Ghibli's Latest, From Up on Poppy Hill

I love myself some Studio Ghibli.
As well I should, since Studio Ghibli makes some amazing movies.

Anyway, they have a new one coming out soon, From Up on Poppy Hill. The trailer makes it seem somewhat in the vein of Whispers of the Heart, which is a bit more true to life, less fantastical than most of their movies. Since the slice of life bits are what usually stick out in my mind from even the most out there of  Ghibli movies, this is a good thing in my book.

The film was directed by Hayao Miyazaki's son Goro (although Hayao worked on the screenplay), and is said to be quite an improvement from his first, Tales From Earthsea. Also of note, the movie will be released by GKids, rather than Disney, which has been handling distribution for Ghibli for years.

Dude, Batman, let's take it down a notch

Seriously, Bruce, take it easy. You're going to strain something.

Rurouni Kenshin Live Action Trailer: Now With 100% More English

I first saw this trailer a few months back, but now that it has subtitles, I couldn't not share it. Rurouni Kenshin, while admittedly somewhat uneven as a series, has some great stories to tell. The Trust and Betrayal movie, as well as the Kyoto Arc of the story, are absolutely fantastic.
Story-wise, it looks like the movie will be covering the events of the first season of the anime, with some flashbacks to Kenshin's time as an assassin during the revolution. Hopefully, this will open up the doors to make a sequel based on the Kyoto Arc.
Anyway, I am officially stoked now.
What my friends thought while reading that last sentence:
"More like you are officially a huge nerd now."
I can make fun of myself myself, thank you very much.

 

A Cause We Can All Get Behind - Spoilers

The people over at CollegeHumor have gathered several well known actors and actresses to help them fight one of the scourges of our modern society, the spoiler. They propose a series of rules and guidelines concerning the discussion of spoilers that I think should be adopted as law... except for maybe the bit about knife fights.

When Voice Actors Can't Break Character

What happens when an actor can't break character? And not for filming purposes or anything like that, but because they become so accustomed to being the character that they start to become the character.
And what if the character just happens to be a superhero?

This:

Life can be tough for voice actors.

This is my first exposure to the Daly Show with Tim and Sam (not to be confused with The Daily Show with John Stewart), and it's pretty great. I went ahead and watched the other episodes, and now I'm sad that I've wasted so much time not watching this web series.

From what I hear, I went through a pretty intense Superman phase when I was really young, and refused to wear anything other than my Superman Underoos. This is kind of like that, but with grown men.

Nobody Knows Who or What John Carter Is

So last night, the missus and I went out to trivia with some friends. One of the questions was about John Carter, and it quickly became obvious that no one else there had ever heard of the character or movie before. Of course, the character has been around for more than 100 years, and has inspired the science fiction community to no end since then, not to mention the movie comes out March 9th. And I really want to watch it. I'm pretty sure there are only like 5 other people who have said those words.

The posters aren't too bad, but overall, the marketing for this movie has been awful.

There are really just a few things that the marketing department needs to tell people to get them excited about the movie, and they have not mentioned any of those things in the trailer. Would you be interested in a story that:

1. is from the writer of Tarzan of the Apes.
2. has been around for more than 100 years and has been a primary inspiration for an entire genre of movies and literature.
3. marks the live-action debut of the director/writer behind Wall-E and Finding Nemo. 

Knowing those things, I don't even need to see a trailer. I want to watch this.

Chronicle = Totally Worth Seeing.

Go see Chronicle.

It is good.

That is all.

Need more information to help you make an informed decision?

Alright, I'll oblige. 

Movie Mashup Monday - 2001: Office Space Odyssey

2001: A Space Odyssey, while not historically accurate in retrospect, is widely regarded as one of the best films of all time. I'm pretty sure that Hal9000 (the murderous computer responsible for operating the functions of the space station) and Glados, from Portal are related.

Office Space is kind of like Dilbert, if Dilbert was:

1. A movie, and
2. Completely awesome

amazing movie idea after the jump

Resident Evil Afterlife Marketing Team: You're Welcome

The new Resident Evil movie, Resident Evil: Retribution doesn't come out until September 14th, but the marketing campaign for the film is already in full swing. Sony has released a few video clips and a trailer, which also doubles as a commercial for several of their products (it's pretty weird.Check it out here). The problem -- this is their movie poster (or at least it's on the Resident Evil Retribution facebook site):

THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF THE FINAL JUDGEMENT

Nope. Not doing it for me at all.

One of These Things is Not Like The Other

So the new Resident Evil trailer is out. I am excited about that. Also, the new Resident Evil trailer is out. And I am Jack's all consuming apathy. One of these things is not like the other.

With the trailer for Sony's new Resident Evil Movie, Resident Evil: Retribution still fresh in our minds, Capcom has debuted the trailer for their new Resident Evil game, Resident Evil 6.

Not the same thing.