Hey guys! Loren checking in from beautiful, sunny, London England (it rains here like once a day)!
Even though it’s only the first day of Star Wars Celebration Europe, it’s already let me check out some totally amazing stuff. The coolest of which might have been the Costumes and Props exhibit from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Here’s what they had on display:
From London,
-Loren
I asked for it, and Hollywood answered. Sort of. I mean, I did say worthwhile trailers but this will have to do.
Full disclosure, I didn’t see the original The Mechanic (1972) or the 2011 remake. The latter sat in my DVR for years before I blew it away (I don’t know why, it just did). All that being said, I’m a big Jason Statham fan, and Jessica Alba still looks good so why not, right?
The basic premise of the first one in relation to this sequel is Jason Statham plays Arthur Bishop, an elite assassin whose marks are killed in a manner that looks like an accident. Bishop ends up going on a revenge spree after one of the few people he’s close to is killed. He also trains an apprentice who does not appear to be in the sequel. It looked like and was marketed as a dark thriller more than an action movie. This seems to have gone out the window for the newest entry. As for the plot of Resurrection well, let’s talk about the trailer. Continue reading
First off let me just say it’s been a while and I’ve missed you guys. I would like more worthwhile trailers please Hollywood! Anyway, today we get a new trailer for the Jack Reacher sequel Never Go Back and honestly, it’s a little paint by numbers. I didn’t hate it or anything, but it’s kinda just a Mission: Impossible trailer but instead of Tom Cruise being a spy he’s a Bourne-esque drifter with less tech and more Maria Hill er, Aunt Robin er, Colby Smulders.
For those unaware, there are 20 some-odd Jack Reacher stories out there from British author Lee Child. This one (shockingly) is based on the story “Never Go Back” where Jack has to clear his old C.O.’s name after being set-up. Punching and car chases ensue.
I remember the first movie as being a pretty decent modern action movie that, especially with all the source material, warranted a sequel. So here we have it. Why don’t we take some time and let’s talk about the Jack Reacher: Never Go Back trailer. Continue reading
Welcome to the Weekend Watch. Where we try to point you towards the best ways to spend your viewing time (or, at least, steer you clear of the garbage).
Loren: I heard that this is on pace to make $100 million opening weekend and needs to make $110 million to be the highest opening for a Pixar movie. I have a feeling it will do it. The first one is pretty much a classic and this looks true to form for a Pixar sequel. I don’t think I’ll catch it in theaters, but I’ll definitely see it.
RDT: This movie is going to be a juggernaut. And, from the looks of the reviews, it probably deserves it. That being said, while I’ll definitely see it eventually (it IS Pixar), I’m not sure it’ll be during its run in theaters.
Rick: These characters will always be endearing to me, and I will eventually see this, but I’m actually much more excited about the short that’s debuting with this film. I defy you to watch the teaser for Piper and not get overwhelmed from all the cute.
Jen: My toddler recently ran through the aquarium grinning from ear to ear and shouting “mo fish, mo fish!” That’s sort of how I felt watching this trailer. I just hope this is a Toy Story-style sequel and not a Cars-style sequel.
Loren: Just read what RDT and Rick have to say about this one.
RDT: I am conflicted. I love me some Dwayne “TR” Johnson. But I’m not a fan of Kevin Hart’s schtick. So, I’ll probably wait until this hits the Netflix box or HBO Go machine.
Rick: I’m with Ryan on this one. My admiration for Dwayne Johnson holds no bounds, but I feel like Kevin Hart is just playing Kevin Hart in every movie he’s in. Doesn’t do anything for me.
Jen: The tag line is “To save the world you need a little Hart and a big Johnson.” I just felt someone I should add something to the conversation other than the words “see above.”
Guys, is this the first video game movie that might actually be good? (Sorry Super Mario Bros. and Doom). It looks like it could break the curse. Maybe this summer’s Warcraft will, but I kinda doubt it.
Assassin’s Creed is based on the video game series of the same name. In it you play as two characters, one in a near future, and one in the distant past. Your future self is hooked into a machine called the Animus. Through the machine you are able to live out (read: play the game as) the inherent memories of your ancestor, who just so happened to be part of the Assassins Guild. Obviously. The Assassins are locked in a centuries long war with the Templar Knights, and this war rages on through modern times and has incorporated a group called Abstergo Industries. But, using your Assassin skills and parkour (no, seriously) you protect the world from an alien threat. Wait… what? Oh yeah, there is also some sort of weird back story about alien artifacts and stuff. It’s really confusing.
There are some great installments of the series, Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag is a swashbuckling pirate themed version. And then there are some real clunkers, Assassin’s Creed: Unity I’m looking in your direction. Let’s hope this flick falls closer to the former than the later. So without further ado, let’s talk about the Assassin’s Creed trailer. Continue reading
About a year and a half ago Fox premiered Gotham, a prequel of sorts telling the story of Jim Gordon and the City of Gotham before the Batman. This of course went almost immediately off the rails and became about Batman’s rogues with no actual Batman in sight.
A few days after the pilot aired I felt almost compelled to write out my feelings about it and after hearing what’s been happening this season with Hugo Strange, the Rogues, and the Waynes, it seems that things have changed. Sadly for the worse. So here are my Few Words on Fox’s Gotham:
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A day after Gotham premiered on Fox I fired up the old DVR and checked out the much anticipated Pilot. I had shied away from early screening and day after reviews, wanting to get my own take on the show before having my judgement clouded. For the most part it was right down the middle for me. For every good there was an equally opposite bad. Every “awesome!” moment, had a “really?” moment.
First the good. Donal Logue and Ryan Atwood (He’ll always be Ryan Atwood, you can’t win this argument with me) shine as Detectives Harvey Bullock and Jim Gordon. Donal Logue is always amazing and plays the scumbag with a heart of gold so well. The physical set pieces are pretty outstanding. Fish Mooney’s Burlesque Club looked great and Gotham Central was downright gorgeous. Robin Taylor plays a fledgling mobster and soon to be Penguin very well with just the right amount of creepy and sinisterness that the character should be. And that’s kinda it. Those were the only things that stood out to me. The Bruce Wayne/Gordon/Alfred interactions were all pretty ok. And Gordon going against the dirty/dickish cops in Gotham Central was fine, but nothing was “Holy Shit!” amazing.
Now the bad. First things first, why the hell did you need to introduce SO MANY of Batman’s rogues gallery in the pilot. It was completely unnecessary and honestly took my out of the story every time they shoe horned another rogue on screen. I counted four rogues, one major crime boss and what I think might be the shows way of getting Batman’s most famous adversary onto the show by season’s end. As I said earlier I liked how they did Penguin, totally fine with that, but I’m not sure about a 14 year old Catwoman. I’m really not sure about them having her witness the show (and Batman’s) inciting incident where <Spoilers> Thomas and Martha Wayne are brutally murdered in front of Bruce, bringing James Gordon onto the case and starting Bruce down the path of becoming Batman </Spoilers>. Also, and this is from a completely nerdy comic book fan standpoint but, I never pictured Selina older than Bruce. I don’t know why but that totally bothers me. The two characters that win the most shoehorned rogue in Gotham’s pilot award are Edward Nygma and Ivy Pepper . Nygma (soon to be The Riddler) being the forensics guy for the GCPD is ok, I guess, but he certainly didn’t need to show up in the already crowded Pilot. Then there’s little Ivy Pepper, who the show ham-fistedly pushes on us that she’ll grow up to be Poison Ivy because she’s a redhead, that likes plants and now hates cops. A few questions: One) why? Two) why? Three) That’s not her name Four) why? This was the absolutely least necessary character to be put into this pilot and I’m really confused why she couldn’t be Pamela Isley. If you want to bring other Bat-villains into the show for some reason at least have a real reason for them to show up. Not just lazy easter eggs. This brings us to the point in the show that I actually had to pause the DVR and say “really?” out loud. There’s a scene towards the end of the episode where Mooney is auditioning(?) a stand up comic in her club while she eats and is on the phone with her lackeys. I’ll eat my DC Direct Batman hat if we don’t have a nameless comic in a purple suit who cackles at his own jokes about murder and grumbles to himself when he’s inevitably ushered off the stage. If there’s one rogue we don’t need in this iteration of Gotham it’s the Joker. That’s Batman’s guy and really shouldn’t even show up until Batman has made his first real appearance.
There’s some clunky dialogue, bad CGI cityscapes and strange character entanglements, like Jim’s fiancé Barbara being former lovers with GCPD Major Crimes Detective Montoya. (Speaking of Barbara I gotta imagine she doesn’t survive this show, right? That’s why he names his daughter Barbara) But overall I’ll give Gotham a shot. I have to hope that they turn down the Batman and turn up the Gotham Central. The show really needs to be about Gotham City and the trials and tribulations that Jim Gordon goes through being the only good cop in the country’s roughest city. If we get more of that, Gotham could be an amazing show, possibly topping Arrow as the best DC property on TV. Aw man that’s totally not going to happen is it? We’re gonna get a DC’d version of Cop Rock aren’t we. Shit.
Well it isn’t Cop Rock but it sure isn’t some amazing version of Gotham Central either. I can’t really conceive how this show got worse, but there we have it. I was half on board after the pilot, fully out by episode 8ish, and now in season 3 completely mistified as to how this show is still a thing. I don’t usually subscribe to the whole “this thing is ruining my childhood” mindset, but god damnit Gotham you are aren’t helping.
From Hollywood,
-Loren
First and foremost this is a MUCH better trailer. In fact, every trailer for this has been better than the last. I was having trouble getting into this flick for some reason, which is pretty weird seeing as how I have very much enjoyed the X-Men movies. You know, except for the absolutely terrible X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Those two are garbage. This trailer has gotten me back on track.
Since the dawn of civilization, he was worshipped as a god. Apocalypse, the first and most powerful mutant from Marvel’s X-Men universe, amassed the powers of many other mutants, becoming immortal and invincible. Upon awakening after thousands of years, he is disillusioned with the world as he finds it and recruits a team of powerful mutants, including a disheartened Magneto (Michael Fassbender), to cleanse mankind and create a new world order, over which he will reign. As the fate of the Earth hangs in the balance, Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) with the help of Professor X (James McAvoy) must lead a team of young X-Men to stop their greatest nemesis and save mankind from complete destruction.
The last two films have been an interesting take on the whole series, staying in the same continuity while simultaneously rebooting the franchise. It does leave a whole lot to be desired when it comes to trying to figure out the timeline. Luckily for them though, X-Men: Days of Future Past went and retconned a lot of the weirdness/bad decisions from previous installments. This does make watching the whole series of movies a lot more confusing, however.
X-Men: Apocalypse will most likely be the end of this prequel trilogy. These movies have gone through three decades, setting up the version of the X-Men we saw in the first film from 2000. This won’t be the last X-Men movie we’ll get, though. We still have the final Wolverine movie and Deadpool 2 with Cable and most likely double the X-Men we got in the first one. There’s also talk of an X-Force movie, as well as an X-Factor television series, and more than likely more traditional X-Men movies.
But for now, we should focus on this one so let’s talk about the final X-Men: Apocalypse trailer. Continue reading
The Bourne movies are a strange thing. I really liked the first one, but the sequels left something to be desired. Both Ultimatum and Supremacy had really cool action sequences and helped open up the mythos but lacked a little in the story elements. That’s kinda ok though. I mean, I actually dig the idea of a rogue super-agent trying to just be left alone and being pulled back in to stop his former employers.
Legacy is a whole other story (literally). It falls into that thing I like of world building, but overall is kinda mediocre. I will say this, Legacy is 100% head-canon the solo Hawkeye movie we’ll never get. Think about it. Or don’t, your life.
This trailer sort of gives us more of what we have come to expect from Bourne movies, but again that’s not necessarily a bad thing. So let’s talk about the new Jason Bourne trailer.
And that’s it. To be honest this looks like a perfectly serviceable continuation of the story they’ve told us so far. I’m sure I’ll see this, probably in the theater… like a matinee.
Jason Bourne opens July 29th, 2016
From Hollywood,
-Loren
Whoa. I’ve never gone on record, or off record for that matter, as a fan of Westerns. I haven’t seen too many, and they don’t usually pull me in. I think my favorite may have been a video game (thanks Red Dead Redemption) but that just took a bunch of tropes and homages from all types of Westerns, Spaghetti or otherwise. This looks like a hell of a lot of fun though. It’s got a great cast, a competent director (Antoine Fuqua), and is based on a damn good couple of movies.
Remakes get a lot of ire, most of which is deserved, but every once in awhile we get something great. For every Psycho (1998) there’s The Thing (1982), every Rollerball (2002) has Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978). This looks to lean much more into the category of the good over the bad. The remake here is of the original 1960 film of the same name, which in turn was a retelling of Akira Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai.
With the town of Rose Creek under the deadly control of industrialist Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard), the desperate townspeople employ protection from seven outlaws, bounty hunters, gamblers and hired guns – Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington), Josh Farraday (Chris Pratt), Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio), Billy Rocks (Byung-Hun Lee), Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), and Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier). As they prepare the town for the violent showdown that they know is coming, these seven mercenaries find themselves fighting for more than money. (official synopsis)
So let’s not waste anymore time and get right into it. Here’s the breakdown of the first teaser trailer of The Magnificent Seven.
All jokes aside this is a really cool looking and fun trailer. I’m actually pretty optimistic about this movie. As for now, count me in.
The Magnificent Seven opens everywhere September 23rd.
From Hollywood,
-Loren
Right off the bat, I need to get this out of the way: I don’t know TOO much about Doctor Strange, other than he’s awesome facial hair buddies with Tony Stark. So I’m sure there is plenty in this trailer that I missed or misconstrued. I will say, however, that it’s a pretty cool look into yet another facet of the MCU and I’m looking forward to seeing how this style of magic will play out and differ from Asgardian magic/science.
There isn’t much to say beyond that, so let’s get right into the breakdown of Marvel’s Doctor Strange teaser trailer:
And that’s it, an interesting trailer that does its job. It gives you the story beats you need (though I’m not sure if you’re unfamiliar with the character that you’d get them all) but leaves enough out to be intriguing. All in all, I have a pretty good feeling about this one.
Marvel’s Doctor Strange opens in theaters everywhere November 4th, 2016.
From Hollywood
-Loren
