Eastwood Kills It with American Sniper

On Friday, finally, American Sniper opened in wide release. And, surprisingly, Clint Eastwood’s adaptation of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle’s autobiography set a record for the best January opening ever, taking in $105.3 million at the box office for the four day weekend.  

That's not just the biggest opening of all time for January but a Clint Eastwood-directed film as well.   It's also a highly profitable one as it was shot on a tight budget of $60 million.  Not bad for an 84 year old as it seems the guy seems to be hitting his prime now.

The film has also made headlines not only for good reviews and making a ton of money, but also with people who are hanging on in Hollywood like wanna be director Michael Moore and unfunny funny man Seth Rogen for taking swipes at the film on social media.  My response to those liberal bastards would be, “Why don’t you go screw yourself!”

Happy Birthday John Carpenter!

Happy Birthday to one of my favorite directors.  Now go make a movie.  And one with that guy in the monitor behind you.

Escape from New York Remake

The Escape from New York remake has been in development hell for years now and to me that has been a good thing.  I like this movie just the way it is and there is no need for a remake, just see the remakes of Total Recall and Robocop.  The rights to Escape have not been owned in some time but that changed this week as Fox won a competitive bidding war to snag the rights to brings us a new version and probably a franchise of the cult classic.

Now the one bit of good news here is that original Escape director John Carpenter will return as executive producer and will have creative input on his story and characters.  I am sure Kurt Russell has been deemed too old to return as the anti-hero Snake Plissken.

John Carpenter and Kurt Russell

So the sad news is there has to be a new Snake Plissken.  Here is my vote for the new Snake:

Sons of Anarchy's Charlie Hunnam

 Stay tuned for more Escape from New York updates as they happen.

Escape from New York on Blu!

My second favorite movie of all-time has scored a REAL blu ray release this April.  John Carpenter’s Escape from New York is set in the near future and Manhattan Island has been turned into a prison.  Air Force One is taken over by radicals and the president (Donald Pleasance) is forced to use the escape pod to getaway but unfortunately lands somewhere on the prison island.  The police force that guards the island, like an army, is told to stay away or the President gets it. 

Fortunately for the President there is a new convict on the way to the island and he just happens to be a Special Forces War Hero named Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) who just may be able to get in and break the President out of the island prison.  There is one catch though, he only 24 hours to get the job done. 

This is one of the best action movies of all time along with one of the best anti-heroes of all time.  Kurt Russell really does his best Clint Eastwood impersonation here and creates one memorable character.  This has a stellar cast along with Russell and Pleasance you also get Tom Atkins, Harry Dean Stanton, Lee Van Cleef, Adrianne Barbeau, Isaac Hayes, Ernest Borgnine, and listen for Jamie Lee Curtis.  This features an absolutely awesome story, direction, and soundtrack from John Carpenter.  The highest of recommendations!

Scream Factory will be releasing this gem April 21!  You can now throw away the bare bones release from MGM, this will be packed with special features.

Scream Factory_ Escape from NY