Hopefully this one will act like the anti-Cloverfield and magically give me 90 minutes of my life back.

A lot of the press were afraid of missing out on the next Blair Witch (that was a load of bollocks anyway), and the hype got out of control with the first one IMO. Not that I gave a sh1t about any of the characters

Cloverfield was dull. I had no empathy with any of the characters and when they all died I frankly did not care.

Darren Aronofsky ditches The Wolverine

Mark

I fully expect them to pay some gormless tw@ a fortune now...

R.I.P. actor Michael Gough, a classic "Batman" Alfred

by Joe Neumaier

Michael Gough, who had roles in Hammer horror films of the 1950s and '60s, then was cast -- in a nod toward gothic movie history -- as Alfred the butler in the original "Batman" films beginning with Tim Burton's 1989 blockbuster, died Thursday at age 94.

user_366191_user_366191_13003733206216044-2533669.jpgThe British actor was in the 1958 Christopher Lee / Peter Cushing Hammer production of "Horror of Dracula" (below), the 1962 Herbert Lom version of "The Phantom of the Opera," and has a role in "Dr. Terror's House of Horrors." He also appeared in prestige produtions (Ken Russell's "Women in Love," "The Boys From Brazil") and campy cult flops (the silly King Kong rip-off "Konga," the too-bad-to-miss Caveman flick "Trog").

He lent an air of ashen-skinned, twinkly-eyed prestige to the two Burton-directed Caped Crusader flicks ("Batman" and 1992's "Batman Forever"), as well as to the two Joel Schumacher entries (1995's "Batman Forever" and 1997's "Batman & Robin," right, with George Clooney), which needed him more.

Gough also worked for Burton as a voice actor in "Corpse Bride" and last year's "Alice in Wonderland" and appeared in "Sleepy Hollow." He also appeared in TV commercial tie-ins featuring Batman.peter-cushing-con-melissa-stribling-e-michael-gough-in-una-scena-del-film-dracula-il-vampiro-120324.jpg

An Onstar commercial is below.

Gough was preceded in the role by Alan Napier on TV and in the 1966 "Batman" movie, and by two-time Oscar winner Michael Caine in the current Christopher Nolan-directed Batman films.

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/showan ... man-alfred

A good innings, and I always liked him as Alfred

A classic? The classic.

Mark

Best Alfred ever! Great loss.

clicky

Oh for pity's sake.

Back in the day (long, long ago) I was involved with the film society at Aston University in Birmingham. We had this pokey little cinema building on campus and we never got any up to date films to show but we were considered part of the Birmingham film festival. I managed to wangle my way onto the film festival committee and actually got the first showing of Akira outside London, in our pokey little cinema, on the opening night of the festival. Previous to that it had been showing pretty much exclusively in one arthouse cinema in the West end and that's about it.

I remember the showing was quite late because we had champagne reception before hand (which pretty much used up our whole budget for the year ) and I remember wandering back home after the showing and the after-film schmoozing with my head still throbbing from it all. Just.. an assault of a film. But not in a bad way. Left half the audience with their jaws hanging. It got rave reviews in the Birmingham press and we sold out for it's entire run (so we showed a profit even after the party ). I've always had a kind of paternal fondness for it since, like I played some small part in bringing it to the attention of the UK.

And now they're making a completely unnecessary new version and they're going to get either a haircut on legs with the IQ of a stalk of celery or a washed up teen pop star lead in it. I feel violated, frankly.

Jon

You went to Aston?

For an MSc. I did my degree somewhere else.

Jon

Spook!

I went to Aston.

I was there... umm... 1991 I think. Round that time anyway. More in the pub nearby than in the Uni, to be fair .