Entertainment Today and Beyond

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FOOTLOOSE remake finds lead

footloose-poster.Paramount Pictures has announced that Chace Crawford, one of the stars of the CW show Gossip Girl, has landed the lead in its remake of the popular 1984 film, Footloose. Crawford replaces Zac Efron. After doing a lot of work on the film in the pre-production stage, Efron took a pass, deciding he didn’t want to be typecast as solely a song and dance man. Kenny Ortega, who helmed High School Musical, will direct and is scheduled to begin filming in March of 2010.

Is this another needless remake? Probably, as the story of a city kid who moves to a small town where local government has banned dancing and rock music was a little more believable twenty five years ago than now. The original made a star out of 25 year old actor Kevin Bacon, who played the lead character, Ren McCormack. He was quite good and Crawford will be hard pressed to follow that star making turn. Actually, in many ways, Footloose was stolen by late actor Chris Penn who was tremendously likeable as Ren’s best friend, Willard, who doesn’t know how to dance until Ren teaches him. The original Footloose also featured one of the great soundtracks of all time with songs like Footloose (Kenny Loggins), Let’s Hear it for the Boy (Deniece Williams), Almost Paradise (Mike Reno) and Holding out for a Hero (Bonnie Tyler).

May 21, 2009 Posted by | And Beyond - Trailers & News | , , | 1 Comment

Warner Bros FIRST LOOK TRAILER to SHERLOCK HOLMES

sherlockholmesposter
When this project was first announced I didn’t expected Guy Ritchie to turn the property into such a high concept vehicle. Judging by the trailer, that’s exactly what he’s done and I think it’s for the better. Robert Downey Jr., Judd Law and Rachel McAdams star. The film hits theaters Christmas Day. Take a LOOK

May 20, 2009 Posted by | And Beyond - Trailers & News | 2 Comments

SPLINTER – Independent horror film worth checking out

splinter-movieSPLINTER Review:  I got a chance to watch this nifty little horror film on DVD over the weekend and really enjoyed it. While not overly original it was well directed, suspenseful and very well shot. First time director Toby Wilkins (a British visual effects pro) does a good job keeping things moving along at a breakneck speed. Its story isn’t overly complicated but it is effective. A young couple (Paulo Costanzo, Jill Wagner) and an ex-con (Shea Whigham) find themselves trapped at a remote and isolated gas station trying to survive a hideous parasite-like organism that is trying to kill them.

This is clearly a great example of a genre film shot on a low budget that works because it’s well executed and features solid acting. Director Wilkins borrows from Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, confining his three characters to an isolated setting with the ominous threat lurking outside. At a running time of 82 minutes the film is tight and certainly exceeded my expectations. If you think the female lead in the film, Jill Wagner, looks familiar it’s because she has made a name for herself as the girl in the Mercury car commercials. Over and above her good looks she can act and has a very solid screen presence. The DVD commentary, which features director Wilkins and the film’s three stars, Costanzo, Wagner and Whigham, is very insightful – I found their take on what goes into creating a quality low budget movie really interesting. For horror fans this one is definitely worth a look. 3.5 Zombies out of 5. Take a LOOK at the Trailer

May 20, 2009 Posted by | Reviews | , , , , , | Leave a Comment

TERMINATOR SALVATION VIDEO REVIEW on REEL TALK

terminator-salvation-bale-3At this point there haven’t been any reviews posted on Rotten Tomatoes, but I did see an early review on the nationally syndicated Reel Talk movie review show hosted by long time NY film critic Jeffrey Lyons and his co-host Alison Bailes. See what they thought about the fourth film in the franchise hitting theaters this Thursday. Take a LOOK

May 18, 2009 Posted by | And Beyond - Trailers & News, Reviews | | Leave a Comment

CLIFFHANGER Reboot… why?

cliffhanger_headerAccording to Variety, I Am Legend & Fast and the Furious producer Neal Mortiz has announced that he, along with StudioCanal, will team up to develop a reboot of the 1993 Renny Harlin action thriller “Cliffhanger”, which starred Sylvester Stallone. “Just as they rebooted Star Trek we’re going to do the same with Cliffhanger,” said Mortiz, who will produce. Unlike the original, where Italy stood in for the Colorado Rockies, the new redo looks set to feature multiple cliff-face locations. Reportedly the story will focus in on a group of young climbers but nothing else has been mentioned about any official plotline.

Personally I just don’t get it. Cliffhanger is not really what I would call a franchise property unless you continue to use Stallone and his Gabe Walker character. Once fans of the original find out that Stallone will not be involved, interest will be nil. Considering Stallone continues to make good action films (I really liked Rambo – and he’s currently filming The Expendables) why not bring him back for a sequel. I really enjoyed Cliffhanger and consider it to be the best non-Rocky/Rambo vehicle Stallone ever appeared in. The movie’s opening scene where the girl falls to her death is still was extremely suspenseful  and one of the best openings I can remember. I saw Cliffhanger in NYC Memorial Day weekend when I took my girlfriend Laurel, now my wife, into the city for a 3 day holiday weekend. We had a blast, although I still get nightmares about my American Express bill which was $1400 at the time. Hotels in Manhattan are expensive!

May 18, 2009 Posted by | And Beyond - Trailers & News | , | 2 Comments

FOX RENEWS DOLLHOUSE for 13 episode second season

echo_eliza_dushkuConsidering Dollhouse’s season ending episode pulled in an anemic 2.5 million viewers I must say I’m surprised, although pleasantly, that Fox has given a pickup to this Josh Whedon show. Particularly since it aired on Friday nights where most programs go to die. For those not familiar with the program’s unique, fascinating, and somewhat disturbing premise, the show follows an organization that employs mind-wiped DNA-altered humans known as Dolls who are implanted with false memories and skills for various missions and tasks. When they are not ‘at work’ they are living in a real life Dollhouse which gives the show the name. One of those mind-wiped humans, a young woman named Echo (the extremely appealing Eliza Dushku), is slowly starting to become aware of herself and what’s going on. All the while somebody on the outside is trying to bring the Dollhouse down while getting closer to Echo – possibly not aware that she is one of the Dolls he is after. While the program took a little time to gets its footing during season one it really started to come into its own and built a nice momentum with the last five or six episodes. The second to last, titled “Briar Rose”, has ex-FBI agent Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett) finally gaining access to the Dollhouse. It was a GREAT piece of television and an episode that had me on the edge of my seat the entire hour. Like I said, I am surprised by the renewal (reportedly Fox was happy with the programs DVR playbacks) but happy as a fan and look forward to what season two has to offer.

May 16, 2009 Posted by | And Beyond - Trailers & News | 1 Comment

ETB Radio: Star Trek review plus top 5 Star Trek movies and classic TV episodes

star-trek-picCoop and Curry review Star Trek and their top 5 Trek movies and classic TV episodes of all timeLISTEN HERE and let us know what you want to hear about. email Chuck
Listen when you want >Get the Radio Show RSS FEED HERE

May 16, 2009 Posted by | Radio Shows | | 2 Comments

FRIGHT NIGHT – The Latest Remake

Fright_night_posterAccording to the Hollywood Reporter, DreamWorks has picked up the rights to produce a remake of the 1985 horror comedy “Fright Night.” The original film, directed by Tom Holland, is about a teenager who discovers that his neighbor is a vampire – it’s one of my all time favorites. It’s one of those films you can pop into your DVD player and totally enjoy over and over… especially late at night. One of the things that made it work so well was the casting of Roddy McDowell as late night horror host and vampire hunter, Peter Vincent. He brought a class to the film that will be impossible to duplicate. While attending a horror convention 15 years ago I met Roddy who was there to sign autographs – as a fan I had him sign a still from Fright Night. My friend Mike now has it so Mike, if you’re reading this, please keep it safe – LOL.

The film also benefited greatly from the casting of William Ragsdale as Charlie Brewster, Stephen Geoffreys as “Evil” Ed Thompson and Chris Sarandon as the next door vampire, Jerry Dandridge. I’m still convinced that Sarandon’s Jerry Dandridge is the coolest vampire in movie history. While there is no way that a remake can be near as good, I’m glad a major studio like DreamWorks will do it instead of an independent who would just produce a cheapo version. A sequel to Fright Night was produced in 1988 with Ragsdale and McDowell returning but it barely received a theatrical release. While watchable it didn’t have the magic of the original and the film stock it was shot on was absolutely awful. It was directed by Tommy Lee Wallace (Stephen King’s IT).

May 15, 2009 Posted by | And Beyond - Trailers & News | | Leave a Comment

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