Movies based on comic books are big business. 2008’s The Dark Knight(fifth on the list of highest grossing movies of all time) grossed $1,001,921,825 worldwide, and in 2009 Iron Man grossed  $318,412,101 in the United States alone. Continue Reading

The summer is almost in full swing. Memorial Day was a few weekends ago, and Fourth of July beckons. That means cook-outs, fireworks, and, of course, Hollywood blockbusters- and maybe the odd indie fluke hit or two, one hopes. Continue Reading

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Check out InsideUAB.com’s guide to upcoming comic book movies: Continue Reading

Harrison Ford is an institution. A household name. For almost three decades he has been one of Hollywood’s favored leading men, playing Indiana Jones, Han Solo and Jack Ryan.

So he ought to have his pick of good scripts, right?

No way, Ford said in a recent phone interview from Los Angeles. Continue Reading

The Sundance Film Festival, which sets up shop in Park City, Utah, on Thursday, is more than a festival, it’s a delicate balancing act. This is an institution that walks the line between two competing notions of what a celebration of cinema should be, straddling as best it can a gap that is especially evident this year. Continue Reading

Mark Trammell

It’s high time for another zombie comedy or zom-com, if you’re so inclined. Sure, there was the Norwegian import “Dead Snow” earlier this year, but for those who like their zom-coms sans subtitles, there’s “Zombieland.” Besides, we’re on the verge of vampire overload at this point, so I say bring on the zombies!

Even in serious mode, zombies have always been more fun than most any other monster mash, from vamps to werewolves to the big G himself, Godzilla. Granted, it may be a matter of personal taste - no pun intended - but zombies are just inherently entertaining. After all, when you get down to it, they’re basically just us - we the people - reduced to our basest tendencies.

That’s also what makes the final setting of “Zombieland,” an amusement park, so apropos. Just as the shopping mall was the perfect setting for the two versions of “Dawn of the Dead,” so does an amusement park fit the bill for “Zombieland,” itself a big old funhouse ride in the guise of a movie. It’s the kind of movie where the action stops just so the principals can destroy a kitschy tourist trap. Just because, hey, who hasn’t wanted to destroy stuff for no good reason other you know you could get away with it? Or have the run of an amusement park, for that matter? “Zombieland” is filled with stuff you just know the filmmakers do because they can.

The fun begins when Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg, who can’t seem to stay away from amusement parks this year, between this and “Adventureland”) sets out to his hometown of, well, Columbus, Ohio, hence the name. He meets a fellow traveler, Tallahassee played by Woody Harrelson, in “Natural Born Killers” mode, but with a softer underbelly, who suggests the name game. The idea is, if you don’t get too close to someone, it’ll be easier to take them out, should they get the dreaded zombie bite, which all zombie fans know is a one-way ticket to Zombieville upon one’s death. Hey, “Zombieville.” There’s your sequel - you’re welcome.

Eventually, they run afoul of Wichita (Emma Stone, of “Superbad”) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin, a long way from “Little Miss Sunshine”), a sister team of swindlers. After some hard-earned bonding, they eventually come to terms with one another and team up to go to California, so that Wichita can let Little Rock be a kid again by taking her back to the amusement park they visited as kids. Along the way, they make a few stops here and there to refuel, get food, and kill a few random zombies. That’s about it.

Eisenberg is at his Eisenberg-iest, which is good news for fans. A cut-rate Michael Cera no more, he’s finally found his defining film. You can keep your “Squid and the Whale,” thank you very much. His narration, in which he details the ins and outs of surviving in Zombieland, is priceless, and, if his list trails off a bit towards the end, it definitely provides some of the film’s biggest laughs early on. It’s also great to see Harrelson back in fine, wise-cracking form after a string of serious flicks. Stone and Breslin make a beguiling couple of con artists, with Stone all smoky-eyed sass and Breslin adorable, even when wielding a shotgun.

There’s a hilarious scene-stealing Bill Murray cameo complete with stellar past-film-quoting goodness. (Don’t forget to stay past the credits for one more Murray bon mot.) Also, the killer soundtrack features old-school Metallica (over a fantastic opening sequence), Van Halen and Velvet Underground, plus newer bands like Metric, Doves and the Raconteurs, as well as excellent, ironic use of “Puppy Love” and “Popular” from Broadway’s “Wicked.” In short, “Zombieland” gets a lot of things right.

Sure, it’s a bit slight, and even at only an hour and twenty minutes, it’s a bit poky at times, but they’re not exactly trying to reinvent the wheel here. It does exactly what it sets out to: entertain its core fan-base. If you like zombie movies, you’ll like this, plain and simple.

George Hardy and fan

George Hardy is a graduate of UAB Dental School and has more to show in his portfolio than fillings and bridges. Hardy, along with several others, is known for his role in one of the “worst movies” ever made.

After graduating from dental school, Hardy moved to Salt Lake City to further his career. However, while he was there, his career path took a turn in a whole different direction; moving him into the artistic realm of acting.

“I was actually in Salt Lake City in the 1980s with the intention to work and also enjoy the Wasatch Range,” said Hardy. “I practiced part time, skied part time and traveled. You know the single guy thing, not committed.”

“After returning from a six month stint in Cambridge, New Zealand where I was participating as a temp dentist in a needed area for Kiwi Teens, I came back to a situation where I was back in a start-up position in Salt Lake City, so I had time to shoot off and do crazy things,” he said.

One such crazy thing was the chance to audition for a B-rated movie in Park City, Utah. One of my patients said to me, ”Hey, George you have that California look; you ought to audition for a movie.”

The B-movie Hardy auditioned for was “Troll 2,” the sequel to the terrifying 1986 classic “Troll.”

“I got to do this audition before going back to Alabama,” said Hardy. “I thought it could be my last hurrah before getting serious.”

“Troll 2″ was directed by Italian native Claudio Fragrasso. Working with Italians was one of the things Hardy liked most about the filming process.

“I really enjoyed just hanging out on set and watching how you make a movie, Italian style. No one from the set spoke English except us non-actors from Utah,” said Hardy.

The film wasn’t what most would consider a major success for its time. However, that didn’t stop a band of cult followers from forming and giving praises to its poor plot. The film was rated by the Internet Movie Database and Rotten Tomatoes as being the worst movie ever made.

“‘Troll 2′ is a train wreck that just happened to turn out to be one of the most enjoyed, best worst movies ever made. It was not a cynical movie,” said Hardy. “We were innocent making the film. All the cast was trying to make a good movie.  Now it’s known as one of the most-watched, worst movies ever made and people love it.”

Hardy, along with “Troll 2″ child star Michael Paul Stephenson, decided the cult following to Fragasso’s 1990 masterpiece was too great an anomaly not to be captured on film and documented for all the world to see.

“The Best Worst Movie” is a documentary that delves deep into the heart of the cult classic followers exposing the failed film in all its glory.

“I think this is one of the best documentaries to come along in decades,” said Hardy. “It’s very funny, and yet, at the same time, deeply layered.  I think people will take home so many things to think about. Not only to laugh about, but how things just don’t work out the way you may have planned them.”

“The Best Worst Movie” was recently played at the Sidewalk Moving Pictures Festival in Birmingham and is continuing its screenings all around the world. Hardy hopes to one day have a major theatrical resale, DVD distribution, and of course, a TV airing.

For more information about the documentary and UAB graduate George Hardy visit www.bestworstmovie.com.

Mark Trammell

“Surrogates” is the latest sci-fi endeavor from one of the last action heroes standing - Bruce Willis. It revolves around Tom Greer, a cop who lost a son under tragic circumstances. When a surrogate is killed and his operator dies along with him, it’s up to Greer to get to the bottom of things, especially since the dead person is the son of the creator of surrogacy itself.

Actually, Willis sort of plays two characters: Greer and the pseudo-Greer, a so-called “surrogate.” Surrogates are humanoid beings that serve as idealized versions of the people who inhabit them, sort of like a combination of a robot and a videogame avatar. For instance, what appears on the street as a hot blonde could, in fact, actually be a corpulent computer nerd in disguise, operating the surrogate from his bedroom. As such, most have opted to hide behind these surrogates rather than being themselves, save a precious few known as “dreads.” Think of it as a sort of “Matrix”-type environment in which the participants are willing instead of duped.

Thanks to this surrogate population, crime is virtually non-existent, as is crime in general. After all, why would you commit a crime when you could plot out your own fantasy and do it legally? Want to be a super-spy, a la James Bond? Or a butt-kicking femme fatale? Either one is a possibility, no matter what your real gender. It’s a nifty idea, but one that robs many of their inherent humanity. After all, the very premise suggests, why would we want to be ourselves when we can be someone else, even if it’s simply a slightly better-looking or younger version of ourselves?

In a way, this is the problem with the film. It just lends itself to too many plot holes. For instance, how can so many people afford this surrogacy? And if the technology is available for everyone, why would anyone work in the first place? And why would those who choose to be “human” opt to live in squalor (shades of the recent “District 9″) rather than be the best they can be - not to mention do so in a perfectly safe environment? After all, a person is only as good as what they make of themselves. Why not do so and be good-looking to boot? Not to mention be borderline invincible as well. (If a surrogate is “killed” or injured, the person operating it is unharmed and the surrogate simply reconstructed or rebuilt from scratch.)  And all from the safety of one’s home, no less.

The cast is fine, with Willis’ “Pulp Fiction” co-star Ving Rhames as a radical leader of the Dreads, and a sexier-than-usual Radha Mitchell as Willis’ partner. Mitchell has always left me cold, personally, even as a desperate mom looking for her daughter in “Silent Hill” or a much too-disaffected survivor of a miscarriage in “Everything Put Together.” Ironically, as she plays a surrogate the majority of her screen time here, and thus, basically a robot, which actually suits her. I’m not sure if that’s a compliment, but that’s the kind of movie we’re dealing with here. Too bad the film doesn’t give her that much to do.

In the grand scheme of things, it’s neither as good as Willis’ best efforts in the genre, “The Fifth Element” and “Twelve Monkeys,” nor as terrible as “Armageddon,” but falls somewhere in between. The film moves at a decent clip, and the action sequences are pretty fun, as Willis jumps around the city like he’s auditioning for “Crouching Tiger” or plows through surrogates during a car chase like they’re pesky bugs that got in the way of his automobile’s path. Still, it’s no “Matrix,” that’s for sure. Well, it probably is better than “Matrix Revolutions,” at least - not that that’s saying much. As such, it’s a passable time-waster for the non-discerning viewer, probably best as a rental or a cable viewing.