Miscellaneous Movie News

Here are a couple of mildly interesting tidbits of information about some upcoming movies. I don't know how I feel about a few of them, but I'm interested to know what you think:

• Variety has reported that Shia LeBeouf ("Holes") has been cast as Indiana Jones' son in the upcoming sequel. (Indy has a son? Will he also be named after a dog?)
• Maggie Gyllenhal ("Stranger than Fiction") has taken over Katie Holmes' role in the upcoming "Batman Begins" sequel, "The Dark Knight." This is the latest in the previously announced cast additions of Heath Ledger as the Joker and Aaron Eckhart as Harvey "Two-Face."
• Disney formally announced this week that "Toy Story 3" is in production for release in 2010. Both Tom Hanks and Tim Allen are confirmed to be returning.
• Disney also announced its return to 2-D traditional animation for the upcoming "The Frog Princess," to be set in New Orleans. They also announced that the film's heroine is Disney's first African-American princess and will be added to the company's ever-lucrative group of princesses at its worldwide parks. The film will be released in 2009.
• Finally, M. Night Shyamalan has announced that his next film, "The Happening" (his first R-rated movie) will be "a paranoid thriller about a family on the run from a natural crisis that presents a large-scale threat to humanity." What do you want to bet that the large-scale threat will be defeated by a few errant glasses of water?

Though I'm so over Shymalan's ego, I'm curious to see what Pixar and Disney are up to, and hope Pixar can help Disney start making consistently cool movies again. Any thoughts?

Justin's 10-Word Reviews

Since I have gotten behind with my reviews but know my readers demand to know what I have seen lately, I'm going to experiment with 10-word reviews (starting after the title) for the movies I have seen lately. Let me know what you think:

• "The Bridge to Terabithia": Not a fantasy, but touching coming-of-age family drama (*** out of four)
  
• "Ghost Rider": Silly, nonsensical, clumsy comic book adaptation. "The Mummy" meets "Constantine." (*1/2 out of four)
  
• "Stranger than Fiction": Thoughtful, breezy & unique comedy-drama with a sweet gooey center. (***1/2 out of four). ("&" doesn't count as a word)
  
• "The Illusionist": Moody, mysterious, enchanting score, slightly frustrating but overall satisfying conclusion (***1/2 out of four)
• "Flushed Away": Mildly clever moments sprinkled throughout a noisy, crude, "family" mess (** out of four)

I'm also anxious to see "The Prestige" and "Music and Lyrics," but I'm secretly saving my movie bucks for the upcoming May movie binge that I'm planning. Can you believe that we're just over two months away and still haven't seen a trailer for "Pirates 3"?!?!