Movies
I just had to get out of the house, so I went out to see Silent Hill last night. It's a pretty good little adapted-from-a-game horror flick. Although it's a bit predictable, there's some good scary imagery, and although there's quite a lot of blood and ickiness, there's not nearly so high a body count as in, say, the Resident Evil films. There were the usual CGI effects, but not as overdone as in some of the genre, and some of the scenes were just beautifully shot, which startled the hell out of me since I went with pretty low expectations.
Anyway, in the glut of advertisements-thinly-disguised-as-entertainment that Regal runs before the previews, there was a little piece on the making of the upcoming film Pathfinder, with Karl "Eomer" Urban as "Ghost". I'm a bit unclear from what I saw as to whether he's the kid left behind and raised by the Native Americans, who then fights with them against the Vikings, or not, because this was a sort of "behind-the-scenes" thing, but he (Karl) looks a whole lot less constipated than he did as Eomer (apologies to any Eomer fans out there).
The piece actually focuses on producer-director Marcus Nispel's thoughts on making the film. Nispel has previously done a handful of music videos, the 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and the 2004 TV movie Frankenstein (with Parker Posey, Vincent Perez and Thomas Kretschmann). Of the two, I've only seen Frankenstein, and while it wasn't awful, and was reasonably atmospheric (hard to not be atmospheric, being filmed in New Orleans, and all), this does not inspire confidence. Neither do the stills of the costuming that I've seen - big scary guys in horned helmets with visors, wearing lots of shaggy brown fake fur and random bits of armor. I'll almost certainly be going to see it - it's a Viking movie, after all - but I don't expect it to come close to The 13th Warrior in quality.
Ah, well... I still have An American Haunting with Donald Sutherland and Sissy Spacek, The DaVinci Code, X-Men: The Last Stand (despite having doubts about director Brett Ratner), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water to look forward to. I don't know if I should be afraid (very afraid) of the movie version of Miami Vice or not... I admit I used to love the show (I bought the first season DVDs), original director Michael Mann wrote and is directing the film, but I can't shake the specter of the film adaptations of Wild, Wild West and The Avengers, among others, and I'm none too keen on Colin Ferrell as Sonny Crockett. Maybe I'll wait for reports from braver souls than I, and see it on rental.
Anyway, in the glut of advertisements-thinly-disguised-as-entertainment that Regal runs before the previews, there was a little piece on the making of the upcoming film Pathfinder, with Karl "Eomer" Urban as "Ghost". I'm a bit unclear from what I saw as to whether he's the kid left behind and raised by the Native Americans, who then fights with them against the Vikings, or not, because this was a sort of "behind-the-scenes" thing, but he (Karl) looks a whole lot less constipated than he did as Eomer (apologies to any Eomer fans out there).
The piece actually focuses on producer-director Marcus Nispel's thoughts on making the film. Nispel has previously done a handful of music videos, the 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and the 2004 TV movie Frankenstein (with Parker Posey, Vincent Perez and Thomas Kretschmann). Of the two, I've only seen Frankenstein, and while it wasn't awful, and was reasonably atmospheric (hard to not be atmospheric, being filmed in New Orleans, and all), this does not inspire confidence. Neither do the stills of the costuming that I've seen - big scary guys in horned helmets with visors, wearing lots of shaggy brown fake fur and random bits of armor. I'll almost certainly be going to see it - it's a Viking movie, after all - but I don't expect it to come close to The 13th Warrior in quality.
Ah, well... I still have An American Haunting with Donald Sutherland and Sissy Spacek, The DaVinci Code, X-Men: The Last Stand (despite having doubts about director Brett Ratner), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water to look forward to. I don't know if I should be afraid (very afraid) of the movie version of Miami Vice or not... I admit I used to love the show (I bought the first season DVDs), original director Michael Mann wrote and is directing the film, but I can't shake the specter of the film adaptations of Wild, Wild West and The Avengers, among others, and I'm none too keen on Colin Ferrell as Sonny Crockett. Maybe I'll wait for reports from braver souls than I, and see it on rental.