Saturday Previews Vol. 4

I have to start off with an apology for tonight's previews. I did in fact miss a trailer last week. Normally I would just leave it at that and share the trailer. But not this movie. This is a movie that I am very much looking forward to. It will become apparent as to why after you watch the trailer.

Daddy's Home

IT'S THE TRIUMPHANT RETURN OF BOBBY FRIGGIN' MERCER! Okay. Maybe not officially. But there ain't no damn way you're going to convince me that this isn't a sequel to the excellent revenge thriller Four Brothers. I mean-- just look at Mark Wahlberg. He's playing the same character but in a slapstick comedy. I don't care if he's got a different name in Daddy's Home. Okay so this is what happens. Bobby is a drifter/thug right? Right? It's not too far fetched he'd be the type to get a one-night stand pregnant on his travels. And he probably didn't even use his real name. Then years later he finds out he's got kids and wants to be a part of their lives because his real parents abandoned him. So he rushes to their side as soon as he can and boom! There's the movie. Half of my enjoyment from this movie is going to be imagining they're the same guy.

If I've accomplished anything today I hope it's that I've planted that seed in your head so deep you won't be able to think about it when you go watch the movie. You are welcome. 

Saturday Previews Vol.3

Well *flips up top page of clipboard* looks like we're in for a positively thrilling round of trailers this week. *Takes a shot of fireball.* Okay let's get this going.

The Runner, Nicolas Cage's newest film where he plays a Congressman that actually wants to help people. Uh-huh. Ghost Rider was more realistic. Moving on: Does anybody remember that viral video where the guy puts a go-pro on his dog to see what he did all day while he was at work and it was super depressing because the dog just cried thinking he was abandoned? The Secret Life of Pets is going to be the opposite of that. We got Time out of Mind where Richard Gere is a homeless guy. I really want this to be a sequel to Pretty Woman. You know what? Screw it. As far as I'm concerned it is a sequel to Pretty Woman. Charlize Theron goes to Dark Places. Looks promising but the title is a bit on the nose. Keeping with that theme of "on the nose" titles is Kate Mara's Captive. Which--well. Yeah. Hotel Transylvania 2 and Kung Fu Panda 3 will serve as films to pad out kids movie marathons on ABC Family or whatever TV channel gets the syndication rights. Ted 2 features more of the same shtick. And finally we have Dragon Blade. A martial arts movie featuring Jackie Chan with Adrian Brody  some guy that looks like but can't possibly be Adrian Brody as the villain. Wait that can't... STOP. I was right the first time? Okay so Jackie Chan goes up against Adrian Brody and somehow John Cusack is involved. Huh. Someone get me a six pack of Bud Light and my best friends STAT.

Check the trailers after the jump. As well as my top three picks of the week (of films I did not mention above) based on no guidelines other than I wanted to throw my two cents in.

Revisiting Your First Movie

What was the first movie you remember seeing in a movie theater when you were a kid? Was it a transformative experience or something that is just a footnote in your life? For me it was something I will never forget. The movie was Batman: Mask of the Phantasm starring Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Dana Delany, Stacey Keach and Abe Vigoda. It came out Christmas Day in 1993 (although that is not the day I saw it.)

Saturday Previews Vol. 2

Welcome to Saturday Previews where I take most of the trailers that dropped during the week and present them for your viewing pleasure. Read my thoughts on them if you're into that sort of thing. Or just watch the trailers.

No Escape

This will be one I check out. I can't remember the last time Owen Wilson had a dramatic role since Behind Enemy Lines and that was when Gene Hackman was still in the game. It will be interesting if this is just a violent action movie or if it attempts to go into the details behind the civil unrest. Hard to tell from the looks of it. Then again Pierce Brosnan is in the movie too but was only in the trailer for about three seconds.

More after the jump.

New Gods and New Monsters for your Saturday Morning

Justice League: Gods and Monsters is a new animated film from visionary Bruce Timm that reimagines DC Comics titular heroes in a way you've never seen them before. Batman is Kirk Langstrom (normally the traditional Batman villain "Man-Bat,") Wonder Woman is Bekka (a character from Darkseid's neck of the woods) and Superman is the son of General Zod. When I saw the teaser for the direct to DVD movie I was a bit skeptical. I'm all for new interpretations for old characters but I questioned if I would like this version.

Almost as if Warner Brothers could read my mind they personally reached out to me and made some teaser short films for me to review to see if they got my seal of approval.

That is 110% true and I stand by this statement you can't prove me wrong.

The shorts are after the jump.

Smashing Action Figures Together: Jurassic World Review

Friday Night vs Monday Morning Reviews are simple. I go see a movie and do a write-up of my initial feelings and impressions and share them with you so you have them by Friday Night. Then on Monday morning I write another section after I've had time to think about the movie that will be more in depth.

Friday Night
How can I describe Jurassic World the briefest way possible? One word: thrilling. It is an absolute thrill to watch. Director Colin Trevorrow knows what we all want to see when we go into a Jurassic Park movie. In many ways Spielberg had the easier job. All he had to do was put the dinos on the screen and we all go "ooooh" and aaaaah." But in many ways the climax of this film is like watching a kid who got the toys twenty years ago and started mashing them together while doing their best T-Rex imitation. Example: you want to know what it'd be like if the raptors were on the human's side? Boom. Here you go. Keeping that theme going there were not one, not two, but three moments that made me want to stand up and cheer. Trevorrow knows we want to see certain things and he gives us those things. Do they make sense? Not really but shut up there are dinosaurs fighting on the screen.

The film successfully walks the tightrope between creating something new while also fitting in a tricera-ton of callbacks and references to the first Jurassic Park. Little details like Chris Pratt's Owen not falling into the same trap the character Muldoon made in 1992 (which is never let the raptor on your left out of your sight.) Or early in the movie where the T-Rex is fed a goat with a red flare dropped nearby. The film has been made for people who have seen the first film and the four people from the Australian outback who haven't. Joking aside, Jurassic World stands on its own and can be watched in isolation and while some of the references might go over some heads the movie does not depend on them to be good.

Performance-wise the actors do their jobs well enough. You might think this is Chris Pratt's movie based on all the marketing but it's Bryce Dallas Howard's character Claire who goes through the most change from beginning to end. Special mention must be made that Pratt is not just rehashing Star-Lord in a hunting vest. He's much more competent and less jokey than the superhero which was an absolute must and frankly, a relief. I didn't want to see Star-Lord fight dinosaurs, I wanted to see a character that belonged in this world fight dinosaurs.

I believe the film is most definitely worth the watch. Jurassic World is not going to win any awards but it will absolutely thrill you during its run time. They spared no expense.

Saturday Previews Vol. 1

Welcome to Saturday Previews where I take most of the trailers that dropped during the week and present them for your viewing pleasure. Read my thoughts on them if you're into that sort of thing. Or just watch the trailers.

The Perfect Guy

I wondered for about five seconds where this movie was going until the redneck came up to Sanaa Lathan's car. I actually went, "Ah. Alright. One of those." Then I watched the rest of the movie because it's one of those trailers. I'm sure it'll be... fine. I like Michael Ealy and it's cool to see him branch out into full sociopath like this. But again, I just watched the entire movie for free in two minutes.





Click for more after the jump.

The Rewriting: Wolverine joins the Marvel Universe

The Rewriting: Taking a narrative from a film, TV show, video game or what have you and making it something different than what it was to improve it or just for giggles.

Next summer Spider-Man will (likely) be making his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in Captain America: Civil War which marks the end of Sony's exclusivity over the character. Up until now Marvel Studios has not had the film rights to Spider-Man, the X-Men, or the Fantastic Four. To make it brief I will oversimplify why this was done. In the 1990's these film rights were sold off because Marvel was in a bit of financial trouble. At the time they basically sold the rights off to all of their most popular characters, which funny enough, was basically everyone but The Avengers. So Sony got Spider-Man, Fox got the X-Men, Fantastic Four and Daredevil (the latter would eventually find his way home.) Now the film deals work like this, the studios must make and release a movie in those respective franchises every few years or the rights revert themselves back to Marvel. This is what happened with Daredevil and the Punisher.

But in the case of Spider-Man a deal was struck where Sony and Marvel Studios could "share" the character. Basically Marvel helps Sony make the movies creatively and financially while Marvel gets to use one of their most popular characters in their Avengers franchise. Sony went for the deal mostly because they had little choice. The Amazing Spider-Man movies did well financially but critically they were a mixed bag and the box office profits had been dropping for three movies. Tying Spider-Man to the Avengers and starting over again is the booster shot the movie franchise needs to move forward.

So what the hell does any of this has to do with Wolverine? Nothing much really, this is all just background info for a hypothetical situation where a similar deal is struck in the imaginary universe in my head with everyone's favorite Canadian superhero. Essentially Marvel is not going to get the film rights to the X-Men back from Fox any time soon. That franchise is doing just fine and has had new life breathed into it by X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past. But let's suppose for a moment that Fox let Marvel use Wolverine and an X-Men character or two in their Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU.) How would that work?

Old Blog, New Start

Dear Internet Peoples,

Hey it's been a while. I'm hoping you didn't forget about me completely forgot about me. I'm pretty sure you did because my email ain't exactly overflowing with messages clamoring for my return.

Well whether we wanted it or not I'm back to dust the cobwebs off this old blog of mine with anustart (TOPICAL.) I've taken a step back and worked out exactly what you're going to find on this site. I think. Maybe. We'll see.

*cries into napkin out of crushing indecision*

I'll make this brief. This is an entertainment blog that's going to cover a lot of different mediums. Before I tried to focus on movies but occasionally rambled on about whatever was on my mind. So from the outset I've decided to make this place a bit of both. Here's some reoccurring columns and other stuff you're going to find on this site.