Weekly Weblinks: Generals and Generations

It’s the last day of August, the summer movie season is essentially over, and the new releases are gradually shifting over from action-packed blockbusters to dramatic fare and the occasional horror movie, such as The Oogieloves. It’s also Friday, and that means it’s time for the Weekly Weblinks.

There’s a lot of looking back in the blog posts this week, with some reviews of films from earlier this year or last, and some posts that look a few decades back. The news, of course, mostly looks forward, as news is wont to do. There’s quite a bit on the news front, although much of it is in the rumor stage, but what it all has in common is that with very few exceptions, it’s downright bizarre. But if your brain is broken apart by the news, hopefully the blog posts will help you put it back together. So click on through for the Weekly Weblinks!

Blog Posts:

Abduction was one of the most widely panned movies of 2011. But what earns it that dubious distinction? Ryan at 5 Word Movie Reviews gives the play-by-play breakdown on this cinematic turkey.

A bicycle may not sound like the ideal chase scene vehicle, but Premium Rush features Joseph Gordon-Levitt being chased through the city and riding for his life. Sam Fragoso of “Duke and the Movies” shares his thoughts on this new release.

Transformers burst onto the scene in 1984 and immediately won the hearts of youngsters, and the franchise has never really let go since. Alexander Rhoades takes a look at why with “Transformers Week”, starting with the First Generation.

What do you get when a movie studio starts out making a Dr. Strange movie but then loses the rights to Dr. Strange? You get Doctor Mordrid, and Will at Silver Emulsion has the review to this 1992 oddity.

The first rule of Fight Club is, you do not talk about Fight Club. Unless you’re Alexander the Cinemaniac; in which case you just might talk about Fight Club.

Bruce Campbell is Elvis Presley, Ossie Davis is JFK, and Michael Alatorre is reviewing Bubba Ho-Tep, a very odd modern cult-classic. Be sure to check this one out; it’s a great review of an interesting obscure little film.

And finally, horror films may be just starting to pick up their seasonal boost due to the upcoming Halloween season, but they sometimes come out earlier in the year. The Woman in Black was a spring 2012 release, but timing has worked out so that Jaina at Time Well Spent has her review ready just in time for the leaves to start turning brown. Since it’ll soon be time to start bringing up the horror flicks, go see if she thinks this one is worth dragging out of its video coffin.

News Blurbs:

It seems we can’t ever go a week without some sad news of a beloved celebrity passing. Jerry Nelson has died at the age of 78. If you don’t recognize the name, you might know him by some of his frequent aliases: Floyd Pepper, Gobo Fraggle, Count von Count…. Jerry Nelson was one of the original Muppeteers, and continued to work on Muppet productions, including Sesame Street until his retirement in 2004.

Every week, another wild rumor on the Justice League front. This week’s completely unsubstantiated rumor comes from Latino Review, who claim that Warner Brothers may be looking at Andy and Lana Wachowski, directors of The Matrix. While I respect the Wachowskis did on The Matrix, I’m hoping this is one rumor that doesn’t pan out; I just don’t see their style working well for the JLA.

Of course, even they might be better than Brett Ratner, who is also on the rumored short list. I realize it’s harsh to judge a director before he or she actually directs the film, but so far Ratner hasn’t proven he can direct a team superhero movie, and yes, I’ve seen X-Men: The Last Stand. I stand by my statement. Ace Showbiz’s article also suggests that Batman will be rebooted for the series, which isn’t really a surprise.

A while back, the Michael Bay-produced Ninja Turtles was put on hiatus for some script doctoring. Now Geekosystem has gotten word of an alleged leaked copy of the script, and if this thing is legitimate, it definitely warrants the hiatus — hopefully for a complete rewrite that has no connection with this version at all.

By now, most horror fans know that there’s a remake of The Evil Dead coming out. But there was nearly an Evil Dead 4 that had nothing to do with Sam Raimi at all… until he finally put a stop to it through the judicial system. Award Pictures was producing the unauthorized sequel Evil Dead 4: Consequences; Raimi felt this was an infringement and the judge granted an injunction. Award Pictures has stated that since Raimi expressed in 2000 that he wasn’t planning any more sequels, the trademark was expired, showing an incredible lack of awareness of both the actual status of Raimi’s projects and of how trademark law works.

What are The Dukes of Hazzard without the General Lee? We may find out. The iconic car will be stripped of the Confederate flag motif in all future productions and merchandise, presumably out of a concern over the appearance of insensitivity. There is no word on whether the car will keep the name yet, though it seems doubtful. As to why this matters now, they are planning a new Dukes of Hazzard movie, because of course the last one turned out so well.

It’s time for another animated toy feature, apparently. This time it’s Lego, and will be about a Lego man on a quest to stop an evil tyrant from gluing the whole world together. Morgan Freeman and Elizabeth Banks have already been cast as voice actors.

Hugh Laurie is out, Michael Keaton is in for the villain role in the reboot of Robocop. I have no strong feelings on the casting change, but I’m still pretty leery of the whole reboot to begin with.

Robin Williams may be coming back to television. Collider reports that the comedic actor is working with David E. Kelley on a sitcom for CBS that will feature Williams as an advertising executive working with his daughter. Kelley has done some good work on television and it’s possible — not guaranteed, but possible — that Williams might do well in a return to the format. At the very least, I’ll probably be checking it out.

Avi Arad has joined the never-ending quest to make a good film adaptation of a video game, setting his sights on Metal Gear Solid. It’s been one of the most popular video game franchises, but will it make a successful transition to the big screen? Has anything?

Just For Fun:

If you know classic movies and television, you know TCM. But did you know their website has a game section? There are two classic-film trivia games, which can be challenging, and also a slider-puzzle game.