Posts by Frank Moore4

The Lord of the Rings (1978)



I'm not knowing if one would notice, but at 4:20 PM today on PBS 3, they're airing that 1978 animated version of The Lord of the Rings directed by Ralph Bakshi. I think the last time this popped up on PBS was, what, over a decade ago? Honestly, every single time it comes on, it’s such a blast to watch.

Just to refresh everyone's memory, this movie is a unique blend of animation and live-action footage that’s been rotoscoped. The plot actually covers all the major events from The Fellowship of the Ring plus about half of The Two Towers, wrapping everything up right after the big battle at Helm's Deep. It clocks in at 132 minutes. This version definitely left a mark on Peter Jackson, who even gave it a shout-out in one of the special features on The Fellowship of the Ring DVD.

Official synopsis from the PBS website:

The Lord of the Rings, an American animated film.

(THE LORD OF THE RINGS, 1978.)

So, picture this: at this massive blowout celebrating his 111th birthday back in his little hometown in The Shire, the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins (voiced by N. Bird) decides to hand over The Ring to his nephew Frodo (voiced by C. Guarda) and just heads out. Now, naturally, this leaves Frodo totally lost, but the wise wizard Gandalf (voiced by W. Squire) quickly figures out that they aren't dealing with some trinket—this is an incredibly powerful and dangerous relic from way back in the day. The thing about The Ring is that it’s got this corrupting energy that pulls the absolute worst traits out of people; it can only be used for evil, and anyone who holds onto it eventually turns into a greedy, selfish villain. To make matters worse, there are two other rings out there held by the Dark Lord Sauron, who’s lurking in Mordor. He’s teaming up with Gandalf's associate Saruman (voiced by F. Kerar) to try and get his hands on the third ring so he can basically take over all of Middle-earth. Because the stakes are that high, Frodo, Gandalf, and The Fellowship decide they have to set out on this epic, grueling journey to the heart of Mordor to destroy The Ring once and for all.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendary fantasy trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, is honestly in a league of its own. It’s this incredibly immersive piece of prose where the author built an insanely imaginative fairy-tale world from scratch. On one hand, you've got these noble Hobbits, determined knights, powerful wizards, brave elves, and courageous princesses; on the other, you're dealing with absolute madmen for rulers, terrifying monsters, and demonic forces. Tolkien's literary universe is just impossibly deep. He basically layered it using ancient Norse and Germanic sagas, mixed in all sorts of mythology, religious themes, classic folk tales, and his own heavy experiences serving in World War II.

To truly wrap your head around the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, you have to look at what Tolkien was actually doing. He was this deeply conservative, nostalgic guy who missed the era when people actually took pride in working with their own two hands. He famously referred to his work as a fundamental religious and Catholic piece, and that's exactly why it hits so hard. To get the full picture, you have to lean into those core mythological and Christian motifs he woven throughout the story—things like the eternal struggle between good and evil, how humility ultimately crushes arrogance, and the complex relationship between death and immortality. It’s all built on themes of redemption, kindness, nobility, goodness, resurrection, justice, friendship, the willingness to sacrifice everything, and the power of free will.

Long before Peter Jackson masterfully brought The Lord of the Rings to life between 2001 and 2003—after years of speculation that directors like Stanley Kubrick or John Boorman might take a crack at it—the job was taken on by the talented animator Ralph Bakshi. He was the controversial guy behind Fritz the Cat and Heavy Traffic, known for being one of the first to bring X-rated animation into the mainstream. His version was high-energy and honestly pretty fun, riding the wave of the sci-fi boom sparked by the massive success of Lucas's Star Wars just a year prior. Bakshi decided to split the story into two parts, but because the film didn't exactly kill it at the box office, the project never actually got finished. Still, even though it’s incomplete, his adaptation of the first book and half of the second is a remarkably inventive piece of work, thanks to that cool mix of live-action footage and brilliant rotoscoped animation.

Voice Cast: Christopher Guard, William Squire, Michael Scholes, John Hurt, Simon Chandler, Dominic Guard, N. Bird, Michael Graham-Cox, Anthony Daniels, F. Kerar
Runtime: 128 min.
Screenplay: Peter S. Beage and Chris Conklin (based on the novels "The Fellowship of the Ring" and "The Two Towers" by J.R.R. Tolkien)
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Genre: Animated Adventure Fantasy

Just a quick heads-up: the synopsis over on PBS claims this movie was a total flop at the box office, but honestly, that’s just wrong. It actually pulled in $30.5 million in theaters against a $4 million budget.

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R.I.P.D.

The new flick from director Robert Schwentke—who most people know for his work on Red i Flightplan—is actually based on that Rest in Peace Department comic book by Peter M. Lenkov.



Ryan Reynolds is taking the lead here, and he's backed up by a seriously heavy-hitting cast including Jeff Bridges, Kevin Bacon, Mary-Louise Parker, Robert Knepper, and Mike O'Malley.

The whole story follows this young cop who gets brought back to life after being killed; he ends up joining a squad of undead officers to track down the guy who took him out.

Kevin Bacon plays the bad guy, while Jeff Bridges plays Reynolds' partner, a guy who's actually been "dead" for hundreds of years.

You can catch this one hitting theaters on July 19th next year.







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Nicole Foster71 said:And you're right about Rose—there's already enough chatter in the trades suggesting that Gemma Arterton might take on the villainous fairy godmother role, playing opposite her four-year-old daughter Princess Aurora from back in the day.
As for the Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters movie, judging by the trailer, I actually have a feeling it might turn out to be a pretty solid flick.

Tons of news?! Production actually kicked off already and they've even released some first looks from the set—I dropped the link in the "cinema worker" thread earlier this morning. ☕ 😉

While everyone else is busy swinging punches, hacking away with knives, or unloading handguns, Bud Spencer just clears out a massive pile of bad guys with a few well-placed shots. 😬 To be fair, Steven Seagal pulls off something pretty similar. 🤣

The first trailer just dropped. Looks like 😬Hawkeye
is rocking a crossbow now.

What's up? 😬

Kevin Durand? 🤣 I swear, there isn't a single movie or show where he doesn't play some kind of unhinged maniac, whether he's the villain—which is most of the time—or actually one of the good guys. 😬



Then you've got Brian Thompson—he's been everywhere, from his time in Cobra, through all those various Trek roles, right up to playing a hunter in X-Files:

New movie incoming—we've got Chris Pine playing Jack Ryan alongside Kevin Costner as John Clark:

Jack Ryan

As most of you probably already know, we've got a new flick hitting US theaters for Christmas 2013 based on the whole CIA analyst Jack Ryan saga. It’s all based on the works of Tom Clancy, and this time around, we’re getting Chris Pine stepping into the role of "James T. Kirk" type hero. They just dropped the first official still from the movie today, showing Ryan tearing it up on a motorcycle. Honestly, it feels like Pine has to be riding a bike in basically every single blockbuster he does—just look at Star Trek, for example. 😁

Just to recap for anyone who needs a refresher, the franchise has seen Alec Baldwin (The Hunt for Red October), Harrison Ford (Patriotic Games, Clear and Present Danger), and Ben Affleck (The Sum of All Fears) play the lead. This time, Pine is playing him back when he was just a temp financial analyst working over in Moscow. The plot kicks off when he discovers his boss (Kenneth Branagh) is actually plotting a massive terrorist strike against the USA to completely wreck the global economy.

Keira Knightley is playing Ryan's wife in this one, and Kevin Costner is playing his handler at the CIA. It looks like Costner is making a huge comeback next year, first with Man of Steel and then following that up with Jack Ryan. Oh, and Kenneth Branagh is also directing the thing.

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After Earth



Coming to theaters next July is
"After Earth"
, a massive new sci-fi blockbuster starring Will Smith and his son Jaden Smith. The story follows a father and son whose ship crashes on an unknown planet—which turns out to be Earth—a place humanity abandoned a thousand years ago. 😁
A viral video just dropped, which you can check out below, detailing the cataclysmic events that forced the exodus from Earth to a new world called new Prime. Will Smith plays General Cypher Raige, a guy who’s finally returning home to his family after a long stint in service, though his son Kitai isn't exactly rolling out the red carpet for him. (Seriously, what kind of name is Kitai? Is there some weird connection to a whale or something?
Honestly, even Cypher is a pretty goofy name.)

The stakes get real when a meteor storm batters their ship, forcing Cypher and Kitai to make a crash landing on the hostile, uncharted surface of Earth. With his dad left badly injured in the cockpit, Kitai has to trek across dangerous terrain alone to trigger a rescue signal. It looks like little Kitai is actually going to be the true hero of this thing.

Aside from our main dynamic duo, the cast is mostly made up of lesser-known actors, and the film is being directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who—if we're being honest—has been a bit hit-or-miss lately (I'm looking at you, sixth sense).

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briskhound2 said:You actually beat me to it. 😁

Alright, so now you can go ahead and start a dedicated thread for Universal Soldier 4. 😁

briskhound2 said:By the way, this whole move with Jane is such a lame play that Silver went straight onto my shit list because of it. Honestly, screw chasing audiences at the expense of quality.

I'm with you on that. The only way this gets better is if Stallone brings Jane in for The Expendables 3. Just imagine a showdown with Dolph Lundgren vs. Jane (basically two Punishers XD, all we need is Ray Stevenson).

Bullet to the Head



Just a few weeks after Arnold's The Last Stand hits theaters, we’ve got a new Sly flick coming our way—an action movie called >. It’s based on that French comic *Lead in the Head* and directed by Walter Hill, the guy behind The Warriors and Red Heat.

The cast features Stallone alongside Sung Kang (from the Fast and Furious series), Jason Momoa (Stargate: Atlantis, Conan, Game of Thrones), and Christian Slater. The US premiere is set for February 1st.

The story follows a hitman (Stallone) who teams up with a young NYPD detective (Sung Kang) to get revenge for their fallen partners. Naturally, they're going to have to deal with some heavy hitters like Khal Drogo / Conan Simerijac / Ronon Dex along the way. 😁

Honestly, I think producer Joel Silver kind of messed this one up. He decided to bring in Sung Kang instead of the original choice, Thomas Jane, just to try and "broaden the appeal." Total amateur move.

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Red Dawn



After dealing with a massive headache of production issues over the last few years—mostly stemming from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer going broke back in 2010, which caused endless delays—the first trailer for the Red Dawn remake finally dropped the other day.

Just to catch everyone up, this is a remake of that 1984 classic by John Millius. In the original Millius version, the USA was facing off against the Soviet Union, but for this remake, they originally cast Chinese people as the villains. However, the studio eventually decided to swap them out for North Korea instead. They actually went as far as digitally replacing all the Chinese flags in the footage with North Korean ones. FilmDistrict, who picked up the rights from MGM, made the call because they were worried that portraying Chinese people as the bad guys might tank the movie's chances in China.

The cast features Chris Hemsworth (Thor, Avengers, Star Trek, Snow White and the Huntsman), Isabel Lucas (Immortals, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Daybreakers), Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island), Adrianne Palicki (Friday Night Lights, upcoming G.I. Joe: Retaliation), Josh Peck (Ice Age franchise), Tom Cruise, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen, Supernatural, The Losers). It’s pretty wild to think about how most of these actors were relatively unknown when this was being filmed, even someone like Chris Hemsworth, who's a massive star now. It'll be interesting to see if their huge breakouts over the last few years help pull people into theaters for this one.

Dan Bradley is making his directorial debut here, and the US release is set for October 21st.

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Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen would be absolute legends at a sandwich party. 😁

What can I even say about this? A wolf might change its coat, but a fanatic never changes his ways.

Area 51 said:

Exactly. 😁

Tony Stark is Robert Downey Jr., and Robert Downey Jr. is Tony Stark. 😬

It's just like how Shat is actually Denny Crane. 🤣

Ever since those geniuses over at AT&T decided to outsource their billing to Expeditors, I haven't received a single damn invoice. Instead, I'm stuck playing the idiot, manually printing out payment slips just to stay current.

I've called that useless AT&T customer service hotline more times than I can count to complain, but absolutely nothing has been fixed. Honestly, I'm not even surprised. It’s hard to expect efficiency when Expeditors is sending random people out on scooters to navigate rural areas—people who don't know the local roads or the neighbors from Adam and Eve, unlike the folks at the USPS.

Steven Allen9 said:a) they realized modern Islam doesn't exist
b) Islam has to change or die

How long has Islam been around? 1,600 years.
How long has American "wisdom" been going on? Since 1899.
This is going to be a long, exhausting grind with no end in sight. Americans are already neck-deep in it—Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen... places where we've got boots on the ground. Now they're looking at attacking Iran and Sudan.
Why don't they just go full colonialist and use the same old war tactics the British used? Or is that too modest for them? They want instant results because someone set a deadline. Looks like we've hit the era of unchecked stupidity in an expanded version of the Monroe Doctrine.

Look, I'm not defending Americans here. This is a nation that carries Masonic symbols right on its dollar bills, had a first president who was a Mason, and has a capital city practically plastered with Masonic imagery. But we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that for all its 1,600-year history, Islam has remained fundamentally one thing: a religion of inheritance and a religion of force. From its founder Muhammad down to the present day, that hasn't changed, no matter how much we avoid talking about it.

So, we're fighting enemies on both sides, much like those leftist anarchist groups and the like. Our only real shot lies in patriotism, the Church, and the family unit.

This is an awesome flick where the legend Mel returns to that high-octane action style packed with plenty of humor—stuff you’d recognize from Brainstorm, but even more reminiscent of Payback. Honestly, I enjoyed every single minute of it. It’s such a shame that, because of those corrupt Jewish lobbies in Hollywood, Mel clearly wasn't able to land a theatrical release in the USA.

Just more modern New Age garbage, with reincarnation tossed on top like the cherry on a sundae. I’ll be giving this one a wide berth.