e.t. Tagged Articles at Cinematical

In honor of this week's release of DreamWork's Monsters vs Aliens on both DVD and Blu-ray, we measly humans here at Cinematical have decided to wade through the hordes of monsters and or aliens in kid friendly films to find the cream of the closet-dwelling, slime-dripping, child-eating, smile-inducing crop of inhuman lovables. In doing so it has occurred to me just how hard it is for a film to make an iconic character for children.

Sure, it's easy to make something marketable for kids, but to make monstrous and unique characters for children to cherish into adulthood, not unlike the mutated heroes of MvA, takes a lot of talent.

E.T.
I have no reason to lie to you. I'm a 24-year-old man and E.T. still scares me. He has ever since I was a wee little lad. I can't pinpoint the moment that instilled such a ridiculous fear of everyone's favorite horticulturist from outer space, but I think it's a combination of two scenes. The first being when ET tries to phone home and inadvertently causes hurricane winds, flying saw blades, and me in the fetal position. Then we have the seemingly innocent visitor gray, shriveled and dying in the creek bed, looking like the specter of death to a frightened child like me.

My kindertrauma aside, I can't help but respect the terrifying little dude. He holds a special little place in my heart, even if it's in a deep, dark recess that makes me long for my blanky,

I had always heard of 1988's Mac and Me in the most vague whispers of infamy, and so I always knew that I'd eventually get around to seeing it, being such an avid fan of train-wrecks and all. However, leave it to one Paul Rudd to show me the single scene that would jet this puppy right to the top of my Netflix Queue. He did, so I did, and now it's behind me.

Or is it? Surely, some of you have also seen this hilarious E.T. rip-off, in which a young boy (not played by Henry Thomas) cares for an alien creature -- separated from its family, natch -- with a girl his age who believes first (not played by Drew Barrymore), a skeptical older brother (not Robert MacNaughton), and an oblivious mother (not Dee Wallace), feeding it junk food (Skittles instead of Reese's Pieces, etc.) as faceless government agents (not led by Peter Coyote) close in.

Oh, and there's a cameo by none other than Ronald McDonald himself.

So, readers: I beg/plead/implore you to dig up your fondest memories of this film and share them with the rest of us. It's been twenty years; it's time to move on. For the rest of you, check out these clips...

Earlier today, you saw the trailer for one of the most anticipated adaptations of all time (no, not that one, this one). And it was amazing. Well, I thought so, anyway, and I'm one of the few people who said "ehh" after reading the graphic novel. Anyway, some of you bigger fans probably watched the new Watchmen trailer over and over and over again, forward and backward, in slow-motion and sped-up to compare the film with the panels in the book. But did you notice the odd lack of continuity in the sequence shown above? Unless you read MTV Movies Blog, or unless you were looking really hard for something like last year's 300 trailer surprise, there's a good chance you missed it. Fortunately, for you, I've done my best to highlight the anomaly after the jump.

As the son of an illustrator, I grew up appreciating movie poster artists more than probably do most movie geeks. And John Alvin, who passed away last Wednesday, was one of the artists I idolized. Alvin is considered one of the most important poster artists of the past 35 years, and it's no wonder. From E.T. to Gremlins to Blade Runner to The Goonies* to numerous Disney films, his art is as recognizable and iconic as poster design gets. The Smithsonian even named one of his works, for Brian De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise, one of the best posters of the 20th century.

His name may not be as familiar as that of Drew Struzan, another well-known movie poster designer whose work is quite similar. And it isn't that strange to (as I did often in my youth) confuse the work of the two illustrators, both of whom attended the same school as my father, Pasadena's Art Center College of Design, and both of whom worked for many of the same clients and for many of the same films. But there's no doubting that Alvin, who got his start with the poster for Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles and worked on many of Brooks' film campaigns from then on, was a distinctly innovative artist.

In addition to designing original posters for more than 135 films, Alvin produced art for many special edition and anniversary releases, as well as collector's art for popular movies such as Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean. There's probably a good chance that, if you're a real movie geek, you have something of his hanging up in your room or home. I think the closest thing for me is a Blade Runner t-shirt on which his poster art appears. And, of course, I can see a bunch of his talent clearly when looking over at my DVD collection*.

For a good list of his work, check out the filmography on his Wikipedia page, and for a fairly comprehensive look at images of his posters, check out this fan site.

*I just realized that the poster for The Goonies that I'm most familiar with, and which is on my DVD, is the one by Drew Struzan. Oops.

It seems a bit late, but New Line has finally joined the animated film business. Fortunately for them, they've avoided the attempt to set up something in-house, choosing instead to acquire something already in the works. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio has picked up Planet 51, which is being produced by Spain-based Ilion Animation Studios. Scripted by Shrek and Shrek 2 co-writer Joe Stillman, the film is about the titular planet, which is visited by an "alien" from Earth. I guess it's kinda like a reverse E.T., where NASA astronaut Chuck Baker befriends a young native of Planet 51 and must avoid capture. According to the film's IMDb page, in which it's titled Planet One, Stillman is co-directing with Jorge Blanco. However, The Hollywood Reporter lists the co-directors as Blanco, Javier Abad and Marcos Martinez, all of whom apparently worked together on a video game titled Commandos.

Planet 51 is currently in production but doesn't seem too far along. Ilion hasn't yet cast the voices, which typically come first. Considering that at first glance I thought the promo image was of Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear (yeah, my eyesight is bad), I suggest they just go ahead and get Tim Allen for the lead. And then they should cast Henry Thomas as the alien kid, because all animated films these days need to be full of referential jokes. I also have to add another suggestion to New Line and Ilion: make the film in 3D. With an expected release date of March 2009, Planet 51 is teetering on the edge of the future, as Dreamworks Animation has already declared 2009 to be the year it begins releasing all its films exclusively on 3D screens. It's first, Monsters vs. Aliens, is even set to come out that same month. Now, Planet 51 may not need to be too competitive if it can hit theaters a few weeks earlier (MvA is set for end of month), though chances are audiences will forget about a lame-old 2D release once the real attractions arrive. With a budget of $60 million, Planet 51 probably can't afford to be so easily dismissed.

Like most people on the internet, we at Cinematical love lists. I love them so much that I wish I could write about everyone I read, but unfortunately there are too many geeks out there making up too many lists, and not enough love to go round (can't you see this is the land of confusion .... ). But since another thing we love around here is Star Wars -- not just the movies but also the fans, the debates, the complaints, etc. -- I figured that these four lists were worth sharing. Because they all mention something related to George Lucas' popular universe. Three of the lists also reference a lot of Star Trek, but with J.J. Abrams rebooting the franchise and all, I think Trekkies have enough love right now. Meanwhile, the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars occurred this year, and we still had to read about things like the Harry Potter franchise out-grossing the Star Wars series and Serenity beating out Star Wars as a best sci-fi film poll. So, thanks to the people at Fark.com, who love lists even more than we do, here are four movie-related lists that give some appropriate props:

• First we have the Times' countdown of the 40 most memorable aliens. Unfortunately, the only Star Wars aliens listed are at #32 and #26, and they're the Ewoks and Max Rebo, respectively. Considering most of the characters in the series can be considered aliens, this is harsh, but since I'm one of the few Ewok fans out there, I appreciate the gesture. Even if ALF is higher up on the list than they are. At least they're still better than the Coneheads. Anyway the top ten here is full of other significant movie aliens, including the arachnids of Starship Troopers, E.T., the Transformers, Superman, The Blob, The Thing and, at the top spot, God.
  
• Next there's Kunochan.com's countdown of the top twenty starship captains. Once again, Star Wars doesn't get the #1, but it's understandable that Star Trek's most famous captains get the first two slots. At #3, though, is Han Solo. However, the list's author does point out that he had to put a Star Wars character in the top five to avoid having his house firebombed. I don't mind the disingenuous comment; Solo deserves to be higher up than Captain Janeway and the dude from Firefly/Serenity. Down the line at #11 we've also got Grand Moff Tarkin.

If you're a true movie geek, you probably refuse to dress up at Halloween in anything but a movie-related costume. I guess I'm not a true movie geek, because two years ago I went as Family Guy's Quagmire, who as of yet is not in any movies. Last year, though, I was Harpo Marx. I haven't decided what to be this year yet, but it isn't definite that I'll be something with cinematic reference.

Of course, if I was a real, hardcore movie geek, I wouldn't just settle for the basic, predictable movie-themed outfit. I'd go for the gold, and be an uber-geek. How? I would doubly dress up as a movie character who is dressed up as somebody or something else. To do so, I would pick one of my favorite non-Halloween costumes and disguises depicted on film (it isn't as fun dressing as a character who is dressed up for Halloween). However, most of these would be difficult to achieve -- or at least too obscure to wear to a common party, where the crowd isn't as film familiar as you. If you attempt any of these, good luck! And please, please send me a photo.

1. Harpo Marx and Chico Marx as Groucho Marx in Duck Soup (1933, Leo McCarey)

See, now if I had really wanted to be geeky (or pretentious), I would have not just dressed as Harpo last Halloween; I would have dressed as Harpo dressed as Groucho. In one of the most famous sequences in any Marx Brothers film, Pinky (Harpo) and Chicolini (Chico) each disguises himself as Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho) in order to steal some war plans. The real gem of the sequence, of course, is the "mirror scene" (watch it if you've never seen it before, please), where Pinky pretends to be the reflection of Rufus until Chicolini appears and ruins everything. Although historically it was only Harpo and Chico who were often mistaken for each other, or for twins, all three brothers look so alike here, that when they're all together, it is almost difficult to tell who is who. If you want to pull this double-costume off, it won't be hard -- Grouch faces are easy to do, and then you just need a sleeping cap and gown -- but I doubt you'll get much tolerance when you constantly correct everyone who thinks you're simply Groucho.

If you saw the first Wall-E teaser trailer, you won't be missing anything by not watching the new trailer. At least, you won't miss anything that will be in the actual movie. However, the new teaser features a fresh sequence involving Wall-E's interaction with the Pixar logo. It's cute, it's funny and it makes you want to give hugs to a lamp and a robot, which is pretty silly but nonetheless the undeniable case. I've always had a thing for retooled logos involving the movie it accompanies (for example Ralph Wiggum singing along to the 20th Century Fox fanfare before The Simpsons Movie), and I've always had a thing for that little Pixar lamp ever since I saw that first animated short, and so obviously I absolutely love this clip. The rest of the trailer, well, that's kinda boring, but only because we've pretty much already seen it before.

Sure, the title character of Wall-E looks like a cross between E.T. and Johnny 5, but who cares? I don't know about you, but I love E.T., and Johnny 5 is also pretty cool when Ally Sheedy isn't around. So, what's the problem? Personally, I'm really looking forward to this next Pixar movie, especially after reading that director Andrew Stanton considers it to be like "R2-D2: The Movie," because it doesn't really feature any dialogue. Basically it's going to be a beautiful, computer-animated silent film. Despite my intense hatred for Cars, I have faith that Pixar will keep on producing brilliant family entertainment, and when Wall-E opens next summer, you can bet I'll be seeing it. Am I really the only who can't wait? It sure feels that way.

If you haven't already, you must read Joshuah Bearman's new Wired article about the 1980 hostage rescue involving the creation of a fake sci-fi movie. Here, I'll sum it up quickly: after the CIA and two makeup artists came up with a non-existent movie (it seemed so real that it had the trades fooled), an operative named Tony Mendez traveled to Iran under the guise of the production in order to sneak out six American hostages. And yes, it worked. Well, it didn't take long for a studio to realize the now-unclassified story would make a perfect non-non-existent movie. Warner Bros. has bought the rights to the article and has tapped none other than George Clooney and Grant Heslov to write the screenplay.

The last film Clooney and Heslov wrote together was Good Night, and Good Luck, for which they received Oscar nominations. And considering the fact that Clooney has worked with CIA subject matter before, with his directorial debut, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and with his Oscar-winning performance in Syriana, the man seems fully qualified. Hopefully Clooney will also direct the film, which will be called Escape From Tehran, or at least appear in it. It would also be perfect if the project, labeled a dramedy, could employ the two makeup artists, but unfortunately one of them is no longer alive. John Chambers, who won an Honorary Academy Award in 1969 for his work on Planet of the Apes, died in 2001. However, his partner on the mission, Robert Sidell, who went on to do the makeup for E.T., may be able to contribute somehow.

Escape From Tehran reminds me of two other films, Wag the Dog and The Last Shot, but it will likely be good enough to make me forget both (especially the latter). The only thing I ask for is a title change. Right now it sounds like it should feature Kurt Russell as Snake Plisskin, or worse, it could confuse people if it comes out anytime close to the Escape from New York remake. Here is my suggestion, which will associate it better with Clooney's and Heslov's work: You May Proceed. Good Luck. Okay, it isn't actually a better title, but if you read the article (do it!), my idea will at least make sense.

Though Hollywood begins its summer earlier and earlier each year, in general, Memorial Day weekend brings us the season's unofficial start and everything that goes along with it. Hell yeah, it's time to open up the pool, grease up the barbeque and talk big budget blockbusters baby!

Growing up, with no school to occupy my mind during those three months off, there was nothing to look more forward to than a classic summer moviegoing experience. Now, in order to have such an experience, certain elements were required to be in place. First off, there needed to be a certain amount of hype connected to the film (or films). Usually, a teaser trailer over the Christmas holiday was enough to get any kid pumped up. As its release nears, deciding where to see the film and who to go with was (and still is) a problematic situation. For the most satisfying overall moviegoing experience, I suggest attending its opening night with one, or two of your best mates. Keep in mind, you will need to get there real early, but the wait is worth it ... depending on the film, of course.

Seeing as I'm only 29-years-old, the following films were chosen because a) I was able to see them in the theater when they were first released and b) I specifically remember each one bringing me a classic and unforgettable summer moviegoing experience. Sure, they may not be the greatest films ever made, but I can connect each one to a different time in my life. So, what is the ultimate summer moviegoing experience? That's up to you. Here are mine ...