heresjohnny1991! What we
all have been waiting
33 years and 13 days to see. This ties them together
better than I imagined!
The
FAQ on Prometheus on IMDB,
although slightly contradictory, answers the
"prequel" questions well. And this is exactly
what I wanted to hear: "it
will likely answer some questions about the origin of the
Derelict spacecraft and the fossilized creature whose remains
were found inside it (informally known as the 'Space Jockey')".
There's more there but I don't want to spoil it for you . .
.
Prepare to be blown away
by this new PROMETHEUS Trailer. Not since 2001: A Space
Odyssey has something looked so incredibly different and
ground-breakingly cool in every way. Love the entirely
foreign look of the space mission and planet surface, the
vehicles and spacesuits, but especially the helmets. Reminds me
of the "Skinnies" in Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers
Chronicles. Please turn the lights out and watch it in 1080
with full screen!
Dec 21
Actionfest 2012
announced for April 12-15
and honors
Mickey Gilbert!
Legendary
Stuntman Mickey Gilbert has 116 titles to his credit.
He also has family in stunt work (as is common in the business).
Lance, Troy, and Tim Gilbert are listed as members of
Stunts Unlimited. Sons?
He doubled
Robert Redford and worked on so many of our favorites as either
Stunt Coordinator or Stuntman:
Bruce Almighty, Liar Liar,
A Time to Kill, The Nutty Professor, Apollo 13, City Slickers I
and II, Striking Distance, The Last of the Mohicans, Freejack,
Barton Fink, Above the Law, Little Nikita, The Fall Guy (TV
series), Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Stir Crazy, Brubaker, The
Blues Brothers, The Concorde... Airport '79, Buck Rogers in the
25th Century, Every Which Way But Loose, Hooper, Silver Streak,
Rooster Cogburn, The Wind and the Lion, The Towering Inferno,
Earthquake, Blazing Saddles, The Sting, Westworld, Cleopatra
Jones, Little Big Man, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Butch
Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Wild Bunch, and Ben-Hur.
This is exciting news for
Actionfest 2012 and is sure to bring even more stuntmen to the
Festival and ramp up the fun. Stuntmen have such camaraderie!
There
was other big Actionfest news besides the dates and the Honoree:
1st ANNUAL
'Chick' Norris Award
TO BE GIVEN AT ACTIONFEST 2012: THIS IS BIG NEWS! BIG!!
This year will mark the first annual 'Chick' Norris Award,
"to be given to a woman working in film today who best represents the spirit, attitude, athleticism and grit of Hollywood legend Chuck Norris"
(quote from
Mountain Xpress) . . .
(Sound of angels singing :D Allelujah!) And I see light
at the end of the tunnel!
After
I got upset last year over
the showing of Machete Maidens Unleashed and wrote about
it and said I wasn't going to go to Actionfest
2011, I then changed my mind and went. It turned out at
least two people actually read what I wrote (thank you both!)
one of them being Martial Arts movie expert and author
Ric Meyers (at left) who
said that he agreed with me and explained he had recently
written about the important difference between debasing a
character and degrading a character in films) and who
just said every right thing I could have wanted to hear!!
The other was Sanjay Rajput who gave me a hard time (good
naturedly, and deservedly so). I apologized to Actionfest
Festival Director, all-around nice guy, and film God Colin
Geddes
(below)
and gave him an
Action Figure Therapy
t-shirt (the machine gun on peyote one) to try to make up for my
excessive grousing. I told him when I decided to come to
Actionfest, I just trusted that he would give us a good
festival (and it truly was!).
Maybe what
I wrote helped toward them not showing more Grindhouse-type
films in the "powder keg" (visible from the lobby) as they had
planned. I would like to think so (hope so). One of
the things I wrote was:
"I want to see
women fighting back in real life and to make that happen we need
to see clothed, strong women fighting back in the movies."
This new award goes a long way toward seeing that happen.
I am thrilled! I also said:
"We need strong female role models, not pop tarts. We
ignore them as dumb 'playthings' just like you do."
I truly
believe that until women fight back and stop dressing and acting
like objects, they will not get equality. This Award not
only acknowledges the value of women who are powerful, it
celebrates it and promotes it in the best possible way: in
the spirit of the 'gentlemanly' and hero-like conduct of Chuck
Norris (something everyone should aspire to).
If you
want to read what I wrote last year (I removed the last sentence
which said something like "I don't think Mr. Norris would
approve") or find out as one Facebook fan (and friend) put it
"What the fuck [I'm] babbling about" read my views on
Sucker Punch. [Which
@GraceRandolph of
Beyond The Trailer said she
loved "so much" :) Many Thanks Grace! Hope she comes to Actionfest 2012: April 12-15.
Best Money an Action Movie Freak can spend!
Tom Cruise was certainly aiming
for a blockbuster with his worldwide promotional tour,
exemplary social media campaign, and Christmas-time
release date. I thought the social media hit all the
best notes (including the red carpet coverage—YES we want to see
live red carpet coverage of every blockbuster), plus it included
prizes (!), and was not intrusive or annoyingly overdone as some
upcoming movies are. [ If Prometheus 2012 asks one
more stupid survey question, I might forget I've waited 32 years for
it and that it's Ridley Scott long enough to rag on them for
it. LOL—No way. (Hunger Games is doing too much as well.)
Movie promoters would do well to remember that there is a point
beyond saturation where you turn on a movie. Remember the saturation
on these movies?
"I need that money, Tom!"
"Give me back my son!"
LMAO ]
So, when I sat down to watch
Ghost Protocol, I felt sure I would be dazzled, and since it's
an impossible mission starring Tom Cruise, how could it lose? "An
hour ago, a bomb blew The Kremlin" is no small intro. when
combined with the dazzling CGI of the tower toppling.
Afterward, it seemed to me that they started with a story line, and
then worked to add action sequences into it. Not that there's
anything wrong with that, if it delivers, and it did!
I don't want to spoil it for
anyone so GO SEE IT! Now that my crazy anticipation is
through, I will pay to see it again. When I think of the
visual camouflage trick (can't say more)—that was
INCREDIBLE! Makes me think back to Terminator 3.
Just twenty minutes into that movie I remember turning to a friend and high-fiving.
We had decided to tell each other when we thought the movie
reached 'worth the price of admission'—It did that so fast we stared
at each other in disbelief and began to count up from
there. At the high-fiving twenty-minute mark we had doubled it to $20!
After that, we just
sat back and enjoyed the ride.
And what a ride Ghost Protocol
is! I defy you to relax in your chair. I have to see
it again! Overall, Ghost Protocol knocks
your gloves off for Action and visual effects. It's bound to make tons
of money. People will see it just for the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
Those who saw it early will be telling their friends to see it
for the camouflage trick, the Kremlin explosion, the climbing the tower scene, the scene
with Jeremy Renner, ALL the car scenes, the crazy ending sequence, and well, you get the idea.
Action, Action Action. That Tom Cruise did wire work on
the actual site is mind blowing. Simon Pegg is awesome too. I
love the comedy element in Action Movies.
So why am I slightly disappointed? Was it just my ridiculous
anticipation? How much anticipation is too
much? Which came first the Action or the Story? As an "egg"
person in the chicken or the egg question, I believe all movie
greatness must come from a great script. Great Action enhances
an already great plot. Without that satisfying symbiosis, it's
only so much eye candy and leaves you feeling unsatisfied. Maybe Action
Movie Freaks have too much anticipation for blockbusters, or
maybe
movie makers intentionally underestimate the intelligence of movie
audiences when making one.
I think they were counting on your attachment
to and knowledge of Ethan Hunt from previous movies, but I found the
wife element confusing (can't say what or it will spoil it). The ending didn't clear it up enough.
I guess he couldn't be trying to protect or save a girl again as he did in previous
M:I damsel-in-distress scenarios. Also, the
major plot point of the threat of a nuclear missile hitting a major
city has been done; several times by James Bond, and San
Francisco in
The Rock.) Of course
Ethan would work to stop that, but something was
missing. Ethan wasn't interested in, or
the love interest of, anyone because he's married. I guess I wanted
there to be some romance in it. He's Tom
Cruise! [ Didn't you want
Stallone
and the girl to get
together in
The Expendables?
Is a man really going to go to all that trouble then walk away? ]
How could Ethan walk away? What did I miss? Did they explain
that? I don't see it
here. Is it just because I'm a
girl that I feel this way. <<SPOLIER ALERT>> He does kiss someone .
. . but . . . Oh hell! I am nitpicking. Go see Ghost Protocol.
It's so incredible, I am sure you will WANT to see it again. Tom proves he's The Man sitting on Top of
the World (barefoot—love that—knocked his own socks off!).
That is scary high and he's so calm.
It's here
at last—The G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation trailer. Now we just
have to wait until 6/29/12.
The leather costumes with face masks are so wicked looking. This
preview is great, and has a cool surprise at the end! The
Rock, Byung-hun Lee (the "Bad" from The Good, The Bad, and
The Weird) returns as "Storm Shadow", the weapons, the
costumes, the vehicles, Channing Tatum's back as "Duke"—it's got
it all PLUS a new kick-ass chick "Lady Jaye" (Adrianne
Palicki). I sure hope she's as bad ass all the way through
as she looks in this preview.
"Get some!" (above) . . . and this photo
(below) doesn't do the strut justice . . .
Dec 4
Playing around with the look of the site
Sorry for the weird colors, spacing inconsistencies, etc.
Dec
1
GHOST PROTOCOL News
(humming
theme music . . . )
Originally set to release on 12/14 but moved to 12/21, Mission:
Impossible - Ghost Protocol will be in theaters on Friday,
12/16—all day long—beginning at 10:00 AM for those who can get the
day off (it's not my birthday but close enough) to make the queue!
It's looking like it will deliver (BAM! right in your IMAX eye) that
old familiar James-Bond-once-yearly-Action-Injection we used to have
to wait for.
Thank You,
Mr. Mapother :D
for the birthday present. All that and
Josh Holloway
too!!
Prometheus News
Other exciting birthday gifts included the release of some
stills from Prometheus,
and I loved the one of the egg scene. Trying not to think about it
too much but with Ridley Scott (have waited SO long for him
to do another Alien movie) and that cast, it's got to be
something really special. Visually, it's sure to impress (it's been
32 years since the first one) so all that remains is story. No
pressure,
Damon Lindelof and
Jon Spaiht.
A trust not unlike what the writers on
Predators must have felt.
James Embree
News
At the bottom of the Prometheus cast list, IMDB lists
James Embree
(Jason Statham's stunt double) as "Mechanic 1", his first
credited acting (movie) role!
James Embree's
got a amazing list of movies he's been a stunt performer in,
including (to name a few of the 48 titles) (upcoming: The
Expendables 2, The Dark Knight Rises, John Carter, Sherlock Holmes:
A Game of Shadows) Killer Elite, Captain America: The First Avenger,
X-Men: First Class, The A-Team, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time,
Centurion, Sherlock Holmes, Valhalla Rising, Bronson, Quantum of
Solace, The Dark Knight, In Bruges, 28 Weeks Later, and
Eragon. All since 2006. What an exciting life he must lead!
I wonder if he will begin acting
more?
Since the audience demanded Action Movies switch from the old
James-Bond-type Action actors pre-Daniel
Craig, to the new
Action-Figure-type
actors, have the two merged? Certainly we don't want our Action
Movie actors to get hurt, but we do want to see them doing their own
stunts. Just because stunt performers don't have a speaking
role in the film doesn't mean they can't act. I am hoping/thinking
this is here to stay. Maybe NOW Action Movie actors will get Oscars.
Tom Cruise should be the
first,
he's been nominated 3 times,
although not for Action movies. And WHY NOT for Action Movies?!
Nobody delivers the Action movie blockbuster like
Tom Cruise!
Going a step further, all
Action Movie Freaks
want to be
Action Figures. Will
Action Figure actors/stuntmen
transition us to virtual roles in interactive movies? Yes, please.
Will these be at home, or in 4-D theaters . . . or both?
Nov 27
Tom Hardy
After watching the PBS Masterpiece
Classics version of Wuthering Heights, I was impressed with
the presence of Tom Hardy as "Heathcliff", so I looked him
up. What a difference the color and length of his hair made! I would
not have put that face with "Tommy Conlon" from Warrior or
"Eames" from
Inception, but that is to Tom Hardy's very great
credit. His depiction of "Charlie Bronson" (based on real-life
story of
Michael Petersonaka "Charles Bronson") in Bronson
(2008), which IMDB called "a harrowing performance that is
physically fearless and psychologically unsettling", however, is
indelible. So often, actors (Action Movie actors especially) get
cast or accept roles as the same type of character over and over.
In this case, it's not so much the range of Hardy's roles as the
range of his talent that sets him apart.
While the subtitle of Bronson could have been: Beating Up
A Naked Guy,
that is not meant to diminish the performance, which won him a
British Independent Film Award for Best Actor. The movie
is categorized as Action, but it really has very little other than
fighting/beatdowns, which are stylized, slo mo,
and set to music chosen to jar, as in A Clockwork Orange. It
is also narrated by Tom Hardy in a way that brings to mind the
untamable "Alex DeLarge" played by Malcolm MacDowell. I would
say the similarities end there (for the most part). The direction is
very different. It reminded me a little of Guy Ritchie. Hardy
also had a part in Guy Ritchie's Rocknrolla, which seemed so
similar to Snatch
and Lock, Stock, And Two Smoking Barrels, I felt like I had
seen it already. For me Ritchie takes too long to get to the Action.
It's like a gutter soap opera, not that there's anything wrong with
that but, colorful characters and "merry quips" (as my English
father used to call them) only take you so far in an Action Movie
before you feel as though you're sitting there itching for something
to blow up. Yeah, yeah, I know, everyone's a critic. I'm just
an audience member; I think that counts for more. Just because
you're a brilliant Director, does that mean everything you make has
to be great? No. But you get lots of chances.
Nov
11
Ridley Scott Double Shot!
•
BLADE RUNNER Recent news of a Blade Runner sequel from Ridley Scott
who said in this
Nov. 4
Wall St. Journal article:
“[W]e're quite a long way in, actually.” “Even though people
think it's a cool Philip Marlowe film with Deckard played by
Harrison Ford,” he says, “the film is very much about
humanity.” [emphasis added] Scott says the new
Blade Runner project is moving ahead “not with the past cast,
of course.” No Deckard? “No, not really,” he says.
I'm excited about this because it will not have the same
characters. He is not messing with the original. It
will stand alone. There is still plenty there to work with. The
examination of what it means to be human was also at the
core of
The Matrix—You can't get a
more compelling storyline. Androids and expiration dates
simplified the hard cold fact that we are all going
to die and we don't know when, and this gives meaning to life.
Another reason the movie was so cool was the mix of SciFi with
Noir. I would love to see Scott push the
set construction/dressing envelope again. It's got to be the kind of
project Directors live for. So I hope for great things
(meaning/plot wise) and to be visually dazzled again. As I look around
at video billboards going up all around Miami, it brings his1982 vision
to life; makes me feel like I am living in Blade Runner. Isn't that what
we go to the movies for? Life imitating Art. How cool is that!
•
PROMETHEUS
I don't think there is a bigger
Alien fan than me.
Since Scott promised to scare the shit out of us with
Prometheus (from this
Film School Rejects
article in July) I have been
over-the-top excited for this movie. I even wanted to
believe
this was a real preview.
However, a real
preview is close according to
the movie website.
In this Nov. 7Wall St. Journal
article
titled "Ridley
Scott Spills the Secrets of ‘Prometheus'"
(not exactly, but don't read it if you don't want to know
anything about the plot) we learn a little about the title.
So,
Alien prequel? Yes, please!
I have a fixation with everybody-dies movies (my first
love was Horror) and this could be the best-yet
Trinity
movie:Action/SciFi/Horror. Creature effects
are so amazing now I can hardly believe my eyes anymore. I am
waiting for someone to find a way to incorporate water into fake
flesh because that will give such a realistic look/bounce.
And speaking of creatures, that Astronaut from the chair in the
first movie was a story begging to be told. Who and what
was he, and what happened to him? As the Mars mission gets
closer, our worst fears about Alien life forms could be
realized. Although we have so many strange and wonderful
'alien' creatures here on Earth that we neither understand or
appreciate and kill at will from ants to whales to the opposite
sex, maybe finally peacefully interacting with a true 'alien'
life form from another planet will make us appreciate the
diversity and value of life on our own. Until then, we'll
keep torturing and killing everything around us and making
movies about other horrible things killing us. YEAH! ! Fear,
Violence, and Death . . . What an Action Movie Freak craves.
The music makes it just that much cooler.
Can't wait to see this in IMAX!
(click through to YouTube and watch it in full-screen at 1080p)
Oct
27
The
THING
. . . "OMG!"
[I realize it's not "Action" and neither
was the original, but it was a Kurt Russell movie.]
I
thought I'd never seen anything more disgusting than the dog
splitting open (below) in the 1982 The Thing. In
sheer disgustingness alone, this movie more than lives up to
that. I couldn't help myself, I let out at least 4 "Oh
My Gods!" So gross!!! Kudos to the creature designer
Michael Broom (another OMG
to his résumé!) and to the whole special effects team.
I was entertained by this
movie despite e a lot of squirming and plugging my ears,
but I left unsure about what happened to the lead character.
<SPOILER ALERT> I assume she dies somehow? Freezes to death?
Can't find the Russian camp cause she killed the only person who
knew how to get there? And wait . . . How was it there was
someone still alive at the camp?! What happened to the big
storm? Did earring guy make a mistake and just grab the wrong
ear, and was human? How come he didn't convert to a monster when
he burned? Did she kill him for nothing? When the movie
ended, my reaction was "Did they run out of film?"
How do they just leave us hanging like that!? But then
they gave a little more during the credits, but not what I
expected. At least they put to rest the idea that the dog got
away. Really, where was it going to go, other than off to freeze
to death?
Despite all these questions,
if you liked the original The Thing, I would say see it.
If you liked the first one, you probably already have.
There was no lead hunky 'Kurt Russell' type. I thought Joel
Edgerton would fill the Kurt Russell hunk shoes, but his
character disappeared. Bearded men may be offended (my
father had a beard), but there were just too many bearded
characters who looked the same.
Speaking of bearded
characters,
Harry Knowles
of Ain't It Cool News hated the
movie!
His comment "We
stay with Mary Elizabeth's character—who slowly but surely gets
turned into an Ellen Ripley-esque kind of character.
Which absolutely isn't what I wanted to see." made me get
off the fence and go see it. An Ellen Ripley-esque character
absolutely isis what I want to see. What was
missing was here backbone. The character of Kate Lloyd
doesn't stand up to Dr, Sander Halvorson at all when she should.
Then, when she's the only one with an idea how to tell who's
'infected' they get all bent out of shape that she's taken
charge (which she really hasn't, she's just found her voice and
is the only one doing anything to help). Ripley would
never have stood for the treatment Kate gets. Kate finds
her strength and a little leadership but only after taking some
really stupid risks. She's handy with a flamethrower, but that's
where the similarity with Ripley ends. Thankfully, it was
too cold for them to make her show skin just cause she's female.
In the 1982 movie, you kept
hoping against hope someone (Kurt) would make it out alive, but
he makes the ultimate sacrifice. That gave the first movie
an emotional impact that this new movie didn't have. You
didn't really care about any of the characters because you never
really got to know any of them. Not even the lead
character. (For example, if there was some backstory that
Dr. Halvorson was just out to use The Thing to sell tickets to a
freak show and the crew was expendable to that end, he used them
as bait or something and needed to be stopped . . . or if Kate
failed in some way, scientific-training-wise, and then overcame
her fear/deficiency at a crucial moment.) There was so
much here to seeee, I just wish I felt something
more than grossed out.
The special effects were astounding. We are a jaded
and spoiled audience not to be impressed with the creative
efforts in this movie. In addition to all the various
incarnations of The Thing, the spaceship was incredible!
It's worth seeing for that too.
[Admit it, if you didn't see
the movie, this picture alone is making you squirm. Think
that shading with the light on his open mouth is by accident?
Give credit where credit is due.]
Anybody who loved their
Rockem Sockem robots has to see this movie. It's great just
for that. (You won't be disappointed.) I loved the first
robot's snarl ("Ambush" below, and wished he could have
stayed around longer), and the way the robot "Midas" with
the red mohawk rubbed it on his way to the ring. It's so
much fun to see how huge they are: All the excitement of boxing,
wrestling, and video games rolled into one. The way Hugh
Jackman's character explains the decline of fighting with people
and the rise of robotic fighting is plausible. There is enough
future technology to make it interesting, and the plot aspect of
an old school technology robot being a challenge to "Zeus";
the ultimate learning robot was great to follow even though the
outcome was predictable.
Loved
Beyond The Trailer's
@GraceRandolph's take on having a kid in the movie, because the previews made him
look really annoying. What a huge surprise that the kid was more
of a man than his father.
In the opener, I was shocked
at the idea of a robot fighting a bull—that's just animal
cruelty. At the end, I was also surprised that the father
didn't <SPOILER ALERT> show up to fight for custody. Instead, he
shows up and chokes, not saying "I love you"! Then, it
turns out he's just there to tell the kid that they have a fight
for "Atom". His parenting was lax in so many ways, it was
sad. Of course, it made you feel for and root for the kid.
I expected Hugh Jackman's character to figure out what he was
missing and decide to want to be a Dad and be in a relationship
with "Freckles" :) but he didn't grow that much.
Sept
18 RIDDICK
Concept Art
If you follow
Vin Diesel on Facebook
you
will have seen that he shared this concept art for the next
Riddick movie and is asking for your suggestions::
"In
the spirit of Creative Sundays... I
asked the director to send a key
frame that I could post it for you.
Concept art and Key frames allow a
production to explore possibilities
before actually committing to film.
The road to the 'R' rating, that so
many of you were vocal about, has
been a long one. The advantage
however, (never empower the
negatives) was that we were allowed
a really extensive preproduction
process. The art work is so good,
the artists have really outdone
themselves in illustrating this
world at it's early stage.
When this film comes to the
screen... know that you willed it
into being!
Haha...
I got two meetings today that I have
been prepping for... one with the
Director and another one with the
head of the studio to discuss
casting and the 2012 release date.
Like always, I appreciate having
your voice present in these
meetings.
P.S. Share your thoughts... casting,
release date, mythology or anything
else. It's Sunday and we are, at the
very least, allowed to be creative
in thought."
Here were my comments:
1) We have to know what/where the Underverse is
2) We have to know what Riddick does to move on and get
out of leading the
Converts
so he can find out more about his personal history
3) We want to know what he can do to restore Furya and it
would be cool if there were a pocket of Furyans he could
band together with somewhere to 'save' the Universe
4) What will the Converts do if Riddick does not lead them and
does not stop them from destroying other worlds. Can he just
'pull the plug' on them all and walk away?
5) If he does, who will be chasing him now and why?
6) What about his past and how he ended up in jail?
I love
Chronicles
and the best parts are when you fight!! Love the chase aspect as
well with Mercs. Whatever you do, please create a world
that transports us like Chronicles did.
Sept
17 DRIVE
No matter what you're expecting,
Drive will be something more
as well. It didn't have as
much driving as I though it would
but that is not a complaint because
the driving it has is bound to win
stunt awards. If you're a
Ryan Gosling fan, especially us
girls, it's very romantic, which was
a surprise. VERY romantic (sigh).
I'll have to see it again because of
the driving and because the violence
is so gnarly (you're not prepared);
those special effects are
exclaim-out-loud incredible. So
go see it! You will not be
disappointed. It's not for the
squeamish, but the
Action Movie
FREAKS
will be satisfied!
Triple
H Movie!
At last, from The Chaperone
to this Crime Drama. Getting closer
to Action. Since Blade: Trinity
in 2004, there's been nothing on the
big screen for the big man. This
movie (limited release—I found it by
chance checking low-budget theaters)
has a solid cast of good actors:
Bruce Dern, Parker Posey, and
the always annoyingly funny
Michael Rapaport. I'm wondering
how much Action there'll be
considering the plot, but Triple H
is enough to get me to see it
(because I just couldn't bring
myself to see The Chaperone
(2011). After The Pacifier in
2005, I skipped Tooth Fairy
in 2010. I don't want to see
Action Stars in family roles.
(Although Race to Witch
Mountain (2009) was a
surprisingly good Action-heavy
family movie.) Something to
see today while waiting for DRIVE
(9/16) and KILLER ELITE
(9/23). [ It was an enjoyable
crime drama, but not an Action
Movie. Somebody PLEASE put Triple
H in an Action Movie. It was
like watching the real THOR be
domesticated. ]
Sept
6
If Action Movies are a Drug . . . THIS IS
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE TO BE HIGH
Thanks to Andrew Thatcher of
CHARITY HURTS
for sharing this clip!!
Sept
2
Interview re: THE
RAID (aka
Serbuan Maut)
If you attended
Actionfest,
maybe you met the
"Man About Town"
Robert
Mitchell.
Here
is his
TIFF
Midnight
Madness
interview
with the Writer/Director of
Iko Uwais'
next film
The Raid,
Gareth Evans.
Comparing it to
Merantau,
Evans says "The
fighting style is a lot more brutal
and direct in comparison." Love
this about Evans' influences (from
his Dad)
"If it kicked ass and was
entertaining it was just as
important as anything considered
'critically acclaimed'.
And
Evans says the film promises . . .
"a
lot of bone breaking, knee-cap
separating, and head smashing."
In lieu of a trailer, here is a
Show Buzz Metro TV clip (English
at the end unless you speak
Indonesian) . . .
Sept
1 SCARFACE
still packs a punch!
Scarface was back in theaters last night for
one showing that featured surprise
guest
Steven Bauer. He spoke
to the audience about his experience
in making the film and then we saw a
documentary short that will be part
of the
Blu-ray
release on Sept. 6th.
Everyone still loves the character
of Tony Montana. You can't help but
enjoy his swagger and then feel bad
when he dies so spectacularly.
The ending still
packs a punch, and apparently, so do
I . . .
I
behaved badly on a group 'date'
:( "Make way for the bad
guy." That was me! Thankfully
before my date got there but (whoops
too late to make a good first
impression) not before two of his
friends witnessed me jumping over a
row and smacking an acquaintance
(yikes!) from high school who tried
to take the seats I was saving.
Thanks to
The Mann
Sisters (pictured
with Steven below at left) [whose
father was the understanding smackee
after his wife made him apologize to
me (!) for taking the seats LOL but
I gotta admire his effort.]
Alls well that ends well? We chatted
and I apologized many times.
Check out the
Mann Sisters on FB
and Like them please. They sing
country music beautifully (with
soul).
You can take a
tiger to the movies but she might
not behave. (OMG still
embarrassed) LOTS of love to my
friends Michelle & Mabel for moral
support. xoxo (that's Mabel in the
right-hand photo with Steven)
Aug 25
BLACKTHORN
starring Sam Shephard
Thank you
@MagnoliaPics
for this trailer of
@Blackthornmovie. Ever since the last stand for
Butch and
Sundance haven't you wished one or both somehow
survived? Here's that story.
Sam Shephard
plays
Butch Cassidy. I love
me some Sam Shephard. Can't help but think of his character
"Doc" in
Crimes of the
Heart(link to watch full movie). I
confess my first thought when I saw "Blackthorn" was Blackthorne in
James Clavell's life-changing novel,
Shogun,
but what a nice surprise. Here is the description from the
MagnoliaPictures'
YouTube channel: Subscribe!!
"It's been said (but
unsubstantiated) that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
were killed in a standoff with the Bolivian military in
1908. In BLACKTHORN, Cassidy
survived, and is quietly living out his years under the name
James Blackthorn in a secluded Bolivian village. Tired of
his long exile from the US and hoping to see his family
again before he dies, Cassidy sets out on the long journey
home. But when an unexpected encounter with an ambitious
young criminal
(Eduardo
Noriega)
derails his plans, he is thrust into one last adventure, the
likes of which he hasn't experienced since his glory days
with the Sundance Kid."
Release Dates: On Demand September 2nd
/ In Theaters October 7th. (I'll wait to see it on the
big screen.)
Aug 24 Will GHOST RIDER
(2) get it right . . .
Nicolas Cage
fans rejoice! It
looks like they get Ghost Rider:
Spirit of Vengeance right,
Action wise. The preview is
great and I'm psyched to see the
awesome Action combined with
classic Cage
attitude. I
didn't hate the first one like
everyone seemed to, although it was
slow, there was lots to love in it.
(The preview showed when I went to
see Final Destination 5 in
IMAX 3D. The 3D was WICKED
AWESOME and gnarly but the
in-between bits draaaagggg.)
Aug 10
FINAL DESTINATION
5
IMAX 3D
Oh yes! FIVE! It's gonna make
you squirm and grimace like never
before in its gnarly bloody
awfulness. I like this trailer
(the second one) better than the
first one . . . It looks
really good, if you like that sort
of thing, and
Action Movie FREAKS
do! Call it Horror, it
still delivers! In theaters
Thursday 8/12 at midnight, but if
you have to wait until Friday to see
this one in IMAX 3D, you should!
Aug 6
COLOMBiANA and
HAYWIRE
The Action 'Figure' takes on new dimensions . . .
I
am thrilled to see any Action Movie featuring a kick-ass chick,
but more than anything else,I love
it that there are
two ACTION MOVIES centered around strong female leads.
Mark it, this might be the beginning of change . . . YES!!!
Women want to see strong women kicking ass. Someone
should put out a vengeance movie centered around domestic abuse
and watch women flock to theaters for a payback fantasy.
The only way women will ever get equality is to earn it, so
fight for it! These women will show you how.
First, there's
Zoe Saldana who has recently been mainly Action eye candy
(like in The Losers
pictured above), but with
COLOMBiANA,
it looks like she's holding her own and deadly. I love
that she's slight of build because it contrasts decidedly with
Gia "Crush" Carano starring in
HAYWIRE, who is a brick
wall.
In
her role in
COLOMBiANA
Zoe proves
that women can do whatever they think can regardless of size.
Too often in Action movies we see either women of Zoe's
non-threatening build who don't really sell it so it's difficult
to suspend disbelief, or else the actresses just seem like
they're there for a pretty face and big boobs to please the men,
leaving women to identify with the male lead. (We women
are sooo tired of that!) Zoe's lithe boyish figure is still sexy
without being voluptuous, but it's her physicality that seems to
sell the role more than anything else. She's lethal and it
looks convincing even without a sizeably powerful physique to
back it up.
On the other hand, there's no denying former
American Gladiators star
Gina "Crush"
Carano
is built. You can't look at her and not think "strong" even in a
cocktail dress. Just her calves scare me. In
HAYWIRE
she's "our
nation's deadliest weapon".A woman is our nation's
deadliest weapon— I love that! I love it that it's even
possible, let alone sellable. I also love that she's a
newcomer and they cast her in this role. YES! The
same as with the men, we want BAD ASS (as in strong) female
Action Stars. The tougher the better. Give us that
superhero larger-than-life, comic-book-ripped physique.
Also impressive is they cast her as the lead with
a heap of bigger names as a supporting cast: Channing
Tatum • Michael Fassbender • Ewan McGregor • Michael Douglas •
Antonio Banderas and to help with "some real pretty shit",
her father is . . . Bill Paxton. I really hope
these movies do well in the box office. (According to
Zoe Saldana on Facebook,
the stunt contest mentioned in the YouTube video stopped
accepting entries on July 29th.)
COLOMBiANA
opens August 26th | HAYWIRE opens
January 20, 2012
Aug 5
KILLER ELITE
Statham
fans get an eyeful in these two
trailers. He's never looked more
fit, and the stunt work is outta
hand. He even does a
little driving! The female
characters look like window dressing
and seem as two-dimensional as they
were in The Mechanic, but I
can always hope for more . . .
The second trailer, below, released
yesterday, shows a little more of
the hand-to-hand combat which looks
vicious. The movie is
due out on September 23rd.
Aug 1
PROMETHEUS
Trailer
Ridley Scott says he wants to
"scare the living shit"
out of us.
July 30
SCARFACE
is back!
Scarface is coming back to
theaters for one night only,
Wednesday, August 31st, 7:30 PM.
Brush up your quotes and your
accent! "Make way for the
bad guy."
July 29
Remakes, Yes Please! Total Recall and
Men In Black—The original movies
were so much fun, they can pile as
much remake as they want on my
plate, I'll eat!
Total Recall (2012)
stars
Colin Farrell. He's an
incredible actor. Can't wait to see
what he does with the role!
Here's a look at
a car from Total Recall (2012)
on display at
Comic-Con.
July
28
Dizzy
Flores
My favorite Action Movie Bad-Ass
Chick . . .
"I only have one rule. Everyone fights. No one quits. If you
don't do your job, I'll shoot you. You get me? Welcome to the
Roughnecks."
"Come on apes, do you want to live forever?"
July 24
Andrew Thatcher's
Charity Hurts
I love my 'job'! I was sent a "no
budget independent Action film"
to watch and review. I
haven't had this much fun watching
something since 3:00 o'clock Kung Fu
movies in college. Hats off to
Andrew Thatcher the writer,
director, editor, star, stunt
choreographer, and creator of
the "cheesy special effects" in
CHARITY HURTS. I only wish
I could share it with you! Here is
my review
of Charity Hurts and
here is the trailer:
July 23
Captain America:
The First Avenger
First, let me say that the MANY
Previews they showed all looked
great!
• Immortals
(11/11/2011) Rumbling the whole auditorium, this movie looks as
violent as it does exciting.
• Another
Spiderman movie?!
The Amazing Spiderman
(2012) It looks really good, too. Guess we'll find out if
audiences are tired of Spiderman or not. Looks more
realistic and less cheesy than the last series.
• Cowboys
& Aliens
(7/29/2011) I'm reaching preview oversaturation on this. I think
they started showing them too soon, and have played too many.
You shouldn't be sick of it by the time the movie comes.
"Give me back my son." "I need that money. Tom." "His face is
unrecognizable." Name those 3 over-previewed movies...
• The
Adventures of Tin Tin
(12/23/2011) I had heard
about this, but I got excited thinking it was Jonny Quest<—It
looked liked Jonny, Hadji, and Bandit in the desert scene . . .
oh well.
Captain
America was very well done. You did not need to know the comic book to
appreciate the movie or the story. The highly moralistic tone
was refreshing among the seemingly more popular
bad-guy-as-good-guy, sympathetic-criminal-type Action Movies.
And despite obvious qualities, his appeal went beyond the
physical. The script was good, too, although since Capt. America
was such a good guy, he didn't have the
arrogant-jerk-rub-in-your-face cheesy Action Movie quotes to
deliver; still, there were lots of great lines.
"Whatever happens, stay who
you are—Not just as soldier, but a good man."
"Don't do anything stupid
until I get back." "How can I? You're taking all the stupid with
you."
"A weak man knows the value
of strength, knows the value of power."
"We are going to win this war
because we have the best men. And they, personally, will escort
Adolf Hitler to the gates of Hell."
"You don't win wars with
niceness."
"Sanity is of no consequence because he can do it."
"What is his target?" "His target is 'everywhere'."
Capt. Steve Rogers the 4F
from Brooklyn was set up so sympathetically, it was hard to stop
feeling sorry for him even after he became a Buff-et!
His
love interest was a kick-ass chick who looked tough punching a
recruit until they showed how stacked she was in the red dress!
After that her clothes seemed decidedly more jiggly and feminine
or maybe guys had noticed before and I didn't. LOL In any case,
the costumes looked great on everyone! When they first
show Steve's best friend Bucky in his brown belted uniform, wow!
It has a cool look to it (not really steampunk?) with its
machines and blend of old and futuristic-looking technology and
weapons. The Batmobile-looking submarine was bad ass!
Loved the breakout tank scene: "WA-HOO!" The weapons were cool with the blue energy burst and
disintegration/zapping effect. Red Skull behind the
wheel of his car with that hood ornament logo was every bit a
comic-book look as you can get . . . I loved Capt. America in
all the uniforms except the touring one for the stage.
This look below: Yowza! Don't fault me for talking
about how everything looks because comic books are ALL ABOUT the
visual.
My
favorite moment was this one at right, of course, when he comes
back to the camp with all the rescued soldiers.
When they tie in the beginning
to the ending it sets the stage for the next movie (don't you
love that?!). [Capt. America looked very Ken doll in his SSR
(Strategic Scientific Research) t-shirt and khakis.]
The movie left you feeling
super patriotic (as it should) and die-hard fans who stayed
until the end of the credits, got to see a little bit of The
Avengers, which looks even more amazing than you can
imagine.
ComicEd.org
is a local (Miami)
nonprofit §501(c)3 whose mission is to
engage the community to increase literacy and encourage
graphic arts. They
have a new reading and writing program
"Letters for Comics"
where they will send a
free comic book
to any child in Miami-Dade County
who writes them a letter. Kids
should send ComicEd a one-page letter explaining their favorite
subject in school and who their favorite Super Hero or Heroine
is and why. (More
details on Letters for Comics)
You can pre-order a copy of
the first printing of "The Miami Marvel"
or make a
donation of $10 or more
and they will send you a free copy.
Johnny Killzone
Also, they have a super-diesel
high-action comic cook
"Johnny Killzone"
that combines the best elements of our favorite action movies.
They begin promoting it in 2 months, but let me put it here
first!
"Ridley Scott's Alien prequel is
still shrouded in secrecy. io9
were sent the following plot
description which may possibly
be for Prometheus. [Live For
Films] put it in inviso-text
(highlight it to read) as it
will be a major spoiler if it
turns out to be true [but I just
put it in
grey].
Read on if you dare, but be
quick as [they] imagine the
studio will be in touch to have
it taken down. Although if they
did that then it could confirm
that it is the real plot for the
film..
[LOL nice try . . . ]
Read on if you dare.
Earth. Year 2058.
Archaeological digs in Africa
reveal alien artifacts that
humans were genetically
engineered by a advanced alien
race (space jockeys). These
“Alien Gods” also terraformed
Earth in order to make it
habitable for their human
creations. Amongst finds are
coordinates to the Alien Gods'
home-world, to Paradise. Months
later the Weyland Corp launch
the spaceship PROMETHEUS and its
crew into deep space to make
first contact. Thanks to
faster-than-light travel a few
years later the PROMETHEUS
enters the Zeta Riticuli star
system. Humans are greeted by
their makers, then transported
further into space to a scary
yet fascinating world. The Alien
Gods are proud of their
“children”, their first creation
to reach such levels of
intelligence.
As a reward they share bits
of their astonishing
bio-based technologies with
the humans. But for one crew
member of the Prometheus
it's not enough. In a
treacherous act he steals
the “bio-source code” to Terraforming, a technology
at the origin of all Gods'
power, that could make
humans equal to the gods.
The Alien Gods may be
scientists but are also
ruthless conquerors,
destroyers of worlds who
will not accept humans as
equals. They unleash on the
escaping human crew their
favorite bio-weapon, a
creature used to “clean up”
worlds before colonization.
But something goes wrong in
the process and humans
manage to turn the
bio-weapon against their
makers. Giving birth to a
smarter, nastier, bigger
breed of gut eating
creatures. Creatures that
will be the demise of
Paradise. What's left of the
Prometheus crew manages to
escape the doomed planet.
On their trail a survivor
Alien God in very familiar
ship with one ultimate
mission.on.
Transformers was great, but the popular opinion of
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was not good. This movie
makes up for it. I don't think anyone (well, any
Action Movie
Fans
or
Freaks) will give
a damn about the plot. There was so much 3-D action, my eyelids
were fluttering like Nicolas Cage in Lord of War
watching the ammo fly and hearing the sound of money!
Cha-Ching! Cha-Ching! Cha-Ching! You will certainly feel you
got your money's worth. The 3-D is JAW-DROPPING ! UN-BAY-LIEVABLE !
. . . .
Read more
June 27
"Shut up and Eat Your
AWESOME!"
Why do I LOVE action movies
so much
Actionfest is my idea of a
vacation? This video pretty much sums it up. Michael Bay baybee.
Oh yeah and he's going to make you see what 3D is supposed to
be be. My advice: Sit 3 rows closer than you think is too
close. "Wimpy flabby baby girls and girlie men" might turn down
the sound when you watch this (shaking my head) . . .
Much LOVE and THANKS to
The Monocular Group
for getting it!!
June 12
Wingsuits!
@Transformers_3 The coolest tweeter I follow is@GuyKawasaki.
He must be a voracious web reader because he finds everything
first and he always picks the best stuff to share. Here is
the Transformers stunt
video he shared, and the
60 Minutes video
referred to.
June 11Thor
|
X-Men First Class
I finally got
to see
Thor and I loved it! I think the script and Chris Hemsworth's
performance made it fun and campy, which seemed very comic-book-y. I was so
afraid it would not be just because it was Kenneth Branagh, but I was
glad to see there will be a sequel. I loved Stan Lee's cameo as the old
man driving the pick-up truck. I thought the movie would drag (so much
story) but it didn't. Not once did I want it to go any faster than it was.
It seemed like 4 hours because I couldn't believe how much happened in the 1:54
running time. That's a big compliment. I felt like I knew the characters for
years (well, we sort of do . . . ) but I also felt like I never wanted it to
end. How many times do you think that after a movie? There were several
iconic moments that are indelibly impressed on my brain. Like the
excitement in this shot:
Kenneth Branagh
managed to achieve high drama
while keeping it 'down to earth.' The other worlds were shown many
times and in great detail. They did not cheap out with one establishing
painting and then never show it again. This movie was at least as
good (better?) than
Riddick
for worlds, costumes, and sets. The armor! Loved the armor.
It seemed like Thor spends most of the movie without his costume, so
when he gets it back, it's really something. If you're a Thor fan to
begin with, it's sure to leave you feeling 'juiced'! (The friends
seemed a little cheesy but it worked.)
X-Men First Class
was fun and made me want to go home and watch all the other movies again. I
loved Wolverine's bad attitude response (perfect!) when they were tracking down
other mutants.
Michael Fassbender
seems to be getting a lot of great roles and I've liked him in all of them.
The submarine scene was incredible, even though they showed it on the preview.
[My only criticism (and this took us out of the moment) was that they seemed to
use some island location for
Brasil, Miami, and Cuba
and it didn't seem like they
were actually shot there.]
You should not miss either movie. Both
are super enjoyable and deliver what you do to summer movies hoping for.
June 6
HALO 4
|
Gears GIRLS!
|
ACTION Shift
HALO 4
At the end of the Microsoft E3 games previews and XBox
Kinect promotion came Halo 4. Is this an epic leap forward or
what?! There's nothing cooler than this
Halo 4 preview and you don't even have to know or like the game to think
so. Even the books are nonstop exciting. Ghost
Recon Future Soldier looked amazing as well. I see
game rooms being made in homes to maximize the experience.
Halo Combat Evolved was announced as well, and Ice-T
was there for the Gears 3campaign trailer. THAT
looked (words fail) . . . better than I expected (even better
than the
preview).
GEARS 3 GIRL PLAYERS!
I just love the look of Gears! Gears fighting female characters are "Bernadette
'Bernie" Mataki" (dark hair below—not known if she will be a playable character), "Amantha Byrne", "Queen Myrrah", and
"Anya
Stroud" (below). I'm excited about properly clothed and "equal" female
players. How could any woman not be!
From Wikipedia:
"Anya Stroud (voiced by Nan McNamara) is the dispatch
girl of Delta Squad and Marcus Fenix's love interest. She is usually detailing
location information through radio for Marcus, Dom, or Kim — particularly where
to go next, if the Hammer of Dawn is online or whether hostiles are en route,
and during the middle portion of Gears of War, directs mine carts used by
Delta squad for transportation. She is only visible once throughout the first
game, onboard a King Raven helicopter, but appears more frequently in Gears
of War 2. She will be in Gears of War 3, although instead of
operating the radio, she will fight with Marcus and the rest of Delta Squad in
battle. Starting with Jacinto's Remnant and going into Anvil Gate, Anya starts
to become a frontline soldier and shows she's really good at it and regrets not
doing it earlier."
The only other female character before Gears 3 was:
"Maria Santiago is Dom's wife. They lost their two children, Sylvia and
Benedicto, on E-Day. Maria was devastated by the incident and vanished four
years later. Dom relentlessly searched for her over the next ten years, and
finally discovers that she is being detained at a Locust work camp. By the time
he finds her, Maria, having been tortured and forced to endure other extreme
conditions, is emaciated and in a state of extreme shock. Dom realizes that
Maria is unable to respond to his voice or even acknowledge his presence and
after struggling with an answer chooses to
euthanizeher. In the novel
Gears of War: Jacinto's Remnant,
it is revealed that Maria had been living as a Stranded for over ten years
before her capture by the Locust."
ACTION-MOVIES-TO-GAMES SHIFT
I know I am way behind on this but I could finally afford an Xbox 360
about a year ago and got the first Gears game on sale. After E3 I
realize just how behind I am. I need (would love) an HD TV, Blu-ray player
(would love PS3 but . . .), and wouldn't you know it, I had just got my
DVD movie library where I wanted it. At least Blu-ray can play DVDs. Makes no
sense to buy any more DVDs though. Writing this (I know I know, I'm way
behind in saying this, but I am older) games is where the ACTION is. Who wants
to wait for a movie anymore? Feels like Blasphemy! Actors should be
worried because fictional characters like
Marcus Fenix are even cooler than real life. Still, there will be a big
fan base for the Gears movie.
May 7
reboot: CONAN The Barbarian
I am itching to see THOR but am already
looking beyond it to CONAN. LOVE this quote from the first trailer (below
is the second):
"I live, I love, I slay, and I am content."
April 29FAST FIVE
is everything you hope it will be
. . .
plus dessert! The action, chases, crashes, fights, gun battles,
explosions, beefcake, cheesecake, cars, jokes, it's got it all. It
glamorizes crime but the stakes are really high. It's a HEIST fairy tale and the
audience can't get enough! I haven't seen such an intense opening since T3.
Don't want to ruin it for you—go see it with a 10:00 PM or later show ASAP with
an audience that really appreciates it. Will you love it? I know you will.
"Am I right? Of course, I am."
We all waited a long time for this duo to appear together on film. ENJOY!!!!
I'm definitely going to see it again!
April 28 @TheRock is taking over!
as The Ultimate Action Movie BAD ASS.
AT LAST! It's been a long time coming and well deserved. These 3
things plus the expected over-the-top success of FAST FIVE tells me that
Dwayne Johnson has finally slipped into First Place in the
Action Movie Bad Ass list and is here to stay.
1. Stallone is not directing the next Expendables (will there even be one?)
2. Arnold is back to making movies (but Action?!)
3. Arnold is rumored to be in another Terminator movie . . . (as a Terminator?!)
Pay attention candy asses,
FAST FIVE is about to . . .
"Layeth The Smacketh
Down!"
April 26
Got my
FAST FIVE
IMAX ticket for midnight! "The 2 biggest " :D
The 2011 ActionFest Awards took
place on Saturday April 9th (Day 3 of ActionFest) at 5:00 PM at the Carolina
Cinema in Asheville, NC. ActionFest Co-FounderAaron
Norris
was on hand to present the Awards. The ceremony was emceed by Jury Member "Freakin'
Jay Deacon" of The Mountain 105.9. Awards (beautiful wood and glass
creations by local artist) went to:
Two thoughts stayed with me after
ActionFest 2011:
First, if anyone should attack me, when I fight back I'm going to hear
"Dy-no-mite! Dy-no-mite!"
in my head as I do, and . . . (sound of record scratching) "Ron Howard
signed a deal with Roger Corman ?!" LOL
Given the type of movies
Roger Corman was making/backing and the fact that Ron Howard was squeaky clean
"Opie Cunningham" as Eddie Murphy would later call him on SNL,
Ron Howard should have been able to write his own ticket in Hollywood. On top of
being Opie Taylor and Richie Cunningham, he received a Golden
Globe nomination for The Shootist (THE SHOOTIST!one
of John Wayne's Top 3 movies in my opinion) and he still couldn't get
help to direct except from Roger Corman?!
This elevates Mr. Corman
and his judgment in my eyes. I'm sure Roger Corman saw the potential for
profit—What girl my age wasn't in love with Ron Howard?! I loved/love Grand
Theft Auto. We would have seen anything Ron Howard starred in,
regardless of who directed it! The fact that it's still such an awesome movie
only proves there was great talent there beyond acting, and being genuinely
wholesome and adorable. But it tickled me to learn that.
I can't help but think in
the back of my mind [because of some of the scenes dealing with sex in Ron
Howard's movies and the way that he handled them—like the sexual immaturity of a
13 to 15-year-old boy sneaking a look at 'dirty pictures' (two that come to mind
are the Apollo13 beer bottle scene, and the sex-on-the-firetruck scene
from Backdraft)]—that making a deal with Roger Corman must have been like
something naughty to do to Ron Howard. The combination of those two is like . .
. there's almost no equivalent today . . . Nobody's that 'clean' anymore.
Innocence and modesty seem dead. But I realized things must have gotten better
because while I came up with JonathanLipnicki as an analogy
substitute for Ron, I really couldn't come up with one person today to compare
to Roger Corman. YAY! Somebody else probably can. Just glad I
had to think of wholesome male actor and not female!! Sad.
Today is the Stunt Show! I think it might be even bigger (crowd
size) than they imagine. Word of mouth has had a year to spread
on how exciting it is! MEDUSA showed up!!!
Apr 9
DAY 3 ActionFest: AWARDS & PANELS
Sat in on both Panels, and went to the follow-up Awards Ceremony. Can't
see every movie :( but trying to choose well.
Aaaaaah! Day 3 Trish Stratus delivered the best beatdown so far in
Bail
Enforcers. Oh yeah . . . and her WWE friends "Edge"
and "Victoria" showed up to support her (squealing).
What Day 2 really drove home for me is that some people feel violence is never
intelligent. I hold physicality is such high regard that I can't wrap my mind
around that. The phrase "afficionados of the savage science" came up in
the showing of
Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown
(with star/Director
Michael Jai
White), where were treated to special preview of
Weapon starring g
Jean-Claude Van Damme and
Scott Adkins.
They showed 2 full scenes. The first one was a fight between them, the second
showed a laser weapon. It looks good! They showed enough of the story that it
seemed interesting . Here's the blurb from IMDB "Rival assassins—each of whom
are masters of their respective weapons—form an uneasy alliance in their mission
to take down a DEA-backed drug cartel. "
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AllOuttaBubbleGum.com
about
Arnold's new movie
Last Stand.
Sounds awesome to me. Love a good lawman story. I immediately thought:
First Blood, this time Dennehy wins.
Apr 8 DAY
2 ActionFest
Wow! What a
difference a year makes. Most showings are packed, the lobby is crowded, the
upstairs lounge is 3/4 full most of the time, everyone who is here seems really
thrilled to be a part of ActionFest II! Big surprise that anyone actually
read what I wrote!
Apr 7 Arrived
at
ActionFest! IRONCLAD is showing TONIGHT @7:30
PM Bring your longsword and
"Give Them Hellfire!"
preview on my Actionfest page, along with all
the other movies.
Picked up my Actionfest badge KABOOM! Bought some t-shirts.
I could watch it many more times, and the women did a pretty good job in the
fighting scenes, but the movie such a downer. I am still writing about it.
Still not sure on the 'levels' . . .
I think it's
an important milestone
on the road to STRONG WOMEN IN ACTION MOVIES, it just missed the mark. I was
happy a male director even pretended to do a
"female empowerment" movie. Just
wish he knew what power really is (here's a clue: it's the same for men and
women). When they finally portray women the right way in Action Movies (as
people first, not objects), they'll find there's a HUGE untapped (ba-dump-bump!)
audience just waiting to see the real deal.
Read my take on Sucker Punch
. . .
Feb
26
Sanctum:
Better Never Than Late
I had to
go see Sanctum just because of how it was filmed and the fact
that it was underwater a lot. I'm a sucker for 'advances' in movie
technology (as little as I know of it) and underwater movies, so, I
waited 'til I could use a free pass. It would have been so much
better with character development. They spent an hour getting to
the interesting part, then as the characters were killed off one by one,
you realized you didn't care because you didn't know anything about
them. It's still a father and son relationship that most anyone
can relate to on that basic level, but you don't get to why there is
strife until the very end, which was a shame. They didn't have any
flaws to overcome or conflicts to resolve so you could root for them to
make it. It was such a triumph of the human spirit. If the son was shown
to have failed once and the father to push him like a bastard, then
maybe you would have been rooting for the son to make it this time, but
again, you didn't know anything about them until way late in the movie.
Also,
it really didn't need to be 3D as is the case 99.9% of the time.
I feel like 3D is gimmicky and for 5 year olds. This movie I thought
might be different as James Cameron described their reasons for doing it
in 3D, but the only time I felt 3D helped anything was the first
eye-level shot of them going under the surface of the water (like the
lens was a mask and we were diving too). The rest of the 3D did nothing
for me. Maybe whatever 3D evolves into will be so great you feel like
you're 'there' but even with things coming at you and the sense of space
and depth, 3D still
does nothing for me. I almost groan when I find out a movie is
3D only.
Toward the end the scenes were a little choppy to me
with too many fades to black like they didn't know how to transition
from one scene to another. And the one thing that seemed really
unbelievable was that the storm was 2 days away and then, bam! it was on
them. That's not possible for them to be so unaware and get caught
like that with today's weather technology. They would have been out at
least a day before the storm hit. They explained nothing about diving or
decompression or the bends. When George has blood on his chest, you
don't know why—you don't even ever find out why he stopped diving or is
in such bad shape to dive. Also his girlfriend dies and he doesn't even
shed a tear.
The only reason I don't want the two hours of my life
back was Rhys Wakefield. As young as he is, he gave a moving
performance and has an amazing voice. Richard Roxburgh was good
too but the performance was a little lost on us because the script gave
us no meat.
Feb
14
♥ Happy
St. Valentine's Day
Our local AMC had 2 showings of Sixteen Candles. I had to see it
but I so wished it had been an Anthony Michael Hall DOUBLE
FEATURE with Weird Science (so I could see Bill Paxton be a dick)! The audience clapped when the movie started
(never seen that happen before!!) and then twice at the end. Twice!
People really do love that movie and John Hughes captures that
awkward age so well, plus the casting/acting was great as well.
SIXTEENCANDLES
Seeing baby John Cusack was great. Every woman was in love with
him as Lloyd Dobler (1989) but somewhere between Serendipity
(2001) and Identity
(2003), for me, Cusack lost his mojo. I wondered how far from the truth
of who he is in real life High Fidelity was? That is certainly a
credit to his acting ability, and it really helps point out that we
think of actors as the sum total of their roles when, really, we know
nothing about them.
Feb
13ROBOCOP
Statue: Hell Yes!
A Robocop
statue for Detroit?
I think it's an awesome idea. He is a positive role model of doing the
right thing and fighting crime and injustice, plus he's still the
ultimate robot bad ass kids love, especially big kids like me! I
contributed. You can too :D
12The
Eagle
The Eagle had a litte less action than I hoped for
(yes I know its "Adventure" not Action—went to see the swordplay)
but learning about Hadrian's Wall was epic. I am ashamed to
say I didn't realize what "the Roman wall" meant when my father
spoke of it, and he was a Yorkshireman!! My excuse is my history
and geography education was split between English schools in the Bahamas
and American schools here. I did a little research on the web to compare
the movie to the "truth". Wikipedia is completely different from the
movie.
This accountsort of merges
Wikipedia with the movie:
The
Ninth suffered terribly in the revolt led by
Boudicca
in 60 BC, suffering as much as 50-80% casualties (the battle was
recorded by Tacitus as the Massacre of the Ninth). The unit's pride
evidently remained intact, however, because the legion's commander
Quintas Petillius Cerialis [completely different name from the
movie] wasn't removed from his post. Restored to strength with
reinforcements and regrouped at Lincoln in 65 AD, the legion was
next sent to guard the northern fringes of the Empire in York, where
it helped build the imperial fortress Eboracum, in its last recorded
and datable action on the basis of legionary stamps.
Legend has it that the Ninth later embarked on
its fateful march against the *Picts, a confederation of tribes
located in modern day eastern and northern Scotland, and was
annihilated, prompting
Emperor Hadrian
to cut his losses in the north of Britain and build
his famous wall from coast to coast.
This appears to be the point where myth overtakes reality however –
numerous scraps of evidence suggest the Legio IX Hispana met a
different fate.
What happened to the Ninth is a fascinating mystery
to be sure. Here is
an article
on interesting
excavation that shows how soldiers lived much like the fort shown in The
Eagle.
*It appears to be a myth and the closest thing to the
truth isn't as exciting as thinking wild tribal Scotsmen killed 5,000
trained Roman soldiers but if you want to know more,
this
is an excellent account of
the facts versus the myth and this site disputes that Picts fought
because it says they weren't around until later, however, Wikipedia
differs there as well and says they were.
I'll take the
myth. Eagle or no eagle. The idea that 5,000 well-trained soldiers
disappeared at the hands of who knows who is scary, and the kind of
story that makes great drama. I thought about that going in. Drama
versus Action. In these period movies the distinction is not just
quantity but quality. As The Eagle was rated PG-13 I thought it might be
light on the gore. It was not my idea of PG-13 though, yikes!
Channing Tatum has been picked on for not having an English accent but
it was there, just a hint of it. I thoroughly enjoyed it and a glimpse
into the life of a Roman soldier appealed to me with their sense of
order, structure, and training. Maybe I'm just a sucker for men in short
skirts and sandals. (Oh, am I objectifying men? Good! I don't mind
when people are objectified for physical beauty, I just wish it wasn't
only ever ALWAYS just the women!)
___________________________
BOADICEA!
Now there's a strong woman Action Movie, I'd like to write. No excuses for being strong. No "hottie"
starlet acting like she can wield a sword, or a man's fantasy with tits
and ass hanging out. No 'roid moose either. Just a woman as a
person, respected, wronged and justifiably mad as hell, and
STRONG enough
to be feared and to get revenge.
[I really wanted
to find an image of a strong woman soldier or warrior but it seems there
are almost none. Which makes it worse than I even thought it was! No
wonder so many women are victims when there are no strong role models
for them to fight back.]
Feb 6
Captain
America:
The First Trailer
Captain
America: The First Avenger
is premiering a trailer during the Super Bowl.
Can't wait. Just 30 seconds . . . Chris Evans looks awesome in costume!
Feb
5
DRIVE ANGRY 3D 2/25
JONAH
I am going to kill you.
PIPER
Between now and then, I'm
going to mess you up.
Oh, I Like Her!
This line gives me hope for Drive Angry 3-D's female lead. But
Piper? Pipe her. Cute. Yes, they're having
fun with it, I just hope the character's not as 2-dimensional as she
seems in the promotions and they don't have a girl walking around naked
(really? not every audience member is a teenage boy) like the Director
did in My Bloody Valentine. This hurts women. Please stop. If
this girl had jeans on instead of Daisy Dukes wouldn't she have been
just as sexy without being trivialized and objectified?! (sigh) I know
it's NOT just me out there who wants to see women button up a few
buttons and stop giving it all away in a man's fantasy world.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T. It's called respect. But I rant . . .
It will SURELY ROCK as
Nicolas Cage
is the lead! I am an astronomically huge Cage fan. There is no one
more entertaining, all by himself. The other attraction is the cars! It
looks like it's going to scratch that "blow shit up" itch all Action
Movies Freak have, real hard. The supporting cast looks really
strong too and I'm thinking it's going to be way better than we even
hope it could be. Keeping fingers crossed for this one.
The Mechanic (remake but :D
looks good) and
Ip Man 2 are in theaters on Jan. 28th!
Both
movies
Ip Man (aka
Yip Man ranked 39th) and Ip Man 2 (aka Yip Man 2
released in 2010 ranked 97th) made the Top 100
in
AllOuttaBubbleGum.com's
recent
"Action 100" Project.
According to Wikipedia, the first movie, Ip Man
"loosely based on the life of Yip Kai-Man, was released in 2008
and starred
Donnie Yen as the martial artist. The film takes a number of
liberties with Yip's life, often for dramatic effect. Yip's oldest son
Ip Chun appeared in and served as a consultant for the film. The
film focused on Yip's life during the '30s and '40s during the Second
Sino-Japanese War. The film was the first to be based on the life of
Yip. The sequel to the film focuses on Yip's beginnings in Hong Kong and
his disciples, who included Bruce Lee."
"For Ip Man 2, the
filmmakers intended to focus on the relationship between Ip and his most
famed disciple, Bruce Lee. However, they were unable to finalize film
rights with Lee's descendants and decided to briefly portray Lee as a
child."
Yip Man died in 1972 at the age of 79
from throat cancer. .
Bruce Lee died in 1973 at the age of 33 from, "a
hypersensitivity to the muscle relaxant (meprobamate) in Equagesic . .
..
According to autopsy reports, his brain had
swollen considerably, from 1,400 to 1,575 grams (a 13% increase)."
Here I go again. I can't help it. Thor's my favorite comic book hero and
I have waited a long time for this. What we love so much about comic
book heroes is in a word: PHYSIQUE! (=Strength)
When we read a comic
book, we're thinking damn! There's a fantasy
element there that's missing when they cast average men. Physique is
what what made
Arnoldso super popular. There are too many girlie men in Action films
today. That's why they are not what they were in the past, and I have
heard the term "the golden age" of action films too many times. I'm not
saying a movie can't be good without big buff men, I'm saying it just
won't be as popular. We are looking for the Hero element. The seemingly
unattainable perfection to look up to and strive for.
I hear there's to be yet
another Batman movie. Perfect example!
Compared to the comic book version of Batman, Adam West's TV Batman was
a marshmallow, and when Batman came to the big screen, they committed
the unforgiveable sin of rubber suit muscles (and nipples!). Of course
we love comic book hero movies but don't leave out the main reason we
love them. (Yes, I know Bruce Wayne is a real man, but he trains to be
stronger.) If the actor's physique needs rubber muscles, keep looking.
He should look like that in spandex or lycra, not plastics.
And Superman.
Where are the biceps on these two? SUPERman.
There is hope for the
future: I look to Vin Dieseland
The Rock to help change this, but
as long as Hollywood keeps casting men (and women) who are anything less
than Arnoldish, our response will be lukewarm. Back to Thor . . .
Despite
Chris Hemsworth's
seeming average build (he is 6' 3" and he did beef up for this role), he
is not big enough for my childhood fantasies of Thor. Compared to
Superman, Batman, and Spiderman, Thor was a beast! Now look at Chris as
Thor. When he raises the hammer, frankly, my arm is that big. What I was
hoping for was the Thor I grew up with from comic books, or Triple H!
This shot of a character falling back after being hit with the hammer
(from the THOR movie preview) has the kind of build I expected Thor to
have. If you compare Arnold's arms to the shot of Chris in costume
above him, that says it all. We want more BIG MEN and less average
actors. Is anybody listening?!
Still, I have
crushingly big hopes for THOR. The preview brings
The Chronicles of Riddick
to mind (and that's a good thing).
(I'm just glad they didn't cast Brad
Pitt.)
There had better be a LOT of
lightning!
Jan 10
Not-To-Be-Missed
Action Movies:
Ong Bak
3
Don't call yourself an
Action Movie
FREAK,
or even a
Fan if you don't go see Ong Bak 3 on the big screen. This
much-anticipated installment in the Tony Jaa triology
looks promising! It will be in theaters this Friday, the 14th.
The
Mechanic
"Know What A Mechanic Is?
A Hitman."
Stathamdoing what Statham does best: being lethal.
The Mechanic in theaters Jan. 28th. GOTTA LOVE that huge
screenplay title!
I wasn't going to include The
Green Hornet.
It reeked of being one of those movies that the preview is better than
the movie and I am objecting to the casting of Seth Rogan in an
action film. Plus, I don't like 3D, but what the hell, I will probably
see it anyway for Jay Chou, and it will probably disappoint.
P.S.
The Green Hornet was a Nice
Surprise! I
did see The Green Hornet (how could I not?!) and I thoroughly enjoyed
it! I saw that Seth Rogan helped write it and it kept me laughing all
the way through. I thought it was a little childish but that's what I
liked about it. It totally made me feel like I was 10 years old again
and sneaking reading a comic book with a flashlight under the covers
after I was supposed to be asleep. Except for one at the beginning, I
liked the direction of the fight scenes. I loved the concept of how they
assessed the situation and I loved the choreography—It was so comic-booky,
and that hasn't made me this happy since Raiders of the Lost Ark!
I think the cars, weapons, and gadgets put it over the top.
The
Green Whore Net
LOL or all that partying he wasn't too suave with the ladies if that was
how he tries to kiss Cameron Diaz. Seemed much more like a 5th grader. A
guy who lets women come to him because he's rich/famous probably has no
'game' (owch sorry). Even though Seth Rogan seems to have gotten
more fit, I still think he's too schlumpy for the role. I think with
action movies, we want to picture ourselves as the hero and no one wants
to be Seth Rogan (sorry Seth but that's part of what you've made your
career on isn't it?). If the character had gotten buffed out to be this
super hero personae but lacked Kato's skills (like he did until the
end), that would have been more fun. But we still had scruffy Shaggy, I
mean Seth. Do some training, shave, get a crewcut! Transform more
physically. We WANT that we-could-be-that-guy feeling, not we are that
guy except for the money.
I thought Seth Green held his own and Jay Chou
(intentionally or unintentionally) did not overshadow him. They worked
well together as opposites.
Todd Brown of showcase.ca'sreview of Season of the Witch
is so on the money! This movie was so bad I wanted
to walk out [and wondered why am I wasting my time] but forced myself to
stay. And I agreed with him in every way but one: That
Nicolas Cage
was
"off the grid" and "all over the map".
[Okay, well, two ways: The critics fawned over Kick Ass but I was
so bored in that I did walk out (something I hadn't done since the early
80s.)] Yes, this movie was really bad but
I have to defend
Nicolas Cage!
Good or bad movies, he's very entertaining and holds the spotlight. Plus
he's made so many great movies, it's a little of a cringing
'how-can-you-say-that' feeling to me.
It's rare that you see a Nicolas Cage movie and anybody else is a scene
stealer. I have to, in his defense, list his movies (the ones I have
seen and loved).
From the very early: Valley Girl, Rumble Fish, Peggy Sue Got
Married, Raising Arizona, and Moonstruck
To the sweet: Guarding Tess, It Could Happen To You, Trapped in
Paradise, City of Angels, The Family Man
To the memorable: Leaving Las Vegas, The Rock, Face Off, Snake
Eyes, Bangkok Dangerous, Lord of War, Matchstick Men, National Treasure,
The Weatherman
Even the bad ones, I liked him in: Kiss of Death, Amos and
Andrew, Con Air, Gone in 60 Seconds, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Ghost
Rider, and The Wicker Man
So I went to see this, figuring how bad could it
be if Nicolas Cage is in it? LOL And knowing the answer (Wicker Man
cult bad—video below) but loving him anyway. I also stayed because I
thought maybe it would go the way of
"How'd it get burned?" and I'd miss out, or that there HAD to be
SOMEthing worthwhile and maybe something great would happen at the end.
I was wrong. [The only pretty cool thing was the devil holding Ron
Perlman in his wings and incinerating him, but that was not worth 2
hours of my life.]
For me, the biggest problem for the movie was as Todd Brown put it:
"Memo to writer: your character must have a conscience for it to be in crisis."
This happens in way too many movies I have seen in the last few years. No
tension.
(There was tension in the bridge crossing but we've seen that so many
times before, and that lasts only as long as that scene. It doesn't drive the
movie or make you care about the main character.)
As I left the auditorium at the end, I overheard a teenager waiting
outside for a different film scoff something about "Nicolas Cage movies" and I
wondered how many could he possibly have seen to be so dismissive at his age? I
disagree with Todd Brown that Gone in 60 Seconds was bad. It's a classic, I own
it, and watch it over and over "Let's roll".
In this movie Nicolas Cage was, at worst, mildly
bewildered looking most of the time, like his character was lost in a fog (which
was fitting); like he was deep in thought about his dilemma and occasionally
snapped out of it to do something good or bad.
For me the plot was all over the map, not Cage. When Cage goes off the
grid or is all over the map it's pretty spectacular! I think he did what he
could with what he had to work with and blame the script and the Director for a
lackluster movie. Cage is still Cage and I think the performance was solid given
the material.
[Afterthought: After all the movies he's done, he must know when a script
is bad. He seems to love a challenge, so is it just that he doesn't care that
he's in a bad movie? Or does he do what he can to see if he can improve it, take
the check, and not look back? I was amazed to see that actors sometimes have no
idea when a script is genius like John Goodman talking about Barton
Fink. How do you not know?! ]
ActionFest.comis getting a revamp and they have added a
BAD-ASS BLOGby 2011 Festival Director @ColinGeddes! It promises to be
the best place to find out all the coolest action movie news. It's where
I found this awesome featured ultra-violent preview for YAMADA:
Jan 12011
Resolutions What better way for an
Action Movie
FREAK
to start a new year than purchasing a VIP Pass
to
ActionFest
2011 (here's mine from 2010). Get yours before Feb. 28th
while they are just $60. After that it's still a crazy good bargain to
see 5 movies a day for 3 days plus stunt shows and a major Action Movie
Star as the honoree. Can't wait to find out who it is! Stay
tuned to
Actionfest.comas changes to their site will be out sometime
very soon . . . My 2011 resolutions are to be positive, live in the
moment and not look back (thanks Dog Whisperer), to not waste time, and
to get my subgenre project up live on this site before
ActionFest begins April 7th.
l am also NOT A FAN of CGI
where it's ridiculous to the point that it ruins the
movie as it did in Pirates of The Caribbean: At Worst
End
(World's). That whirlpool was real looking, but the
fight on the spar was just so long it was silly! There's
no way they wouldn't have fallen. Seems like sometimes
they don't know where to stop or when to edit. Just
because they can produce an incredible effect,
doesn't mean 10 minutes of it instead of thirty seconds
it necessarily adds anything to the movie.
Special effects, no matter if they are
oh-my-god-you-can't-miss-this-movie incredible, just
aren't enough by themselves. As much as I was looking
forward to getting that Jason and the Argonauts
feeling from Clash of the Titans, in the end I
skipped it.
I also skipped Transformers 2, Iron Man 2,
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and may end up
skipping Tron: Legacy (aka "The Dude Rides") just
because of Jeff Bridges and his stupid open-mouthed
blank expression that worked so well in The Coen
Brothers
masterpiece study of passivity v. aggression, The Big
Lebowski, but which has bothered me in every movie
of his after it never left his face in
Arlington Road. Ah, who am I kidding? TRON was
soooo cool at the time and helped interest in video
games explode. I had "Pac wrist" and spent $50 a week in
video game arcades. I have to go see what they did with
it. Honestly though, the father/son casting WAY
high in annoyance factor! The son's voice, in real life,
yikes. I thought Jeff Bridges was bad until I heard
Garrett Hedlund. I hope it doesn't pull me out of the
suspension of disbelief. Looks WAY COOL!
Although the greatest case for the CGI not justifying
the movie has to be
Avatar, it's almost as if when the special effects
are that great, you have to
go see it and you have to say it was good. I say Oh hell
no! Visually stunning wasn't enough to outweigh a
simplistic story ("unobtanium"?—who still thinks they
were clever for making up that name?!), two-dimensional
characters, and a lack of editing that pulled the film
down and made it drag (they could have cut so much out).
There's an
Emperor's New Clothes
element to saying anything bad about Avatar. I
didn't want to see it because I knew it could never live
up to the hype, but it's almost like you can't miss
seeing it without people disregarding you as crazy, and
yet when I came out of it, I knew I was right. As
visually dazzling as it was, it wasn't a good enough
movie to 'sit through' twice. I refuse to jump on the
that-was-a-great-movie bandwagon. As a movie, and not
just a special-effects vehicle, it was just okay. I
think it was creative to take all that underwater stuff
and put it on land. I cannot fault the effects, they
blew me away. I wanted to love it and go see it again
and again and get lost in the world of the blue monkeys,
but it was not fun enough and way too long.
I
have to say that if they had given the Best Director or
Best Picture Oscar to James Cameron, I'd have stopping
watching the
Academy Awards. THANK GOD they gave it to Kathryn Bigelow
and
The Hurt Locker! [It almost makes up for the last time I
stopped watching because they snubbed E.T. and Stephen
Spielberg and gave the big two awards to Ghandi!
Almost.] I think we may be well into CGI just for CGI sake. It
sure seems like we're well into 3D for the sake of higher ticket
prices. Neither of these things will make me see a movie.
Comic Relief
And . . . as much as I am a fan of comic books (I even like
Aquaman), just because a movie is based on a comic book doesn't
mean I'm going to see it either. The critics seemed to slather
"Kick-Ass" in drool, but I was so bored, I walked out. I haven't
walked out of a movie since I can remember . . . I even sat through
The
Marine
though I was itching to leave. I also skipped
Watchmen. I like
Josh Brolin so I wanted to see
Jonah Hexx, but since it's only 1:20 it has to suck. I have this
stupid idea that anything under 1:31 isn't worth seeing (just my
years of judging movies by run times). I don't feel it's time enough
to get invested and then resolve things in a satisfying way. Either
they don't have enough build up or they've rushed the ending. I hate
it when the beginning is great, then bam! it's over when you wanted
to see it played out. (It's like a chick flick with no wedding!
Hello Pride and Prejudice! Why do you think the mini series was so
popular? Double wedding!! How do you leave that out? Wait, my
panties are in a wad and this was supposed to be an action movie
rant.)
Team Work
I love the trash-talking bravado of the action
movie bad ass, but even the promise of too much of that from The
Losers
wasn't enough to get me to spend $6 because
I read it was downright horrible.
I am really glad to see the reappearance of the bad-ass-team type of
action movie: like
The Expendables.
The "A" Team
got the job done.
So what did I pay to see?
• Pan-bore-um
(Pandorum) Yikes, the plot! I'm a sucker for
space movies.
•
Surrogates Zzzz like Zombieland. Too much story, not
enough action.
• The
Crazies
Gross and violent
in the BEST way.
• Splice I called it Sex With The Sea Monkeys. It was more disturbing on a
parenting level than a genetic one.
• The Book
of Eli
First, let me just say: Denzel! ("Women love them some Denzel" SPIKE
LEE) It had some really great action/explosions/gun fights but
Denzel was a little stiff—but, that could be attributed to him
(spoiler alert) playing blind, which you don't find out until the
end.
• Robin
Hood
I had too-high hopes for the subject matter.
• Edge of
Darkness
I hated to give Mel Gibson a penny but it looked
old-fashioned-Dirty-Harry-type good, and it was. It was
surprisingly not quite that predictable. It did not redeem
him, however.
• Cop Out
was surprisingly better than expected thanks to Tracey Morgan.
• Knight
and Day was fun and worth the ticket price but not worth
reviewing in detail. Read more above.
No
Thanks . . .
With apologies to all
the kind folks who spent their talents, time, and money making them,
these movies seemed like they would not be worth my time or the
ticket price:
•
Green Zone (not sold on Matt Damon as an action star and
don't like the Bourne series either),
•
Legion (angels?!)
•
Killers NO THANKS
• The Last Airbender (I loved M. Night Shayalan
in the beginning. I loved what his sort-of-modern-Hitchcock
style, but The Village killed him for me.)
• The Other Guys God, I so want to like this but, WILL FERRELL!
Enough Ferrell. OMG I even went to see
Step Brothers. NO Will, we do not want to see your balls.
PLEASE keep your clothes on. I love so much of his work "glass
case of emotion", but get over yourself! Will overkill. He's
starting to be the same annoying self in everything. I hate them for
putting him in Land of the Lost! I loved that show. (NO, I
did not go see the movie.)
YES!! Pretty please with cherries on
top!
My hopes for the summer are already exceeded with
the release of
The Expendables! Add Predators to that, and I'm HAPPY.
The rest is gravy! I hope to see:
• Inception
• The American
• A Woman A Gun
And A Noodle Shop
• Machete
• Resident Evil:
Afterlife
•
Unstoppable
Luckily for me, I already these
as-yet-unreleased action movies at ActionFest:
•
Operation Endgame
Great cast but insufficient plot
•
Valhalla RisingI will try again to see it for
Mads Mikkelsen
•
CenturionGo see it!