A few days after unveiling Mickey Rourke as “Whiplash” from Iron Man 2, USA Today brings us the first image from Michael Moore’s new documentary, which is still without a title. In a way, it corresponds well to the earlier photo premiere, because many people think of the liberal filmmaker as the true villain of his own movies. Others believe him to be the superhero, however, which would make Goldman Sachs the nemesis in this picture, in which Moore is once again met with police opposition, likely because he’s attempting to trespass on the financial institution’s property.

Apparently the trailer for the movie hits theaters this weekend, too, so hopefully someone will find a bootleg or copy of that somewhere on the web [update: I've embedded the Jimmy Fund-parodying teaser below]. My hope is it’s appropriately attached to The Taking of Pelham 123 due to that film’s involvement of a stock market scam. For now, though, let’s see what the film blogs are saying about this promotional photo:
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Though the third Fast and the Furious installment, Tokyo Drift, wasn’t a huge box office disappointment with its $63 million domestic gross, it was significantly less successful than its predecessors, The Fast and the Furious ($145 million) and 2 Fast 2 Furious ($127 million). A fourth film would normally see an even bigger drop in box office receipts, but next week’s Fast & Furious has a good chance of actually being the highest-grossing film in the series yet, due to the return of original cast members Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordanna Brewster and, most importantly, Vin Diesel.

With the expectation that Fast & Furious will be enough of a hit to save the franchise, we take a look at ten other films that similarly kept their respective series going, either because of an increase in profits or a surprising increase in quality, following one or many disappointing installments.
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Even if you love the original Escape to Witch Mountain, you have to welcome a remake. The 1975 sci-fi Disney film has some very dated special effects — though the visible wires used to “levitate” a handgun and a harmonica give it a campy charm — and it’s not exactly the well-respected classic that The Black Hole or Old Yeller is, anyway. So, better a remake (or “modern re-imagining”) of a slightly beloved movie, which has already been redone once, to give The Rock another fulfillment of his Disney contract and utilize all the “perfect” digital effects now available.

While it seems that eventually all Disney live-action classics will be remade, potentially rendering obsolete the careers of Dean Jones, Kevin Corcoran and those ugly kids from Mary Poppins, there are some that may, like Witch Mountain, deserve to be recycled. Disney has previously erred in reworking films like The Absent-Minded Professor (Robin Williams is no Fred MacMurray) and The Shaggy Dog (Tim Allen is no MacMurray, either, nor even is he Tommy Kirk), and it’s mistakenly producing new versions of Swiss Family Robinson and 20,000 Leauges Under the Sea. But there are so many other films, most forgotten, that would better lend themselves to remakes.

Here we’ve selected 10 such classics, all but one live-action features, and we welcome you to suggest any others you may wish to see updated and/or re-imagined.
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If you buy the kids only one new video release this week, make it Pinocchio. Obviously. But if you have enough spending money to buy two, pick up Howard the Duck as well. Finally on DVD in America (with a Special Edition no less), the infamous flop is anything but a great film. Yet it is hardly one of the worst films of the 1980s, despite its reputation.

For the past 23 years, I’ve stood by my childhood love for Howard the Duck, constantly acknowledging that I even owned Ellis Weiner’s novelization of the film. Technically, the best reason to defend the movie’s existence is that it directly led to the creation of Pixar. But this reason doesn’t influence anyone to watch the thing. So, in order to defend the movie’s onscreen worth, I’ve come up with ten points for why you should pick up the new Howard the Duck disc and not feel at all guilty about doing so.
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It’s amazing, and really quite sad, that nearly a decade after the release of The Phantom Menace, people are still complaining about George Lucas. Sure, he also messed up his Indiana Jones franchise last summer, but whatever, there’s nothing we can do about it except skip out on further Lucas productions. The diehards are still apparently with him enough to have gotten the Clone Wars TV series renewed, to continually dress up in Star Wars costumes for comic conventions, and to eventually even buy Fanboys when it hits DVD (the movie’s terrible $200,000 gross in its first week isn’t so much a reflection on fan interest so much as it’s the fault of The Weinstein Co.’s distinterest).

So, is there really any reason for the film The People vs. George Lucas, which is still a year away from release, to exist? Hasn’t the internet supplied plenty of documentation on the hatred of Lucas over the past ten years? Now that we have an early trailer for the film to look at, here’s what the blogosphere has to say on the doc and the issue in general:

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After watching the new Star Trek trailer leaked on YouTube and coming away completely confused, I was happy to discover that the spot was receiving a proper, official release this morning. But after also watching the higher-quality version on Apple.com, I’m not any more enthused. It still looks cluttered with too much CG and potentially weak direction — kind of like the first Star Wars prequel, of which I’m also reminded thanks to that lame, child version of James “Siberius” Kirk. And it still lays on the characters and sets up the plot as messily as possible. Worst of all, it doesn’t at all pique the interest of a non-Trekkie like myself.

I know, looking at the recent marketing of Twilight and Watchmen has informed me that the first trailer is for the fans and a later spot will be a better introduction to the characters and will feature more appealing elements for newbies. But I figured that teaser trailer we saw way back in January was the one for the followers. There’s not much time left to get me, a guy who has only seen Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (and only for the whales), fully excited.

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Earlier this year, I thought that it was way too late for a Sex and the City movie. But then it made a ton of cash, so I guess I was wrong. Still, I’m going to continue similarly thinking it’s too late for another X-Files movie. And even if I’m proven wrong and the masses get out to theaters this weekend in search of the truth, I’ll keep on believing that X-Files: I Want to Believe is way past its time.

To celebrate Mulder and Scully’s tardiness, here are 10 other movies that came out too late:

1. The Godfather Part III (Released in: 1990; Should have been released in: 1976) - Never mind the fact that had this third installment been made years earlier, Sofia Coppola wouldn’t have been cast and therefore wouldn’t have given her terribly infamous performance. The more important matter is that sequels arriving more than a decade after the previous installment are almost always doomed. The longer the wait, the higher the expectations, and the greater the disappointment. Of course, not everyone agrees that it was also too late for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Live Free or Die Hard, Rambo, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, etc.
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Two of the biggest stories populating the movie blogs this week have to do with George Lucas. Well, the Fanboys controversy has less to do with the Star Wars director, but obviously he’s connected in some way. The other story has to do with Lucas’ statement that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is (gasp) just a movie. Here is the quote, from USA Today, that’s putting fear into the minds of movie geeks throughout the galaxy:

“When you do a movie like this, a sequel that’s very, very anticipated, people anticipate ultimately that it’s going to be the Second Coming,” Lucas says. “And it’s not. It’s just a movie. Just like the other movies. You probably have fond memories of the other movies. But if you went back and looked at them, they might not hold up the same way your memory holds up.”

Yes, he goes on to reference the reception of The Phantom Menace, which is obviously fair, but also a bit unbalanced. Certainly our disappointment with the Star Wars prequels had enough to do with their stand-alone quality (or lack thereof), in addition to but separate from them coming with such high expectations.

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