The choice this week is Spectre, the latest in the James Bond series, and perhaps the last that Daniel Craig will be Bond for. I appreciate the whole Day Of The Dead tie in, considering the timing. There are also a couple of other good choices, including The Peanuts Movie for classic animation fans, and Macbeth for straight-up classic fans. Myself, I will probably be making the Bond selection; I loved the Ian Flemming books, so I should support the films made from them.
My first choice for this weekend has to be Goosebumps, with Jack Black representing R.L. Stine; I think this one is going to be a serious hoot. If you are looking for a more serious thriller this Halloween season then Crimson Peak might be just the ticket for you. Finally, as a Spy fan I have to admit I am excited to see what they do with Bridge of Spies, staring Tom Hanks as the lawyer who had to try to negotiate the release of the pilot of the U2 plane shot down over Russia.
Hot on the heels of last weeks brush with U.N.C.L.E. we get two spy thrillers, the first being Hitman: Agent 47. He got that number because he is the 47th in a line of genetically engineered soldier/assassins, and he is not terribly happy about his fate. Now someone is out to unlock the secret of his creation and build an army of unstoppable killers, and he is the only thing standing between them and world domination. Then there is American Ultra, where a stoner turns out to be a highly programmed MK-Ultra sleeper agent, accidentally activated while working the overnight shift at his convenience store. Now the government is trying to shut him down permanently and he is running for his life. This one is as much a comedy as an action/adventure film.
American Ultra is another one of those movies I am excited about this August. It tells the story of a brainwiped goofball who doesn’t know he is a secret agent, or possibly an assassin. This one will be on the big screen on August 21st.
I love all the great new stuff Comic Con brings us each year, and this year has a bunch of good stuff. I am going to have to go back and re-watch the original TV series so I am ready for this one.
The latest live action version of Lupin The 3rd is going to be hitting the big screen in Tokyo on August 30th, and I can’t wait to see it released in the US. The mastermind who created most of the original season was Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli, and the rest of season 1 was built by Masaaki Ōsumi. But they were building on strong foundations, taking the original 1905 character Arsène Lupin created by the brilliant French author Maurice Leblanc. Maurice’s Lupin was a perfect match for Doyle’s Sherlock, and the two contemporaries shared a rather large audience between them. When the 1971 TV series kicked off it was his grandson Lupin 3rd who incorporated all the James Bond elements and dragged the show into modern times. If you are not already a fan of this program, now is the time to learn all about it.