie didn’t have a massive budget and its stars, who were signed on for a possible three films if the first did well, did not get paid a lot of money. The movie went on to pull in insane box office numbers, instantly creating a worldwide phenomenon and solidifying the birth of a franchise instead of just one film. [...]

Now THIS is some casting news. Instead of announcing one name at a time, almost all of the cast for Paul W.S. Anderson‘s new take on The Three Musketeers has been revealed all in one epic explosion of names.

The movie is one of two Musketeer films currently being made (the other being directed by Doug Liman for Warner Brothers), and though Anderson is not always beloved by movie fans, this cast will make it really difficult not to be excited about.

The role of D’Artagnan, a man with dreams of becoming a Musketeer, but who finds much trouble on his road to achieving this goal, will be played by Logan Lerman. Lerman is a budding star who recently appeared as Percy in Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, and was also a candidate for the role of Peter Parker in Sony’s reboot of the Spider-Man franchise.

D’Artagnan eventually meets the Three Musketeers, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis along the way. [...]

Well pretty much everyone across the world has been anticipating this movie since Iron Man came out in 2008. I was definitely among that group and had very high expectations for Iron Man. In short I did enjoy myself and had fun watching it but it definitely did not live up to my extremely high expectations. I really wish it had and I also really wish it didn’t have so much set up for other movies in it and was just what it should have been, a sequel to a really great superhero movie.

All that aside we are here to have fun so I won’t harp on all the things I didn’t like about the movie. What I loved about both Iron Man and Iron Man 2 is the graphics and they definitely hold up in this go around just as much as the first one. I still love Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark and I pretty much love Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell in anything, even though Rourke was underused and Rockwell was just an annoying less-successful copy of Tony Stark. I also really love the addition of scenes with Clark Gregg, the mysterious agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., and new characterization of Howard Stark, played by a new favorite of mine John Slattery.

I still am a little shaky on the casting choice for Black Widow because I don’t buy Scarlett Johansson being as badass as Black Widow should be. Might as well have just cast Megan Fox in my opinion. I also didn’t necessarily agree with re-casting James Rhodes with Don Cheadle and didn’t see why it was a requirement since no one can seem to give a straight answer as to why it was done. I still like Don Cheadle as Rhodey but I don’t think it was the best for the movie. I also wasn’t sure why Jon Favreau decided to give himself a more prevalent role.

While this isn’t the best made movie or even the most fun I have had in the theater this year, I do suggest going to watch it just for a fun romp and a few great fight scenes. I enjoyed the movie overall and hope that if and when there is a third, that it is back up to par with the first.

Anyway, enough of the boring stuff, let’s get on with the SPOILER TALK! The following is my spoiler minefield for Iron Man 2 so step through it and don’t forget to drop a few mines of your own at the end of the post in our comments section [...]

The name Frank Frazetta may not immediately jump out at you, but there’s a very good chance that over the duration of your years on this planet, you’ve probably seen something that was born from his mind. Frazetta was an artist who was responsible for countless comics, posters, music albums, and some of the most popular book cover art ever created.

On Monday, Mr. Frazetta passed away at the age of 82 in Florida. The artist died after complications arose from a stroke he had suffered.

Of the many things that he did, it was the world of fantasy and science fiction where he truly made his mark. Though he began in with comic strips like Buck Rogers and Li’l Abner, he was responsible for some of the fantastic paintings used for many different books such as Edgar Rice Burroughs’ works John Carter of Mars and Tarzan. Carter, as you know, has been in the news often lately due to the movie version currently on the way. [...]