Transformers update... Okay, this isn't really an update, assuming that you've already heard that Michael Bay is back to direct a fourth Transformers flick...and that it will feature a new cast but will continue the storyline established by the first three movies. Anyways, I just found out on the Web yesterday that the cute brunette who gets her face um, hugged by the Steering Wheel Bot in the first Transformers film is none other than Odette Yustman—err, Annable. You'll remember her from Cloverfield and maybe the horror flick The Unborn, and her stint in this year's final season of the hit FOX TV show House. If you've visited my Blog long enough, you'll also know that I devoted a journal entry to her a few years back, haha.

I'll resist the urge to point out that Mrs. Annable should've been in Transformers: Dark of the Moon [FYI, Michael Bay cast actor Glenn Morshower (who played a Secret Service agent on the other hit-but-defunct FOX TV show, 24) in Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon, despite the fact Morshower already played a character who died at the beginning of the first movie] instead of the hot Victoria's Secret model who was out of Shia LaBeouf's league. Then again... Carly in the original Transformers cartoons is blonde, so unless Mrs. Annable dyed her hair that color, she obviously wouldn't have fit that role. That, and Megan Fox probably would've been peeved that another brunette was moving in on her dorky on-set squeeze. Hey, at least Bay found a way to get another sexy Hollywood girl in his movies. That's probably one of the main reasons why I'm glad that he's directing Transformers 4. (Okay, maybe not.) And that's why it just occurred to me that Annable can always be cast in this next film, which is scheduled to be released in theaters in 2014. Duh.

CLOVERFIELD... I saw the film tonight, and thought it was pretty good. However, many in the audience two of my friends and I watched it with made negative comments right after the ending (cause it was abrupt), but those people are ignoramuses. C’mon now— You must have a far more severe mental issue than ADD to not realize that the flick was treated as a ‘documentary’ from the very start... What makes you think it wasn’t gonna have that documentary feel at the end as well? What, did these folks expect some dramatic music (courtesy of Steve Jablonsky or John Williams) to accompany the final scenes in Cloverfield? Or the camera conveniently capturing footage on its own of the military folks who found the device inside the rubble (not to spoil the ending for y’all who haven’t seen the movie yet)? Wouldn’t that have been nice...



No, the movie was treated as if it was actually raw footage that was pieced together so government officials could view it and find out what happened (for those folks reading this who have ADD). Trust me— A movie that has more of a "WTF??" ending to it is something like 28 Weeks Later...or Rob Zombie’s recent take on Halloween. Basically, the more standard horror fare. I’m definitely gonna buy Cloverfield once it gets released on DVD.



What actually peeves me more than the local audience's reaction to J.J. Abrams' thriller is the fact Hollywood is making too many movies like Bring It On. You have Bring It On’s straight-to-DVD sequels, Stomp the Yard, Honey (but that one has Jessica Alba in it, so all is forgiven), Rize, You Got Served, the upcoming How She Move, and Step It Up’s sequel, Step Up 2 The Streets...whose preview was shown in front of Cloverfield (I had to do research online to find all the recent dance flicks, FYI). Um, just how many of these films do we need to see of a bunch of (insert any derogatory name for urban kids here) krumping and doing all that crap? Of course, that's Tinseltown. Gladiator was a hit in 2000, so, gotta make more sword-and-sandal epics that can also become huge successes...like Lord of the Rings, or major flops like Uwe Boll's recent In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. Saw was a huge hit too, so, gotta make more torture porn like Hostel...and more additional Saw sequels (Saw 5 comes out this October...Good God). But I’m just going off on a rant here.



Basically, Cloverfield was good. And for those of you who read my last Blog on the film, the monster looked NOTHING like the image I posted. It looked more like something from the XBox video game Gears of War (which I also wrote a Blog on) or the creatures in The Mist (film review here) than it did a giant whale. And the pic below? Nope— Not a Monster Louse. But a really gruesome ending for one of the movie’s main human characters. Not to spoil the flick for ya. That is all.



UPDATE (January 21): A screenshot of the monster...



All images courtesy of Paramount Pictures / Bad Robot Productions

The CLOVERFIELD Monster? The image below has been all over the Web since last September, but whatever. Someone made this cool artwork depicting what he thinks the creature in J.J. Abrams’ upcoming film will look like. Don’t know how close this sketch looks to the real (so-to-speak) thing, but the "Monster Louse" looks pretty similar to what we see in one of the Cloverfield TV spots. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, there’s a scene in the commercial where a group of people hiding inside an Army tent see the silhouette of a creature attacking someone outside. The shape of that creature, from what I recall, definitely looks like the artwork below. Anyways, can’t wait for the film to come out in theaters on January 18.

...

I hope this film doesn’t let me down like Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin’s take on Godzilla did in 1998. *Crosses fingers*



Courtesy of HorrorMovies.ca

UPDATE: A screencapture of the scene mentioned above:

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!! Time for that annual journal entry where I bring up dates to events that pretty much only interest me. And maybe some of you guys, haha. Keep in mind that a lot of the events mentioned below may not take place on the dates I listed. For example, the release dates for movies mentioned may move up or be pushed back unexpectedly. That, and this year’s batch of space shuttle missions may be delayed...which will most likely be the case since Atlantis will not launch on January 9 as listed at the top of this page, because of crappy issues pertaining to its external fuel tank. Anyways, that’s all. Go Trojans! Defeat the Fighting Illini today...



January 2008
-Rose Bowl: USC vs. Illinois (Jan 1)
-BCS National Championship Game in New Orleans, Louisiana: Ohio State vs. LSU (Jan 7)
-65th Annual Golden Globe Awards (Jan 13)
-Series premiere of FOX show Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Jan 13, 14)
-FOX show Prison Break returns after a 2-month hiatus (Jan 14)
-Season 7 premiere of American Idol (Jan 15, 16)
-Cloverfield (Jan 18)
-Rambo (Jan 25)
-Asteroid 2007 WD5 predicted to collide with the planet Mars (Jan 30)



February 2008
-Super Bowl XLII in Arizona (Feb 3)
-50th Annual Grammy Awards (Feb 10)
-Jumper (Feb 14)
-Mission STS-123... Space Shuttle Endeavour (Targeted for Feb 14)
-2008 NBA All-Star Game in New Orleans, Louisiana (Feb 17)
-50th annual Daytona 500 in Florida (Feb 17)
-Total lunar eclipse over North and South America, Europe, Africa and Western Asia (Feb 21)
-Maiden flight of Europe’s first Automated Transfer Vehicle, Jules Verne, to the International Space Station (Feb 22)
-80th Academy Awards (Feb 24)



March 2008
-Russian presidential election (Mar 2)
-10,000 BC (Mar 7)
-2008 NCAA March Madness basketball tournament begins around the United States (Mar 20)
-Conclusion of the March Madness tournament prior to the 2008 Final Four games in Texas (Mar 30)



April 2008
-2008 NCAA Final Four basketball tournament in San Antonio, Texas (Apr 5)
-NCAA Final Four Championship Game in San Antonio, Texas (Apr 7)
-Mission STS-124... Space Shuttle Discovery (Targeted for Apr 14)
-Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay (Apr 25)
-NFL Draft (Apr 26, 27)



May 2008
-Iron Man (May 2)
-Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (May 22)
-Start of the 2008 French Open tennis tournament (May 25)
-NASA’s Phoenix Mars lander arrives at the Red Planet (May 25)
-92nd Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (May 28)
-Forgetting Sarah Marshall (May 30)



June 2008
-You Don’t Mess with the Zohan (Jun 6)
-Conclusion of the 2008 French Open (Jun 8)
-The Incredible Hulk (Jun 13)
-Get Smart (Jun 20)



July 2008
-Start of the 2008 Tour de France (Jul 5)
-Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Jul 11)
-The Dark Knight (Jul 18)
-X-Files 2 (Jul 25)
-Conclusion of the Tour De France (Jul 27)



August 2008
-The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (Aug 1)
-Mission STS-125... Space Shuttle Atlantis (Targeted for Aug 7)
-Opening Ceremony – XXIX Olympic Summer Games of Beijing (Aug 8)
-The Pineapple Express (Aug 8)
-Dragonball (Aug 15)
-Closing Ceremony – Olympic Summer Games (Aug 24)



September 2008
-10th annual Reach the Beach Relay (Sep 12, 13)
-Mission STS-126... Space Shuttle Endeavour (Targeted for Sep 18)



October 2008
-Saw V (Oct 24)
-Start of the 2008 Rugby World Cup in Australia (Oct 25)
-Launch of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to the Moon (Oct 28)
-Scary Movie 5 (Oct 31)



November 2008
-United States presidential election (Nov 4)
-James Bond 22 (Nov 7)
-Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Nov 21)
-Conclusion of the Rugby World Cup in Australia (Nov 22)



December 2008
-The Day the Earth Stood Still (Dec 12)
-Revolutionary Road (Dec 19)
-Star Trek XI (Dec 25)
-Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai expected to be completed. It will be the tallest building in the world (Dec 30)