Morbius

The first trailer for Jared Leto's upcoming vampire movie, Morbius, was released today...



Judging by that last shot, he's obviously not one of the pretty Twilight vampire's friends.

The movie opens on July 31st.

Another dimension

A full trailer for the upcoming revival of The Twilight Zone was released today...



Although I don't get CBS All Access, this trailer doesn't really compel me to change that. It doesn't really look scary or intriguing. It just looks a bit chaotic, with all of the quick jumps and cuts. You don't really get a sense of any of the actual stories or situations.

Regardless, we'll see how the reviews are when the series premieres on April 1st.

Twilight skins the competition

This won't be a surprise to, well...anyone.

The popular vampire franchise's final installment, "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 2," scored the eighth biggest opening weekend of all time with a $141.3 million debut. 

If Summit's estimates hold up, that's just a touch ahead of "Breaking Dawn -- Part 1," which started with $138.1 million last year, and just a touch behind New Moon, which opened with $142.8 million in 2009. Impressively, "Breaking Dawn -- Part 2" also earned $199.6 million in its international debut this weekend, giving it an early global total of $340.9 million.

I'm sure that Taylor Lautner's pecs had "nothing" to do with any of the repeat viewings.

Twilight's popularity is based purely on the interest in the intricately woven plot and Academy Award-winning performances.

For those of you who doubt that, just look at this collection of all of the Twilight shirtless scenes so far...



It's definitely a mystery...

The Host

A full trailer for Twilight-author Stephenie Meyer's new book series-to-movie The Host, was released today.



It looks like it has just about all of the usual teen-angst requirements necessary to keep her audience engaged.



Well, except for Taylor Lautner shirtless every five minutes.

They can always add that later.

Vamp

The first trailer for the finale of the Twilight series was just released and it appears that Bella is quite happy being a super-vampire now.

However, she's not so happy that the Volturi want to kill her rapidly growing baby...



And yes....I'm going to see this.

Don't hate.

Snack Attack

It seems that "one or two" people went to see The Hunger Games this weekend...

Lionsgate just revised upwards its worldwide total to a massive $214.25 million for The Hunger Games which was projected to be the No. 1 title in virtually every single market globally. The studio reports this morning that this opening weekend’s North American grosses for Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games total a humongous $155 million after making $68M Friday and $51M Saturday anticipating a decent $36M Sunday hold.

Lionsgate also finally reported its weekend international numbers which were a very strong $59.25M and tracking ahead of the first Twilight Saga film.

I am going to see it on Wednesday night and am trying to keep my expectations low...just in case.

However, the reviews have been pretty good and, from what I've heard from people who read the books and saw the movie, they appear to have done a good job translating it as well.

If you saw it, what did you think?

Breaking Bank

Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 opens today and is expected to pull in around $125 Million or more over the weekend, which is very impressive by Hollywood standards.



However, what I never really knew (until today) is that the gaming world has a pretty impressive "box office" as well...

Activision’s first-person shooter multiplayer game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has grossed more than $775 million in its first five days of sales, the company reported Wednesday.

The Call of Duty franchise is one of the most valuable entertainment properties worldwide, having exceeded $6 billion in lifetime revenue.

$775 Million in FIVE DAYS?!!

Suck on that Twilight.

Who's the fairest?

This is one of the competing Snow White movies coming out next year.

This is the one without Julia Roberts.

This is the one with Kristen Twilight Stewart, Charlize Monster Theron, and Chris Thor Hemsworth.



That looks like it just might kick some ass.

Ye Gods!

In case you've missed their commercials every fifteen minutes on every channel for the past couple of weeks, the fat-free movie Immortals opens today.







If you're a fan of 300 and the Spartacus series as well as mythical, scantily clad Gods, dramatic comic book blood, and Ginsu slice and dice violence...there's a pretty good chance you're going to enjoy this too.

It features Henry Cavill (the new Superman, also immortal)...





Mickey Rourke and Stephen Dorff...





And Kellan Lutz (whose next Twilight film also opens next Friday)...





Kellan even sacrificed his shirt on the cover of the new Men's Fitness just to help promote this movie.



He's a trooper.

It looks like it's going to be a visual extravaganza with, if this clip is any indication, lots of graceful slow-motion carnage for every boy and girl in Whoville.



Ouch!

I'm in.

Gawker has a very funny review of the movie here.

They do it

The new trailer is out for Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 and it looks like there is a wedding AND a baby on the way...



It also looks like those dingos want to take her baby.

Crickey!

All Hail

Joel's Oscar posters (with Oscar featured above) are perfect for my overview, as always.

Well, the King's Speech really swept the awards last night. I haven't seen it yet, but plan to soon. The Brits usually do a great job with movies like that (I loved The Queen), so I'm sure it'll be fun to watch.



The Social Network was also up for a variety of awards and won several, but didn't have enough votes to beat out the King. I also need to see this too.



The Black Swan did pretty well, considering the competition. Of course, I had the same reaction to that movie as Cate Blanchett did to The Wolfman clip. "That's Gross" may have been my favorite quote from last night's show.



I was kind of hoping Inception would do better, but was glad it won the visual effects awards that it did. I really liked that movie and thought they did an amazing job all around. I would have been happy if it had won Best Picture too. But, it didn't.



I didn't think James Franco would win for 127 Hours (and he'll certainly not win anything for hosting the Oscars last night), so that might have explained why he was so "blah" during the entire show. Maybe if he had cut off his own arm during the telecast it would have made for at least one memorable moment of the night.



My favorite musical selection was "He doesn't own a shirt." from Twilight. That was probably the best bit of the night, which isn't saying much.

I think Anne Hathaway is lovely and certainly looked good in her vast array of dresses throughout the night, but she and James Franco are hardly Martin and Lewis. Carrot Top's gig in Vegas is certainly not in danger of being replaced by the comedy stylings of Franco and Hathaway.

Hopefully the Academy has learned a good lesson. A good host needs to be more than young, pretty and breathing to keep the show interesting.

Bob Hope got more laughs dead than Anne and James did all night alive.

Hmmm...if they just pieced together clips of dead hosts from shows past as "hosts" of next year's Oscars, THAT would be creepy fun and might just be what the the network needs to grab that youth demographic they feel like they desperately need.

Wes Craven or Eli Roth could direct it.

Oscar gold!

Boys to Men

Chris Colfer, from Glee, is featured in the new Rolling Stone article "Best Characters and Most Memorable Scene-stealers" arriving on newsstands today. Although he's technically a bit young to be sipping an Appletini in a leather bar, he's certainly not the first kid to try to shake things up a bit at the local watering hole.

I mean...Stewie Griffin is even younger.



The season finale of True Blood airs next Sunday, September 12th.





Hopefully the break will give cast members some time to hit the gym before they start filming season four. They obviously need it...



Rob Lowe appears on the cover of the new issue of Men's Fitness. I wonder if it'll sell as many copies as the issue featuring Kellan Twilight Saga Lutz did in July?



NCIS: Los Angeles has been renewed for another season.



I'm sure LL was cool J with that.



A new pic from the upcoming movie Thor has been released and finally shows Chris Hemsworth holding his mighty hammer. So to speak...

And finally, Cristiano Ronaldo is...



Well...nothing new on him other than he's still playing soccer and doing his best to keep fans happy.

Doesn't suck

Seems that the Twilight-kids spent a little money this weekend...

The third pic in the franchise, and the best-reviewed, went on to make $24.2M Thursday, $28.6M Friday, $23.9M Saturday, $13.7 Sunday, and an estimated $16.4M Monday. So that's $69M for the 3-day weekend, and $82.5M for the 4-day July Fourth Holiday, $162 for the first 5 days, and a total $175.3M for the full 6-day release.

Eclipse topped the foreign circuit this weekend with $104.6M from 6,951 screens in a relatively contained opening break of 42 territories.

Worldwide total: $279.6 M. Film's budget: $68 M.

Wow...that's a LOT of cash to make in 6 days.

I need to come up with the next big movie franchise that teen girls will go nuts over.



I wonder if I could write a script that would make yard gnomes mysterious and sexy?

I think we'd have to lose the beards...and the hats.

And they'll need abs.

Super Tuesday

Chris Evans has just signed to play Captain America in the upcoming Marvel film, The First Avenger: Captain America.

It's an odd choice, since he already played Johnny Storm (the "Flame-ON!" guy) in the previous Marvel Fantastic Four movies (which are going to be redone again with a new cast). He'll also play Captain America in the upcoming "Avengers" movie, which will also include Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), the Hulk (Edward Norton), and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) all in one movie.



Filming has already begun on a stand-alone Thor movie with Chris Hemsworth (he played Kirk's young father in the last Star Trek movie), which will also co-star Anthony Hopkins and is being directed by Kenneth Branagh.

It will be cool to see an Avengers movie with all three characters (and probably more) and the same actors starring in them for once. It's a shame that Warner Bros. still hasn't be able to get their Justice League movie off the ground. Maybe Avengers will help give them a bit of a competition push...



However, the DC Universe is still going strong, there is a new Batman movie and Superman and X-Men movie reboots in the works and, of course, we have Ryan Reynolds currently filming the Green Lantern movie...so I'm looking forward to those as well.



The new Conan movie was also cast recently, with Stargate Atlantis actor Jason Momoa taking over Arnold's infamous loin cloth (hopefully it was dry-cleaned first).

I'm sure that Jason's main competition for the role, Kellan Lutz (from the movie Twilight and recent Calvin Klein ads), was bummed when he didn't get the barbarian role. But, I'm sure he's over it now...



It was announced today that Kellan has been cast as the Greek god Poseidon in the upcoming movie War of the Gods, which will also star Mickey Roarke (who also co-stars in the upcoming Iron Man 2) as King Hyperion.

Gold's Gym must be very busy lately with all of these Superhero, Warrior, and and Greek God movies coming out.

I certainly don't see any of these actors "preparing for their roles" at my local 24 Hour Fitness.

Twilight: New Moon

I haven't seen much press on the new fitness movie, "Twilight: New Moon", that opens today. So, I felt it was important for me to do my part to help promote this little film with the hope that other studios will be encouraged to make more health-centric movies that actually reflect the challenges that we normal people face each day.



With winter setting in, the filmakers really try to remind us all that it's still very important to get outside and walk a little bit each day to keep the blood flowing and brain stimulated.

Fresh minds, create fresh ideas and there are parts of our bodies that, without visual stimulus, would fail to remain as firm as we'd like them to be.



Re-connecting with nature on a regular basis is also stressed. In this crazy technological world, it's important to remember to take a few minutes each day to appreciate the natural beauty all around us.

If you don't reach out and touch it sometimes, it might not be there later when you need it most.



One of the messages that I've gotten from the trailers for the film is that it's important that we each find ways to step away from the computer or crackberry and just "let our hair down" once in a while. It's easy to get stuck in a rut, so it's good to let loose and just have fun, either with yourself or new friends.



This is especially important for those of you who can't seem to find time during your hectic work day to relax. No matter how busy you are, the director stresses that each of us should take a few minutes to quietly meditate and "be" with yourself.

I try to be with myself at least once a day or more, depending on what I happen to be focused on at the moment.



There is also a great montage in the movie that reminds us that you don't need a personal trainer or large gym chain to stay in shape.

Just a few minutes of bending, twisting, and stretching can be done anywhere and, if you do it right and in a safe environment, the results can be very gratifying and relaxing. Make sure you keep a towel handy...you're gonna need it!



Exercise doesn't have to be a solo venture either. It's always more fun when you gather a few like-minded people and do it together.

Sweating, pumping and letting loose with a friend or strangers can have some very beneficial socialization results as well. Spending intimate time with others is really the mental lubricant that keeps people bonded and connected in this world.



I really do hope that the studio marketing department is able to figure out some way to visually get people into the theater to see "Twilight: New Moon".

It's not like they have Tyler Perry and Oprah producing or Jim Carrey to go out on the talkshow circuit to pull people in. They just have these regular kids trying offer health advice to the masses. It's not easy...



Thankfully, the studio marketing department has produced some very helpful merchandising to promote their film. Because, as we all know, kids always like to have something to play with once they get home and back into their private spaces. I think their "Portable Personal Trainer" has some real potential.

With its attention to detail and life-like moveable parts...it should really help men and women, of all ages, get back in touch with their true selves and remind them that being healthy is not just a lifestyle...but a way of life.

I plan to see this movie very soon and I hope that you all will too.

It feels good to help.