Whenever Scott and I aren't out fighting crime together, we tend to be chatting each other up about horror films, as he has often either pointed me towards many a overlooked gem or brought to my attention the best titles currently making the festival rounds.

Whether or not Weinberg was the one who got me initially amped up for [REC], I can't accurately recall, but the point is that I can support his many praises over the film, and I think it's safe to say that we're both cautiously optimistic about the forthcoming American remake, Quarantine. It seems that Sony's smarter minds are also prone to cautious optimism, as Shock Till You Drop informs us that the film's release has been bumped up a week, from October 17th to October 10th.

Now, the 10th is a crowded weekend - we also have a crime thriller, a family adventure, and a teen sex romp - but what's important is that not only do none of those films appeal to the same horror-seeking demographic as Quarantine, whereas video game adaptation Max Payne might on the 17th, but the move gives it an extra week to rake it in until Saw V comes around and effectively dominates the market come the 24th.

As for me, I'm still curious about Quarantine director John Erick Dowdle's previous film, the still-unreleased The Poughkeepsie Tapes. Is it some sort of staring contest between them and the equally delayed All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, or what?

Just the other day, I shared the new trailer for the bloody, music extravaganza known as Repo! The Genetic Opera, and I noted that the flick was still without a release date. If Ace Showbiz is to be believed, the opera has found itself a new tentative square on the calendar -- November 7, 2008. That puts it face to face with the next James Bond film, Quantum of Solace.

Spies. Genetic repossessors. Gadgets. Song and dance. Bond girls. Paris Hilton. Okay, going back and forth between the perks of each feature isn't going to win this battle. These are certainly different films, but I wonder if it's wise to put them head to head. But even more to the point -- why the 7th? Heck, seeing that it's only one week after Halloween, it would make more sense to zip it into theaters a week earlier -- it might have to go up against Kevin Smith, but it would have the Halloween creepiness on its side.

Stay tuned to see if this release date sticks.

They say truth is stranger than fiction. To that I say "you obviously haven't seen Naked Lunch," but reality is certainly a fertile ground for film makers and today we've got five trailers for films based, to varying degrees, on real events.

The Perfect Game
I've never enjoyed watching sports so baseball movies usually leave me cold, but this one has a couple of things going for it: a true tale of a bunch of kids rising up from poverty to become world champions, and former drug culture icon Cheech Marin playing a priest. Based on true events, a former coach for the St. Louis Cardinals (Clifton Collins Jr.) takes a group of poor Mexican kids under his wing and teaches them the fine art of baseball, which ultimately leads them to the 1957 Little League World Series. There are the usual sports metaphors: "Love ain't like baseball," says Collins' character. "Yes it is," replies one of his bright eyed proteges. I'm teetering between cute and cringe-inducing on that one, but this kind of rags to riches story is pretty appealing and the period setting is pretty cool. The Perfect Game hits theaters on August 8.

It would be easy to offer you appropriately themed movies for the Fourth of July. There is, of course, Independence Day, plus flicks like Yankee Doodle Dandy, or on a more serious note, Born of the Fourth of July. But what's the fun in that? You could come up with those yourself. I could be snarky and offer only British fare, which is actually very tempting, but I have something else in mind: Independence-themed chills.

The two films for this double feature are not centered specifically on the Fourth of July, but the date is important to both stories -- whether it's the tale of tourists and teeth, or parades and creepiness. Do you see where I'm headed? For this double feature, in honor of the Fourth of July, I give you: Jaws and Cape Fear.

"If you don't make it yourself, it isn't fun. It's entertainment."

I apologize to my colleagues and readers, because most film critics, reviewers and cinephiles have been known, at least at one point in his or her life, to call a movie "fun." I certainly am guilty of it somewhere, in some review or blog post or whatever. But I'm here to finally set the record straight, even though David Mamet clearly already informed us via the quote above, which is spoken by his wife, actress Rebecca Pidgeon, in his 2000 film State and Main. A movie can not be fun, it can only be entertaining. That is, if we're merely watching it on the screen and had no involvement in its production. Actually, even if we make a film ourself, watching it afterwards should technically still be considered entertaining rather than fun.

Of course, a movie experience can be fun. I have fun at a lot of movies I attend, but not because of the movie I'm watching. Like in the case of my recent experience with The Strangers, the movie was not what was fun, not even my observance of the audience was officially fun. But for me, the ticket buying, the popcorn eating, the sitting in the dark is all fun. And the movie was entertaining, as was the crowd. I guess that the experience of watching a movie at home or on your iPod can also be fun, but still in any scenario, the actual movie itself is never fun; it's only entertaining.

As an admitted Admirer-And-Not-Much-More of Stanley Kubrick's 1980 horror classic, The Shining (I know, I know, blasphemy and such), I still got a genuine kick out of this Channel 4 promo for their upcoming month-long Kubrick retrospective.

Hosted on UK newspaper The Guardian's website, the ad consists of a single minute-long tracking shot and takes the view of the Academy Award-winning filmmaker as he dashes about the quite meticulously recreated set. The twins, the axe, the maze, each and every last iconic touch -- it's almost like they Overlook-ed nothing... (No? Too much? Apologies all around then.)

I'm having trouble ascertaining whether or not Channel 4 was also responsible for this live-action opening to 'The Simpsons' that popped up a few years back. Even if it's not, the fact still remains that precious few American commercials can claim to be their equal in both fondness and dedication. Alas, until Spike someday hosts a Joe Eszterhas tribute marathon...

[by way of AICN]

Empire has been given an exclusive new photo from the highly anticipated remake of The Wolf Man. Click the photo to the right to see the whole thing, and then feel free to begin eagerly anticipating April even more than you already are. (Woohoo, April!) The pic respresents the first official non-lupine look at Benicio del Toro as Lawrence Talbot. And, costume nerd that I am, I'm in love with his Gothic cloak. This movie promises to make me drunk on Victorian drapery.

It also provides the first look at Emily Blunt and Anthony Hopkins, both of whom are nearly unrecognizable. Blunt is so stripped of make-up that she looks straight out of a tintype. She plays Gwen Conliffe, the fiancee of Talbot's recently deceased brother, whom the werewolf-to-be begins developing an affection for her. Hopefully, it's for her personality, and not as a late night snack. Wait, that didn't sound right.

Hopkins, of course, plays the senior Talbot, who is estranged from Lawrence long before he turns lycanthropic. If Empire and IMDB didn't tell me otherwise, I would argue that it was Richard Briers in the photo and not Sir Anthony. Really, everyone but del Toro is unrecognizable in this photo, so kudos to the make-up and hair department.

The Wolf Man is set to be released April 3rd, 2009. I still wish they would release this in the fall, but perhaps a copious amount of bloodshed is just what springtime needs.

According to TheGoon.com, Eric Powell's endlessly inventive series has just been optioned by David Fincher, who plans to turn it into a CGI movie. (Is this the first movie to be announced via its character's official domain instead of the trades? I'm sure it isn't, but I find it awesome and worth mentioning nonetheless.)

The Goon is a everything-but-the-kitchen-sink (and probably that too) comic that draws comparisons to (and appearances by) Hellboy. I'm ashamed to say I haven't read it, though I don't seem to be alone in that. The series follows the deformed brawler of the title, who claims to be the enforcer for a mobster named Labrazio. The Goon and his sidekick, Franky, are frequently trading punches with all manner of otherworldly creatures, from zombie armies to aliens -- and from what I'm looking at on Dark Horse, it never gets boring. And it's hilarious. Check out the preview of issue #8, and tell me I'm wrong. (There's lots of Goon previews up on Dark Horse's page, spend the holiday weekend checking them out! I'm going to. Fireworks are overrated.)

While CGI would be the best way to capture the top-notch art, I can't help but wish this was in live action. I would love nothing more than to see a real live Goon beat down some lame vampires, or get omens interpreted by a psychic seal. But already, this is gearing up to be one of the best comic adaptations this side of The Dark Knight -- a top notch director in Fincher, and hilarious source material.

[via CHUD]

Call me crazy, but 90 minutes of Milla Jovovich doing anything is worth watching -- doubly so when her activities deal with zombies, monsters, and ridiculous high-tech weaponry. Yes -- deep sigh -- I'm a (slightly) reluctant fan of the Resident Evil series. (Yep, there's even some stuff I like in Part 2. Like Sienna Guillory.) When I'm writing or net-browsing or playing hours of Zuma, I often like to have a familiar movie playing in the background (like most people do with, um, music) and the Resident Evil flicks fit the bill quite nicely sometimes. (Depending on my mood, of course. Last night my relaxation movie was The Mask of Zorro.)

So it's my relative fandom for the series that leads me to share this half-piece of semi-news: According to the always-fun MTV Movies Blog, series master Paul W.S. Anderson has started speaking to Sony about a Resident Evil 4. And don't even dare act surprised when a series that grossed this much money moves forward on another adventure. How many Police Academy movies were there? (OK, bad example that isn't exactly helping my argument, but I seriously lost count. There were about 28 Police Academy movies? Or it only felt like that many.) Mr. Anderson doles out the reliable "Oh, once we get a good script ... We're not gonna do it just to do it" schpiel, which means he's probably about three weeks away from hiring a writer.

Not three weeks ago, I made first mention of a brief and bland teaser for the forthcoming horror film, Mirrors. Now, along comes IGN Movies with a red-band trailer that, at first, didn't do much for me. Blah blah blah, Jack Bauer as security guard for old department store, blah blah, former guard grew obsessed with surrounding mirrors, blah blah -- look, even Amy Smart is yawning after all that exposition.

Oh, did I say 'yawning'? I meant 'tearing off her own jaw'. Yes, while we still seem to be saddled with a fairly ridiculous premise that's seen better and worse days, there's modest comfort to be taken that the R rating ain't exactly being shied away from. Let's face facts here, people: all it takes sometimes is a couple of nifty death scenes to make movies like this that much easier to stomach (well, some might argue the opposite).

Directed by Alexandre Aja and starring Kiefer Sutherland, you can see Mirrors (bah-dum-cha!) on August 15th.