Before the Four were even close to Fantastic

Los Angeles Magazine's March 2005 issue has an article by Robert Ito discussing the first "Fantastic Four" film made in 1993.

Ito interviewed Roger Corman, German producer Bernd Eichinger who bought the rights cheap from Marvel, Stan Lee and members of the cast.
Lee told the magazine, "That movie was never supposed to be shown anywhere. This fellow had the rights to do the Fantastic Four movie for, like, 15 years and finally the option was due to lapse. If he hadn't begun principal photography by December, he would lose the option."
He goes on to say, "The tragic thing is that the people involved with the film were not aware that the movie was never supposed to be shown to anybody."

At the time Bernd Eichinger decided to approach Roger Corman, the "King of B films," to enlist his aid in making the film quick and cheap. The project starred Jay Underwood as "Human Torch," Rebecca Staab as "Invisible Girl," Michael Baily Smith as "The Thing" and Alex Hyde-White as "Mr. Fantastic." The movie was produced by Corman and directed by Oley Sassone.
Sassone told Los Angeles Magazine, "I wish the people would have at least have had the f***ing decency to say, 'Look, let's at least give the guy a decent copy of his work." He goes on to say he is glad there are bootleg copies on e-Bay though Corman calls it "theft."

For the full six page story, with photos and screen caps, check out the issue on stands now or very soon.

The Cro-Magnon Awards

It's time for the first annual Cro-Magnon Awards here at Movies for Guys!

This is where we use our standards to award the best movies of the year in a variety of categories, and ignore what Hollywood critics think. After all, do you think they are going to give an award to Team America? Hell no! But we do!

If you agree or disagree with our choices, or think we missed a category, be sure to leave feedback to this blog entry.

Slumber Party

While Boogeyman turned out to be just an average movie, the movie going experience was far from average. Was it above or below average? That depends on the mood I suppose.

With Boogeyman being rated PG-13 we knew there would be lots of teenagers in there, what were weren't expecting was 2 groups of 11-12 yr old girls, perhaps 30 girls in all. I swear I though we'd stumbled into a slumber party... but they weren't wearing jammies and hitting each other with pillows. What they were doing was screaming at EVERY POSSIBLE moment that something scary would happen.

Normally I would have had to leave the theater, but they started at the very first preview so by the time all 6 trailers were done I was cracking up so much that my attitude shifted. It's a cheesy horror movie, they were just having a good time, and it wasn't like they could possible spoil the plot for me. The guy sitting right behind us didn't have the same view point though... muttering something about paying $100 if they'd be quiet and finally standing up with a loud "Jesus F'ing Christ" as he stomped out of the theater. And that was only after the third trailer! He missed the funniest thing, one of the girls screamed at the MGM lion!

Now, most of the girls were just screaming for the sake of doing so, but a few of them were actually quite scared. One in particular was whimpering during some of the buildups and that really put a smile on my face.

Does that make me bad?

This Week's Movie Trailers

Quite a few new trailers at the box office this week, here's a sampling of what we've seen during our screenings:

• War of the Worlds - Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise, this one has blockbuster written all over it.
  
• Cursed - A werewolf tale directed by Wes Craven and starring Christina Ricci. Unfortunately it is rated PG-13.
  
• Guess Who - Bernie Mac plays a father whose daughter wants to marry a white boy, played by Ashton Kutcher. This could either be really good or really bad. So far, Kutcher's movie roles have made him look like the new Paulie Shore.
  
• The Amityville Horror - Did we really need a re-make? And there's no one involved with the project that we've ever heard of. But at least it's Rated R.
  
• Unleashed - Jet Li plays a brainwashed trained killer. He's been trained that as soon as his collar is taken off, he kills everyone in sight. Morgan Freeman and Bob Hoskins also star. This one looks pretty unique for a martial arts movie.
  
• Fantastic Four - The first teaser trailer gives us a glimpse at the special effects. This is the big independence day release this year. The effects on The Human Torch alone are enough to make us anxious to see this one.
  
• The Cave - And finally we have a booger movie set deep deep under the earth. And once again it is rated PG-13, which means we're expecting your basic cookie cutter plot and try to scare everyone by startling them.