New Movies 2010

[samadriel]

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=26563

How 'bout that, Bryan Singer back on X-Men.   I stayed well the fuck away from X-Men 3 and that Wolverine movie, but Singer did X-Men 2, and it and Dark Knight were pretty much the best one could hope for, as superhero movies go.  No Wolverine though, as it's an X-Men origin story; surely that's commercial suicide?

[SavageHedgehog]

Does Singer really merit such high esteem any more? He seems to have a hell of a reputation on the basis of one film really. Superman Returns and Valkyrie are not great by any stretch of the imagination, the X-Men movies are fine but I don't think they really merit auteur status or anything. He seems wildly inconsistant at best.

[surreal]

Dark Horizons have a pretty comprehensive round up of the upcoming 2010 films worth keeping an eye on - Part one is here with links to parts 2 and 3 at the footer.

http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/15925/the-notable-films-of-2010-part-one

They're only up to F so plenty more to come...

[Nik Drou]

A new red band trailer for Kick-Ass is out.

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=26575

I thought the entire point of this movie was that the characters have no powers, but become superheroes out of sheer, deranged moxie.  If you have a 12 year old performing impossible slo-mo gun balletics (didn't she have a giant sword in the comic?  That's much better), that kind of undermines it.  Have I missed something?

[samadriel]

A bunch of my comic-fan friends on Facebook linked to that one, and I thought, "Hang on, this is posturing, self-glorifying bullshit ("Kick Ass" indeed); is this a Mark Millar comic?"  Sure enough...

[Jemble Fred]

Tasty new stuff on 'Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll':

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/jan/02/interview-andy-serkis

As the resident biopic slut: cool.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Sam Mendes to direct James Bond (OK, a 2011 movie).

Coo......

Adding that to the fact that Peter Morgan is scripting it, it seems they're definitely trying to stay classy and avoid cheap thrills...

[Jemble Fred]

I finally saw Quantum of Solace last week. God it was charmless. I was screaming out for John Cleese or Robbie Coltrane to show up, or for a bit of Moneypenny flirting. I like Craig, but these new movies have none of the sparkle that's been central to Bond since the very first novel.

[CaledonianGonzo]

EON are damned if they do, damned if they don't. 

For every person wanting a fairly serious Fleming-esque spy thriller in the vein of the last two and the likes of From Russia With Love, there's someone who grew up in the Roger Moore era who wants the Bondola Gondola, JW Pepper and double-taking pigeons back.

Despite Casino Royale being a fairly straight adaptation of said first novel - and the first Bond movie since the early sixties to attract any serious critical plaudits and award noms -  there's a lot of hardcore Bond nuts who slate it for being too accessible and not dour enough, with things like free-running and sinking houses added in solely for superficial and spurious action sequences to cater for teenagers with ADHD.

Even the Brosnan-era movies, which (IMHO and DAD-aside) managed a fairly successful hybrid approach of the Moore/Connery years, are now slipping out of fond memory.  I've watched Brozza go from being many people's favourite Bond to something of a laughing stock in just 5 or 6 years.  Though the CGI tidal-wave surfing in the last movie he did didn't help.

After Marc Forster, the decision to get Mendes on board signifies, or so it seems, an attempt to continue in the vein of the last two films - and I can't really complain if they don't inflict Lee Tamahori's patented brand of charm'n'sparkle on the audience again.

[Jemble Fred]

a fairly serious Fleming-esque spy thriller

But that's the point, Fleming's books are packed with charm and humour which has been pretty much cut out of the films altogether at the moment. I don't seriously want Cleese to silly walk into the next movie, but some balance of light and shade would be nice. As it is, I just find both Craig Bonds dull dull dull.

[SavageHedgehog]

I can't really complain if they don't inflict Lee Tamahori's patented brand of charm'n'sparkle on the audience again.

A tad unfair no? There are 19-21 previous movies Jemble or anyone else could be thinking of when talking fondly of previous films.

That said, personally I loved QOS, far more than Royale or the Brosnan films, and hope they continue along that line despite the mixed-at-best response to it. I'm not sure what I think of Mendes as the only film of his I've seen is American Beauty, years ago. I guess I liked it. In my paranoid, fanboy way I do hope they don't get too carried away going the "oscar bait pedigree" route. Make it relatively down to earth sure, but still fun.

I think though that Mendes is still currently in the rumoured/negotiations phase, not least because of MGM's troubles.

[Spiteface]

Details are really vague but there's (almost definately) a Predator sequel coming out next year. It's called 'Predators'.

I think there will be more than one Predator in this film. Maybe quite a few.

Reading up a little about this, looks like it's gonna be a direct sequel to the first one, disregarding Predator 2 entirely. Robert Rodriguez has also said he's named it "Predators" in a similar fashion to how the second Alien movie was called "Aliens".  Make of that what you will, I'm kinda looking forward to it.  Can't possibly be worse than the AVP films...

[SavageHedgehog]

Was there anything that happened in Predator 2 that needs to be officially disregarded? It's not a bad film, frankly I probably prefer it to Alien 3, but narratively it was a bit pointless. Removing half-remembered films from cannon always strikes me as a bit unnecessary, and sometimes (cf. Superman Returns) unjustly arrogant. I'm looking forward to Predators, would have been more excited were Rodriguez directing it himself; I guess he's busy with a film I'm looking forward to more, the Grindhouse spin-off Machete with a hell-freezes-over cast featuring DeNiro rubbing shoulders with Steven Seagal and my man Jeff Fahey.

[gigolo aunts aren't gentlemen]

I thought the only decent bit in Quantum of Solace was in that fight where they're hanging off ropes, all struggling and frantic and shakeycam, until the one moment where Bond knows he's won and spins round to take the shot. That sums up the impossibly charming smugness of the Fleming Bond. The opera moments were quite good, but apart from that it seemed so stupid, far stupider than the Roger Moore films. It could've been any of the Bourne rip-offs that have cropped up recently. The wry sparkle of the books was in Bond's posh-thug unruffledness, like Peter Cook in Six of the Best. Casino Royale was promising but I think much of that promise was pissed away; hopefully Mendes can make it a bit more interesting.

[wheatgod]

I thought the only decent bit in Quantum of Solace was in that fight where they're hanging off ropes, all struggling and frantic and shakeycam, until the one moment where Bond knows he's won and spins round to take the shot.

That would've made such a great opening-sequence-starter. I didn't like most of the scene though, a bit too nuts and hard to see whats going on.

The best scene for me was the bit in the opera house. Intense!

Its a shame the villain was so poo. He was making a lake!!!!!!!!!!!! O M F G.

Looking forward to the next one.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

The wry sparkle of the books was in Bond's posh-thug unruffledness

Which Quantum of Solace seems to do perfectly, heh...

[CaledonianGonzo]

Quote from: CaledonianGonzo on Today at 01:39:21 pm

I can't really complain if they don't inflict Lee Tamahori's patented brand of charm'n'sparkle on the audience again.

A tad unfair no? There are 19-21 previous movies Jemble or anyone else could be thinking of when talking fondly of previous films.

True - but only two or three with Coltrane and/or Cleese (though the one that features them both (TWINE) is my favourite of the post-The Living Daylights/pre-Casino Royale years).  Also why I mentioned some of the more outlandish bits from the seventies.

Anyway, QoS splits opinion fairly evenly, not least due to Forster's handling of the action scenes, and I'm not sure that there's anything in Mendes' filmography to suggest he has the chops for the non-dramatic sequences.  It's an interesting choice, though, so got to give credit to Babs and MGW.

Quote

    The wry sparkle of the books was in Bond's posh-thug unruffledness

Which Quantum of Solace seems to do perfectly, heh...

The aforementioned opera scene in QoS stands as a textbook example of exactly that characteristic.  The books have pizazz, flair, sex, sadism, witty badinage and 'n**gers' so black that they're 'almost purple'.  What they don't have is the one-liners, gadgets, stunts and slapstick that the movies do (or, at least, the non-Terence Young ones).  As I said, satisfying both the cinematic diehards and Fleming is Gospel camps is a tricky mix to get right.  At least in the last two movies the latter lot are getting a look in for about the first time since For Your Eyes Only.

[SavageHedgehog]

Anyway, QoS splits opinion fairly evenly, not least due to Forster's handling of the action scenes, and I'm not sure that there's anything in Mendes' filmography to suggest he has the chops for the non-dramatic sequences. 

Jarhead might, don't know as I haven't seen it. I suppose I'll give it a look sometime soon, and I've been meaning to give Revolutionary Road a go anyway.

[boxofslice]

I'm not sure that there's anything in Mendes' filmography to suggest he has the chops for the non-dramatic sequences. 

Wasn't there a few shoot-outs in Road To Perdition?  Not sure he would be my choice, his last two films were pretentious wank... in fact most of his films are.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Jarhead might, don't know as I haven't seen it. I suppose I'll give it a look sometime soon, and I've been meaning to give Revolutionary Road a go anyway.

It's great visually, but potentially a bit too much of an auteur movie to give much of a clue about how Bond 23 will play out (EON are notoriously hands on).  From what I remember, it doesn't really have much action for a war movie (though I suppose that was kind of the point).

MGW is on record as disliking the editing in QoS's action sequences, so the pseudo-Bourne stylings will probably be banished.

Edit:  Aye, IIRC, Road to Perdition does have some shoot outs, but none of them really stick out in the memory.  Along with most of the movie, to be honest, Paul Newman aside.

His last one - Away We Go - is meant to be pretty good, though, if about as far from Bond as it's possible to imagine.

[VegaLA]

the Grindhouse spin-off Machete with a hell-freezes-over cast featuring DeNiro rubbing shoulders with Steven Seagal and my man Jeff Fahey.

I hope they are not ditching my man Danny Trejo in favour of Seagal?

Quick glance confirms thats not the case. Oh and Tom Savini and Jessica Alba are casted. Nice.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0985694/

All's well with the world again.

[CaledonianGonzo]

All's well with the world again.

Best not read this then:

http://www.latinoreview.com/news/exclusive-a-look-at-the-machete-script-7709

[confettiinmyhair]

I'm a Michael Cera hater, but this looks quite funny

Youth In Revolt - Official Trailer [HD]

[boxofslice]

A-Team movie trailer.

A-Team Movie Trailer http://movie-trailer.com

Looked ok until that stupid shit with the tank.

[An tSaoi]

Looked good until they threw in a random topless shot of yer man from The Hangover. And is that a bad Southern accent yer man from District 9 is sporting?

[Jemble Fred]

The problem with it is that The A Team works too perfectly as a movie in a way, so there's no real curiosity as to how it'll work – it's just a feature-length episode, with a different cast. You know exactly what you're going to get. Result = meh.

[boxofslice]

The problem with it is that The A Team works too perfectly as a movie in a way, so there's no real curiosity as to how it'll work – it's just a feature-length episode, with a different cast. You know exactly what you're going to get. Result = meh.

Yeah, pretty much every episode that I can remember followed the same story line.  Woman/man/family/small business are hassled by some nasty people, woman/man/family/small business hire A-Team to scare off nasty people, A-Team scare off nasty people, nasty people come back mad and capture A-Team in shed/garage/DIY store, A-Team bust out in souped up car made from bits of whatever was lying around in shed/garage/DIY store, shoot bad guys and win. No-one dies.

Expect film to be the same... but maybe people will die.

[Desi Rascal]

http://www.thegoodsoldier.com/downloads/The_Good_Soldier-Press_Kit.pdf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2WSY5uELPY

[Custard]

Saw The Road the other day, and greatly enjoyed it. Seems its been getting some mixed-reviews from people, but i liked it. It's relentlessly bleak, but i like these end-of-the-world type films, me. They don't try to make it seem cool or exciting here, its just dark and feels much more real, as a previous poster noted. Best film i've seen so far this year, any road (hur hur!).

Saw Harry Brown. Didn't like that.

It's basically an hour and a half of toot designed purely to get Daily Mail readers all hot n bothered.

Its like Gran Torino, except without the great writing, excellent supporting-cast, emotional gut-punches, and beautiful pay-off.

None of it ever seems to ring true or seem believable, despite the obvious attempts at "gritty" realism. Its like a cartoon. A "aren't all the kids bloody 'orrible" cartoon, filled with almost comical, one-dimensional characters.

Honestly, its as if Garry Bushell and Richard Littlejohn got together on a boozy sunday and wrote a film. In ten minutes. And an even more pissed-up Michael Caine agreed to be in it.

Its every bit as hateful as the people it spends the entire time attacking. Its just not enjoyable on any level. I love Michael Caine, but this is so overated its untrue. Load of bollocks.

And finally, I also saw The Lovely Bones.

Apart from one really daft moment towards the end (in a film full of them, admittedly), this was really enjoyable. Apart from... y'know.... all the child-murder n that.

Seriously though, good stuff.

[hundred]

Its like Gran Torino, except without the ... excellent supporting-cast...

Really? They were terrible. They weren't even actors, they were picked out of the community for 'realism'. I was actually laughing at how bad they were in some parts.

I also saw The Lovely Bones and thought it was trash. I didn't really feel anything for the family and the couple seemed to break up in about 3 minutes. AND one of them was Marky Mark. Peter Jackson filled the film with pretty pictures instead of telling the family's story. Also, Stanley Tucci as Kiddie Killer wasn't remotely menacing. Susan Sarandon was completely superfluous. The girl in the lead was good though.

There are a lot of screeners around at the moment, I'm presuming for the Oscars, and although nothing surprises me with those awards anymore, there are some shockers up for consideration, The Lovely Bones being one of them.