Here’s a trailer from the first one… check out Jennifer Aniston from her pre-Friends era. She probably should have stuck with being a B-Movie vixen, they have a whole lot less paparazzi.

When a single father, his daughter, and three painters discover a pot of gold hidden near a house that the family is moving into, a vengefully violent leprechaun stalks them and uses his magical powers to frighten them into returning his gold. Although they are more than willing to meet his desires, one of the painters, while biting it to determine its authenticity, accidentally swallows it, complicating matters and leading to a night of terror.

Coincidently… Syfy is playing a block (in reverse order?) of the first four. You can catch this first classic at 4:00pm (how lame… I wish Syfy would go back to their old style of programming and drop the Wrestling and the reality show… we want more movies!!! and not just on weekends!!)

Well, they are at it again. This time, they are reaching to the Horror Film Fans. And like Kröd Mändoon, it doesn’t look like it will be hilariously funny, but it will prove to be weird… weird enough to get me to watch it… at least for a while.

A couple of days later, my buddy Cinesthete, at Reel Friction posted his thoughts on the Oscars. Upon reading it, I felt that I had express some of my own thoughts… mostly as rebuttal to his thoughts, and adding a few of my own.

I reproduced most of his article here, at least the parts that I had felt the need to comment. To read the whole article, go here. There were a few things that I had no thoughts or cares about.

Here goes:

I don’t pretend to understand cinematography (anyone who has seen my films can attest to that), but does lighting generated on a computer count? I’m surprised Avatar won.

I won’t even claim to understand any cinematography (at least you made a few films, Cinesthete), but as a 3D artist and animator, I can say that lighting is one of the most challenging aspects of the job. Every aspect of lighting is translated through hundreds of parameters that we take for granted. Positioning, intensity, and attenuation are just a difficult to determine in a virtual scene as it is in real life. And then there is the whole science of Radiosity (shadows and light bounces) that need to be configured… otherwise you’ll end up with something like a scene in the original Tron (they may have been ground breaking in 3D, but we have gone a long way since then).

Once you tweak all the parameters in order to imitate real life, you then have to marry it to actual real life footage. Granted, on many of todays sophisticated computers and equipment (thanks to George Lucas), this is not too difficult. But trust me, it takes damn near rocket science to figure out how to use all that equipment and programs.

So “lighting generated on a computer” is really putting it lightly. It’s like saying anyone can pickup a camera and become a James Cameron. It is, after all, just “looking through a lens”, right? I’m not shocked that Avatar won that award. As a matter of fact, I am shocked it didn’t received more technical awards, but thats how the Oscars work…

The White Ribbon, my vote for best film of the year, did not win Best Foreign Language Film. I’m ashamed that was the only one I saw in that category.

I haven’t seen any in the Best Foreign Language Film, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. You know why? Because none of them were Horror, Science Fiction, or Fantasy. And that’s the problem with the Oscars… they never take these kinds of movies seriously. Anytime a movie gets one of those labels, people think “Uh oh, its just another one of those Creature Features like from the 50′s.” Case in point: that last time a horror film got best picture was Silence of the Lambs. And people still argue that it is not horror, but just a thriller. How can a movie with characters that bites the face off a prison guard and wear the skins of his victims not be horrific? Just because IMDB says its not? There’s more science fiction and fantasy in movies these days than people would like to admit. But as soon as you label it that way, it’s a joke.

Pixar has done no wrong in the past few years, and the Academy has thankfully recognized that.

Pixar definitely deserves recognition; I won’t disagree with that. However, I don’t think that they should have gotten with Up. Personally, I feel that Wall-E was a far better movie and far more creative than Up. And visually, Wall-E is far more superior compared to Up. This year, I think that Fantastic Mr. Fox should have taken the award. But, since Up was nominated for Best Picture, is was a sure win for this category…

This is how the Oscars work (and it really pisses me off). Many times in the past, great actors, actresses, and directors have been around and not recognized by the Academy. Then they suddenly wakes up to decide to finally give these people the recognition… for movies that were not really their best. Case in point: your next comment…

Bigelow wins for best director! The Hurt Locker was directly very well, and she deserves recognition, but in my mind more for Point Break and Strange Days then for her most recent film.

I never saw The Hurt Locker, and probably never will. But Strange Days was an excellent film and overly underrated. Why? Well, it may have to do with it being labeled as Science Fiction. Nuff said.

District 9 did not deserve any nominations, let along Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay? I don’t care what LCD says.

This is one area where LCD and I agree, and we rarely do agree on anything! (LCD is the other contributor on Reel Fiction). Although, I think it is for different reasons. District 9 is not just another Science Fiction film with fancy effects. It explores a possibility of the human condition in light of a situation that is unimaginable (not something that has been already done). This movie makes you think, it makes you feel, and it makes you root for the hero. It’s dark, but yet shows some hope. It definitely deserves to be nominated and should have been nominated for even more.

I’m sure I would feel the same way about A Serious Man, even if I didn’t see. Just from what I read about it, it sounds rather boring and uninteresting.

I happened to catch all of the 10 Best Picture Nominees and I give them a 60/40 good to bad ratio. The best of the lot was A Serious Man, which I saw too late to put on my Top 10 of the Year.

(He, he, he) I only saw 4 of the 10, and I am OK with that, really. I’m happy to see District 9 make the list. I’m glad to see Avatar made it for the simple fact that it is Science Fiction… but I hardly think that it was Best Picture quality, but I’ll take it. More movies like these should be included in the nominations. And I would like to think that the Academy increased it’s nominations to allow room for more genres… but I’m probably wrong.

10 Best Pictures? Including more films makes the category less important.

The Best Picture category is kind of pointless, in my opinion. I think that being the best of anything should be judged by its accomplishments, and in this case by how many awards it receives in other categories. I think the Academy should introduce more categories and the Best Picture will just come out on it own.

I don’t really like John Hughes.

You are too young to like John Hughes. The man is a significant part of an era that you did not experience. He is more than just a director, his is a documentarian. If my grandkids ever came up to me and asked what the 80′s were like, I would tell him to watch a few John Hughes film.

If the Academy allows Foreign Language Films and Animated Features to be nominated for best picture, they are logically saying that all the Best Picture Nominees are better than all of the nominees from those other categories. That is why I don’t like the Oscars.

And in this year’s case, it was true! Up was nominated for best Animated Feature and Best Picture. It won the Animated Feature, so clearly it was the best and deserved to be in the Best Picture category. I should have seen that coming!

Again, proving my point that the Best Picture category is just plain pointless.

Why is there a Foreign Language Film category? I don’t get it. If the Academy Awards are US based, then why are we are recognizing them? And we are including foreign films, then why not include them in other categories (Best Actor, Film Editing, etc). Yet another reason the Oscars are f*cked up.

And now, for my little rant: I’ll tell you why the Oscar’s suck. It’s because they don’t have enough representation of all the genres. Yes, I’m talking about SciFi, Horror, and Fantasy… as well as Anime. Also, the Academy is too political. I really think the Kathryn Bigelow was elected Best Directory because it was time to have a female take the award. Just like in 2001 when DENZEL WASHINGTON and HALLE BERRY won Best Actor and Best Actress respectively. They just wanted make history. This year, again, they made history.

I stopped watching the Awards since the late 80′s because they stopped making any sense. Plus, less and less movies that I enjoy were not even recognized while boring, unimaginative films were getting all kinds of awards. And, the hosting is just ridiculously boring.

BOX OF SHADOWS, centers around a group of college friends, who discover a 15th century coffin that allows them to experience the world as ghosts. While their first adventures in the spirit world are playful and innocent, the “Box of Shadows” soon brings out the group’s most dangerous impulses and desires. The friends find themselves pulled into a world of evil where they learn the line between life and death is there for a reason.

Yeah… I’m there. Release scheduled for July 2, 2010. I think I need to start a “wish list” of movies that I want to see… gets a bit rough keeping track. By the way, don’t forget to check out my movie activity log every once in a while (accessible at the top of the sidebar).

Mark your calendars: March 13 for Dinoshark!

I just wish that SyFy would do this more often on the weeknights, and not the Wrestling or Wisps-of-air…er…Ghost Hunters. At least they have all day movies on the weekends, even if they are not always available to me…

BTW… love the Jaws reference: “Think we’re going to need a bigger chopper…” (two-fold!)

No… I have not lost it. But in all seriousness, Seth Grahame-Smith, who brought us Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an parody(?) of Jane Austen’s classic, has just released Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. How awesome is that?

While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for saving a Union and freeing millions of slaves, his valiant fight against the forces of the undead has remained in the shadows for hundreds of years. That is, until Seth Grahame-Smith stumbled upon The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln, and became the first living person to lay eyes on it in more than 140 years.

Using the journal as his guide and writing in the grand biographical style of Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough, Seth has reconstructed the true life story of our greatest president for the first time-all while revealing the hidden history behind the Civil War and uncovering the role vampires played in the birth, growth, and near-death of our nation.

To help promote the book, a trailer was made. Just more awesomeness. No, really! How ofter to you hear a “theatrical” trailer made for a book. You need to check it out!

I don’t know about you… but after seeing this, I caught myself thinking “This would even be more awesome if they actually made a real movie out of this!”

And, then, low and behold…. someone felt the same awesomeness and I did!

According to The Hollywood Reporter, there is going to be a film adaptation of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. And we’re not talking about some no name people here… Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov are getting together on this! Most likely producing, and not directing… but still, it promises to be some “awesome” entertainment…

You’ll never catch me at a Lady GaGa show, for sure. But I stumbled across this video (probably from a cell phone, just look at all the other cell phones!) of a performance for the song Paparazzi. I have to say… I may have to give her nod to some pretty cool props on this one. Kind of looks like a cross of a Lovecraftian creature and the monster in George P. Cosmatos’ Leviathan.

From the What’s Playing website:

…Australian actor Joel Edgerton spoke briefly about his next project, a prequel to John Carpenter’s classic horror-hit The Thing.

Edgerton, who’ll appear in the film opposite Mary Elizabeth Winstead, tells Hit he can’t say much about the Matthijs van Heijningen Jr-directed project only that it takes place before the original movie.

“Anyone who is a big fan of the John Carpenter version of The Thing knows that it starts on the American base station but the investigation of where the Thing has come from leads us to know something very bad has happened at the Norwegian base station and the prequel centres itself around there and what happened pre-Kurt Russell”.

In the film, due to film in Vancouver, Edgerton plays Sam Carter a helicopter pilot who teams with a graduate student named Kate Lloyd (Winstead) to pursue an alien life form.

No talk about some brother of a lead from the original. This, to me, sounds like the movie is going in a positive direction. Even if it does go sour, it will not mar the original.

Now, if people would just stop whining about it, we can get on with our lives. That is, at least until the movie is released.

The rumors basically died and everyone forgot about it. But then, I heard new rumors that a prequel is being made. Actually, now they’re no longer rumors. It’s official. Shooting will begin in mid March. However, the idea of a prequel does not sound so bad. It’s definitely better then a remake. But, it could go bad in many ways, as well. According to BloodyDisgusting.com, there is some notion of having a character that will be the brother of one of the leads from the original (MacReady played by Kurt Russell). This would be bad. Very bad. It just does not fit in with the story and it would be just plain stupid.

You see, in original 1982 version, there were events that occurred up to the present point of the movie. These events focus on a Norwegian Camp in Antarctica (the movie take place on an American research outpost on Antarctica), and from what I have read, this prequel is supposedly focused on these events. This fine… I can accept this. But to have MacReady’s brother involved… NO! Ronald D. Moore (of new Battlestar Galactica) is penning this new story. While I’m not not too crazy about his recent work, he did write for Star Trek’s Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. One can only hope he will look back to his roots and not cheese out like he did for Battlestar.

Setting that aside… if things don’t go too sour (like this brother angle), I’ve recently came across some refreshing news that could work in its favor. Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc. have been added to head the special effects. The good news is these guys are NOT CG artists. They do special effect the old fashion way: Make-up and Animatronics. Frankly, with the rise of CG graphics lately, some movies are becoming more and more like cartoons. It’s good to know that some old fashion techniques are still used. This, and the fact that an up and rising director, Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., are on board with this project, Things are looking a little positive.

PS: While looking for the latest news regarding The Thing, I can across an interesting article from CoronaComingAttractions.com. While I knew that SciFi Channel (now just SyFy) had originally planned on making a sequel to The Thing, I never knew how far it went. The news came and went so fast that most people were not aware of it (I didn’t hear about until after they decided not to do it). Patrick Sauriol from CoronaComingAttractions so how got hold of the script that was made for the SciFi special (set to be a miniseries). He writes about it and the sequel sounds pretty decent. What was it shelved? Probably for budgeting reasons.

“DAWNA OF THE DEAD is so wrong on so many levels, that it actually achieves high art in cinema. Plus, there is simply nothing sexier than something you shouldn’t be seeing.” – Dave Navarro

“The DAWNA OF THE DEAD trailer is obscene, disgusting and just plain wrong… So naturally we are now dying to see the whole film!” -DIGITAL RETRIBUTION

In all seriousness, who ever did take the time to make this film was obviously a big zombie aficionado. The costumes and make-up are above par for your typical porn flick. Hell… they are worthy of most the zombies films out there, past and present!

Check it out the Website, but:

**Warning #1: NSFW (that means “Not suitable/safe for work”… don’t be stupid).

**Warning #2: If you are offended by any kind of sexually content, pornographic material, blah, blah, blah…. don’t bother.

Official Website

Screw that! Just take me straight to the TRAILER!