Today's Triple News: horrible witch terminators

More news posted at MovieScene this here few days:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/157120/eerste_foto_vin_diesel_in_the_last_witch_hunter

As has been proven before on several occasions, Vin Diesel likes using social media to reach out to his fanbase (and movie news hungry editors like myself) about his current projects. It's good to see a Hollywood star keeping in touch with his followers himself rather than letting the Hollywood propaganda machine do that for him, though of course, we should not tell ourselves that anything Diesel posts isn't done with permission by the studios' promotional think tanks. This is the first we've seen of The Last Witch Hunter (not surprising, as it's still only half way through production). Doesn't show us much, but assures the Diesel fanatics their hero will play yet another gruff, masculine man of action, this time (partially) in a medieval setting. Whether the movie will be any good is hard to tell from just this single teaser image. The story doesn't seem all that inspired, combining ingredients from recent flicks like The Sorcerer's Apprentice (fantasy warfare in present day New York City) and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (witch hunters teaming up with good female witches to stop evil covens: plus the title of the film) without adding much novelty and seemingly swapping the element of humour for a more serious Gothic tone. The supporting cast seems decent enough, with the likes of Elijah Wood, Michael Caine and Rose Leslie. Especially the latter has her work cut out for her, as this is her first major Hollywood role. She had time for it apparently, now that her character didn't survive the last season of Game of Thrones.

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/157121/nieuwe_trailer_en_poster_horrible_bosses_2

I'm still not convinced of the need for a sequel to Horrible Bosses by watching this trailer. There isn't any really, other than the fact the predecessor made ample money to tell the studio a sequel might do the same. And so we basically get more of the same story, just with situations added and rearranged to some extent to let the audience know they're not looking at exactly the same picture. Again we have the trio of incompetent protagonists screwed over by their employer and plotting a revenge. This time it involves kidnapping rather than murder. Enter Chris Pine as the victim. And re-enter Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Spacey as two of the titular bosses from the original who are somehow woven into the new plot, even though their story lines seemed to have been over and done with at the climax of the first film. How ingenious the ways of Hollywood story telling, just to ensure enough characters return to repeat jokes and make the movie seem repetitive. At least we'll have one new boss, played by Christoph Waltz. There's something new for you, though not enough to make you feel the need to go to theaters to see this film. Seems more like the stuff of illegally downloading on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/157130/terminator_sequels_aangekondigd

Another example of a studio getting way ahead of itself by planning multiple sequels based on the hopes the first film, which is what this will be somewhat as it's clear by now we're dealing with a rebooted franchise, will do well with audiences. Reboot or not, it still stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, even though the guy seems way too old to do the stuff he used to do on the first trilogy by now. Rumour has it he will not be a killer cyborg this time though. But as always, it would make much more sense to work off guaranteed success rather than spending millions of dollars pre-producing two sequels that may get scrapped if the box office results of their predecessor disappoint. And isn't this exactly what happened on the last Terminator film, Salvation? That movie, too, was meant to take the franchise into new directions 9without the Austrian Oak, mostly) and spawn a new trilogy, but disappointing financial grossing put a stop to such plans beyond this single project. Down the drain went that second trilogy, leaving a poor standalone film in its wake. It wasn't a total financial failure, but scored last in the list of released Terminator films thus far. The studio (that is, a different one, as the previous owner went bankrupt) appears to feel adamant that by bringing Schwarzenegger back in a prominent role, whatever it may be, that critical element that guaranteed box office success (which it did, in the Eighties) will do so again. It didn't work on The Expendables 3 though, so they ought not get their hopes up too much. But apparently, they do. Hollywood will never learn it seems.

Today's News: Walker may be dead but F&F lives on

Some more news from everybody's favorite Dutch movie news site, posted by myself:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/152815/lot_paul_walker_in_fast_and_furious_7_bekend_gemaakt

Let's face it: if one of your lead actors dies in real life, you can't just kill his character off too in the movie he plays in because that might feel a tad disrespectful of and ungrateful to all his contributions. Paul Walker starred in all but one of the Fast & Furious flicks, the same amount as the other franchise protagonist Vin Diesel, so he surely deserves better, especially in the eyes of the fanbase. Cutting him out was never an option either; the footage he had already shot needed to be used to ensure the project didn't lose face. It seems the writers/producers/director thus optioned for the only way open to them that would honour both Walker's memory, please the fans and keep the story going without losing credibility. And so Walker's character will retire from his current life of fast cars, gorgeous dames and high speed robberies. He deserves it after surviving no less than five of these films, wouldn't you agree? The question now is whether the material of Walker shot so far will accomodate this change in scripting, as both his character and the plot of the film itself are taken in a new direction nobody would have foreseen (or do you think they have a list of back-up plans in case of emergencies like these?). I wouldn't be surprised if relatively little of Walker's scenes get through the cutting room unscathed and I don't think his character as a result will feature that much screen time at all to be honest. Unless they create a digital version of Walker to bridge the gaps. Why not after all: if they did it with Oliver Reed in Gladiator 15 years ago, they should be able to pull the same thing off now.

Walker's death makes you sit and think how much depends on the good health of the main cast and the difficulties presented by the departure - especially from life - of one of them to everybody else involved in the making of a movie. Studios lose a lot of time and money over such tragedy, as everything done for the film so far comes to a full stop, while much of what was shot ends up being either a bitch to craft into a new smooth and intelligible whole, or worse, just totally worthless. In the case of an original movie recasting would be in order, but not so where a hugely successful franchise is concerned, since the audience knows and loves these characters and will take umbrage when one of them is brisquely set aside without a decent explanation or respectable final aria. So naturally Universal is walking a thin line here, as people still couldn't get enough of F&F even after six films (to each his own, though I myself was also pleasantly surprised by the energetic vigour of the fifth film), and Walker is partially responsible for said box office triumphs. Thankfully for those fans, Fast and Furious 7 is swiftly regrouping, and future installments in this cycle of fast paced action flicks are still a work in progress. After all, that other leading man Vin Diesel is far from dead yet. Though I wouldn't be surprised if Universal execs hid his sports car and encouraged him to take trains to work for the next few years.


Speaking of life and death, I survived yet another Christmas break at work. Just so you know.

Today's Mini-Review: Riddick

Riddick: ***/*****, or 6/10

Belated third installment of the so-called 'Riddick trilogy', which started with the moderate hit Pitch Black (2000) and continued with the overly grandiose The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), like this film (which in some territories carries the ominous subtitle Dead Man Stalking) written and directed by David Twohy. Vin Diesel returns as the muscular Richard B. Riddick, a member of the enigmatic, near extinct humanoid race called Furyans that can see in the dark, is adept at survival against all odds and generally proves hard to kill. Nevertheless, Riddick's new army of followers he conquered at the end of the previous film tries to do just that, leaving him for dead on a barren world populated by all manner of vicious beasts, where he himself still reigns supreme as the most dangerous predator of all (as usual). Nevertheless, driven by his primal instinct to return to his homeworld, Riddick decides to let his continued existence be known via an emergency beacon on a vacant outpost, after which two different teams of bounty hunters arrive to hunt him down. One of these is out solely for money, with the clear intent of 'ghosting' their prey as he's worth twice as much dead as he is alive, while the other is on a mission of a more personal nature, led by a father who believes he once lost his son at Riddick's cold hands. The latter team also comes with Katee Sackhoff, almost reprising her seminal role as Battlestar Galactica's Starbuck playing a tough woman who takes crap from no man and is fully able to defend herself from everybody who dares to try. Gratifying as it is to see Sackhoff can still balance smart, strong and sexy, her character proves fairly redundant as she has no singular action scenes of her own, save for a brief suspenseful shower sequence, while she's plagued by being the butt of sexually intimidating jokes for most of the film. After Riddick has outwitted and caused the deaths of half of the men out for his head, as well as having made off with vital starship components which prevent the teams from leaving, he successfully convinces them to seize hostilities for a while as a huge storm front is sweeping over their heads and brings forth great scores of hungry carnivores that want a piece of all of them. Soon, it seems as though even Riddick will not make it out alive this time, but we as an audience know better of course.

For those who watched the trailer and wondered how the heck Riddick went from being a virtual emperor of the galaxy at the end of Chronicles of to a lone survivor on a desolate world at the start of Riddick, a narrative connection between the events of this film and its predecessor is all too briefly incorporated, as we are treated to seeing Karl Urban's Lord Vaako again for less than 60 seconds of screen time (a waste of a terrific actor!), despite the suggestion that the information he relays is crucial in some way: it would appear Twohy still has some sort of big pay-off in mind to close off what he started in the second film, but appearently he either didn't have the inspiration or the budget to treat that specific subject in this film, necessitating him to return to the tone and substance of the original. It all proves overly familiar territory, and often feels very much like an uninspired retread of Pitch Black, which also witnessed Riddick making an unlikely alliance with his enemies in order to escape the jaws and clutches of hordes of creepy creatures out for human blood on an inhospitable planet. Problem is, though Riddick ends up a fairly entertaining popcorn flick (especially for those who are new to the franchise), Pitch Black did it all better. It had more original visual design, less obvious digital monsters and made the character of Riddick feel more menacing and alien, while at this point we know exactly what to expect from his persona: a limited vocabulary, general growling and the usual bloodshed of (mostly unlikeable) characters standing in his way. Riddick sadly remains a one-note character played by an equally one-note actor. Now that Twohy has displayed there's just little more he can do with the Riddick character and the latter's coolness factor has decidedly worn off, this may be a good time to put an end to this franchise that so clearly was never meant to be a franchise, Twohy's hints at a fourth film not withstanding.

Today's News: Riddick returns

Found another scoop for MovieScene the other day:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/147142/eerste_trailer_riddick_online

Looks pretty good where actors (Katte Sackhoff, yay!), action and FX are concerned. Story wise, I'm less convinced. First of all, this movie seems a rehash of the first Riddick film, Pitch Black (2000). It too saw Diesel's titular character stalked by creepy aliens on some visually intriguing planet while also having to deal with loudmouth overmuscled bounty hunters that were after his skin. Yes, PB was a good movie while its successor, the simply titled The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), proved less fascinating fare in retrospect (a bit too grandiose and bombastic for most people's taste). But it does not do to just go back to past successes by carbon copying former glory as this movie appears to do. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe there's more here than meets the glow-in-the-dark eye, but for now I don't see it.

Second, from what I can gather from this trailer, the previous film (the aforementioned Chronicles of...) is blatantly ignored, which is rather frustrating considering how it ended (spoiler! - Riddick basically becomes emperor of the galaxy - ). Again, the trailer might just be skipping out on particular plot information, but so far it seems not to, which in this case I find ungrateful towards the second film - even though it may not have been perfect I found it to be all kinds of fun - and confusing for the audience, including myself. The ever reliable IMDb lists Karl Urban returning as the formerly MacBethean Necromonger second-in-command Vaako, which would at least acknowledge a connection with Riddick's past chronicles, but I didn't spot him in the trailer. I guess I'll just have to what and see just what the frak is going on here.

And did it say IMAX thar? Nerd likes this! Whatever the film might lack in terms of plot, it might very well make up for in imagery and style (again), which would make it well suited for the IMAX format. It doesn't even say 3D, which would also be a welcome change of pace by now. So okay, the trailer might be utterly misleading with regards to the story, or suggesting they screwed with Riddick's established character history (it's been nine years after all, so who but avid movie buffs would remember what happened previously?), but hey, it's gonna look and sound superb. Who cares about using them brain cell thingies when you can watch Vin Diesel bashing bounty hunters and badass beasties on an excessively large screen? You're not afraid of this decadence, are you?

And yes, posting more (mini)reviews is still very much on my mind. I was just too busy writing a few new Jurassic Park action figure reviews for JPtoys this week. I really ought to post those on my blog as well, all 200 of them. They may not be movie reviews, but it shows I can review other things than movies too. Heck, if I had time I'd review anything I came across, from 17th century garden gnomes to present day public soap dispensers. Sadly, time is always against me.

Today's News: Fast 7 is a go

This just in from MovieScene:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/146359/fast_and_furious_7_krijgt_releasedatum

This is a trend Hollywood seems to appropriate more and more: they spread the word about a sequel just mere weeks before its predecessor hits theatres to boost awareness of that film in question. That way, they suggest they have real faith in the upcoming film - even if it turns out to be a total dud and the studio knew it all along - so everyone should go and see it to make sure the promised sequel will indeed happen (even if we do not yet know whether we want it to happen ourselves). Sometimes this backfires on the studios, as in the case of John Carter where such a tactic didn't pan out: the film flopped (sadly, since I happened to like it) and the sequel we were told in advance was sure to happen got canned after all. However, in this particular case Universal risks less, since Fast and Furious has already been established as a proven concept that continues to draw audiences because it delivers the simple goods spectators expect to see: fast cars, tough guys, pretty girls and mesmerizing highway stunts. Considering Fast Five did surprisingly well at the box office, Fast Six was a logical next step: interest is still very much alive and awreness is fairly fresh, so the studio took a minor gamble on announcing Fast Seven just before Fast Six arrives in theatres. Releasing such news via the lips of the main actor (Diesel) at a movie convention, instead of using a regular press release, shows the audience is rewarded directly for its loyalty by making the star promise his return directly to them to wow them once more. 'Do ut des', as the Romans once said with relation to their gods: I give if you give. As long as we go and pay to see the film, we'll get what we want, with the promise of a continuing fruitful relationship in the form of more of these fun action flicks down the road. Until one of these sequels turns out truly horrendous of course, and the deal is broken.

Do I want to see Fast Seven? I dunno, haven't seen Fast Six yet... However, I liked Fast Five more than I thought I would. Though, I got the feeling the story was about to be concluded for good in the upcoming installment of this franchise, all loose ends neatly tied up: hence the tagline 'all roads lead to this'. Apparently there's some more roads nobody knew about that lead to part seven. But hey, I should have known better, since Hollywood doesn't really care about loose ends: it just creates it own ends if needs be, and money is certainly such a need.

Chronicles of Riddick, The

Rating: ***/*****, or 7/10

Overly bombastic and grandiose sequel to the much smaller scale Sci-Fi horror flick Pitch Black (2000), revealing director Twohy had near Star Warsian aspirations with the Riddick character, which despite the ambitious undertaking of this epic attempt never really materialized any further. Set some years after the events of Pitch Black, Chronicles of Riddick picks up with the continuing hunt for the dangerous anti-hero Riddick (Vin Diesel doing the only type of character he can pull off successfully: the grumpy, violent bullyboy with a heart of gold), though this time not so much for the bounty on his head, but more for the purpose of having him combat a new threat to the galaxy in the shape of the massive world-conquering army of Necromongers, who seek to convert all life to their semi-religious cause or kill it instead. Riddick has little interest in abandoning his quiet lonely life in the wilds, but hesitantly accepts, resulting in a fair amount of high adrenaline fight and chase sequences in a movie that looks terrific but is ultimately yet another haphazard play on the age-old 'good versus evil' routine. Though Riddick continues to be a fun character for his total lack of subtlety and cynical attitude, the rest of his universe is just a bit too weird to fully run along with. Also features Karl Urban (always a blast in this type of action film) as a Necromonger commander caught in a MacBeth type web of intrigue with his wife (Thandie Newton) out to persuade him to kill his dark overlord and take his place, as well as a small role for Judi Dench as an elemental spirit seeking to convince Riddick to be a force for good. Star Wars this is not, but if you take the silly names and bizarre characters with a grain of salt there's quite a few things to enjoy in this action flick. A third Riddick movie has been in the works for years and as of 2012 seems to be finally picking up some steam.

Starring: Vin Diesel, Karl Urban, Judi Dench

Directed by David Twohy

USA: Universal Pictures, 2004