Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Ben Kingsley, Guy Pearce, Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle
Rating:PG-13 for sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence throughout, and brief suggestive content
Run Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes
Synopsis: Following the epic battle in New York City involving monsters, Norse gods, aliens and a near-death experience, Tony Stark (Downey) can't sleep at night and has panic attacks at the mere mention of NYC. Not helping matters are a scientist (Pearce) that Tony blew off in the past who has a break-through technology and a grudge, plus a terrorist named The Mandarin who's attacking Americans and hits Tony close to home, and Tony's forced to protect those closest to him at all costs.
REVIEW
Andrew:
Hello readers! Earlier this week Sarah and I went to see last weekend’s
gargantuan hit Iron Man 3. I had seen it once already without Sarah (you can
read my solo review of it HERE), so this was the first time she had seen it, meaning this review will be a little different in that it’s going to be Sarah heavy.
Sarah, I know that I personally was very excited when this
film was released, but it wasn’t until we were leaving the theatre and getting
in the car that you admitted to me that it had never been one you were
particularly jonesing to see.
Sarah: It
wasn’t, really. Don’t get me wrong, I love the movies that comprised Marvel’s
“Phase 1” and I love them all the way up to The Avengers, but I’ve
had a little bit of a roadblock getting my head wrapped around the films
that are going to be following The Avengers. I feel like there was
all this build-up and a climactic event in The Avengers and now we’re going
back to the separate movies – and I understand their reasoning for doing so, I
get Disney and Marvel’s plans for Phases 2 and 3, but I think I’m just having a
hard time wrapping my head around them.
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Ben Kingsley, Guy Pearce, Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle
Rating:PG-13 for sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence throughout, and brief suggestive content
Run Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes
Synopsis: Following the epic battle in New York City involving monsters, Norse gods, aliens and a near-death experience, Tony Stark (Downey) can't sleep at night and has panic attacks at the mere mention of NYC. Not helping matters are a scientist (Pearce) that Tony blew off in the past who has a break-through technology and a grudge, plus a terrorist named The Mandarin who's attacking Americans and hits Tony close to home, and Tony's forced to protect those closest to him at all costs.
REVIEW
Andrew:
Hello dear readers! Today I bring you a very special version of Alone
in the Dark because I’m not doing a solo review on a horror movie. As
I’m sure the headline, the poster picture, and the link you probably clicked to
get to this page have already told you, this is a solo review of Iron
Man 3! I got to see the movie a day early thanks to an employee
screening at my place of work (we’re owned by the same company as Marvel), but
Sarah had to work late tonight so she couldn’t go. We’ll see it together after
the weekend, but for now, here’s my take on it.
Starring Robert Downey, Jr. in his fourth turn as
billionaire/playboy/philanthropist Tony Stark (aka Iron Man), this is the first
film in Marvel’s “Phase Two” – meaning it’s also the first Marvel film since
last summer’s gargantuan hit The Avengers. Without a doubt the
biggest question going in to Iron Man 3 is whether or not it
could be a worthy follow-up to The Avengers, and thanks to two
things in particular the answer – in these eyes – is an emphatic “yes.”
Andrew: Hello readers! It was a nice little surprise to wake up this morning and find out that the first full trailer for Iron Man 3 has hit the interwebs while we were asleep! Did you think The Avengers was epic? Wait until you see this trailer, because it looks like the people at Marvel aren't sitting on their laurels. Not only are their more Iron Man suits than ever before, but we also get a slimy looking Guy Pearce but we get the awesome sauce that is Sir Ben Kingsley's voice and look of The Mandarin. Check it out! What did you think? We're pretty stoked about it, and I know I particularly love it when a hero gets attacked at his home, so I love that shot of Tony Stark's place falling into the ocean. That said, hopefully they pull back a bit and focus more on some intimate aspects like the first one and not all lose what made the original so great as opposed to the somewhat disappointing Iron Man 2. Iron Man 3 is slated to hit theatres on May 3, 2013. It's directed by Shane Black (director of the fantastic Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and writer of Predator) and stars Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Ben Kingsley, Guy Pearce and Rebecca Hall.
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Tom
Hardy, Jessica Chastain, Guy Pearce, Mia Wasikowska
Rating: R for strong bloody
violence, language and sexuality/nudity
Run
Time:
1 hour, 55 minutes
Synopsis: In the middle of
Prohibition-era Virginia, Forrest Bondurant (Hardy) and his brothers Jack
(LaBeouf) and Howard make and bootleg the best alcohol in the area. When local
authorities start looking for a cut and bring in Special Deputy Rakes (Pearce)
to crack down on them, tempers and blood start to run.
REVIEW
Andrew: Hello readers! Sarah
and I hit up the local AMC tonight to catch an early evening showing of this
week’s new R-rated drama Lawless, starring a personal fav of
ours in Tom Hardy, as well as Shia LaBeouf, Guy Pearce, Jessica Chastain and
Mia Wasikowska.
It’s based on a true story about the
bootlegging Bondurant brothers in Prohibition-era Virginia who fought against
local authorities who tried to extort them into sharing their profits. This is
one we’ve been looking forward to because we’ve been seeing the trailers for a
while now and it looked gritty, it looked like it had a lot of drama involved
and it had a great cast.
So now that we’ve seen Lawless, Sarah, what did
you think?
Sarah: I was thoroughly impressed!
It was a long movie that had a slow burn; it’s a very well done period piece.
It’s incredibly engaging in both the cinematic aspects as well as the acting
involved.
Starring: Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace, Peter Stormare
Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and language including some sexual references
Synopsis: Ex-CIA agent Snow (Pearce) is falsely accused of murder and sentenced to 30 years in MS One - a maximum penitentiary facility in space. It just so happens that the President's daughter, Emilie (Grace), is on a humanitarian mission to the prison around the same time when a prison break occurs and she's held hostage. As a compromise, Snow is sent to MS One to save the President's daughter while also holding his own reasons for wanting to go.
REVIEW
Andrew: Mark this day down, readers,
because today is a first. Today is the day Sarah and I completely disagree on a
movie and we get the opportunity to play "point-counterpoint" and I'm
REALLY looking forward to this.
Last night we saw the new sci-fi action
flick Lockoutstarring Guy Pearce (Memento) and Maggie Grace (Taken). From the
first time I saw the trailer for this film and it made me laugh I have been
looking forward to seeing this one, and I have to say: I THOROUGHLY enjoyed it.
Sarah, on the other hand...
Sarah: Was not impressed AT ALL. Everything from the
storyline to the action screamed cheesy and ridiculous. From the very first
action sequence I was like, "What the..." I was just not impressed.
There is a chase scene in the first sequence that really was like something
straight out of a video game with Pearce poorly overlaid on the computer
animation.
Pearce plays ex-CIA agent Snow and is sent to MS One to save the President's daughter played by Grace
A: Of all the things I could possibly
concede to you in this review, the special effects in that opening sequence are
the one thing I will give you. They're terrible, look like they were made with
a video game, and they shouldn't have been allowed in a film that isn't
direct-to-DVD.
That said, the rest of the special effects in the movie
are actually pretty damn good. It's pretty obvious that almost all the CGI
budget went towards the outer-space scenes and not that first sequence, because
the space scenes were on par with Star Wars or Star
Trek most of the time.
S: And I will give you that - the rest were pretty sweet
even if the action left some to be desired. The storyline also left a lot to be
desired. There seemed to be three different storylines going at one time and
they all seemed to compete. There is Snow (Pearce) and this secret mission that
is somehow connected to the CIA and Secret Service. The there is Emilie (Grace)
who is going to this space prison to check out and see if tests are being
performed on the inmates for deep-space travel research, THEN there is the
whole all the bad guys wake up and the ship falls out of the sky thing. And
NONE of these lines seem to come together in any sort of discernible logic.
A: To that I'll say I felt the three
storylines actually did thread well together when all was said and done. To say
why would risk spoiling the end game of the movie, which I was impressed with
because my expectations FOR the plot weren't very high.
It's pretty obvious this is a "guy movie" and
unapolegetically so. It has explosions, it has gunfire, it has the damsel in
distress, it's about a PRISON IN OUTER-SPACE, and it has Guy Pearce playing a
guy who could be a future descendent of Bruce Willis' John McClane. It's pretty
clear that's what they're going for - right down to both characters having a
particular fear (McClane = flying/Snow = heights), smoking (they even make a
point of it to say nobody smokes in the future except Snow), and the pithy one-liners
(which cracked me up).
Snow lighting one up during the chaos reminded Andrew of John McClane in Die Hard
Andrew’s Note: Guy Pearce probably saved this movie with his
comedic timing and delivery. He was perfectly cast for it and I’m glad to see
him in something like this. The back-and-forth between him and Grace was maybe my favorite thing about the movie.
S: NO, see HERE'S where I draw the
line. A "guy" movie? I think that is crap. You and I have seen many
*quote, unquote* guy movie that I have actually really enjoyed. 21
JUMP STREET could have been considered a "guy" movie but no,
I really liked it and so did many other women who I know that saw it. So to
give the chauvinistic line "oh it's just a guy movie" to summarize
why this movie is crap is just an excuse.
The one-liners and weak story were
annoying. The THREE different times when the heroes are hiding and the bad guys
walk right past them, then turn around and NO ONE is there was ridiculous. The
fact that when the President sends in the air strike and NONE of the pilots are
like "hey maybe we should take out the guns on the station instead of just
trying to weave around them" is a joke.
This movie could have been good, really good in fact if
they had just stuck with ONE storyline. They leave a little at the end, I
believe in the hopes that this first one would make enough to entice a sequel, and
it just leaves you kinda going, "That's it?"
A: I'm not saying that this is a great movie, by any
stretch of the imagination. Is it possible that I'm letting those things you
just pointed out slide a bit because it's a Luc Besson produced movie about a
prison in space? Sure. But what I'm trying to say is that if some of our
readers like a cheesy action flick that can essentially be boiled down to
"it's Die Hard in space," then they'll like this
movie like I did. If they don't, then this isn't the movie for them.
Joseph Gilgun plays Hydell, the crazed convict who starts the prisoner takeover of MS One
S: Correction, a SUPER cheesy movie
in space. And while I know you didn't think this is a great movie, the fact
that you enjoyed it is enough to make me gag a little.
So, readers, I think that it's safe to say that this isn't
a movie that you should drop what you're doing and head to the theatres to see.
It's probably not one that you ever really need to see, but we have finally
given you a review where we really did not see eye-to-eye on this one, and
probably never will. So happy movie viewing because there are some fun ones
coming out over the next couple of weeks that we are excited to see!
A: I WILL be seeing The Cabin in the Woods tomorrow while the wife works, so look out for that review soon!
Andrew: Hello readers! It's time
for our weekly preview of this week's new theatrical releases, and honestly,
this has been a weekend I've been looking forward to for some time.
Sarah, can you take a guess as to
why that is?
Sarah: Well, could it be because
there is a movie coming out that you have only been waiting some three years
for it to be released?
A: Correct! It's been almost three
years since this week's The
Cabin in the Woods was finished filming,
which means I've been waiting that long for this highly anticipated horror film
by first time director Drew Goddard.
Co-written by Goddard and Joss
Whedon (of Buffy the Vampire fame and director of this summer's The Avengers) and directed by Goddard (who also wrote Cloverfield), The Cabin in the Woods is a twist on the cliche...well...teenagers go to a
you-know-what film. Describe by it's writers as a "loving hate
letter," it's a film that looks to put the horror genre on its head the
way Scream did back in 1997. It should also be fun to finally see Chris Hemsworth in a role he finished playing before he broke out as Thor.
Official Trailer for The Cabin in the Woods
S:Well that is another one that you
will be going by yourself to see. I will have to interview you when you come
back from that one. Yea, not so excited for this one to come out, because it
means its just another movie that I won't go see on the big screen.
Now, while it is a big one, The Cabin in the Woods is not the only movie coming out this weekend. We also have Lockout coming
out. This futuristic movie looks pretty sweet! What do you think?
A: When I first heard about this
movie it was called MS
One: Maximum Security, which sounded like the
stupidest thing I'd ever heard. Then I watched the trailer (as you should, too,
readers) and I immediately pegged this film as one we needed to see.
Written from an original idea by
Luc Besson, the French director/writer/producer most famous for Leon: The Professional and The Fifth Element, the idea of a John McCLane-type tough guy having to go into a
space prison to save the President's daughter just SEEMS awesome. I've heard
that some of the special effects are perfect, but all I'm really looking for
from Lockout is action, explosions and one-liners from Guy Pearce.
Official Trailer for Lockout
S: Yea, I am excited for this one.
I think the whole "prison in space" is pretty cool. Also a big fan of
Guy Pearce, so can't wait to see this one!
Now...we have to have one of the
bad movies...The Three Stooges. I really am at a loss as to why people thought that this movie
needed to be made.
A: Now here's the thing about The Three Stooges, when this film was first announced there was a great deal of
excitement surrounding it because of who was SUPPOSED to be playing the Three
Stooges: Benicio del Toro as Moe, Sean Penn as Larry and Jim Carrey as Curly.
That's a film I would have seen.
Regrettably, all three ended up
dropping out and we ended up with Will Sasso as Curly, Sean Hayes as Larry and
someone named Chris Diamantopolous as Moe. It's still directed by the Farrelly
Brothers, but it's no longer a film I wish to see. If, for some reason we do
end up seeing this film, I'd be interested in seeing how it works with it being
three separate "episodes" put together. My hopes are not high,
though.
Official Trailer for The Three Stooges
S: Yeah and with all of the extras,
this movie is starting to become Epic Movie-esque. Just doesn’t look
good. I am going to go ahead and say that we will not be wasting our money by
seeing this one in theatres.
While we are starting to get into
the blockbuster season, this is kind of a quiet week. As the weeks progress
though, you can be sure that we will be seeing as many movies a week as
possible.
A: It might be quiet for YOU, but
I'm definitely seeing The
Cabin in the Woods as soon as we get
back from Baltimore this weekend!
Alright readers, so to wrap up,
here's the most likely order we'll be seeing this week's new releases together:
1.) Lockout
2.) The Cabin in the
Woods
3.) The Three Stooges
Fair warning, we probably won't be
seeing any of these films this weekend because of our trip to Maryland, but
when we return we'll try to get to Lockout and I'll try to get
to The Cabin in the Woods as soon as possible! Thanks for reading!
Directed By: Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) 
