Hombre, su ’status’ no es el mismo desde que dejó para la Historia de nuestro Cine aquel peliculón llamado ‘Mar Adentro’. Y me refiero a este filme, porque por entonces, antes de su estreno, me parecía increible, e incluso una temeridad, que un director abonado al género del suspense a la española, que estaba tratando de tú a tú a Hollywood, se metiera en un fregao como aquél.

Se arriesgó, con el colchón de ‘Los Otros’, y acertó en mi corazón: ‘Mar Adentro’ ganó, entre otros galardones, el Globo de Oro y el Oscar a la mejor película de habla no inglesa en 2005, le puso la alfombra a Javier Bardem para que despegara su carrera en la Meca del Cine, y le consagró como realizador.

Así que, tirarse a una piscina como la de ‘Agora’, a pesar de que tengamos la érronea impresión de que tiene poca agua (= poco interés) y encima que está calentuja (= historia nada original), no me ha resultado extraño ahora.

Sony Pictures and Sony Computer Entertainment of America are working out a deal to produce a film based on the recent PlayStation 3 exclusive game inFAMOUS, and THR reports that writer Sheldon Turner’s (The Longest Yard, Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air) pitch to adapt the game has been bought by the studio. The game follows Cole McGrath, a bike messenger who is gifted with extraordinary electrical powers when he is caught at the epicenter of a bomb blast that destroys much of his hometown Empire City.

inFAMOUS Video Game - Concept Art

I don’t agree with that take at all. At it’s core, inFAMOUS is exactly like the original Marvel comics, with a few modern storytelling tropes thrown in. Cole faces the classic ‘great power = great responsibility’ equation, and the game allows players to rise or fall with respect to the moral imperative by taking good or evil routes through the game. They’re nudged by Cole’s former fiancee, who believes he’s responsible for the bomb blast and has to be convinced of Cole’s good nature and by a best friend that increasingly attempts to trade on Cole’s new fame as Empire City’s superpower.

There’s a lot more story here than in a game like Dead Space, and a twist worthy of M. Night Shyamalan that occurs towards the end. Visually, the hook of the game was the explosive electrical powers, odd mutant gangs that plauge Empire City and Cole’s parkour-like ability to scale walls and rooftops. There’s a lot of good action to put on screen, and the story is solid enough that this could be one of the better game-to-film adaptations.

I haven’t liked Woody Allen’s movies in quite some time maybe because he’s been trying to handle themes of crime misdemeanors instead of going with what made him cool back in the day which was dealing with relationships and the humor aspect of it all. VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA is… Woody Allen returning to his game. This is definitely one of my favorite films this year. It’s funny in a way that it makes you slightly embarrassed in a good way because either the characters remind you of someone you know, situations you may have encountered or that the dialogue is so bold and daring, you find yourself let loose and easy to give in to the temptations.

Penelope Cruz as María Elena

Most of the shots are up close, on the actors’ faces but I think Woody Allen as a director has approached this whole thing with taste and art. Now he won’t have to worry about the possibility of being labeled as an old perv.

The Decision to put the story in the beautiful land of Spain and especially Barcelona is a brilliant move by Woody Allen. The movie celebrates what the city has to offer, the wine, the music, the guitar, the art, the beautiful scenery, it’s very refreshing and carefree. The City of Barcelona should thank this movie for the free advertising.

Of all the performances, I think Penelope Cruz is the one that stands out. Javier Bardem does a good job of making us forget that he was once a creepy bad guy in No Country for Old Men, but Penelope has never really been an actress that I vouch for even after the movie Volver, but the way she carries her character in this movie is downright impressive. I can’t keep my eyes off of her every time her presence enters the screen, with such commanding power. She’s like a fire that you know you shouldn’t touch cause you might get burn, but you’re so in awe, you keep staring at her and walking closer and closer. She’s excellent as the ex-wife with mood swings. if it were up to me, I’d give her a best supporting Nomination.

The story is what’s entertaining about this movie, writer/director Woody Allen successfully brings us the funny and profound take on psychological and philosophical consequences of sex and the meaning of being in a relationship. The story says that ‘Unfulfilled Love is the Most Romantic Kind’. It may be the most romantic kind but being unfulfilled will not get you through the day cause you’ll never be happy and you’ll always be looking back for the rest of your life.

And it’s obvious from the interaction between the characters Vicky, Cristina, Juan Antonio and Elena that being in an ‘unfulfilled’ relationship will eventually cause only madness and dissatisfaction. You keep trying to make an excuse by telling yourself that if you do this then things might be all right, things could still go on like normal, you have an open mind anyway,,.. but the fact is it won’t be normal, it would be nothing short of insane, somebody would get hurt in the process. Don’t go chasing waterfalls.

With the two successful films, Underworld and Underworld: Evolution, a franchise was created. Now they’re going back to how the whole war between the vampires and the Lycans all started with the prequel Underworld: The Rise of The Lycans, which will hit theaters nationwide on January 23. I had the opportunity to head to picturesque Venice, California to preview the film at Luma Pictures, where myself and selected press members also got to chat with first-time director Patrick Tatopoulos – who is no stranger to the franchise, having created the Lycan effects for the first two films – and VFX supervisor James McQuaide. Before we got into all that, though, we were lucky enough to see two thrilling sequences from the film, which I’ll describe below.

Michael Sheen as Lucian

The first sequence we were shown features Michael Sheen as Lucian, the very first Lycan, and his new love Sonja, played by the lovely Rhona Mitra, a vampire who is forbidden to be with Lucian but goes against her father Viktor’s (Bill Nighy) will and flees with Lucian and his trusted friend Raze, played by the hulking, deep-voiced Kevin Grevioux, who has appeared in all three films and co-wrote the original Underworld film with director Len Wiseman and co-writer Danny McBride (not the funnyman Danny McBride, FYI). This scene features Lucian, Sonja and Raze slaying an army of werewolves – in gruesomely awesome fashion, might I add – when, confronted with constant werewolves, Lucian removes his shackle that prevents him from turning into a werewolf and transforms – in a rather incredible fashion, I must say – into a hulking werewolf, which obviously confuses the hell out of the werewolves that were about to attack them.

The second sequence we were shown is the start of a huge battle sequence, most likely at the end of the film. We see Bill Nighy’s Viktor perched atop his huge castle who then readies the fort for battle when an army of Lycans are storming their way. It’s a really slick sequence, and we see a number of awesome transformations as they storm this fortress. We also see a number of sweet kills, some with these ginormous crossbows that the vampires employ… and some by the Lycans when they finally scale the walls, enter the compound and start tearing some vampires to shreds… literally. While the color matching was still not that accurate, according to Tatopoulos and McQuaide, it still looked pretty damn awesome to me and, if these two scenes are indicative of the action we’ll see when this hits theaters in a few weeks, I’m pretty damn pumped to see the rest then.

After that sneak peek of awesome footage, we all turned our recorders on and fired some questions at director Patrick Tatopoulos and visual effects supervisor James McQuaide, and here’s what they both had to say about a number of aspects on this new film.

Director Patrick Tatopoulos and VFX Supervisor James McQuaide

This is your directorial debut and you’re being bestowed with an origin/prequel story, but you’re also granted this big epic The Lord of the Rings-like battle that’s referred to in the first Underworld. How did you convince them to let you direct this one?

Patrick Tatopoulos: It was actually offered to me, at some point. They came to me and said, ‘Hey you’d be a logical choice. You’ve been working on the first two movies, we’ve known each other for awhile.’ It just came to me. When I read the script and I realized it was going to be about werewolves than anything else, I got excited about it. This is kind of all my stuff. It’s so interesting when you say The Lord of the Rings, because I don’t see it like that. I think it’s more like Gangs of New York with werewolves. It’s smaller, with clans fighting each other. The scale feels really big at the end. It’s like 300 werewolves versus 300 vampires. So I didn’t want the scale to feel ridiculous, just to be able to do it properly. The key for me was to do a movie that was a little more different than the two first ones. I don’t know what I could do to do another one like the first two ones. I was excited because it was a chance to retain the style but to do something fresh and new. That’s what was exciting to me.

It seems that a nasty lawsuit that threatened the March 6 release of Watchmen might be settled out of court. According to Associated Press, attorneys on both sides of the Fox/Warner Bros. lawsuit over the upcoming Watchmen film say that settlement talks have been quite productive.

A hearing was scheduled for today, but attorneys for both Fox and Warner Bros. asked U.S. District Judge Gary Allan Feess to delay the hearing so settlement talks could continue over the weekend. Feess agreed, but did indicate that a January 20 hearing is still scheduled to determine if the March 6 release will be blocked or not.

Fox lawyer Lou Karasik said that the delay would be “very very helpful” to the settlement talks, which he said were “productive.” Fox originaly brought the lawsuit up in February, claiming that the studio still had rights to the film which Warner Bros. is releasing. Feess agreed last month that Fox still seemed to have the rights to distribute the film.

Leonardo DiCaprio is set to play a former hit-man in Beat the Reaper, according to Variety.

Leo will star as a contract killer who enters the witness protection program and becomes a doctor. He is drawn into his former world however when a mobster recognizes the medic from his former life.

The New Regency film is based on the novel by real-life doctor Josh Bazell, with the tome is set for publication next year.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Ex-Hitman in his new project

Paramount Pictures has just released the brand new one-sheet teaser poster for Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, which is set for release on June 26, 2009. Click below to enlarge this brand new one-sheet.

Transformers 2 - Teaser Poster

Pat Hingle, known to many for his appearance in the 1990s Batman series of films as Commissioner Gordon, passed away Saturday, January 3, 2008 following a long battle with blood cancer. The Press Association reports that Hingle, 84, passed away in his home in Carolina Beach.

A family spokesperson says that Hingle had been diagnosed with myelodysplasia in November 2006. Hingle had lived in Carolina Beach since 1986. He settled in the town in North Carolina after completing filming of Maximum Overdrive.

Pat Hingle - The Batman

Jennifer’s Body, the upcoming dark comedy/horror film by Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody, has been set for a September 2009 release date.

Fox Atomic now has the Megan Fox flick penciled in for September 18, 2009. The move may raise some eyebrows among film enthusiast who are well aware that September has been traditionally considered a dumping ground for movies in which studios have little confidence.

The new date will put it up against the offbeat CG-animated comedy Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, the heist thriller Armored, and the Soderberg-directed Matt Damon thriller The Informant.

Jennifer’s Body stars Fox as a sexy cheerleader who is possessed by a demon and starts feeding off the boys in a small Minnesota farming town. Her “plain Jane” best friend (played by Mean Girls’ Amanda Seyfried) must kill her, then escape from a correctional facility to go after the Satan-worshipping rock band responsible for the horrible transformation.