Eragon Gets Shot-Down by Critics
December 16th, 2006
If you were at all excited about Eragon it seems you had no reason to be - or at least, that’s how it appears in the critics eyes. Thanks to an influx of bad press reviews, the dragon-orientated fantasy achieved a Rotten Tomatoes “Tomato-meter” rating of just 15%; a dismal score, I’m sure you’ll agree. It’s RT profile is essentially a hecklers parade, with the movie being described as “lifeless”, “pseudo-medieval, dragon-happy claptrap”, “silly” and a rip-off of Star Wars (on more than one occasion I might add). Are you going to see it? Well, I’m not. I guess that’s cleared up then.
The nominees for the 64th annual Golden Globe awards ceremony were unveiled by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association yesterday. This year’s most popular nominee is Babel, a film by Alejandro González Iñárritu, which received 7 nominations in a number of categories including “Best Motion Picture”, “Best Director” and “Best Original Score”. Other notable runners include The Departed, which received 6 nominations and Dreamgirls, which racked up a total of 5. Read on for a full list of categories and nominees. 
Eli Roth’s feline follow-up to 2005’s Hostel has finally been assigned a US release date. The movie in question, Hostel: Part II, is set to launch in the American cinemas on June 9 next year and will no doubt inject another dose of Roth’s sickly sweet terror into audiences. No international dates have currently been announced, but its probable that they will fall within a similar time frame.
Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto topped the US box office this weekend, taking in $14.2m and knocking Happy Feet off the top spot. With the film’s budget only clocking in at around $40m I’m sure Buena Vista and Touchstone will be rather happy. Further down the chart, The Holiday racked up an impressive $13.5m to claim second place whilst Happy Feet and Casino Royale slipped into 3rd and 4th, taking $12.7m and $8.8m respectively. Blood Diamond was another film making its theatrical debut last week, but despite having a similar audience demographic to Apocalypto it didn’t manage to make the same impression and took only $8.52m.
New Line has launched the official site for its upcoming Philip Pullman adaption, The Golden Compass. Its the usual flashy affair with a cryptic gimmick, which in this case is something called “The Alethiometer” and I have to say, that it is rather interesting. I spent a fair amount of time twiddling with its compass-like interface to see what I could get out of it (not much unfortunately, but I’m sure some enterprising minds out there will find all it has to offer). The site does, of course, have a little more to it than that including an in-depth explanation of Lyra’s world, a news section and some cast and crew info. Anyway, check it out at 
George Romero’s fifth zombie flick is now in its principal photography stage. Diary of the Dead follows a simple premise; a plucky bunch of young film students set out to make a horror movie and involuntarily encounter some of Romero’s famous undead beings. After George’s last outing, Land of the Dead, being a slight disappointment, I think I speak for most of the horror community when I say that I’m intrigued as to how he will respond to such criticism (by making a damn good film, hopefully). If you’re interested in a glimpse of the movie, I have added some production stills added to 
In keeping with my recently zealous (and rightly so) coverage of anything to do with Zack Snyder’s 300, it gives me great pleasure to present to you, the new and final trailer. However clichéd the word ‘epic’ may be in a cinematic context, I challenge you to stop it from springing to mind as you watch this 2 and a half minute montage of pure Spartan power edged with an undeniable sense of cool. I think its pretty clear that I am almost too excited about this movie; if it doesn’t turn out to be good I think I shall lose faith in humanity altogether. Take a dekko at the video for yourself at 
A new, considerably longer trailer for Hot Fuzz has been uploaded to the official Working Title films site. The trailer is fairly lengthy and features, as you’d expect, a few gags and some pretty sweet looking snippets of action. It’s a reminder that February is looming ever closer and the ravenous hordes of fans are getting restless, their home-made police costumes can barely stand the mothballs and its not long before they all come out in…force. Anyway, ignore my awful pun and catch the vid over at 
