Kenny Ortega To Direct In the Heights Movie, Lin Manuel-Miranda Returns as Usnavi

Aight finally! Some developments from the production of the film version of Broadway's In The Heights. It's been announced that Kenny Ortega, director of such mediocrities like High School Musical and some pretty good stuff like MJ's This Is It! will be helming the musical film. He is a good director don't get me wrong, I just don't know why I'm not excited about the whole thing with him directing.

 Anyway in more exciting developments, Lin-Manual Miranda, the writer and star of the stage version of In The Heights has signed on to reprise his role of Usnavi in the film version!! Thank you God!!

Speaking of a High School Musical/In The Heights collobo, Corbin Blue of the Disney series will be playing the role of Usnavi on Broadway. What? The guy who barely sang in High School Musical? Yeap.. that's the one. Here's a preview

Ewww...

Rolling Stones Names The 100 Best Songs of The 2000's

The new issue of Rolling Stones magazine has listed the 100 Best Songs and the 100 Best Albums of the past decade. I don't really care much about the albums list.. the song list had pretty interesting picks. Like... too much Beyonce, too little Coldplay and Green Day. So here's the list ya'll!

BEST SONGS
100.Damian Marley - "Welcome To Jamrock"
99. Gorillaz - "Feel Good Inc."
98. Amy Winehouse - "Back To Black"
97. Fleet Foxes - "White Winter Hymnal"
96. Lady Gaga - "Poker Face"
95. Mary J. Blige - "Family Affair"
94. Radiohead - "Pyramid Song"
93. Snoop Dogg - "Drop It Like It's Hot"
92. Brad Paisley - "Alcohol"
91. Bruce Springsteen - "My City Of Ruins"
90. Midlake - "Roscoe"
89. Bright Eyes - "Lua"
88. Jay-Z - "Izzo (H.O.V.A)"
87. The Knife - "Heartbeats"
86. Aaliyah - "Try Again"
85. Dirty Projectors - "Stillness Is The Move"
84. Clipse - "Grindin'"
83. The Gossip - "Standing In The Way Of Control"
82. Jay-Z - "Dirt Off Your Shoulder"
81. Pink - "Get The Party Started"
80. Phoenix - "1901"
79. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - "Gone Gone Gone"
78. LCD Soundsystem - "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House"
77. Dixie Chicks - "Not Ready To Make Nice"
76. Madonna - "Hung Up"
75. Arcade Fire - "Rebellion (Lies)"
74. TV On The Radio - "Wolf Like Me"
73. Queens Of The Stone Age - "No One Knows"
72. Kings Of Leon - "Use Somebody"
71. Justice - "D.A.N.C.E."
70. Arctic Monkeys - "I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor"
69. Santigold - "L.E.S. Artistes"
68. Coldplay - "Viva La Vida"
67. Wilco - "Jesus, Etc."
66. Madonna - "Music"
65. Green Day - "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams"
64. U2 - "Vertigo"
63. Lil Wayne - "A Milli"
62. Alicia Keys - "Fallin'"
61. Jet - "Are You Gonna Be My Girl"
60. Beyoncé - "Irreplaceable"
59. The Strokes - "Hard To Explain"
58. The White Stripes - "Fell In Love With A Girl"
57. The Shins - "New Slang"
56. Radiohead - "Idioteque"
55. OutKast - "Ms. Jackson"
54. Coldplay - "The Scientist"
53. The Rapture - "House Of Jealous Lovers"
52. Christina Aguilera - "Beautiful"
51. D'Angelo - "Untitled (How Does It Feel)"
50. Beyoncé - "Single Ladies"
49. The Walkmen - "The Rat"
48. The Killers - "Mr. Brightside"
47. Green Day - "American Idiot"
46. MGMT - "Kids"
45. Kylie Minogue - "Can't Get You Out Of My Head"
44. Britney Spears - "Toxic"
43. The Roots - "The Seed (2.0)"
42. Arcade Fire - "Wake Up"
41. LCD Soundsystem - "All My Friends"
40. Kelis - "Milkshake"
39. Modest Mouse - "Float On"
38. Gorillaz - "Clint Eastwood"
37. LCD Soundsystem - "Losing My Edge"
36. U2 - "Moment Of Surrender"
35. Bruce Springsteen - "The Rising"
34. Coldplay - "Yellow"
33. Daft Punk - "One More Time"
32. Franz Ferdinand - "Take Me Out"
31. The Flaming Lips - "Do You Realize??"
30. R. Kelly - "Ignition (Remix)"
29. Kanye West - "Gold Digger"
28. Randy Newman - "A Few Words In Defense Of Our Country"
27. The Postal Service - "Such Great Heights"
26. Coldplay - "Clocks"
25. Missy Elliott - "Work It"
24. Radiohead - "Everything In Its Right Place"
23. Rihanna - "Umbrella"
22. Amerie - "1 Thing"
21. OutKast - "B.O.B."
20. Justin Timberlake - "Cry Me A River"
19. Kanye West - "Jesus Walks"
18. Kelly Clarkson - "Since U Been Gone"
17. Bob Dylan - "Mississippi"
16. The Strokes - "Last Nite"
15. Johnny Cash - "Hurt"
14. Missy Elliott - "Get Ur Freak On"
13. 50 Cent - "In Da Club"
12. Eminem "Lose Yourself"
11. MGMT - "Time To Pretend"
10. Eminem - "Stan"
9.  U2 - "Beautiful Day"
8.  Amy Winehouse - "Rehab"
7.  Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Maps"
6.  The White Stripes - "Seven Nation Army"
5.  M.I.A. - "Paper Planes"
4.  OutKast - "Hey Ya!"
3.  Beyoncé - "Crazy In Love"
2.  Jay-Z - "99 Problems"
1.  Gnarls Barkley - "Crazy"

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus: Review

Heath Ledger's last movie ya'll! The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus by the brilliant Terry Gilliam.

The film is set in present day about Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) a 1,000 year old travelling showman who has the power to guide people into a dream world of their imaginations, made a deal with the Devil to exchange his old daughter's soul when she turns 16 for his immortality. As time runs out, Parnassus and his travelling show rushes to find a way to break the deal just as a mysterious stranger (Heath Ledger) appears and offers help for the Imaginarium.

The special effects were fantastic as well. The sequences inside the Imaginarium are breathtaking especially Jude Laws ladder running scene, that was really cool. Johnny Depp has a very small appearence in the film and Colin Farrell provides a very surprising twist to Heath Ledger's character. Won't reveal any spoilers.. just watch the film.

Verne Troyer finally proves that he can act! Most of Christohper Plummer's best scenes were when he was with Verne Troyer's character who holds as the voice of reason behind the whole crazy exploits of Imaginarium. Verne Troyer? Voice of reason? Yeah unorthodox I know but it worked great for him.

On the production side, I really have to give it up to Terry Gilliam and the writers who cleverly edited Imaginarium to work around Heath Ledger's death. As you know, he died in the middle of shooting but the crew utilised his scenes and combined them with Depp, Law and Farrell's scenes quite nicely. Ledger's transformation into the different versions of Tony was really well done & it made sense.

So now the big question still remains. Did he go out with a bang? Does this film do Heath Ledger justice?  My opinion... No it doesn't. Not by a long shot.

Imaginarium sees Heath Ledger return to the usual romance Casanova role he is used to playing. I couldn't  believe the same person playing Tony in Imaginarium pulled off the greatest cinema villain of the 2000's cause he was quite bland to be honest.

He seemed like he was having a lot of fun but everything of his acting here was just.... mediocre. Maybe it was the health state Heath was in at the time of filming or something I guess The Joker was just a one hit wonder for him.

.

Overall, good film, unfortunate mediocre acting by Heath Ledger. Quite a shame really that this had to be his last. He will always be remembered as The Joker in my books.

RATING: 6/10

BREAKING NEWS: Spider-Man 4 Scrapped. Sam Raimi & Tobey Maguire & Cast Fired. New Spider-Man Reboot Happening in 2012.

Here’s one that’s come out of left field. Only hours after we reported that John Malkovich says he will play the Vulture in Spider-Man 4, it looks like a meeting that took place today on the lot of Sony Pictures has changed all that.

According to the website Deadline.com, Sam Raimi told Sony Pictures that he could not meet the summer 2011 release date and has pulled out of the movie. As a result, Sony pictures has decided they are going to move ahead with a new director and a completely new cast along with a script from Jamie Vanderbilt. They will target a Summer of 2012 release date for the franchise reboot.

In the end, this means no Sam Raimi, no Tobey Maguire, no Kirsten Dunst, no John Malkovich and probably no Bruce Campbell.

Here are some excerpts from the official Sony press release:

Peter Parker is going back to high school when the next Spider-Man hits theaters in the summer of 2012. Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios announced today they are moving forward with a film based on a script by James Vanderbilt that focuses on a teenager grappling with both contemporary human problems and amazing super-human crises.

The new chapter in the Spider-Man franchise produced by Columbia, Marvel Studios and Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin, will have a new cast and filmmaking team.

The studio says it will release more news about the 2012 Spider-Man film in the coming weeks.

Source: EmpireMovies

Fantastic Mr. Fox: Review

The fantastical fantastic movie by the fantastic director Wes Anderson, starring the fantastical George Clooney and the fantastic Meryl Streep called the Fantastic Mr. Fox!

The film is a stop motion adaptation of a Roald Dahl novel. Mr. Fox, after having sweared to his wife he'll leave the dangerous business of chicken stealing reverts back to his old ways, endangering his family and entire neighbourhood when he steals from 3 incredibly ugly and psychopathic farmers.

Most people still don't appreciate the amazing technique of stop motion animation, simply cos they don't know what it is. Well you uncultured Malaysian... stop motion is shooting a film frame by frame while physically manipulating set pieces to make them look like their moving on their own. Basically.. it's moving every tiny detail of a set piece one at a time, taking lots and lots of photos and stringing everything together. It's friggin hard so I really salute the makers of Mr. Fox.

Some people complain that the stop animation is too sloppy and the set pieces does seem choppy when played in linear but that's what is so great about stop motion in my opinion. Sure you can go all perfectionist like Henry Selick's Coraline to the point where you don't even notice the stop motion but what's the point to that really? The little riffs and slight inperfections in Mr. Fox's animation is a great throw back to what stop motion used to be back in the 80's.

George Clooney, The Man, The Almighty God of Acting shines once more as the witty, fast talking, charming Mr. Fox. His stop motion character reminded me of a mash between Danny Ocean and Ulysses Everett McGill. Incredibly fun to watch and hard not to like Mr. Fox even if he is a crappy dad and husband.

Michael Gambon was great as Franklin Bean, the leader of the psychotic farmers going after Mr. Fox and family. He gets into so many violent fits of rage, Fantastic Mr. Fox seemed more like an adult movie instead of a kids cartoon most of the time. It was like watching Dumbledore play Lord Voldemort wahaha.

Kudos to the scriptwriters who came up with a fantastic script of so much clever humour and just maximum levels of wit and charm. That's all I can use to describe the movie really, wit and charm. It's kind of sad that most Malaysians won't enjoy Mr. Fox's comedy cause their just too dumb to get intelligent satirical jokes. To them, a man in cicak costume is more entertaining.

It's also a shame that Fantastic came out the same year as Pixar's Up because I really really really want to see this film win some animation awards which by now are already reserved in Up's honor. But for what it's worth, Fantastic Mr. Fox is an animation gem, woth seeing in the cinema and worth buying the DVD.

RATING: 8/10

Move Over Mamma Mia.. American Idiot The Musical Is Here!!

I'm sure you guys have been hearing this version of 21 Guns on the radio for sometime now.

First I thought it was a Leona Lewis cover or something.. Noooo.. it's from a brand new musical that's making it's way to Broadway called American Idiot based on songs by Green Day. ZOMG!!!

Here's some pics!

 

The Hurt Locker: Review

The Hurt Locker ya'll! This movie has been getting a lot of hype for the Oscars and it's been nominated for Best Picture in the Golden Globes. It is a really good movie, don't get me wrong.. but I still don't see what'sso great about it.

Hurt Locker is about a bomb defusing team in Iraq. Everyday, these people go to work and risk death on a regular basis. To make matters worst, their new team leader is an incredibly reckless soldier that makes their missions more dangerous.

One thing I liked about The Hurt Locker is the use of unknown casts against well established actors. Ralph Fiennes, David Morse and Guy Pearce make appearances in the film for a few minutes before being killed off. Just cause they're famous actors we expect them to be the main characters, so it was a nice surprise there. I like how this shows that in war, anyone is fair game.

The editing of the film is really good. It uses the same style as the Bourne movies where like it's all fast paced action, really terrifying sequences and then it slows down for a breather and a moment of lot development an then it throws you right back with more action and suspense. The cinematography of gritty war laden Iraq is actually quite a beauty with it's realism. And the slow motion action sequences is breathtaking.

I still don't get what's the deal with Jeremy Renner's apparent stellar performances. I thought he was just OK. I preferred Anthony Mackie as the helpless Sgt. who has to deal with all the shit Renner's character puts their team in.   

So with so many good things to say about Hurt Locker, why do I still think it shouldn't deserve top award nominations? Now please don't get me wrong, I really liked this movie but I just can't see what all the buzz about Hurt Locker is about?

This just isn't Best Picture material. It's more like Greengrass movies, the kind that will get nominated technical awards like editing and cinematography but not top prizes. Once again I wanna clarify, this is really good war movie worth checking out, it just isn't top award material.

RATING: 7/10