Archive for April, 2010

Sound Off: Sylvain White’s The Losers – What Did You Think?

Now that you’ve seen it, what did you think? Adapted from the Vertigo comic book series comes The Losers, an action movie about a group of badass ex-CIA black ops operatives who go on a rogue mission to take down the corrupt individual who tried to kill them. How is director Sylvain White’s first action movie after directing Stomp the Yard? Is it a fun and entertaining movie worth the ticket price? How are all of the characters, from Jeffrey Dean Morgan to Chris Evans to Zoe Saldana to Idris Elba? Was it too cheesy or just fun to watch? If you’ve seen it, then leave a comment below and let us know what you thought of The Losers!

To fuel the fire, I enjoyed The Losers, I had a good time, but it’s not really one of the best movies this year. It’s a bit formulaic and at times it feels like the same action movie we’ve seen many times before. That said, it lived up to my tempered expectations and I walked out smiling. Chris Evans was unquestionably the highlight (along with watching Zoe Saldana in lingerie kicking some ass and making out with Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Although he did a good job, I got a little tired of how ridiculously cheesy Jason Patric was as the villain “Max.” It’s fun and it is worth the ticket price, but I think I’ll forget about The Losers fairly quickly.

What did you think of The Losers? A good entertaining comic book movie or dull and boring?

Discover More: Discussion, Hype, Sound Off

Chris Nolan Dream Research Inception Viral Video Discovered

We’ve been following the viral for Chris Nolan’s Inception as its been unraveling, but it seems to be one of the most mysterious and slightly confusing virals out there. The latest discovery was a “Stage 2″ of the Mind Crime mapping game online, which has resulted in the reveal of a few more new photos and newer clues. The latest discovery is this viral video, just found on YouTube waiting to be watched. A member of the Nolan Fans forum searched for “Cpt Darren Bartel” after finding a poster in the Mind Crime game with a note that said “Send to Cpt Darren Bartel.” It shows Nolan getting video research about dreams from various people.

You can watch the edited research video in its entirety below, but I’m not really sure what to make of it yet:

Although this doesn’t feel like it’s part of the world in the movie, it’s fascinating to watch and fascinating to hear all these people talk about dreams and lucid dreaming and all kinds of stuff like that. It gets creepier as time goes on and they start talking about how someone can “stay in a dream for a very long time.” But wait, then the military gets involved, we’re participating in other people’s dreams, and “Project Somnacin” – so what the heck is going on? This is such a thrilling way to get people more excited about Inception, as long as you already know what the plot is about. Don’t forget that all this connects back to the PASIV Device (which just so happens to have “Somnacin” in its name) and this viral site: pasivdevice.org. Stay tuned for updates!

Discover More: Hype, Viral News, Worth Watching

Must Watch: Final Trailer for Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender

Paramount has debuted the final full-length trailer for M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender today on Apple. Noah Ringer stars as Aang and he’s joined by Dev Patel, Jackson Rathbone, Nicola Peltz, Shaun Toub, and many others. This is such an epic and unbelievably awesome trailer. I can’t frickin’ wait to see this now! The effects look fantastic and the story looks great, too. It looks like that 3D announcement yesterday was just in time, as they also snuck in a big “in 3D” bit of text at the end. I’d still like to see this in 2D first. Even if you’ve never heard of the TV series before, you’ll probably love this trailer, so definitely check it out!

Watch the final trailer for M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender:

You can also watch the final trailer for The Last Airbender in High Definition on Apple

You can also watch the official trailer and the Superbowl TV spot for The Last Airbender at those two links.

The Last Airbender is directed by M. Night Shyamalan, of The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, The Village, Lady in the Water, and The Happening previously. The screenplay was also written by M. Night Shyamalan while the story was co-written by Shyamalan and creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino. This is based on the popular Nickelodeon cartoon series Avatar: The Last Airbender that originally aired in 2005. Paramount is bringing The Last Airbender to theaters everywhere starting on July 2nd this summer.

Discover More: Hype, Trailers, Worth Watching

If You Want to Watch It: Full Trailer for Twilight Saga Eclipse

We normally don’t cover anything Twilight related, but I’m featuring today’s new trailer for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse just in case any of you want to see it. Everyone probably knows what to expect going in, so don’t get pissed if this just frustrates you, we all knew it was coming. Eclipse stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, and everyone else from the first two movies. This trailer originally comes from Oprah.com, but we have a YouTube embed below in high quality to watch. And if you don’t really care about this movie, then please don’t leave any nasty comments, let those who are interested enjoy it if they want to.

Watch the full theatrical trailer for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse:

As a string of mysterious killings grips Seattle, Bella, whose high school graduation is fast approaching, is forced to choose between her love for the vampire Edward or her friendship with werewolf Jacob Black.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is directed by British filmmaker David Slade, of only Hard Candy and 30 Days of Night previously. The screenplay adaptation was written by Melissa Rosenberg, who wrote the scripts for the first two Twilight movies and also works on “Dexter”. This film is obviously based on Stephenie Meyer’s uber-popular series of novels that need no further introduction. Summit Entertainment is bringing Eclipse to theaters everywhere on Wednesday, June 30th, this summer. Thankfully this stuff isn’t showing in 3D!

Discover More: Opinions, Trailers, Worth Watching

Paramount Renews Their Option on a World War Z Adaptation

Although there hasn’t been any forward progress (as far as we know) in the last six months on Paramount’s adaptation of World War Z, Variety recently confirmed that the studio has renewed their option to adapt Max Brook’s best-selling book. An adaptation was originally being developed by J. Michael Straczynski a few years ago, then Quantum of Solace director Marc Forster got attached in 2008, but has shifted the project to the backburner recently. Our last update on this was last July, when it was discovered that Matthew Michael Carnahan had been brought on to re-write Straczynski’s script. We’ve heard nothing about this since then.

Variety says that Forster is still “developing the project” and only mentions that Max Brooks confirmed that Carnahan is currently working on the script. So this is good news and it sounds like Paramount still wants to make a World War Z movie, we just can’t tell you how soon that will happen, or if the scale of the movie will be as “phenomenal” as Straczynski said it would years ago. World War Z is a book that contains numerous stories told by survivors of “World War Z”, our worldwide apocalyptic war with the zombies. I’m still looking forward to seeing this get made, no matter how long it takes, and I’m happy with Forster still on-board, too.

Discover More: Movie News, Opinions

Worth Watching: US Trailer for Historical Drama ‘John Rabe’

Strand Releasing has the official US trailer for John Rabe, a true-story account of a German businessman who saved more than 200,000 Chinese during the Nanjing massacre in 1937. This docudrama stars German actor Ulrich Tukur (The White Ribbon) as John Rabe and Daniel Brühl (Fredrick Zoller of Inglourious Basterds) as well as Steve Buscemi, one of the few Americans in the cast (who you’ll see in the trailer). I’m a sucker for war movies and while this is less of a war movie and more of a drama about a great man who saves many lives, kind of like Schindler’s List, it still does look fantastic and I’m looking forward to seeing it.

Watch the official US trailer for Florian Gallenberger’s John Rabe:

You can also watch the official US trailer for John Rabe in High Definition on Apple

John Rabe is both written and directed by German filmmaker Florian Gallenberger (who is the second great German director with the name Florian in recent years – Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck of The Lives of Others is the other) who studied at the Munich Film School HFF and won an Oscar for his dramatic short Quiero ser (I want to be) in 2000. This film debuted at the Berlin Film Festival last year and already opened in Europe last summer, where it went on to win the Outstanding Feature Film in the German Film Awards. Strand Releasing will finally be bringing John Rabe to limited US theaters starting on May 21st in summer.

Discover More: Foreign, Trailers, Worth Watching

Darren Bousman Directing Psychotic Killer Movie ‘Ninety’ Next

Although we haven’t seen any trailers yet for former Saw director Darren Bousman’s new horror remake of Mother’s Day, producers on another project he’s attached to seem anxious to already announce that new project. THR states that Bousman will next direct another new horror film called Ninety written by Scott Milam, who also wrote the Mother’s Day script. The plot in the film follows a psychotic killer hoping to set a record by committing 90 murders. Whoa! The film will shoot during the summer in New Mexico in 2D and then be converted to 3D (of course). I don’t know what you guys think, but this sounds like it could be crazy.

Unfortunately details are very sparse on this project, as this is the first time anything has been reported on it. When I finally watched The Hitcher (remake) for my first time last year, I was absolutely shocked by how many people the bad guy kills. The body count in that movie is just insane and he kills anyone and everyone who stands in his way everywhere he goes. While I don’t think there will be any similarities between Ninety and The Hitcher, I’m in awe thinking about watching a serial killer rack up 90 kills in one movie. I’m already predicting that the twist will be that the 90th is our protagonist, a cop or whomever, or something like that.

Discover More: Movie News, Opinions

Interview: The Losers’ Badass Leader – Jeffrey Dean Morgan!

About a year ago I talked with Watchmen’s The Comedian, actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who despite some appearances in an occasional rom-com (e.g. The Accidental Husband), I’ve recently come to really love as an actor. It was my honor to catch up with Morgan again to talk about The Losers, a new comic book movie where he plays another badass character – Clay, the leader and Operational Control of the ex-CIA team The Losers. Our conversation ranges from his career to how awesome it was to shoot this movie and much more. I always love talking with Morgan, he’s a great guy to interview and a genuinely nice person as well. Enjoy!

Watch our complete interview with The Losers star Jeffrey Dean Morgan:

This interview was shot using my Flip Mino camera, so expect a little graininess to the video and soft audio. As for The Losers, it is a purely entertaining fun action movie, and although it is just a bit formulaic, it was better than I expected and was a blast to watch. I’m glad I got to talk with Jeffrey Dean Morgan again and I hope I get to talk with him every year, as he’s one of those few actors that I look forward to interviewing. I also think the interview this time when to some fascinating places (related comic books and Watchmen) and I hope we can continue to bring you more great interviews every time. The Losers hits theaters this Friday!

Discover More: Featured, Hype, Interviews

Exclusive: Two Glowing Scott Pilgrim Test Screening Reviews

A week ago, Universal ran a test screening of Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World in Los Angeles (presumably to confirm that a PG-13 rating would still work with audiences). Two movie fans and readers of the site made it to the screening and decided to write up quick reviews because they both loved the movie so much. In fact, one of them says that it’s their favorite movie of the year, even over Kick-Ass, and I don’t even know how finished or unfinished the version they saw was. We don’t normally publish reviews like this, but I wanted to make an exception today because their reactions to Scott Pilgrim were both so extremely positive.

Here’s the first review from one of our readers:

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is such a great a title for this film – it fits perfectly, it’s like the title of a cool video game, which this movie pretty much is. And it’s one of the few heavy styles it has. Even though I only saw a test screening of it, meaning everything wasn’t exactly final: all the visual effects, sound, editing, etc, aren’t totally done and things could possibly change, like scenes being taken out, scenes cut short, and what not, Scott Pilgrim has become my #1 favorite film of the year so far, and it doesn’t come out till August 13th. And yes I’ve seen Kick-Ass, which literally kicks ass and I really enjoyed it, but it’s just a few notches below Pilgrim for me personally. So that makes Kick-Ass my #2 favorite film of the year so far. It’s probably because I’m a sucker for movies that are love stories at their core, which Pilgrim technically is.

From the very beginning it sets you up greatly for what you’re about to expect, as the Universal logo is presented in a 8-bit, old school, video game fashion. At the same time you hear this old school, nostalgic, video game jingle playing in the background and that sets the perfect tone for the film. In general, it has a lot of these elements throughout that make it into a video game, comic book, anime/manga, music driven, fighting, romance, geekgasm extravaganza, and that’s what makes it’s so unique. It’s truly nothing like I’ve ever seen before in a movie. And it has such a good story that lots of people can relate to.

Everything that Jason Reitman, Greg Mottola, Kevin Smith, and Quentin Tarantino said from their mini review’s of the film are damn true. All of the good buzz you read about on the internet from fans who also have been to test screenings is totally accurate. The movie just has this energy to it that lives and breathes comic books and video games. I have not read the comics yet, but I will say that it’s one of the best comic book films ever made. It’s greatly paced and flows so well. Edgar Wright was born to make this movie. It seems like everything he’s done has been leading up to this point. He definitely put his stamp on it with a lot of his familiar stylistic shots and editing transitions from his previous work. He also includes things that we’ve kind of seen in other movies before, but he executes something that is so fresh, original and innovative that he makes it his own. The action is awesomely shot and is nicely covered; they do some different things with a few of the fights, so it’s not too repetitive; it’s just out of this world.

All of the performances are so good too. Everyone is just perfectly cast. I know that people think Michael Cera does the same thing just in different situations in his movies, but he’s really good here. I can’t imagine anyone else in the role. Since this movie is different and the situation is different, it definitely shows him performing something different as an actor. Not as crazy as Francois Dillinger in Youth in Revolt, which I enjoyed. But I mean he kick’s ass in this. He does a lot of fighting in it, and I looked closely and it seemed like he did a nice amount of his own stunts. He also acts more confident and out-going which is nice to see because he’s usually shy and awkward like. He still has the awkwardness but its executed differently in this movie. I’d say it’s his best role yet.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead is so cool and hot as Ramona Flowers. Kieran Culkin is brilliantly hilarious as Wallace, Scott’s gay sarcastic roommate. Ellen Wong is adorably sweet as Knives. All the evil ex’s are awesome, especially Jason Schwartzman. All the bands are really cool, especially Sex Bob-omb. Which brings me to another reason why I loved this movie – the music is so good, I just loved it. I totally enjoyed the songs from Sex Bob-omb. I’ve heard that real life bands Beck and Metric contributed music to the soundtrack, so for them I’d have to say that they did an amazing job. In the beginning of the movie it also has this sick beginning credits sequence that will forever be one of my favorite credit sequences. It plays this cool rock song played by Sex Bob-omb during their band practice. It just pumps you up for the movie.

I can honestly say while watching this film I was just genuinely happy and giddy from beginning to end. A lot of movies don’t have that affect but this one definitely does. It’s so entertaining, you’ll never feel bored. I actually kinda felt that it’s somewhat too awesome. Like once the awesome action kicks in, the rest of the awesomeness in the movie kinda over powers you and it gets a little difficult to process it all. And it seemed like it was lagging a tiny bit towards the end, but at the same time I was enjoying it so I didn’t care. I actually didn’t want the movie to end. It’s a movie that you can watch over and over again like a fun video game you can play over and over again. I’m sure it will become a classic and an instant cult favorite when it comes out.

Here’s the second review from another reader:

So last week I saw a test screening of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and man was it freaking awesome. Not all the effects were done and certain things might get changed, and I’m hoping one thing in particular gets changed. Don’t worry I won’t spoil anything for you though.

Good things. Overall the movie was great! I swear I saw a comic book/video game/anime come to life. The style of the entire movie was stuff I’ve never seen before and I watch all comic book movies, even the bad ones. Since the style was done throughout the entire movie, not once does it feel cheesy or forced. How he made it all work, I have no idea, but seriously, that man should do nothing but comic book movies from now on. So here’s hoping he does Ant-Man, next.

The acting was good. I’m one of those people who got over Michael Cera pretty quickly in everything he does, because he always plays the same guy. However, I have to give it to him in this because he doesn’t play that guy. There are hints of his usual self, but this guy is more confidant, and frankly a badass who kicks major ass. Mary Elizabeth Winstead did a great job as the weird, mysterious, illusive girl. But the person that stole every scene he was in was Kieran Culkin. He was hilarious as the gay roommate. I also want to give credit to the editor, cause he did an amazing job editing the crap out of this movie. When you see it you’ll see what I mean.

Now the bad. The pacing was a little off. In the end it felt a little long, running a tad over two hours I believe. Also, the fights were really cool, and really something else, but towards the end it did feel a little repetitive. Some were completely different, but others not so much. And last but not least, Ellen Wong. She did a good job playing Knives, but the character, Knives was a little annoying. The less I saw of Knives and the more I saw of the other characters, the better. I won’t say what I wanted to change, but there was something I didn’t care for that I felt should have gone differently story wise. I haven’t picked up the comics, but I will be doing that soon just to see the differences between both.

Overall, everyone who likes music, video games, anime, comics, comedy, and slacker movies have to go see this because honestly, this movie is amazing in everything it is. I feel many directors making comic book movies will try imitating Scott Pilgrim’s style but it will only work for a select few comic book movies. I give him credit for taking the risk and making it the way he did. Anyways, I’ve ranted long enough, go watch it when it comes out. I know I’ll be buying a ticket for it.

Discover More: Hype, Opinions, Reviews

Check These Out: Four New Stills from Chris Nolan’s Inception

We don’t know when the next trailer for Chris Nolan’s Inception will be arriving (I’m guessing sometime early this summer?), so to hold you over, we’re featuring these four new photos that have popped up various places over the last few days. SlashFilm culled them all together and cleaned them up a bit, so I owe them some thanks. Coincidentally we last featured four new photos from Inception just last week, so it looks like they keep hitting in batches of four. Seen in these photos are Leonardo DiCaprio as Cobb, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur, and Ellen Page as Ariadne. I think a few of them were found in the Mind Crime viral game.

If you haven’t seen them, watch the first teaser trailer and second teaser trailer for Inception at those links. We’ll definitely let you know whenever any trailers show up online for Inception, so stay tuned right here!

Inception is both written and directed by acclaimed Oscar nominated British filmmaker Christopher Nolan, of Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige and The Dark Knight. Nolan previously co-wrote the scripts for Memento, Batman Begins, The Prestige, and The Dark Knight with his brother Jonathan Nolan. Warner Bros is bringing Inception to theaters starting on July 16th this summer. See you all in theaters!

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