Marvel has created glasses in four different styles based on Captain America, Thor, the Hulk and Iron Man that will run you an extra $5 but can you really put a price tag on the extra fun? I suppose you can and it’s $5.

Star Wars will be offering two different styles that fans will undoubtedly scramble to get. The first pair will be aimed more at the kids by being patterned after Anakin Skywalker’s pod racing goggles and a pod racer toy from Hasbro.

The second pair will be more like the regular 3D glasses given out at the theater but will be red and black for the Sith Lord Darth Maul.

In an unexpected turn of events the Star Wars glasses will be free but only given out on the first day and while supplies last.

This isn’t the first attempt at the collector’s market with 3D glasses though, Tron and Transformers both made licensing deals with Oakley for custom 3D glasses but those were both well beyond the price points of $5 or free running $150 a pair.

Hasbro did offer a cheaper version for kids in the form of masks modeled after Optimus Prime and Bumblebee which ran only $10.

The move to the custom glasses is an interesting incentive by the studios who obviously want 3D to have a longer shelf life than it has in the past and with the increased ticket prices why wouldn’t they? But for a family of four going to a 3D movie is no longer a cheap entertainment alternative and that doesn’t include concessions at theaters on top of ticket prices. When companies started adding more bells and whistles to a product it is not always a good thing, could the custom glasses be signs of trouble for 3D?

For me 3D with it’s terrible conversions, annoying glasses that offten don’t fit and only make the image darker along with the inflated pricing is a gimmick that has long worn out it’s novelty. While they are fun (especially for kids) the collector’s glasses are really only going to appeal to a few movie goers and seem like the first deperation move.

With films like ‘Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol’ and the up coming ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ offering spectacular visual movie going experiences in Imax without the need for head gear 3D could soon find itself knocked off the top of the mountain. What do you think, let us know.

James Cameron is a big proponent of 3D. This is probably because he will do anything visually to take away from the fact that he’s a terrible screenwriter, without the help of others. The reason I say that is he always had other writers working with him on the screenplay for “True Lies”, “Aliens”, and “The Terminator”. Those are all examples of entertaining movies by an incredibly talented director. The movies that he has written solely on his own, such as “Titanic”, “The Abyss”, and “Avatar”, just don’t seem to hold up over time.

Here is the first trailer for the 3D release of “Titanic”. Will the effects take away from some of the horrible dialogue? It remains to be seen.

There is no doubt that Cameron is a world-class director. But, like many other extremely talented directors that write their own movies (cough Lucas cough Shyamalan cough), Cameron needs to be willing to work on other writer’s work. I don’t want to completely tear “Titanic” to shreds as there are plenty of things to admire about it, but the screenplay simply isn’t one of them. The initial emotional attack of the story and the sheer magnitude of what your eyes were seeing disguised how corny and cheesy the things those actors were saying are. If this is the first time you’ll see “Titanic”, you may not notice it. With each additional viewing, it becomes more and more apparent of how poor the screenplay actually is.

“Top Gun” is one of the cheesiest action movies of all time. Isn’t that what makes it great? The motorcycle, the leather jackets, the machismo, it’s really just an amazing piece of work. If this is really going to happen, the 3D glasses that are handed out for this movie had better be aviators. That’s just the way Goose would have wanted it. Hey, if this 3D release is a big success, why not get “Iron Eagle” converted and re-released?

Will the homoerotic manliness be even more homoerotic in 3D? Any chance one of Iceman’s heroic volleyball spikes will look like it’s coming right at me? Will 3D make the Berlin-soundtracked sex scene even creepier? Let’s add a fourth dimension and find out for certain if Slider did in fact stink. These are all questions that must be answered.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

From the desk of Sue Sylvester
William McKinley High School
July 15, 2011

For two years, we’ve been mercilessly bombarded with the pubescent nonsense of carnival sideshow freaks calling themselves “The Glee Club.” These tone deaf, howler monkeys conned the plebian masses into downloading millions of songs; won Emmy Awards and Golden Globes; and have charted more singles than the Beatles. Roll over Beethoven, something stinks, and it ain’t the cheese, it’s The Glee Club.

And now, they’re trying to shove a 3-D concert movie down our throats.

It is with this declaration that I put forth this nation’s most important initiative since the McCarthy hearings: The Sue Sylvester “STOP BELIEVING” campaign.

It’s time to make a stand against these pimply-faced, hormone-ridden twits by joining the “STOP BELIEVING” campaign on Her inaugural journey. Say “NO” to their insignificant cinematic experiment. I don’t know about you, but I can’t stand looking at their little satanic faces in 2-D, much less 3D.

Watching this movie is not only an atrocity to this great nation, but it’s also bad for your health. If I may be so bold as to quote Dr. Charlie Sheen out of context, “Your face will melt off, and your children will weep over your exploded body.”

General public, join me and together, we can put an end to this vomit-inducing, ear-ringing virus called The Glee Club.

Internationally Recognized Cheerleading Coach
Sue Sylvester
dictated, but not read

Now that that’s out of the way, Gleeks will get a shot at seeing “GLEE: The 3D Concert Movie” at an early screening on Wednesday, August 10. RCC will have a way to sneak you into the sneak, to avoid Slushee attacks from roving gangs of football players.

“Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”

Rated PG-13 • 137 minutes
Starring Johnny Depp, Penélope Cruz, Ian McShane, Geoffrey Rush
Directed by: Rob Marshall
Written By: Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio
RCC Rating: Worth Watching On DVD

I sincerely didn’t think it was possible, but Rob Marshall has succeeded in making pirates … boring.

While a fourth “Pirates Of the Caribbean” film was almost a foregone conclusion after the previous three earned Disney $2.6 billion, the future seemed more in doubt with Gore Verbinski shipped off, and the primary storylines using Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley were wrapped up. Not leaving well-enough alone, producer Jerry Bruckheimer brought in Marshall to helm the flick, and might have actually paid Johnny Depp with a chest-full of gold doubloons to return for a fourth outing as Captain Jack Sparrow.

The problems with this movie are plentiful, and they begin right at the top. Marshall’s lack of experience in making movies with over-the-top action set pieces shows. There’s a lot of prettily-framed shots and by-the-numbers fight scenes, but none of them have any gravity or weight. You never get the sense that there’s any danger involved; the swashbuckling action is not breathtaking, but merely rote. And, at a whopping two-hours-and-seventeen-minutes runtime, that’s a lot of “point A to point B.”

On top of that is the decision by writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio to make Sparrow the focal point. The reason previous “Pirates” films made us love Sparrow is that, while he’s the character we remember the most fondly, he’s not the focus of the tale – it was always Elizabeth Swann and Bill Turner. By eliminating them and putting the spotlight solely on Jack, we lose the emotional anchor of the story. Additionally, Sparrow’s not nearly the sly, rummy miscreant this time around, but the man with the plan at all times. It just doesn’t work.

Neither does the romance between Sparrow and Angelica, played by Penélope Cruz. A dead campfire smolders more than the chemistry between Depp and Cruz. Leaning in and leering at each other doesn’t make for convincing lovers – a lesson Depp should have learned from “The Tourist.”

If there’s a saving grace at all to the film, it lies not in Depp’s on-screen work, but Ian McShane. Out of everyone in the movie, his Blackbeard was the only character the audience can’t get enough of. Of course, McShane could be doing a PSA for goldfish care and it would carry the weight of the world. While everyone else on screen is playing out the string, Ian still swings for the fences.

Disney took a decades-old theme park ride and revitalized a genre with “The Curse Of The Black Pearl.” Their poor choice in a new director, coupled with an overdose of Depp, keelhauls the fun right out of “On Stranger Tides.”

Well, you might say that.

In the event of such an inner dialogue, we give you your first look at the Super Bowl spot for “Drive Angry 3D,” starring Cage, Amber Heard and William Fichtner:

[flv:http://redcarpetcrash.com/files/DriveAngry_UYDA3031_Ride_High.flv 590 331]

Shockingly, the synopsis for the film is scant:

A vengeful father escapes from hell and chases after the men who killed his wife and kidnapped his daughter.

Directed by Patrick Lussier, “Drive Angry 3D” is in theaters February 25.

The “this is what the film is about” synopsis is also out there, in case you haven’t been slurping up every detail about the film and piecing it together (as the majority of RCC staffers have been doing):

Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), a rebellious 27-year-old, is haunted by the mysterious disappearance of his father Kevin Flynn (Oscar®- and Golden Globe®-winner Jeff Bridges), a man once known as the world’s leading video-game developer. When Sam investigates a strange signal sent from the old Flynn’s Arcade—a signal that could only come from his father—he finds himself pulled into a digital world where Kevin has been trapped for 20 years. With the help of the fearless warrior Quorra (Olivia Wilde), father and son embark on a life-and-death journey across a visually-stunning cyber universe—a universe created by Kevin himself that has become far more advanced with never-before-imagined vehicles, weapons, landscapes and a ruthless villain who will stop at nothing to prevent their escape.

“TRON Legacy” hits screens, retinas and cerebellums on December 17.

RCC Rating: Worth Watching On DVD

Question. Who thought it made sense to make a third “Step Up” movie? I mean, were the first two popular enough to warrant a trilogy? I was under the impression that was only reserved for box office hits like “Lord of the Rings,” “The Godfather,” “Back to the Future,” “The Matrix” or “Toy Story.” After all, each “Step Up” film has the same general plot-line so it’s getting just a tad repetitive at this point. For this reason, I walked in with very few expectations of “Step Up 3D.” However, while the film is still on the cheesy end of the spectrum and the story line somewhat redundant, it did exceed my expectations.

“Step Up 3D” takes place in New York City, the “dance capital of the world.” The main character, Luke (Rick Malambri), owns a house that also serves as a dance studio where his team, the Pirates, lives and practices. However, the bank is about to foreclose on it as the Pirates have missed several of their mortgage payments. The main plot of the film involves Luke recruiting dancers for the World Jam competition to battle against their rival, the Samurais, so that he can use the reward money to pay off his bills and keep the house. Luke recruits his soon-to-be love interest, Natalie (Sharni Vinson), and Moose (Adam G. Sevani), who returns from “Step Up 2: The Streets” to join the Pirates. Sounds like a simple enough plot, right?

One of the problems with “Step Up 3D” is that the film is trying too hard to fill in the gaps by throwing in several unnecessary sub-plots. These include Luke’s aspiring film-making career, Moose’s school and dance conflict-of-interest, and two different love stories: Luke/Natalie and Moose/Camille (played by Alyson Stoner, known for her back-up dancing in Missy Elliott music videos and her appearance in the first “Step Up” film). Sure, it’s still easy enough to follow, but it subtracts from the main point of the film: dancing.

Nevertheless, from a dancer’s perspective, “Step Up 3D” is probably an improvement from the first two installments as it features more dancing and competition than its previous counterparts. However, for the Average Joe, the story line, or shall we say story lines, is predictable and clichéd.

On a positive note, the 3D aspect of the film enhances its entertainment value as the dancers literally pop out at you during some of their routines. However, some may find this a bit overkill. The water, colors, lights and special effects also make it entertaining to watch. All in all, the film has a very limited target audience: dancers. Therefore, if you are a dancer or interested in dance, this film is for you. Otherwise, it may only be worth renting or perhaps missing altogether.