Yes yes. I have a lot of itty bitty news for you. But the one I just read moments ago is that Christian Bale is going to be John Connor in the new Terminator flick. I was fifty-percent right when I wrote about it before. Mc G is directing but Vin Diesel has not been confirmed as a robot. I think he is actually a robot in real life so it won’t be too far off. The title of the new flick is Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins. Could be good with some Bale as Connor. But Mc G is still doing it so I’m not sure. Too close to Mc D’s.

• NEXT! Yes. Remember that untitled J.J. Abrams teaser you saw with the Statue of Liberty’s head being blown off? Yeah, no one knew what it was called. People were calling it “the untitled J.J. Abrams project” or project “Cloverfield.” Well you can check out the new trailer with the official title here. You get a small glimpse of the monster. It could be a cool flick. Oh. By the way… it’s called Cloverfield. Clever bastards.

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Here in Los Angeles the whole writers strike thing is starting to make a lack of new TV entertainment a real possibility, so to compliment the impending deluge of re-runs here is some entertainment.

Our top five second movie summaries

5. Star wars in 5 seconds

4. Braveheart

3. Godfather

2. Big Lewbowski

1. Rocky I,II,III,IV,V & VI in 5 seconds

There were plenty of other contenders so leave a comment and let me know which clips I over looked and should have included instead.

On this past Wednesday night I was privileged enough to witness what I feel is going to be the evolution of movie watching in America. If you who have an HD television and get the HDNet Movies channel, then you had a chance to catch a sneak previewing of Brian De Palma’s new film Redacted before it hit theatres. The movie played twice, back to back, and was a great way to see the film, as opposed to in the theatre. Once everyone has HD televisions, studios might begin showing films traditionally slated for theatres, first on TV.

Redacted has an advantage over other films because HDNet Films produced the movie and therefore was able to distribute and show the film on their cable channel. HDNet is not alone in having a channel and film production capabilities, Universal has an HD channel also, called (obviously) Universal HD. Universal’s channel broadcasts TV shows as well as Universal’s archive of past films.

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The filmmaking duo behind Deacon’s Mondays, Lowell Frank and Destin Daniel Cretton (featured right).

Student film festivals are often hit AND miss, but every once in awhile you get lucky and see a gem. This year’s 5^th annual International Student Film Festival Hollywood, held at the Beverly Garland Holiday Inn, was no exception. If you don’t know who Beverly Garland is, she’s a longtime actress who played a role in one of my very favorite sequels, Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie’s Island Adventure, a true holiday classic. Apparently unfulfilled as an actress, she decided to operate a Holiday Inn with three of her four children. I like to pronounce her name with a New York accent…Bevahly Gahland. Just try it. Bevahly Gahland once rode a horse through a community gahden. What I’m getting at here is that this was an interesting venue for a film festival, but lets get back on track.

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It’s been a bit slow in the movie world. We do have that nasty little strike, of course. But we still have enough crap in production and pre-production that we can type about for a while…

• First off. We have the first image of Zachary Quinto, Sylar from Heroes, as a young Spock in the new Star Trek movie. Not a big Trek guy, but I’m sure battles are being fought all over the internet with many exclamation points and caps locks between the nerds.
• Hey! I have an idea! Let’s remake EVERY movie possible! Yes! That’s amazing! What do we have left? Hmmm… how about Friday The 13th? Hmm… Okay! So we are going to have a Michael Bay produced Jason flick. The guy who directed the recent Texas Chainsaw movie is directing this one, written by the guy that wrote Freddy vs. Jason. “Phhhhhhh!” (That was me making the thumbs down with my tongue sticking out and creating an anal-like noise.)

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Apparently Zach Helm wrote this movie because he worked in a toy store and found the experience fascinating and magical. Ten minutes into this thing I was thinking that the bathroom stalls at the Theatre in the Fox backlot were more fascinating; and the fact I was secretly sipping a soda in a theatre with a no food or drink rule much more magical.

The film is about a kooky “magical” toy store (never explained) owned and operated by a 243 year old (never explained) Mr. Magorium (Dustin Hoffman), who has decided to retire and die because he has run out of his favorite shoes. Magorium hires an accountant to get his affairs in order because he wants to bequeath the store to his manager Molly Mahoney (Natalie Portman), but the store is depressed and turns grey because she doesn’t believe that she is magical. The most believable and well played character is that of 9 year old Eric Applebaum (Zach Mills). I say this because it’s easier to believe in a kid that has a hard time making friends than it is in a man who got lucky enough not to be audited by the IRS for the last hundred years, or a girl who, if she just believed in herself, could make a box fly around the room.

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It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Yeah, yeah, the holidays are right around the corner, and once those pass, Oscar season kicks into high gear! Some may call the show a vapid glorification of film and a waste of time, but why listen to them when you could bask in debates and argue over who should take the top prize, even after the awards have aired. So I say, let’s kick off LAcityzine’s Oscar-watch this week…

As I’m sure most of the LA population knows, awards season is HUGE in this town, with the Academy Awards being the pinnacle of that season, offering what many in the entertainment industry deem the greatest prize. Granted, it is a bit early to start predicting nominations but many deserving films and performances have already come and gone from multiplexes. And with December right around the corner, the field will undoubtedly widen as many more Oscar hopeful films are released and worthy performances given.

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Forget the Tarantino/Rodriguez double-feature that just came out recently. Why not experience the real deal that inspired those boys. Yup. Right here in our own backyard is a monthly Grindhouse festival showing all of your favorite exploitation films from the 60’s all the way through the 80’s. For $8, you get a double feature that is sure to rock your socks off, as well as real exploitation trailers between the flicks.

Not only do you get to experience the golden cinematic extravaganza, but you get some extra goodies as well. Often times, cast and crew from the films will show up to the screenings and do some sort of Q & A and if that isn’t enough, how about a raffle, pal?

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Upon seeing the new feel good family movie, “Dan in Real Life”, I couldn’t help but think that this was the poor man’s “Family Stone”. Now, the “Family Stone” wasn’t exactly a milestone in cinematic history, so you can imagine what level this film achieved…hovering right around mediocre, at best.

However, I will say that it was somewhat entertaining. I, too, laughed with the aged audience who had come for the 4:30 showing last Sunday afternoon. You see; I didn’t walk into this sticky movie theater with any expectations. In fact, I’m pretty sure I had negative hope for this move, so anything was something.

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