Category Archives: Movies

Movies

Trailer Feedback: Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (Trailer 2)

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This Week, Anaheim, California’s Star Wars Celebration gave us the reveal of the official second trailer for “The Force Awakens” and it destroys any skepticism critics once had.

Within the first 30 seconds, we hear Mark Hamill’s voice reprising his rightful role as Luke Skywalker, with visuals of a new lightsaber, the new hovercraft racing past a fallen Imperial ship, and the remains of Darth Vader’s iconic helmet.

Wow.

We then get establishing shots of the characters from the previous trailer, only this time revealing the clear-cut villain, our new heroes (and heroin), the new Storm Trooper fleet, and possibly a new bounty hunter.

But only the best is yet to come.

First is an X-Wing and Tie Fighter battle taking place over a gorgeous landscape. Next is the Millennium Falcon in an epic chase inside the hull of a ship.

And then the goosebumps emerge as Harrison Ford utters the words “Chewie, we’re home.”

And indeed we are as Han Solo and Chewbacca appear before our very eyes.

The Force has indeed awakened and this Christmas, J.J. Abrams is going to hit it out of the park.

Movies

Trailer Feedback: Entourage

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It seems that this summer we will be getting the definitive ending to one of HBO’s best original series with the Entourage movie.

Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) and crew are back to their usual shenanigans with agent Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven) offering Chase his latest film, but this time Chase wants to direct. Although Gold is hesitant to grant yet another Chase wish, he does and according to the trailer; that’s where it begins to hit the fan.

Warner Brothers are pulling out all the stops getting nearly every A, B and C list celebrity that has appeared on the show with new additions Rhonda Rousey, Haley Joel Osment, and Russell Wilson contributing their talents.

Even the show’s executive producer Mark Wahlberg will be gracing the screen with his presence.

This looks to be blockbuster ending we all wanted this series to have.

Movies, Music

Trailer Feedback: Straight Outta Compton

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You are now about to witness the strength of street knowledge on the big screen.

Universal Studios and Legendary Pictures are bringing us the story of possibly the most aggressive and celebrated rap group in history, N.W.A.

Ice Cube and Dr. Dre’s introduction immediately legitimizes the film in every way, giving us a clear idea of how hard the studios worked on this and how extensive the production will be.

Although certain aspects may be dolled up by Hollywood (founding member Arabian Prince is not featured at all), this biopic should be one of the best. The casting seems to be dead on accurate as Cube’s son O’Shea Jackson Jr.,  Corey Hawkins (Non-Stop, Iron Man 3) and Jason Mitchell (Contraband) look and even sound like young versions of Cube, Dre and Eazy-E. Paul Giamatti (12 Years A Slave) is great in everything he is cast in and should be no different as he takes on the role of N.W.A’s manager Jerry Heller.

The only concern is how much the film will center on N.W.A. as a group rather than its focal members. Hopefully MC Ren and DJ Yella will not be pushed into the background and become afterthoughts in the feature. It doesn’t look that way, but only time will tell.

We won’t know how the presentation will be until it hits the big screen but when it does, we had better get the whole story, all of the controversy and every piece of the N.W.A. puzzle without much (if any) compromise. If “Straight Outta Compton” holds any water, there’s a strong chance we could get a Run DMC, Wu-Tang Clan or Public Enemy biopic in the future.

Movies

Throwback Thursday: Mallrats

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In 1995, director Kevin Smith went from black and white convenience store to a fully colored mall and decorated it with some memorable hijinx.

“Mallrats” is the story of Brodie (Jason Lee) and TS (Jeremy London) taking a day to blow off some steam after being dumped by their girlfriends (Shannen Doherty and Claire Forlani). To find solace, they go to the commonplace 90’s watering hole; the mall. Unfortunately, both of their exes are there as well. Brodie’s has already moved on to a department store manager (Ben Affleck) while TS’s is being forced to participate in her dad’s (Michael Rooker) horribly cheesy dating game. Upon this discovery the boys now have a new mission: get their girlfriends back.

Mallrats took 90’s culture and turned it into art. The struggles we see Brodie and TS go through are not unlike our own; albeit a little exaggerated. They run into all kinds of misfits and situations that we’ve all met and been through (with the exception of Jay and Silent Bob, a topless fortune-teller and Stan Lee). Although the acting resembles that of a High School play, Mallrats has charm, quick wit and enough sense to bring joy more than 20 years later.

On March 14, it was announced that Smith will be directing “Mallrats 2” and has been actively trying to reunite as much of the original cast as possible for the film as he did for “Clerks 2.”

With four original cast members to go, it looks like the kids are back the escalator.

Movies

Trailer Feedback: Get Hard

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This Friday Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart may become the next unlikely comedy duo in cinema when “Get Hard” hits theaters.

When millionaire James King (Ferrell) is found guilty for fraud, the law does not take kindly to his actions and sentences him to San Quentin, one of America’s most ruthless prisons. Upon this knowledge King hires Darnell Lewis (Hart) to help him toughen up before he starts serving time – because he’s black. Unknown to James, Lewis has never been to prison. During Jame’s last month as a free man, Lewis will introduce James to a plethora of thugs and absurd prison “training” that seems like it could be comedy gold.

From what we see in the trailer, Ferrell once again goes out of his way to make himself look as ridiculous as possible. Whether he is attempting to live the thug life, crying loudly or dishing out the worst threats in the world, Hart appears to play the perfect straight man to Ferrell’s blathering idiot.

For the love of God, please let this be as funny as it looks.

Movies

Trailer Feedback: Inside Out

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Did your parents ever tell you there was a person (or people) inside your head controlling your every move?

If so, then it seems that someone at Pixar was told the same by their parents, leading us to Inside Out.

The film will revolve around a family and their emotional teams calculating their every action in what seems to be a hilarious comedy for everyone that only Disney and Pixar can deliver. It’s funny, visually entertaining and downright charming – which is of course a recipe for success in every book.

“Inside Out” looks to be one of the breakout films of the summer that gives us a nice alternative to the excessive action flicks that will surely run amok.

The team behind the feature consisting of “the minds behind Up, Toy Story 3 and Finding Nemo” will be presenting “Inside Out”. Similar to the movies they’ve worked on, “Inside Out” can seemingly do no wrong at this point.

Time will tell come July, but as of now, it looks like a winner.

Movies

Trailer Feedback: Popeye

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Although the world isn’t exactly clamoring for another throwback animation movie, Sony is giving us Popeye anyway.

While the trailer does not look terrible, everyone’s favorite sailor is noticeably missing some key features: his signature pipe and anchor tattoos.

Perhaps the film will focus on a younger Popeye embarking on an early venture that leads him to his first encounter with the love of his life, Olive Oyl.

This also could be Popeye’s first battle with Bluto over Ms. Oyl as well.

Despite the lack of spinach or Wimpy, it is a nice touch that Popeye features Eugene The Jeep – a mystical animal that is described as “living in a three dimensional world, but really belonging to a fourth dimensional world” by Professor Brainstine in a 1936 Popeye comic strip.

The animation looks fun and fluid, the quirky humor of Popeye is captured nicely, and the action is reminiscent of the classic cartoons (sans spinach) – with Popeye literally throwing the kitchen sink at Bluto’s goons.

We may not need another Popeye flick, but this doesn’t look that bad at first glance.

Movies

Trailer Feedback: Ant-Man

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Paul Rudd looks like a surprisingly good choice for Ant-Man; a secondary Marvel hero that you may or may not know of.

If you fall into the latter category, Ant-Man was originally a scientist named Hank Pym who created a substance called “Pym Particles” that allowed him to change size at will. Pym also invented a helmet that could control ants. Scott Lang became the second Ant-Man after stealing the suit from Pym to save his daughter’s life. However, Pym was not vengeful and in fact encouraged Lang to take up the mantle, effectively reforming him from criminal to hero. Later, low-level S.H.I.E.L.D. employee Eric O’Grady stumbles upon the Ant-Man costume at S.H.I.E.L.D.’s headquarters and dons the persona – but is not the nicest guy in the world and almost destroys Ant-Man’s reputation completely.

Fortunately, we’re getting Lang’s redemption story for the feature film. We see Rudd (as Lang) being arrested, being asked by Pym (played by Michael Douglas) to become Ant-Man, and showing affection for his daughter. Effective development in 30 seconds.

Let’s not forget the sweet Ant-Man suit.

We also get  nice shots of Ant-Man shrinking down, roughing up some bad guys and flying on a bug.

Ant-Man looks like it could surprise us as much as Guardians of the Galaxy did last year.

Movies

Trailer Feedback: The Spongebob Movie – Sponge Out of Water

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Loveable Nicktoon Spongebob Squarepants and pals have another movie coming out in 2015.

A CGI movie.

While “Sponge Out of Water” will start in the animated style everyone is used to, the cast of undersea critters will emerge to the surface and become “real” in a Smurf sense (rather than the style of the actual show; which occasionally merges live action and 2-D animation).

The animated section looks like it will entertain the masses as it takes after the show, but the CGI/live action portion that looks to be the majority of the film is already overbearing and cramming as many mediocre to unfunny gags as possible.

All because the Krabby Patty recipe is missing.

Who wanted this?

Movies

Trailer Feedback: Hot Tub Time Machine 2

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2010 gave us Hot Tub Time Machine: a comedy about three friends and a kid who through strange phenomena re-live a specific moment in their lives that also changes the course of their current ones.

Since the original was a hit, Hollywood has kept tradition by giving us a sequel five years later.

Hot Tub Time Machine 2 takes place in the present, or at least seems to begin that way. At some point all of the main characters from the original (sans John Cusack) have time traveled to the past and used their future knowledge to their advantage a-la Biff Tannen. Unfortunately for the present, there are no ideas left to pillage and everyone is headed for a downward spiral. Trying to discover what they did wrong and how to fix their predicament, they decide to re-invoke the powers of the blessed jacuzzi. Along the way they visit the future, run into Adam Scott (Step Brothers), and eventually decide to time travel everywhere just for the heck of it.

Don’t pretend you wouldn’t do the same.

HTTM2 looks like it can hold up with the original. There should be plenty of interesting moments and plenty of laughs to go along with them. However, it also looks like too many of said moments could cause for a convoluted plot with more groans than grimaces.