Morning all,

Welcome back to Monday.

So up top there, you know (finger pointing skyward) that way, you’ll see an interesting photo from a flick called The Raven. Using your keen detectiving skills I’m sure you can piece together the image and the title and come up with a pretty clear idea of what I’m talking about. The Raven is a fictional tale currently being directed by James McTeigue (Ninja Assassin, V for Vendetta) with a script penned by  Ben Livingston (Unrest, Bruce Almighty) and Hannah Shakespeare (Loverboy). According to extremely unreliable sources (the Internet) The Raven is actually about Edgar Allan Poe living in old-time Baltimore. At the time he was a struggling writer publishing short murderous stories in the local paper. Well, I guess someone liked them because a bunch of bloody murders start happening that are exactly like his stories. Poe is investigated by the local police but they soon discover that he isn’t to blame so he joins them in the investigation…

Yeah, I know. I think I’ve heard this before too, but that’s not my biggest concern. My biggest concern is John Cusack taking on the role of Edgar Allan Poe. I like Cusack, I think some of his flicks are pretty good, but this is a big deal for a lot people. Poe has become so synonymous with myth that it’s actually quite a high-profile part for Cusack to try and tackle. Accompanying Cusack is Alice Eve (She’s Out Of My League), Luke Evans (Clash of the Titans and the upcoming Hobbit flick) and Brendan Gleeson (Harry Potter and a whole bunch of other stuff). The cast seems pretty good, but I can’t help but wonder what this would be like if Tim Burton decided to get in front of the camera and become Poe. I’ll be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a real photo of what Poe looked like, but in my mind he was like this really dark and creepy looking Ichabod Crane type guy – kind of exactly how Tim Burton looks.

What? Yeah, that’s right. There will be a movie starring John Cusack called Hot Tub Time Machine with a plot that is exactly that. A bunch of dudes snap on the Speedos, hop in the hot tub and travel back to the 80′s. Sometimes I’d like to go back to the 80′s, but then I’d be really chunky and be wearing way too much neon… Check out the trailer below:

After failing miserably to gather some friends to watch Monsters vs Aliens last night I decided to get my CG fix anyways and popped in Igor from last year. The flick isn’t bad, I mean it doesn’t fail at everything, but its what I would call a tweener-flick – not quite good, but not ass-backwards terrible either. Kind of the movie equivalent to the guy in your office who you wouldn’t consider a “friend,” but you wouldn’t kick him down a flight of stairs either.

Igor plays on the unsuspecting hero theme, but does so in a very Tim Burton-esque way. I haven’t done any research on this, but after watching just 5 minutes of this flick I could tell right away that if Burton had his hand in a 3D animation company, the guys who made this film would submit a resume. The tone is very childish, but not immature. You can tell there are points in the flick where the creators are trying to tap into the Shrek / Incredibles theme where kids like the shapes and funny voices and the adults enjoy the double entendres and clever dialogue – the only problem is that there aren’t that many.

It also follows a pretty standard story structure which helps with animated films. Protagonist rises from the ranks hoping to become a hero but makes bad decisions along the way – he eventually realizes his mistakes, makes amends and still becomes the hero in the end. Simple, yet effective I guess – just not very unique. There is one point in the flick that is quite entertaining and I’ll spoil it for you right now (HA!)

James Lipton (the old guy who does interviews on Inside The Actors Studio) is actually the catalyst to the entire dramatic change.

Igor’s cast looks like everyone who made it as far as call-backs for Monsters vs Aliens. John Cusack, Molly Shannon, Steve Buscemi, ect. As actors they’re all pretty good, but they don’t bring the star power to their voices the way other celebrities do.

Igor isn’t a movie I would go an rent but if you know a guy who knows a guy, who’s cousin is like… a computer guy you c0uld ask him to get one of those nifty downloads going and watch it off of a file.  I’m just saying…