Man of Steel never gets off the ground (via http://www.babylongeek.co.uk)
The real war in superhero movieland isn’t between good and bad guys; it’s between Marvel and DC Comics. So far Marvel, with Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor, the Avengers, et al., has been winning the tussle. Now DC’s “Man of Steel,” the umpteenth reboot of the “Superman” franchise, leaps…
Hot pursuits: Agents Hobbs and Riley (Dwayne Johnson and Gina Carano) to combat a something something terrorist something skidding explosions muscles. -- Phot credit: Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures
Fast, furious and completely over the top (via OregonLive.com)
View full sizeUniversal Pictures/MCT At this point, the “Fast/Furious” movies take place in a superhero universe. “Fast Five” and “Fast & Furious 6″ — the newest, nearly-as-much-dumb-fun sequel — play more like “The Avengers” than they don’t. Switch out “superpower” for “ability to drive and customize…
From left, Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway, Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan and Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan in "The Great Gatsby." / Warner Bros.
View full sizeCourtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures/MCT About halfway through “The Great Gatsby,” the title character gestures at the Jazz Age opulence around him and asks “What is all this for?” You might be tempted to wonder the same thing about Baz Luhrmann’s frantic, dolled-up film adaptation of F.…
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Ready for the biggest, baddest Iron Man experience ever? Well, we are less than two months away from ‘Walt Disney Pictures & Marvel Studios’ much-anticipated installment and yesterday the studio debuted a brand-new trailer that you can check out below. And if you were wondering what’s new with Tony Stark’s — you should surely wrap your mind around the idea of…. good ole fashion revenge.
Iron Man 3 promises to include more explosions, more mayhem, and more cheers. What are your thoughts on the new trailer? Leave in comment section below.
Iron Man 3 (Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Pictures)
(CBS News) “Les Miserables” gets the big-screen treatment on Christmas Day with a star-studded cast that includes Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter.
Anne Hathaway in "Les Miserables" Photo: Universal
Set in 19th century France, the film, based on Victor Hugo’s book and the subsequent hit musical, follows ex-prisoner Jean Valjean (Jackman) as he’s hunted for decades by relentless policeman Javert (Crowe) after he breaks parole. Valjean ends up caring for young Cossette, the daughter of factory worker Fantine (Hathaway), a move that changes their lives forever.
With a 73 percent rating on aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, “Les Miserables” has largely favorable reviews, with some critics even expecting a few Oscar nominations.
Film critic Richard Roeper noted, “This is an unforgettable movie going experience, sure to garner multiple Oscar nominations.”
But not everyone is impressed with director Tom Hooper’s movie adaptation; Critic Michael Phillips of The Chicago Tribune gave it 1.5 out of 4 stars and simply wrote: “I didn’t like it,” before explaining why he was disappointed.
Here’s what others had to say:
Claudia Puig of USA Today gave “Les Miserables” 3.5 out of 4 stars: “Victor Hugo’s grim, but redemptive, classic novel is given resplendent new life on the big screen. ‘Les Miserables’ is sweeping, as would be expected given the scope of the hugely popular stage musical from which it is adapted. But it’s also wonderfully intimate, thanks to Tom Hooper’s deft direction.”
Steven Rea of The Philadelphia Inquirer: “If you love Les Mis the stage musical, my guess is you will love what Hooper and his bustling company have done. But when you hear “Master of the House” and you think of the Seinfeld episode with Elaine’s gruff dad belting the tune before you think of those shifty innkeepers the Thenardiers, then you may want to steer clear of this grand endeavor.”
Rafer Guzman of Newsday gave it 3.5 out of 4 stars: “This is a big story, with big themes, based on Victor Hugo’s really big novel about love, law and revolution in 19th-century France. Yet somehow, “Les Miserables” isn’t the major movie event it should be.”
Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter: “As the enduring success of this property has shown, there are large, emotionally susceptible segments of the population ready to swallow this sort of thing, but that doesn’t mean it’s good.”
David Edelstein of New York magazine: “The tasteless bombardment that is Les Miserables would, under most circumstances, send audiences screaming from the theater, but the film is going to be a monster hit and award winner, and not entirely unjustly.”
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone: “No one expects gutsy filmmaking in a musical. But that’s just what King’s Speech Oscar winner Tom Hooper delivers in Les Miserables. Damn the imperfections, it’s perfectly marvelous.”
Tell us: Do you plan to go see “Les Miserables”?
© 2012 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
By Tanya Blake, EOTM Media Group
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Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5
So they’ve remade the 1984 movie Red Dawn, a Cold War fantasy about a group of American teenagers who fight to save their hometown from a Soviet invasion. The remake arrived in theaters today, November 21st following years of delays involving bankruptcy and a switch of the film’s central villains from the Chinese to North Koreans.
In the new film the teenagers fight to save their town from a North Korean invasion and we are smack dab back in middle America where
Photo credit: Film District/MGM
the members of the local high school football team out of Washington State, the Wolverines, awake one morning to find enemy airplanes strafing suburban streets and parachutes blooming like a survivalist wet dream in the sky.
This befuddles Matt Eckert (Josh Peck), the talented but selfish Wolverines quarterback who will, one imagines, have to learn some lessons about teamwork if he is going to vanquish anyone. Happily, his big brother Jed (Chris Hemsworth), a U.S. Marine, is in town on leave and — as someone reminds us later — “a marine and his rifle. That’s the baddest (poop)-kickin’ weapon in the world,” although I don’t know how much consideration they’ve given to the (poop)-kickin’ possibilities of a Hollywood screenwriter with a big budget and an agenda of paranoid patriotism.
Matt, Jed and more Wolverines high-tail it to the Eckert cabin in the woods to organize a guerrilla force that will overcome the exotic new enemy. It was China in the original script until the realpolitik of trade and film distribution got in the way — the movie was shot in 2009 but its release was delayed and China has become a major economic force.
However, North Korea is handy because it has no oil or strategic value, nor does it have much of a movie market. It can, however, unleash an electromagnetic pulse to disable all our computers and bring us to our weakling knees. Thank goodness for the Wolverines, who stand on burned-out buildings shouting their slogan (“Wolverines!”) with the fervour of demented cheerleaders.
Meanwhile, though, there are family wounds to heal, the Eckerts being motherless children who are soon to lose dad to the casual atrocities of Captain Lo, which is a good name for him.
“Red Dawn” might not have been a great movie, but it fit within the context of its time — a time so far gone as to be almost unrecognizable to Americans today. If you were born the year the Soviet Union collapsed, you would now be 21. Even Mitt Romney no longer thinks Russia is our No. 1 geopolitical foe. As a nation, we’ve seen firsthand the damage IEDs (and a desperate civilian population) can inflict. Instead of one Cold War, there are now dozens of hot zones and areas of civil unrest. At a distance of 28 years, “Red Dawn” seems to sit at the intersection of anachronistic, naive and offensive.
Which raises the question: Why would MGM release a remake? I’m just saying…
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Plus, there are the burgeoning romances, mostly between Matt and Erica (Isabel Lucas), his blond pillow-lipped girlfriend who has been captured by the Koreans and is being held in — ironically — the old football stadium. He must rescue her, even if it endangers his commitment to team play. Her lips alone are worth several lives.
However, there’s little time for lovey-dovey stuff. Jed has to teach everyone to be a resistance fighter — it takes about 10 minutes before the bewildered adolescents evolve into a combination of Minutemen and Rambo — and then they have to arm themselves.
Fortunately there’s no shortage of automatic weapons in and around Spokane, Wash. They’re kind of crappy, but they’re good enough to ambush the enemy and steal their good, North Korean ones.
The fun in Red Dawn is in trying to decipher the political subtext. For instance, Jed — a man who realizes the truth in the old expression, “Never get involved in a land war in the Pacific Northwest” — creates his heroic guerrilla force while acknowledging that this is the opposite of what has happened in recent American history. This time the terrorists are the good guys, and he admits he has learned lessons from the Viet Cong and the mujahedeen.
The result is America as the feisty underdog. “For them, this is just a place, but for us, this is home,” he says, as the Wolverines ambush the enemy in battles staged by director Dan Bradley with more gung-ho spirit than coherence. By the end, we appreciate the wisdom of the character who says, “Dude, we’re living Call of Duty. And it sucks.” That’s a big 10-4, soldier.
The remake is in theaters now!
Watch the official trailer now — if you dare.
By Tanya Blake
In this action-packed mystery thriller, Academy Award winner, Denzel Washington stars as Whip Whitaker, a seasoned airline pilot, who miraculously crash lands his plane after a mid-air catastrophe, saving nearly every soul on board. After the crash, Whip is hailed as a hero, but as more is learned, more questions than answers arise as to who or what was really at fault and what really happened on that plane? — (C) Official Site
Director Robert Zemeckis gives good plane crash. He did it well in the early frames of Castaway, and the one here is even better. A short commercial flight, in heavy rain, from Orlando to Atlanta. Sudden mechanical breakdown, the uncontrolled dive, one engine fails, a calculated roll to stall the plunge, second engine fails, the eerie silence of a plane short of power, then the deadly quiet glide to a patch of open field. Crash. However, of the 102 souls on board, only 6 died, and the reason is clear. Skilled, decisive, with ice-water in his veins, the pilot was indisputably heroic. But this too is indisputable. Those same veins contained high levels of alcohol and traces of cocaine: The hero was also legally intoxicated.
Paramount Pictures - Flight trailer-Denzel Washington - Screen shot from official online trailer
But we already knew that, since the opening scene, just as good, coolly reveals “Whip” Whitaker’s morning ritual. Wake up groggily light a cigarette, drain the dregs from last night’s beerfest, snort a revivifying line, shower and don the uniform and aviator glasses and report for duty. Since the addled fly boy in question is Denzel Washington, looking rather pot-bellied and doughy for the occasion, this first sequence plus the subsequent crash have us riveted and hoping for more of the same, for an uninterrupted journey towards a great movie. Alas, this isn’t a direct Flight.
Instead, there’s an extended stopover when the script, tearing off on various tangents begins to resemble a room-full of errant luggage. Some of the tangents are interesting – like the gathering of officialdom in the aftermath of the tragedy. Reps from the National Transportation Safety Board, from the pilots’ union and from the airline company convene to pursue both their separate and common interests. All seem keen to mitigate the legal liability, thereby placing some of the blame on God and the rest on that real mechanical failure. As for Whip’s really damning toxicology report, the union’s lawyer (Don Cheadle) sets out to “kill” it on a technicality. Unfortunately, when he succeeds, the picture goes into its own tailspin.
That’s because the focus shifts from an intriguing aeronautical drama to a bland psychodrama, as boozy Whip refuses to admit he’s an alcoholic – albeit a remarkably functioning alcoholic, which raises another problem. Torn between lionizing and villainous its star attraction, the screenplay keeps emphasizing Washington’s in-flight heroics, and thereby blunders into a case of truly impaired judgment: the tacit yet blaring assumption that, buoyed by an emergency’s adrenalin, a great pilot sober is still a great pilot drunk. Now that’s a sobering thought indeed, which, the next time I’m sandwiched into an aisle seat staring past the drinks cart at the locked cockpit, I dearly hope to have forgotten.
Anyway, from there, the baggage marked Days of Wine and Poses gets unpacked, leaving Washington to strike whatever pose is demanded by the story’s increasingly convoluted twists. He’s a good fella, he’s a bad fella, pulled off the wagon by his old friend Harling the flamboyant enabler (John Goodman chewing the scenery), then urged back on by his new friend Nicole the reformed junkie (Kelly Reilly swallowing a Georgian accent). So, oscillating to and fro, Whip stumbles towards the climax of the big NTSB hearing, where the suspense is meant to build around this puzzler: Will our flawed hero be falsely exonerated or truly redeemed?
In the hands of a less sentimental director than Zemeckis, that might be a compelling quandary; but here, for us no less than Whip, it feels like being stuck between a rock and a soft place. That makes his choice easy and our verdict easier. This movie is captivating until it gets uplifting – Flight soars when it crashes and crashes when it soars.
Watch the Official Trailer
Nov 2, 2012 Wide
$24.9M
Paramount Pictures
By Tanya Blake — Summit Entertainment
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** 2 STAR RATING (out of 4) | Crime drama - PG-13. 102 minutes — at area theaters.
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The reviews are in — Tyler Perry plays a girl better, I’m just saying. …so I promise to keep this one short, yet sweet.
The actor is best known for making his audiences laugh as Madea, the comedic over the top fictional character from the Mabel Simmons trilogy. The character is a towering, massive, elderly woman, with a fiercely vindictive nature about herself. Some of Madea’s famous quotes are:
“Well when you gettin’ got and somebody done got you and you go get them, when you get em’, everybody’s gon’ get got.”
However, in his new film, Alex Cross you do not get the insanely over reactive but there is a commonality between the two; a willingness to threaten with the use of weapons, drive a Cadillac erratically, use physical violence, as well as use any and all means necessary to show up a wrongdoer or offending party.
The multi-faceted director brings to his fans something new….well almost. What you do get is a lack luster action packed/gangster type film. And it appears, Perry connects with his inner thug…. featuring plenty of scenes highlighting guns and smoke!
At the start of the film, Cross is beating his wife at a guessing game they play. It’s Perry’s first lead role that he did not produce, direct or write.
The film is from the mind of novelist James Patterson, the script by Mark Moss and Kerry Williamson which takes the man back to his pre-Washington and FBI days, when he was a cop on the Detroit police force. Perry took over the role from Morgan Freeman who first played Alex Cross in the film Kiss The Girls and Along Came A Spider.
Perry is about 20 years younger than Morgan Freeman was when he played the roles.
Alex Cross is a psycho thriller centered around a maniac, Matthew Fox that ‘loves inflicting pain on his victims,’ seriously….he says that in the film. Fox mimic’s Christian Bale’s character in the Machinist, with his significant weight lost giving him an almost ghostly, sinister look.
One of the biggest hurdles for Dr. Alex Cross is that since he was last on the big screen, mainstream media has been feeding audiences a steady diet of FBI profilers and forensic agents via Criminal Minds and Law and Order, all of which track monstrous serial killers.
The cheesiest part of the film, which is also the climax is a shoot out set in Detroit. During the scene, director Rob Cohen scouted out the General Motors Heritage Museum and fell for the one-of-a-kind Caddy. The “minute I saw that car, I thought it was right out of Al Capone,” says Cohen. “So wouldn’t it be funny to talk gangster in a real gangster car.” ”They get into a car you’d see on The Untouchables. It’s a fun way to bring a private conversation about,” he adds.
And just in case you were wondering, where in the hell is Madea and who the hell is Cross…understand this new bad boy character is something Perry has always dreamed of.
“I’ve been in the business for a very long time, and Cohen is the first man to ever offer me a role like this. He saw it first,” Perry said. “I’ve always wanted to, but it had to be the right role, and this was the right situation. I read the script and I was like, ‘I don’t know if I can do this, or if I want to try to take this on,’” he said. “And then I realized that [the] physicality and description [James Patterson] had for Alex Cross in the books, and I said, ‘Wait a minute, this is me.’ And I couldn’t put it down, and I realized I had to do it.
I couldn’t be Morgan Freeman playing Alex Cross. I had to do the best job I could as Tyler Perry, cause Morgan Freeman is brilliant!” he said. “He played God in movies. All I had to do – or could do – was the best, the absolute best that I could do.”
It will be interesting to observe if much of Perry’s generally loyal audience turns out to see him in a major change of pace, as well as if non-fans are curious to check him as a potential action hero.
The film cost $23 Million to film.
I give the film 2 stars for effort. I like Tyler Perry as a girl…better. ( staring straight faced)
Have you seen the film yet? Planning on catching it? Leave your comments below.
Photo Credit: Summit Entertainment
Courtesy of (Insider TV – EW) – SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED THE PREMIERE OF AMERICAN HORROR STORY: ASYLUM!!!!
Nuns! Aliens! Bloody Face! Adam Levine! No one can accuse American Horror Story: Asylumof playing it safe in its wild premiere. A complete reboot of the previous season, AHS: Asylumtook viewers inside Briarcliff Manor for a roller-coaster hour that saw Jessica Lange’s Sister Jude getting sexy in red lingerie and Adam Levine’s Leo losing an arm to something sinister. EW talked to series co-creator Ryan Murphy about the jam-packed hour, his inspirations, and what this means for Levine on the series.
Image Credit: Michael Yarish/FX
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You kept the same music for the opening credits but new visual elements. Are these perhaps clues to the mystery surrounding Briarcliff?
RYAN MURPHY: I think so. We were gonna throw everything out and start from scratch. We built that entire insane asylum. That crew that is so brilliant went in and shot everything on that location months ago. They also had read many of the scripts. Yes I think they’re clues. I think the show in its subject matter has a little more gravity in terms of social significance this year, so some of them aren’t so much clues as metaphors. For example, the girl walking up and down in the staircase, in episode 2 you will definitely know what that’s about.
To me the editing and the energy felt very different to me. It almost feels like it’s supposed to keep you off-balance, like you don’t know what you’re seeing. Is that what you were going for?
When Brad and I did season 1, it was definitely influenced by masters like [Stanley] Kubrick. This year the thing that I was really obsessed with is I was really influenced by DePalma, who I think is a brilliant filmmaker, who I really feel like never gets his just desserts. It’s time for a Brian DePalma resurgence. So I was very into the filming style of DePalma’s works, specifically Dressed to Kill and Carrie. There’s a lot of slow motion, there’s a lot of languid filmmaking. In the first episode, as a tribute to Brian, we actually used two big pieces fromCarrie’s score. So the same can be said of DePalma’s work which is very fever dream. Look at that last scene of Carrie—was it real? Was it a dream? So yes it was very influenced by his work particularly. Also it was very influenced by [Dario] Argento. The other great thing about it is Brad Buecker, who edited all the shows last year, who’s my right hand man, is also a brilliant director. The first two were edited and directed by Brad. It’s very interesting when an editor directs. It’s much more I think a psychological thriller as well.
AMERICAN HORROR STORY: Get the latest news, photos, and more
Last year, it’s interesting to me, because people said to me “Oh the Harmon family is so venal and so terrible and we don’t root for them.” I think this year you have 3 or 4 people you’re really rooting for — definitely Jessica, definitely Evan, definitely Sarah, definitely Chloe. This year we’re really exploring the idea of madness, and I think madness, for people caught in that web, it must feel like a hallucinogenic nightmare reality.
DePalma was also clearly very influenced by Hitchcock. But DePalma was able to use sex in a much more graphic way. Obviously, American Horror Story will always be about sex and violence. But I’m really thrilled to talk about DePalma. One of our writers on our show, Jennifer Salt, starred in a Brian DePalma movie [1973's Sisters]. They’re still really good friends.
You should get him to direct an episode!
Ha! I doubt he would come to television, but it certainly would be worth a call. I love him. I think he’s a very underrated filmmaker.
My colleague Jeff Jensen wants to know if you’re gonna direct an episode?
I really want to. It’s hard with three shows. The New Normal, I directed four of the first shows. I’m getting ready to do a Glee. I have a really nifty plan for the last episode of Horror Story this year. If I can make that work, I will. I want to.
Will the search for Alma and her disappearance be a driving mystery the whole season?
It continues for the whole season. It’s an interesting idea, which is for the audience basically to find out were the aliens real or were they all in his mind? We studied a lot about alien abductions, particularly the year we’re writing about. We say in the first episode that 1964 was a very important year in which religion and science collided. Right around the time of the space program is when a lot of people claimed alien abduction theories. I’ve always been obsessed with alien abduction theories because one of my best friends tells me over and over again that she was abducted and experimented on. So it’s a fascinating thing to write about.
We saw the alien limbs. But will we see its face?
Yes. We overshot the s— out of it. What we did last year with the infantata is you saw it for literally like 3 frames. It’s a very similar experience where we don’t show many of the creatures in the woods which are called Raspers. We don’t show too much. We want you to get invested in the story but we do show more.
One person we do see is Bloody Face. So is the modern day Bloody Face the same from the 1960s?
It could be. You definitely get the answer to that.
The twist with Adam Levine being dismembered within the first five minutes was pretty shocking. But he’s still in a bunch of episodes right?
Yes, he is going to be in a bunch of episodes. I mean, it’s clear after the first episode that he’s in a bad place. I wanted a big star in that. We actually wrote it for him. He did such a great job. He has this great movie star charisma. But what Janet Leigh was to Psycho, Adam is to this season of American Horror Story. He does not perish as quickly as anybody. And maybe he lives — I’m not saying anything.
But Leo and Teresa won’t bookend every episode right?
No. We made the decision to do a period piece but I really wanted to examine the Bloody Face legend. So this year we do sort of have a story within a story. The 2012 stuff is not in every episode. We skip around a little bit. But it’s definitely part of the storytelling engine and all designed to completely wrap up in the very last episode and the very last scene. I think it’s cool to tell a very modern story within a period frame work. I love the new Briarcliff dissolving into the old Briarcliff.
Will we find out what knocked out Lana, like, whose arm that was?
Oh yeah. It’s the fun thing about the show. Who is Bloody Face? Is Bloody Face still alive? What’s behind that door? Will Adam Levine live? What the hell is Dr. Arden making in that lab? Just another day in the writer’s room of American Horror Story. These are all mysteries very similar to last year where in the first episode we launched 5 or 6 mysteries and you follow them.
Is Eric Stonestreet coming back?
Yeah, we’re figuring that out.
And Ian McShane is gonna be on?
Ian McShane is coming on. I’m really excited about the Ian McShane part. I have loved him for a really long time. This is an interesting year in American Horror Story in that after episode 9, we go on a holiday break and then come back in January. So I really wanted like two-episode climactic thing and I wanted someone who could go head to head with Jessica Lange. We’ve written him a really amazing part that he starts shooting today. They’re episodes 8 and 9.
And Frances Conroy? You tweeted that she’s playing someone angelic.
Yes. I don’t want to give that away because that doesn’t happen ’til I think episode 7, but it’s one of my favorite episodes. Frances appears there and then comes back and forth throughout the season.
And Franka Potente?
Yep she’s amazing and she’s in episodes 4 and 5.
Can you tease next week’s episode, “Trick and Treats?”
It’s our Halloween episode, and it’s about the powers of Satan. It’s about a boy who is or is not possessed who suddenly, strangely knows a lot about Sister Jude’s secrets.
LA Times Review One of the lessons to be gleaned from sequels like “Taken 2″ is that bad guys never learn. You’d think, for example, that anyone privy to the bloody rampage carried out by concerned father and ex-CIA agent Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) to save his daughter from Albanian slavers in the first “Taken” would think twice before messing with the guy. Alas, the villains in “Taken 2,” being relatives of the slain thugs from the previous film, are out for revenge, forcing Bryan to engage in another round of family-saving and neck-snapping.
Liam Neeson chases down more bad guys in "Taken 2." (Magali Bragard / 20th Century Fox / October 5, 2012)
Critics agree that “Taken 2″ is essentially a retread of the first film; whether that’s a good thing or not may depend on your taste for Neeson’s “very particular set of skills.”
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The Times’ Kenneth Turan calls the film “more a remake than a sequel” but adds that, like its predecessor, “Taken 2″ succeeds largely thanks to Neeson’s acting chops. “Neeson’s empathetic performing skills put him in a different category than the usual suspects for this kind of a part,” Turan writes. “His acting makes him seem human and even vulnerable, someone we can’t help but worry over even though it’s those feckless Albanians we should be nervous about.”
Many other critics, among them the Wall Street Journal’s John Anderson, are less favorable in their reviews. Anderson knocks “the blind adherence to formula evident in most of ‘Taken 2.’ ” He concedes that “it’s an adrenaline-fueled thrill ride. But it could have been much more.” Instead of taking the series in a new direction, “Taken 2″ copies its predecessor “slavishly, right down to the flaws,” which include wooden acting and corny dialogue.
The Boston Globe’s Wesley Morris finds the screenwriting lazy, as “typed up” — not written, mind you — by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen. And while “Taken 2″ has a new director in Olivier Megaton (“The Transporter 3,” “Colombiana”), Morris notes that he’s “a Besson-factory regular.” (Besson co-wrote and produced both “Taken” films.) Morris does, however, admit to rooting for Kim (Maggie Grace), Bryan’s daughter, who has gone from being an imperiled abductee to following in her dad’s footsteps in the span of two films. “Her mounting sense of self-defense,” Morris says, “is the partial source of the film’s comedy.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Steven Rea declares “Taken 2″ an “inevitable — and unfortunate — sequel” that is “rigorously formulaic and far-fetched.” While “Neeson is full of Neesonesque stoicism” and “Grace is as convincing as the wobbly script allows,” it’s unfortunate that Famke Janssen, playing ex-wife and mother Lenore, is “relegated to the role of helpless victim, spending a good part of the film in a state of semiconsciousness.” The original “Taken,” Rea concludes, is “far more satisfying and suspenseful.”
Finally, Neil Genzlinger of the New York Times offers a haiku-like appraisal: “['Taken 2'] seems like a nonstop car and foot chase, with Albanian after Albanian falling victim to Bryan’s remarkable aim and hand-fighting skills. Foreigners bad, Americans good, box office busy.”
Genzlinger does have a point: After all, movies like “Taken 2″ are about as concerned about critics’ reviews as Bryan is about the trail of dead bad guys he leaves in his wake. As long as box office dollars and Bryan’s family are safe and sound, consider the mission accomplished.
“The Expendables 2″ — starring action superstars Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger, among others — took in $10.5 million Friday, putting it on track for about a $27 The Expendables 2 holds the top spot at the box…
As the compelling athletic competitions at London Olympic Games concluded, Hollywood is back with more impressive movies.
‘The Dark Knight Rises’ actor Tom Hardy portrays Bane, Batman’s new nemesis.(Ron Phillips/Warner Bros. Pictures/AP) “The Dark Knight Rises” doesn’t really rise to the occasion. This concluding movie in the “Batman” trilogy isn’t just dark, it’s pitch black. Director Christopher Nolan has…
The Hobbit, Iron Man 3 and Tarantino!
By Greg Reifsteck
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Your legs are gimpy from partying, standing in lines or walking the length of the Exhibit Hall. Or, your ass is asleep from sitting in panels all day. Either way, you have lived on snack bar food, shared a room with three other people and have not gotten much sleep. You have also suffered the back and forth on the never-on-time Con shuttles.
Day Three – you have made it! And your reward? The full damned cast of The Hobbit! That’s what. Oh, and other things major things are happening, too.
(c) 2012 Warner Bros
Being the Movie Maniac, I will be bringing you up-to-the-minute online updates of the cinematic action going on at the Con on the EOTM Blog.
I will be giving a live Comic-Con update on Carla B’s E Buzz! Show on Friday night at 7 p.m. Please tune in for all of the action.
I will also be doing a round-up, including interviews from the convention on my new internet radio show Greg Reifsteck Movie Maniac debuting Sunday July 22, 5 p.m. PST on EOTM Radio.
Click here to stream live and set a reminder.
Here is part two of a preview of what I feel will be the movie highlights of the Con.
DAY THREE – Saturday, July 13
The second day of the Con really fits its lucky number date. Ringworms get to hang out amongst the super hero diehards and the Tarantino snobs. Yes, another melting pot of marvelous fandom.
11:30 a.m. – Django: Unchained Panel- Hall H
Tarantino’s ode to spaghetti westerns comes to the Con. The remake/homage to 1966’s Django features Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio and Christopher Waltz. Who will show up from the cast is anyone’s guess. Just get your damned cameras ready.
(c) 2012 The Weinstein Co.
12:45 p.m. – End of Watch and Silent Hill: Revelations 3D Panel – Hall H
Open Road films will have Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena on hand for their film about two young officers are marked for death after confiscating a small cache of money and firearms from the members of a notorious cartel. They will also bring out the stars of the latest chapter in the popular horror series.
2:30 p.m. – Warner Bros. Panel – Hall H
Yes most of the major cast should be in attendance from The Hobbit, Ringers Director Peter Jackson, Martin Freeman and even Ian McKellen in a very rare Con appearance should be there. We also get Guillermo Del Toro, who almost directed The Hobbit, presenting his giant creatures and robots movie Pacific Rim, with Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi and Ron Perlman. We also just might get to meet the new Man of Steel.
6 p.m. – Marvel Iron Man 3 Panel- Hall H
With Shane Black taking over the helm of this super hero series’ third installment, we hope for more dark humor out of Tony Stark and less CGI mayhem. Robert Downey, Jr. and some other surprise cast members will be around to please the crowd. Don’t leave early.
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Browncoats, bad-ass women, and sci-fi spectacle
By Greg Reifsteck
Follow on Twitter @moviemaniaceotm & Facebook.com/ EOTMMovieManiac
After you shaken off the hangover of Day One of Comic-Con, and that Fan Mate has already run off with a different Wonder Woman or Doctor Who Cosplayer, Day Two will be a maze of mayhem and fandom. Again there will be the craziness of Hall H, but there are still other fringe panels to enjoy.
Being the Movie Maniac, I will be bringing you up-to-the-minute online updates of the cinematic action going on at the Con on the EOTM Blog.
(c) 2012 Universal Pictures
I will be giving a live Comic-Con update on Carla B’s E Buzz! Show on Friday night at 7 p.m. Please tune in for all of the action.
I will also be doing a round-up, including interviews from the convention on my new internet radio show Greg Reifsteck Movie Maniac debuting Sunday July 22, 5 p.m. PST on EOTM Radio
Click here to stream live and set a reminder.
Here is part two of a preview of what I feel will be the movie highlights of the Con.
DAY TWO – Friday, July 12
The second day of the Con really has something for everybody, with the sci-fi and animation genres dominating the programming. The Browncoats will celebrate a milestone in a reasonably sized ballroom, while the fan boys will be drooling all over themselves with the endless parade of hotties in Hall H.
11:45 a.m. – ParaNorman Panel- Hall H
Focus Features will be bringing out Kodi Smit-McPhee, Anna Kendrick, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Travis Knight, Chris Butler, and Sam Fell from their latest horror-based animated feature.
12:30 p.m. – Firefly 20th Anniversary Panel – Ballroom 20
The Browncoats will be rejoicing that they do not have to get caught up in the Hall H line with their smaller but mightier celebration of their beloved series. Nathan Fillian, Alec Baldwin, Gina Torres, Summer Glau and of course Joss Whedon join others from the cast.
2:15 p.m. – Tron: Uprising Panel – Room 6A
Everyone knows the revival of Tron with last year’s Disney feature Tron: Legacy left a lot to be desired. But those, like me, that appreciated the spirit of the effort are drooling over this animated series being featured on Disney’s XD Channel. Bruce Boxleitner, who has played Tron in both of its versions lends his voice once again, and will be in attendance with newcomers to the grid Elijah Wood, Emmanuelle Chriqui and Tricia Helfer.
3:00 p.m. Adult Swim: Robot Chicken Panel- Indigo Ballroom, Hilton San Diego Bayfront
You cannot call yourself a true Movie maniac without being a can of film parodies, especially ones done in stop-motion animation. And no one does them better than actor Seth Green and his producing partner Matthew Senreich. Both will be in attendance along with Breckin Meyer and other voice actors and writers that make this so-wrong-its-right send up of the movies a joy to watch with every episode.
4:05 p.m. Resident Evil: Retribution Panel- Hall H.
The zombie movie series that will not die, and that keeps writer/director Paul W.S. Anderson in a paycheck, brings out his easy-on-the-eyes wife and star of the series Milla Jovovich, along with Michelle Rodriguez, Oded Fehr and others to talk about their latest adventures with the undead.
4:35 p.m – Total Recall, Elysium and Looper Panel– Hall H
This Sony panel will not disappoint sci-fi geeks as the studio brings out directed by Len Wiseman, who will join stars Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, and Bryan Cranston from its Total Recall remake. They also have writer/director Rian Johnson will join stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt from their time travel flick Looper. And lastly the very secretive film Elysium, the latest from by District 9’s director Neill Blomkamp. Be a part of the first audience anywhere to get a first look at his new movie, and its stars Matt Damon and Jodie Foster.
(c) 2012 Sony Pictures
7 p.m. – Blade Runner 30th Anniversary Panel- Room 6BCF
With Ridley Scott finally getting around to doing a sequel to his prized and underappreciated masterpiece, join Blade Runner expert Paul M. Sammon as he interviews numerous cast and crewmembers, including art director David Snyder and The Final Cut producer Charles de Lauzirika. Rumored are very special surprise guests.
The once masterful director needs to sober up and make movies with bite again.
By Greg Reifsteck
Follow on Twitter @moviemaniaceotm & Facebook.com/ EOTMMovieManiac
Drugs have fueled the creativity of many good artists. The list goes all the way back to Edgar Allan Poe and the wicked tales he came up with strung out on opium. Unfortunately that mind alteration can sometimes make good ideas ruminate a bit too long. The result can be a muddled mess of half ideas.
Such is director Oliver Stone’s latest sociology lesson Savages. He tries to study the collision of our peaceful and our primal self. What makes us cross over to our bad side? What takes us away from our content state and drives us to a fight or flight situation? His hypothesis seems to be we all have someone so precious that we will cross that line for, and when that person is taken from us we will fight tooth and nail and become a savage to get them back.
(c) 2012 Universal Pictures
He sets up a story in which a hippy chick narrator named O or Ophelia (Blake Lively), acts as the Zen glue that holds the lives of two primo Kush entrepreneurs in the balance. Chon (Taylor Kitsch mumbling his way through another role), is a jar-headed Iraq veteran, and Ben (Aaron Johnson), is a Buddhist spouting brilliant botanist. Both guys obsess over her and love her, as well as each other. Of course the world of Stone is way too evil to keep their blissful equilibrium safe for very long, even when they seems insulated in sleepy Social of Laguna Beach.
Stone hasn’t met a natural high he didn’t like. He has made no bones about it, and is quite public about it. According to Jane Hamsher’s book Killer Instinct Stone came up with much of his wild imagery for his notoriously amped-up Bonnie and Clyde Natural Born Killers while in a peyote- induced haze.
This is why when I saw the high-octane trailers for Savages, I expected Stone’s adrenaline junky side. Instead when his mind unleashes a Mexican drug cartel led by the ice queen Elena (Salma Hayek) and her menacing minion Lado (Benicio Del Toro) on this flawed love-triangle of “heroes,” I hoped would get to see some real bite.
Elena has Lado kidnap O from the lovers, so she can force them to join her drug empire. She is very naïve and from her privileged upbringing doesn’t have much worldly experience beyond the mall. Soon she is in a remote location, sleeping on a dirty bed in a cage, being drugged in and out of conscience by Lado, who is surely doing unspeakable things to her, which are only revealed in the closing moments of the film.
Why don’t we see any of this true evil horror earlier? Unfortunately, Stone has his characters babbling, philosophizing and endlessly facing off, instead of really going to battle. It’s like the most boring of UFC fights, when neither opponent will commit and they just keep circling and kicking each other in the shins.
Check out the Movie Maniac Radio Talk Show, July 22nd @ 5pm PST only on EOTM Radio.
Stone masterfully and successfully studied a similar chess game of good vs. evil in the piece of pulp U-Turn (1997). In that escapist film we saw some good old backwoods sex and carnage between a drifter trying to take a wife away from her older controlling husband. But, in Savages we just get glimpses of some torture, with Stone seeming to be afraid to really pull the trigger. An alleged snitch in the cartel is set on fire at a distance for his wrong doing, and the camera is at a distance and is shot all muddled just when we are going to truly see something intense.
The vibe I kept getting was similar to the one I feel while I am watching the Stone-penned Scarface when it plays on regular television. I am not a sadist, but if I have been sold that a film is going to go to a certain place, I am hoping it will get what I expect.
Also, Stone keeps finding redeeming qualities to all of his evildoers. Maybe he is trying to say there is a silver lining to everyone, no matter how damaged we are? Elena has a daughter she never sees because she is ashamed of her mother’s career choice in crime. So, when O demands to stop being mistreated by Lado, Elena takes her into her mansion and makes her a surrogate daughter.
All of this is truly a shame since the acting is top notch all around (well except for the unwatchable Kitsch). We even have John Travolta thrown in for comedy relief as a bumbling DEA agent trying to play both sides. They all seem more than willing to go that extra mile, especially Tel Toro whose scenes will make you pray that you never get an unexpected visit from gardeners at your house.
Nothing good lasts forever is the message I got from Savages. Not just from the plot, but from the style of Stones directing. This is the man behind Platoon and Wall Street for goodness sakes. This man used to have the balls to give us a Sgt. Elias or a Gordon Gekko. Soon he gave us unwatchable Alexander the Great biopics and watered down treatises on the downside of pro football. A story called Savages needed more suspense, more twists, and more old-school Stone before he got too stoned to tell a coherent story.
Stone has broken the cardinal rule of Tony Montana, the greatest characters he ever written. He has gotten high on his own supply. The film world is no longer his. He needs to sober up go back to the basics. He needs to go back to being a savage himself.
Spidey has swung into film history yet again with the latest movie installment of the iconic Marvel comic-book character, “The Amazing Spider-Man.” The film opened Tuesday and has already racked up more than $75 million, and some project it may double that by Monday. But numbers don’t really…
