The Avengers Marathon Expands

I've reported on this before, but I wanted to refresh your memories in advance of the event. On Thursday, May 3, 2012, AMC Theaters will be putting on a marathon of the most recent Marvel movies all leading up to the midnight release of The Avengers. It's called The Ultimate Marvel Marathon, and it features the following six films:

• Iron Man
• The Incredible Hulk
• Iron Man 2
• Thor
• Captain America
• The Avengers

Not only do you get to see the films in 3D, but you also get nifty 3D glasses as a keepsake and a $5 card to use on the day of the event. All of this for the low cost of $40. The first show starts at 11:30 AM, and it will all wind down about 2:30 AM on Friday morning.

Initially only a handful of theaters across the US were participating in the marathon, but, due to high demand, the theater chain has expanded to nearly 100 theaters nationwide. Check here to see if it's coming to a city near you.

Here's what your ticket will look like:

Yeah boy!

Are you going to run out and buy your ticket today? Let me know in the comments and follow me on Twitter!

Moonrise Kingdom Trailer

Wes Anderson is The Man. Fantastic Mr. Fox is one of my all-time favorite films (a list I should put together one day for the blog now that I think of it), and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is practically required viewing for anyone in the marine science field. His films are funny, quirky, and incredibly smart.

His next film comes out in May. It's called Moonrise Kingdom, and it's about a boy and girl who run away for love.

Naturally, it's way more complicated and quirky than that. There is the typical Anderson-inspired bizarro imagery (the treehouse in the sky is pretty rad), cute characters, and fun dialog. It has all of the required Anderson actors including Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, and Tilda Swinton, and it also features Ed Norton, Bruce Willis, and Harvey Keitel. Solid cast as usual, Anderson. I can't wait to see the whole thing. Keep a lookout for Moonrise Kingdom on May 16, 2012.

A new Wes Anderson film get your juices flowing? Let me know in the comments below and follow me on Twitter!

Brave Trailer

It seems a little strange to me that Pixar has a new film coming out in the next few months, yet there has been relatively little buzz about it. I guess in a summer that includes The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, Prometheus (I want this movie right now!), and a bunch of other blockbusters it's easy to overlook a potentially great film from a great studio. Pixar is a solid performer every year, so you can be sure that their next film, Brave, will be pretty good.

The third trailer is out now.

I must say that each trailer or clip I see of it gets me more excited. It looks beautiful, it's set in Olde Scotland, and it has elements of mysticism and sorcery. Sweet. It's going to bring the goods on June 22, 2012. 

I'm infinitely more excited for Brave than I ever was for last year's Pixar offering, Cars 2.

Are you looking forward to Pixar's next outing? Let me know in the comments below and follow me on Twitter!

Lawless Trailer

There is a new film coming by John Hillcoat, the director who brought us The Road and The Proposition, called Lawless. The film is an adaptation of a book titled The Wettest County in the World and centers around a family of moonshiners in the Virginia mountains during the prohibition era. The film stars a heavyweight cast including Tom Hardy, Shia Labeouf, Guy Pierce, Gary Oldman, Jessica Chastain, and a whole host of others.

Yeah, that gets me excited. Hillcoat directed a well-shot, atmospheric, and moody film with The Road. The film didn't turn out so great, but the problems with it rested squarely on the script, not with the direction. I've heard good things about The Proposition, though it is admittedly sitting near the top of my unwatched Blu-Ray pile. Perhaps I'll move it to the top of the queue.

We know the actors are good, the director has talent, and the trailer looks like a cool gangster flick. Keep an eye out for this one in August.

Are you excited for a prohibition era gangster shoot-'em-up? Let me know in the comments below and follow me on Twitter!

Total Recall Trailer

When I first heard about the remake of Total Recall I wasn’t as upset as others on the internet. The Arnold Schwarzenegger original is one of my favorite Arnold films, but it was my understanding that the 2012 version would stick closer to the source material. The first trailer for the new film has been released giving us our first glimpse as to what this new approach is all about.

Gotta say, not half bad. It looks like a Total Recall/Blade Runner/Fifth Element future-city landscape, which is cool and all. It appears they’ll certainly be bringing the action with gunfights, flying car chases, even a couple of hot chicks fist fighting. It might not be some groundbreaking, revolutionary take on the story, but it looks like it could be a fun ride.

Think you can figure out what's real and what isn't? Let me know in the comments below, and follow me on Twitter!

Looper Trailer

Here’s a film I’m a little on the fence about. The new film from Rian Johnson, the guy who brought us the brilliant film Brick, is back with a sci-fi, time-travel tale called Looper. The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who I think is one of the best actors in Hollywood today, and Bruce Willis, who is, you know, pretty awesome as Bruce Willis. The trailer for Looper was just released.

That looks… interesting?? I’m not sure. I think I should be excited. I like/love the actors, the director, and the story premise. I’m jus not getting THAT excited by this trailer. We’re still a long way out from the release of the film (September 28, 2012), so maybe more exciting stuff will come out a bit later. At least we know the concept of the film, right? Given the talent involved, it’s definitely one to keep an eye on.

Are you excited about Looper? Already bought your ticket for opening weekend? Let me know in the comments, and follow me on Twitter!

Sequel Roundup

My last post concerned a couple of older comedies that are unexpectedly getting sequels. The idea that Anchorman and Dumb and Dumber would get sequels ten and twenty years after their debuts seems wild, but progress apparently is being made on both of those films. Neato.

Those aren’t the only films getting sequels though. A whole suite of films have had sequel announcements lately, so here’s a roundup of some of the latest news:

The Woman in Black – Daniel Radcliffe’s first starring role in a post-Harry world was quite a good horror flick (I gave it a 3.5 out of 5). The film was based on a 1983 book by Susan Hill that was later adapted to a successful play that ran in London for over twenty years. Hill and co-writer of The Woman in Black screenplay, Jon Crocker, follow up the story 40 years later with The Woman in Black: Angels of Death. There’s no word regarding a return of Radcliffe in the sequel, but it appears that the film will be set once more in Eel Marsh House. I can imagine that the settings around the manor will be even creepier and more atmospheric in the sequel. Color me excited.

Sin City – Way back in 2005, Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller produced a film with a unique visual and narrative style that was pretty rad. Sin City was a popular and critical hit produced on a modest budget that brought in a really big return ($160 return on a $40 million budget). There was almost immediate talk of a sequel, but the project languished for a long time. Part of the holdup was trying to organize the schedules of all the stars involved. Now, Rodriguez has announced Sin City: A Dame to Kill For will begin production in the next few weeks.

Raging Bull – You read that right. For some ungodly reason, a director of mostly direct-to-video films has managed to convince a major motion picture studio to make a follow-up to a classic film that Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro absolutely killed. The story in Raging Bull 2 is supposed to follow the later career of Jake Lamotta, the fighter portrayed by DeNiro in the original. No word on if they are going to try for a tastefully artful black & white film like the original. I hope they try to make it as different as possible from the original, since the odds of capturing that magic again are nigh impossible. Actually, I hope this project simply dies on the vine and never gets made.

X-Men: First Class – We know that there will be a sequel to X-Men: First Class because one of the stars of the film also happens to be the star of another major motion picture franchise. Jennifer Lawrence, who plays Mystique in X-Men: First Class, is also Katniss Everdeen, the star of The Hunger Games. Fox, the studio behind the X-Men films have sent notice to Lionsgate, the studio responsible for the follow-up to The Hunger Games, that Mrs. Lawrence will be needed in January 2013 for shooting on their sequel. That puts Lionsgate in an awkward situation of rushing to get Catching Fire done in the next few months. Jen is one important piece of the X-Men cast, but she unquestionably IS The Hunger Games star. So, we have one major studio forcing a rival studio to rush a sequel into production or else wait until the end of 2013 to start shooting a sequel to the biggest film so far of 2012. Oh Hollywood! It might be wise for Lionsgate to wait Jen Lawrence out though considering…

The Hunger Games – A sequel for this film was all but guaranteed from the start. When the opening weekend numbers shattered all sorts of box office records for Lionsgate, the studio heads were falling all over themselves to greenlight the sequel. They know they have two more gigantic films ahead of them as part of Suzane Collins The Hunger Games trilogy. The second film, Catching Fire, is being forced into a rapid production by Fox studios claims of Jennifer Lawrence as mentioned above. However, there are some serious issues with the production already as the director of The Hunger Games has dropped out. Gary Ross, who championed the idea of adapting the trilogy, has backed out of the director’s chair for the sequel. The reason cited? Rushed production schedule. The writing needs to be finalized and the whole thing needs to be shot by January 2013 when Jenifer Lawrence will be needed over at Fox studios. That’s a quick timeframe, and Ross didn’t want to subject himself to that madness even though he loves the property. Now Lionsgate must find a sucker new director who is willing to take over a major franchise and all of the baggage that goes with it and spit out a movie in just a few months. Good luck!

Are you excited for any of these sequels? Let me know in the comments, and follow me on Twitter!

A Brace of Sequels

Two storied comedy films from the distant past, way back in the 2000s and 1990s, have just gotten new life with recent announcements of sequels.

First up: Anchorman 2

Will Ferrell was on a roll in 2004 coming off Elf and Old School and unleashed perhaps one of his best roles in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. The story of San Diego's best news anchor during the 1970s was a riot. Ferrell loved the character and reprised the role in a few short films, but has been too busy for a proper sequel. Until now. He's writing, producing, and starring in the sequel, and it seems like all of the old crew will be returning. It's a happy day when we get to look forward to more Ron Burgundy in 2013.

Another big announcement concerns a slightly older comedy that I love: Dumb and Dumber.

Jim Carrey recently watched his 1994 classic, realized how awesome the film is, and decided he wanted to take another turn at Lloyd. The pairing of Carrey and Jeff Daniels produced a maniacal comedy that was pure gold. Endlessly quotable and filled to the brim with zaniness, Dumb and Dumber hit a real sweet spot that has it near the top of my list of favorite comedies. Let's hope the further adventures of Harry and Lloyd are as nuts as the first. Production on the sequel begins in September.

Are you excited about either of these sequels? Let me know in the comments, and follow me on Twitter!

Movies of the Month: April 2012

We’ve already seen what could be the highest earning film of 2012 with The Hunger Games. There won’t be many films capable of bringing in $300+ million for the remainder of the year, except for maybe The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises or The Hobbit. We are still a month or so away from these other big summer films, but in the meantime, there are still some really good films hitting theaters. There are a few stinkers in April, but there are some potential gems too.

Week of April 6, 2012

American Reunion

The Plot: The gang returns for their high school reunion to reminisce about the good old days and create more chaos.

Who’s in it? Most everyone from the previous three films.

Ultimate Fate: Notice how I said in the introduction that there are some stinkers this month? Here’s one of them. Why they made another one of these, I’m not sure. It is nice that they ignore the various direct-to-video spin-off films (didn’t those follow the misadventures of Stiffler’s brother?) and stick to a story following the original characters. The premise doesn’t seem too forced since these characters are due for a class reunion. However, given the generally terrible original films, I can’t imagine this sequel being that great.

Titanic 3D

The plot: The boat sinks. Spoilers!

Who’s in it? Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet

Ultimate Fate: The film you saw six times in the theaters as a teenager returns to theaters for you to see a few more times. James Cameron has overseen the 3D conversion of his second biggest hit (and second biggest all-time with a paltry $600 million). These post-conversions seldom look spectacular, but with the maestro himself personally involved in one of his most successful creations, expect it to look good.

The Hunter (limited release)

The plot: A world-class mercenary tries to hunt down one of the last remaining Tasmanian tigers in the world so that it can be cloned.

Who’s in it? Willem Defoe

Ultimate Fate: This film encourages Defoe to turn loose his inner wildman, which is something we all can agree is a good thing. From the trailer, it looks like an interesting setup involving action, corporate espionage, and even some sci-fi.

Where I’ll be this weekend: If The Hunter is anywhere near me, I’ll be there. Otherwise, I’ll stand outside the American Reunion theater and punch the idiots going to see that dumb film. Seriously, don’t give that series your money; it could encourage them to make more even more sequels.

Week of April 13, 2012

The Cabin in the Woods

The Plot: A group of friends head off for a weekend in the woods only to find that their rustic cabin isn’t what it seems.

Who’s in it? Bradley Whitford, Chris Hemsworth

Ultimate Fate: I’ve been hearing great things about this film. It’s a horror/thriller that takes the cabin-in-the-woods premise and goes off in a unique direction. The film has actually been sitting around for a few years while the studio worked out a release strategy. They were attempting a post-conversion 3D treatment for a while but decided against it, preferring to leave the final cut alone. Not much has gotten out about the story since the producers are don’t want to ruin the film, which means that I’ll enter this film somewhat blindly. I’m excited to see what the buzz is all about.

The Three Stooges

The Plot: Larry, Moe, and Curly get into misadventures while trying to save the orphanage in which they were raised.

Who’s in it? Sean Hayes, Chris Diamantopoulos, Will Sasso

Ultimate Fate: There was a time when the stars of this film were to be Benicio del Toro, Sean Penn, and Jim Carey. How different that film would have been! Those stars all officially dropped out due to “scheduling conflicts”, but having seen the atrocious trailer for this one, I’m betting they backed out after reading the script. I saw the trailer and am still waiting to laugh. This film appears to be comedy anti-matter.

Lockout

The Plot: Convicts take over a prison orbiting Earth. One man is selected to break into the prison to rescue the president’s daughter who happens to be visiting the station.

Who’s in it? Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace

Ultimate Fate: This one is billing itself as Taken in space. A sci-fi take on the rescue/revenge genre sounds good to me. The trailer looks decent if not spectacular. Luc Besson is a producer on the film, so there should be some decent action pieces to keep you entertained.

Where I’ll be this Weekend: Cabin in the Woods all the way. I’m down for a fresh take on a fun horror genre. I just found out that The Raid: Redemption, the crazy-insane silat fighting film that’s been making a slow rollout across the country will be coming near me this weekend. So, yeah. I’ll be watching Indonesian dudes beat each other silly and then getting freaked out by a killer house.

Week of April 20, 2012

The Lucky One

The Plot: A Marine tracks down the woman whose photo he believes was his lucky charm while he was serving in Iraq.

Who’s in it? Zac Efron, Taylor Schilling

Ultimate Fate: Remember The Vow? Same thing here. It probably won’t do as well since The Vow came out over Valentine’s Day, but it’s the only romantic comedy out right now so it should draw.

Think Like a Man

The Plot: A relationship expert writes a tell-all book that spills the beans on all the tricks men use to lure women. Armed with this information, the ladies turn the tables.

Who’s in it? Chris Brown, Gabrielle Union, Kevin Hart, (what, no Tyler Perry?)

Ultimate Fate: Rhianna-beater Chris Brown cast as the relationship expert in a romantic comedy? I guess the producers are really stretching the concept of comedy. That weird stunt casting is likely to turn off a big segment of the female audience, which is a big deal in a rom-com.

Chimpanzee

The Plot: A young chimp gets separated from his mother and then gets adopted by an adult male.

Who’s in it? Our furry cousins, narrated by Tim Allen

Ultimate Fate: Documentarians from Discovery spent years in the Ivory Coast tracking and filming chimpanzees and were witness to a rather incredible story. When the little guy lost his mother, an adult male took him under his wings and cared for him. I don’t think that behavior had ever been witnessed before. Cool stuff.

Where I’ll be this weekend: I’ll be in the field collecting fishes. Since, you know, I’m a marine biologist by day and a film aficionado by night. Good thing none of these movies really gets my juices flowing.

Week of April 27

The Five Year Engagement

The Plot: The film tracks the ups and downs of an engaged couple over five years. Seriously? Five years? What exactly is the hold-up?

Who’s in it? Jason Segel, Emily Blunt

Ultimate Fate: Another week, another rom-com. Why not? I’ve known people who were engaged for a long time before marriage, but I’m not one of them. I guess there could be some funny moments with that concept, but I can’t really think of any. Someone else might enjoy it though.

The Raven

The Plot: A killer uses the writings of Edgar Allen Poe as a template for a string of murders.

Who’s in it? John Cusack

Ultimate Fate: There’s an interesting trend coming out of Hollywood of taking popular historical figures and telling a fake story about them. We saw it last year (well, a few people saw it) with Anonymous, which postulated that Shakespeare didn’t write anything and was a front in the battle between church and crown. We’ll see it again later this year with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. I always thought Poe was an opium addict and depressed loner, but The Raven considers him to be a capable crime fighter when he’s called to service by the police. Interesting take. I hope it ends with a take on The Tell-Tale Heart with the killer confessing everything out of guilt.

The Pirates! Band of Misfits

The Plot: An inept pirate sets out with his crew to win the Pirate of the Year Award.

Who’s in it? The voices of Hugh Grant, Salma Hayek

Ultimate Fate: Aardman Animations are known for making cute and awesome claymation films, most notably with the characters Wallace and Gromit. They know how to weave a heartwarming and funny story and top it off with a unique visual aesthetic. Saying this film will be good is equivalent to saying Pixar’s next film will be good. With Aardman involved, you know this will be great for the whole family.

Safe

The Plot: A cop saves a savant-like Chinese girl who knows a safe code and is being pursued by Russians and Triads.

Who’s in it? Jason Statham, of course

Ultimate Fate: It’s been a few months since we last saw Statham in theaters, so here he is again beating up a fresh batch of people. This time he gets to save a little girl! I personally love Statham. His films are more about car chases, gunfights, and fistfights than they are about character, and I’m glad he puts out a film every six months.

Where I’ll be this Weekend: I’ll be watching the Aardman film and then stopping in to see Statham kick someone’s teeth out the back of their skull. 

Movie of the Month: There are a few good options this month, but I’ll recommend most highly The Cabin in the Woods. A fresh take on a familiar horror genre is definitely worth my time. Barring that, The Pirates! Band of Misfits is sure to be fun for all age groups.

Thanks for reading the previews! I hope you see something in there you like. Let me know in the comments below and follow me on Twitter!

April Fools Roundup

Today is April 1, 2012, better known as April Fools Day. It’s the time of the year when ridiculous rumors run rampant. When websites cheekily announce that Robert Downey Junior has been replaced in Iron Man 3 by the more charismatic thespian Peter Dinklage or that a long-lost Francis Ford Coppala sci-fi epic has been discovered in a monastery in Burma.

I thought I would play a little game today. Here are a few recent film headlines, and you decide which are real and which I pulled out of thin air.

• A Garbage Pail Kids film is about to start production.
• The producers of Prometheus postulate that their film could outperform James Cameron’s Avatar.
• There will soon be a film based on the board game Candyland featuring epic Lord of the Rings style battles involving pastries and candies.
• An erotic fanfiction take on Twilight recently sold for $4 million against 5% of the gross.

Do any of these sound remotely plausible? They should. They are all, in fact, real.

Garbage Pail Kids were weird when I was young, and I have no idea what today’s youth will make of them. Why they want to reboot them is a mystery. I'm hoping for an insane animated feature starring Nervous Rex, the baby who chain smokes and drinks gallons of coffee and soda.

The people who run the official Prometheus website are seriously out of their minds if they think their film will pull in $700 million. I mean, it looks fantastic, I’m super excited for it, and I want everyone to see it, but I am under no illusions to think that it will come close to a mega-blockbuster status. Maybe, just maybe, it will be in the top five grossing films of the year.

Large-scale battles of CGI candy seems too bonkers to wrap my brain around. I wish the producers of that ridiculousness all the best in the world. I might actually pay money to see what they come up with.

Finally, ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ was written by a Twilight fan and was distributed so successfully electronically through e-readers that a bidding war erupted for the film rights. Ten or so studios went nuts over the prospect of filming the story of a 20-something submissive S&M woman and her relationship with a wealthy entrepreneur.

Hollywood can be a strange business some days.

What do you think about these headlines? Do you think any of these are real? Let me know in the comments below and follow me on Twitter!