Creative Loafing presents Ed Loves Bacon

The Cast of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

There’s a lot of grumbling and groans about the upcoming film G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra floating around the web and for while I’ve been trying to keep my cup of “Joe” half full. But after watching the latest trailer for the movie, I too had to start jeering this re-imagining of one of my favorite childhood cartoons.

In this trailer, we see Duke (Channing Tatum), Ripcord (Marlon Wayans) and Scarlett (Rachel Nichols) show some skin as they work out. The antics are just laughable and goes against the tone of the previous clips which focus more on the Joe’s fight against the terrorist exploits of Cobra.

Earlier trailers for the movie featured amazing disaster sequences with explosions and destruction reigning around the world. It sets up the need for an elite U.S. covert ops team, the Joes to come save the day. From there is a lot of foot-to-ass fight sequences and car chases which always make me eager to buy a ticket. For future reference,  cars+explosions+kickass = ed happy, but this new trailer is just bad – its venomous crap and makes the movie seem more of a farce than most fans originally anticipated it to be.

The film is seems to be inspired loosely by Hasbro’s G.I. Joe Sigma Six franchise which appeared in comics, cartoons and of course action figures. In Sigma Six, the Joes use special gauntlets which activate special devices, artillery and armor to thwart their foes. This is a far departure from the original animated series and 80’s serial comic book which portrayed Cobra as a blundering corp of egotistical villains. The movie trailers don’t seem have that tone and more importantly, evolved the group into a worldwide organization that knows how to put the terror in terrorist.

For those of us who enjoyed the tongue and cheek 80’s cartoon, G.I. Joe, Season 1.1 was released last week. The 4-disc set features some the series’ multi-part, serial episodes as well other memorable individual episodes.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra hits theaters in wide release August 7, 2009

Nick Cage has decided that he’ll muddy the water’s once again with sequel to the 2007 bomb Ghost Rider with a sequel, Ghost Rider 2 (no colon and subtitle as of yet).

According to brief interview with MTV during the promotional tour for his latest film G-Force, Cage mentioned he would like to deviate from the “western” feel the first movie had and steer it towards a more “international” view.

In Ghost Rider, Cage plays Johnny Blaze, a daredevil motorcyclist who at a young age sold his soul to the devil. In return for Satan’s favor, he’s impervious to harm and channels an inner demon who acts as a bounty hunter for fugitive demons.

According the IMDB, no information is available for the project, meaning Cage is still fishing looking for a writer and director to helm the project.

Here’s the MTV interview where Cage spoke briefly on the subject and what he’d like to see happen with the direction of the franchise.

STRIKE A POSE: Noah Ringer portrays Aang in The Last Airbender

Paramount released the first teaser trailer of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender earlier this week. The film is a live-action adaptation of the Emmy Award-winning animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender which ran three seasons on the Nickelodeon kid’s network and continues in reruns on Nick and Nicktoons channels.

In the animated version, Avatar tells the story of Aang, a young boy with the ability to control the elements of water, fire, earth and air. Instead of accepting his avatar mantle, Aang runs away and due to an accident, he’s encased in ice for 100 years. Once awakened,  Aang learns he’s the last of his tribe and starts on a journey to fulfill his destiny, and restore balance to the world that has been overrun by the Fire Nation.

The Live-Action version of the film was written by the animated show’s creator, Michael Dante DiMartin and stars newcomer Noah Ringer as Aang.

The Last Airbender is scheduled for release on July 2, 2010.

As part of the official movie site for Fox’s upcoming teen film, I Love You, Beth Cooper, Hayden Panettiere encourages teens to submit their own video confessions or “Moments of Truth” to be featured in an upcoming commercial for the film.

You can go to the official movie website and click “submit” to post your own video, view submission or if you prefer to be anonymous, you can tweet your moment of truth via the Twitter interface on the page.

According IMDB Here’s what ILUBC is all about:

A nerdy valedictorian proclaims his love for the hottest and most popular girl in school – Beth Cooper (Panettiere) – during his graduation speech. Much to his surprise, Beth shows up at his door that very night and decides to show him the best night of his life.

Definitely one for teens, but the moments of truth submissions (Twitter and YouTube) are pretty interesting.

Atlantans love a good party and last week people came out to groove for a good cause.

On Thursday, April 30, people headed to Johns Creek, Ga for a special benefit screening of Screen Media’s upcoming film, Love N’ Dancing. Afterwards party-goers enjoyed a night a great food and dancing as part of the star-filled event at the Daza Dance Ballroom Academy. Portions of the proceeds will benefit The Creative Coalition, a non-profit arts advocacy organization.

According to the studio release, Love N’ Dancing adds a new twist to traditional dance-to-romance movies:

LOVE N’ DANCING is the story of a bored-with-life English teacher who meets a West Coast Swing champion dancer, who have an instant connection. Both feel that the other can fulfill what was missing in their lives. But Jessica’s got a workaholic fiancée who’s not a bad guy when he’s not on his Blackberry, and Jake’s got his former partner Corinne, who just won’t let Jake away from the dangling carrot of a rekindled relationship. Jake and Jessica must try to elude all obstacles, romantic or otherwise, to stay focused on the goal – winning the World Title and winning each other. Will they give in to the pressure or come out like champs?

Love N’ Dancing stars Amy Smart, Tom Malloy, Billy Zane, Caroline Rhea and Rachel Dratch. The film opens in theaters Friday, May 8, 2009.  (All photos by Jeremy Adamo).

Amy Smart and Tom Malloy, co-stars of LOVE N’ DANCING, arriving on red carpet at Daza Dance Ballroom Academy

Amy Smart, Robert Royson (choreographer), Liz Chester (co-owner of Daza Dance Academy), Tom Malloy, and Antonio Daza (co-owner Daza Dance Academy) on red carpet.

Liz Chester (4th from left) and guests enjoying dance demonstrations at red carpet after party at Daza Dance Ballroom Academy

West Coast Swing Champions Jordan Frisbee and Tatiana Mollman performing at red carpet after party at Daza Dance Ballroom Academy.

Brad Pitt motivates the troops.

During last week’s American Idol competition, Fox aired the latest trailer and exclusive clips from Quentin Tarantino’s latest film Inglourious Basterds.

The movie revolves around an American-Jewish military task force sent to Paris to provoke fear into the Nazis by brutally scalping soldiers. The movie stars Brad Pitt and Diane Kruger.

Check out the official website to view the latest video. Inglorious Basterds hits theaters August 21, 2009.

Geek blogs blew up over the weekend posting the latest images from Guillermo Del Toro’s upcoming film, Splice. The movie is directed by Vincenzo Natali and stars Adrian Brody and Sarah Polley. From what I’ve read on Ain’t It Cool News and Bloody Disgusting, its your typical “renegade geneticist create a new life form by splicing human and animal DNA only to find in horror the error of their ways” movie. Here’s the official description taken from Geeks of Doom:

The film is about Elsa and Clive, two young rebellious scientists, defy legal and ethical boundaries and forge ahead with a dangerous experiment: splicing together human and animal DNA to create a new organism. Named Dren, the creature rapidly develops from a deformed female infant into a beautiful but dangerous winged human-chimera, who forges a bond with both of her creators – only to have that bond turn deadly.

No release dates have been given for the film.

One of the larger criticisms of movies adapted from books, especially comic books, is so much of the character, plot and subtext is lost in translation when adapting the story to a general audience.

When news of Watchmen, probably the most popular graphic novels of all time was slated to become a live-action feature film, fanboys around the web lit up bulletin boards speculating how on Earth would they be able to pull this off. Watchmen is not one story, but a series of subplots, wrapped around the main plot -  an enigmatic murder of a retired costumed hero. To make it even more conflicting, there’s a completely separate comic book, The Black Freighter wrapped within the book. Watchmen fans were buzzing and practically demanded the essence of their beloved comic not be butchered in Zach Snyder’s version.

Warner Premiere’s Watchmen: The Motion Comic is a modestly animated, unabridged version of the book. The DVD is true to the novel and breaks the story down into twelve chapters on two discs. Every single frame of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s graphic novel has been brought to life with seemingly low-tech finesse reminiscent of cartoons from the mid 60’s circa Marvel’s Spider-man, The Incredible Hulk and The Mighty Thor. Unlike a cartoon, the animation relies on the composition of the comic book cells completely. This includes the original drawings, the text bubbles and even narration boxes to create the illusion.

You definitely appreciate the brevity of film as you make your way through the chapters. The entire series is over five hours long and has a series of lull points where the story meanders during character subplots. Still, the novelty of the concept will hold your interest and get you through the slow spots.

While so much attention is given to the visual elements in the series, its surprising and disappointing that very little depth was added to the audio. Sure, the original soundtrack complements the animation brilliantly and every “zap” and “boom” is there for added effect. However, voice acting range for the characters is unfortunately missing. Instead of the expected movie cast voicing the characters, the entire series is voiced by one person. TV veteran actor Tom Stechschulte lends his talents to define each character which gets a bit unnerving at times as he voices everyone from a pubescent Silk Specter to a middle aged African-American psychologist, Dr. Malcolm Long analyzing costumed vigilante, Rorschach. Eventually his voice blends completely into the canvas of the picture and you rarely notice effort he provided.

I was surprised that no special features were included on the DVD. There are trailers for Warner Premiere’s The Black Freighter, a full length animated feature taken from the Watchmen novel, and the highly anticipated Wonder Woman but there are no interviews or behind the scenes offerings.

Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic can be considered a comic book fan’s dream come true, but it offers very little to someone who is not a fan of animation or the book. If you’re not interested in reading the graphic novel, this is a great primer to wet your appetite for the upcoming film.

[rating: 4]

Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic, directed by Jake S. Hughes, starring Tom Stechshulte, 325 minutes. Not Rated. List Price $19.99. Blu-Ray $26.99. Individual chapters available on iTunes $1.99 each.

(Image courtesy doyouhavethecrazy.com)

Directed by local filmmakers David Bruckner, Jacob Gentry and Dan Bush, The Signal took a while to reach theaters but it’s finally hitting the big screen (albeit in limited-release form) this weekend.

The directors, as well as one of the producers for the movie, Alex Motlagh dropped by the CL offices and sat down to talk cult movies, low-budget horror, and stereotypes.

The movie was shot on location right here in Atlanta, so, even though it might not be suitable for all ages (or tastes, for that matter) go see it. Support the local talent. For a trailer, and to read more about the film, head on over to PopSmart.

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Hello world!

We might as well start off as if this were our first episode. It’s been a while huh? Well we’ve been working waaay too much but we managed to get together for you all another amazin’ episode of Ed Loves Bacon (ELB for short, tho I know how Ed hates that acronym).

Anyway people, this week Ed sat down with Jason Schwartzman who’s in the new film The Darjeeling Limited. He talked to us about the movie, filming in India, a crazy river scene, and he managed to squeeze in some details about his side project, Coconut Records, his one-man band.

He even let us play one of his songs for you, “West Side,” so check that out after the interview.

Show links:

• jason-schwartzman.com
• youngbabyrecords.com – his very own label
• Hotel Chevalier – A sexy short that serves as prequel to The Darjeeling Limited, with Jason and the beatiful Natalie Portman (iTunes link).
• The Darjeeling Limited - Trailer at apple.com

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