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Entries in Keanu Reeves (5)

New Photos from 'The Day the Earth Stood Still'

earthstoodposterold.jpgOf course, in a perfect world, we'd never have remakes or sequels. We'd have one movie that told the whole story perfectly, leaving no questions unanswered, no stones unturned, and there would never be a reason to revisit that idea again because the film is timeless and untouchable.

It doesn't work that way, and we're "treated" to remakes and sequels all the time. Often, these are lousy, although I don't think you could survey the entire landscape of unoriginal ideas and determine that the majority are without their merits. It gets a little tricky when filmmakers want to add something to the legacy of a classic film, say, for example, The Day the Earth Stood Still.

For a lot of us, myself included, it's one of the first great alien invasion movies and an important piece of science-fiction and pop culture. But I don't think anyone can say that it's not outdated. After all, it was released in 1951.

Many contemporary audiences, who might still find quite a bit to like about the basic story, would never be able to sit through the Robert Wise version, even though it informed many, many sci-fi movies that followed it.

The longer people go without seeing it, the less it will mean years from now. So we have two options moving forward: Either let The Day the Earth Stood Still slip further and further into the irrelevance or introduce it a new audience by offering a modern version. And so here we are, a few months away from the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still.

IGN has some great new photos from the film, and as a service to them, we won't share all of them here. Please check out the source to see them all. But this movie looks pretty damn ominous, if you ask me. Keanu Reeves plays Klaatu, the visitor from another planet. The film co-stars Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, John Cleese, Kathy Bates, and Jaden Smith.

The Day the Earth Stood Still invades on December 12th.

Posted on Friday, August 8, 2008 at 12:52PM by Registered CommenterColin Boyd in , , , , | Comments15 Comments

Comic Con Posters: 'Max Payne,' 'Day the Earth Stood Still,' and Another 'Red Sonja'

It's day two of Comic Con in San Diego, and now all the big appearances and press events are starting to attract the crowds. We still have some posters to share with you, though, from Max Payne, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and yes, from Red Sonja (again).

I'll start with Max Payne, simply because this first one is among the coolest movie posters I've seen in a while. I really dig the perspective; it's not a straight-on shot, even the title has the three dimensional quality. You'll notice the three most powerful colors in advertising: Black, white, and red. And the detail is very precise and the image evocative and ethereal. This is excellent.

Of course, because that poster's so unique, it kind of makes this one seem commonplace. Though it's kind of a poster of a poster, we've seen similar work with Rambo and Righteous Kill this year. I don't love this one, although I suspect it's the one we'll see more of in theaters.

The Day the Earth Stood Still also has one great new poster and one that kind of earns a shoulder shrug. We'll start with the great one, a tip of the cap to the original film, but in an incredibly ominous way. You don't see much, but if you were faced with that situation in real life, what you see you sure as hell wouldn't like.

And then we have the mass panic poster. Never my favorite whenever they cart it out. A variant was used for The Happening most recently.

Finally, here's the second Red Sonja poster. I like this one, as well, and much like the first poster that we debuted yesterday, it really smacks of a comic book. It makes you wonder if the film will have that same visual style or if it will be more traditional. Why not go for broke? It is Red Sonja, after all. It's not like people have been waiting for the remake for 20 years. Give 'em something new and different.

So there you have it, another Comic Con poster recap. For the record, IMP Awards has all of these posters and gazillions more.

Posted on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 12:43PM by Registered CommenterColin Boyd in , , , , , , , , , , | CommentsPost a Comment

Plastic Man? Really?

plasticman.jpgOne day, we're going to get around to writing this long article about what comic book characters should and should not be adapted into movies. Clearly, The Incredible Hulk isn't everybody's favorite; both films have been outperformed by Fantastic Four movies. On the flip side, Iron Man was a huge hit, and you would think the bigger the comic book star would also be the bigger the movie star, so Hulk should do better. Not the case.

Why?

That's a really good question. We can't say it's star power, because Tobey Maguire and Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman aren't bigger stars than Edward Norton, at least, not clearly bigger stars. It isn't as if they've cast Tom Hanks in one of these movies yet. The Hulk should appeal to audiences because of its tortured character, so one of the only rational explanations I can come up with is they think the effects look cheesy. There's no other explanation for why the new Hulk movie is struggling so much while Iron Man does nearly three times the business. Beyond that, they probably felt duped by the first Hulk film and weren't ready to dip their toe in the water again so soon.

But what if Hulk is just wrong for movies? What if, because the effects are so unrealistic, people just don't buy it? I think that could be a problem down the road for movies like Thor and Ant-Man, and if this latest rumor is true, there's no question that people would have a hard time accepting the effects.

CHUD, which it should be noted is skeptical about this bit of information, says that Keanu Reeves and the Wachowski Brothers will team up to make Plastic Man. A reader e-mailed Devin Faraci at CHUD saying that Joel Silver was on a German radio station talking about the upcoming Ninja Assassin, and he announced that Plastic Man was a go.

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Posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 09:58AM by Registered CommenterColin Boyd in , , , | Comments11 Comments

Trailer - 'The Day the Earth Stood Still'

You can see this trailer blown up real good like if you check out Hancock this holiday weekend, so we're either spoiling your fun or getting you in the know about the new teaser for The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Without rehashing the entire premise behind our theory, there are remakes that need to happen, remakes that can be good if handled properly, and movies that should never be touched. I think the original Day the Earth Stood Still needs to be remade, and I'll tell you why. It's been over half a century since the original, which is a great film, don't get me wrong. But part of its appeal now is purely camp. The staging and the effects are so magnificently cheesy that we respond more to that than we do the story.

Our level of sophistication for telling not just science fiction stories but specifically planetary invasion stories has advanced quite a bit since 1951. It would be a shame if we didn't remake this movie based on the things we know now and the way we're able to make more believable sci-fi.

Spare me the Keanu Reeves talk, incidentally. He's choosing better scripts these days and better movies are confident casting him. Once he figured out his limits, Reeves became pretty good at playing that part. It's what movie stars should do.

December 12th will be The Day Earth Stood Still. Or stands still, whatever.

Posted on Thursday, July 3, 2008 at 09:48AM by Registered CommenterColin Boyd in , , , , | Comments15 Comments

'Point Break 2': 100% Pure Rehash

Is it too early to say that nothing good can come of this? Jan de Bont, who hasn't made a good movie since Speed, which, as it turns out, was his only good movie, has signed on to direct the sequel to Point Break.

Point Break: Indo is what they're calling the follow-up, presumably because the title Desperate Attempt at Cash: Next Stop: White Slavery was somehow already taken.

The sequel has been rumored for some time, with talk really heating up last year that all systems were go. Indo will chronicle events that happen 20 years after the original, centering on the disappearance of Bodhi (Patrick Swayze) in Southeast Asia. Well, perhaps they should hire John Rambo to look for him.

The Hollywood Reporter claims that there is no news as to whether any of the original Point Break cast members will be along for the ride this time, although I wouldn't believe the odds are good.

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Posted on Thursday, May 15, 2008 at 11:36AM by Registered CommenterColin Boyd in , , | Comments2 Comments