A 2010 DVD release called Scott Pilgrim vs. The World just came up on my radar this morning: the clip looks suitably insane to actually suggest a pretty fun experience.

If you've seen it, or at least watched the trailer, let us know what you think in the comments below.

The film is based loosely on Kathryn Lasky's book series, Guardians of Ga'Hoole. Produced by the same digital effects company that brought us Happy Feet, the visual effects are reportedly stunning.  However ... according to the reviews at Rotten Tomatoes this is not a movie to take your kids to:

It's being promoted as "from the studio that brought you Happy Feet." But this is Angry Talons. 

Heh...

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Synopsis

From the studio that brought you “Shrek,” “Madagascar” and “Kung Fu Panda.” “Megamind” is the most brilliant supervillain the world has ever known. And the least successful. Over the years, he has tried to conquer Metro City in every imaginable way. Each attempt, a colossal failure thanks to the caped superhero known as “Metro Man,” an invincible hero until the day Megamind actually kills him in the throes of one of his botched evil plans. Suddenly, Megamind has no purpose. A supervillain without a superhero. He realizes that achieving his life's ambition is the worst thing that ever happened to him. Megamind decides that the only way out of his rut is to create a new hero opponent called "Titan", who promises to be bigger, better and stronger than Metro Man ever was. Pretty quickly Titan starts to think it's much more fun to be a villain than a good guy . Except Titan doesn't just want to rule the world, he wants to destroy it. Now, Megamind must decide: can he defeat his own diabolical creation? Can the world's smartest man make the smart decision for once? Can the evil genius become the unlikely hero of his own story?
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...I'm looking forward to Megamind. It stars the voices of Will Ferrell, Tina Fey and Brad Pitt.

Writing on John Huston for Life magazine on 9/18/1950, James Agee began:

The ant, as every sluggard knows, is a model citizen. His eye is fixed unwaveringly upon Security and Success, and he gets where he is going. The grasshopper, as every maiden ant delights in pointing out, is his reprehensible opposite number: a hedonistic jazz-baby, tangoing along primrose paths to a disreputable end.

This looks like it'll be fun:

Somewhat sarcastic, too. :)

I just loved this clip:

"Squirrel!"

Good morning!

There are two new movies coming out that may have a few people confused -- "Avatar" and "The Last Airbender." Why would folks be confused? Simple -- there's an animated cartoon show on Nickolodeon called Avatar: The Last Airbender that is coming to the big screen as a live-action movie, and the names of the two films are easy to confuse.

The Nick show will be coming to theaters as The Last Airbender. The other movie, Avatar, is a science-fiction movie of an unrelated nature. A trailer for each, plus a link to their respective sites, below the fold.

In the meantime, this is an Open Thread.

by Robert Gillis
Published in the Foxboro Reporter and Boston City Paper 8/2009

Crossposted with permission from www.robertxgillis.com.

Although I rarely go the movies due to cost and my own profound laziness, I realized that I could be an ideal movie critic / reviewer / marketing spinner — because let’s face it, when writing a movie review or tagline, the facts, though interesting, are irrelevant. I mean, ANY movie, no matter how bad, can be manipulated via creative writing into a must-see film. Or a completely different film. And doing this is easier than you might imagine. So without further ado, here are some of my descriptions of movies, all with my special "must see" marketing spin.

I just previewed a few (dozen) clips or so of the new Disney film "Monsters vs. Aliens" -- here's a sample:

My favorite part?

Bob: What do people scream when they see you coming? You know, "Look out! Here comes...!"
Susan: "Susan."
Bob (in spooky voice): "Suuuuuuuusan -- ooo, I just scared myself."

Yeah, I know...simple things, simple minds...there are plenty of other things I could be entertaining myself with, but this seemed to be the right speed for me this morning.

Happy Saturday, folks.