Iron Man: Ultimate 2-Disc Edition
Marvel Studios/Paramount Pictures
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Shaun Toub
Directed by Jon Favreau (who has a cameo)
Rated PG-13 – for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and brief suggestive content
125 minutes
Release Date: September 30, 2008

READING DISCLAIMER: This review is long. You have been warned.

Iron Man. Before The Dark Knight was released and eclipsed everything else the summer had to offer, this superhero movie was tops at the box office. As it stands, Iron Man made over $571 million worldwide, while The Dark Knight, still in theatres, has made $971 million worldwide. So, I got to thinking Continue Reading

Force Unleashed, for all the reviews it got, ended up being a success, with a whopping 1 million unit sales in a mere 5 days. If anything, it goes to show that people still buy Star Wars. While Metacritic gave it a score of around 70 on different platforms, LucasArts seems to be unfazed by the criticism.

So does that warrant a movie version?! After watching (and shaking my head profoundly) at Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie, I can’t help but think how Force Unleashed can possibly be a great movie. Except maybe if the entire movie was about slicing and throwing people with the Force. But since its Star Wars, I doubt if Lucas will approve that.

Force Unleashed already got a comic book adaptation and a bestselling novel, oh and an artbook as lavish as a full-fledged movie. So it would it be surprising if LucasFilms announced out of the blue that they’ve decided to make a movie on Force Unleashed?

Haiden Blackden, project leader and Sith Lord of Force Unleashed says that a movie version would be an “testament to the priorities and sophisticated ideas of his team”. “It’s an incredible time,” he said, “to be telling powerful stories in this fairly young medium.” Well, I don’t know, Blackden, but storywise, I’d watch a Knights of the Old Republic movie first. Hell, I’d watch a Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast movie first.

The newest Uwe Boll game to movie title will be released only in German cinemas (on October 2nd). So those in the US who have been looking forward to seeing this movie in the cinemas are out of luck. For those who don’t know Far Cry it’s a game from a few years ago with a second game sequel coming out this year. The first was set on a tropical island so naturally Boll’s movie was filmed in Vancouver. If you can’t see the similarities between Vancouver and a tropical island you need help, seriously, take a pill or something.

The good things that might bring in some cash is that the film stars the extremely talented Emmanuelle Vaugier from Need for Speed: Carbon, Smallville, CSI: NY, Two and a Half Men. The other great thing is the fantastic television host Anthony Bourdain who did a quick cameo in the movie as a scientist being shot while filming his show No Reservations when it visited Vancouver. These two plus points alone make the movie worth watching so if it’s not a buy when it comes out on DVD it should be at least a rent for fans of the two. A link to the Bourdain clip’s making-of video can be found below.

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/50897

It’s been played on the radio all over the world and now it’s been put on the net for all to hear after a quick Google search. The new Bond theme, ‘Another Way To Die’ by Jack White and Alicia Keys really moves away from the traditional tempo although it does sound in parts like other things, for example the beginning of the song is sounds like a more jazzed up version of the beginning music for Dragnet (My names Joe Friday, and I wear a badge duh-dan-duh-duh) and the middle is like it comes from the score for Live and Let Die.

That said the song really hasn’t been looked upon favorably in the UK on site’s like Digitalspy.co.uk where feeling that the Bond franchise should remain British as long as possible is as strong as ever. The decision that Americans would write, sing and record the song has not gone down well. Especially since the XXX franchise was seen as American cinemas way of attempting to replace Bond just like Casino Royale was the Bond makers way of trying to cash in on the Bourne franchise. Considering this time the song didn’t even touch UK shores until it was finished as it was recorded in Nashville takes the cake where most brits are concerned. Overall the song does quite well in my opinion, the overall tone is a bit different than before with the first half and middle being acceptable for a bond theme. After that though the end just turns to junk with random notes thrown in to keep the thing going and extend the track’s length. The Casino Royale theme was much better.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/a130576/is-jack-and-alicias-bond-theme-any-good.html

For all those Stargate fans out there which were shocked with the cancellation of the spin-off Atlantis there is new hope. The shows replacement Stargate Universe has an official shooting date listed of Feb 4th 2009 with plenty of time for the pilot and a few episodes to be filmed in time for a summer ‘09 television date on the US Sci-fi channel.

Filming will take place at the Bridge Studios in Vancouver just like all the prior Stargate shows. What is expensive and yet interesting is that the key sets for both Stargate SG1 and Atlantis will be kept in addition to the new sets which will be constructed for Universe. No casting information as yet but the cast is expected to be in place by Christmas. The interesting bit is the character synopsis has been leaked out from casting sources and so far it doesn’t look good. There are no original character ideas at all with all the characters sounding like Smallville rejects.