AUSTRALIA – Lose Yourself in the Movie
November 14, 2008 by Spotlight-On WM
Filed under MOVIES
I’ve always had an affinity for all things Australian, especially their movies and actors. A few of my all-time favorite Australian movies are THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER, MAD MAX, GALLIPOLI. CROCODILE DUNDEE, PITCH BLACK, BREAKER MORANT, THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA – QUEEN OF THE DESERT and STRICTLY BALLROOM. (They seem to have a little something for everyone: drama, sci fi, horror, comedy, crossdressing, comedic dancing… And the gorgeous scenery! Wow…)
And the actors that have come out of Australia are amazing: Cate Blanchett, Claudia Black, Bryan Brown, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Paul Mercurio, Hugo Weaving, Toni Collette, Heath Ledger, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman are just a few of the people I will go out of my way to watch–and listen to. Gotta love that accent! (Must be something in the water that keeps churning out all that talent…)
Speaking of Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, they have a new movie coming out in theaters November 26th: AUSTRALIA.
According to the synopsis:
“AUSTRALIA is an epic and romantic action adventure, set in this country on the explosive brink of World War II. In it, an English aristocrat (NICOLE KIDMAN) travels to the faraway continent where she meets a rough-hewn local (HUGH JACKMAN) and reluctantly agrees to join forces with him to save the land she inherited. Together, they embark upon a transforming journey across hundreds of miles of the world’s most beautiful yet unforgiving terrain, only to face the bombing of the city of Darwin by the Japanese forces that attacked Pearl Harbour. With his new film, director Baz Luhrmann is painting on a vast canvas, creating a cinematic experience that brings together romance, drama, adventure and spectacle.”
It should be interesting to see how Lurhmann does with such dark subject matter as the bombing of Darwin. I loved STRICTLY BALLROOM (quite twisted, yet touching), but MOULIN ROUGE! didn’t quite hit the mark and both were musicals, not large-scale dramas. (I only saw a little of ROMEO+JULIET – I’m not a huge Leonardo diCaprio fan.)
Russell Crowe was to be in AUSTRALIA originally, but the part went instead to Hugh Jackman. Rounding out the main cast are Bryan Brown, David Wenham, Essie Davis, and Jack Thompson.
“Lose yourself in the movie, find yourself in Australia…” (Tagline from the movie)
One of these days I’ve just got to visit that country and see it for myself. Films just aren’t enough…
STAR TREK – Coming May 2009
July 19, 2008 by Spotlight-on WM
Filed under MOVIES, Star Trek, TV SHOWS
J.J. Abrams and Paramount have finally issued promo ‘posters’ at the official site for the upcoming STAR TREK movie which is being called variously STAR TREK ZERO (as it’s a prequel) or STAR TREK XI (the eleventh movie in the franchise) or just plain STAR TREK. They of course can’t use STAR TREK THE MOTION PICTURE – that’s already been used. =)
Harry Potter Book 7 – Split Personality?
March 13, 2008 by Spotlight-On WM
Filed under AUTHORS/BOOKS, MOVIES
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, aka Harry Potter Book 7, may get more screen justice than ORDER OF THE PHOENIX: David Heyman, producer, is expected to announce that rather than trying to chop the last huge book down to movie size, two movies will be made of HALLOWS to accommodate the entire last installment in the J. K. Rowling book series.
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Happy Birthday to Andrea Parker!
March 8, 2008 by Spotlight-on WM
Filed under ACTORS, TV SHOWS, The Pretender
Andrea Parker, star of THE PRETENDER, E.R., JAG and LESS THAN PERFECT, turns either 38 or 39 today depending on the source you use. (LOL) According to IMDb.com she was born in 1970, but according to Wikipedia, it’s 1969. Hmmmm.
Here’s hoping that she’ll take part in the new ‘digital’ version of THE PRETENDER when they finally get around to working on it again… It just wouldn’t be the same without ‘Miss Parker’ in more ways than one.
In the meantime, here’s hoping she has a very happy day and coming year!
STARGATE SG-1: THE ARK OF TRUTH Movie
March 1, 2008 by Spotlight-on WM
Filed under MOVIES, Stargate SG-1, TV SHOWS
Well, it’s finally almost here! Coming out March 11th, STARGATE: THE ARK OF TRUTH is about to be released, direct to DVD.
Here’s what we’ll see according to the package:
Blasting off where the Sci-Fi Channel’s longest running show, STARGATE SG-1, left off, this thrilling feature thrusts the Stargate team: Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks), Vala (Claudia Black), Teal’c (Christopher Judge), Sam (Amanda Tapping) and Cam (Ben Browder) into their biggest challenge yet. In search of an Ancient artifact they hope can defeat the oppressive Ori, the team not only learns that the Ori are set to launch a final assault on Earth, but a double-crossing I.O. operative is aboard the Odyssey! Also starring Beau Bridges, this pulse-pounder is loaded with enough suspense, humor and action to fill a galaxy! Read more
And The Oscar Goes To…
February 24, 2008 by Spotlight-on WM
Filed under MOVIES
In what I thought was an interesting twist, the 80th Annual Best Picture Oscar went to the movie featuring the Best Supporting Actor instead of the picture with the Best Actor. In fact, none of the lead actors of the Best Picture were nominated for their roles in it… (Tommy Lee Jones was nominated for a Best Actor, but for a different movie.)
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN took home 4 awards (Best Picture, Best Direction, Best Writing – Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor in a Supporting Role) making it the “winningest” movie of the year. It appears Javier Bardem’s performance helped push the movie to the top over THERE WILL BE BLOOD (Best Actor in a Lead Role, Best Cinematography).
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Blu-ray Wins By Default
February 21, 2008 by Spotlight-on WM
Filed under GAMING, MOVIES, TECH
It appears that in the battle of the formats, Toshiba America has finally thrown in the towel, and announced that they will be discontinuing their HD DVD format players/recorders, giving the Blu-Ray format backed by Sony the match by default.
Quite a few people are upset given that they purchased player/recorders and XBox’s with HD DVD heavily last year and for Christmas in anticipation of many more titles to come, and now the big retailers such as Wal-Mart, Amazon, Best Buy, and movie studios like Universal and Paramount have said they will follow Toshiba’s lead, and drop providing new stuff in HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray. Owners of the pretty much now-defunct format are saying they would have gone PS3 instead if Toshiba could have admitted they lost the format wars way back when instead of making sure they were able to sell of existing inventory at full price for the holidays.
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Frank Miller Takes on THE SPIRIT
February 16, 2008 by Spotlight-on WM
Filed under MOVIES
Frank Miller, best known for his SIN CITY and BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS comics, is now turning his talents towards directing a movie version of Will Eisner’s THE SPIRIT. Starring Gabriel Macht as the title hero (along with his alter ego Denny Colt), the movie also has Scarlett Johannson, Eva Mendes, Jaime King, with Samuel L. Jackson taking on the role of villain The Octopus.
Sharing the director’s chair with Miller is Robert Rodriguez, who also helped direct SIN CITY. The two are using their time tested tricks of filming real actors against computer generated backgrounds, lending a more”comic book” feel to the whole process.
Since I loved how SIN CITY turned out, this is definitely another movie I’ll want to see when it’s released in January 2009. (However, my mother, a complete SPIRIT purist, will no doubt avoid it like the plague – she only went to see THE SHADOW because Tim Curry was in it and she’s never forgiven Hollywood to this day for what they did to that comic character! LOL)
And speaking of SIN CITY, both SIN CITY 2 and SIN CITY 3 are also in preproduction, slated for release in 2009. Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez are two VERY busy men! (Sounds like 2009 will be another great year for movies to me – “the year of the comic book classics”.)
THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM – The Two J’s Together At Last
February 11, 2008 by Spotlight-on WM
Filed under MOVIES
Yeehaw – martial arts and movie legends Jet Li and Jackie Chan, together at last in the same film: THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM!Coming this April, it’s the story of a young guy who’s obsessed with Kung Fu movies from the South Bronx who, after finding a mysterious stick fighting weapon in a pawn shop, suddenly finds himself in an ancient Chinese kingdom, discovered by two martial arts fighters who need to turn him into one of the band if they’re to succeed in freeing the legendary Monkey King, sage and warrior (and original owner of the famed fighting stick) from the Jade Warlord.
I don’t know about you, but I’m ever so glad Jet and Jackie have forgotten about their “retirements” from martial arts films, especially if it meant they did one together!! I’ve always wanted to see them play off each other and now I’ll finally have the chance.
I could do without Jackie Chan’s dreadlocks, though, and too bad they shaved Jet Li’s beautiful hair off for this one, but from the previews, everything else looks great! It’s amazing to watch the two fight, each with their own styles, fast, furious, deadly and graceful, in their own ways. It looks like Jet Li will be playing “straight man” to Jackie’s usual humor, but with only about a minute and a half of preview so far, hard to tell.
The previews of THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM made me think of THE MUMMY with Brendan Fraser, Arnold Vosloo & Oded Fehr – adventure, humor, fighting, dashing heroes, and a hypnotic evil villain. We’ll see how it stacks up. Again, here’s another movie coming out this year that looks like a winner to me.
HEROES – Greg Grunberg’s ‘GROUP SEX’
January 31, 2008 by Spotlight-on WM
Filed under Heroes, TV SHOWS
According to an interview with TV Guide, Greg Grunberg, the actor who plays Matt Parkman on HEROES, has a new project he’s tackling while he has “a little free time” (hmmm): a new movie he and long-time friend J. J. Abrams (ALIAS) have written and are co-producing called GROUP SEX.
It’s about a guy (played by Josh Cooke) who falls in love with a girl (Odette Yustman) only to find out she’s a sexaholic. So in order to get closer to her, he pretends to be one, too… Greg Grunberg’s playing the guy’s best friend who isn’t quite down with the whole thing.
DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES’ James Denton, Tom Arnold, Katherine Narducci and HAPPY DAYS star Henry Winkler help round out the cast.
Grunberg says about the chance to work on this movie, “I had all of this free time and decided to get naked and laugh my ass off!” Definitely a reason to go see this one, eh? 
Now, if only they’d get back to the darn series as I need a new episodes of HEROES fix and soon. (The online eps and comics are okay, but just not quite the same thing.)
