The Week In Review
We at Screen Geeks have taken time off to let Dave recover from a nasty round with the flu (the winner: ultimately Dave, but the flu got some good punches in). During the past week, some of the biggest entertainment stories of the new year have broken out and have every movie fan overwhelmed. Here's a quick outlook at the entertainment scoops that have everyone talking.
THE GOOD:
In addition to finally unveiling the trailer to “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”, Lucasfilm also dropped the news that we're getting a new “Star Wars” movie THIS YEAR! Opening August 15th is “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”, an entirely animated movie bridging episodes II and III. No word yet on how much of the original cast will provide voice work, but the look and style of the film will differ from the current and terrific “Star Wars” animated shorts that aired on the Cartoon Network during the past few years. In fact, additional animated shorts will reportedly air on the network in order to build anticipation for the film. On one hand, most agree that an animated “Star Wars” film won't meet the same blockbuster success as the prior prequels and, with six months until the release, the hype will seem muted compared to the year-in-advance trailers and posters that the feature films received. On the other hand, most die-hard “Star Wars” fans are more fond of the animated shorts than the prequel trilogy, and animation is truly the way to go with these stories, as they ideally capture rich and affordable visions and the problems that plagued the previous movies (stiff acting, weak dialogue)
are less obtrusive in animated form. This is a late summer release that will likely build great anticipation, once the hype for all the big summer movies has died down.
THE BAD:
J.J. Abrams' “Star Trek” has officially been pushed back by Paramount Pictures until May 8th, 2009. Their reason is that it “plays better as a summer movie” and they feel it will have a better chance as a potential franchise builder in early May than during the busy Christmas movie season. Now, if this is a vote of confidence on Paramount's part, then I'm happy they like what they've seen and feel they have a blocvkbuster on their hands…but dangit! It got pushed back six months! I can't wait to see this and, rather than wait 10 months, I'm now looking at 15 months! I was hoping the movie would turn out so good that, had it been released in December, it could've been an Oscar contender (the way “Star Trek IV” was up for 4 Academy Awards, 21 years ago). Good luck to Abrams and the cast and crew of “Star Trek”.
THE UGLY:
(or, Barry's Sweet Revenge) The remake of “April Fool's Day”, starring Scout Taylor Compton, is officially going to DVD (Evil Laugh, Lightening Strikes). Yeeeeeeeeeeessssssss! While the original doesn't have the fan base of “A Nightmare on Elm St.”, its still my favorite cheeseball 80's slasher movie and having the remake get dumped in DVD pugatory only validates how bad the idea of a remake was in the first place. The trailer for the remake is online and, truly, it looks wretched- not scary, original, sexy, or interesting. On the other hand, we still have remakes of “The Birds” and (speaking of Freddy) “A Nightmare on Elm St.” in pre-production. Any chance we can get the theatrical relases on those cancelled as well?
