Beowulf
IMAX 3D
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Starring Ray Winstone, Angelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins, Robin Wright Penn
Rated PG-13
Release date: Nov. 16, 2007

Before the dissection begins, allow me to give you my overall generic gut-instinct first-impression sentiment: Beowulf is an amazing movie that’s visually stunning and highly engrossing; I totally recommend it, especially in IMAX 3D. I preface my review with this simple statement because no matter what else I say about the movie in the next 800 or so words, I know damn well that when Beowulf comes out on DVD, I’m going to own it and when Beowulf airs on cable television, I’ll watch it every time it’s on just because it’s on … because it’s entertaining.

But Beowulf is no ordinary film. It’s controversial not for its violence and nudity or any artistic liberties taken in translating the sixth-century Old English poem onto the big screen. Nope, it’s causing a stir because it’s an animated movie that refuses to accept that its an animated movie, therefore, the audience can’t accept it either.

Here’s why: For the entire film, director Robert Zemeckis employed motion (or performance) capture technology, a technique that has live actors wear special “marking” suits that digitally capture their motions and those movements are then used to create animated characters. This type of filmmaking is perfect for creating characters like Gollum in Lord of the Rings and the hideous monster Grendel in Beowulf, because it allows an actor to deliver a true-life performance for a creature … something that only exists through an artist’s palate. But using motion capture to render near-perfect human replicas on screen, placing them in realistic-looking CGI settings is where the conflict lies. How real should an animation appear? How real should an animation attempt to be?

It’s that time again boys and girls. Time for another installment of Dr. Royce Clemen’s self-flagellating foray into the disparate corners of the Hellraiser DVD omnibus… The Hellraiser Project.

Come along with us if you dare, and witness the slow, excruciatingly painful dissection of Hellraiser: Inferno — now available exclusively at our partners in prostration, Fatally-Yours.com:

The Hellraiser Project, Part V: Hellraiser: Inferno

You can follow the trail of blood and gore all the way back to the very beginning with Dr. Clemen’s previously penned perception pieces on these perversions of Panovision… [breath] … here:

The Hellraiser Project, Part I: Hellraiser
The Hellraiser Project, Part II: Hellraiser: Hellbound
The Hellraiser Project, Part III: Hellraiser: Hell on Earth
The Hellraiser Project, Part IV: Hellraiser: Bloodline

Warner Bros. has announced that casting for the sixth Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is complete.

New cast members for the sixth installment, based on the best-selling novel by J.K. Rowling, include Jim Broadbent and Helen McCrory. Broadbent will play, Horace Slughorn, the new potions professor who gives Harry Potter an old Potions textbook that had once belonged to the a former student known only as “The Half-Blood Prince.” McCrory, who was originally cast to play Bellatrix Lestrange in the fifth film, but had to bow out after she became pregnant, appears in the sixth film as Narcissa Malfoy, mother to Draco, wife to Lucius, and sister to the wicked Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter).

Several young newcomers will be making their feature film debuts in the film, directed by David Yates. Jessie Cave won the role of Lavender Brown, a fellow Hogwarts student who becomes Ron Weasley’s (Rupert Grint) love interest; 16-year-old Frank Dillane will a teenage Tom Riddle, who is already on the path to becoming the evil Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes); and Fiennes’s 9-year-old nephew, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, will appear as a young Riddle at age 11.

Cinematical nabbed the exclusive on the poster for the big-screen adaptation of Get Smart, the spy comedy starring Steve Carell as Agent Maxwell Smart and Anne Hathaway as Agent 99.

Check out the poster at right and click for large view; also, watch the trailer.

The remake, which also stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Terrence Stamp, Alan Arkin and Masi Oka, hits theaters June 20, 2008.

The film will include an origin story on how Smart became an agent and how he met 99. The two secret agents will still work for CONTROL and KAOS is still the enemy. Smart’s shoe-phone and Cone of Silence will also make an appearance.

AOL Movies has posted the first trailer for The Other Boleyn Girl, starring Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, and Eric Bana.

In the movie, based on the best-selling historical fiction novel by Philippa Gregory, Portman plays Anne Boleyn, the famously beheaded wife of King Henry VIII (played by Bana) and mother of Queen Elizabeth I. Johansson portrays Anne’s lesser-known sister, Mary, who’s in competition with her sister for the King’s attention.

I really enjoyed the book and it while we know it’s historical “fiction,” there’s still a lot of fact in there. We learn about the ambitious Boleyn family, including the sisters’ father, uncle, and brother, and how their plots to control a kingdom destroyed them. Judging by the trailer, the movie (directed by Justin Chadwick) looks great. I’m definitely looking forward to this one.

You can watch the trailer here after the jump, or view it at AOL in HD.

The Other Boleyn Girl hits theaters February 29, 2008.