Throughout his career Jonathan Mostow has never made a poor film. Surrogates is certainly not one of his better films like U-571 but it is a fun and enjoyable movie. The film revolves around an idea similar to Gamer but now the convicts are robots and we aren’t in a video game. As established in the opening titles, Over the last 14 years robots have become a part of our daily lives. People do not leave their homes anymore; instead they do everything through robotic humanoids called Surrogates. These Surrogates can be made to look like anything the “operator” chooses, even going as far as making a man into a women or a white person black. Because of these Surrogates there is virtually no murder, assault, rape, accidents, etc… This is why law enforcement is stunned when they discover that two operators were killed while connected to their Surrogates. The rest of the movie continues from that point. Read the full story

By Jordan Raup

I’ll admit it. I’ve never heard of Watchmen until Zack Snyder was attached to direct during the summer of 2006. Since I hadn’t read the graphic novel the hype started when I saw the trailer before The Dark Knight. I knew it was something special and after reading the graphic novel during the past couple months my hype increased tenfold. After the lawsuit fiasco got resolved it finally sunk in, I would actually be seeing this very soon. Only watching the trailers and select TV spots, the day finally arrived. From the first frame of Watchmen, as lush yellow completely engulfs the screen while the company logos pop in, eventually fading into that iconic pin, we just hope Snyder doesn’t screw this up. Don’t worry, he doesn’t.

Read the rest of the review >>

Not sure what is coming out this month? Here is a run-down of my eleven most anticipated films:

11. The Great Buck Howard (March 20th) (limited)

Plot: A law school dropout (Colin Hanks), much to the chagrin of his father (Tom Hanks), becomes the new assistant to an illusionist in decline (Malkovich). Can the fledgling partnership lead to the comeback of a lifetime?

Trailer

Why You Should See It: Pretty impressive cast and a somewhat interesting premise, this is should be a decent indie comedy/drama.

Check out the rest here >>

By Dan Mecca

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been watching these clips Warner Bros. have been putting out, and the whole thing’s just not registering with me. Having read the graphic novel (very recently), I am still reeling from the effects caused by what Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons offer the reader throughout the entire narrative, up to and most definitely including the brilliant finale. By book’s end, there is so much to consider and think about; so much to discuss with your friends.

And why? Because the picture the novel paints, literally (and psychologically), is so vivid and real that it forces the reader to take Watchmen seriously.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Well, this doesn’t look good. As reported by Jeff Wells on Hollywood Elsewhere. Read the short review here. I’ve read the graphic novel and love, but actually prefer Dave Gibbon’s artwork to Alan Moore’s writing, which is at times overwraught and self-serving. I’m curious to see how these moments will be adapted on screen.It looks as the though the novel has been visually preserved. And the casting in general appears solid. Line delivery, however, is something no one can be sure of until the film is released. According to Wells, it was, for the most part, pretty lifeless and uninvolving, citing that only Billy Crudup’s and Jackie Earle Haley’s performances as “registering at all.”

My biggest problem with anything I’ve seen from the film is the apparent over-use of slow motion, which Zach Snyder was guilty of doing in 300 as well.

What do you think? Are you excited for Watchmen? Do you think it will be a “staggering failure”?

Warner Bros Home Video has officially announced that Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 24th. The companion story was featured in the original Watchmen graphic novel as a comic book inside the comic book. [via /Film]

Here is the product description:

“They’re in the book. And on this disc. From the director of Watchmen and 300 come two tales from the celebrated graphic novel that do not appear in the extraordinary Watchmen Theatrical Feature. Tales of the Black Freighter (featuring the voice of 300‘s Gerard Butler) brings to strikingly animated life the novels richly layered story-within-a-story, a daring pirate saga whose turbulent events may mirror those in the Watchmens world. Stars from the Watchmen movie team in the amazing live-action/CGI Under the Hood, based on Nite Owls powerful first-hand account of how the hooded adventurers came into existence. Two fan-essential stories. One place to watch the excitement. Watching the Watchmen begins here.”

/Film highlights the rest of the features:

Also on the DVD/Blu-ray is Hollis Mason’s tell-all live-action expose on the Masked Men of Watchmen titled Under The Hood, a featurette titled “Story Within A Story: The Books of The Watchmen” which takes a look at the comic book within the comic book, and a First Look at DC’s Animated Green Lantern DVD. The Blu-ray release features additional content including a featurette called “The WHY of Watchmen” featuring director Zack Snyder and The Two Bernies, a deleted scene from Watchmen which was not included in the theatrical cut of the film, and a digital copy of the film.

Entertainment Weekly also has a new photo of Rorschach a grappling gun into the Comedian’s apartment from the opening of Watchmen. Check it out below:

They also have exclusive news that Zack Snyder is launching a website for his production company Cruel and Unusual Films at cruelfilms.com.

What do you think of all this Watchmen news?

Variety reports that Warner Bros. and Fox have made a deal in order to release the much anticipated Watchmen in time.

Warner Bros. gets the right to open its superhero pic on March 6 as planned, and Fox’s logo will not be on the film, sources said.

Fox, on the other hand, will emerge with an upfront cash payment that sources pegged between $5 million and $10 million, covering reimbursement of $1.4 million the studio invested in development fees, and also millions of dollars in legal fees incurred during the case.

More importantly, Fox will get a gross participation in “Watchmen” that scales between 5% and 8.5%, depending on the film’s worldwide revenues. Fox also participates as a gross player in any sequels and spinoffs, sources said.

U.S. District Court Judge Gary Feess will meet with attorneys on Friday morning in Los Angeles to finalize the settlement.

I literally finished reading the last page of the Watchmen graphic novel the second this news broke, so I was just in time. I don’t read many graphic novels but I was blown away by this one. I can’t wait to see how it transfers to the big screen and I really hope they get that ending right.

Will you be at the theater at midnight on March 6th for the Watchmen?

The Spirit, based on a 1940s comic serial written by Will Eisner, is a smorgasbord of visuals and color coordination courtesy of writer/director Frank Miller. Miller, like Eisner, is a staple of the graphic novel, penning such classics as Sin City and Batman: Year One. Think of The Spirit, Miller’s solo-directorial debut (he “co-directed” Sin City with Robert Rodriguez), as Sin City if it were 30 minutes shorter, felt an hour longer and took every ham-baked line and turned it into useless slosh.

Starring Gabriel Macht (a talented young actor who will hopefully go onto lead more substantial films than this one) as The Spirit, a superhero who was once a rookie cop named Denny Colt. Risen from the grave after being shot to death, The Spirit works with Police Commissioner Dolan to fight crime; most specifically the Octopus, over-acted to a tee by Samuel L. Jackson. After nearly two decades of performances, Jackson has proven himself as both an Oscar-caliber artist (see this year’s Lakeview Terrace for proof of this) and a dimestore punchline. For proof of the latter pay 10 bucks to see him as the Octopus. In Eisner’s comics, the Octopus remained faceless, only a pair of gloves to illustrate the character. Why Miller felt it necessary to put a face to the bad guy, especially a face as recognizable as Jackson’s, is bewildering. Perhaps it was not his decision, but rather the producers’.

But then, if the studio had so much sway, why’d they let Miller get away with directing this thing in the first place? The screenplay is ridiculous to be certain, but that’s the comic’s tone more or less, and it’d worked with Rodriguez in Sin City. It’s Miller’s director’s eye that is severely lacking, maybe even blind. This man has no idea how to frame a scene, much less pace a feature-length film. There are some cool shots here, but they feel like flukes because they emerge out of nowhere and dissapear as quickly into the background, forgetten moments of cinematic flare overshadowerd by blind ambition and a peculiar determination to revolutionize something – what exactly is unknown.

Miller still needs another, better director at his side to properly adapt these classic graphic narratives. Macht does his best, it most be said. The young man finds a sufficent growl in his voice to establish his noir superhero and has no problem wearing the black fedora and silly black eye mask. Even Eva Mendes uses her best attritbutes (her body) and thankfully avoids the rest to play Sand Saref, the childhood love of Denny Colt and a woman with a blodd-lust for diamonds. A noir-romance between these two may have been a very good film – think Batman and Catwoman if they were in Double Indemnity. Unfortuantely, Miller gives us this one, exercising his blatant inabilities as a filmmaker. Maybe the ambitious should channel said ambition into another graphic novel, co-write the screenplay and allow a real director to adapt it.