Movies

Legendary Pictures options rights to Mass Effect

Popular futuristic sci-fi video game franchise Mass Effect is now in motion to have a more massive effect — on the big screen. Legendary Pictures along with co-producers Avi and Ari Arad (who’ve helped bring many a Marvel hero to the movies) have picked up the rights and will bring Mass Effect to life with help Legendary’s Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni. I Am Legend adapter and Thor co-writer Mark Protosevich is being sought after to write the screenplay.

Ticket prices on the rise: Some NY theaters charge $20 for “Shrek”

Despite disappointing at the box office by comparison to its predecessors, Shrek Forever After did manage to set records this weekend: 3-D IMAX tickets for the film in some parts

The Road Review

The challenges awaiting Joe Penhall and John Hillcoat in adapting and directing (respectively) Cormac McCarthy’s The Road were numerous. This post-apocalyptic father-and-son story about whether struggling to survive as long as possible is worth the pain is a bleak tale and one that grinds along much of the time. It doesn’t have more than a handful of eventful or visually stimulating scenes. They manage, however, to not only be faithful to McCarthy’s elegy, but also add great details to make The Road,now on DVD and Blu-ray, into a solid film.

MacGruber Review

Fully criticizing a movie that revels in its own inherent idiocy is a somewhat insincere path to take. The promotional material for this Saturday Night Live sketch adaptation never attempts to deceive the potential audience with its intentions; you will get exactly what you expect.  The conundrum with getting what you expect is you rarely get more than what you expect.

Shrek’s roar fades, MacGruber MacFlops

In an admirable but ultimately disappointing finish, the supposed final film in the “Shrek” franchise, debuted at number one with $70.8 million, representing a 40 percent lower opening than Shrek the Third which bowed to $121.6 million in 2007. With a per-theater average of $16,251, Mike Myers and gang will need solid legs to best another leggy DreamWorks production, How to Train Your Dragon.

The debut of Shrek Forever After was expected to be lower than its two immediate predecessors due to franchise fatigue and the less than warm reception of Shrek the Third, but with increased ticket prices and 3D to boost the gross, this may actually be the final chapter after all.

Shrek Forever After Review

After three films of diminishing quality, more than anything, Shrek Forever After begs the obvious question: why?  Unfortunately the answer is also all too obvious with the franchise having grossed one billion dollars domestically and oodles more overseas.  For what it’s worth, this installment is better than the last but fails to hold a candle to Shrek 2 and pales to the point of apparition when compared to the original.

“Planet of the Apes” prequel to star James Franco

According to The Hollywood Reporter’s Heat Vision Blog, James Franco of Spider-Man fame is set to take on the leading role in Fox’s Planet of the Apes prequel Rise of the Apes. The script was written by Rick Jaffa (The Relic) and Amanda Silver (The Hand that Rocks the Cradle); the two will also produce. Under a new agreement with Fox, Dylan Clark and Peter Chernin will take on producer duties on behalf of Chernin Entertainment. Rupert Wyatt (The Escapist) is set to direct the film. Filming will take place in British Columbia this summer.