One of the many reasons I’ve always felt really disappointed about the lack of a Bryan Singer directed “X-Men 4″ is the fact that we don’t get to see Shawn Ashmore as Ice Man. I really enjoyed watching his character evolve over the series and still hold out hope we’ll get to see him in the role again sometime in the future.

Shawn has a terrific new little film out called “Frozen” directed by “Hatchet” director Adam Green. I had a chance to chat with Shawn the other day about the movie. Here it is:

Hey guys. Just thought I’d share this with you here. I just interviewed director Adam Green (He did the AMAZING little 2006 slasher horror film “Hatchet”) about his new film “Frozen” that opens in select cities this weekend. Check it out:

It all starts today! The official kick off to Oscar season took place this morning as the Academy of Motion Pictures announced their line up of nominees for the 2010 Oscars.

So I decided that today’s podcast should be done with a couple of other guys to get more thoughts than just my own, so I turned to the great Chuck Norris and Dennis Tzeng.

This is a little video I did for AMC about which 10 films I predict will be nominated for Best picture at the Oscars this year. Check it out:

This is my interview for AMC Entertainment. It reads like this: “Writer/Director Brian Taylor (Crank, Crank 2, Gamer) talks to AMC Entertainment.Com about his latest screenplay coming to the big screen “Jonah Hex”, their new website and what lays ahead.”

Anyway, check it out:

So it’s now been a couple of months since we relaunched the brand new AMCEntertainment.Com website that I now work for. With the relaunch came the new movie news blog (that’s my area) and a few other cool new features.

Today I decided to look up how the traffic was doing… and I’ve got to say it’s doing pretty well.

I compared the traffic to two of my favorite and most popular film sites out there… ComingSoon.Net and Slashfilm.

And well… you can see the results:

We haven’t even started the marketing for the site yet or made any official announcement about it other than a few posters in AMC movie theaters… like the one below:

So yes… I’d say we’re off to a good start. Thank you so much to those of you who have been checking us out. As always, please send me your suggestions for the new site if you ever have any.

About a year and a half ago I moved out of my loft in Hamilton Ontario Canada… and I hated having to do it. My plan was to keep a place in LA and keep a place in Hamilton, but I was only spending about 2-3 months a year there, so I decided to give the place up… which sucks.

The place was PERFECT. High ceilings, tons of giant windows, basically right in the heart of downtown… damn I miss this place. If I ever move back to Hamilton on a more permanent basis, I’m going to try to get back into it if I can.

Back on July 24th 2003… about 6 and a half years ago… I started “The Movie Blog” and in doing so (along with many others) helped create and shape the film blogging community that we have out there today.

I was the very first person to establish a regular podcast for movie sites (now just about every film site has a podcast), won awards, appeared in just about every media outlet, and was given the chance to do a lot of cool things.

But as Star Trek: The Next Generation said on their series finale, “all good things must come to an end”.

With those words, I announce that my time with “The Movie Blog” has come to an end as of the end of this month.

First of all I have to say the current ownership of “The Movie Blog” has been FANTASTIC. Very supportive. Very enthusiastic. In general, just couldn’t be more of a pleasure to work for and work with. I will really miss working with them on this level.

Secondly, I have to give a big shout out to all those many many people who have helped “The Movie Blog” be the site that it was. Rodney Brazeau, who has been doing much of the posting the last few months, has been an off and on contributor ever since the site started. You can continue to follow Rodney on his new film site (It’s not that new actually) www.TheStub.ca. It’s a wonderful site where Rodney’s film insight will continue to be be published. You should all check it out daily.

Doug Nagy gave the sight incredible personality for the years he was a part of the site. He worked along side of me on the Podcast and was a huge part of why we won the inaugural “Podcast of the Year” award. Doug continues to be a stand up comedian and you can follow him online at DougNagy.com.

Richard Brunton brought a wonderful writing style to the site and runs his own online film site called FilmStalker.Com

Todd Brown was one of the first contributing writers to the site and now runs the incredible TwitchFilm.Net

From Pia, Dan, Ashley, Sharon, Serena… the list goes on and on.

There are just too many people to list individually, but to all of them I owe a HUGE debt of thanks.

Most of all… thank you to all “The Movie Blog” readers. Many of you have been with me and the site from nearly the beginning, and I can’t express my gratitude to you enough.

You will still be able to find me writing about movies as the Editor at the new AMC Entertainment movie news blog that you can find here:
www.amcentertainment.com

I’m also going to start posting again at my personal blog over at www.campea.wordpress.com

Chapters end, and chapters begin.

Thank you again.

~John

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, “What does love mean?”

The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:

“When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.”

- Rebecca – age 8

First thing you should understand about me is that I’m not much of a drinker. No, it’s not for religious or health reasons, but rather because I just don’t like the taste of much alcohol and because I don’t get any sort of buzz from drinking it. Having said that, even I from time to time will enjoy a vodak cooler or something else along those lines.

Now, in Canada if you want to get your hands on some booze, you’ve got to find yourself a government owned and operated shop called (in Ontario) an LCBO. You’ll find them around if you look hard enough. So imagine my surprise when I came down here and saw that booze is EVERYWHERE! It’s even in the grocery store. I’m not kidding… right across the street from where I’m living is a giant “Ralphs” grochery store… and at least 3 full aisles are all booze. And it’s CHEAP! I’d say at least 15-20% cheaper than in Canada. Beer is like half the price.

Every grocery store, every corner store, every Popsicle stand in the city also sells alcohol. It takes a little getting used to.