Back to the Future 4 in Our Future? Say It Ain't So.

Whilest looking for links on the IMDB Website, I saw a note that caught my eye and immediately sparked horror:

"Fox Heading 'Back to the Future'?
Michael J. Fox is heading Back To The Future for a fourth time-traveling movie. The actor, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, admits he's in negotiations for a final film in the series - but only if they make his character as old as he is in real life. The former Spin City star wants to take over Christopher Lloyd's eccentric scientist character, Doc, in the sequel. He tells movie website Moviehole.net, "The only way it would work would be if I played Doc. I'm 44-years-old now and I'm not interested in running around on skateboards! I think after 1, 2 and 3 we all kind of felt we had done it. And I think if they did it again now they would do it with a younger cast and just do a different realisation of it, which would be fun." "

There are fewer bigger fans than I of the Back to the Future franchise. I remember vividly the hunt for the VHS editions of the movies when I was a kid in the 80's and their arrival on DVD was akin to all of the STAR WARS hype for me. That being said, I can think of few other things that would SUCK MORE than "another" Back to the Future" movie, that would feature Michael J Fox as Doc Brown and some other, newer lead roles.

Has Hollywood and their ilk finally realized that they can't come up with something ORIGINAL? How many like-camera angles, winks and nods and cameo appearances would we all be subject to in another offering of Back to the Future?

Please, for the love of GAWD, and for the sake of continuing the fantastic lexicon in Earth history that is Back to the Future - DO NOT subject us to the fourth edition of what is a perfect three-part series.

Four Brothers Review - Siblings Like These Would Have Ruled...

One of the many movies that I missed this last summer was John Singleton's "FOUR BROTHERS."

One of the skills that today's movie offerings are sadly lacking is the ability to give me the basic story set-up in less than 10 minutes. Four Brothers provided me with this and initiate what became a very satisfying movie memory entry.

The Story: A mother-to-many foster mother is murdered one evening and four orphaned-turned-adopted-brother siblings return home to find out "who dunnit" and find that what seemed like a simple case of "wrong place-wrong time" is much more sinister than originally thought.

The four brothers are portayed by:

Mark Wahlberg
....
Bobby Mercer

Tyrese Gibson
....
Angel Mercer

André Benjamin
....
Jeremiah Mercer (as Andre Benjamin)

Garrett Hedlund
....
Jack Mercer

who all offer up solid characters in what I feared would have been a very shellled character existance in this movie. They, with the supporting vase offer a very satisfactory movie experience with very few loose ends and many memorable scenes.

Three things originally drew me to this movie:

Mark Wahlberg: I have always been a fan of this totally underated actor. He has 10 times the screen presence of Sean Penn, and is infinately more entertaining if anything that he's been in. I would have loved to have seen him in Mystic River in Penn's place, and can think of many other movies that needed a REAL character actor that can and is from the east coast - on particular the Boston area.

John Singleton: John is no stranger to urban movie fare and presents a solid project to add to the ever-growing bundle of street-bloke storytelling. For those that have forgotten, John has directed and or produced many movies that have fleshed out the hollywood street lexicon.

Tales of Revenge: One of the greatest componants in storytelling is the revenge scenario. We've all seen movies that CAN'T PULL it off, and I'm happy to report that this one does.

One other great surprise in this movie was the movies no-nonsense-I'm-an-asshole-villain, Chiwetel Ejiofor, whom I remember first seeing on the big screen in "SERENITY", the carry-over movie for the sadly-canceled "FIREFLY" series. In this instance, he's ditched his real-life english accent and taken on some whole hog street-bound badassedness and really does make you want to have this dude dead as soon as possible.

The only thing lacking (if I can call it that) is the very last act - send me an Email and I'll tell you what I would have liked to have seen happen (as well as NOT to spoil it all for everyone reading here :) ).

All in all, a good solid movie, fleshed-out enough to get it characters and a general zeal present during the entire movie.