Cinematical

Are you guys competing with the writers at Twitch to see who can more grossly over-hype 'Hot Fuzz'? As far as I've seen, the only people "mega-muchly anticipating" the movie are the 8 or 9 bloggers on the two sites. The wildly overrated 'Shaun of the Dead' was OK but doesn't stand up to repeat viewings; the one sheets for 'Fuzz', featuring Simon Pegg glaring at the camera lens and pointing a gun, are neither funny nor dramatic. How does the prospect of a British 'Police Academy' create this kind of blog-frenzy?

'The Host' and '300' both look genuinely amazing and have solid trailers to back up the hype, but I've yet to see anything of 'Fuzz' to justify the gushing enthusiasm. Was there a screening of the film that convinced all of you of its genius, or is your anticipation of the movie wholly based on 'Shaun''s meager charms?

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Same thing Disney pays me to get legitimately excited for Pirates, Lionsgate for The Descent, Magnolia for Severance, and Sony for Spider-Man 3. Nada.

Nope, the only currency here is movie geekdom. Disagree with my opinions all you like, but check your accusations at the door please. Hell, I'm a pretty cynical guy myself -- except where The Movies I Wanna See are concerned.

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I think this movie looks really good, after i saw the first trailer one the big screen while seeing Casino Royale I was hooked

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The 300 trailers do not impress me in the least. The frothing erection this site shows for it perplexes me to no end. What are they paying you guys to build up what is essentially another troy/gladiator type flick?

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While I don't agree at all by those accusing you of being being shills, I don't get all the gushing over the 300 movie. I loved the graphic novel and Sin City, but the movie looks a little overproduced and overdone. OK, we get it. Special effects are cool. Yawn.

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So bgdc, because the 300 trailers do not impress you, that automatically means folks from this site (who happened to enjoy the trailer quite a bit) are being paid off?

Here's what I don't understand. I don't understand why we're not allowed to get excited over a movie anymore. I don't understand why people turn their own personal opinions about a film into a belief everyone should follow -- and if they don't follow them, then there's obviously something wrong -- either they're being paid off, or they're in cahoots with another film website.

What gives? Should we just hate everything? Would that be the cool thing to do?

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As a regular reader of both Twitch & Cinematical, I expect to see the personal opinions of the writers expressed in the posts. Naturally no one expects you to "just hate everything", Erik, but as opinion makers you should be aware of those times when you overdo it. For example, there was seemingly a Cinematical-wide decision made, weeks prior to its release, that King Kong was A) going to stink, and B) going to be a failure. Every day, more and more posts reflected this opinion, to the extent that months later--when Kong debuted to great DVD sales--it went virtually unmentioned on the site.
Likewise, if Hot Fuzz turns out to be a stinker, I'm afraid I'll see my two favorite movie sites tripping all over themselves explaining how it must be the audience's fault that it wasn't a smash, because, my God, it's been mega-muchly anticipated for months based on... nothing.
On the original topic, I think 300 looks great not because of "special effects" but because the promise of digital filmmaking is being realized through cinematography, and not in a gimmicky way (Sin City) or a sci-fi extravaganza (Sky captain, Star Wars, ep II-III). A highly stylized historical epic with the promise of great action pushes my buttons, too.

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Erik, the site is beginning to feel like AICN. You guys are injecting constant platitudes on geek-friendly material and give a passing glance - if that - to other flicks. The 400 Blows piece is about the only thing worth reading on Cinematical lately. Most of the other stuff is just gushing fanboy pablum akin to twaddle spewed by the chimps at AICN.

Honestly, I don't get the hard-on strumming you guys have lathered yourselves into regarding 300. It doesn't just look so-so like Gladiator or Kingdom of Heaven; no it looks operatically retarded on the scale of say King Arthur or Troy. Source material be damned; yeah Frank Miller wrote a few decent "graphic novels" but like Alan Moore, most of his stuff is one-note and quite generic. It's coming from the same hack director that made Dawn of the Dead...we're not talking about even a passable director's work! Screenwriters? Yeah, all first timers.

What's the big draw here? More guys fighting with swords while backed by really bad CGI and awful green screening?

Guess I'm old-fashioned and place storytelling, acting and dialogue above pretty and utterly worthless visuals and redundant action.

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Look, everyone who writes for Cinematical has their own opinion, and are encouraged to share it with readers. Did we all get together and team up on King King? No. Frankly, I don't even remember the stuff we wrote about Kong -- honestly, I was really looking forward to it, and enjoyed the final product but didn't love it.

Most of the time we give a film the benefit of the doubt. Do we trash stuff? Yes. Do we geek out on stuff? Yes. At the end of the day, we're just fans who happen to write about the stuff we love and hate. If you'd rather see a cut and paste job from Variety, there are other sites to go to for that. In my opinion, we try to cover as much as we can -- from indie to blockbusters, from festivals to the multiplex -- and we do a pretty damn good job.

I loved Shaun of the Dead. That, plus a pretty good-looking trailer, is why I am excited to see Hot Fuzz. If I have the chance to review it, I will approach it the way I do every film -- honestly and with a wider audience in mind.

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I totally resent being called a fanboy, even indirectly. (Especially the boy part.) And maybe I have a bit of a nerdy-schoolgirl crush on Simon Pegg, but that is between me and Simon and doesn't affect my Cinematical writing, or any reporting I might do about Hot Fuzz. Well, not much, anyway. (I have no opinion at all on "300".)

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Look, I'm generally as cynical as the next guy, but I have to admit - this movie looks like two hours of delicious candy for my eyes, at least on casual glance. But knowing as I do the story behind the candy, I cannot help to get excited to actually pay money to go see this on the big screen. The basic thematic elements at play here belong to the "get you right in the gut" family.

To watch a small band of 300 warriors defending their home and families from hundreds of thousands of invading hordes sends a chill down my spine. The classic story of the underdog (although, in this case, the underdog is ferociously trained, and a peak physical specimen) is one that just plain holds true throughout history. It's one that - for the audience, when seen on screen - resonates in our guts, in our bowels, in our genitals. It's a feeling that you simply cannot deny.

But I guess since this country can't readily identify with the underdog anymore. It's who we used to be, but since we've slowly morphed from scrappy underdog to evil empire, we've lost touch with that.

I, for one, am unabashedly wetting my pants at the thought of this movie.

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Ive just read the comics (downloaded) and i must say, it only makes me look forward to the movie more.

As for the people who say the trailers suck because of the 'sucky' and 'over-produced graphics', what do you expect? It makes the movie look good, and if you cant accept that, then your obviously a...not good (at all) critic.

I also though shaun of the dead was an insanely good movie and am right about to watch trailer of hot fuzz

Cannot wait for the movie

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C'mon, the special effects look awesome (Yawn!!), the acting looks fantastic (Ho Hum), the story is intriguing (What story isn't?) and the action is probably going to be the best in any movie of this type (Another yawn).

With that said I don't see why anyone is getting so excited over this movie, in fact I think I will wait for it to come out on the Zune. Can't you guys wait for Daredevil 2 to get excited, I mean seriously, how much are you getting paid?

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