Floyd “Money” Mayweather is a talented fighter. There’s no doubt about that. He’s also a generally boring fighter to watch who has ducked many credible potential opponents over the years. He’s great, but he’s nowhere near as great as he thinks he is. And as far as the trash talking skills he refers to in the video below, “Money” may talk a lot, but he lacks the verbal wit and intelligence of the G.O.A.T., Mr. Ali.

Here’s a video of Mayweather’s recent promotional interview followed by a classic two-part radio interview where RA The Rugged Man takes Floyd to task leading with the question, “Floyd, when are you going to fight someone your own size in the top two? To Floyd’s credit, he is finally doing that by taking on Mosley.

Radio Interview Part 1

Radio Interview Part 2

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The first thing you should know about Alice in Wonderland going into the theater is this is not the Alice you’ve known from the past. Not exactly. Tim Burton’s new twist on Alice is indeed based in Lewis Carroll’s imaginative creations from Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, but this is an entirely new sequel of sorts in which we find a 19 year-old Alice (Mia Wasikowski) returning to Wonderland 12 years after her first adventure there. She doesn’t remember the first visit and the inhabitants of this strange land aren’t entirely sure she’s the same Alice.

Burton’s new twisty, trippy take on Carroll’s writings features a motley crew cast list that includes Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter; Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen; Anne Hathaway as the White Queen; Crispin Glover as the Knave of Hearts; Alan Rickman as the Blue Caterpillar; Michael Sheen as the White Rabbit and Stephen Fry as that cat with the infamous shit-eating grin, the Cheshire Cat. It’s hard to imagine a more perfect group to fill this wild world and Tim Burton seems like the ideal choice to bring a live action Alice to the silver screen.

The story first teases Wonderland with a dull opening where the daydreaming Alice is being primped to accept a proposal of marriage from the dorky Lord Ascot (Tim Pigott-Smith). Thankfully, it doesn’t last long. As soon as the Lord gets down on one knee, Alice flees the scene and jumps down a rabbit hole. Wouldn’t hold your breath there, Lord.

The early exploration of Wonderland is colorful, movie magical fun. It’s entertaining to see the director’s take on the world, a sort of Burton-ized version of the iconic imagery from book illustrations and the classic Disney animated film. CG characters abound, as is to be expected these days, but mostly the work is strong enough to avoid distracting you too much from the fantastical world.

Johnny Depp’s turn as Mad Hatter has drawn the biggest anticipation from fans and, now that I’ve seen it, I’m sad to report that it’s pretty underwhelming. Much like the crazy smiling lunatic Depp already played in Charlie in the Chocalate Factory, the Hatter is weird for weird’s sake. And that’s not to say that is always necessarily a bad thing, but here it just feels like déjà vu. My favorite performance by far is Bonham Carter as the crater-headed Red Queen. The actress really dives into the character, ahem, head first. It looks like she had a blast in the role and her energy really shines through. From the voice to the facial expressions, Bonham Carter really puts her own mark on the role, out-crazying even Depp, shocking as that may be. And as excited as I was to hear Crispin Glover would be joining the cast list, he’s kinda so-so as well. There’s only so many times you can see Glover’s creepy look before it gets more than a little tiresome. Dare I say he needed to be even weirder?

And what about Alice? Well, she’s the least interesting part of this story. Washikowski is perfectly okay in the role, but a little flat and one-dimensional at times. Either way, Burton’s focus was clearly never on Alice, so it’s hard to blame the young actress. She’s in a pretty unenviable position.

It’s kind of hard to figure why Burton and co. felt the need to offer their own interpretation on such a beloved work. It’s an ill-advised move that rarely leads positive result. While Burton and screenwriter Linda Wollverton’s script is competent enough and holds interest through most of the story, it often feels a little short-sighted and unclear, especially as the movie draws towards an unnecessary climax. At best, this new Alice is uneven. The pacing is all over the map and the laughs are almost always followed by gags that land with a sound thud. Burton may be a good director and Wolverton, who also penned The Lion King, is a good screenwriter, but neither is the storyteller Lewis Carroll was.

As much as the world of Wonderland seems perfectly-suited to 3-D, it really adds nothing at all to the movie. Of course, Alice wasn’t actually filmed in 3-D and the post work feels haphazard at best. It isn’t terribly immersive and the image is darkened by the glasses, giving viewers the feeling of wearing sunglasses throughout the movie. I tipped my glasses up more than once to see the brighter, more colorful Alice originally intended.

Tim Burton is the master of weird material, but it almost seems as Alice was just a bit too obvious for him. Did he get bored in Wonderland? It kinda seems that way by the end, which feels more than a little phoned in. The end result is a movie that is decently enjoyable escapism, but entirely forgettable in the long run.

Quickie Score: 6.5 (out of 10)

Quickie Review: The Crazies

Quickie Review: The Wolfman

Quickie Review: Crazy Heart

Quickie Review: World’s Greatest Dad

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I put together this handy dandy little guide for SCI FI Wire today suggesting 6 ways to stop the dream slayer, Frederick Krueger.

6 Ways to Kill Freddy on SCI FI

I’d love to hear what you think and, of course, if you have any added suggestions…

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This past week was an exciting one for Elm Street fans. The new  poster surfaced (left) and it’s pretty bad-ass. The new trailer (below) also premiered and, for the most part, response is very positive. Personally, I think it’s very promising.

I also published a few reports this week from my visit to the set of the new Nightmare on Elm Street remake in Chicago this past summer.

First up is a very in-depth piece for Dark Horizons.

I also did an exclusive interview with the new Nancy,  Rooney Mara, for Fandango.

This coming week I’ll  have a segment on Bloody-Disgusting’s lengthy day-by-day coverage. I’ll post that one here as soon as it goes live.

Check back here for lots more Elm Street coverage as we dreamily await release day, April 30th, 2010.

A Nightmare on Elm Street Trailer 2 in HD

Trailer Park Movies | MySpace Video

MORE ELM STREET

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The Crazies takes place in the fictional small town of Ogden Marsh, Iowa. When a disease starts to take hold of the residents that causes them to go stark-raving mad and homicidal, Sheriff Dutton (Timothy Olyphant), his wife, Dr. Judy Dutton (Radha Mitchell), the Deputee Clank (Joe Anderson) and local gal Becca Darling (Danielle Panabaker) band together to try to escape the infected and the military. Directed by Breck Eisner (Sahara), Crazies is a remake of a little known 1973 low budget George Romero flick.

Crazies could easily have been another run-of-the-mill remake like so many that have come before it. But thanks to a strong, smart script by Ray Wright and Scott Kosar and the focused directing effort by Breck Eisner, Crazies is less Amityville Horror and more Dawn of the Dead. While it doesn’t quite rise to the level of Zack Snyder’s early career calling card, it’s is entertaining from start to finish, with more than a few scares and a couple of sequences that should get you shifting in your seat. Without spoiling the moment, there is a scene involving a knife and a hand that gives M. Emmet Walsh’s Blood Simple scene a run for the money.

The cast is generally strong from start to finish. Olyphant works in the lead, though it’s debatable whether he will really be able to make the transition to feature leading man. His performance is a bit dull at times, and though Radha Mitchell is generally also good, you route for them to survive simply because they are the heroes of the movie, not because they have any particular chemistry or winning personalities. Anderson is better early on, but overacts a bit as shit hits the fan. Panabaker is fine, essentially playing much the same role she did in Friday the 13th.

The intensity builds nicely and it doesn’t make you wait very long for the good stuff. It plays down the typical message-laden Romero material, yet still retains the truly frightening aspect of the story, basically that the military’s tactics for containment of an outbreak doesn’t seem that far-fetched. The choice was made early on to lose the military perspective of the original, which serves the story well and succeeds in placing the audience in much the same position as the characters, figuring out what’s happening as the story moves along.

Where Crazies really succeeds is as a well made popcorn thriller. It may not be a masterpiece, but it’s better than 99 perfect of the similar genre material that oozes its way into theaters. You get the feeling that Eisner and co. actually thought beyond the opening weekend, hoping to convince audiences that might not normally see a movie like this to give something different a chance. It’s escapism without being stupid, capable of taking the audience on a ride while still giving them something to talk about on the drive home.

Quickie Score: 7.5 (out of 10)

Exclusive Bloody D Chat with Director and Cast

Exclusive SCI FI Chat with Olyphant

Exclusive SCI FI Chat with Director Breck Eisner

Set Visit on Dark Horizons

Set Visit on Bloody-Disgusting

Set Visit on SCI FI

Clip from the film:

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With set visits, a new poster and now the full trailer, Warner Bros. has officially opened promotional season on the Nightmare on Elm Street remake, which hits screens in just about two months, April 30th, 2010.

Check out the new trailer below and let me know what you think.

A Nightmare on Elm Street Trailer 2 in HD

Trailer Park Movies | MySpace Video

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The Crazies hits screens this Friday, February 26th, and I’m hopeful that this one might turn out to be a pretty good jumpy scare kind of horror thriller.

To offer a little background, the story takes place in the fictional small town of Ogden Marsh, Iowa. A disease starts to take hold of the residents causing them to go mad and hunt down their friends and family. Directed by Breck Eisner (Sahara), Crazies is a remake of a little known 1973 low, low budget George Romero flick.

I spent some time on the set down in rural George earlier last year and wrote reports for Dark Horizons, Bloody-Disgusting and SCI FI Channel. Last week I spoke to castmembers Timothy Olyphant, Danielle Panabaker and Radha Mitchell as well as director Breck Eisner about the release on behalf of Bloody D and SCI FI.

All in all, I’ve got a decent feeling about this one. It could very easily be nothing more than schlocky horror crap, I admit, but I think this one has a chance of rising to the occasion a bit and being something a little more. Bloody D ran a pretty cool clip recently in which Sheriff Dutton (Olyphant) has a battle with an autopsy saw. Check out my various Crazies coverage below as well as the aforementioned autopsy saw clip.

Exclusive Bloody D Chat with Director and Cast

Exclusive SCI FI Chat with Olyphant

Exclusive SCI FI Chat with Director Breck Eisner

Set Visit on Dark Horizons

Set Visit on Bloody-Disgusting

Set Visit on SCI FI

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Today Amazon MP3’s daily deal is Johnny Cash’s newly-released final album, American VI: Ain’t No Grave for $3.99. For newbies to the Amazon MP3 store, their digital music is better than iTunes in every way – cheaper, DRM free, twice the bit rate. Just download the player and it loads right into your iTunes library with album artwork and everything.

Grab your copy of Ain’t No Grave right here.

My previous article on Amazon MP3.

Wear Black for Cash this Friday.

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I’ve got an exclusive story over on SCI FI Wire today about John Carpenter’s long-awaited return, The Ward. It’s the director’s first feature since the underwhelming 2001 Ice Cube flick, Ghosts of Mars.

Co-star Danielle Panabaker, who portrays a patient in an insane asylum in the movie, offers some details on the movie and her role. Check out the full story below at SCI FI Wire:

“John Carpenter’s first movie in a decade is insane”

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This Friday would have been the 78th birthday of the Man in Black, Johnny Cash. To celebrate, his family and producer of his acclaimed American Recordings series, Rick Rubin, are calling for fans to dress in black this Friday, February 26th.

Of course, it can’t help but seem coincidental that Johnny Cash’s final record with Rubin, American VI: Ain’t No Grave also hits stores this week, February 23rd. So, yes, it’s a bit of a cross-promotional tie-in, but who cares? Cash was a musical legend unrestrained by genre and musical conventions. If you’ve always thought of Cash as merely a country singer, trust me, you are missing out. The Man in Black is as Rock ‘n Roll as they come.

In an interesting related story, fans have started a campaign asking Sony to re-release and re-promote Cash’s little known but acclaimed 1964 concept album Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indians, a tribute to the trials and tribulations of America’s screwed over and forgotten natives. The album is currently available on places like Amazon and iTunes, but fans are hoping for a proper release from Sony in the near future. Read the entire story over at Rolling Stone.

So strap on your biggest belt buckle, dress yourself in black from head to toe and celebrate Cash!

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