dakota fanning

Review: Super 8

Chick 1 says:super_8

Is JJ Abrams the new Steven Spielberg?  Possibly.  He is certainly an outstanding storyteller.  He can come up with fantastic concepts (Lost, Alias).  He can take us on heart-pounding adventures (Mission Impossible 3) that still resonate emotionally (Star Trek).  And in the tradition of Spielberg, all his great characters have daddy issues.  (He even used that as an episode title.)  So Super 8 is poised to be this generations E.T.  Did it succeed?  The jury’s still out.

The Basics:  In 1979, a group of young teens accidentally capture the crash of a U.S. Air Force train on film while shooting a zombie flick.  In the aftermath of the crash, bizarre events and missing person cases spread like a plague around the small town while the military takes over without offering any answers or help. Read more

Posted on June 12, 2011 by Chick 1 in Reviews, The 2010s 77 Comments

I Can’t Wait: The Long Cold Winter

Let’s face it.  January and February are the nuclear waste dump of Hollywood.  A period when movies whose releases have been pushed further and further back because they couldn’t compete with whatever else was being released, movies that have disappointed studio execs, movies that studios don’t know what to do with, and movies that just have no one to believe in them find themselves finally showing to audiences.

Add to this the romantic comedy season leading up Valentine’s (a genre I’ll talk about in an upcoming blog) and choices at the theater can seem kind of bleak. Read more

Posted on January 6, 2009 by Chick 1 in I Can't Wait! 74 Comments

Casting Notes

emmaalanChick 1 says:

A few more projects in development that have piqued my interest. Apparently, this week the theme is Harry Potter.

Old News: I’ve been mildly interested in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, currently filming in London.  Naturally, it features Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter but when Alan Rickman (Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series) was announced as the Caterpillar, I was completely sold.  I adore Rickman and would pay to watch him sort socks.  This movie has officially been moved to my I Can’t Wait list.  Check out the rest of this cast: Mia Wasikowska as Alice (Thank heavens Burton was original enough to cast someone besides Dakota Fanning or Abigail Breslin!  Yes, they’re talented but they’re not the only fish in the sea.), Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, Michael Sheen as the Cheshire Cat, & Crispin Glover as the Knave of Hearts.  Yes, this will be weird but it could also be freakin’ awesome! Read more

Posted on November 15, 2008 by Chick 1 in Casting Notes 176 Comments