Well, I mean you can if you want. I can’t force you. But I can give you tons of reasons for why you should make the effort to go out and see these.
Go on…5 Movies You Don’t Want to Miss This Fall
entertainment
Let’s Breakdown the Official “RoboCop” Trailer
When Hollywood metaphorically called us up and imparted the big news that RoboCop was coming back to the big screen after being a 1980’s cult classic (hard to do), a lot of us said things like “No thanks” and “Why would you do something so ridiculous?”
Review: ‘The World’s End’
The World’s End is the unofficial third entry in a trilogy of (seemingly) unrelated genre-parody movies done by Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.
Shaun of the Dead gave us a movie that pokes fun at zombie movies, Hot Fuzz obliterated buddy cop movie clichés and we now have The World’s End, which attempts to give current sci-fi a reason to feel embarrassed.
In 1990, Gary King (Simon Pegg) was the leader of a group of rebellious teens who make the cast of Skins look like respectable youths. Fast forward 20 years and King is now an alcoholic who can’t let go of the past.
Meanwhile, King’s group of once-adoring sidekicks have become estranged, settling into adulthood with careers and families. In an effort to reunite them and relive the old days, King manipulates the gang into having one final night out in their hometown of Newton Haven.
The night in question is the completion of “The Golden Mile,” a 12-pub crawl that the group wasn’t able to complete 20 years ago that King now obsesses over finishing. The final pub in that mile is aptly named “The World’s End,” a symbol of the chaotic finale Gary King seems fixated on.
By itself, the first act of the movie would be enough to solidify a great story about a grown man who makes the audience cringe with his increasingly absurd antics. Simon Pegg’s performance as King is his best yet, in my opinion, and is simply fun to watch, especially since this is a bit of a deviation for Pegg as an actor.
Of course, this is Edgar Wright, so the movie takes a turn for the apocalypse by the second act, as the group discovers that their hometown has been invaded by what they hilariously describe as “blue-filled robots.”
In order to keep the “robots” from knowing their discovery, the group decides to finish the Golden Mile anyway. Because of this, the gang gets even more drunk and begins making crazy decisions that would normally make the audience cry plot hole.
Instead, we are treated to a visually fun and frantic comedy that had me laughing wildly throughout.
Though Pegg and Nick Frost steal the screen as the main cast, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the secondary characters who completed what King calls “The Five Musketeers.” Each character in the group was very interesting and had their own complicated personalities, giving me an actual reason to root for them in their plight.
That makes me sad to say that the love interest, Sam (played by Rosamund Pike) was a bit too one-dimensional compared to her counterparts and didn’t contribute enough to the plot in my opinion.
Still, the movie is well-done in terms of dialogue, acting and story. It was refreshing to watch something that took risks and aimed for unpredictability.
If there’s one thing I loved most about this movie, it would be how well they treated the character arc for Gary King, a fictional person with a surprising amount of depth for a comedy. Also, the conclusion of the film is easily my favorite movie ending this year. Seriously, they nailed it.
Is it worth watching?
This is a must-watch for fans of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and even classic sci-fi movies in general. The jokes and mayhem are a bit raunchy, but the R-rating doesn’t include nudity. The humor is deadpan at times, so if you’re not a fan of British entertainment, you may want to go for the rental for this one.
Otherwise, I have little doubt you will have a good time with this movie.
Review: ‘Disney Infinity’
The possibilities with Disney Infinity are, well, infinite. But is it worth your hard-earned money?
New Details Emerge on Pixar’s “Inside Out”
As most of you know, I am a Pixar fanatic, so I take advantage of any excuse to talk about Pixar movies.
That said, we’ve learned some great insights into the story of one of Pixar’s newest projects, Inside Out, which will be premiering in 2015.
Let’s Break Down the New “Thor: The Dark World” Trailer
The new trailer for Thor: The Dark World has just come out and unsurprisingly confused moviegoers everywhere. Luckily, screenshots and sarcasm exist, so I broke down what I got out of the whole thing.
Here’s the trailer first, and then we’ll have an honest discussion:
The trailer kicks off where the last one left off, Thor approaching his evil brother, Loki, for help.
After all this time…now you come to visit me brother. Why? To mock?
For some reason, Lowkey doesn’t seem very keen on this battle-plan and takes it out on the appliances. Harsh.
So the starcrossed brothers agree that they hate/don’t trust each other and officially join up. I like the idea, especially since Lowkey and his hair have been well-loved by Avengers fans.
Odin/Anthony Hopkins begins narrating, because thank Asgard, and tells us that things actually existed before things.
Some believe that before the universe, there was nothing. Well, they’re wrong.
Apparently, this darkness hates London, because that’s where all this vague, evil stuff is happening.
We see the only comic relief from these movies looking pretty serious (unfortunately) as darkness ship approaches. Also, we get a look at Darcy’s boyfriend, Ian Boothby. I don’t really know who this guy is from the comics or if he’s significant. Let’s just hope he doesn’t die that quickly.
Apparently Ian is British.
Thoar shows up and makes eyes with Jane, presumably telling her what the trailer makers refuse to tell us (what’s going on). Then he whisks her away on a rainbow and stuff.
She probably said something like, “Hey this seems pretty dangerous,” but that’s definitely not enough to dissuade Thoar from hanging out with Natalie Portman, so.
We then see a steel pod. No idea. Even Idris Elba comes on the scene and points out how unnecessarily mysterious this movie is.
But Thoar claims that there is someone who knows who the villain is, and that’s Lowkey. Because apparently villains friend each other online.
We then see the ThunderGodFriends each displaying how much they don’t like their former comrade, which is the highlight of the trailer. Even Sif-ylous gets a jab.
When is she getting her own movie again? Oh and Jane Hostage gets a slap in.
Aside from Sif-ylous looking overly worried in the background and Lowkey apparently being turned on by pain, the trailer transitions to the soundtrack-fueled action scenes.
There’s a waterfall which is pretty cool. Everyone is on a boat. Oh, and the Drell make an appearance as the villains!
The villain starts talking (probably the guy who played the cop in Bridesmaids) and tells Thoar that his awesomeness isn’t that awesome because they’re going to do bad things.
Then something surprising happens after a slew of confusing action scenes. Jane Hostage is back with her friends (stockholm syndrome?) and reveals what the villain’s actual goal is. This is huge people.
Because whatever.
Then Thoar fights the Drell from the London part of the movie that they skipped earlier, thank Asgard, and we’re treated to an extended scene of Thoar going Indiana Jones on this dude.
Thoar turns him into a bunch of rocks thanks to his hammer being magic and then he says something that isn’t actually cheesy.
Overall, I liked this trailer a lot. We got to see more of the London setting and interactions between the main heroes and Loki (okay I’ll say it right).
What’s looking good is the movie’s willingness to thrust the side heroes into bigger roles. Sif gets more screen time, and we even see Thor’s mom fighting. Also, using Asgard as the backdrop for most of this movie lends to the strengths of this adaptation.
After all, the stakes have to be high for the God of Thunder, and we need a reasonable explanation for why none of the other Avengers will show up, which Iron Man 3 managed to pull off pretty well.
I do have several questions however…
1. Will Jane slap Sif as hard as she did Loki when they fight over Thor?
2. Will EA sue Marvel for ripping off Mass Effect?
3. How will this movie affect Tom Hiddleston’s dubstep career?
Thor: The Dark World will be hitting theaters November 8.
Like what you read? Connect with me further via twitter @JonNegroni. I’ll follow back if you seem like a real person. You can also subscribe to this blog by clicking the “follow” button in the top-left corner.
Don’t forget to check out New Professional News, a list of headlines essential for any new professional, updated daily at 8am.
What Early Reviewers Are Actually Saying About “Elysium”
The early reviews for Elysium are already out and being established as the narrative for what we’re supposed to think about this movie (too honest?)
So I took the liberty of gathering soundbites from these reviews and giving you the translations you didn’t even know you wanted. Let’s begin.
And yet for all the accomplished direction, fine performances from the entire cast (though the villains do veer toward one-dimensionality) and the successful landing of a very ambitious story, Blomkamp stumbles in the basic structural work of the screenplay. -Kevin Jagernauth (The Playlist)
Translation: It gets boring sometimes.
District 9 writer-director Neill Blomkamp delivers a less dazzling but absorbing and intelligent bit of futurism. -Scott Foundas (Variety)
Translation: It’s not as good as District 9, but you probably won’t care.
The purity afforded Max, in stark contrast to the cartoonish evilness represented by Fichtner, Copley, and Foster, dulls the force of Blomkamp’s inventive set pieces and gadgetry, which are at the heart of his undeniable talents. -Chris Cabin (Slant Magazine)
Translation: The main character is boring unless he’s blowing stuff up.
Frankly, “Elysium” is a bit of a liberal’s wet dream… -William Goss (Film.com)
Translation: Elysium is a bit of a liberal’s wet dream.
All the interest and goodwill built up by the sharply conceived preliminaries is washed away in a succession of scenes that feel crushingly routine and generic, not to mention guided by ideological urges. -Todd McCarthy (The Hollywood Reporter)
Translation: The ending sucks.
Like what you read? Connect with me further via twitter @JonNegroni. I’ll follow back if you seem like a real person. You can also subscribe to this blog by clicking the “follow” button in the top-left corner.
Don’t forget to check out New Professional News, a list of headlines essential for any new professional, updated daily at 8am.