The Final Post of the Year...

Just thought I'd end 2013 by sharing this cool fan-made suit depicting the Crimson Typhoon...one of the Jaegers featured in last July's Pacific Rim. According to the Facebook page of Legendary Pictures (which produced the movie with Warner Bros.), it took 550 hours to build this 'exoskeleton,' 10 months to acquire the parts for it, and the full costume weighs 152 pounds! Nicely done!


Peter Kokis

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty...

I watched the movie directed by and starring Ben Stiller earlier today, and this is a fun flick that is sure to strike a chord with folks who are looking to discover themselves and explore the world. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty started off a bit slow, but things started to pick up once Mitty decided to leave his comfort zone in New York City to find a seasoned photographer (Sean O'Connell, played by Sean Penn) and ask him for the whereabouts of a film negative whose content the folks at Life magazine (where Walter Mitty works) are depending on to keep their jobs. Mitty finds himself in such locales as near a volcano in Iceland, the mountains of Afghanistan and even the shark-infested waters off the coast of Greenland. His motivation for such trips? Finding that negative, and wanting to post a list of life experiences on his eHarmony.com page so he could impress a girl (Cheryl Melhoff, played by Kristen Wiig) that Mitty likes at work. Trying to woo a co-worker... How many of y'all can relate to that? I could.



Another great thing about The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is its soundtrack. I like listening to alternative rock music...and to finally hear Arcade Fire's 'Wake Up' on the big screen and Of Monsters and Men's 'Dirty Paws' play while Mitty is skateboarding down that mountain road in Iceland is awesome to hear and see. But what's cooler than this is the fact that The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a feel-good flick—and Stiller should get credit for helming a movie that speaks to those who are stuck in pedestrian jobs and want to bring new excitement to their lives. As I asked before, how many of y'all can relate to that? Anyways, Happy Holidays everyone!

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Just thought I'd celebrate the holiday by posting this trailer to next year's newest Godzilla flick. There is no Mothra and definitely no Jaeger-type robots (a la Pacific Rim) shown in this preview, but there is that cool opening scene showing H.A.L.O. paratroopers jumping out of an aircraft over the decimated remains of what looks to be San Francisco...and that awesome final shot of Godzilla as he emerges from a cloud of smoke. All I can say is, this movie looks like it will be a major improvement over Roland Emmerich's 1998 tale of a giant iguana (and its derivative Velociraptor offspring) that attacks New York City.

Godzilla gets released into theaters nationwide on May 16, 2014.

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The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug...

I saw the second installment in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings prequel trilogy today, and considering the fact that I didn't watch the film in the dreaded High Frame Rate format like I did with last year's An Unexpected Journey, this movie was awesome. In regular IMAX 3-D, there were so many great scenes to remember from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug...from the Spiders lurking in Mirkwood forest, the Orcs chasing the dwarves down that river (who would've thought a dwarf in a barrel can kick so much arse?) after being captured by Elves to Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) himself flying through the halls of Erebor trying to incinerate Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and company. Legolas (Orlando Bloom) makes an appearance in The Hobbit, and just like in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, was a total bad-ass as he dispatched Orcs left and right throughout the film. Ditto with Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly)—who despite the fact wasn't featured in J.R.R. Tolkien's book is sure to leave a mark in next year's final Hobbit installment, There and Back Again. Since The Desolation of Smaug (slight spoilers ahead) concluded right where the book ended as well, one wonders how Peter Jackson will fill the rest of what will most likely be a two-and-half hour running time for the third flick. Sauron is beginning to rear his ugly head in Middle-earth... Gandalf (Ian McKellen) should know. Have a good evening, everyone!

Peter O'Toole (1932–2013)

Rest In Peace, Mr. O'Toole... I remember how amazed I was when I watched Lawrence of Arabia up on the big screen during a film festival held at my college (Cal State Long Beach) twelve years ago. Peter O'Toole obviously worked on many movies since then—ranging from 1967's Casino Royale (actually a spoof of James Bond) to the 2007 Pixar animated flick, Ratatouille. But it will be his role as T.E. Lawrence in 1962's Oscar-winning World War I epic that O'Toole will be best remembered for. The accomplished actor passed away at Wellington Hospital in London today. He was 81.

Paul Walker (1973-2013)

Rest In Peace, Mr. Walker... The Fast and the Furious films (the last three sequels, to be exact) wouldn't have been the awesome, high-octane action flicks they were if he wasn't in it.

Walker was 40-years-old before today's tragic car accident (which also claimed the life of one of his friends who was riding in the vehicle as well) in Valencia, California.

Transformers: Age of Extinction

In tradition with the first two Transformers sequels, Optimus Prime is the first Autobot to officially be revealed as his redesigned robot mode graces the cover of Empire magazine's January 2014 issue. Director Michael Bay wrapped filming on Transformers: Age of Extinction about three weeks ago...but it remains to be seen when we'll get a glimpse of Optimus, Bumblebee, Nicola Peltz (oh, and Mark Wahlberg) and company confronting the Decepticons in a teaser trailer. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug looks like a great flick to give us our first big screen preview of Age of Extinction before this year is over, but there have been no ramblings online as to whether this is close to being the case. If it's anything like Revenge of the Fallen, the first time we'll see Bayhem—TF4-style—will be during Super Bowl XLVIII next February. Carry on.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire...

I watched the latest action-adventure flick starring Jennifer Lawrence earlier today, and in the same vein that The Dark Knight was an improvement over Batman Begins (which was still very good) and The Empire Strikes Back was a worthy successor to Star Wars, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was more intense and cerebral than its 2012 predecessor. As Katniss Everdeen, Lawrence did a great job conveying the anguish that the character experienced throughout the majority of the film...especially after President Snow (Donald Sutherland) was so bent on eliminating Everdeen that he had all former winners/survivors of The Hunger Games (who were previously exempted from taking part in the barbaric competition ever again) participate in another savage battle royale one last time. Philip Seymour Hoffman added intrigue to Catching Fire as Plutarch Heavensbee...President Snow's Head Gamemaker who wasn't all that he's cracked up to be by the final scene of the movie. Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) was apparently the Han Solo of Catching Fire; you'd have to watch The Empire Strikes Back and the finale of The Hunger Games sequel to know what I'm talking about.



Other noteworthy aspects of Catching Fire were the redesigned suits of the Peacekeepers, who looked like a cross between the competitors of Tron (Tron: Legacy to be exact) and Imperial Stormtroopers. The aircraft that the Capitol used to send participants to The Hunger Game arena (and retrieve the corpses of unlucky warriors during the death match) looked pretty cool—and were definitely reminiscent of the ships you'd see in Star Wars and Star Trek. I'm looking forward to how the revolution against the Capitol begins in The Hungers Games, with Part 1 of Mockingjay getting released in theaters next November and Part 2 being unleashed in cinemas during the Year of Avengers: Age of Ultron and Star Wars: Episode VII. I'm referring to 2015, of course. That is all.

Gearing Up for Star Wars: Episode VII...

There is no visual clue in the photo below as to what he has in store for Star Wars fans come Christmas time in 2015, but it's nice to know that J.J. Abrams, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and company are hard at work in preparing for Episode VII's production shoot—which starts around spring of next year. The fact that R2-D2's presence in this image showing that he should be making another appearance in the seventh Star Wars live-action flick is cool... The fact that there is no sign of a maquette or artwork depicting a Jar Jar-like character for this movie is awesome. I'm well aware that this could change soon.


Photo courtesy of Bad Robot - Twitter.com

Thor: The Dark World...

I saw the latest Marvel comic book flick yesterday, and it was just as enjoyable (moreso, actually) as the 2011 installment. Tom Hiddleston as Loki steals the show (along with Kat Dennings—who amusingly channeled her character Max from the hit CBS TV sitcom, 2 Broke Girls), Natalie Portman gave a much more commendable performance in Thor: The Dark World...it didn't look like she was phonin' it in like in the Star Wars prequels or something. Though the question remains: Who was Benicio Del Toro playing in that scene during the end credits? (Just Googled it right now, and he is The Collector.) And will he show up in the third film? Carry on.