Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
This is the first poster for 300 Rise of an Empire. As you probably guessed (if you didn’t already know), 300 Rise of an Empire is a sequel of sorts to 300.
The jury is out on this one, but I’m hoping for a thumbs-up verdict.
This is the first poster for Fast & Furious 6 that I’ve liked. It looks even better bigger thanks to IMPAwards.
Mike Torrance aka The Krayola Kidd returns with his Rocky 2 card.
You can see more of Mike’s art at The Daily Sketch with The Krayola Kidd (and if you’ve never checked out Mike’s site, you ought to if only to see his Walking Dead cards!) and his Deviant Art site. Mike is available for commissions and his prices are very reasonable.
MSN Entertainment recently listed their 100 Favorite Films. I’d seen 72 of them.
Of the 72, I could give a “thumbs-up” to all but 4. So it’s not a bad list, as lists go.
Of course, any list of favorite movies that doesn’t have Rocky in there somewhere has to be called into question.
Although I like this character poster of Johnny Depp as Tonto, I wonder how the movie, The Lone Ranger is going to do at the box office. My guess is it will either do really well or bomb.
In other words, I have no clue.
Fans of the traditional Lone Ranger (you know, folks old enough to remember the Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels Lone Ranger from the 50s tv series) will probably stay away. Of course if you’re old enough to remember the tv series, you’re probably not the demographic the movie is aiming for.
The question then becomes will Depp’s Pirate of the Caribbean fans show up?
But wait… is Johnny Depp the only selling point to this movie? What about Armie Hammer who is starring as The Lone Ranger?
Let me put it to you like this, I don’t think it’s Hammer Time.
If Depp’s fans don’t show up, the box office for The Lone Ranger will limp off in a cloud of dust with a weak, “Hi – No Silver, the Box Office It Got AWAY!”
Roger Ebert, was one of the most popular movie reviewers of our time, the first film critic to win a Pulitzer prize, and a fan of cartoons.
Mr. Ebert was a regular contributor to The New Yorker’s Cartoon Caption contest and had even won the contest on at least one occasion. Robert Mankoff takes a look at some of Roger Ebert’s Final Cartoon Captions at The New Yorker.
The cartoon that is posted above features one of Ebert’s captions, but it wasn’t the one that got him the win (“I’m not going to say the word I’m thinking of.”) or even the one that I thought was the funniest (“Now watch how I lift my tray table to it’s original and upright position.”). We’ll save those for folks that click over to the original New Yorker piece.
Mike Torrance aka The Krayola Kidd rocks his riff on a Rocky card that is part of a sequence/set that I think you’re going to like.
You can see more of Mike’s art at The Daily Sketch with The Krayola Kidd (and if you’ve never checked out Mike’s site, you ought to if only to see his Walking Dead cards!) and his Deviant Art site. Mike is available for commissions and his prices are very reasonable.
Gerardo Moreno is back with his version of a new Terminator movie poster. I’ve always enjoyed Gerardo’s Stallone art, and know that I can see more of his art here.
I’m digging this poster for World War Z. I really hope the movie is living up to the hype.
If you’d like to see a World War-sized version of this poster, you can, thanks to the zombie fighters at IMPAwards.com.
Roger Ebert, arguably the most popular movie reviewer of our time, and unarguably the first film critic to win a Pulitzer prize, passed away today after a long battle with cancer.
Just two days ago Mr. Ebert had posted that he was taking a Leave of Presence from his role as film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times. While Mr. Ebert was stepping away due to his health and treatments for the cancer that had returned, he was far from retiring. Mr. Ebert spoke about more movie reviews and writing he planned to do, a redesigned website, and digital presence as well a Roger Ebert video game or app.
So it was a surprise to learn that today Roger Ebert passed on.
Of course it wouldn’t have surprised him. As Mr. Ebert wrote in his piece, I Do Not Fear Death:
I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear…
R.I.P. Roger Ebert.
Two Guns is based on a graphic novel (of the same name) written by Steven Grant and drawn by Mat Santolouco.
So it has a good foundation.
Two Guns opens on August 2nd. It looks like it’s competition will be 300: Rise of an Empire and Red 2.
So it should/could open at #1.
Two Guns has a new trailer that you can see below.
So what do you think?
A little less than a year ago we posted a flow chart that maps the connections between Stephen King’s characters and books. We thought maybe it was time to link to the updated version.
Congrats to Tessie Girl for working it all out.
So there’s going to be a new tv series based on the hit movie Zombieland. It will air on Amazon and be called Zombieland: The Series.
Despite today’s date, I’m not fooling.
That’s the poster for the series above. You can learn more about plans for the series in this article at Arrow in the Head.
This week we have Rambo by Cory Walker. Cory is an amazing artist and I got this sketchcard as a bonus for buying his sketchbook.
There’s been a lot of talk lately about rebooting Snake Plissken from Escape to New York fame. The new plan calls for a trilogy of films with a new actor playing Snake Plissken.
Although I like the idea, I’m not lining up for ticket just yet. Way back in 2006, it was reported that John Carpenter and Kurt Russell were meeting with studio execs about making a third Snake Plissken movie to be titled Escape from Earth.
The movie never materialized.
Then in 2007, it was announced that Gerard Butler [star of the fan favorite and record setting “300”] was set to take on the role of Snake Plissken and Ken Nolan [“Black Hawk Down”] was on board to produce the screenplay which would have updated the 1981 John Carpenter script.
Again, nada.
When Kurt Russell was asked his thoughts about a remake of Escape from New York with Gerard Butler as Snake, Russell responded, “I am Snake Plissken… I do think that character was quintessentially one thing. And that is, American. I have nothing against Gerard Butler. I think he was great in 300 and I expect him to do other cool projects.”
Of course neither Butler nor Russell got a chance to play Snake in a remake because it never happened.
Three years later we were told, Escape from New York was being prepped for a reboot. The Plissken role made famous by [Kurt] Russell would be re-cast with a yet-to-be named actor.
That resulted in… nothing.
So a little over a week ago when the news broke that there had been movement on a trilogy of Snake Plissken movies, I didn’t hold my breath. I did suggest that Guy Pearce would be my choice to play Snake.
Of course that goes against Kurt Russell’s thoughts that not only should Snake be an American, but the actor playing him should be as well. As Russell told Empire in a recent interview:
When it comes to Snake, I can tell you one thing… he’s American. It’s really important that he’s American. There’s a reason why that great fight in the arena [in Escape From New York] is with a baseball bat. That’s American, OK? He knows what he’s doing with that bat in his hand!
It’s also interesting to note that Russell no longer feels he should be the one to play Snake. As he told John Carpenter in this exchange from the same interview in Empire:
“Could I do it again?” asks Russell, shaking his head. “No.”. Carpenter interjects: “He could do Old Snake.” Russell sighs. “I never wanted to do Snake old.” “Why not?” asks Carpenter. “If you’re going to do him,” expands Russell, “do him young. He’s one of those guys.”
Since Guy Pearce is Australian, who should play Snake? I’ll have to get back to you on that… when the remake is a little closer to reality.
