September Movie Madness

1st - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Tim Burton's new take on the classic Dahl book has taken the world by technicolour storm. Depp looks a little creepy as the child-hating Wonka, Freddy Highmore is wide-eyed as ever as the innocence-personified Charlie, and Deep Roy takes cloning to a whole new level playing ALL the Oompa-Loompas. This should be a fun ride with many lolly puns to follow.

15th - Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
I love the original Wallace and Gromit tales. Twenty five minutes never felt like enough time for this pair to have a full adventure. Thankfully, the masterminds at Aardman have also realised this and signed the dynamic human/canine duo up for a feature film (I believe Gromit was far more demanding than he was in the early days). Hopefully, this new adventure will live up to the originals and result in more cheese addictions

15th - Dukes of Hazzard
It was a B-grade TV show, and chances are the movie will be even cheesier, but for some reason I actually want to see it. Jessica Simpson will no doubt irritate me to the point of gnawing my fingers off, but maybe the car stunts will be enough to make it bearable.

22nd - Deuce Bigalow 2: European Gigolo
I rather enjoyed the first Deuce film. Base comedy that worked rather well, even if it did cross every politically-correct line set in the last few years. Can a sequel hope to recreate that chance combination? I doubt it.

The climax for the month being the film I've been waiting for all year...

29th - Serenity
Everyone who has read this blog in the past few months should have at least heard about Serenity. Whedon's Firefly big-screen continuation has been gaining momentum lately with it's 'world' premiere at the Edinburgh Film Festival. A couple of reviews from that festival were sent to Ain't It Cool News; one from a non-fan, and the other from a gushing fan. I'm excited about the prospect of more Firefly action, and hopeful that it can live up to expectations.

October is looking to be a rather barren month with only Tim Burton's The Corpse Bride set for release on the 27th. November the same, with only The Brother's Grimm (24th). December is going to be the big month: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (1st), King Kong (14th), The legend of Zorro and The Chronicles of Narnia (26th).

2006 starts with a bang with the animated tale of Chicken Little and the film adaptation of the Broadway hit musical that was based on a film, The Producers, open on January 1st.

Finally A Vending Machine For Me!

Trust the French to come up with a vending machine that sells, not cigarettes, not alcohol, not teeth rotting soft-drink, but books!

Yes indeed! The world has become a better place now that books can be purchased while standing waiting for a bus. I've found myself in the dire circumstance of finishing a book while on public transport and being left with nothing to read. I would have been very thankful to be able to step off a bus and buy something else to keep me occupied while being jostled around for the rest of the journey.

I may be a little too excited about book vending machines, but it's a great idea.

Subtitles Can Make A Film

Subtitles are funny things. I always wonder who the people who write subtitles are. I also frequently wonder how they interpret what is being said. I understand the trimming of lines so they aren't as long to read, but some of the times I get annoyed by the parts they leave out.

Subtitles for non-English films are usually quite ok, but I've no idea whether they actually represent what the characters are saying.

Judging by this blog post about the English translation of a chines dubbing of Star Wars 3, I have doubts about whether a movie like House of Flying Daggers is actually a Monty Python-eske comedy!

If the test in these subtitles had been the actual dialogue for the film, I probably would have found the story more interesting.

Post found via Scifi Daily.

Brace Yourself

Singlefin managed to scare me from across the globe with this site.

Only those with nerves of steal should venture there.

Small children and those frail of mind should avoid.

Geekery Taken Too Far?

One-person shows are amazingly popular. They're easy to produce, and simple to tour. Pick the right content and topic and you'll have a hit. There's The Complete Works of William Shakespeare In 90 Minutes for example. A great idea and funny for everyone, whether you've seen every play (or more likely for anyone who's not insane) or only a few.

Do we need a "One-Man Star Wars Trilogy"?

Rest In Peace

Actor Matthew McGrory died in his home on Tuesday night. The 7 foot 6 inch actor is best known for playing "Karl the Giant" in Tim Burton's Big Fish. He was 32.

The Downside

I was channel surfing on Tuesday night and came across SBS airing a live feed of the Shuttle landing. As it was before dawn in the US they were using an infra-red camera. As the shuttle flew over where the camera was stationed it captured the underneath profile and it filled the screen.

I turned to my brother and we both burst out laughing.

It looked exactly like Dr. Evil's rocket from the Austin Powers movies...

Serenity Update

The official site for Serenity has been updated.

It now features a new wallpaper which looks to be the poster:

As well as a wallpaper version of the movie's logo:

A new trailer has also been released.

Some fantastic news I've just found. Greater Union - Birch, Carroll & Coyle have Serenity listed on their 'coming soon' page.

September 29 feels just that little bit closer now.

Don't forget to:

I'm a tool. A tool, tool, tool.

I bought the first season of Scrubs on DVD today. It makes me laugh. Loudly and often.

The deliveries are so fast, and the inner-monologues can be so subtle that it's worth rewinding to make sure you heard correctly. It would be nice if more comedies tried this hard to make us laugh that often. Most half-hour comedies are so lazy they rely on laugh tracks to tell you when you're meant to laugh.

The janitor annoys me a little, but Dr. Cox makes up for every second lost.

Thanks A Bunch Ten

For wasting 40 minutes of my life while waiting for the interminably painful Big Brother Friday Night Stupidity to finish. Haunted was scheduled to start immediately after, and when I last checked online on Tuesday night it was still on the cards. BB finished and what am I faced with? Bridget Jones' Bloody Diary.

Ah Crap

This was originally going to be a brief post about how thankful I am that Sela Ward didn't accept the offer to play Teri Hatcher's role in Desperate Housewives. I think she's just an appalling actor. Once and Again was a horribly depressing show, and her performance as the worried mother in The Day After Tomorrow would have been more convincing if she was dressed as a salmon.

What scared me was at the end of the article mentioning that she has a reoccurring character in House toward the end of the season and will be returning in season 2. All I can say to that is crappity crap crap crap!