Netflix has confirmed the sequel through a funny audition tape with orcs trying out for a role opposite Will Smith, who is set to return along with Joel Edgerton and director David Ayer. Ayer will also be writing the script. They tease a handful of really cheesy titles, but the one I kinda dug was “Bad Boys In Mordor.” Come on, Netflix, make it happen!
So you may have noticed that screenwriter Max Landis’ name wasn’t mentioned, and that’s because he’s the one guy who ain’t comin’ back. Aside from him being a bad writer he’s been in the news for the same reason most guys in Hollywood are in the news lately, and Netflix doesn’t want any part of that. Between Kevin Spacey and Danny Masterson they’ve had quite enough of it, I’m sure.
The most interesting thing about the British naval action flick Stratton, based on the popular (?) line of books by Duncan Falconer, have nothing to do with anything that happens on screen. Once a pet project of Superman himself, Henry Cavill, he abruptly left the production a week before shooting over “creative differences.” It’s easy to see why. While Dominic Cooper stepped in to take over the role of Special Boat Service agent John Stratton, the film offers not a single shred of anything to separate it from an episode of…well, pick your favorite British spy TV series.
The Special Boat Service is basically the British equivalent to our Navy SEALs. They shoot things and do lots of swimming in gear that looks too heavy for such things. Stratton is the top of the class, and so he’s justifiably pissed when an early mission to infiltrate a terrorist’s factory headquarters goes south, with everything pointing to a betrayal from within. It also cost him the life of a friend and fellow American agent who was part of the joint operation.
There will need to be revenge. You just won’t care if Stratton gets it. First off, the villain is just some non-descript assassin, played by the forever non-descript German Thomas Kretschmann, with deep ties to MI6 and a plan to launch a biological attack on the world. The stakes never feel that high, though, mostly because everything is so damned dull. It would be one thing is Stratton were an aggressive hot head who plays loose with the rules. Sure, it would be cliché but at least it’s something. Instead he seems to have no personality at all. He’s assigned a new partner, an American named Hank (Austin Stowell) who knew Stratton’s fallen partner, and he brings a bit of instability to this flatlining squad, just not enough.
The cast is excellent…on paper. Cooper is surrounded by Connie Nielsen as the head of MI6, or their version of “M”; Tom Felton from the Harry Potter flicks is there as a representative for the crown or something, and Gemma Chan is an analyst on Stratton’s team. If this film has a Julia Stiles equivalent from the Bourne movies, I guess it’s her. All of them struggle to bring wooden dialogue to anything resembling real conversation, occasionally broken up by bland action sequences from the generally-reliable director Simon West. Most of the shootouts are standard issue stuff, not bad just forgettable, and a chase through London aboard a double decker bus is as slow and disengaging as you might imagine.
The best scenes in the film involve Stratton and a drunken old friend (Derek Jacobi) who lives on a houseboat. Cooper gets to shed the armor of seriousness and shoot the breeze with Jacobi, who is always a joy to watch even such minor role. The problem is the scenes they share feel like they should be part of something else, totally disconnected from the supposedly world-threatening events happening around them.
Doubtful Stratton would have been any better if Cavill had stuck around, but if this mediocrity is the reason why he left then it’s hard to argue with his choice.
I’ll be honest, I kinda forgot this Death Wish remake was happening. The film, a redo of the Charles Bronson classic, now directed by horror maestro Eli Roth and starring Bruce Willis, was quietly bumped from the schedule when it should have opened back in November. That’s not a good sign, and this latest trailer isn’t too great, either.
It’s possible we’ve just outgrown the very idea of Bruce Willis as a badass. Maybe he’s had too many awful movies in a row or something. Whatever it is, he’s totally unconvincing here as a mild-mannered father who turns vigilante after his wife and daughter are violently attacked. Roth, whose horror movies have a signature style all his own, seems lost in this equation, too. Eh.
Here’s the synopsis: Dr. Paul Kersey (Bruce Willis) is a surgeon who only sees the aftermath of his city’s violence when it is rushed into his ER – until his wife (Elisabeth Shue) and college-age daughter (Camila Morrone) are viciously attacked in their suburban home. With the police overloaded with crimes, Paul, burning for revenge, hunts his family’s assailants to deliver justice. As the anonymous slayings of criminals grabs the media’s attention, the city wonders if this deadly avenger is a guardian angel or a grim reaper. Fury and fate collide in the intense action-thriller Death Wish.
Penned by Joe Carnahan with Elisabeth Shue, Vincent D’Onofrio, Dean Norris, Camila Morrone, and Kimberly Elise co-starring, Death Wish opens March 2nd.
Nowadays anything can be the start of a potential movie franchise; a book, real-life event, a toy, a video game, a tweet, or an Internet meme. The whole Slender Man meme was something I never really caught on to when it started back in 2009 through a user’s photographed images of a tall, skinny ghoul that tortured children. The supernatural being steadily grew in online popularity, becoming a creature of legend and myth, and in 2014 a pair of girls attempted an actual murder in an attempt to make a sacrifice to him. That’s just crazy, yo. But it’s also perfect fodder for a movie, and that’s why we have the new trailer for Slender Man, which seems to be cast full of castoffs from other horror movies.
With direction by Sylvain White (The Losers) and a script by David Birke (Paul Verhoeven’s Elle), there’s reason for some optimism here. Jaz Sinclair (Paper Towns), Joey King (Wish Upon, The Conjuring), Annalise Basso (Oculus), Julia Goldani Telles, and Alex Fitzalan star with Javier Botet playing the paper-thin, well-dressed terror. Botet was born with a condition that makes his limbs abnormally long, making him literally born for the role. As for the plot? Um, people being terrorized by the Slender Man? Isn’t that enough?
I have a feeling this will be scariest to those who have no idea about the Internet memes and fan-fics that sparked it. We’ll find out when Slender Man creeps into theaters on May 18th.
Well, 2017 was quite a thing, wasn’t it? I mean, thank goodness it’s over because 2018 has to be less crazy, right? The one thing we can all agree on is what the best movies of the year were. Right? RIGHT!?!?
Of course there will be no agreement here, but I’m going to countdown my 10 favorite movies of 2017 anyway! I may even do the entire top 20 if it doesn’t take too long! Will your favorite movie make the cut? If not, feel free to hit up the Cinema Royale Facebook page and tell me what your list looked like. Enjoy the show!
I wonder why Hollywood loves stories about urban black or black adjacent youth (looking at you Step Up) who are very talented in, what used to be, the outsider culture of Hip Hop, then they create conflict with some facet of classic academia and have them ascend to meet their potential? And now you’re like why are you starting this review this way? It’s because Love Beats Rhymes is one of those movies, but unlike others in this trope it’s 2018 and Hip Hop culture is by far the most dominant form of black culture, we have the metric data to prove it’s popularity, and that now we have ivy league institutions teaching classes about hip hop and it’s lyrics, so why am I watching a movie about a young woman having to conform her beliefs and talents in a poetry class that’s telling her rapping isn’t on the same level as written poetry?
Before I go further, Love Beats Rhymes is about a young woman, a battle rapper name Coco Ford , portrayed by Azealia Banks. She and her group compete in Battle Rap competitions and are successful but want to take it the next level by getting signed to a record label. Only known for battle raps they are having a hard time getting signed. After having some heartbreak with a fellow member of the group, Mahlik (John David Washington) at the behest of her mother she goes back to school to finish up her last few credits to graduate. Here she takes a poetry class taught by Professor Dixon (Jill Scott) and her teaching assistant Derek (Lucien Laviscout) who constantly discounts the nature and content of rap music and tries to get her to find her voice in the ways of poetry. The movie is pretty paint by numbers in terms of story and plot, it feels like you’ve seen this story before, like it’s a script from an earlier time put through a new lens. What really holds this movie together is Banks’ performance. Banks has so much screen presence and charisma that even when the story becomes baffling Banks can keeps the viewer interested and makes you want her to win.
Both of the love interests in this movie are quite weak and don’t feel up to par with Banks’ Coco. We’ve seen better from Washington in HBOs Ballers but he’s not given enough to make an actual character in this story. He feels wasted the whole time. The character of Derek does so many things to tear down Coco that I don’t see why she wants to be with him in the end other than his attractiveness and London accent. Lorraine Toussaint plays Coco’s mother Nichelle and like Banks really lights up the screen and works well with Banks but isn’t in the movie much at all. Jill Scott’s Professor Dixon only comes off as a petty, mean teacher that really doesn’t even come off as being hard on her students to make them better, just jealous. Scott really plays into it well. Almost femme fatale like in her portrayal while the character feels like a waste Scott makes the best out of what she had. This movie overall is just ok, not outstanding in any way but it was nice to see a story like this with a black woman as the hero so it wasn’t a complete waste.
I’m excited for the third Cloverfield movie, but it looks like it’ll be a little longer before it opens. Paramount has moved the sequel to 10 Cloverfield Lane from February 2nd, 2018 to April 20th, 2018. This is just the latest in a series of bumps on the schedule. The film was supposed to have hit theaters in February 2017 before it was moved to October of the same year.
Originally titled God Particle, the film is directed by Julius Onah is appears to be more of a sci-fi film than its predecessors, which were creature features and psychological horrors. Starring David Oyelowo, John Krasinski, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Aksel Hennie, Elizabeth Debicki, Ziyi Zhang, Daniel Bruhl, and Chris O’Dowd, undoubtedly the best cast the franchise has ever had, the story takes place on an American space station that accidentally causes the Earth to vanish after a mistake with a particle accelerator.
I don’t know if we should read too much into these moves or not, but something does seem to be up. The April 20th slot is looking pretty tough with Dwayne Johnson’s Rampage and the Anna Faris comedy remake Overboard opening that weekend.
Unless your head has been buried in the sand you couldn’t have missed the seismic shift to the Hollywood landscape in 2017. The #metoo movement has not only shaken up the halls of power, giving women a greater voice within the industry, but this has also been a banner year for female-driven movies. From Atomic Blonde to Lady Bird, women were a driving force at the box office in a way that hasn’t been seen in 59 years.
The top 3 domestic movies of 2017 were all led by women: Daisy Ridley’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi with $533M, Emma Watson in Beauty and the Beast with $504M, and Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman at $412M. The last time this happened was in 1958 with South Pacific starring Mitzi Gaynor, Auntie Mame featuring Rosalind Russell, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof led by Elizabeth Taylor.
I’m curious to see if this lasts, or if Hollywood does what it usually does and reverts back to previous form. Next year should be prime real estate for the trend to continue with Ocean’s 8 coming up, but then we all thought there would be a movement like this in 2016 with the female-led Ghostbusters. It just goes to show that these things can’t be forced, they must happen organically as they did in 2017. [via TheWrap]
Christian Bale in a Star Wars movie? Hey, why the Hell not? He doesn’t generally do big tentpole movies, unless you count Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, but apparently he considered taking a role in Solo: A Star Wars Story, the same one that ultimately went to another screen veteran, Woody Harrelson. Bale confirmed it on the Happy Sad Confused podcast…
“Yes, [it was] very tempting. I not only love the films, going back to my childhood, but also have a very long relationship with Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall because they did Empire of the Sun many years back. There was discussion, [and] I hope there will be future discussions.”
Bale doesn’t really go into specifics on what happened. We don’t know if things progressed far enough that he was made an offer and turned it down. At that time Phil Lord and Chris Miller were the directors and I doubt their loose-knit comedic style would have suited him, anyway. However I think he would have fit in with Ron Howard’s traditional approach just fine. The role went to Harrelson, taking on the role of Solo’s mentor Beckett, and it’s tough to complain about that.
However, something tells me this won’t be the last we hear of this. Bale’s connection with Kennedy and Marshall may have them dialing his number for a future Star Wars movie. Doesn’t he seem like the perfect guy to play a Jedi Master?
Solo: A Star Wars Story opens May 25th. You can see Bale in theaters now as part of Scott Cooper’s Western drama, Hostiles.
With the New Year upon us, that means some of our favorite shows are coming back! After an almost month-long hiatus, The Gifted returns! The previous episode “eXploited” gave us plenty of action, a death, and one hell of a cliffhanger as a new player emerged. The Strucker siblings were subjected to Doctor Campbell’s experiments, where they were forced to display their Fenris powers after he straight up killed Dreamer and threatened to do the same to Blink if they did not show off just what they can do. Thanks to an adamantium cell, they didn’t bring the building down, but showed Campbell just how strong the two of them are. Lucky for them, the Mutant Underground tried to stage a rescue. However, Marcos and John didn’t factor in that one of their own had a sinister agenda. Revealing that she was one of three telepathic triplets, Esme used her telepathic powers to force the Sentinel Services guards to turn on each other (and kill each other) to ensure that everyone could escape. While it’s good that many mutants were saved, the Mutant Underground surely doesn’t approve of the Stepford Cuckoos’ methods. Or do they????
Let’s take a look at a few highlights from this week’s episode “3 x 1:”
Flashbacks:
This week’s flashback focused on Blink before she was on the run and joined the Mutant Underground. Here, she was on a simple date to the movies (nice touch that the theater played “Xenomorph” instead of a movie in the Alien franchise). As they are getting ready to head to Blink’s car, they are surrounded by a group of anti-mutant people. Here we are introduced to The Purifiers. Comic book fans know them as an anti-mutant Christian fundamentalist terrorist group that was dedicated to the destruction of mutants, seeing them as Satanic. For the time being, they don’t seem as well armed as their comic book counterparts, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t as dangerous. As they confront Blink and her date, they chase her out by firebombing her car. To her heartbreak, her date doesn’t stand up for her since he’s “not a mutant” and she’s forced to run and teleport off. Two Distinct Funerals:
The episode begins with the funerals for both Dreamer as well as the Sentinel Services. Marcos delivers the eulogy for Dreamer while Agent Jace gives the eulogy for his friend who was killed by Esme using her telepathic powers on him. Jace, who seemed to be becoming more neutral after last week’s visit from the Struckers, now he’s back to going full force against the Mutant Underground.
Introducing The Hellfire Club:
With the Stepford Cuckoos revealed last episode, it was a matter of time for their group from the comics, The Hellfire Club to come forward. In the comics, the secret society of 1 percenter mutants was a thorn in the X-Men’s side. However, on the show, it looks like they will be a little grayer. The Stepford Cuckoos report to someone, who is perturbed with them leaving so many bodies, but they tell him that they will bring the Mutant Underground on their side. They also reveal to Polaris that her father was a member of the Hellfire Club. Comic fans know that Polaris is the daughter of Magneto. However, it looks like the show will retcon her origin story and have her be the child of some as now mystery Hellfire club member.
The Cuckoos Divide The Mutant Underground:
Esme and her sisters come to the Mutant Underground with an alliance proposal against the Sentinel Services. Given recent history, they are seen by many as murdering mutant terrorists and the Mutand Underground is just a group of mutants who want to do the right thing. As the heirs to the X-Men, the Mutant Underground doesn’t want to break the rules against their enemies, no matter what. However, the Mutant Underground is split as to joining forces with the Cuckoos. Marcos seems more like the Professor Xavier of the group and doesn’t want to join with them. His girlfriend Polaris ironically is the Magneto of the group and realizes that this is a war and they need all the help they can get. Many background characters also have the same thoughts as well.
Sentinel Services Have a New Weapon:
We finally get to see what Campbell has really been working on with his imprisoned mutants. For most of the season, we thought he was simply turning mutants into “Hounds,” drug-addicted mutants who will do whatever they say and fight against other mutants. However, on the science ends, Campbell has been analyzing powers and finally figured out a way to combine the powers of two powerful mutants to use against the Mutant Underground. In their first trial run, they destroy a Mutant Underground safe house, the one that the Struckers were at when they decided to move on and head to Mexico. The two nameless mutants were able to rip the house apart piece by piece. It was only because of Laura’s pseudo-boyfriend Wes’ illusion powers were they able to hide in time for the rest of the Mutant Underground to come and rescue them. Andy was knocked out in the commotion but when he woke up, the Cuckoos managed to telepathically guide him and the rest of the Mutant Underground. So by default, the Mutant Underground is now in league with the Hellfire Club against Sentinel Services and Trask Industries.
We have two weeks until the explosive season finale that promises a showdown between the Mutant Underground and Sentinel Services!
