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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?

Movie News: Iron Man 3 to have Chinese version

Marvel came out with big news yesterday as they announced they are releasing two versions of Iron Man 3, including a Chinese version. Both versions are set to be released on May 3, 2013. The movie will be distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures everywhere worldwide except for China. In China the film will be distributed by the Chinese distributor DMG Entertainment. I imagine the films will be a little bit different as we know DMG collaborated with Marvel Studios on the Chinese elements of the movie. It’ll be interesting to see how different it is.

Here’s the official statement released by Marvel Studios and DMG Entertainment:

Marvel Studios and DMG announced that a Chinese version of Iron Man 3 will be released in China on a date to be announced in the near future. DMG, a Chinese media and entertainment company, collaborated with Marvel Studios on the Chinese elements in the film, and is marketing and distributing the film in China. While Marvel and DMG have decided not to apply for co-production status in China, the film includes significant Chinese elements. Renowned Chinese actor Wang Xueqi will appear in both the studio’s Chinese version of the film and in its international and domestic US version. Both versions of the film include Iron Man 3 footage filmed in Beijing in December. The Chinese version of the film will also feature a special appearance of China’s top actress, Fan Bingbing, and will offer specially prepared bonus footage made exclusively for the Chinese audience. Marvel Studios’ experience working on this film with Fan Bingbing and Wang Xueqi and in shooting in China has been very positive and has created a springboard for future collaboration with China’s talented stars and its growing film and television industry. The Iron Man cast and filmmakers look forward to bringing Iron Man back to China.

Movie News: Movies opening week of March 29

Here are the movies opening this week:

G.I. Joe: Retaliation
The Host
Tyler Perry’s Temptation
The Place Beyond the Pines
Room 237
Welcome to the Punch
Wrong
Himmatwala
Mental
Blancanieves

Which one do you want to see?

Movie News: Matthew McConaughey offered lead role in Interstellar

Christopher Nolan may have finally landed his lead actor for his sci-fi movie, Interstellar. After rumors of Leonardo DiCaprio, Guy Pearce, Hugh Jackman and others came to the table, Deadline has reported that it now will be everyone’s favorite abs, Matthew McConaughey. Interstellar is the newest film by Nolan that is written by his brother Jonathan Nolan, who wrote The Dark Knight and The Prestige. Currently there are no details, but we do know that it will be a fun space travel movie. McConaughey’s character will be a guy named Cooper.

I’m not sure how McConaughey will be in this role as it seems very different than most of his work. He has done some sci-fi work before when he starred in Contact with Jodi Foster. That being said, he doesn’t come across as a guy that would do well in those types of roles. I could be wrong and depending on how the character is, he could pull that off. Either way, we can expect at least one or two scenes where he will be shirtless.

What do you guys think?

Movie News: Tony Stark’s Iron Man Squadron

Well if you’ve seen the last Iron Man 3 trailer, you should know two things. One, we are very excited for this film! Two, you saw at the end that trailer, Iron Man has a whole squadron of Iron Man suits ready to go to battle in Iron Man 3. And the marketing team for the film is ready to let us know about it. I’m not sure if they’ll release all of them, but they’ve released the first six Iron Man suits we may see in the film. They are pretty cool, so check them out below!

IronManSuit1

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Movie News: New international posters for Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim got some new posters that feature Russian Jaeger: Cherno Alpha and Chinese Jaeger: Crimson Typhoon. I gotta say…these posters are awesome and I’m excited for this!

PacificRimRussia

PacificRimChina

Podcast: The Passion of the Christ – Extra Film

This week on the InSession Film Podcast: Extra Film segment, in honor of Easter, Nate and JD review Mel Gibson’s gripping look at the death of Jesus in The Passion of the Christ.

Movie Trailer: The Wolverine trailers actually look good

Based on the horrendously bad posters for The Wolverine that were recently released, my expectations for this film were about as low as you could get. But today we got two trailers, and I gotta say, they aren’t too bad. I’m curious to see what director James Mangold and Hugh Jackman do with a different approach to Wolverine; I mean, it can’t be any worse than the crapfest known as X-Men Origins: Wolverine right?

Here’s the domestic one:

And the slightly better international one:

The Wolverine opens on July 26.