allaboutduncan

Don LaFontaine Tribute

// September 2nd, 2008 // No Comments » // Movies

You man not recognize the name, but I know you will recognize the voice. Movie voice-over legend Don LaFontaine has passed away at the age of 68.

AICN Tribute to Stan Winston

// June 17th, 2008 // No Comments » // Movies

Legendary creature creator Stan Winston has died. The man responsible for more movie creature than you can imagine has passed away at the age of 62.

Winston won Academy awards for his work on Aliens, Jurassic Park, and Terminator 2. He was also worked on films ranging from The Monster Squad to Iron Man. Just take a look at his IMDB entry.

Be sure to check out Ain’t It Cool News and their tribute to Stan Winston. Over the next few days they’ll be posting various comments from industry people that Stan worked with over the years.

I think this quote from him easily sums up his work

“If I can dazzle myself, I’m pretty sure I can dazzle you.”

Film Titles Collection

// March 31st, 2008 // No Comments » // Movies

Be careful if you visit Forget the Film, Watch the Titles. You might find yourself watching all of the great collections of film title sequences they have.

Split into categories, such as: Animation, Motion Graphics, Mixed Media and 3D, the site offers up tons of content one place. It’s a worthy and eclectic collection and not focused on classic films. Many films in the gallery are bad, but as the site professes, a bad film can still have a great title sequence.

Simpsons Movie References (Times Two)

// September 24th, 2007 // 1 Comment » // Movies, Web

UPDATE: I’ve updated the links in the post below for the Simpsons movie references to point to Actualidad Simpson. It seems that is the original site for the images I posted about. The other site had copied the content from there. The Actualidad Simpson site has a better collection of images and has them organized by film. Just translate the site to English and have fun.

I’ve always noticed a few cinematic references in episodes of the Simpsons, but the list of Simpsons Scenes and their reference movies is just too cool. I never realized how many there were. The sad part is for all the ones pictured, I remember at least one more. Hopefully someone will put together part 2.

On a similarly titled note, the 19th season premier last night (He Loves to Fly and He D’ohs) referenced this summer’s The Simpsons Movie in the intro. A destroyed Springfield was shown being cleaned up and rebuilt and Spider-Pig makes an appearance in the couch gag at the end of the intro.

While I don’t watch the show on any sort of regular basis like I used to, it still cracks me up any time I manage to catch a few minutes. Almost 20 years later and it’s still funny (maybe not as much) and still packed with pop-culture references (more of which I now catch).

Iron Man Trailer Arrives Early

// September 10th, 2007 // No Comments » // Comics, Movies

The Iron Man trailer is going to premiere tonight on several Paramount television stations. The first tv airing is scheduled to air just before MTV’s “The Hills” at 8:30 p.m. Central time. The rest of the showings are:

Comedy Central: The Daily Show 10-Sep
MTV: The Hills 10-Sep (the break leading into the show)
Spike TV : CSI 11-Sep
VH1: The Rock Life 10-Sep
BET: Baldwin Hills 11-Sep
CMT : Trick My Truck 10-Sep
Logo : Rick & Steve 11-Sep
MTV2: Room 401 10-Sep
NAN : Fresh Prince 10-Sep
The N: Fresh Prince 11-Sep
TV Land: Andy Griffith 11-Sep

You don’t have to wait. Apple has released the online version of the Iron Man trailer more than a day early. It’s a great two minute clip. It shows the genesis and personality of Tony Stark (Iron Man), shows multiple versions of the armor in great detail, and even shows a quick glimpse of the villain Obadiah Stane / Iron Monger, played by Jeff Bridges.

That’s definitely Bridges in the over-sized Iron Monger armor in that image from the trailer. Obadiah Stane was a businessman who overthrew Tony Stark’s company and later tried to destroy Stark. A lot of people were expecting the Mandarin as the villain, but Stane makes a much better introductory villain in my opinion. It wouldn’t surprise me to see the Mandarin make an appearance in the new film as a setup for a sequel, since the character is currently receiving a lot of attention in the comics.

Batman, Joker and Lots of Photos

// August 17th, 2007 // No Comments » // Comics, Movies

Lots of photos have popped up over on The Movie Blog Community and on a Flickr Page that show Heath ledger as the Joker, as well as several shots of Batman from the Summer 2008 Batman film, The Dark Knight.

I really like the way Ledger looks and I also like the fact that the “Joker look” appears to just be make-up and not some accident. The scarring around the mouth is hard to see and I wish that were a little more prominent, but overall, everything looks great and I absolutely can’t wait to see some footage from this.

Iron Man Movie – Preview Footage

// July 30th, 2007 // No Comments » // Comics, Movies

Wow! How cool is that (assuming it’s still there). Four minutes of footage were shown at San Diego Comic Con this past weekend and even the crappy bootleg copy looks amazing. Iron Man kicking ass to Black Sabbath’s Iron Man is about as perfect as it can get. The feel and the energy for this preview as spot on perfect. This is officially the movie I can’t wait to see next year.

Golden Compass Extended Preview

// July 30th, 2007 // No Comments » // Movies

Over the weekend, an extended 5 minute preview of The Golden Compass was posted. Lots of new footage is shown, but most importantly I think it gives a good idea of the film to those who have no experience with the book. Out of all of the movies that studios have developed as Harry Potter clones, this one has the best chance to succeed.

After the success of the Harry Potter films, studios were snatching up any fantasy related material with kids present. In the past few years we’ve had Eragon, Bridge to Terabithia, the Chronicles of Narnia (which also got a push from Lord of the Rings), The Dark Is Rising, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and many more that I’m forgetting.

Based on just the previews, The Golden Compass looks to be the most engrossing. It looks less like an attempt to pander toward the “Harry Potter” audience and more like a honest attempt to bring Philip Pullman’s world to the screen.