Despite the ‘Battle of the Smithsonian’ and the return to horror by Mr. Sam Raimi, nothing could top the box-office take of PIXAR’s biggest opener in five years.   Not since 2004′s ‘The Incredibles’ has a PIXAR film opened at more than $65 million, and look for those numbers to hold pretty steady this coming weekend.   It’s rather interesting to note that the top three films this weekend are likely to be rated PG, PG-13, and R in that order.

‘Up’ is definitely going to be number one again.   Not even Will Ferrell in a Summer blockbuster can beat that.   Ferrell has had some pretty big openings in his lifetime, but nothing has topped $47 million (‘Talladega Nights’), and ‘Land of the Lost’ isn’t likely to do so, either.   Right around the low $30 million range is a good estimate for ‘Land of the Lost.’   If you are to compare the film to another in Ferrell’s filmography, the closest would have to be ‘Bewitched,’ which opened to just over $20 million in 2005.   ‘Land of the Lost’ will do better than that.   The fact that the trailers, despite the PG-13 rating, make it look more kid-friendly will help bump up its numbers a tad.

The real head-scratcher this weekend is ‘The Hangover,’ though.   This film has been hyped for months and months, and the marketing behind it has been ingenious.   Todd Phillips isn’t exactly an opener, though.   His biggest opening was ‘Starsky and Hutch,’ but even that made just under $30 million in its opening weekend.   That was with a PG-13 rating, to boot.   ‘The Hangover’ has a lot going against it.   It’s rated R.   It really has no star appeal.   The main thing it has going for it are the trailers, TV spots, and people who have seen it convincing others that not all of the funny parts are revealed in the previous two.   It will have a nice weekend take, but it’s not going anywhere near $30.

Look for ‘Night at the Museum’ to hold onto the number 4 spot, and ‘Drag Me to Hell’ will probably just edge out ‘Terminator Salvation’ and ‘Star Trek’ to make the top 5.

Speaking of which, ‘Star Trek’ topped the $200 million mark, the first film of 2009 to do so, and it couldn’t have happened to a better film.   It’s like the really nice and popular guy in high school who also ends up winning a college scholarship.   You just can’t help but fell proud of it.   ‘Terminator Salvation’ will more than likely hit the $100 million mark this weekend, but don’t look for it to have much stamina after that.   It looks to make back about 2/3 of its $200-million budget worldwide.   Not exactly a barn burner.   That new, planned trilogy may not be happening after all.

Here’s the way I see the weekend breaking down:

1. Up – $40.4 million
2. The Land of the Lost – $30.5 million
3. The Hangover – $25.6 million
4. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian – $16.7 million
5. Drag Me to Hell – $7.9 million

Shoot us your numbers in the comment section below!

One of the shocking things I learned when I was a child (probably from my brother 10 years my senior) was that ‘Escape From New York,’ one of the classics directed by John Carpenter, had scenes shot in St. Louis, a city a mere two hours from me at the time.

For those of you who don’t know, the film’s production designer, the Oscar nominated Joe Alves, couldn’t work out the logistics of shooting the film’s night-time exterior shots in New York City.   It was too difficult to make the New York city streets seem like a devastated, prison city as depicted in the film.   Alves was sent on a cross-country expense trip where he was to find a city that could stand in for a demolished, downtown NYC.   Enter East St. Louis, IL in the late ’70s.   In ’76, a massive fire broke out, and entire blocks were left burned up and in rubble.   Production moved to Illinois.   Scenes were even shot across the river in St. Louis, MO proper at Union Station and the Fox Theater.

Well, for those of you who are within traveling distance to STL, now is your chance to see ‘Escape From New York’ in one of these very locations.   As part of their Twilight Under the Train Shed screening series, St. Louis Union Station will be showing an oustide screening of Carpenter’s classic this Friday night, July 5th.

Here’s the promo poster:

In case you didn’t realize, the scene shot at the Union Station is the gladiator-style wrestling match where Snake Plissken fights Slag, played by Ox Baker.   The scene was filmed in Union Station’s grand hall before it was renovated.   If you look closely in the scene, you will see the stained glass window that still hangs above the entryway into the grand hall on Market Street.

Here is a shot of the renovated grand hall from 2007:

Here’s some interesting ‘Escape From New York’ facts about shooting in St. Louis:

• The final credit is a reference to a strip club and the dancers across the river from St Louis
• The President’s downed plane was an old DC-10 bought from an airplane graveyard in Tucson, Arizona. The plane was carved up into 3 separate pieces and trucked into the film’s St Louis locations in the dead of night as they didn’t have the requisite paperwork
• John Carpenter and his crew convinced St. Louis authorities to shut off the electricity for ten blocks at night
• John Carpenter purchased the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge in St Louis for $1 from the government and then returned it to them for the same amount after filming was completed

The screening starts Friday night between 8:30 and 8:45 PM.   For those who haven’t visited St. Louis’ Union Station, note that parking is not free, but the movie is.   Come watch the movie.   If you haven’t seen it, it’s a prerequisite for knowing me.   Sorry.   That’s just the way it is.   Scope out the familiar locations throughout the movie.   Hang out with the Movie Geeks.   Let’s have a great time with a great movie Friday night.

In honor of this weeks must see Vegas/funniest movie of the year ‘The Hangover’, we decided that it was only fitting to do a top ten list of the best Vegas movies. Not to mention will are going to be rocking it at Cinevegas in about 9 days! Enjoy the list..

10. Rain Man

It’s not a huge part of ‘Rain Man,’ but Vegas plays such an important part in the story of Charlie Babbitt and his autistic brother.   The city brings the brother so close together, since Charlie is a greedy ass and Raymond can count cards with the best of them.   In fact, the shot of the two brothers coming down the escalator might be the most iconic shot of any film on this whole list.   The Vegas segment in ‘Rain Man’ is great.   Yeah, definitely great.

09. Go

Vegas is the setting, more than the focal point in this high-energy innovative tale of a drug deal gone bad, but still plays a significant role in the strength of the movie. The story follows the events that take place after the mishap, revealing the varied perspectives of what happened from three different characters connected by the same scenario. Directed by Doug Liman and starring Katie Holmes, Sarah Polley, Desmond Askew, Jay Mohr, William Fichtner and Timothy Olyphant, this movie has become something of a forgotten gem and deserves another look.

08. The Hangover

Have you ever had a night so crazy that you woke up the next morning, had no memory of the previous night, tried to pee only to find a tiger in your bathroom, missing a tooth and a baby is hiding out in the closet? Every weekend for me, but if you havent then you HAVE To see ‘The Hangover’ which opens in theaters this friday June 5th. The movie is ridiculously funny to the point of peeing your pants. Its not only the funniest movie of the year, its probably the funniest movie this decade! If you dont see this, I feel sorry for you and we arent friends anymore.

07. Swingers

Jon Favreau wrote and stars alongside Vince Vaughn in this movie about out of work actors who are living in Hollywood. Although there is only 1 night in Vegas, its still so damn good that it had to make this list baby. Trent(Vaughn) takes his buddy Mike(Favreau) to Vegas to help him get over his ex girlfriend and find some new women to have fun with. Still obsessed with his ex girlfriend the night of debauchery goes south and they return home to Hollywood. This is one of the earlier Vince Vaughn films before he really honed his comedic skills, but its still hillarious.

06. Ocean’s Eleven

Steven Soderbergh’s 2001 remake of ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ has, in the past, few years, become more memorable than the original.   Taking the concept of a group of old friends/thieves who plan, in one night, to rob a number of Vegas casinos, Soderbergh and screenwriter Ted Griffin work out the perfect type of remake.   It takes the idea, updates, makes it their own, and executes the hell out of it.   ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ is one of the better caper films in recent years, and its Vegas setting gives it a style and intensity that can’t be matched.

05. Very Bad Things

So they call Vegas “Sin City”… big deal! What’s the WORST that could happen? Well, ‘Very Bad Things’ is the predecessor of ‘The Hangover’ in terms of how terribly wrong a Vegas bachelor party can truly go. Directed by peter Berg, this extremely dark and painfully hilarious tale of a group of guys struggling to survive the best night of their lives begins as harmless fun and ends in murder. The movie stars Jon Favreau, Christian Slater, Jeremy Piven and Cameron Diaz… who can this be bad?

04. The Cooler

William H. Macy really “brings it” for ‘The Cooler’, which in my opinion is one of the most underrated movies of our time. He plays the unlucky Bernie Lootz who works as a “cooler” in the Shangri-La casino. When he is about to reach his payoff agreement(due to gambiling) with casino boss Shelly Kaplow (Alec Baldwin), he finds love in a cocktail waitress named Natalie Belisario (Maria Bello). Shelly quickly realizes that the happier he is, the less his effectiveness becomes. Eventually Shelly decides he has no choice but to seperate them so he can get his “cooler” back in action.

03. Leaving Las Vegas

Mike Figgis’ direction, Nic Cage’s incredible acting job (for a change of pace), and the incredible setting of the grittier side of Vegas make ‘Leaving Las Vegas’ more than just a romantic comedy about a hooker with a heart of gold.   It’s a romantic-drama that looks at the uglier side of everything, even a city as glamorous as Las Vegas.   Vegas doesn’t propel the story all that much, but the loneliness and angst Cage and Elizabeth Shue project make this a film not to be missed.

02. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

When you think of Vegas, what comes to mind? OK sure, gambling, strippers and the like, but what about the drugs and alcohol? Sure, maybe it’s not for everyone, but Terry Gilliam’s 1998 interpretation of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson’s drug and alcohol induced trip through the Wonderland called Vegas is a classic mind#@$%! The film is a brain-bending, eye-popping, potentially nausea-inducing adventure that follows the gonzo journalist’s wreckless, self-destructive antics as he attempts to cover a motorcycle race as a magazine article. The film stars Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro.

01. Casino

“In Vegas, everybody’s gotta watch everybody else. Since the players are looking to beat the casino, the dealers are watching the players. The box men are watching the dealers. The floor men are watching the box men. The pit bosses are watching the floor men. The shift bosses are watching the pit bosses. The casino manager is watching the shift bosses. I’m watching the casino manager. And the eye-in-the-sky is watching us all” – Ace Rothstein

Bugsy Siegel might have been the driving force that built Vegas, but there wasn’t a picture perfect Mafia movie about the city until Scorsese came along in ’95.   Based on the novel by Nicholas Pileggi, who adapted the novel for the screen, ‘Casino’ is a fantastic look at what keeps the city ticking.   With unmatched performances by De Niro, Sharon Stone, and Joe Pesci, an unwavering soundtrack, and Scorsese’s style of perfection, ‘Casino’ is a film that is the embodiment of everything Vegas.   Style, glamour, a little bit of heartbreak, and a whole lot of pain, ‘Casino’ is a fantastic film about fantastic people in a fantastic city.

With this weeks release of ‘Up’ we decided it was only fitting to have a Top Ten list for the Greatest Animated Characters. We reached out to everyone we could find, I even asked my grandmother but she wasn’t sure what an animated character was. Without further ado here is the list:

10. Shrek (‘Shrek’)

While not the first, animated film to be released by DreamWorks, ‘Shrek’ was the first film produced by the DreamWorks Animation department.   Its lead character, the green ogre with the tubular ears, has become the iconic symbol of the company, DreamWorks answer to Disney’s Mickey Mouse.   Of course, not just any character can become the icon of a whole production company.   Shrek is a likable, animated character who is, more importantly, funny.   The only way this character, voiced by Mike Myers, could have possibly been funnier was if Chris Farley had survived long enough to voice him, as was originally planned.   Most people prefer Donkey, but, personally, I don’t think there is a freshly funnier character seen in the past decade.

9. Dory (‘Finding Nemo’)

‘Finding Nemo’ was just one of an incredible string of great Pixar films which has lots of great characters, but the one that stands out for almost everyone in this film is that of the amnesiac fish Dory. Voiced by comedienne Ellen Degeneres, Dory becomes the comedic life of the film as she accompanies Nemo’s father on his quest to rescue his son. There are many other funny characters, including the current-surfing sea turtles and the gulls that say “mine” but Dory is the most quoted of them all. Would you quit it? “What, the ocean isn’t big enough for you or something like that? You got a problem? Huh? Do ya, do ya, do ya? You wanna piece of me? Yeah, yeah! Ooh, I’m scared now! What?”

8. The Grinch (‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’)

It isn’t often that the villain of a film is the most likable character in the whole thing.   Leave it up to the amazing trio of Dr. Seuss, Chuck Jones, and Boris Karloff to bring such a character into animated reality.   Even before the Grinch’s heart grows three sizes too big, he brings a smile to the face of the movie’s viewer regardless of their age.   And you can forget about ‘Halloween is Grinch Night,’ ‘The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat,’ and, especially, that live-action retread starring Jim Carrey.   None of them have the same level of care and craft that went into making the original, motion animated Grinch such an unforgettable character.

7. Sully (‘Monsters, Inc.’)

James P Sullivan is grizzly blue “monster” known as Sully. He was voiced by John Goodman and is the top scarer at Monsters, Inc., meaning that every scare and scream that he generates provides the power that runs Monstropolis. Sully accidentally lets one of the little children he was supposed to be scaring back through into the monster world and realizes that children arent the evil little monsters they have been led to believe. There are alot of characters that could have made the list from ‘Monsters Inc.’ but Sully is definitely the best and most lovable to children and adults alike.

6. Chihiro (‘Spirited Away’)

At the heart of Miyazaki’s most beloved feature film is a 10-year-old girl.   While moving to a new town with her family, Chihiro stumbles onto the entrance to the spirit world.   It is through her adolescent eyes we view this world and the events that transpire there.   As all of this takes place, we also witness the girl mature from the spoiled child she is at the beginning of the film to the aged, young woman she becomes before the end.   Human, lead characters are rarely this interesting.   In fact, Chihiro is the only human character that appears on this list.   Just one more reason why Miyazaki’s work is always breathtaking and why this character is so rounded and emotionally connecting.

5. Cheshire Cat (‘Alice in Wonderland’)

Does this pick even really need any explanation? By far, one of the coolest, least typical Disney characters ever to grace the big screen and small, the Cheshire Cat is cunning, shifty and that big toothy grin is enough to keep anyone looking over their shoulders when he’s around. Sterling Holloway was the perfect voice for the Cheshire Cat and that voice still lingers in the back of my head today. From the brilliant but questionably sane mind of Lewis Carroll, this is still arguably the best, and least-typical, Disney animated movie (non-CGI) of all time featuring the coolest crazy cat ever to be drawn and colored.

4. Woody (‘Toy Story’)

Say what you want about Buzz Lightyear and his “To infinity and beyond…”.   It is Sheriff Woody that is the emotional centerpiece in PIXAR’s maiden voyage into the world of feature films.   The pull-string doll has everything going perfectly until his owner, a young boy, decides he would rather be into space and astronauts than cowboys and indians.   Voiced by Tom Hanks, Woody is everything to this film.   He’s funny.   He’s sympathetic.   Yes, he even spends a slight amount of screen time as a possible villain.   Much credit has to go to the changes the character goes through for ‘Toy Story 2,’ as well.   In the almost 15 years PIXAR has been serving out feature film magic, the character of Woody has only been superceded in the last year, but we’ll get to that in a bit.

3. Roger Rabbit (‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’)

I wore out my Roger Rabbit NES game after hours of non stop playing, I still to this day cant figure out some of those damn jokes! When the ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ movie came out it revitalized the whole scene for animation in both film and cartoons. Roger Rabbit lives in Toontown and back in 1947 hollywood and cartoons coexist because they arent just drawn animations, they are real.   Roger Rabbit also has a sexy wife named Jessica Rabbit who is caught cheating on him with Marvin Acme. When Marvin Acme is found dead the prime suspect is Roger and he is forced to prove his innocence or face “the dip”.

2. Jack Skellington (‘Nightmare Before Christmas’)

What would become the first of many incredible stop-motion animated characters created from the collaborative mind of Tim Burton and Henry Selick, Jack Skellington is the ultimate dichotomy of good and evil in it’s most natural form. Jack’s not a bad guy, it’s just his nature to have a twisted mind having come from Halloweenland. So naturally, when he stumbles upon Christmasland he finds himself both mesmerized and driven to make this new discovery his own. Jack is both playful and likable and at the same time frightening and potentially cruel. His slim, tall and knobby design with his massive skull head is iconic and will continue to penetrate our visions of the two opposing holidays for decades to come.

1. Wall-E (‘Wall-E’)

Although Wall-E is the newest character on this list he is also the greatest animated character(in our opinions, which are the ones that matter right?). This movie cleaned up at every award ceremony for 2008 movies and will go down as one of the greatest animated movies of all time. Pixar creates these characters that know exactly how to pull on your heartstrings and Wall-E is the best example of this. Just watching the trailer made this girl cry!

Now doesnt that in of itself make Wall-E the greatest animated movie character of all time? I think so.

‘Hysterical Psycho’ was one of my favorite films at Tribeca. We have mentioned it many times on this site and Scott also shares my love for the film. At Tribeca, in addition to getting a chance to attend the World Premiere of this awesome flick, I also got the chance to sit down with some of the actors from the film. The following 20-minute ride into madness is a taste of what it was like hanging out with these guys. Enjoy!

We will do our best to keep you updated on ‘Hysterical Psycho’ and we would like to wish Dan Fogler the best of luck in landing a distributor so that more movie geeks can see this film.

Jerry Cavallaro – www.AreYouStuckLikeChuck.com

Five Reasons Why is a column devoted to explaining why we at We Are Movie Geeks think you should go see a particular film of our choosing.   This week’s film is ‘The Brothers Bloom,’ an upbeat, con-artist comedy by writer/director Rian Johnson that delivers on all fronts.   Check out the reasons why you should seek out this film.

05. Rian Johnson also did ‘Brick’

‘Brick’ was super smart and Rian Johnson didn’t dumb it down just to make sure everyone could “get it”. He assumes we are all smart enough to break it down and comprehend it like the devilishly smart beings that we are. ‘Brothers Bloom’ is also very smart, but Johnson adds in a sly humor that comes off beautifully. Mix that with the con of the film and the unpredictability and you will be adding this onto your favorite list right underneath ‘Brick’.

04. Rinko/Bang-Bang:

All the performances in ‘Brothers Bloom’ were spot on, but the one that stands out the most is the one that has the least lines. Rinko Kikuchi plays Bang Bang, a female “friend” and fellow con of Stephen’s character, played by Mark Ruffalo. Bang Bang is virtually mute, but is so by choice. Despite her lack of vocalization in the film, Rinko is able to nail her performance as the recklessly wild and unpredictable, yet laid back and contemplative character Bang Bang. Her performance adds such a wonderful element of depth and quirkiness to the story without becoming silly or pretentious. I certainly had Rinko’s performance in ‘Brothers Bloom’ on my own personal list of the Top 5 Performances by a Supporting Actress for 2008.

03. The film’s got an incredible style

The world Johnson creates in ‘The Brothers Bloom’ is complete with an immaculate sense of style.   The costumes and designs of the sets in this film are amazingly art deco and even delve into the streamline moderne movement of the 1930s.   The costumes are by Beatrix Aruna Pasztor (‘Vanity Fair’), the art direction is from Yugoslavian designer Jasna Dragovic and Paul Kirby (‘Batman Begins’ and ‘The Phantom of the Opera’), and the set direction is from Sophie Newman (‘Alexander’ and ‘Munich’).   Johnson captures all of these styles with an amazing use of camera capturing every, vibrant aspect with absolute focus.

02. Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo

Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo are decent actors.   They have never given what you might consider a less-than-appropriate performance in any film they’ve appeared in.   However, they always seem to fall into the rut of playing themselves.   Brody is always undoubtedly Brody and Ruffalo is almost always best at playing himself.   What Johnson does with these two gifted actors is switch up what you might expect from them.   Brody plays the innocently sweet brother and Ruffalo plays the one who is always looking for the scam.   In doing this, both actors are able to completely shine.   Johnson has to be given credit for what he is able to pull out of Brody and Ruffalo, but there is no denying the fact that these two actors turned it up for ‘The Brothers Bloom.’

01. It’s a con artist movie that, for once, isn’t all about the con

One problem con movies have had in recent years is that the entire film is about the con.   The filmmakers of films like ‘Confidence’ and ‘Matchstick Men’ are always trying to swerve their audience, and much of what else is found in those films suffer for it.   One of the many great things Rian Johnson does with ‘The Brothers Bloom’ is he never allows any aspect of the film feel short-changed or frivolous.   The relationship between the two brothers is just as important as the relationship between Brody and Weisz is just as important as the relationship between Ruffalo and Kikuchi.   There are so many layers to ‘The Brothers Bloom,’ the con artist element of it could have been excised, and you would still be left with a decently crafted comedy.

So there you have it, if you were wondering where you could see the movie this weekend here is a list:

Massachusetts
Boston Common 19
Kendall Square Cinema
Embassy 6

New York
Angelika
Lincoln Square AMC
Empire 25
Kips Bay 15
72nd Street East
BAM Rose Cinemas (Brooklyn)
Kew Gardens Cinemas (Queens)
Malverne Cinema 4 (Nassau County)
Roslyn Theater (Nassau County)
East Hampton 6 (Suffolk County)
Cinema 100 Quad (Westchester)

New Jersey
Clairidge 6 (Essex County)
Montgomery Cinemas (Somerset County)
Showcase at the Ritz Center 16 (South Jersey)

Connecticut
Plaza 3
Garden Cinema
Bethel Cinema

Philadelphia
Ritz East Twin

Washington D.C.
E-Street Cinema (Q&A Sunday Night!)
Georgetown 14
Bethesda Row Cinema

Illinois
River East 21
Century Centre Cinema 7 (Q&A Saturday Night!)
Evanston 18 / CineArts 6

Minnesota
Uptown Theatre (Minneapolis)

Georgia
Tara Cinemas 4 (Atlanta)

Texas
Magnolia Cinema (Dallas) (Q&A Monday Night!)
Arbor Cinemas @ Great Hills (Austin)

Colorado
Chez Artiste 3 (Denver)

California
Arclight Hollywood
Landmark
Arclight Sherman Oaks
Monica 4
Laemmle’s Fallbrook 7 (West Hills)
Playhouse 7 (Pasadena)
Movies 6 (Long Beach)
Westpark 8 (Irvine)
Westlake Village Twin (Westlake)
Cinemas Palm D’or 10 (Palm Springs)
Paseo Nuevo 4 (Santa Barbara)
AMC La Jolla 12 (La Jolla)
Hillcrest Cinema 5 (San Diego)
Century Centre 9 (San Francisco) (Q&A Friday Night!)
Kabuki 8 (San Francisco)

Arizona
Harkins Camelview Plaza 5 (Phoenix)

Oregon
Fox Tower 10 (Portland)

Washington
Meridian 16 (Seattle)
Lincoln Square Cinemas 16 (Seattle)

Toronto
The Varsity

Since ‘Terminator: Salvation’ is coming out Friday we decided to do a Top Ten Evil Machines list. We scoured everyone’s opinions and this is what we got. Even though there are a lot more evil machines out there, these are the ones we thought were the worst and definitely most evil bastards to ever grace the silver screen.

Enjoy the list and we look forward to the ones you think you need to dispute on the list or off.

10. Megatron

Megatron is the evil leader of the Decepticons who is responsible for destroying the Autobots home world Cybertron. Megatron was trying to obtain All Spark(Cube that controls the “life” of all Transformers) which he found on earth. Megatron’s only mission is to obtain the All Spark and destroy all the Autobots and rule the world. He is ruthless and doesn’t care who or what he destroys on his mission.

Megatron is so evil that customs often times seized these toys when they come through the mail, airports, and any other way they can be transported because the “gun form” of the first series Megatron toy looks exactly like a real gun. You can see it here, which also makes Megatron an evil asshole!

09. Gort

Although the special effects weren’t amazing, the original ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ will still give you chills. Gort was the evil bastard machine who accompanies Klaatu on his mission to warn the inhabitants of Earth of their impending doom because of their atomic weapon development. Gort uses a laser that shoots from underneath his visor to “vaporize” anything he feels as a threat. Although he is there on a peace keep mission he is still an evil force to be reckoned with.

08. The Borg

Who doesn’t remember the tagline “Resistance is futile”?   With that, the Borg dominated the Star Trek universe for years, becoming one of the most popular villains in the television/film franchise.   With extreme strength and an intense ability to adapt to any situation, the Borg can assimilate a whole Starfleet crew before Data can calculate the likelihood of survival.   I’ll give you a hint.   It’s not very good.   The notion of the Borg Queen in ‘Star Trek: First Contact’ kind of ruined the whole idea of the “collective,” but that didn’t make them any less scary.

07. The Gunslinger

I remember seeing ‘Westworld’ when I was still fairly young and Yul Brynner’s portrayal of The Gunslinger scared the bejesus out of me. The Gunslinger was a robot in a hi-tech wild west attraction that short-circuits and begins hunting down and killing everyone trapped within the attraction. It’s an emotionless, cold and relentless pursuer that stalks it’s victims with the familiar tension of Michael from ‘Halloween’… slow and patient. The character becomes even more frightening when The Gunslinger’s face is detached, revealing his true robotic self underneath as he continues to pursue innocent people with deadly robotic accuracy.

06. T-800

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character is classified(in most cases) as a T-800 or Terminator in the ‘Terminator’ movies. The T-800 is a programmable cyborg designed by SkyNet who has the ultimate goal of eliminating the human race. They have flesh and blood and walk, talk and by most standards are exactly like humans. When they are wounded or shot their endoskeleton becomes visible. The T-800 is almost indestructible, unless of course you eliminate it in a hydraulic press.

The original goal was to go back into time in order to eliminate Sarah Connor, the mother of John Connor who eventually comes to be the leader of the Human Resistance.

05. Darth Vader

“He’s more machine now than man.” – Obi-Wan Kenobi, ‘Star Wars’

The only reason Darth Vader isn’t at the tippy top of this list of evil machines is because of his redemption in the face of his snotty, teen-aged son.   That, and the fact that Hayden Christensen didn’t do the character any damn favors.   Despite all that, Vader still remains one of the most iconic and evil machine-based characters in cinema history.   With the power of the Force at his beckoning, Vader is able to choke out Grand Moffs from across the room and fly a TIE fighter with the best of them.   We’ll just forget he trained at flying those TIE fighters by racing in pod races as a slave boy.   We’ll try to forget.   It’s hard, you know.

04. Roy Batty

He’s slick, he’s suave, he’s slightly crazy and has nothing to lose. Oh yeah, he’s also ticked off at the human race for creating him as a slave and has vowed himself an enemy of mankind to the final day of his artificial life. Roy Batty looks just like us, except he’s stronger and faster and just as smart. Stay on his good side, or risk ending up on the underside of his boot.

03. T-1000

With a mimetic poly-alloy body, the ability to mimic anyone’s appearance and voice, and the capability of turning its limbs into knives and stabbing weapons, the T-1000 is the sleekest and coolest assassin in the sci-fi universe.   SkyNet really outdid itself when it came up with this one, as the T-1000 is seemingly unstoppable.   Of course, leave it up to an overprotective T-800, an annoyingly, 14-year-old Edward Furlong, and a vat of molten steel to screw up SkyNet’s plans.   Regardless of its destruction, the T-1000 is still the coolest character in the ‘Terminator’ franchise, and it remains one of the most evil characters in all of science fiction.

02. Hal 9000

HAL 9000 was the original, voice-driven, evil computer on a manned space mission, and he has lived up to that role in the decades since ’2001: A Space Odyssey’ came out.   Voiced by Douglas Rain, who did very little else in his career, HAL had a soothing voice that was basically rubbing your back to find the soft spot to stick the knife.   At one point, HAL sets an astronaut adrift.   While a fellow astronaut goes out to rescue him, HAL locks the both of them outside.   What a prick!   Since its initial release in April ’68, there have been similarly evil, artificial intelligence-driven computers who have turned on their human counterparts.   HAL 9000 was the first and the best of these.

01. The Sentinels

Easily the most formidable, ruthless and darn near indestructible evil machines ever portrayed on film. It takes massive rounds from some pretty heavy freaking artillery just to slow down these massive flying squid-like baddies with the spider-eyes and deadly tentacles. They’re fast, agile, smart, adaptive and on top of everything else, they travel/hunt in packs. The Sentinals are the ultimate killing machines!

Well sorry for the delay but we unexpectadly went down on Wednesday because apparently we got more than 500,000 hits in one day. Even though we have a massive amount of transfer that we hadnt used they(Servage, our OLD hosting company) still decided to suspend the database that runs WeAreMovieGeeks.com. After 2 days of work and debating back and forth with them we are now back up and running. Things might be a little quirky for the next couple of days but rest assured we will be back to normal by monday.

Also if you are considering starting a site, movie blog, or anything similar to that please choose someone other than Servage because..they suck and they kept everyone from getting their WAMG fill for the last 2 days. Word of advice, skip them at all costs boys and girls.

They are the first things we see.   They are the launching point for your film.   They are the opening scenes.   Many opening scenes drive home right from the start what the film is all about and the attitude the filmmakers are projecting towards their audience.   Some don’t work, but there are several opening scenes that stick out in cinefile’s minds all over.

It’s hard to put together a list of the 10 best opening scenes, but we’ve done our very best.   Below, you’ll find what we Movie Geeks believe to be the best of the best in opening minutes of a film.

A quick note:   We don’t want to hear anyone bitching about how ‘Saving Private Ryan’ is not on this list.   Yes, the Normandy landing is an incredible scenes, one of the greatest battle sequences ever.   However, think back to ‘Saving Private Ryan.’   Think back to the very beginning of the film.   The Normandy invasion is not the opening scene.   Rather, the bookend scene at the cemetery is the very first scene we see after the opening title.   So, there.   Put that in your movie geek pipe and smoke it.

Now, onto the list:

10. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring

9. Citizen Kane

8. Pulp Fiction

7. A Clockwork Orange
THE NARRATION NEAR THE END OF THIS CLIP IS IN ITALIAN. APOLOGIES FROM THE EDITOR.

6. Star Wars: A New Hope

5. Magnolia

4. Once Upon a Time in the West

3. Fight Club


Watch Fight Club : opening title sequence in Entertainment |  Ã‚  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

2. Apocalypse Now

1. Touch of Evil

Welcome to “Five Reasons Why” our new column where we explain the top five reasons to see, not see, rent or dont rent a certain movie. This week we of course have to give it up to ‘Star Trek’ which could be the best movie of the year, and possibly one of the best of the decade. Check out

05. Its on the IMAX

You know that deep down inside you want to hear the thundering boom as the new U.S.S. Enterpirse comes roaring by for the first time and seeing it on the massive IMAX screen will make you sick to your stomach..with excitement.

04. Karl Urban, Simon Pegg and John Cho

Not only do Chekov, McCoy, Sulu, and all the rest of the crew get their own moments in the spotlight, they are all played by top notch actors give first-rate performances.   Karl Urban has DeForest Kelley’s mannerisms down perfectly.   He really embodies the role of Leonard “Bones” McCoy.   Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin, Zoe Saldana, and John Cho are also great as Scottie, Chekov, Uhura, and Sulu, respectively.   Everyone in the film gives an incredible performance.

03. It has a great screenplay that can be enjoyed by Trekkies and non-Trekkies

*SPOILER ALERT* One of the great things about ‘Star Trek’ is that it can be enjoyed by Trekkies and non-Trekkies alike.   Not only will Trekkies love it, they can’t really complain about any continuity issues the film has with being a prequel to original series.   From frame one of the film, as we learn later in the film, the story that unfolds creates an alternate time line where anything, yes ANYTHING, can happen.   Spock could die.   The Enterprise could explode.   Kahn could become president of Starfleet.   It could all happen, and, because of the CYA screenplay written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, die-hard fans of the original series can’t say a word.

02. Zachary Quinto is Spock

From the moment I first learned about Zachary Quinto being cast as a young Spock, I was sold on this new ‘Star Trek’. As someone who has now become completely turned off of the ‘Heroes’ TV series, I can attest as my opinion that Quinto was the sole consistent source of quality substance throughout the first three seasons. But, that’s somewhat irrelevant. Quinto not only has the perfect look to pull off a younger Spock, but more importantly he truly nails the facial, gestural and vocal nuances of the character and in short, damn near literally becomes Leonard Nimoy as Spock in his youth. ‘Star Trek’ is amazing, but if nothing else gets you to the film while in theaters, it should be this. I’m seriously considering a supporting actor nod for Quinto, if I had my way.

01. The movie will be the biggest summer blockbuster of 2009

Look I know its early in the blockbuster movies season, however this movie is set to hopefully do $100 million in its opening weekend and it damn well deserves it! Having never seen a ‘Star Trek’ movie, or any of the ‘Star Trek’ TV Show Episodes I can tell you that I will definitely be revisiting the older stuff. Its also a very good sign that almost every screening last night at the IMAX was sold out. I haven’t walked out of a movie wanting to see it again as quickly as I wanted to with ‘Star Trek’. I applaud you Mr JJ Abrams on creating an epic masterpiece that everyone is gooing over.

Let me explain my unique situation to this case. Having lived in West Memphis for a year prior to the murders, the 3 boys that were murdered Michael, Chris and Steve were all close friends of myself and my brother Aaron. We all attended the same cub scout meetings and Michael’s father Todd was our scout leader. To say we were close with the boys would be an understatement.

Being the young, impressionable age of 12 I just believed whatever I was told by the local news and police department to be true. In 2000, at age 17, I re-watched the first documentary, which was immediately followed by the premiere airing of ‘Paradise Lost: Revelations’ on HBO I was blown away when I came to the realization that they were not guilty and had been wrongfully imprisoned all these years.

Then came the guilty, gut wrenching thoughts of my mom having a hand in their convictions. Having to admit being wrong does not come easily for the men of my family, but I was determined to right the wrongs of my family. I quickly jumped to the Internet forums, and WM3.org to pledge my support for them which was a tough decision as most of the people that are directly linked to it still believed that they were guilty.

So here we are, 9 years since then and these guys are still fighting for their innocence in a battle that is getting more and more difficult as time goes on. Couple that with the fact that Judge Burnett, the original judge on the case has moved up in the ranks and still resides over any appeals case that comes from these guys. If you think its difficult for me to admit being wrong, how hard would it be to admit you handed down a death sentence and 2 other life without parole convictions to innocent men.

To make matters worse, John Mark Byers is promoting the book of his life story and jumped shipped to become a “supporter” of the WM3. I normally would welcome any supporters because every little bit helps but the simple fact of the whole thing is its very obvious this is a marketing ploy to help his book sales. The book titled ‘Untying The Knot::John Mark Byers and the West Memphis Homicides’ keeps getting a delayed release and at this point it seems it wont be coming out anytime soon, or at least not until ‘Paradise Lost 3′ comes out. The man who spent every waking moment of the last 15 years cursing the WM3 is now a supporter right around the same time a book on his life..do the math.

Let me also tell you that the front John Mark Byers puts up for the camera and everyone around him is ridiculous   and should be outed. We lived about 4 houses down from Mark and Melissa before the murders happened and frequented the Moore house across the street from them after the murders happened. I have been inside of their house, hung out with Ryan(Chris’ older brother), and saw the relationship he had with Chris.   I have no idea where he mustered the tears up and something that resembled grieving for the documentaries but I can tell you that as a parent of 2 children I could never treat or do the things that he did to Christopher.

I witnessed first hand the abuse and neglect that Mark gave to Chris, so for him to cry on camera about how much he loved his stepson is appalling. Lucky for Mark there were no camera’s around to capture how he treated Chris before the murders happened, unfortunately for him I am here to give you all the truth of the matter.

Its an American travesty that these guys are locked up, and have been locked up for the last 16 years based on no evidence, and a proven coerced confession. When will these men see real justice brought to their case is the real question, I just wish I had the answer.

***UPDATE***

I have since gotten a response from Greg Day who wrote the John Mark Byers book about a possible interview with Mr Byers. Here is what he initially had to say about the interview:

“Scott,

I talked to Mark today and he said he has no interest in talking to you, and that in any event he doesn’t do phone interviews.

If I can be of any further assistance to you, please let me know.

Regards,

Greg Day”

“To be blunt about it, Mark is simply not interested in having anything to do with the Hutcheson clan, and I doubt that anything would change his mind. Your mother’s recent revelations aside, without her perjured testimony and manipulation of your brother, there may very well have been no WM3 to talk about today.

I’m sorry I can’t be of any further assitance to you.”

Wow, to blame 2 separate cases on the testimony of 1 person that only testified in the first case and had nothing to do with the other is absolutely amazing. I guess when you spend a significant amount of time buying into someone that you wrote their life story about it is very easy to be misinformed.

One of my favorite dudes in “Hollywood” has to be Henry Rollins and he is a big supporter of the West Memphis 3. I asked him to do a short write up on his thoughts and experiences with them and he was kind enough to oblige. What you see below is what he wrote up and emailed to me. Enjoy..

I found out about the WM3 case the way a lot of people did, through the HBO documentaries. Like many people, I found them to be upsetting and intriguing. I wanted to know more and I wanted to get involved as there seemed to be something very, very wrong with the case and the way the whole process went.

I contacted their support group and asked if they needed any help and that led to a benefit show, interviews and other activities. Eventually, I, along with my staff, band, crew and countless good people who gave their time and talent freely put together the Rise Above benefit album and subsequent world tour with all the proceeds going to the case.

As this thing grinds on, year after year, I hope for justice. I believe we are getting closer to knowing more and getting Jessie, Damien and Jason out of prison and getting whoever is guilty of this awfulness locked away. One thing is for sure, we cannot give up and we won’t give up until these guys are free. That’s all there is to it.

You know the feeling you got when you first watched ‘The Green Mile’, realizing that John Coffey really hadn’t committed the violent crimes he was imprisoned and eventually executed for? Imagine for a second of the very real existence that the above three men have to go through everyday of their lives. Waking up each day confined to a cell knowing that as it stands right now you will never get out of prison, and for one of them execution is one denied appeal away.

Since June 3rd 1993 all three of them have been locked up for a vicious crime they did not commit. Some of you may be familiar with them and if you aren’t it is my hope that during the next week on our site we can familiarize yourself with the case, the huge community of people that are reaching out to make a difference and what you can do to help as well.

When they were arrested they were 18, 16, and 17 (in order of the photo above), Jason and Jesse (Middle and far right) were each given life sentences and Damien (pictured far left) was given a death sentence. All of these guys were handed these sentences with no more evidence than a coerced confession from Jesse (who was tried separately), and essentially being looked down upon for being “different”. By “different,” I mean wearing black clothing and listening to heavy metal music. That is enough to get you convicted of murder in West Memphis.

There have been 2 documentaries (‘Paradise Lost’ 1 & 2), and one very notable book written about the subject (The Devils Knot). From this countless celebrities have given their time, and services to the cause. Here are just a few:

Henry Rollins, Winona Ryder, Jack Black, Trey Parker, Eddie Vedder, Robert Smith, Natalie Maines, Michale Graves and a huge list of other famous supporters

The sad thing is that although everyone is reaching out for support these gentlemen are still locked up today, 16 years later. Some of you that are familiar with the book and documentaries may have heard about my Mom (Victoria Hutcheson) and brother (Aaron Hutcheson) who both played a part in the saga of the WM3.

This week, in an effort to raise awareness, we are going to have all of our columns be something related to the WM3. We will also have write-up’s from a few celebrity supporters and some of my close friends.

For more information on the West Memphis Three please visit http://wm3.org, which is run by the amazing Kathy Bakken, Grove Pashley, Burk Sauls, and Lisa Fancher.

Because you rely so much on our opinion and we rely on you relying on our opinion we put together a list of the 19 movies you need to see this summer. Please not, some of these movies are going to get a limited release but they are worth attempting to see if they play anywhere near you. We put these in order of release date, enjoy!

01. Wolverine – May 1st

‘Wolverine’ comes out today and officially starts off the summer blockbuster season. We gave the movie 2 conflicting reviews but you should still definitely go see this one to wash out the bad taste you still have from ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’. If you dont believe me then see what Rick had to say about the whole thing.

02. Star Trek – May 8th

JJ Abrams seems to be the King Midas lately.   Everything the guy touches turns to gold.   From “Alias,” to “Lost,” to ‘Mission: Impossible 3,’ to ‘Cloverfield,’ the guy has hit it out of the park every time he comes out with something.   ‘Star Trek’ doesn’t look to be any different.   In fact, if that last trailer (you know, the one with the epic music cues reminiscent of ‘Dark Knight’) is any indication, this could be Abrams’ best project to date.   The casting is dead-on, particularly Zachary Quinto, who, not only looks like the long-lost son of Leonard Nimoy, the guy is one helluvan actor, too.   Chris Pine looks to fills Shatner’s shoes perfectly, and I can’t wait to see what Eric Bana shows us as the film’s villain.   ‘Star Trek,’ despite the whole prequel/reboot thing might have people groaning in pain, is going to be one great ride this summer.

03. Terminator Salvation – May 22nd

I’m going to be honest with you.   If you would have told me this time last year that the next ‘Terminator’ film, which was to be directed by McG and will wear a PG-13 rating, would be my most anticipated film of Summer, 2009, I probably would have slapped you upside your head.   Well, here we are.   We’re less than a month away from ‘Terminator Salvation’s release, and it is looking to be my most anticipated film of the Summer.   Christian Bale is on board, and you can’t argue with any project he sets himself to (see my write-up for ‘Public Enemies’ for another example).   That latest trailer makes the film look extremely dark, and it doesn’t hurt that that Nine Inch Nails song was a perfect choice.   This film has the strange yet riveting position of being both a sequel and a prequel in the ‘Terminator’ world, and I can’t wait to see the direction the story takes the series in.

04. Brothers Bloom – May 29th

Rian Johnson returns to write and direct another low-key freaking masterpiece, reinvigorating another genre flick that seems to have fallen by the waste side. In ‘Brick’ he brought back the film noir and “modernized” the story. With ‘Brothers Bloom’ Johnson takes the con man genre and explores the sibling relationship with Adrien brody and Mark Ruffalo, along with Rachel Weisz, deliver and incredibly thoughtful, entertaining and well-written movie that is bound to be under-appreciated due to it’s scheduled limited release.

05. Drag Me To Hell – May 29th

Sam Raimi returns to horror. Need I say more? After a long sabbatical from his genre of origin making the Spider-Man franchise, Raimi returns with a tale about an innocent girl just trying to do her job, but who is cursed by an old witch who feels the girl has humiliated her. The story revolves around a terrible curse that gives it’s victim three days to pass it on to another ppor soul or literally be “dragged to Hell”. The movie looks to bring some of Raimi’s trademark style back into play while still creating a fresh and terrifying experience. Whether the movie does well or not, it is bound to be a load of fun and embraced by Raimi fans.

06. Up – May 29th

As ardent supporters of anything Pixar, ‘UP’ is likely to be great. The trailers look good, but I think we’ll find out they actually hide the true essence of what ‘UP’ is going to give us. I imagine Pixar made no mistakes in picking a quality film after the massive success of ‘WALL-E’. The movie follows Carl, a grumpy retiree, who turns his house into a make-shift hot air balloon to set off on an adventure, but inadvertantly takes a young boy with him. Despite the mixed response to the trailers, ‘UP’ is going to both be funny and somehow deliver a great story.

07. The Hangover – June 5th

This movie is set to be one of the funniest movies of the year, toss in the fact that its rated R(Yes!) and a ridiculously funny cast and I think we have a summer sleeper on our hands. The movie is about a group of guys who take their buddy on a wild ride through Vegas for his bachelor party and lose him at some point during their drunken debauchery. Sounds like what happens everytime I hang out with Rick and Roddy, but thats an entirely different movie.

08. Moon – June 12th

‘Moon’ was the absolute best thing I saw in Austin during SXSW, and I cannot wait to see it again.   This is one of those rare films where I want to see it with people who haven’t seen it just to see their reactions to things that happen.   The less known about ‘Moon’ before you see it the better.   Just know this.   Sam Rockwell gives the best performance of his career, and I will be disappointed if his name isn’t even mentioned come awards season next year.   Kevin Spacey’s voice shows up as a computer that displays emoticons, and that, too, is one of the best performances I’ve seen this year.   Director Duncan Jones shows his love for the sci-fi genre, and, despite the film’s less-than-mega-budget, it is an enthralling film.   This isn’t going to get a huge release this Summer, but do yourself a huge favor.   Seek this film out come June 12.   I put my personal guarantee that you will love it.

09. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – June 24th

Hey, more giant robotic aliens from space causing havoc on Earth. Why wouldn’t you want to see more of this. Spielberg’s calling this potentially Michael bay’s best movie ever. As if that doesn’t convince you, we’re introduced to even more classic Decepticon characters, including Ravage and yes, even Devastato and the Fallen character looks like he’ll be badass. Oh yeah, and Megan Fox is in it again! All I really need to say is, go watch this darn trailer and then see the movie. ‘Nuff said!

10. The Hurt Locker – June 26th

After six years of absence, Kathryn Bigelow makes her return to the big screen.   ‘The Hurt Locker’ is an explosive drama that keeps your interest from start to finish.   The performances in the film are incredible.   Jeremy Renner takes one step closer to becoming a major leading man in Hollywood, but it is the smaller roles, the near-cameos, that makes ‘The Hurt Locker’ all the better.   Guy Pearce, David Morse, and Ralph Fiennes all give incredible performances in the few minutes they show up on screen.   Bigelow takes us into the world of bomb squad Iraq, and she has a perfect way of amping the tension up to 11.   ‘The Hurt Locker’ is a film as intriguing as it is suspenseful, and it should not be missed.

11. Public Enemies – July 1st

Remember what was said about Christian Bale in the write-up for ‘Terminator Salvation’?   You can affix that same sense of perfection to Johnny Depp.   Now that I think about it, you can do the same for Michael Mann.   A lot of people were less than friendly to ‘Miami Vice,’ but I thought that film was all kinds of badass cool.   ‘Public Enemies’ takes all three of these incredible pieces of talent and puts them together to make a film about John Dillinger and the 30′s gangster.   I’m sure Depp is going to be incredible as Dillinger, and the trailers for the film show Mann’s camera work doing all kinds of amazing movement around the film’s actors.   ‘Public Enemies’ is a perfect storm of so many things, and, with any luck, it will be a front-runner for this year’s Academy Awards.

12. Bruno – July 10th

‘Borat’ is so 2006!   Word from Austin and SXSW where footage from ‘Bruno’ showed is that it is twice as funny as Sacha Baron Cohen’s last venture into the film world and three times as offensive.   Color me there.   This movie looks hilarious, and it’s great to see the cat’s not entirely out of the bag when it comes to Cohen “interviewing” people.   The fact that ‘Bruno’ initially got an NC-17 rating whereas ‘Borat’ was R the whole way through makes me wonder what the hell Cohen has up his sleeve to push the envelope this time around.   That’s not even mentioning the June 6, 2008 riot that broke out in Fort Smith, Arkansas.   Between ‘Bruno,’ ‘Funny People,’ and ‘The Hangover,’ 2009′s Summer of comedy is looking about as good as 2008′s, and that’s saying a whole long.

13. Humpday – July 10th

‘Humpday’ is a little indie film that showed at Sundance and won everyone over immediately. After screening the first time for press it built a little buzz that no one could ignore, including Magnolia who eventually picked it up. The movie is about 2 best friends who decide they should enter the Amateur Porn festival in Seatle called Hump Fest. The only thing they need to do is figure out a way to have sex with eachother despite being the straight.

I got to see this movie again at SXSW and it plays just as well the second time around, so if this movie opens up anywhere near you, do yourself and everyone you know a favor and get out to see this film.

14. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince – July 17th

Each of the Harry Potter films keeps getting darker and more entertaining and that’s a good thing. Ralph Fiennes will return as Voldemort (yay!) and things are getting more and more dangerous for Harry. Whether you’ve read the books or not, you oughtta be there for this one. With only two more to go after this one, do you really want to miss out? Helena Bonham Carter will also be returning in this one, which is cool! Her character is completely nuts, I like that!

15. (500) Days of Summer – July 17th

One of my favorite actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars alongside Zooey Deschanel in the feel good indie comedy of the year. I say its indie even though its is being released by Fox Searchlight simply because it plays more like an indie than any other Rom-Com you are going to see. As the tagline to the movie says, “this is not a love story”.

16. Funny People – July 31st

Judd Apatow is back with what seems to be a more deep take on his regular raunchy satire. Adam Sandler plays a comedian who is dying of cancer and with the help of a young up and coming comedian, Seth Rogen, tried to get his life back in order. We also get a good taste of Aziz Ansari, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman, RZA, and Leslie Man..yes please. Oh wait, thats his wife..sorry about that Judd.

17. Inglourious Basterds – August 21st

Quentin Tarantino last gave us ‘Death Proof’ which was met with mixed reviews and a pretty rough outing in theaters. It was a great movie either way you look at it and ‘Inglourious Basterds’ is set to destory everyone in its path. If you give the movie a bad rating he will probably send Eli Roth out to kill you..litterally.

Although its loosely based on the 1978 Enzo G. Castellari’s ‘Inglorious Bastards’, I am certain that Tarantino through his own ridiculous and offensive spin on the entire thing to make me see it multiple times in theaters. Look at how badass David Fincher made Brad Pitt, multiple that by 100 and thats how he will be in this epic WWII shoot

18. H2 – August 28th

Despite what you think about Rob Zombie’s remake of John Carpenter’s horror classic, ‘Halloween,’ ‘H2′ looks to be an intense return for Zombie.   Delving less into the Michael Myers backstory and more into his attempt at finding and killing his sister, Laurie Strode, ‘H2′ looks like it is going to be more horror than child issues.   There have been lots of weirdness coming out of ‘H2′s set.   Among these things are the news that Myers would be sans-mask for a majority of the film and the news that Weird Al Yankovic had signed on for a small part.   We’ll have to see how all of that effects the overall film, but, if that latest trailer is any indication, ‘H2′ looks to be a suspense-filled horror film that will put a smile on the face of all fans of the genre.

19. Black Dynamite – September 4th

Michael Jai White and Scott Sanders have created a movie that is so good it will make you question whether or not it was really made in the 70′s at the height of the blaxploitation era. This movie gives you great martial arts, a love story, sexy porn stars, killing, smack and ust about anything else you could want from a badass “ploitation” film.

Editors Note: Even though a lot of people are fan’s of Rick, we definitely are not. He uses a lot of foul language and can be offensive at times. If you decide to continue reading this, read at your own risk. If you don’t know who Rick is, he is part of the world famous Twin Brother Male Stripping duo known as Rick and Roddy. You can see more on http://rickandroddy.com

That intro was the ultimate in douche-baggery, but whatever it takes for me to spread my seed wisdom all over you guys then I will deal with it.

So ‘Wolverine’ (yes, I am too lazy to type out the entire name) comes out tomorrow and the question everyone keeps asking me is “Whoa dude, are you excited to go out and see this movie since it features the big buff stud, like yourself, Hugh Jackman?” The answer is NO… Hell no… absofuckinlutely no.

I really liked Jackman in the first 2 X-Men movies before Brett Ratner came and put his stink all over “X3″ or as I like to refer to it as “Brett Ratner fucked with me and now I suck as a movie because he sucks at life”. Since then Jackman thought it would be a great idea to star in a movie with the same name as his home country. You don’t see me starring in movies called America, or United States(I did star in a movie once called ‘United States of well hung studs’ but I don’t count that), so why the hell would you be in a movie called ‘Australia’. Ill tell you, its to land poon. You only do movies like that to land way more poon then you were getting before however that still doesn’t justify it in my books because now he is just being stingy. Save some for the guys that don’t   have accents Hugh, you asshole.

Although this movie also stars Liev Schreiber, I think Tyler Mane would have been a better Sabertooth… oh wait, he already was. I am however pretty excited to see Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool. It will be the first time I have seen him since he married my sloppy seconds… tastes good huh? You have my number Scarlett Jo, so you know what to do.

All in all I would say my excitement level ranks up there with ‘High school Musical 3′, and ‘Hannah Montana The Movie’. This will definitely be no ‘Road House 2′, and Hugh Jackman will never be half the man that Jake Busey is.

Editors Note number 2: Sorry you all had to sit through that, hopefully Rick didnt offend too many of you.

Since ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ is coming out on Friday, we thought it would only be right to tell you which superhero spinoff’s should not happen. So we present to you Top Ten Tuesday: Superhero spinoffs that shouldnt happen:

10. Aquaman

As if the fact that the Aquaman project has been in development Hell longer than almost any super hero project out there and that I haven’t once heard a single person say “Dude, I totally can’t wait to see the Aquaman movie” outside of the cast of ‘Entourage’, the character also happens to be one of the oldest. Aquaman was one of the original characters developed by the Marvel(ED Note: Even the movie geeks make mistakes!) DC dudes. Personally, the whole concept is dated and lacks any real contemporary interest. I mean, really, when a 98% nude guy with Spock’s ears and little wings on his ankles emerges from the ocean for the first time on the big screen, are you going to be saying “Oh my God! My life is complete!”

09. Marvel Zombies

First of all, as much as I and every other cool person on this planet loves zombies, making a movie of this would definitely be taking things too far. The Marvel Zombies comib book series was cool, but the truth is that it was a nifty gimmick that Marvel came up with that became so popular that it spawned a whole new parallel universe for the creative folks at Marvel to play around with. Yeah, the series was, and still is, insanely popular, but as a movie would just be ridiculously expensive, pointless and would ultimately fail because anyone not familiar with the Marvel Zombies storyline would see this and either be confused out of the ghords or just plain pissed off (especially the old school fans). That is assuming many non-comic book readers even go at all.

08. Superboy

Quick!   What was the worst part of ‘Superman Returns’?   If you said the fact that Superman had a son/potential spinoff film, you win the golden fleece today.   Director Bryan Singer, evidently, made his passion ‘Superman’ project, and that included a subplot involving the bastard child with superpowers.   I’m sure Warner execs were frothing at the mouth at the idea of spinning this subplot off into another, potential franchise.   Why the hell else would they let a film slip through their fingers that cost upwards of $270 million?   I’m sure makeup artists were even consulted to see what an aged Brandon Routh would possibly look like.   Hey, we don’t need a ‘Superboy’ movie.   We don’t even need another ‘Superman’ movie unless it features any other plotline than Lex Luther trying to one-up the real estate world.

07. Juggernaut

He’s the Juggernaut, bitch.   Why, oh why, is Juggernaut on this list?   Is it possible that a Juggernaut spinoff movie was even even thunked up?   You bet your geeky ass, it was.   Back in November, 2007, Joe Carnahan, Joe Friggin’ Carnahan!, announced his desire to head up a project that would spin off the Vinnie Jones-filled character into his own film.   Of course, this was right around the time Jones had just signed up for a role in the prequel to Carnahan’s ‘Smokin’ Aces.’   Hey, nepotism lives, right?   Luckily, nothing ever came out of this, but we were that much closer to seeing a film about a guy whose one, true power is he can go through walls.   Seriously, what does Juggernaut have that David Copperfield doesn’t?   Nothing.   That’s what!

06. Any Characters from ‘Mystery Men’

Although this movie is considered by some a Cult Classic, I still say that it sucks and was a shame to see so many great actors in this film. If they were ever to do a spinoff of the superheroes from this movie I would be very disappointed.

05. Deadpool

Hey, a Deadpool movie might sound sweet.   Marvel’s answer to Snake Eyes is a pretty badass character.   Unfortunately, from what we can assess from early word off of ‘Wolverine’ and the tv spots that practically give the final act away, this is not the Deadpool we want to have his own movie.   Ryan Reynolds is kickass and hilarious, but, unless this spinoff movie is a prequel of sorts, he’s not gonna be featured in it much, anyway.   Just look at the Deadpool action figure.   That’s not Ryan Reynolds.   It looks like Dhalsim and the creepy girl without a mouth from ‘The Twilight Zone: The Movie’ had a freakishly muscular child, then duct taped knives to its forearms. No thank you, film world.   We’ll pass.

04. Any Character from Fantastic Four

This super team has been around forever in comic books, but their fan base is a select group of readers. I don’t think many younger fans of the genre are that into Fantastic Four, which partially explains why the first two films bombed. The only human beings that could “love” those movies would be kids. In my opinion, this is another title that is showing it’s age. The team as a whole has some appeal, given their mutual origin story, but if a spin-off were ever made of any of the characters individually it would be distastrous. Even The Thing couldn’t have his own successful spin-off, unless maybe he agreed to a Full Monty scene, possibly satisfying the curiosity of certain ‘Mallrats’ fans.

03. The Joker

This is a tough one. The Joker is a fascinating character and there’s no limit to what could be done with him in his own movie, but then again… he’s a villain. And as a villain, his rightful place is in a movie pitted against Batman. Thusly, such has occured twice now and both times with great success. I say, be done with The Joker and let him rest in peace while enjoying everlasting immortal iconic fan reverence. Let’s not bring him back merely to fail and die a humiliating and shameful death, only to be remembered by all but the most die-hard fans as the older, fatter drug-addicted Elvis bent over the kamode. Come one, let’s explore some other villains a little, shall we?

02. Any Characters from Watchmen

‘Watchmen’ hit theaters with less sucess than originally expected and I can just see it now, someone planning a Rorschach movie. Let me tell you that this is a BAD idea, and the only way this film and characters will work as a cohesive unit. To attempt an origin story of just one character without including the rest would be asinine.

01. Storm

Halle Berry was pissed after ‘X-Men’ and ‘X2,’ because Storm wasn’t given much to do.   Come on, Halle.   She changes the friggin’ weather.   Her special power is basically the embodiment of what Sean Connery’s Sir August de Wynter was trying to do in ‘The Avengers.’   We all know how that turned out, don’t we?   All of Berry’s cryings amounted to nothing more than one of the most retarded scenes in ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ where Storm, feeling dejected, causes the sky to grow cloudy.   Someone snaps her out of her funk, she whites out her eyes, and it’s sunny again.   Wow!   What a thrilling moment that was.   You want two full hours of that crap?   That’s about what you’ll get with a ‘Storm’ film.   Fortunatlely, Berry’s abilities to carry a superhero film on her own register about as well as someone breaking wind registering on a Richter Scale.   It’s a good thing, too, because no one wants to see this spinoff.

On Saturday night we ventured out to have Anvil rock our faces off. First we watched ‘Anvil: The Story of Anvil’, followed by a performance from the band!

Myself, AJ, Brooke, Matt and Bryan hung out down in the loop for a few hours before our screening so we could interview the band, plus I had to intro the film. We ended up getting our wires crossed(Lips was hungry and needed to eat) so our interview didnt go down, but as a consolation prize we recorded the Q&A plus their performance after the screening. We did however get to interview Mike the sound guy and he was freaking awesome.

AJ got some epic footage from Saturday night and he put together a 22 minute video of Anvil Awesomeness for you to enjoy below:

This Saturday, the 26th at The Tivoli there is a special screening of ‘Anvil: The Story of Anvil’ followed up by a q&a after the 7 and 9 screenings. I will be moderating both q&a’s so make sure you come out and see me make a fool of myself.

Also, as a special surpise Anvil will perform after the 9pm screening, so your ticket to see this freaking awesome movie will get you the movie, a Q&A moderated by me, and a special performance from the band! If you dont come out to this I dont even know who you are.

Also lets not forget that Myself and AJ Meadows will be in attendance so you can meet us before our movie blows up so big that we have egos and never talk to you again.

Dan Fogler loves WAMG so much that he decided to fly to St Louis and screen the movie for me in private(No, that didnt really happen). So we sat down on my couch, right next to eachother and poped his movie in. I made him some popcorn, and we readied ourselves for one of the best horror comedies that I have seen since..’Evil Dead’!

‘Hysterical Psycho’ follows a theater troupe has they head out to an isolated resort on Moon Lake. Unfortunately for them not everyone is as they seem, and with all of the lunar radiation from a meteor disaster millions of years ago things get out of hand very quickly.

The group is filled with all of your sterotypical characters like the big breasted virgin , the “i still live with my mom because I have mental issues” guy, the “I am cheating on my boyfriend with his brother because our relationship sucks” girl. You know, the characters that every movie has, or at least I wished they had. Its very obvious that everyone in the group are all friends, and some of them may even be a little bit more than that.

When they group gets to the resort it is chained off and is essentially deserted. Their cell phones lose reception, and things start to get hairy when they realize the woman running the resort has decided to kill herself. When they try and get back to the RV to leave it wont start, and they start to realize this trip could be more than they bargained for.

Dan Fogler has made the rounds in a handful of really funny movies, but he puts on his creative hat for his first outing as a writer/director of this hillarious, super fucked up horror comedy. He shot most of the film in black and white but tosses in an animated intro telling the story of how Moon Lake got its name. He also combines some of the sexiest Tarantino-esque music that would make even him jealous.

‘Hysterical Psycho’ is a twisted, hysterical(no pun intended) horror first, comedy second movie that comes at you full speed and never lets up. Dan Fogler has created a seriously awesome, fucked up throwback to the horror comedies we fell in love with from the 80′s and 90′s, and this will eventually achieve “Cult” status. The really great thing is the killing starts almost immediately, and never lets up even through the credits. The only real disappointment is the fact that the, how do I say it politely..very large chested girl goes out really early and lets face it we all want to see more large chested women in horror movies!

These are a couple of my favorite quotes from the movie(that dont include spoilers):

“Its colder than a winters tit in a grass bra doing pushups in the snow”
“Leprechauns dont give you gold, they give you herpes”

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5

If you are in or around NY this week or next week make sure you make it out to one of these screenings so you can see it for yourself:

Premiere – Friday, April 24th at 8:00pm – School of Visual Arts, Theater 2
Public Screening 2 – Saturday, April 25th at 11:59pm – School of Visual Arts, Theater 1
Public Screening 3 – Tuesday, April 28th at 11:00pm – AMC Village 7, Theater 6
Public Screening 4 – Friday, May 1st at 11:59pm – AMC Village 7, Theater 1
Public Screening 5 – Saturday, May 2nd at 11:45pm – AMC Village 7- theater 5

If you dont know already I, your faithful head geek around here, am in the process of making a movie. Its called ‘White Tiger: The Story of Rick and Roddy’, and we just released our first teaser for the film. Here is a brief synopsis:

Rick and Roddy were the top male strippers of the early 90′s but since then have fallen off of their pedestal. Today, 19 years later, they’re coming back for one last big show. Determined to re-claim their fame but putting aside their differences, the twin brother stripper duo are back, except, this time they’re not as fit as they once were…

So of course we are going to blast you with updates now that stuff is finally being released after 26 years of development. Check out the teaser below and give us some feedback! Also, none of this would be possible without AJ Meadows who is a very talented young film maker, check out his other stuff here.