Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Most Anticipated Movies of 2012

2012 looks to be an epic year in cinema with three huge blockbusters. The first two being #1 and #2 on my list and the third being Peter Jackson’s epic two part return to Middle Earth. Here's the list, and I swear, I didn't see MadMan's list before I made my own.


20. Chronicle (Trank) To finish off the list I have a movie that appears to be what Akira fans have been waiting for. Another low budget thriller. Trailer is very promising.

19. World War Z (Forster) The book was nothing special, and multiple delays and reshoot have dropped this movie to the bottom of my list, but I still need to see how Brad Pitt is going to deal with a zombie apocalypse. It’s also being directed by the author of the book, which is a bad sign...

18. The Lords of Salem (Zombie) Rob Zombie’s last Halloween movie was a disaster, so he’s returning to Salem Massachusetts to direct a movie about the witch trials. Actually, the synopsis sounds a lot like an R rated Hocus Pocus.

17. John Carter (Stanton) An interesting adaptation, but the trailer is too much CGI for me. Brings back horrific memories of Attack of the Clones. Trailer below.

16. Total Recall (Wiseman) Colin Farrell seems to be rebooting his carrier with strong performances in Horrible Bosses and the Fright Night remake. We all love Arnie’s original, will the remake be as strong?


15. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Jackson) No description necessary. Trailer Below.

14. Oz: The Great and Powerful (Raimi) Speaking of Sam Raimi, he has his own adaptation of the Wizzard of OZ due out next year. Not much is known, except that Bruce Campbell will be making an appearance.

13. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengence (Neveldine & Talor) The first movie was horrible, so the studio decided to reboot it with a quasi-sequel that was darker. The first footage they released during comic con had Nicholas Cage pissing fire. Will the movie hold up? Trailer below.

12. Silent Hill: Revelation (Bassett) – Not much has been shown other than some set work on their Facebook page. The first movie was the closest we’ve seen to a decent video game to movie adaptation. Can we expect equally great things from Silent Hill 2?

11. Argo (Affleck) Ben Affleck’s new film about a CGI agent freeing Americans at the Canadian ambassador. Affleck’s last movie The Town was quite good, and he might be on the rise as a prestige Hollywood director.

10. Skyfall (Mendes) The new Bond movie due out next year. No set pieces or trailers have been released yet.

9. The Avengers (Whedon) What as the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America and Thor brought us? Finally a movie with seven super heroes teaming up against some dark evil. Trailer Below.

8. The Hunger Games (Ross) The book was a huge hit (even if it was a complete rip-off from Battle Royale) so the movie should get extra attention. Will it? Trailer Below.

7. Brave (Andrews & Chapman) Pixar’s new beautiful movie. Trailer Below

6. The Dictator (Charles) Sacha Baron Cohen’s genius is returns to the big screen. Trailer Below

5. The Amazing Spider-Man (Webb) After Sam Raimi was forced out from the studio due to creative differences, Spider-Man was rebooted with a new director and cast. Hard to tell from the first trailer how good it will be. I sure hope that FPS view at the end is cut out of the final movie. Trailer Below

4. Django Unchained (Tarantino) Quentin Tarantino’s new movie: Synopsis: “With the help of his mentor, a slave-turned bounty hunter sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.

3. Taken 2 (Megaton) Did you see Taken? Well Taken 2 should have even more Liam Neeson kicking ass. No trailer is released yet.

2. Prometheus (Scott) Ridley Scot returns to the genre he created with what appears to be a prequel to Alien (only he won’t describe it that way). I highly recommend watching this trailer in HD. Trailer Below

1. The Dark Knight Rises (Nolan) Chris Nolan and Christian Bale return for the epic conclusion of the Batman trilogy. Trailer Below

2011 in Review

This is a quick recap of my 2011 most anticipated movie list. There are three days left in 2011, I have seen a total of 146 movies, 47 of them from 2011. Here is my list and a quick summary of impressions.

1. Tree of Life – So Terrence Malick makes one film a decade and this one just so happened to be in production since 2008, easily making it my most anticipated of 2011. Unfortunately it just wasn’t worth the way; Tree of Life was painfully slow. The story is not all that interesting and the narrative is edited in a way where the structure can be recognized after the conclusion. The result is mixed of MTV styled jump cut scenes that feel overly pretentious even if Malick is sincere as sincerity exists. I just don’t see what all the hype is about… Grade: 66


2. Super - This was funny. Exactly what I was hoping for out of Gunn and you can see some Slither parallels. A lot more gruesome than I was expecting and I'm still in love with Ellen Page. Super is what Kick-Ass should have been. Grade: 85


3. Super 8 - This movie was timeless Spielberg...from director Abrams. The first 3/4 was near perfect for me on an emotional, immerse-able and entertainment level. The kid actors were great, loved their individual personalities, the tone of the movie was made apparent from the start... But Super 8 is good, not great. The script needs to be a bit stronger with too many side stories and back stories that make the story feel convoluted. Abrams wanted something to come together in the end, but instead he creates more questions that deserve to be answered. Still a fun movie. Grade: 89


4. X-Men: First Class – Another X-men film that feels crammed with too many mutants with so little purpose. In the end, First Class contains two great cameos, some forced jokes and Vaughn tries too hard to piece scenes together with the preceding movies while intentionally leaving plenty of continuity errors to annoy X-men nerds. Who is really interested in an X-men movie without Wolverine anyway? Grade: 75


5. Extraterrestre (Still have not seen yet)

6. Stake Land - I liked this. Stake Land does not work as a horror too well but it's more of a journey on the same page as Monsters was- with more character interaction, more action and more at stake (pun intended). The archetype drama is done poorly, but it's not really about the obvious climax in the end, and more about Martin which ties the opening monologue with a relativity satisfying conclusion. Grade: 61


7. Hobo With a Shotgun – I’m fine with humor and movies and games that are “Over the Top” but HWAS is way too over the top to be entertaining, even with a Grindhouse type feel. There's also a character that acts like a Stiffler knockoff. For a second I almost thought it was Sean W Scott. Grade: 46 Full Review Here


8. Anonymous (Still have not seen yet)

9. Apollo 18 (Still have not seen yet)

10. Carnage (Still have not seen yet)

11. Rubber Full Review here. Grade: 84


12. Knights of Badassdom (Still have not seen yet)

13. Piranha 3DD (Still have not seen yet)

14. Conan the Barbarian (Still have not seen yet)


15. Cowboys & Aliens, The worst movie of 2011. I'd rather watch Priest and Legion back to back then to watch this again. Grade: 18


16. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (Still have not seen yet)


17. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. MI4 is by far the best of the series action wise. I was impressed not only with the creative set pieces, but how tense most scenes were. Something the series lacked since the famous hang from the ceiling scene. The weakest aspect of the film: We barely know the "villain". Up until the final scene, we don't really get a feeling for just how evil he really is. Wanting to blow up a city, start nuclear war, etc etc it's been done so many times before. The threat and urgency is not felt- We know they're fighting for a cause but it headed in a direction we are most familiar with in Disney films (which is not surprising since Brad Bird directs Pixar movies). Sure the action was intense during the journey, but was there any doubt that Hunt wasn't going to win? Grade: 89



18. Immortals (Still have not seen yet)



19. Captain America: The First Avenger, The most bland “super hero” movie ever made? Quite possibly. Lacks emotion and suspense and merely functions as the last major puzzle piece needed before The Avengers is released next year. The best aspect? Hugo Weaving as Red Skull. Grade: 53


20. Thor – The opposite of Captain America. Impeccably crafted, casted, directed, funny and more action from a super hero that actually HAS powers. Grade: 79


Monday, June 13, 2011

What I'm Currently Obsessed With (June 2011)

School has absolutely demolished my blogging rate lately. I currently have 4 weeks left and expect to do some serious movie reviews when I have some free time. I’ve been dominating my movie list this year- though my free time has been sparse, I’d rather relax on my couch or in bed and watch a 2 hour movie then plug away at a video game or book- Video games are not appealing to me right now because I have no satisfaction in completing them. I haven’t even completed Portal 2 yet. And books, well I’ve read more business cases and books in the last 6 months than my prior 6 years.... So movies have satisfied a happy medium right now...

Here is the progress on my top 20 anticipated movies of 2011.

1. Tree of Life

2. Super (Review Soon)

3. Super 8

4. X-Men: First Class

5. Extraterrestre

6. Stake Land

7. Hobo With a Shotgun

8. Anonymous

9. Apollo 18

10. Carnage

11. Rubber

12. Knights of Badassdom

13. Piranha 3DD

14. Conan the Barbarian

15. Cowboys & Aliens

16. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

17. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

18. Immortals

19. Captain America: The First Avenger

20. Thor

Cross two more off my list, X-Men and Thor. I also watched the Hangover 2, the new Pirates, Battle: Los Angeles and Kung Fu Panda 2. I’ve seen 79 movies in the first half of the year, destroying my 2010 pace!! I have short reviews written on some of these movies but this post isn’t about them. It’s about a movie I saw for the first time yesterday, a movie that broke into my top 10 of all time. Just to show you how prestige that list is… my top 10 movies of all time are:

10. Star Wars Return of the Jedi (1983, Richard Marquand)

9. A Bridge On the River Kwai (1957, David Lean)

8. 12 Angry Men (1957, Sidney Lumet)

7. Pulp Fiction (1994, Quentin Tarantino,)

6. Mulholland Dr (1991, David Lynch)

5. Seven Samurai (1954, Akira Kurosawa,)

4. M (1931, Fritz Lang)

3. The Shawshank Redemption (1994, Frank Darabont)

2. 2001: A Space Oddesy (1968, Stanley Kubrick)

1. Rear Window (1954, Alfred Hitchcock)

0. Inception (2010, Chris Nolan)*

It appears 1954, 1957 and 1994 were good years representing 60% of my top 10 list. Inception is listed at number 0 because I haven’t quite got over the honeymoon of just how extraordinary that movie is- not just from a masterpiece of directing standpoint, but how an overly complex ORIGINAL screenplay can be so emotional, entertaining and fun to dissect.

I’ll stop dragging it out and announce that Once Upon a Time in the West has made it into my top 10. I will admit that my knowledge in westerns is very limited, having only seen Leone’s big four, Unforgivin and both True Grits… but Once Upon a Time in the West feels completely different from the movies I just listed. And it starts with the music. So what am I obsessed with? The Man with the Harmonica.

There is something so ominous about this music, it makes my bones chill, raises the hairs on the back of the my neck, goosebumps appear on my arms. I’ve listened to it so many times today that I discovered SiriusXM’s channel Chill, plays a remix version by Apollo 440. I love them equally. Hope you enjoy them.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Most Anticipated Movies of 2011

Usually you do these kinds of lists in January or December of the previous year. I’m late, but luckily there hasn’t been much released in the first quarter of the year that I was interested in. So here’s my top 20 anticipated movie list for 2011. I’m getting this idea from my boy MadMan.


1. Tree of Life

2. Super (Review Soon)

3. Super 8

4. X-Men: First Class

5. Extraterrestre

6. Stake Land

7. Hobo With a Shotgun

8. Anonymous

9. Apollo 18

10. Carnage

11. Rubber

12. Knights of Badassdom

13. Piranha 3DD

14. Conan the Barbarian

15. Cowboys & Aliens

16. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

17. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

18. Immortals

19. Captain America: The First Avenger

20. Thor


Intentionally left off the list: The Hangover Part II and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Two movies that will no doubt be completely underwhelming compared to their predecessors. So it’s hard to anticipate something where there’s a high probability of disappointing me. Throw Transformers; Dark of the Moon on there too.


Tree of Life: Ever since the movie was first announced to be in production back in 2008. We finally have a trailer to go with the title, so it appears to be finally getting released.

Super 8: Creator of Lost J. J. Abram’s new movie, produced by Steven Spielberg will definitely generate some hype this summer. Abrams always delivers exceptional teasers to his work to draw in interest and it’s hard to turn away from this fantastic trailer.

X-Men: First Class: A brand new trailer this week peaked my interest for this movie, ignoring the terrible one-sheets. My prediction, this comic book movie will be the best of the pack; better than Captain America, Thor and The Green Latern which I didn’t even put on my list. The CGI and setup just looks so terrible.

Extraterrestre: It’s high my list because of the lack of information I have for it. But it’s essentially Cloverfield… with aliens.


Stake Land: Yeh Yeh it’s another zombie movie… but watch this trailer and tell me this doesn’t interest you a tiny bit.

Anonymous: Disaster film expert, Roland Emmerich (2012, Independence Day, The Day After a Tomorrow) has taken on a script that has nothing to do with the destruction of American cities. The plot? What if William Shakespeare, didn’t write the plays and sonnets he’s known for.

Apollo 18: A movie that depicts events about a moon mission, that ended up being canceled, or at least that’s what the public was told. Trailer here.

Cowboys & Aliens: Director of Iron Man, John Favreau’s adaptation of a comic book based on a western setting that gets invaded by aliens. The footage has been described as Unforgiven meets Independence Day. The trailers look action packed, but how long into the movie will it really stray from a gritty

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol: The last Mission Impossible with Tom Cruise. In this movie, it’s rumored that Jeremy Renner will be taking over the reigns as the new MI agent and Cruise (Ethan Hunt) will be training him for future movies in the franchise.

The rest of the blockbusters are clumped together at the bottom of my list because I just don’t expect them to be great movies. Thor and Captain America will be mediocre “starting films” for the Avengers movie that started filming this week, but I question how interesting these movies will be. Captain America is over Thor because Hugo Weaving is playing Red Skull… which just sounds badass. Can’t wait to see him in the skull.


Thursday, April 7, 2011

REVIEW: Hobo With a Shotgun (Jason Eisener, 2011)


I am all for “camp” in movies. Drag Me to Hell, Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness pull off some of the best genre specific camp in cinematic history. It worked well because Sam Raimi understands how to immerse the audience with drama, create tension and finish scenes with a combination of humor and stylized hommage. Even the Spider-man trilogy has plenty of instances where Raimi can create campy situations out of a relatively serious synopsis. I enjoy tongue-in-cheek movies that strive to deliver exactly what is advertised, but Hobo With A Shotgun’s attempt at humor falls apart as the audience realizes the camp feels more like cheese.

Hobo vs Slick

Hobo With a Shotgun takes place in a decrepit city with a crime presence worse than Robocop, Batman Begins and Predator 2 combined. A nameless Hobo (Rutger Hauer, who’s also in Batman Begins) walks the streets, dreaming of buying a lawnmower and constantly witnesses excessive violence, police corruption, prostitution and drug dealing. People live their lives in fear of a crime boss named Drake (Brian Downey) and his two sons Slick (Gregory Smith) and Ivan (Nick Bateman). After witnessing Drake and his boys decapitate a man and stick the head on their front of their truck in the first minutes of the movie, Hobo becomes aware of just how bad things are. He later saves a prostitute Abby (Molly Dunsworth) from Slick’s attempt at rape but in the process gets assaulted by Slick and thrown out in the street to be left for dead. Abby takes in the Hobo after his act of kindness and rests him back to health.

A victim of the crime boss - decapitation by barbwire attached to a truck

Hobo is about to finally buy his lawnmower at a pawn shop when the shop gets held up by three robbers. Instead of spending the money on his dream, the Hobo reaches for a shotgun conveniently loaded and displayed right next to the lawnmower. The result is massive killing spree where the Hobo transforms into an justice wielding anti-hero, killing anyone associated with the waves of crime over the city. The news of the Hobo’s rampage reaches all media outlets (as if people still get their news on the street from TVs stacked together in a store window) and it is not long before the Hobo is infamously known.

Hobo with his shotgun

The gritty gratuitous violence doesn’t come close to looking realistic, so Hobo With a Shotgun won’t turn your stomach. It’s really hard to take scenes seriously that involve getting on a school bus with a flamethrower to burn children alive or sawing someone’s head off with a hack saw while they are screaming for help (and oh by the way…surviving). These scenes are of course over the top, but there is nothing holding them together from the rest of the movie. Most of the scenes look like they were shot and edited (thrown together) in a weekend.

It should be known that Hobo With a Shotgun was not an adaptation of another screenplay or book, but rather an adaptation of a fake trailer that was made specifically for Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse. This may explain the choppy screenplay but doesn’t explain the poor excuse for dialog, especially the lines delivered by Bateman, who come off as a bad Stifler (Seann William Scott) clone. As mentioned, the attempts at humor fall flat in most instances, except for a few clever Newspaper Headlines: Hobo Stops Begging, Demands Change and Parents Smile as Bodies Pile.

Hobo mad

With a budget of $3,000,000 it’s hard to imagine the final product comes out as amateurish as it does. Hobo With a Shotgun is close to being unwatchable and to put this movie in perspective; barely beats out the level of film quality found in Uwe Boll’s films.

Grade: 46/100