Henry Cavill talks "Man of Steel"

With the prince of heaviosity Christopher Nolan as producer a lot of fans of the son of Krypton have been wondering if Zack Snyder's "Man of Steel" would take Kal-El down a dark, existentialist path. The trailers, with their subdued tone, slo-mo images of our hero either in distress or brooding and music reminiscent of "Gladiator" have done little to discourage this idea. But now Superman himself, Henry Cavill, has chimed in with his reading of events and he seems more than willing to push perception back toward the center.

In an interview with Empire Magazine (see their Superman cover below) Cavill had this to say:

“It’s not a dark movie by any means. Past representations of the character have been quite light… This is a more realistic view of the character, while still maintaining the very unrealistic, or potentially unrealistic features of an alien with superpowers.”

So if you were worried that Superman was going to start speaking in a growl and spending his time sulking in the shadows you can probably relax a little.

"Man of Steel" flies into theaters June 14th.

Jodie Foster looking cold and corporate in "Elysium" images

Neill Blomkamp's follow-up to his aliens-in-the-slums breakthrough "District 9" is called "Elysium" and has Matt Damon in the lead role. The story takes place in a future world where the haves live on an orbiting super space station and the have nots scour a ruined world for morsels. Jodie Foster plays the director of the haves' orbiting refuge called "Elysium" and here are some just released shots of her from the film looking rather otherworldly.

"Elysium" opens August 9th.

"Django Unchained" - 2012 - movie review

Is "Django Unchained" a nifty historical revenge fantasy by Quentin Tarantino or simply the result of him once again trying to fit his B-movie sensibilities into an A-movie budget and finding that the shoe doesn't really fit? In truth it's a little of both with pretensions of being a lot more than either. It also thinks it's a spaghetti western though from the first frame the action moves south.

Culled loosely from a real Spaghetti Western by Franco Nero the film opens with the setup: Django (Jamie Foxx) is a slave being marched across the wilderness to auction. Dr King Schultz (a retired dentist turned bounty hunter played by Christoph Waltz) intervenes and excises Django from his fate . Django it seems had some dealings with Shultz's quarry and Shultz wants Django along to make a positive ID. In the best B-movie fashion it quickly becomes apparent that this Django is no ordinary slave and that Dr Shultz is a lot more like Robert Downey's version of Sherlock Holmes than anyone that might have actually existed in 19th century Mississippi. The two superfriends go on a pillaging and bountyin' rampage, earning boatloads o' cash for killin' whitey until finally Schultz becomes so enamored of his butchering buddy that he decides to help him find and free his wife.

This leads the dynamic duo to Leonardo DiCaprio's Calvin Candie, a sister-loving dandy of a plantation owner who wants to be called Monsieur though he can't speak French himself. Candie, it seems, owns Django's wife and doesn't seem to be of a mind to part with any of his "help". Schultz and Django then devise an elaborate ruse whereby they figure they'll be able to leverage Mrs Django away from Candie by adding her purchase to another larger (but fake) transaction almost as an afterthought. It's all going along swimmingly until Samuel L. Jackson's Stephen, Candie's black right hand around the house, picks up on the vibe between Django and his Mrs and alerts Candie.

The movie touches on some sensitive issues (see: Stephen) without resolving anything and plays fast and loose with history ala "Inglorious Basterds". It's all very cool and hip and packed I'm sure with lots of super subtle things to be learned and unlearned. Like the fact that plantation owners weren't the cultured, gentlemen farmers of "Gone With The Wind", but were in fact hideous, sadistic, incestuous, bloodthirsty scoundrels of the highest order. I hate to break it to ya QT but most of us already knew GWTW was a racist fantasy. And the fact that most people are already aware of the mechanisms of racism past and present is a pretty good point of departure for talking about what's wrong with this movie, which is this: Tarantino is dealing with a subject he has little innate business dealing with under the guise of educating us ignoramuses about racism. But most members of his loyal fanbase are already pretty well educated in that area thank you and those ignoramuses in the audience ain't gonna get what he's sayin' anyway. So the film's justification simply doesn't hold water. What seems far more likely as a rationale for this film is that Tarantino simply needed a revenge spectacle big enough to fit his big Hollywood budget and he'd already done his wacky sendup of the Holocaust, complete with new ending to WWII.

Is it well crafted? Sure. Is it full of Tarantino's patented projectile bleeding? Sure. Is it packed with tons of really nifty dialogue delivered with alacrity by a stellar cast? No doubt. But is it "important"? No. Does it tell us anything we didn't already know? No. Is it a decent revenge flick at least? Yes. It is that. But it's easily forgettable and not even close to Tarantino's best. He should go back to making smaller, more personal movies before he loses his seat at that table and leave history to those who don't see laughs in each and every apocalypse. What's next Quentin? A lively spoof of the Cambodian genocide?

Eva Green joins cast of "Sin City: A Dame to Kill For"

The cast just keeps growing and growing with an official press release today announcing "Ava Lord is one of the most deadly and fascinating residents of Sin City.  From the start, we knew that the actor would need to be able to embody the multifaceted characteristics of this femme fatale and we found that in Eva Green.”

Look for Ms Green and co in theaters October 4th.

Lucasfilm puts episode II and III 3D re-releases on hold

In order an effort to underscore their commitment to reviving the franchise in a way that will make everyone forget about the prequels Disney/Lucasfilm have announced they are putting the 3D re-releases of "Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith" on hold for now while they ramp up pre-production on episode 7. The two prequels had been scheduled to see the light of 3D this fall but in a statement to EW the studio says - “Lucasfilm has decided to postpone this fall’s scheduled release of Episodes II and III in 3D... we will now focus 100 percent of our efforts on Star Wars: Episode VII”

It could be that accountants for the Mouse simply did a cost/benefit analysis and decided that, with new product in the pipeline, spending a lot of treasure trying to squeeze a few more bucks out of these less-than-beloved titles at this time just wasn't worth it. But whatever the true reason, II and III 3D are officially on-hold as of today.

The top 10 movies for the weekend of January 25 - January 27, 2013

1) Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters	$19.6 Million
2) Mama	$13 Million
3) Zero Dark Thirty	$9.7 Million
4) Silver Linings Playbook	$9.4 Million
5) Parker	$7 Million
6) Django Unchained	$4.9 Million
7) Movie 43	$4.8 Million
8) Gangster Squad	$4.27 Million
9) Les Miserables	$4.22 Million
10) Broken City	$4 Million

The number one movie a year ago this week was Open Road's "The Grey" which debuted in the top spot with $19.6 million at the box office.

(Green indicates new release)

"Episode VII" might not hit theaters in 2015 after all

Though J.J. Abrams has officially agreed to helm the "Star Wars" rebirth the Hollywood Reporter is stating that he may not be on the same page with Disney over Episode VII's release date, announced as 2015 when the Mouse acquired Lucasfilm. According to THR "sources say Abrams has not committed to that release date, meaning the date could be changed if the development process requires it."

It's not like he has no experience pushing back release dates. Paramount originally wanted his "Star Trek" sequel (currently in post production) to hit theaters last summer but Abrams balked and as a result "Into Darkness" will debut this coming May. Personally I don't care if he pushes things back as long as he gets it right.

Danny Boyle wants to send you into a "Trance"

This new poster from his upcoming art heist film is enough to make some migraine sufferers turn away. Everyone else though can immerse themselves in the 60s-ness of it all. Rosario Dawson (see poster), James McAvoy and Vincent Cassel star.

"Trance" is due for a UK release in March though a US release date hasn't been settled on just yet.

"The Last Stand" - 2013 - movie review

Ahnuld plays former LA cop Ray Owens who's left the big city behind to become sheriff of a tiny Arizona border town where nothing ever happens. He's surrounded by dopey deputies and locals so set in their ways that not even the threat of impending Iraq-style urban warfare will make them give up their cheddar omlettes and take cover.

Several hundred miles away in Las Vegas, inept FBI agent John Bannister (Forrest Wittaker) is transferring Mexican drug kingpin Gabriel Cortez (Eduardo Noriega) from one facility to another and (ooops!) loses track of him when the secure van he's riding in is lifted off the road by a huge magnet slung beneath a rouge helicopter that somehow managed to violate Las Vegas airspace undetected. During his escape he (Cortez) manages to kill the FBI's most innocent agent in cold blood thereby verifying his non-humanity. He then hops in a brand new Corvette ZR1 (in many ways the real star of the film) and heads out into the desert night on a path that will inevitably bring him into conflict with Ray and the Immovables. Before he gets there though his advance team is hard at work, killing upstanding citizens (hello Harry Dean Stanton) and building a temporary bridge across the border/gorge that Cortez will use to slip back into Mexico.

Like a lot of action films not everything in "The Last Stand" makes sense. For instance why didn't anyone think to blow out the tires on the runaway Vette? No one hears a helicopter hovering in the air a hundred feet above the ground in the middle of Vegas? Where's the Arizona highway patrol? (Don't tell me they're giving up after one roadblock.) How is it the deputy takes an RPG straight on - one that sends the car he's hiding behind 20 feet into the air - and yet he emerges not only alive, but completely unscathed with a machine gun he didn't have before blazing away ? How can a car doing 200 miles per hour not have to stop for gas every 45 minutes? And why don't they nail him when he does? Why didn't Cortez simply fly the helicopter (that helped him escape federal custody) to freedom in Mexico? That last question is actually addressed. We're told, "The Zero 1 is faster than a helicopter." Cool. Except that piece of information is sandwiched in between numerous shots of a police helicopter nestled comfortably into the airspace above the fleeing ZR1, keeping up just fine thank you. Oops!

But these are all transgressions that can be easily overlooked. This isn't Lawrence of Arabia after all. It's fast cars and big guns. Comic relief exists in the form of one Johnny Knoxville who does his Rob Schneider best to make the big guy look uber macho by comparison. Rodrigo Santoro has a curious supporting role, one where he spends the first half of the movie occupying a jail cell with not much to do and virtually no indication of who he is and the second half being a serious badass. He seems to exist almost completely outside the narrative.

"The Last Stand" is not without its action charms, sports an generally outstanding supporting cast, moves along at a refreshing clip and features the new Corvette ZR1. It's major drawback is it's star who simply isn't up to playing a part which, perhaps surprisingly, calls for some emotional range.

Plain and simple Ahnuld can't act. When the Governator was churning out classic lines like "F--k you ass-hole" his lack of acting chops wasn't an issue. You don't need to be Olivier to play the terminator. However, though he has his share of memorable lines here ("Find da vooond, und apply prezzure!") the fact that his role actually calls for some acting means that more often than not it's cringe-city for the audience when the big guy is front and center.

For example: After half-listening to Wittaker's agent Bannister warn that a dangerous suspect is fleeing toward him across the desert our intrepid hero deduces that a truck he saw at the film's opening, a murdered local (yo Harry Dean) and said dangerous suspect are all somehow connected. He announces his conclusion after hanging up on Wittaker and without hesitating, changing expressions, looking at any particular evidence or giving any physical indication that he'd given the matter a single thought. It's tough to watch, especially when you think of how many real actors there are out there who deserve and would appreciate what should be a relatively easy lead role.

But if you can look past and/or forgive Arnold's incompetence "The Last Stand"is a pretty good high speed collision of good and evil. God knows it's several notches up from the travesty that was the first step in his attempted comeback ("The Expendables 2") and the actual actors in the cast do a decent job of keeping the whole thing afloat. Where Arnold goes from here, though, is anybody's guess and it seems safe to say that if the quality of his return doesn't pick up steam pretty soon it'll be short lived.

J.J. Abrams to direct "Star Wars" episode VII

The face of Star Trek is now the new face of Star Wars too

The Wrap is reporting that robogeek J.J. Abrams has agreed to take the helm of the much ballyhooed "Star Wars Episode VII".

Although shortly after announcing their acquisition of Lucasfilm and their plans to release new episodes of "Star Wars" Abrams seemed to take himself out of the running, nothing in Hollywood is ever really done until its done and the director has apparently succumbed to the lure of the force.

How, or indeed if, this news will affect Abrams' relationship with Paramount remains to be seen. Having one man in charge of both Star Wars and Star Trek seems a bit surreal from where I'm sitting but who knows? Maybe he'll pull it off. Let's hope.