CELLULOID BURNING

This article from the Minneapolis Star Tribune gazes into the abysmal lack of profit made by Edgar Wright’s excellent little film along with another cult film from earlier this year, Kick-Ass. It’s an interesting and quick read if you’ve got the time.

The ridiculously awesomeScott Pilgrim vs the World is not doing so well at the box office. I hope that it turns out to be a slow and steady burner at theaters, but it may not be too likely. If you haven’t seen it yet and enjoy watching fun, well-acted, and well-written movies, see it now, see it twice, see it thrice.

Rumors are circulating that Kick-Ass helmer Matthew Vaughn is close to directing the latest X-men movie, X-men: First Class. For those of you that enjoyed Kick-Ass as much as we did are certain to rejoice at the prospect of Matthew Vaughn taking the reigns to this comic book movie. Vaughn was at one point set to direct X-man Last Stand but walked away do the the lack of creative say and tight deadline that he was forced to meet leaving the door open to Brett Ratner stepping in and destroying the franchise making the film his own.

Is it just me or has comic book movie news been pretty good lately?

MTV sat down with Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau who had nothing but great things to say about the prospect of Joss Whedon directing the Avenger’s movie. No confirmations have been made by either the Marvel camp or the Joss Whedon camp so all we can do is keep crossing our fingers.

Kick-Ass is Spider-Man (2002) meets Ichi the Killer (2001), but minus the disturbing psycho-sexual violence and set in high school.

There are those exceedingly rare times in life when something actually lives up to the hype. This is one of these times, and I am now the kind of overjoyed that Stevie Wonder would compose a song about. I have been eagerly awaiting this film since the first hand-held camera footage leaked from a preview from San Diego Comicon last summer. I felt then and absolutely know now that we have something very, very special on our hands.
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There have been a lot of rumors circulating (and I actually forgot to mention it in my review), but director Marc Webb of (500) Days of Summer fame has been selected as the man to reboot the Spider-Man franchise.

Now some of you may be asking who the is Marc Webb and why did he get choose to direct Spider-Man? To those people, think back a decade ago because that what people were asking about Sam Raimi, whose sole superhero credit was Darkman. I think this is an interesting choice and Webb is an interesting young director. Unlike Raimi at the time, who had cut his teeth on a dozen low and medium budget movies before moving on to Spidy, Webb can only be judged by his sole credit thus far. I loved (500) Days of Summer so I am hopeful he can pull this off.

Press Release is below:
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The vast majority of movies I viewed in 2009 I enjoyed despite a few quirks and faults.

Honestly, it was hard for me to try to come up with a bottom ten for 2009, because I consciously tried to watch things I thought I would have a good chance of enjoying. This is the exact reason I did not watch GI Joe, Old Dogs, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, and Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li last year.

Watching movies in theaters tends to be an expensive pursuit nowadays, so I try not to set myself up for failure. Best intentions or not, I came across a few I hated for a wide variety of reasons.

So MoFo’s you get a Top SIX list of the BOTTOM FILMS OF 2009! (continue reading…)

I stumbled across a redband (i.e. unrated) Kick-Ass trailer and cackled, swear to God, like a madman while watching it. This trailer focuses on the grammar school aged daughter of Nic Cage’s character in the film. This is truly demented stuff, not for the faint of heart. Wow.

Nicholas Cage, after starring in the top-notch Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, is being featured in a comic book action film along with McLovin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) from Superbad.

Wait, don’t run!

This film is adapted from the works of Comic Book writer Mark Millar, but promises to be better than the lukewarm Wanted (2008). It looks like the same bizarrely hilarious and violent fun you’d witness if a teenaged Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver tried to become a real-life Spider-Man! Kickass is another property from Marvel Comics along Iron Man 2 that you should keep an eye out for this year.

Welcome to the first installment of Date-Free Friday A.K.A. The Film Rub. We here at Celluloid Burning are committed to bringing you the coolest, not-so-fresh releases that you probably missed in theaters. Each week will aim to bring you the kind of release you never even knew you wanted. Films showcased for Date-Free Friday should be fairly easy to obtain from rental chains, from online rental services, or from your local retail stores.

This week’s installment is Punisher: War Zone (2008), also known as “box office poison” to some film studio accountants and “missed mortgage payment” to certain studio executives.
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