If you knew that you only had three weeks to live and that everyone else in the entire world had three weeks to live as well, what would you do? It’s a question that every twelve year old asks themselves at one point. It’s also not the most original plot, as it has been visited in many end-of-days films over the years. Perhaps though, it has never been visited quite like this. In Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, the plot takes on the angle of a quirky Steve Carell dramedy.
As for Steve Carell, leaving his highly acclaimed The Office was about the best decision he ever made. It was a great show, but he knew when it was time to move on, and his career looks more promising then ever. He has his schtick, but he is damn good at it. I’m loving the vibe of this trailer and I can’t wait to see it.
What do you think? Take the jump to check out the trailer!
I still don’t completely get why a book was written titled “The Bourne Legacy” and it has nothing to do with Jason Bourne. In fact, we talked about it almost a year ago on RotCast episode 118. But from a marketing standpoint (especially with the film franchise) I guess I understand. “There was never just one.”
But also, after the way in which Greengrass and Damon wrapped up The Bourne Ultimatum, the idea of more from the franchise seemed like milking the cow and completely unnecessary. After today, I don’t completely feel that way anymore.
It might be just another typical actioner, but so what? Quite frankly, despite very little of a plot structure given away, this new trailer is rather promising. With the cast and crew that is involved, I can’t help but be intrigued. Renner is on his way to A-List status and Edward Norton looks to be making some kind of much-needed and well-deserved comeback in 2012. Also Mike Hammer = win. The film also stars Albert Finney, Oscar Isaac, Joan Allen, David Strathairn, and Scott Glenn.
But let’s be honest, after Gilroy’s last two directing successes (Michael Clayton, Duplicity), I’m pretty much on board with anything he’s got up his sleeve for the time being.
Looks like the make-up department already is deserving of an Oscar nod for making Renner almost completely unrecognizable. The film opens in theaters everywhere on August 3rd. Check this shit out…
The Amazing Spider-Man trailer has hit the web today and people are swinging all around the web to talk about it today. So, stick around for our discussion here, which will surely include the usual compliments and complaints about superhero origin films. For some viewers, they will throw this right in the I-don’t-care pile with The Avengers and Man of Steel. For others, we have been weighing the idea of what a reboot of this series would mean. Here are my thoughts after watching the trailer:
Reasons why you should be looking forward to this:
1) It has a pretty stellar cast that includes Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Martin Sheen, Sally Field, Denis Leary, and Embeth Davidtz.
2) It’s directed by Marc Webb who had a pretty stellar (or for some, obnoxious) debut with (500) Days of Summer.
3) James Vanderbilt was the screenwriter for Zodiac.
4) Gwen Stacy > Mary Jane Watson. End of discussion.
5) The Lizard is the best Spider-Man villain. Duh. The last trilogy never gave him his deserved screen time.
6) It’s nice to see Spider-Man smack-talking behind his mask without any Peter Parker awkwardness.
7) Stan Lee will be making his token cameo.
8 ) The web-shooters are back!
Reasons why you should not be looking forward to this:
1) It’s covering an origin story that was covered in a film a decade ago in a genre with too many origin stories.
2) In fact, it’s another superhero movie – this might be enough of a turn off for some.
3) James Vanderbilt was the screenwriter for Darkness Falls.
4) But seriously, do we need another Spider-Man movie?
5) No Bruce Campbell.
6) CGI-villains can be pretty lame.
7) The question remains: do we need another Spider-Man movie?
Is the world ready for a slightly more gritty, slightly less cartoonish Spider-Man? He was my favorite superhero growing up, I loved and collected the comics, I loved the old 90s cartoon show – so all that I can do is say: I hope so. The trailer is what one would expect from a big budget blockbuster. I can’t help but root for it.
The Amazing Spider-Man opens up in theaters on July 3, 2012.
Back in September, we wrote about James Franco’s interest in adapting Cormac McCarthy’s Child of God, probably because his goal of shooting Blood Meridian proved to be too ambitious (or really, because the deal just fell through – at least for the time being). Whether or not he has Blood Meridian in mind still, Showbiz411 seems confident that James Franco is already down in West Virginia directing and starring in his adaption of Child of God.
The only other information that we currently have about the project is that it will costar Tim Blake Nelson and “a number of West Virginia locals” and Franco says that the shoot is going “extremely well” and he is excited to see the results. Now that I know this sucker is in motion, I can say that I am extremely excited to see this myself.
For those unfamiliar with the novel, it is one of McCarthy’s most bizarre stories. In fact, if you had asked me which of McCarthy’s novels I would think would be the last to be adapted for the big screen (and I’ve read them all), this would have been the one. The story follows a murderous sexual predator – with very few redeeming characteristics – named Lester Ballard as he takes on the life of a cave dwelling nomad in the mountains of Tennessee. As he spends more time in isolation, his lust for blood and sex only increase – and I will leave it at that.
I highly recommend you read the source before the film comes out. I insist. So, buy the paperback right here or the Kindle edition right here. I’m pretty excited to see the direction that Franco takes this. I can really see no way of sugarcoating the story or playing down the deviant nature of Lester without lessening the impact of the story.
Maybe it’s because it was thought that it wouldn’t pull in money at the box office due to Gibson’s slide in popularity or maybe it is just a sign of the times and the increase in home theater systems, but whatever the case, Mel Gibson’s latest R-rated action comedy Get the Gringo is coming straight to DirecTV before being released on Blu-ray, DVD, VOD and digital download. According to Reuters, DirecTV will premiere the film in HD on May 1, 2012 for $10.99. Get two friends together and you’ve easily saved the money it would cost to go to the theater – that, I’m guessing, will be the point that DirecTV will be trying to hit home in viewers.
The film was written by Gibson and his Apocalypto first assistant director Adrian Grunberg, who also helped write the screenplay. It’s an interesting move and the trailer (which you can watch below) looks like the film could go either way, but I tend to be a Gibson movie apologist, so I am sure I will check this out as soon as I can get it On Demand.
Chime in after watching the trailer below! What are you thoughts on the studio releasing the film in this manner?
I‘d immediately write this off as a piece of Direct-to-DVD trash (ala last years Tresspass), if it were not for Roger Donaldson at the helm. Like John Frankenheimer and Sidney Lumet before him, Donaldson (Thirteen Days, The Bank Job), tends to consistently make solid more-or-less-grounded genre efforts that stand above the usual array of hack-work polluting the action-thriller section. No he’s not quite as good as his similarly named (I often confuse the two!) contemporary Roger Mitchell (Changing Lanes, Enduring Love) but if you want yeoman’s work, Donaldson is your man.
Here a shaved headed Guy Pearce drops a Star-Chamber-esque service into the lap of every-man Nic Cage (as if!) following the maiming of his wife (January Jones) leaves her hospitalized (probably some irate X-men fan.) The faustian bargain: We’ll give you vigilante justice if you owe us an undisclosed favour down the road. Of course the favour down the road has Cage dodging the sliding rear wheels of a 6 tonne flatbed truck. Lots of intensely silly mayhem ensues. Seeking Justice looks to sit somewhere in the middle ground between modern vigilante fantasies; not as outright stupid as the similar Gerard Butler-vehicle, Law Abiding Citizen nor as talky or restrained as the Jodie Foster-vehicle The Brave One.
Of course, it will be worth watching this movie, when it drops into theatres March 16, just to get to this image:
Given that even the worst episode of the first season of Game of Thrones was better than most movies I saw last year, I felt compelled to post this. Having powered through all five of George R.R. Martin’s book during my recent overseas holiday (they’re awesome), it’s going to be interesting to see whether they have the money to convincingly bring to life all the battle scenes of the second book (which takes a huge step up from the first, action-wise). Assuming they pull it off though, we should be in for a pretty great year of TV.
Game of Thrones Season 2 kicks off on HBO on April 1st
If there is ever a preach-to-the-choir kind of comedy, it is this one. Bobcat Goldthwait has a bone to pick with manners in his country, and he is doing it with heavy artillery and hilarious satire. I caught God Bless America at TIFF where it premiered in the Midnight Madness sidebar (My TIFF-Review is here and on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 no less…) and the audience lapped it up, particularly the texting-in-the-cinema gag which is featured in this trailer. The road-trip rampage film may run out of gas in the final act, but if you were looking for a more ‘hands on’ (i.e. Falling Down) mixed with Bonnie and Clyde riff on Idiocracy, than look no futher; the best D-Fens is a good offence.
Now, hear me out: this may not be an instant classic, but regardless, keep watching the trailer for Lockout beyond the first 30 seconds of awful voiceover. Then keep this in mind: Lockout is co-written by Luc Besson (The Professional, The Fifth Element). It stars the awesome and desperately underused Guy Pearce. It takes place in space – and it is going to be about Guy Pearce going into a super space prison to save the president’s daughter (Maggie Grace). Saving the president’s daughter in space!
Yes, this is going to be some campy sci-fi awesomeness. One character even refers to Guy Pearce’s character – a witty line spewing John McClane of the future – as a “loose canon.” Granted, I may be purely by my love of Guy Pearce (seriously, I fucking love this guy) and true, this post would have a completely different tone were the actor involved, say, Channing Tatum or Dwayne Johnson, but whatever. This film comes out on April 20, 2012 and I will be there to see it – reviews be damned.
Check out the trailer and let us know if you are on board – or if you’d rather save quenching your sci-fi hunger with Ridley Scott’s more upscale Prometheus.
I like me a good survival horror/thriller. I think I may just pay $10 to see Liam Neeson punch nature in the face.
From this trailer, it appears that director Joe Carnahan has dropped the silly Smokin’ Aces shtick and gone back to that rough and weighty opening chase from Narc. The film has gotten solid reviews from those who care about this kind of genre, that is to say, fans of the David Mamet penned, Lee Tamahori directed The Edge.
Below is the red-band (bloody and language and all that) trailer for The Grey.
With the second New Year in under a month crossing Eastern Standard time, I hope everyone out there has a good Year of the Dragon. And also, you may enjoy what appears to be the Chinese version of Taken, starring character actor extraordinaire (and somewhat Neeson-esque) Anthony Wong.
If you are like me and loved Cyrus, from writer/director brothers Jay and Mark Duplass, you were surely excited to hear that they would next be working on a film starring Jason Segel, Ed Helms, Susan Sarandon, and Judy Greer titled Jeff, Who Lives At Home. At first glance, it does not look to be the most original of concepts – a slacker 30 year old still living in his mom’s basement reconnects with his more successful brother for a day – but the trailer itself, besides the token trailer cheesiness that is obviously try to market it as more mainstream of a film than it actually will be, looks fantastic. I’ve always been a huge fan of Segel, but it looks like Helms is really stepping up his game in this one too, taking on a far more restrained role than usual.
The movie comes out on March 2, 2012 in U.S. theaters. Check out the trailer and leave your thoughts in the comments!
