Boston Herald‘s James Verniere described Outlander as “Beowulf meets Predator” — a fair assessment, were it not for the fact that Outlander fails to live up to either one. Indeed, it fails to live up to much of anything.

The movie opens with the crash-landing of Kainan (Jim Caviezel), an alien warrior who finds himself stranded on the shores of Norway during the Iron Age. Crap. To make things worse, he manages to get himself captured by a band of seriously annoyed Norwegians. Double crap.

The proverbial cherry on top of all this crap comes with the realization that Moorwen — a man-chomping…

I’m sorry to have to say that I’m going to have to step back from my podcast The Wrap for a while. I may resurrect it at some point in the future, but right now I have to focus on other things. I have enjoyed doing the podcast immensely and I don’t want to stop doing it. But I need to cut back on some things to make room for others right now. I’m involved in several projects in addition to my day job and it’s cutting my time a little short. Obviously, the lifeblood of the podcasting here at MovieByte is The MovieByte Podcast, and that’s not being affected in any way.

The Wrap on the other…

One of the biggest secrets we learned while on the set of Captain America: The Winter Soldier: is that the Captain America sequel ending will have big ramifications for the Marvel Cinematic Universe that will lead directly into Avengers: Age of Ultron.

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Later in the afternoon, Marvel Studios president of production Kevin Feige let the following slip:

It is smack dab between Avengers and Avengers 2. It takes place after both Thor and Iron Man. So it’s sort of the continuity of the release of the film is the continuity of the film as well. Which was sort of the case with the first…

Disney has picked up momentum in developing its version of The Jungle Book, which is set to be a live-action film with extensive CG embellishment. The project has just cast Idris Elba as Shere Khan, the tiger whose name literally means “king.” Elba has a regal bearing no matter what he’s doing, and even his voice alone should be able to command respect, and instill fear.

Now that’s some awesome casting right there.

This, by the way, is the Jon Favreau directed installment. You might recall there are two Jungle Books upcoming and this is Disney’s version.

I know which one of the three new film I would like to watch this weekend. Unfortunately I’m trying to be the “good guy” and acquiesce to the needs and desires of my esteemed MovieByte Podcast co-host. Chad has absolutely no desire to see 300: Rise of an Empire. Of the three I think I would enjoy it the most. Mr. Peabody and Sherman would be my second choice I suppose. But this isn’t all about me (sadly enough).

New This Weekend

300: Rise of an Empire — R

Starring Eva Green looking evil, ludicrously tall evil “god” king, water, ships, and slow motion! To be honest I don’t think the first…

Changing one letter can change the entire meaning of something. I mean check it out! I nearly busted a gut laughing. And really, who doesn’t like Worf? Worf is awesome!

Also, this is some amazing editing right here. I’m one of the biggest trek nerds you might ever find and I’m not sure I could have found all those clips and pieced this thing together. I didn’t think to check while I was watching, but I’m pretty sure they pulled from all seven seasons of TNG to find the right clips for this thing. And yes, they even have a singing bit right where it would have been the the real The Wolf of…

I have seen Annie, I am quite certain of it. But I remember absolutely nothing about it. I do know that it was a broadway musical.

Well, it is apparently time for a remake — and that remake is still going to be a musical. To be honest, I almost didn’t click through and watch the trailer when I saw the headline. But I am really glad I did. This film actually looks quite good (my wife thinks so too, which I’ll take as confirmation that I’m not going crazy). I have a feeling though that there will be many that love the Broadway Musical, and will therefore hate this film on principle.

The film…

I expected our resident Back to the Future aficionado to want to post something about this but he has been utterly silent. So I’ll go ahead and let you in on what has been going on.

A few days ago, a website popped up called huvrtech.com. That website had a video of Christopher Lloyd, among others, promoting the new “Hover Board” technology. He drove up in a DeLorean!

Even though it was obvious the video was fake and a good bit of fun, I thought it was quite enjoyable. But much of the Internet seems to have been a little irritated after the folks behind the video kept up the ruse for a few…

The crew was filming a dream sequence, and they had placed a twin-size metal-framed bed and mattress in the middle of the tracks. Then, Gilliard looked up and saw a light in the distance, followed by the immense howl of a locomotive. It was a train — and it was hurtling toward them.

Two stories high, screaming with the sound of a blast horn and possibly brakes, the train was nearly as wide as the trestle. Gilliard says Miller yelled at everyone to run. Jones, several bags slung over each shoulder, shouted something about what to do with the expensive camera equipment. “Drop it!” Gilliard…