More "Green Lantern" Pictures from Entertainment Weekly

/Slashfilm has all six new photos, these are the only two I was really interested in. All the photos come courtesy of the next issue of Entertainment Weekly. The picture above shows our main character, Hal Jordan with his Green Lantern Corp. ring. The picture below show's Hal Jordan again, played by Ryan Reynolds along with the character of Carol Ferris, played by the lovely Blake Lively. I STILL don't think she's a good actress by the way. Just had to throw that in for good measure.

The other pics show some of the co-stars of the film (Tim Robbins, Angela Bassett, etc.). It's exciting to see these characters come to life. But like I said this morning, I'm so disappointed in the costume. It looks off for some reason, and the mask doesn't compliment the rest at of the costume at all. I know it was necessary to make the suit CGI because of the shape-shifting, but I don't like it so far. I hope I'm proven wrong!

Jennifer Lawrence Cast as Mystique, Kevin Bacon Confirmed for "X-Men: First Class"

Thank GOD the news of Amanda Heard playing Mystique was false! I can't stand her acting, period! Instead we get an actress with a ton of Television experience, Jennifer Lawrence. She is set to play the blue skinned character in Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class. I don't know her work first-hand, but to be honest, I was so biased AGAINST Heard, this will do just fine for me.

And as rumored, Kevin Bacon is confirmed as the villain in the movie. Still no word on what character he'll be playing, but I still think it's Sinestro. Love it!

First Picture of Ryan Reynolds as the Green Lantern Released

I've literally been looking forward to the image above for months, only to be let down. Now I know this is just ONE picture of the future superhero film, but still. Ryan Reynolds in Green Lantern, in his CGI suit. I still look forward to footage and eventually watching the movie next year. I just didn't expect the suit to look like this.

"Despicable Me" Review

I thought Pixar had no competition whatsoever in the animated genre. I was wrong. Toy Story 3 was amazing, and will remain one of the best animated films of all time, but damn Despicable Me was good! I want to tell you what I liked and didn't like about the movie.

What I liked about the movie:
The Actors/Characters
I don't want to list every actor and what character they played, but this is an amazing cast. Steve Carell plays Gru, a local villain past his prime as far as great heists are concerned. He tries to out-villain the competition. His competition is an up-and-coming villain named Vector, voiced by Jason Segel. Gru adopts three girls to help in his plan, but ends up adoring the girls to death and changing his ways.

Then there's the minions! So cute and funny, but they did remind me of the pigeons in Finding Nemo. Still fantastic! The minions are the Worker Bees to Gru and are hilarious. They don't talk, at least not in a language the audience is supposed to understand. But the way they fight each other, and argue with one another is really great. The animators found a million ways to make the same back creators look different.

The Story

Truly original in every sense of the word. My wife and I walked out trying to find a movie with a story even close to this, and we couldn't think of any. A villain past his prime, adopts three little girls to help him with his heist, falls in love with them, and changes his ways? Come on! Priceless. The minions helping Gru every step of the way is so original.

The Visuals
This is something that we've almost come to expect perfection from in these kind of movies. But let me tell you, not many computer generated animated films look as good as this one does. Despicable is gorgeous to look at. There are rich environments full of color. Environments such as the carnival Gru takes the girls to is so detailed it's going to take multiple viewings to catch it all. Great job!


What I didn't like:
The Orphan's Story
I really liked the three orphan girls in the movie. I just wish the movie would have better developed their story. Why are they orphans? If it was mentioned, I missed it. Are they going to get revenge on the evil women running the orphanage? The relationship building between Gru and the girls is satisfactory, but should have been developed a bit more. Maybe a scene or two more of Gru getting closer to the girls would have been in order rather than a montage involving pancakes and the girls.

The Real Villain

Vector is such a weak antagonist. There is some really creative stuff surrounding the character, like all the booby-traps protecting his house; classic! But Vector himself is not that great of a character. And his "weapons" are stupid: a "piranha gun," "squid gun," come on. Hopefully they'll come up with something better in the future.


The movie is not at Pixar's level, but is still great! Such an original story, you can't predict what's going to happen because it hasn't been done before. I would totally recommend the movie to anyone, young and old. Thumbs up to the news of a sequel, I'm more than OK with that!

Robert Downey Jr. & Zach Galifianakis' "Due Date" Trailer

We've been hearing about Due Date for a while now. Director Todd Phillips follows up The Hangover with this gem of a comedy. Robert Downey Jr., Zach Galifianakis, road trip, 'nuff said. Check out the trailer... I don't like it at all, but have hope the movie will be funny.

Mark Ruffalo to Play Hulk? Please Let It Be True!

/Slashfilm is reporting via Deadline that Mark 'freakin' awesome' Ruffalo may be the next Hulk! I would love my pick of Cillian Murphy, but this will surely do! Mark Ruffalo is an underrated actor in Hollywood and I hope this news is true. Apparently he's in "late stages of negotiations" to play Bruce Banner in The Avengers! There's no other details, so here are a few roles I really enjoyed Ruffalo in:

Shutter Island: Without spoiling the ending, Ruffalo's job was not an easy one. He was to make the audience think two different things at once until the very last scene of the movie. Great job!

The Brothers Bloom: An otherwise forgettable movie, Ruffalo's con-man character was anything but. Ruffalo played the character with sincerity and made us love to hate his character.

Reservation Road: Playing a character that kills a little boy in a hit-and-run accident, Ruffalo was amazing. He and the previously rumored choice for Bruce Banner, Joaquin Phoenix, were terrific in this character piece.

The Last Castle: Playing a disgraced military man, Ruffalo played a traitor who wanted to desperately redeem himself. Ruffalo stood toe to toe with acting greats, Robert Redford and James Gandolfini.

I'll keep ya posted!

UPDATE: MGM Granted Extension of Its Debts. "Bond 23" No Longer Delayed, It's Canceled?

UPDATE: There is a great article at The Hollywood Reporter about MGM's continuous debt issues. THR is saying MGM was granted an extension on its debt until September 15th, that's an extension of a $250 MILLION dollar payment by the way. In addition to the $250 million, there is another $200 million in interest.

All this is going to do is give the executives time to restructure the studio or sell it; that's all. I'm a business major and I've seen a lot of company's go through what MGM is going through, GM most recently. GM closed down or sold off most of it's line/assets to become a more slimmed down version of its former self. So what now for MGM?

Apparently Warner Brothers offered a buy out last year to the tune of 1.5 BILLION (with a B) dollars, and the offer was considered "too low". Wow, hindsight is 20/20 and MGM should have probably accepted the deal. But it's too late for that. Does MGM sell off its assets, a la the 'James Bond' and 'Hobbit' franchises to recover from this mess? I'm going to say no. If they could just get some additional funding, which is a lot harder than it sounds, they could get these projects off the ground. And unless they do so, there's no winning this battle. So I figure MGM has until September to reorganize and sell the studio or file bankruptcy and hope for a sympathetic decision. It's too bad, another 'Bond' movie would have really been nice in this abismal summer of crap films.

This is really sad news. The 23rd movie in the Bond franchise has not only been delayed, it's been canceled. AICN via /slashfilm is reporting from a source that the studios future is to blame.

Here's the quote from the source: "Due to the continuing uncertainty surrounding the future of MGM and the failure to close a sale of the studio, we have suspended development on ‘Bond 23? indefinitely. We do not know when development will resume and do not have a date for the release of ‘Bond 23'."

I've been reading for months about how MGM was going under, then it was going to be sold, now this. So for all of us Bond fans, this is devastating news. What now? Well, the only case I can remember off the top of my head that compares to this is what happened with The Terminator franchise. That franchise went up for sale just like MGM.

Best case scenario is MGM is bought up by one of the majors and the franchise lives on. Let's hope that happens. But for now, the picture above of Daniel Craig (ridiculously ripped) will be all we get. Then we get to see him in Jon Favreau's Cowboys and Aliens. Keep hope alive!