Dark Knight Trailer #3 Released

Matt

The Dark Knight Rises, coming July 20, is the final and much anticipated conclusion to Christopher Nolan’s brilliant vision of Batman. The latest trailer looks very promising, leaving much to be the imagination while whetting our appetites for what promises to be an incredible closing chapter in the Nolan series. Enjoy.

 

The Dark Knight Rises Trailer Released

Matt

The promise of “The Dark Knight Rises” is unlimited. I felt like that before “The Dark Knight,” which is hands down one of the best comic book films ever made.

I had concerns about the number of characters and villains in “The Dark Knight.” There was Two Face and Joker, and it’s difficult to pull off two villains in the same film because they can often not be developed into anything more than a cookie cutter bad guy. But that was not the case, at all. Christopher Nolan understands storytelling and has handled the Batman franchise with great care and respect for his audience.

I have no qualms saying that “The Dark Knight Rises” will be just as good as its prequels. The Bane charater, played by Tom Hardy, looks nothing short of menacing and terrible. The above photo is enough to give you the creeps. We also get a small glimpse of Catwoman, thought it’s hard to see much. Even though this trailer is a mere wetting of our appetites, “The Dark Knight Rises” already looks amazing. It’s going to be a long year of waiting.

Thanks for our sister blog TV-Tastic for the trailer!

Red

After trading in his professional past as a black-ops CIA operative for a new identity, Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is basking in normality. But he’s forced to return to old habits when an assassin puts a target on his back and goes after the woman (Mary-Louise Parker) he loves. Helen Mirren and John Malkovich co-star as former members of Frank’s team who reluctantly reassemble to save his life in this Golden Globe-nominated action-comedy.

Brian
Rating: 3 out of 10

Red is a bad movie. There’s no way around it. I tried to focus on the positive elements of this film. The cast is fantastic all around, particularly Hellen Mirren and John Malkovich. They chew up every scene they’re in and deliver the dialogue in a fun and engaging way. Bruce Willis is also good, as he always is, playing the action hero (a role he was born to play going all the way back to 1988’s Die Hard).

But, I have to point out that the story just plain sucks. It centers on the idea that the Vice President wants to kill a group of ex-CIA soldiers that witnessed his war crimes years and years ago in South America. That’s it…..boooorrriiinngg! It also brings up several questions: Why the hell would he wait 20+ years to take them out? Also, who was talking about his war crimes or threatening to go public? Not a soul! It’s such a huge gaping hole in the plot that is never explained and can’t be excused away as: “Well, it’s just an action movie.” All movies, regardless of genre, have to give me a reason to give a shit about what I’m experiencing. Red gives me zero reasons to stay attentive except for the great cast that is given nothing to do that’s remotely interesting. In fact, I can’t remember a film that had this much action that was so boring. There’s very little danger, no one dies, and the situations are just flat out ridiculous. For example, Bruce Willis has a shootout with a character on a city street. Well, you could call it a city street except for the fact that THERE’S NO PEOPLE ON IT!!! Then, there’s another scene where Bruce Willis breaks into the CIA headquarters, which can apparently be done if you dress in a general’s uniform and have a special contact lens. Once he’s inside the headquarters, he goes to the file room where he meets an old CIA rep. who is old friends with him and hands him the whole file he needs. Why didn’t he just give him a call and meet up with him outside? The mere fact that I’m figuring out all this shit after one viewing and the makers of this turd lived with it for years is just shocking.

Dreamcatcher

Four boyhood pals perform a heroic act and are changed by the powers they gain in return. Years later, on a hunting trip in the Maine woods, they’re overtaken by a vicious blizzard that harbors an ominous presence. Challenged to stop an alien force, the friends must first prevent the slaughter of innocent civilians by a military vigilante … and then overcome a threat to the bond that unites the four of them.

Matt
Rating: 2 out of 10

In a word: crap.

This is a film based on the very popular Stephen King novel by the same name, but unfortunately this film has gone the way  most of the author’s books have when adapted to the big screen. It’s totally confusing, hard to piece to together, vague, and poorly acted — even by Morgan Freeman who could do nothing to save incredibly hokey dialogue.

In short, four friends rescue a retarded kid from some bullies. The retarded kid then gives them psychic powers. Flash forward 20 years, a plague breaks out from an alien who has been hunted for decades by a secret military group. You with me? OK. The alien is inside of one of the guys heads and he’s slowly killing off all the friends. The leader of the military is a psycho who is also after the friends, mainly the one whose been possessed by a super evil alien who wants to poison our drinking water with these crazy alien snakes that have been killing everyone. The alien snakes hatch eggs in bodies and then pop out their butts covered in blood. Yes… I’m serious.

In the end, the retarded kid shows up as an adult, turns into a bad-ass alien, and kills the super evil alien. A bunch of people die in between in horrible ways and you’re left completely confused, not only by the story, but how they made such a terrible film. Completely forgettable.

Invictus

The film tells the inspiring true story of how President Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) joined forces with the captain of South Africa’s rugby team (Matt Damon) to help unite their country. Newly elected President Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa’s rugby team as they make their historic run to the 1995 Rugby World Cup Championship match. Directed by Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino… Do we really need to go on?).

Matt
Rating: 6 out of 10

As a rugby player and fan, I was pumped to finally have a good rugby movie. I have not seen 2008’s “Forever Young” and the handful of foreign films about my favorite sport, but they’re few and far between.

But this is, after all, a sports movie, and this one follows suit to its sappy predecessors. Nelson Mandela is an incredible human being. He saw small ways to fix problems, and rugby was a part of that. It was a small piece in the extremely complex social puzzle of post-Apartheid South Africa. But this film takes some historical leaps, pinning the change of culture entirely on the Rugby World Cup.

While the story is true — Mandella did call on François Pienaar, the captain of the South African team to help bridge the gap between whites and blacks — it wasn’t the pinnacle turning point for the country. Some argue it still hasn’t happened.

But looking past that, the film has a great cast. Damon is solid and Freeman simply becomes Mandela. There are likable moments, moments where words are said that make you cringe, and parts of the film that tug on your heart strings with the unbearable weight of melancholy nostalgia. It’s a solid film, but far off from Eastwood’s other masterful work, like “Mystic River” and “Unforgiven,” but is far better than most American sports movies. It’s a must watch for rugby fans.