For Funsies: DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Prequel Shorts

So DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES has become one of the most anticipated movies of the summer, edging out GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. Given the fact that in the timeline of the movie, it's been 10 years since RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, there's a lot of important events that occurred in the meanwhile. Thankfully, there's been a series of prequel short films documenting the events of the world since the "simian flu." Thanks Motherboard  via Movies.com, you can check out these short films after the break

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Trailer Is Not Monkeying Around

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES is one of the most highly anticipated sequels to a reboot/remake of the year. Joking aside, I really loved RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES back in 2011 and given this trailer, it seems DAWN will be a pleasant surprise during the summer blockbuster season. Check out the trailer, upload by the DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES YouTube page after the break.

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Trailer Drops and Caesar Looks Fierce

It's been almost three years since we got a re-prequel-boot of Planet of the Apes franchise. No one, especially me, expected anything out of RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, but low and behold, I was pleasantly surprised and the film even made my top ten that year. Now, we get our first teaser for the sequel, DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. Here's the synopsis:

A growing nation of genetically evolved apes led by Caesar is threatened by a band of human survivors of the devastating virus unleashed a decade earlier. They reach a fragile peace, but it proves short-lived, as both sides are brought to the brink of a war that will determine who will emerge as Earth's dominant species.

Check the trailer after the break.

The ROBOCOP Trailer Doesn't Need More Black

Having seen ELITE SQUAD 2, there was a sense of optimism when that movie's director, Jose Padilha, was set to direct the ROBOCOP re-make. Both movies have themes of corruption and the "good guys" fighting against societal forces bigger than themselves. Now,thanks to Badass Digest we have the first trailer for the movie. Check it out after the break.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Review- He Said/She Said

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

Directed by: Christopher Nolan

Written by: Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan

Starring: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Morgan Freeman

Synopsis: The final chapter of Nolan's Batman trilogy. Batman must come out of hiding to defeat Bane who has plans to take over and bring down Gotham.

To commemorate the end of what can only be described as one of the more important movie franchises in recent history, we will be doing something a little unusual. We will be posting short separate reviews here. Then, later on in the weekend, we will be posting a discussion that will encompass the movie in a more spoiler-y manner and in context of the entire series of movies.


On a more serious note, regarding the terrible news coming out of Aurora, Colorado, we offer our condolences to the victims of the heinous shooting. We don't deal with politics here much and now is not the time, but rather a time of respect for the loss of fellow fans that were lost in a senseless crime.

So here...we...go!

For Funsies: Gary Oldman Does a Dramatic Reading...of R. Kelly's Autobiography

Sometimes I think we forget how awesome celebrities can be. Sure, they can be spunky and witty during interviews, but I love seeing some of my favorites step out and do something silly for the sake of comedy.

Here is Gary Oldman, character actor extraordinaire, in a dramatic reading an passage from R. Kelly's autobiography.




Beats. Words. Stories.

I would watch him read anything. You feel me?

(source Pajiba)
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TINKER TAYLOR SOLDIER SPY-He Said Review

TINKER TAYLOR SOLDIER SPY

Directed by: Thomas Alfredson

Written by: Bridget O'Connor, Peter Straughan, adapted from a book by John Le Carre

Starring: Gary Oldman, John Hurt, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, and every other awesome British actor not in a Harry Potter Movie.

Synopsis: A retired British Intellgience has to discover the Russian mole that is hidden on top of the agency. 

New THE DARK KNIGHT RISES photos

Summer seems like forever away, but it will sneak up on us before you know it. No doubt that the final chapter of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy is on top of many people's most anticipated for the year. Over the holiday season, we were treated to an awesome teaser trailer. Today, Entertainment Weekly released five new photos from the movie, including Gary Oldman in action, a better look at Christian Bale in his suit, and of course, more Tom Hardy as Bane.

Check it out after the jump.

Second THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Trailer Is Here

Javi here. So here is the big one, the second trailer for director Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, has arrived. It was attached to SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL at the midnight screenings but now has been released officially. Check out the trailer at the jump and check out the link since Apple's Quicktime site is has downloadable versions of the trailer. Many thanks to ComingSoon.Net for the high quality embed.

Check out a few of my observations after the jump. Beware of potential spoilers.

In This Week's Installment Of "People Freaking Out Way Too Much": Possible First Looks At The Batwing from THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

Javi here, I wanted to write about this a while ago, but if you know where I work and what's been going on, I've been really really busy.  But hey! It's the weekend, so let's talk some obligatory weekly THE DARK KNIGHT RISES news.  Apparently there's been a reported sighting of what people speculate might be the Batwing.  Thanks to Batman-News for the pics and subsequent video. Check them out after the break.

Hell yes for the day: THE DARK KNIGHT RISES teaser poster

Rumor has it the teaser trailer for THE DARK KNIGHT rises will be attached to Harry Potter this weekend. Let us hope so.

But for now enjoy and geek out a bit over the new teaser poster:

Hell yes!

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES will be released on July 20, 2012 starring Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt's role in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Revealed! (SPOILERS)

It's not secret that I'm such a fan of twitter's own @HitRecordJoe or Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as he is known in other circles. When I heard earlier that he would be coming to the final installment of the BATMAN saga by director Christopher Nolan, I was even more excited. And now we have word from Variety about who exactly he will be playing. In the interest of keeping people as spoiler free, I'll put his role below. The character itself cold lead to speculation about the plot of the movie so be warned.

SPOILER!

The Book of Eli

Directed by Albert and Allen Hughes

Writer by Gary Whitta

Starring: Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis and Ray Stevenson

Synopsis- A mysterious wanderer has a mission, to head West, which is interrupted when he goes into a small town where a mayor is looking for something precious.

Book of Eli- He said

So to quote my consort, the Book of Eli is a "post-apocalyptic Western". It has it all: beautiful, dreary landscape, a vague catastrophic event that led to the current state of affairs, and a complete bad-a main character. The main character here is the ever-awesome Denzel Washington, as the wandering Eli. He is a man trying to survive in this harsh world.  As the film opens, we see him going through his day-to-day routine as he travels towards an unknown destination. This changes when his inexplicably resilient iPod dies on him. Then he decides to go into a town to recharge it. This is where the plot finally starts moving along with the introduction of Gary Oldman’s character.

The movie is quite the enjoyable experience, especially in the context of a genre post-apocalyptic Western. There’s even a bar fight scene! This is pretty good, B-movie type stuff. We come to find out that Eli is an expert fighter and avid reader. The fight scenes are one of the great things of this movie. The choreography is smooth, and you can never go wrong with the gratuitous violence. The ending is one of the best aspects of the movie considering that you expect this movie to play it safe. While the plot is a bit slow in the beginning, most people will be distracted by the beautiful and haunting world that the Hughes brothers created. The music (which I later found out was by Atticus Ross frequent Nine Inch Nails collaborator) creates a good atmosphere that compliments the movie fantastically. (And a highly recommended buy.) The supporting cast is fantastic with Mila Kunis being the highlight as Solara. She has such great potential to be remembered for more than Jackie from That 70’s show. 

While I was pleased enough to say I dug the movie, initially I left the movie theater a bit disappointed. However, thinking about the movie over and over has actually given me a more positive perspective on the movie. Things that seemed silly at the time, such as his iPod and the slightly slow paced first part of the film, seem to make more sense after some absorption of the story as a whole. One thing that does not go away is feeling that the conflict between Eli and Carnigie (Gary Oldman) could have been explored more in a philosophical way. Here you have two dudes that both potentially want to use the Bible to help humanity in their own way, but for some really crappy reason they don’t cross at the right time. On a deeper level, Carnegie is an ass but can we really say that great leaders from the past didn’t do some dishonest things for the greater good? Seeing Eli as a curator for the last bit of humanities past makes him a deeper character in my eyes. From the fact that he knows how to read, even to the iPod he carries, as well as the memories he is doing what Carnegie is doing but with a more selfless purpose.

Overall this movie does take a while to sink in, especially when you get over how badass Denzel is in it. After a while, the layers come out and it does make for a richer experience.

Book of Eli- She said

I went into The Book of Eli with no expectations. I like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman, so I thought it was a win-win situation. The movie starts in this bleak post-apocalyptic world where everyone wears sunglasses…at all times. At first, I assumed it was to look like a badass in this world, but as it turns out, the atmosphere became thinner after “the great flash”, so apparently the sun has become more harmful. Eh, it makes Denzel look even cooler, so I’m okay with it. So, Denzel, or Eli, is traveling west on a mission carrying and rereading this book along the way. He conveniently comes to this town where Gary Oldman is the head-honcho and low and behold, he’s looking for the exact same book. It takes about half the movie to set this whole scenario up, which unfortunately didn’t leave much time for the meat of the movie.

The movie then goes into the battle of faith from the sides of the extremists, Oldman, and righteous, Eli. At this point, I was excited because this is what the movie’s message. How does faith affect the human existence and culture after such a horrific tragedy? Do you run to faith and lean on it? Or do you blame faith for the misgivings? The movie hinted at all of these questions, but it never delivered. After one conversation, nothing deep or philosophical was ever really brought up again. It just went back to Oldman’s obsession with possessing the book.

The look of the world is amazing. It’s dry, bleak, bright, yet dreary and empty. All in all, I was satisfied with the acting performances. There’s a revelation at one point that definitely makes you think about certain things from the movie. With that aside, the movie seemed like it wanted to be this deep religious debate about importance of faith during a time of war; however, the idea was never fully developed. Eli is worth the watch, and it could spur some interesting debates. I just wanted more from it.