MOVIE REVIEW: 2012 – GREAT BAD B-MOVIE FUN ON AN EPIC SCALE

It starts with an Indian geologist, Dr. Satnam Tsurutami [Jimy Mistry] alerting American geologist Dr. Adrian Helmsley [Chiwetal Ejiofor] of rising temperatures in the world’s deepest copper mine [handily already mined out]. This is tied into abnormally strong sun flares and sufficient neutrinos that they have a mutating effect… Well, you get the idea. Scientific technospeak sets up Helmsley’s warning to Carl Anheuser [Oliver Platt], an influential member of U.S. President Thomas Wilson’s [Danny Glover] team. Before you know it, the heads of the most powerful heads of state in the world have come to an agreement to find a way to ensure human survival after the apocalypse to come.

While the politician’s are [gasp!] working together, we get to know the human faces of the film – struggling [and divorced] author Jackson Curtis [John Cusack] and his cute kids, Noah [Liam James] and Lily [Morgan Lily]; his ex, Kate [Amanda Peet] and her new guy, Gordon Silberman [Tom McCarthy]; blustery Russian billionaire, Yuri Karpov [Zlatko Buric], his twin sons Alec [Alexandre Haussman] and Oleg [Phillipe Haussman] and his girlfriend, Tamara [Beatrice Rosen] – and a host of cameos from George Segal, Blu Mankuma, Gillian Barber and others.

Read more HERE

AN EMBARRASSMENT FOR UNIVERSAL: FABRICATED NEWS STORIES

This is the time of year when movie studios do their part to support America’s economically challenged journalistic institutions — at least publications like the L.A. Times, Variety and the New York Times — by buying big chunks of Oscar ads to promote the season’s leading awards contenders. But Universal Pictures has outdone all its rivals. The studio just paid $20,000 to the Alaska Press Club as part of a settlement with several Alaska newspapers after the studio, in the course of promoting its current release, “The Fourth Kind,” created an elaborate series of online news stories that professed to be from real Alaska news publications.

The film claims to be a true story about an outbreak of alien abduction occurring a decade ago in Nome, Alaska. As Fairbanks’ Daily News-Miner reports:

“To bolster that claim, articles were posted that professed to be from real Alaska publications, but were actually created to bolster the movie’s storyline. The articles included an obituary and news story about the death of a character in the movie, Dr. William Tyler, that supposedly were from the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Neither the story nor the obituary ever appeared in the newspaper. Fake articles were listed from other newspapers in Alaska, including the Nome Nugget, alongside authentic news stories. Part of the settlement requires Universal to remove the fake ‘news articles’ promoting the movie from the Internet.”

Read more HERE

MEET THE CAST OF PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTING THIEF

A boy shielded from knowledge of his birth and extraordinary powers until adolescence, when he’s sent to a special school and discovers a world of fantastical creatures and two best friends (a somewhat clueless guy and a smart girl). A book series that’s sold millions worldwide and, despite its young adult category, has legions of devoted fans of all ages. A big-budget movie adaptation of the first book helmed by Chris Columbus. Sound familiar?

On the surface, Percy Jackson and the Olympians could be seen as Harry Potter 2.0, and that’s a comparison the studio is certainly not shying away from. Heck, a lightening bolt (in the hero’s hand rather than on his forehead) figures prominently in the first poster. And from the cast list, it’s clear that Columbus has taken a page from Harry Potter, selecting an A-List cast for the adult roles and relative unknowns for the students.

Read more HERE

TRAILER FOR SCI-FI THRILLER “ALTITUDE”

Back in April, comic book vet Kaare Andres put together a promo trailer for the sci-fi thriller “Altitude,” which he was hoping would help him find funding.

Apparently it worked, because the film is now in post-production and we have a rough trailer for the film with the real cast, instead of the temporary one Andres used to sell the film.

Read more HERE

What do you think of today’s movie news? Will you see 2012 and are you a fan of the ‘Percy Jackson’ series? What do you think about The Fourth Kind turning out to be false?