Official Trailer for ANGEL HAS FALLEN Starring Gerard Butler

In the wake of John Wick 3 opening this weekend why not remind the world Gerard Butler also has an action franchise that is about to now become a trilogy all thanks to the fact it was lucky enough to open three months prior to White House Down (the superior Die Hard knock-off of 2013) and suck out all the air from the “protect the president” premise. While I certainly would have preferred to see director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow) be given an excuse-and a budget-to explore how Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx’s chemistry might have carried over into multiple films more so than I’ve enjoyed seeing Butler bounce from scenario to scenario and director to director just so Lionsgate might have an excuse to make some money in the off season months, this is the reality we live in. With this trilogy capper, Angel Has Fallen, the studio has brought in writer/director Ric Roman Waugh who didn’t pen this script, but has apparently been writing and making films for over twenty years with his most notable feature being Snitch, the Dwayne Johnson-led action picture from 2013 about a dad who goes undercover for the DEA in order to free his son. In Angel Has Fallen, Butler’s Secret Service Agent Mike Banning is framed for the attempted assassination of the President and must evade his own agency and the FBI as he tries to uncover the real threat. Also of note is the fact Morgan Freeman is now President in this universe as Freeman previously played the Speaker of the House who acted as President in the original and was promoted to VP in London Has Fallen though I wonder why Aaron Eckhart didn't care to return for another round as President Benjamin Asher. Whatever the case may be, it seems this thing will do well enough in its late summer release to muster up a few interested parties who have seen everything else and care just enough to know what Mike Banning if not Gerard Butler is up to these days. Angel Has Fallen also stars Jada Pinkett Smith, Lance Reddick, Tim Blake Nelson, Piper Perabo, Nick Nolte, Danny Huston, and opens on August 23rd, 2019.

First Trailer for THE RIDICULOUS 6 Starring Adam Sandler

After the success of Beasts of No Nation (it's been watched more than 3 million times in it's first ten days of release says Netflix) and on the same day that Pixels arrives on Blu-Ray and DVD the streaming service is ready to move on to it's next original film. The trailer for the first of four Adam Sandler films being made for Netflix, The Ridiculous 6, has debuted and couldn't be further from the tone of what Netflix's first original film offered. While Beasts was an intense thriller about child soldiers in Africa, this new Sandler comedy mainly concerns itself with spoofing The Magnificent Seven by featuring Sandler as Tommy “White Knife” Stockburn as a man who goes on an adventure-filled journey across the Old West with his five brothers when their long-lost outlaw father returns. Directed by Frank Coraci (Click, Here Comes the Boom) I have a bit more faith in the film because of his involvement rather than this simply being another Sandler collaboration with Dennis Dugan who tends to give Sandler his laziest results. The film generally looks like a big-budget summer Sandler flick which is exciting and the cast is beyond ridiculous. While we'll have to wait and see if the quality of the film is better than what the comedian has offered as of late on the big screen, this was without a doubt the smartest move Sandler could have made given his dwindling box office returns and that his films are largely comfort food anyway. The Ridiculous 6 also stars Terry Crews, Jorge Garcia, Taylor Lautner, Rob Schneider, Luke Wilson, Harvey Keitel and will be available to stream on Netflix starting December 11th beating the 70mm release of Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight by two of weeks.

HATESHIP LOVESHIP Review

Last summer I watched a film already forgotten by most called Girl Most Likely in which Kristen Wiig essentially portrayed the same person she did in 2011's Bridesmaids. One hates to keep bringing up old news and as much as I and surely many others appreciate Wiig not easily folding and returning to do a Bridesmaids sequel for little more than financial reasons I'd at least hoped she might take another shot at a big studio flick that let her have a good portion of creative control, but since her starring break-out Wiig has done little to further her star in the mainstream save for a few supporting roles and voice work, but mainly she has stuck to the indie/festival circuit scene; a move that can be easily admired, but may force Wiig's leading lady career to run its course quicker than anyone would have anticipated three years ago (and maybe that's not what she wants, fair enough). My point being that even though Wiig could have done as many before her and quickly found her niche through a series of hits and misses she has instead opted for the relatively newer, more credible route of starring in smaller films that not many will see, but for one reason or another will make Wiig feel better about what she is contributing to the arts at the end of the day. And though I may have personally preferred to see Wiig go the big, mainstream route and create a filmography all her own of giant successes and notable titles she has instead amassed a resume of TV show appearances and movies such as Hateship Loveship that show the broad comedian of Saturday Night Live has more to offer than simply being the most ridiculous or outlandish person in the room. In the case of this latest film what we have is a rather droll experience. It is both engaging yet unappealingly odd in the way that we want to become invested in the story because we feel a compassion for Wiig's character, Johanna, but she remains so distant from everyone, never really opening up despite the arc of the narrative focusing on her finding a slight bit of happiness in what feels like an overwhelming world to her fragile self. It is these characteristics that allow Wiig to play a different kind of person than we've seen her as before. There are many things to enjoy, to smile at about the film while also being unusual to the point it seemed I should be cautious about it, keeping my own distance, which ultimately left me feeling somewhere in the middle about the experience as a whole.

NOAH Review

If there is one thing I've always admired and enjoyed about director Darren Aronofsky's films it is the ambition with which he constructs them and the innovation with which he operates within these worlds he builds. With Noah, the much talked about adaptation of the Bible story, Aronofsky has crafted what is essentially a mythological epic where our familiarity with the story and characters only serve as the intrigue to why we might be interested in what more is going on in this version. There has been much discussion over the content and the liberties Aronofsky has taken with the story from the book of Genesis, but if anything has been added or changed it seems to only serve the purpose of filling in the gaps of the story that the Bible didn't find necessary to go into detail about. To say that Aronofsky and his frequent collaborator Ari Handel have come up with some interesting theories and ideas within their script is a bit of an understatement. The bad news concerning this is that these sparks of creativity, where the story is allowed to diverge from the beaten path, begin to wear thin after the first hour or so. That isn't to say that the final hour and twenty minutes or so is any less interesting or drags as much of the inherent drama from within the family unit comes into play in these later stages, but it is the aura of those early scenes that stay with you as you leave the theater and the inherent attitudes of the characters that draw us in and make us question their sanity as much as we do our own faith, for better or worse. Noah is one of those films where I expected to walk in feeling one way and walk out with a new perspective on the difference between literal interpretation and what more accurately seem to be these metaphorical stories with implied lessons that influence over seventy percent of the worlds population. My world wasn't changed, my eyes weren't necessarily opened to a new way of thinking as I exited the screening, but what I did have was a sense of that still fresh ambition within Aronofsky. It is clear from the opening moments of the film that the director is still very much in tune with who he is and what kinds of films he wants to make and with as divisive a subject matter as this it is nothing short of rewarding to see that singular voice still come through.

THE COMPANY YOU KEEP Review

Robert Redford has always slightly eluded me. I haven't seen much of his work except for a few major players like Butch Cassidy and The Sting, as well as several of his directorial efforts, but I've never felt particularly close to the guy despite the kind of status he has commanded in Hollywood for quite some time. That may sound odd or even a little delusional, but in terms of growing to feel as if you know an actor by the kinds of roles they play, or figuring out what they might be like in real life, and what conversation topics might come up if you had the chance to speak with them make viewers feel as if we could actually get to know these people. This usually happens with what turn out to be our favorite actors or at least people who are considered movie stars, and it usually means they have the charisma and the charm to connect with a mass audience on different levels thus the reason they are granted that precious title of "movie star". And though Redford has clearly been knighted with that honor and been in the high ranks of movie-making for a long time I've never quite understood the fascination. He's clearly a talented and attractive figure and he seems to have a real love for making movies and creating pieces of art that mean something. While The Company You Keep may not be the best example of that kind of high art what it does do is serve a purpose as a fairly satisfying exercise in the investigative drama that features an all star cast who will have you playing a guessing game of who might pop up next. It is easy to see how this might be passed on as tired and conventional but the story is intriguing enough and the chase to the end to find a resolution and sort out the mess of politics these people have gotten themselves into had me from the beginning and I was willing to run with it, whatever it was they asked me to do and wherever it was they asked me to go.

PARKER Review

As it goes every time Jason Statham puts out a film that isn't part of the Transporter or Expendable series we are prone to get a well executed action film that has the chrome domed star doing what he does best: kicking ass and taking names. This is only the first of four films the guy has slated to come out this year and though each of them has to deal with some type of thief, agent, soldier, or bodyguard they will likely each also have a very distinct style to them. You see, the thing about Statham is despite his ability to make total B-movies that have you munching on your popcorn and sipping on your Coke Zero with glee he also has an eye for who he works with and makes sure there is something of a twist with each character type he will undeniably be playing in their film. In his three other films one of them is directed by Gary Felder and co-stars James Franco, Wynona Rider, and Kate Bosworth and was a novel that was adapted into a screenplay by pal Sylvester Stallone. His others include a first time feature from writer Steven Knight (Eastern Promises) as well as one in very early pre-production that re-teams him with his The Mechanic and Expendables 2 director Simon West (Con Air,Tomb Raider). You see, the guy knows what he is doing as he doesn't simply sign up for any throw away piece of action trash that could just as easily go straight to DVD (though some of his less flashy ones have) but instead he keeps a nice flow of consistent work that gives the people what they want from him and does so in a fashion that shows he's reliable and that they can trust in him when they come back for more.

GANGSTER SQUAD Review

What has happened to director Ruben Fleischer? The guy had such a promising feature debut in Zombieland and has had ample opportunity to make equally fun films in his two follow-ups yet each have failed to capture that same magic that invigorated his first. In saying that, his latest Gangster Squad isn't necessarily a bad film but it certainly isn't anything spectacular. With a cast that features the likes of Josh Brolin (who actually seems to be losing credibility with each role), the re-teaming of Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone (whose relationship has none of the substance their previous screen incarnations did), supporting players like Anthony Mackie (loving these low grade B-movies, isn't he?), Michael Pena (he deserves much better than this), Robert Patrick (maybe the best part of the movie), and Nick Nolte (is he even acting?) you expect there to be some level of fun that comes along with it. Unfortunately, the experience of the film is something more akin to an assignment you feel more relieved to have finished after going through the doldrums of every standard cliche and requirement rather than having experienced anything close to a genuine emotion. In other words, Gangster Squad is very simply a complacent piece of entertainment that reaches for nothing more than what requirements it needs to qualify as a coherent story. Then there is the issue of Sean Penn as head gangster Mickey Cohen. The likes of which could have been a great, flashy, over-the-top character but instead turns out to be a campy, cheesy villain instead. This also echoes an issue with the entire film in general where it doesn't know exactly what it wants to be and if the makers don't know where to go with it, we don't know how to take it and it all falls apart from there.