TRANSCENDENCE Trailer Drops!

It pays to be friends with Christopher Nolan. First time director, but long time cinematographer, Wally Pfister, has an all-star cast for his first sci-fi film, TRANSCENDENCE. Whether or not he can stand on his own as a director remains to be seen.

Here's the synopsis:

Dr. Will Caster is an artificial intelligence researcher who strives to create a machine that possesses sentience and collective intelligence. Extremists who oppose technological advancement target him, but their actions drive him toward his goal. Caster also wants to become part of the new technology, and his wife Evelyn and his best friend Max Waters, also researchers, question the wisdom of this drive. Caster's goal to acquire knowledge becomes one to acquire power, and he seems to be unstoppable.

Check the trailer after the break!

Movie Review: THE LEGO MOVIE - Javi's Take

THE LEGO MOVIE

Directed by: Phil Lord and Chris Miller

Written by: Dan and Kevin Hageman, Phil Lord, and Chris Miller

Starring: Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Ferrel, Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, Will Arnett and Alison Brie.

Synopsis: When an average, run-of-the-mill minifigure, Emmet, comes across an ancient relic, only he can stop the evil President Business from destroying the world. 

OBLIVION Trailer Drops!

Love him or hate him, Tom Cruise makes some fun action movies. I've always enjoyed him as an action star, and his new sic-fi action film looks entertaining as hell.

Set in a futuristic Earth (which I'm spying a pattern for next summer), Cruise is a technician who cleans up drones years after a war has left Earth in shambles. However, during his last few weeks on the job, as always, he starts uncovering secrets including stumbling across a band of rebels led by Morgan Freeman.

Check the trailer after the jump.

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!

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Trailer Drops! The Internet Freaks Out!

Javi here. Late last night, the Warner Brothers YouTube account posted the third trailer for the final Batman movie by director Christopher Nolan, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. What's interesting about this trailer is that once again, Bruce Wayne and Batman are not really the focus of it. Instead, you have Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Anne Hathaway as John Blake and Selina Kyle taking precedence and we hear that Bane actually sounds pretty clear. In addition, the YouTube page confirms the name of Marion Cotillard's character, Miranda Tate. But you don't want to hear me talk about it. Hit the jump for the trailer.

Netflix Instant: Cool TV and Movie Picks

Now that you're stuffed full of turkey and dressing, it's time to go out and brave the crowds for Black Friday deals. Or if the thought of trampling people to get 20% off doesn't wet your whistle, here are some awesome Netflix Instant titles to tide you over for the remainder of the holiday weekend. 

INTO THE WOODS

One of Sondheim's classic musicals. It tells the tales of many fairytale characters, but with a dark twist and edge. This has been one of my favorite musicals to see on stage, and lucky for us, Sondheim is one of the few composers who allow his musicals to be filmed while they're still on stage. None of this conversion to movie business.

MARCH OF THE PENGUINS

A documentary fit for the whole family. It tells the story of the emperor penguins as they endure one of the harshest places on the planet, Antarctica. The film is voiced by God himself, Morgan Freeman, and is a great introduction to the documentary format for young film connoisseurs. 

DEEP BLUE SEA

One of my absolute favorite cheesy action movies. Scientists have been performing experiments on sharks trying to find the cure for Alzheimer's. However, the sharks become more intelligent, and you guessed it, start fighting back. Not suitable for children, but it has my favorite death of all time. (You'll know it when you see it).

Tweet

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!

Red(2010)

Directed By: Robert Schwentke

Written By: Jon Hoeber & Erich Hoeber

Starring: Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Mary Louise Parker,

& Helen Mirren

Synopsis: When a retired CIA agent is suddenly a target of an assassination squad, he must 

figure out who is behind the hit, recruiting his old teammates and a government employee in the process.

WARNING:MILD SPOILERS AHEAD

Jonesy- I liked the story. I thought it took too long to get to the real problem, but in other spy movies, you always got little hints of the mystery, and I don’t feel that you got enough of the mystery to keep me focused on guessing what was wrong.  I wanted to get to the real meat of who’s trying to kill Bruce Willis.

Javier- I also really liked the story, though I didn’t care for the mystery, and I was just taking it moment by moment. This movie was probably just as funny as Get Him to the Greek, which is one of the funnier movies we’ve seen this year.  So yea, the complaints are there, but for me it doesn’t really matter because I was having such a good time. I didn’t feel there were that many issues with the pacing did you?

Jonesy- I think there were pacing issues in the beginning, but once the four main characters got together, it was great. I wanted all four to get tougher faster.  I think getting to Helen Mirren took way too long.

Javier- And it felt a little cheesy you know? I hate making the comparison, but it felt like in Mortal Kombat they were trying to get all the main characters from the video game together, like “we gotta go to this guy for a really specific reason, and only X person that is vital to the plot later on can help us with in this exact moment.” The movie had that very campy and goofy style. 

Jonesy-It’s funny because they’re old and they’re kicking ass

Javi- And they all had great chemistry.

Jonesy- I don’t think Bruce Willis’s character was as dynamic, and you never really find out much about him.  All you know is he was some ex-bad-ass-CIA dude. You find out a lot more about Freeman, Mirren, and Cox, but Willis is supposed to be the main character?  I liked Mirren the best.

Javier- I did too. Rawr.  Anyways, in terms of characters, I see what you’re saying about Willis not being dynamic.  What’s interesting is that later in the movie, the interrogation scene where Karl Urban is asking Sarah- “Do you know who Frank Moses is?”, that could’ve been a great scene where she finds out all of this messed up stuff that he did.  I kind of see what you’re saying; there could’ve been ways of showing more of his past than without exposition.  One thing I will complain is they tried to Liz Lemon-ize the Sarah character, and I know I’ve read this before.  It's where they play off an attractive woman as dorky or dumpy like the Tina Fey character in 30 Rock.  However, let’s face it, Tina Fey is gorgeous even if she acted as goofy as she did, she could get herself a guy.  That just kind of gets annoying to me.

Jonesy- I like that Sarah never shot a gun, that she helped but not in a violent way.  She was able to help in her own style, and she wasn’t a damsel in distress and wasn’t a super genius. 

Javier- Going back to the story/character thing, I thought the Brian Cox character encapsulated everything that was cool and yet wrong with this movie.  I thought it was ridiculous how he shows up in the middle of the group getting hunted down in a non-armored car and helps them escape. 

Jonesy- I also really enjoyed how Cooper (Karl Urban) was super developed. I felt more for him, and I understood his motivations more than I ever did for Bruce Willis. I understood where he was coming from, and it really should be the other way around. 

Javier- Overall, I thought it was really enjoyable, and you shouldn’t really go in expecting too much. I was excited because I wanted to see Helen Mirren with a gun, and I was not disappointed, and I was surprised at how funny and amusing the movie was.  You won’t have to say it’s a guilty pleasure, which made me like it even more because it was genuinely funny and it was well acted.  The chemistry was great, and the story was solid.  If someone was to say, hey let’s go see Red; I’d probably see it again, especially in a big group of people 

Jonesy- This is definitely a big group movie; you just have to go in expecting fun.  It’s one of the best action movies of the year.  I enjoyed it, but I still have issues with it.  I’d recommend it to anyone; it’s enough fun that most everybody could find something to like from it.  It’s very kick ass and funny and sweet…just an all around fun movie.