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: Movies opening week of March 29
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!
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!
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.
Movie Trailer: Kick-Ass 2 gets new international trailer and character poster
Today we got a new international trailer for Kick-Ass 2, one that primarily focuses on fan-favorite Hit-Girl. While this isn’t the awesome red-band trailer we got a couple of weeks ago, it’s still pretty entertaining – minus all the swearing and violence that makes Kick-Ass so great.
And we recently got some cool character posters, but one major character was missing: Jim Carrey’s Colonel Stars and Stripes. Well, not anymore.
Kick-Ass 2 starts kicking ass on Aug. 16.
Movie Trailer: New Red Band trailer for Pain & Gain is great
Thanks to Yahoo, we have a new Red Band trailer for Michael Bay’s Pain & Gain. It’s a lot of fun and is a lot more “mature” than the original trailers. Get ready for some great action and a lot of laughs. This trailer really makes me excited for this movie and while it seems like typical Bay, it looks like the kind of fun I had with the Bad Boys franchise. Check it out below
Movie Trailer: President in trouble again in new White House Down trailer
Is it just me or did this already come out? I’m pretty sure I saw this film over the weekend when I watched Olympus Has Fallen. White House Down looks like that exact same film; just insert Channing Tatum for Gerald Butler as the one-man killing machine and Jamie Foxx for Aaron Eckhart as the president.
While I did enjoy Olympus Has Fallen for what it is, I’m actually more excited for White House Down. I already know what I’m going to get as it’s directed by Roland Emmerich, who has had a knack for blowing up the White House since Independence Day. And the writer is actually legit as James Vanderbilt has done Zodiac, The Rundown and last year’s The Amazing Spider-Man. I’m just not sure we need another one of these let’s-blow-up-the-White-House type films so close together.
Check out the new trailer below and tell us what you think.
White House Down comes out on June 28.
Movie Review: Olympus Has Fallen
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Writers: Creighton Rothenberger, Katrin Benedikt
Stars: Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman
Synopsis: Disgraced former Presidential guard Mike Banning finds himself trapped inside the White House in the wake of a terrorist attack; using his inside knowledge, Banning works with national security to rescue the President from his kidnappers.
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DIRECTION
I expect a lot more out of Antoine Fuqua than what we got for this film. The movie starts off strong, but once the enemy invasion begins, it all goes down hill. This is sort of a spoiler, but if you’ve seen the previews it’s not a surprise. But the one (Yes, just one) C-130 that is used in the invasion, destroys two F-22’s, kills everyone on the ground, and creates all kinds of chaos and it’s a joke. I understand it’s a movie and Hollywood threw out realism a long time ago, but this was way over the top. To me, it was offensive to U.S. military personnel and made them out to be completely incompetent. The film is basically the script of Die Hard, that has the theme of Modern Warfare 2, and tries to have the feel of Pearl Harbor. It fails at all three and is way too serious for the action move that it is. The visuals and sound editing are embarrassingly bad. Fuqua does get good performances out of his lead actors while the supporting cast is so-so. The one thing he does get right though is the score. There was also some good action once they were inside the White House. If you can get passed this ridiculous premise, it’s a little enjoyable. I had a hard time with it though. It may not be all Fuqua’s fault though because it seems like all of the budget went toward getting high profile name actors and to an aggressive marketing campaign. That being said, it’s one of the worse Fuqua movies I’ve seen.
Grade: D+
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SCRIPT
The script for this movie is also week. The writers, Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt, have no other experience writing scripts and this is their first shot at Hollywood. While, some of it’s okay, it’s a big knockoff of Die Hard in lots of ways. I think on the surface the script had some good moments, but they weren’t executed well which left it really dry. Some of the script was also ruined by the poor direction of Fuqua and a small visual effects budget. Most of the dialouge was pretty good. There were some good one liners, in particular with Gerard Butler’s character that I really enjoyed. As I mentioned, it’s hard for me to get pass the ridiculous premise though. If the script was more geared like Modern Warfare 2, it would of been a lot more plausible. I understand the chances of this happening in real life is slim to none (so please no hate mail), I get that. I’m just saying they could of been more creative to make it more life like. I feel like they took a cheap way out. The love story is pointless to the whole film and doesn’t add any value. If anything, it just gets in the way of the story, which I feel is hard to do. Nothing about the script is very original and that’s what hurts it more than anything.
Grade: C
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PERFORMANCES
Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman, and Aaron Eckhart are pretty good. I especially enjoyed Eckhart as I think he’s getting better and better with each role I see him in. Morgan Freeman is in this movie. I think that’s all I really need to say. Butler is also good. I think he’s great as the action hero. While people tend to downplay his romantic comedies, I tend think he’s great in those as well. P.S. I Love You is my favorite chick-flick of all time. The big three make it worth it to see this film. I also enjoyed Rick Yune as the main villian though. He does a great job and pulls off the role great. The supporting cast is okay. Most of it is forgettable, except for Ashley Judd. She should of been in it more.
Grade: B-
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SCORE
Trevor Morris kills the score for this film. It’s easily my favorite part and he does a great job. The patriotic themes he has are great. I love how he fills the action scenes and trys to lift up the scenes where I think they are weak. The orchestra is used great and I especially love the horns. This is a great listen to outside of the movie and I think it’s done great. It may be a little bit too thematic and serious for what I think is a typical, silly action movie. Outside of that, it’s good.
Grade: B+
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Overall Grade: C
Movie News: Listen to title track from M83’s score for Oblivion
A big reason why we’re excited for the upcoming Joseph Kosinski-directed and Tom Cruise-starring Oblivion is because Anthony Gonzalez and M83 are providing the score. We already got a tease with “StarWaves” but they recently released the title track called “Oblivion,” which features Norwegian singer Susanne Sundfor.
The song, which you can listen to at Pitchfork.com, is pretty awesome and gets us even more excited for Oblivion.
Gonzalez collaborated with Joseph Trapanese on the soundtrack. Trapanese previously collaborated with Daft Punk on the soundtrack for Tron: Legacy, also directed by Kosinski.
The soundtrack for Oblivion comes out on April 9, 10 days before the film is released.
Movie Trailer: World War Z gets new trailer and poster
Brad Pitt’s World War Z‘s release date is quickly approaching and recently we got another glimpse at some footage via a new trailer. This trailer (which I enjoyed better than the first one that was released) gives us a better glimpse of the story, which seems to involve Pitt’s character going all over the globe to find the source of the outbreak.
We also got a new poster that is kind of different for a zombie film.
I’m currently reading World War Z by Max Brooks, and based off what I’ve seen in the trailers and with this poster, this film will be nothing like the book it’s based on – which is understandable considering the book is just interviews with a bunch of different people about the outbreak, and that doesn’t lend itself to an easy narrative. But nonetheless, I’m still looking forward to seeing War World Z this summer.
World War Z hits theaters on June 21.
Movie News: Awesome Snake Eyes interview
Aint It Cool News did an “awesome” interview with Snake Eyes, from G.I. Joe: Retaliation. In regards to the movie, he was the only good thing about the first movie. Hopefully it’s better this time around. Snake Eyes looks a little different in this video for some reason though…
Movie News: New terrible posters for The Wolverine
Just when you think they were going to start making up for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, 20th Century Fox releases these new posters. Now, you don’t have to be an expert designer to know that these are terribly designed. The first one isn’t as bad in terms of design, but it doesn’t make sense. It’s very glowy and in the middle of some future city apparently. The second one is a joke and if I say any more on it, I may say something inappropriate. The new trailers better make up for this Fox. You can do better.
Box Office Report: The Croods with a big weekend
The Croods dominated the box office this weekend, according to Box Office Mojo, as it took in an estimated $44.7 million in it’s first weekend. For Dreamworks, this is a vast improvement from last Novembers’s Rise of the Guardians which did’t do as well and took nearly two weeks to get to $44 million. Again according to Box Office Mojo, The Croods is right in line with How to Train Your Dragon and Megamind in comparison to opening weekends. I especially liked Rise of the Guardians so this is a little surprising to me given that I didn’t care for The Croods trailers.
Olympus Has Fallen also did decently well with a $30 million debut. Although with the aggressive marketing the did and the special effects, I’m surprised it’s not more than that. However for director Antoine Fuqua, this is his best opening he’s ever had for any of his movies. With the money they spent on this film, it may turn out to be a bust comparatively to what they may have been expecting. We’ll have a full review of it up pretty shortly.
Overall, the weekend had a 35% drop off from this same weekend last year which debuted The Hunger Games, which alone dominated the box office. There will be a new slate of some really great movies coming out soon, so be sure to stay tuned.
Did you get to see any movies this weekend?
Movie News: Gary Oldman and Tom Hardy Teaming Up Again
Tom Hardy and Gary Oldman are teaming up…again. The, what seems unlikely, pair have already teamed up for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Dark Knight Rises, and Lawless. The common denominator in all of those films? They were good. Lawless may not have got the notoriety that the other two films got, but still a good movie nonetheless.
According to Indiewire, the film they are looking to do now is Child 44. The fill will also star Noomi Rapace and Joel Kinnaman. The movie is set to be produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Daniel Espinosa. So far, there’s nothing about those names that makes me think this movie will be bad.
The story follows an MGB agent, played by Hardy, in the 1950’s who is investigating a high profile child murderer who may be connected to the top of the party leadership. Rapace will play the wife of Hardy, while Kinnaman will be Hardy’s bad guy in the film. As for Oldman, he will be playing a cop. Go figure right? Except in this role, he’s one of the suspects in the case.
If you’re not excited for this cast and crew, well I’m not sure what to tell you. This looks to be a great movie though.
Movie News: Ryan Gosling to take a break from acting
Ladies, I know this is a sad day for you, but Ryan Gosling has announced he plans to take a break from acting for a while.
“I’ve been doing it too much,” Gosling revealed in an interview. “I’ve lost perspective on what I’m doing. I think it’s good for me to take a break and reassess why I’m doing it and how I’m doing it. And I think this is probably a good way to learn about that. I need a break from myself as much as I imagine the audience does,” he added.
I’m not sure how that’s true as even I have enjoyed his latest movies. While Gangster Squad didn’t do well in theaters, it wasn’t the bad of a movie. Hist latest project, The Place Beyond the Pines looks to be pretty good too.
I can’t imagine he’ll be gone too long. He’s a pretty heavily sought after actor and people love him. I’m sure the stresses of the business are tough (I wouldn’t know though), but my guess is he’ll be back. So don’t stress too much ladies.
Movie News: Transformers 4 set and plot details
We now know more details about Transformers 4 and they are headed to Detroit. The movie is set to film this spring and has intended to bring $81.9 million to the state of Michigan. That makes it the second-biggest project ever to hit Michigan. Oz the Great and Powerful currently sits at number one when it brought roughly $105 million to Michigan.
“It’s a huge film from one of the biggest studios in the world,” said Ken Droz, a local film consultant and screenwriter who has formerly worked for the Michigan Film Office.
As far as the plot details, it sounds like Transformers 4 will be very different than the first three films. Michael Bay, who’s back at the Director’s helm, recently told Forbes that they have redesigned everything and that we should look for something very different. One of those changes is, which we know, is the main characters. The film will now start Mark Wahlberg and Jack Reynor.
The story reportedly picks up after Transformers: Dark of the Moon and most of the Autobots and Decepticons have left Earth. Scientist and technology experts try to re-create technology based off the robots and things go south from there as you could imagine. We can assume that since the transformers are no longer on earth that we’ll see some battle scenes in space somewhere.
I’m personally excited for this and as a huge Transformers fan, I can’t wait to see how the franchise will be different. I love the idea of Transformers battling in space away from Earth and how Wahlberg and Reynor will fit in.
What do you guys think?
Movie Trailer: Star Trek Into Darkness gets awesome new trailer
Are you serious? A new international trailer for Star Trek Into Darkness was released today and it may be the best one yet. This sequel looks like it’s going to up the stakes big time and Benedict Cumberbatch looks like he’s going to rock it as the villain. I cannot wait to see what J.J. Abrams and Co. have in store!
Star Trek Into Darkness opens on May 17.
Movie Review: Dead Man Down is a good early surprise
Director: Niels Arden Oplev
Writers: J.H. Wyman
Stars: Colin Farrell, Noomi Rapace, Terrence Howard, Dominic Cooper
Synopsis: In New York City, a crime lord’s right-hand man is seduced by one of his boss’s victims, a woman seeking retribution.
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DIRECTION
Niels Arden Oplev is brilliant in this film. In a film that only features three main sets, the direction couldn’t be better. He gets brilliant performances out of Howard, Farrell, and Rapace. While the supporting cast isn’t the greatest, it doesn’t take away from the film. Some of the film is slow moving as it’s setting up the story, but you start to feel for Farrell’s character and the script starts to come together. I love how he plays the relationship between Rapace and Farrell. At times it feels awkward and complicated, but throughout the film you start see the chemistry appear. The music wasn’t the best in this movie, but his choices later in the film made up for the beginning. The final scene really adds a lot to the movie for me. It’s a great action sequence, that at times is a little predictable, but is a ton of fun to watch. Overall, Opley does a great job with this movie.
Grade: B+
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SCRIPT
J.H. Wyman’s screenplay is strongly written and probably my favorite story of 2013 so far. The story revolves around Farrell’s character seeking revenge and trying to find healing for his broken heart. At the same time, Rapace’s character is seeking revenge while trying to re-find her beauty and breaking through her insecurity. The story also involves a crime lord finding out who’s tormenting him while it’s all in his own house. While the story revolves around revenge, heartache, insecurity, healing, family and friendships, not one of those elements necessarily is more than the others. The main theme of the movie is revenge, but I’d argue that finding healing in a broken situation and relying on friends and family is just as strong. I’d love to write a lot more about this script but I’m afraid I’d give away too much. Some of the script is predictable, but it doesn’t take away from the film. The dialogue is great and some scenes really stand out to make it thrilling.
Grade: A-
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PERFORMANCES
The performances are very strong in the lead roles. Howard, Farrell, and Rapace do a great job in their characters. As an ex-Hungarian, Farrell doesn’t have a great accent in the very few scenes he has it, but as someone who’s heartbroken and seeking revenge, he does pretty well. The biggest thing Farrell lacks is emotion. There are a few scenes where he brings it and it makes it believable. And at the same time, I feel like the lack of emotion fits the situation well. However, I would of liked to see a little more. Rapace is even better as an auto accident victim looking for revenge and in the middle of it falling for Farrell’s character. I’ve always been a huge fan of Howard and he is terrific once again. He does great as a character you like, but he’s just as effective as a bad guy. I didn’t really care for Cooper or the rest of the supporting cast. Their performances are forgettable and didn’t stand out. While I liked the character that Cooper plays, he didn’t add tons of value to it.
Grade: B+
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SCORE
The score was done by Jacob Groth and while I like some of his work, this is not his best. In the beginning act, the score is more horror film, and not action-thriller. It didn’t seem appropriate nor did it fit the film. The latter half of the film, especially in the action sequences, were much better. The soundtrack choices were also great adding the music of the film.
Grade: C+
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Overall Grade: B+
