Film Bites: Summit Unleashes New Trailer And Character Posters For RED 2
Summit has released a new trailer and a series of headache-inducing (So much oversaturated Photoshop!) character posters for Dean Parisot’s RED 2. While I’d love to express some emotion about this bevy of promotional material, I’m still reeling from the fact some exec actually greenlit a sequel to RED.
Sure, the first one had some good performances (Helen Mirren basically stole the entire damn movie) and decent moments (Mirren gleefully gunning down baddies, Karl Urban and Bruce Willis beating the living hell out of each other, “The Pig”) but it was hardly worthy of a follow-up. Much less one that appears to be recycling all the best material from the first film but new actors (Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Lee Byung-hun) in place of the ones who are M.I.A. (Urban, Brian Cox) or were K.I.A. (Morgan Freeman, Richard Dreyfuss).
Oh well. Maybe Parisot will somehow make this totally unnecessary sequel necessary. Dude directed GALAXY QUEST once upon a time. That gives me the tiniest bit of hope this won’t end up being another THE WHOLE TEN YARDS.
Click on the pic to check out the full story…
Film Bites: Bruce Willis And The Rock Team Up In G.I. JOE: RETALIATION
The crew here at Adamantium Bullet have been laughing about the upcoming G.I. JOE sequel RETALIATION for quite some time now. I mean, seriously, a sequel to a movie that wasn’t very good to begin with only bringing back blank himbo Channing Tatum and a silent Ray Park to be directed by the guy who helmed STEP UP 3D and JUSTIN BIEBER: NEVER SAY NEVER? That’s a recipe for disaster if you ask me.
Well …we were wrong. All the naysayers were wrong. Not only was getting rid of 90% of the original cast and replacing them with the likes of The Rock, Bruce Willis, Ray Stevenson and the hot pregnant chick from LEGION a good idea, it was a masterstroke. What’s even more interesting is that it appears Tatum was only brought back so that he could be killed off in the first act and pass the torch to the new team. That‘s a bold move. I figured they’d have him busting moves and barking orders at Willis.
Looks like G.I. JOE: RETALIATION might be one of the rare sequels (like THE GODFATHER PART II and HOUSE II: THE SECOND STORY) that that not only trumps the original but completely blows it out of the water. Not that it had to try all that hard to begin with, RISE OF COBRA (funky IRON MAN-esque power suits and Marlon Wayans are enough to turn any true Joe fanboy off) didn’t exactly set the bar very high.
Click on the pic to check it out…
DIE HARD 5 Now Titled A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD; Plot Details Revealed
Tom Rothman, current head of Fox and enemy to fanboys around the globe, appeared on The Jim Rome Show (found the news at /film) and dropped some info about the company’s upcoming slate of movies. Mixed in with bits concerning the release dates for TAKEN 2 (hits October 5th, 2012 for those who care) and PERCY JACKSON: SEA OF MONSTERS (didn’t realize this the first Jackson pic made enough bank to warrant a sequel) was some solid non-rumor info about the next installment of the DIE HARD franchise.
First revelation, DIE HARD 5 has been officially titled A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD.
Kinda figured I needed to drop that pretty quickly. No need to beat around the bush and pretend that title won’t be the main tidbit you’ll glean from this article.
That is one awful title. Almost as bad as LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD but not quite as bad as DIE HARD 2: DIE HARDER. Come to think of it, DIE HARD was actually a sh*t title to begin with. I mean, seriously, at the time the original came out that was the name of a brand of car battery. Still is. Why the hell would anyone name an action movie after a battery? Oh well…
Click on the pic to read the full story…
Fox Taps John Moore For DIE HARD 5; Breck Eisner Might Helm RED 2
Deadline is reporting that, after a long search, Fox and Bruce Willis have finally selected a director for DIE HARD 5: John Moore. Moore is the workmanlike auteur behind such films as MAX PAYNE, BEHIND ENEMY LINES and the remakes of FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX and THE OMEN.
Can’t say I’m crazy about the Moore’s hiring, but who cares? This isn’t so much a directing gig as it more a “studio and star hire somebody to churn out a sanitized PG-13 actioner for deployment sometime summer 2012” one. Moore will do what needs to be done and move on. No troubles whatsoever. Had Fox went with any of the other rumored contenders — Joe Cornish (ATTACK THE BLOCK), Noam Murro (SMART PEOPLE) or Nicolas Wending Refn (DRIVE) — they would’ve run into the problem of hiring an actual artist to pump out something impersonal and 100% commercial.
Click on the pic to read the full story…
Bruce Willis In Negotiations To Join Cast Of G.I. JOE 2: RETALIATION
Man, I hate when a movie that I’ve pretty much dismissed manages to pull me back in.
THR is reporting that Bruce Willis has entered into negotiations to play the original Joe (aka “General Joe Colton”) in Jon Chu’s G.I. JOE 2: RETALIATION. No word on how Colton will figure into the plot of RETALIATION, but I’d probably wager to say that he’ll be kidnapped early on and the new Joes will have to save him. Think BIONIC COMMANDO only will Cobra in place of Nazis and less robo-grappling.
This news comes hot on the heels of the announcement that Ray Park will be back as “Snake Eyes” and that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is learning how to handle a M249 SAW light machinegun in preparation for his role as “Roadblock”. And none of this amazing news (Willis and Johnson in the same movie? Sold!) changes the fact that this new JOE pic has abandoned 80% of the character from the first film, will be ignoring the events of the first film and is basically a reboot of a series that didn’t really need to be rebooted. Oh and that Jon Chu guy is still the dude who brought the world STEP UP 2 THE STREETS and JUSTIN BIEBER: NEVER SAY NEVER. The good news must be tempered with the bad.
Click on the pic to read the full story…
SET UP Starring Bruce Willis And Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson Heading Direct-To-DVD
I believe it was Bob Dylan who coined the phrase “The times they are a-changing‘“. Actually, I know Dylan said that and that it is the title of one of his better tunes, but I thought it bore repeating it reference to this piece. Don’t tread on me for trying to be cultured and sh*t, Daddio!
What was I trying to say? Oh yeah…the actioner SET UP starring Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and Ryan Phillippe is heading direct-to-DVD (along with Blu-Ray, Digital Download and On Demand) on September 20th. Why is this worth mentioning? Well, the flick also stars some guy named Bruce Willis. I think he starred in some indie flick called DIE HARD and popped up in a few other movies. Dude doesn’t really have the drawing power of Fiddy or Phillippe, but it is nice to see the studios throwing him a bone. Personally, I lost track of Willis after he hit his career peak on MOONLIGHTING.
Click on the pic to read the full story…
Simon West, Director Of CON AIR, Tapped To Helm THE EXPENDABLES 2
One of the biggest complaints that I had about THE EXPENDABLES was that Sylvester Stallone gathered together one of the greatest tough guy casts ever (Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Eric Roberts, Mickey Rourke, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger) and gave them absolutely nothing to do. Flick was a couple of generic shoot-outs, a few big explosions, a car chase or two and not much else. That cast should’ve meant that THE EXPENDABLES was going to be the action epic to end all action epics. Instead, that cast got the flick a lot of attention and then Stallone soft-balled it when it came to the actual ass-kicking.
Realizing he was stretched a little too thin the first time (might’ve had something to with writing, starring and directing the pic), Stallone has been on the prowl for someone else to helm THE EXPENDABLES 2 and he’s found his man: Simon West. West is the director of such pics as the first TOMB RAIDER pic, the recent reboot of THE MECHANIC, THE GENERAL’S DAUGHTER and…ah, who am I kidding? West is the guy who brought the world CON AIR.
Click on the pic to read why West’s hiring is a very good thing…
From The Vault: RED (2010)
RED is a movie that I can’t really love, but I really can’t hate it either. It rests somewhere in the middle of my cinematic brain nestled next to other “don’t love it, don’t hate it” flicks such as OCEAN’S THIRTEEN, LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN (which, ironically enough, shares a couple of actors with RED) and THE LOSERS. Not that any of those movies have any connection outside of actors to this flick because they don’t. Matter of fact, RED is nothing like any of those movies. They just happened to be the first ones that popped in my head when it came to this particular brand of filmmaking.
Based on a Warren Ellis comic series, the plot of RED is not why you should see this flick. To say the plot here is underdeveloped would be an understatement. The set-up is good, what with Bruce Willis playing a retired CIA assassin suddenly thrust back into action because of some mission-gone-wrong from his past. I can get behind that. I can even get behind the fact that he kidnaps the pension caseworker (a very miscast, but likable, Mary Louise Parker) that’s he’s phone-flirting with because he’s afraid that whoever is after him might try to kill her. And I can even buy that he enlists a bunch of his old assassin buddies (Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, Brian Cox and John Malkovich) to find out who is after him, why they are after him and who he has to kill to put everything back right. That’s a solid idea, one that’s been done many a time before, and one that I support when applied to an action-comedy.
Unfortunately, the only thing RED seems to get right is the performances. Freeman, Cox, Mirren, Parker and Malkovich are all at the top of their game, but did you expect anything less? All of them are old pros and they know how to make even the flimsiest of films work. Malkovich gets mad props for going all out with this one. Dude scores the two best scenes in the entire movie. One involves him taking down an RPG with a pistol, the other involves “The Pig”. Won’t spoil what exactly “The Pig” is, but you’ll be hard pressed to forget it once you’ve seen it.
Click to read my full review…
Film Bites: Kobe Bryant Is THE BLACK MAMBA!
Straight up, I don’t watch professional basketball. Never have and probably never will. I’m not much of a sports guy outside of watching the Super Bowl and having enough knowledge about sports to carry on an intelligent conversation about sports with people who do watch sports. Sports just isn’t my thing.
So, a short film featuring Kobe Bryant as his alter-ego “The Black Mamba” that is basically a five-minute long commercial for Nike shouldn’t really be up my alley, right? Well that would be the case any other day of the week. But today, that short film is directed by Robert Rodriguez and it also stars Bruce Willis and Danny Trejo. Bring those three into the mix and this suddenly is very much up my alley.
Click on the pic to watch Robert Rodriguez’s THE BLACK MAMBA…
Rumor Mill: The Villain In DIE HARD 24/7 Might Be Another Member Of The Gruber Clan?
With DIE HARD 24/7 ramping up production soon (at least, according to star/producer Bruce Willis), the rumor mill has started to wonder what kind of terrorist plot will John McClane foil next. If What’s Playing is to be believed, McClane might find himself tangling with yet another member of the Gruber clan. Huh?
According to WP’s sources, the villain of the next DIE HARD flick is going to be either a sister or daughter of one of the Gruber boys (Hans [Alan Rickman] in the original HARD and Simon [Jeremy Irons] in DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE). The source isn’t completely sure as to which it will be, but they are definitely sure that the new sequel will directly connect to the original and VENGEANCE. Which pretty much means that the odd numbered DIE HARD movies are going to be best, just like the even numbered STAR TREK films are the better ones.
Click on the pic to read the full story…
Theatrical Reviews
- STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS
- IRON MAN 3
- SINISTER
- PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4
- TAKEN 2
- PITCH PERFECT
- HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET
- DREDD 3D
- LOOPER
- RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION 3D
- THE EXPENDABLES 2
- TOTAL RECALL
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