So the other day we looked at the most awesome explosions in movies, today we are going to look at that other exciting aspect of films the chase.

Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones- Yes that's right we revisit George Lucas's 5th entry into the Star Wars franchise. That same scene where Jango Fett releases the awesome seismic charges is part of a larger asteroid chase sequence. It's a fast moving scene with lots of explosions, a little bit of trickery and a lot of luck on Obi Wan's behalf.








Ronin- Based on the search for a mysterious package this film serves up two amazing chase scenes. The first one is my favorite as an Audi and Citroen wind around the streets of Nice without a care for anyone around them even plowing through a seaside diner and sending scared diners running everywhere. It was said that the Bourne Identity was as good as this but to me Ronin is the bomb.








Gone in 60 Seconds- The remake and the original both contain absolutely amazing chase scenes. The original had a chase scene that clocked in at roughly 40 minutes, rather impressive considering the films runtime was just over 90. Nicolas Cage's chase through the streets and waterways of Long Beach is similarly impressive as he attempts to get Eleanor, the 50th stolen car, to the docks on time. There are plenty of crashes, like a police car getting smashed through a wall and the final jump Cage attempts to make it on time is quite dramatic.







The Great Escape- Of course we need this in the list. The whole film is about trying to escape and what generally happens when someone escapes, they get chased. Steve McQueen leads a group of POW's who escape from a notorious German Prison Camp. The climax of the film revolves around the various modes of escape the POW's use after they are out of the camp. The film created probably one of the most memorable moments ever captured on screen when Steve McQueen attempts to jump a huge barbwire fence on a German motorbike into neutral Switzerland.








Casino Royale- An on foot chase between the new James Bond (Daniel Craig) and Mollaka who happens to be played by the creator of free running/parkour Sebastien Foucan. The chase occurs shortly after the opening credits through the streets of Madagascar. The chase is just insane as Foucan climbs his way through a construction site, even jumping onto a moving crane and then off again. The whole time you'll find yourself going "He's not gonna jump from there...OH MY GOD!! He just jumped from there on to THERE!!"









The Blues Brothers- I don't think I've ever seen so many cars get wrecked in such a short space of time. This is the chase shortly after the charity gig, and Jake and Elwood (The Blues Brothers) must get the money to the bank to stop the orphanage they grew up in being shut down. It's pretty much your standard car chase scene with some slick driving from Jake and some serious misfortune for the hundreds of cops chasing them. The car literally falls apart at the conclusion because it's being absolutley thrashed.







Once again there are many other worthy chase scenes around like Wanted, Terminator 2 Judgement Day, Bullit, The Fast and the Furious, Apocalypto and the Italian Job amongst others.

You would think with the success of DC Comics Batman movies, most recently The Dark Knight and the growing market for comic book films DC would have a ton of their characters and stories ready to go on the big screen. Unfortunately this isn't the case. At the moment DC only has four projects listed as being in production, two of them existing mainstays of the film industry, Batman and Superman.

Just a quick round up of some good trailers for films and games that are scheduled to be released in the near future. Sherlock Holmes is a timeless character who has gone through many iterations in both film and TV and he is getting the film treatment again in 2009 with Guy Ritchie directing and Robert Downey Jr. starring as the ingenious detective Sherlock Holmes and Jude Law playing his trusty sidekick Watson. The trailer was released quite a while ago but it is a very good trailer for what will hopefully be a very good movie so it deserves to be posted here.


Crackdown 2 is a Xbox 360 game i reported on during the hype of E3. Amidst all the excitement of the show I didn't even realise that there was a trailer available for the game. This is one of my most anticipated games after E3 because I just loved the first one so much and the idea of a sequel is definetley a good one to me. For those of you who don't know it's a third person open world action game and in the first one you played a cop cleaning up the streets.


District 9 is a movie from South African director Neill Blomkamp and producer Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings fame. Blomkamp originally made a short film called Alive in Joburg about a group of aliens who are forced to land on Earth and are treated like dirt forced to live in terrible slum conditions in South Africa. There arrival causes all sorts of political and social trouble and unrest. District 9 is the feature film adaptation of that short story, taking the established idea of Alive in Joburg and building on that with the inclusion of a government agent who is exposed to the alien technology.



Homefront is a first person shooter for 360, PC and PS3. This game really came out of no where at E3 with impressive visuals and scripted sequences. The game is being made by Kaos studios who made the impressive Frontlines Fuel of War and the story sees America collapsing from its perch as the worlds super power and North Korea invading the United States. You play as a member of the American resistance trying to get your country back. It should have an impressive story as they have recruited the writer of Apocalypse Now and Red Dawn John Milius.


Transformers isn't the only toy franchise that is getting the film treatment this year. G.I Joe The Rise of Cobra, based on the famous toy, comic and television series is getting it's own live action feature film. Directed by Stephen Sommers, The Mummy, it features such actors as Dennis Quaid, Channing Tatum, Marlon Wayans and Sienna Miller playing series favourites like Snake Eyes, Cobra Commander, Destro, The Baroness, Duke and Breaker. The film sees the military organisation G.I Joe take on a new super terrorist group lead by a notorious arms dealer.



Finally I'm revisiting another game I wrote about a few weeks back Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising. I was a little slack and didn't post any videos for it so to make up for it I'm going to post 2 videos, one of gameplay footage and one theatrical just because I'm that nice.

Two movies I am getting more psyched for as the days go on are Clash of the Titans and Robin Hood. Over the last few days some photos have been released concerning both of these films and it's just making me want to see them even more.

Clash of the Titans sees Sam Worthington, of Terminator Salvation fame and receiver of much praise on this blog, star as Perseus in a remake of the 1981 film of the same name. Perseus is sent out to battle Medusa and the Kraken monster to save Princess Andromeda, Alexa Davalos who recently appeared in Defiance. Laim Neeson plays Zeus whilst Ralph Fiennes plays Hades two absolutely amazing casting choices that I cannot wait to see. This will hopefully be epic given its name and recently the first photos were relased online and tell me it doesn't look freaking awesome.








The other film, Robin Hood, sees Russel Crowe and Ridley Scott team up again in what will hopefully be a similar outing to their highly successful Gladiator film. Crowe plays the titular character and has managed to slim down remarkably after his roles in State of Play and Body of Lies and looks just as good as he did in Gladiator. Cate Blanchett plays Maid Marrian, The Incredible Hulk's 'Thunderbolt Ross' William Hurt plays William Marshall, one of the coolest actors at the moment Mark Strong who was in Body of Lies and Rock N Rolla plays Sir Godfrey whilst the lovable Little John is played by Kevid Durand who recently played The Blob in the Wolverine films. It is pretty much the standard tale of Robin Hood, he serves in the army of Richard the Lion and we he returns from battling the Normans he disgusted with corruption and greed evident in his home town and takes to arms to set things right. This version looks like it'll have more Robin's time in the arming judging by the new set picks. I'm just so stoaked for this film because it's Russel Crowe and Ridley Scott together again in a classic epic story, set to be action packed and hopefully it can capture some of the glory of Gladiator.











Newer photos of Crowe galloping in to battle can be found here. Both of these films are scheduled for release in 2010.

2010 seems to be a good year for films whilst also being an itneresting one. IMDB is reporting that a Devil May Cry film is in production and expected to be released in 2010. Will this be an adaptation of the highly successful and popular video game franchise? The star of that is Dante a part man part demon who hunts demons. The recent anime was extremley cool but I don't know if I want to see a film version of this. It'd be like Dragonball Z or Death Note, it just wouldn't be the same. Also an even more bizarre listing is an Earthworm Jim film. The story of an average earthworm who finds a spacesuit and is turned in to Earthworm Jim wisecracking cosmic adventurer. It has a director listed, Douglas TenNapel the creator of the video game so your lead to believe it's legit. I think an Earthworm Jim film would be hilarious as an animated film but I wouldn't like it as a live action thing, it'd just be too weird.

Headed for the big screen?

Everybody who goes and sees a film like Star Wars or Star Trek or Batman is just amazed by the sheer spectacle of the film. Many of us talk about what we liked and what we hated and how we would do it differently or how we'd like to see this character become the star instead or there's always that what if scenario where we'd like to see characters from several films might meet up and ya know chill or whatever just because they can. Well there are lots of fans who actually go out and make these movies. They use the characters we know and love and put them in to stories we aren't familiar with to explore the full capabilities of these characters. Now sometimes these films are terrible but other times they can be quite amazing and this blog is going to show off some of the most ambitious, professional and just plain fun fan films that are out there.

First off probably one of the highest quality fan films is Batman: Dead End. This short film, it goes for about 9 minutes, pits Batman against the Joker with a few surprises. Widely regarded as one of the best Batman films ever and the definitive Batman before the new Chritain Bale films it's quality viewing.


Next we have to have a Star Wars fan film. Between Star Wars and Star Trek hardcore fan appreciation was born. This fan film Star Wars- Essence of the Force is quite good. Effects are a hard thing to master with Star Wars but they've done a good job. Kind of feels like Power Rangers in parts because they don't use lightsabers much it is still a good film.


Probably the most ambitious fan film project ever undertaken was Raiders of the Lost Ark- The Adaptation. In the mid 80's a group of friends from a small town in America so the film Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. So amazed by the film they wanted to make their version and in doing so made an almost shot for shot remake over several years. Has received critical acclaim from Steven Spielberg himself. Unfortunately the quality is not very good.


There are serious fan films and then there are not so serious fan films. Chad Vader Day Shift Manager is another Star Wars fan film that is an internet phenomenon. It details the adventures of Chad Vader the day shift manager at a local convenience store and is really quite funny.


Fan films are also being about video games. The most popular would have to be Red vs Blue based on the Halo games for the Xbox made by roosterteeth. Such is it's popularity that you can buy it on DVD at JB Hi Fi and download it off Xbox Live.


And finally a Dragonall Z fan film because the real movie was so shit and really looks even worse when you see a fan film like this which actually looks pretty good, as far as fan films go.

Over the past few years we've seen Max Payne, Doom, Silent Hill, Resident Evil and BloodRayne turned in to feature films with varying degrees of success both critically and financially.....Ok for the most part they've been crap, either through casting or directing or story or just being terrible games to begin with. Obviously though they'll always been compelling choices for studios because so many people buy games they expect some of those people will go see the movie and make the studio some money. That's why we've now got Gears of War, Prince of Persia, Army of Two, Lost Planet, God of War and a string of other games being made in to movies as we speak. So whilst it doesn't appear that the trend of turning games in to movies is going stop I hope to god that this next batch is better than the last. At the moment they appear on the right track with bigger name stars and directors attached to them with Prince of Persia attracting Ben Kingsley, Alfred Molina (OH MY GOD ITS ALFRED MOLINA!!!! DOCTOR OCTAGONAPLUS BAAAAAAA!!!) and Jake Gyllenhaal as the the Prince whilst Mike Newell of Harry Potter fame is directing. Personally I have a few ideas of my own for some potential video game movies.

Seriously is it just me or does it seem that everyone outside of Pixar and Judd Apatow are just trying to remake or reboot existing film franchises. This week I've so far read that the Arnold Schwarzaennegger classic Total Recall with its bizarre mutated Mars people and head popping is getting a remake, the cult classic The Warriors is getting a remake by Tony Scott in LA instead of New York, Ridley Scotts Alien franchise is getting a prequel for god knows what reason and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Predator, another Arnie classic, REMAKE! Planet of the Apes, one below average remake so far with another one rumoured. Start Trek with the Shat and Leonard Nimoy, currently ripping up the box office as a REMAKE. Alfred Hitchock, you can't touch the Hitch he's a cinematic legend right? Wrong! Rear Window has been remade as Disturbia whilst The Birds is inline for a remake as well. Why? Are they saying they could do it better than Alfred Hitchcock? It doesn't even have to be a classic film the original Death Race was a B grade action film that developed a cult following, enough for a REMAKE!! I could go on Fahrenheit 451, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Flight of the Phoenix, Charlie & The Chocolate Factor, Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street, Dune, The Thing, The Dirty Dozen, My Bloody Valentine and The Taking of Pelham 123 to name a few.

If its not getting a remake its getting a sequel. Indiana Jones 4? Terminator Salvation anyone. Fast and the Furious 4 and a possibly a 5th. Oh whoops Pixar are also making Toy Story 3 and wasn't it them who whored out Shrek, and a Robocop sequel, prequel or remake years after the original ones finished. Now I'm not saying that all of these are bad moves, in certain cases the original was so old and unheard of that it seems entirely new or was flawed by the tech of the time or the director spins it on its head (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Star Trek) and in most cases I've probably seen or will see these movies. Sometimes we just don't want a series to die so a remake or a sequel is a good thing but sometimes they are terrible or simply too good to be done better. Still I wonder what entirely new and exciting projects get turned down because these projects already have an established name and fan base, the reason studios go back to them. Although it's been said that when you try to sell your movie you sell it as a franchise with room for expansion so I guess its just the system and me being a little picky.