Teaser Trailer: New Ninja Turtles Series

Just two days ago the first image from the new Ninja turtles series was revealed. Th picture didn't reveal much, and to be honest the new teaser trailer doesn't either. But for life long fans of the character like myself and fellow contributor Matt Rapier every little bit of info is something.

I have to admit even though we don't see a whole hell of a lot in the short clip, it looks a lot more like a shitty new video game than an exciting new series. I'm definitely with Matt in the sense that it'll be hard for anything new to live up to the original series from 87'. I think the biggest fail in the new series will be trying to make the turtles too modern, not just with the sleek new CGI animation look, but also their origins as well. Studios really need to step back and remember, sometimes less is more.

Movie Review: The Lincoln Lawyer

It wasn’t all that long ago that when you thought of actors like Mathew McConaughey movies like Sahara and Failure to Launch came to mind. Not many people even care to remember anymore that he was once a rising star with some real talent, obviously because he seemed to have thrown all that away for some shitty rom-coms and a few good pay cheques. At this point it should come as no surprise that very few people are looking forward to his name appearing on posters. Well now I can honestly say that I believe Lincoln Lawyer marks the return of McConaughey as a serious actor. There isn’t another actor that could have embodied this character better. The help of an amazing supporting cast and terrific direction were only the cherry on top to his charismatic performance.

Lincoln Lawyer is an adaptation of the novel of the same name. The plot follows criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller (Mathew McConaughey) who works out of the back of a Lincoln sedan in Los Angeles. Haller is the scummiest and sleaziest of lawyers you’ll meet. Most of his clients are gangbangers and drug dealers, and he’ll lie cheat and steal to get them off. It’s not until he’s hired by the son of a wealthy business man Louis Rolet (Ryan Phillippe) who’s been accused of rape and attempted murder that you really see him shine.

We’re initially led to believe that Rolet must be innocent allowing Haller to make a pretty solid defense. But as things begin to unravel and the true story comes to be revealed there are a lot of twists and turns that keep you on edge until the end. The surprising revelations made throughout bring Haller to believe he may have even assisted in a wrongful guilty plea made by a previous client currently serving time for a similar crime. As he begins to unravel the truth and come closer to what might have really happened his straight forward career case begins to fall apart in front of him.

The development of the characters right down to the supporting cast members was incredible. Although McConaughey clearly steals the show Ryan Phillippe and Marisa Tomei both deliver amazing performances as well. Director Brad Furman did an amazing job of bringing Haller and his journey to life on the big screen. Not often do you see an adaptation as true to the source material as this was. Everything right down to the score and the near perfect cinematography were spot on with the tone and look of the film. After all there’s only so many ways you can film a court room scene, but Furman was continuously able to make it more about the characters.

I’m giving Lincoln Lawyer and overall 8/10 

Movie Review: Red Riding Hood

 

Little Red Riding Hood is a classic fairy tale I’m sure everyone’s heard at least once over. When Warner Bros first announced they were developing a re-imagining of the classic tale I was weary at best. The casting news of Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried put some of my doubts to rest. Unfortunately the inclusion of director Katherine Hardwicke was somewhat of a downfall as I saw it. However,  I did find the first couple trailers were surprisingly intriguing. All in all I think given the impression I got from the trailers and the half decent casting I may have set my expectations far too high. The end result was a film that felt more so like a prequel to Twilight then a new darker and more interesting take on an already proven classic.

The plot doesn’t veer too far off from the original story. That is except for the redundant love triangle between the female lead Valerie (Amanda Seyfried), her childhood boyfriend Peter (Shiloh Fernandez), and her arranged fiancé Henry (Max Irons), both of which I have to add looked like underwear models. I also have to say that the addition of the dad from Twilight (Billy Burke) as Valerie’s dad, was also extremely inspired casting, once again couldn’t have seen that coming. Much like the predictable plot of the film the big twist isn’t all that hard to decipher either. I'm sure the general idea was to keep the audience guessing to the end, but they failed miserably both as a thriller and/or a murder mystery, leaving them somewhere in between a sad attempt at horror and a tween drama. The real challenge will more likely be keeping audiences interested enough to sit through the entire movie. The best part for me was the roll of the end credits.

Of all the cardboard acting and there was a lot, what stood out most was the very peculiar alternating accent of Gary Oldman. He couldn’t seem to figure out if he was Bram Stokers Dracula or an English Priest. Not that I’m really all that shocked, I’m pretty sure he only agreed to the role as it was another pay cheque and not his next possible nomination.

I would even go as far as to say it was very original of Hardwicke to use the same entire score from the first twilight film. Given that Riding Hood felt like a prequel to the sparkly vampire franchise it lent itself quite well. Aside from the obvious and continuous comparisons to the twilight franchise there’s not much else that can be said for the film, let alone anything good at all.

"The Avengers" Villains Revealed!

 

The fine folks over at Latino Review have the scoop on the villains in Marvels upcoming superhero team up extravaganza The Avengers! For the longest time now it's been rumoured that The Hulk would likely be the main antagonist, but that almost seemed too easy especially for how excited director Joss Whedon's been anytime he's asked to talk about the film.

Back in 2009 Marvel big shot Kevin Feige hinted at the possibility of The Skrulls appearing in the film, but like any major studio protecting the plot of their upcoming blockbuster the rumours were of course denied.

In my opinion, The Skrulls are really the only viable threat that would require so many super heroes to fight as a team. Sure, you could have The Hulk as a villain in the beginning, but then they have to come together for an even bigger threat. Something hinted about in IM2, Thor and Cap by Nick Fury's presence. Plus Fox doesn't have the rights to The Skrulls, only the Super Skrull. But this is just my inner geek thinking out loud and hoping.

 

Now we can say we know for a fact that not only will The Skrulls be one of the villains, but they'll also be accompanied by Thor's evil adoptive brother Loki who will use the Cosmic Cube to summon them. Loki is set to appear in Kenneth Branagh's THOR this May as played by Tom Hiddleston, and the Cosmic Cube is said to play an intricate part in Joe Johnston's Captain America this June. More or less they've done a nice job of tying the films together to form The Avengers, it's just a damn shame they ruined Iron Man 2 in the process, fuckers.

The Dark Knight Rises Plot Revealed!

 

It's not exactly the "official press release" fans have been clamouring for over the last little bit. But the wait is somewhat finally over! Bad Ass Digest has revealed the basic plot outline for the upcoming finale to Chris Nolans batman franchise, The Dark Knight Rises.

As she herself confirmed, Anne Hathaway will be Catwoman in the movie. I can’t tell you what role she has in the beginning, but by the end of the story Catwoman isn’t a villain but rather an ally of Batman. And who are they teaming up to take out?

The League of Shadows.

Headed by Talia Al’Ghul. With Bane, who is her muscle/possible love interest. And with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in tow. Is he playing Black Mask? My source didn’t know, but did know that Levitt is certainly an antagonist and involved with the League of Shadows.

They made sure to clarify that nothing was 100% concrete, but that they were very confident in the information being given. Then to add fuel to the fire Batman-On-Film backed up the claim via their facebook page, saying the synopsis was in fact real.

I can't say I'd personally consider this a major plot point being spoiled, like I'm sure some fanboys will, but more of an obvious expectation from the third instalment. Speculation to this point has had pretty much the same basis assumed already so I can't see this ruining the movie for anyone. I would assume with this out there now we can likely expect a more official announcement or press release from Warner Bros confirming the plot and hopefully filling us in on Levitts role.

New Red Band Trailer - Bad Teacher

Columbia Pictures and MySpace have released the Red Band trailer for Bad Teacher, the June 24 comedy starring Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, Lucy Punch, John Michael Higgins and Jason Segel.

 

The Synopsis:

 

Some teachers just don't give an F. For example, there's Elizabeth (Cameron Diaz). She's foul-mouthed, ruthless, and inappropriate. She drinks, she gets high, and she can't wait to marry her meal ticket and get out of her bogus day job. When she's dumped by her fiancé, she sets her plan in motion to win over a rich, handsome substitute (Justin Timberlake) – competing for his affections with an overly energetic colleague, Amy (Lucy Punch). When Elizabeth also finds herself fighting off the advances of a sarcastic, irreverent gym teacher (Jason Segel), the consequences of her wild and outrageous schemes give her students, her coworkers, and even herself an education like no other.

I can't say I'm a huge fan of Diaz, but she does seem to do pretty good with comedy. That and we don't have enough R rated comedies anymore, so one with a pot smoking gold digging asshole of a teacher looking to get a boob job sounds great!

All New Trailer for... THOR!

 

YahooMovies! has released the all new trailer for Marvels upcoming THOR due out May 6th, 2011.

The powerful but arrogant warrior Thor is cast out of the fantastic realm of Asgard and sent to live amongst humans on Earth, where he soon becomes one of their finest defenders.

Smart move by Marvel! Unlike the unimpressive trailer released in front of the Super bowl this new look is sure to get you at least remotely excited. Although Captain America still looks like the best thing Marvel has out this year, Thor suddenly seems like it might make a little splash as well.

Shane Black Directing Iron Man 3!

  

What was only rumoured to be a possibility just a few days ago has now been confirmed by TOLDJA! Shane Black will be directing Iron Man 3. What's not confirmed at this point is whether Black will work from a screenplay he also writes or if someone else will be brought on board to pen the third installment in the franchise.

Iron Man 3 will be a reunion of sorts for Black and star Downey jr who worked together on 2005's Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. The film which marked Blacks directing debut was also the start of Downeys comeback, so the re-teaming at this point seems logical. Especially after the departure of director Jon Favreau who launched the franchise in 2008 with a breakout hit only to have Iron Man 2 man handled behind the scenes by Marvel and ultimately deciding to leave for another Disney related property instead of returning for a third go round.

Iron Man 3 is scheduled for release in 2013 with no known script or prodcution start date as of yet.

All Star Superman Blu Ray Review

 

The newest installment in the DC Animated series is All Star Superman. The film serves as not only an adaptation to the graphic novel of the same name, but also what felt like a throwback to Superman from his earlier days, while at the same time taking a much more modern and needed approach to the character.

The plot starts off with Superman saving the world once again only to find out that He’s been tricked by none other than Lex Luthor, and he is now slowly dying. Both Superman and his alias Clark Kent decide to keep the news to themselves while he attempts to formulate a cure or ultimately decides to come to terms with his fate.

The plot tries to give an observation of Superman’s story in his last days as opposed to being the all out action-fest which you might have expected. That’s not to say he isn’t kicking some asses and taking some names throughout, but more so it has to do with the revelation to Louis Lane that Clark Kent and Superman are one in the same. It even go as far as to explore a level of intelligence we rarely see from Superman on film. His fortress of Solitude is a prime example of this; loaded with full size navy ships and space craft’s he had apparently built as models for recreation and his team of numbered robot minions he built to work with him. 

The one real downfall was the step backwards DC seemed to take in terms of the quality of the animation. In comparison to Batman: Under the red Hood the animation is far less superior to what I've come to expect. The voice acting however was at least on par with what I would have expected. I would even go as far as to say Anthony Lapaglia who voiced Lex Luthor did a fantastic job in conveying the tone of evil genius with a hidden conscience. The plot also suffered from a few “filler” moments which felt like they were added only to lengthen the story, but added only cheese and none sense to the mostly witty dialogue.

All Star Superman is a film kids and long term diehard fans of the character are sure to enjoy. But for general audiences or just casual fans of Superman it might not be quite what you're looking for. Although it is passable as a Superman film it felt more like Clark Kent and Lois Lanes story.

As entertaining is it was for the most part I’m giving All Star Superman 6/10

Die Hard 5 Has A Director

Back in February of last year, Bruce Willis told MTV a fifth Die Hard was in development. At the time everyone dismissed this as Willus' own wishful thinking. Then in May it was revealed that Fox's go to guy for action, Skip Woods was writing the screenplay.

Last year came and went with nothing else being added to even the Die Hard rumour mill let alone a set in stone release date or official title. Now THR is reporting that Willis himself has apparently found his "yes man" to stand behind the camera and make him look good in the yippee-ki-yay motherfucker title role once again. Commercial director Noam Murro has been brought on board to direct Die Hard 5. Nothing was specified as to whether or not he had signed on for more than one picture.

Willis has said before that he had plans of doing not only one more sequel but two and then retiring the character for good. At least as far as Willis goes anyways, there's nothing saying Fox doesn't wait five to ten years and then reboot the franchise after the purposed sixth installment should that actually happen as well.

Considering they've now found their director and plan to start production soon what could this mean for Willis presumed larger role in Stallones Expendables 2 should that actually get off the ground as well?