JoBlo Tagged Articles at Cinematical

From the hardcore comic geeks to the general moviegoers -- everyone seems to have loved Batman Begins. Like, a lot. Which explains why we're writing little articles about next summer's sequel twice a day. The Dark Knight will bring back most of the cast from the first film (although Katie Holmes has been (thankfully) replaced by Maggie Gyllenhaal) and offer up new additions like Heath Ledger as The Joker!

Over the last few weeks we've gotten reports on Batsuits, Batbikes and Bat-marketing galore, but our pal JoBlo has an inside scoop from someone on the set! Visit the Emporium to read the full report (mild spoiler warning), but here's just a little snip to whet your appetite: "The Joker does not look as grotesque as he did in the photo on the harveydent site. He has long hair with green highlights in it, he was wearing a long purple jacket with a blue sport coat under it, purple gloves and I regret to say I forget the color of his pants. But anyways, he comes in shooting and people are being hurt and killed left and right, he's looking for Harvey Dent (his first line says so). As Joker is hitting people along the way (he's slapping extras!), comes in Batman in that new suit that was in Entertainment Weekly this week. They fight, it's all long and drawn out and during this, JOKER DOES HIS LAUGH."

Dang. As if I weren't already slobbering over the thought of Christopher Nolan's follow-up ... this article did the trick. I only hope I can remain somewhat spoiler-free before the flick hits theaters next July! If you've missed any of our recent Dark Knight coverage, please do click here, here and here. And here, here and here. (And here.) And here, here and here. That's it. And here.

The internet covers a lot of life's ground. You can research historical events, read popular media, watch movies and of course, you can interact with friends and strangers across the globe. But there's something the net has really been lacking. Everywhere you turn, there are fully-clothed women who could barely cover more skin if they were clad in burkas, parkas and head-to-toe body armor. Where on earth can you see some female skin? I mean heck, naked men are everywhere, but women just hide away in the shadows ... until now! Fellow movie site, JoBlo, has been renovating lately and in their fiddling they've launched MovieHotties.com.

The site's mandate: "to see that everyone who is surfing the Net with their pants ON (if your pants were off, you'd be on lolitamegs.com or something) has a sweet place in which to drop ... from time to time, to hear all about the latest in these women's lives, their careers ... as well as stare at pictures of their hoho's." Gee, I didn't realize there weren't places like that on the net! No longer will there be desperate pleas for female nudity. The site offers the oft-used link-story-link setup that gives you headlines to the left, such as "Uma Looks Very Yummy!" and then name links on the right. Since the list is in alphabetical order, Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai is lucky woman #1. Her links is still in need of a "hottie pic," but she's already got four votes, putting her at 6.5/10 and a headline below that reads "Indian hottie likes to sin." ... is this the answer to your Internet dreams?

Though Cinematical was not mentioned (no worries, it's just more food for my therapist), I have to give props to Time Magazine for, well, giving props to all those movie blogs out there in a new piece called Boys Who Like Toys. Essentially, the article (written by Rebecca Winters Keegan) talks about how fanboys (and the websites they visit each day) have become "one of the most powerful taste-makers in Hollywood," perfectly capable of either making or breaking a movie in a matter of hours. Heck, there's even an entire film (appropriately titled Fanboys) devoted to these folks heading our way soon. Hence, the studios have noticed; recently, they've created entire divisions whose main responsibility is to remain in close contact with the online world, invite bloggers to their movie sets, hand out exclusive online-only content and, generally, try to steer buzz in the right direction.

According to Spider-Man 3 producer Avi Arad, "Hard-core fans represent a small piece of the viewing public, but they influence geek culture, journalists, Wall Street. You don't want them to trash your project." Among the sites mentioned in the article, I feel JoBlo, The Movie Blog and Cinema Blend consistently deliver honest, opinionated movie news with a ton of humor and a whole lot of fun. And hey, I'd like to think we here at Cinematical do the same thing ... except, I probably shower a lot less than John Campea. Look, let's be real: It's easy to show up online, present your audience with a bunch of flashy graphics -- combined with copy-and-paste posts from Variety and/or the Hollywood Reporter -- and call yourself a movie blog. Some folks make a very successful living doing that, and the studios (who are always afraid you'll say something bad) love them for it. But I tend to feel the moviegoing public (myself included) want more. They want honesty. They want opinion. They want to debate. Most of all, they want to have fun. And that's what going to the movies is all about. So, support your movie blogs ... you'll be glad you did!

Like any true-blue horror geek with a few dollars to spend, I already own John Carpenter's original Halloween on DVD. (There are only about 43 different versions, most of 'em from that multiple-dip factory known as Anchor Bay.) But what if, say, you're a young horror nerdlet who doesn't have the expendable income with which to construct a fantastic DVD collection? What about those fans? Who will think of the children??

Well, apparently Rob Zombie will. In preparation for his own adaptation of the October Classic, Zombie and MySpace have collaborated to offer you ... a free movie! Yes, that's right: Go pop some corn, turn off the lights and put your cellphone on mute, because you're invited to watch Halloween for FREE! Hooray!

OK, so the screen is really small and your little speakers might not deliver Carpenter's mega-slick score in flawless fashion, but I do believe I mentioned the word "FREE" a few times, so let's not whine about the details. (I wonder if they'll leave P.J. Soles' finest scene intact...)

[Thanks to good ol' JoBlo for the tip!]

JoBlo is pointing to this, the first big, clear image of the new Superman, Brandon Routh, in character, in costume, and in the middle of his superhero work day. The Blo boys are speculating that it's a scan from a magazine, probably either Empire or Wizard, as both have giant Superman spreads in the works. But the real question is: do you think it's pre or post "special effects"?