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I now realize that people not only like to talk about movies, they like to talk about movie projects or how movies are doing and other movie news....so this is a new forum to share news, development, and much more on movies. Not to be confused with movie discussion which is for movies you like or have seen, or want to see. Have fun, hope you learn some fun things.

is the new incredible hulk supposed to replace the flop they made back in like 2000?

'Indy' Sequel a Good Romp
by Scott Holleran

Go see the thoroughly pleasurable popcorn picture, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Do not expect it to be better than its predecessors—it isn't and this is not great art—and be sure to take stock of what this mammoth-sized movie really means.

Indiana Jones is directed by Steven Spielberg, who has been making atrocious movies for years. Though there are aspects of those disasters—War of the Worlds' evisceration and The Terminal's and Munich's moral grayness—in this outing, Mr. Spielberg, undoubtedly aided by producer Frank Marshall, succeeds in putting enjoyable entertainment on the big screen.

The fun begins with Elvis, of course, since this episode takes place in the Fifties and, refreshingly, Mr. Spielberg incorporates an American sense of life. Clean-cut, fresh-faced kids are hot-rodding with some military types on a deserted highway somewhere in Nevada, yet, reflecting America in the Fifties, something seems vaguely though seriously out of place.

An evil is soon exposed in the most thrilling part of the show, in which Indiana makes his entrance, confronting a contingent of communist Russians led by a mannish Soviet female, deliciously played by Cate Blanchett, hamming it up in black-and-blue like she's doing a live, Red version of The Incredibles's Edna Mode with a dominatrix twist.

Returning to the titular role that gave him a career lock on the wisecracking pseudo-hero outside of Star Wars, Harrison Ford (and I am not a fan) rises to the occasion. During several early scenes in an Army warehouse, he swiftly revives the character, and, stunt double or not, his Indiana proves that men need not be brainless and under 30 to be hip and fit. Picking off commies one by one, Mr. Ford looks terrific.

Of course, they are not commies in the proper sense, and that is ultimately a drawback. Despite a line about dictator Josef Stalin, Indiana Jones is soft on the Reds, who seek to steal top U.S. weapons during the Cold War and it is assumed that the viewer knows what that means. The warehouse action plays out and Indy, as the adventurist college professor is affectionately known, gets into trouble at the university in a ridiculous subplot meant as a swipe at so-called McCarthyism.

Add a double-crossing pal (Ray Winstone) who's motivated by money—an instant branding of a character's lack of ethics in Hollywood—and events roll into the introduction of a tough-talking kid named Mutt played by the heavily hyped (and frequently busted) Shia LaBeouf, who is fine but too tame in a limited role.

Mutt and Indy team to find a lost archaeological treasure—the series staple—which leads to a doddering old man with secrets (John Hurt), those pesky Soviets and the return of Karen Allen from the original Raiders of the Lost Ark. With Allen back in action—she holds her own on that score—the movie picks up steam, giving the steady excursion some of what it lacks: character and meaning. Allen was an integral part of Indiana Jones's initial success and bringing her back is spot on.

Derring-do makes way for family adventure and, borrowing from every serial from the Forties and Fifties through National Treasure: Book of Secrets, the plot combines both and develops a welcome, wholesome sensibility that carries through to the end—a deservedly happy, simple bow to middle class Americana.

That which precedes the conclusion is action-packed, with ants, monkeys, savages, and a mysterious, if thoroughly predictable in a Steven Spielberg picture, city of gold.

This long-windedly named installment is built for action-adventure and it delivers. Beyond that, the barely intelligible theme—the fallacy that knowledge robs reality of its wonder, another Spielbergian motif—is actually quite awful. The pursuit of knowledge equals death in the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, a theme which does not belong in a family movie.

The anti-intellectual thread does not ruin the experience of watching a family come together while dodging gun-toting villains, deadly insects and crumbling temples. Other fine work includes excellent casting—Pavel Lychnikoff stands out as a Soviet thug-stud—an edge-of-the-seat chase in a South American jungle and nostalgic transitions such as classic airplanes flying against faded maps and peppered references to Ike, Sears Roebuck and Indy's poppa.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has its issues, from pointless rodents, fake lighting and an overly scripted diner brawl to cardboard characters, and it is made with the brand's trademark accidentalism—key events occur at random, not moved by man's free will—but there's plenty to satisfy the moviegoer in search of good, clean American fun.

it was really sad when heath passed away. do you think the role as the joker was too much for him to handle?? because of the role, he wasn't able to sleep and that is what lead to his overdose and death.

'Indy' Whips Up Massive Start
by Brandon Gray
May 27, 2008

After 19 years of anticipation, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull wasn't one for the record books but it was exceptionally popular in its Memorial Day weekend debut. Overall Memorial attendance, though, was the lowest of the decade, due to Indy being the sole new nationwide release and the disappointing holdovers from the past two weeks.

The fourth Indiana Jones donned a massive $126.9 million on approximately 9,000 screens at 4,260 theaters over the four-day weekend. That ranked as the second highest grossing Memorial weekend opening ever behind Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, despite burning off some demand before the weekend with a Thursday start. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull handily outdrew the debuts of the previous Indy movies from the Eighties. That's not an insignificant feat given that Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade each broke the opening weekend record in their day, and the new installment nearly doubled their starts after adjusting for ticket price inflation. Adjusted, the final tally of the first movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, would equal over $600 million today, but Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was only realistically aiming for the attendance levels of the other two, with The Last Crusade as the low bar at $340 million adjusted.

Failing to break records for the purported most anticipated picture of the season may seem like a bit of a letdown, but, hype aside, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was just another Indiana Jones adventure: a fun yarn that appeals to the entire family. In the marketing, no great new stakes or hooks were presented, the stunts and special effects weren't particularly flashy by today's spectacle standards and the clunky title befitted the movie's Fifties setting and the series' B-movie roots. The tenor of the advertising was simply that Indy's back, with Harrison Ford reprising the role and John Williams' famous score rumbling in support. A franchise is profoundly strong if all an ad campaign has to do is announce its return to score $152 million in five days.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian melted an alarming 59 percent over the proper three-day weekend period, a steeper drop than The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe after a smaller start. The fantasy sequel grossed $29.8 million over the long weekend for $97.9 million in 11 days, while Lion had $117.8 million at the same point.

Hot on Narnia's heels, Iron Man bended little in its fourth weekend, making $26.1 million over the four-day session. With $258.3 million in 25 days, it's now the tenth most attended comic adaptation on the books. Meanwhile, the highest profile contender to the big fantastical movies, What Happens in Vegas, hung in there with an $11.4 million four-day for $56.6 million in 18 days, but Speed Racer continued to slide and the rest of the box office was quiet.

it's never quite the same if more then 10 years pass between movies...look at star wars

THE INCREDIBLE HULK
U.S. Release Date: June 13, 2008
Distributor: Universal
Director: Louis Leterrier
Writer: Zak Penn
Producer: Avi Arad, Gale Ann Hurd
Cast: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth
Running Time: 1 hour and 54 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (sequences of intense action violence, some frightening sci-fi images, and brief suggestive content)
Mind-Body Idea Translates to Action
by Scott Holleran

With a strong cast, plot and action, The Incredible Hulk is another resounding Marvel Studios success. There is not much to mine here—a scientist is poisoned in an experiment and he's triggered by anger to become a raging green hunk of muscle—but what's there to be made is simple and well done.

Edward Norton (The Painted Veil, American History X, The Illusionist), a chameleon who is Hollywood's best actor, adds depth to Marvel's catalog, much as Robert Downey, Jr. enhances Iron Man. The picture opens with a set-up montage that mirrors the opening credit segment of the CBS television series of the same name. Look for clever nods to TV show actors Lou Ferrigno and the late Bill Bixby.

As the afflicted scientist, Mr. Norton flees to South America, where he adopts an adorably alert dog—brace for some tough-to-watch animal cruelty, though not as gratuitous as the dog's death in I Am Legend—studies Portuguese and corresponds with a mysterious fellow scientist about curing the condition. The opening shot of the Latin American urban hillside is impressive, drawing the viewer into his shadowy existence.

With his pointy-eared canine pal, Mr. Norton's expatriate, who is kind, affectionate, and demonstrative, works to soothe and control his explosive alter ego and he is both fastidious and fallible. When he's cut, he bleeds and working in a Third World bottling plant doesn't help. The intelligent scientist, whose handicap was caused by an irrational drive to reshape man as a weapon, is a prisoner of the mind/body dichotomy; he must contain and transform himself through exhaustive, diligent restraint.

Mr. Norton, blending passion and reason for the perfect sinewy scientist in love, is neither too tortured nor too empty. More surprisingly, Liv Tyler is effective as his former lover, whom he inadvertently injured in the Hulk's initial outburst, and William Hurt is outstanding as her military general father. Tim Roth as a heinous, power-lusting Russian, hulking in his own way, also hits the mark.

Hurt mimics gruff Sam Elliott in the same role from Ang Lee's uneven 2003 version, adding a sinister edge without camping it up to Nick Nolte proportions. Tyler's not plausible as a college professor but she is convincing as an intelligent young woman in love with a man worth admiring and the romantic angle strengthens the story. As she stands back in horror during one of the Hulk's eruptions, her malicious father declares: "now she'll see."

That sort of psychological subtext runs throughout The Incredible Hulk, which is bogged down in the usual mad scientist stuff of the genre. Mr. Norton's interloper seeks to destroy evidence that, as one villain points out, could be used to advance human progress, and the movie's more comfortable reflecting Mr. Norton's seriousness than when it goes for the joke, though there's plenty of good humor.

With Roth's monster in the making lurking on the battlefield—action scenes are pulsating, with an Atlas Shrugged-like Project X soundwave scene that's particularly powerful—and Hurt's menacing militaristic authority, Mr. Norton's sensitive thinker must stay on the move, a godlike man alone against the world, struggling with battle fatigue and flashbacks and the pressures of stealing Promethean fire.

A thrilling, if thoroughly B-movie level, climax plays out in the streets of New York City, repudiating any earlier anti-science sentiment—the Hulk can be controlled—and paving the way for an expansion of Marvel's burgeoning superhero universe, which is not entirely heroic. With romantic love, breathtaking transformations (this Hulk is made of bulk with a touch of Kong) and riveting comic book action, The Incredible Hulk is wholly entertaining and positively credible.

'Hulk' grabs muscular $54.5M on opening weekend
June 15, 2008, 1:12 PM EST

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- "The Incredible Hulk" was a box-office bruiser, yanking in $54.5 million over opening weekend and laying to rest the stigma of his unappreciated big-screen adventure five years ago.

"The Hulk got a second chance, got angry and came back with a vengeance," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. "This was a big question mark going in. The film had a history or a checkered past."

Ang Lee's "The Hulk" opened in 2003 with a whopping $62.1 million weekend but then rolled over and died in subsequent weeks amid terrible word of mouth. That movie crawled to $132.2 million in sales, seemingly a respectable total but actually meager considering its huge first weekend.

Marvel Studios, which financed "The Incredible Hulk," and distributor Universal hope the new movie, starring Edward Norton as the scientist who turns into the Hulk when maddened, will have a longer shelf life and eventually top out with better numbers than its predecessor.

Also rebounding off a bad last movie was director M. Night Shyamalan, whose fright flick "The Happening" with Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel opened at a sturdy No. 3 with $30.5 million.

Shyamalan, whose blockbusters include "The Sixth Sense" and "Signs," flopped two years ago with "Lady in the Water."

"Night rocked," said Chris Aronson, distribution executive for 20th Century Fox, which released "The Happening," a tale of an airborne toxin that prompts people to kill themselves in ghastly ways. "Any time you're coming off an effort like `Lady in the Water' that was perceived as a disappointment, movie-goers and critics tend to be a little gun-shy, but the numbers speak for themselves."

Fans and critics definitely were gun-shy on "The Incredible Hulk," some expecting the movie to bomb because of the bad taste "Hulk" left in audiences' mouths.

"With all the naysayers, this is a huge accomplishment," said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal. "For months, they thought this was going to be a bomb."

The new movie is not a sequel to 2003's "Hulk" but, in Marvel's terms, a reboot. Fans found the earlier movie too dark and brooding.

This take is more action-oriented, casting Norton's Bruce Banner as a fugitive in the vein of "The Incredible Hulk" TV series starring Bill Bixby in the 1970s and '80s.

Despite solid reviews and fan buzz, "The Incredible Hulk" did nearly $8 million less over opening weekend than "Hulk." That gap widens even more factoring in today's higher ticket prices.

But the new flick still put up some of the best numbers ever for a movie opening in June. The studio's exit polls show audiences are recommending the movie to friends, giving it a good shot to surpass the total gross of "Hulk," Rocco said.

The movie also pulled in $31 million in 38 other countries, putting its worldwide total at $85.5 million.

DreamWorks Animation and Paramount's "Kung Fu Panda," the previous weekend's No. 1 movie, slipped to second place with $34.3 million, raising its total to $118 million.

A solid June lineup has pushed Hollywood ahead of last year's record box office pace. Since the first weekend of May, domestic grosses total $1.46 billion, up 4.6 percent from 2007's, according to Media By Numbers. Factoring in higher ticket prices, actual movie attendance this summer is up 1.6 percent.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.