Over the weekend I was lucky enough to find some time to see the new Pixar/Disney venture, Wall E.

When I first saw the teaser for Wall E, I was less than impressed; seriously? A whole movie about a little robot? But slowly more trailers, clips, and commercials were released and I became intrigued, almost anxious to see this movie. I have loved everything Pixar has put out thus far (except Ratatouille), and decided I really didn’t have a good reason not to see it, so I forked over my $16 and took the girlfriend to see Wall E.

Unfortunately, this is the point where I sound like a broken record with all of the movie critics out there: This film was absolutely amazing. How Pixar manages to produce great movie after great movie and still keep things fresh is beyond me. From the sweeping views of a future desolate Earth, to the essentially dialogue-free first act of the movie Pixar managed once again to completely grasp the audiences attention for the entire film. The animation is gorgeous, I found myself just watching in awe at every landscape, and the emotions that were conveyed through speechless robots was incredible. I even enjoyed the incorporation of real people into the film, very nice and often comedic touch (*cough* Fred Willard *cough*).

The plot of the movie was simple, but it was strong enough to carry the movie, especially with the support of 2 or 3 good and relevant subplots, they all really helped the movie move along nicely. There were a lot of good messages and social/political/environmental commentary, but not too much that it became preachy. And of course, plenty of humor to keep you laughing.

All around, Wall E was another home run for Pixar and I highly recommend heading out to see it in theaters, even if it’s just a lazy Sunday afternoon matinee, I really suggest seeing it on the big screen.

On a Side Note:

The short before Wall E, Presto, is hillarious! Be sure to catch it! I think it’s the best short they’ve done so far!

Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to have two hours to kill before my flight left and I was in close proximity to a movie theatre.  Being a huge Mark Millar fan, Wanted seemed like a natural choice of movie to see.

Sadly, this movie wasn’t that good.  Parts of it were fun, but it was popular derivative trash that made little sense and I hate, hate, hate, watching Matrix-y gun play.  I sort of went into the film expecting to hate it, but I have to admit a couple of the montages were pretty cool and fun (like the training stuff).  Unfortunately, the entire movie played out in montage.  There really wasn’t much meat to this movie at all.  And it stole a lot of moves from good movies (Fight Club) and horrible movies (The Matrix) and just ended up with this preposterous soup of a movie that made little sense.

I am, however, interested in reading the Mark Millar graphic novel now.  I can see some of this playing in a comic book, but I can also see sub-par screenwriting hacks  taking a cool story and turning into popular fiction garbage like this.

Having  said that, there were times it felt fun, but I’m not sure if it was worth the price of a ticket.

My vote?  Skip this one.  Or wait until you can see it free on TV.

Seriously.

Click here to check them out and then come back here to discuss.

I don’t know about you guys but this movie is going to kick so much ass I won’t know what to do with it.

Joblo.com was also cool enough to post this exclusive clip from the film:

Collider.com has posted a two part video interview with producers Mark Canton, Gianni Nunnari, and Bernie Goldmann. In the interview they mention they are working on a prequel to 300, and yes, Zack Snyder and Frank Miller are involved in the conversations about this.

There is also talk about War of Gods, another greek epic flick that’s supposed to be stylistically like 300.

Collider.com also has video interviews with Guillermo del Toro in which he states he would like to do Hellboy III once he is done with the Hobbit, and with Matt Reeves who mentions the possibility of a sequel to Cloverfield.

The interviews are pretty good, and certainly worth checking out if you are fan of 300, Hellboy, and/or Cloverfield.
You can check out the Canton, Nunnari, and Goldmann interview here.
Guillermo del Toro talks about his projects here.
And Matt Reeves’ interview is here.

Enjoy!
Arse-bot out!

We’ve already seen some character photos from next summer’s G.I. Joe, but these look to be the first official posters we’ve laid eyes on. That’s Channing Tatum who will be portraying Duke. Click here for a shot of Ray Park as Snake Eyes, and click here for a shot of Sienna Miller as the Baroness. Interesting to note the “Rise of Cobra” line looks to be part of the title. That’s new.

At the Tokyo Toy Fair, Medicom released these bad boy prototypes. No word yet on a date we can all purchase these suckers. I have a feeling the closer we get to October, the more cool Ghostbusters stuff will be released.

More info at ProtonCharging.com

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

I’ve said before that I’m nervous about Frank Miller’s attempt to bring Will Eisner’s The Spirit to the big screen. Christmas day is when we’ll find out for sure, but until then we’ll have to take what the studio hands us in the way of trailers, photos, and posters. Lately the goods have been coming on a pretty regular basis, with an emphasis on the lovely ladies that will be appearing in the film. We’ve seen a couple of posters so far, including a one-sheet that evokes Eisner a bit, a ready-for-action posed Eva Mendes as Sand Seraf, as well as some production photos of Samuel L. Jackson as the villianous Octopus, and Scarlett Johannson as the leather-clad Silken Floss. Let’s just say things have been easy on the eyes so far.

This week Lionsgate gives us a poster made up of shots of Mendes, Johannson, and the previously unseen Jaime King (Lorelei Rox) and Sarah Poulson (Ellen Dolan). But it gets better. This is no ordinary poster. Roll you mouse over each of the lovely ladies and you’ll hear them deliver a line of dialogue from the film. Nice touch. I’m still a nervous about quality of the final product, but so far so good.

Click here for the talking Spirit poster on Yahoo Movies.

So Marvel Studios’ Iron Man either has, or is just about to become the first movie of 2008 to pass the 300 million dollar mark. Huzzah! I might just head out to the theater tonight and help it pass that milestone. I guess that’s the best way to say “thanks” to a very entertaining movie, right?

Well, as the set up for the upcoming Avengers film is building slowly (Sit through the credits of Iron Man and the last 60 seconds of The Incredible Hulk), the big question on everyone’s head is who is going to be Steve Rogers, Captain America?

Some assholes actually published an article on the internet suggesting Leonardo DiCaprio or Brad Pitt. Well, this instigated a discussion amongst us robots. In my wildest dreams I could imagine Leo, in all his Tiger Beat glory, in blue spandex posed with the iconic shield. Then, he will start to run away from Tom Hanks, and end up on a sinking ship. The credits roll: directed by Brett Ratner; the lights go up, and the crowd goes bananas.

Then there’s Brad Pitt. Needless to say, the man is a good actor… When he’s playing a spy husband fighting his spy wife and then teaming up with her and fighting bad spies. That screams Captain America. In that version Captain America turns out to be a figment of Bruce Banner‘s – err- Edward Norton’s imagination.

After watching the last two Jason Bourne flicks, seeing not only the acting and physical capabilities of Matt Damon (he nearly kills a mother fucker with a book). I even suggest bringing in the same director as the latter Bourne films. Captain America can be a fantastic allegory to today’s political climate as he has constantly been in the comics (just read Civil War). It would be infinitely interesting to see a character born into a world of black and white, Allies versus the Axis. He’s a soldier who knows the enemy. Then put him in today’s world, where your enemy isn’t an SS soldier or a fascist collection of nations, but a virtually faceless terrorist entity who don’t fight on front lines, but with asymmetric warfare, where the soldiers on the other side can be American citizens. Sadly, over thinking the concept could result in disastrous results.