Edwards Design Solutions

I am a HUGE Mad Max fan. I enjoy Mel Gibson as well. He made Max what every fan enjoys, a tough-as-nails rogue that takes the law into his own hands (with some hard earned juice bargained on the side too).
The first two installments, Mad Max and The Road Warrior, are my favorites. Beyond Thunderdome was OK, but it lost me in places.

There is no doubt that the supporting cast helped make TRW and BT great material, but the franchise’s fourth installment still has casting loopholes and there is no word on whether Mel will be making an appearance in the movie. It would be nice to have a “story-telling” memoir segment at the beginning of the film, to incorporate Mel as Max. Then the main story can have whatever leading man the producer can get. Sam Worthington (Clash of the Titans) is rumored as the favorite at this point. Charlize Theron has already been cast, along with Teresa Palmer (Bedtime Stories) and Tom Hardy.

The release date has not been solidified yet, but it is scheduled for sometime in 2012.

Rated PG-13 for fantasy action violence, some frightening images
and brief sensuality. 1hr. 46min.

My wife and I took my brother to see this for his birthday. I find it a little depressing when critics and review sites slam a good movie. Sure the original flick is campy and some would rather say it has a fair amount of cheese in it. The new Clash of the Titans has some humor, some romance and a good amount of action.

I think what helped sell the movie for me was watching it in hopes of seeing some things and fears of seeing other things. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the CGI for the Pegasi (plural for Pegasus) and glad that the robot owl that I found irritating in the original only had a brief cameo and that got a good laugh out of the audience! (I wasn’t the only person there that had seen the original)

I can honestly say that I think not seeing it in 3D was good for me. I have been consistently having blazing headaches when coming out of a 3D movie and that always taints my perspective on retrospect. Most review sites were saying to forget it anyway, since the 3D was more an afterthought for this film and really does more to detract from the picture quality and doesn’t really add anything in the WOW factor. Continue reading »

Well, who here has ever heard of the Argo (Yamato)? If you were a child who watched cartoons in the 70′s and 80′s, then you know what I am talking about. Anime had its television beginning in America with Speed Racer in the 60′s. It was soon followed by the likes of Star Blazers, Battle of the Planets (G-Force), Mobile Suit Gundam, and Voltron (GoLion and Dairugger XV). There were three seasons of the cartoon that were fueled by the release and success of four theatrical movies and one television movie.

Now (in 2002) after many years of wrestling in the Japanese court system, rights to the franchise have finally been given to Yoshinobu Nishizaki, the show’s original producer. He has not been idle these past few years either. There is a new movie, Yamato:Rebirth, to be released in Japan on December 12! The US release is set for straight to DVD in spring, 2010. There is even a live-action release (already in production) planned for the holiday season of 2010! Now it is speculated that this live movie will only be released in Japan, but I doubt it will take very long to be brought to the states.

One might cringe at the thought of a live-action movie to be a great way to destroy the franchise, but I was pleasantly surprised at the recent G.I. Joe movie. So who knows, this may be the “rebirth” of something great? Well for now, enjoy the extended trailer. It is in Japanese, but the CG-anime is awesome!

I never thought I would see the day, that there would be a really good remake or reboot of a classic movie (or series) that was good or just plain makes sense enough to spend the money on. The Friday the 13th series has made an attempt, along with Holloween and the Chainsaw Massacre. All duds to be honest. Star Wars 1,2 & 3 have had mediocre reception at best. Star Trek however has broken the mold with a truly fantastic reboot! But will this trend of excellence continue? Let’s hope so. To get to the point however, I remember (as recently as this past Christmas) watching Tron on the idiot box. I looked then for rumors of a sequel, or reboot of the cult classic. No such luck.

I even remember reading blog posts about fans who had recreated the light suits and guys who had built custom low-riders to look like the light-cycles. No news of another movie though….until today. Has this been the web’s best-kept secret? The most sought after cyber-trek remake has been filmed and set for a release date of next year! There is rumored to be the dreaded plot hole the size of a galactic fissure in time-space, but will it make an impact on the original’s baseline to this movie?

All I can say, is that the story seems quite plausible (for fiction of course) and the effects are tremendous! The cinematography is definite eye-candy that even the most critical viewer should find an enhancement and not a distraction, like unto the CG upon CG effects of King Kong. This continuation of the original story is a recipe for a solid release with generally good acceptance. Jeff Bridges reprises his role as Kevin Flynn, but with what seems to be a bit of a twist. Let’s just hope the process is on the money and doesn’t bury a digital shard into the spine of another one of the great sci-fi adventures of all time!

While we wait for the release, watch the trailer and try to contain your excitement!

TRON: Legacy

PG13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, language, some crude and sexual material, and brief drug material. 1hr. 30min.

Don’t waste your money. Any fan of the cartoon series should be angry and ashamed of this horrible piece of celluloid garbage. If you thought the first movie was bad, then you’re gonna hate this one.

The movie starts out innocently enough, with Sam (the lead character) being assisted off to college by his loving parents. He still has a good relationship with his girlfriend and they all really just want to put the whole alien robots incident (the first movie) behind them and move on with their lives. Of course, they can’t.

Sam is pulled back into helping save the world from the Decepticons and their ultimate leader, the Fallen. If you don’t know who he is, I will simply say that he is Megatron’s boss and a once-upon-a-time Prime robot.

So far so good, right? Well that’s were the good plot ends and the blanks are filled in with the other junk. You will find that I had a lot to say on the IMDB boards here about this movie. It just seems to me that the world has become too accustomed to low-brow, stupid toilet humor. There is too much swearing, too many fart jokes and too much doggie humping for my taste.

Rated: PG-13, sci-fi action and violence, and brief sexual content. 2hr. 6min.

I am a Trekkie from way back. The different tv series’ have always been a favorite for me. I love TOS, enjoyed much of TNG, liked the deeper stories of Voyager, appreciated elements of what Enterprise was supposed to bring (at least in the first two seasons) but the movies have always been plagued. There were things in the “Motion Picture” that I enjoyed, TWOK has always been my personal favorite and I liked parts of First Contact. Nemesis was good to bring a different feel to the extended Next-Gen series. But the offering by J.J. Abrams has caught everyone’s eye. I can honestly say that I have been skeptical up to yesterday.

Early teasers and the quite limited release of trailers made me a bit wary of what more could be done to destroy my favorite franchise of all time. I have not had the chance to catch J.J.’s Lost, but I thoroughly enjoy Fringe. Anyway, when I got to the theater, I half-expected to see no real acceptance of the film. You can usually get the impression of how a film is doing (or going to do) based on the decor. Well my wife and I were greeted with a pair of 8 foot long tables with theater help selling Trek gear and giving away swag. It was like going to a mini-con! The walls were adorned with Star Trek emblems, Saturns and various types of space craft. The movie was obviously good and being that we saw it one day after the continental release, there was time for early reactions to generate this kind of acceptance.

I became quite excited about seeing the work that J.J. had slaved over and I was glad that we were 15 minutes late to get our seats. We sat 6 rows from the screen, dead center, and had thankfully missed the commercials and only saw the upcoming film previews. The opening sequence doesn’t offer any familiar theme music, or anything else for that matter, with the exception of Star Fleet uniforms. Continue reading »