Andrew: Hello readers! Lots and lots of trailers coming out this week, our apologies for a being a little slow on posting some of them. We'll try to get around to as many as we can, but for now I'm posting this particular one because it looks awesome.
This is the first trailer I've seen for Taken 2, the sequel to the surprise hit Taken starring Liam Neeson a few years ago. Whereas in the first one it was Kim (played by Maggie Grace), the daughter of Neeson's Bryan Mills that was taken, this time it looks like it's Bryan that's being hunted down and his ex-wife, Lenore (played by Famke Janssen) is abducted. At least that's all the trailer shows, I expect there to be more to the story.
In the meantime, check it out!
Taken 2 brings back all three of Neeson, Grace and Janssen, is produced by Luc Besson, and comes out on October 5.
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!
