All the bad reviews of 2007′s ‘The Invasion’ stuck in my head for a while. They were so bad I wanted to see the movie immediately. Maybe it’s the urge to see a real train wreck. Not just a b-movie flop, but something with some real muscle behind it.

It’s from the WB, from Joel Silver, starring Kidman and Craig. Then there are the stories about the reshoots by McTeague and the Wachowski Bros. The whole story appealed to my basest appetites – I was going to watch these powerful folks fail like crazy. I wondered if it would feel like three different movies, would I be able pick out the parts that were from the different versions. It was disgusting – I was totally hoping for blood.

Man, was I disappointed. ‘The Invasion’ is pretty great. read more »

I can’t look at this image without laughing.

If this one image can be this funny, imagine the rest of the movie.

I’ve complained in the past about folks complaining over movies they haven’t yet seen. I’ve downright made fun of those people. But now I’m about to become one of those people.

More than any other movie on the remake books made or not-yet-made, no production causes me more grief than this ‘Poltergeist’ remake. First of all, there’s no reason to remake it – it’s still as crazy and scary as it was when I first saw it 27 years ago. But we all know remakes aren’t put into motion because of someone’s artistic goals. So, I mean, hey, if Rob Zombie was taking a crack at it, alright, there’d be some interest there. Even if Aja was doing it, maybe. But you have to respect that the original Poltergeist was nominated for OSCARS, people. It’s a Spielberg movie, back when Spielberg was crazy imaginative. Tobe Hooper was there – he watched it all get made! He’d tell you! read more »

After seeing the great trailer for ‘Trick r Treat’ sometime in early 2007, I had high hopes that the end of torture porn was upon us and fun horror movies might be on the horizon again. ‘Trick R Treat’ is an anthology film weaving together five stories:

A suburban couple learns the dangers of blowing out a Jack-o-Lantern before midnight, a principal teaches one neighbor the true meaning of Halloween, a young woman dressed as little red riding hood is stalked by a mysterious hooded figure at a local Halloween Festival, a group of pranksters goes too far and discovers the horrifying truth buried in a local urban legend of a school bus massacre, and a cantankerous old hermit is visited by a strange trick-or-treater with a few bones to pick.

The story lines sound cool and the cast (Dylan Baker, Brian Cox, Anna Paquin) is pretty great. And check out this trailer:

But then the movie disappeared. As you can see by the poster above, it was originally slated to open on October 5, 2007. Apparently Warner Bros. flat out dropped it. But there was a kerfluffle this week when Warner Bros. accidentally left the movie on a list of movies their publicist was readying for release, but they have since confirmed that the movie is still up for sale to the highest bidder.

But why? Is it an edgier move than putting out a crazy dark and violent Batman movie? Was it more violent than ‘Rock n Rolla’ is gonna be? Is it a bigger crap fest than ‘Clone Wars’ looks to be? This movie has been on the block since April of last year. Seriously? They’re letting an original movie just twist in the breeze? Somebody buy it already!

Has anybody else been following this?

As promised last week, here are a few songs my wife used to lure me in. I think there are less instances of mixtapes going from lady to dude as much as from dude to lady. Is this true? Regardless, these songs are from the first mix I ever got from K, which would put this thing at sometime around June of ’04. read more »

Watching ‘Pineapple Express’ last night with a full audience, I wondered why there hadn’t been a chorus of Apatow’s critics pointing out how different a movie this is from the usual Apatow thing – outside of the usual “Can you believe David Gordon Green directed a comedy? Clearly that’s impossible, as all human beings are one-dimensional!”. From ‘Anchorman’ through ‘Step Brothers’, these movies all have a similar feel, similar rhythm, similar dick jokes. It’s not that ‘Express’ is unrecognizable as an Apatow movie – there’s the usual male-bonding brotherhood thing going on. There’s Seth Rogen and James Franco. There’s naughty jokes and gross outs.

What’s so different – and so great about it – is the violence. read more »

For fans of ‘The Thing’ and/or G.I. Joe.

The music isn’t so hot – could’ve been even better with some sound effects. But even so, pretty amazing.

Ladies, I promised to give you a mix to win dudes with this week, and I’m totally going to do to you what I’ve done to so many ladies in the past: let you down. Sorry, but K and I have been living in a hotel this week and I don’t have access to the mixes of yesteryear. For this mix, I’m gonna have to stay somewhat up-to-date.

And why not keep it topical – hotel living. With all the re-arrangement of schedules over the past week or so, I’m feeling all kinds of mixed up and turned around. So for today’s mix I’m gonna throw out some mash-ups and sample-ganzas that never fail me. read more »