Set to come out this August, we are finally starting to see some of the marketing for the new Conan movie. The movie stars Stargate: Atlantis alum Jason Momoa as everyone’s favorite Cimmerian.
Obviously he is no Arnold, but the merits of this casting choice really won’t to be known until we see the movie. Much of the other cast however, should be more familiar to you. Both Ron Perlman and Rose McGowan will both lend their talents for what seems like a good fit.
Well Lionsgate has released a teaser trailer and people are upset. The outrage come not from what they show in the teaser, but what they don’t. Take a look and see if you can figure it out…
Did you get it? Do you know what’s missing?
Of course you do.
It totally omitted the film’s villain – The Party Crasher.
The Party Crasher has been cast to play Khalar Singh, the movie’s antagonist. This is news we learned in May of 2010, and have since been patiently waiting to see footage. This is why, when we were delivered a teaser trailer that showed us nothing, we got upset.
We attempted to contact TPC, but he was too bust slaughtering film editors to be reached by phone.
Here’s to hoping the next trailer they release does a better job of portraying the true focus of the film, The Party Crasher.
I’m a huge fan of movies involving extra terrestrials, [Ed. – ET for Life!] and there here has been a whole slew of them in the past year. None though stood out to me, or left a real lasting impression. I either disliked the aliens in them, or the cast of human characters trying to survive against them. Out of District 9, Monsters, and Skyline – I really only took a liking to District 9. Monsters didn’t show me enough aliens and Skyline had too many idiotic humans in it. But then I watched Battle LA.
Battle: Los Angeles was basically a simple storyline with excellent visuals. But being simple didn’t by any means make it a terrible movie. By simple I mean “Aliens are here killing people. We had better kick their asses.” which makes up pretty much 85% of the movie, but all the fire fights between the marines and aliens never wore thin for me. It was spread out and the scenes in between gave chances (albeit sparse) for character development. They also gave a nice overview of the characters at the beginning.
The cast was pretty rounded, very well put together. You get to see Ramon Rodriguez in a not so annoying role as a young commanding officer, as opposed to his vomit-inducing portrayal of Leo Spitz in the crap pile that was Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
Bridget Moynahan and Michael Pena were good, though both felt under-utilized. To their credit though, as civilians they didn’t bog the movie down at all and their characters actually enhanced scenes.
Even Michelle Rodriguez took a departure from her normal role as “Female Hardass Character who Yells a lot” in to a more realistic Air Force intel specialist who can fire a rifle. Still no ‘Damsel in Distress’, but something different for her. And then our hero of the movie, Aaron Eckhart. Eckhart was solid and believable as Marine Corp Staff Sargent Nantz, who was actually on his way out of the Corps when the alien aggressors launched their invasion. It’s his experience that gets our cast of characters moving.
The cast also includes a great young ensemble of actors as the grunts, including Cory Hardrict (Gran Turino), Noel Fisher (Terriers), and Will Rothhaar (Jack Frost). Hell, we even had child actor Bryce Cass, who was better than twenty Jake Lloyd‘s could have ever been!
Now I’m expecting a lot of people to ‘rabble rabble‘ about how cliché and melodramatic Eckhart’s couple of speeches to the troops are, but personally I had no problem with them. In terms of melodrama Independence Day still takes the cake on that one. And while I may feel the different about Battle: Los Angeles in about ten years, right now, I thought it was well done and heartfelt.
The movie was shot in a familiar way, the closest thing I can think of being Black Hawk Down, in terms of the urban warfare and house-to-house fighting. The camera utilized the ever-popular ‘shaky sense of urgency’ during the battle scenes, making you feel like you were in the middle of a firefight, actually watching the aliens landing in L.A. And their drone ships hovering all about the war-torn landscape of Los Angeles gave me goosebumps.
The aliens themselves overall were done pretty well. You only catch glimpses of them at first as they ambush our brave marines and seem nearly unkillable. After a certain point though, a weakness is obviously discovered, and then it’s game on.
The aliens reasoning for attacking Earth (which I won’t spoil) may initially sound stupid, but makes perfect sense once you think about it. If anyone out there is a fan of military movies, and alien invasions then this movie is the best of both worlds for you. Good pacing, great cast, and realistic looking effects.
It’s also very refreshing to see it win the weekend box office up against a variety of animated kids films and a Red Riding Hood-Twilight hybrid with a $36 million rake in. (Box Office Mojo)
For the 2nd installment of ‘Random-Ass Movie Reviews’, we look at the Nic Cage insta-classic DRIVE ANGRY. If you don’t know what this is, please allow me to introduce you. Let’s start with the trailer:
Looks awesome right? Well, it is, and I’m about to tell you why.
First though, let’s talk about what makes a movie artistically successful. For me, a movie that knows what it is, and excels at being so can be called successful regardless of its Box Office totals or critical accolades. To better show what I mean, let’s look at a few examples – THE STRANGERS and PUBLIC ENEMIES.
The Strangers is a slasher film, built on a strong foundation of suspense. Now a lot of people don’t care for slasher films, but I think most of the ones who do would say this was a decent one. I saw it and it made me jump. The whole theater seemed frightened, and it had been a few years since I have seen a movie that had such an effect on me. When I left the theater with my 2 friends we all agreed it was well worth the price of admission, and for that reason when it came out on DVD, I bought it. This is a movie whose biggest star is Liv Tyler, it cost only about $10 million to make, and was aimed a specific audience. Yet it delivered exactly what it promised, a creepy ass good time.
It has a 6/10 on IMDb right now, however, if you were to ask fans of the genre, I think they’d tell you a 6 is too low.
On the flip side, we have Public Enemies. Directed by Oscar Nominated Michael Mann, starring 2 of the biggest names in Hollywood -Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, and which cost over $100 million to make. This Action-Drama had a target audience too, the Academy. This movie was meant to be Oscar bait from day 1. However, while this was still a movie I was quite excited to see, I left the theater thoroughly disappointed, it just felt flat. I’m a gangster movie fan and even I thought it was slow. It quite simply just failed to deliver what was promised in the trailer.
It has a 7.1/10 on that same IMDb scale right now, though I bet the people it was targeted at would rate it lower.
As far as I’m concerned The Strangers accomplished what it wanted to do, Public Enemies did not. Despite this, it’s unlikely you’d hear many people argue that The Strangers is the better of the 2 movies based simply on prejudice against certain genres.
Now the whole point I’m trying to make above is that DRIVE ANGRY fits into a very specific genre, and within that genre, as my new favorite actor Charlie Sheen would say, it wins. Most people would watch the trailer above and say: “That looks stupid.”, and that’s because it is stupid. However, it delivers exactly what it promises in the trailer, and is thoroughly entertaining in doing so. I didn’t walk out disappointed, and that’s saying something now. This movie, for me, should be compared to the likes of Grindhouse, Snakes on a Plane, and Machete. All of which make deliver an entertaining watch, and no illusions of what they really are: B-Movies.
Now, as far as the merits of Drive Angry itself, let’s start with the cast. First off, the supposed A-List actor, who has done more B-List work than any other major name around – Nic Cage. It is Cage’s ridiculous persona that makes this movie work before you even see it. You know you’re not getting Cage from The Rock/Leaving Las Vegas/Adaptation. This is the Cage you saw in (or more likely didn’t see) in Knowing/Season of the Witch/The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. A crazed tornado of emotion and overacting under a ridiculous hairdo. This is the modern Cage.
And cast as Cage’s sexy young sidekick – Amber Heard.
You may remember her as the hot neighbor turned flesh-eater in Zombieland or as Seth Rogen’s underage girlfriend in Pineapple Express. She actually plays off of Cage pretty well, and her legs allow you to ignore how well he is coping with the craziness around her.
She is a waitress at a diner who gives Cage’s character Milton a ride. As the movie progresses, she is thrown into situations that would make even Stallone and Schwarzenegger nervous. But in what is apparently a requirement to waitress in this world, she loves punching people in the face and apparently is afraid of nothing. An admirable quality in a sidekick.
Next, we have the man from Hell, sent to reclaim Cage, and he’s played by none other than William Fichtner.
Fichtner is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated, and overly entertaining actors working today. He is probably most recognizable from Armageddon and TV’s Prison Break. But I’ve actually always associated him with Drowning Mona, where I thought he was hilarious. And the fact he was in The Dark Knight doesn’t hurt his resume either.
Then for the 4th Principal Character, we have the man who lured Milton out of Hell in the first place, Cult Leader Jonah King, played by Billy Burke.
Now a select few of you may recognize him from this little series of movies that have come out in the last few years. The movies revolve around a mopey teenage girl who is slowly devouring her own face, a vampire who wears way too much body glitter, and a werewolf so poor he can’t afford a shirt. But MOST of you should remember him for delivering one of the greatest lines in the history of 24…“Kim, I will kill you.” Boom. What more do you need?
So the movie itself. Here is a story of a man who is in Hell, and see his daughter murdered, and her baby kidnapped by a cult leader (Billy Burke). He escapes Hell in order to save his grand-daughter and does so in Awesome-Fashion. The Devil’s Accountant (Fichtner) is sent to fetch Cage John Milton and bring him back to Hell. Waitress Piper (Amber Heard) tags along on the journey after Milton helps her out. Fun is had by all, especially the best henchmen ever – Man in Wig.
This was an action-packed thrill-ride, filled with quality cast and ridiculous events happening one after another. All 3 people I saw this with seemed to enjoy it, yet despite its customer satisfaction, it grossed only half of what the new Sandler crap-fest did, despite Sandler’s movie has already been out for a couple of weeks. And while not everyone will love DRIVE ANGRY as much as I did, I bet a smaller percentage of people are disappointed by it than that Sandler movie.
So, this movie gets credit for doing something original and letting you know it was gonna be stupid fun right out of the gate. On entertainment value, I give it 4 stars.
With the impending release of Thor, Captain America, and the newest X-Men movie, Marvel is in the spotlight right now. Then there is also the future projects The Amazing Spider-Man, Iron Man 3, Wolverine 2, and The Avengers. Needless to say, its gonna be a busy couple of summers over at Marvel. Well, I thought we’d get a little caught up on some of it.
Relative new comer Chris Hemsworth will play the title role, while Geek-Goddess Natalie Portman will appear as Jane Foster, Thor’s longtime romantic interest in the comics.
Marvel just released a new extended trailer for the film that will introduce many non-geeks to the God of Thunder for the first time.
This is one, that despite having a director I like, I’m just not pumped for. X3 and Wolverine were so terrible I can’t allow myself to get excited for this yet, but SupaScoot did a pretty detailed writeup on it.
While Chris Evans isn’t who I had in mind when this movie was announced, I am hopeful that he’ll exceed my expectations. Director Joe Johnston however, does not excite me, so I have to remain skeptical…
The Amazing Spider-Man – Opens July 3rd, 2012
The reboot cast is highlighted with Emma Stone, Dennis Leary and Martin Sheen. The new Spidey though, Andrew Garfield is a mystery to me. Maybe that’s cause the only thing I’ve seen him in is Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1974, and I don’t even remember him. But this picture looks awesome…
The Avengers – 2012
Joss Whedon is directing what will be the most ambitious Comic Movie project ever undertaken. This is what Marvel is banking it all on, set for sometime in 2012.
Below is a fan-made poster based on the upcoming project.
Iron Man 3 – In Pre-Production
The Iron Man franchise is in flux, and I couldn’t be happier about it. The first Iron Man was great, but the 2nd one was a bit of a letdown. Iron Man 3 will be a direct sequel to The Avengers. The first 2 movies were directed by Jon Favreau, who is now leaving the franchise. And while I like Jon Favreau, I love his apparent replacement – Shane Black.
If you’re not a movie dork you may not know Shane Black, but I’m sure you’ll recognize his work as a writer. He, in my opinion is batting a thousand. He wrote the first 2 Leathal Weapon movies, The Last Boyscout, The Monster Squad, Last Action Hero, The Long Kiss Goodnight, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. He also directed Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
Black and Downey Jr on the set of KISS KISS BANG BANG
The Wolverine – Pre-Production
This video has nothing to do officially with the Darren Aronofsky helmed follow-up to the piece of crap Wolverine movie, but it is pretty damn cool.
This is pretty surreal, to think that piece of crap Wolverine movie is gonna spawn a sequel directed by one of the most respected Directors working now. The Wrestler, Black Swan, The Woverine?
Now, if you’ll be so go as to vote on this poll you won’t have to suffer the same fate as our mascot did at the hands of the Hulk…
With 38 days still remaining before the deadline, donations for the ROBOCOP statue to be built-in Detroit has already met its goal. They were giving it till March 29th to raise $50,000. Well here we are on Feb. 16th, and they’ve already raised $50,769.
According to the Detroit Free Press the group in charge of the fund-raising will keep accepting donations until the original March 29th deadline and make the statue “as big and good as possible”. Supporters of the statue got a big boost Tuesday when San Francisco businessman, Pete Hottelet, donated $25,000.
He runs a company you may have heard of: Omni Consumer Products
If that name doesn’t sound familiar to you, you need to watch ROBOCOP again. They were the company in the movie that bought the Police and ran “New Detroit”.
Well Hottelet’s company isn’t one I was familiar with 20 minutes ago, but I instantly fell in love with. This OCP, instead of destroying Detroit, actually makes products based off of non-fictional items…
While this has not yet been confirmed, a few reliable sources have reported that Marion Cotillard could be coming to Gotham. Cotillard is a French actress who you might recognize from BIG FISH or PUBLIC ENEMIES, but most prominently from last summer’s INCEPTION, where she played Leonardo DiCaprio’s dead wife. As we are still in the rumor stage surrounding THE DARK KNIGHTS RISES it’s not yet clear who she would play if she does indeed show up in Nolan’s 3rd Bat-film. Most popular guess right now: Talia al Ghul.
Grizzly Bomb 