Archive for the 'Events' Category
July 22nd, 2014 by Aaron Neuwirth
It is Comic Con this week and with so much going on, I have to be a bit picky about the press releases I have time to post. That said, something both Comic Con and Blu-ray related makes plenty of sense, so here we have some news about an upcoming
X-Men Blu-ray collection, as well as something very cool to see for those attending Comic Con. Along with being able to pre-order a very exclusive
X-Men movie set packaged inside Professor X’s Cerebro Helmet, an Oculus Rift setup will provide attendees with the chance to be the all-powerful mutant. Continue on to hear more about this neat event taking place down in San Diego.
Continue reading ‘SDCC 2014: 20th CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS ‘THE X-MEN CEREBRO EXPERIENCE’’
July 16th, 2014 by Blu-ray Brian
Wow! Jessica Alba will be here! Son of a…! The film’s classic cars will also be on display at Petco Park parking lot throughout Comic-Con (July 24-27) against a 102-foot long Sin City skyline. The cars will will include a 1985 Dodge Diplomat, 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air, 1960 Chevy Corvette, 1959 Cadillac el dorado, 1964 1/2 Ford Mustang convertible and 1949 Cadillac Sedanette. There will also be a Sin City style photo booth, a live DJ every day and promo giveaways (t-shirts, poker chips, playing cards, mini posters and books). Continue reading ‘SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR New Poster & Comic-Con 2014 Events’
July 12th, 2014 by Kori Kemerer
Once again, the doctors of Broadcast Thought, H. Eric Bender, M.D., Praveen R. Kambam, M.D., andVasilis K. Pozios, M.D., return to Comic-Con International with a must-see panel in my opinion. On Thursday, July 24, 2014, from 8:00 pm to 9:00 pm in Room 7AB, they team up with very special guest, Mark Swift, co-writer of Friday the 13th (2009) and Freddy vs. Jason, to present “Freddy vs. Jason vs. Michael! Inside the Minds of Freddy Krueger, Jason Vorhees and Michael Myers.” As a lifelong fan of horror movies this one intrigues me. Check out the rest of the full press release below! Continue reading ‘Comic-Con 2014: Freddy vs. Jason vs. Michael!’
July 11th, 2014 by Blu-ray Brian
Constantine, The Blacklist, Hannibal, Grimm, Bates Motel and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog will be on hand at Comic-Con 2014 in beautiful San Diego to share secrets with fans as NBC and Universal Television have announced their plans for the upcoming Comic-Con International gathering in San Diego, which runs from July 24-27. The network will present panels for returning series The Blacklist and Hannibal while Universal Television will host panels for NBC’s Grimm, its A&E series Bates Motel as well as a new untitled series coming to Adult Swim that stars Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and 30 Rock alumnus Jack McBrayer. Also, Warner Bros. Television will present multiple screenings and a panel for new NBC Friday night series Constantine. Check out all the information you NEED to know the 411 on below!
Continue reading ‘NBC/Universal Television Ready To Invade Comic-Con 2014!’
July 11th, 2014 by Blu-ray Brian
Cowabunga! How cool is this?!!! Peavey Electronics and Diamond Comic Distributors have teamed up at the Comic-Con International: San Diego this July to give away a Limited Edition 2014 Comic-Con Eastman/Laird Rockmaster Glow-in-the-Dark TMNT Guitar from Peavey. Attendees can enter to win exclusively at the Diamond PREVIEWS world Booth #2401 at Comic-Con from July 23rd until July 27th. I want one! Don’t you?! Check out the full-size picture of the guitar and the full press release below for more information. Now I’m hungry for a pizza! Continue reading ‘Comic-Con 2014: Limited Edition Peavey Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Guitar’
July 2nd, 2014 by Aaron Neuwirth
I look forward to seeing The Walking Dead’s presence at Comic Con this year, as they always have pretty elaborate set ups on the showroom floor, let along super popular panels. A few years back I was happy to participate in The Walking Dead Escape. This is The Walking Dead-themed obstacle course that takes over San Diego’s Petco Park during Comic Con. It is a ton of fun to run away from zombies, let alone admire the zombie makeup creations on regular folk who are apparently happy to go after geeks running through a baseball stadium in full on zombie makeup for hours at a time. It is returning to Comic Con once again this year, along with several other stops around the country. Read on to learn more, including details on deals for signing up early!
Continue reading ‘The Walking Dead Escape Returns To San Diego Comic Con This Year’
June 2nd, 2014 by Aaron Neuwirth
While seeing How to Train Your Dragon 2 was a neat departure for the Los Angeles Times Hero Complex Film Festival, it seemed fairly in line with the fest to watch a film like Gremlins on the big screen. The holiday-horror-comedy classic celebrates its 30th Anniversary this year and fans were treated to both a screening of the film, as well as a Q&A with its director and horror-comedy fan-favorite Joe Dante. Dante talked about the surprise hit that Gremlins became, the making of the film, a possible reboot, and other things that don’t come anywhere close to nitpicking the rules of the Mogwai.
[
Continue reading ‘LA Times Hero Complex Film Festival: Gremlins’ Director Joe Dante Q&A’
June 1st, 2014 by Aaron Neuwirth
Hero Complex is essentially a genre media-themed offshoot of the Los Angeles Times newspaper and they have been holding a film festival in Hollywood for the past few years. While the films screened are always classics from the past, this year featured a screening of How to Train Your Dragon 2. I will post a review of this film soon, but following the screening, a Q&A was held with writer/director Dean DeBlois and stars Jay Baruchel (Hiccup) and America Ferrera (Astrid). The trio had plenty of admiration for a series they have heavily involved themselves with for the past seven years and were happy to share their thoughts.
Continue reading ‘LA Times Hero Complex Film Festival: How To Train Your Dragon 2 Q&A’
May 2nd, 2014 by Aaron Neuwirth
The final film I was able to see for the Newport Beach Film Festival was this fun little indie called Arlo & Julie. I really enjoyed it. With a neat story, very likable characters, and a soundtrack consisting mostly of old jazz to better evoke some specific films and filmmakers that I see as likely influences, Arlo & Julie has a lot of what I like to see in smaller films that I can only hope to see reach a larger audience at some point. It does just enough to set it apart from other films, but also has plenty in common with the quaint little indies that I tend to like a lot.
[ Continue reading ‘NBFF 2014 Review: ‘Arlo & Julie’’
May 1st, 2014 by Aaron Neuwirth
So what is all this Twitter business? Wednesday at the Newport Beach Film Fest afforded me the opportunity to check out a documentary that would have made more sense to see on a Friday. At least I now know what I can recommend via #ff on Friday, as Follow Friday the Film is an enjoyable documentary about Twitter. While not an instructional guide and more of an interesting look at how society is evolving, with a specific focus on popular social media, the film is not attempting to force Twitter on its audience, but instead invite folks to see the deeper value in typing a certain amount of characters into a program at any time. It helps that the film is structured together through a road trip, with plenty of interviews to really provide a broad perspective on the subject. As a person that uses Twitter plenty, I was happy to find a group that put out a film explaining this microblogging service so simply, yet in a charming manner.
Continue reading ‘NBFF 2014 Review: ‘Follow Friday The Film’’
April 29th, 2014 by Aaron Neuwirth
Monday night at the Newport Beach Film Festival saw a film that I have been anticipating for some time be represented as the Japanese Spotlight feature of the night. I was quite happy to have seen it. The Japanese remake of Unforgiven makes a good case for why I am never against the idea of a remake, before I actually see it or have enough information to pass judgment. Clint Eastwood’s 1992 Best Picture winner is the film I consider to be his best work as a filmmaker (and as an actor, for that matter), so the concept of remaking his film should presumably strike ire in the hearts of those that claim remakes are always terrible. Of course, hypocrisy is a funny thing, as the reaction to Ken Watanabe starring in a samurai version of the same story seems to have made most skeptics excited about this particular idea. Still, this is not about the public at large, it is about what I thought of the film, which basically amounts to being an interesting remix.
Continue reading ‘NBFF 2014 Review: ‘Unforgiven’’
April 29th, 2014 by Aaron Neuwirth
So this is pretty cool. I have been happy to attend the Hero Complex Film Festival for the past couple years and the lineup for 2014’s fest has just been announced. For Los Angeles residents and those willing to come out for a weekend, Hero Complex will be presenting a number of very cool screenings and Q&A’s from the likes of James Cameron, Joe Dante, Sigourney Weaver, Ronald D. Moore, and more! The event takes place during the last weekend in May and is sure to be a lot of fun. Continue on in this post to learn more about this lineup, when certain films are screening, who else will be around, ticketing information and more.
Continue reading ‘LA Times announces 2014 Hero Complex Film Festival Lineup’
April 29th, 2014 by Aaron Neuwirth
Here’s another Newport Beach Film Fest review focused on just one feature that I caught on Monday morning. Cas & Dylan is a Canadian-produced road trip comedy, focused on an odd couple that needs to be enjoyed, if one wants to enjoy this film as a whole. It is a bit cutesy in the way it presents a scenario that can be summed up by saying, “She’s a [blank] and he’s a [blank], but together, they’ll become best friends ready to do whatever.” Fortunately, Richard Dreyfuss and Tatiana Maslany make for a good pairing and the film gets enough mileage out of its comedy and drama to make this good-looking film a good watch as well.
Continue reading ‘NBFF 2014 Review: ‘Cas & Dylan’’
April 28th, 2014 by Aaron Neuwirth
I only checked out one film on Sunday, for the Newport Beach Film Festival, but it was an interesting Australian crime drama serving as a morality tale and a showcase for the three lead characters. Felony features some strong performances, with Tom Wilkinson, in particular, making a good case for why he is almost always enjoyable in whatever role is given to him. The idea of seeing not just two, but three sides of the law makes for an interesting story to be told and Felony works that angle about as far as it can go, before settling in a way that left me satisfied.
[
Continue reading ‘NBFF 2014 Review: ‘Felony’’
April 27th, 2014 by Aaron Neuwirth
Saturday Night at the 15th Annual Newport Beach Film Fest was another challenging scenario, as a number of films were showing and I had to consider how to best spend my time. Fortunately, the two movies I was able to see were both quite good. Teacher of the Year is my favorite film of the festival so far (granted I have only seen a small percentage of what has been available), as it was funny and heartfelt in the right ways. Obvious Child was fine too, given that it fits in the realm of quirky indie comedy, but has a sort of truth to it that puts it slightly ahead of typical indie fare. There continue to be plenty of exciting options though and Saturday just fit as another strong night for the fest and what I have ended up choosing.
Continue reading ‘NBFF 2014 Reviews: ‘Teacher of the Year’ and ‘Obvious Child’’
April 26th, 2014 by Aaron Neuwirth
Friday at the Newport Beach Film Festival found me with a lot of options to choose from. While I had heard many good things about a number of the films featured and had considered attending at least four different films playing around the same time, I ultimately chose to go with Cheatin’ and The One I Love. One is an animated feature from famed cartoonist Bill Plympton, the other was a romantic comedy-drama with a unique twist that I do not plan to spoil here. I found both to be worth watching, especially those in the mood for something a bit off center from the norm.
]
Continue reading ‘NBFF 2014 Reviews: ‘Cheatin’’ and ‘The One I Love’’
April 25th, 2014 by Aaron Neuwirth
Opening night at the 15th Annual Newport Beach Film Festival was a nice start to what should be an exciting festival to keep track of. Given the difficulty I have had at nailing down exactly which films to check out on what days, due to interest in so many, it seems like I am in for a lot of good, interesting, or at least entertaining features. With that in mind, I was happy to find the opening film, Lovesick, to be enjoyable enough, for what it is. I say this because the opening night film tends to be a more palatable feature, in an effort to please the general audience as a whole, given the crowded attendance in the Big Newport Theater on Opening Night. The film is simple enough, but the cast makes it a bit more appealing.
Continue reading ‘NBFF 2014 Review: Lovesick’
April 22nd, 2014 by Aaron Neuwirth
From what I can tell, both Comic Con and WonderCon have proven to be great venues to debut the latest DC Universe Animated Original Movies and I am sure the other cons do it too. The past few years have seen the debut public screenings of films such as Batman: Year One, The Dark Knight Returns, and Superman: Unbound, among others. It makes perfect sense, as the people attending these cons consist of the exact type of audience that would seek them out. For WonderCon 2014, audiences were treated to the debut of Son of Batman, which was screened on Friday and had an encore screening on Sunday. The film introduces the Damian character, the child Batman learns he has, which leads to a battle with some old and new foes. As a Batman fan attending WonderCon, I of course had to check this out for myself.
Continue reading ‘WonderCon 2014: Son of Batman (Movie Review)’
It is Comic Con this week and with so much going on, I have to be a bit picky about the press releases I have time to post. That said, something both Comic Con and Blu-ray related makes plenty of sense, so here we have some news about an upcoming X-Men Blu-ray collection, as well as something very cool to see for those attending Comic Con. Along with being able to pre-order a very exclusive X-Men movie set packaged inside Professor X’s Cerebro Helmet, an Oculus Rift setup will provide attendees with the chance to be the all-powerful mutant. Continue on to hear more about this neat event taking place down in San Diego.
