After his scene-stealing performance in the first film, it looks like he’s coming back. At least according to Superhero Hype. This news is endorsed by every member of screengeeks.com. We were all a big fan of his performance in the first one and hope to see him get peed on again. Thank you Michael Bay, thank you.  (more…)

The guest list for Starfest is finally shaping up.  An interesting thing that has come up is the announcement that there may be some studio presentations coming to the show, and a bit of speculation has begun as to what movies will be there.  Past presentations have ranged from an exclusive clip of the first five minutes of A Scanner Darkly to full studio presentations with people coming out like Karl Urban for Pathfinder, Oded Fehr for Resident Evil:  Extinction, Christian Bale for Reign of Fire, Tobey Maguire for Spider-Man, the entire cast of Eight Legged Freaks and Tom Cruise for Mission Impossible.

So what’s coming this year?  I have absolutely no idea, but here are nine picks for movies that could concievably be showing up to make presentations.  Props go out to brutus at the Starland.com forums for the inspiration on this article.  There won’t be more than one or two there, but let the speculation continue!  I will insert posters or publicity stills where available.  These are listed in order of release through the end of the year (for better or worse):

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Believe me, I’ve got nothing personally against Michael Bay, Gore Verbinski or Judd Upatow; these are all capable directors whose summer movies I’ve enjoyed and, in some cases (especially concerning Mr. Upatow) have all-out loved. On the other hand, we all know that summer movies are, for the most part, cinematic junk food intended to reach the widest (or dumbest) audience possible, with presentation and quality not nescessarily being even steven or factors of concern. Yes, “Braveheart”, “Do the Right Thing”, and “The Sixth Sense” were summer movies, but then, so were “Smokey and the Bandit”, “Judge Dredd”, “Hudson Hawk”, “Problem Child” parts one AND two, and all three movies with the words “Fast” and “Furious” in the title. Lets face it, with few exceptions, May through August is primetime for big, dumb movies that are better at creating cinematic carnival rides than an actual narrative. This can be fun, but really, how many times do you really want to go back to “Jurassic Park” (or, for that matter, watch Will Smith zap aliens or see Mike Myers say “Yeah, Baby!” for the 47th time)? Hollywood seems to think that the only important, worthwhile, award-winning, thoughtful, long-lasting, potential classics that they make are the ones that open between October 1st and January 1st. They’re usually right, by the way. Not since “Gladiator” has a summer movie won the Best Picture Oscar, and “The Silence of the Lambs” is still one of the few to open on Valentine’s Day, then win the top Academy Award in March…of the following YEAR (those Academy voters don’t seem to remember movies that opened before Halloween, for some reason)!
 
This year, the fall movie season (even moreso than the year before it) has such a thrilling line-up of directors who are the best in the world and many of them have been out of the spotlight for years, while one (who is rightfully considered one of the greatest American filmmakers of all time) is releasing his first movie in a decade! If you can’t wait for “Fred Claus”, “Alvin and the Chipmunks” and “Alien vs. Predator: Requiem”, then go back to the mall and set your headphones to Radio Disney- this article is not for you. For the rest of us, here’s a few reasons to be excited about the next couple of months at the local cinema.
 
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It remains to be seen whether Rob Zombie’s eagerly anticipated remake of John Carpenter’s “Halloween” will be worth the trouble, but there are a least two things we know Zombie got right. One- he has gone out of his way to make Michael Myers, a reliable but overly familar, now campy boogeyman, scary again, and two, he went backwards in the narrative, rather than attempt to piece together the events of “Halloween II”- “Halloween Ressurection”. Although the original is a hair dated and tame in comparison to the ultra-violent ripoffs it spawned, Carpenter’s richly suspenseful, atmospheric and smart first entry is the best. Yet, the sequels, while a mixed bunch, aren’t all bad. As a fan of this series, I can say the best of the further installments are stylish, clever and well crafted thrillers, while the worst ones, well…aren’t. Let’s take a look…

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