Empire States: What Are Your Cinematic Affectations?
Posted on Friday March 1, 2013, 17:37 by Ali Plumb in Empire States
 There’s a moment in Iron Man where Tony does this thing with his hands. It’s like a double finger click with his right hand that slaps into the palm of his left hand, making a sound like “Clicketty-click” in the process. It’s the kind of thing everyone’s favourite billionaire playboy philanthropist does when he’s walking, or thinking, or just being a bit cool. “Throw a little hot rod red in there…” Clicketty-click.
There’s another moment in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off where the semi-professional fourth wall breaker is in the bathroom of posh restaurant Chez Quis, washing his hands and talking to no one in particular. Before he leaves, he picks up a mint from a bowl. “Mint”, he says, popping into his mouth. That’s it. “Mint.”
Finally, Fantastic Mr. Fox. “What’s this thing you do, the whistle ... Continue reading... Comment Now (78 comments)
Back To TopEmpire States: Empire Vs. Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark
Posted on Friday November 23, 2012, 14:53 by Ali Plumb in Empire States
 As part of the Amazing Spider-Man New York press trip, I got the chance to see the Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark musical on Broadway. If you were to ask me for a one-word review of the Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark musical on Broadway, the one word I would give you is ‘bonkers’. On the better side of bonkers, mind, but still – ahem – completely off the wall.
Chances are, you’ll have already heard about its initial technical glitches, huge running costs and critical mauling. Maybe you’ll know it as “that U2 Spider-Man musical where those stuntmen were injured” or possibly as “the Broadway show with the weirdest name of all time”, but now that the dust has settled, the script has been rewritten, certain songs excised and nuts-on-the-wire rigging firmly tightened, this felt like the right time to appreciate Marvel’s foray i... Continue reading... Comment Now (1 comment)
Back To TopEmpire States: The Amazing Spider-Man / MIB3 Press Trip Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Visiting Movie Locations
Posted on Friday November 16, 2012, 11:22 by Ali Plumb in Empire States
 As part of the recent Amazing Spider-Man / Men In Black III New York press trip – one that took place literally hours before Hurricane Sandy hit, believe it or not – a lucky few got to trapeze, bungee, helicopter, space shuttle, taxi and parkour around The Big Apple to celebrate the films’ releases on Blu-ray. I was one of that lucky few, and I can safely say that it was one of the best adventures in Abroadland I’ve ever been on.... Continue reading... Comment Now
Back To TopInfinite Lives: Lego The Lord of the Rings: The Video Game Preview
Posted on Monday November 5, 2012, 09:19 by Ali Plumb in Infinite Lives
 Lego The Lord of the Rings: The Video Game is the latest in a long line of Lego video games based on movie properties. Though they’ve only been making them since 2005, developers Traveller’s Tales have brick-ified Indiana Jones (twice), Batman (also twice), Star Wars (three times) and many, many others, creating family-friendly 3D platformers with their own unique look, feel and sense of humour, all centred around everyone’s favourite plastic building blocks.
The team are so trusted, it’s almost inconceivable that TT wouldn’t do the films justice. The bigger question this time around is whether they can rejuvenate a series of games that’s so set in its ways it’s practically become its own genre.
Encouragingly, TT’s previous Lego game, Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, was a huge leap forward for the franchise, creating a more open world for Lego fans to explore, fix and smash up. But the second plastic coming of the caped crusader was limit... Continue reading... Comment Now (1 comment)
Back To TopEmpire States: Empire Vs. Transformers: The Ride-3D
Posted on Monday May 28, 2012, 17:31 by Ali Plumb in Empire States
 Say what you like about Michael Bay’s Transformers franchise – and God knows you will – but even the most highfalutin' critic would find it hard to claim that the action sequences aren’t spectacular. So when you hear that Transformers has finally been turned into a theme park attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood, your immediate question is... why didn’t they do it before? Well, because I'm always willing to leap in front of a bullet, I went over to Los Angeles to find out. It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.
“You’re the second person to ask me that today!” says showrunner Chick Russell. “I think one of the reasons it wasn’t done sooner was that we were waiting for the right technologies to be developed to make it happen. When you’re doing something like Transformers, the Autobots and the Decepticons are so huge, so you want to make sure you can put them on the right scale. Second of al... Continue reading... Comment Now (1 comment)
Back To TopInfinite Lives: The Return Of Max Payne
Posted on Tuesday May 1, 2012, 16:47 by Ali Plumb in Infinite Lives
 The original Max Payne game came out in 2001, with Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne arriving two years later. Both are still regarded as minor classics, despite Mark Wahlberg’s ill-fated (and quite frankly god-awful) cinematic adaptation tarnishing the brand’s reputation.
Now, nearly a decade later and the company that took over the Max Payne franchise, Rockstar Games – also known as the guys behind GTA, Red Dead Redemption and L.A. Noire – are finally releasing the franchise’s follow-up, taking the bullet-dodging antihero and planting him in the seedy underbelly of São Paulo.
The reason for his jolly holiday? Well, after the tumultuous events of the first two games, Max has, would you believe it, hit the bottle hard, so when a friend offers him a private security gig in Brazil, he takes it... but that doesn't mean trouble isn't too far behind.
It's no secret that die hard Max Payne fans weren't dancing in the street when they fi... Continue reading... Comment Now (1 comment)
Back To TopEmpire States: Movie Poster Masher-Uppers... Assemble!
Posted on Friday April 20, 2012, 14:39 by Ali Plumb in Empire States
 For those not already in the know, week in, week out - and occasionally fortnight in, fortnight out - we blast the Empire Online conch as hard as we can before screaming , "Movie Poster Masher-Uppers... ASSEMBLE!"
Fortunately, they're normally close by, either playing pool or saying witty things on our forums. So then we ask them to combine a movie posters with a theme we pick - Arnie, The Beatles or French Cinema to name just three examples - to create pun-filled photoshop gems.
This time around, the guys r... Continue reading... Comment Now (4 comments)
Back To TopEmpire States: Avengers Twitter Jokes Round-Up
Posted on Wednesday April 18, 2012, 17:52 by Ali Plumb in Empire States
 Earlier this week, we gave our Twitter followers a challenge: make up an Avengers joke. The prize? A pair of tickets for the Avengers Assemble European premiere in Westfield, London.
Perhaps unsurprisingly we were swamped with hundreds of responses, which varied from the truly dreadful to the, um, not so truly dreadful.
So it was our honour and our duty to dig through them all, eventually picking two winners, who can be found below - and below that, you can see the other greatest hits you guys came up with... if you dare. ... Continue reading... Comment Now (3 comments)
Back To TopEmpire States: 8 (Possible) Reasons John Carter Bombed At The Box Office
Posted on Friday March 23, 2012, 16:00 by Ali Plumb in Empire States
 At the time of writing, John Carter has made $184 million in ticket sales worldwide. Its production budget was $250 million, its marketing another $100 million. Disney have formally announced that it’s writing it off as a $200 million loss for the company.
Whatever you thought of the film, financially, it was a failure. There’s no way on God’s green earth or Barsoom’s barren wilderness that this movie will make any money this year. Though a few – including ourselves – have seen the better side of the film critically, most outlets have given it a mauling, and audiences have stayed away.
In America, it only made $30 million in its opening weekend, beaten to first place by a two-week-old kids’ movie, The Lorax. It was then, just on the first weekend, that people started picking over the bones of Andrew Stanton’s first live-action f... Continue reading... Comment Now (84 comments)
Back To TopEmpire States: Will Zach Braff's New Play Change Your Life?
Posted on Thursday March 1, 2012, 09:28 by Ali Plumb in Empire States
 If you’re film fan looking for wildly entertaining theatre in London over the next couple of months, you’re thoroughly spoiled for choice. At the Gielgud Theatre, there’s Graham Linehan’s acclaimed adaptation of Ealing classic The Ladykillers, while down at the Old Vic, comic farce-sterpiece Noises Off has proved so popular that it’s transferring to the Novello Theatre on March 24.
If neither of those appeal, there’s always The 39 Steps, Criterion Theatre’s fantastically funny five-year-old four-man farce. Basically, it's effing good.
And if you’re looking for something amusing but almost entirely unrelated to film, you could see One Man, Two Guvnors, the National Theatre’s modernised version of The Servant of Two Masters at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Everyone’s given it five stars. Pretty much, anyway.
Looking to sidle ... Continue reading... Comment Now (3 comments)
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