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Monday, June 30, 2008

Witchblade creator, artist Michael Turner passes away

It's always bad news when anyone passes away. And as we mentioned in our lastest podcast, the month of June has been an especially bad one with the passing of George Carlin, Tim Russert & Stan Winston. And now word comes down the artist Michael Turner has passed from complications of his cancer. I was never the biggest fan of his artwork but he was still pretty talented and I know he held weight in the community and was very talented. It sad to go back and see that he will never pencil another cover or draw another panel. But at least he's got his legacy in the community. Check out the full story over here and here at Newsarama. RIP Michael Turner

Quantun Of Solace trailer finally drops....that's the name of the next 007 film


So Bond is back to get his revenge....and I can't wait to see what kind of ass kickery he brings. This relaunch of the franchise is looking real good, especially after the last couple of Brosnan sleep fests....ughh, just thinking about them....swear to god. Anyways, shit looks cool as hell and I'm digging the music (which is the same they used in the original trailer), the action looks tight and Bond looks angry as hell. Yes please! You can find the HD version of the trailer here (be sure to look for it. It's in the middle of the page) , if embedded video is below you.

Guillermo Del Toro's appearance on Jimmy Kimmel; third and final Hellboy 2 trailer


It's not very often that I get excited over an appearance on a late night talk show but this one's different: it's Guillermo Del Toro. The guy is just a ray of light and I love to see him (and hear him cause his accent is great!) get out into the mainstream. In the interview, he talks Hellboy 2, The Hobbit, his sketchbook and also his rowdy Mexican family getting kicked out of a hotel during the Oscars. Viva Mexico, Cabrones! And once your done with that, head on over here to Apple and watch the third and final Hellboy 2 trailer (yes, I'm putting his TV appearance before a trailer! Go figure).

Friday, June 27, 2008

Disney's non-Pixar CG film Bolt trailer drops

Empire Magazine sure gets a lot of exclusives....one of these days....and today they have the trailer for Disney's upcoming Bolt. The project has a bit of a history (all of which you can read about over here at SlashFilm) but it's trailer looks good, which will undoubtedly be in front of Wall-E this weekend. Check it out over here and let us know what you think.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Wanted review: Definitely not a Pussy .

Wanted iz gud. There's my review. No bullshit about how the acting was or how you will see shades of The Matrix or Fight Club (or muthafukin' GunsmithCats for that matter, woot!). I will not ramble about foreseeable twists or inspiring moments. What I will say is that Jolie is teh badaz(yum!), the action is FTW, and I am not a pussy. Go see Wanted tonight! Or ASAP if you are not teh hardcorez.

Star Wars AT-AT inspired by Oakland's loading cranes?

I had never heard of this rumor until this story popped up over at Slash Film. Apparently, the urban legend was that George Lucas was inspired by those large loading cranes you can see peppered all over the landscape when you look over the bay in the Oakland/San Francisco area. And if you look at that picture up there, you can definitely see a comparison. So is it true? Lucas himself was asked that very question and came back with a resounding "No". Check out the full story as well as the debunking of another Star Wars/Bay Area urban legend. But I'll tell you this, now every time I drive by those cranes, I'll be seeing AT-AT's like Don Quixote! Full story here!

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Gears Of War 2 new official footage & unofficial beta footage



I know we've been lagging on covering the latest video game news as of late (I mean besides reposting Zero Puncuation, of course) so I figured this would be a wonderful jump-off point. Today brought us some new official footage (along with and interview with CliffyB) and just recently, this unofficial footage was leaked. So if you interested, check it out cause you know the footage will be down REAL soon. The environments looks cool, new weapons look tight...but for the fans, it enough to keep the juices flowing until we get our next taste of official footage. But keep an eye out as we start to tackle more comics, music & video game related stuff. Seriously.

UPDATE: Even more footage has been uncovered and embedded after the previous vid. And it's even better!



Guy Ritchie's Rocknrolla gets a trailer

Empire Magazine has posted the exclusive first look of the trailer for Mr. Madonna's next film, Rocknrolla. It seems he's back to his true form (although I thought the same for Revolver and that turned out to be a mess) and hopefully he will deliver a true follow up to Snatch & Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels. Check out the trailer here & let us know what you think.

The first Dark Knight review descends onto the webernets

Aintitcoolnews has posted the first user submitted review of the upcoming blockbuster (make no mistake) The Dark Knight. Although it's listed as SPOILER FREE, I'd rather go fresh into the theater so I have not read it. And according to the site, the review is positive. But if you feel like jumping in there and having some light shined upon the film, head on over here and check it out.

Zero Puncuation: Metal Gear Solid 4 Review

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

The DUmb #6 • Civic Doodee

Another podcast has hit the internets for you too consume. This time, fellow Dumb Drum contributor Barrazie shows up for his first EVAR podcast and joins me as we talk about the Entertainment Weekly Top 1000 Of The Last 25 Years list, how how uses his kids to steal stuff from stores, we detail our trip to City Hall and how we single handedly (ahem) saved the Fresno Film Commission, we propose a cage match on top of City Hall for Autry vs Dyer, go over some other cool podcasts, we tease our upcoming Swede Film Festival thingy and much, much more. All clocking in at around 42 mins. so get your podcast on and join us! Thanks again to Late Update for hosting our podcast!

CLICK HERE FOR THE DUMB #6!!

Eagle Eye trailer commands you to watch it


So....whadda ya think? Cause I think it looks kinda cool....but still can't get over Shia's goofiness...

Wanted midnight screening this Thursday night: who's down?

Who goes to midnight screenings anymore? Well, I wish I did but as an old man, I can't seem to muster up the energy anymore (damn yooz, father time!). I tired for Indy, but failed. Well, with Wanted coming out this week, I got a renewed sense of youth. I feel like the bustling 18-year old of yesteryear and with new found gusto, I'm doing it! I'm going to the midnight screening of Wanted this week. Fuck yeah! So who else wants to ride out on my energy train? C'mon, join us over at Edwards this Thurs. night (technically, it's Friday morning, but you know what I mean) at 12:01 am even if it's for the screening of Wall-E, which they're also having a midnight show for. Afterwards, we can all practice trying to "curve the bullet" in the theater parking lot so come packin'! So who's in?

Fast & Furious powerslides us some official pics

Love & hate. That's how I feel about the original The Fast & The Furious as I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before. And it's because of this internal struggle that I'm genuinely looking forward to the latest installment, coming next year. Well USA Today has posted some new pics here to quench our thirst for speed & angry. Ah, it's good to come come....and if those don't bring back the memories, maybe this little image from Rob Stank will, if not at least a chuckle.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Kevin Smith refelects on George Carlin....R.I.P.

This month has sucked. So far, we've lost Tim Russert, Stan Winston & last night we lost George Carlin. Now I've watched approximately one of George's stand up routines when I was a kid but I really remember him from his appearances in Kevin Smith films. Although mostly limited to nothing more than cameos, Jersey Girl really provided his with a meaty role. And I really digged his performance, especially since it was such a distant role compared to his stand up. Kevin Smith has written up a wonderful piece over here at Newsweek and he does a wonderful job of summarizing his experience in working with the legend. One of these days we'll get to say those words on TV and make the man smile down from heaven. Fucken 'aye!

Yes, there's a movie called Donkey Punch; someone call the Academy

Yeah, I can stay here and talk all type's of ways about this phenomenon. The mythical Donkey Punch. Right up there with the Alaskan Dragon...or maybe not. Head on over to the official site here to check out....well, I wouldn't call it a trailer but more so of a presentaion of the thupcoming release. Be warned, as the site is NSFW...but with a title like that, you already knew that, right? You dirty, dirty person, you.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Entertainment Weekly top 1000 (parenthetical asides +10)

Horseshit!(diggin' the new format) Entertainment Weekly has decided on the "100 new movie classics of the last 25 years" so everyone fire up your queue. Part of their top 1000(movies music, books, etc.) double issue, the list does include some classics (spidey 2, scissorhands, memento) that you can check out here, but I take serious issue with the top three.

Yes, I understand EW is mainstream media in the truest sense. Yes, these movies made ass-tons of cash. And, Yes, it has been weeks since N E 1 other than Brodie has posted. None of that, however, helps me wrap my head around this "top 100 " list. Pulp Fiction (meh), The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (ugh), and Titanic (splorch) as the first, second and third spots could signal the end of days, man. Seven seals and four horsemen are upon us, and wotnot.

First of all, one of the selections is three(3) damn movies that, no, do not "live and breath " as one. Titanic is all but unwatchable unless its for the chill of witnessing passengers plummet perilously to the sea as the ship snaps in twain, or seeing Leo slip into silent slumber beneath the surf(damn thats fun, roq). Pulp Fiction did show us that non-linear stories could be fun, and how anal rape = blowtorch pliers. Did you give a damn about any of those characters, go ahead ask yourself. No! Not even Samwise or his fukn' Po-Ta-Toe's. "We need e-mow-shun-awl cawn-tent"(obscure ref. +1). IMHO, four of these 3 movies were masturbatory exercises of Lucas-like proportions(lucas-ian?), and Pulp Fiction is a real good flik at best.

Classics? I say thee nay!

Eagle Field to host Dinner Dance & Fly-In this Saturday night

So we all got excited for nothing when Indiana Jones came into town last year, filmed and ended up using about 2 seconds of that whole thing in the final cut. No biggie, right? Well this weekend you have the chance to visit the Peruvian airport...uh, I mean Eagle Field, when they host a Dinner Dance and Fly-In. Although not much info is available on the official web site, I called the info line and found out that tickets are $75 a person for the event. Here's the info blurb found on the web site:

Join us for our annual Dinner Dance and Fly-in hosted at Eagle Field in Fresno County. Several WWII aircraft will be attending including B-25 Mitchell bombers, trainers and others. Have a wonderful steak or chicken dinner professionally catered by a fabulous local restaurant. On stage in our historic WWII era aircraft hangar will be the Knight Sounds big band playing the original arrangements of Glenn Miler, Tommy Dorsey and others. Vintage aircraft, autos, and guests who choose to wear vintage attire or military uniforms make this a truly unique living history event allowing guests to literally walk in the footsteps of our heroes.

Yeah, I'm not quite making to swing those ticket prices (although it is for a good cause, preserving the airfield & honoring WW2 vets) so it's doubtful I'll be able to make it. But if you can swing that and are in the mood for some good food, a big band and a full on Swing Dance Competition, get yer ass out to Firebaugh this weekend, take some pics and have a gay ol' time! "Gay" meaning "fun" not...well, you know. I heard they might have some production sketches and other Indiana Jones stuff from the filming that took place there last year as well. That'd be awesome to check out (you know they had the wrap party over there last year? Awesome!) There is also a Sunday breakfast thing too, but I'm not too sure about the time or price on that. For more info, call (929) 828-9690 or visit the web site here. If you do attend, please shoot some pics over!

First Wanted review drops; still planning on watching it

Newsarama has posted the first review that I've seen for the upcoming Wanted. Hmmm...not too positive, but not too negative either. The review is sure to warn fans of the book to not expect too many similarities between the two and then goes on with mild excitiement. The fact that this is coming from a comic book site kinda scares me but I'm still looking forward to the film, regardless. Mustn't...get...hopes...too...high.... FUCK! Too late :( Check out the full review over here and decide for yourself

Wall-E final trailer released; my inner child loves it


IGN has posted up the final Wall-E trailer and it has a totally different flavor than all the previous trailers. The "Cities" trailer shows off the action side of the film and I'm very glad that they decided to hold off and release this trailer so close to the actual release date. Man, that shit looks cool as hell. Still not hyped up to Anaforian proportions, but still looking forward to seeing it in the theater as I have not seen a Pixar film theatrically since The Incredibles. I'll still be checking out Wanted before this, but I might make it a double feature weekend come June 27. Check out the Quicktime version of the trailer over here and thanks to Trailer Addict for the embeddable version.

Celebrate Hip Hop during Black Music Month with free iTunes downloads

Want some new music for your upcoming hot ass weekend? Allhiphop is giving a gift to it's readers during Black Music Month in the form of free iTunes downloads, 1 new track everyday. Head on over here and check out what's been released and be sure to bookmark it as this promo is going on through the end of the month. Have a good weekend bumping your free shit!

Pixeloo burns scary images into my head with his mad Photoshop skills

So I was cruising around over at Joystiq this morning when I ran into this. So I headed over to Pixeloo's blog and found all types of disturbing images. CGI models of what some of our favorite cartoon characters would look like in the real world. Needless to say...very creepy. Head on over to Pixeloo's site here and see the rest of his creations including Nike Bellic, Stewie & Homer Simpson in Hi-Res glory (go ahead and click the Mario to embiggen). So weird but I can't look away.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

"You'll live"; City Council decides to not defund the Fresno Film Commission

Here's the email I just received from Film Commissioner Ray Arthur:

During this morning's COF Budget Hearing, Councilmember Jerry Duncan withdrew his motion to defund the Fresno Film & Entertainment Commission. Councilmember Duncan requested additional information from the FFEC based on his previously stated concerns which we welcome the opportunity to provide. From this process we learned that if there's one area in which the FFEC needs to improve, its providing information to council. That will be a new top priority. The FFEC again would like to thank all those who supported the commission on this issue. Ray

And the adventure continues! Thanks to everyone that went out there on Tuesday and if you were able to make it today, please give us any details you might have.

Our swede makes Swede Of The Day over at Swededfilms.com (that's a lot of swedes!)

So we submitted our swede over to Sweded Films and today, we made the coveted (some what coveted) Swede Of The Day! That's pretty awesome. So if you haven't seen it, check it out over here and (prepare for a shameless plug) be sure to help spread the word!

Finally! The Wackness red band trailer hits

People who have seen this film have been waiting and waiting for this trailer to be released as they say that the current ones do not do the film justice. Well here it is. If this doesn't sell you on the film then maybe it just isn't for you. For me, the premise & setting itself has already got me hyped. Check it out over at IGN here for Quicktime and see if it gets your jollies going.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Zero Puncuation: Haze Review

Dem Trailers: City Council Edition

Vicky Cristina Barcelona
I recently started getting into Woody Allen films. I won't lie: Scarlett Johansson had a little to do with my sudden interest. But besides the hotness that is Scarlett, Allen's films really shined for me and found his ability to tell a story entertaining. Once again, Woody goes back to his muse with his next film and he's also brought Penoleope Cruz to spice stuff up. So the big hype on this film? The girl on girl action between Cruz and Johansson. Hmmm...I wonder if I'll be checking this film out. Well, check out the trailer here at Yahoo! and decide for yourself.

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Last year, Francis Ford Coppola released a film called Youth Without Youth which has a similar premise as this film (that film is currently on it's way to my house via Netflix) and I can't help to wonder who's "old people getting younger" film will be the better. Coppola versus Fincher. Sounds like a good battle! Check out old Brad Pitt by clicking here and checking out the trailer.

Bottle Shock
A "wine movie". That's what this film is. I always hear people say the Sideways was the best wine movie. Well, I would agree simply because it probably the only "wine movie" I've ever seen. Now comes this little film. Can't go wring with Alan "Hans Gruber" Rickman plus it's good to see Bill "Doesn't anyone have any missiles left?" Pullman back on screen. Plus, it's always good to see California kick ass on a world stage. Check out the trailer here and see for yourself.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

To Be Continued: City Council ends today's session before vote on the future of The Fresno Film Commission

Update: This comment was left on our original post regarding this FFC matter and give some more deatiled insight on what went down today. Thanks to Andy Hansen-Smith for the update and insight.

The Fresno City Council will vote on this budget motion on Thursday as well as 24 other motions to Mayor Autry's budget. Around 8-10 people voiced their concern over the de-funding of the Film Commissioner's position at today's council meeting. Hopefully this will help persuade the council to fund the position.

So after today, I have a new found respect for the members of the Fresno City Council. Man, they have to sit through some drawn out meetings filled with mindless banter, pay some meticulous attention and at the end of the day, make it all work. But I'm sure the high they get from serving the public need is what gets them through. But for Joe Public like myself, I could never make it through those meetings without catching a few Z's as other talk numbers and nonsense. Anyways, the meeting started around 2pm. Eventually, Chief Dyer and Bubba himself made cameos (Would anyone else besides me pay to see those two have a cage match for charity? Those two walk around with an stench of bad ass-ness). When 4:45pm came around, I had to leave and they had not yet reached the motion concerning the Fresno Film Commission. But before that, the council had asked for the public to voice there concerns with the upcoming budget and I was ecstatic to see how many people came out to support the Fresno Film Commission. Now I'm not a public speaker-type of guy or else I would have gone up and made my voice heard, plus when I did gather up the cajones to go up there, the guy that was up there made such an inspiring speech about public safety, the need for more police and referred to the whole Officer Nieto situation that me going up there and saying "Please keep Fresno making movies" seemed like a moot point. It was a cool experience to see the inside of the Puppet Masters spaceship for once and I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it back this Thursday at 8am when they resume for voting on the matter, but we'll try to keep you updated here. Once again, thanks to everyone who came out and if you were there and have pictures or video, please send us some links! We'd love to post them here.

Empire Magazine premiers new Wanted clip; all types of violence

No embedding, as clips from Empire usually aren't, but click here to go over there and check it out. But be warned....there a whole lot of people getting shot in the head in this one. I'm pretty sure they were all very, very bad guys, though.

Wanna see you some Two-Face?

The viral campaign for The Dark Knight continues. Head on over here to whysoserious.com and catch a super quick glimpse of Harvey Dent post-acid face. So, have I mentioned how cool this year is for movies?

Len Wiseman set to helm Gears Of War film

Another year, another video game movie. This time we got Len Wiseman ( AKA the punk that snatched Kate Beckinsale away from me) taking the reigns of the Xbox smash Gears Of War. The game was pretty awesome but the character development in the film wasn't something that stood out (it's pretty sad when a commercial for your game has more emotional impact than your entire game) and I know the writers have there work cut out for them to try to pry something outta what they got so far. So we'll wait and see if we end up with another Hitman or a.....a Silent Hill, I guess. Check out the full story on Gears Of War over at Slash Film here.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Dem Reviews: The Incredible Hulk & Son Of Rambow

The Incredible Hulk
Rare is the mainstream film that convinces me to brave a opening night crowd to go see. Well The Incredible Hulk was the film for me this year. After I got past the little fat kid next to me who wouldn't stop fidgeting and dropping random nuggets of gold such as "His finger is as big as her face!" (in comparing the sizes of the jade giant and Betsy Ross), the film was awesome & thoroughly entertaining. Action was awesome, the character development was about as good as we can get when dealing with a film of this nature (A reboot sequel with totally different actors and directors). We saw Hulk smash and he smashed good. The only gripe I had was the lack of total action scenes (a similar gripe I raised with Iron Man). Although the ones we got were tight. Quality over quantity? I guess, but I'm always on the side of "well done" rather than "rare" and this was somewhere in the middle. Not as good as Iron Man in my book but I'm thinking the fact this is more of a do over rather than an intro has more to do with that. Still, for fanboys it's a masturbatory film that will do what you want it to, although maybe not as much as you'd like it to.

3.5 Stars (out of 5)


Son Of Rambow
A stark comparison with my theater experience with the Hulk movie, my guest and myself found ourselves as the only patrons in the entire room when we went to watch this film this weekend. It was pretty awesome but sad at the same time cause I the realization on why we don't get these type of independent films very often: lack of audience. Anyways, the film was great. I can never seem to get enough of films about making films, even though the idea is far from fresh, it's entertaining to me every time. The story seems like it could have used a little more time in the oven as the development seems real quick and a bit forced between the main characters (the film is only a tad over and hour and a half long) but it was forgivable. One thing that kind of irked me was the trailer showed a lot of the finnier bits from the film & I totally understand why they did that but it was a bit disappointing that it happened that way. Still, I'd highly recommend you go check this film out. It's quite a fun ride!

3 Stars (out of 5)

Alternative The Dark Kinight trailer is ready to be consumed


This trailer was part of Comcast promotion they did this weekend. Although most of the trailer is old stuff, there are quite a few new shots in there to warrant a viewing. This is one of the best summers ever for films, man....

R.I.P. Stan Winston, the special effects master has passed away

Stan Winston, creator & designer of such huge Hollywood icons such as The Terminator, the dinos in Jurassic Park, The Predator and most recently the Iron Man suit, has passed away, per a report over at Aintitcoolnews. Man this sucks. Winston has been in the game for such a long time and whenever someone needed to translate and manifest an idea into the real world, Stan was the man, the master of practical. Who knows how suck ass all those movies he was involved in would of been without his expertise. Check out the full story here at Aintitcool. Sad day indeed.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Fresno City Council to shut down Fresno Film Commission

Bullshit. That's seems to be all we're getting from our "leaders" that we pay to run our city. I can type away and list the ways our fine politicians have decided to slowly and systematically run this city into the ground. But in not very eloquent with words (as you can tell by the first word of this post) so I won't waste your time. Rather, I'm here to inform you about the latest idea out of the think tank that is the Fresno City Council: decommissioning the Fresno Film Commission. It seems like they plan to get rid of it and everyone involved. So what can you do to help stop this nonsense? Well, come by downtown city hall tomorrow, June 17th around 2pm (if you do go, try to get there before) as the council is voting on the budget around that time. Here's the email sent out by Ray Arthur, an overall good guy and head of the Film Commission:

An Email sent out by Ray Authur, Fresno Film Commissioner:
Many of you have asked, based on Councilmember Duncan's motion to defund the Fresno Film & Entertainment Commission, when the vote on the Commission's budget will occur. The budget motionvoting process is scheduled to begin at 2:00 PM, on Tuesday, June 17th, in the Council Chamber at City Hall.


I'm going to try my best to be out there and I really hope that those of you interested in keeping our film community growing here in Fresno can make it out there!

Friday, June 13, 2008

Random Goodness: Whut, whut! In your head is where this song will be


Well, I wouldn't call it NSFW since technically, there isn't any cuss words or dirty images....butt (pun intended) check it out anyways. Have a great weekend trying to gt this outta your head. Thanks to Rob Stank & Canaforian for directing this little gem to me.

Death Race trailer up; prepare to be unimpressed

Oh, Paul W.S. Anderson (please don't confuse this hack with P.T. Anderson) how have you destroyed franchises via your awesome films: Resident Evil=shit. Mortal Kombat=shit. At least Michael Bay can blow shit up real good. Well, now we have Death Race, a remake of the cult classic. Ugh. I like cars though! And cars with giant mini guns mounted on them....a little bit of Twisted Metal....aight, maybe. Check out the trailer here at Yahoo! and see for yourself.

Kimmel's Guillermo takes on Edward Norton....Hulk style!


Add "The Incredible Hulk" to the works of parking lot security guard Guillermo. Always good to see big name actors have a sense of humor and do good shit like this. Is it me or is is Kimmel quickly becoming the best late night show out there?

Dem Trailers: Castigame Edition

The Punisher: War Zone
Frank Castle is one of my favorite characters out of the Marvel Universe. I mean I'm a huge Punisher fan. So when the Tom Jane version was released a couple of years back, I was hyped too see Hollywood take another crack at the character. Well, although I liked Tom Jane, the rest of the film was kinda "meh". So now Jane is gone and we get Ray Stevenson instead. Never heard of him, never heard of director Lexi Alexander, although it's cool to see a female taking the helm of such a bad-ass character. The trialer looks prety cool but I'm not totally sold on this yet. Check out the trailer over here at IGN.

Religulous
Bill Maher. Yeah not a big fan of the guy and you wanna know why? Simply cause he said that the turntable can't be considered a real instrument and his general stance on Hip-Hop as a whole is dumb. Everything else, we're cool. But regardless of what I think about him on those topics, this film looks good. It's the Farenheit 9/11 of religion! Check out the trailer over here at Apple.

Miracle At St. Ana
So this is the film that Spike Lee is currently pushing and it was at this film's screening in Cannes where them fightin' words came outta Mr. Lee's mouth. Yeah...that has nothing to so with this trailer but figured it would help fill up space. It's Friday & I'm lazy. And there you go. Now go check out the trailer over here at Yahoo!

Thursday, June 12, 2008

The battle over Iron Man 2

So Iron Man was released in May and made a shit ton of money. Not even a week after it release, Marvel had announced Iron Man 2 for the summer of 2010. The director, Jon Favreau, is at this pint not involved whatsoever in the deal. So what's the deal? Well, it seems like even though Favreau delivered what at this point is the biggest movie of the summer, Marvel Studios head David Maisel is not willing to give Favreau the money he deserves. Aintitcool has a good write up on the situation over here and IESB.net has the original story which you can check out here. So after enduring all the bullshit Marvel movies, we finally get a film worth of the material and they're is ready to fuck it all up again and begin making the same mistakes from the past. That's when we end up with shit like this, and this, and don't forget this. Although the fanboy in me got all giddy when those upcoming release dates were announced last month, realistically, there is no way a quality film can be made and meet those deadlines. There's no way. So I pray that Maisel wakes the fuck up and realizes what needs to be done to keep this ball rolling in the right direction and gets the right team formed. And that means Favreau gets what he deserves: Iron Man 2.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Star Wars: The Clone Wars theatrical trailer drops....so colorful & action packed!

Wow, this one looks vastly different than the teaser we got a while back. The backgrounds, the ambient environments....everything looks a bit more finished and lush. And who can say no to some dual lightsaber action, right? Love that shit....Hmmm, will this be the surprise hit it's ramping up to be? Perhaps. Check out the trailer over here at Yahoo!

The Onion: World Of World Of Warcraft expansion released


'Warcraft' Sequel Lets Gamers Play A Character Playing 'Warcraft'

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

The best & worst Playstation ads of all time


Ah, Sony. For years they have pelted us with ads for their video game system and software for said system. There have been some bad ones and some good ones. Well, PS3 Fanboy has compiled the two lists and have they ready for you to check out in their series called "This Is Advertising". Of course, most of these ads have never been seen on TV screens on our shores being as Europe always gets the cool (and not-so cool) ad campaigns. Their number one for best ad is posted above and I believe I totally agree with them on this one. Check out the best here and the worst here and you let us know which ones stood out to you.

Babylon A.D. trailer finally drops, Diesel's career hangs in balance


Another film that has been put on the back burner for a long time (which is never a positive sign) has finally dropped a trailer, Babylon A.D. Good ol' Vinny is back just in time (cause we can never have enough of actors who name themselves after trucks, right?) to try to save his career but it probably won't be enough....that is until Fast & Furious comes out and he wins that Oscar. And the trailer comes in as the first one of the summer to use the Lux Aeterna music from Requiem For A Dream (and that makes 2 films with Michelle Yeoh in it). Awesome:( Check out the HD version over here at IGN.

Spike Lee vs. Clint Eastwood: what's the rap battle equivalent for directors?

So Spike is mad cause Clint didn't accurately portray the black man in his war films Flags Of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima. Clint responds with a resounding suggestion that Spike "shut his face." Well, it wasn't that resounding but maybe for the Man With No Name, that was the best he could do. I could break it down for you....or you can just head over here to The Huffington Post to catch a recap. Now I'm not gonna take sides here....yeah, I think I might. The side of "I wanna see these two fight!". Dirty Harry vs. Mars Blackmon in Las Vegas, maybe sharing the same card as the Boll vs. Bay fight. Hey, you never know what'll happen anymore.

Rob's Review: The Incredible, Edible Hulk.

I'll keep 'em separated Offspring style here to ensure that we don't run into any complications, so the first mighty paragraph will be spoiler free, while the next may have a thing or two in it, but shouldn't be much more than you've already gotten out of the trailers.

It was good. It was damned good. The trailers don't do it justice, but watching it, I can't really imagine that there would be any way to really make a better one and still convey the jist of what the Hulk is all about. The Tony Stark scene was in there, and you don't even have to wait through the credits to see it. I did wait through the credits anyways, just in case, but nothing there. We'll have to check the webernets and see if there's something in there for the main release, or if they played it cool this time. I give Iron Man the slight edge here, but it's slight, and I'm going to say most of that edge comes from a.) Geeking out over the hardware, and b.) teh funny wordplay.

*Spoiler-ish Section*










I'm going to go on record and say the coolest bit of the flick for me was when Blonsky (Tim Roth) had taken the Super Soldier Serum (and we all know what that means, huh guys? huh? HUH?) and went up against the Hulk. The just-slightly-more-than-human reflexes and strength and such made it a very, very cool precursor to what Captain America could be like. There are a few references to other Marvel stuffs within the flick, and keep your eyes peeled for a peek at who the next films villain might well be with an interesting little origin setup.
The Hulk was done well. I wanted more rage from him. There is a scene where he's beating the shit out of Abomination MMA Ground-and-Pound style, and I'm thinking "Yes, yes, it's perfect! If he just rains the punches down while screaming, it's pure rage, pure Hulk." And then he pauses. Wha...? It was so close. Still, good flick, way better than the trailers make it look, and worth your $10 ticket.

Oh yeah, and Lou Ferrignos part was pure win.

Monday, June 9, 2008

The Wackness full trailer drops, hype continues

More overkill, but yeah, we're gonna continue with the hype on this film. Have I seen it? Nope, so it might be the shittiest film of the year for all I know. By I have high hopes and everything points to it being a good one (hey, The Fall came through for me last time). Check out the trailer here over at Yahoo!

APB for nerds! Apple to announce more cool stuff today at WWDC, 3G iPhone

So to day is one one of those days. Steve Jobs will be giving a keynote which means new product from Apple. A revised iPhone is expected (and this nerd will go batshit insane if I don't get it) as well as a slew of other announcements, which we'll post here as the news flows in. Not quick enough for you? Head on over here to Engadget's live blogging of the event or here for MacRumors updates which all begins at 10am PDT. So will this new phone mean that I HAVE to upgrade my current iPhone? Lets sit back and watch.....I love these keynotes.

Update 1: Next version of Apple OSX officially named Snow Leopard.

Update 2: 3G iPhone official! Pic from the conference

Update 3: Even thinner, black plastic back, solid metal buttons, same gorgeous display, camera, flush headphone jack, and dramatically improved audio. GPS official, as well.

Update 4: The iPhone 3G 8GB will sell for $199. $299 for the 16GB -- a white version of this size will be available too. Available July 11th in the US and 21 other countries worldwide.

Update 5: If your one of those who already have an iPhone (like myself) you'll be happy to learn that AT&T is gonna take care of us. Check out this article for all the details of upgrading to the new phone. NYUP!

Head on over to www.apple.com for all the details!

Sunday, June 8, 2008

The What?! Blogger Olympics FTW! (or at least 3rd)


A yes, that is the smell of a bunch of bloggers actually leaving their lairs and interacting with humans....actual humans! Well that's exactly what happened when last weekend the Fresno Beehive sponsored (officially or unofficially) Blogger Olympics went down. Yeah, I'm too lazy to recount what went down exactly but if you feel like you must know, Ed Stewart gots all the info here and The Fresnan has another video over here. Long story short: we got 3rd behind Beehivers Mike Oz & Heather McLane. Good times...maybe by next year I'll have my Wii bowling and Mini Golf games down betta....probably not though. It was great to meet everyone, though. Good times!

Valkyrie still isn't out? New trailer hits



Yeah, this is a film that kind of dropped off the radar for a while but now this new trailer has dropped. So some rumors have been floating around about how much trouble this film is in. Reshoots, revised release dates and a movie star whom had received nothing but bad press these last couple of years really has put the screws to this Bryan Singer film. We'll have to wait and see but this trailer will have to do for now.

So what's this whole Metal Gear thing about? Find out all about it...I mean everything!


Gametrailers have put together in-depth videos in their ongoing Retrospective series and since the latest (and last?) entry into the video game series, Metal Gear Solid 4 will be released this coming week, they have dedicated the latest to the groundbreaking series. So far, four separate videos have been released and they all do a wonderful job in documenting the series from it's inception to it's current state. So take some time and watch these great videos if you feel like catching up to the Metal Gear mythology. But be warned, each entry comes in at around 23 mins. so be sure you have some free time. After you check out the first one embedded here, head on over here to catch the rest. Good stuff.

Transformers sequel gets official title, dedicated blog

I know we were all waiting for Michael Bay to jump back into his director's chair and start fucking around with our childhood once more and this past week, he did just that. Transformers 2: Revenge Of The Fallen began filming in Pennsylvania and this blog has been doing a good job of documenting the production (that layout looks familiar), including that awesome picture of Jetfire up there as well as breaking some news about which vehicles will be in the film and which characters will return and new ones that appear in the franchise. Now all we have to do is sit back and wait for Bay to work his magic.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Dem Trailers: I Kinda Believe Edition

X-Files: I Want To Believe
Ah, back in the days when I was young....and being a nerd hadn't yet become a cool thing to be, I still spent every Friday night glued to my television in Firebaugh watching the latest adventures of Agent Mulder & Agent Scully, clutching my X-Files playing cards & comic books. Then the first movie came out and I stopped. I couldn't support the bullshit anymore. All that hype for no payoff seemed unjust. So fast forward to now, everything old is new again and my nostalgia prevents me from not wanting to rekindle those nerdy Firebaugh nights and this trailer kinda gives me hope. Check it out over here at Yahoo!

Choke
"From the Writer Of Fight Club."
That quote alone will get people in the theater and this trailer sure makes the film look cool. Already a success at film festivals, this film is going to be released theatrically pretty soon and although there are no major stars attached to it, hopefully audiences will support the effort coming from director Clark Greg (Agent Of S.H.I.E.L.D?). The trailer can be seen here at Apple.

Boy A
The story for this film goes like this: Boy kills. Boy goes to jail for 14 years & changes. Boy is released and still gets shit for what he did as a boy. Seems like an interesting concept and although the trailer seems to not really show the film in a good light, I think it has potential. Check out the trailer over here at Apple

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Raiders....Sweded! You guys can do it better, right?


So here it is, our swede. And the lucky film for our first swede is Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Yup, overall our production cost us around $17 for random things we used (or didn't use) in the project. So please, by all means, let us know what you think, good or bad. And we issue the same challenge we issued last time we posted about sweding: kick our ass. I know this can't possibly be the best swede that Fresno can produce so pick your favorite film, scene, trailer WHATEVER! Just get out there with your friends and create and send them our way. Depending on response, maybe we can have some sort of showcase (contest?) here on Dumb Drum!