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Movie Trailer: The Purge

This movie has a crazy premise, but looks awesome. That’s all I want to say about it. Check this out:

Podcast: Spring Breakers – Extra Film

Nate and JD have a mini-podcast where they discuss Harmony Korine’s latest film, Spring Breakers. In what could fall into stereotypes, Spring Breakers has much more to offer.

Movie News: Iron Man 3 exclusive clip

We get our first exclusive clip at Iron Man 3 thanks to Yahoo Movies. Tony Stark gets in front of the press to call out the The Mandarin . Get ready for an epic battle folks!

Movie Trailer: Man of Steel marketing getting the job done

We saw this trailer before we went to see Jurassic Park 3-D and I forgot how exciting this looks. The marketing for Man of Steel is doing one heck of a job. Between this and Iron Man 3, Marvel and DC will have it out this year. Both movies look really great and it’ll be fun to compare the two when it’s all said and done. As far as DC goes and the Justice League, if that’s the direction they go, I think it hinges strongly on how Man of Steel goes. And because of that pressure, it looks like they put everything into this. Look for one incredible movie.

Movie News: Film critic Roger Ebert dies at age 70

Roger-Ebert_2Roger Ebert, best known for co-hosting “Siskel and Ebert At The Movies” with Gene Siskel, died today at the age of 70, two days after revealing cancer had returned to his body. The Chicago Sun-Times, where Ebert had worked as a film critic since 1967, announced his death.

Ebert’s last published piece of work was an essay on his blog on Tuesday titled “Leave of Presence” where he announced his plan to slow down and minimize the amount of film reviews he wrote. His last words to his readers were “I’ll see you at the movies.”

“My intent is to continue to write selected reviews but to leave the rest to a talented team of writers handpicked and greatly admired by me,” wrote Ebert, who had already lost his voice and much of his jaw after battling thyroid and salivary gland cancer. “What’s more, I’ll be able at last to do what I’ve always fantasized about doing: reviewing only the movies I want to review.

“Last year, I wrote the most of my career, including 306 movie reviews, a blog post or two a week, and assorted other articles,” he added. “I must slow down now, which is why I’m taking what I like to call ‘a leave of presence.'”

I began reading Ebert’s reviews and watching him on television toward the end of my high school days when I really started getting serious about films. I continued to regularly read his reviews all the way up to his passing, loving how he never sugarcoated anything and told it exactly how it is in a very eloquent yet easy-going and way. He will be greatly missed.

Movie News: Brad Pitt looks to go back to WWII

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After killing some Nazis in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, it appears Brad Pitt isn’t done with World War II just yet.

According to Deadline, Pitt – who can be seen in June’s World War Z – is set to star in David Ayer’s Fury, a story about a five-man tank crew who are fighting against a desperate German army. Fury is based on a true story – something Basterds was not.

Ayer made one of last year’s best films with End of Watch, a found-footage buddy-cop film starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s a must watch. Ayer’s next film is Ten, a thriller starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sam Worthington and Terrence Howard, which will be released next May.

As of now, there is no release date set for Fury.

Movie News: Zoe Saldana close to being one of the Guardians of the Galaxy

Zoe-Saldana-Widescreen-Wallpaper-zoe-saldana-9784255-1920-1200Add another blockbuster to Zoe Saldana’s resume.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Saldana is in talks to play Gamora in The Guardians of the Galaxy, part of Marvel’s Phase 2 leading into The Avengers 2. Gamora is a green-skinned humanoid and a skilled assassin who is the only female in the group.

Saldana is no stranger to big-time blockbusters, appearing in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek series (including May’s Star Trek Into Darkness) and James Cameron’s Avatar seriers.

Chris Pratt has already been lined up to play Star-Lord and Dave Bautista will take on the role of Drax the Destroyer. Groot and Rocket Raccoon are the final two members to be cast in James Gunn’s film.

The Guardians of the Galaxy is expected to take over Earth on August 1, 2014.

Red-Band Trailer: Only God Forgives

So who out there liked Drive, the stylistic, violent 70s-esque thriller starring Ryan Gosling? Yeah, most of us. Well, get excited because Gosling is teaming up with Drive director Nicholas Winding Refn again for Only God Forgives.

We got our first real taste of Only God Forgives with today’s trailer and it isn’t exactly a sequel to Drive but boy does it look like it. It uses that same style of filmmaking with vibrant colors and a wild soundtrack. And brutal violence, can’t forget the brutal violence. This looks super good and I can’t wait to see it.

Only God Forgives hits domestic theaters sometime in 2013 but opens in a couple of countries in May.

Movie Trailer: Grown Ups 2

Guess what people? There’s a sequel to Grown Ups coming and today we got the first trailer, appropriately titled Grown Ups 2 (lots of hard work went into that).

The entire cast of the first film returns (minus Rob Schneider it appears) and there’s a couple of newcomers including Taylor Lautner and Shaquille O’Neal. I actually enjoyed Grown Ups for what it was: A stupid comedy with some funny moments. And it looks like the sequel will provide the same.

Grown Ups 2 hits theaters on July 12.

Podcast: Top 3 Comic Book/Superhero Characters

On our latest podcast, we discussed our favorite superhero and comic book characters of all-time in film.

Nate
1) The Joker – The Dark Knight
2) Magneto – X-Men First Class
3) Scott Pilgrim – Scott Pilgrim vs The World

JD
1) Spider-Man – Spider-Man 2
2) Optimus Prime – Transformers
3) Snake Eyes – G.I. Joe

Matthew
1) Batman – The Dark Knight series
2) Marv – Sin City
3) Tom Stall – A History of Violence

Movie News: Will Arnett joins Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The Michael Bay-produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has been very busy over the last few weeks. Last month, Megan Fox created quite the buzz when she signed on to play April O’Neil. This was very surprising to us as we knew that Fox and Bay had their differences in the past. I’m also not not sure how she’ll fit in another big lead role.

Last week, it was announced that Alan Ritchson (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire) will be playing Raphael, Pete Ploszek (Parks and Recreation) will be playing Leonardo, Jeremy Howard (Breaking Bad) will be playing Donatello, and Noel Fisher (Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, Shameless) will be playing Michaelangelo.

Now it’s been announced that Will Arnett has joined the cast. It hasn’t been announced who he’ll play yet, but THR has reported that he is not playing Casey Jones, which would have been a good guess.

It should be fun to see what happens and see how they play off the CGI turtles vs the costume version of the early 90’s. The film is set to release June 6, 2014.

Movie News: Finding Nemo sequel gets a title

©2013 Disney•Pixar. All Rights Reserved.We’ve known for a while now that there was going to be a sequel to Pixar’s Finding Nemo. Well, now we have an official title and some minor plot details.

The sequel to 2003’s film about a father fish in search of his lost son is officially now titled Finding Dory. Yes, it appears as if the story will center around Dory, the forgetful fish voiced wonderfully by Ellen DeGeneres. It will take place a year after the events of the first film, set along the California coastline.

Pixar has been getting some flack lately for going the sequel route with Cars 2, Monsters University (prequel) and Toy Story 2 and 3. But I’m pretty optimistic about the sequel to Finding Nemo, which I think is one of Pixar’s best offerings to date. I loved the story and the characters and I think with Andrew Stanton back at the helm, the sequel is in good shape.

Finding Dory hits theaters on November 25, 2015.

Movie Trailer: Before Midnight

Richard Linklater delivers his followup to the now classic Before Sunrise and Before SunsetThe films are in mostly real time and follow the relationship between Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy). Linklater looks to be flexing his funny bone as Before Midnight looks more comedic than its predecessors.

Overall, Before Midnight will not likely pull in a huge audience but for fans of the previous films and those looks for poignant comedy dramas, Before Midnight looks like it will deliver and then some.

Latest Red-Band Trailer: This is the End

What’s the deal with all these trailers giving away so much? I don’t know about you but I don’t really like to see everything – all the good stuff at least – in the trailer.

With that being said, the red-band trailer for This is the End looks pretty good. I like the idea of a group of actors – including James Franco, Michael Cera, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel – playing themselves during an alien invasion. But why did they have to spoil so many of the deaths in the trailer?

Anyways, watch the trailer below and tell us what you think.

This is the End comes out on June 12.

Movie News: A third G.I. Joe film in the works

gi-joe-retaliation-cobra-commander-fireflyNot much of a surprise here: There’s going to be a G.I. Joe 3.

Paramount recently announced that they are moving forward with a third installment of the G.I. Joe franchise, according to Variety. A big reason for this decision is how well G.I. Joe: Retaliation did at the box office over the weekend. In five days, Retaliation has grossed over $50 million domestically and over $130 million worldwide – which is much better than 2009’s G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. That is in large part to the fact that Retaliation was converted to 3D, a process that delayed the film nine months.

I think it would be wise if they made the third film a direct sequel to Retaliation and bring back Dwayne Johnson, Adrianne Palicki and Bruce Willis as they were the best part of an otherwise average film (you can read my full review here).

So what do you guys think? Are you down for another G.I. Joe film?

Movie Trailer: 2 Guns

Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington teaming up for a different take on the buddy-cop film? Count me in.

We recently got the trailer for 2 Guns, an adaptation of a comic book about two undercover agents who have been investigating each other only to find out they’ve been stealing money from the mob. Wahlberg and Washington look to be playing off each other really well. And you have to love appearances by Edward James Olmos and a scene-chewing Bill Paxton.

Check out the trailer below and tell us what you think.

2 Guns opens on August 2.

Movie Review: G.I. Joe: Retaliation, still not quite there


Director: John M. Chu
Writers: Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick
Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Channing Tatum, Adrianne Palicki, Bruce Willis

Synopsis: The G.I. Joes are not only fighting their mortal enemy Cobra; they are forced to contend with threats from within the government that jeopardize their very existence.

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DIRECTION
John M. Chu is best known for directing two of the Step Up sequels – which basically means nobody has heard of him. And nobody will really know his name after Retaliation. He does an OK job with the script he’s given and gets the most out of his actors but nobody really cares about that – this is an action film after all. So how does he fare with that? Overall, he does a decent job with staging some of the action sequences, particularly those featuring ninjas Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow. But a lot of those sequences use too much shaky cam and quick cuts. Lots of slow-motion shots were also utilized, which were nice but made it painfully obvious where the 3D was used.

Grade: C

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SCRIPT
With the writers of Zombieland (an action comedy), you would think Retaliation would have somewhat of a decent script. Nope. This sequel/reboot to 2009’s G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is very unoriginal and very predictable – good guys get accused of being bad guys, bad guys take over, nuclear annihilation and so on. There is a little character background on some of the characters, which is nice, but it wasn’t really enough to make you care about these characters.

Grade: D

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PERFORMANCES
Surprisingly enough, the performances are the best part of Retaliation. The new cast members – Dwayne Johnson, Bruce Willis and Adrianne Palicki (who is smoking hot in this film) – do a very admirable job with the material and make the interactions between the characters a joy to watch. I particularly enjoy the relationship and chemistry between Johnson and Channing Tatum’s characters. It  is very 21 Jump Street-ish; only problem is it’s a very small part of the film. Same with Cobra Commander (played by Luke Bracey behind the mask) – he’s a cool villain with a gnarly voice but is hardly in the film. I think that would’ve changed had Joseph Gordon-Levitt returned to the role.

Grade: B-

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SCORE
Henry Jackman composed one of last year’s best scores with Wreck-It Ralph. Unfortunately, he takes a step down with Retaliation, using some of the same beats from Wreck-It Ralph but not in a very memorable way. The score has its moments but it’s pretty forgettable overall.

Grade: C

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Overall Grade: C

 

Movie News: The Great Gatsby gets some nifty new character posters

Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is quickly approaching its release date. And in anticipation, Warner Bros. has released some very elegant-looking character posters for some of the main players. Check them out below and tell us what you think.

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great-gatsby-poster-elizabeth-debicki THE-GREAT-GATSBY-Poster

The Great Gatsby opens on May 10.

Movie News: Pacific Rim is ‘2500 tons of awesome’

Saturday afternoon was a big day for Pacific Rim. At the Anaheim Convention Center Arena for WonderCon, director Guillermo del Toro met with a packed audience to showcase his giant robots that is getting lots of hype. The movie is set for July 12 and stars Charlie Hunnman, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day and Ron Perlman. People have had the chance to catch glimpses of Pacific Rim since Comic-Con 2012.

As the event started, Del Toro played a trailer that was specifically made for WonderCon. According to EW, they played it twice because it went so well. Del Toro also went on to say they only plan to show it one more time and that it will not be released to the public.

The trailer was reportedly filled with lots of explosions and destruction that is best summed up by Day’s character who says the robots are “2500 tons of awesome.”

Overall, the sneek-peak seemed to go over really well from reports and it makes me even more excited to see this film. It looks really great and should be a fun one for every type of movie-goer. Last week, they released new posters that were awesome and show how awesome these robots look. Who wants to go with us to see this?