So as HBO’s April premiere of Game of Thrones Season 2 approaches we’ll try to keep you up on what’s be revealed to the public thus far. We’ve already given you plenty of stuff to this point including a trailer and casting and renewal news. Now we have some more. First off, here is several cast members talking about being back to work and the extravagant sets…
Well I’m throwing this out there – Cersei Lannister may be evil, and she may be doing her brother, but she is still smoking hot. In addition to the featurette that you just (probably) watched, there are also a slew of new character posters…
I’ve made clear my admiration for the BBC show Sherlock. It’s well written and acted, its interesting, and all around better than at least 90% of the other TV shows. That said, I thought the latest episode might’ve been their weakest. I recognize that following up the premiere, which I feel to be the best episode to date, was no easy task. It’s like doing stand-up for the first time and going on stage after Eddie Murphy…
Anyhow, that’s not to say it was terrible either. One thing that this episode actually did quite well was attempt to humanize Sherlock some more. In A Scandal in Belgravia it showed Sherlock to be less asexual than previous, as it was clear how he felt for Irene Adler. In The Hounds of Baskerville however, the focus is more on John Watson and their friendship – the only one Sherlock has.
Well, we’re still about four months away the start of season two, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have anything to talk about. First and foremost, the fact that HBO has already committed to not only a third, but also a fourth season as they plan to split the third book (A Storm of Swords) into two seasons. That’s awesome for us.
In addition to the renewal news, we have this little behind the scenes footage as the some of the producers talk about characters and settings. This was shot while they were in production.
In 2003, a movie released called “Elf”. This movie told the story of a human boy whose mother gave him to an orphanage, and who’s father never knew he existed. He was just a baby when he crawled into Santa’s (Ed Asner) bag as he delivered toys to the orphanage. Who was this boy? His name was Buddy (Will Ferrell). After Santa got back to the North Pole that night, he noticed a baby crawl out of his bag. Santa and Papa Elf (Bob Newhart) decided to adopt the baby boy and he became an Elf.
Buddy actually went his entire life thinking he was an elf, despite his many difficulties. While other elves pushed out hundreds or thousands of toys a day in the production room, Buddy could only do dozens. He didn’t fit in the beds, showers, or desks, and he was much taller than all of the other elves. When Buddy finds out from Papa Elf who he really is, he goes to New York City to find his real father (James Caan).
When Buddy goes to see his dad, who works in the Empire State Building, he is thought to be a nut at first. His father’s security team kicks Buddy out several times. Once his father Walter Hobbs finally gets a DNA test and accepts that Buddy is his son, he takes the elf-man to stay with him and his wife Emily (Mary Steenburgen) and his son Michael (Daniel Tay). Buddy also gets a job at Gimbel’s because he was mistook for an employee. He manages to bring his coworker Jovie (Zooey Deschanel) lots of Christmas cheer. Throughout the movie, Jovie and Buddy fall in love.
Do you like cop movies? Do you like Jason Statham as a brooding bad-ass who loves to beat the ever loving crap out of scumbags? (Isn’t that all of the time?) Then there is no reason at all you shouldn’t love the British flick Blitz. I can’t really figure out why the hell it wasn’t in the U.S. cinemas, because anything with Statham in it is worth some box office bucks. But as it is, we get it later in the U.S. straight to DVD. I guess I got it cheaper and it was well worth the money.
Yup… that tag line is in Spanish
Blitz follows the antics of ‘Detective Tom Brant’, a cop who takes the law into his own hands quite a bit… with extreme prejudice. The scene at the beginning where he handles a group of young thugs is classic Statham, with a bat no less, and one of the best lines spoken by him yet – “If you’re gonna pick the wrong fight at least pick the right weapon.” That’s right all you punks, fear him. Things get even more interesting when we are introduced to the film’s antagonist who has a penchant for killing police. Especially those from the same station as Detective Brant, and as time goes on it seems that there is something personal between the killer and our gruff hero.
Once again Jason Statham plays the tough guy in this movie, but nothing like out of The Transporter or The Expendables. This time he’s a cop in the big city, with his mental well-being teetering on the edge, and what seems to be a slight drinking problem. If anything I’d liken him to Riggs from Lethal Weapon, but without the personal tragedy. Unless I missed something Brant just likes to use excessive force on bad guys now and then, but he’s still a good cop. Statham played him with a brilliant touch of heavy sarcasm and I loved every second of it. A great scene was when a guy providing Brant with some info in the pub asks the detective if he’s going to write down any of the stuff he’s giving him. Brant then replies incredulously – “Do I look like I carry a pencil?” before knocking back a pint of beer.
Things get a little more interesting when Brant teams up with the newest addition to his station, and a man who is his polar opposite played by Paddy Considine (Hot Fuzz). This is the usual cliché’ in cop movies where two vastly different breeds of cop team up to bring down the bad guy, but it worked a little better than normal in Blitz. Considine’s ‘Porter Nash’ and Detective Brant cut through all of their differences when Brant pays him an impromptu visit to his apartment. The two reach a mutual respect in that scene, and as Brant leaves he calls Nash a pillow biter to get in a jab at Nash’s sexual preference that has gained him so much enmity throughout the police force. It was a great moment as the uber hetero-cop and the homo-cop join forces to take down the cop killer plaguing their station.
Aiden Gillen (The Wire, Game of Thrones) plays the quirky and attention seeking cop killer perfectly named ‘The Blitz’, obviously relishing in the role of the crazy SOB since he hasn’t been able to do that since the horrible 12 Rounds movie starring him and wrestler John Cena. 12 Rounds was assuredly a terrible movie, but Gillen was excellent as villain ‘Miles Jackson’. As ‘the Blitz’ though, Gillen was equally as devious, but with a more realistic approach to it. He was the type of criminal we might have in this day and age where the bigger the crime, the harder it is to convict them.
Overall I give Blitz a 4 out of 5 grizzlies. With cop dramas being a dime a dozen it was nice to see one with every actor in it firing on all cylinders. I hope Statham does a lot more of these types of movie instead of straight up action, because he really excels in movies like Snatch and The Mechanic.
If you’re interested and there are no longer any videos stores near your house, Blitz is available at Redbox & on Netflix Instant Queue!
Grizzly Bomb 