Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Trailer: Godzilla

Last time Hollywood tried to do a Godzilla and it didn't turn out so good, so this hotly anticipated forthcoming remake by Gareth Edwards has nowhere to go but up really. Edwards has only one film to his name, the indie alien invasion flick Monsters, but with that, he's already proven himself an elegant and smart handler of special effects, and this thundering stomp of a trailer is a promising glimpse of what he might be able to do on a larger canvas. The question remains though is whether Godzilla '14 will offer anything more than the de riguer city-demolishing spectacle that's now the blockbuster norm (see everything Cloverfield to Pacific Rim). Watch the trailer below, where we get to see Heisenberg get all growly again, jets falling from the sky, nuclear mushroom clouds and a wee peek at the Big G. It's out on May 15; if you feel like revisiting the 1954 original before then, you can rent it here.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Trailer: Blackfish

Ever since its premiere at Sundance Film Festival early last year, Gabriela Cowperthwaite's controversial, anti-SeaWorld documentary Blackfish has been gathering major steam, igniting the debate over keeping orcas in captivity while prompting responses that ranged from bands pulling out from SeaWorld gigs to Pixar rewriting the ending to their Finding Nemo sequel, Finding Dory. There's been the expected backlash of course, not least of all, from SeaWorld themselves, who've been going on the damage control warpath to salvage their increasingly tarnished reputation. If you missed the screenings at the New Zealand Film Festival, Madman will be releasing Blackfish on DVD exactly a month from today; watch the trailer below:

Lego Fever!

There seems to be some kind of weird LEGO craze going around at the moment... A couple weeks ago The LEGO Movie opened in the States to consistently positive reviews (Metacritic: 82; Rotten Tomatoes: 96%), and The Hollywood Reporter's just reported that the film, directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller (21 Jump Street, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs), has sailed past the $200 million mark in global box office receipts.

The Simpsons are jumping on board the bandwagon too, with an episode that will be completely animated in LEGO...

And here's a freelance designer who's gone and redesigned the posters for this year's Oscars Best Picture nominees in LEGO...

And if you ever wanted to see the trailer for Liam Neeson's forthcoming thriller Non-Stop redone in LEGO, now you can too:

Not enough LEGO for you? We do have a bunch of LEGO toons available to rent...

LEGO - Friends: Dolphin Cruise
LEGO - Friends: Stephanie's Surprise Party
LEGO - Ninjago: Masters Of Spinjitsu
LEGO - Legends of Chima: Vol 1
LEGO - Legends of Chima: Vol 2
LEGO - Legends of Chima: Vol 3
LEGO - Hero Factory: Savage Planet
LEGO - Friends: New Girl in Town
LEGO - Star Wars: The Padawan Menace
LEGO - Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out
LEGO - Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles
LEGO: The Adventures of Clutch Powers
LEGO Batman - The Movie: DC Super Heroes Unite
LEGO - Ninjago: Masters Of Spinjitsu - Series 2: Vol 1
LEGO - Ninjago: Masters Of Spinjitsu - Series 2: Vol 2
LEGO - Ninjago: Masters Of Spinjitsu - Series 2: Vol 3
LEGO - Ninjago: Masters Of Spinjitsu - Series 2: Vol 4

OK I think that should be enough LEGO talk for now.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Our RoboCop Remake

It turns out that the dreaded RoboCop remake that just came out wasn't as bad as most fans feared to be. Critics lowered their expectations and were surprised, though few -- if any -- would rate it above the much-loved 1987 Paul Verhoeven original. But there was another remake that popped up around the same time, albeit an entirely different beast altogether. Cheekily called Our RoboCop Remake, it was a crowd-sourced project in which 55 different filmmakers, both amateur and professional, came together to do a "scene-for-scene retelling". The scenes were split up amongst the participants, and the result is a totally off-the-wall, goofy, but totally sincere endeavour that uses everything animation to puppetry to re-interpret the movie. It's insane, watch it here.

Friday, February 14, 2014

For the Star Wars Fan with Everything #32

This one should get the fans amped up: to celebrate International Star Wars Day - May the 4th - New Zealand will be treated to a marathon of all six films on the big screen! On Saturday May 3rd, Episodes I - III will be shown, followed by Episodes IV - VI on Sunday (which I imagine is where most fans will be lining up for). The films will be shown in Digital 2D. Stay tuned for location details and session times on the Australia/NZ Star Wars facebook page.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Super Bowl Teaser: Transformers: Age of Extinction

Although Michael Bay has given us a few reassurances that Transformers: Age of Extinction might be an improvement over the previous series entries (didn't he say Transformers 3 would be less goofy too?), watching this Super Bowl teaser makes me think otherwise. It looks pretty much like robot Bay-hem as usual, albeit with Mark Wahlberg hammin' up a storm in the lead instead of Shia LeBeouf. And wait, is that Optimus Prime riding on a dinosaur...? Admittedly I loved the Dinobots when I was a kid, so I'm curious to see what Bay does with those characters, but yeah, I'm keeping my expectations extremely low. Who's hyped?