Singer's New Blockbuster is Best X-Men Film Yet: Our Review of "X-Men: Days of Future Past" (2014)

Directed By: Bryan Singer (X-Men, X2) 

Starring: Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Patrick Stewart

Rating: PG-13 for sequences of intense sci-fi violence and action, some suggestive material, nudity and language

Run Time: 2 hours, 21 minutes

Synopsis: In the not-so-distant future, machines called Sentinels have tracked down and eliminated almost the entire mutant race. To stave off their extinction, Professor X (Stewart) has the consciousness of Wolverine (Jackman) sent back to his body in 1973 where he is tasked with getting a reclusive Charles Xavier (McAvoy) and imprisoned Magneto (Fassbender) to reconcile and stop Mystique (Lawrence) from assassinating the Sentinels' creator, Bolivar Trask - who's death propelled the Sentinel program to the mutant hunting power it became.

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello dear readers! Last night Sarah and I saw an advance screening of this week's new, big blockbuster - and one of the biggest, most anticipated films of the whole summer - X-Men: Days of Future Past. It is a de facto sequel to 2011's X-Men: First Class as well as being a "soft" reboot of sorts for the series.

Sarah: Why don't you explain what you mean by "soft reboot?"

A: Well…the difference between a "hard" reboot and a "soft" reboot is that a "hard" reboot would be like this new The Amazing Spider-Man series by Sony where they have completely started over with new actors and a new director but telling the same exact beats over again and they're not referencing the old trilogy at all. Sort of like how Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy was a reboot of the Batman films.

Whereas what I mean by "soft" reboot is that this time they are keeping the continuity of the original X-Men trilogy (kind of), but in the course of this time-travel film the general idea is that the franchise picks up around the year 2022 where the X-Men from the original trilogy - Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Magneto (Ian McKellen), Storm (Halle Berry), Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) and others - are trying to send Logan/Wolverine's (Hugh Jackman) consciousness back to his 1973 self so he can get the younger versions of Professor X and Magneto to stop Mystique (James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence, reprising their roles from First Class) from assassinating a weapons-building scientist named Bolivar Trask. 

It's Trask's death and the capture of Mystique afterwards that eventually causes the dire future in 2022, and they're trying to wipe out that time-line, which in effect would reboot the series from that point on because it would nullify the original trilogy. But because they're using the actors from the original trilogy AND the actors from the newer prequel films, people are referring to this as a "soft" reboot of the series. If that makes sense.

So, Days of Future Past was directed by Bryan Singer who directed X-Men and X2: X-Men United plus he had a hand in coming up with the story and producing X-Men: First Class. This one does see the return of a lot of familiar faces - as mentioned before Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Ellen Page and obviously the main actors from First Class, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult and Jennifer Lawrence…

S: And you haven't even mentioned the main man, Hugh Jackman, who bridges the two timelines. He's the one who has really bridged the entire X-Men film because he's the only actor to appear in all 7 films and as the same character.

When Good a Trailer Makes a Terrible Movie: Our Review of "Movie 43" (2013)

Andrew: Hello readers! Sorry we've been away for a bit again, still been a bit busy with the day jobs, but we WERE able to catch a showing of this past weekend's unheralded new sketch comedy movie, Movie 43, and we're here to give you our review of it! (Duh.) Movie 43 stars a TON of big-name actors and there were about ten different directors involved all taking a different sketch. But due to the low-brow humor of the film, and apparently general distaste the studio has for it, almost everyone involved is trying to distance themselves from the movie (check out this humorous New York Post story about it to see what we mean). 

Now, because of the structure of the film, we're going to be doing our review just a touch differently than normal. Instead of doing a free-flowing conversation, we're going to break up the review by talking about each individual sketch on its own - starting with a brief description of the sketch and what we liked about it, what we didn't like about it, etc. With that said, in order of how they appeared in the film, here are our thoughts on Movie 43.

THE CATCH 

Stars: Kate Winslet and Hugh Jackman

Premise: Winslet plays a woman going on a blind date with a man who by all accounts is handsome, wealthy and incredibly popular, so it comes as a shock to her when they get to the restaurant and he takes off his scarf, that he has a pair of testicles hanging from his chin and no one else seems to find it unusual.

Sarah: Yea, this one actually made me very uncomfortable. Besides being slightly disgusting, this little sketch was hilarious! Having such a beautiful man like Hugh Jackman with a pair hanging from his neck was disturbing on so many levels. What bothered me the most was the fact that NOONE seemed to know!!! It's ridiculous! 

A: There are plenty of sketches in the movie that are over-the-top ridiculous, but I felt that this was a good one to kick things off. The sight gag of the male genitalia dangling from Jackman's face and the complete obliviousness by everyone other than Winslet was pretty funny. And they use the sight gag to its full effect, with the part where an air duct blowing cold air on their table taking the cake. But the sketch wouldn't have been anything if it weren't for Winslet's reactions.

Wednesday Movie Nibblets

Hello everyone! It's been a little quiet this week with the Mr out of town for work, but don't worry, we will be reviewing some movie this weekend!


So let's move on with some random mid-week movie news!


First of all, we have Halle Berry coming back to the big-screen, bikini-clad...once again. Berry stars in the upcoming movie Dark Tide due out March 30. She plays Kate, a shark expert who lost a fellow diver to an attack. She has to battle self-doubt and fear and go back into one of the most dangerous shark areas in the world, Shark Alley. This newly released clip shows you the kind of feel they were going for with this movie. Check out the original trailer too!

Yeah, let's be honest, this movie doesn't seem too great. Kind of a bummer for the Academy Award winner. But I'm sure many guys will head to the theatre to see this one just to see the bikini.


Alright, moving on to one of the most anticipated movies of the summer, Prometheus. I know Andrew and I are excited. Now, a lot of people are also very confused about what this movie is about too. In this movie, a team of scientists explore the universe to research alien life forms on the ship, Prometheus.  They become stranded on an alien world and soon discover a threat that could threaten all mankind. Prometheus is a prequel-esque film to the classic scary movie, Alien. Since they were directed by the same director, Ridley Scott, we are expecting the same amount of excellence and excitement. Scott has said that it's not a direct prequel but takes place in the world of the original film. Haven't seen the trailer yet? Check it out!

I know, it's a teaser but here's the good news...the official theatrical trailer comes out MARCH 17! Also check out a new picture from the movie here.




This weekend an anticipated movie from Disney will grace the screen. John Carter comes into theatres this Friday, and Willem Dafoe spoke candidly with Lara Spencer this morning on Good Morning America about growing a couple feet for his less than easy role for his motion-capture role. Check out the video here. Actually pretty excited to see this one this weekend. But more on that later!


Well those were just a few nibblets for you on this Wednesday evening. Check back in tomorrow for a look at this weekend's new releases!