Hello again,

Busy day, let me tell ya. Actually, no I won’t bore you with the details, instead I want to encourage anyone and everyone out there to go buy a ticket and watch Chronicle while it’s in theatres. I’ve been all over this flick for a while now and usually that’s a sign that it’s destined to disappoint (ie: Suckerpunch), but the Max Landis script directed by Josh Trank is the movie of the year so far. Please keep in mind that it is only February.

Why would I make such a declaration? There’s a few reasons so here we go:

1 – The concept of found footage flicks always puts me on edge. With movies like Blair Witch and even Cloverfield, there was always something off-putting, almost voyeuristic about the whole thing. Normally that doesn’t bother people, but I’ve never been a huge fan of reality TV and found footage, shaky cam flicks have never been a preference (could also be my perpetual suffering from motion sickness, but that’s a different story). Anyways, I think Trank did the best job I’ve seen for a found footage style flick and used the plot to actually make it easier to watch. The idea of having Andrew begin the flick wanting to document everything was a good start, but it really kicked in for me when Andrew started to use his powers to control the camera. Then when he steals a bunch of cell phones and iPads it makes complete sense as to why there are multiple angles of each shot. Smart, fun and well done for Trank.

2 – I’m completely sick of this on-again-off-again live-action Akira BS that’s been going on. I’m so sick of it that I don’t think anyone on the production of the live action Akira will do a better job than Trank did with Chronicle. The entire third act was basically what Akira could be, but why try to recreate it? The combination of the story carrying the audience through all of the angst that Andrew has and the camera work made one of the best 1V1 battles I’ve seen on the big screen in a very long time.

3 – Dane Dehaan, Michael B. Jordan and Alex Russel are going to be HUGE stars. It’s not that they’re performances were strikingly Oscar worthy or anything, but all three of them in their own ways make you care about the story. Whether you like them or not, the characters in Chronicle represent someone we’ve all known and none of that would have been possible without the three up and comers.

Alright, that is all, I promise. Just go watch Chronicle, you’ll like it.

Morning all (or afternoon),

A little while ago I made myself a promise. I promised myself I would stop following spoiler sites and rumours and try as hard as I can to be surprised when it comes to movies. I made this decision based on all of the rumours and leaked information coming out of Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers and of course, The Amazing Spiderman. Well, it’s been about 3 months of purposely living in a hole, so yesterday I came up for air to catch the latest trailer for Marc Webb’s Amazing Spiderman.

WOW.

I’ll admit, I thought Raimi’s Spiderman 2 was pretty good when it came out (and I choose not to recognize Spidey 3), but this trailer alone blows the Doc Oc feature out of the water. Check out the effects, the art direction, even the camera movements and you’ll be impressed. For Andrew Garfield it looks like this is going to thrust him into the big-time (if Social Network hasn’t already) and Denis Leary looks like he was born to play George Stacey. I’m buying Emma Stone as Gwen more and more these days as well. But what’s really impressive thus far is how Webb has taken the dry wit and comedy of the original comic book version of Spidey and weaved it all nicely into the story (well, so far). Spidey’s one-liners and quick responses were always a trademark and I think Webb has done a nice job in showing that he understands this in the trailer.

Okay, I’ll stop wasting your time with my banter – check out the latest trailer below:

Morning all,

Hopefully your coffee is brewed and your toast is crunchy – and if not then I hope your day turns out splendidly.

Anyways, just thought I’d share my excitement for the return of Game of Thrones on HBO on April 1st. Wait a minute, isn’t that April Fools? Awe man, does that mean HBO is gonna play some cruel joke on everyone who’s a fan of the show? I hope they don’t do a “Psych!” and make us wait even longer. Okay, back to the subject at hand. I’ve totally geeked out and read all of the books that have been released. I know it’s wrong to know what’s going to happen before we get to see it on screen, but I’m actually pretty excited to see what changes. If you’ve read the first book you’ll know that hardly any liberties were taken  other than the length, but who knows what’s going to change for season 2. Now that the show is so successful, there’s probably a lineup of suits waiting to ruin it and make a quick buck. Don’t do it Game of Thrones!!!

Alright, so are you looking to share in the excitement of season 2? Check out the full trailer below, book off April 1st and start re-familiarizing yourself with terms like “Winter is Coming!”

Morning all,

Is it just me or has there not been a tonne of great news coming out of the movie world lately? It’s probably just me isn’t it? I’ll probably get a whole bunch of links sent over telling me otherwise. Anyways, here’s something to get really excited about. Check out the trailer for Lockout below. Lockout is also referred to as MS One: Maximum Security, but I have no idea why it has two names. Lockout is basically a badass Guy Pierce who goes into space to bring home some important guy’s daughter after she gets stranded in a floating prison… Seriously, if that doesn’t get you going I have no idea what will. Okay, so here’s the real low-down on Lockout. Pierce plays a dude named Snow, who like many an action hero before him, is the best there is, but also a loose cannon. At the end of the day he’s the one that’s going to save everyone, but was there really any doubt? Maggie Grace, you know, the woman who hooked up with Sayid in Lost,  plays the damsel in distress. There’s a bunch of crazy inmates, probably some kind of political strings being pulled and a lot of great action. But here’s the real reason why this is so intriguing to me, Luc Besson had a hand in writing Lockout. Yes that’s right, the same Luc Besson wrote Leon, Taken and The 5th Element. Awesome.

Mehuh Now?

Yeah I know, that’s a weird title for a post about a trailer about a movie I’ve never heard of (wait… I just realized that’s pretty much all that happens here at BP). So who out there is interested in hardcore role playing games? Come on, be honest? Admit it, you’ve dabbled in WoW for a few hours, you’ve asked someone what Warhammer was and something about that scene in Role Models peaked your interest. Well, even if none of that is true, there’s always something to be said when you look at the mighty subculture and wonder. With that being said, check out this trailer for the new flick Unicorn City.

The Indie feature has some ties to the original Napoleon Dynamite flick, but it looks to be quite different. Here’s what I can gather from the trailer below. So there’s this guy who loves playing D&D (or something very similar) and he decides to bring his RPG world to life by going camping with his guild. Still with me? The movie doesn’t carry any huge names, but I guess that’s the style of writer/director Brian Lefler. I’ll have to watch this a few more times to really understand what’s going on here, but there’s something fun about this already. Anyways, have a look!

Morning all,

Again, been a while but I’m back and loving it…

Anyways, I’ve been spending a lot of time lately trying to expand my repertoire of television shows and I think I’ve found a couple that are really interesting. Let’s be clear, I did not discover these shows by any means, but I’m a constant skeptic when it comes to television because, well, I’m a big snob. In any case, here are a couple of newbies that I think everyone should add to the queue.

First up is Sherlock. I’m not talking about the movie, I’m talking about the wonderful new(ish) BBC modernized mini-series version of the show. If you haven’t seen it, check out the trailer for one of the episodes below. You’ll see Martin Freeman as Watson and Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock – yeah, that’s his real name and you’re going to hear a lot about Mr. Cumberbatch in the next few years as he’s being attached to the new Star Trek. In any case, this mini-series is worth the watch - especially if you’re a fan of the original Sherlock stories.

Next up is Alcatraz – yep, the big budget FOX sci-fi mystery from JJ Abrams that has finally premiered. I had my reservations before this started because I felt like it really lost steam as they made us wait for the series premiere, but I have to say, so far so good. I like Jorge Garcia, I like the concept of tracking old killers and I like the mystery components, but the one thing that does bug me is the character of Rebecca Madsen. I feel like this character is overdoing it right now, but I’m excited to be proven wrong as the story unfolds.

Who?

That’s cool, I had no idea who this person was until a few minutes ago… Quite an endorsement for my own detailed blog research huh? I digress.

Anyways, yesterday a few set photos from Expendables 2 rose from the depths revealing Chinese star Yu Nan on the side of Sly and the rest of his 80′s action hero gang. There aren’t a lot of details surrounding who exactly she’s playing, but she does hang out in black espionage gear and walks around with Sly Stallone. One can only assume she’s on the side of the good guys… for now. But back to the matter at hand, who is Yu Nan? Well, unless you’re quite versed in the recent Chinese cinema, she really is coming out of nowhere. The only recognizable North American title I can with her name attached is Speedracer from back in 2008. And I’ll be honest, the only thing I remember about that flick was trying my hardest not to get nauseous because of all of the colourful spinning (DAMN YOU IMAX!!!!).

So she’s new, and in comparison to the rest of the cast of Expendables 2 like Stallone, Statham, Jet Li, Dolph, Terry Crews and Bruce Willis, she’s basically an infant. From the looks of this photo though, she’s probably going to fit right in. I don’t know if Yu Nan is going to blow up on the North American scene with this flick, but you never know, sometimes people can really steal the show. In any case, I know we can expect a lot of explosions, one-liners when other dudes die, and probably more than a few guns fired. Ah Expendables, they are becoming a thing now aren’t they?

Morning all,

I’m sure a lot of you have seen (or at the very least plan to see) Bridesmaids. You know, the Kristin Wiig gem from last year about an ex-baker who’s BFF decides to get married. Not only was the cast spectacular, but it was just really good raw comedy. Anyways, there’s always been rumblings about doing a sequel, but come on… That’s really pushing it. Instead, it looks like most of the cast decided just to make this flick, Friends With Kids.

I’ve looked and although the casts are almost identical, these two flicks have nothing to do with each other. But come on, everyone from Bridesmaids is in this, even down to the cop with an accent. They’ve added some people to gang including Megan Fox, the snarky brother from Step Brothers (Adam Scott) and Jennifer Westfeldt from 24. In any case, this isn’t Bridesmaids 2, it’s a new flick called Friends With Kids. Have a look:

Morning all,

That spine tingling screeching sound you heard last week were the breaks being put on the North American remake of Akira… Again. Ok, let’s be honest with ourselves for a second here, this isn’t the first time, there’s tonnes of fan outcry to stop this and it just feels as though the North American Akira is the wrong thing to do. This has been “in the making,” for a few years now with some big names attached, then detached (Leo and Keannu), but once WB finally found a director it sounded as if they were on their way. It even got so far as to start renting production offices in Vancouver.

But Akira is once again sent packing, this time by the all mighty dollar. It turns out the original script, the one approved by WB to start casting and looking for a director is too big. Money is the current issue and it requires some reworking of the script. I guess blowing up Neo-Tokyo in the North American sense costs a lot of money. In any case, we should take this time to look at another film that could be dealing with a similar theme.

I’m speaking of course about Chronicle. I’ve written about this flick before, but as we inch closer and closer to the release date, I’m becoming more excited. According to the synopsis, Chronicle follows the story (in found footage style) of three teenagers as they develop powers and goof off. The only problem is that one of them, the nerdy, geeky one that’s seemingly unaccepted by most people, goes a bit off the wire. Sound familiar Akira fans? That’s why I’m not too torn up about Akira throwing on the brakes. If the flick eventually goes through, then good for Warner Bros. If it doesn’t I’ll personally be a bit relieved, and I can always get my fix of this type of story with Chronicle next month… hopefully.

Morning all,

Who out there has seen the trailer for Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey? I’m sure a lot already have, but I’ve embedded the trailer into this post just in case. Here’s my thing with The Hobbit: Timing. That’s it, no scathing words, no extremely strong opinions, pretty much just one word, and it’s timing. Don’t worry, I’ll explain.

The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy Ultimate Edition was one of the hottest selling items on Boxing Day (I guess that’s only up here in Canada, but whatevs), and coincidently the trailer for The Hobbit was officially released around the same time. I know it’s not a conspiracy or anything, but dang, my holidays have been filled with white wizards, tiny people with giant feet and orcs. I’m pretty excited for this flick now that the trailer is finally released. I guess it’s been a while since we’ve seen Mr. McKellen as Gandalf and ever since I started watching the UK TV series Sherlock, Martin Freeman has been quite topical (although he’ll always be Tim from The Office).

Check out the trailer!!!