Get Him to the Greek
Directed by Nicholas Stoller
Starring Russell Brand, Sean Combs, Jonah Hill, Elisabeth Moss
Release date: June 4, 2010

Having been burned by spin-off’s and sequels in the past, I am not surprised that Get Him to the Greek wasn’t as good as it wanted to be. Or as good as I would have liked for it to be. It is another in a long list of movies that proves watching people have fun isn’t nearly as cool as having the fun yourself.

Aldous Snow (Russell Brand, in a reprise of his role in Forgetting Sarah Marshall) has fallen on hard times. The once successful front man for Infant Sorrow, one of the biggest bands in the world, is in the backlash stage of his career. His last album bombed, his wife left him, and as a result, he is back on drugs and alcohol. His record company, also in desperate need of a hit, decides to resurrect the band by putting on an anniversary concert to celebrate the band’s infamous show at the Greek Theatre ten years ago. Studio executive Sergio Roma (Sean “Diddy” Combs) puts intern Aaron Greenberg (Jonah Hill) in charge of going to London to bring Aldous back to L.A. for the show [...]

Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage
Directed by Sam Dunn, Scot McFadyen
Starring Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart
Release date: June 7, 2010 (Europe), June 10, 2010 (US & Canada)

‘What kind of band is Rush? It’s Rush!’ – Gene Simmons

The number three plays an increasingly significant part in the world of rock music. It is the number of chords in Status Quo’s famous three-chord boogie, the amount of sixes in the number of the beast, and the brain cell count of most drummers. It is also the amount of members of mega-selling Canadian rock trio, Rush. Three also happens to be the band’s place on the list of consecutive gold- or platinum-selling albums behind The Beatles and the Rolling Stones. On June 7, 2010, selected cinemas in Europe were host to a screening of a new music documentary about the lives and careers of these Canadian rock giants. For one night only, Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage made it to the big screen. Cool, eh?

Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage recounts the band’s expansive history through home movies, TV footage, and interviews with each band member and people who have been involved in or inspired by the music — from their modest childhoods in Canada to millionaire rock stars in the world’s biggest cult band [...]

Earlier this month, AMC released the first set of images from their upcoming series, The Walking Dead. The images were just to show off some of the great makeup work being done on the zombies that will be on the hunt in the show (Read: First Images From Frank Darabont’s ‘The Walking Dead’ Arrive Online).

Now comes the first production photograph to show off a little bit of the vibe we might be able to expect when the series premiers in October of 2010 during AMC’s Fearfest.

Click on over to the other side to check out the first zombie-in-action shot of what they’s calling “The Walkers” from The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead has the brilliant Frank Darabont working the writing, producing, and directing trifecta for the show. Darabont when speaking about the makeup work being done said “Greg Nicotero is absolutely out-doing himself. The work he is doing is beyond what one could hope for. Our Zombies kick ass!” [...]

If you’ve been following the progress of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn at all, you know it’s been long-expected and long-assumed that the final chapter to the film series would be split into two films.

The move was expected as it would be in an attempt to cover as much of the story’s details as possible and of course to pile as much cash into the bank as they possibly could before the franchise’s end.

In a press release put out by Summit Entertainment today, it was finally made official: Breaking Dawn will indeed be a two-part movie. The film will go into production some time this fall, and the first of these two movies will be released in November of 2011.

Returning cast includes Kristen Stewart (Panic Room) as Bella, Robert Pattinson (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) as Edward, and Taylor Lautner (The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl) as Jacob. [...]

Summer time can typically be responsible for one big flaw in movie news: the heat makes people rumor-happy-wacky-insane. Some of them may end up holding some truth; most of them — like the recent reports of what we could expect from Indiana Jones 5 — will end up being denied to the end as completely false.

These rumors are usually an aggravation to all, but when one has any kind of reasonable source or backing to it, it has the ability to catch some eyes. With that said, here’s one to feast your eyes and thoughts on.

Hollywood Life has word from a source close to the action that Joseph Gordon-Levitt could just be a favorite for director Christopher Nolan to cast as The Riddler in the untitled follow-up to 2008′s The Dark Knight, currently known as Batman 3.

This is the rumor everyone is running with anyway; from my perspective, it doesn’t seem to be quite that clean cut. The inside reports seem to state that since Gordon-Levitt joined the cast of Nolan’s upcoming Inception, the two have indeed talked about the young star joining the third Batman film. There is absolutely no indication of who he would be playing in the movie, if even in it at all. [...]

4th Row Films has announced that they have acquired the rights to develop a feature-length documentary that will share tell the complete story of one of the more beloved banners in comedy history, National Lampoon.

National Lampoon began in 1970 as a comedy magazine, branching out from the Harvard Lampoon (which was started at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1876). Since then, the name has gone on to spawn many books, albums, shows, and of course movies — most notably of which were Animal House and all of the Vacation movies with Chevy Chase and friends. Since those great early days, sadly, many complications, financial troubles, and exchanges in ownership have resulted in the steady decline of quality and a pile of straight-to-DVD movies that don’t deserve to wear the National Lampoon title.

Douglas Tirola and Susan Bedusa of 4th Row will be the duo bringing us the film, with Tirola taking on the directorial duties. Their goal is to showcase the entire story of this once-famed name in comedy, its evolution, decline, and what they claim is an upcoming “rebirth.” [...]

Edios Interactive and Square Enix have released a cinematic trailer for the long, long-awaited third chapter in the Deus Ex franchise, Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The trailer is being released in conjunction with the always-exciting upcoming gaming convention, E3 2010.

The games are of the first-person shooter variety, with elements of role-playing mixed in as well. The first title was released in 2000, and the second was put out in 2003, meaning that when this third adventure finally comes around in 2011, fans of the series will have been waiting just a little under a decade to get their hands on it.

Whether a long-time fan of the games or not, click on over to the other side to check out the trailer now! You shan’t be disappointed.

The catch with Human Revolution is that is will actually be a prequel to the first game, and the nanotechnology augmentations used in the other games has not been invented yet. This means that anatomical upgrades will be of the mechanical variety, but thanks to the current abilities in game development, it should all be very cool to see. [...]

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Directed by Mike Newell
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Ben Kingsley, Alfred Molina
Rated PG-13
Release date: May 28, 2010

Quick, name me a good movie based on a video game. Okay, we all know the cliché that there are no good movies based on video games (Resident Evil and its sequels may be the exception to that rule), but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible, or that Hollywood is going to stop trying. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, is just the latest attempt to translate a popular video game series into a film, and it largely succeeds in capturing what makes the game fun, and turning it into a fun action-adventure movie.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays Dastan, an orphan boy who is adopted by the king of Persia and grows up to be a somewhat roguish but loving son. He and his older brothers attack a holy city after evidence arises that the city is supplying enemies of Persia with weapons (the first of many questionable modern world allusions). As it turns out, the city isn’t really making weapons, but they do have one weapon of possible mass destruction, in the form of a dagger that can turn back time for its user. Dastan comes into possession of the dagger, and is forced to use it after he is framed for the murder of his adopted father. Tagging along with him is Tamina (Gemma Arterton), the princess of the holy city, and the latest in a line of guardians of the dagger. Dastan and Tamina must stop evil forces from trying to use the dagger for their own dastardly plans, while also trying to clear Dastan’s name [...]

In a funny press release put out by Paramount Pictures and MTV Films, it was officially announced that a biopic all about the fictional super-producer Mr. Les Grossman was being developed by the studios.

Michael Bacall (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) has been tapped to write the screenplay, and Tropic Thunder director Ben Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld of Red Hour Films will be producing.

When asked about what the movie would be about, Grossman responded “To quote my great friend Kirk Lazarus (played in Tropic Thunder by Robert Downey Jr.), ‘I don’t read the script, the script reads me.’”

Stiller then went on to say:

Les Grossman’s life story is an inspiring tale of the classic human struggle to achieve greatness against all odds. He has assured me he plans to quote, ‘F**king kill the sh*t out of this movie and make Citizen f**king Kane look like a piece of crap home movie by the time we are done.’ I am honored to be working with him. [...]

The Gold Box spotlight deal of the day over at Amazon today is the The Ultimate Matrix Collection on Blu-ray for only $49.99 (that’s 62% off the list price of $129.95).

Note, this sale is for today only until midnight PST while supplies last.

This Blu-ray edition features all three Matrix films — The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, and The Matrix Revolutions — in high definition, along with The Animatrix presented in 1080p for the first time.

There’s 35 hours’ worth of bonus material in this set pertaining to the making of the trilogy, the music, stunts, effects, deleted scenes, commentaries, and much more, including the companion piece “The Matrix Revisited.” There’s also a digital copy of The Matrix [...]

If you haven’t come to terms with the fact that sequels and remakes are just a normal, everyday part of the Hollywood machine, then you better get used to it quickly. The sooner you do, the sooner you can enjoy the prospect of a movie like Beetlejuice II happening, instead of immediately scorning the very thought.

Before you starting heating up with rage, no, no there’s not a sequel to Tim Burton‘s fantastic 1988 horror-comedy on the way…yet. This is simply a hypothetical question ignited by some interesting quotes excavated by Moviehole over the past couple months.

Apparently there was a script put together in the ’90s that saw the Deetz family moving to Hawaii where Charles Deetz (Jeffrey Jones) was building a resort that turned out to be located on top of a burial ground. The movie obviously never played out, but that’s where any sequel curiosity stems from.

Back in April, the site caught up with Geena Davis and asked what her thoughts were on a sequel ever happening. [...]

So did you like Forgetting Sarah Marshall? Are you a fan of Russell Brand and Jonah Hill? If you said yes to either of those, than you probably have already watched Get Him to the Greek. If you have seen other Judd Apatow films, you probably won’t be very shocked at what was brought to the table by this movie but if you like that kind of thing this will definitely be a movie you will enjoy.

I really have to say that I was very impressed by the writing in this movie. Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller did a great job with almost all of the dialogue and the situations were extremely funny. I was not as big a fan of the directing and some of the acting could have used a little work, but overall the movie was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it a lot.

Speaking of acting, the cast in the movie was extremely packed. I would say a majority of the budget was probably spent on casting alone. Some highlights outside of the two main characters are Aziz Ansari, Sean Combs, Zoe Salmon, Lars Ulrich, Pink, Billy Bush, Kurt Loder, Christina Aguilera, Elisabeth Moss, and many many more. Overall the some of the most fun in the movie is the different cast members and the cameos that you have to constantly look out for. This all coupled with some high quality comedy makes for a really fun comedy and a great summer movie.

Well let’s get to it guys. It’s time for the SPOILER TALK! Below are my spoiler laden thoughts about Get Him to the Greek and even farther below that is the comment section is where you can leave your thoughts about the movie as well [...]

One of my admitted guilty pleasures on TV is America’s Got Talent. Unlike shows like American Idol, this one allows anyone to do anything to impress the world, and this leads to some disastrous failures as well as some absolutely incredible performances.

On one of the episodes recently, a “technological performance group” from Austin, Texas called ArcAttack took the stage for what looked like it would become a certain failure, even catching an X by Sharon Osbourne a tad early.

To everyone’s surprise, they put on quite the spectacular show using some guitars, a self-playing drum set, the immense power of Tesla coils, a chainmail suit, and the intimidating beats of Darth Vader’s “Imperial March” from Star Wars.

Remove all metal items from your possession and head over to the dark side to check out this very cool performance.

If interested, more from ArcAttack can be found by visiting their official website. [...]

Recently, a super-trailer of sorts showed up online for what looked like some kind of new live-action Mortal Kombat movie. The video runs seven minutes and forty-nine seconds in length, and is incredibly dark and violent, just like Mortal Kombat should be.

Sadly, of all the movies spawned from the popular video game series, which launched on the Sega Genesis system in 1992, none have them have really held up. The first flick — directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and released in 1995 — was fun because most fans of the games were young enough to enjoy it at time of release, but it has not aged well and said fans are eager to the idea of a film as violent and fun as the games were way back then.

This could be that movie…if Warner Brothers decides it so.

Use your favorite fatality code to get yourself over to the other side and watch the video for Mortal Kombat: Rebirth immediately if you have yet to see it! May be NSFW to some. [...]

New Line Cinema has chosen Steven Quale to direct Final Destination 5, the latest chapter in their franchise about an unseen force that comes back to kill those who miraculously survive gruesome and tragic accidents.

Quale is a newcomer to directing, but he’s be in the filmmaking game for a long time and has worked under one of the true masters of spectacular productions: James Cameron. Quale started with Cameron in 1989 as a production assistant on The Abyss. Since then he’s worked with the director on special projects for Terminator 2: Judgment Day and True Lies, as a second unit director on both Titanic and Avatar, and as co-director on the IMAX special, Aliens of the Deep. He also worked on Avatar as a visual effects supervisor.

This was clearly what New Line wanted, as Quale beat out second unit and visual effects directors on the Let the Right One In remake Let Me In, and also the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise for the gig. [...]

This is heavy! Telltale Games has struck a deal with NBC Universal and is now hard at work on an episodic game based on my all-time favorite movie Back to the Future, as well as Jurassic Park. No word yet on style of gameplay, but Telltale is known for adventure games like Sam & Max.

If you’re not familiar with Back To The Future, then I can’t acknowledge your existence but for those of us who love the classic ‘80s trilogy about time-traveling Deloreans, hoverboards, and Michael J. Fox, this is our time!

Telltale’s CEO Dan Connors said that the games, which are in early development, wouldn’t be so much sequels but rather “a new interpretation of their worlds for a new medium.” [...]

Some big-time rumors have been taking over the net recently. Unfortunately, they are all rumor, and that means we still have to wait for official announcements. But hey, while we’re here, might as well share the whispers and see what you think!

The first rumor comes by way of New Zealand’s Stuff (via AICN), who claim to have the inside scoop on Indiana Jones 5. We’ve heard plenty from stars and others (Read: Shia LaBeouf Says Steven Spielberg Has The ‘Indiana Jones 5′ Story Set ) that the movie would be happening, but nothing about what we might be able to expect from the film.

The thing about this rumor is: you probably want it to be true.

According to the source, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are close to finishing the Indiana Jones 5 script, and it will begin filming next summer. It’s also said that this time, the storyline will revolve around the infamous Bermuda Triangle, which has been linked to many mysterious disappearances, including famed female pilot Amelia Earhart. [...]

The dust hasn’t fully settled yet, but the series finale for Lost seems to be polarizing its fan base between love and hate. It hasn’t been long since the series ended and it may take a little while for the finale to fully sink in. However, while the details are still fresh in our minds, it’s interesting to attempt to compare the Lost finale to another highly anticipated series finale that divided its fans. Yes, I’m going there. We’re going to compare the Lost finale to another controversial series finale: the end of Battlestar Galactica.

Some initial observations

On the surface, these two series may not look very similar. Battlestar Galactica focused on the crew of a gigantic starship and the other survivors of an interstellar holocaust. The Cylons’ attempt at genocide forced the survivors of the Twelve Colonies to flee from their enemies and search for a new home.

Meanwhile, Lost focused on the people who survived a plane crash stranded on a mysterious topical island: a bunch of messed up civilians who didn’t realize how bad their lives were. They discover that they aren’t alone and they’re in danger. They desperately wish to escape the terrors of their island and go home. They think that they want to return to their old lives [...]

The cast for DreamWorks’ ’80s horror movie remake Fright Night is really turning into a excellent collection of names and talents. This is absolutely unexpected considering the film being remade and similar remake projects previously attempted.

It’s being reported that David Tennant and Christopher Mintz-Plasse have now joined the cast. Tennant is of course best known for his work playing The Doctor on Doctor Who, and Mintz-Plasse has become increasingly-popular beginning as McLovin in Superbad and going on to great parts in Role Models and the recent comic book hit, Kick-Ass.

Mr. Tennant will be playing Peter Vincent, a magician (changed from the horror TV show host he played in the original) who specializes in the realms of horror and vampires, and offers his knowledge and assistance to Charlie (Anton Yelchin), the main character who suspects that his new neighbor is a vampire. Mintz-Plasse will be taking on the role of Evil Ed, Charlie’s best friend. [...]

The first season of HBO’s True Blood was something of a surprise hit. The crazy new b-movie-like series took some getting used to at first, but once you were engaged, there was no going back. With franchises like The Twilight Saga making loads of money off dumbed-down, sparkle-happy, family-friendly vampires, the ultra-violent and relentlessly graphic vampire drama unfolding in the southern town of Bon Temps was a bloody fresh new title to embrace.

The one thing about True Blood, however, that was hinted at in the first season and was completely unleashed in this second season, was that this is NOT just a show about vampires…not even close.

For those who don’t know, the basic premise to the show is that vampires and humans live among each other, but real-world issues like racism and hate crimes and protests are often occurrences between the two species. In the small town of Bon Temps, Louisiana, only a few “fangs,” as they’re called, live among the nervous townspeople. [...]