Category Archives: MOVIES

Movie News & Opinions

Stallone Confirms Nicolas Cage Is In ‘Expendables 3’

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I have a shameful confession to make. I have not seen The Expendables 1 or 2. It’s unforgivable, I know. As much as I love ’80s actions movies and the stars in them, I just haven’t gotten around to seeing either film. More accurately, I haven’t gotten around to seeing the first one, and my nerd-completion neuroses have kept me from seeing the second without seeing the first. Fortunately, I’m fairly positive they’re exactly the kind of movie that is made for me. I’m a big fan of all the greats of ’80s action cinema; Commando, Universal Soldier, Cobra, First Blood, Roadhouse. All classics.

What with The Expendables 2 making a buttload of money at the box office, they’ve essentially given the green light for Expendables 3, which leads to speculation of just who will be joining the cast for the third movie. Well, it looks like Sly himself is letting us know at least one. [CMP]

It looks like his abs are melting.

 

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“We are preparing the film with the same passion and commitment as the previous two. We have confirmed Nicolas Cage, a master actor who gives a veneer intellectual group. Hopefully we can realize to Harrison Ford, Wesley Snipes and Mickey Rourke. That is the great mission of the producer. We will continue with the same narrative scheme, the agility and the frenzy, which are inherent to the saga. What will definitely be the last? I can not guarantee. In principle it would be two deliveries, but the affection of the people encouraged us to work on a third. I guess as long as we amused ourselves by offering fun and people, we can continue playing ‘The Expendables’. For now we are not as expendable as it should and as some critics want.”

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Sly’s weird grammar aside, that sounds pretty awesome, because I’m a huge fan of Nicolas Cage. I know most aren’t, (people liking what I hate, and vice versa, is a running theme in my life it seems), but I sure do love the guy.  I see a self-referential, hilarious, capable actor with range and no sense of pretension whatsoever, where most see a washed up overacting blowhard. To me he’s the kind of guy who is challenged by every kind of role imaginable, especially genre roles. Rather than settle into being typecast, he’s consistently defied everyone’s expectations with a range of movies unlike any other actor. He’s the kind of actor who also understands his audience, knows what they expect of him, and plays into those expectations by either subverting them, or parodying them. He’s the ultimate mega-actor, trolling all of us and having a damn fun time doing it.

Say what you will about Cage, but every single movie he’s in is at least entertaining, if still awful. Those National Treasure movies are terrible, but man do I find them watchable. The same can’t be said for other actors who may have lots of prestige, but consistently star in boring, pretentious snoozefests. Meryl Streep is a great example I can immediately think of.

I guess it’s about time I catch up and watch these movies soon, because I’ve yet to miss a single Nicolas Cage movie in theaters since Matchstick Men, and I don’t wanna break the streak just yet.

http://youtu.be/xP1-oquwoL8

Movie News & Opinions

Star Wars VII Directed by Matthew Vaughn, Starring Harrison Ford?

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Star Wars introduced me to geekdom.

I was about ten years old when I first sat in front of a massive CRT and VHS setup on vacation at my cousin’s cabin in the woods.  Except I wasn’t scared in the least bit.  I was mesmerized.  So started fifteen years of action figures, extended universe books, costumes, excitement and consequent disappointment at the prequels.

You can imagine then my surprise at the news last week of Lucas selling his empire to Disney for over $4 billion.  I posted my initial reactions to that corporate decision on that day on my Geek My Life blog, but since then I have realized that this sale was probably the best thing for Lucasfilm to re-energize it.  I’m assuming, of course, that Disney will re-energize faithfully to the Star Wars franchise, and with the latest rumors coming out of the Hollywood offices, I think they’re on the right track.

Several sites claim to have insider information that Matthew Vaughn dropped the sequel to the X-Men movie because he was offered directorship of Star Wars VII.  Vaughn has a solid and many would even say impressive resume that consists of Stardust, Kick-Ass, and X-Men: First Class.  All of these films were successful in their own ways, a hard accomplishment in the cut-throat, short-attention-span industry of movies.

Vaughn directing on the set of X-Men: First Class.

These films exemplified strong directing mixed with entertaining, consistent story lines and easy-to-follow pacing.  If Vaughn is able to do the same thing with Star Wars VII, I doubt few Star Wars fans will find anything substantial to complain about in regards to storytelling, especially since Vaughn is a writer.  “If [Vaughn] ends up directing Star Wars, we’d also be getting someone that could solve script issues on set” [Collider].  This is especially important considering that my digital media professor keeps emphasizing that the successful professionals in entertainment are the ones that know more than just one craft.

But what about the characters?  What will Disney do with them?  After all, people like Luke, Han, Leia, and even the non-humans like C-3PO are many of the reasons why fans are in love with Star Wars in the first place.  Though the film hasn’t officially been scripted yet, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher have already gone on record to say they are excited to see the future of Star Wars.  How ironic considering that when Hamill was younger he said that “[Return of the Jedi] has to be the last one, period” [Huffington Post].

Harrison Ford decided to join the ranks, kind of last-minute like when Han decided to join the Rebels.  But he took it a step further, saying that he is open to the idea of being in the new film, not just supporting it off-screen.  Considering that he thought Han Solo “should have died in the last one to give it some bottom” [EW], it appears that Ford’s attitude towards his character and the franchise is coming around.  Ford probably “won’t go to the next level of contract talks until there’s a script and director in place” [EW], but him coming back as Han Solo for Star Wars VII could very well be one of the turning points to returning the Lucasfilm franchise to the grand old way it was.

Don’t do it, Han! I mean, Harrison. I mean, yeah… just don’t do it.

There are a lot of “we’ll see” and “what ifs?” flying around right now in the Star Wars fandom, but it’s better for them to be flying around at lightspeed like the Falcon than to not be around at all.  That would mean Star Wars VII isn’t happening, which would be disastrous.  Besides, many of us are just starting to get used to saying Star Wars VII without questioning the reality of it.  We’re in a happy place now.

Movie News & Opinions

Cochise Film Festival 2012: Showcasing the Movies You Would Never See at Cannes

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The Cochise Film Festival is a celebration of the low budget and independent films that often get overlooked by most mainstream reviewers and promoters. Recently started up by Adam A. Park (an independent film maker and actor in his own right with a great little movie called Zombie Mutation coming soon) and using films from his production label Trash House Cinema, he and his crew put together an interesting and eclectic selection of movies.

Continue reading Cochise Film Festival 2012: Showcasing the Movies You Would Never See at Cannes →

Movie News & Opinions

Benedict Cumberbatch is Bigger Than Jesus: Attached to Play the 5th Beatle.

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Fans of the hit show Sherlock, the good one not the crappy American version Elementary, should be overjoyed at the recent Hollywood Reporter announcement that Benedict Cumberbatch and Paul McGuigan are teaming up to bring the story of The Beatles manager Brian Epstein to the big screen. Cumberbatch will play Epstein in the yet untitled film, and McGuigan, who has directed several episodes of Sherlock, is attached to direct. Like any good story to come out of Hollywood there is also another Brian Epstein biopic in the works based on Vivek J Tiwary’s graphic novel titled The Fifth Beatle, Epstein’s oft used nickname. McGuigan and Cumberbatch do have the advantage of having Tom Hanks in their producing corner however, so hopefully that will bring some extra credibility to the project.

The story is reported to focus more on the personal life of Epstein than that of The Beatles, and little as I know about Brian Epstein he is described as a “closet homosexual with drug and gambling problems” so it seems like there is a lot of material to draw from other than him being the manager of the biggest band in the world.

For his part Cumberbatch has become quite the hot commodity of late, lending his talents to the much-anticipated The Hobbit, working with Brad Pitt in Twelve Years a Slave, and taking on the role of a young Khan (rumored) in J.J. Abrams world of Star Trek. One would think that the familiarity between Cumberbatch and McGuigan will help raise the acting level of the project and as pictured above, at least on looks and accent, it seems like they have the right man for the part.

Movie News & Opinions

Is Guillermo del Toro on for “Heaven Sent”?

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Don’t you hate it when someone says something about you and then another person says that you didn’t really say that and then you have to tell people that you did say the first thing and don’t know why anyone is saying you didn’t? Welcome to Guillermo del Toro’s weekend.

On Thursday, November 1st, the Latino Review posted that del Toro was talking with Warner Brothers about a project involving characters from the DC Universe. By Friday, November 2nd, various other outlets had picked up the story. Of course, people start seeing this and getting excited, but who wouldn’t be excited? Marvel has certainly found big success with their ensemble The Avengers, so DC fans are starting to feel it’s their turn.

But wait, it’s now November 3rd and with a new day comes new news. It seems that Pietro Filipponi over at The Daily Blam has talked to Mr. del Toro and says that there is “no truth” to the rumor that del Toro is interested in directing the superhero movie.

Talk about letting the air out of your sails. Before you can even fully feel the disappointment of this news, it’s 15 hours later and Guillermo del Toro himself is responding to the story in the forums of his own site saying that he never said that, and he would love to do the project!

So what is this project everyone has been talking about? An ensemble cast of DC superheroes? Could it be?  Maybe?

No. It’s not those characters. Even though Warner Brothers is saying that they are a go for The Justice League to start filming in 2013, it won’t be with Mr. del Toro at the helm. No, the DC characters that del Toro is interested in are more of the lesser known variety.

Referred to as “Heaven Sent”, the project would be centered around the “magical” characters in the DC Universe; Swamp Thing, The Spectre, Zatanna, Zatara, Phantom Stranger, John Constantine, Deadman, and more!

As awesome as Justice League will be (it will be awesome, it has to be, please angels in heaven above let it be awesome) this idea has potential to be amazing. Seriously, when was the last time The Spectre made news? When did you last actively think about Zatara? Not to mention, just imagine the casting discussions to be had! I’m kicking off the official campaign for Timothy Dalton as The Phantom Stranger.

Sound off in the comments below! Are you excited by this possible project? Who would you cast? Mr. del Toro is the man of 10,000 irons in the fire but we can always hope that this one will pan out.

Movie News & Opinions

Jamie Foxx as Electro for Amazing Spider-Man 2? Blame it on the Ah-a-a-Ah-Ah-Alcohol….

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According to various sources, such as EW.com and Hollywood Reporter, Jamie Foxx is in negotiations to join The Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie as the villain Electro. This comes as a surprise to some because Electro doesn’t exactly bring to mind Jamie Foxx. Maybe it’s because despite his Oscar-winning performance as Ray Charles in Ray, he will always be Sheneneh from In Living Color. It’s still not final but Foxx, ever the showman, decided to tease the masses on Twitter:

Of course, everyone wanted to consult with Marc Webb to see if he would address this new bit of info and he did. Sort of. According to Comingsoon.net, Webb dropped this quote when it was brought up:

“I think Jamie Foxx is electrifying! I think Jamie Foxx is one of the best actors around today. He’s such a great character actor and he’s a really brilliant guy. I would love to work with him and you’ll be hearing more on that shortly, I’m sure.”

Webb goes on to add that the dynamics of Norman Osborn are very important to him and will be a common theme through this franchise’s movies.

“I like Electro, I’m fascinated by Norman Osborn and the different inflections of him. And Harry. Mary Jane and Gwen are always interesting to me. What makes villains interesting to me is what they bring out in Peter. What challenges they provide for him. What’s great about Marvel and other comics is that often there’s a pre-existing relationship… It’s not just about the physical conflict he has, but the emotional ones as well.”

With the new origin story and reboot in the background of the last movie, Webb still feels an obligation to the Spider-Man canon but also feels he can take it to different places and explore different contexts not yet discussed with this iteration of Spidey, not unlike the Ultimate universe in the comic books.

“What’s exciting about moving forward is that, in the first movie, I had to still honor some of the important elements of the origin story. But I also wanted to redefine the context of it because I’m building a different universe than what we’ve seen before. A lot of the nuance is quite different. Now, as we’re approaching the sequel, it’s really exciting because I feel quite liberated. I have a universe that’s my own. I don’t have an obligation to the origin story. It’s pretty fun and exciting and I can dig deeper into the parents.”

Of course, the movie is starting to take shape with this possible casting, as well as the earlier Mary Jane/Shailene Woodley news. It’s interesting that Electro would go this route because obviously Webb wants to show a connection to Garfield’s Spidey, and I figured they would’ve cast someone more age appropriate to connect the generation gap better. I guess we’ll have to see exactly how this character shapes out, and for an official confirmation. There’s also the whole idea that Electro is Caucasian and not African-American, which I think is an absolute non-issue. Character is character and it shouldn’t change performance and how it is projected on the screen. I would like to think we are progressive enough to get past that but time will tell. He is a good actor so it would be interesting to see what he could bring to the table come May 2nd, 2014 when the movie arrives to blow your minds away. Hopefully it will arrive with this suit below.