1. Resident Evil: Extinction (2,828 Theaters, Rated R): I am torn about the series. I love zombie movies. But I hate video game adaptations. And this franchise is both.

Some people must like it. This is the second sequel in the line. I, unfortunately, have not seen any of them. But apparently they have moved on from a Zombie Apocalypse to total Extinction in the span of 3 years. Funny, I wouldn’t think that they would take that long.

I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Milla Jovovich after her starring in The Fifth Element, what I consider to be one of the most underrated sci-fi films of all time.

And it also stars Ali Later of Heroes fame. Funny that her role in the TV show was the first that popped to mind when I saw her in the trailer. It’s not like she hasn’t appeared in a movie before. She was in Varsity Blues and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

The plot? Jovovich’s character tries to lead a group of survivors through a very sandy Las Vegas on their way to Alaska. Oh, and to keep them from, well, extinction.

2. Good Luck Chuck (2,612 Theaters, Rated R): I was going to talk about the plot of this movie, which is Chuck (Dane Cook) must break his curse–that woman find their true love immediately after sleeping with him–in order to keep the woman he loves (Jessica Alba). Or about the short yet interesting career path Cook has taken in movies. Or the comparisons I find between this movie and Splash.

But instead I want to talk about this poster. For those of you born after 1980, it mimics the iconic last photograph of John Lennon and Yoko Ono taken by Annie Leibovitz.

But that’s not what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk about the absolutely horrible photoshopping on the poster. Click the image to get a larger view of it. Look at their faces. I have a cheesy, budget version of photoshop I got when I bought my scanner. I could have done a better job with that poster.

I mean, really. At least make an effort to get the lighting to match! Spend more than just 10 minutes on it! This thing is going into theaters! People with see it! Come on!

3. Sydney White (2,102 Theaters, Rated PG-13): Amanda Bynes is carving out a little, unique cottage industry for herself. In addition to be one of the few tweener stars who have not been arrest for DUI or have had nude pictures on the internet, she has become the queen of the modern update of a classical piece of literature.

She starred in last year’s She’s the Man, which was revamped version of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. This week, she has this movie, which is a 2007 version of the Snow White fairy tale.

Instead of Snow, her name is Sydney. Instead of woods, we have college. Instead of dwarves, we have dorks. Instead of an evil queen, we have evil sorority sisters. But there is a handsome prince and a romance which is another Bynes trademark.

I, for one, would be interested in seeing how the makers of the movie deal with the poisoned apple and Snow/Sydney’s long nap. Well, it being set in college, I can think of a couple of ways it could go, but none would work in a teen friendly movie.

On to the predictions. This is how I thought last week’s line up would look like:

1. The Brave One
2. 3:10 to Yuma
3. Halloween
4. Superbad
5. Mr. Woodcock

And this is how it ended up:

1. The Brave One
2. 3:10 to Yuma
3. Mr. Woodcock
4. Superbad
5. Dragon Wars

Both Mr. Woodcock and Dragon Wars did better than I thought they would. But I still got 3 out of 5 right. This makes me 19 for 30 over 6 weeks, and makes my “batting average” 63%.

Here is what I think this week will look like.

1. Resident Evil: Extinction
2. Good Luck Chuck
3. The Brave One
4. 3:10 to Yuma
5. Sydney White

What do you think?

Bill

Opening in just two months is Robert Zemeckis’s new motion-capture animated film Beowulf. A couple of trailers have already been released, and here’s the latest one to hit the net-

Unlike his last attempt at using motion-capture technology to drive the animation of the film, The Polar Express, the characters here are much more life-like, greatly improved over the rather creepy look that the characters in the first film had.

The only thing remains to be seen is how many high school students will fail English literature classes after writing thesises on the film rather than on the original poem.

Variety is reporting that Hollywood Gang Productions has just signed a deal to remake the classic 1978 action film The Wild Geese, the story of a small band of British mercenaries who are hired to free a jailed African leader.

Rupert Sayers, who is in line to direct, was quoted as saying “It has it all- great characters, action, plot twists and revenge. We are making a tough film, taking ex-British soldiers from the murky London underworld to the battlefields in Africa.”

The original starred Roger Moore, Richard Burton and Richard Harris.

No script writer has been announced. The project’s producer, Gianni Nunnari, is currently in discussions with Warner Brothers to distribute the film.

Writer/Director Diane English has lined up a steller cast for her remake of the 1939 comedy The Women.

Meg Ryan will take over Norma Shearer’s role of Mary Haines, a wealthy woman who doesn’t realize that her husband is having an affair with an attractive young shop girl. Eva Mendes will be playing the role of the shop girl played by Joan Crawford in the original. Once Mary discovers her husband’s infidelities, she hopes a train to Reno for a quickie divorce and meets more women, some of whom are carrying on with the others’ husbands behind their backs.

Needless to say, English has probably updated the film’s story a bit. Who goes to Reno for a divorce anymore? However, one aspect that English seems to have preserved is the original’s lack of any male characters appearing.

The production, which is currently shooting in Boston, has just announced several new cast members. Joining the cast are Bette Midler, Cloris Leachman, Carrie Fisher, Lynn Whitfield, Joanna Gleason, Ana Gasteyer and Debi Mazur. They will be joining the previously announced Debra Messing, Annette Bening, Jada Pinkett Smith and Candace Bergen. (Bergen starred in English’s hit television series Murphy Brown back in the 90s.)

The is set for release sometime next year.

Via Variety.

An older Silent Bob after a stint in the Army Rangers?

Nope, this is a shot of Kevin Smith in makeup for his role in Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales due out November 9.

According to the studio, Southland Tales is an “an ensemble piece set in the futuristic landscape of Los Angeles on July 4, 2008, as it stands on the brink of social, economic and environmental disaster.” Of course, the picture’s long post-production period – including a long period of re-editing following a less-than-favorable critical reception of a 160-minute version of the film at Cannes last year – have left some of us wondering if the film was going to be released before the date of its near-futuristic setting.

Reportedly, the film is, in part, a satire on Homeland Security and the military-industrial complex. How Smith’s millitary character fits into all of this should be interesting, to say the least.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire are in negotiations to star in an English-language remake of Susanne Bier’s Danish 2004 war film Brothers according to a report in Variety.

Maguire would star as a man sent to Afghanistan by the United Nations, while his younger, black-sheep brother (Maguire) takes care of his brother’s wife and child. David Benioff is drafting the screenplay. Director Jim Sheridan hopes to have the film in front of cameras in November.

In the past there have been attempts to create a rivalry between the two actors. When Maguire hurt his back while working on the horseracing drama Seabiscuit (2003) and his participation in Spider-Man 2 (2004) was in doubt, Gyllenhaal’s name was the ine most mentioned in rumored possible replacements. It should be interesting to see them have a real rivalry, at least on screen.

Via Cinematical.

Last week I expressed some concern over the news that Warners had censored the Tom And Jerry: Spotlight Collection, Volume 3 DVD release by the removal of two cartoons that contained racial humor, wondering what effect this might have on upcoming releases in their classic Looney Tunes series.

Fortunately, the answer comes from animation historian Jerry Beck- None at all.

According to a post at Beck’s CartoonBrew blog, Beck states that both the Looney Tunes and Popeye DVD collections, which he contributes to, will remain safe from the censor’s scissors.

By example, Beck posted a frame (above left) from the Frank Tashlin’s 1938 cartoon Porky At The Crocadero, in which the stuttering pig briefly imitates noted big band leader Cab Calloway. It is this one gag that many feel has kept the cartoon off television for years. It should be noted that no one seems to take offense to a similar joke in the short where Porky imitates another band leader, the appropriately-named Paul Whiteman.

Beck also posted another two frames from the final suicide gag from Bob Clampett’s 1944 Hare Ribbin’, another joke that had been cut from television screenings of the cartoon in recent years. Beck promises an alternate ending for the cartoon will also be on the disc where it’s Bugs Bunny who pulls the trigger on the pistol.

Some fans had expressed concern for the ongoing chronological Popeye DVD releases as the next volume enters into the early years of World War II, when less than politically correct depictions of the Japanese and Germans were often included as a way of building homefront morale.

Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume Five goes on sale on October 30.

The second volume of Popeye cartoons does not have an announced release date, but is expected before the end of the year.

Those rumors that Naomi Watts is lined up to head a remake of the Alfred Hitchcock classic The Birds may just be true.

While interviewing Watts about her role in director David Cronenberg’s upcoming crime drama Eastern Promises, ShockTillYouDrop squeezed in a question about the rumors circulating that she is going to take the lead role made famous by Tippi Hedron. Her response-

Disappointed that the DVD release of Darren Aronofsky’s time-twisting love story The Fountain didn’t have a director’s commentary track like the releases for his other two films?

Don’t worry. Aronofsky was too. It seems that in light of the film’s poor box-office performance, the folks in charge decided that they didn’t want to invest time or money into any special features for the DVD. It was thought that a commentary wouldn’t help sell more copies of the DVD.

Rather than fight them on their decision, Aronofsky embraced it. If a commentary track was not going to inspire folks to shell out their hard-earned cash, he might as well just give it away. And that’s what he is doing over at his website. Just click on this link and synch up their audio track with your DVD player.

This is just the latest in a growing wave of directors making their own commentaries and releasing them via the internet. The idea seems to have started last summer when Clerks II director Kevin Smith announced plans for a downloadable commentary track that people could take with them to the theaters and listen to on an iPod while watching the film. Although the idea was scrapped and the commentary moved to the DVD release, it seems to have inspired some other filmmakers to do similar recordings. More recently, writer/producers Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo have made available commentaries for various episodes of their old Flash and Sentinel tv series. Even former Mystery Science Theater 3000 star Mike Nelson has used the idea for his own series of RiffTrax.

Via Cinematical.

1. The Brave One (2,755 Theaters, Rated R): The Director? Neil Jordan (Mona Lisa, Crying Game, Interview with a Vampire). The Lead Actress? Two-time Academy Award Winner Jodie Foster (The Accused, Silence of the Lambs). Supporting Actor? Oscar Nominee Terrence Howard. The Plot? A warmed over version of Death Wish.

Is it just me, or do these creators deserve a better movie?

Okay. I’ll grant you that the whole “person looking for revenge” story is a powerful one. But it has been used umpteen times before. Will The Brave One bring anything new to the table? Or has the topic been examined enough?

Yes, I know that it is Jodie Foster, looking and acting like a female Bernie Goetz. And I’m sure she’ll act the heck out of it. But it’s been done before. Does it really matter if she’s a better actor than Charles Bronson when he did essentially the same role as she more than thirty years ago.

Hollywood gets a lot of flack for lack of originality. This case, I think it’s deserved.

2. Dragon Wars (2,269 Theaters, Rated PG-13): I first saw ads for this a few weeks ago, and I wondered why I hadn’t heard of it before. Something this big budget with this much CGI usually gets some press in the entertainment magazines or advance buzz on the internet.

One of the reasons why you might not have heard anything is because Dragon Wars (or, as it’s alternately called, D-War) is a Korean movie, one of the most expensive Korean films ever made.

The plot basically involves dragons fighting in the skies of Los Angeles. There is some wacky mumbo jumbo about one of the dragons trying to get into Heaven, which adds a bizarre spin to the plot, but this movie should appeal to anybody who likes to see giant beasts trying to kill one another while destroying everything the come in contact with.

To be honest, I might go to see this if they promised me that Godzilla would show up somewhere in the movie. I mean, if it wasn’t for him, this movie probably would have never made it over here.

3. Mr. Woodcock (2,231 Theaters, Rated PG-13): Finally, in what could quite possibly the most derivirative weekend of movies ever, we come to this one. Even the poster is unoriginal, apeing the poster for 1998′s BASEketball.

The most obvious comparision you could make for this movie would be last year’s School for Scoundrels. It also starred Billy Bob Thornton as a teacher whose adversarial relationship with a student kicks up when the teacher begins a romance with someone close to the student. Billy Bob better be careful, or else he might start getting typecast.

The modern dumb comedy has become so incestuous that they have even become quasi-cookie cutter. Take a “high concept” plot, take actor from dumb comedy A, add costar from dumb comedy B, add in an Oscar Winning actress for “What is she doing in this type of movie” shock value, shake and serve.

This is what we essentially have here. This movie essentially follows that formula. But that doesn’t mean that it’s going to be a success.

Now to the predictions. This is what I predicted for last week:

1. 3:10 to Yuma
2. Halloween
3. Shoot ‘Em Up
4. Superbad
5. Balls of Fury

And this is how it turned out:

1. 3:10 to Yuma
2. Halloween
3. Superbad
4. Shoot ‘Em Up
5. The Bourne Ultimatum

I flipped 3 and 4, and that Balls of Fury had more lasting power than it did. I am now 16 for 30 in 6 weeks, and have an accuracy percentage of 53%.

This is what a call for this week.

1. The Brave One
2. 3:10 to Yuma
3. Halloween
4. Superbad
5. Mr. Woodcock

What do you think?

Bill