“From the mind behind the mega-hit Syfy show you’ve probably never heard of (EUREKA) comes a tribute to all those no-budget Syfy original movies and the “so bad, they’re good” films that inspired them. Move over Roger Corman, step back Ed Wood, make way on your weekend programming schedule Mr. Stern, because here comes Andrew Cosby’s 365 DAYS OF SCI-FI.

And it’s all happening here! Each day, your friends at CHUD will bring you a brand new bad movie pitch — the best of the worst title Cosby can come up with, no matter where he’s at or what he’s doing, rain or shine, drunk or sober. That’s a whole year of the quality concepts you’ve come to expect from the network that brought you MANSQUITO and SHARKTOPUS.”

365 days of Sci-Fi Archive

And now… DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY-THREE:

“Spaaaaaaaaaaace Ghooooooooost!”

– Andy Cosby (Twitter)

“They Need Space.”

GHASTRONAUTS: Upon returning from the first successful manned mission to Mars, a group of astronauts discover a member of their crew is possessed by the spirit of an extinct alien race.  Using its new corporeal form, the evil space ghost ritualistically murders the other astronauts to complete an occult ceremony meant to free his brethren and force the human race to play host to the long dead extraterrestrial species.

Nick Says: I think we just spoiled Apollo 18.

Disclaimer:

This article series is in no way affiliated with SyFy. This is a creative experiment and ongoing test of nerves that is perpetrated by a few insane people and should be construed as such. If for some reason these people actually make one of these as a feature it must be chalked up to their own lunacy. These are the intellectual property of Mr. Andrew Cosby and not the property of CHUD.com or SyFy.

Hollywood loves a good franchise. The movie-going public does too. Horror, action, comedy, sci-fi, western, no genre is safe. And any film, no matter how seemingly stand-alone, conclusive, or inappropriate to sequel, could generate an expansive franchise. They are legion. We are surrounded. But a champion has risen from the rabble to defend us. Me. I have donned my sweats and taken up cinema’s gauntlet. Don’t try this at home. I am a professional.

Let’s be buddies on the Facebookz!

The Franchise: Rambo — following the turbulent and corpse-strewn misadventures of an emotionally damaged and highly skilled Green Beret and Vietnam War veteran named John Rambo. Based on the novel First Blood by David Morrell, the franchise has spanned four feature films, a television cartoon, numerous video games and comic books, from 1982-2008.

previous installments:
First Blood
Rambo: First Blood Part II

The Installment: Rambo: The Force of Freedom (1986)

The Story:

Anywhere and everywhere the S.A.V.A.G.E. forces of General Warhawk threaten the peace-loving people of the world, there’s only one man to call. From the canyons of skyscrapers, to the canyons of remote mountain peaks, liberty’s champion is unstoppable. Helped by the mechanical genius known as Turbo, and the master of disguises named Kat, the honor-bound protector of the innocent. Rambo. The force of freedom.

..

Is it just me or did anyone else think that opening close-up was Rambo jerking off?

What Works:

Full disclosure: I only watched 11 of the 65 episodes, but I feel like I got everything there was to get out of it — unless the show really took off creatively right before it was canceled.

Removed from the context of the franchise (which it presumably was for most of its target audience, who weren’t old enough to have seen either of the R-rated films; unless they had a really cool dad), this series is a harmless G.I.Joe riff. General Warhawk is no Cobra Commander, but S.A.V.A.G.E. (Secret Administrators of Vengeance, Anarchy and Global Extortion) makes for a modestly entertaining collection of baddies. Plus, I’m always a sucker for voice actor Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime; Admiral Grimitz on Ducktales), who here plays Sergeant Havoc, the Russian-ish strong man of the terrorist organization.

For little boys out for some action, the show delivers in each episode on at least some level — plenty of explosions, varying weapons, all the important stuff. The show is inherently going to be repetitive – no matter what strange thing is going on in Act I, it always turns out to be General Warhawk behind it – but it does an acceptable job of switching things up conceptually, and Rambo hops around the globe, so our setting keeps changing. Plus the show has an decent budget, so we’re spared the kind of horrors on display in Return to the Planet of the Apes.

I’m also a sucker for corner-cutting animation conventions, like the fact that almost every single episode features the same animation used in the opening of the show’s intro — of Rambo “suiting up,” and dramatically tying his headband. It is his By-the-Power-of-Greyskull moment, when I guess he transforms from ass-kicking Rambo into extra ass-kicking Rambo. Apparently the key elements to extra ass-kicking Rambo is to be shirtless and have that headband. Which is kinda curious, given that he’s almost always shirtless and wearing a headband, making his “transformation” sort of confusing and unnecessary. Ah, cartoons.

What Doesn’t Work:

As I said, Rambo: The Force of Freedom is a completely harmless show, deserving neither of praise nor scorn when viewed on its own terms. But viewed as part of the Rambo franchise it is the ultimate sell-out of First Blood and David Morrell’s original concept — though I’m sure Morrell enjoyed cashing his royalty checks (depending on how good his deal was).

It is a true testament to how far Rambo fell from First Blood to Rambo II that the sequel spawned a children’s cartoon. I mean, who the hell could have watched First Blood in 1982 and seen it as a perfect vehicle for a toy line tie-in? “And don’t forget to buy Emotional Breakdown Rambo! His psychological scars run deep!” Kid in Commercial: “And he’s laying there, he’s fucking screaming! There’s pieces of him all over me! And I say, “I can’t find your fuckin’ legs! I can’t find your legs!”” Though Force of Freedom represents a non-continuity off-shoot of the films, if we’re choosing to take the franchise seriously, it is fairly grotesque what has become of the John Rambo character.

Giving a popular property a G-rated cartoon makeover isn’t necessarily bad. While bare breasts and adult language may have been part of the appeal to Police Academy, they weren’t an intrinsic part of the film’s fabric (something re-affirmed by the fact that the sequels eventually became PG rated). Similarly, I don’t think an intrinsic part of First Blood‘s fabric was R-rated violence and language. If boiled down to a single relevant attribute, I would have said that John Rambo’s defining characteristic as a fictional character was that he had dangerous Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The John Rambo who headlines Force of Freedom does not. He has a light, happy-go-lucky attitude. He quips and smiles. Life is great for this John Rambo; he’s doing what he loves. Aside from his name, the only resemblance he has to movie Rambo is that voice actor Neil Ross is sort of doing a Sylvester Stallone impression (though not really; it is an awkward performance that seems stymied by Ross’s attempt to have some Sly flavor without actually doing an outright impression). Needless to say, a kids show probably shouldn’t have a hero whose PTSD often triggers violent bloodbaths, but this is the precise reason that Rambo shouldn’t have been turned into a cartoon in the first place. The only way to appropriately adapt Rambo into a Saturday morning cartoon would have been to treat the premise somewhat like the classic Bill Bixby Incredible Hulk TV show, having Rambo wander from town to town, trying to do good and mind his own business, but assholes and villains keep triggering his PTSD causing him to “Rambo out” and rain his fury on them. This of course wouldn’t fly. Therein lies the issue — I don’t think there is a G-rated, all-audience way to respectfully do John Rambo.

So Force of Freedom is actually the pinnacle (or rather nadir) of John Rambo’s Reagan era transformation. As I noted previously, in First Blood Rambo represented the North Vietnamese in the Vietnam War metaphor. He was a Frankenstein’s Monster created by America’s confused emotions in the Nixon era. Then through some savvy zeitgeist-tapping selling-out, Stallone and company retooled the character to be the ultimate representation of American awesomeness. The cartoon strips away the entire Frankenstein element, including the character’s resentment towards his “creator” (ie, the government and the public who condemned him), leaving only the patriotic ass-kicking qualities of Rambo. Now he’s the perfect pro-American superhero.

What is weirdest about all this is that Rambo is still technically a Vietnam vet, but the war is a non-entity in this world. It plays no part in Rambo’s personality or actions, and is never addressed as a good or bad thing. Yet, it is still there. In the episode “Beneath the Streets” we meet one of Rambo’s war buddies, a guy nicknamed Wrongway. Wrongway has a war injury, a bum knee. He wears a simple leg brace, but it barely seems to effect him. And his personality is chipper and all smiles. In a strange way I found this to almost be more offensive than simply ignoring Rambo’s veteran status, as it acknowledges the dangers of war but basically treats it like Wrongway has an old football injury from his and Rambo’s halcyon days.

And though it is entirely typical for a hero on this kind of program to have two sidekicks who are always fucking up and needing to be rescued – thus continuously allowing Rambo to demonstrate his valor and leadership – it is a little questionable that they are a black guy and a woman, given that our hero is a white male.

Rambody Count: Zero.

Best Kill: Parents’ hard-earned money spent on:

..

Most Badass Moment: Battling and subjugating a gigantic genetically created crocodile-eagle.

Most Ridiculous Moment: Battling and subjugating a gigantic genetically created crocodile-eagle

Best Line About How Badass Rambo Is: 
General Warhawk: You seem to have nine lives, Rambo.

Best Sensitive Rambo Line:
Rambo’s Friend: You don’t have to go to all this trouble.
Rambo: Sure I do… (putting hand on Friend’s shoulder) You’re a buddy.

Best Out-of-Context Rambo Line: Preparing for fight. “I’ll take the panther, you two take the girl.”

Should It Have Been Canceled: Eh. 65 episodes was probably enough.

Up Next: Rambo III.

previous franchises battled
Critters
Death Wish
Leprechaun
Phantasm
Planet of the Apes
Police Academy
Tremors

It’s that time of the year again, so CHUD will be bringing you our preview of the films coming at you in the last four months of the year. This is the first of four entries that will debut each Wednesday for four weeks in which we pick out the films we’re most excited (or particularly fearful) to see. If you think we missed something major or think there’s been a date change we didn’t catch, feel free to let us know…

Enjoy, and be sure to give us an idea what you’re looking forward to! Twitter, email, comments, boards… all good places to list your own most-anticipated flicks of the back end of 2011.

+++++ September 2nd, 2011 +++++

Film: Shark Night 3D
Director: David R. Ellis
Humans: Sara Paxton, Alyssa Diaz, Dustin Milligan, Katharine McPhee

Synopsis: A totally typical group of friends (ie, average looking guys and smokin’ hot girls) head to an island cabin for some good ol’ fashioned chillaxing, only to discover that the waters are infested with a hungry shark(s). And someone or someones seems to have put the sharks there on purpose. Dun dun dunnnn!

CHUD Prognosis: It is unlikely that this will be as transcendently fun as Piranha 3D, but there is certainly some potential. David R. Ellis still engenders some horror love for Final Destination 2, though his work since then hasn’t inspired a lot of blind faith. But for those who only enjoy 3D when it is shameless, this could be a theatrical mindless good time.

CHUD Pull quote: “It is Snakes on a Plane in the water, with sharks… and no Samuel L. Jackson. But in 3D!”

–Joshua Miller

Film: Apollo 18
Director: Gonzalo López-Gallego
Humans:  Lloyd Owen, Warren Christie

Synopsis: This “found footage” thriller centers on the disavowed eighteenth mission to the moon that NASA says never existed, but involved evidence that the Russians made it to the moon, and met a terrible fate…as did the Apollo 18 astronauts.

CHUD Prognosis: With Shark Night 3D out the same weekend, and Don‘t Be Afraid of the Dark only out for one week, the audience could be split for this.  Moon flicks have been one for two recently, with Moon and Transformers 3 hitting and missing respectively.  Found footage films haven’t appeared to wear out their welcome yet, with Super 8 having raked in $125 million so far domestically.  But Apollo 18 is going to have to be crazy good to be the best found footage film of the year, a title currently held by Troll Hunter.

CHUD Pull quote: “Some moon asshole stole our flag.”

—David Oliver

Film: The Debt
Director: John Madden
Humans: Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson, Cirán Hinds, Jessica Chastain, Sam Worthington, Marton Csokas

Synopsis: The twisting, turning story of three Mossad agents tasked with extracting a Nazi war criminal from East Berlin, as seen from their perspective during the mission and then decades later when they must face the possibility of their secrets being revealed.

CHUD Prognosis: See it. Having seen the film, I can say it’s a thrilling thriller that includes typically great work from Mirren, Wilkenson and Hinds, while showcasing unprecedented strength from Sam Worthington, of boring Avatar fame. The real standout is Jessica Chastain though, who is faced with some tough scenes and knocks it out of the park.

CHUD Pull quote: “THERE’S all that talent Worthington was hiding…”

—Renn Brown

Film: A Good Old-Fashioned Orgy
Director: Alex Gregory, Peter Huyck
Humans: Jason Sudeikis, Leslie Bibb, Angela Sarafyan, Michelle Borth, Tyler Labine, Lake Bell

Synopsis: A bunch of 30-somethings who have been friends since high school plan one last major Labor Day bash when their party house goes on the market.  They plan an orgy.

CHUD Prognosis: At the moment this is sitting at 50% on Rotten Tomatoes and either side makes sense.  The trailer looks like it’s full of easy, pandering jokes and there’s a sense that Gregory and Huyck don’t know if they want to be Apatow or John Hughes, but there’s still some sort of lingering quirky charm to it all.  At the end of the day, even if it doesn’t end up being a modern classic, I’d be surprised if it didn’t at LEAST prove to be fun.

CHUD Pull quote: “It‘s funny fuckin’!”

—Jeremy G. Butler

Also:
Saving Private Perez [IMDB]

+++++ September 9th, 2011 +++++

Film: Contagion
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Humans: Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard, Bryan Cranston, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne, Jennifer Ehle, John Hawkes, Sanaa Lathan, Elliott Gould

Synopsis: Centers on the threat posed by a deadly virus and a team of doctors who are contracted by the CDC to deal with it.

CHUD Prognosis: Should fill the thriller slot nicely for the weekend with no direct competition in that genre, but Warrior may steal the weekend.  The line-up one this movie is ridiculous: four Oscar winners (including three Best Actresses) and three Oscar nominees.  It’s looking like the virus version of Traffic.  Written by Scott Z. Burns, who has previously written for Damon with The Bourne Ultimatum and The Informant!

CHUD Pull quote: “Yo, this movie is gonna be sick!”

—David Oliver

Film: Warrior
Director: Gavin O’Connor
Humans: Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, Nick Nolte

Synopsis: Two men with drastically different motivations begin training for an MMA championship with huge stakes. One is fighting to support his financially devastated family, and another fights for much deeper and more personal reasons. As we dig deeper into the history of these men, their connection to each other grows increasingly complicated.

CHUD Prognosis: If you have any trust in my endorsements, then I would suggest you watch not another trailer or ad and read no more words about Warrior, and simply see it at first opportunity. This is another that I’ve been lucky enough to see already, and it would take a hell of a string of great flicks to bump it out of my top ten. It’s an exhilarating, powerful drama that takes a brave slow-burn approach that consistently escalates to and then unarguably earns a powerfully moving ending. Tom Hardy is as great as you’ve come to expect, Edgerton does some remarkable heavy lifting that balances the film, and Nick Nolte’s peculiarities fit so perfectly in between. This is a great one.

CHUD Pull Quote: “Men groaning, slamming, and rolling around on each other has never been more emotionally satisfying.”

—Renn Brown

Film: Bucky Larson: Born To Be A Star
Director: Tom Brady
Humans: Nick Swardson, Christina Ricci, Don Johnson, Steven Dorff

The Deal: A midwestern doofus finds out his parents were porn stars, and despite sporting a tiny cock, he journeys out to follow in their footsteps. We all go fuck ourselves.

CHUD Prognosis: Nothing good is happening here. I like Nick Swardson as a concept, and enjoy his appearances on podcasts and Reno 911, but his stand-up specials and larger movie roles have not shown in his favor. Now that he’s starring in his own high-concept character comedy that looks like a rotting late-90s SNL movie knock-off… there’s little I can say in his defense. This is from the guy behind Rob Schneider horrorshows like The Animal and The Hot Chick, and that’s all that ultimately needs to be said. [ADDITION: A few days after I originally wrote this I found out that he apparently filmed this movie several years ago. I don’t know what to do with that information, but it’s a thing.]

CHUD Pull Quote: “Watch the gay rollerskate guy from Reno further marginalize himself while Christina Ricci cashes a check!”

—Renn Brown

Film: Drive
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Humans: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Ron Perlman, Albert Brooks

Synopsis: A Hollywood stuntman (Gosling) who specializes in automobile work, and who moonlights as a wheelman for the criminal world, learns that a contract has been put on him after a heist goes wrong.

CHUD Prognosis: If Drive is even half as good as its amazing trailer, it will easily be one of the best films of the year [–from what Renn says, it absolutely is one of the best films of the year]. And it could finally break Refn into the Hollywood big league, where he belongs. This film has everything that makes us here at CHUD weak in the knees — old-fashioned Bullit-inspired car chases, a cornucopia of colorful supporting characters played by a cornucopia of film/TV geek favs, directorial style that doesn’t come at the expense of substance, and the amazing Albert Brooks as a villain. There is already early Oscar talk for Brooks, and Sean Connery has retired, so he can’t swipe Brooks’ Supporting Actor award this time around.

CHUD Pull quote: “Baby Goose finally scores!”

—Joshua Miller

Film: Straw Dogs
Director: Rod Lurie
Humans: James Marsden, Kate Bosworth, Alexander Skarsgard, Dominic Purcell

Synopsis: A dubious remake of Sam Peckinpah’s 1971 controversial thriller and examination of male identity (itself loosely based on Gordon Williams novel The Siege of Trencher’s Farm), it tells the story of a David Sumner (Marsden), a Hollywood screenwriter who relocates with his wife Amy (Bosworth) to her hometown in the rural South. Tensions begin to rise with Amy’s ex-flame, Charlie (Skarsgard), and his thuggish friends, until things boil over in a fury of home invasion violence.

CHUD Prognosis: Remaking a film like Straw Dogs just seems bizarre. What is exceptional about Peckinpah’s film is how it is executed; the script and story are rather secondary. So even if it pulls off the story, it seems unlikely that Rod Lurie’s remake will have the electrical, provocative feeling of the original. Deeper yet, even if Lurie wanted to recapture the controversy of the original, which many labeled as misogynistic and a debasement of women, I can’t imagine that investors/distributors would allow him to do so. He lacks Peckinpah’s artistic clout. Best case scenario: we wind up with something comparable to the Last House on the Left remake — respectable and entertaining, but lacking the spark that kept people talking about the original for decades to come.

CHUD Pull quote: “Everybody’s favorite sexy vampire rapes everybody’s least favorite Lois Lane.”

—Joshua Miller

Film: Tanner Hall
Directors: Tatiana von Fürstenberg and Francesca Gregorini.
Humans: Rooney Mara, Brie Larson, Amy Ferguson, Georgia King, Tom Everett Scott, Amy Sedaris, Chris Kattan, Shawn Pyfrom

Synopsis: Coming of age drama revolving around the boarding school experiences of four girls.

CHUD Prognosis: Screened it (review over at guy on September 9th) and found it to be middle-of-the-road, with a lot of familiar boarding school cliches such as the teenager (Mara) who falls for the married man (Scott), the teenage temptress (Larson), the tomboy who discovers she’s a lesbian (Ferguson) and the spoiled rich bad girl (King).  Falls squarely into Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants territory…sans the impossible-fitting denim.

CHUD Pull quote: “For all the guys who remember what it was like to be teenage girls discovering their bodies…”

—David Oliver

Also:
Gus Van Sant’s Restless [IMDB]
I Don’t Know How She Does It [IMDB] 

+++++ September 23rd, 2011 +++++

Film: Moneyball
Director: Bennett Miller
Humans: Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Robin Wright, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Chris Pratt, Kathryn Morris, Tammy Blanchard

Synopsis: Based on the true story of Billy Beane (Pitt), the general manager of the Oakland Athletics who uses a new scouting technique called sabermetrics to make the A’s competitive with a limited budget.

CHUD Prognosis: Trailer got some really good buzz, plus Pitt can open almost anything.  Jonah Hill is still generally a bankable sidekick.  I know a certain bearded webmaster baseball fan who will probably be in line for this one.

CHUD Pull quote: “It can’t possibly be as boring as real baseball!”

–David Oliver

Film: Abduction
Director: John Singleton
Humans: Taylor Lautner, Lily Collins, Alfred Molina, Jason Isaacs

Synopsis: A young man sets out to uncover the truth about his life after finding his baby photo on a missing persons website.  And then everybody has guns.

CHUD Prognosis: Bullshit.  This film begins and ends as Lautner’s big post-Twilight vehicle.  I’ll admit the premise starts off interesting (Lautner be damned) but once the kung-fu and pistol waving starts it gets really generic really quickly.  I’ll give Singleton credit though – he certainly has a penchant for pulling some fun out of thin air and this may very well be a case of marketing for the masses, but I’ll be MORE surprised if this ends up being good.

CHUD Pull quote: “The Official Film of the Pittsburgh Pirates.”

—Jeremy G. Butler

Film: Machine Gun Preacher
Director: Marc Forster
Humans: Gerard Butler, Michelle Monaghan, Michael Shannon

Synopsis: A former drug-dealing biker finds God and heads to Sudan to do some good. He start looking for ways to apply his old talents towards helping a greater cause.

CHUD Prognosis: Could go either way, but definitely treads that pandering “whitey saves the day” line. It’s got some good names, but director Marc Forster has already moved on to World War Z and this feels like a dump. Forster isn’t a director that gets anyone excited, and actually pisses others off. No sign of Michael Shannon in the trailer, or much of anything besides basic plot and explosions so hard to call. Certainly not a priority in a month so jam-packed with greatness.

CHUD Pull quote: “TONIGHT. WE DINE. IN HELL! ON FOOD. I FOUGHT WARLORDS. TO IMPORT.”

—Renn Brown

Film: Puncture
Directors: Adam Kassen and Paul Kassen
Humans:  Chris Evans, Mark Kassen, Vinessa Shaw, Brett Cullen, Michael Biehn, Marshall Bell

Synopsis: Centers on real-life Houston personal injury attorneys Mike Weiss and Paul Danziger who pursued a case against a large medical purchasing conglomerate that was barring the introduction of a safety needle that would reduce needlestick incidents on medical staff – which numbered around 800,000 per year in the late ’90s – to practically none.

CHUD Prognosis: Screened this one also.  Well-made whistleblower / small crusading lawyers vs. corrupt big shot lawyers drama in the tradition of Erin Brockovich, The Rainmaker and The Insider.  Chris Evans gives a great performance as Weiss, who was a brilliant lawyer dedicated to the cause, but also a functioning drug addict.  Only getting limited release, but Evans is hot from Cap and that could lead to some interest.

CHUD Pull quote: We got a real pull quote for this one! “Puncture echoes Erin Brockovich and The Insider.  Chris Evans continues to impress.”

—David Oliver

Film: Killer Elite
Director: Gary McKendry
Humans: Jason Statham, Clive Owen, Robert DeNiro

Synopsis: When his mentor (Robert De Niro) is taken captive, a retired member of Britain’s Elite Special Air Service (Jason Statham) is forced into action. His mission: kill three assassins dispatched by their cunning leader (Clive Owen).

CHUD Prognosis: You know, I dunno.  There‘s a part of me that wants to stand up and cheer for this movie just from the way the trailer‘s cut, but I can‘t.  I love Statham as much as the next guy, but something about seeing these guys (especially Clive Owen who always seems so out of place to me in movies like this) run the Action Movie Trailer Obstacle Course to the strains of “Rock You Like A Hurricane” that just screams “MEDIOCRITY!”  Even the title is boring and lifeless.  And since both writer and director are playing the Debut Feature card, there’s not even a pedigree to go on.  I’m not saying it won’t have a few moments or a few defenders, but at the end of the day it’ll be a blip and then we’ll all forget about it.

CHUD Pull quote: “I‘ll be over here watching Crank.”

—Jeremy G. Butler

Film: Thunder Soul
Director: Mark Landsman
Humans: Houston’s Kashmere High School Stage Band

Synopsis: Presented by Jamie Foxx, it centers on alumni from Houston’s Kashmere High School Stage Band who reunite 35 years later to celebrate their “Professor” who made history by breaking the color barrier and transformed the school’s jazz band into a world famous funk ensemble in the 1970s.

CHUD Prognosis: This is one of those small films that gets (and has gotten) some awards and good word of mouth on the film festival circuit.  These include SXSW – Audience Award (Lone Star States), Heartland Film Festival – Crystal Heart Award, Hot Docs – Audience Award, Los Angeles Film Festival – Audience Award, Dallas International Film Festival – Audience Award, Aspen Film Festival – Audience Award, Indie Memphis – Best Documentary Feature, Pan African Film Festival – Best Documentary Feature.  It’s going up against some big dogs in Moneyball, Killer elite and Abduction, but it’s not really the type of film that would contend against those kinds of films anyway.  Good word should carry over into some more good reviews in a limited release.

CHUD Pull quote: “You’re a jive turkey if you miss it.”

—David Oliver

+++++ 9/30/2011 +++++

Film: 50/50
Director: Jonathan Levine
Humans: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick

Synopsis: When Adam (Gordon-Levitt) is diagnosed with cancer, his best friend Kyle (Rogen) helps him cope.

CHUD Prognosis: The trailer looks fantastic.  JGL is always top shelf and, even though I never really caught the Rogenhate Fever, this looks like it might have the potential to turn a little bit of that around.  Plus Anna Kendrick who is perpetually cute as a button and seems really comfortable in her role.  Behind the camera you got Jonathan Levine who gave us the wonderful The Wackness and the (sorta) divisive All the Boys Love Mandy Lane.  The only relative unknown here is writer Will Reiser, but even if his script is middle of the road, I trust everyone else involved to elevate it.  Basically, there‘s no way this won‘t be great.

CHUD Pull quote: “Your enjoyment won‘t go into remission!”

—Jeremy G. Butler

Film: Take Shelter
Director: Jeff Nicols
Humans: Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain

Synopsis: Plagued by a series of apocalyptic visions, a young husband and father questions whether to shelter his family from a coming storm, or from himself.

CHUD Prognosis: After pushing awkward creepiness as far as it could go in Revolutionary Road, Michael Shannon managed to be quite the creepy agent of the Lord last year on Boardwalk Empire, and he’ll soon be demanding that a dude in tights kneels before him in Man of Steel. Despite a long history of playing characters on the fringes of society and sanity, we’ll be asked to empathize with him as a man who could be losing his mind, or could just be ahead of the curve in Take Shelter. The trailer is captivating, and the film also features the aforementioned Jessica Chastain, who is really having a hell of a year.

CHUD Pull Quote: “Look, you have to give the guy that always plays crazy the benefit of the doubt that he might not be crazy even though he’s probably crazy. Just roll with it.”

—Renn Brown

Film: Tucker & Dale Versus Evil
Director: Eli Craig
Humans: Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk, Katrina Bowden

Synopsis: A comedic inversion of the backwoods horror subgenre, which finds two well-meaning chums – Tucker (Tudyk) and Dale (Labine) – attempting to restore a cabin in the woods, while being farcically mistaken for murderous hillbillies by a group of obnoxious, partying college kids.

CHUD Prognosis: TDVE is potentially over-hyped as a motherfucker at this point. Up until now, the lack of distribution for the film had routinely been utilized by concerned/angry fans (myself included) as an example of what is completely wrong with the current state of theatrical horror movies. Now it is finally hitting the big screen, and may suffer the same sort of hype-bubble message board backlash that hit Trick r Treat, which will be unfortunate and unfair. TDVE isn’t a masterpiece but it is a lot of fun and worthy of future lesser-classic status.

CHUD Pull quote: “You will learn to love Tyler Labine.”

–Joshua Miller

Also:

Dream House [IMDB]
What’s Your Number [IMDB]
Courageous [IMDB]
Margaret [IMDB]

The whole idea of WikiLeaks was a novel thing for the country and the world to face, as suddenly state secrets were being drawn into the unstoppable riptide of internet communication. With the flip of a switch the government was having to consider the implications that nothing, no matter how important, could be kept secret and that lives could even be endangered if identities were revealed or other plans made public. All of which is very serious shit, so the idea of applying that model to Hollywood certainly just matters less, and also isn’t as shocking in the first place. Be that as it may, it is happening, and it may have some implications you wouldn’t immediately consider…

lulzsec pissed off groups like the CIA (though did little real damage). Could a similar group throw major kinks into Hollywood's operations?

On Gawker today, you can find a report about a new group called Hollywood Leaks, an Anonymous/lulzsec style group of hackers that are just now starting to get exposure for stealing scripts from Hollywood and spreading nude pictures of a female rapper (released during the VMAs.) They’ve also been leaking phone numbers of people like Miley Cyrus and Lil John to the public. The group doesn’t seem to have as strong of an identity as, say, Lulzsec but they still seem to have pretty distinct, if still ultimately vague, set of goals.

“We’re currently sitting on several unreleased movie scripts, and enough numbers / emails to keep phones ringing and the inboxes full for the foreseeable future…. We’re simply here to facilitate the free flow of information from a place which was previously over looked, Hollywood.”

What this means is that they’ll be hacking into the email accounts of studio executives, producers, filmmakers, and stars to steal scripts and presumably whatever else they can find, be it concept art, casting lists, schedules, etc. They’ll also be more directly targeting celebrities stupid enough to have incriminating digital files on their phones or in their emails, though smarter ones will also suffer when they open up twitter accounts and cellphone numbers publicly.

I think this could be a (relatively) big deal, and I’ll tell you why, but first of all one does have to acknowledge a few truths…

On the industry side of things, the studios have made fighting the piracy of its product a key concern for years, and spent millions of dollars doing so. On the celebrity side an ecosystem built on leeches, the entire purpose of which is to snap salient pictures of stars doing coke, being racist, or flashing a tit, is simply the way things are. TMZ is only the most recent and efficient incarnation of gossip rags that have profited for decades, and while major production leaks and high-volume digital piracy are a relatively new phenomenon, they’re still well established and understood concerns in showbusiness. So if unwanted exposure is written into the very foundations of modern Hollywood, how could a few hackers even register as that big of a deal? Simply by accelerating the empowering a trend that’s already occurring, using a few new tricks.

For one thing, the application of the anonymous, roving hacker model against Hollywood is something they’ve never quite dealt with before, and these studios haven’t exactly shown themselves as pros when dealing with the internet. And of course we’re plenty used to leaked sex videos from stars and (as I’ve recently bemoaned) we’re growing increasingly used to an utter lack of secrecy from major productions by way of relentless cellphone footage. But for all of the shots of Catwoman and the Tumbler in PA, or the Avengers fighting mo-cap suits in OH that won’t matter in six months, imagine if the full production schedule of one of these films leaked? How would it affect a $200m productions if it was suddenly made public not only exactly where they planned to be months ahead of time, but what they’ll be shooting, what stars will be there, etc. etc. Obviously this isn’t as big of a deal as a CIA operative being made or troop movement being leaked to terrorists, but there’s still a lot of money on the line and lot of ways that too many eager fans knowing too much could screw things up for a production.

This kind of thing is only the beginning.

Beyond that is the easily imagined scenario in wherein Pirate Bay is suddenly host to the Green Lantern 2 production bible with the script, breakdowns, concept art, etc. We’re already at a mass frenzy of breaking down every scrap of minutia that emerges from these films… what happens when they don’t just unlock the doors to the sausage factory, but tear down the walls entirely? And unlike esoteric government files that bury important details amidst hundreds of pages of boring material, this is the kind of crap that draws eyeballs and lights the Facebook crowd on fire, which could in turn attract more and more hackers that want to be the one responsible for leaking the design of the new Dock Ock in The Amazing Spider-Man 3 or whatever.

It’s not really a scary scenario (it’s fucking superheroes and twitter accounts, after all), but it is mildly shocking to think how far it could go. Surely some of this will come to pass as we as a culture spiral further and further into the nightmarish media turbine we’ve created for ourselves. At the very least I have no doubt that within a couple of years there won’t be a single major production that won’t have its script available to download by anyone before it even starts filming. Django Unchained is a recent screenplay that was notoriously easy to get, but it still required a modicum of effort to nab. I think those days will soon be over if these guys make Hollywood hacking the new cool thing. Remember that most of the lulzsec, wikileaks, and other 4chan-style hacking doesn’t require a particularly sophisticated set of skills- a lot of this stuff comes from the exploitation of basic tricks. And yeah, the studios may get nasty or even litigious about certain things, but there’s still much less danger in fucking with Paramount by dropping the M:I 5 script online than there is in dumping a couple top secret files from the CIA. It’s an attention-hungry hacker’s wet dream- the material is sexier, less dangerous, and much easier to get.

And then here we sit… we online film sites. Little shame has been shown by even the most mainstream of sites this year, in regards to running anything and everything that spills out. This is despite vague credos and ethics being debated on twitter by the prominent web personalities ad nauseum. There’s already an infrastructure that’s hungry for the tiniest and deepest of details, even if it’s just a Justice League logo mockup printed in black and white on a “costume department –>” sign. If a wave of hackers decide this is the new cool thing to hack, the online sites will be there to hand them the eyeballs…

I’m VERY interested to hear your take on this, and if you think much will come of it. What kind of future do you envision for movie geeks looking from the outside in? Let me know…

Email me, Tweet at me, Use the Comments Below, and Join The Message Board Conversation…

What is this? Every single day of the week (almost), a new Graboid, a single moment grabbed from a random movie, appears on this site for you to guess the name of the film, share with your officemates, or discuss on our message boards. Sometimes the Graboid will be very easy and sometimes it’ll be as obscure as obscure gets. So read the news, read the reviews, and enjoy a screencap each and every day for your guessing pleasure.

While I’ve never not been interested in what the Coen Brothers would be doing next, I can say I’m particularly intrigued by what kind of film they’ll be producing to follow up True Grit. The accessible but excellent Western was by far their biggest commercial hit, and a decided turn from the trilogy of upbeat bleakness and cynicism that came before it. Now it seems the Coens will be taking this opportunity of being at the most empowered moment of their career and diving into the Greenwich Village 1960s New York folk music scene.

Small hints and bits have escaped about the film before today’s break from Variety, but now we know that the film will be called Inside Llewyn Davis and will rejoin mega-producer Scott Rudin (True Grit, Social Network) with the brothers. The central character is said to be based on the “Uncle of the Coffeehouse Scene,” Dave van Ronk, who was present amidst a creatively and politically tumultuous time that saw single-instrument folk music come into style. This time and place in New York was ground zero for a musical tempest from which the likes of Bob Dylan emerged, and it was also the center of the Stonewall Riots in which homosexuals rioted in response to police oppression. Widely seen as the sort of “shot heard round the world” for gay rights, this is the point at which the modern homosexual advocacy groups began. Van Ronk was one of the many arrested during the riots.

How much of all that will play into this original story remains to be seen– the Coens have drafted an original script that pulls together details from van Ronk’s memoir, as well as a backdrop of musical performances that will apparently be recorded live. There’s not yet details about casting or shoot dates.

I have no doubt a musically-rich folk biopic from the Coens will very much be something new and novel, but you have only to look at O Brother to remember how much of a talent these boys have for assembling a universe and making an esoteric genre suddenly widely appealing. I’m excited to hear more, and if this is the project the brothers have chosen to ride their post-$250m wave of success, then I’m excited to see it.

How about you? twitter, comments, boards — spit it out!

(addtn. source: LA Times)

“I never look back, darling! It distracts from the now.”

–Edna E. Mode (The Incredibles)

Well here we are then… another Superman movie, another Superman suit. As is the new paradigm, no single day has gone by without a new cellphone shot of this or that bit of filming, with wild speculation and bizarre assumptions made from a postage stamps’ worth of pixels. But now here’s a nice, detailed (and story-spoiler free) look at the suit, with all of its design particularities including a pretty aggressive design element that adds some structure to the waist, and a generally more saturated and low-key color scheme.

I will give Cavill some credit, as it doesn’t look like the suit is having to do too much magic to give him a superhero physique.

Overall I think it’s a pretty cool looking suit, and I can imagine it looks nice in motion. As it is with the Spider-Man outfit though, making too strong of judgements on color and texture is a fool’s errand. So let ‘er rip all you armchair costume designers, just remember that a lot of these subtleties are designed to add detail to the suit and will be much more subtle when viewed through the camera’s lens and color corrected. At no point was this suit designed to look its best in full-blasting sunlight on a cellphone camera…

As for the lack of a cape in some of the shots, I would assume that’s because these were snapped during a rehearsal before I jump to any other, more fantastic conclusions.

I think these are the best picture with the best view, but there are certainly many more redundant shots if you’re interested at SuperheroHype.

Let us know your suit-thoughts! Do so on twitter, hit the comments below, or dive into the boards!

I’m not going to lie , this week I appear to have a massive case of writers block.  None of the half formed topics in my head seem good enough to devote into one blog, which is kind of annoying because I have a new laptop and I wanted to test drive it with some serious writing.  Instead, dear reader I am afraid you will have to settle for another round of Random Thoughts…..

I watched Limitless over the weekend and felt it could use about half an hour stripped from it. I kind of liked the ending and most of the film was kind of fun however it felt like there was a massive amount of padding to get us to that final reveal and closing scene.

In what can on be described as one of the worst cases of irony ever I find myself having to re-import all my music onto my new laptop as the last backup I took was corrupted.  That will teach me for restoring my old machine to factory settings (ready to sell) before checking my backups.  I work in IT for crying out loud – I should know better.

I have a dog now, his name is Dylan and I have to say he is a great little guy to have around the house. At 9 years old all the hard work has been done for me, all I have to do is walk him and make sure he is fed. And given that I’m on a diet the exercise is more than welcome.

Speaking of which the Diet is going very well, even with my occasional “treats”,  I certanly feel better for shedding over a stone (so far) and its a bit of a kick to put on clothes and realise they are to big for you.

When I bought He-Man and Skeletor I told myself that was it, sadly, I didn’t listen as I now have: Orko, Man-at-Arms, Teela, Battle Cat, Syklone, Mer-Man, Leach and Hordak.  I suspect there will be more in the future as well. I can see why this collecting lark is addictive.

I have today and tomorrow off which means Friday is my next and  last day at my current job.  It’s kind of bittersweet as I loved the hell out of it truth be told.  I met some good people and enjoyed the work but at the same time I am starting a new role at another company and come out of this with some money in the bank, so I guess everything happens for a reason.

Line Rider is the most annoyingly addictive app I have every purchased on iTunes – curse the person that came up with it.

I think that’s enough rambling for now, next week I promise something more substantial…..

Oh and by the way my new laptop is pretty great to write on.

“From the mind behind the mega-hit Syfy show you’ve probably never heard of (EUREKA) comes a tribute to all those no-budget Syfy original movies and the “so bad, they’re good” films that inspired them. Move over Roger Corman, step back Ed Wood, make way on your weekend programming schedule Mr. Stern, because here comes Andrew Cosby’s 365 DAYS OF SCI-FI.

And it’s all happening here! Each day, your friends at CHUD will bring you a brand new bad movie pitch — the best of the worst title Cosby can come up with, no matter where he’s at or what he’s doing, rain or shine, drunk or sober. That’s a whole year of the quality concepts you’ve come to expect from the network that brought you MANSQUITO and SHARKTOPUS.”

365 days of Sci-Fi Archive

And now… DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY-TWO:

“Remember all those 90’s movies about witchcraft and angry high school girls?  How come no one ever mashed those two flavors together?”

– Andy Cosby (Twitter)

“Innocent Until Proven Bitchy.”

BITCHCRAFT: In a modern day deconstruction of the events surrounding the Salem Witch Trials, a group of bitchy high school girls frame a lonely little goth for a crime she didn’t commit.  In an effort to avenge herself against her cliquish classmates, the goth turns to black magic, inadvertently unleashing a demonic force that threatens to destroy them all.

Nick Says: Oh, no… Diablo Cody’s wetting herself a little right now.

Disclaimer:

This article series is in no way affiliated with SyFy. This is a creative experiment and ongoing test of nerves that is perpetrated by a few insane people and should be construed as such. If for some reason these people actually make one of these as a feature it must be chalked up to their own lunacy. These are the intellectual property of Mr. Andrew Cosby and not the property of CHUD.com or SyFy.

“From the mind behind the mega-hit Syfy show you’ve probably never heard of (EUREKA) comes a tribute to all those no-budget Syfy original movies and the “so bad, they’re good” films that inspired them. Move over Roger Corman, step back Ed Wood, make way on your weekend programming schedule Mr. Stern, because here comes Andrew Cosby’s 365 DAYS OF SCI-FI.

And it’s all happening here! Each day, your friends at CHUD will bring you a brand new bad movie pitch — the best of the worst title Cosby can come up with, no matter where he’s at or what he’s doing, rain or shine, drunk or sober. That’s a whole year of the quality concepts you’ve come to expect from the network that brought you MANSQUITO and SHARKTOPUS.”

365 days of Sci-Fi Archive

And now… DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY-ONE:

“Today I tried to create one of the most derivative pitches possible.  Let me know how I did.”

– Andy Cosby (Twitter)

“Unhappy Birthday.”

YOUNGER GAMES:In the not too distant future, overpopulation has become a global concern, forcing us to execute anyone who reaches his or her 40th birthday.  Fortunately for our hero, those approaching this “Age of Extinction” are allowed to compete in a series of brutal death games in which the winner is given a second chance in a younger body.  And to make matters worse, one of his opponents has competed before…sixteen times!

Nick Says: I see juicy roles for Molly Ringwald and Tony Mike Hall in this one.

Disclaimer:

This article series is in no way affiliated with SyFy. This is a creative experiment and ongoing test of nerves that is perpetrated by a few insane people and should be construed as such. If for some reason these people actually make one of these as a feature it must be chalked up to their own lunacy. These are the intellectual property of Mr. Andrew Cosby and not the property of CHUD.com or SyFy.