The Wolfpack is back and in perfect form as The Hangover Part II opens in theaters and brings with it a sequel that rivals the original.
After a nearly half a billion dollar first film, director Todd Phillips brought the heat to amp up the energy for a second feature following Phil, Stu, Alan and Doug, this time as they travel to Thailand for a wedding. It’s Dr. Stu Price (well he’s really just a dentist) taking his vows this time, but he’s bringing his nearest and dearest to his fiancée’s homeland for the ceremony.
“You might be fighting a stunt man in a silver suit dressed up like DEVO,..”
– Paul Bettany
Paul Bettany is a BAFTA-nominated actor who has acted with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He’s a hard man to pin down, given the wide variety of roles he’s had in a wide variety of movies. He’s played: a young Geoffrey Chaucer in A Knight’s Tale; a killer albino monk assassin in The Da Vinci Code; Russell Crowe’s “best friend” Charles in A Beautiful Mind and even Charles Darwin in Creation.
Scott Charles Stewart is a special effects expert who left George Lucas’ ILM to found his own company, The Orphanage, which contributed effects to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Iron Man, and maybe most notably, Korean director Joon-Ho Bong’s amazing monster movie The Host.
Stewart has recently started directing features, and with leading man Bettany has made a couple of religious themed action/horror films – Legion, about the Archangel Michael defending humanity from God’s wrath, and Priest, based very loosely on the Koreanmanhwa graphic novel series by Min-Woo Hyung, in which Catholic priests, who bear cross tattoos on their faces, have been trained to fight vampires.
“We’re making a zombie movie, but really they’re just hungry.”
– Larry Fessenden, producer
Despite the success of the Twilight franchise, real vampire movies are alive and well. I found out as much in November 2009, when, on behalf of SuicideGirls I took a drive up to Woodstock, NY, to visit the set of Stake Land, a low-budget horror film that eschews sparkly, boy-band vamps in favor of the more traditional, animalistic bloodsuckers we all know and love.
Writer/director Jim Mickle, who made the rounds a few years ago with his much talked-about indie-horror film Mulberry Street, is the brain behind the project, a road movie that takes place in a post-apocalyptic North America, years after a war between vampires and humans has left the entire continent in ruins and relegated survivors to a medieval existence, living hand-to-mouth and traveling together in tightly-formed, armed brigades.
PlayStation fans around the globe continue to QQ over the extended absence of the PlayStation Network. While original reports stated the network would return this last week, they all proved to be filthy lies. Recent statements made by a spokesperson from the company suggest it might not return till the end month. Luckily for all the PlayStation fanboys and girls, this last week was packed with plenty of nerdy happenings to distract them from their enforced gaming sobriety.
The original Scream could be credited with literally saving the horror film industry. It came along at a time when the slasher genre had petered out with badly done sequels of classics like Halloween and Friday the 13th’. There just didn’t seem to be a market for the ‘R’ rated horror flick anymore.
Director Craven and screenwriter Williamson proved them all wrong with Scream, which broke box office records and also gained a lot of critical acclaim – something most horror movies never got from mainstream film critics.
Fast forward nearly 15 years from the original film; Craven and Williamson return to the ill-fated town of Woodsboro, presenting more thrills and chills in what has become one of the most successful mainstream horror franchises in history.
On Saturday night, the bold and the brightest came out (both literally and figuratively) to support the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center’s Evening With Women, raising almost $500,000 for its many programs, including LGBT youth advocacy and HIV/AIDS healthcare. It coincided with the non-profit establishment’s 40th anniversary, cementing it as a stronghold in the movement toward queer and women’s equal rights.
