"What if Batman was the Joker?"; Tony Scott Directed "Nemesis" Coming?

The title of the blog post is from the actual publicity for the comic book. What comic book? Mark Millar's Nemesis. What if someone as smart and with as much wealth and power as Bruce Wayne didn't become Batman, but rather the Joker?! Scary thought. Well that's exactly the concept behind Nemesis, a revenge tale brought to life in a dark, mute tone.

Today /slashfilm, via Bleeding Cool and Deadline are reporting the movie will soon be directed by Tony Scott (Man on Fire, Taking of Pelham 1,2,3, Unstoppable). Fox has the rights to the movie and supposedly they're moving head quickly on the project. I love the comic book, I only have the first of four issues and I think it's brilliant. There's a lot of over-the-top action in the comic book, and it's a different kind of over-the-top than Kick-Ass, involving presidents, planes, explosions, etc. Plus, Mark Millar knows what he's doing.

Don't know who Mark Millar is? Don't read too many comics? He's the man responsible for awesome comic book-to-movie translations such as Wanted and Kick-Ass. The man can write a comic book, that's for sure! His style of writing is almost as if it's meant to be translated into feature films. I have no doubt Nemesis will be a good movie, especially if done correctly by someone of Tony Scott's expertise. I'll post if it becomes official. This is some pretty cool news.

"Resident Evil: Afterlife" Posters and Banners

Just for the love of Milla... enjoy. Click the jump for 5 more shots from Resident Evil: Afterlife. Brought to you by Joblo via Ultimate-re.

Tony Scott, Denzel Washington and a Runaway Train... "Unstoppable" Trailer Comin' Atcha

Tony Scott, check.

Denzel Washington, check.

Chris Pine, check.

Rosario Dawson, check.

Based on a true story, check.

A runaway train headed towards a small town at unbelievable speeds destroying everything in its site, check.

The movie is Unstoppable. And the trailer is unstoppable as well. Check it out and see what you think.

"Jackass 3D" Poster and Trailer

Haven't really covered Jackass 3D much on the blog, except for the announcement it was being made. So today it gets some attention. Check out the poster, and below, the new trailer for the film. I especially like the "high five" bit.

Ben Affleck's "The Town" Foreign Movie Poster

A few weeks ago, the trailer premiered for The Town, a new heist thriller starring and directed by Ben Affleck. Click the jump to see the foreign poster for the film. It's interesting, but has way too much going on. Click the jump.

"Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" Review

In the post previous to this, I apologize to the film Salt for not covering it enough. Then I don't know what to say about Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, and our zero coverage of the film. I guess I'm going to try to redeem myself with this review. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (SP) is based on the wildly popular comic book of the same name. Since it was announced, fanboys across the country have been geeking-out about it. I never read the comics, but was rewarded early premier tickets by my favorite comic book store of all time, Brave New World. Brave New World is owned and operated by Atom! and Portlyn in Santa Clarita, CA. Check out their Facebook page here. Thank you guys for the tickets. Let's begin.


What I liked about the movie:
The Story
This aspect of the movie could have fallen flat on its face, but it doesn't. A lovable loser meets the girl of his dreams, but to be with her, he has to fight off her 7 evil ex-boyfriends? Huh? See what I mean? It could have been a disaster, but it wasn't! Writers Michael Bacall and Edgar Wright (who also directed the film) found a way to keep in the realm of possibility (minus all the fighting and flashy special effects). Which leads into my next "like".

Originality/Effects

When I left the theater I text FattMatt that SP was one of the most original movies I've ever seen. FattMatt was surprised by such a bold statement, but I encourage everyone to see the movie and let me know what they think. Visually the film is unlike ANYTHING you've ever seen before. Director Edgar Wright found the perfect way to literally bring a comic book to life. We've seen other directors try to translate the feel of reading a comic book (i.e. Ang Lee's 2003 Hulk), but Edgar succeeds. There are moments in the movie that feel like they've popped right off the pages of a comic-book.

The same goes for the special effects in the movie. Visually stunning to look at, and make sense as a translation from a comic book. Fiery swords, exaggerated fights, bonus points reminiscent of a video game are all brought to life with beautiful sound and color. A few times in the movie I thought to myself, "I have literally never seen this style of film making in my entire life." Which, yes, is a bold statement. But it's true.

The Cast

I'm a fan of Michael Cera, who was perfectly cast in this film. If I were to only comment on one positive of Cera's performance, it would be his delivery. His delivery is very unique. He comes off awkward, but his timing is just right. He's a loser, but you love him. He's uncoordinated, but can fight like a pro. He was perfectly cast.

The supporting cast was great in the film. Chris Evans, Jason Schwartzman and Brandon Routh are hilarious as 3 of the 7 evil ex's. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is the love interest causing all this headache as "Ramona." She's great and the chemistry with Cera is believable. Oscar-nominated Anna Kendrick does well with what little material she has to work with as Scott Pilgrim's sister. Scene stealer award goes to... Kieran Culkin! That's the Home Alone star's little brother, if you were wondering. Culkin plays Scott Pilgrim's best friend and roommate and is hilarious in the film! His character is gay and the comedy that comes about from this is classic. Awesome to see him do so well.


What I didn't like about the movie:
Repetitiveness
This was bound to happen, considering our lead character has to fight 7 people. By the time SP reaches the 7th evil ex, (who he fights twice!), it becomes too redundant. Each of the 7 ex characters were funny and engaging, but when translating to film, it's just too much. Another dislike, which coincides with the repetitiveness, is the length of the film. At just under 2 hours, I'd say it was about 20 minutes too long for what it was.


This Summer started out with a lot of movies that were just bad, or disappointing at best. The second half is going a lot better... A LOT better. Inception, Salt and now Scott Pilgrim vs. The World are all skewing the results back towards the positive. I have to admit, if I wasn't given the tickets, I probably wouldn't have seen SP, and what a shame it would have been. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was a ton of fun and I would recommend it to anyone, young or old.

"Salt" Review

It's a movie we didn't really cover much on AtD, and what a shame it is. The movie is Salt, and stars the always lovely Angelina Jolie in a not-so-lovely role. A bit of history for you: the movie was not intended for Jolie. Fact is, it was never intended for a woman, period. The movie was written with a male lead, (rumor was Tom Cruise was set to star). Producers talked to Jolie, fell in love with the idea of converting the lead to a female and here we are today reviewing the movie. Let's go.


What I liked about the movie:
Angelina Jolie

This may come as an obvious positive in my review, but let me tell you why it's not so obvious. There aren't very many movies with female leads. There are even less action movies with female leads. So Jolie had to make it count, and boy does she make it count. Without giving anything way, we spend the entire movie trying to figure out, is Salt who she says she is? Or is she a spy, the way she's accused in the trailer?

Where does Jolie succeed the most? When she's acting alone. Anyone will tell you this is extremely difficult. To carry a scene without dialogue, alone, is a difficult feat. Similar to Tom Hanks in Cast Away, Jolie must command the audience's attention without much to work with. She pulls it off. Her expressions, her thought process, everything came through in the performance.

The Action

It's hard to fool fans these days. I've been watching movies on a daily basis for 25 years, I'm bound to see repeat stunts in action films. But Salt has stuff we've never seen before, at least not like this. The stunts are practical, which means they were actually performed, not added by a computer later. There is one particular scene where Salt has to jump from car to car on the freeway. The scenario itself may not be new to us, but the execution is. The cameraman actually takes the leap WITH Salt during one of the jumps. Awesome! The rest of the action is great hand-to-hand combat reminiscent of the Bourne trilogy. Good stuff.

The Story/Writing
This was a pleasant surprise. Usually this genre just pumps out the same ol' story lines time and time again. Salt does a good job of keeping the spy storyline fresh and different from movies in the past. The surprise twist at the end got me, and I've seen literally hundreds of action movies; I didn't see that one coming.


What I didn't like about the movie:
Sub-Plot
This is actually been a problem in several movies I've seen lately. Sub-plots are a tricky thing to deal with. They can't take over the entire movie, but have to be interesting enough to matter. I don't feel as though the sub-plot worked in the movie. It deals with the Salt character and her husband; how they met, how they fell in love, etc. This is all done through flashbacks. Once we reach the end of the film, we quickly learn none of the sub-plot matter. Don't worry, no spoiler was just given to you.

Overacting

I hate to put this in the review, but I had to. I know it's an action movie and "tough" cops are important and all, but damn you, Chiwetel Ejiofor, if you weren't trying too hard. He should have taken note from his co-star, the AWESOME Liev Schreiber. Schreiber had plenty of opportunities to over-act as Salt's best friend in the movie, but he doesn't! Sorry, I had to say something because I like Ejiofor in his other work.


Believe me, there wasn't much else I didn't like about the film. It was a solid summer action flick that satisfied the senses. My wife isn't much of an action buff, or a Jolie fan, and left smiling from ear to ear after the movie. This WILL be a franchise and I love where it's headed. The story is set up for a nice arc and I can't wait to see it play out. Salt was a great surprise and we here at AtD owe it an apology for not covering it more closely.