1. A Good Day to Die Hard (Fox, 3,552 Theaters, 97 Minutes, Rated R): There was 12 years between Die Hard with a Vengeance and Live Free or Die Hard. There was a little under six years between that one and this one. So, by that count, does that mean Die Hard 6 will hit in 2016?

Well, a sixth volume has been confirmed so why the heck not? So what if Bruce Willis will be in his sixties when it comes out or that the character in that installment will bear little resemblance to the character in this film, let alone the original. The concept is evergreen and adaptable to every type of story. The only thing that needs to happen is that the story needs to get bigger.

This time around, we are introduced to John McClane Jr in, of all places, Russia. Daddy has gone over there to straighten his son out. Turns out that Junior is a government operative investigating the sale of nuclear weapons. Things turn hairy, as they do whenever papa is around, and the two must team up to save the world and bring in the bad guys.

2. Safe Haven (Relativity, 3,223 Theaters,115 Minutes, Rated PG-13): What is Valentine’s Day with out a romance? And I guess a Nicholas Sparks adaptation meets the barest minimum requirement.

Sparks’ brand of treacly, star-crossed lover starring romance novels have been hitting the big screen since 1999′s Message in the Bottle (bet you didn’t know that was one of his) but really hit the big time with 2004′s The Notebook, which, along with his abs, is the main reason why women find Ryan Gosling so dreamy. The success of that movie has caused producers to scour Sparks’ back catalogue for more weepy romances to bring to the big screen.

This one seems to owe a lot to 1991′s Julia Roberts vehicle, Sleeping With the Enemy. Julianne Hough (see, even the name is similar) plays a woman who relocates to a sleepy North Carolina town. She is constantly looking over her shoulder, waiting for someone to over take her, all the while trying not to make any contact with any of her fellow neighbors and townsfolk. That doesn’t last long as the sensitive and hunky Josh Duhamel breaks down her guard and makes her want to love again. But, unfortunately, her past catches up with here. Here’s where the films diverge–she’s not being stalked by an abusive husband, but and obsessive policeman! See, she might have killed a man in her hometown of Boston. Okay, you know she really didn’t do it, but yet that’s is what she is running from.

What shocking is the shlock is directed by Oscar-nominated Lasse Hallström. What’s even more shocking is that its his second Sparks adaptation! What is the world coming to?

3. Beautiful Creatures (Warner Brothers, 2,950 Theaters, 124 Minutes, Rated PG-13): Oh, look. It’s a gender-reversed Twilight with witches instead of vampires! Only with more Oscar winners/nominees!

I’d imagine that the producers of this film would take umbrage to this comparison if that’s they whole impression they were trying to sell. This film is intended to be the first installment of a franchise based on a successful book franchise (one which was getting a lot of promotion at last year’s New York Comic Con). I’m sure they hope that a lot of Twi-hards become BeaCreaFreaks™ and spend inordinate amounts of cash on Beautiful Creatures merchandise and movie tickets.

This film focuses on a young girl who just happens to belong to a family of witches. Her sixteenth birthday is coming up and that’s when her witchly powers are going to be amped up. But will she become a good witch or a bad witch? The family moves to a small town in the hopes of nudging her to the good side. But a relationship with a muggle…er…non-magical human might tip the balance in the other direction.

1. Argo (Warner Brothers, 3,250+ Theaters, 120 Minutes, Rated R): Based a formerly classified, hard-to-believe-if-it-was fiction true story, the film tells the tale of a rescue mission set in the days of the Iranian Hostage Crisis. Six embassy members managed to escape the embassy take over and take residence in the Canadian Embassy. The CIA hatches a plan to get them out–they’ll pose as a Canadian film crew scouting locations. The embassy workers will pose as part of the Canadian crew. The only problem is that the Iranians are very suspicious and if the embassy workers are caught, they are dead.

While ”Argo” is fake,the CIA based it on an abandoned adaptation of Roger Zelazny’s novel, Lord of Light. It got to the pre-production stages, with comic book legend Jack Kirby doing design drawings for the film. So, while Ben Affleck won’t be directing the Justice League film, he at least has done another film with a connection, tenuous though it may be, with comics.

2. Here Comes The Boom (Sony/Columbia, @3,000 Theaters, 105 Minutes, Rated PG): Kevin James is turning into a thinking man’s Adam Sandler. Now, wait! Hear me out on this!

Paul Blart: Mall Cop, for some, was a silly exercise in seeing a fat man trip over stuff. I saw it as a witty parody of the Die Hard-type films with Kevin James as the fat guy who trips over stuff recast in the Bruce Willis role. If it was just the former, I probably would have joined the naysayers who didn’t like it. As the latter, I liked it quite a bit.

I did not see The Zookeeper, so I can’t comment on that one, but this film appears to be a return to form. Come to see the fat guy get pummeled repeatedly, stay to see a subversive parody of the “Inspirational Teacher” and “Underdog Sports” genres.

3. Sinister (Summit Entertainment, @2,500 Theaters, 110 Minutes, Rated R): Hey, horror fans! Stop me when this sounds familiar. A family moves into a new house and…

What? Stop there? But I haven’t even gotten to the fact that dad’s a writer and the evil box of film he found which releases an evil entity that threatens his family!

Yeah, this film is Frankenstein construction of parts of better films. You don’t need a screenwriter for this, all you need is a computer program. And not even a new computer. You can run it on a dusty old Commodore 64 from the 80s.

The reason why films like The Cabin in the Woods and Scream take such a hold in the horror fandom is because the conventions they mock are ground into dust by films like these. Sure, there will probably be scares in this film, but only because the scene was scary in an earlier film. We need sick bastards to create original horror, not people to rip off the sick bastards that came before them.

4. Seven Psychopaths (CBS Films, @1,475 Theaters, 109 Minutes, Rated R): Speaking of sick bastards, let me present you with Martin McDonagh. I believe me when I say that in this case I mean “sick bastard” as the highest compliment.

McDonagh is one of my most favorite writers. I followed his writing from the stage to the screen, and have been impressed by his talent and ability all along the way. His writing is not for all tastes. He blends the wacky with the gruesome, the pathetic with the fearsome, into a dark comedy brew with great characters, excellent dialog and more than its fair share of heart.

If you are adventurous, and can see only one film this week, and if it playing near you, go see this film. If it wasn’t for a little thing called New York Comic Con, I would be seeing it at Friday’s first showing. But even without seeing, I know it has the best potential to be the best film this weekend.

FilmBuffOnLine Comic Book Movie Editor William Gatevackes had the opportunity to attend the Big Apple Comic Con and the New York Comic Con on consecutive weekends. These are his observations.

Big Apple Comic Con, October 2, 2010:

I think the above photo presents a fairly accurate portrait of the Big Apple Comic Con. In the forefront, you have a mingling of a rather adult aspect of pop culture, in this case the alternative soft-core porn site Suicide Girls, with a big aspect of geek lore nostalgia in the form of some Star Wars cosplayers. In the background, far in the background, are some comic books.

Wizard World’s two forays into the New York market have been comic book conventions practically in name only. They bear more in common with the Chiller Theatre conventions than they do with San Diego Comic Con.

It wasn’t always this way. The Wizard conventions started off as your typical comic con. You would have a smattering of other pop culture items–your weapon sellers, DVD sellers, etc.–but the focus was on comics. It’s Chicgo convention was the one that people thought would one day rival SDCC.

Now the Wizard conventions have begun shifting into events where the promoters get in touch with outside agencies who represent a number of celebrities. These agencies provide the pop culture icons for the show. These stars sell their autographs anywhere from $20 up to $70 or more.

These celebrities were given the prime location–on the first floor directly in front of the front doors. The first thing fans saw were professional wrestlers and their booths. A cool breeze kept the temperature pleasant, and, while there was a bit of crowding at the entrance, but, for the most part, the space was roomy with freedom of movement.

Comic book creators, however, were consigned to the depths of the neighboring Hotel Pennsylvania, in the dank and threadbare basement of the Hotel. The Artist Alley was crowded into a small ballroom here, and it was hot and stuffy and barely passable.

The exhibitor area was on the third floor and had a eclectic mix of vendors. Yes, there were a number of comic book sellers, but there were also booths from storage companies in Manhattan, a company selling plus-sized underwear, and even a man speaking broken English trying to get people to sign up for some kind of estimates from Home Depot. It had the patchwork feel of a convention trying to get vendors–any vendors–to sign up so there weren’t any empty spaces on the floor.

As for a film presence, well, outside of celebrities like Julia Jones and Dan Fogler in the signing area, the biggest movie-related item attached to the con was IFC’s official DVD release of The Human Centipede. The three leads were at the con, and copies of the DVD were sold. I only passed by their booth once, and I found no crowds around the table and the people manning the table–the actors and the woman selling the DVD’s to be bored.

New York Comic Con 2010. October 8-10, 2010:

By contrast, the New York Comic Con wants to be the East Coast version of the San Diego Comic Con that it wears the fact of it on its sleeve. This might have been the year that it actually accomplished this goal.

This year’s con, which joined forces with the New York Anime Festival, welcomed an estimated 96,000 guests through its doors. It’s about 50,000 off from San Diego, but it’s getting there.

The number of people meant that even though the con had more of the Javits Center for its use, it was still cramped and crowded. The growing pains did not stop there. People were complaining about the volunteers, who often pointed them in the wrong directions and made them stand in wrong lines. Certain people at the Stan Lee meet and greet complained that it was well organized and when they got there, they were told they couldn’t shake Mr. Lee’s hand or have their picture taken with him–two selling points for the $400 ticket to the meet and greet–because Mr. Lee was under the weather. And some Manga/ Anime fans complained that they felt the NYAF was given a short shrift in comparison to the American comic industry.

But the important thing is that a lot of the focus of the NYCC was on comics. Artist Alley took over an entire wing of the convention floor. Dealers were in large supply. All the major publishers had booths and a lot of smaller publishers did to. And many aisles were taken up by small-press publishers, tying to get an audience for their work.

But what makes SDCC the biggest convention in the world nowadays is the influx of film studios. San Diego’s geographic closeness to Los Angeles makes it fiscally feasible for movie studios to go to that con to promote their wares. New York’s geographic distance from Los Angeles puts the NYCC far behind SDCC in this area. But there are signs that it is catching up.

FOX Home Video and Anchor Bay had booths at NYCC. Eric Bana came to the con to promote his new film, Hanna, and M. Might Shyamalan celebrated the tenth anniversary of his superhero themed Unbreakable here as well. Film actors such as Seth Green, Adrien Brody, and Bruce Campbell were on hand to hold panels and sign autographs for fans.

The NYCC and Big Apple cons were originally scheduled for the same day until the Big Apple blinked. This was a wise decision on behalf of Wizard, because it really would not be able to compete. The Big Apple is an example of Wizard’s conventions morphing into something other than a pure comic book convention. The NYCC is growing into a multimedia juggernaut that might soon rival SDCC in terms of size and prestige. New York may be able to support two major comic cons a year, but if it’s not, then NYCC will be the only major comic con in the city.

As always, there are plenty of sights to see at the New York Comic Con. Armed with a camera but never enough time, we’ve tried to capture some of those film-related views for you – from cosplayers to con guests.

You've made in New York when you see your name up in lights.

Wow, what's billionaire industrialist Tony Stark doing at NYCC?

OK, now I see why Stark showed up.

Rob Corddry stopped by on Friday night to sign a few autographs.

You have to admire someone rocking a SUCKER PUNCH costume months before the movie hits.

FBOL honcho Rich Drees chatting with SUPER SIZE ME director Morgan Spurlock.

M Night Shyamalan at his first convention appearance ever discussing the 10th anniversary of his film UNBREAKABLE.

R2 Crossing 11th Avenue

Chicks dig the bow tie.

The family that cosplays together, stays together.

Look out behind you!!

Don't you dare steal anything from this retailer!

Bruce Campbell wins the award for best dressed con guest.

At virtually any convention you go to, there will be folks in costumes. Some will be good, some will be bad. The New York Comic Con is no exception. This year, the exhibit hall once again swarmed with convention-goers dressed as a wide range of characters from comics, movies and television. Since we’re a movie site, here are some of the cinematic costumes and some other film related sites that were seen around the convention floor this weekend. (Click on any picture for a bigger version…)

Snake Escaped To New York Comic Con

Low-budget carbonite freezing...

I can't miss, not with my Dick Tracy hat!

Chicks dig the armor

Ghostbusters

FIFTH ELEMENT's Leelo

Stormtroopers

Robert Culp chats with a fan

More Ghostbusters

BOONDOCK SAINTS 2 star Sean Patrick Flannery

Ghostbusters AND Stormtroopers

OK, now you check ME for fleas...

Indiana Jones and the Panasonic Of Doom

FANBOYS director Kyle Newman gets interviewed

Jango Fett

Run for your life! It's Jason Voorhees!

Wait a second... Jason's kinda...hot?

FilmBuff Publisher tries to cozy up to STAR TREK's Marina Sirtis

Peter Mayhew signs an autograph for a fan

Repo: The Genetic Opera

I got a movie coming out soon...

Classic comics character Blackhawk. (Whose exploits were turned into a 1952 Columbia serial.)

Transgendered Stan and Kyle (They had their own movie, too)

Bustin' makes me feel tired...

The film event of the entire New York Comic Con weekend happened late Saturday morning with the screening of the opening 18 minutes of the long-awaited, upcoming adaptation of the graphic novel Watchmen.

Introduced by the graphic novel’s artist Dave Gibbons,the segment of film presented encapsulate the first two scenes of the film, with the opening credits sandwiched between. With the project taking 20 years to be actualized into a film and with just four weeks until its release, Gibbons likened the preview as getting to open one present on Christmas Eve.

For those familiar familiar with the Watchmen graphic novel, these first two scenes are the same as the book- the murder of the Comedian, which sets everything in motion, and the investigation of the Comedian’s apartment by Rorschach. For those who wish to remain spoiler free, I’ve kept the longer synopsis of these two scenes and the credit sequence tucked away after the break. I can tell you that although Snyder’s visuals are indeed ripped right from the pages of the comic, he has managed to make them work entirely as cinema. Iconic images from the opening of the novel are mirrored here, but director Zack Snyder has captured these images in such a way as they work in the overall context of the scene.

Gibbons explained in his introduction, “When you’re drawing a comic you kind of see a movie in your head and you freeze the moment and draw it. To watch this, its like the kind of movie I saw in my head, but crystallized and real. Moving into the pictures I drew, then out and then back in again.”

One need not have read the original series to be able to follow the film’s plot line. Snyder does a remarkable job in setting up the alternate version of the 1980s which is the world of Watchmen in the opening scene and then the title credits.

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It would be understandable if fans of the classic 1960s anime Astro Boy felt a little cheated after yesterday afternoon’s Summit Entertainment panel at the New York Comic Con, where the big screen adaptation of the cartoon was promoted to be a major topic of conversation. Unlike the other two films Summit was promoting at the show – Knowing and The Hurt Locker – there was only some production art and a screening of a short segment from the film. What was presented did not inspire much confidence in the project.

(Not that there was many people on hand for the entire Summit Entertainment panel anyway, with less than 100 people in the main exhibit hall where the panel was being held.)

Instead of any production personnel being on hand to talk about the upcoming film and answer audience questions, it was left to the panel moderator to explain to the uninitiated that Astro Boy is a robot boy constructed by a scientist in the floating city of Metro City. And yes, there is a mountain that floats along with it.He also explained that the central conflict in the film would be between Astro Boy and a malfunctioning Peacekeeper robot that has the ability to absorb and adapt new technology into itself. To add in his explainations, new production art was presented, mostly showing how the original look of the character had been refined, keeping the classic design, but just adding in a layer of detail. In addition to Astro Boy’s rocket boots and arms that transform into cannons, he would also retain the original cartoon’s “butt canons.”

Some of the presented artwork is available at IGN Movies.

The short clip shown was the sequence in which Astro Boy discovers he can fly. It opened with a screaming AB falling down the side of an art deco skyscraper. Disappearing below the bottom of the frame, there is silence for a moment before Astro Boy pops back up, his feet replaced with rockets.  Astro Boy is surprised, but obviously delighted, over the transformation. He takes a few moments to try out this new found feature, switching both thee right and left leg jet on and off, learning how to control the jets. As he does this, there is some expected slapstick, with Astro Boy slamming into buildings and almost hitting one of the Metro City monorails. Finally, he gains some degree of skill and proceeds to loop around Metro City before driving straight up through the clouds. After taking a moment to bask in the warmth of the sun, Astro Boy dives back down, heading straight for the mountain Metro City is built at the base of. He slams into its side, fists pumping away furiously, digging a tunnel that slowly arcs upward. As Astro Boy suddenly bursts through the top of the mountain, the clip ends.

While the footage was technically well executed, though there were a few shots that weren’t fully rendered, I found it artiscally fairly uninspired. Several films have captured the wonder and magic of the ability of flight – Miyazaki’s Kiki’s Delivery Service springs immediately to mind. But there didn’t seem to be that feeling captured here. Instead, we get some comedic action beats most recently seen in last summer’s Iron Man (Tony Stark testing his armor’s jet boots) with some bits of average and obvious humor. During Astro Boy’s flight through Metro City, he flies over a sidewalk cafe table whose occupant was just complaining to a waiter that his steak was undercooked. Of course, there’s going to be a charred, smoking lump of meat in Astro Boy’s wake. Some visuals aped similar scenes from other movies. The long shot of Astro Boy breaking through the top of the cloud cover to the golden hues of the sun is remarkably similar to a shot from Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns.

I would guess that this segment was selected to be shown because it ended with the classic scene of Astro Boy tunneling through a mountain and then bursting through the top. However, I am hoping that the fimmakers are bringing something of their own to this film if they want it to succeed when it gets released next fall.

This weekend at the New York Comic Con, a panel will be held to celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of DC Comics’ long-running heroes , the intergalactic cop/superhero Green Lantern. Steeped in science-fiction, Green Lantern is armed with a power ring that can manifest out of pure energy anything its wielder commands, an imaginative and visual power that until recently would have proved difficult and expensive to realize on film. But now, Warner Brothers is in the process of doing just that- bring the emerald-hued hero to the big screen. William Gatevackes takes a look at the script currently in development.

The key to any successful film adaptation of a comic book property is to be faithful to the feel of the original book. You don’t have to have a slavish devotion to all the minutiae of the decades of comic book continuity, but you have to respect the themes and tenor of the original work. X-Men, Spider-Man, Iron Man and The Dark Knight all strayed from the original comic’s history, but kept true to the spirit of the piece.

Notice that there was only one DC Comics adaptation on the above list. Most studios that adapt DC’s work have ignored this rule of faithfulness. Moviemakers seem to take pride in straying from the original concept. The result is you get the gaudy campiness of Joel Schumacher’s work on the Batman franchise and the tortuous development of the last Superman movie, which featured at times such canon-breaking plot points such as having Krypton not explode, Lex Luthor being a Kryptonian and Supes ditching his trademark suit for a Matrix-like black outfit.

But it looks like producers and screenwriters of DC properties have seen the writing on the wall, and decided to give more attention to more faithful adaptations. An example of this progression can be seen with the Green Lantern film.

If you don’t want any of the surprises in store for you in this Friday’s Incredible Hulk spoiled, than you better click away.

Better yet, turn off your computer, go outside and enjoy the fresh air in the great outdoors for the rest of the week. Then, after you see the movie on Friday, and you know you are, turn your computer back on.

Spoilers ahead!

These past several months, we have been reporting on Marvel Studios’ plans of using their individual superhero films – This summer’s Iron Man and Incredible Hulk, 2010′s Iron Man sequel and Thor and 2011′s Captain America – to lead into an Avengers feature showcasing all of those characters, in an adaptation of Marvel’s popular superhero team book. A number of small seeds have already been dropped in last month’s Iron Man, including the establishishment of the government organization known as SHIELD and an appearance in a short after-the-end credits scene by its head Nick Fury, played by an unbilled Samuel L. Jackson.

Comic fans at April’s New York Comic Con also got a sneak peek at one or two more things that will appear in the upcoming Incredible Hulk, that lay the groundwork to interconnecting all the films, including a cameo by Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark, Iron Man’s alter ego. While most figured that the cameo would probably show up as an end credits tag like the Nick Fury one in Iron Man, Marvel seems to be pushing it right out front by making it a key feature in its newest television commercial for the film.

I guess I can see Marvel’s point here. Ang Lee’s Hulk has a fairly bad reputation among the general public. Getting the average moviegoer to plunk down cash at the box office for what could appear with a casual glance to be a sequel to that movie is going to be a tough proposition. However, lots of people did pay to see Iron Man earlier this summer, so it is in Marvel’s best short and long term interests to start hammering home the connections as early as possible.

This brings to mind a conversation I had with my wife on our way to see Iron Man on its opening night. I was explaining to her Marvel’s plans for building towards an Avengers film through the planting of Easter Eggs like the mentions of SHIELD and the Nick Fury cameo in Iron Man. She questioned while it would certainly be exciting for comics fans to see these things, she wondered if they would be distracting or even alienating to non-comic readers. It looks to me as if Marvel is counting on people making the connections and start wondering how it all will fit together.

I have to wonder, though. If Marvel is willing to publicize the Tony Stark cameo, what do they have still up their sleeve to surprise us with?

“All I can tell you is, is that there’s a lot of information on the internet and there’s a lot of speculation that stuff is planted or is leaked,” states Frank Spotnitz, producer of The X-Files: I Want To Believe. “For our purposes all that speculation is perfect because we don’t want anybody to trust anything they read on the internet. We don’t want the surprise spoiled. I would say, ‘Trust no one.’”

One thing you can trust is that during the New York Comic Con this past weekend, I and several other journalists got to sit down with Spotnitz and X-Files creator Chris Carter to discuss the upcoming movie.

You can read about that chat here.