There are 2 kinds of people in this world: those who find the movie Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle hilarious, and those who don’t. Admittedly, this movie is easy to criticize, but after catching a few snippets of it on TMN I have to say it wasn’t as horrible as I thought it would be. So when it comes to the news of a Harold and Kumar sequel… well, I suppose I’m open to the possibilities.

Harold and Kumar 2 will throw our pot-smoking protagonists on a cross-country adventure where they try to outrun authorities who mistakenly accuse them of being terrorists. The first film’s writers, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, will make the jump to directors this time around. Fast food chains are probably bidding on the product placement contract as we speak, and hey, maybe if this is successful we’ll finally get that Dude Where’s My Car? sequel, Seriously Dude Where’s My Car? Keep your fingers crossed.

Like all popular funny men, Will Ferrell is on the verge of experiencing a backlash due to overexposure. Even some of his biggest fans are starting to get sick of his schtick, but in his defense I will say that he’s been changing it up a bit lately and taking risks with slightly different movies like Melinda & Melinda, The Producers and the upcoming Stranger Than Fiction. The thing is, for every offbeat indie film he’s doing, there are 5 more generic comedies like his latest project, a basketball comedy entitled Semi Pro.

The movie, which will co-star Woody Harrelson, is set in the 70’s and follows fictional ABA team the Flint Michigan Tropics and owner/coach/player Jackie Moon as they struggle to make it to the big leagues. New Line exec Kent Alterman will direct. While I’m all for seeing Woody Harrelson in a new comedy (and a basketball one at that… White Men Can’t Jump anyone?) these Frat pack sports comedies are starting to get a bit repetitive. I mean, you’ve got Dodgeball, Kicking & Screaming, Talladega Nights, and now Blades of Glory… do we really need another?

As expected, after last week’s announcement that Universal and Fox had pulled out of the Halo feature film deal, the project is now officially on hold. Peter Jackson and Wingnut Films issued a press release this week explaining the current situation:

“At this time Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, along with their partner, Microsoft, have mutually agreed to postpone making a feature film based on the Halo video game universe until we can fulfill the promise we made to millions of Halo fans throughout the world that we would settle for no less than bringing a first class film to the big screen… While it will undoubtedly take a little longer for Halo to reach the big screen, we are confident that the final feature film will be well worth the wait.”

They also state that they are still committed to working with first-time director Neill Blomkamp. The unfortunate truth here is that there are only so many major studios that can fund a huge movie like this, and both Sony and Disney are not possibilities for business reasons (Sony’s an X-Box competitor with the Playstation, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs sits on the Disney board of directors). I guess Paramount and Warner must have turned up their noses as well? Interesting sidenote: the Halo screenplay was slated to get its third rewrite by Josh Olson (A History of Violence). Yep, I think this movie’s going to be sidelined for quite a while.

As we mentioned on this week’s podcast, we’ve decided to extend the M:I3/Transformers dialogue contest one more week, just for the heck of it. We haven’t had that many entries, and who knows… maybe it’s just because no one wants to own Mission: Impossible 3 on DVD. But we figured we’d give you guys one last chance to participate for people who had been holding back or didn’t have time to think up some witty Transformers dialogue.

For inspiration, you can listen to our sample Transformers dialogue session on this week’s podcast, or download the MP3 directly via the link below. To enter the contest, simply e-mail some possible dialogue for Michael Bay’s Transformers movie to filmjunk@gmail.com or use our handy contest entry form. And if you’re sick of hearing about it, well, it will all be over soon so just, like, chillax man.

With the exception of M:I3, it’s almost exclusively TV box sets this week, including the first two seasons of everyone’s favourite lifeguard drama Baywatch! Jeremy Piven also stars in the comedy Keeping Up With The Steins, and we get special edition releases of a couple Christmas classics: Scrooged and It’s A Wonderful Life.

Tales From The Crypt: Season 5
Baywatch: Season 1
Baywatch: Season 2
Keeping Up With The Steins
Six Feet Under: The Complete Series
Speed Racer Vol. 5
Mission: Impossible III (+ HD-DVD and Blu-ray)
Scrooged: Yule Love It! Edition
It’s A Wonderful Life: 60th Anniversary Edition
Future-Kill
Kenny vs Spenny Season 2
The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! - Volume 2
Kids in the Hall: The Complete Series
Ghost Whisperer: The Complete First Season
CSI Miami: Season 4
Kids in the Hall: Season 5
Excalibur (HD-DVD)
V For Vendetta (HD-DVD)
Under Siege (HD-DVD + Blu-Ray)
The Phantom of the Opera (Blu-ray)
The Searchers (Blu-ray)
Unforgiven (Blu-ray)

For last week’s poll we had a look at historic biopics, limited for the most part to people who came before the 20th century (but not, incidentally, excluding fictional characters!). Milos Forman’s Amadeus, based on Peter Shaffer’s play, was the clear cut winner here, followed by Braveheart and Gandhi. I was surprised that Rob Roy got no votes at all… if anything I thought Oliver Stone’s critically drubbed Alexander would have been at the bottom. Any important ones that we missed? Should Marie Antoinette have been on the list?

1. Amadeus - 28.1%
2. Braveheart - 20.1%
3. Gandhi - 18.0%
4. Lawrence of Arabia - 12.2%
5. The Passion of the Christ - 9.4%
6. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves - 4.3%
7. Spartacus - 3.6%
8. The New World - 2.9%
9. Alexander - 1.4%
10. Rob Roy - 0%

Welcome to the Halloween 2006 edition of Film Junk, where we share with you our 10 favourite comedic horror films (for those who like a good laugh on this evil holiday). Also on this week’s episode, we debut our sample Transformers promo for the M:I3 contest (the deadline has been extended until next week) and discuss Hostel 2, the Splat Pack and the Faces of Death sequel.

» Download the MP3 (18.5 MB)
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As i’ve said in the past, I love October. Although i’m not much for dressing up, I do love engaging in horror-themed movie nights with friends in celebration of HELL NIGHT. Over the past week i’ve been going over lists of the best possible films to bring to the table this Tuesday night, and while trying to come up with some of the goriest shit possible, I thought of a great topic for the site. It takes alot to offend my senses, so it’s rare that I come across a film that just makes me sick to my stomach or gives me the heebee-geebees. As a kid, there were three films that truly freaked me out: Black Christmas, John Carpenter’s Price of Darkness and The Exorcist. More recently The Blair Witch Project and The Descent had me experiencing that rare rush of anxiety right there in the movie theatre! Now THAT is an accomplishment. But there is that rare breed of movies that have a different, more strange effect on you. The films that leave you feeling dirty inside. I can tell you that my recent viewing of Cannibal Holocaust did just that. The vilolent animal mutilations were pretty hard to watch, especially in the almost pornographic style they were presented. I was somewhat put off by the end of the film, but that’s pretty rare. I also remember watching PIN as a kid and being creeped out by the anatomically correct dummy in the basement. I guess i’m just wondering what films have had the same effect on you guys. Is there a movie out there that makes you sick to your stomach? A film that simply went too far in its depiction of extreme terror? Let us know in the comments section!

As much as I’ve criticized G4TV in the past for their programming changes in the quest to become the next Spike, I have to admit, this Halloween special they’ve got planned is going to rule. They’ve recruited Mark Borchardt and Mike Schank (stars of what may be my favourite documentary of all time, American Movie) to host a special screening of Night of the Living Dead live from their front lawn in Wisconsin. Borchardt is, of course, a huge horror fan, and directed his own short film called Coven (NOT pronounced like “oven”). The special will air tomorrow night starting at 8 pm, and will also feature special commentary from George Romero, along with the TV debut of Mark’s short film I Blow Up, and clips from his new movie Scare Me. You can check out some hilarious outtakes from the promos for the Halloween special now over at the G4 site.

In less than a year since its initial launch, YouTube has taken the internet by storm, exploding to over 20 million visitors a month and recently being acquired by Google for $1.65 billion. It’s obvious that the site filled a need for sharing videos on the web, by making them both easy to find and easy to watch. It also didn’t hurt that the site turned a blind eye towards copyright infringement, which meant that the content was able to grow at an insane rate and users never had to worry about the legality of what they were uploading.

With the sale of YouTube to Google, however, it looks like this short-lived boom of free video sharing on the internet may be coming to a close. As of last week, Comedy Central requested YouTube to remove any and all clips from their TV shows including The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and South Park. This is likely the first in a long line of companies who will be taking action to remove their content from YouTube now that there is big money involved. There is speculation that Google is about to introduce an advertising program for YouTube, and no one is going to allow Google or their users to profit from clips that they do not own. Plus Google has deep pockets that are ripe for litigation, they probably won’t want to risk getting sued. So unfortunately, just like all other cool free stuff on the internet, it can only last for so long. I’ll be sad to see YouTube go… but will another underground video sharing network will come along to save the day?