Sherlock Holmes - New Trailer Is Best One Yet.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

If Sherlock Holmes, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law isn't on your list of must sees for the Christmas Holidays, it should be after you watch this latest trailer, which is simply fantastic.

In a dynamic new portrayal of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous characters, “Sherlock Holmes” sends Holmes and his stalwart partner Watson on their latest challenge. Revealing fighting skills as lethal as his legendary intellect, Holmes will battle as never before to bring down a new nemesis and unravel a deadly plot that could destroy the country.

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Technorati Tags: sherlock holmes,robert downey jr,jude law,rachel mcadams,guy ritchie,christmas day,mark strong,warner bros,riesen2b

Yankees Win 27th Championship! Celebrate With "The Pride Of The Yankees!

Movie Poster For "The Pride of the Yankees" starring Gary Cooper                                      Image via Wikipedia

Time to celebrate the Yankee's 27th World Championship in Major League Baseball with one of the greatest baseball films ever made, presented by Hulu.com.

The Pride of the Yankees is a 1942 biographical film directed by Sam Wood about the New York Yankees baseball player, first baseman Lou Gehrig, who had his career cut short at 37 years of age when he was stricken with the fatal disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (later to become known as "Lou Gehrig's Disease"). The movie was released the year after Gehrig's death. It stars Gary Cooper as Gehrig and co-stars Teresa Wright as his wife Eleanor and Walter Brennan as a sportswriter friend. Yankee teammates Babe Ruth, Bob Meusel, Mark Koenig and Bill Dickey play themselves, as does sportscaster Bill Stern. The movie was adapted by Herman J. Mankiewicz, Jo Swerling, and an uncredited Casey Robinson from a story by Paul Gallico. The film includes a re-enactment of Gehrig's farewell speech in Yankee Stadium. The famous line "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth" was voted #38 in the American Film Institute (AFI) list of the 100 greatest movie quotes of all time.

In Gehrig's actual speech on July 4, 1939, the line "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth" was actually at the beginning of the speech but was moved to the end of the speech in the movie.

Here is the text of the actual speech given that day by Gehrig:

Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.

Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball's greatest empire, Ed Barow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I'm lucky.

When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift - that's something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies — that's something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter — that's something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body — it's a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed - that's the finest I know.

So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for.

Technorati Tags: new york yankees,world champions,27th world championship,gary cooper,pride of the yankees,fancast.com

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Angelina Jolie is "Salt". She Is One KickAzz Spy!

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In Columbia Pictures' Salt, Angelina Jolie stars as Evelyn Salt, a CIA officer who swore an oath to duty, honor, and country. When she is accused by a defector of being a Russian sleeper spy, Salt goes on the run to clear her name and ultimately prove she is a patriot. Using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative, she must elude capture and protect her husband or the world's most powerful forces will erase any trace of her existence.

The good news is that this trailer is pretty exciting.  Angelina Jolie  once again plays one of those kickass heroines that she has played in the past.  The bad news is that we will have to wait until July 23, 2010 to see her.

Technorati Tags: columbia pictures,action,thriller,angelina jolie,liev schreiber,chiwetel ejiofor,release date,cia,spy,kickass,kickazz,riesen2b

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Hosts For 2010 Academy Awards Announced.

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If you thought that Neil Patrick Harris was heading for a third duty as host of a major awards show, think again.  And for those web sites that fed the rumor of Billy Crystal returning for Oscar® festivities, well you're wrong.  If you bet on David Letterman as a longshot host, you lost your money.

In fact, it was announced today that there will be two hosts this year.  Steve Martin returns for the third time as host of the 82nd Oscars® along with first time host Alec Baldwin.  The news was announced today by show producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman.  The producers remarked that "Steve will bring the experience of having hosted the show in the past, and Alec will be a completely fresh personality for this event."  Martin previously hosted the awards show in 2001 and 2003 while Baldwin has been a presenter in the past, most recently in 2004.

Some years have seen multiple hosts, such as in 1987 when Chevy Chase, Goldie Hawn, and Paul Hogan shared the duties.  In 1957 Jerry Lewis and Celeste Holm were co-hosts in a ceremony that took place on both the east and west coasts.  This will be the first time that two hosts have shared the same locale on Oscar® Night in 80 years, when Douglas Fairbanks and William C. Demille shared the spotlight at the very first awards ceremony in 1929.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, both Martin and Baldwin have considerable experience in the live telecast realm, with Martin hosting Saturday Night Live 15 times and Baldwin 14.  I wasn't surprised with Martin's tally but Baldwin caught me off guard.  The two stars are also appearing together in Nancy Meyer's comedy "It's Complicated," starring Meryl Streep, which Universal will release in December.

The 82nd Oscars® will be held March 7 and broadcast live by ABC from the Kodak Theatre.

To watch some great clips from past awards shows, go to the official Oscar® You Tube page at http://www.youtube.com/user/oscars?blend=3&ob=4#p/u/6/QJaOo5jw6cI

Technorati Tags: academy awards,oscars,steve martin,alec baldwin,neil patrick harris,david letterman,billy crystal,chevy chase,goldie hawn,jerry lewis,saturday night live,riesen2b,awards,kodak theatre

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Watch The Rifleman With Chuck Connors On Hulu.

From 1958 until 1963 western fans were able to take great pleasure every week when "The Rifleman" aired on ABC.  A production of Four Star Television, it starred Chuck Connors as Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son Mark.

The series revolved around McCain and his son on their ranch near North Fork, New Mexico.  McCain's trademark was a modified Winchester Model 1892 rifle with a trigger mechanism allowing for rapid-fire shots.  Connors demonstrated its rapid-fire action during the opening credits as McCain dispatched an unseen bad guy on North Fork's main street.

Turns out that Hulu.Com currently has 50 episodes available for free viewing.  Start your journey by watching "The Sharpshooter" it's pilot episode and the first to air on ABC.

 

In this episode,  Lucas and Mark decide to enter a local turkey shoot to raise money to buy a ranch.  Go to Hulu.com to see more episodes.

Technorati Tags: the rifleman,chuck connors,johnny crawford,abc,four star productions,classic tv western,lucas mccain,riesen2b

 

The Land That Time Forgot: Movie Review

 

Cover via Amazon

 

 

When it comes to doing movie reviews, television reviews, or any other kind of media reviews, I have to admit that I pale in comparison with the reviews that my brother writes at Clyde's Movie Palace which you can see by going to http://clydemovies.blogspot.com/.  Not only are his reviews well thought out, but they are also well written and entertaining.  I don't have the patience when writing that he has to explain everything or to gather images from the film that highlight parts of the movies that he may be discussing.  That is why I post so few actual reviews on my blog. 

So, why am I writing a review on a movie from 1975 that most of you would probably never think of watching unless you were desperate?  I would feel the same way because I know what kind of schlock movies American International used to release and ultimately, old dinosaur B-movies have never really been my thing ever since the Jurassic Park movies were released.

Well, today I was at Wal-Mart looking for season three of Mannix (which they didn't have) and while I was there I was lookin in what they call their dump bin (if you have ever looked at the price tag on these films, you sometimes see it labeled as such), which in essence is their bin for five dollar DVD's.  I just happened to see what MGM called their Midnight Madness Double Feature DVD, which contained "THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT", along with "THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT."  I have no ideal what prompted me to buy this over so many other selections, other than I guess I must have been in the mood for some schlocky B-movies.

When everyone else went to bed, I popped it in the player, amd began to expect the worse.  The first 30 minutes of the movie barely held my interest, and that deals with their journey to the land, but from then on end it was full blown entertainment.

Watch "The Land Before Time" Here, Courtesy Of Hulu.Com. Try Before You Buy!

 

The movie begins with Doug McClure as Bowen Tyler narrating the events.  The story takes place during World War I and opens with the sinking of a British Merchant ship being sunk by a German U-Boat.  There are just a handful of survivors as the ship was laden with military weapons which caused the ship to sink abruptly when struck.  The survivors are able to take over the submarine when it surfaces.  (A little ludicrous but essential to the story continuing.) 

However, the Germans, by sabotaging the compass are able to send the British on the wrong course and eventually regain control of the ship which was in actuality heading for a supply ship.  It is only when Tyler manages to sink the supply ship that the British and Germans must work together in order to survive, as their supplies and fuel are running low.

Drifting in the South Atlantic, the ship arrives at an uncharted island called Caprona, a fantastical land of lush vegetation where dinosaurs still roam, co-existing with primitive man. There are also reserves of oil which, if the Germans and British can work together, can refine and escape the island.

The rest of the film deals with how the crew deals with the dinosaurs, the warring factions of different tribes of primitive man, and how they go about the task of refining the oil that one of the primitive men,  Ahm (Bobby Parr), led them to.  Poor Ahm suffers a terrible fate in the jaws of a massive pterodactyl.

Going into to much more of the film would give away the ending.  So instead of doing that I will tell you what it is about the movie that I liked.

It has to do with the special effects, which for 1975, and especially since the film was from American International, were pretty much top notch.  The dinosaurs were surprisingly well done, and the green screen and rear projection as well as the matte shots  that was done in the film were of such quality that I often could not tell  that any of it was being done. 

Most dinosaur films during that time, and earlier, were usually done with stop-motion animation, just like the original King Kong and the present day The Nightmare Before Christmas.  Of course this always resulted in somewhat jittery images of the creatures that has something to do with your brain noticing the lack of blur that would normally occur with actual movement. 

Another trick that they used back then was to use actual animals on model sets and then would either the earlier mentioned processes.  In the cases of dinosaurs they would take lizards and attach spiny plastic backbones or whatever to give them more the appearance of being a prehistoric creature.  This was probably the worse of the special effects and was really hilarious.

In The Land Before Time they used puppets and while the close up images of the dinosaurs teeth were pretty lousy looking, the medium and long shocks were pretty impressive.  Plus, throughout the film there was a good variety of the prehistoric creatures.

The set designs and scenery used on the film were spectacular.  The integration between actual location shots, stage shots, and matte paintings were so good that I actually never thought about what was real and what wasn't, something that I usually take notice of right away.

The acting is not great, but at the same time wasn't that terrible either.  Besides Doug McClure, the film also starred John McEnery as Captain Von Schoenvorts, Susan Penhaligon as Lisa Clayton, and Keith Barron as Bradley.  Stuart Whitman was originally slated for the role of Tyler.  This being an adventure film, the acting wasn't vital to enjoying it.  After all, look at the acting in the original trilogy of Star War's.  The acting of Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher wasn't exactly Shakespeare.

 

So, I have to say for a film that I had no faith in, I have to admit that I really enjoyed it, as well as the sequel,  The People That Time Forgot which I ended up watching shortly after I began the beginning of this review.  That film, which starred John Wayne' son, Patrick Wayne, as well as Superman II villainess Ursa (Sarah Douglas) had something going for it that this film didn't in the form of a young sexy cavewoman played by Dana Gillespie.  I'll write a review on that film maybe in the future.

For now, the Blog-o-Rama finishes it's review of The Land That Time Forgot by awarding it an "B+" in it's B-movie reviews.

Technorati Tags: the land that time forgot,dana gillespie,doug mcclure,science fiction,edgar rice burroughs,dinosaurs,prehistoric man,riesen2b

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