No question about it - Michael Bay is not a good filmmaker. From Armageddon to Pearl Harbor to Transformers, he’s pretty much committed himself to moderately successful brainless big-budget action movies. But you have to give him credit for this: at least he’s not Uwe Boll.

Uwe (which, I’m told, is pronounced “oo-vay”) is a trained boxer and occasional filmmaker, whose work is, by all accounts, offensively bad. Pretty much everybody on the internet has heard of him, partially thanks to the negative publicity generated by the massive comedy website Something Awful. The founder of this site, Richard Kyanka, was challenged to a boxing match by Boll after posting negative reviews of his films. Boll successfully beat him down, proving once and for all that he is a much better boxer than filmmaker.

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Once upon a time, calling an actress “multi-talented” was redundant. Singing and dancing were often the minimum requirements for being a success in show business, and any additional talents could only help. But with the increasing emphasis on realism in film, being able to play a part convincingly took precedence over showmanship.

Now, those actresses who bravely venture into other media are almost a novelty. And Scarlett Johansson, bless her, has decided to join them.

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Every single news site has been buzzing with this story in the past few days. It’s a Hollywood rags-to-riches story - Seth MacFarlane, the creator and talent behind shows Family Guy and American Dad, watched his first show live a hand-to-mouth existence on FOX, being canceled twice before massive DVD sales finally convinced the network to keep in on board permanently. And now, after months of negotiations, MacFarlane has finally sealed a deal that will make him the highest paid writer-producer on television.

Reportedly worth over $100 million, this new deal commits MacFarlane to the network through 2012, in charge of Family Guy, American Dad, and upcoming FG spinoff The Cleveland Show. According to Paste Magazine, the writer/director/producer/actor was low-key about his success. “I get a lot of pleasure out of making shows. It’s a bonus to be getting paid well for it, and it’s a double bonus to be getting paid exorbitantly for it.”

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Marvel Comics has already dug deep into their second-tier barrel for this summer’s hit Iron Man. While longtime fans of the comic are thrilled, most people had no idea who this “Iron Man” is, unless he’s the fellow from that song by Black Sabbath. If they hope to continue their franchise, where will Marvel go next?

The Fantastic Four has already proven to be a colossal failure. X-Men has completed its trilogy, although spinoffs are planned. Spider-Man pretty much fell flat with 3, and The Hulk is just now being revived. With this history in mind, how much more bottom-of-the-barrel scraping will Marvel do just to make a quick buck?

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Happy news for Batman fans - this past Sunday, the new, un-jokerized trailer finally debuted in all its massive glory. You can go to the splash page revealed by other dedicated fans to watch and download the trailer in three different sizes.

The trailer indicates more of the trademark humor of Batman Begins, and specifically highlights the character of Harvey Dent. This may be a result of Heath Ledger’s untimely passing; while Two-Face is a popular villain, he is not as beloved or as recognizable as The Joker.

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After their Oscar-winning foray into drama with No Country for Old Men, Joel and Ethan Coen are returning to their Fargo roots with upcoming comedy Burn After Reading.

FirstShowing.net reports:

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Sometimes, I can’t help but notice that it seems like everyone else on this blog gets to write about video games. The more I examine this suspicion, the more I realize that - by golly! - it’s true. Those jerks. Somehow, just because I am a girl with a limited interest in gaming, I got passed over. Help, help, I’m being repressed! Come see the violence inherent in the system!

Anyway.

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Lately there’s been an obsession with remaking movies that barely needed to be made in the first place. This may be sacrilege to those of you who grew up loving The Karate Kid, but I actually took karate as a kid and was insulted at the depiction. Pretty much everything about it was wrong, including that ridiculous bird pose that nobody ever uses in actual fights.

Surely, what the world needs is another Karate Kid! Why not? No, I’m not talking about the one with Hilary Swank. This one will be a modern re-imagining of the classic martial arts fairy tale, featuring Will Smith in his big screen directorial debut, and - naturally enough - his son Jaden as the titular character.

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Am I right, folks? Help me out here!

If you have been on the internet at all in the past few weeks, you might have heard something about the new Dark Knight trailer that is to premiere on Sunday. I’m kidding, of course. If you haven’t heard about this by now, then you must have been curled up in bed, cotton stuffed in your ears, going “LA LA LA LA LA.” Because it’s everywhere. It’s in my racoon wounds!

Sorry. I promise to never, ever insert a left-field Family Guy reference into an article again.

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Recently, at New York’s Comic Con - arguably the largest and most important fan convention in the U.S. - MTV caught up with author and “comic book legend” Neil Gaiman, most recently famous for having written the novel upon which the fantasy hit Stardust was based. He was happy to announce that a three-year-long legal battle he’s been championing since day one has finally ended; you may not have heard this controversy before, but it’s the kind of censorship story that deserves some time in the limelight.

Three years ago, comic book store owner Gordon Lee was charged for “distributing harmful material to a minor.” According to Gaiman, what actually happened was this: [Read more →]

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