First Trailer for 2 GUNS

The first trailer for director Baltasar Kormákur's 2 Guns has premiered and it at least looks to be more entertaining and mind numbing than his previous collaboration with Mark Wahlberg, Contraband. I wasn't a huge fan of that film finding it to be extremely mediocre with no truly redeeming qualities. Still, Wahlberg is white hot right now (though I wonder why they didn't wait to premiere this before Pain & Gain later in April) and Denzel Washington is coming off a great year with the commercial successes of Safe House and Flight as well as his Oscar nomination for the latter. Teaming these two up seems like a no-brainer and a way for the studios to try and capture that Lethal Weapon magic in a bottle while cashing in on it late this summer. I will see this film, and am even somewhat looking forward to it but for no other reason than the fact it stars these two guys. If it were a cast of unknowns with an independent director looking for distribution there would be no reason to pick this up. I only hope the studio realizes that and plays up the relationship between Wahlberg and Washington both in the marketing and in the final film. There are some other reasons to be hopeful here despite the horrible poster. The tone implies they have a sense of self-awareness around what kind of movie this is and there are several hints at comedy as well which will likely be a relief as summer draws to a close. I'm not necessarily turned off by the trailer, but I'll be very surprised if the movie doesn't play out exactly how I think it will after seeing this. The film also stars Bill Paxton, Paula Patton, James Marsden, and Edward James Olmos. 2 Guns opens August 2nd. Hit the jump to watch the trailer.

G.I.JOE: RETALIATION Review

Back in 2009 I was somewhat excited to see what the studios had decided to do with the G.I. Joe brand as they'd just come off a lackluster sequel to the film that proved making toys into movies could be successful. I am of course referring to Transformer: Revenge of the Fallen which was a masterpiece in my eyes compared to what G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra turned out to be. In my original review for the first G.I. Joe film I stated that, "As the subtitle may lead you to believe, this film is the set-up to be a franchise, one that I hope doesn't exactly happen, unless they completely start over." Well, after being delayed almost a year for what was said to 3D post conversion, which they did do, but also seems to be code for: Channing Tatum blew up last year so lets take some time and add in a few more Tatum scenes! If you are a Tatum fan and you are seeing this film simply to see him on the big screen, don't show up late; that's all I'm saying. On the other hand if they were going to continue this franchise they did at least go the route I hoped they might. With no mention of General Hawk or Ripcord the sequel seems to be able to continue the story of the first with Tatum's Duke leading a new team of Joe's (that still makes me laugh) and expertly wiping the slate clean so as to introduce us to a few new characters and get the ball rolling in a whole new light so as this might actually turn into a profitable series of films the producers can keep on pumping out. The fact of the matter though is that despite G.I. Joe: Retaliation being a better movie than its predecessor (it would have been hard not to be) it is still fairly cheesy and goofy and something only tween age boys will likely have a lot of fun with. If you are a day over thirteen though you will likely see through the goofiness of it all, but still try to enjoy the fun it only periodically provides.

First Trailers for THE WOLVERINE

It has been somewhat of a Wolverine week here in movie world as each day we have been teased with posters (no matter how horrible) and small snippets of footage to be included in the full length trailer that has finally premiered today. It is no secret that the first attempt at a solo Wolverine film, X-Men Origins, failed miserably at living up to the expectations held for it. The CGI was bad, the story was bland, and the film leaked online a few weeks before release causing a significant drop in anticipation seeing as word on the street wasn't that great. In trying to revitalize that failing aspect of the X-Men universe we now have Hugh Jackman returning to the role that keeps on giving in a film simply titled The Wolverine. Originally intended to be directed by Darren Aronofsky, I would have loved to have seen what a director like that would have done with material like this, but alas that was no to be and so James Mangold (Walk the Line) took over and things seem to be in pretty good shape after taking a look at both the international and domestic trailers that were released about thirty minutes apart this morning. The international trailer offers a bit more in way of background information and footage, but the domestic piece is more focused, more lean, and reveals the man who offers Logan a deal to repay him for saving his life. Mangold has said this takes place after The Last Stand and if you look closely you can see glimpses of  Jean Grey, but for what reason we don't know. I am intrigued by the film even if this so far feels like one of the lesser super hero films of the summer. I have always enjoyed Jackman's complete personification of the character and look forward to this take on him as it chronicles a story not touched on in any of the previous films. Not to mention, the fight scenes look badass. The film also stars Will Yun Lee, Hiroyuki Sanada, Brian Tee, Rila Fukushima, Tao Okamoto and Svetlana Khodchenkova. The Wolverine opens in 3D on July 26th. Hit the jump to check out both the international and domestic trailers.

THE CROODS Review

As the first animated film of 2013 The Croods doesn't necessarily stand out as an instant animated classic that will be played for years in the living rooms of growing families, but it is fun enough while it lasted. While I was never particularly attracted to the trailer as I didn't much care for the character design and the voice cast just seemed to be all too famous for the story and characters to seem more important than the people speaking the dialogue. Turns out, despite these cavemen sounding like Nicolas Cage (which is pretty great actually), Emma Stone, and Ryan Reynolds (who has another Dreamworks film on the way with Turbo, way to confuse the kids!) this film serves its purpose to the fullest and satisfies in some unexpected ways as well. Dreamworks as a studio has been climbing the quality ladder lately, since the release of both Kung fu Panda films and How to Train Your Dragon I have had more faith in them when it's been easier to doubt with the decline of the Shrek series and Rise of the Guardians under performing (though I rather enjoyed that film). In fact, it is fair to say I have many of the same thoughts concerning the two films. Both have a wonderful world that has been created for these characters to exist in yet it is simply the events of the story that seem less inspired and more along the lines of standard storytelling techniques to get across a well worn lesson for the kiddos. While there is no specific antagonist here other than nature itself and the conflict comes more from within the family dynamics the story still plays out with a somewhat dull beat by beat pace that doesn't pick up until too late in the film to really say I enjoyed it from start to finish. It is fine for what it is and even better than it has to be in some aspects, but it isn't great which would have been nice to see from Dreamworks as they have a real shot to start dominating the computer animation game.

First Trailer for WHITE HOUSE DOWN

Just a few days after Olympus Has Fallen surprised the box office by being the best received action flick of the year so far (in a year full of countless action movies) we have now received the first trailer for the similarly-themed White House Down. While Olympus Has Fallen was good fun and popcorn entertainment with B-movie thrills director Roland Emmerich (Independece Day, The Day After Tomorrow, 2012) seems to have crafted something a bit more serious here. Naturally, comparisons will be made (I even brought this unavoidable fact up in my Olympus Has Fallen review) but there does seem to be one major difference here in the fact that the threat seems to be coming from within rather than an outside source. The trailer is a mere two minutes but feels shorter as the first half is completely made up of media reports giving us a sense of atmosphere. It is at the mid-way point that we get our first glimpse of Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx attempting to escape from the Oval Office. When hearing there were going to be two movies about the white house under attack my interest initially went to this film first. Emmerich has more experience than Antoine Fuqua in the genre and the cast feels more impressive (though don't get me wrong, I love Morgan Freeman) but with Tatum coming off the year he had in 2012 and Foxx still riding high from the success of Django Unchained it seems unlikely this film will suffer from a case of deja vu. The film also stars Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Woods, Richard Jenkins, Jason Clarke, Jake Weber, Lance Reddick and Joey King. White House Down opens on June 28th, 2013. Hit the jump to check out the trailer.