Korner 25

Welcome to Kevin’s Korner, your first stop for all that is geeky in movies and TV. It’s been a crazy week this week for movies, with Netflix losing their minds, more leaks and some crazy remake news popping out. Also, I’m in the bay area of Florida, so, sports is a tough subject for me this week. On top of that, the countdown is down to four days until I tie the knot, so it’s getting all kinds of serious (and for the record, it will be nothing like the marriage between the Doctor and River). So, with all that said, I’ve got some news, some videos, some box office info and plenty more for your viewing pleasure. Let’s get to it.

Qwikster is dead in the water – Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has lost his mind. It started a few months ago with the monstrous price increase, making the streaming service a paid service, and affecting many of its subscribers by implementing up to a 60% increase. After way more customers dropped Netflix than they thought, Hastings apologized. In his apology, he found a way to further infuriate his customers by announcing that Netflix’s core service, the bright red envelopes would know no longer be Netflix, instead, they would be something completely different, called Qwikster. Qwikster, besides sounding dumb, would mean all your billing info, your movie ratings and DVD Queue would be separate from the streaming service called Netflix. It was a way of separating the mail service, which will surely start to go away as the streaming service becomes more popular. (They should’ve known it was a bad idea after discovering some guy already had Qwikster as a Twitter handle.) Now, Hastings has realized this newest mistake after many have complained, and has killed the name Qwikster. I envision his marketing team as a bunch of people who have now turned to copious amounts of alcohol to get through the day.

While I commend Hastings for realizing this stupid mistake before it was too late, it now makes Netflix, a company once praised for its innovation and forward thinking as being run by an indecisive 6-year old. Of course Netflix’s stock prices have reflected a similar sentiment, dropping like a stone. As one of the people who canceled, it just makes me shake my head in disbelief at how poorly the company has made their decisions. I may eventually sign back up for the streaming service, I’m still kind of mad, and at the moment, I’m not really missing the limited selection of movies they had. On a brighter note, they are now streaming the first season of AMC’s The Walking Dead, so party on there.

Pete Travis: “I am the law,” Producers: “Nope.” – The movie “Dredd,” starring Carl Urban as Judge Dredd was looking promising. It promised to forget about the really cheesy Sylvester Stallone film, and there was no hint of Rob Schneider. Now, however, there seems to be a dark cloud over the movie, and not in a stylistic, gritty, Nolan kinda way. It was made official that director Pete Travis was given the pink slip after he couldn’t agree with the producers of the film, regarding creative issues. It sounds like the producers attached to the film will finish editing the film, and possibly seek a “co-director” credit.

Woman sues over misleading trailer – You know, the promotional material designed to get you to come to the movie theater? Well, it did its job, but apparently, Sarah Deming didn’t like what she saw. She was, according to a lawsuit, led to believe the movie Drive would be a “Fast and Furious type movie, or similar,” and what she got was a movie that had very little driving and “extreme gratuitous defamatory dehumanizing racism directed against members of the Jewish faith, and thereby promoted criminal violence against members of the Jewish faith.” So, she wants her money back, and wants to create a class-action lawsuit to ban misleading trailers.

While I do agree misleading trailers are annoying, suing over them just makes me want to smack that woman upside her head. It isn’t up to the trailer to inform you as to the exact plot, and the exact nature of the film, merely to get you to the seat. You need to use your own brain to figure out whether you will like it or not, or, maybe read a review. Suing over the fact you didn't like the trailer just seems to be one of the biggest problems in society today. Just accept the fact you wasted $10 and get online and bitch about it like everyone else.

Since we’re on the subject, what is one trailer you found really misleading? I think, for me, it was The Village. While I liked the movie, and don’t dislike the Shamhammer, that trailer made it look like a horror film, not a drama with some suspense in the middle. While I felt slightly mislead, I wasn’t going to sue, and I was glad I saw it anyway.

Iron Man himself not happy about the sequel - If you have seen the Iron Man movies, you would know the first is one of the better comic book movies you will find, with the second, well, it left something to be desired. Apparently, Tony Stark himself agreed. Robert Downey Jr. was talking about the sequel and how some pieces of the film were shot before the script was done, leaving certain pieces feeling blah. Downey said "The first one changed everything for me, and the second, there were some aspects that were dissatisfying and disappointing."

Doctor Who goes 'Tick Tock' - Check out this fan video of series 6 of Doctor Who. If you haven't seen the end of the series yet, this video has some SPOILERS. And, if you haven't seen it, you don't know what you are missing. I'm very sorry if this song is stuck in your head.




Man of Steel gets some pics - Check out Henry Cavill as a bearded Clark Kent. The more I see, the more I like Cavill as Supes. I just wish we didn't have to sit through an origin story.

Also, check out Amy Adams as a ginger Lois Lane. I love Adams, and I think she's talented and will do a great job, but I will admit, she would not have been who I expected in the role of the intrepid reporter.

In preparation for Halloween, there are a few things that have to happen. Number one, you have to carve a pumpkin. It doesn’t have to be good, trust me. Second, you have to buy candy, just incase you get trick or treaters. Third, you need to watch some good scary movies. There have been tons of blogs, talking about what movies to watch for the all hallowed eve, so, I figured I would give you mine. This way, you can start preparing now.

1) Paranormal Activity – Few movies made me come home from a midnight showing and turn on the lights in the house. This movie did a great job of amping up the tension throughout the entire film to an amazing, haunting, eerily unsatisfying conclusion. My sister had nightmares for weeks, and she’s in her mid-twenties.

2) The Descent – This film was extremely unsettling. The end played with your mind, and there was blood, lots of blood, and some creepy little guys that came out of the dark, but possibly the scariest thing for me was the feeling of claustrophobia this film gave me. There was a scene or two I had to tell me self to breath because I felt like the room was closing on me.

3) Blair Witch Project – This film made me never want to go into the woods again. Ever. From the continued increase in tension to the unsettling, unseen horror, this film was truly scary to me.

4) Halloween – When I was young, this movie scared the crap out of me. Now, film is getting a bit out-dated, but it is still all kinds of fun to watch, and is considered a true classic of modern horror, and a must-see for Halloween time.

5) Saw – This one I thought really captures cinemas modern view on horror. While the first one wasn’t nearly as gory as the 27 thousand sequels it spawned, I thought the terror and plot more than made it for it.

Also fun: Trick ‘R Treat, I thought was a silly, fun Halloween movie that captures some classic Halloween motifs. Also, The Room. I know what you are thinking, it’s not a horror film, but trust me, once you’ve seen Tommy Wiseau, you will be afraid.

Box Office Breakdown – Real Steel wins
Pretty impressive for a film that started out as a movie based on Rock-‘em Sock-‘em Robots, eh? Yeah, I know the story was based off a Richard Matheson story, but it started because film execs wanted a robot fighting story. They got it, and it looks like it did pretty well, beating out the George Clooney and Ryan Gosling political movie The Ides of March.

1. Real Steel - $23.7 million ($23.7 million total)
2. The Ides of March - $10.4 million ($10.4 million total)
3. Dolphin Tale - $9.2 million ($49.1 million total)
4. Moneyball - $7.5 million ($49.3 million total)
5. 50/50 - $5.5 million ($17.3 million total)
6. Courageous - $4.6 million ($15.9 million total)
7. The Lion King 3D - $4.6 million ($414.5 million total)
8. Dream House - $4.5 million ($14.5 million total)
9. What's Your Number? – $3.1 million ($10.3 million total)
10. Abduction - $2.9 million ($23.4 million total)

DVD's hitting Shelves today

Horrible Bosses
The Tree of Life

Zookeeper

Green Lanter

Bones: Season 6

Chuck: Season 4

The Trip

Workaholics: Season one

Trailer of the Week: The Raven or John Cusack, with a beard.
The movie stars Cusack as Edgar Allen Poe, the famous poet who, in this film looks to be part author, and part Sherlock Holmes. The film has some creepy scenes, based on the trailer. What do you think? Worth watching, come March?