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DC comics ever keen to cash in on the monumental success of Dark Knight along with producer Donald De Line have confirmed that a script has been approved for the DC hero The Green Latern with shooting due to start spring 2009. From empire online the crash course in Green Lantern is as follows

the Green Lantern corps are a universe-protecting force granted power rings which gives them greater control over the physical world (as long as their will power remains strong). The comic book canon has seen a number of Green Lanterns come and go and come back again so which character will make it to the big screen is anyone’s guess.

Given that there are many Green Lantern’s this has the sweet smell of franchise written all over it. So lets throw out the bait , casting suggestions anyone ?

Empire Online is reporting perhaps the most bizarre directing announcement that makes McG’s appointment to Terminator : Salvation seem passe. For the upcoming marvel comic flick Thor none other than Shakespeare luvvie Kenneth Branagh is set to put pen to paper to helm the project. Yes that’s right KENETH FREAKING BRANAGH ! To be or not to be and all that jazz. Matthew Vaugh was orignaly in line to direct but is said to have backed out of the deal. The plot of the movie will be set almost entirely in Asgard and feature the young Thor who needs to face up to his power and become a man. Thor is due out in 2010.

It seems Sir Ridley Scott is finally going ahead with his long awaited take on Robin Hood. As with Jim Cameron , Scott seems to have found his own Bill Paxton namely Russell Crowe. For the Ozzie star will be playing the Sheriff of Nottingham AND Robin Hood in a bizarre dual role casting. Sir Ridley told MTV’s movie blog:

“He’s playing both. [Crowe's dual roles would be] “a good old clever adjustment of characters. One becomes the other. It changes.”

Could this be a medieval Fight Club?, others are suggesting it could be that the sheriff creates the persona of Robin to scare the crooks (Ala Dark Knight). So far the Crowe/Scott combo seems to pull it off (Gladiator, body of lies) os i’ll give it a thumbs up.

Episode 1.10 of the fightrunner podcast is now online. First an apology and some gremlins go into the recording resulting in Matt saying everything twice, and no he is not using mind control on us this is my fault as the software i used has a bug that makes incoming voice repeat when being recorded, said software has been elminated from fightrunner studios and i can only beg for Matt’s mercy. It was great show and hopefully we can have Matt back on for the next one so we can record things proper(Apologies again). Also thanks to other newbie bradders who was also great.

Direct Download Link

Podcast Feed Link(Wordpress)

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Itunes

Looks like we are paying him enough

The Episode featuring Rambofan’s debut is in the editing process as we speak, is well worth a listen !

Hi, Nice to be associated with the website, and on the recordings.

Lets hope with my sense of humour and views we can become more popular than empire, or maybe just the empire state building,

I believe after todays show I now have a selection of films to take a look at and will look forward to reviewing then on the site,

One thing that would be of interest to me going forward is, who would of taken the blue pill,

Yep some new faces are being welcomed into the fightrunner family.

First up is Bradders, a good friend of mine who will be a writing on the blog and will feature regularly on the podcast. Expect copious amounts of sarcasm !. No Idea what Arnie thinks of him yet …

Next up in our additions is chris_the_overfiend the esteemed work colleague of myself and Mcflee. Word of warning as a Scottish South African he is bit out there, expect loads of talk about giant tentacle laser jism shooting cocks!. Chris will surface now and again on the blog, and if he gets too much we will let Arnie loose on him.

Well Arnie is sure to like out very first Fightrunner from the good ol’ US of A. Stand up please Rambofan, who will be on the podcast from time to time. Rambofan has a great youtube channel of his reviews which i advise you check out here . His fave movie is wait for it … RAMBO! come to think of it Arnie may not be so impressed .

ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13

I have decided to do a piece on movie remakes… as we are all too aware, Hollywood has totaly run out of ideas! There has been remake after remake after remake in the past few years. So I your faithful reviewer, McFlee, will be trawling through some of the best, worst and mediocre of them.

First up I have decided to watch a remake of Assault on Precinct 13. The original, written, directed and even the bloody music was done by John Carpenter. Now in my eyes the dude was a God of slightly naff but brilliant film making in the 70’s and 80’s… with classics like The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China, They Live and Halloween. True, he did go utterly shit lately with wank like Ghosts of Mars but hey he has made his doe, he is entitled to take his foot of the gas.

I loved the original Assault on Precinct 13 (1978), it was a mad idea of an old police precinct in LA in its final hours of being shut down, with only a skeleton crew of a few cops and the secretary left to pack up the last of the shit. When a prison transport that’s passing the area has to inadvertently make a pit stop at the precinct a group of soon to be jailed punks and gangsters finds themselves locked up in the aging building. Meanwhile a bunch of street gangs have robbed a military truck transporting weapons and decide to use them to wage war against the closing precinct.

The film is a “shit just hit the fan” type of movie, where the cops have to make a tough decision weather to arm the convicts locked up inside in order to survive the relentless assault.
I just loved the idea of this low budget classic, with it’s anti-hero’s and drug crazed street punks. The crappy sinth music sets off the mood and the 70’s feel of the movie (all the punks have black ray bands, cut off jeans and head bands on) just makes it even cooler.

Now on to the remake… usually remakes as we all know are just slightly glossier versions of the original with all the soul removed, but upon hearing that this movie stared Laurence Fishbourne, Ethan Hawke and Gabriel Byrne I was really interested to see how it panned out.

The film is not as good as the original… ITS FRICKEN WAYYYY BETTER!!! Everything from the direction, acting, screenplay, cast and even the location (now set in the much grittier setting of Detriot outer city limits on a snow storming winters night). The story starts pretty much like the original, using the blizzard as the reason the transport has to make its pit stop, taking with it a group of misfit criminals and the one man bad ass gangster Marion Bishop (Fishbourne). The director made a masterstroke in casting him and all of them for that matter, including Ethan Hawke as the “injured in the line of duty” precinct Sargent that’s addicted to pain killers.

The greatest change of the film is that the bloodthirsty band of killers attacking the precinct are no longer a band off drug crazed, unorganized punks… but are now a highly organized and well equipped task force of corrupt cops, hellbent on stopping Bishop from testifieing against them. They have Assault rifles, sniper rifles, flash bangs and even a chopper at their disposal…

This change in the plot drives the films sense of claustrophobia and helplessness in ways the original could never achieve. Also the new setting makes the situation more bleak, being trapped in the snowstorm of a dieing industrial area was genius!!! I loved this film… Was truly surprised that it didn’t do better when it came out. Now I am kicking myself that I didn’t get to see it on the big screen.

My Verdict: Original: 7/10
Remake: 9/10

The only reason I didn’t give it 10/10 was because a few of the action sceens were not cut as well as they could have been and made it a little confusing as to what just happened between shots. This however is a minor problem and you can forgive it easily… GO SEE IT NOW!!!

You’re gonna love this

TROPIC THUNDER

I finally dragged my sorry arse to the cinema this weekend and went to see the newly released Tropic Thunder. After seeing the trailers of Robert Downey Jnr playing an white actor playing a black guy in a Nam film… I thought to myself… No way this cant be funny!

The film follows the making of a Vietnam war vets war journal into a big block buster action movie. The star of the film is Tug Speedman (Ben Stiller), yesteryears greatest action hero trying to make a come back. Along side him is Kirk Lazarus (Downey Jnr) that plays a white Australian method actor that has went through surgery to make him black so that he can play the squads african american sargent. Also Jeff Portnoy (jack Black) as the comic relief thats addicted to drugs, Alpa Chino (Brandon T Jackson) rapper turned actor, and kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel) as the first time actor/kid.

The film isn’t going to plan and the actors are prone to prema donna hissy fits which ends up costing the production company millions in messed up takes. When searching for inspiration the director (Steve Coogan) turns to the author of the book… a seemingly messed up, twisted vet (Nick Nolte)… His advice is to send them deep into the jungle and film it guerilla style to scare the team into acting more like the real thing! Fearing the reappraisals from his fiery producer who is by the way played by an almost unrecognizable Tom Cruise, the Director decides to take the advice of the vet. But just after dropping them off in the jungle, they become embroiled in a real conflict with a heroine producing guerrilla group deep in the forest. Thinking its all part of the movie the squad gets deeper and deeper into trouble with hilarious effect.

Its not a laugh every minute type of movie, but when the laughs come, they come good and hard! From the scene where Stiller’s character askes Downey Jnr’s to hold his hand, when they have been blown off and all that are left is the tattered remains, to the scene where Speedman runs into a crazed panda in the middle of the night, stabs it to death and wears the skin. This film will have you laughing really hard at times. The one failing I would say is that in the middle the film slows a little, in the laughs and the plot.

Stiller is his usual funny self, complete with trademark stupidness and cheesy face pulling (hey it works for him, im not camplaining), Downey Jnr is awesome as the “taking the character to far” kinda guy and has some classic scenes trying tio bond with the real black man of the squad, Jack Black doesnt lend anything really to the story, giving strength to my opinion that he is a one trick pony.. but what really surprised me was Tom Cruise!!! Yes that’s right, I just said it, Tom Cruise can act people! After 30 years he has finally found his niche… comedy! He plays the over weight, balding and self obsessed monster that is the Producer of the movie. He has a ponchent for Rap music and treating people like shit… He steals the show for me, and to be honest… he was my most hated actor in Hollywood up until today. Any movie that can pull that off deserves a round of applause!

Rating: 8/10

Worth crawling though a mine infested rice paddy to go see.