Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins’ Ball
Unrated DVD
Directed by P.J. Pesce
Starring Tom Berenger, Clayne Crawford, Tommy Flanagan, Maury Sterling, Martha Higareda
Universal Home Entertainment
Release Date: January 19, 2010

Direct-to-video sequels tend to put me ill at ease, and with good reason. More often than not these movies are cynical, cheapjack attempts by cash-strapped studios to squeeze every possible nickel out of even their most modest theatrical successes. Next to Walt Disney Pictures no other studio has been to the DTV sequel well more times than Universal Pictures, as their numerous quickie follow-ups to The Land Before Time, Darkman, Tremors, and American Pie have shown. I have nothing against movies bypassing cinemas and going direct to video store shelves; in the past many fine films, some much better than anything Hollywood has forced upon us, have made their premiere exclusively at our local Blockbuster Video or in the Redbox kiosk in front of the neighborhood Wal-Mart often because they‘re the kind of movies that cannot be easily marketed into the moviegoer conscience like the cookie cutter fare that clogs the multiplex screens week in and week out. Plus every so often a rare sequel comes along that proves to be a cut above to the original (see The Empire Strikes Back, Aliens, and Hostel Part II). But sequels to moderately profitable theatrical releases are as a rule made on budgets a fraction of what the originals were made for, and customarily they’re made without the participation of the filmmakers and cast that made the originals great (because they can‘t be afforded). Leave it to Joe Carnahan, a firebrand filmmaking talent who makes his best movies outside the creative dead zone of Tinseltown, to accept the challenge of making a direct-to-video sequel the right way [...]

Word of a Mission: Impossible IV has floated around since Mission: Impossible III came and went, it would seem.

Instead of becoming just another random Hollywood rumor that eventually runs out of breath and dies, this one has always stayed alive and strong. This is because those associated with the movie, such as mega-star Tom Cruise and sources close to the studio, would always remain confident that it would happen eventually. Their determination has now paid off.

It’s being reported by Deadline Hollywood that Mr. Cruise has officially signed on for the fourth installment of the gigantic Mission: Impossible franchise. The deal will also include Cruise as a producer on the film along with J.J. Abrams, who directed the third film but will not be directing here. This is not very surprising: the first film in 1996 was directed by Brian De Palma while Mission: Impossible II was directed by John Woo, so it’s something of a personality trait for each film to have a different big director. [...]

When Saw first came out in 2004, it was a vicious and unique new addition to the world of horror, and very few people could deny how much gory fun it was.

It was so popular, in fact, that sequels soon followed and they kept coming. By 2009 — yes, only 5 short years later — they were already releasing Saw VI. Many faithful fans have continued to line up the second a new installment is released, and as with any franchise, these fans have the ones they like and the ones they didn’t like. On the other hand, there’s another group of people who loathe what the franchise has become, and consider it a constant recycling of the exact same idea, surgically engineered to take the money of unsuspecting consumers every Halloween season.

With each and every Saw film, it has become more and more apparent that the popularity is slowly weakening. And so the question has arisen: when will Jigsaw orchestrate his final cruel trap? [...]

Gamer
Directed by Neveldine/Taylor
Starring Gerard Butler, Michael C. Hall, Amber Valletta, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Kyra Sedgwick
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Release Date: January, 19, 2010

You know things are bad when the best part of a film based on ultra-violent video games is the dance sequence. However, such is the case with Gamer, which really only gives the viewer what they should expect from a Grand Theft Auto game: an unbelievable plot, half-naked women, and lots of people getting shot. It’s all very generic and blurs together, which is probably why villain Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall) lip-syncing and dancing with soldiers he has under mind control is the only scene that stands out in any significant way.

What passes for the plot of Gamer is simple: In the near future, computer genius Castle creates a type of nanomachine that allows someone to remotely control another human being. Why not just use it to take over world? Well, he’s working on it, but first he decides to use his invention to create a real life version of Second Life, when people can pay to control other real humans, who ar in turn paid to be “actors” in the game environment. After amassing the largest fortune in the world, Castle creates a second game, “Slayers,” where the players control death row inmates in a Call of Duty-like shooter. The inmates sign up with the promise of freedom… if they win 30 games [...]

Irredeemable #10
Written by Mark Waid
Art by Peter Krause
Cover Art by Paul Azaceta (Cover A); Dan Panosian (Cover B); Jeffrey Spokes (Cover C)
BOOM! Studios
Price: $3.99; Release date: January 27, 2010

What if the world’s greatest superhero became the world’s greatest supervillain?

Previously in Irredeemable…

The Plutonian, Earth’s most powerful and beloved hero, has gone rogue. In the past few weeks, tens of millions of innocents have died at his hands as he has rampaged across the planet. His former teammates, the Paradigm, have been searching far and wide for some way to stop him. For now their best defense is Survivor, one of their own, who has absorbed his dead twin’s powers and has forced the Plutonian into retreat — and, unwittingly, into the hands of Modeus, Plutonian’s former arch-enemy, who now secretly inhabits the body of Plutonian’s young sidekick.

Meanwhile, it’s evident to everyone in the Paradigm — including her husband Gilgamos — that Bette Noir has been keeping some staggering secrets….

So far I’ve been loving the job Mark Waid has been doing on Irredeemable, it’s been my favorite BOOM! book along with another Mark Waid written series, Incorruptible. Being a life-long Superman fan, it’s fun to see what the character would be like if he turned on the world [...]

Dark Castle Entertainment is known for their many contributions to the horror genre. One of their upcoming titles is The Apparition. The movie is adding a new name to the cast which now creates an interesting fusion of different juggernaut franchises.

ShockTilYouDrop is reporting that Tom Felton, who is best known as Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter franchise, has been cast in the movie. Felton joins The Twilight Saga star Ashley Greene, creating said fusion. It’s always fun when the stars of two major franchises show up together in a completely different franchise, so all of the Potter-heads and Twi-hards will surely go nutty for this. Then again, sometimes these fusions are pretty anti-climactic, like when Firefly‘s Nathan Fillion teamed up with Battlestar Galactica‘s Katee Sackhoff for White Noise 2. Shame.

Not a whole lot is known about the movie, but it will delve into the realms of the supernatural when some sort of college experiment doesn’t go quite as planned. [...]

Back in December of 2008, there was a fun little rumor that Tim Robbins would be showing up in Iron Man 2 as Tony Stark’s father, but sadly that was just not to be.

Now comes word that Robbins has actually been cast in another fatherly comic book movie role; the actor will be playing Senator Hammond in The Green Lantern. The Senator is the father of Peter Sarsgaard‘s Dr. Hector Hammond character, a pathologist who gains psychic and telepathic abilities from a meteor and eventually becomes a villain in the story. The father and son duo have always had issues seeing eye-to-eye.

Robbins also joins Ryan Reynolds who is of course playing the Green Lantern himself, Hal Jordan, and Blake Lively, who is playing Jordan’s boss and eventual love interest, Carol Ferris.

The Green Lantern is set to begin filming soon, and currently has a June 17, 2011 release date set. If that scheduling remains true, the Summer of 2011 will be a Heaven on Earth for comic book fanatics. [...]

If you were watching the Super Bowl last night, then you most likely saw the Home Away commercial with Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo reprising their roles from the Vacation franchise.

The commercial is presented as if it’s a teaser trailer for a short film — the film itself is online at the Home Away site. You can watch the 14-minute short, titled Hotel Hell Vacation, here below. I’ve also embedded the Super Bowl commercial, but I recommend skipping it in favor of watching the entire short film (the commercial just doesn’t do it justice).

At first the mini-movie seems like it’s a dud, as one of the early scenes with the Valet is not so funny. But stick with it, trust me, it gets quite humorous after that.

I’ve traveled a lot, so I can relate to the ludicrous scenarios presented in the movie. Plus, it’s great to see Chase and D’Angelo back on screen as the vacation-jinxed Griswolds [...]

The remake of one of the most popular horror movies of all time, John Carpenter‘s The Thing, is moving forward, and it now has officially cast its two lead star in Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Joel Edgerton.

Winstead will be playing a “Ph.D. candidate” who joins the Norwegian team after they discover an alien craft frozen solid in the ice. Edgerton will be playing a mercenary helicopter pilot, which would be the Kurt Russell role of the remake. The duo will eventually join up when a strange creature breaks free and starts killing people.

The movie is directed by Matthijs Van Heijningen, a long-time producer making his directorial debut. The screenplay is where some strong excitement can be discovered; it was written by Battlestar Galactica and Caprica god Ronald D. Moore, as well as Eric Heisserer, who wrote the A Nightmare on Elm Street remake script.

Winstead has been around for a while, appearing in movies like Grindhouse feature Death Proof, Live Free or Die Hard, and the upcoming Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. [...]

BOOM! Studios has been producing some really interesting mini-series lately and we’ve just learned about another intriguing series coming soon.

Codebreakers, written by Carey Malloy with art by Scott Godlewski, promises “clandestine thrills and excitement that only BOOM! can deliver.” There will also be covers by Unthinkable‘s Julian Totino Tedesco and Brett Weldele (The Surrogates).

I’m pretty much on board with anything BOOM! produces so I’ll be picking this one up.

Crack the code with Codebreakers this April, but in the meantime, check out the official press release [...]

Planet Hulk
2-Disc Special Edition DVD
Directed by Sam Liu
Starring Rick D. Wasserman, Lisa Ann Beley, Mark Hildreth, Liam O’Brien, Kevin Michael Richardson, Samuel Vincent, Advah Soudack, Michael Kopsa, Marc Worden
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Release Date: February 2, 2010

Planet Hulk is the latest direct-to-DVD film from Marvel’s Animation Studio and it’s got a lot going for it. Director Sam Liu has previously worked on Superman/Batman: Public Enemies and screenwriter Greg Johnson worked on one of my personal favorites, Doctor Strange. The film is also based on one of the best Hulk stories of all time (written by the awesome Greg Pak) in which the Green Goliath is deemed too dangerous for Earth and exiled to another planet free of any intelligent life. Unfortunately something goes wrong and the Hulk’s ship crash lands on a war world where he’s immediately forced into slavery and forced to fight Gladiator-style for his freedom. All of these factors contributed to my Hulk-size anticipation of the film and I can thankfully say I was not disappointed.

Every aspect of Planet Hulk is solid, from the voice acting and animation to the character development and story. The film is a direct adaptation of the previously mentioned Greg Pak epic storyline, which is a different approach in contrast with the recent Marvel animated films which created their own stories and weren’t directly adapted from any one arc [...]

Amazon is currently offering $10 credit towards the future purchase of a video game after you pre-order Bioshock 2 for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, or PC.

The highly anticipated video game sequel will be released tomorrow, February 9, so you have to get your pre-order in before the end of today.

Also, the pre-order price has been discounted: Xbox 360 is $54.99; PS3 is $55.99, and PC is $46.99 (a 6%-8% discount). It’s unclear whether those sale prices will continue once the game has been released [...]

Much like his father before him, Joe Hill (son of Stephen King) is making the transition from printed page to big screen. Our friends at Latino Review are reporting that Hill’s critically acclaimed series Locke & Key will be adapted by the writing/producing dynamic duo, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci through their deal with DreamWorks.

The story centers around Keyhouse, an unlikely New England mansion with fantastic doors that transform all who dare to walk through them. Keyhouse is also home to a hate-filled and relentless creature that will not rest until it forces open the most terrible door of them all. Locke & Key is illustrated magnificently by Gabriel Rodriguez and published by IDW.

Locke & Key was nominated for Best Limited Series and Joe Hill was nominated for Best Writer at the 2009 Eisner Awards. Check out the trailer for the comic book IDW Publishing put out:

If you’re not familiar with the series, now is the time to get caught up, the series has been fantastic. Welcome to Lovecraft, the first book in the series, is available on trade paperback for around $15; $16.50 if you prefer hardcover) [...]

Tonight was the big game, and to sum things up, booze and gumbo be flowin’ strong in the French Quarters of New Orleans tonight.

The obvious big draw of the Super Bowl is the game itself, but right behind that it the unveiling of some of the best commercials you’ll see. Recent years have been an incredible disappointment for the advertisement industries, and it has seemed like very few companies have anyone working for them with fresh and funny ideas. So would this year be the year when commercials rose back to their former glory, or would failure loom once again?

The short answer is no, no there was not any glory. The majority of this year’s commercials, like recent years, were utter garbage, and that’s just sad and honest truth. The only real bright spots of the year came from the always-popular Bud Lite ads, and Doritos made a strong showing themselves. There were a couple of decent ones scattered around in between these, but that’s about all there is to it. You can head over to SPIKE to check out all of the commercials! [...]

The Super Bowl broadcast is known for having some really great commercials, as well as debut movie, TV, and game footage.

During tonight’s game (yay Saints!), as I was watching for the new TV spot for Alice In Wonderland, the first television commercial for Universal Orlando’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter came on, and I squealed. I did, I really did.

For those of you wondering what this is, it’s the new Harry Potter-themed section of Islands of Adventure, a theme park within the Universal Orlando Resort, that’s opening this Spring.

Watch the commercial, which includes an appearance by the boy wizard himself Daniel Radcliffe, here [...]

It looks like one of our favorite writers is going to be lending his considerable talents to Doctor Who in the future.

British Science Fiction magazine SFX has confirmed that Neil Gaiman is writing an episode for the second Matt Smith season of the long-running scifi television series.

Gaiman, who also confirmed the news on his personal blog, sent a message to the magazine after winning the award for Best Comic at their SFX Awards (for Whatever Happened To The Caped Crusader) [...]

A big press junket for The Wolfman was recently held in Los Angeles, but the prime objective of anyone who could get to director Joe Johnston was to find out whatever they could about his contribution to the Marvel world, The First Avenger: Captain America.

The movie isn’t set to be released until July 22, 2011, but with no sign of even the first casting announcement, folks are beginning to wonder what’s going on. Two massive Marvel movies are primed for release that summer — the other being Kenneth Branagh’s Thor, which bows May 6 — but Thor has all of its casting well in-hand, hence the question marks. These two movies are the final two pieces before 2012′s The Avengers begins its epic descent toward our eyes.

So what exactly did Johnston have to share about his movie and where things stand? Well — a lot, to be quite honest. Johnston touched on the type of gentleman he wants to cast in the all-important role and when we should meet this man, how he’s handling the tricky-but-iconic costume re-invention, and what other known characters or maybe even villains we could see showing up in the movie. [...]

Paris, Texas ***1/2
Criterion Collection – Blu-ray
Directed by Wim Wenders
Starring Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell, Aurore Clement, Hunter Carson
Release date: January 26, 2010

What a way to open a film. The image first seen conjures up a mood that is sustained throughout the entire picture. It is of a splendidly eerie sight, showing a lonely man strolling aimlessly amidst towering mountains that resemble Monument Valley in which John Ford filmed The Searchers – in which Paris, Texas resembles in a way – with a rugged, dirty suit on, wearing a tattered red baseball cap and clutching an empty jug of water as if his life is depending on it. He has been roaming for days it seems. Just glance down at his shoes, or at least what is left of them, for further evidence of the many miles of terrain this man must have journeyed over. Four years he has appeared this way. Probably shunning reality away every time it manages to creep close to him and running from inner fears that bind him to his past life. There is no doubt he is searching for something. Something that is fearful and passionate only to him. But why? For what? Paris, Texas will slowly expand its straight-edged narrative to expound upon these questions. While all the while doom is looming in the air and the ghastly guitar music is alluding to an act of terror that may have already happened or has yet to have occurred. German director Wim Wenders is able to pierce the heart and confound the mind within the very first sequence of his film: A work of a European in a manner that is so Americana [...]

Muppet King Arthur #1
Issue 1 of 4
Written by Paul Benjamin and Patrick Storck
Art by Patrick Storck
Cover Art by David Peterson (Cover A); Dave Alvarez (Cover B)
BOOM! Studios
Price: $2.99; Release date: February 10, 2010

Do you like Arthurian legend? How about The Muppets?

BAM! Here’s a comic for you: Muppet King Arthur #1, the first of four issues in the new BOOM! Studios comic book series from Paul Benjamin and Patrick Storck.

This series sees the famous Muppets gang in Great Britain during the Dark Ages where our favorite green guy Kermit is thrust in the role as King Arthur after he pulls the sword Excalibur from the stone, ushering in the legendary Arthurian times.

Being released on the publisher’s BOOM! Kids line implies this comic book is for children, but that’s only partially true, as I found that some of the humor was clearly adult, namely the references to modern-day politics. But yes, the kids will love it too, because the Muppets are in action, and Fozzie Bear never fails to … WOCKA WOCKA … slip in a corny joke [...]

Siege #2
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciller: Olivier Coipel
Inker: Mark Morales
Colorist: Laura Martin
Cover: Olivier Coipel; Gabriele Dellotto (variant)
Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99; Release date: February 3, 2010

As much as I enjoy Brian Michael Bendis‘ work on a variety of titles, his big event work at Marvel has generally left me cold. There weren’t a lot of things wrong with series like “House of M” or “Secret Invasion” per se, but the stories were never as exciting to me as they should have been. I think a lot of that can be blamed on their length. Fortunately, Bendis and Marvel made the wise decision to make their new event “Siege” only four issues, which I think has forced Bendis to cut all the filler and get straight to the killer. And as it turns out, that killer is the Sentry.

Siege #2 finds Norman Osborn’s attack on Asgard in full swing, but unfortunately, he loses control of one major player, just as the Avengers are planning their counterattack. Ares has been one of Osborn’s big guns, but when the god of war finds out that he’s been played for a fool, he decides to take Norman out. Unfortunately, Norman has another big gun, and calls in the Sentry to take on Ares [...]