After nine years we are finally getting another Sin City movie. If there is one thing Robert Rodriguez is good on it is delivering on promises. Just look at the first two Machete’s as proof.
A Dame To Kill For takes place before the events in the first Sin City featuring some of the returning cast like Mickey Rourke as Marv, Bruce Willis as John Hartigan and Jessica Alba as Nancy. Some roles have been recast including Dennis Haysbert taking over the role of Manute for the late Michael Clarke Duncan. Josh Brolin plays Marv but it will be explained how he looks like Clive Owen in the first movie.
Confused yet? It’s Frank Miller, get used to it.
Sin City: A Dame To Kill For releases on August 22nd.
I love The Expendables franchise. It knows exactly what its audience wants and gives it to them. I want to see Arnold drive around in a Mini while spouting off cheesy 80’s catchphrases as he mows down guys with an assault rifle. As long as Stallone keeps making them, I will keep seeing them.
Sly just sent out this tweet which indicates that Indiana Jones himself has joined the party for The Expendables 3.
WILLIS OUT… HARRISON FORD IN !!!! GREAT NEWS !!!!! Been waiting years for this!!!!
So now we can add Deckard to the growing cast which already boasts the series regulars, a returning Mickey Rourke, Wesley Snipes, Ronda Rousey, Jackie Chan and Mel Gibson.
Now you noticed in that tweet that Stallone announced Bruce Willis would not be returning for a third trip down action movie memory lane. Stallone’s next tweet would indicate that it was not exactly a simple deal of being too busy to come back.
GREEDY AND LAZY …… A SURE FORMULA FOR CAREER FAILURE
Let’s just go ahead and get this out of the way in the beginning of this review, I liked the first G.I. Joe. Do not get me wrong, I am not going to recommend that anyone go out and buy it on Blu-Ray instantly, but it was the definition of a popcorn flick. A dumb action flick that had its moments and some fun also. Now in 2009 we also got Transformers 2 and that was also dumb, but not for the same reasons G.I. Joe was. I know, opinions are very fu**ed up things. I did not mind the first G.I. Joe and yet Shia going to robot heaven actually made me feel stupid sitting in the theater.
Since 2009 we have already had to sit through another Transformers movie and we are just now getting a sequel to The Real American Hero. Now G.I. Joe was set for release last summer, but a mere month before release it was quickly moved almost an entire year to 2013. The studio said it was to give them time to post-convert the film into 3D since well, you know, it makes more money. Then there were rumors swirling abound that it was to go back and let Channing Tatum re-film more footage since the same rumors also said that his Duke character bites it in the movie.
SPOILERS AHEAD
It seems the studio was telling the truth because the film was indeed converted to 3D and Channing Tatum does indeed get ended by Cobra in the first fifteen minutes. And guess what? It was the smartest decision the franchise could have made, because as much as I defend the first movie as big, dumb fun, it left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths. So with G.I. Joe: Retaliation we are getting a reboot of sorts that still remains in the same movie universe.
The part that works with Retaliation is that we are trading in Channing Tatum and Marlon Wayans for Dwayne Johnson and Bruce Willis. Who would not want that kind of move for an action sequel?
When we left the world at the end of G.I. Joe, Cobra Commander and Destro were locked away while Zartan was still in place as the imposter President of the United States. After Zartan calls in a surprise strike against the Joe’s, in which only Roadblock (Johnson), Lady Jaye (Adrianne Palicki) and Flint (D.J. Cotrona) are left, Storm Shadow breaks Cobra Commander out of prison and Cobra has a big bad plan for world domination.
After this, the story wisely splits in two. One path has Roadblock, Jaye and Flint trying to convince the original Joe, Joe Coulton (Willis), that the POTUS is an imposter and they need his help trying to expose him. The second path follows Snake Eyes an Jinx as they hunt down Storm Shadow to find out what information he knows about Cobra’s plans. This really helps the movie avoid any kind of slow down that you normally would feel halfway through. In one aspect you are getting a guns blazing actioneer and then you are swapping over to a martial arts film complete with the RZA as a blind sensei and ninjas sword fighting on the side of a mountain.
Knowing Is Half The Battle
So yeah, Cobra is trying to take over the world and the what not. The plot will not exactly win any awards, but really, are you going to see this for that? Why did you watch G.I. Joe as a kid (assuming you did)? You wanted to see the cool characters, weapons and action. Luckily we get all three of those. The new characters are much more memorable than the previous entry and each is given their own opportunity at some bad ass moments. I know Channing Tatum is Hollywood’s “IT” guy right now, but Bruce Willis and Dwayne Johnson can carry an action flick in their sleep. Even though I did not care for A Good Day To Die Hard, I still say Willis can get it done easily when guns are involved.
I worried that director John M. Chu would be overwhelmed with a film of this size. I mean could you really blame me? He got the job after directing Step Up 2&3 and the Justin Bieber movie Never Say Never. Yeah, exactly. Chu has taken the helm and like a great Barney Stinson moment he has said, “Challenge Accepted”. Fight scenes are quick paced, but never overwhelming and there are plenty of things that go boom. There is one especially unique fight between Roadblack and Firefly (Ray Stevenson) that is an up close gun battle within arm distance that I can honestly say I have never seen before. I have to give credit where it is due.
I got exactly what I was expecting out of G.I. Joe: Retaliation. I wanted a followup to the original that felt like I was watching an episode of the 80’s cartoon. Does that involve some chuckle worthy dialogue? Yep. Did it change the fact that I had fun with the characters and manly man things? Nope. If you liked the first film (even a little bit like me), this is a good improvement and shows that the franchise could have some legs if handled properly. If you did not like 2009’s film then this should be a massive improvement over what you got. Go in expecting a fun, popcorn shoot em up that replaces the weak parts of the first film with stronger anchors and have fun.
John McClane is back again for his fifth adventure, this time teaming up with his grown-up son to take on a group of political radicals in the heart of Russia. There is just one problem with this; A Good Day To Die Hard is not really much fun and as a Die Hard fan it hurts a bit to watch.
As this Die Hard opens up we see that John McClane’s son Jack has gotten himself arrested for murder and is facing Russian justice so he heads off to Moscow to try and help out his “misguided” son. Truth being that Jack is in actuality a C.I.A. agent that has placed himself in his situation to rescue a Russian prisoner and get him out of Moscow in return for a mysterious file.
One of the best things the first three Die Hard’s did so well was great setup and character development. A Good Day to Die Hard abandons all this and literally within the first fifteen minutes McClane has found out where his son is, said goodbye to his daughter, had a taxi ride with a singing Russian, survived a courthouse bombing and is chasing down Jack and the Russian baddies through the streets of Moscow while causing rampant destruction. While you watch this it feels like you are about 30 minutes ahead of what your watch says. While that may work for standard action movies these days, for a Die Hard movie it seems like lazy filmmaking. There is no character development at all to this film. But we will get to that a bit later.
Photo courtesy tumblr.com
When Live Free or Die Hard was released back in 2007 it was the first in the series to abandon the “everyman” John McClane. That is one of the reasons the first three movies in the franchise worked so well. He was a cop. He made mistakes. He was a smartass and he had a sh**y family life. It was just that he was in the wrong places at the wrong (or right) times. LFODH set up McClane as almost indestructible. Like a bald, American James Bond who could take out helicopters with taxis. A Good Day to Die Hard continues this formula and even goes more over the top with some of the things that should break any normal man, but this McClane barely has a limp.
The sad part about this is that Willis can play the role of John McClane in his sleep. He does it here. The swagger, the chuckle, the smart ass comments. It’s all here, but the characters and script around the character are so very weak.
Pacing and character development are two of the serious offenders like I mentioned earlier. The movie’s breakneck speed, which may help action movies these days, is a detriment to a Die Hard movie. There is no time to develop any of the characters like Jack or the villains because the movie is too busy going from one explosion set piece to another. I really feel sorry for Spartacus alum Jai Courtney as Jack McClane. He is a great actor and could have worked a whole lot better as Willis’ son….if he had more to work with.
The presence of a memorable villain is non-existent. While I was not a big fan of Live Free or Die Hard, I did think that Timothy Olyphant’s role was a good one and worth remembering. This go round there are so many multiple Russian who all have there own agendas that by the time the main villain is revealed (20 minutes before the movie ends mind you), you really have given up even remotely caring about why he is there.
This is by far the shortest of the Die Hard’s. Where most run right at two hours or a little over this entry clocks in at only 97 minutes. Which is easy to see why when you watch the movie and see that there was not much material to work with and abandoned all hope of making you care about the players.
Photo courtesy inquisitr.com
I hope A Good Day to Die Hard does well in theaters which may sound weird given what I have just written, but here me out. There is still good material left for the John McClaine character. I have no doubt there is. I hope that A Good Day to Die Hard does not make people jaded towards the franchise. They just need to scale back the super-hero John McClane and get back to what made the first one so great. Develop a memorable villain, good setup and put in a worn down NYC cop who just happens to be there trying to do his best.
A Good Day to Die Hard is disappointing and not because of Willis. He was made to play John McClane, but the McClane character has got to get better and more realistic aspects working for him. If this was a normal run of the mill action flick it would be on the decent side, but being this is Die Hard we are talking about there is a higher standard that this needs to reach. Now I am going to celebrate the franchise’s 25th anniversary by watching the first three entries.
Time travel movies are nothing new. You have your classics like Back to the Future and you have your Timecop’s. Either way, we know the basic idea of time travel in cinema. That is why Looper is such a wonderful addition to the category. It has a unique concept that should not be overlooked by moviegoers as just another action movie. It is, in fact, one of the most original sci-fi movies of the past ten years.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt star as Joseph Simmons. The year is 2044 and time travel has not yet been invented, but it has thirty years in the future. He works for the mafia of the future as a “looper”. Basically a looper is a hitman that kills people sent to his time from 2074. The story goes that it is near impossible to get away with hiding a body in the future, so they are sent to the past where the loopers murder the men and dispose of a body that technically never existed in 2044. When a looper has served his purpose the mob sends their future self back where they are killed by their past self and given a huge payday and are told to enjoy the next thirty years of their life until they inevitably know when they are going to die. This is known as “closing the loop”. Things don’t exactly go as planned when Joe’s future self (Bruce Willis) is sent back. He escapes from young Joe and now he has to hunt down Willis before the mafia he works for eliminates both of them.
Things aren’t as simple as they seem when Willis reveals that he is here to hunt down someone who in the future will become known as “Rainmaker”, a man that will take over all aspects of the mafia in the future and begins by closing all loops. Willis has three possible candidates as to who could be “Rainmaker” and has to eliminate all of them to make sure the future is altered. The moral dilemma here is that in 2044 these are only children who may or may not grow up to be this new evil. Young Joe finds his way to a farm whose caretaker Sara (Emily Blunt) has a child who is on old Joe’s list.
I won’t go any farther into the plot for fears that I will give away too much. Looper brings up a host of dilemmas that the invention of time travel would bring up. How could criminals of the future take advantage of this new technology for their own gain? What would one person do to save the one true love of their life that saved them? Are there lines that need to be drawn in trying to change history for what one person believes is for the better? These are just a few of the questions that arise while watching Looper.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt sure has come a long way since Third Rock From The Sun hasn’t he? From Inception to The Dark Knight Rises and now Looper, JGL has become a go-to guy in Hollywood. A prosthetic nose piece was used to make him appear more like a younger Willis and while it will throw you off for a minute or two at the beginning of the film it quickly becomes unnoticeable as he emulates Willis in such detail it is a bit creepy. The smirk and voice inflection are there and make you realize he must have spent a good amount of time practicing for this role and not just simply doing a Bruce Willis impression. As for Willis himself, it is a bit of a surprise to realize as you watch the movie and his plan unfolds that old Joe is an a**hole. He may have a reason for his trip back but he tip toes the line between a heartbroken man looking to save someone and being the true villain of the movie.
The supporting cast consists of Emily Blunt, whose Southern accent sounds like a Brit doing a southern accent, so it’s a good thing she’s British, Jeff Daniels who no matter what he does or how scruffy his beard may be will always be Harry from Dumb and Dumber only now he hits people in the hands with hammers, Piper Perabo who has taken time off from Covert Affairs to take her top off as a showgirl that is the object of young Joe’s affections and the great Paul Dano who plays Joe’s friend Seth.
I really did not know what to expect before I started [amazon_link id=”B005LAII8K” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Looper[/amazon_link]. I knew the basic setup of the flick but was surprised by movie that was much more complex than I thought. The movie embraces its R rating with bloody but never over the top violence and is anchored by Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s eerie turn as a very believable young Bruce Willis. Looper is a little bit of gangster movie mixed with revenge tale and family drama on top of that. Just add time travel and you have a winner.
2013, the year of Bruce Willis, is in full effect. With a new Die Hard coming and his role in G.I. Joe: Retaliation you would figure he would call that a year and be done. Nope! We still have the sequel to 2010’s hilarious [amazon_link id=”B003Q6D2B4″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]RED[/amazon_link] (based on the Warren Ellis comic) coming in August. And here is the first trailer.
Willis’ Frank Moses appears to be enjoying domestic life with Mary-Louise Parker when John Malkovich shows up with a problem. Seems Helen Mirren has accepted a contract, along with a host of other assassins, to track him down and kill him since he is enemy number one on Interpol’s list. Like in the first RED, Malkovich steals this preview as well. Anthony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta-Jones come along for the ride this go round also.
So how much John McClane can you handle in one day? So far my answer is three movies because that is how many Die Hard’s I have watched in a one day period. Well it looks like 20th Century Fox is giving me a chance to best my record and in a theater no less!
On Wednesday, February 13th theaters across the nation will commemorate the release of A Good Day to Die Hard with a four film marathon of every movie in the franchise (Die Hard, Die Hard 2: Die Harder, Die Hard with a Vengeance and Live Free or Die Hard) that will lead to the first showing of the fifth entry, A Good Day to Die Hard. That’s a lot of yippee ki-yay’s . No pricing or theater locations have been announced yet.
Don’t forget all you romantics that A Good Day to Die Hard opens on Valentine’s Day.
A brand new trailer has gone online for the fifth Die Hard entry, A Good Day To Die Hard. It is not very different from previous trailers but if you are a Die Hard fanatic (raises hand) then you know what to expect. John McClane heads to Russia to help his son who is on the heels of a Russian terrorist with nuclear weapons. Does it sound different from most action movies? No. Do I care? No, it’s Die Hard. Check out the new trailer below.
A Good Day To Die Hard releases on February 14, 2013.
Die Hard is one of the greatest movies ever made. So now that you know that I am a man by that statement I will also say that I am a sucker for all of the sequels. They suck me in and there is no escape. Whether it is Renny Harlin’s over the top action or Bruce Willis walking around New York with a racial sandwich board I am there. I am even forgiving of the fourth entry and will say it was not a “bad” movie.
Now the fifth installment is on its way and a new trailer has just been released. A Good Day To Die Hard sees John McClane headed to Russia for another “fish out of water” story. It is kind of like the first movie where he is out of place coming from NY to LA, just on a much larger scale. It looks like it will be fun and let’s face it, that’s all we ask Die Hard to be.
A Good Day To Die Hard opens on February 14, 2013.
