image: Warner Bros.

This installment is dark, funny and the most intense so far.  The plot unfolds during Harry’s sixth year at Hogwarts and Dumbledore is doing all that he can to prepare the young wizard for his inevitable showdown with Lord Voldemort.  Dumbledore uses his own extracted memories to show Harry what he believes he needs to know.  Harry must also find a way to see a memory stored in the mind of the new teacher, Horace Slughorn, who had taught Tom Riddle/Voldemort when he was a young student.

Romance also heats up in this movie since Harry’s secret love for Ron’s younger sister, Ginny, becomes impossible to hide and the relationship between Hermione and Ron changes.  They can’t get too distracted, though, since the threat of Voldemort and his minion, Draco Malfoy, is ever present.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is now available on DVD and Blu-ray and I’d strongly suggest picking up a copy.

Post from: EveryJoe

“Half Blood Prince” on DVD and Blu-ray

AND, apparently I’m the only person who hasn’t played this game since as of the 18th of this month, Modern Warfare 2 had taken in an astounding $550 million dollars worldwide in the first five days.

Five. Days. $550 million dollars. Wow.

What’s even more impressive [and I know you're thinking, "What could be more impressive than $550 freakin' million dollars?!"] is that “Modern Warfare 2’s launch beat all previous first-and five-day entertainment industry box office, book and video game sell-through records”.

Yeah.

Beat Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Dark Knight, Deathly Hallows and Grand Theft Auto IV.

Considering how New Moon set midnight showing records, it will be interesting to see if Modern Warfare 2 can hold onto this pretty cool distinction.

Image|Activision

Post from: EveryJoe

Modern Warfare 2 All-Time Highest Grossing

The game was released early this month in time to grab some of the hoopla that came with the release of the movie and was released for the Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, PS2, DS, PC, Mac, and mobile devices. [I'm tired just typing all of that.]

Anyway, I found four screenshots of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince for the Nintendo Wii and thought that I’d share them with you guys in case you haven’t gotten a chance to play the game.

Image|EA

Post from: EveryJoe

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Fans of all ages seem very fascinated with their lives so you might be interested in winning a copy of A&E Home Entertainment’s recently released Harry Potter Kids.

If you love the movies, you will love watching a biography of the three main actors.  I know that I’d love to see it!  It’s always so fascinating to me to see child actors go from relative obscurity (or no experience at all) to superstardom virtually overnight so I’m very curious about their lives.

It’s easy to win a copy of this DVD. Simply leave me a comment telling me why you love Daniel, Rupert or Emma (or all three!).  The randomly selected winner will be contacted by email so please make sure you leave a valid email address.

The contest ends on July 24, 2009 at 11:59pm PST.  Good luck!

If you don’t win, you can always pick up a copy on History’s online store (look around – there’s some other cool stuff on that site!).

image: shop.history.com

Post from: EveryJoe

Win a Copy of The “Harry Potter Kids” DVD!

The score features music by Nicholas Hooper, who also composed the music for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  I will admit that these last two soundtracks have been quite different from those featured in the first four films (the first three were done by John Williams, the fourth was composed by Patrick Doyle).

I know that some have complained that the music from these past two films haven’t been as “magical” or “mischievous” but I think the change is appropriate.  The gang is growing up and the “soundtrack of their lives” should reflect that.

Besides, it’s not as if everything has been erased.  You’ll notice that Williams’ “Hedwig’s Theme” is featured in the “Opening” and “Ginny” tracks and many samples from earlier songs appear throughout this latest score.

Here’s the track listing:

1. “Opening” 2:54
2. “In Noctem” 2:00
3. “The Story Begins” 2:05
4. “Ginny” 1:30
5. “Snape & the Unbreakable Vow” 2:50
6. “Wizard Wheezes” 1:42 (not in film)
7. “Dumbledore’s Speech” 1:31
8. “Living Death” 1:55
9. “Into the Pensieve” 1:45
10. “The Book” 1:44
11. “Ron’s Victory” 1:44
12. “Harry & Hermione” 2:52
13. “School!” 1:05
14. “Malfoy’s Mission” 2:53
15. “The Slug Party” 2:11
16. “Into the Rushes” 2:33
17. “Farewell Aragog” 2:08
18. “Dumbledore’s Foreboding” 1:18
19. “Of Love & War” 1:17
20. “When Ginny Kissed Harry” 2:38
21. “Slughorn’s Confession” 3:33
22. “Journey to the Cave” 3:08
23. “The Drink of Despair” 2:44
24. “Inferi in the Firestorm” 1:53
25. “The Killing of Dumbledore” 3:34
26. “Dumbledore’s Farewell” 2:22
27. “The Friends” 2:00
28. “The Weasley Stomp” 2:51

If you’d like to hear some samples from the soundtrack, check out the video below!

image: Amazon

Post from: EveryJoe

New Harry Potter Soundtrack!

Hogwarts is really, really unsafe.  Some students have chosen to not even enrol for the school year.  Dumbledore knows that he’s got to prepare Harry for the possibility of a major battle with Voldemort.  They begin a disturbing journey to find the Dark Lord’s weaknesses (I’ve got the creeps just thinking about it) and Dumbledore believes that Professor Slughorn could hold some very important information.

At the same time, the Hogwarts students are dealing with the raging hormones that come along with adolescence.  Young Ginny Weasley has garnered the affections of both Harry and Dean Thomas while her older brother, Ron, finds himself the target of several girls affections but he doesn’t realize that Hermione has feelings for him too (and she can barely contain her jealousy!).

These light-hearted moments will be so important since tragedy will find its way to Hogwarts and nothing will ever be the same again.

In case you haven’t seen it already (or just want to see it again), here’s the trailer.  Are you going to see it today?  Have you already seen it?  I’d love to hear what you thought!

images: Warner Bros.

Post from: EveryJoe

Harry Potter Comes to Theaters Today!

Harry Potter and his friends return to Hogwarts for their sixth year.  Despite the threat from Voldemort and the Death Eaters, many of the students go on with their classes as usual so gamers will get the chance to practice their dueling skills, mix magical potions, play Quidditch and explore the grounds.

From the trailer, it looks similar to its predecessor, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but this version promises to deliver “the most complete Hogwarts ever” which makes me happy because I thought the second and third games were too limited.  It also will include locations that we’ve never seen in a Harry Potter game before (which will be consistent with the movie’s plot).

Of course, each platform will have different features.  If you play it on the Nintendo Wii, you will get to use the Wii Remote (as you did in OOTP) to use your wand and to play Quidditch.  Unfortunately, the game will not be compatible with the new Wii MotionPlus add-on.  On Nintendo DS, you will have access to mini-games and you will use the Stylus for your wand work.  The PS3 version will incorporate Dualshock 3 vibration.

Check out the trailer as well as some more screenshots:

Post from: EveryJoe

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

May was a big month this year with the release of Wolverine: X-Men Origins, Star Trek and Terminator Salvation. There was some controversy with Wolverine being leaked online ahead of its’ big-screen debut but that didn’t seem to deter fans – a sequel to the film is already in the works.  Star Trek was generally well received and was my favorite of these three films but sci-fi purists could argue that it is more of an action film.  Terminator didn’t do as well as expected (it lost out to Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian) but some have attributed that to the fact that the dark nature of the film was unappealing to audiences given the current economic crisis. 

June was also great for new releases which included the antics of Will Ferrell in Land of the Lost, the misadventures of a future groom and his friends in Las Vegas in The Hangover, the return to ancient times in Year One and the comedy-fuelled romance in The Proposal.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen opened this week and I predict that it will easily claim the top spot at the box-office.  Shia LaBeouf returns as Sam Witwicky who, after going off to college (without Bumblebee!), begins seeing symbols and enlists the help of Optimus Prime and the Autobots, who have been working with the military as part of a Top Secret team called NEST (they hunt down any Decepticons that are still hiding on earth).

When the Decepticons learn about Sam’s visions, and what he doesn’t know, things get ugly and the battle between good and evils starts all over again.

This sequel picks up two years after the events in the first film so it’s pretty amazing that Sam and Mikaela (Megan Fox) are still together.  I’m guessing this has to do more with pleasing the male audience than the strength of their teenage relationship.

During filming, Shai seriously injured his hand in a car accident but, fortunately, the writers were able to work it into the script.

After a highly successful turn in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (yes, that’s the entire title), Sacha Baron Cohen returns as Brüno (opens July 10, 2009), an overly flamboyant gay fashion journalist from Austria.

Like the last movie, Brüno was filmed as a mockumentary and, although it initially was assigned an NC-17 rating, Cohen edited the sexual content enough to get the film reclassified to an R rating.

Brüno travels around the world interviewing celebrities and world figures while shocking regular people in every day settings.  Judging from the trailers (and images), I would guess that viewers who were offended by or didn’t like Borat should probably steer clear of this one since the humor looks similar but could actually be a little worse.  I loved Borat but I definitely found myself cringing in some parts.

If you need an example of how convincing and degrading Brüno can be, check out his stunt with rapper, Eminem, at the 2009 MTV Movie Awards.  Many people were fooled by the act but, fortunately, Eminem was in on the gag and “laughed hysterically” in his hotel room later that night.

With all of the books completed, Harry Potter fans already know how this story is going to end but, of course, they will want to see how it plays out on the big screen.

After audiences were wowed by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, director David Yates signed on for the remaining three films (Deathly Hallows is being broken up into two parts which will be released in 2010 and 2011).

In Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (in theatres July 15, 2009), we get to see Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) in their sixth year at Hogwarts and there’s more drama and excitement than ever.  With their hormones raging, the three navigate their way through teenage romances but, unfortunately, this is the least of their worries.

Hogwarts is no longer a safe place for students with Lord Voldemort taking a greater hold over the people in both the Muggle and wizarding worlds.  In order to try to stop the Death Eaters, Harry and Dumbledore must work together to tap into Voldermort’s weaknesses but, of course, this is not an easy task.  While Dumbledore believes that his old friend, Professor Horace Slughorn, could be vital to their mission no one is prepared for the tragedy that lies ahead.  If done correctly, this could be the most intense Harry Potter film yet.

With the summer predictably jam-packed with action films, horror-flick, Orphan (opening July 24, 2009), definitely stands out.  Before I proceed, I thought I’d offer an explanation to any readers who might think that this movie has already been released.  Yes, this is a scary movie about a child and the word “orphan” appears in the title.  This is not to be confused with another scary movie about a child called The Orphanage which was released in 2007.

In this film, a couple’s marriage suffers after the loss of their unborn child.  The wife, Kate (Vera Farmiga), begins having nightmares and is tormented by some things in her past.  In an attempt to move past the tragedy, Kate and her husband, John (Peter Sarsgaard) adopt a young girl from a local orphanage.

The couple are barely settling into life with their new daughter, Esther, when Kate realizes that something is not quite right with the child.  Unfortunately, no one else sees the problems and it could be too late when they finally see Esther for what she really is.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is the latest in a string of 1980s cartoons and television shows to be resurrected on the big screen.  Releasing August 7, 2009, the trailers of this film haven’t been entirely impressive but maybe they will get better closer to opening day.

As you might predict, the plot isn’t overly complicated.  In fact, the original theme song explains it all:  “GI Joe is the codename for American’s daring, highly trained special mission force. It’s purpose, to defend human freedom against Cobra- a ruthless, terrorist organization determined to rule the world.”  Seriously, that’s it.

Currently, it does look like it relies too heavily on computer-generated imagery so I hope that it has more hand-to-hand fight scenes than what’s being shown.

The cast is decent enough.  I’m particularly pleased with Channing Tatum as Duke and Marlon Wayans as Ripcord but I am concerned with Sienna Miller as The Baroness and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Cobra Commander.

District 9 hits theatres on August 14, 2009.  It’s getting a lot of buzz on the internet due to the viral marketing but I’m still not completely sure what it’s about.

The promotional campaign reminds me a bit of what was used for films like Cloverfield and The Blair Witch Project in the sense that they are trying to make it seem like the events are really taking place.  For example, the official website is managed by Multinational United (MNU), a fictitious company from the movie.

In the film, “an extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions on Earth suddenly find a kindred spirit in a government agent that is exposed to their biotechnology.”

I think it’s a creative idea and sci-fi fans will probably flock to the theater in droves to see it even if only out of curiosity.  I have to admit that I’m interested in it mostly because of the mysterious nature of the plot as well as the very effective online marketing.   

Quentin Tarantino’s highly anticipated film, Inglourious Basterds, finally opens on August 21, 2009.  The script took 10 years to write and features the largest number of speaking roles of any of his films.

The movie features two storylines: “One (based on a true story) follows a group of Jewish-American soldiers whose mission is to take down a group of Nazis, and the other follows a young Jewish woman who seeks to avenge the death of her parents by this Nazi group.”

The cast is great and surprising at the same time and includes Hollywood heavyweights like Brad Pitt and Mike Myers alongside foreign stars and new actors.  The international cast should bring an authentic feel to the movie but many critics at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival felt that there was too much talking and too little action.

After his reworking of the original Halloween, Rob Zombie is back with the sequel H2: Halloween 2 which will be released in theaters on August 28, 2009.

I wasn’t particularly thrilled with the first movie but, then again, I really didn’t think that Halloween needed to be reworked at all – the original film was perfect.  I am, however, more optimistic about this one after seeing the teaser trailer.

Aside from the short clip and production stills, there isn’t a lot of information to be found about this movie just yet but I do know that it picks up hours after the first film ended.  After Michael Myers (Tyler Mane) goes on his murderous rampage, his sister, Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) is taken to the hospital.  The problems begin when Michael returns to Haddonfield, Illinois where he hopes to reunite with Laurie.

While this movie would probably do better at the box-office if it was released closer to Halloween, I’m pretty sure it will still attract a large audience.

Of course, I can’t write about every movie that will be coming out this summer so I’d love to hear about any movies you are planning to see even if they aren’t on my list!

images: Rotten Tomatoes

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Post from: EveryJoe

2009 Summer Movie Preview

Harry Potter fans will have access to videos (three trailers!), information about the film, a photo gallery (there are a LOT of great pictures) and downloads (posters, wallpapers and buddy icons).

There is also a link to the website of the previous movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, for those that need a quick refresher.  I think that was the best movie in the series so far so Half-Blood Prince is really going to have to bring it!

If you remember, Harry and Dumbledore tried to warn the wizarding world that Lord Voldemort had returned but the Ministry of Magic repeatedly denied their claims and even launched a smear campaign to make Harry and Dumbledore look like liars.  With Hogwarts’ students left defenseless, Harry organizes Dumbledore’s Army which leads to a final showdown with Voldemort (the effects were amazing!).  The existence of a prophecy is revealed which leads us to the events in Half-Blood Prince.

This new movie, follows Harry through his sixth year at Hogwarts as he delves into the mysterious and ugly past of Lord Voldemort while still navigating his way through adolescence.  Of course, we will find out who the “half-blood prince” truly is.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince hits theaters on July 15, 2009.

image: Warner Bros.

Post from: EveryJoe

New Harry Potter Website Has launched

I can only assume that they don’t suck since the games keep getting made. Then again, maybe the game makers are just trying to cash in while they can? Regardless, a new game is being released in late June and looks pretty cool.

From the release:

• Compete as Gryffindor^TM for the Hogwarts^TM Quidditch^TM Cup: Take on Hufflepuff^TM, Ravenclaw^TM and Slytherin^TM in the most exciting wizarding sport.
• Perfect your Quidditch^TM skills: Can you dodge a Bludger or catch the Snitch?
• Take part in thrilling wizard duels.  Battle against Death Eaters in Hogwarts^TM, Inferi in the Horcrux cave and much more.
• Join the Gryffindor^TM Duelling Club.  Perfect your duelling skills before you take on the other houses. Will you become the Duelling Club champion?
• Create magical potions with Professor Slughorn – using the Half-Blood Prince’s Potions book.
• Explore Hogwarts^TM at night: Take on night-time missions while the castle sleeps.
• Stuck? Call on Nearly Headless Nick^TM for clues and tips to help you complete your challenges.
• Relive the action of the movie…from the Hogwarts^TM Express to the dramatic revelation of the Half-Blood Prince.
• See more of the wizarding world: Explore new magical places like The Burrow, and the Horcrux cave.
• Uncover the truth: Travel with Dumbledore to piece together Voldermort’s past, and sneak around Hogwarts^TM to discover Malfoy’s secrets.

The game is set to release on PC, PS2, PS3 and 360

Images|EA

Post from: EveryJoe

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince