1. Saw VI (Lionsgate, 3,036 Theaters, 90 Minutes, Rated R): If Detroit took a cue from the Saw franchise, there would be no need for a bailout for the automotive industry. Because this franchise is on automatic and it keeps churning out 90 minute horror films year after year with no end in sight, unfortunately.

The plot is that people get killed in cruel and sadistic ways. Usually they have done something to deserve it, or have to make a gut-wrenching decision to avoid their fate. Or something like that.

There is also a “mythology” about the original killer dying and passing on his legacy to a bunch of other people, although he still appears in every sequel even though he’s been dead for about four of them.

Yeah, if you couldn’t guess, I am not a fan of the series. I really wish that it would just slowly fade away into obscurity like the rest of the torture porn genre. Maybe this time we’ll be lucky.

2. Astro Boy (Summit Entertainment, 3,014 Theaters, 94 Minutes, Rated PG): An unmitigated classic is getting a CGI remake, and, hoo boy, it better be good.

Astro Boy is Osamu Tezuka’s masterpiece. It first hit Manga way back in 1952 and its first cartoon aired in 1962. Think of the character as sort of being, in terms of cultural impact, Japan’s Superman.

It was one of the earliest examples of Manga/Anime to hit U.S. shores. So, there is a lot of historical baggage with this adaptation.

The story in a nutshell is Pinocchio for the Atomic Age. A scientist whose son dies creates a robotic replacement. The robot has extraordinary superpowers, which he uses to keep the planet safe.

Of course, it is a little deeper than that. The original work also dealt with things like abandonment, never being good enough for the high standards of a father figure, and finding acceptance for who you truly are.

Whether any of this carries over to the kidified, Americanized version, is anybody’s guess. But if they don’t, this this version of the story will be lacking.

3.Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant (Universal, 2,754 Theaters, 108 Minutes, Rated PG-13): Okay, I’ll say it. John C. Reilly makes a really unusual looking vampire. And I’m not so sure that’s a good thing.

Now, it’s not that I expect every vampire to look like Bela Lugosi or, ugh, Robert Pattinson. But Reilly really doesn’t strike me as the kind of vampire who could actually convince fair maidens to partake of his particular version of eternal life. I’m just saying.

Adapted from the 12 -book series (and supposedly it adapts the first three), it features a teen who runs of to join the circus. However, the circus he runs out and joins is run by a vampire. The price he has to pay for joining the circus? Becoming a half-vampire and become and assistant to the head vampire.

There is a pretty good cast attached to this, but kid lit adaptations other than Harry Potter have a hard time of it on the silver screen. Let’s see if this one is any different. 

4. Amelia (Fox Searchlight, 818 Theaters, 111 Minutes, Rated PG): Heh heh. A film about Amelia Earhart is put out by Fox Searchlight. You can’t write this stuff!

Just like stores put out Christmas decorations earlier and earlier each year, so Hollywood does with the Oscar bait. And this one features someone who has already won the award twice.

You can have many long discussions about which Oscar winner is the least deserving. But in my opinion, there is only one, two-time Oscar winner you could add to that list. And that is Hilary Swank.

In the few films I’ve seen her in, it always seems that you can tell that she is acting. I don’t really believe she is really the character, but always just pretending to be the character.

Of course, her Oscar roles are were both Oscar favorites–women who struggle against all odds to succeed in what they want to be, and SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!, both die in the end. That’s like molding an Oscar for yourself.

And this role has Oscar bait written all over it. It’s a real person who meets a mysterious yet probably tragic end. I hope we won’t see Swank at the Oscar telecast next year, but odds are we will.

They’re back off to outer space, defending mother Earth and saving the human race.

The crew of the classic anime series Space Battleship Yamato, known in the United States as Star Blazers, is set for a new big screen adventure. But instead of their familiar two-dimensional, hand drawn appearance, this new film, which started shooting in Japan last week, will sport a  real life, flesh and blood crew.

The film, budgeted at over two billion yen or $22 million American, is being directed by Takashi Yamazaki, the director best known to Western fans of Asian action cinema for the time travel action film Returner. Popstar-turned-actor Takuya Kimura is leading the cast as Susumu Kodai, the character known as Derek Wildstar to American audiences. Reports state that this live action version will make some changes to the original animated version. Two characters – Aihara (known as Homer to English-speaking audiences) and Dr. Sado (Dr. Sane) – are getting sex changes in the transition, becoming females.

Premiering on Japanese TV in 1974, Space Battleship Yamato told the story of the crew of a starship racing across the galaxy to retrieve a cure for the radioactive fallout from an alien invasion’s bombardment that is slowly poisoning the Earth. It was brought over to America in 1977, where it was embraced by an audience already excited by the space opera of Star Wars. Two more television series and several animated films followed.

A live action Space Battleship Yamato/ Star Blazers adaptation was close to being a reality a little over a decade ago. The project was in development at Disney through most of the 1990s, with a script having been written by Tab Murphy. You can read our less than glowing review of it here. And while the script took several liberties with the story that would probably not go well over with fans of the original, the project was ultimately shelved after studio head Michael Eisner departed.

The film is set for a December 2010 release in Japan, but as of now, there is no word if any US distributor picking up the film for release here. I would think, though, that there would be a viable enough audience between anime fans and those, like myself, who remember the original series from its syndicated runs years ago to support at least a DVD release if not some limited theatrical distribution.

Last weekend, the comedy Black Dynamite opened in limited release to positive reviews. Although a loving spoof of 1970s blaxploitation films, no real knowledge of the genre is needed to enjoy it. Of course, if it does ignite an interest in the actual films, one will find a fascinating group of films that uniquely capture a cross-section of America in that decade. Here’s a quick overview of the genre. Read with your Netflix queue open.

Melvin Van Peebles

If blaxploitation was a revolution, then Melvin Van Peebles was its Che Guevara. His first two films – the interracial romance The Story Of A Three Day Pass (1968) and the whiteface satire Watermelon Man (1970) – were just warmups for the lobbed hand grenade that was 1971’s Sweet Sweetback’s Badasssss Song, the movie that would solidify the blaxploitation tone. Many mainstream critics, both black and white, would denounce the movie as containing nothing but negative stereotypes. But none less than Huey P. Newton, founder of the radical Black Panthers, would champion the film, devoting a full issue of the organization’s magazine to it.

Hollywood also noticed. It wasn’t the political message that intrigued studios, but the fact that the film managed to make a little over $4 million at the box office. The message was clear. African American audiences wanted to see African-American heroes on the big screen. And thus was a whole new wave of films born.

Shaft

Shaft has a lot of history going for it. It was the second film from Gordon Parks, the first black director hired by a major motion picture studio, MGM. It had an unknown actor make his film debut in a lead role that would catapult him to stardom. Its composer would become the first African-American to win the Academy Award for Best Original Score. There is no denying that Shaft is an important milestone in black cinema.

But can it be considered a true blaxploitation film? Financed by a major studio, its hero is a “black private dick who’s a sex machine with all the chicks,” not the pimps, hoods and anti-heroes usually connected with the genre. If anything, its origins in a series of detective novels written by former newspaperman Ernest Tidyman place it closer to pulp and noir territories. However, it helped reinforce to Hollywood executives the lesson that Van Peebles Sweet Sweetback’s Badasssss Song had taught just a few months earlier- there was money to be made by catering to black audiences.

Pimps, Hoods, Outlaws And Tough Guys

It took Gordon Park’s son, Gordon Parks Jr. to really lead the blaxploitation charge with 1973’s Super Fly, a tale of a Harlem drug dealer trying to do straight. The Mack (1973), starring Max Julien and Richard Pryor, was seen by its creators as more social commentary than exploitation. But both films proved that pimps were box office gold and soon there were plenty of imitators.

Fred “The Hammer” Williamson would play characters on both sides of the law. In The Hammer (1972), he would be a boxer stuck with a crooked manager, but would be making a move to take over all organized crime in Harlem in Black Caesar (1973). (You can skip Black Caesar’s hastily thrown together sequel Hell Up In Harlem (1974).) Williamson also managed to transplant his tough guy persona to the Old West with the films The Legend Of Nigger Charley (1972), The Soul Of Nigger Charley (1973), Boss Nigger (1974) and Bucktown (1975).

Former football star Jim Brown found a measure of success as a supporting actor in films like Rio Conchos, The Dirty Dozen and Ice Station Zebra, but would be elevated to star status with films like Slaughter (1972), Slaughter’s Big Rip Off (1973) and Black Gunn (1974).

And The Ladies…

Pam Grier wasn’t just one of the blaxploitation’s biggest stars, she also was one of the 1970s biggest female box office draws, behind only Barbara Streisand and Liza Minnelli. As tough an asskicker as she was (and still is) beautiful, Grier exploded across screens with the one-two punch of Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974). But her lesser known work is worth checking out including The Big Doll House (1971), Friday Foster and Sheba, Baby (both 1975). If it seems like she’s beating on the same guy in film after film, you’re probably seeing Sid Haig, who has appeared in five Grier films, mostly as bad guys.

The fact that Tamara Dobson falls a distant second to Grier is not fault of her own, but a testament to Grier’s stardom. The six-foot, two-inch tall model turned actress’s two Cleopatra Jones films are definitely worth watching and were popular enough to serve as the basis of a short parody in Kentucky Fried Movie (1977)-

Blaxploitation And Horror

Almost from the beginning of the blaxploitation craze, producers began cranking out horror movies with predominantly black casts. The first and still the best known of this subgenre is 1972’s Blacula, which manages to capture a bit of the vibe of the cycle of horror films put out by Britain’s Hammer Studios a few years previously. A success, it quickly launched a sequel one year later in which William Marshall’s African vampire Mamuwalde squares off against none other than Pam Grier. Vampires would also show up in 1973’s Ganja And Hess.

Zombies would bedevil the cast of Sugar Hill (1974), while Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll And Mister Hyde got remade as Dr. Black And Mr. Hyde. Meanwhile, 1974’s The Beast Must Die grafts its werewolf story on to the template of the classic short story “The Most Dangerous Game” and then pauses midstream to allow the audience time to figure out who the werewolf really is. Blackenstein (1974) went so far as to hire Ken Strickfadden, who created all the unique electrical apparatus for the classic 1931 Frankenstein, to shock its own monster to life.

Even more recent horror wasn’t exempt from a blaxploitation makeover. AIP’s Abby (1974) was a little too close to The Exorcist for Warner Brothers’ lawyers, who threatened to sue the indie studio. AIP withdrew the $200,000 picture, but it managed to gross over $4 million its opening week.

The Blaxploitation craze was just like any other. It started to fade out by the mid-1970s. But its spirit lives on. Cinematically, its influence can be seen in films like Tarantino’s Jackie Brown and the works of Mario (son of Melvin) Van Peebles. And we will undoubtedly see more films bearing its imprint as well.

Although historically held in the spring, The Philadelphia Film Festival has announced a season change to the fall starting with their 2010 event. As a way of easing the transition, they held a mini-festival last weekend, cheekily calling it their 18 1/2 annual fest.

At the end of the French 2004 action film District 13, promises are made to the film’s two heroes that politicians were listening and that the walls surrounding the titular slum section of Paris in the near-future would be torn down. But politician promises being what they generally are, conditions have worsened, not gotten better over the ensuing three years. Leiot (David Belle) has decided to stop waiting on action from elected officials and bureaucrats and has started working at fulfilling their promises for them. With explosives. When it appears that District 13 gang members have murdered two police officers, Leito discovers that the gang members have been framed. But his friend on the police force detective Damien Tomaso (Cyril Raffaelli) can be no help as he has been framed and imprisoned. Breaking Damien out of prison, the tow discover that the two incidents are connected and do not bode well for the future of the residents of District 13.

Released two years before the James Bond revamp Casino Royale utilized it in its opening sequence, District 13 introduced the amazing sport of parkour to audiences, with one of its biggest practitioners and developers, Belle, in a starring role. The film followed him as he ran pell mell through the crumbling slums of District 13 , using every conceivable surface as a springboard to change direction. Director Pierre Morel’s camera could scarcely keep up and audiences were left breathless.

But where District 13 focused on Belle’s parkour skills, this sequel seems to emphasize the equally impressive martial arts skills of Raffaelli. One impressive sequence set in the back of a shady nightclub featuring him disposing of several opponents with a Van Gogh painting recalls the playfulness and precision of Jackie Chan at the height of his Hong Kong career. The sequence also features the quick repetition of certain difficult stunts from multiple angles to show the audience that it is Raffaelli’s prowess at work, not visual effects trickery. This is a recurring technique of Chan’s as well.

Keeping with the original’s style, incoming director Patrick Alessandrin’s direction is fluid, moving around the action, never getting in its way. For those who have not seen the first District 13 – And it is recommended in and of itself, though you don’t need to have seen it to enjoy this sequel – he opens the film by zooming through the walled in slums, highlighting the various ethnic factions that Leiot and Damien will have to unite. And while the movie doesn’t quite have the element of surprise that the first one did with its presentation of parkour, Alessandrin keeps things moving along at a good pace.

The characters of District 13: Ultimatum aren’t deeply drawn, but we know enough about them to make the movie work. No one is striving for redemption or some high-minded ideal that often seems artificially grafted on to Hollywood action heroes. Shot on a budget that would probably barely cover the catering bill on the latest bloated Michael Bay epic. District 13: Ultimatum is a sheer popcorn movie delight, packing more excitement and flair than much of what Hollywood has thrown into multiplexes over the past several years.

The Big Apple Con was this weekend, and media guests equaled, or possibly outnumbered, the number of comic book guests. While Wizard’s definition of a celebrity might be a bit broad, the world of film was well represented at the convention.

The DeLorean from Back to the Future was a key attraction. The booth was selling DeLorian T-Shirts for $45. You could by four for that price at the Stylin’ Online booth.

Here lies the autograph area. You can get photos signed by your favorite stars from $20 all the way up to $75 for William Shatner.

Brent Spiner signing for a fan at the Lightspeed Fine Art booth.

Astro Boy being lead away. No, he wasn’t causing a disturbance. He’s just going on break. The Wizard booth had a plethora of Astro Boy swag, including posters, pins and pens.

It wouldn’t be a comic con without fans dressing up in character. There were a lot of people as Batman, the Joker and any number of Star Wars people. But these guys were some of the best.

Did I say Star Wars?

The obligatory R2-D2.

A truly gigantic Chewbacca.

Said Chewbacca on a stroll.

Finally, Billy Dee Williams being interviewed at the UFrag TV booth.

Listen up, you jive turkeys!

Black Dynamite is the toughest, baddest blaxploitation hero you haven’t heard of yet. He’s a Vietnam vet and worked for the man as a CIA assassin. Now he’s determined to keep smack off the street and out of the orphanages. He’s vicious to his enemies but smooth with the ladies.

And he’s the centerpiece of the funniest movie of the fall and perhaps the year.

A one man martial arts army, Black Dynamite (Michael Jai White sporting a ridiculous mustache) vows to rid the streets of the city of drugs after his younger brother is killed by some dealers. Carving a path through the city’s underworld, every time he seems to confront the one responsible, he learns that they were only following the orders of another. Soon Black Dynamite is fighting his way to stick it to the ultimate Man behind everything.

Black Dynamite is hands down the funniest genre spoof movie since Airplane. Not that there has been much competition for that title in the last three decades. Black Dynamite doesn’t make the mistake of just parodying specific scenes from other films for its laughs. Instead, it is the distilled essence of dozens of blaxploitation, a concentrate of all their quirks into one film, packing more plot elements than any dozen blaxploitation flicks. The result is a movie that recalls the genre without being beholden to specific entries of it. Sure, some will chuckle knowingly when Black Dynamite stands up in the middle of a dramatic speech and knocks his afro against a boom mic too slow to get out of the way. But the joke is funny in and of itself, requiring no esoteric knowledge of Rudy Ray Moore films any more than audiences needed to be well versed in 1957‘s Zero Hour to find Airplane funny.

Black Dynamite outshines previous blaxploitation parodies I’m Gonna Git You Sucka (1988) and Undercover Brother (2002) where the characters seem aware that they’re in a blaxploitation film. But Black Dynamite fully embraces the concept by recreating the genre’s often low budget look right down to the occasional jump cut and camera shot slipping out of focus. It is as if this film has been sitting on a shelf for 35 years before being rediscovered and threaded up on a projector. Like the perfect wording of a joke, it’s that extra attention to detail that sells the comedy. The key here is that everything is played straight, without winking at the audience.

Special note needs to be made of the film’s soundtrack. There is virtually no moment of Black Dynamite that goes unscored. Adrian Younge’s original music simultaneously evokes and sends up the funk music that dominated the soundtracks of the original blaxploitation films. And when placed next to the 1970s-era library cues that make up the balance of the film’s music, it is impossible to tell the difference.

1. Where The Wild Things Are (Warner Brothers, 3,735 Theaters, 94 Minutes, Rated PG): There are certain stories that touch the hearts of a generation. Maurice Sendak’s book that this film was adapted from is one of them. It is so beloved that there are some that might say that book is so sacrosanct that any to adapt it would be akin to blasphemy.

Spike Jonze seem to realize this. He took his time making this film. Filming began in 2005 on the movie, and it missed both a May 2008 and October 2008 release date.

Jonze and co-writer Dave Eggers were in constant contact with Sendak, which would lead you to be the adaptation will be a successful one. But it remains to be seen how the creators were able to expand a 10-page storybook into a 94 minute film. Because if they falter along the way, there will be a whole generation that will hold them responsible. 

2. Law Abiding Citizen (Overture Films, 2,889 Theaters, 108 Minutes, Rated R): A plea bargain sets a group of killers free. The man who lost his family to the murderers decides to take the law into his own hands. But his revenge isn’t meted out solely on the killers but on the members of the legal system itself. Vengeance shall be his, and not even jail can stop him.

What you have here is a a basic Hollywood formula–the revenge flick. Sure some twists and turns are thrown in, but that’s what it is.

What I want to know is, are we supposed to root for Gerard Butler’s character or not? There are ads that present him as a hero of sorts, others as a crazed terrorist. Or maybe they want the film to be a think piece where morality is put to the test.

And you’ve got to be impressed with Gerard Butler. He is quickly becoming a modern day Michael Caine, at least as it comes to film per year ratio. What is this, his 20 picture this year? 

3. The Stepfather (Sony/Screen Gems, 2,734 Theaters, 101 Minutes, Rated PG-13): I would use this time to state my wish that they would finally come to the end of 1980s horror films to adapt, buy I really know its of no use. If they ran out of films to remake, they’d just go back to the top of the list and start all over again.

This film is a remake of the 1987 movie of the same name, which starred a pre-Lost Terry O’Quinn. That film was in turn loosely taken from the true life story of John List, a man who killed his family and got away with it for over a decade and a half. It was one of the TV show America’s Most Wanted most famous success stories as it led to his capture.

The basic premise is that a young man comes back from military school and find his mother remarried to almost the perfect man. Almost except for his pronounced homicidal tendencies. 

Of course, the question we have to as is, did the original really need to be remade? It was a cut above the rest of the psychological horror of the day, and Dylan Walsh will have to go a long way to match up with O’Quinn’s performance. And something is bound to be lost in going from an R rating to a PG-13.

Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus opens in the UK on Friday, and those lucky Britishers have gotten one last poster for the film. This one features Lily Cole, who as Parnassus’s daughter is caught up in a wager between her father (Christopher Plummer) and the Devil (Tom Waits). Click on the poster for a much bigger view, there’s a lot going on in this poster. We in the States will have to wait until Christmas Day for the film to open.

David Tennant is joining the previously announced Simon Pegg in John Landis’s dark comedy Burke And Hare.

The pair will portray two murderers who sold their victims bodies to a private anatomy lecturer whose students were drawn from Edinburgh Medical College. Over the space of 1824, the two supplied 16 bodies to a Dr. Robert Knox before being caught when some of Knox’s students recognized one of the victims. The fate of the two I’ll leave unspoken so as not to spoil the film, though Knox was never charged in connection with the grisly murders. The script is from Piers Ashworth and Nick Moorcrof, the scripters behind the 2007 British hit comedy St. Trinian’s and its upcoming sequel, St. Trinian’s: The Legend Of Fritton’s Gold.

Even if it weren’t a rather lite news week, the idea that Landis is getting back behind the camera for a new feature film would definitely be something to write about. Landis had not had much luck with his last few features- The Stupids (1996), Blues Brothers (1998) and the very little seen Susan’s Plan (1998). In the 11 years since then, he has done some television work, the documentary Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project and tried to get a film adaption of the off-Broadway musical Batboy off the ground.

And Landis couldn’t ask for two better actors for the film. Both Pegg and Tennant have excellent comedy chops. And both are perhaps the two most recognizable British actors to most Americans right now thanks to Pegg’s comedy films and Tennant’s popular run on science-fiction perennial Doctor Who. This is definitely going to be one project we follow as it goes before the camera early next year.

Via Bloody Disgusting.

For a while, Sony Pictures have had Spider-Man 4 penciled on to their release schedule for May 6, 2011. The only problem is that no one was sure exactly when they would get started actually making the film.

In an interview with M TV’s Splash Page, director Sam Raimi has stated that pre-production for the film is moving ahead. Production designers are already working on designs for sets. Raim has just given a new round of notes to screenwriter Gary Ross and Scott Stokdyk, a veteran of the first three Spider-Man films, has been hired as one of the film’s two visual effects supervisors. If things continue to go as they are, Raimi hopes to be rolling cameras in New York City in the first week of March.

Still no word as to which villains will show up, even though by this point that must have been decided. Toby Maguire and Kirsten Dunst are already signed to return to the franchise as Peter Parker/Spider-Man and love interest Mary Jane Watson respectively. There is no word as to whether any of the other supporting actors will be back, but it is hard to believe that they won’t.

And since a certain FilmBuffOnline editor/publisher happens to have a birthday in the first week of March, I’d like to take a moment to thank Sam Raimi for such a nice present.