Brave

In comparison to Pixar's previous films Brave isn't groundbreaking in terms of unique story, but it's still a really good fun film. Gorgeous animation and oh that lovely orange hair. And gotta applaud Pixar's decision to keep the second act under wraps during marketing, took me quite by surprise (I had only seen one trailer, don't know about the rest). Very rarely we get to experience that with big movies these days.

I was totally engrossed in the film and forgot to spot the Pizza Planet Truck easter egg. Also found out now that there was a post-credits scene which I missed, though it wasn't anything big.

Contact

Yesterday I watched the movie Contact again after a very long time. And since it's been awhile, the movie especially many parts before the third act appeared all fresh to my memory. There are some great little character moments of Ellie played by Jodie Foster and Ellie as a kid played by a younger Jena Malone (who I recognized only yesterday as I was watching the movie).

I've always been fascinated with space since I was a kid and now even though mankind's current prospects of deep space travel aren't looking bright, my enthusiasm for space continues to grow stronger. So watching Ellie talk about space with such devotion and the moments where she roots for things in the name of science, they were all so endearing to watch and had me in tears couple of times.

It's sad that Carl Sagan who along with his wife Ann Druyan was actively involved in the development of the film but never got to see the completed film.

After the Back to the Future movies and Forrest Gump, Contact is my favourite Robert Zemeckis film. I am glad Zemeckis is back to doing live-action films and I hope someday he will consider doing another sci-fi film.

And it's quite a coincidence that Jodie Foster's new sci-fi film Elysium from director Neill Blomkamp (District 9) had a private audience screening yesterday, which I read about earlier today.

I found this beautiful poster for Contact but since I haven't seen it listed in other places online I am guessing it's probably a fan-made poster, also cause there are no movie studio credits listed on the poster. Would have still loved to have it in a poster size.

 

Review for Prometheus

When Ridley Scott chose to go with a new mythology and story for Prometheus (based on writer Damon Lidelof's suggestions), it would have been much better if they had gone all the way and completely distanced their movie from Alien. No matter how good of a script they would have weaved, Prometheus could still never match up to Ridley Scott's original Alien. And for sometime during pre-production the movie supposedly didn't have anything to do with Alien. But the Alien brand is too big to ignore, so things from Alien ended up being shoehorned into Prometheus.

Aamir Khan talks about marriage in India (probably after spying on me)

In the article linked below actor Aamir Khan talks about marriage in India. It's like he heard me rambling and complaining with my friends about the marriage system in India and then jotted down my thoughts.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/article3439626.ece

I would say this needs more attention than corruption in India. Maybe if people thought more about the person rather than just the day of the marriage and families, more people would be happy, heck maybe there would be even less corruption :P.

Of course I am a minority in this way of thinking here in India. Judging by some of the comments* under that article, people are implying that this is a western ideology. As if to imply something that is being followed in the west is by default a bad thing, we Indians are after all the supreme in the so called department of "culture".

*Hit Ctrl F on that page and search for the word "western" to find those comments.

Men In Black 3

I love the first MIB film and seen it numerous times, second film had its moments but was barely memorable for me. Men In Black 3 is great fun where the story keeps getting interesting and good amount of focus is given to the characters, along with all the cool action and many laugh out moments.

I liked Men In Black 3 but some speculate if it's as good as the first one and I would say no. The first one really has that charm of discovering all things in the MIB universe for the first time, like J the audience is also experiencing all these cool surprises at the same time. But this movie had its own mystery elements that I enjoyed, including the time travel bits and theories.

Gotta say the alien makeup and creature effects were also a real treat to watch. Loved some of the new weapons and gadgets, my only complain would be some of them didn't get enough screen time. I wanted to see more of that Shotgun.

My thoughts on The Avengers movie

The second half of  The Avengers is filled with such fantastic action, it indeed has more action than all Marvel movies combined. Joss Whedon crafted the team conflict so well and balanced it out with such brilliant humour.

And though some characters managed to steal the show, Whedon and writer Zak Penn showed the importance of every character and gave them their moment to shine on multiple occasions. As a comic fan there were times while watching Avengers I couldn't believe I am getting to see these comic characters come to life all together like that.

And one of the best things about opening day is the enthusiastic crowd, who cheered right from the title sequence and during every character's intro scene.

There is a moment in the film where Alan Silvestri's awesome main Assemble theme music kicks in during that surround shot of the Avengers, I had almost tears of joy during that brief moment. Also the audience really cheered at that scene (among many others).

And the 3D for The Avengers was really impressive, also maybe it was cause of the proper bright light conditions. It is one of the best live action 3D experience I had.

"Back to the Future remake talk was a joke. Quotes taken out of context."

Moviehole.net reported earlier today about the possibility of a Back to the future remake by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg (creators of the Harold & Kumar movies and directors of American Reunion).

Jon Hurwitz confirmed on Twitter that their quotes were taken out of context for that article and it was intended as a joke.

Here are few of his tweets addressing the remake talks.

Contrary to some Internet rumors, @McSchlossberg & I are not trying to remake Back to the Future. Quote taken out of context. That is all.

@JimothyDullton I'd kill us too. We were joking about it in the context of hating the idea of the Karate Kid remake. Would never go there.

@GeekTyrant @JoeyPaur We do NOT want to remake Back to the Future. Joked about it. I'd want to punch anyone in the throat who remade it.

Still seeing stories popping up claiming Hayden & I want to remake Back to the Future. Think I'd prefer to be accused of murder. #sacrilege

@JeffYorkes It's totally bumming me out. We were joking around about it in an interview and its been taken out of context. So lame.

@slashfilm LIke your article, but the truth is, we were joking around and it was taken out of context. Nobody respects BTTF more than us.

Hurwitz then responded to this Slashfilm article with additional quotes through Twitter.

"It all started with us talking about how as diehard Karate Kid fans, we were furious when KK was being remade. Then it got into a conversation about the business of remakes. And we talked about how KK proved that nerds like us make up such a small portion of the public and people embraced KK. Then we talked about how for business reasons all classics will one day be remade. We speculate BTTF will one day be remade, because its so fucking awesome the world needs those stories. But if it were to be remade, we hope its WAAAAAY in the future. We were totally joking when saying we wanted it. Joking about remaking BTTF is like when Larry David jokes about Hodgkin’s or Trey & Matt joke about AIDS. One of the few truly taboo topics."

My 30 Most Anticipated Movies of 2012

My 30 Most Anticipated Movies of 2012 in release date order.

Director Rian Johnson's (Brick, The Brothers Bloom) sci-fi film Looper is my #1 anticipated film of 2012, really looking forward to the trailer and the movie release in September.

Click on the release date to view the trailers.

1. John Carter 

March 9

2. The Raid: Redemption

March 23

3. Iron Sky

 April 4

4. Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope

April 6
 

5. The Cabin in the Woods 

April 13

6. Lockout 

April 13

7. Sound of My Voice 

April 27

8. Marvel's The Avengers 

May 4

9. Battleship

May 18

10. Men in Black 3 

May 25

11. Moonrise Kingdom 

May 25

12. Prometheus 

June 8

13. Brave 

June 22

14. G.I. Joe: Retaliation 

June 29

15. The Amazing Spider-Man 

July 3

16. The Dark Knight Rises 

July 20

17. The Bourne Legacy

August 3

18. Total Recall 

 August 3

19. Premium Rush 

 August 24

20. Argo 

September 14

21. Dredd 

 September 21

22. Looper 

September 28 

23. Skyfall

November 9

24. 47 Ronin 

 November 21

25. Gravity 
November 21


26. Rise of the Guardians

 November 21
 

27. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 

 December 14

28. World War Z 
December 21

29. Django Unchained 

December 25

30. The Great Gatsby 

December 25

My Top Favourite Movies of 2011

1. Drive
2. Captain America: The First Avenger
3. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
4. X-Men: First Class
5. Moneyball

Honorable mention: The Tree of Life, Midnight in Paris, Contagion, Source Code, Super, Bridesmaids, Hanna, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn.

Movies that I've yet to see and which probably might have made my list: Hugo, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Back to the Future poster THE SCIENTIST by artist James White

If you love movie posters and BTTF, it's been an exciting time in the last few days. Last week we had the Mondo Back to the Future posters by Phantom City Creative (Justin Erickson & Paige Reynolds).

And today artist James White (who like PCC is also from Canada) has showcased his poster for Back to the Future with this fantastic and sleek design for Doc Brown titled THE SCIENTIST.

From his blog:
Here’s a poster design of everyone’s favorite scientist, Dr. Emmett L. Brown. In between doing full movie posters I like to do practice pieces to improve on some skills and techniques I’m exploring. This one started that way, as did THE SMUGGLER. 

I’d like to think this was the expression Doc had on his face right before that lightning struck the DeLorean at the end of Part II. Stone cold determination, bravery and curiosity toward the unknown. But lets face it, he was probably screaming like a loon. His character was always my favorite from the BACK TO THE FUTURE trilogy. So here he is, heroic, immortalized in blue and purple. 

“Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.” 

Artist James White also did this cool poster for Drive as a fun project, which was then officially released in a limited run back in January.

But the week prior to the Drive poster release, James did an interview with Burlesque Design where he listed Drew Struzan's BTTF poster as one of his top 5 favourite movie posters. Since then I've been wondering if James would ever consider making his own BTTF poster.

I have been following him on Twitter in the last couple of months and his following tweet from last week is when I realized things were about to get heavy.

 "Was hoping to get this fun poster done today, but ran out of time. Which is ironic considering what I'm creating ..."

And this was from yesterday.

 "Finalized tomorrow's poster launch, regular and variant versions. Science, you are in my crosshairs. #88mph"