The Unborn Looks Really Fun

When I went to see Role Models the other night, the trailer for David S. Goyer's horror film The Unborn was attached to my print. This trailer isn't new by any means but, for some reason or another, this was the very first time that I laid my eyes on it. I have to say- I was fairly impressed. I don't know if it will be a good movie per say but it definitely looks incredibly entertaining. Plus, it has some of the freakiest images I've seen in a horror trailer in some time. When the trailer finished playing, my friend and guest writer Zach turned to me and said, "We are freaking going." I think I'm going to have to agree with him.

I guess the main reason I've been avoiding this trailer is the fact that I don't think David S. Goyer is that great. Yes, I know that he's worked on the stories for both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. However, I'm pretty sure that he was responsible for all the stuff that I didn't like about Batman Begins (in other words, all the cheesy one-liners that were so out of place). While he worked on the screenplay for Batman Begins, he only recieved a story credit for The Dark Knight while Chris and Jonathan Nolan got a screenplay credit. And I don't know if you noticed or not but The Dark Knight ended up being vastly superior to Batman Begins and didn't contain all the awkward one-liners that that film contained. Also, Goyer directed the terrible Blade Trinity which I saw in theaters for some reason... So, yeah, I have my reasons to not trust the guy.

With that said, the movie still looks pretty fun. Plus, it has Gary freaking Oldman in it. How could I not find that appealing? Lastly, it has Masuka (C.S. Lee) and Harry (James Remar) from Dexter and Stringer (Idris Elba) from The Wire, two shows that I have been watching a lot of lately. Yeah, that shouldn't be a huge reason to see a movie but I have to admit that it has been working on me a little subconsciously. Plus, I just really wanna see a movie that has a crab-man in it. At least, I think that was a crab-man. I mean, I've never seen a crab-man but I think that that is what one would look like. But, I could be wrong.

Check out the trailer below.

Source: Trailer Addict

What I Learned from My Best Friend's Wedding

As stated in my article last Friday, I took a much needed break last weekend and went to Memphis, TN with some friends. We stayed at my friend Katye's house which was awesome. The best part of this house was that Katye had an amazing home theater system upstairs. On Saturday night, as the rest of my friends went to a formal (I wasn't invited to that; I was basically just tagging along for the weekend), Katye, my friend Kelly and I ate a lot of food and watched movies on the big screen. I made them watch The Goonies first. Later, we ended up catching one of my favorite movies Leon: The Professional on TV. After sitting through two of my movies, they ended up making me watch most of Julia Roberts' chick flick My Best Friend's Wedding. Normally, I would never watch a movie like this. However, since they watched two of my movies, I decided to sit through one of theirs.

Honestly, I cannot say much for this movie. It was incredibly cliche and cheesy. I'm not completely against the notion of a romantic comedy. I think that it actually can be done right. I actually own When Harry Met Sally (though I have it pretty hidden from the rest of my movies). This movie, on the other hand, was too over-the-top and manipulative. I even had an incredibly unrealistic and embarrassing musical number that took place in the middle of lunch in a restaurant (if you hate yourself, you can watch a video it below). Also, why is Julia Roberts in these movies? I don't find her attractive at all and, from what I hear, she's a complete b*tch in real life (Spielberg hated her so much that he cut a lot of her scenes down in Hook). I don't know who in Hollywood is obsessed with this woman but she's not that great of an actress, she's not pretty and she sucks as a person. Let her go.

Still, I learned some things. At least, I think I did. When we started watching the movie, Katye and Kelly told me to pay attention because I would learn a lot about women in this movie.  I've been having a lot of problems with women lately (actually, I cannot think of a time when I haven't had trouble with women) and they told me that this movie would help me out. So, after sitting through this cliched mess, what did I learn?

I learned that women are completely insane.

Really. What the crap is up with you people? In this movie, Julia Roberts' character decides that she loves her best friend right when he gets engaged after basically leading him on for like nine years. So now that he's finally moved on and has found someone else that makes him happy (and someone that is much hotter than the fugly Roberts) she decides to come in, tell him that she loves him and then kiss him on the mouth. Um, what? You can't do that. That's not even romantic. It's just cruel. What a way to screw with a guy's mind. 

But they do this. No, I've never had this actual situation happen to me in any way but I have experienced it in other ways. They'll lead you on for six months and then go, "Oh, you know Jack from math class? I think he's cute." Um, what? What the hell? Or they'll stop acting like they are interested and then the moment you show any interest for someone else they'll get all jealous and say that they're not good enough for you or that you'll never pull it off. What the hell...

While watching this movie, every girl that came into the room seemed to identify with it. They all seemed to agree with Robert's character's plight. What B.S. Even Katye and Kelly admitted that women are all crazy. And they are women. 

So, in conclusion, after watching this movie, I've decided that it is probably in my best interest to go back to being asexual. It's definitely safer than what I've been doing... that's for sure.

Thanksgiving Day Puff: Natural Born Killers

I am literally on my way home to eat Thanksgiving meals with a couple of my different families, but I just wanted to write down some thoughts in regards to what I just watched.

Natural Born Killers is the perfect nightmare. It is completely terrifying, but you can't help and replay all of the insane moments in your head. Also, many of the moments are not realistic or fitting or comprehensible, but you have this innate desire, nay, compulsion, to tell everyone about it. And, in the end, you are ultimately left speechless as to the underlying meaning of it all.

Ultimately; however, the meaning is this: Oliver Stone made a fine movie. One that nobody can fully comprehend after just one viewing. You can talk about culture, and society, and how Stone was really pointing the camera at himself when he showed all of the insane things people do, but none of that matters.

I still cannot fully comprehend all the detail on the screen. From the acting to the characterization of everything to the non-stop camera mind-overload, I am having trouble processing it all. But the good thing about this nightmare is that I can re-watch it as many times as I want.

This movie may not be everyone's cup of tea on a Thanksgiving morning, and unless you are a bum like me, many of you may not even have the time to watch a movie period. Nonetheless, I hope all of you have a safe and happy Thanksgiving Day. And if you get the good end of the wishbone, do us all a favor and wish for more movies like this.

Here's What Has Been Going On

Okay, so today hasn't exactly turned out like I planned it to.

I planned on sending most of today working on papers since I got a lot of them due when I get back from Thanksgiving break but my Internet crashed right when I got on this morning. It's been out all day so, because of this, I have achieved absolutely nothing since I needed the Internet for research. Along with working on research for my papers, I had planned on doing a decent update for YDKS but, as you can tell, that has not happened either. So, for now, this will have to do.

Today's post is just going to be a really random one. There isn't really an overall goal with this one but, honestly, I kind of like those. So, I present to you a summary of what I've been doing over the past few days.

After getting back from Memphis on Sunday night, a few friends and I watched Dr. Giggles. For those of you who do not know, Dr. Giggles is a really awful slasher film made in 1992 starring Larry Drake (the bad guy from Darkman) as a homocidial doctor who giggles and delivers terrible one-liners while killing brainless teenagers. It's just as bad as it sounds and a thousand times as fun. I bought this over Amazon after my friend Ellis brought the movie up in my room late one night. We had both seen the movie before in our childhoods which is a really rare feat. After talking about the movie for ten minutes, we decided to buy it immediately. We did so for a measly seven bucks. Man was it worth it. Watching Dr. Giggles with a group of guys was one of the best film viewing experiences of my life. This thing is absolutely hilarious (in that "this is a bad movie" kind of way). It was so much fun. I've put up part 1 of the movie below from YouTube. Check it out if you dare (it is actually pretty gory so be warned).

On Monday night, I decided to continue my bad horror film fest by watching See No Evil with Blossom and few other guys. How did I arrive at this decision? Well, Blossom (or moviefan225 as you know him here) and I were at Walmart when I saw this awful film in the five dollar bin. Once I made eye contact with it, I knew I had found what was to occupy my evening. 

You have to understand- I knew this was going to be bad. After all, it was starring Kane of WWE fame (which was a huge reason that I shelled out five bucks- I used to be a hardcore wrestling fan and I knew that a horror film starring Kane had to be hilarious). Well, when it came down to it, this movie was just plain bad. Not the good fun kind of bad that Dr. Giggles was. No, this movie was just plain garbage. What a piece of flaming crap. It really was painful to sit through. 

However, the ending redeemed everything. This is the most insulting ending I've ever seen in a movie. It's basically like they were, "Hey, you how the only people who are going to see this movie are Kane fans? Well, f-them! And f-Kane too. Let's give him the most insane, embarrassing cartoony death ever put to film!" And they do. And it's hilarious. He gets a pipe put through his eye socket, falls out of a window, hits every window on the way down with the pipe, falls through a glass greenhouse, has the pipe ripped out and then has a piece of glass driven through his heart as he hits the ground (shown via a ridiculous digital zoom into his body). I kid you not. It's absolutely ridiculous... but satisfying. I don't have a video of this but, after the credits, they go even further by having a random dog come in and, for no reason at all, urinate into Kane's hollowed out eye socket. Yeah, they really were pissed at Kane and his fans or something.

Here's a video of Kane's death. It's taken from some kid filming off of a TV but I figured the poor quality of it kind of reflected the film's overall quality so it shouldn't be that big of deal. Enjoy.

So good.

I saw Role Models late last night with Zach (our guest writer) and his cousin Josh. It was pretty ridiculous and stupid at times but, overall, I really enjoyed it. It was a great late night movie experience. For some reason, I was oblivious to the fact that David Wan had directed this movie. If I had known this, I would have probably wanted to see it much sooner as he directed Wet Hot American Summer, which I am pretty fond of (yes, I know it's beyond stupid). It was nice to see some of the people from that movie show up here. All the relationships in the movie were pretty strong and all the LAIR scenes were pretty amazing. The ending with the LAIR battle royale was really epic and pretty hilarious. Plus, I pretty much like any comedy with Paul Rudd in it. It's nothing compared to Judd Apatow produced comedy but it's fun if you have a couple of hours to spare. I'd probably give it a 7/10.

This doesn't really have anything to do with movies but today, while I was trying to figure out something to do with my Internet down, I decided to go to Barnes and Noble. While I was there, I purchased Watching the Watchmen by Dave Gibbons. It's a huge hardback book covering the creation of Watchmen. The artwork in the book was pretty beautiful and I've been enjoying reading it throughout the day. My only complaint is that it can be hard to read sometimes because it is so big and sometimes they put dark blue text over a black background, which is hard to make out. However, this seems like it was worth the 40 bucks I shelled out for it. It's perfect if you are a Watchmen fanboy (which I am).

Also, Blossom just finished reading Watchmen tonight and he wanted me to say how angry he is that they changed the original ending of the graphic novel for the movie. I'm angry too, Blossom. I'm angry too.

So that's what's been going on with me the past few days. I hope you all have enjoyed reading. Hopefully, I will be able to get a more regular YDKS post up tomorrow (as long as I don't lose my Internet). We will see what happens. Thanks for reading.

Speech of the Week #18

Hey guys, welcome to a column here on YDKS Movies entitled Speech of the Week! For now on, every Monday I will post a new scene from a movie that features a speech of some sort being given. After all, there are a lot of famous scenes in film where characters give an influential speech of some sort. Then again, there are also a lot of scenes where characters give a speech and it just comes off cheesy and lame. In this section, you will see both kinds. That's right, people, I'm giving you the good and bad of film speeches all wrapped up in one great big package. I hope you all enjoy.

This week's speech comes courtesy of the suggestion of my roommate Caleb. It comes from Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove. In this scene, the president of the United States (Peter Sellers) calls the president of Russia to tell him that there is about to be an accidental nuclear strike on his country. To make the scene even more bizarre and hilarious, the president of Russia is drunk. It is not exactly a speech but I figured it was good enough since you only hear one side of the conversation. This scene is pretty amazing and is probably my favorite scene in Dr. Strangelove. Believe it or not, Peter Sellers is said to have ad-libbed this entire scene. This is a pretty amazing feat and shows just how talented and funny he really was.

Check it out below. This is a good one. 

Have a Good Weekend

Hey everyone. 

Just wanted to let you all know that I won't be able to do any posts this coming weekend as I am taking a much needed break and going out of town. I should be able to post more regularly starting next week during Thanksgiving break. But, as far as this weekend goes, I won't be around to really update any. 

Also, I wanted to remind all of you to please not see Twilight. This movie looks absolutely terrible and the reviews for it definitely don't change that assumption. Plus, even the actors in the film acknowledge that they don't understand the appeal and think the fans are insane (read here and here; I gained respect for these people). The fans of this book are basically a cult and of the worst kind. Plus, they started a riot at a mall trying to get into a Hot Topic store for a Twilight book signing. How lame is that? And a Twilight book signing would take place at a Hot Topic. And of course everyone remembers all the insanity they caused at this past year's San Diego Comic-Con. 

Instead of seeing this piece of cinematic dung, please do something more constructive. What, may you ask? I dunno. Any else would be good. Go watch The Wrestler trailer for the 50th time (at least in my case). Go watch the Nostalgia Critic's new video on Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (such an awful movie). Study for finals (you know they are coming up). Watch Casino Royale on DVD (it's better than seeing Quantum of Solace in theaters). Sit at home by yourself. Really, anything is better than seeing this film. Anything.

Have a good weekend. I'll post an update if I can when I get back. 

The Wrestler Trailer

The official trailer for Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler was released tonight and it looks like the movie me and my roommate Caleb have been wanting to make since the sixth grade. Really, this thing looks amazing. Mickey Rourke is the man. This is officially my most anticipated film of the rest of the year. 

Watch the trailer below. Now.

Source: Trailer Addict

YDKS Movies is on MySpace

We're on Facebook, we're on Twitter, we're on RSS Feed and now, finally, YDKS Movies is on MySpace. I've never really been that into MySpace. However, to further bring together the readers of this site closer to us along with expanding us on the net, I decided to have one made. Moviefan225, one of our first readers here at YDKS, made the MySpace for us and I've been customizing it as I have found free time throughout the day. So, if you have a MySpace, be sure to friend us and get in contact with us. 

You can find us on MySpace here:

http://www.myspace.com/ydksmovies

Also, YDKS Movies now has an official email. If you want to contact us, please email us at YDKSMovies@gmail.com.

Star Trek Trailer

As everyone probably knows by now, the new trailer for J.J. Abrams' version of Star Trek hit the web yesterday (and was attached to certain prints of Quantum of Solace this weekend, though not mine). Most people seem to be really into it. I like it for the most part. It's filled with a lot of crazy action and, honestly, it's kind of hard to really gauge what all is really going on in it. However, it definitely looks a lot different than what I imagined for a Star Trek movie. 

For the record, I've never really watched Star Trek... like at all. It's just not my thing. I've always been more of a Star Wars kind of a guy (well, before it sucked). With that said, I was able to be intrigued by this trailer. If it was just another Star Trek film, I wouldn't care at all about it. However, because it is a reboot, is very different and is filled with some pretty awesome special effects, I can't help but be pretty interested. How about that opening in the desert? Just that alone sets this vastly apart from the rest of Star Trek. 

There are times in the trailer were it just all feels like too much but overall it's pretty fun. I don't know what the final product will be like but I will see it. Check out the trailer below. 

Speech of the Week #17

Hey guys, welcome to a column here on YDKS Movies entitled Speech of the Week! For now on, every Monday I will post a new scene from a movie that features a speech of some sort being given. After all, there are a lot of famous scenes in film where characters give an influential speech of some sort. Then again, there are also a lot of scenes where characters give a speech and it just comes off cheesy and lame. In this section, you will see both kinds. That's right, people, I'm giving you the good and bad of film speeches all wrapped up in one great big package. I hope you all enjoy.

This week's speech is basically the end of Scent of a Woman so, if you haven't seen that movie I wouldn't watch this clip. Don't get me wrong- it's an amazing speech. However, you should definitely see this film in its entirety before watching this speech.

In this speech, Al Pacino comes to the defense of Charlie (Chris O' Donnell before he ruined his career) who is basically being screwed over by a headmaster and some of his friends for not confessing who played a prank on the headmaster. Pacino's speech is pretty much awesome and he really made me wanna yell in public and say the f-word a lot. It may sound like I'm putting the speech down in that last sentence but, really, I'm not. The speech is amazing and is basically the reason that Pacino won his first and only Oscar. In fact, this is probably the definition for a great film speech. My favorite parts? When Pacino expresses that he wishes he could take a flame-thrower to the school and when he screams, "F-you too!" to Charlie's "friends." 

Give it a watch. It's awesome.

Quick Review: Quantum of Solace

Since most of my reviews tend to be ultra-long on here, I'm gonna do myself and the reader a favor by doing a section for quick reviews. As busy as my life has been lately, this may be in effect for a while. The first film I am going to give a quick review is Quantum of Solace.

I got back a few hours ago from seeing this movie and, while everyone I went with seemed to really enjoy it, I couldn't say I felt the same (though I didn't really say anything then because I don't believe in raining on people's parades; someone did that to me after Sin City and I still want to kill them). Although Quantum of Solace is much better than most of the older Bond films, it is nowhere near as good as Casino Royale. It can be entertaining at times but, for the most part, it feels very standard and kind of average. Walking out of the screening, the word on my mind was "meh." After thinking about it some more, I feel like that word still sums it up for me.

Going into Quantum of Solace, I didn't really have any expectations. Although I loved Casino Royale and feel like it completely revitalized and redefined the Bond genre of films, I wasn't really pumped or anything to see this new addition. I mean, I wanted to see it but I definitely didn't have any huge expectations to be shattered. With that said, I was still disappointed. 

From minute one, I immediately began to miss the direction of Martin Campbell from Casino Royale. Marc Forster's direction is kind of like that of Paul Greengrass- incredibly shaky and with a very short shot length. However, unlike Greengrass, it's not very effective. The beginning of the film features an overly shaky car cash that I honestly could not tell what was going on in. After a few seconds, my eyes hurt and I just kind of became bored. Most of the rest of the action sequences in the film were like this. Most of the shots in these sequences averaged from one second to half a second. No, really, I am serious. I was so bored / distracted by this filmmaking method that I began to count the shot length. I really really want this method of filming to stop. I believe that there can be a proper way of doing it (see Greengrass' direction in United 93 as opposed to The Bourne Supremacy where even he overused it to a ridiculous amount). Unfortunately, most people that use it are not talented and turn in action sequences that look like vomit. Anyways... moving on...

What else did I not like? Well, the story's pacing was pretty awkward. Even though the film was only an hour and forty minutes, it felt like it was much longer (Casino Royale, on the other hand, was two hours and forty minutes and felt short). I don't feel like a lot of it was particularly memorable. Along with its awkward pacing, the story tends to be overly-confusing at times (something that even my friends who liked the movie agreed on) and, therefore, is not as engaging as it should be. Other than Bond, most of the characters are forgettable (except for Mathis, who is kind of wasted anyways). Even the bad guy (who is pretty weird looking guy) was pretty forgettable. Jeffrey Wright, who is a really great actor, is wasted in a nothing role (though I did just enjoy his presence). Despite all the potential they had of exploring Bond's psyche after what he went through in Casino Royale, they tend to throw it away except for a few particularly effective scenes here and there. What a wasted opportunity. I really didn't like those location-themed titles. They seemed cheesy when compared to the rest of the film's realism. Lastly, Forster's direction and the editing feel very awkward in a few sequences (other than the big action sequences). There's one part where they try to parallel Bond shooting his way through some bad guys with a violent opera that is occurring at the same time. The idea is creative and inspired but the execution is a flawed, muddled mess. Much like all the other action sequences, it's hard to understand what is happening and it's overall unenjoyable.

Did I like anything in this movie? Yes. The main reason to see the movie is to see Daniel Craig continue his awesome portrayal as a very cold but wounded James Bond. Craig's portrayal is just as strong here as it was in Quantum of Solace but, unfortunately, it gets bogged down by a lackluster script and bad direction. Still, it was great to see a continued sense of realism injected into the Bond series. One sequence where this was particularly effective was when Bond attacked Mr. Slate in his apartment. I wasn't expecting this scene to be nearly as brutal as it was. Take that Roger Moore. I have to admit- I did enjoy the little Goldfinger homage they pulled with the oil. That was pretty clever and, at the same time, mean spirited. I liked it. Lastly, towards the end of the film, I felt somewhat of an emotional impact with some of the things that were happening (especially the scene with Bond and the guy at the very end). Too bad that it was at the end of the movie.

Overall, Quantum of Solace is pretty disappointing when you compare it to Casino Royale. All the solid direction, characterization and storytelling are gone. Sure, Craig and the gritty realism are still present but, without a great story or director, there's not much you can really do with this sequel. It's still better than most of the old Bond films but it's not that great either. If I had to label it, I'd say it's just a solid rental. Daniel Craig is still great but he needs a better script and a compotent director to make a better movie next time. And make those shots longer!

6/10

New Watchmen Feature Trailer

Getting tired of Watchmen posts on here? Too bad. Warner Bros. released a new "feature" trailer on Yahoo last night (though I'm giving you a Trailer Addict version). The trailer is also said to be attached to some prints of Quantum of Solace. This trailer attempts to give more story, setting up the murder of the Comedian and Rorschach's investigation that follows. 

A lot of people are complaining about Rorschach's voice on the Internet right now but it doesn't really bother me. Many are comparing it to Christian Bale's super deep Batman voice but, if you read the graphic novel, you can tell from his word bubbles that his voice is shaky and raspy. It probably would have been better as a little more monotone and without any feeling but I think it will work like this for the film. I do have a problem with Dr. Manhattan's voice however. It basically sounds like Billy Crudup's voice with little alteration at all. When reading the graphic novel, I always imagined Dr. Manhattan's voice as deep, booming and almost God-like. If you watch the Watchmen Motion Comics, it is portrayed like this as well. One could argue that barely altering Crudup's voice makes Manhattan more identifable and human for the audience but it's just not what I had in my head at all. Another thing that I really just didn't like at all was the heroes constantly referring to themselves as "Watchmen." Anyone who has ever read the graphic novel knows that they never ever referred to themselve as "Watchmen." Watchmen comes from the protesters' graffiti that stated "Who Watches the Watchmen?" This was used to comment on all the power that these heroes had and if that power was really something we should trust them with when they were actually just as flawed (if not more flawed) than all the rest of us. The only names the groups of heroes referred to themselves as were "The Minutemen" (from the 1940's golden era of the masked vigilante) and "The Crimebusters" (which I understand has been changed to "Watchmen" in the film). I guess it's a nit-picky complaint but it just felt weird to hear Rorschach refer to himself as one of the "Watchmen" is all. Also, this is the second trailer that has featured footage from the new ending. I guess Zack isn't even trying to hide it anymore. Lastly, I did think that some of the trailer was awkwardly cut at times. Although I really like the opening song by Philip Glass, I don't think that "Take a Bow" by Muse was nearly as haunting and powerful as "The Beginning is the End is the Beginning" by the Smashing Pumpkins was in the first trailer. 

With those complaints aside, I did like some of the trailer. The opening featuring the murder of the Comedian was pretty beautiful to watch. That shot of him being thrown about the room with that song playing felt almost like I was watching some kind of weird, violent ballet. It was also great to see Rorschach going around, doing his investigating from Chapter 1 of the graphic novel. Also, Patrick Wilson looks and sounds just like I would imagine Dan Dreiberg to look and sound. Although I think Wilson is a really great actor, when he was cast, I was really unsure of him because he doesn't remotely resemble what Dreiberg is in the graphic novel. However, it looks like he gained a lot of weight and they did a great make up job on him. The shot of him and Rorschach in his basement next to the Owl Ship got me really excited. 

Overall, after watching the trailer a few times and thinking about it, I'd say I'm slightly disappointed. It has some good moments but, for the most part, I feel like the trailer's kind of awkward. Who knows what the final product of the film will be like. It looks like it could go any way at this point. But I'm gonna see it. 

YDKS Reaches 300 Posts!

I'm proud to say that this past Tuesday YDKS Movies reached 300 posts. Considering how busy we have all been here since beginning the site, that seems pretty amazing to me. I'd like to thank Jason, Austin, Caleb, Zach, Blossom and anyone who has helped the site in anyway since we began it.

Also, I'm sorry I haven't updated since Tuesday. This week, much like last week, has been incredibly hard on me. It seems like it may be this way for awhile now. However, I will do my best to keep updating. Just bare with me. I'm trying.

Thanks for reading and be sure to look forward to 300 more posts.

Watchmen Ending Definitely Changed

I have posted three articles now pertaining to the possible ending change to the film adaptation of Watchmen. Honestly, it's getting a little old now. 

For those of you who have not been keeping up, there was a special test screening held in Portland, Oregon a few weeks ago for Watchmen. Apparently, some fans crashed the screening (it was supposed to be a "blind screening" for non-fans) and quickly hit the Internet with news of a new ending very different from the ending of the original graphic novel. A lot of Watchmen fanboys (myself included) have been up in arms about the change since. 

There have been some reports that there was more than one ending shot and that the screening was just to test fan tolerance to the new ending but, as it turns out, that is all B.S. For me, it never made sense for them to shoot more than one ending due to the cost of creating something as vast and insane as the ending of the original graphic novel and go with something else instead. 

Anyways, it seems that the case is simple: yes, they changed the ending. No, the original graphic novel ending was never filmed nor will it be filmed. Zack Synder revealed this in an interview for Dark Horizons earlier this week. He's sure to put in that fans of the graphic novel were pleased with the film version. Nice one, Zack. 

Personally, after reading the interview (and it is spoilerish), I disagree with Synder on some of his views of Watchmen. The fact that he just blows off the original ending like it's not a big deal is kind of ridiculous. The fact that he puts more emphasis on scene such as the Comedian shooting a pregnant woman over the ending (i.e. the point of the book) doesn't really make sense to me. Also, after reading about some of his additions to the movie, they sound fun but, when thinking about them, they do not really make much sense in the context of the characters. 

Ugh, I'm tired of thinking and talking about this. I'm sure the movie will be entertaining but I just don't like the fact that Synder is taking so many liberties after saying that he wasn't going to. I do not like it when people betray my trust, Zack. Anyways, I have until March to get over the ending change. I'm sure I'll make it.

Also, for those wondering, that is a new teaser poster for the film featuring Rorschach at the top of the article.

Source: Dark Horizons

Speech of the Week #16

Hey guys, welcome to a column here on YDKS Movies entitled Speech of the Week! For now on, every Monday I will post a new scene from a movie that features a speech of some sort being given. After all, there are a lot of famous scenes in film where characters give an influential speech of some sort. Then again, there are also a lot of scenes where characters give a speech and it just comes off cheesy and lame. In this section, you will see both kinds. That's right, people, I'm giving you the good and bad of film speeches all wrapped up in one great big package. I hope you all enjoy.

This week's speech is definitely one of the best ones you will see on this column. It's from Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of William Shakespeare's Henry V. This the famous "St. Crispin's Day" speech that King Henry gives to his English troops to rile them up before doing battle with the vast and overwhelming French army. It is an example of some of Shakespeare's greatest writing and Branagh's delivery (accompanied with a great musical score) is pitch perfect. This also is the same speech that the saying "band of brothers" came from if you didn't know (I just did a research paper on Shakespeare so I figured why not throw out some facts). Lastly, if you look carefully, you can see a young Christian Bale in the crowd listening to the speech. Overall, it's a great scene. 

Enjoy.

Rocktober Ends!

I guess it has taken me a little over a week to come down off the high I experienced all October long. My roommate (known more affectionately as "Dantom" in the comments area) wanted to have a massive movie series that spanned the entire month. We were able to watch a total of 36 movies ending with a The Exorcist/The Shining Double Feature on Halloween Eve and Halloween on the 31st. I know this is late, but our list of movies was so good I thought it needed to be shared.

Rocktober 2008 (in order of viewing)

Rules of the Game (1939)
Duck Soup (1933)
Stagecoach (1939)
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
Rashomon (1950)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Frankenstein (1931)
The Kid (1921)
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
War of the Worlds (1953)
The Thing (1982)
Porco Rosso (1992)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1929)
Airplane! (1980)
Dracula (1931)
Iron Man (2008)
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
The Gold Rush (1925)
The Horror of Dracula (1958)
Halloween II (1981)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Cape Fear (1991)
Speed Racer (2008)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
High Noon (1952)
Freaks (1932)
Peeping Tom (1960)
Son of Frankenstein (1939)
The Strangers (2008)
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
Feast (2005)
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Nosferatu (1922)
The Exorcist (1973)
The Shining (1980)
Halloween (1978)

Our goal was to continue our movie watching excellency into November starting with The Nightmare Before Christmas on the 1st since the setting of the movie actually begins the day after Halloween. However, we were never able to accomplish this goal since both my job and Dantom's school work have begun to take top priority. So far this month we have watched Dr. No (which I fell asleep during), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), and The Devil Rides Out.

Anyway, stay tuned for more. And is everyone in agreement that the latest episode of The Office is one of the best episodes to date? Stay tuned for a review on that as well!

*The Compilation Poster above (although not entirely finished) is courtesy of Dantom himself!

John Carpenter Still Makes Movies

/Film has the teaser poster for John Carpenter's new film Riot, starring Nicholas Cage. The poster is a generic mess but that's besides the point: John freaking Carpenter is making another movie! It's been about seven years since Carpenter last made a movie (and it was the terrible Ghosts of Mars). Actually, now that I think of it, not only has it been a really long time since Carpenter directed a movie but it's been awhile since he directed anything good. Still, this could be the one, right? Sure it does have Nicholas Cage in it (who hasn't been a good movie in years) and it does have a really generic poster with a lame tag-line ("Uncaged?" Please don't tell me that's referring to the film's star...). But, hey, it's John freaking Carpenter and he made The Thing. For me, that's all I need to know.

For those who don't know, Riot was originally titled Scared Straight. Its screenplay was written by Joe Gazzam and was on the 2005 black list, which is a list of the best unproduced screenplays of that year. So, as far I know, the script is at least good. It deals with a youth who is taken hostage in a prison riot during the middle of a Scared Straight program. 

There are a lot of things pointing to this being really lame but since the script is supposed to be good and Carpenter is involved, I'll consider myself modestly looking forward to this. Modestly. Plus, how cool is it just to see John Carpenter's name above a movie title again? Man, I nerding out like crazy tonight.

And, of course, this topic was just an excuse to post a video from Carpenter's cult classic Big Trouble in Little China. Enjoy.

Kurt Russell FTW. If only he was in Riot instead of Nicholas Cage. Now that would be something to see.

Source: /Film

Nostalgic Critic Does Double Dragon

I've had a pretty awful day today so I figured I'd just post something kind of quick and fun on here. I've posted a few Nostalgia Critic videos on the site before (his Surf Ninjas review and his Drew Struzan tribute video) and, well, this one is no different. In this video, he reviews Double Dragon which, in my opinion, is the absolute worst video game film adaptation ever. I remember seeing this as a kid and even then I was disappointed. The Critic's take on the mug shot and the Double Dragon arcade game cameo are classic. I hope you all enjoy this video- I know I did.

Michael Crichton Has Died

According to /Film, author and director Michael Crichton died yesterday from an unpublicized case of cancer. He was 66.

For those who do not know (and if you don't, you should be ashamed of yourself), Crichton is the writer of such novels as Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain, The Great Train Robbery, Disclosure, Timeline, Congo and many others. His books have been adapted to film many times (and they haven't always turned out great, as in the case of Congo). Crichton co-wrote the screenplay for Steven Spielberg's film adaptation of Jurassic Park with screenwriter David Koepp. He also directed film such as The First Great Train Robbery and Westworld. Lastly, he created the television show ER.

This is pretty sad news for me. Not only is Jurassic Park one of my favorite movies, it is one of my favorite novels ever. I have read it twice (most recently this past summer, along with The Lost World) and it's a really wonderful piece of writing. I'm not sure if I can imagine a world where that book and film didn't exist. It's a really terrible thought. Crichton was one of those rare writers that was able to create entertaining thrillers that still managed to be very logical and filled with scientific background to back things up. He was obviously a very intelligent man and it's a real shame to see him go, especially so suddenly and unexpectedly. 

R.I.P. Mr. Crichton. You will be missed.

Source: /Film

Speech of the Week #15

Hey guys, welcome to a column here on YDKS Movies entitled Speech of the Week! For now on, every Monday I will post a new scene from a movie that features a speech of some sort being given. After all, there are a lot of famous scenes in film where characters give an influential speech of some sort. Then again, there are also a lot of scenes where characters give a speech and it just comes off cheesy and lame. In this section, you will see both kinds. That's right, people, I'm giving you the good and bad of film speeches all wrapped up in one great big package. I hope you all enjoy.

Since Monster Fest has come to an end, I figured it would be good to start off with a non-horror related speech. This week's speech is probably one of, if not the best, speech you will probably see on this list. My best friend and college roommate Caleb actually has this speech quoted on his Facebook profile. It comes from Adaptation where Charlie and Donald Kaufman (both played by Nic Cage) share a moment hiding out in the Florida swamp from some people who are planning on killing them. In this moment, Donald gives one of the most interesting and touching takes on love that I've ever heard. It's some really brilliant writing from the real life Charlie Kaufman, who wrote the film's screenplay. Whenever I have a love prospect not work out in some way, I try to think of this speech. It's one of the best messages that you can learn from a movie.

This was the only online version of this speech that I could find. It's not the best quality and has an annoying logo pasted at the top of it. Still, the audio works well and that's all that really matters. If you've never seen this movie or this scene, please watch it.