Weekend Watch – 4/29/16

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).

Movies

Keanu

Loren: Yup. 100% in. Key & Peele + adorable cats in a weird John Wick spoof, it’s like this movie was made just for me.

RDT: Love Key & Peele (the show, and the guys). But something just isn’t clicking with me when it comes to this. Reviews seem to agree (or not, it’s now at 74% on RT). Regardless, I’ll see it eventually.

Rick: I really want this to be good, but my gut is telling me it won’t be. I’ll probably wait for video.


Mother’s Day

Loren: If I’m not mistaken this is in the New Year’s Eve/Valentine’s Day/Labor Day Cinematic Universe.

RDT: I have such a lack of desire to see this movie that I can’t even think of a snarky comment to express just how much of a lack of desire I have to see this movie.

Rick: Nope. Not even a little.

Continue reading

Episode #12 – Come and knock on our door!

This week on the podcast, Loren and I solve the problem of shitty video game movies. But first, the news!

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  • Rita Repulsa Revealed! 
  • Ava2ar, Ava3, 4vatar and A5tar news
  • Blade Runner 2 release date moves up
  • Sherlock Holmes (the movie, not the show) news
  • More Terminator?
  • Another cinematic universe is coming our way 
  • Daddy’s Home….again! 
  • Dwayne Johnson to rock the Jumanji remake
  • Three’s Company coming to theaters
  • Choose your own Twilight Zone?
  • Mr. Robot: Season 2
  • (Dr.) Who’s the new companion? 
  • True Detective done? 
  • HBO renewal news
  • Live with ??? and ???
  • Castle stands alone
  • Radio news???
  • Iron Fist casting
  • A whole bunch of MCU Phase 3/Infinity War news (with a little friendly neighborhood Spidey as well)
  • A fun X-Men: Apocalypse video
  • Extras, extras! Read all about Deadpool’s special edition blu-ray
  • Justice League/Flash casting
  • Killer Robin
  • A (potential) return to Krypton
  • Controversial Zoom reveal on The Flash (tv show this time)

Flash TV spoilers around 1:24:00. 

All that and the usual tangents. As always, please check us out on Facebook and, on Twitter, @HWPicNews.

Lastly, if you could, please rate and review us on iTunes, we’d really appreciate it. 

Let’s Talk About The Final X-Men: Apocalypse Trailer

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

Weekend Watch – 4/22/16

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).

Movies

The Huntsman: Winter’s War

Loren: Snow White meets Frozen meets Brave meets Thor? I’m good, thanks.

RDT:

Rick: It certainly looks pretty and has lots of pretty people in it, but I just can’t bring myself to care about this.


Elvis & Nixon

Loren: This movie looks bananas. And peanut butter. And bacon.

RDT: Michael Shannon is playing Elvis. Michael Shannon, Zod, is Elvis. This movie could be an unmitigated disaster and I’ll still see it based solely on that casting.

Rick: *gives this movie all my monies*

Continue reading

Let’s Talk About The New “Jason Bourne” Trailer

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.

  • The trailer opens with Bourne (Matt Damon) laying in bed. His voiceover tells us that he remembers everything. So, I guess his amnesia from the first 3 movies has cleared up.
  • We get flashbacks of Bourne’s training at Treadstone and someone playing  Brian Cox‘ role. How you gonna deprive the people of B.Cox Jason Bourne?
  • Bourne shoots a man with a bag over his head in the flashback and we get the window jumping, throat-crushing-with-a-book scene from Supremacy.
  • Then we get the shot of Jason looking through his sniper scope from Ultimatum. This trailer is like 30% flashback.
  • Bourne repeats that he remembers everything. Except telling us that he remembers everything. He forgot that.
  • Hey everybody it’s Julia Stiles! Is it weird to anyone else her character Nicky has been the through line for 4 of these movies? She tells Bourne that just because he remembers everything, doesn’t mean he knows everything.
  • Bourne tells her to tell him.
  • Ato Essandoh‘s character is on the phone. Says they’ve been hacked. “It could be worse than Snowden.” If it’s worse, jesus, what kind of secrets are you guys hiding? 
  • Movie style facial recognition software gets a hit on Nicky, the CIA uses their Big Brother cams and see she’s with Bourne. Essandoh is dumbfounded.
  • We see Alicia Vikander‘s unnamed character and then Tommy Lee Jones‘ Robert Dewey asks, “Why would he come back now?” If I had to guess, it’s because he remembers all the terrible shit you did to him. But that’s just a guess. 
  • Directed by Paul Greengrass title card. He’s directed 3 out of 5 of these.
  • Keeping it super topical Vikander tells us there’s a demonstration in front of Greek parliament, as we see riot cops and protesters. They think Nicky will use this as cover.
  • More riot footage, as Bourne notes that the CIA has tracked Nicky and they have to move.
  • In a super slick move, Bourne grabs a molotov cocktail from a rioter just before he throws it and uses it himself, by throwing it to the ground as cover.
  • Bourne, Bourne-fights the two guys tailing them as Nicky escapes on a motorcycle.
  • Actually, it’s both of them on the motorcycle. They are being shot at by a sniper and driving around explosions. A typical day.
  • Vikander states to Dewey that Bourne knows things and ponders if perhaps Bourne isn’t coming after them.
  • Bourne angrily says that he volunteered because of a lie and looks to be going after the Treadstone (whatever they are calling themselves now) people. The hacking was most likely someone else but Bourne is being blamed for it.
  • Jason is shot at on a roof but uses a human shield, before jumping and catching a wire to break his fall.
  • Bourne calls in to Dewey. This seems to be like a superpower of his, calling the people that are hunting him.
  • Over a montage of Bourne improvising weapons and beating dudes down, Dewey says, “32 kills, people are safer because of what you did.”
  • A SWAT van crashes through the doors of the Riviera in Las Vegas.
  • A car chase down Las Vegas boulevard in front of casinos like Paris and the Belaggio. This is one of those things that will always bother me about car chases in movies set in populated places. There is no way Las Vegas boulevard is that empty. It’s like when they do them through Times Square, IMPLAUSIBLE!
  • Matt Damon either loves Las Vegas or hates it. I can’t tell.
  • To make me eat my words about car chases, the SWAT van crashes through cars stopped in traffic.
  • Dewey tells Bourne that he’ll never find any peace until he admits to himself who he really is.
  • Bourne takes off his shirt in a desert fight club and one-punches a guy cold. Always remember that Jason Bourne is a badass.

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

Let’s Talk About “The Magnificent Seven” Teaser Trailer

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.

  • A lone silhouetted figure is seen atop a horse in a field. If there is a more “Western” image, I’ll be surprised.
  • Haley Bennett‘s character tells Denzel Washington’s Sam Chisolm that she has a proposition. Her face looks pained, and a bit scared, so get your heads out of the gutter.
  • She goes on to say that they are decent people being driven from their homes as what looks like a gang of bandits are terrorizing a typical looking old west town.
  • Men are being punched in the stomach and churches burned. This is to show you that these are REALLY bad guys.
  • Peter Sarsgaard’s Bartholomew Bogue is shown gunning a man down, which leads his men to do the same.
  • We see him walking down the streets of the town with a lawman. His character is a wealthy industrialist, so it’s safe to say he’s got the law in his pocket.
  • Chisolm asks Bennett if she seeks revenge, she replies with “I seek righteousness.” as we see a shot of her mourning in a graveyard, then firing a rifle as she states “but I’ll take revenge.” Cool.
  • Everyone likes a gun twirling montage, so we get one here.
  • Chisolm sets out to pull together his mercs.
  • First stop, Chris Pratt’s Josh Farraday. A hard drinking, wisecracking, good looking guy that’s good at what he does. You know, Chris Pratt.
  • Then there’s a gold plated, crank powered minigun, shooting up the General Store, with Chisolm in it.
  • Farraday asks how many Chisolm’s got so far. He responds with “You and me.” Farraday smirks.
  • We get a montage of the other five members being recruited. Ethan Hawke’s Goodnight Robicheaux. (Which is a TOTAL badass name, and I’ll be naming my first child that… or at least my next pet). Vincent D’Onofrio’s beard playing Jack Horne. The, uh, others all doing cool cowboy things.
  • Chris Pratt winks and there’s a little bell that rings. This isn’t really important but I thought it should be noted.
  • One of Bogue’s men says this group is quite a bunch of strays, Robicheaux doesn’t think this will end well, Farraday isn’t sure.
  • A version of House of the Rising Sun plays.
  • The trailer really wants us to see how good a gunslinger Josh Farraday is. Going so far as to have him tell us. “God dang it, I’m good.”
  • Lots of explosions and gun pointing. I’m ok with this.
  • Followed up with cool horse tricks and knife wielding.
  • Bogue asks how many men? Seven man, it’s in the name of the movie.
  • The Seven are highlighted in a series of shots ending with one of them walking up Rose Creek’s main street. More classic Western iconography.
  • Close out on The Magnificent Seven title card.

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

Episode #11 – We’re gonna need a bigger boat.

It’s another big one this week. Lots of trailers. Some news bits coming out of CinemaCon. Also, what is CinemaCon? But first, all the news!!!

  • Some surprising Kingsman 2 casting
  • MIB23, the Jump St./Men in Black crossover is happening
  • Mission: Impossible 6 starts shooting this fall
  • Fast 8 gets another new cast member
  • The internet (over)reacts to some Indiana Jones 5 news
  • Dick Tracy 2???
  • The next cinematic universe has been revealed, and it may surprise you!
  • The Dark Tower started shooting
  • Comic-Con streaming…kind of…?
  • Will a Magic Castle movie appear before your eyes?
  • All the Avatars!
  • Jason Statham v Big Shark
  • (Not Uncle) JJ comments on Rey’s mystery parents
  • New Girl and Fear the Walking Dead renewed
  • Tales from the Crypt and The Mist both picked up to series
  • Star Trek show rumors abound
  • Captain America: Civil War reviews are coming in (spoiler alert: it’s good)
  • Spider-Man re-reboot news
  • Dr. Strange trailer
  • Thor: Ragnarok gets a new female lead (and hero?)
  • A whole bunch Infinity War news
  • MCU Phase 4 to be dramatically different
  • Defenders defend!
  • Wolverine 3 news
  • Deadpool 2 confirmed…duh
  • Jason Mamoa talks Aquaman…and Iron Man…?
  • Batfleck’s Batflick confirmed
  • The Killing Joke rating revealed

Also, as mentioned on the show, here’s the link to Alamo Drafthouse founder/CEO Tim League’s response to the big AMC/texting hubbub.

All that and the usual tangents. As always, at facebook.com/hollywoodpicturenews and, on Twitter, @HWPicNews.

Lastly, if you could, please rate and review us on iTunes, we’d really appreciate it.

Weekend Watch – 4/15/16

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).

Movies

The Jungle Book

Loren: Disney still does that great job of building a sense of wonder. I loved the animated one as a child, and the people behind this are all pretty great. Not sure I’ll catch it in the theater but it might be worth it.

RDT: This wasn’t on my radar until the reviews started coming in. I’m still a maybe though, at least on the big screen, because of all the upcoming stuff.

Rick: I’m not super into this, but it might be worth seeing in theaters just to enjoy the scale of it all.


Barbershop: The Next Cut

Loren: I won’t lie to you guys, I didn’t even watch this trailer. Next.

RDT: I remember enjoying the first one. Don’t remember the second one at all. I won’t rush out to theaters for it, but I’m sure I’ll see it eventually.

Rick: I never bothered to see the first two, why break my streak?

Continue reading

The King of the Monsters is Back in the Godzilla: Resurgence Trailer

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This is shaping up to be Trailer Week, which I have no quarrel with. I love me some trailers. The latest out of the gate stars Japan’s biggest movie monster: Godzilla. After a brief teaser last December, we’re finally given a look at the latest version of the famous titan. Officially titled Godzilla: Resurgence, this is Toho’s 29th film in the series and the first produced since 2004’s Godzilla: Final Wars.

In a move that may come as a surprise, this latest incarnation of Godzilla will be a combination of CGI and traditional special effects techniques used for decades by Toho (read: man-in-suit). Regardless of how it’s brought to life, the new design is a nice throwback to the original 1954 version with a dash of modern menace. So many pointy teeth…

Godzilla will stomp his way into Japanese theaters on July 29th. There’s no word on a US release just yet, but the aforementioned Final Wars had a brief run stateside, so there’s hope for US kaiju fans.

Give it a look and let’s talk about the new Godzilla: Resurgence trailer.

From Studio City

-Rick

Let’s Talk About The New Doctor Strange Teaser Trailer

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:

  • The trailer opens up with scenes from a car crash and a voice telling Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to forget everything that he thinks he knows. If he’s a medical doctor that’s a lot of knowledge that he’s being told to forget, let alone all the cost from medical school right out the window.
  • Marvel Logo with glimpses of Doctor Strange comic images in the flipping pages.
  • We start to see images of Strange traveling intercut with images of him in a hospital. We’re told he’s looking at the world through a keyhole.
  • We get a quick glimpse of Rachel McAdams‘ as of yet unnamed character. She appears to be an ER nurse who is tending to Strange after his car accident.
  • Back and forth shots of Doctor Strange’s life before and after his accident culminating in a shot of his once steady surgeon’s hands now shaking after being crippled in the accident.
  • This is why he’s on the journey that he’s on. The comic origin tells us that he is traveling, looking for any way to fix his hands (legitimate or not) and get back to his old life.
  • The mysterious voice tells Strange that the reality he’s searching for is one of many.
  • New York flashes to a mystical looking city, most likely in the Himalayas. This is where Strange will meet the Ancient One and begin his training.
  • We hear that Strange doesn’t believe in chakras, or energy, or the power of belief as we see him tailing a man in odd clothes with a sword walking down an Asian looking street.
  • So much beard on Cumberbatch.
  • Tilda Swinton’s Ancient One asks Strange, “You wonder what I see in your future? Possibility”. She then punches his Astral Form right out of him. Which looks around in disbelief. Everything gets a little weird from here on out.
  • We get lots of Inception-esque world bending shots as Strange asks “Why are you doing this?”
  • We see other characters who may be other villains Doctor Strange has to face.
  • The Ancient One says there are other ways to save lives, inferring that he will become the Sorcerer Supreme that he is meant to be.
  • We get a full shot of Chiwetel Ejiofor‘s Baron Mordo. The man he was tailing earlier in the trailer.
  • The Ancient One puts her hand on Strange’s forehead and sends him flying back as it appears to open his eyes to his true magical surroundings. He’s told that there’s so much he doesn’t know.
  • More Inception style world bending.
  • Strange lands at the feet of the Ancient One and pleads with her to teach him.
  • We get the title card and hear footsteps walking up stairs. This fades up from black to show Doctor Strange wearing his Cloak of Levitation and presumably the Eye of Agamotto, walking towards the classic window in the Sanctum Sanctorum.

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