New "Buried" Poster

Just because! Click to enlarge.

Via JoBlo.com

Actor Cast in "Judge Dredd" Remake...

Well we knew they were remaking Judge Dredd, but we didn't know who would don the mask and ride the bike, until now. It's actually been rumored for a long time, but I didn't want to post until it was confirmed, and now it is. Empire magazine is confirming that Karl Urban will play the iconic comic-book hero.

Karl Urban is known for his roles in the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy and more recently in J.J. Abrams Star Trek. He definitely has the physique. Not ripped and ready to pop like Sylvester Stallone was, but big and tall. Urban is a fine actor and should be able to bring some emotion to the role, even if the character is emotion-less. I liked the previous incarnation, I don't know why exactly. It had its own charm despite all its faults. I still go back and watch it on DVD every few years. But I'm also excited about this remake. But not so excited about the 3D talk, booo!

"R.I.P.D." Getting "RED" Director?

McG is out and Robert Schwentke is in. The director of the upcoming comic book adaptation film, R.E.D., will replace McG in another comic book adaptation film, R.I.P.D. from Dark Horse Comics. It's about cops policing the dead in the underworld. Cool concept huh? Above is a picture of the comic book cover.

Rumors are Ryan Reynolds a.k.a. MR. COMIC BOOK is set to star. I'm undecided about the news. I've seen some of Schwentke's work and I'm not impressed. I saw The Time Travelor's Wife and really didn't like it. And I wasn't a fan of Flightplan either. Then again, R.E.D. looks awesome based on the trailers.

McG is a horrible director in my opinion, so that works in Schwentke's favor. What do you think about A.) YET ANOTHER comic book adaptation? and B.) Schwentke directing rather than McG?

Green Lantern vs. Deadpool, Who's Going to Win?

This is not good news. Or is it news at all? The creator of the Deadpool comic is Rob Liefeld. He's Tweeting away some nonsense, at least I think it is anyway. He's accusing Warner Brothers of taking the star of Deadpool, Ryan Reynolds, away from the project. He's Tweeting that WB wants to film the Green Lantern sequel immediately, even though the first film JUST WRAPPED!

Is it me, or does this feel like an episode of Entourage? WB wanted "Vinnie Chase" to film the sequel to Aquaman, rather than filming another movie. Wow, the similarities are really interesting.
I doubt WB is going to take Reynolds away from the Deadpool movie. First of all, unless it was planned, there's no way a trilogy will be filmed on a whim like this. The writers were just hired to write the sequel.

Second, Reynolds was already committed to both Deadpool AND another film to follow the filming of Green Lantern. That's not to mention the news today about R.I.P.D. He would not cancel two, potentially three, movies to film a Green Lantern sequel.

Third, and most importantly, Reynolds has a say! The man is one of the most sought after actors in Hollywood. He can carry a franchise, or two or three; you think he's going to give up possibly 100 million dollars because WB says so? No! He campaigned for the role of Deadpool and it's an important project to him. Check out the video below to see his knowledge and passion for the character. The Deadpool movie/franchise WILL happen, with Reynolds dawning the mask, period. It was a story that really wasn't. Rob Liefeld needs to relax and cool it on the Tweets.

"The Other Guys" Review

Will Ferrell and director Adam McKay have set a pretty high standard for comedies. They've succeeded in every project they've worked on together leading up to The Other Guys. Mark Wahlberg joins them, playing a tough-guy cop forced to a desk after he shoots Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees! Ferrell plays the bumbling idiot who loves sitting behind a desk all day. The comedy is in the two characters' differences, and craziness ensues. Let's get started.

What I liked about the movie:
Will Ferrell/Mark Wahlberg chemistry
Wahlberg delivers... for 2/3 of the movie. His tough-guy cop character (who secretly loves to dance) is hilarious. Sudden outbursts of anger with Ferrell on the receiving end were great.

Will Ferrell is playing, yet again, the absent minded moron. There are a lot of scenes where Ferrell is the awkward schmuck in the room; his fellow officers get him to shoot his gun off at his desk, making him believe its tradition. Funny stuff.

The Supporting Actors

I have to be honest, as funny as Ferrell and Wahlberg were, their supporting cast stole the show for me. Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson are by far the funniest aspect of the first 15 minutes of the film. Their satirical look at cops and the way they're portrayed in movies is terrific. They play on every stereotype, all the way to their demise.

Rob Riggle and Damon Wayans Jr. are their replacements and do great! There is a scene where Riggle's character fights Wahlberg's character during a funeral ceremony. They roll around on the ground fighting, while only whispering as to not disrespect the family of the fallen officer. This was so funny; I was laughing so hard during this scene.

Then there is the immortal Michael Keaton. Keaton plays the captain of the police force, but the force doesn't pay enough to send his bisexual son to college. So Keaton gets another job at Bed, Bath and Beyond to help pay for his son's school. Throughout the movie, Keaton's character uses the titles of TLC songs to explain what he's thinking. The funny thing is that Keaton doesn't know they're TLC songs! He was great.


What I didn't like about the movie:
The Story
The story is pathetic at best. I follow director Adam McKay's tweets on Twitter and he talks a lot about his political views. This is all fine and dandy, but don't make it the plot of your movie just because it's something that interests you. The plot is so dumb, so preposterous, it leaves no reason to care about the characters. It's all about corporate, white-collar crimes. That's great, because it's relevant, but it doesn't make for a good story for a comedy, especially when it reaches the pinnacle of stupidity. The state lotto is about to get taken for 32 billion dollars? Come on. The police department giving up it's entire pension to invest in a scam? Come on!

Characters
The sad thing is, it looks like this is a direct contradiction of the comments I wrote above, but it's not. I told you about Wahlberg being funny 2/3 of the movie. Well, the last 1/3 he was just straight-up annoying. There was no arc to his character, no growth of any kind. Same goes for Ferrell's character. He was a bumbling idiot to start the movie, and he was a bumbling idiot to end it. I was really disappointed in that.

Then there are characters that have absolutely no purpose of being in the film whatsoever. Take, for example, Wahlberg's ex-girlfriend. He visits her at her ballet class, yells at her and her dance partner and then leaves in a fit of rage. We don't see the ex-girlfriend again for the rest of the movie. What the hell is she in the movie for? Same goes for the "villains" of the movie. Anne Heche and Steve Coogan. Both unfunny and really only in the movie to have a villain at all.

Adam McKay/ Genre
I've seen actors and directors alike do this: try a genre for the first time, and it fails. It hurts me to say this, but McKay failed, big time. The action sequences are bad, the pacing was really bad, and the story was really really bad. McKay couldn't decide what genre it was: Comedy? Action? Corporate satire? Political satire? Law enforcement satire? What was it? Also, there were bits that should have never been in the movie, nor dragged out as long as they were. Case in point, the grandma crossing the street bit. You'll see.


The Other Guys wasn't good at all. I left the theater feeling let down more than anything. Maybe McKay and Ferrell's formula for success has already reached its maximum potential. Maybe this was a good movie, but they've set the bar so high, anything less is considered bad? Well, my opinion stands. The movie is bad, underachieves and loses itself amongst too many genres for its own good. It's OK, I have faith McKay and Farrell will bring the goods on their next project together. Hopefully that project is Step Brothers 2!

"The Sorcerer's Apprentice" Review... It's Bad, Really Really Bad

So, it's a few weeks late, but I avoided the critics and went to see The Sorcerer's Apprentice (SA). Maybe I should have listened? No! That's why we see movies ourselves, to develop our own opinions. So, here was my thinking.

Nicolas Cage, I like him. Jay Baruchel, I like him. Alfred Molina, I like him too. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, I love his movies. So far so good. The story of a sorcerer having to teach a young man the tricks of his trade, pretty cool idea. Let's get into what really happened, not what I was hoping to happen.


What I liked about the movie:
The Special Effects

This is no longer a factor strong enough to hold a movie up on its own. I remember the mid-1990's, terrible movies were AWESOME because we'd never seen special effects before, more specifically computer generated effects. SA has some incredible stuff in it. Nothing new per say, but it was visually stunning to look at. I especially loved the broom scene that was talked about so much before the movie launched.

What I didn't like about the movie:
The Story
I think there was a lot of potential wasted on this film. I know Hollywood is all about time=money, but this is ridiculous. The story of SA was there, the script was not! If they took the story, spent another 6-12 months tweeking it, I don't think I'd be writing this section of my review right now. Centuries ago, this person betrayed this person, then that person got locked away in a contraption, only to accidentally be released years later, blah freakin' blah. It was so stupid. This amazing sorcerer (Cage), can't stop a 9 year old little runt from fumbling and bumbling his way into trouble? What the hell man? Give us, the audience, some credit will ya?

Then there's the GOD AWFUL love story, sub-plot garbage. This girl wanted that guy, not the other guy, so the other guy got jealous and joined the other girl in betraying the first guy. Did you get that? Yea I got it, but it's ludicrous. For God's sake, who cares?! Stupid. Monica Bellucci loves Cage's character, not Molina's character, blah blah, I don't care.

The Acting
Every actor/actress in this movie should be ashamed of themselves for the performances they phoned in. I want an apology from each and every one of the them, including the extras. OK, I'm being a bit dramatic, but literally every performance is forgettable. The one performance I was disappointed in most was that of Jay Baruchel's. I just gave him props when I reviewed She's Out of My League, and now I'm scratching my head. He plays the same, dorky, neurotic character in League that he does here in SA. I like Baruchel, but this movie will be the low-point of his acting career.

The Direction
It's not all the actors and writer's fault this movie was as bad as it was. Jon Turteltaub stunk up every scene in the movie. The pacing was off; within seconds we're running, then crawling, then running again. The editing was terrible, choppy and unorganized. The score SHOULD have been memorable and worthy of a summer blockbuster. It was forgettable at best. Shoot, even wardrobe sucked. Turteltaub is to blame for 80% of the movie's awfulness. Yes, movie making is a collaborative effort, but Turteltaub has the final say so.


I am not being "harsh" on this one, folks. Go see it and join my hatred for this film. I was so mad, so upset at the nonsense movie I saw, I literally text dozens of my friends my hatred for the film. It was a waste of time, money, and... time. I will never listen to the critics when it comes to my choice of films, but damn they were right. With a 42% on Rotten Tomatoes, you can see where my hatred is coming from. GOD I HATED THIS MOVIE!

"Due Date" Poster

Todd Phillips directed, Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis starring, Due Date. Just for kicks, here's the poster. Also, check out the trailer here.