Talking with a friend after watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, we agreed it was time to retire some of these old classic franchises once and for all. Personally, I could live with a new Indy, a new Die Hard, a new Rambo and a new Rocky -- but once you touch my beloved Back to the Future franchise, well, we've got problems. Thankfully, according to BTTF co-writer-producer Bob Gale, a fourth installment in the series will not be happening anytime soon. BTTF.com reports back from a special screening/cast reunion last month in which Gale squashed sequel rumors right from the get-go: "Let me answer one question before anyone asks it, which is, 'Is there ever be a Back to the Future Part IV?'", Gale began, before answering, "No."

He continued, "Well now, wait a minute now. We've all seen sometimes where they make one too many sequels and you say, 'Maybe they shouldn't have done that.' I'm not going to name any names of movies, but you know what they are! But more importantly, as I'm sure you all know, Michael J. Fox is not in the best of shape with his Parkinson's. The idea of making another Back to the Future movie without Michael J. Fox - you know, that's like saying 'I'm going to cook you a steak dinner and I'm going to hold the beef.' You can't do that."

Amen to that! Fans, of course, moaned and groaned when Gale said there wouldn't be a sequel -- but if you're really a hardcore fan of this series, how could you want one? Seriously now ... let it go.

[via Moviehole]

Calm down, they aren't filming Back to the Future IV in Manhattan's meat-packing district. But what they are filming there, or were filming a week or so ago anyway, is a music video for an R&B artist named o'Neal McKnight that will feature both Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown and the DeLorean, to boot. Apparently this McKnight guy is a "huge fan" of the BTTF series and was somehow able to talk Lloyd into reprising his character to create a BTTF-themed video for his hit song, "Check Your Coat." Donning the fright-hair and jacket and tool belt for the first time in a long time, Lloyd as Doc Brown encounters McKnight, who is playing a coat-check clerk, and "the duo leap into the past and future, giving McKnight a glimpse into his life and relationship with a beautiful lady whom he meets while at the dance club." BTTF.com has a bunch of photos from the shoot as well as video and a detailed account of the goings on, and it's actually quite interesting to look at.

I'm not all that surprised that Lloyd would don the outfit again, frankly -- he's never struck me as an actor who is a) all that choosy in terms of what he does or b) one who is likely to avoid his most famous creation. In fact, I'd wager that if there were any opportunity at all to continue the adventures of Doc Brown on the big screen, he'd be there in a heartbeat. Never gonna happen, of course. Robert Zemeckis and Co. have said until they're blue in the face that they are not interested in continuing the series -- they would never want to and Universal would never be interested in doing future installments that would have to be sans-Marty. Oh wait ... Zemeckis is Mr. Motion Capture now ... hmmm ... interesting.

[via Moviehole]

While it wasn't so fun to get "Smoke on the Water" playing on repeat in my brain after our EIC Erik Davis sent me the idea for this double feature, it's been great to reminisce about two films from the early '90s that dealt with fish out of water themes -- My Cousin Vinny and Doc Hollywood. One is an Oscar winner, and the other is a fluffy comedy, but both perfectly embody that moment in time -- the beginning of a new decade and the next step for some of the biggest names of the 1980's. On the one hand, you have Ralph Macchio, and on the other, the unbeatable Michael J. Fox. One might be up for murder while the other gets to save lives, but in both cases, they're guys who prefer the city, but get ensnared in small town life.

Keep that popcorn in the cupboard, pick up some fish and chips, and enjoy!


My Cousin Vinny



On the one hand, you've got the story. Two "youts" -- Billy Gambini (Ralph Macchio) and Stan Rothenstein (Mitchell Whitfield) are traveling through Alabama when they forget to pay for a can of tuna. They leave the store and soon find themselves in jail and awaiting trial when the store clerk is shot and killed. One can never underestimate the power of familial connections, and Billy's cousin Vinny (Joe Pesci) comes to save the day -- a fish in a very unfamiliar pond. He looks to be just a spastic Brooklynite with a saucy girlfriend (Marisa Tomei). However, first impressions aren't all they're cracked up to be, and it turns out that Vinny is just what the two guys need to break free.

On the other hand, you have the cast. It's just plain great. You've got Pesci, who rocks as Vinny, Tomei, who won an Oscar for her performance, and Macchio, who shows that there's more to him than his time as a karate kid. But that's just the first layer. There's greats like Austin Pendleton and Bruce McGill, but best of all -- Fred Gwynne, in his last performance, plays Judge Chamberlain Haller. Really, what else do you need?

Mona Lisa Vito in her god-awful, super-tight, floral body suit talks about what she's nervous about.

Vinny plans to go hunting, and Mona Lisa mourns the future slain dear.

The Judge feels mocked.

Owls aren't safe when Vinny is around.

I don't know why everyone keeps referring to 17 -- the Zac Efron movie in which a 40-year-old guy is suddenly a teen again -- as Big in reverse. Or, as The Hollywood Reporter writes today: "turns the concept of Big on its head." I guess nobody remembers the George Burns-becomes-Charlie Schlatter comedy 18 Again! Either that or it's simply easier to reference Big because it's a million times more well-known. Anyway, there's another movie 17 will make people think of: Back to the Future. Apparently, Efron's character (aka Matthew Perry's character as a teen) becomes the object of a crush -- from his own daughter! Playing the poor girl, who obviously doesn't realize her own Electra complex, is Michelle Trachtenberg. Also joining the cast, which includes Leslie Mann as Efron/Perry's wife and Trachtenberg's mom, is Melora Hardin ("Jan" on TV's The Office) as a high school principal.

So here's what I find strange about the new plot revelation: how is it the daughter doesn't recognize her own father as a young man? Hasn't everyone seen photos of their parents from when they were younger? At least with Back to the Future, in Lea Thompson's defense she hadn't yet birthed Michael J. Fox, and she had no way of ever having seen his face before he traveled back in time and became the object of her desires. In both scenarios, it is pretty gross to think about seriously. According to the main plot synopsis for 17, the reason Efron/Perry enrolls in high school is to be closer to his kids (hey, another movie this reminds me of: Mrs. Doubtfire). I guess he truly gets his wish in a terribly sick sort of way. Production on 17 begins this month.

By now, everyone on planet Earth has seen the new video campaign ad featuring Michael J. Fox, shaking uncontrollably from Parkinson's tremors as he endorses Democratic Senate candidate Claire McCaskill of Missouri. Fox, like McCaskill, is a vocal supporter of embryonic stem cell research and in the ad he lays into incumbent Republican Jim Talent for not wanting to cough up the dough for more funding. Now get ready for the "answer ad" that's been thrown up as a rebuttal, featuring none other than the Light of the World himself, James Caviezel. This ad begins with Caviezel directly addressing the viewer in unsubtitled Aramaic before handing off to some sports notables and television personalities, each of whom lay out reasons why the viewer must not to be fooled into supporting the measure.

Caviezel returns to close the show, gazing at us like the filthy sinners we are and warning us "don't do it." Whether you support the stem cell measure or not, you have to wonder if this kind of thing represents a taste of what's in store for us in the future -- candidates coming up with a message and then shopping for a celebrity who will endorse it on television. One day politicians will wake up and realize that our votes can't be bought so easily, right? Yeah, I know -- don't be so gullible, McFly.

So anyway, who do you think would win in a street-brawl-for-it-all between The Savior of Man and The Man Who Will Not Be Called Chicken? On the one hand, Jesus can probably time travel without having to get up to 88mph, but on the other hand, Marty can walk on water if he has the hoverboard with power.

Seriously, how much do you trust Tom Hanks? Would you let him babysit your kids? Borrow your savings? Take your new car out for a spin? This is the question raised by a new list made by Forbes magazine, which ranked 1,500 celebrities by how trustworthy they are. The top ten includes mostly movie stars, including Hanks, who rated #1. The actor seems a likely choice, as he's possibly the most popular person in Hollywood these days, but does likeability equal trustworthiness? Some of the other names don't even make as much sense as Hanks, though. At first I thought maybe the list was using the term trustworthy to mean that we have trust in the celebrity's work. Hanks, for instance, can sell a movie better than anyone, meaning people trust his role choices and go to see his movies based on this trust. As for Oprah? We all know millions of people trust her recommendations. But some of the names just aren't the most bankable or even the most popular stars. Michael J. Fox? James Earl Jones? Ron Howard?

Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist, points to the obvious: that people can't differentiate between reality and fiction, and this list is made up of people whose on-screen personalities are who we trust, not the performers themselves. Certainly he would correlate this to our obsession with the political opinions, and possible electability, of movie stars.

So, what exactly are we supposed to be trusting these people with? And who might you trust enough to add to the list?

Check out the ten most trustworthy celebs after the jump.

Continuity is one of the most difficult things to manage on a film. A script supervisor is always on set making sure everything in the shooting script or screenplay is covered on film, and also making sure continuity errors (the things that become "goofs" in a film's IMDb listing) are avoided -- or, more realistically, kept to a minimum. Usually this requires meticulous note-taking and careful observation of actors appearances, placement of props, set decoration and other such details. The importance of continuity is best exhibited in a film like Back to the Future Part II, which not only had to maintain its own continuity, but also work with the continuity of the original Back to the Future, since it revisits many of that first film's settings, scenes and shots.

I've always wanted to play the "Enchantment Under the Sea Dance" sequences of both films at the same time to see how well Robert Zemeckis did with the continuity, but I didn't care enough to buy another VCR or DVD player. Fortunately, however, the internet keeps making dreams come true, and now we can see a split screen showing both films, and check to see how they match up. A guy named Matthew Muhl did the job for us and synced up the 15-minute-long section of the films, and it appears the makers of the sequel were mostly spot on, with the few exceptions being performance based (watch Lea Thompson as she tells Marty that George will drive her home). The two films aren't time-exact, but movies rarely represent real time, so that isn't an error on the part of the filmmakers.

The script supervisors on BTTF2 were Marion Tumen and Alan Greedy -- perhaps they should have been given a special Oscar for continuity.

Remember that Back to the Future 4 rumor from last week? Moviehole says The Guardian (who we got our take on it from) misinterpreted a section from a Moviehole interview with BttF''s Michael J. Fox. Fox, they say, was speaking very theoretically, and many outlets failed to requote his clearly worded skepticism. Here's the direct quote:

"I think by the time we finished two and three we were all so damn tired and then Bob [Zemeckis] went on to do Forest Gump and I went on to do some television work and some other things, you know, I started my own show, Spin City. And now the only way it would work would be if I played Doc, I’m 44 years old now and I’m not interested in running around on skateboards! I think after 1,2 and 3 we all kind of felt we had done it. And I think if now they did it again they would do it with a younger cast and just do a different realisation of it, which would be fun and I’m happy to watch it."

Now, don't lose hope just yet: you know those Direct-to-DVD sequels that keep popping up? Like Carlito's Way: Rise to Power, and American Pie: Band Camp? Both of those projects are the product of a new division at Universal called Universal DVD Originals, designed specifically to crank out DVD-only sequels to popular catalog titles. The 'hole is trying to get us all excited because USHE President Craig Kornblau sent an exclamation-point heavy email to a Back to the Future fansite, confirming that the division is "looking at" making a Future DVD sequel. Which, I guess, is great news ... except for the fact that straight-to-DVD sequels are almost generally crap.