Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn
Blu-ray Edition
Directed by Sam Raimi
Starring Bruce Campbell, Kassie DePaiva, Danny Hicks, Sarah Berry, Ted Raimi
Anchor Bay Entertainment
Available Now

Every once in a great while, a groundbreaking film comes along that redefines a genre and changes the way people think about film as a whole. Director Sam Raimi‘s Evil Dead II is the sequel to that film.

Generally considered to be the best out of the Evil Dead trilogy, Evil Dead II follows the chainsaw-wielding anti-hero Ash Williams Bruce Campbell as he fights his way through another nightmarish evening at that deadite-infested cabin in the woods. Filled with insane amounts of gore, self-mutilation, and laugh out loud humor, it has garnered a cult following that essentially overshadows most of Campbell’s other work. Campy and exaggerated, Evil Dead II originally proved that it is in fact possible to poke fun at a genre of film while still remaining in said genre. Sure it’s an acquired taste, but I have it, as evident by my signed and personalized picture of Campbell hanging next to my bed.

The NY Post was able to sit down with Spider-Man 4 producer Todd Black and get some answers to some of the big rumors that have been floating around the Internet for the past couple of months. Namely: the inclusion or departure of Kirsten Dunst; the use of the vampire Morbius as a villain; and something about a wedding for Peter Parker and Mary Jane. Black was able to handle all of these rumors with ease.

He announced that Kirsten Dunst was indeed on board, which isn’t too much of a shock as she seemed fairly confident in here return while out promoting How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (Read: Kirsten Dunst Unofficially In For ‘Spider-Man 4’). Many fans seemed intent on her not returning to the franchise, but I personally am all for it. The role hasn’t had to be anything that supports the movie and that we rely on, so whether you like her or not, she is Mary Jane — changing to a completely different actress would just be too annoying to be worth it. Black also cleared the air and admitted that he has heard nothing about any kind of wedding being involved.

Last year we learned that the long-awaited new Heavy Metal movie adaptation was finally moving forward and that Watchmen director Zack Snyder had joined David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club) and Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) as directors on the project (Read: Zack Snyder Joins David Fincher & Gore Verbinski For ‘Heavy Metal’). Heavy Metal consists of multiple different chapters or sections, and the goal was to find a team of top-notch talent to handle these various sections.

Fortunately for us, the party does not end there: Film School Rejects have spoken to Kevin Eastman (Owner of the Heavy Metal Magazine, as well as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator) who dropped the bomb that now a one Mr. James Cameron would be executive producing on the project, and that he would be directing one of the segments as well!

Eastman also shared that Kung Fu Panda co-director Mark Osborne would be doing a comedy segment of the Heavy Metal project along with Jack Black. They are really putting together one of the — if not THE — greatest collection of filmmakers ever seen; and this is just the directors — they still need to cast what I’m assuming will be all kinds of big name stars for the project.

The Matrix
10th Anniversary Blu-ray Edition
Directed by Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski
Starring Keanu Reeves, Hugo Weaving, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne
Warner Home Entertainment
Release Date: March 31, 2009

Forget for a moment how you felt when you watched The Matrix Reloaded and then The Matrix Revolutions. Forget that those movies may have tainted your feeling on the original. Forget the pseudo-philosophical babble and the height of the story nearly causing the entire thing to collapse on top of itself. Forget that you ever knew the term “bullet time.” Forget all of that and try to remember how you felt back in 1999 when you sat in the movie theater and first saw a stranger new sci-fi action flick called The Matrix.

To call The Matrix a revolutionary film (even for the time) would be to completely miss the point. The Matrix wasn’t anything new — it was just a new way of bringing that style of story to audiences. Anyone that was fond of comics or anime was already familiar with the storytelling style of The Matrix. What it did was introduce that style to the masses. Remember, this was before “˜geek’ was considered cool, so being into comics or anime made you more of an outcast than trendy.

Recently we got our very first look at Australian actor Sam Worthington as Perseus in the upcoming Louis Leterrier-directed mythology-based, Clash of the Titans (Read: Geek Peek: Sam Worthington As Perseus In ‘Clash Of The Titans’). That image ended up being straight from the pages of Empire Magazine, but now we have another new image from the pages of Entertainment Weekly!

The two images that we’ve seen so far are not too much different from one another, but both openly lay claim to a gritty, rugged, dark, and violent mythological adventure in our futures. We can only hope that the visuals that we are seeing here lead to a movie that’s as good as these look.

Clash of the Titans tells the tale of Perseus, the son of Zeus (Liam Neeson) who was born a god, but raised a man. When Hades (Ralph Fiennes), god of the underworld, sets off on a plan to over-throw his brother Zeus, claim power for himself, and destroy the Earth — Perseus volunteers to lead a group of warriors through endless amounts of horrible creatures to find and defeat Hades before it is too late.