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Movie News: 21 Jump Street sequel coming in 2014

Well I’m officially excited. Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum are coming back to the screen in a 21 Jump Street sequel that is set to come out sometime in 2014. Sony announced at CinemaCon that the sequel was never in doubt after making $138 million last year. Rumors came out last year, that Hill and writer Michael Bacall was already working on a sequel, so this story isn’t too surprising.

21 Jump Street was one of my favorite movies last year and probably took my #1 comedy spot from last year. That being said, I’m really excited for this news and I’ll look forward to seeing if they can re-capture the magic from the first film.

Are you excited? Let us know in the comment section below!

Podcast: To the Wonder and The Place Beyond the Pines – Extra Film

On this special review, Nate and JD review To the Wonder and The Place Beyond the Pines. There’s also a little bonus material at the end that Nate wanted to chime in on.

Movie Trailer: Only God Forgives

Only God Forgives is shaping up to be one of the best films of 2013. Yesterday, we got an incredible new poster and today we got two equally incredible trailers. The magic director Nicolas Winding Refn and star Ryan Gosling had on Drive appears to be carrying over.

Only God Forgives will premiere at next month’s Cannes Film Festival and will open in the US on July 19.

Movie Review: The Place Beyond the Pines


Director: Derek Cianfrance
Writers: Derek Cianfrance, Ben Coccio, Darius Marder
Stars: Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Dane DeHaan, Ray Liotta

Synopsis: A motorcycle stunt rider turns to robbing banks as a way to provide for his lover and their newborn child, a decision that puts him on a collision course with an ambitious rookie cop navigating a department ruled by a corrupt detective.

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DIRECTION
The best way to describe The Place Beyond the Pines is ambitious. From the three intersecting storylines, to the visuals, to the performances, to the score, Derek Cianfrance (whose last film, Blue Valentine, was also pretty ambitious) does what most filmmakers try to do but fail. He combines all of these elements to (almost) perfection, giving audiences one of the best and most daring films of 2013 so far. Once the film opens with an extended tracking shot (with no dialogue) of Ryan Gosling’s character walking through a circus and into a cage to ride motorcycles in a cage ball, you know you’re in for a wild experience.

Grade: A

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SCRIPT
Cianfrance’s script for The Place Beyond the Pines doesn’t feature just one story, but rather three different ones, all of which merge together at some point. The first story involves Gosling’s tatted motorcyclist who starts robbing banks to provide for his girlfriend and their baby; the second story involves Bradley Cooper’s cop who’s too smart for his own good; and the final story jumps ahead and focuses on Gosling and Cooper’s respective sons. While I like the three different storylines, the one involving Gosling is by far the best and most enjoyable to watch, mostly because Gosling’s character is the most interesting. The ones involving Cooper and the two sons tend to drag along and the twists and turns in these two storylines that are supposed to be surprising rely a little too much on convenient coincidences.

Grade: B

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PERFORMANCES
From the two main leads in Gosling and Cooper to the supporting cast, the performances are pretty solid in The Place Beyond the Pines. Gosling and Cooper do the best work, although it would’ve been nice if they were able to do that work together. Eva Mendes gives one of her better performances as Gosling’s girlfriend, and the scenes where she interacts with Gosling and Cooper are some of the best in the film. Ray Liotta as a corrupt cop (per usual), Ben Mendehlson as Gosling’s partner-in-crime and friend and Dane DeHaan as Gosling’s grown-up son also give performances that are worth mentioning.

Grade: A

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SCORE
Mike Patton’s score was perhaps the best part of The Place Beyond the Pines, fitting perfectly with the ambition of the film. It’s kind of all over the place with many different elements like some boom-boom-in-your-face tracks along with some very light, soothing tracks. But they all surprisingly go well with their respective scenes.

Grade: A-

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Overall Grade: A-

Movie News: New Star Wars films to come out every summer starting in 2015

Do you like Star Wars? If you do, you’re going to be pretty happy. If you don’t, you better start.

At CinemaCon yesterday, Disney (which recently acquired Lucasfilm) will be releasing a new Star Wars film every summer beginning in 2015. They will start with J.J. Abrams’ Episode VII and alternate the new trilogy with the standalone films.

As a big Star Wars fan, I’m excited for more films involving the world and characters that George Lucas crafted so well in the ORIGINAL trilogy. But one every summer? That could be a little overboard.

Movie News: Patton Oswalt’s Star Wars Episode VII story proposal is incredible

Patton Oswalt has an idea for what J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars Episode VII should be about. And it is incredible.

Oswalt appears on tonight’s episode of Parks and Recreation as “a man who launches into a filibuster to prevent a city council vote.” He was asked to talk about any subject he wanted. It’s all uncut and it’s all 100 percent improvised.

Movie News: New poster for Only God Forgives is awesome

One movie that we are looking forward this year to is Only God Forgives. The trailer for it came out a few weeks ago and it is amazing. Ryan Gosling looks like he’ll be at his best here. Well the first poster for the film was released and it’s pretty interesting. Looks like Gosling will be facing off against the devil in this film.

Only God Forgives Poster

Movie Trailer: The Lone Ranger

The new trailer for The Lone Ranger doesn’t add a ton more value but it does show us some more action. If you’ve already made up your mind on this movie, this trailer won’t change anything. However, it’s still a fun watch.

The Lone Ranger hits theaters on July 3.

Movie Trailer: R.I.P.D.

A new trailer came out for R.I.P.D. that stars Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges. This movie looks like Men In Black with a True Grit feel to it. Bridges looks kind of like the same character from True Grit and I personally love it. I’m not sold on the story yet, but the performances look fun anyway.

R.I.P.D. comes out on June 28.

First poster for 300 prequel is out

The first poster for 300: Rise of an Empire is here.

Hours after unleashing the absolutely incredible new Man of Steel trailer (watch it over and over again here), Zack Snyder released the first poster for the prequel to 2007’s 300 via his twitter feed. Snyder is serving as producer this time around after directing the first one.

300 had a very unique visual style – a very awesome visual style – and based on the trailer below, the prequel appears to be no different.

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300: Rise of an Empire comes out on August 2.

Movie Review: To the Wonder


Director: Terrence Malick
Writers: Terrence Malick
Stars: Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko, Rachel McAdams, Javier Bardem

Synopsis: After visiting Mont Saint-Michel, Marina and Neil come to Oklahoma, where problems arise. Marina meets a priest and fellow exile, who is struggling with his vocation, while Neil renews his ties with a childhood friend, Jane.

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DIRECTION
It’s pretty crucial to separate Terrence Malick, the director, from Terrence Malick the screen writer when watching To the Wonder. Malick’s direction is very good. His shots are stunningly gorgeous using sun backdrops and lighting to portray an absolute gorgeous feel to the movie. I love Malick’s use of natural sounds, lighting and rhythms to bring out the natural beauty of what he’s shooting. The tracking shots of his actors and actresses as they are moving around and romanticizing is amazing. He also uses a great score to counter his natural sounds to bring a great sound to the film. Visually, this film is very Malick-esk and is what you would expect from him.

Grade: A-

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SCRIPT
Malick, the writer, isn’t quite as good in this film, however. The narrative is hard to get behind and the characters are dull and un-inspired. It’s really hard to get behind Affleck’s character and the story becomes very somber and depressing with no emotional uplift at all. And since there isn’t tons of dialogue, the actors can’t really do much to amplify or uplift the story at all. I do, however, like the use of religion and Christianity in the film. Bardem’s character of the priest is used well and in a film like this, it’s very appropriate. The story is about broken relationships and the difficulties and casualties that come with that. The use of Christianity and how that incorporates with relational pain is done well. But it’s a small part of the script and doesn’t carry the film. It’s not Malick’s best script by any means.

Grade: C+

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PERFORMANCES
Despite a lackluster script, I think the performances are exactly what Malick, the director, was wanting out of them. He gets good emotion out of the characters and Affleck does a great job of being the..well let’s just say guy he’s supposed to be. Bardem is my favorite though and once again does a fantastic job. He most likely won’t get any recognition for the film, given it’s not Malick’s best movie overall, but Bardem gives another outstanding performance. I think the girls, McAdams and Kurylenko, do a great job given the somber nature of the roles. There’s not much too them, but they are fine.

Grade: B

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SCORE
Hanan Townshend does the score and is familiar with Malick as he worked on the soundtrack for The Tree of Life. The score is actually pretty good and is a key role in the film. There’s not tons of dialogue so the sound and tones of the film are more amplified. The score adds a nice touch to a movie that is already depressing. While I may not want to listen to it a ton outside of the movie, it fits it well and gets the job done for the direction this movie takes.

Grade: B+

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Overall Grade: B-

 

Movie News: The Lone Ranger gets some character posters

Hate to say it, but I’m not really looking all that forward to Gore Verbinski’s The Lone Ranger. I like Verbinski, Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, William Fichtner and some of the other actors involved, but based on the trailers and these character posters, I just can’t quite get on board. Not yet at least.

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The Lone Ranger rides into town on July 3.

Movie Trailer: Man of Steel

The new Man of Steel trailer is just … wow! I thought the first one was incredible but this one just blows that out of the water, giving us more Superman action, Jor-El, Lois Lane and General Zod. It appears that Zack Snyder may have knocked it out of the park.

Man of Steel opens on June 14.

Movie News: Stanley Tucci joins Transformers 4

Michael Bay has cast another human in Transformers 4.

At CinemaCon today, Bay announced that Stanley Tucci will be joining Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz and Jack Reynor in his fourth go-round with the Autobots and Decepticons. Bay also announced that he will be shooting the film with the brand-new IMAX camera in native 3D.

Tucci, who has been acting since the early 80s, has appeared in The Hunger Games series, The Terminal, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Devil Wears Prada, The Lovely Bones (in which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor) and, most recently, Jack the Giant Slayer.

I quite enjoyed Bay’s first three Transformers and I love pretty much everything Wahlberg and Tucci do, so count me excited for this.

Transformers 4 is planned to come on June 27, 2014.

Movie Trailer: Star Trek Into Darkness

There’s only one word to describe the final Star Trek Into Darkness trailer that was released today: Incredible. To me, this trailer ranks right up there with Iron Man 3 and Man of Steel for best of the summer. I love the grimness and, dare I say, darkness, of the trailer and I love that there’s still a lot J.J. Abrams and Co. are keeping under wraps.

After watching the trailer below, check out these cool new character posters that were recently released featuring Spock, John Harrison and Uhura as well as a snippet of Michael Giacchino’s score.

Star Trek Into Darkness opens on May 17.

Movie News: More Star Trek Into Darkness posters plus a snippet of Michael Giacchino’s score

More Star Trek Into Darkness posters are here featuring Zachary Quinto’s Spock, Benedict Cumberbatch’s John Harrison and Zoe Saldana’s Uhura. I particularly like the Spock one with the pose and the fire.

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And if the posters weren’t cool enough, we also got our first listen to Michael Giacchino’s score. The composer was recently in Switzerland for the Star Trek Live to Projection event and showed off the villain’s theme for Star Trek Into Darkness. The score for the first Star Trek was amazing, which is the norm for the combo of J.J. Abrams and Giacchino, so I’m really looking forward to the score in this.

Star Trek Into Darkness comes out on May 17.

Podcast: Top 3 Sports Movies

On Episode 8 of our InSession Film Podcast, we discussed our Top 3 Sports Movies of all-time and we had a ton of fun doing it! How does your list match-up?

Nate

1) Warrior
2) The Sandlot
3) Space Jam

JD

1) Warrior, Mystery Alaska
2) Remember the Titans
3) Cool Runnings

Matthew

1) Friday Night Lights
2) Field of Dreams
3) Rocky

Podcast: 42, Top Sports Movies, and Strictly Ballroom – Episode 8

On Episode 8 of the Insession Film Podcast, we review 42, give our Top 3 sports movies of all-time and we debut our first ever InSession Movie Series where we discuss Baz Lurhmann and his 1992 film, Strictly Ballroom.

42 Review

Our Top 3 Sports Movies

– We begin our first ever InSession Movie Series. In our first series we will be diving into Baz Luhrmann and on this week’s show we discuss Strictly Ballroom.

– Latest News

Elysium Trailer
Rush Trailer
Only God Forgives Trailer

– What We’ve Seen This Week

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InSession Film Podcast – Episode 8

Movie Series: Strictly Ballroom (Baz Luhrmann)


Director: Baz Luhrmann
Writers: Baz Luhrmann
Stars: Paul Mercurio, Tara Morice, Bill Hunter

Synopsis: A maverick dancer risks his career by performing an unusual routine and sets out to succeed with a new partner.

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DIRECTION
While Strictly Ballroom is outdated now, it was a critic success in 1992 for a reason. Baz Luhrmann does a great job of incorporating a mockumentary style of shooting that captures your attention from the start. There’s a lot of dancing and the opening sequence doesn’t shy away from it. The film has some eloquent costumes which sets the tone early for the experience you’re about to have. I think Luhrmann gets descent performances out of his main actors and uses the camera well to create a fun dance number. If you get outside of the subject material (for those of you don’t like ballroom dancing) it’s a descent watch with some fun humor. I think the story is well written and Luhrmann does a good job of giving it legs to stand on its own. It has some bad and quick edits that are at times distracting and the cartoonish sounds and look I think draws you away from the story, which loses its appeal. It’s not Luhrmann’s best film, but it was a good start.

Grade: B-

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SCRIPT
Luhrmann wrote the script long before 1992 and later developed the screenplay. I think the dialogue is good for the most part but he loses me with the mother, played by Pat Thomson. The mother’s lines are more annoyance than anything, but Thomson delivers them well. If the goal was to be the annoying mom that you don’t want to have, she does a fantastic job. However, I love the story of Scott Hastings and how it’s his story of becoming his own person. In a world where his mother is trying to create his path for him and control his fate, he rebels, creates his own dances, and lives his life. I like the idea of him being who he is supposed to be and him not settling for a life that’s not his. I think Luhrmann’s tells that story well and it comes across well on the screen. Some of it is cheesy and predictable but overall it’s a success.

Grade: B

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PERFORMANCES
Paul Mercurio does a great job of playing Scott Hastings in this film. I don’t feel like he gets a great supporting cast to surround him which makes the film seem dull at times. I also loved Barry Otto who played Mr. Hastings in this movie. He’s not a big character at all until the end of the film, but he has such a subtle humor throughout the movie that steals the show at time. His presence at the end of the movie is also great and it makes the story even bigger and better to me. The rest of the cast is average at best which drops the grade for me overall.

Grade: C+

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SCORE
David Hirschfelder gets the nod to score for Luhrmann in his first film and the score adds some good elements that I thought was very necessary. In a movie about dancing, music is a key element to the overall vibe of the film. Hirschfelder is a good composer and I think adds the appropriate sounds and mixes to what could of made this film better than what it was.

Grade: B

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Overall Grade: B-

 

Movie Poll: What’s your favorite Tom Cruise movie?

We have a new poll this week! With Oblivion coming out this week, we want to know what your favorite Tom Cruise movie. Let us know and vote in the poll below!

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