THE TRAILER! THE TRAILER! IT RISES!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrzwIJQZX0k

After a weekend of being complete anal retentive dbs and pulling the copyright card, WB finally released the brand new The Dark Knight Rises trailer to the rest of the world. Thankfully I can now give a complete breakdown of the trailer after having to wait an excruciating 4 days. (Please note: WATCH THE TRAILER FIRST before you read my breakdown.)

First off the start of the trailer with the kid singing the national anthem absolutely gave me goosebumps. You could just tell there was this ominous undertone as the first chords rang out. FYI that is in fact Heinz Field, the Pittsburgh Steelers stadium, although in the trailer Gotham's NFL team are the Gotham Rogues.* Bane stalking through the tunnels of the stadium is an underlying part of the trailer, as the focus keeps cutting back to the stadium. Also during the opening 30 seconds Alfred (Michael Caine) tells Bruce in near tears how he hasn't protected him. What that implies is ambiguous because what exactly would Bruce need protecting from? He's obviously avoided the police (who think he killed Harvey Dent) since the last film. Intriguing.

Next we see a few Gotham officials commenting on how Jim Gordon is going to be removed from office in the Spring by the mayor. One of them says that in Gotham it is "peacetime." The fact that Rises picks up eight years after the last film implies an extended (and fortunate) time of peace.

Afterwards, we see Anne Hathaway (Selina/Catwoman) cutting Bruce and his rich friends down, implying there is a storm coming. What follows are scenes where criminals are attacking the rich in Gotham and also where hundreds are released by Bane from Blackgate prison or Arkham Asylum I'm not sure which. To me this implies an undertone of class warfare. Is this meant to be social commentary? Perhaps. A lot of people felt, as I did, that The Dark Knight examines the nature of terrorism through the Joker and how we as a society respond to it. I don't think it was anything intentional or overt, it just flows from the story naturally...as all good social commentary in movies tends to do. What with the economic crisis, occupy Wall Street, and the impending 2012 election, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if class warfare issues will be in the third film.

The next section is very interesting because we see Christian Bale at some kind of retreat/monastery sporting a large beard and hearing people (monks?) chanting a word that means rise. There's two possibilities here. One is that this is a flashback to when Bruce was training with the League of Shadows in Batman Begins. I suspect this because a young Ra's Al Ghul is supposed to be in Rises and he has an unknown connection to Bane. The other possibility (and I think this one is more likely) is that this is where Bruce has gone in the intervening years between the second and third film. At the very least it is where he goes to train and rediscover his inner Batman.

Following this we are treated to easily one of the coolest sequences I've ever seen in a trailer. Bane blows up the Gotham Rogues field while one of the players runs for a touchdown. That player incidentally just happens to be Pittsburgh Steeler Hines Ward. (Several Steeler players including Ward, Troy Polamalu, and Ben Rothliesberger were all in this film.) The effect is like a roundhouse kick to the groin.

However as cool as that action sequence was, it's nothing compared to the quick 5 second exchange between Bane and Bruce. Bruce appears to be lying on the ground apparently after being pummeled (back broken???) by Bane who calmly says, "When Gotham is ashes you have my permission to die." Chilling stuff.

After that the last 15 to 20 seconds or so are several cut action sequences involving chases and fights including one where strangely enough Bane and Batman appear to be fighting during the day. Now before Batman fans go all fanboy and raise an outcry that Batman never comes out during the day (I'm nerd enough to know that it is actually rarely before 11pm and it's usually 1am before he saunters out) let me point out that the Bane villain doesn't play by the rules. As the physical and mental match for Batman he's going to do whatever it takes to draw Batman out of his shell. If that means freeing prisoners in the middle of the day that's what he's going to do. In any case, seeing the new fangled Batwing right at the end dismissed any non-cannon complaints I might have had.

So my overall impression? While this trailer doesn't compare to the trailer for The Dark Knight four years ago, there's plenty in here to get the geek inside me screaming for joy. It seems that Rises draws heavily from the Knightfall arc of the Batman universe. (I'm not going to explain what that is. If you want to know check Wikipedia.) The action sequences, the new gadgets, and Bane in all his badass glory are only a few of the highlights. It would have been nice to see Hathaway in her Catwoman outfit, however her dialogue scene with Bruce was fantastic. Any doubts that the Academy Award nominated actress could pull this off are gone. My only complaint is that Bane's voice is hard to understand, but I feel that will be cleared up in post production.

July 20, 2012 can't come quick enough for this Batman fanatic.

*For those of you who may not have noticed the "R" in the Gotham Rogues sign that people are holding up in the stands, that is actually the same "R" symbol that Robin uses. Does that mean we will see the boy wonder in the final film? Guess we will find out.

Review: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Plot: The world's greatest detective Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) returns in the followup to director Guy Ritchie's 2009 hit. Holmes's latest adventure finds him and colleague Dr. John Watson (Jude Law) pitted against the nefarious Professor James Moriarty (Jared Harris) whose machinations could spell worldwide doom. Along with gypsy Sim (Noomi Rapace) and Sherlock's brother Mycroft (Stephen Fry), Holmes and Watson must thwart an enemy more dangerous and enigmatic than either have ever encountered.

Review: For the life of me I can't understand why the first Sherlock Holmes movie gets so much hate. Despite the fact that the Rotten Tomatoes rating is a 70%, I can't tell you how many people I run into who detest that movie. Most can't stand to see Holmes as an action hero but personally I love it. It does not take away from his deductive methods, which are still the essence of Holmes. If anything it makes him even more intriguing. Holmes uses his mind to develop the best way to physically overpower his enemies. It is the perfect marriage of brains and brawn. While A Game of Shadows doesn't quite match the fresh quality of the original, it certainly is a strong followup to what undoubtedly will be a trilogy.
Although I enjoyed the film, the first fifteen minutes almost derailed the entire movie. What made Downey's performance so memorable in the first film was his ability to balance the right amount of humor, action, and drama through his portrayal of Holmes. Shadows started off almost exclusively with humor, to the point where it was borderline slapstick. But if you can weather through the first quarter hour, which involves Holmes turning his office into a jungle, drinking formaldehyde, and attacking Watson with fake darts, you're in for a great thrill ride.
Shadows finds its legs at Watson's stag party, where we are introduced to gypsy fortune teller Sim (Noomi Rapace). The former star of the Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo and the heroine of next year's Ridley Scott sci-fi film Prometheus, plays the wayward gypsy perfectly. At times vulnerable and other times tough as English tack, Rapace gives a memorable performance that certainly proves she can act in English just as well as she can in Swedish.
After Holmes discovers that Sim's brother is involved with Moriarty's latest schemes, it kicks off an amazing action sequence that is a visual delight. It's just a taste what's in store. Harrowing escapes from trains, collapsing buildings, and a game of wits at Reichanbach Falls are the order of the day. All hail cinematographer Philippe Rousselot, whose work is some of the best I've seen this year.
While the cinematography and actions sequences are fantastic, Ritchie goes way over the top when it comes to slow motion in Shadows. Although this was a key feature of the original that I enjoyed, the slow motion is excessive to say the least. James Herbert's less than stellar editing exacerbates this problem and other sequences come across slightly choppy. Additionally, I think Ritchie needs to cut back on the "Holmes-inner dialogue-plan-out-what-ass-kicking-sequence-I'm-about-to-do" routine. It gets a little tiresome. Although I will admit the one between Holmes and Moriarty in the closing scenes is awesome.
Fortunately, Kieran and Michele Mulroney have written an excellent script where the plot unravels like an onion. Truth be told the audience really doesn't understand Moriarty's master plan until about three quarters of the way through. This not only generates a considerable amount of suspense but keeps the audience invested as well. I know I was. Veteran composer Hans Zimmer (The Lion King, The Dark Knight) succeeds yet again, delivering a fantastic score that punctuates the dramatic dialogue driven scenes as much as the action sequences.
Jude Law excels again as Watson, an excellent foil to Holmes. While their relationship is a complicated one and often tempestuous, the Academy Award nominated actor does a great job of demonstrating the loyalty and friendship that exists between the two comrades. Law plays the uptight, almost anal retentive Watson to a t. It's the perfect balance to Downey's impulsive and reckless behavior. The chemistry between the two is fantastic. Credit Ritchie for making an excellent casting decision to bring these two together.
Incidentally Stephen Fry is hilarious as Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's lazy brother who works for the British government. Not only is he Holmes equal in deduction but both Fry and Downey play off of each other beautifully. Mycroft's "nude" scene with Watson's wife Mary (Kelly Reilly) is hysterical.
Where A Game of Shadows fundamentally succeeds is in the dynamic interaction between Downey's Holmes and Harris's Moriarty. The scenes between these two are absolutely enthralling. Downey's Holmes is the best on screen since Basil Rathbone--maybe ever. Equally impressive is Harris's Moriarty. He brings just the right amount of sinister evil, charisma, intellectual prowess, and physical presence to the role. If you tried to pin me down and decide who was better I honestly couldn't give you an answer. While their initial encounter in Professor Moriarty's office is palpable with tension, it's nothing compared to the "chess scene" at the end of the film. Simply amazing.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is a rousing, action packed film. Guy Ritchie does a superb job of bringing 1891 Europe to life. Although Shadows stumbles at the outset it certainly proves the adage, "it's not how you start, it's how you finish."

My rating: 7.5/10

*Incidentally I saw the full trailer for The Dark Knight Rises before this film and let me tell you it is all kinds of awesome. As soon as WB takes the stick out of their rectum and puts it on the Internet, I'm going to post it and do a complete breakdown.

Review: Our Idiot Brother

Plot: When burnout organic farmer Ned Rockliffe (Paul Rudd) gets busted at the local Farmer's Market for selling pot to a policeman, Ned spends eight months in prison. Upon his release Ned finds that his girlfriend Janet (Kathryn Hahn) has taken up with a new man and refuses to let Ned have his dog "Willie Nelson." With nowhere else to turn Ned heads back to the city and into the lives of his three sisters, Miranda (Elizabeth Banks) a career driven perfectionist with no time for men, Natalie (Zooey Deschanel) a bi-sexual hipster living with five roommates and afraid of commitment, and Liz (Emily Mortimer) a lonely housewife and mother ignored by her documentary filmmaker husband Dylan (Steve Coogan). While the sisters consider Ned to be somewhat of an idiot, as time progresses all three find that Ned's free spirit may be exactly what they need.

Review: It's extremely difficult to quantify director Jesse Peretz's film Our Idiot Brother. While ostensibly a comedy, Brother often slips into the realm of drama as well. The result makes for a mish mash of sentimentality, occasional laughs, cinematic boredom.

Our Idiot Brother suffers from a lack of cohesiveness. While all of the performances in the film are strong, particularly Rudd's, I just didn't always find myself caring about the characters. Banks is the weakest of the bunch as career driven woman Miranda. However, her no nonsense persona masks the fact that she's secretly attracted to her neighbor Jeremy (Adam Scott) who secretly loves her too. The problem is that the idea is a cliche and the lack of chemistry between the two actors only exacerbates the problem.

Meanwhile Emily Mortimer while decent as the lonely house wife Liz is an incredibly bad role model for women. Her character is weak and subject to her husband Dylan's philandering. The desperate sad house wife routine gets very monotonous after awhile. Also side note: I really did not need to see Steve Coogan's ball sack in this film when Ned discovers he's cheating.

Zooey Deschanel's Natalie may be the most atypical of the three sisters, a bi-sexual slacker that constantly cheats on her girlfriend Cindy played by an incredibly butched up Rashida Jones. Her fear of commitment yet desperate love of Cindy rings true, and her relationship with Ned is the most believable.

Peretz's unwillingness to focus enough time on the individual relationships between Ned and his sisters made for a rough narrative, where the pacing constantly jumps around. I was surprised to find that the movie was only 90 minutes long as it felt like 3 hours. Additionally, Evgenia Peretz and David Schisgall's script is full of stock, one dimensional characters that make the whole movie one tired cliche.

The only saving grace to Our Idiot Brother was the near flawless and committed performance by actor Paul Rudd. This is probably Rudd's best performance to date. His Ned was heartfelt and sweet with a measure of restraint not displayed in Rudd's previous films like Role Models and Anchorman. I found myself rooting for Ned to get his dog "Willie Nelson" back. His relationship with nephew River (Matthew Mindler) was the most believable and endearing part of the whole film.

Unfortunately for Rudd none of the characters in the script come close to matching the fleshed out Ned. Furthermore, the film's ending is one of the most contrived I've seen in recent memory. While Rudd's stellar performance rules the day, it's not nearly enough to make Our Idiot Brother look anything more than idiotic.

My rating: 5/10

"BITCH SET ME UP!" Eddie Murphy set to play former DC Mayor Marion Barry in HBO Biopic

In a surprise move this week Eddie Murphy decided to take a role that did not involve him getting into a fat suit. The Academy Award nominated actor/comedian (for Dreamgirls not Norbit in case you were wondering) is set to play former Washington D.C. mayor Marion Barry in an upcoming biopic for HBO. Spike Lee is also attached to direct.

Barry's life is certainly fodder for good drama. Barry served as mayor of D.C. from 1979 to 1991, when he resigned after being arrested for crack cocaine possession. After serving only six months Barry ran again for mayor in 1994...and won. I don't know if that means that America just loves a good comeback story or a majority of voters at the time were idiots. Maybe a little of both.

In any case this is certainly a bold move for Murphy who's publicly stated he wants to do "more edgy stuff." Barry's political and personal peccadilloes certainly fall into that category. And although his films have lagged in recent years, and his feud with Clint Eastwood was just misguided and ignorant, I believe Lee is the right choice to direct.

With movies like 61* and the recent Too Big to Fail (about the 2008 financial crisis-seriously check it out) I have a lot of confidence in this upcoming film. Should the project move forward Lee and Murphy are both set to executive produce the film as well.

Can't wait to see how Murphy delivers the line in my post title.

HOLY WHUP ASS BATMAN!! Check out this new Bane poster for The Dark Knight Rises

Typically movie posters don't give me goosebumps, but I have to confess this one captured my attention. With The Dark Knight Rises still seven months from release (sigh), all things Batman have been heating up this week as director Christopher Nolan's viral campaign is in full force.

First the Nolan camp leaked a fake CIA dossier to Wired and Empire about a Dr. Leonid Pavel (Alon Aboutboul). While fanboys everywhere are blowing up the Internet with speculation about this dossier, most seem to think he's connected with Bane somehow. A few have even offered that he Pavel may be the real name of another Batman villain known as Dr. Hugo Strange. The only thing the public knows for certain is that he is a nuclear physicist and he's "missing."

Next there was a countdown clock on the website that revealed what IMAX theaters were going to show the six minute Bane-prologue that's airing before Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

Now this poster.

This may single handedly be one of the most ominous posters I've ever seen for a film. Notice how stark and bereft of color it is. Then of course there is Bane walking away from the scene having apparently just opening a can on Batman. Then there is the tagline, "The Legend Ends." It's almost like saying "The Legend Dies."

So what exactly does this poster suggest if anything? Well for those of you unfamiliar with the Batman universe, Bane is the one villain that ever did any serious damage to Batman. Point of fact he broke his damn back. He ended up recovering through the help of a psychic healer named Dr. Shondra Kinsolving. Since Nolan tends to ground Batman in reality (well as much as possible) I doubt that Kinsolving or her psychic healing powers will show up.

But as for Bane breaking Batman's back? This poster suggests that bit of comic book history may come to pass in the upcoming film. Nolan and Tom Hardy (Bane) have already come out and said that Bane is an incredibly vicious character who breaks bones and rips throats. (Like MacGruber?) At the very least Batman is going to be taken to the woodshed in Rises. Furthermore, the tagline even suggests that Batman may die in the next film.

As for Batman's death I think that is highly unlikely. While I suspect that the third installment will be the darkest of the trilogy, I doubt that Nolan would extend a giant middle finger to moviegoers by killing the Caped Crusader.

Well time will tell. Hopefully, we will receive a little more insight when the prologue and the trailer come out next week.

July 20, 2012 can't come soon enough for me.

WHERE ARE THE DRUGS??!!! 24 Movie Coming Soon

Jack is back!
After much speculation, innuendo, and terrorist plots, we finally possess some concrete news on the impending 24 movie. The film finally has a script writer as Mark Bomback has been tapped to write the screenplay. Imagine Entertainment and 20th Century Fox however are insisting that the script be finished by the end of the year, reason being they want to start shooting this Spring when Kiefer Sutherland is available.
I understand the need to please the studio, but isn't it more important to produce a quality script and not rush it? This is 24 after all and I'd rather production be delayed in order to create a good script. Otherwise you are liable to end up with something akin to White Chicks or Insert Adam Sandler comedy here. Furthermore, what the hell is Kiefer Sutherland doing that he can't be available a little later? Last time I checked there was no Flatliners sequel or Young Guns III in the works.
Tony Scott is no longer attached to direct unfortunately, but I'd suggest bringing back one of the directors from the actual television show. The show did last for eight seasons so I'm pretty sure they know what they are doing.
24 is set to begin filming in April 2012.

With Ford Bleed Dodger Blue in Jackie Robinson Biopic

Man it seems like baseball is hot in Hollywood again. Clint Eastwood continues to develop his upcoming film about an aging baseball scout called Trouble with the Curve, and now a huge story on one of the most important players in the history of major league baseball.

Hoping to capitalize on the huge success of Moneyball, Hollywood is currently developing a biopic on the life of baseball player Jackie Robinson, the first black player ever to play in the major leagues. One of the key reasons why Robinson broke the color barrier was due in large part to Brooklyn Dodger general manager Branch Rickey, who signed Robinson in an unprecedented move.

Currently veteran actor Harrison Ford is in talks to play Rickey. I'm not sure this is good fit for Ford. He certainly doesn't look the part and I'm dubious that he could capture the spirit of Rickey. Actor Tom Wilkinson I think would be a better fit.

Ford certainly has been busy lately. He's been in talks to play Wyatt Earp in the film Black Hats, Colonel Graff in the upcoming Ender's Game, and now this. Oh and also there is some small thing involving some character named Indiana Jones.

The film will be titled simply 42 (Robinson's number which has since been retired by EVERY major league team) but no director or studio is attached at present.

The real question is who will play Robinson? Let's hope it's not Keenan Thompson from SNL. I'm pretty sure his roles in Goodburger and Fat Albert exclude him from the running.