Starship Troopers 3: Marauder

The war against the Bugs continues and, after the abyssmal effort that was Starship Troopers 2, we're being treated to a third installment - Starship Troopers 3: Marauder. However, with this one it looks like they've gone back to the same cheesey formula that made Starship Troopers such a hit.

The plot is fairly simple - when a Federation starship containing Earth's beloved Sky Marshal Anoke (Stephen Hogan) crash-lands on a distant planet called simply OM-1, it's up to Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien), the reluctant hero of the original Bug Invasion on Planet P, to lead a squad of Troopers on a daring rescue mission. The team have to battle both old and new bugs and the new “Marauder” advanced weapons technology may be their only hope against a treasonous element operating within the Federation itself. As Captain Lola Beck (Jolene Blalock) and the rest of the crew fight to survive in the harsh conditions, it begins to dawn on them that something on OM-1 is very, very wrong. This time the bugs have a secret weapon that could destroy humanity.

It must be reasonably good as Paul Verhoeven puts his name to it presenter. It's written and directed by Ed Neumeier and special effects are by Academy Award winning Robert Skotak (Terminator 2, Aliens, X2). Nice to see Casper Van Dien back as a much older and highly promoted Johnny Rico and along with a few other recognizable names including Jolene Blalock as the tough but gorgeous Captain Lola Beck, Amanda Donohoe as Admiral Enolo Phid and Catherine Oxenberg as a technician, we might actually get a half decent movie this time. It's due for a straight-to-video (DVD and Blue-ray) UK release at the end of September. See the trailer for it here...

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2397110553/

Upcoming Movies - Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem is the second Alien vs. Predator movie. It kind of snuck up on me and I have to admit I didn't see anything about this until last week. The age-restricted trailer is a bit of a gore-fest so it looks like all the stuff they left out of Alien vs. Predator may have made it into this one. Here's a quick outline of the plot…

When a Predator scout ship crash lands in a small Colorado town the Aliens on board escape and kill all the Predators except one. This last remaining Predator must now destroy all the Aliens as well as the horrific Alien/Predator hybrid that was spawned in the first movie. Meanwhile, the helpless townsfolk are caught in the middle of this blood-fest with obviously gory consequences.

The first AVP movie wasn't that well received, mainly for having been cut to pieces by the studio and director and co-writer Paul W.S. Anderson in order to get it a PG-13 certificate, but this one looks like it'll go straight in at an 18 certificate. It's directed by Colin and Greg Strause. The Strause brothers are more usually involved as visual-effects designer/supervisors, having worked on 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, 300, X-Men: The Last Stand, Poseidon, Æon Flux, Syriana, The Fog and Flightplan among others, but they're fairly new as directors and this is really their first shot at directing a larger budget movie. That said, there are no no big-budget names appearing and most of the cast look to have come from US TV series roles.

It's due for a UK release on the 18th of January 2008.

Upcoming Movies - Enchanted, The Last Legion, WALL•E, 10,000 B.C.

Found a few more upcoming movies that I'll probably be interested in seeing when they hit our shores…

Enchanted

In Enchanted a classic Disney animated fairy tale meets with modern, live-action comedy. It follows the beautiful princess Giselle (Amy Adams) as she is banished by an evil queen (Susan Sarandon) from her magical, musical animated land and finds herself in the gritty reality of the streets of modern-day Manhattan. Shocked by this strange new environment that doesn't operate on a "happily ever after" basis, Giselle is now adrift in a chaotic world badly in need of enchantment. But when she begins to fall in love with a charmingly flawed divorce lawyer (Patrick Dempsey) who has come to her aid, even though she is already promised to a fairy tale prince (James Marsden) back home, she has to wonder: can a storybook view of romance survive in the real world?

It seems to be a reworking of the Snow White tale with the names changed to protect the innocent. It's got a princess, a wicked witch, a prince, a dwarf, a dragon and what could be a magic mirror but, having watched the trailer, it does seem quite funny and could work out pretty well.

Official site: http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/enchanted/
Trailers: http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/enchanted/


The Last Legion

The Last Legion is a fantasy action-adventure in the same vein of “The Sword and the Stone” but set against the fall of Rome and its last emperor. 12 year-old Romulus Augustus was the boy who would rule for a day before losing all that he loved: his family, his home, and an empire that once stood for truth and honour. While imprisoned on the island-fortress of Capri and seeking a means of escape, Romulus discovers instead “excaliburnus,” the legendary sword of Julius Caesar, and realizes that he must do all in his power to save Rome.

Aided by the clever strategies of his teacher, Ambrosinus (Ben Kingsley), and the heroic skills of his loyal legionnaire Aurelius (Colin Firth), Romulus escapes the island. Accompanied by his friends and a mysterious envoy from Constantinople, Romulus travels to Britannia in search of the last Roman Legion - the fabled Dragon Legion. There, Romulus will fight alongside his friends to make his last stand for Rome and take his first steps to becoming a man and the king who would father a legend.

It's being touted as the untold beginning of the King Arthur legend and it sounds like a lot of tosh but it could be entertaining. Not sure about a UK release but it's opening just about everwhere else in September and October so it shouldn't be too far away.

Official Site: http://www.lastlegion-movie.com/
Trailers: http://www.apple.com/trailers/weinstein/thelastlegion/


WALL•E

This is Disney and Pixar's latest project, due for release next Summer, in the middle of july for us in the U.K. It's written and directed by Andrew Stanton who also directed Finding Nemo and A Bug's Life as well as having a hand in the screenplays for Monsters, Inc, Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Finding Nemo and A Bug's Life.

Being still early in production, there's not a lot more information available other a fairly thin plot description…

The year is 2700. WALL•E, a robot, spends every day doing what he was made for. But soon, he will discover what he was meant for.

Pixar have always come up with the goods as far as top-class animations go so I have good expectations for this one as well.

Official Site: http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/wall-e/
Trailers: http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/wall-e/popup/index.html


10,000 B.C.

From director Roland Emmerich comes a pre-historic tale due for a UK release in March, 2008.

It was a time when man and beast were untamed and the mighty mammoth roamed the earth. A time when ideas and beliefs were born that forever shaped mankind. 10,000 B.C. follows a young hunter (Steven Strait) on his quest to lead an army across a vast desert, battling saber-tooth tigers and prehistoric predators as he unearths a lost civilization and attempts to rescue the woman he loves (Camilla Belle) from an evil warlord determined to possess her.

Sounds a bit like Quest For Fire as far as the time/era is concerned so here's hoping it turns out as good as that one did.

Official site: http://10000bcmovie.com/
Trailers: http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/10000bc/

Upcoming Movies - National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Dynamite Warrior and Lust, Caution

More news of a few upcoming movies that, given my tastes for action, martial-arts and fantasy, I'd probably like to go and see…

National Treasure: Book of Secrets

Due for release in the UK in January 2008 is the sequel to 2004's National Treasure starring Nicolas Cage, Diane Kruger and Sean Bean. Cage and Kruger are back along with Jon Voight, Helen Mirren, Harvey Keitel and Ed Harris.

When a missing page from the diary of John Wilkes Booth surfaces, Ben Gates' (Cage) great-great grandfather is suddenly implicated as a key conspirator in Abraham Lincoln’s death. Determined to prove his ancestor’s innocence, Ben follows an international chain of clues that takes him on a chase from Paris to London and ultimately back to America. This journey leads Ben and his crew not only to surprising revelations - but to the trail of the world’s most treasured secrets.

As Disney's attempt to copy The Da Vinci Code, the original National Treasure was quite watchable in a formulaic, mindless kind of way so maybe Book of Secrets will fill an hour and a half as well and prove that Disney have some original ideas of their own but after A Bug's Life coming out not long after Antz and The Wild following Madagascar, that'll take some convincing.

Dynamite Warrior

Billed as an action comedy, this is a supernatural, action packed movie with high-grade special effects and the kind of raw action scenes the world is coming to expect from the creators of the excellent Ong Bak.

Set in rural Thailand during the 1920s Dan Chupong (Born To Fight) plays Jone Bang Fai, a young man riddled with grief and bent on revenge after witnessing his parents’ murder. The only information Jone has as to the killer’s identity is the memory of a tattoo-covered man who is part of an organized group of cattle rustlers. Jone makes it his mission to stop all cattle rustlers and in the process return each head of cattle back to its rightful owner. After searching the country high and low, Jone finally believes he has found the murderer in a small rural village in the North of Thailand. To Jone’s dismay he learns that the killer is in fact a warlock of immense power, a nearly invincible mystical man who is trying to control the whole village. His one weakness? He can be harmed only by weapons that have been treated with the menstrual blood of a young virgin. Armed with this knowledge and a few hundred highly charged rockets (and a dash of menstrual blood), our intrepid hero goes up against one of the most dangerous men to have ever walked the Earth.

Lust, Caution

Lust, Caution is director Ang Lee’s latest film, following his Academy Award win for directing Brokeback Mountain. It's an espionage thriller set in WWII-era Shanghai and I'm more likely to go and see that than a gay cowboy movie. Asian cinema icons Tony Leung (Hero, Infernal Affairs) and Joan Chen (Judge Dredd, On Deadly Ground, Twin Peaks) star as Mr. Yee, a powerful political figure in 1940s Shanghai, and his wife.

Tang Wei, a rising star in mainland China, makes her feature film debut as Wang Jiazhi, a young woman who gets swept up in a dangerous game of emotional intrigue with Mr. Yee.

Due for release in the UK in January 2008.

Upcoming Movies - Beowulf, Tales from Earthsea and ???

Spotted a few interesting looking upcoming movies over the last week so I might make this a regular feature here…

Beowulf

Beowulf is the retelling of the Scandinavian epic poem about a hero, a monster and the monster's mother. It's one of those tales we get taught at school and is pretty much regarded as a classic.

I'm not sure about Ray Winstone doing the voice of Beowulf but the trailer looks promising and Angelina Jolie is seriously well animated as Grendel's mother. It's directed by Robert Zemekis and written/adapted by well-known fantasy author Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary, who was involved with Killing Zoe, Crying Freeman and Silent Hill.

The cast line-up is also quite good as, along with Winstone and Jolie, there's Anthony Hopkins as King Hrothgar, Crispin Glover as Grendel, Brendan Gleeson and John Malkovich.

It's due for a UK release on 3oth November.

Tales From Earthsea

This is doing the rounds now in smaller cinemas and I'm hoping it'll get up here to Glasgow. Adapted from the series of books of Ursula K. Le Guin and animated by Studio Ghibli, who also gave us Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle. It also marks the directorial debut of Goro Miyazaki, son of the legendary Hayao Miyazaki.

This enchanting story takes place in a fantasy world of dragons and wizards and follwos the wizard Sparrowhawk on his quest to find the source of the evil forces that are shaking the world.

The official site is in Japanese but it's beautifully done and gives a nice sample of the quality of the artwork and sound you can expect in the movie. There are also a few trailers available.

???

There's a teaser trailer doing the rounds for an upcoming monster movie. It has no title as yet, simply being listed as an Untitled J.J. Abram's Project, but it would appear to be something along the lines of Godzilla kicks New York's ass and it's being touted for a January 2008 release.

Shot in a sort of documentary style, The trailer is definitely worth catching for the pretty excellent looking and sounding special effects. Watch it in HD and put on the headphones.