Smokin’ Title Sequences

Posted on by


If the movie is near as cool as the title sequences, then “Smoking Aces” is going to be a fun ride. There’s no doubt that writer/director, Joe Carnahan can deliver the goods. Add in a cast that includes Jeremy Piven, Peter Berg, Andy Garcia, Alicia Keys, Ryan Reynolds, Ray Liotta and a bunch of others and I think that we’re in for a blast.

Oh, and just two more things: 1] Mauro Fiore [who did the same job on Sly Stallone‘s remake of “Get Carter”] is the director of photography and Clint [“The Fountain”] Mansell is once again the man behind the music.

World War Z

Posted on by

Over at his blog, my buddy Chad, was talking up what an awesome book War World Z is.

And it is.

I read it a few months ago and regularly think about how cool it was. Chad had the great idea to get the audio version of the book. After seeing how much Chad enjoyed listening to it [and this is AFTER reading it], I may have to do the same. [It would be to fun listen to on a long road trip at night!]

Well, my post can’t just be about how cool Chad’s post was, can it? I guess it could, but I always like to bring something to the table. So HERE is a link to the official World War Z site. It has a lot of fun things to check out. For instance, I had a 34% chance of surviving the zombie war. Ok, maybe THAT wasn’t the best example I could have used for a fun thing… but you get the idea.

Ok… you guys check out the World War Z site and I’ll get to work on scooping Chad‘s next post.

If It Weren’t For Bad Luck…

Posted on by

I always try to keep my ZONE pieces positive and I don’t want that to change. Generally things go really well for me… You can hear the “but” coming can’t you?

For the last couple of weeks my luck has been terrible. [Before I go on, let me make it clear that the problems that I’m going to mention are minor compared to what some folks go through daily. I’m not looking for pity, only to explain why my posts have been scarce.]
It all started a few days before Christmas. My computer died. I know for some of us, that’s worse than the death of a seldom-seen relative. Luckily I had backed up most things. Of course I lost a bunch of e-mails and the like, but not enough to wish harm to dear ole Uncle Sticky. The timing wasn’t the best [“Rocky Balboa” had just opened and I had another week to go on the official movie blog], but I knew that I’d be able to work things out.
We’d been planning a family trip for the day after Christmas and I was looking forward to Christmas Eve with my wife and kids, my mom, my brother’s family, my two sister’s and their families, my cousin… well, you get the picture. Christmas Eve was great, unfortunately before the night was out my youngest son was throwing up and had come down with a major stomach bug. We postponed opening Christmas presents since he was so sick. [You KNOW a kid is sick when he doesn’t feel liking opening gifts.]
We decided to put off our trip for a day to make sure that Chris felt well enough to travel. The next day I came down with it. I spent the day reliving Chris’ losing battle to avoid the bathroom. I was throwing up and facing other aspects of the bug. Obviously we’d have to put off the trip again.
The next day I was still feeling woozey and my oldest son came down with the bug as well. Thank God we have two bathrooms. At that point we knew we weren’t destined to go out of state and cancelled the trip.
After a few days of the entire family feeling healthy we decided that a short trip to St. Augustine [about 60 miles away] was in order. We all loaded up the car and headed off. We made it about two miles from the house when my car died! I pulled it over to the side of the road and contacted Triple A. One and a half hours later a tow truck arrived [my family had long since left with another family member] and it was off to the shop where I learned it was a problem with the fuel pump.
And my computer was still dead.
Still, there is usually a silver lining… the fuel pump was under warranty. We’ve all returned to good health. I’m writing this post from my NEW computer and Uncle Sticky is probably still alive and kicking.

Double Your Fun!

Posted on by


I’m a big fan of double features. Since the demise of drive-ins [yeah, I know, many of you are too young to have ever been to one], we just don’t get ’em anymore.

That’s about to change next April when Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez [roll those R’s Kelsey!] team up to bring us “Planet Terror” [zombies] and “Death Proof” [muscle car serial killer – not that he kills muscle cars, mind you].

Here’s the trailer.

 

Live Free and File Harder

Posted on by
I have enjoyed all of the “Die Hard” movies. While I totally agree that “Die Hard” was by far the best, that doesn’t take away my enjoyment of of “Die Hard 2: Die Harder” and “Die Hard with a Vengeance.”
So, yeah, I’m looking forward to “Live Free or Die Hard” [although it’s going to mess with my alphabetical filing of my DVDs if it makes the cut]. Unfortunately, the trailer doesn’t convince me that it will.

007: 002 Views – 001 Vision

Posted on by

 

The caricature of Daniel Craig aka “The New James Bond” is the work of Tom Richmond. Tom is perhaps best known for his artistic endeavors at Mad magazine. I’ve been following Tom’s work for some time now, and regularly check out his blog. Initially it was Tom’s art that kept me coming back, but that’s not what I’m writing about today.

Tom posted his thoughts after seeing “Casino Royale” yesterday. While I was reading Tom’s review, I kept nodding and thinking, “My thoughts EXACTLY.” I couldn’t agree more with Tom in regard to his take on “Casino Royale” and the James Bond franchise. So if you want to know what I thought about the movie, then click HERE… as an added bonus you’ll get to see a bunch of Tom’s cool art as well.

 

Drive… Wheelman

Posted on by

There’s not much better than a good crime novel… unless it’s two good crime novels. Today I’m going to recommend two excellent ones which interestingly enough both feature a getaway driver as their main character!

Drive written by James Sallis opens with Driver [the main character] wounded and slouched against a cheap hotel room wall. Three dead bodies lay around him. From there the story takes us back showing us glimpses of how a violent childhood led to his current double-life where his talents behind the wheel have brought him to a potentially bloody end. Before his betrayal on a heist doomed from the start, Driver simply drove. He didn’t even carry weapons. Now, wounded and with a price on head, things are about to change…

The Wheelman by Duane Swierczynski opens in the middle of a bank robbery which has gone south. Still, with a little bit of luck Lennon [the driver] and the two robbers get away… briefly. What follows is a fast paced, violent, and at times humorous story of what happens when crooked cops, the Italian mob, the Russian mob, and other quirky characters take an interest in getting their hands on Lennon and the money. Swierczynski takes the story [which moves at a breakneck pace] and fills it with double-crosses, surprises and great prose.

Man of the Year Material

Posted on by

My buddy, “Big” John Beatty, although best known for his comic book art [The Punisher, Captain America, Batman, etc.] does, from time to time, write a pretty funny blog.

Big John has started updating again. His most recent post looks at People Magazine’s two time Sexiest Man of the Year award winners George Clooney and Johnny Depp. Seems that since Big John has so many things in common with them, he feels that his time as Sexiest Man of the Year must be coming. Read John’s post and then come on back for my comments.

Oh, back so soon?

I did some research and contacted a friend in the know. He called me back and the conversation went like this:

Mr. X: “John Beatty is on the list to be People’s Sexiest Man of the Year. The trouble is there are a few people ahead of him. Folks like: Andy Dick, Abe Vigoda, Don Rickles, Rex Reed and Jackie Gleason.”

Me: “Jackie Gleason! Jackie Gleason has been dead for years.”

Mr. X: “Yeah, but even now he’s still sexier than Beatty.”

Me: “Wow. That’s rough.”

Mr. X: “Yeah, but Craig, there’s one thing you need to know.”

Me: “What’s that?”

Mr. X: “Beatty‘s ranked ahead of you on the list.”

Ouch.

Scalped… a Sly Recommendation

Posted on by

Today I’d like to recommend Scalped, a new comic series which premieres in January. It’s a crime comic set in the “world of gambling, gunfights, G-men, Dawg Soldiers, massacres, meth labs, trashy sex, fry bread, Indian pride -”

Hey! Wait a minute. Did you say Indian pride?

Yep [and thanks for asking].

Scalped comes to us from Vertigo comics [for mature readers] and is written by Jason Aaron with art by R.M. Guera. For a preview of the issue click HERE.

The first cover is by fan favorite Jock and can be seen here. Now is it me or does the face on the Native American look a bit like Sylvester Stallone from this Herb Ritts photo? Want to see them both together? What do you think?

Truth be told, it does look like Jock used a Herb Ritts’ photo of Sly for reference, but it may have even been another photo from the same session. I can’t lay my fingers on the photo, but here’s a digital painting that John Beatty did of it.

It’d be cool if Jock was a Stallone fan… but either way, I’d still recommend Scalped.

Return of the Digital Dragon!

Posted on by

Rob Cohen [director of “Daylight,” “The Fast and the Furious,” and “Dragon”] wrote in to the LatinoReview.com to explain his plans for his next picture which will star Bruce Lee. [You read that right Bruce Lee].

Here are a couple of tidbits from the post: “I am creating an entirely photo-realistic Bruce Lee with new, advanced digital technology… This will be the first digital actor and I am very excited about the challenge.”

Let’s consider how cool this will be if it works. Not only would we get to see the closest thing to the return of Bruce Lee, but it will also usher in the next generation of all-star movie casts! Think about how cool it would be to see Sly Stallone, young Marlon Brando, Humphrey Bogart and Lee Marvin acting along side each other. The possibilities are endless.

So, what would your dream cast be?

 

Who Thought Hughes Would Lose?

Posted on by

Last night UFC 65: Bad Intentions was held. The main event was Matt Hughes defending his title against George St. Pierre. Despite the fact that GSP was considered to be far and away the best challenger, most folks didn’t REALLY think that he’d defeat Hughes. The consensus seemed to be there’s Matt Hughes and then a notch down George St. Pierre and then several notches down were contenders for the third spot.

 

Well, last night George St. Pierre ended any discussion that didn’t start with him in the first spot. Not only did GSP defeat Matt Hughes, but he did it soundly by a KO at 1:25 of the second round!

There were other fights on the card and you can see all results HERE, but my guess is you’re probably still shaking your head over the Hughes loss.