MOVIE REVIEW: THE TOWN

Ben Affleck has had a roller coaster of a career. For every great movie he is a part of, it seems that he has three or four disasters. But there is hope for Affleck. In 1998, he won an Oscar for Best Screenplay for Good Will Hunting, in which he also had a supporting role in, and that was the first time he really showed his talent on and off screen. Since then, he has been in more flops rather than hits, but when he is part of a good movie, he really gives a great performance. In 2007 I was surprised to hear that he would be directing his brother in Gone Baby Gone. I rolled my eyes thinking it would be some ridiculous film that he just put his brother in to help him out, but it turned out to be an amazing film and I was curious to see if he would be a one hit wonder kind of director or if he was the real deal.

His latest film is The Town, in which he not only stars in, but directs and writes as well. The film takes place in Charlestown, the leading city for bank robberies in the world. Affleck and Jeremy Renner play Doug and James, who lead a group of bank robbers, who are forced to take a hostage during their latest heist. Fearing she may know something about them, Doug decides to follow her around to make sure their in the clear, but after an accidental meeting, the two become romantically involved. Doug must now juggle his relationship with her, while hiding the fact about what he really does and his responsibility for her abduction and trying to avoid a federal agent (Jon Hamm), who is hot on their trail.

Affleck hits a home run in every area of this film. The cast does a tremendous job turning these characters into people that your not just watching, but becoming attached to as you watch. Most of the characters in the film are not just dealing with agents hunting them down or the fear of getting kidnapped again, but self confliction. Affleck's character is someone who does bad things, but also has a good side to him, so you want to see him redeem himself, you want to see him make the great escape in the end and he wants the same thing for himself. He wants to put it all behind him and walk away.

Rebecca Hall plays Claire, the girl who was taken hostage and has now fallen in love with Doug. When she finds out that Doug is responsible for the bank robberies and the kidnapping, she doesn't throw him under the bus immediately. Despite all he has done, she still sees the potential in him. Does she turn him in or turn and run away with him. Despite all he has done, she can't decide if she wants to be with him or against him.

Jon Hamm and Jeremy Renner both deal with self assurance rather than confliction. Hamm wants to catch this crew no matter what the cost. He puts his own life on the line just to do so. Renner's character has an obsession with crime. The more hits they make, the more he wants to do. If he beats someones face, he wants them to know it was him, he doesn't care about the consequences, much less care about them. I will be highly surprised if there isn't at least one person from this cast who doesn't get nominated for an Oscar.

Next is the story. It's always funny how you end up cheering for these terrible guys who are robbing banks, killing innocent people and are smuggling drugs, while the officers and agents are just trying to protect the city. If it were to happen in the real world, we would lose sleep at night until these guys were caught. The film isn't just a heist film, it's a film about romance, revenge and redemption. He does a great job of blending the four together.


The other thing I was really impressed with was the action sequences. Had this been a Michael Bay film, there would have been fifty huge car explosions and blood splattering gun fights. The sequences in this film are simple but effective. It has one of the better car chases I have seen in years and gun fights that are along the lines quality wise as Heat.

Affleck has found his true talent I believe. He has two solid films under his belt now. The Town is one of the year's best films and I give it a ten out of ten.

MOVIE REVIEW: EASY A

With the lack of talent that is starting to build up in Hollywood, there is nothing I love more than seeing a star on the rise. Emma Stone is exactly that. She first popped up in the highly popular film, Superbad and she really broke out in last year's Zombieland. Be sure to keep a look out for this girl because she is destined to go far.

In her new film, Easy A, Stone plays Olive, a clean cut high school student who is always under the social radar. After a nasty rumor is spread about her, she decides to rely on rumors to bump up her social life, eventually getting more attention than she can handle.

My favorite thing about Easy A is hands down Emma Stone. She brings an odd and smart style of comedy to the screen that I rarely see. When you watch her performance, you don't see a young immature actress like Lindsay Lohan, you see a smart bright career rising.

Another great thing about the film is it's co-stars. Stanley Tucci, Thomas Hayden Church, Lisa Kudrow, Malcom McDowell and Amanda Bynes all co-star in the film and each one brings something great to the film. Each one brings their own unique sense of humor to the film. Tucci plays the cool dad, Church plays the over enthusiastic teacher, Bynes plays the super christian and McDowell plays the uptight principal. Director, Will Gluck does a great job portraying the different high school groups without doing it in a cheesy cliche way.

Easy A isn't a perfect film, but you get no complaints from me on it. Strong lead, great script and funny co-stars were enough to sell me on it. I give it an eight out of ten.

Movie Review: Catfish

I heard about Catfish a few months ago as it made it's way through a couple of film festivals. It's a movie you probably haven't heard about and probably won't hear about up until the last moment. So before I start my review, I'll let you check out the trailer for the film so you have an idea of what I am talking about.




To me the film looked very intriguing. I immediately had to know what was going on in this film and what the outcome was going to be. I was lucky enough to get to see an advanced screening of this film yesterday and I was highly disappointed with the outcome.

First of all, they marketed this film to be something it isn't. The trailer for this film just goes to show how much impact someone who is great at editing can have on something. As I go back and watch the trailer now, I'm thinking to myself how clever the trailer for this film was, as it is very misleading to the viewer.

The tagline is, "Don't let anyone tell you what it is". And that is the same thing I heard about the film, that the less you know, the better. And now after seeing it, you certainly won't want to know anything about the film or there will be absolutely no reason in watching the film and possibly even losing interest in seeing it. If you go to see this film, you will need to have a lot of patience.

If your like me, reviews mean nothing, I like to experience a film for myself. But if you go see this film, trust me in saying that you will need a lot of patience in watching it. It's a documentary so it's already going to be a slower paced film, but there are long periods of drawn out nothing.

Catfish isn't a bad film. Once I found out what the film was really about and got to the part where you figure out the big mystery, it's actually a very creepy and alarming film. I can't get to much into it, because then their would be no point in watching it, but it makes you think about some things. The main guy in the film, Nev is very likable and has a couple of funny parts on screen. I think the lack of characters hurt the film as well though. You pretty much just watch Nev the whole time so after a while it becomes tiring.

I was overall disappointed with Catfish. It was good for what it was, but it is marketed to be something it's not and the two hours isn't worth the payoff in the end. I give it a four out of ten.

MOVIE REVIEW: GOING THE DISTANCE

When Erin and Garrett meet at a New York bar one night, they have an instant connection with one another. Their relationship blossoms and they begin to grow close to one another. The only problem is that Erin lives in San Diego and is only in New York for a summer internship. Once the summer ends, the two try and have the often failed, long distance relationship.

Going the Distance unites real life on again off again couple, Drew Barrymore and Justin Long, in a romantic comedy about the difficulties of trying to have a long distance relationship. Christina Applegate, Jim Gaffigan, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis co-star.

Drew Barrymore has been none for having great chemistry with her male leads. The same goes for Going the Distance. Barrymore and Long, whether it be due to the fact that while filming they were actually dating in real life, have a magnificent chemistry that I haven't seen in a while. They play off each other so well and they make their relationship something the viewer actually cares about.

However, Barrymore and Long aren't the only ones with chemistry in the film. The co-stars carry their own weight in this film, which is rare. Normally in romantic comedies, the best friend role is kind of pushed to the side so the stars of the film can shine. Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis really get to show off their comedic abilities. Charlie Day in particular really steals the show in every scene he is in.

The film is more of a romantic comedy for younger adults. Director, Nanette Burstein, really missed out on a bigger audience by putting graphic language in the film which gave it an R rating. This is one of those films where they could have cut out the "f" word and it would have dropped down to PG-13 and then it would have made a lot more money while appealing to a bigger audience. Had this been a mob film or maybe a film by Judd Apatow, it would have been fine, but older audience members is going to be blindsided by the language.

The film works well particularly because the long distance relationship hasn't been beat into the ground yet in Hollywood. There is no falling for another person, but the couple gets back together just in time for the credits to role in this film. This is a film that really does a good job at tackling the difficulties of having a serious long distance relationship.

The film hits a fifteen minute period that really drags out and cause the film to lose momentum and then just as it picks back up, it abruptly is forced into a quick ending. The final thirty minutes needed a lot of work as far as editing and actual pace of the film is concerned.

Overall Going the Distance delivers a lot of big laughs with a chemistry that is one for the books. I give it a 7 out of 10.

MOVIE REVIEW: PIRANHA 3D

I'm not a huge fan of 3D, but it seems that Hollywood is all about it these days. It works for some films, but I don't want to see every single movie that comes out in 3D. However, when it comes to the horror genre, I think 3D is a must have. When My Bloody Valentine came out a few years ago, it convinced me that 3D is best used as a horror film technology to really bring a new level of scare and gore to a genre that has been getting worse and worse throughout the years.

Alexandre Aja, who has had some pretty decent horror films with The Hills Have Eyes and High Tension directs the film and does a great job of bringing a fun, entertaining movie to the screen. He also did a great job of getting a pretty respectable cast for a movie like this. Oscar winner Richard Dreyfuss, Oscar nominee Elisabeth Shue, three time Emmy winner Christopher Lloyd, Jerry O'Connell, Ving Rhames, Adam Scott and Ricardo Chavira all star. For a film of this genre and style to be able to snag actors like this is a real accomplishment. Many times, movies like this turn out to be bad and fail, because no real talent can be pulled in.

In the film, thousands of young people gather at Lake Victoria for spring break and during the celebration an earthquake opens up an ancient cavern that unleashes hundreds of prehistoric piranhas loose on the lake. A small group of people must work together to not only save the tourists, but keep themselves from getting eaten as well.

What makes Piranha 3D so great, is that the film doesn't take itself too seriously. This is supposed to be a fun, goofy movie with some jumps and lots of gore. And that is exactly what it delivers. What is even better, is that the cast doesn't take their roles to seriously either. There is no shouting to the heavens or scene of intense seriousness, it's as if everyone is in on it. Jerry O'Connell and Adam Scott in particular do a really great job of portraying their characters in a way as if they are telling the audience, "We know it's a fun, goofy movie, and we love it". Even the CGI piranhas have a goofy, almost on purpose look to them.

The entire cast was great. As a Back to the Future fan, I loved seeing Christopher Lloyd back on the screen playing this crazy old scientist. Another Back to the Future alumni, Elisabeth Shue, hasn't really done a lot on screen lately and it was good to see her back. In the film, she plays the sheriff and does a great job of playing the tough female lead.

Right from the start the movie gets me. As a fan of Jaws, I was excited to see that they brought Richard Dreyfuss's character, Matt Hooper from Jaws into the opening scene. For legal reasons, they changed his name to Matt Boyd, but he is wearing the exact same outfit, drinking the exact same beer and singing the exact same song from Jaws. I thought this was a great nod to Jaws and the genre and I thought it was a really fun idea bringing the character into yet another terrifying situation. The audience really loved that scene.

The film itself, is morally wrong on every level. I have never seen more gore and nudity than I have with this film, but it's paying a homage to the 70's and 80's horror films. During the 90's and 00's, horror films got really soft. There were a lot of PG-13 films and watered down R films and what Aja was trying to do, was bring back the old school type of horror. So if you not a fan of intense gore and nudity, stay far, far away, but if it doesn't bother you to much, I would say this is something you need to check out. And of course if your a horror fan and it doesn't bother you at all, this is a must see for you.

I really didn't have any problems with the film other than it was to short. The film runs at 82 minutes, and I really would have like to seen about thirty more minutes. The audience as well as myself had a great time watching it. There was laughing, screaming and cringing, but when the film ends the whole audience went "awwww", wanting more. Piranha 3D was not the best film of the summer by any means, but it was certainly the most entertaining. I wasn't expecting much from it, but I am giving it an eight out of ten.

HEADLINES

With the summer season coming to an end it looks like the movie news is starting to role in. It was a pretty quite summer as far as movie news goes, so I'm glad some stuff is popping up.









ROGEN TO VOICE BOO U
People must love Rogen's voice because he is always popping up in animated features. This time he will be voicing a ghost for Dreamworks upcoming animated film, Boo U. He plays a ghost who is sent back to school to improve his haunting skills.

Dreamworks is hit and miss with me. To me it seems like I like every other film they do. I like How to Train Your Dragon, so I will probably not like Megamind. So if this is the next in line, it's looking pretty good so far.









ELBA FINALLY GETS THE LEAD
Idris Elba will be taking over the role of Dr. Alex Cross, last portrayed by Morgan Freeman, for James Paterson's novel adaptation Cross. Paterson's previous two adaptations were Along Came A Spider and Kiss the Girls.

This is good news for Elba and us. I think he has tremendous talent, but hasn't found the big role yet in film. He will be perfect for Dr. Cross and I'm actually excited to see another film from these novels.

SAW DIRECTOR DOES 11 11 11
Apparently there is an organization that believes the recurrence of the number 11:11 has a spiritual significance and has a link to spiritual guardians. So naturally on November 11, 2011 this film will be released involving the 11 gates to heaven and how on 11/11/11 the final gate open for a short period of time.

This doesn't sound like anything special right now. Maybe after a few more details, this could turn into something interesting.











ODD DUO PAIR UP
Wesley Snipes is no familiar face to the crime/action genre, but Joey Lawrence, king of ABC's TGIF and now ABC Family, is. The two will be teaming up for a film titled Havana Heat. The story follows a murder of an undercover Homeland Security agent and his connection to Guantanamo Bay. What's even better is that Blonde and Blonder director Dean Hamiltyon is attached to direct.

Now this doesn't say it's going direct-to-dvd, but I can't imagine this making it's way to theatres. I mean Joey Lawrence and the guy that directed Blonde and Blonder??? You know who saw Blonde and Blonder, about eight people that's who. This has disaster written all over it.











JUMPER 2.......PLEASE NO
Hayden Christensen said at the premiere for Takers (which looks terrible), that Jumper 2 is a possibility and there is some talk and ideas going around for it right now.

I don't care how big of a Star Wars fan you are, you can't tell me that Christensen wasn't absolutely terrible in them and that he was one of the reasons they were so bad. The guy's acting is a joke. Now I thought that Jumper had a lot of potential, but a lot of things went wrong and the outcome wasn't good. I really hope they decide to go with a different character and give him the boot.









ABRAMS DEVELOPING THRILLER
Anyone ever play seven minutes in heaven? I never did. But imagine going into a closet to make out with a girl for seven minutes and when you come out, all your friends are dead. That the project Abrams is lining up with Lost director, Jack Bender.

I have nothing but faith in anything Abrams does, but I'm not sure how two kids going in a closet to make out and coming out with their friends dead is going to pan out on screen. I can't imagine an audience wanting to watch a thriller about two kids and I can't buy it being two teenagers. But it's Abrams so I put all my faith in him.

SUMMER 10' BEST AND WORST

Man, am I glad that this summer is over with. This summer has not felt like your typical blockbuster summer at the movies. But there were some gems in a huge pile of what I thought to be a summer filled with crap films. We will start with the worst of the summer.

TOP 5 WORST FILMS OF THE SUMMER









5. Splice

I was really hoping this film would be good, and while I think it had potential, in the end it was all gore and bore. Dren, the monster, wasn't a very good character in my opinion. The film was supposed to make you feel bad for her and be emotionally attache, but I never really cared about her. All that along with a silly ending ended up being a short lived box office stay with Splice.










4. Knight and Day

By far the worst Tom Cruise movie I have ever seen. Stupid story that barely had a plot, completely unbelievable action sequences, horrible dialogue along with a horrible performance by everyone involved. Another swing and a miss by Fox. They are getting good at those.











3. MacGrubber
Sorry Noe, but this film just didn't land with me. To me the comedy was almost like the spoof movies that have been rolling out the past couple years. Besides Val Kilmer, nothing about this film was funny. Once again, terrible dialogue, a sex scene with a ghost, and a bunch of missed jokes was enough for me to want to walk out.











2. Jonah Hex

I could go on all day about how DC Comics doesn't have anyone intelligent running their film department. Warner Bros. are just as guilty as well. Do they try out a Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman or even a Cyborg movie.....nope, they do Jonah Hex. Then they go after Megan Fox, who whether you find her attractive or not, is a terrible actor with a terrible personality to match. The film wasn't even a hour and a half long, so how could could you take it as a serious film?

and the winner for worst film of summer 2010 is............

































1. Killers

I love every chance I get to bash Katherine Heigl, and nothing gives me more pleasure than giving her movie the worst of the summer award. First off it's a ripoff of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Ashton Kutcher is about as believable as an action star as Clint Eastwood is as a comedian. The movie was horrible, filled with forced comedy, terrible "action" scenes and horrible dialogue. "Let's just say I work for the blank and they gave me a license to blank". Genius writing right there. Just look at the poster for this film with Heigl's stupid smile on her face. I could have told you this would have been the worst by the poster alone. Congrats Killers, you earned it.

As I said, there were some gems this summer. I will admit that two out of these five films, I wasn't even that crazy about but since there was slim picking I went with what was fun.

TOP 5 BEST FILMS OF THE SUMMER










5. Predators

Was this film great, no. But it was a huge step in the right direction as to where this franchise needs to go. The performances were great and believable and it had some pretty good action scenes for a film with a small budget. I am now convinced Adrien Brody can play an action star and I hope to see this franchise continue with him for at least one more film.









4. The A-Team

I never thought at the beginning of the summer I would put The A-Team as my number 4 film of the summer. But, it was a ton of fun. Now let me clear something up so it doesn't sound like I am contradicting myself. Knight and Day and The A-Team both had unbelievable action sequences, I realize this. But The A-Team was not trying to be serious about it. Their motto was how they specialize in the ridiculous and how they have these crazy plans so that it would be more believable. The film didn't take itself to seriously and I liked that.










3. Toy Story 3

Pixar is year in and year out top summer films. The same is with Toy Story 3. The story was a little repetitive of the past two films, but it was great regardless. Michael Keaton was a great addition to this cast. I am a little disappointed that the next three Pixar films will be sequels. I don't care much about Cars 2 and I have been wanting to see Monsters Inc. 2 for a while, but what Pixar specializes in is the original ideas.









2. Iron Man 2

Robert Downey Jr. somehow topped his performance from the first film. Jon Favreau matched the level of action and the end result was great. Sequels often don't live up to the original, but this was right on par with the first. The only disappointment was the under use of Mickey Rourke.

And the number one summer film of 2010 is..............
































1. Inception

I don't think this film is over hyped at all. The fact that original ideas can still come from Hollywood blows my mind. All Hollywood wants to do right now is remake movies or make a thousand sequels until the franchise is ran into the ground. Inception is by far the most original movie and as Robert Downey Jr. the most ambitious movie I have seen in the past few years. Great performances all around and an amazing story. If we could get at least five movies a year of this quality I would be happy. Well done Mr. Nolan.

So now that this crap crap summer is over, we can look forward to the next two, which are filled with big named movies.

MOVIE REVIEW: THE EXPENDABLES

The Expendables really needs no introduction. It's easily the most big named movie we have seen in a while with classic action stars such as; Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Terry Crewes, Steve Austin, Randy Couture and cameos by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis. But star studded casts doesn't always equal a great film.

In the film, Stallone plays plays Barney Ross, the leader of a mercenary group who goes in to do the governments dirty work. After being sent to a small village in South America to overthrow an evil dictator, Ross is afraid that he and his team are over their head being outnumbered in every way. He decides to call off the mission and head home, but once he returns, he has a change of heart and decides that the people their are worth fighting for and returns to finish the job.

Stallone is an underrated director. He directed four of the six Rocky films and directed the last Rambo film. I was really surprised by Rocky Balboa and Rambo not only because at sixty four, Stallone is still in top shape, but because the films were actually really good to be about characters that are so old. After his last two films, I was really excited to see what he could do with a cast like this.

Obviously the main thing that is going to attract people to this film is the cast. And for the most part, they are all great. Stallone is his classic, tough guy, leader of the pack self, that we are use to watching. He does a great job of playing the responsible leader.

Jason Statham, who has never made a movie I liked, really took me by surprise with how well he did in a more serious role playing the best friend and second in command.

But my favorite had to be Mickey Rourke. His part wasn't very big, but he delivered a great performance in my opinion. He had the performance in this that I was hoping he was going to have in Iron Man 2.

The rest of the cast was just kind of in and out. Terry Crews, Steve Austin, Jet Li and Randy Couture all had small parts who pretty much just came in for the big action scene, but nothing really special out of any of them. The same goes for Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis. Their scene was about five minutes long, but easily delivered the best line of the film.

Dolph Lundgren was easily the worst part about the film. His lines were terrible and his performance matched. He may have had some of the biggest fight scenes, but to me you got to be able to pull it off, and he just didn't do it for me.

As for the story, it was a very forgettable one. Evil dictator, couple of guys against a small army, nothing really special here. The film starts off with a bang, it gets everyone excited, and then it drags out for about thirty minutes with a stupid side story revolving Statham and his girlfriend that could have been completely cut from the film and then basically a boring tour of South Africa. I think many people are going to go into this film with the expectation of a two hour, non stop action film, and that simply isn't the case. The action scenes that were in the film however, were great ones. I think when action films are talked about these days, things like Transformers or super hero films are what comes to mind. These are nowhere near the caliber of action that came in the eighties and early nineties. Hopefully, this film will inspire the real action genre to come back to the big screen with a new generation of stars. I think there is a lot of potential here and I hope this performs well enough to get a sequel that will hopefully draw in more classic stars and hopefully deliver a better story.

The performances and action scenes were great, but the story lacked and drug. I give The Expendables a six out of ten.

MOVIE REVIEW: THE OTHER GUYS

Director Adam McKay and Will Ferrell have had a lot of success together with Anchorman, Talladega Nights and Step Brothers, plus their website Funny or Die. They have teamed up once again to bring us the buddy cop film, The Other guys, this time bringing Mark Wahlberg along for the ride. The film has a big supporting cast, Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne Johnson, Eva Mendes, Michael Keaton and Steve Coogan all co-star. Allen Gamble, an easy going, laid back desk cop who doesn't like to get out and pursue criminals. Terry Hoitz (Wahlberg) is a cop desperately seeking action after an unfortunate run in with Derek Jeter made him the laughing stock of the police force. Once paired up, they decide to try and out do the two top cops they idolize, but end up getting into more than they can handle.

The beginning of the film stated off on a bad note for me. The very beginning starts out with a big action scene. Buddy cop films are hard to pull off because they have to have both action that is believable and comedy that lands it's jokes. With Adam McKay having no experience with anything remotely similar to action, it really hurt the action oriented parts like the start of the film. It wasn't executed very well and came off looking very unbelievable. However, once the film got rolling, the laughs started rolling along with it.

McKay and Ferrell films are notorious for their classic quotes and hilarious one liners. The film doesn't have as many as usual, but still has some great lines. Michael Keaton in particular has a very funny running joke in the film.

The co-stars in this film were all great. Like I said, Michael Keaton had a very funny running joke. It is good to see him back on the screen. Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson were both great in the very short role they played as the tough guy cops. I wish they would have extended their parts a little more. And Eva Mendes, who I am not normally fond of was actually pretty funny.

Will Ferrell needed this film to be a hit very badly. He has been losing a step lately with his same routine of comedy that has been worn out over the past few years. He hasn't really changed his act much. There is still the uncontrolled shouting and the funny, random one liners, but it works enough to get away with it. After his Land of the Lost disaster, I didn't know if he would be able to bounce back.

If your a fan of the McKay/Ferrell collaborations, you will love this one as well. The film is funny and it works, but I would consider it the weakest out of the four of their films. The poorly done action scenes and rough start hurt it a little, but it did a good job of digging itself out. I give it five out of ten.

MOVIE REVIEW: DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS

Director Jay Roach has a lot of big time comedies under his belt; he directed all three Austin Power films, the first two Meet the Parents and he produced both Borat and Bruno. Clearly he has had success with his comedies. So when I saw the trailer for Dinner for Schmucks, I thought there had to be more to it then just Paul Rudd taking Steve Carrell to dinner to make fun of him so he can get a promotion. Sadly, that was all there was to it.

In the film, Paul Rudd plays Tim, a guy eagerly trying to work his way up the corporate ladder. After a business pitch that gets him noticed by his superiors, they inform him that they like him, but want him to join them for a dinner before they make any final decisions. The only catch is, that he has to bring an idiot to dinner with him and whoever brings the biggest idiot wins. His girlfriend is against the dinner but after running into Barry who is a complete moron, he has to decide if his promotion is more important than his conscious.

To me, there just wasn't enough material to really make a movie out of. It was almost as if someone had the start of a good idea, but never really knew where to take the story, so they just stretched it out with a bunch of slapstick comedy and uncomfortable situations.

The characters in the film were completely unbelievable, three in particular. Yes, Carrell is playing the role of a moron, but no one is that stupid. He plays the exact same part as he does in The Office, a routine that is getting really old, really quick on that show. The second character is played Lucy Punch and is a crazy, obsessed ex of Paul Rudd. She was hands down the worst character of the film. Then the third character is an artist who Rudd's girlfriend curates for. Jemaine Clement nails the part, and I think he will turn out to be a big star, but the role is just to stupid for me in this film. You can next see him as the villain in the next Men In Black film. Zach Galifinakis from The Hangover has a cameo, but not even his character was a memorable one.

It had a few good laughs here and there. The dinner itself was pretty funny but only lasts a few minutes, and Carrell had some funny lines, but his character drug him down to much.

If slapstick is your thing, you will love the film. I'm not crazy about that style of comedy, but many in the audience was loving the film, it just wasn't for me. The lack of story and horribly written characters blew it for me. I give it a two out of ten.

HEADLINES

TOTAL RECALL GETS THE REBOOT AND A DIRECTOR
Len Wiseman, who is best known for the first two Underworld films as well as Live Free or Die Hard, will be remaking the 80's classic, Total Recall.

I like Wiseman. I think his action movies are a lot better than most the crap getting released these days, but he still has room to get even better.

Am I thrilled about a remake to Total Recall, no. It seems like every movie Arnold has been in has got or is getting a remake, or they want him making a cameo in something. If it does have to get made, then I'm glad it is Wisman. Looks like that Gears of War movie will never happen though.









LOOK AT ME, TO YOUR MOVIE, NOW BACK AT ME....I AM NOW A MOVIE STAR
Old Spice guy, Isaiah Mustafa, has landed a small role in Horrible Bosses. The film stars Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx and the oh so beautiful Julie Bowen, who if your not familiar with, you need to get familiar with.

Mustafa also said recently that he would love to play Marvel Comics hero, Luke Cage. I could dig that.










FEY AND STREEP TEAM UP FOR NEW FILM
Tina Fey and Meryl Streep have signed on for the comedy, Mommy and Me. The two will play mother and daughter and I suppose focus on some sort of odd, goofy relationship between the two. Stanley Tucci is directing.

I love Fey and I actually am really fond of Streep as well. I don't believe Fey is writing this, but I will still be keeping up on this project.








DEL TORO ANNOUNCES NEXT FILM
Everyone it seems Guillermo del Toro. There has been many projects he has been attached to and many he is very passionate about pursuing. He announced at ComicCon that he will be remaking Haunted Mansion, but first it seems he will finally be making his long time wish list film, Mountains of Madness. But guess who is producing......James Cameron and he is bringing his 3D technology with him. Mountains of Madness is about a geologist who leads an Antarctic expedition and finds a huge chain of mountains, and on the other side, they find the remains of ancient uncharted life forms.

The synopsis is a little bland, but del Toro is a mastermind when it comes to horror and imaginative creatures. Here is what he has to say on the film:

"What 'Mountains of Madness' is is a throwback to something nobody does anymore, it's tentpole horror," he told us. "Everybody now understands horror as minimum investment, maximum return, and most of the time, they go at it, as production entities, with great cynicism, like 'Let's make it really gory or extreme' and for a very low budget, and recuperate our investment, make money, all that. If you make a horror movie for half a million and it makes 4, they're very happy. The studio sees horror movies as something they will not invest more than $30-40 million. 'Mountains of Madness' needs to be tentpole in the way that the tentpole movies of the past were, about $130 million."

Anyone who reads my stuff, knows how much I hate how absolutely no effort is put into films anymore. This guy is passionate about anything he does. This kind of film will look great in Cameron's 3D.







LINDELOF REWRITING ALIEN PREQUEL
While the Alien prequel Ridley Scott is working on is still a few years away, the writing process is hard at work. Lost writer, Damon Lindelof has been brought on to do some rewriting of the film.

I love Lost, it is one of the greatest shows of all time. I certainly won't turn my nose to a Ridley Scott Alien film written by Damon Lindelof.

Comic Con Day 3

MARVEL STUDIOS

Well the panel I have been looking forward to the most, and the one that seems to be the show stealer every year is officially over. I have the entire transcript from Captain America, Thor and The Avengers. So here ya go, the entire transcript of the Marvel Studio panel:

Dana Vinson: Hey everyone! We are finally a go for Thor and Captain America!
6:45
Dana Vinson: We're coming to you live from Hall H at Comic-Con 2010, where Marvel is showcasing their line up of upcoming films.
6:46
Dana Vinson: Marvel is working on combining the universes, bringing their stories together!
6:47
Dana Vinson: Here we go, Captain America trailer
6:47
Dana Vinson: Starts out with footage from World War II...
6:47
Dana Vinson: And now the famous Captain America shield!
6:48
Dana Vinson: "Next Summer, Meet the World's First Avenger"
6:48
Dana Vinson: and then we get a quick look at Captain America. End of trailer!
6:49
Dana Vinson: Now they're bringing out the director of Captain America, Joe Johnston
6:50
Dana Vinson: "We have one chance to tell the origin story of Captain America." Johnston
6:50
Dana Vinson: Chris Evans is out on stage now...Captain America himself!
6:51
Dana Vinson: Evans has only been shooting for five days he says, "The Suit is fantastic."
6:52
Dana Vinson: Hugo Weaving, who plays The Red Skull, spend a lot of time studying the German accent, but won't do it for us right now in this panel.
6:52
Dana Vinson: Evans also played the human torch in the Fantastic Four.
6:53
Dana Vinson: Also, just for the record, Chris Evans's shoulders are out of control muscular.
6:53
Dana Vinson: They're very Captain America.
6:54
Dana Vinson: "We're going slightly more modern than the old Captain America," Johnston said in regards to the suit.
6:54
Dana Vinson: What we saw in the trailer was just a little snippet from the costume test. The final suit has not been revealed yet. Chris Evans hasn't filmed in it yet.
6:56
Dana Vinson: "If we don't love Steve Rogers before he gets transformed, we're not going to love him after," Johnston said.
6:57
Dana Vinson: They're going to show us what they shot just last week!
6:58
Dana Vinson: It's very rough...still has time code on it!
6:58
Dana Vinson: Norway, May 1942
6:59
Dana Vinson: A wall is broken down by German soldiers.
6:59
Dana Vinson: The Red Skull comes walking through the giant hole in the wall!
7:00
Dana Vinson: He pushes the top off a tomb...
7:00
Dana Vinson: and grabs a glass cube and drops it on the ground.
7:01
Dana Vinson: The Red Skull opens a secret compartment in the wall by pushing on the eye of a snake. He opens the box and a blue light comes out of it.
7:01
Dana Vinson: The footage looks fantastic! Very Raiders of the Lost Ark!
7:02
Dana Vinson: OH SNAP! It's hammer time!
7:02
Dana Vinson: Thor director Kenneth Branagh is out on the stage!
7:04
Dana Vinson: "The one I loved was Thor. I loved the name, I loved the fact that he is a character with the combination of brute strength, I liked that he was in a very dysfunctional family and that the stories were epic" Kenneth Branagh
7:04
Dana Vinson: Here comes the cast!
7:07
Dana Vinson: We've got Kat Dennings, Tom Hiddleston, Natalie Portman and Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth!
7:10
Dana Vinson: Portman is talking about how acting in an action movie is completely different because of all the blue screen involved and how acting in front of a blue screen requires a separate set of skills.
7:10
Dana Vinson: Kat plays a new character named Darcy. She's not in the books, only the movie.
7:11
Dana Vinson: Now we're hearing from Hiddleson who plays Loki.
7:11
Dana Vinson: "He's a great liar and it was fun playing with is he lying or is he telling the truth." Hiddleson
7:13
Dana Vinson: Oh here we go...some early footage from Thor!
7:14
Dana Vinson: We were ordered to put on our 3D glasses...
7:14
Dana Vinson: It's a new Thor trailer!
7:15
Dana Vinson: We're getting snippets of Thor fighting, and then finally a good look at his face.
7:15
Dana Vinson: Here's our first look at Odin!
7:16
Dana Vinson: Very impressive. The 3D look great. Very well done.
7:16
Dana Vinson: Thor gets cast out.
7:17
Dana Vinson: Jane finds him in the desert.
7:17
Dana Vinson: Thor just threw the hammer. Awesome
7:17
Dana Vinson: Wild applause erupt from the crowd as the trailer comes to an end.
7:19
Dana Vinson: Looks like the classic Jack Kirby hammer...
7:20
Dana Vinson: Ok, now they're opening up the floor to questions
7:23
Dana Vinson: Someone in the comments asked about Don Blake...Branagh said that there are some "Don Blake" surprises in the film.
7:24
Dana Vinson: Someone got up to the mic and just shouted Edward Norton.
7:24
Dana Vinson: Marvel didn't like that too much, but handled it very gracefully and also said "The panel's not over yet."
7:24
Dana Vinson: Hinting that something big is still going to happen...
7:26
Dana Vinson: A dude just got up to the mic and said "After seeing that trailer, I might have to change my panties."
7:27
Dana Vinson: Frank Castle is under the roof of Marvel studios now and they hope to bring him "into the fray" shortly.
7:29
Dana Vinson: So maybe that means The Punisher is next?!
7:31
Dana Vinson: Here comes another viewing of The Thor trailer!
7:32
Dana Vinson: I don't know when they're going to release the trailer to the public, unfortunately. Should be soon now that they've already shown it here.
7:37
Dana Vinson: The Marvel guys are back out on the stage...
7:37
Dana Vinson: They just shut off the lights...
7:37
Dana Vinson: The Avengers Trailer!!!!
7:38
Dana Vinson: Just a teaser trailer...
7:38
Dana Vinson: but now, Samuel L. Jackson is out on the stage!
7:38
Dana Vinson: He's rocking his usual Kangol cap and looking good...
7:39
Dana Vinson: Scarlett Johansson is here!
7:40
Dana Vinson: Robert Downey Jr. just stepped out on stage!
7:40
Dana Vinson: Everyone here is on their feet.
7:40
Dana Vinson: Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth are also out on stage.
7:41
Dana Vinson: RDJ is talking now about The Avengers. He's introducing Jeremy Renner.
7:41
Dana Vinson: And now, here comes Mark Ruffalo!
7:42
Dana Vinson: And finally, here comes director Joss Whedon!
7:42
Dana Vinson: "I have had a dream all my life and it was not this good." Joss Whedon
7:43
Dana Vinson: "This is The Avengers! This cast is more than I could have ever dreamed of working with." Whedon
7:43
Dana Vinson: All of them are standing in the front of the stage right now and Joss said "See you soon!"
7:44
Dana Vinson: That's it's from the Marvel Movies Panel here at Comic-Con 2010!

I would have given anything to have been there. In fact, I would have skipped my wedding to go.

I was really surprised that they not only had a Captain America trailer ready, but also had a scene for the audience as well. That is a lot of work to get ready for a film that has only been shooting for eight days. They showed more from Captain America than DC did for Green Lantern, and that film is almost wrapped. But then what do they do, they give us a teaser trailer for The Avengers, which hasn't even begun filming and isn't released until 2012.

I've looked at three different sites covering the panel, and all three said that what they saw from Captain America and Thor was incredible and now has me psyched out of my mind even more than I already was.


















GREEN LANTERN PANEL
So we go from a crazy, out of control panel, to an incredibly boring panel. Year after year I hear " Warner Bros. is going to be announcing some huge news this year for their plans for DC." Then Con gets here and every year all they say is, "We can't talk about future projects". This is why Marvel whips the crap out of DC consistently. They may have Batman, but that is it. They don't do anything to get the audience excited or anything to look forward to. A few years ago, Marvel announced at Con their five year plan which was, Iron Man, Hulk, Iron Man 3, Thor, Captain America and then The Avengers. The crowd went nuts and Marvel has been the king of Con ever since. So here is the transcript from the Green Lantern panel:

Not sure if this is something that many people will realize but apparently, there are hurricane warnings along the Gulf, which means the cast and crew of Green Lantern had to run in to do the panel and they have to get right back to Louisiana.

Moderator is Geoff Boucher of Hero Complex. He started things off by saying the Green Lantern oath, great way to kick things off and the first person out is "Green Lantern" writer and DC Entertainment CCO Geoff Johns!

They're starting things off with some footage! (Will write up in a second but it went by very fast!)

It's essentially a teaser which starts off with a glowing green ball and an alien voiceover that says:

"Welcome inhabitants of sector 2814. The Guardians have chosen you as candidates for enlistment but before you can be recruited, you must be tested. The light you see before you is controlled by your will. Focus on the light. If you will it, it will be. Now, focus."

That ball of green light continues to pulse and get larger and larger before it blasts the screen with a wave of green light.

We then hear Reynolds' voiceover saying the Green Lantern oath and a quick montage of footage cut together that went by very fast, including a close-up of Reynolds as Hal Jordan, his hand holding the ring, we see him in street clothes being pulled upwards and see a later scene in which he's taking on criminals by using the ring to form a giant fist that throws a roundhouse punch knocking out a bunch of guys. We get a very brief glimpse of Hector Hammond and Tomar Re. (We presume that the voiceover was Abin Sur, but we're not sure.)

After the oath is done, we hear the original alien voiceover saying, "The choice has been made."

The light we saw earlier starts forming into the GL emblem and then we see the logo is "Await Further Contact Summer 2011." (Hopefully, they'll show it again so we can catch more since it went by very fast.)

They're now bringing out the cast and crew including producer Donald DeLine, writer/producer Greg Berlanti, director Martin Campbell, Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Mark Strong and Peter Sarsgaard.

Ryan Reynolds says he was influenced by Han Solo and Chuck Yaeger for the part of Hal Jordan. The rest of the cast are talking about their characters and doing a superhero movie.

Director Martin Campbell is talking about the tone about keeping it very real and that the humor is apparent due to the presence of Ryan and Blake.

Producer Donald DeLine just listed a roster of Green Lanterns we're likely to see in the movie, most of which we missed cause we were writing up the footage (will add in a bit) but he did mention that we get to see Killer Wasp. We'll go back and add this when we have some time.

Geoff Johns is talking about the origins of the project and how ten years ago, he never thought a GL movie would happen cause someone at Warner Bros. asked, "Can we do it without the ring?"

Boucher is asking the cast some fairly generic questions about the characters they're playing, nothing really urgent that we haven't heard before from any actor who has been in a superhero movie. (Is that too cynical? Yeah, probably.)

Sarsgaard described Hammond as "the kid who licked the battery or went up the rooftop with a coat hanger" to see what happened.

A question from the audience asks how they picked the characters to use for the movie, and it focuses on Kilowog, Sinestro and Tomar Re. They mention that Green Man and Bzzt will both be seen briefly.

Geoff was asked about other DC projects and he said that he can't talk about them. Same as always.

Ryan Reynolds was also talking about how he got the gig, and how they showed him the worlds and he was trying to play hard to get, but they really wanted him, though they made him work for the part by doing a couple screen tests before he got the role.

Martin Campbell is talking about Hal's relationship with his father Martin as seen in the "Secret Origins" arc and how that's going to play a large part in the movie, finally culminating at the end of the movie when Hal becomes a Green Lantern.

Geoff Johns was asked about a "Justice League" movie but he's sidestepping it, saying that it will depend on the success of "Green Lantern."

At the request of a little kid, Ryan Reynolds is saying the Green Lantern's oath... the kid isn't sure how to react. Reynolds is wearing one of those (presumably) plastic Green Lantern rings... unless that's a real one from the movie?!?

A question from the audience asks if there's room for Alan Scott, and Johns says, "There's always room." Ryan Reynolds says that Parallax is in the movie.

Asked about whether Mogo may appear, Johns says, "There's a lot of Green Lanterns in the film."

When asked which DC character they might make into a movie next, Johns says "Green Lantern 2."

Ryan Reynolds and Mark Strong talked a bit about how their character fly in the movie, and then Martin Campbell is talking about Hal and Carol as test pilots and how that's shown in the movie as the two of them test out some of Ferris Aviation's latest jets. We definitely will see Carol in the skies flying the jets as well, rather than being only on the floor.

Ryan Reynolds says he's been wearing the ring for six months and he plans on passing it onto someone else, similar to Abin Sur giving his ring to Hal Jordan. They told the audience that there's a piece of paper under someone's seat and they will be given the ring. And we have a winner!

Are they seriously not showing the footage again? Man, that's kind of a rip-off! Nope, that seems to be the end of the panel. Wow.

As you can tell, they guy writing this wasn't very impressed with the panel or the fact that so little footage was played and not even replayed.

COMIC CON DAY 2

SKYLINE

This is one of the many alien projects happening this year. A few clips were shown and it is described as a mix between District 9, Cloverfield and Independence Day, all favorites of mine. Donald Faison (Scrubs) and Eric Balfour (24) are there talking about the film. Here are two descriptions of the footage:

Clip was pretty cool. Giant alien ships sucking human bodies off the earth. Heroes hiding and fighting against these digital looking aliens.


Second clip showed Eric and Donald on a roof watching dozens of blue lights fall to the ground. People start shooting into the air around the lights. Then a slew of giant alien motherships reveal themselves out of the clouds to catch all the people. Smaller ships exit the mothership (think Independence day) and start scanning the areas for more humans. Eric and Donald get caught and are chased back to a locked door.

Showed the clip again. There's something going on with the eyes of people that look directly at the light of the ships. The sockets start glowing and all the veins surface around their face. The climax has a giant fighter jet crashing down on top of a sky-rise roof while two of our heroes try to avoid it. Friday July 23, 2010 3:46



DRIVE ANGRY 3D
Nicholas Cage and Amber Heard just took the stage to show some clips from Drive Angry 3D. It was said that Cage's hair was nice and tammed and that the footage shown wasn't all that impressive and that it is something audiences have seen a hundred times already. I'll wait to see for myself, but that pretty much knocks any interest I had in this film.




PIRANAH 3D




Originally they were supposed to screen the entire film, but due to the graphic content, it got pulled. They did end up showing ten minutes of the film however. Here's what was said:

The footage begins with Elisabeth Shue and Ving Rhames walking along a broken down pier where an abandoned boat floats. Shue investigates and naturally falls in the water where a nasty half eaten body clings to her as if a zombie.

Cut to two divers descending into an underwater ravine. One takes a turn into a tunnel which takes him into a massive, "endless" cave. Aja plays with the 3D, pulling his camera backward through the cave, giving the shot some fun perspective. The diver sees a string of fish eggs and continues on as a single egg floats towards us closer, closer still until this thing is in your face and we can see the embryo of a nasty lil' piranha spinning inside, a chance for Aja to provide a stinger scare. Another shocker comes when the diver is bit. When he turns around, he's surrounded by hundreds of prehistoric piranha who move in for the kill.

The next scene introduces us to big Spring Break wet t-shirt scene hosted by a pun-dropping Eli Roth. "Look at those weapons of masturbation, right over heeeeahhh!" he yells as he sprays water on some well endowed hotties. The fun is cut short when Ving Rhames and his fellow police officers try to declare an emergency. Of course, the revelers don't listen and the party continues…until the fish attack and the Spring Break massacre begins.

Fish flood the camera. Aja takes us underwater as bodies struggle to escape the feeding frenzy. Kids try to reach higher ground - particularly a giant stage which eventually overturns due to the weight. A snapped cable lashes out cutting two girls in half…their bikinis come off first, naturally. And Roth suffers a particularly awesome death that splashes a blonde girl in gore. One jack-ass races through the lake on his speed boat, running people over and chopping them up with his propeller.

It's madness and every bit as bloody as you've read about.

On shore, it looks like a World War is being fought. Cops pulls people out of the water. Everyone is chewed up. One girl is split in two. KNB's Greg Nicotero is spotted carrying half a body on his back. AC/DC's Highway to Hell kicks into the preview and gives us a montage of clips with Rhames grabbing a boat propeller and jamming it into the water, Steven McQueen looks like he's doing tequila shots, a girl vomits off the side of a boat…and onto the camera lens, Kelly Brook and Riley Steele share an underwater nude swimming scene, a piranha bursts out of a girl's mouth and another piranha gets a taste of Jerry O'Connell's unfortunate member.


Sounds awesome.

COMIC CON 2010

I believe this is it for day one of Comic Con. Not a great first day as far as surprises go. I would say Del Toro walking out on stage and the new Tron trailer wins best of the day, but it's day one and the best is yet to come.....


Battle: Los Angeles

This is one panel I was looking forward to after seeing only a couple of pics from the film. Aaron Eckhart and Michelle Rodriguez was there along with the director, but apparently Rodriguez was the only one who seemed excited to be there. They showed a trailer and it was described as entertaining but something they would need to see more out of before making a final decision. I'm pretty bummed they weren't blown away by the footage, but I think the non-enthusiastic panel had something to do with it.



The Expendables

Apparently this was a really great panel. Stalone, Willis, Coulter, Crews, Austin and Dolph are all there. They showed two clips that were mind described as mind blowing and is supposed to put action films back on the map. Everyone had a lot of fun with the crowd and put on a great show. This really boosts my expectations for this film.




J.J. Abrams and Joss Whedon

This was a panel I was really looking forward to with The Avengers, Star Trek 2, Super 8 and Mission Impossible 4 being high up on my list. Unfortunately, they said it was to early to talk about The Avengers and Super 8, and MI:4 and Star Trek 2 wasn't even brought up. Whedon did say that his film Cabin In the Woods is pretty much stuck with MGM's problems right now and has no idea when it will be released. Pretty much nothing came of this panel. No exciting announcements or anything. Pretty disappointed.






Alright, it is officially underway starting with Tron: Legacy. From here on out, I'm just going to update with the latest being on top. They just had the cast on stage and showed a new trailer and eight minutes of footage. Then they surprised the audience by showing Johnny Depp on the set of Pirates 4 and he spoke to the audience a bit. And Guillermo del Toro just walked out on stage and announced that he is going to be remaking Haunted Mansion. Not a big fan of the first, but he is going to take it in a more serious dirction. So we have a few surprises already at Con this year. Here is a link to the new Tron trailer:

http://movies.yahoo.com/TRONLegacyRevealed.

The original is ok, but way before my generation's time. This film however looks incredible and I can't wait to see it! Be back with more as soon as it comes.

Comic Con is about to get underway in San Diego, CA and already there have been tons of pictures released and a few announcements made. Some of the highlights this year are the following:

THOR
With most of the film complete and several pictures being released in the past week, look for the trailer to be released.

CAPTAIN AMERICA
This film hasn't begun shooting yet, but I hope to see the cast come out, maybe Chris Evans himself will come out in the much talked about suit.

THE AVENGERS
Rumor has it that the entire cast of the film will be announced at Com this year and that they are all going to make an appearance. I can't wait to hear the Q&A from that.

GREEN LANTERN
DC is finally moving away from Batman and Superman and making a film based off one of their other popular titles. Be looking for a trailer here and possibly Batman 3 and the Superman reboot news.

BATTLE: LOS ANGELES
Not a lot of news or pics have been released about this film, but I am eager to see something on this. The basic plot for the film is a Marine platoon faces off against an alien invasion in Los Angeles. The film stars Aaron Eckhart and Michelle Rodriguez.

SKYLINE
After a late night party, a group of friends are awoken in the dead of the night by an eerie light beaming through the window. Like moths to a flame, the light source is drawing people outside before they suddenly vanish into the air. They soon discover an otherwordly force is swallowing the entire human population off the face of the earth. Now our band of survivors must fight for their lives as the world unravels around them. This sounds like something right up my alley, but there are a ton of alien type stuff coming out in the near future. Hopefully they will all be great.

FALLING SKIES
In Falling Skies, a former college professor who becomes the leader of a group of soldiers and civilians struggling against an occupying alien force. Noah Wyle (ER), Moon Bloodgood star in this new TNT series. Once again, another alien invasion show, but I don't care how many they make, I'll watch them all.

DRIVE ANGRY 3D
Nicholas Cage can't keep making bad movies forever can he? Ok, he might, but I am still a little intrigued by Drive Angry 3D. After Cage's daughter is brutally murdered and her baby kidnapped, Cage goes on a furious murdering rampage until he gets revenge on everyone involved. Sounds fun enough.

THE GREEN HORNET
I'm not super excited for this, but I'm curious as to what they are going to bring to Con this year.

THE WALKING DEAD
AMC has been on a role lately with Breaking Bad and Mad Men. Now they are dipping into the horror genre and bringing the popular graphic novel to life in a new series.


So far, two big announcements have been made.

Saw 7 will finally and thankfully be the final film......before they reboot it two years of course. Apparently the film has had to be re-edited six different times so that the MPAA could give the film an "R" rating instead of an "NC-17". Hopefully this means it will go out with a bang.

Bradd Pitt has been cast in the upcoming film, World War Z. The film is about a world wide Zombie infestation. I'm bored with Zombies.

Here are the photos so far from the show:

MOVIE REVIEW: INCEPTION

Inception comes from the brilliant mind of Christopher Nolan. Leonardo Dicaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe and Cilian Murphyr round out what I think is one the best ensemble casts in years. The story of the film is best experienced rather than described, but the basic principle is that Cobb (Dicaprio) and his crew enter people's minds through dreams and steal information out of the mind. Cobb is then asked to rather than extract information from a mind, to go in and implant an idea, something that has never been done.

This is hands down the best film of the year so far. So many times I complain about how bad Hollywood has gotten with it's repetitive stories, stupid spoofs and disappointing remakes, that it's nice to see that there is some hope left that an original story can not only be created, but executed as beautifully as this film was. It is a challenging film, that demands the audience's attention the entire time and requires you to really think about everything that is happening. This is a rare feat in film these days.

With this film, I believe that Christopher Nolan has secured his spot as the best working director right now. Spielberg has lost his touch, Ron Howard has gotten to be a little repetitive and James Cameron may make trillion dollar movies but he is nowhere near close to a top director. The only other director that consistently delivers great films like Nolan is Clint Eastwood. In my opinion Nolan has never made a bad film, but on top of that, he has made a better film each time. I'm convinced the man could make a movie about the Care Bears and it would be a masterpiece.







The cast in this film is superb. They brought in actors of different ages and with different styles and it worked out perfectly. Up and comers Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ellen Page were fantastic and really stood out here. Both of their careers were on the rise and I believe they will be able to get any role they want very soon. Dicaprio almost seemed as a mentor to Gordon-Levitt and Page in the film and as usual delivered a knock-out performance himself. One of the supporting actors, Tom Hardy, was really impressive. I haven't seen anything else he has been in, but after seeing this, I believe he has a bright future ahead of him, especially if he sticks with Nolan who is known for using the same people in multiple films.






The film may have a complex plot description, but once the film starts, it isn't very hard to catch on. Early reports were saying that America is to dumb for this film and that the complexity of the film would hurt it financially. I didn't find that to be the case at all. This film won't be for everyone, but it will certainly appeal to most. The film is a little over two and a half hours, but it still left me wanting more. I wanted more back stories, I wanted more missions and I wanted to see more environments that the characters travel to and create.

Inception is the film that this summer has needed so badly and reigns as the number one film of 2010. This is a must see. I don't do it often, but this film deserves a ten out of ten.

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS

There has been so much news on the upcoming prequel, X-Men: First Class, that I decided to do a breakdown of who will be playing who and to share some thoughts on this franchise.






First we'll start with the movie itself. This movie doesn't really need to be made, period. There is WAYYYYYY to much material in the comics to have to go back and do a prequel with all these young actors. Halle Berry said she would be down for another, Anna Paquin (Rouge), Shawn Ashmore (Iceman), Aaron Stanford (Pyro), Ellen Page (Kitty Pryde) and Kelsey Grammer (Beast) all signed on for three more sequels, so there is half the cast. Then James Marsden (Cyclops), Ian McKellen (Magneto), Famke Jensen (Jean Grey) and Patrick Stewart (Professor X) would all be very easy to convince to come back. The only one in question would be Hugh Jackman and I bet he would come back, and if he didn't then you could put Gambit in there to replace him.

See the problem is that Fox has had the rights to anything X-Men related for so many years and they screw up just about anything they touch. The original X-Men: First Class was, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Beast and Angel. There is a problem right there because Iceman and Angel are teenagers when the first three take place. Which that if fine that they did it that way. People want to see the more popular characters and Iceman and Angel aren't as popular as Wolverine, Storm and Nightcrawler. But now they are trying to backtrack and it's just not a very good idea. These movies make money because of the fans and they need to try to do a better job at giving the fans what they want instead of pursuing their stupid ideas.






It would have been so easy to continue on with a fourth film, bring everyone back and start a new story. There are so many villains in the X-Men universe other than Magneto. Seeing Apocalypse, Sinister or Onslaught on screen would be awesome to us fanboys and you could still have magneto in the film. You could also bring in Cable and Bishop and play with the time traveling story lines from the 90's. There are endless possibilities with this universe, but were being given First Class so for right now this will have to do. This film may turn out to be awesome, but I haven't heard one fan be very enthusiastic about this prequel.

So who is in charge of bringing this to the big screen? The answer is Matthew Vaughn. I think he will be capable of pulling this off. He has done Layer Cake, Stardust and Kick-Ass. Out of the three, Stardust and Layer Cake is often refereed to as underrated and Kick-Ass was pretty darn good in my opinion. This will certainly be an important film that could really help his career if he nails this.

So who will be the new faces portraying our favorite superheroes?









James McAvoy: Charles Xavier

McAvoy is best known for his role in Wanted. I personally don't really see him as a Professor X, he is a little to young to be in charge of a bunch of other young characters. I think they should have went with someone older, but I'm also not in charge of casting. I think he will do ok for the part, but it will be a stretch.











Michael Fassbender: Magneto

Fassbender had small roles in both 300 and Inglourious Basterds but other than that, he hasn't been in anything very recognizable. I do think that this guy is on the rise and I actually like this casting choice.











Aaron Johnson: Cyclops

Johnson is best known for playing Kick-Ass. I like this casting and I hope he can ditch the geek persona and come off as a strong leader in this film. I think he looks a little too young for the role, but I don't think they are really caring about age with all these casting choices.












Alice Eve: Emma Frost

Eve was recently in She's Out of Your League. She is very beautiful and I think will be a perfect fit for the role of Frost. However, I really don't see Frost fitting into this film.











Nicholas Hoult: Beast

This guy has been in nothing. He was in Clash of the Titans, but I don't even know who he played. Beast was not a blue furry creature in the beginning, he was a big guy who was a genius scientist and had super strength. This is totally wrong casting for that description.











Caleb Jones: Banshee
I have no idea who this kid is. I never liked Banshee in the comics, so I really don't care that he is going to be in this film. I don't consider the ability to scream loud a cool power I want to see on screen.











Jennifer Lawrence: Mystique
Lawrence is another actress who is supposed to be an up and comer. She was on The Bill Engvall Show which aired on TBS, so I'm not convinced by that alone. But she was recently in a film called Winter's Bone, and apparently had a stellar performance in it. Luckily with Mystique not a lot of acting is required, just beauty.










Kevin Bacon: ??????
Kevin Bacon is the most interesting cast member I think. His role hasn't been released yet, but he will be playing a villain role. I would like to think he is playing Mr. Sinster. He has the look, and it would be a pretty cool villain to see, but I don't have faith in Fox to take a chance and do that, so he will probably be some lame character.

Now I would expect that there will be more casting updates to come. I would assume Jean Grey will be in the film as well as some more villains. But as I look at this cast, it just doesn't get me excited. I mean who really wants to watch a bunch of young people play X-Men characters. Hopefully Fox will get this film off their chest because they have been wanting to do it for some time, and they can get back to making real X-Men movies. I would love to see a dark X-Men film with Apocalypse or with Bishop and Cable. One nerd can hope.