Category: Movies (Page 154 of 498)

What Else Ya Got? “The Losers”

Sylvain White’s big-screen adaptation of the DC/Vertigo comic book series, “The Losers,” will undoubtedly get plenty of airtime when it premieres on basic cable, but as one of the many man-on-a-mission movies released this year, it’s probably the weakest of the bunch. Fortunately, Warner Bros. has still thrown together a pretty decent collection of extras that, while not incredibly memorable, are certainly worth checking out once.

Band of Buddies: Ops Training

This three-part featurette is the closest thing you’ll find to an official making-of, but it just barely scrapes the surface at only 17 minutes. Each section covers a different topic, including training the actors to resemble Special Forces soldiers, using Puerto Rico as a stand-in for the movie’s various global locations, and the tricks employed to film certain stunts. It’s a nice tease, but it really could have been better.

The Losers: Action-Style Storytelling

Creators Andy Diggle and Jock sit down to discuss the origins of the comic book and how it compares to the film adaptation. There are some cool accompanying shots from the comic that show the similarities between the two versions, while Diggle comments on the necessary changes to the main villain in order for it to work in the context of a movie. Fans of the comic might be relieved to see that the creators are happy with the final product, but I can’t help but feel like they were legally bound to hold back from revealing their true feelings.

Zoe and The Losers

Zoe Saldana is the center of attention in this short featurette about the film’s only female character that includes some flattering interviews from the cast and crew and a fairly in-depth look at a key fight sequence between her and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. It’s just too bad Warner Bros. didn’t see it fit to expand this character featurette to include the rest of the cast.

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A refreshing cine-breather

If you’ve been noticing a bit of a lack of action on the online cinematic front today, and not just at this site, that’s probably got something to do with folks getting ready to get the heck out of  Dodge (or more specifically, Las Dodgeles) and heading for this year’s completely sold out Comic-Con in beautiful San Diego and starts in less than 48 hours if you count Preview Night. Seeing as I’m not only attending Cannes-for-Geeks once again this year and will be participating in a few movie-and-TV plugathons — most of which you’ll be seeing evidence of right here at Premium Hollywood, I’m going to take a little break from my usual twice daily film blogging through this week and possibly going into the following week  a bit. I will probably break my silence, however, at at least one point during the ‘con, logistics and schedule permitting, and also talk a bit about what I see there afterward.

Also, in what’s become a yearly tradition for me akin to opening the door for Elijah at Passover, I’d like to encourage any readers attending to stop by my very good and very talented friend Randy Reynaldo‘s booth this year in the Small Press area (K1) where I’ll occasionally be (though probably less this year than some past ones — I’m being kept pretty busy). One of these days some smart TV or movie producer is going to snap up the rights and make “Rob Hanes” the next “Scott Pilgrim” and then you’ll all be sorry you didn’t stop by and say “hi.”

Anyhow, until my return, enjoy these moments of geek cuteness I have pilfered off of Rob Bricken.

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Weekend box office: The “Inception” brain caper goes according to plan; “The Sorceror’s Apprentice” gets a swat in the tuchas

Those of us speculating on the possibility of a surprise in either the high or low direction for “Inception” early on Friday (okay, that would mainly be me), have now been silenced by the weekend estimates. They appear to have come down on the highish side of what the professional prognosticators expected, even if some of them were confessing to uncertainty. (Where did I read that? It’s gone now from where I thought I read it but maybe my dreams are being manipulated by a crack team hired by a Japanese billionaire who hates Nikki Finke.)

Joseph Gordon-Levitt in So, no, Christopher Nolan’s highly praised but also controversial science-fiction thriller film for Warner Brothers is officially not “too smart” or too not-franchise-associated to be a hit, if an estimated $60.4 million is enough to constitute a hit these days for a $200 million film. It’s also worth noting that it managed this without an artificial boost from inflated 3-D ticket prices. I wonder if some math whizzes out there can compare this to the “disappointing” $77 million opening for “Avatar.” Anthony D’Alessandro points out this is the strongest North American opening ever for a Leonardo DiCaprio-headlined movie, which includes “Titanic.”(That box office stinker only made about $28 million domestically it’s first weekend.)

Still, as always, the question remains “legs” and how the word-of-tweet-facebook update-txt-mouth goes. The L.A. Times reported that the film scored a B+ on Cinemascore, reportedly dividing the audience by age with under 25-ers giving it an A and us oldsters giving it a B-. So are middle-aged filmgoers more discerning or younger ones more open to real genius? (Hey, politically, I tend to agree more with under-25 years olds more than people my own age who mostly loved Ronald Reagan, who I believe peaked in “Storm Warning” with Ginger Rogers.)

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A trailer for a Sunday morning: “Miral”

Artist turned director Julian Schnabel managed to make a film about a man with one of the most terrifying illnesses I can imagine into a genuinely uplifting experience with 2007’s “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” Now he takes on probably the most single most contentious issue in all of world politics, Israel-Palestine, in “Miral.”

Take a look at this French trailer for the English-language film, written by Palestinian-Italian journalist-author Rula Jebreal, adapting her own novel. “Miral” stars a slightly de-glammed Freida Pinto of “Slumdog Millionaire” and Arab-Israeli actress Hiam Abbass.

“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” ran the risk of being a drippy in terms of being a bit of rather conventional arthouse fare/Oscar-bait, but he was quite adept at transcending that at every turn there. Let’s hope he and writer Jebreal — working in, or being translated into, English — pull off the same trick here.

Clearly, the film-makers are hoping for a large audience for “Miral.” Considering the subject matter and what looks like an honest but evenhanded treatment of the ultimate hot-button topic, I kind of hope they get it; I also hope all my Jewish relatives see it. I hate to say it, but too many people — and not only Jews — have allowed support for Israel to become translated into what I see as a near complete lack of awareness of the humanity of Palestinians.

H/t /Film. (I have to say I’m not sure I agree with Brad Brevet about the Tom Waits song at the end. Maybe it’s a bit of cultural stereotyping on my part, but when I think about the problems of a teenager in modern day Palestine/Israel, I don’t think of Waits’ bluesy tones, so popular among middle-aged ex-bohos in L.A. and New York.)

Another weekend trailer: “Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm…”

Also, sometimes “life is like a river.” I’ve heard that too.

Although I liked “Amores Perros” well enough, I was irked by “21 Grams” and downright irritated by “Babel.” From the sound of it, if I see it at all, I’m likely to really hate “Biutiful,” as it seems that the films of Alejandro González Iñárritu are increasingly pretentious slogs where he mistakes merely inflicting misery on his audience for art. The film really divided audiences at Cannes and considering my reactions to the past films, it’s not promising for me. Which is not to say I think his movies are all bad, and this trailer does an outstanding job of reminding you of the good, as well as the uselessly morose.

Some beautiful images. Really. Also, re: the annoying but well delivered narration, kudos to Javier Bardem for almost completely losing his Spanish accent so quickly in just a few years. As I recall, it took Antonio Banderas a couple of movies to even be understandable. Nevertheless, I’m not looking forward to this one.

H/t Anne Thompson.

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