RIP: John Barry 1933-2011

One of the greatest composers has passed away. I don't have the words, so I'm going to be bad and just link you to the Guardian's article on him.

Here's a few of his "greatest hits":

Main Theme from On Her Majesty's Secret Service:

Main Theme from The Black Hole:

Rest in peace, John and thanks for the tunes.

The Hole

Joe Dante doesn't get enough credit for what he does. He's brilliant with kids and knows what works for a kid. From Gremlins to the underrated Matinee, he's able to perfectly capture childhood and suburban life. And now he's back with his first feature-length movie since 2003's Looney Tunes: Back in Action with The Hole.

The Hole is a story of two brothers who find a hole on the floor of the basement of the new house they just moved in. Once they look into the hole, they find out what really scares them.

It's a horror movie for kids and teens, which means no blood and guts, no tits, sex, drugs, etc. But it definitely freaked me out. While the movie suffers from the "wooden lead syndrome"(yeah, that's you, Chris Massoglia, also the lead in The Vampire's Assistant), it does play on fears that are very common and very relatable, especially to us who grew up with Poltergeist and Stephen King's It. Yeah, there's a puppet clown in the movie, which scared the hell out of me at least. Worth mentioning is also that the puppet is the closest thing Dante has gotten to Gremlins since the 1990 movie.

Like I mentioned, the acting isn't this movies strong suit, but it's easy to forgive some bad acting for the scares and the intensity of some of the scenes, especially at the end of the movie. At times the movie feels like an extended episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, a show that I loved as a kid or even Eerie, Indiana, Dante's own "weird shit happening around kids" show.

The question is though, if the movie got to me, would I show it to my own child? Yeah, I think I would, at around the age of 11-12. Who knows, maybe she'll be able to calm me down when I start getting scared. My rating for The Hole 7/10.

PS. Joe Dante is involved with one of the best websites available. Go to Trailers From Hell and see great old Sci-Fi and Horror trailers with commentaries from such people as Joe Dante himself, Edgar Wright, Eli Roth, John Landis and many many more! You'll be stuck there for hours, but it really is worth it.

Horror Remake Sequel News!

Yeah, these don't happen too often, I think. Last remake sequel I remember is Halloween 2. Didn't see it though. But Platinum Dunes producer Brad Fuller spilled his guts about what's happening with the sequels to the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street reboots.

About Friday, he said "[Damian] Shannon and [Mark] Swift wrote a great script. We are ready to go, when New Line is ready. But as of yet, they are not ready."

So that's good news. I really enjoyed the Friday remake and I thought this project was dead in the water. At least there's some life in there, though who knows when it'll see the day of light. Interesting trivia note is that this would be the 13th Friday the 13th movie. Can't wait for it.

Then from Crystal Lake to Elm Street, Fuller says: "As for Freddy, as far as I know, there isn't even talk of writing another script." So no more Jackie Earle Haley as the dream demon.

It all makes sense as well. Friday made 65 million on a 19 million budget, where Nightmare on Elm Street only made 63 million on a 35 million budget, so it seems Friday the 13th-series is the more lucrative one at the moment. We'll see what happens in the future, I don't think either one will be buried for too long.

Superman's Got A New Face

Over the weekend, it was announced that Henry Cavill will be Superman/Clark Kent in Zack Snyder's Superman movie Man of Steel. While I like a new fresh face for the role (I only know him from Stardust), I can't help but feel a bit sorry for Brandon Routh.

Routh was one of the best things in Bryan Singer's Superman Returns and was let down by a boring script and totally miscast Lois Lane. And while Superman is probably the least interesting A-list superhero, I'm quite optimistic about Man of Steel. I'm a fan of Snyder's work and he has Nolan producing, so maybe they're actually able to get some life into the movie.

I just hope all those rumours about Lex Luthor and Zod are false. It's time to get some new villains in there.

Top 5 Friday #2: Favourite Movie Scores 2010

For this week, Top 5 Friday will give you my favourite scores of 2010. Or rather, Pieces of Scores From 2010 That I've listened to More Than Any Other, but that title was a bit long. So yeah, I'm not listing the whole score, just the one item on the score.

5. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World - Bass Battle

Sure, this movie is mostly remembered by it's great great songs(Why weren't these nominated for Oscars, guys?), but I always loved this one.

4. Tron: Legacy - Derezzed

Haven't seen the actual movie yet, but this score kicks ass. Never before have I wanted to see a movie mostly because of it's score.

3. Social Network - In Motion

I have to admit I was a bit reprehensive of Trent Reznor scoring a movie like The Social Network, but it works beautifully in the movie. The other choice was In The Hall Of The Mountain King, but since that's not original for the score, I went for this one.

2. Inception - Dream is Collapsing

Brilliant score for a brilliant movie. Usually plays when I'm writing something, makes it all feel more epic. Even if it is just for a blog.

1. Test Drive - How to Train Your Dragon

Best score of the year for me, hands down. Everything about this is just gold. Especially this track, which always gives you an extra boost when you're running or whatnot. I really want John Powell to win the Best Score for this one.

And I'll see you again for another Top 5 Friday next week!

Friday Fun: Big Trouble in Little China

We're at the end of January, which means payday is close, but not quite there yet. To some of us this means we can't really go out to party, have fun with friends, etc. So we stay home, sulk a little bit and then realize "But I can watch movies! Movies can get me out of this funk and I'll be happy again!" This brings on another problem though. What movie to watch? Surely watching Requiem for a Dream or Schindler's List isn't going to help lift your spirits. So what to do?


Don't worry, little one! I have the solution to all of your problems! Well not all, you still need to see a doctor about that one. Sorry.

Big Trouble in Little China is one of the most fun movies I've ever seen. Kurt Russell plays Jack Burton, a truck driver who gets involved into some weird Chinese stuff. Russell did Escape from New York before this one with John Carpenter, the director of this movie as well, and here he's pretty much the total opposite of the badass anti-hero Snake Plissken. Jack Burton doesn't think anything through, he just goes and does. Well, tries to do anyway. Imagine Big Trouble in Little China being like The Green Hornet, where Britt Reid is the sidekick and Kato is actually the protagonist.

Dennis Dun's Wang Chi is the one whose girlfriend is kidnapped and who needs to stop the evil spirit David Lo Pan to save her, Jack Burton just wants his truck back. The movie is a blast from start to the end. The movie didn't do too well at the box office, I suppose the audiences weren't ready for an east-west movie like this one. But with the later successes of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Rush Hour, it seems that Carpenter was just ahead of his time. My rating 10/10 for Friday fun.

Here's the trailer:

and here's the very 80's music video. Yes, the lead singer is indeed the director John Carpenter himself. Hmmm...enjoy might not be the proper word, but it'll do.

Howard's Dark Tower Starting to See Light

A few months ago, it was announced that Ron Howard (The Da Vinci Code, A Beautiful Mind) will be doing an adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower book series. Since there were seven books in the series, there's no way Howard is able to do it in one movie, so they've thought of this new interesting approach to it. To do one movie first, then a season on TV, followed by another movie, etc. Which I think will be cool, if it works.

And right now, it seems they've managed to cast their Roland. Or at least very close to it. With names like Viggo Mortensen and Christian Bale popping up, it seems the role has been offered to Oscar-winner (and current nominee) Javier Bardem, according to Deadline Hollywood Daily.

I think Bardem would be good choice for the role. Perfect world would have Clint Eastwood in his 40's in the role, but without CGI that's not going to work and with CGI, it would just be distracting. Bardem has never been bad in anything I've seen him in, and his performance in No Country For Old Men was brilliant.

Other than that, this project is something I'm looking forward to a lot, not only as a Dark Tower fan(still need to read books 6 and 7 though) but also to see if this Movie-TV-Movie-TV thing actually will work. I'm intrigued. If it only wasn't Howard behind it, I would be even more excited.

Oh, and when I was reading these books as kid, I always imagined Roland as Bruce Campbell, probably thanks to The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. What a show.