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.

TWO GREAT TRAILERS FROM GALIFIANAKIS

It might be a good week to be Zach Galifianakis because he had two different trailers released this week, both looking like they are going to be great.

The first is "It's Kind of A Funny Story". The film is about a teen who is misdiagnosed and sent to the mental ward of a hospital. The juvenile area is being renovated so he's placed with the adult patients. Galifianakis plays an adult patient who befriends our protagonist and helps him along his way to realizing maybe he's not crazy and in turn realizes a little something about himself.

I think this looks like a really great, feel good film. I especially like it because it has Galifianakis playing a somewhat different role than normal. I really hope he doesn't keep with the same old act from The Hangover. That seems to always kill careers when actors can't branch out, *couch* Will Ferrell *cough* Adam Sandler.

The trailers will be cut off due to the format of Blogger, but you'll get most of the screen.







The second film is Due Date and stars Robert Downey Jr., Zach Galifianakis and Jamie Foxx. The story is about Peter Highman who is trying to get home in time for the birth of his first child. Along the way he picks up Galifianakis's character and a crazy road trip follows.

This looks ok, but it looks a little along the lines of The Hangover and Galifianakis seems to be playing the exact same character from The Hangover. I have no doubt this will funny though, just a little unoriginal.

NORTON OUT, RUFFALO IN?

Last week, there was some back in forth words coming from Marvel and Edward Norton's people. Kevin Feige for Marvel Studios said in his statement:

"Our decision is definitely not one based on monetary factors, but instead rooted in the need for an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of our other talented cast members. The Avengers demands players who thrive working as part of an ensemble, as evidenced by Robert, Chris H, Chris E, Sam, Scarlett, and all of our talented casts."

That statement from Feige didn't go over well with Norton's agent and he released a statement. Here is some from that statement:

"Two months ago, Kevin called me and said he wanted Edward to reprise the role of Bruce Banner in The Avengers. He told me it would be his fantasy to bring Edward on stage with the rest of the cast at ComiCon and make it the event of the convention. When I said that Edward was definitely open to this idea, Kevin was very excited and we agreed that Edward should meet with Joss Whedon to discuss the project. Edward and Joss had a very good meeting (confirmed by Feige to me) at which Edward said he was enthusiastic at the prospect of being a part of the ensemble cast. Marvel subsequently made him a financial offer to be in the film and both sides started negotiating in good faith. This past Wednesday, after several weeks of civil, uncontentious discussions, but before we had come to terms on a deal, a representative from Marvel called to say they had decided to go in another direction with the part."

Then finally, Norton decided to jump in and release a statement of his own. He didn't bash Marvel or anyone there, but simply said that he was hoping it would happen but unfortunately it won't.

I am tending to lean on Marvel's side with this one. When The Incredible Hulk was released in 2008, Norton had a serious issue with some of the guys from Marvel. He said that he rewrote the whole movie and that it was a really great story and at the last moment they changed the ending he wrote and that they wouldn't give him a writing credit on it. Because of this, Norton refused to do any promotions for the film, which Marvel said was part of the reason it didn't make as much money as some thought it would. I'm not surprised that he isn't returning.

Now, reports have been going around about who the replacement might be. At first, it was Joaquin Phoenix which I thought would have been a really odd choice. I like guy, just not for the roll of Bruce Banner. Now all reports are pointing to Mark Ruffalo, who is apparently in final negotiations with the studio.

I like Ruffalo and think he is a very underrated actor. I don't think he is a perfect fit for Bruce Banner, but it will do.

MOVIE REVIEW: PREDATORS

Both the Predator and Alien franchises have taken some big hits lately with these pathetic Alien vs. Predator films. So Robert Rodriguez decided he was going to step in and try and get the Predator franchise pointed back in the right direction. Thankfully he was successful at doing so.

When I heard that Nimrod Antal was going to be getting in the directors chair, I was a little uneasy, due to his lack of experience. He did last year's Armored which wasn't terrible, but was far from something I wanted to watch twice. People can be at a little more ease now when they see his name, because this film is going to look good on his resume.

Normally the predators come to Earth in order to train for their hunting, but in the latest installment the predators bring the game to their planet. Oscar winner, Adrien Brody stars as Royce who, like many others, wakes up in the middle of a free fall through the air quickly plummeting towards the ground. After a quick parachute deployment and gathering up with other different military experienced people from around the world, they quickly discover that they're not on Earth anymore, but stuck on what seems to be a game preserve on a far away planet.





I found Adrien Brody an odd choice to star in a Predator film. He isn't a big tough guy like Shwarzenegger and his career has been all over the place, from The Pianist to the The Jacket to King Kong to Cadillac Records. I have felt like Brody has had a hard time finding a groove for his acting, but he definitely pulls of the tough guy persona in this film.

I really enjoyed the supporting cast as well. Many will recognize Topher Grace, from That 70's Show fame, who was another odd choice, but I think fit in well. Danny Trejo is in just about every project Rodriguez is involved with. Walton Goggins is, I believe a rising star who I have really enjoyed watching on FX's Justified. And of course Laurence Fishburne has a small role as someone who has been stranded on the planet for years without being caught and has slowly started to lose it. Fishburne's role was small, but very fun to watch and different from any role he has done.





Predators goes back to the roots of the original film. You have a group of military people who are the worlds best at killing, going up against a deadly alien group who are very skilled at killing as well. It worked for the original film and it works for this one as well.

I liked this, because it wasn't CGI being thrown around everywhere, it wasn't stupid teenagers running off by themselves and getting picked off one by one. It was for the most part, a pretty good script with not a lot of cheesey tough guy one liners and it was quick and to the point and payed homage to the original.

The film itself falls short in a few areas, but nothing major. I wasn't crazy about the opening scene. I think they could have taken ten minutes and set the film up just a little bit instead of diving right in, and I was a little unhappy with the way the film ended. They are on a different planet, so it isn't as easy as walking off into the sunset, but a little more effort could have gone into the final scene.

Another thing I thought the film lacked was creativity. They are on this alien planet, but yet you really can't tell. They put in one odd looking flower, show the sky in one scene and show a really big ship, but other than those three things, they look like they are simply just walking around in a jungle. Now, I'm not going to gripe about that to much because CGI has been killing films lately. I'm talking about you George Lucas. But some more props would have been nice.





This should do well enough to get a sequel greenlit, and if that's the case, they need to continue letting experienced people work on this. Because that is why this film turned out so much better than the AVP films. They went and got someone who was proven to make the movie and they went out and got talented actors. Not necessarily A-list actors, but well known names who actually have talent as opposed to a bunch of teenagers who just run around getting picked off one by one. I'm very proud to say that Twentieth Century Fox finally got something right here.

Things are starting to look up for both the Alien and Predator franchises. Ridley Scott is working on two aliens films so it seems that Fox has finally got some sense into them. I think that they don't need to abandon the Alien vs. Predator films just yet either. I think the with they way they ended AVPR, that they could easily tie that universe in with the Predator universe and then back in with the Alien universe. It just takes someone with some creativity, a filmmaker with experience and a cast with some depth to it. Hopefully this is the start of good things to come with these franchises. I give it a seven out of ten.