UpcomingMovies.com!

http://www.upcomingmovies.com/ What a great site! Want to know more about individual movies that are currently in production? This site is your source! The site is indexed by movie title, principle actors, etc., making it truly useful. I checked it out recently for more information about Austin Powers 3, The Matrix 2 & 3, and Planet of the Apes, and came out knowing more than I knew before I arrived! Bravo!

Planet of the Apes Is Coming!

Get ready to have to deal with those damn filthy apes once again! July 27, 2001 is the magic day of release of Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes, the updating of the classic 70's film series that held my adolescent psyche in check. It is shaping up to be a great movie and fans of Burton's previous films (Beetlejuice, Batman, Sleepy Hollow, Mars Attacks!, Ed Wood, et al) should not be disappointed. I'm a big fan of Tim Burton, so you know that I'll be first in line. Rumor has it that POTA original movie cast members Charlton Heston and Linda Harrison will both have cameos in Burton's version. And, word has it that Heston will appear as an ape! Check out the Planet of the Apes movie website (http://www.planetoftheapes.com/) to keep up-to-date on one of the biggest films of the summer of 2001.

Shrek

This was a fun movie, deserving of it's recent success at the box office. I elected to see Shrek instead of Pearl Harbor during the Memorial Day weekend after reading several negative reviews about the latter.

Shrek is an ogre, sent off on a quest in order to put his life back into order. Along the way, he meets up with some interesting characters: a wisecracking donkey, a reluctant princess, an amorous dragon, and a greedy king. The result is a funny movie that everyone can relate to and have fun with. It's great summer fare.

Shrek is computer animated in the style of Toy Story and the effects are incredible. The voice characterizations are by some of Hollywood's finest, including Mike Myers (doing a twist on his Fat Bastard character from Austin Powers 2) as Shrek, Eddie Murphy as Donkey, Cameron Diaz as Fiona, and John Lithgow as Farquaad. Shrek was noted recently as having some of the most convincing computer animation of human beings in films so far. Watch for the Final Fantasy movie later this summer for more amazing animation of humans!

This is a great start to a summer that will certainly be filled with great movie releases! Check out the Shrek web site for more information!

The Mummy Returns

So, after purchasing The Ultimate Mummy DVD set, which contained a ticket for one free admission to The Mummy Returns, I made my way to the Lowes theatres near the Willowbrook Mall in Wayne, NJ. I had just watched The Mummy DVD again so that I had the first film firmly in mind while seeing the sequel.

I was glad that I had made those preparations because The Mummy Returns is a true sequel in that it builds upon the activities in the first movie and is a continuation of those events. It takes place several years after the original film, but all of the central characters are back, reprising their original roles. Appearing for the first time in the sequel is The Rock as the The Scorpion King. Mr. Rock is suitably menacing in the beginning of the movie and is part of perhaps the best of the special effects of the film.

I really liked this movie and consider it to be an even better movie than the original. See it if you liked the first one. See it soon too, as the summer will be filled with other great movies to see in no time! Check out The Mummy web site for more information!