Trailer for EUROPA REPORT

The trailer for the sci-fi thriller  Europa Report found it's way online today. What do you think? Personally, it reminds me a little of Danny Boyle's SUNSHINE and in a really good way. 

A unique blend of documentary, alternative history and science fiction thriller, EUROPA REPORT follows a contemporary mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, to investigate the possible existence of alien life within our solar system. Developed in close collaboration with NASA, JPL, SpaceX and other leaders in the scientific community, the film imagines the next step in manned space exploration and is based on recent scientific discoveries and theories.

Europa Report comes out June 27 on iTunes and On Demand, and August 2 in theaters. 

Christopher Nolan Approached to Direct the Next James Bond Film

A James Bond movie directed by Christopher Nolan.

This has a better chance of happening than we realize. The Daily Mail says talks have informally begun between the Broccolis and the Dark Knight Trilogy director. The experiment of hiring an Oscar-winning auteur director in Sam Mendes reaped the $1 billion reward for Skyfall. They saw the benefits of taking such a risk and figure to maintain those profits you have to reach out even further.

Nolan is arguably the most famous Bond fan-turned-blockbuster filmmaker, besides Steven Spielberg. And we all know how Cubby Broccoli infamously turned down his requests before and after becoming the world's most successful director with Jaws.

Be warned. The logistics alone say it's unlikely. Nolan is in pre-production of Interstellar, due November 2014, and the untitled 007 installment has no set release.  But that's probably not what this is about. The Broccolis are getting their feet wet.

DREDD 2 Not Entirely Unlikely, Says Karl Urban.

Fans of 2012's DREDD who were disappointed by the fact the film didn't do good enough Box Office numbers and thought a sequel was a no-go might have their hopes lifted slightly. 

Collider reports: 

When speaking with Urban, Steve mentioned that there’s a passionate fanbase for Dredd out there and asked the actor if there’s any possibility of him reprising the role in a sequel:

“Interestingly enough, I did have breakfast with Alex Garland this morning.  It’s not off the agenda.  Clearly everyone has woken up to the fact that an audience has found this movie and loves it.  It’s entirely possible, and if people want to see another installment then they should be vocal about that, because, it can happen.  The power of fandom can resurrect projects.  In fact, that’s what happened with Star Trek.  They weren’t going to do a third season until fans did a letter writing campaign and they continued that series.”

You heard it! Now, who knows if this will happen; but given the film's impressive DVD/Bluray sale and rave reviews, I wouldn't see what harm it would do. It's not like DREDD was made on a mega-million budget to begin with.

Either way, it seems more likely to get a DREDD sequel rather than JOHN CARTER, sadly.

Fans of DREDD are encouraged by Den Of Geek to hit up the "Make A DREDD Sequel" Facebook page, and make their opinions heard. 

Review: "Star Trek Into Darkness"

Star Trek Into Darkness is a film that simultaneously does nothing special, yet does everything right. 

SPOILERS AHEAD.

When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis.

With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction. As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.

It's well made, in terms of costumes, sets, and sounds; the cast is fun and never boring to watch- especially Cumberbatch, who totally hams it up as the "perfect" bad-guy; and the plot is fun, understandable, and sometimes emotional. The only flaw with Star Trek Into Darkness, however, is that it feels too much like a big "two-parter" TV Episode.

There's no real Star Treking involved. No travel, no sense of how large and expansive the universe is- unlike with Star Trek (2009) where you would go planet-to-planet, encountering all sorts of fantastical creatures, exotic locales, etc. With Into Darkness, you spend a few minutes on some cool looking planet at the beginning, then the rest of the time is spent between San Francisco, London, and Kronos (for a brief few minutes).

Another thing was Into Darkness's painfully obvious 9/11-George Bush allegory that wasn't even cleverly hidden or done in an interesting way. I felt like I was watching Total Recall (2012) at times rather than Star Trek just because it was an Earth-centered conspiracy story that really had no reason to be a sequel to 2009's fast and fun summer hit.

Also, I've never seen Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan but I can assure you I know the infamous "KHAAAAAAAAAN!" line as it has slipped into pop-culture parody. Well, what better than to bring that line back and use it to kill an emotional moment just to satisfy the sweaty nerds in the crowd?

Lastly, I'm kind of glad J.J. Abrams won't be back for Trek 3; because he handles action-scenes as well as Christopher Nolan in The Dark Knight, i.e, not very well and you can't honestly tell what the hell is going on.

I didn't hate Into Darkness though- I really had a fun time watching it. It's a movie that puts a smile on your face if you just accept it at face value. Fun space action with some sexy young stars, tension, and some clever exchanges of dialogue and some of the best costumes and performances you're likely to find this summer movie season.

Setting my complaints aside, Into Darkness is a film I'd see again for the sheer fun experience of it. It might not be as good as the first; but It's a movie that definitely shows the exciting prospect the future cold hold for this franchise, even if Abrams leaves for Star Wars.

Into Darkness doesn't break the bank for creativity, and you won't leave the theater going "Wow! I've never seen THAT before!" but it rides a fine safe line for a comfortable and engaging sci-fi action-film that will please the masses; but struggle to be accepted by the hardcore nerds and cinema-goes looking for a truly substantial experience.

Last Vegas Teaser Trailer

If the thought of seeing your (grand)father wasted and in raunchy sexcapades is a turn off, then Last Vegas is not for you. Fortunately, I am a sick and disturbed man. Bring on, Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline "like we've never seen them before."

 Well we've seen Douglas this way. You might also know it as his late 80s/early 90s filmography.

This is merely the teaser, but a filthy red-band trailer should't be too far from our future. And if this isn't disgusting, I will be disappointed.

Source: Yahoo! Movies

"The Way, Way Back" Poster & Trailer

THE WAY, WAY BACK is the funny and poignant coming of age story of 14-year-old Duncan’s (Liam James) summer vacation with his mother, Pam (Toni Collette), her overbearing boyfriend, Trent (Steve Carell), and his daughter, Steph (Zoe Levin).  Having a rough time fitting in, the introverted Duncan finds an unexpected friend in gregarious Owen (Sam Rockwell), manager of the Water Wizz water park. Through his funny, clandestine friendship with Owen, Duncan slowly opens up to and begins to finally find his place in the world - all during a summer he will never forget.

V/H/S 2 Red Band Trailer

Inside a darkened house looms a column of TVs littered with VHS tapes, a pagan shrine to forgotten analog gods. The screens crackle and pop endlessly with monochrome vistas of static—white noise permeating the brain and fogging concentration. But you must fight the urge to relax: this is no mere movie night. Those obsolete spools contain more than just magnetic tape. They are imprinted with the very soul of evil.

From the demented minds that brought you last year’s V/H/S comes V/H/S/2, an all-new anthology of dread, madness, and gore. This follow-up ventures even further down the demented path blazed by its predecessor, discovering new and terrifying territory in the genre. This is modern horror at its most inventive, shrewdly subverting our expectations about viral videos in ways that are just as satisfying as they are sadistic. The result is the rarest of all tapes—a second generation with no loss of quality.

YAHOO! MOVIES

"Drinking Buddies" Poster With Olivia Wilde, Anna Kendrick, & Dudes

Olivia Wilde, Anna Kendrick, and a brewery. I'll be attending this press screening.

I know who the dudes are as well, they just don't market as easily as Wilde and Kendrick, for obvious reasons. Livingston has had quite a diverse acting career but he'll always be meeting with the "Two Bobs" in my mixed up mind. Jake Johnson is a riot on New Girl, he looks to be hitting his stride, now in his mid 30s.

New poster for the film below courtesy of EW'S INSIDE MOVIES.

Kate (Wilde) and Luke (Johnson) are coworkers at a brewery who have one of those will-they-won’t-they friendships. Unfortunately, beyond uncertain chemistry, they are also each in a relationship. Kate is with Chris (Ron Livingston), and Luke is with Jill (Anna Kendrick). Jill wants to take their relationship to the next level, but Luke isn’t ready to commit … especially when he and Kate find themselves spending a weekend alone.

New Pacific Rim Trailer

Pacific Rim requires a change of course if it is to be the mega-blockbuster Warner Brothers/Legendary Pictures hopes and what many online pundits think it will be.

Skyscraper-sized robots trading punches with likewise-towering monsters in a futuristic environment sounds awesome, if we lived in Japan and this was 1970. We live in this era of Transformers (Stating a fact; not a preference). So anyone to come along the scene with the same promise of robot destruction had better distinguish themselves.

And in that sense, this new trailer succeeds, though it isn't a game-changer wiping off the "For Geeks Only!" stigma.

In the near future, giant monsters identified as "Kaiju" have risen from a crevice in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in a war which takes millions of lives and quickly consumes humanity's resources. To combat this new threat, a special type of weapon is designed: massive robots, known as Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. As time passes, even the powerful Jaegers prove almost defenseless in the face of a relentless enemy. On its last stand and on the verge of defeat, the remaining defending forces of mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes—a former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi)—who are teamed to pilot a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the early trials of the mechanical titans. Together, they must stand as the human race’s last hope against the mounting apocalypse.

**RUMOR** Has it that Renner Won't Be Hawkeye in THE AVENGERS 2

In an interview with Total Film  in August, Jeremy Renner said that he wasn't necessarily happy with how Joss Whedon and Co treated Oliver Queen Clint Barton AKA: Green Arrow Hawkeye...

For 90% of the movie, I'm not the character I signed on to play," says Renner, before homing in on the decision to have Hawkeye brainwashed by Loki from the get-go. "It's kind of a vacancy. [He's] not even a bad guy, because there's not really a consciousness to him."

"To take away who that character is and just have him be this robot, essentially, and have him be this minion for evil that Loki uses... I was limited, you know what I mean? I was a terminator in a way. Fun stunts. But is there any sort of emotional content or thought process? No."

Well, Comic Book Movie apparently has caught whiff of a RUMOR going around that Green Arrow Hawkeye might undergo the "War Machine", "Bruce Banner" treatment of a brand-new actor, because Marvel isn't too happy with Renner. 

The source hints that there's the tiniest chance Renner will reprise his role in The Avengers Sequel but the source also said there is a greater chance Hawkeye will be recast (like War Machine and the Hulk have been recast before). Finally, the source said if Hawkeye is to be recast there is a solid chance he could be incorporated into the new television show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as a primary character.

Well, what do you think?

Personally, I think Renner is absolutely right about  Green Arrow Hawkeye not really being Hawkeye. We got more from Maria Hill than we did from Hawkeye, who's an AVENGER not a dumpy SHIELD side-kick.

Guess we'll see; but given Marvel's bad rep with their stars lately, who knows?