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Take a Look at ‘Taken 2′

Damon Houx — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:14:02 +0000

Liam Neeson‘s back at it in Taken 2, which follows his character from Taken,who now must defend his family from an organization wanting revenge for the hyperviolent stuff that happened in the first film. Entertainment Weekly got the first look, and we can share some of the first images from Taken 2. Check it out…

This comes from director Olivier Megaton, who has the best name a director could ever hope for. Neeson talks to EW about the film, and reveals it starts with his ex-wife (Famke Janssen) and daughter (Maggie Grace) coming to visit him in Istanbul, and then things get violent. It also suggests the possibility of maybe a rekindled love.

Though there’s no way this can come out of nowhere and surprise like the first film did, Luc Besson‘s factory of French action filmmakers tend to deliver, and as long as it plays on the practical and has the same sort of no-nonsense approach, it will surely be an entertaining hour and a half in the theaters. The biggest mistake with this film is that it didn’t come out in the 1980′s, and that it doesn’t have a good subtitle. Taken 2: Taken it to the Streets is much dumber. The film comes out October 5.

Are you looking forward to Taken 2?

Battleship: Movie Review

Krystal Clark — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:30:50 +0000

There she blows! This weekend, Universal will dock Peter Berg‘s Battleship at a theater near you. The film is a live-action adaptation of the popular Hasbro strategy game. It stars Taylor Kitsch as a reluctant hero, who gets caught in the middle of an alien invasion. He’s supported by a cast of familiar faces including True Blood’s Alexander Skarsgard, and Oscar-nominee Liam Neeson.

Check out our review below…

The Players:

Director: Peter Berg
Writers: Erich and Jon Hoeber
Cast: Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgard, Tadanobu Asano, Rihanna, Brooklyn Decker, Jesse Plemons, Gregory D. Gadson, Peter MacNicol and Liam Neeson
Director of Photography: Tobias A. Schliessler
Music: Steve Jablonsky

The Plot:

Battleship centers on Alex Hopper (Kitsch), a Naval lieutenant known for his immaturity and lack of discipline. While participating in a training exercise, an alien force lands at sea and sets up shop off the coast of Oahu. After suffering several tragedies at the hands of these creatures, Hopper’s forced to become the new leader of a broken crew.

The Good:

Nods to the game: Director Peter Berg did the impossible. He managed to integrate elements of the Battleship board game into the film’s narrative. You actually see a version of the playing grid, and hear commands like “R-5! E-7!” There’s even a nod to the game’s famous tagline. They just couldn’t resist.
Honors the military: Everything about Battleship shows great respect and love for the Armed Forces. It honors veterans of the past, while praising soldiers actively on duty. The cast is littered with real-life military personnel, who come out of retirement for some much-deserved screen-time.
Taylor Kitsch: Kitsch is a decent actor, who needs material that plays to his strengths. To date, his best work remains on the defunct series, Friday Night Lights. Therefore, we’re not surprised he was chosen to play Alex Hopper. The character’s nothing more than Tim Riggins with a haircut. Either way, the similarities worked in his favor and produced a solid performance.

The So-So:

Admiral Shane: We love Liam Neeson, but his character brought nothing to the table. He’s written as a one-note military dad, whose main job is to scold Hopper. He doesn’t have much to do, and that falls on the shoulders of the writers and director. They had a great actor, but did absolutely nothing with him.

The Bad:

Alien threat: How big does an alien threat need to be? For the majority of the film, we’re watching a large, mysterious mass outsmart and out-maneuver the heroes at every turn. And that’s just their ship! The creatures themselves are a whole other story. They destroy major cities, but seem more concerned with technology than people. Any casualties are merely accidental or brought on by provocation. Their motivation is unclear, and identities are never explored.
The government: When it comes to the invasion, the White House really takes a backseat. It’s understandable that the writers want the focus on Hopper and his heroics, but where’s the government’s presence? There are a few scenes with the Secretary of Defense (played by the underrated Peter MacNicol), but he had no grasp of the situation or how to handle it.

Overall:

Battleship is everything you expect it to be. It’s loud, it’s colorful and filled with Michael Bay-grade explosions. The story isn’t well defined, but there are some good character interactions, and humorous moments. It’s mindless fun and definitely a popcorn movie for the masses.

The Rating: 6/10

Battleship opens in theaters nationwide May 18

Photo Gallery:

Trailer:

Will you be seeing Battleship this weekend?

Blu-ray and DVD Picks For May 15 – 21

Damon Houx — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:20:53 +0000

2012’s biggest films of the early months are starting to hit DVD and Blu-ray, and we’ve got some of January and February’s surprise hits, and at least one of its failures. We’ve also got a great Criterion catalog title and a bunch of Disney films from the 1980’s and 90’s. Check out this week’s big releases below.

New:

Albert Nobbs: Watch Glenn Close dressed as a man, baby! This Oscar hopeful wasn’t much of a film as it was a chance for Glenn Close to win awards. She lost to Meryl Streep, who also had a role tailor-made for an Oscar. This dreary film doesn’t offer much of interest, though it’s got a reasonably good cast.

Chronicle: One of the most pleasant surprises of 2012, this superhero film was done in the found-footage style. Though the found footage thing starts to make less sense the further the film goes along, director Max Trank does a great job building the characters, and found a new way to tell an origin story. Really impressive.

The Grey: Liam Neeson survives a plane crash and helps the survivors stay alive while fighting off wolves. Director Joe Carnahan does this sort of Jack London-y narrative fairly well, and Neeson is great as the wounded hero who is pushed to survive by his circumstances.

One for the Money : This may be the end of Katherine Heigl’s run as a leading lady in chick flicks, as the film bombed. What a generic title, and what a generic looking movie. I think the world has already forgotten this film exists.

Rampart: Woody Harrelson gives a fine performance in this film, which comes from the mind of James Ellroy. Unfortunately – as a cop film – the genre has been so exploded by great television like The Shield and The Wire so this can’t compare. It’s a little bit of a disappointment, but if you like Harrelson, he is really good in it.

Classics:

Being John Malkovich: Spike Jonze’s first feature film is getting the Criterion treatment, and this was the film that launched him and writer Charlie Kaufman into art-house superstars. This also comes with some fun supplements, and it will be great to dig into this film now that it’s thirteen years old (or twelve and a half).

Born Yesterday, Bringing Down the House, D.O.A., Duets, Father of the Bride / Father of the Bride Part II, Gone Fishin’, Holy Man, Mr. Wrong, New York Stories, Terminal Velocity, White Squall: Disney and its studios Hollywood Pictures and Touchstone produced a lot of crap in the 1980’s and 90’s. For whatever reason, there are a bunch of their catalog titles hitting the market. For Ridley Scott completists there’s a certain appeal to getting White Squall, and J.J. Abrams fans may want to check out his earlier work with Gone Fishin’. But the real winner here is the release of New York Stories, which features a great short film by Martin Scorsese, and a really good one by Woody Allen.

Road Trip: This was Todd Phillips’ breakthrough film, and is from the time when people thought Tom Green and Breckin Meyer were going to be movie stars. This is a very enjoyable time-waster, and Phillips knows how to put films together. It may have been horribly derivative at the time, but it’s still funny enough.

What are you picking up this week?

Marion Cotillard Reveals ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Spoilers And Character Details

Travis Woods — Wed, 09 May 2012 21:38:12 +0000

One of the long-running rumors concerning the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises is that the character played by Marion Cotillard, Miranda Tate, would in fact be Talia al Ghul. Fans familiar with the Batman comics will recognize Talia as the daughter of Ra’s al Ghul, whom Liam Neeson portrayed in Batman Begins (and who will appear via flashbacks in Rises). Cotillard, who has been denying the rumor for months, recently spoke out about the true nature of her character, and her role in the film.

Some plot/character spoilers ahead.

Once again, Cotillard is denying that her character is really an alter ego for Talia al Ghul, going so far as to describe her part as “a very, very small role.”

She went on to state that her character is an ecologist who “is fascinated by Wayne Enterprises. They go through difficulties, and she wants to help provide the world clean energies. She’s a good guy.”

Cotillard failed to mention the moment that appears very briefly in the final Dark Knight Rises trailer, in which Miranda Tate and Bruce Wayne share a pretty passionate embrace. Not to be all Joseph McCarthy about it, but if she’s willing to hide that, just what else is she hiding?! (Editor’s note: Sometimes the nerd in each of us is just too difficult to control)

Ahem, well, it looks like this will just have to remain a mystery until The Dark Knight Rises dominates screens beginning on July 20, 2012.

What do you think of the Dark Knight Rises news? Is Cotillard playing Talia?

Source: THR

New ‘Battleship’ Clip Shows Loud Things Going Boom-Boom

Travis Woods — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 15:16:11 +0000

Because it just wouldn’t be summertime without at least one heavily CGI’d extravaganza of things loudly going ‘boom’ in an orgy of empty, lifeless action that we’ve seen hundreds of times before, all against a teal and orange canvas of depthless special effects, the film Battleship exists. Filling the void left by the lack of a Transformers flick this summer, Battleship features large CGI machines blowing up other large CGI machines, until only one side of large CGI machines are left. Want to see a full clip? Sure you do. It’s after the jump.

Oh, and then Taylor Kitsch, Brooklyn Decker, Alexander Skarsgård, and Rihanna all do things—that’s in the movie, too. You can expect that they will occasionally yell, run, or make varying facial expressions in the general direction of the large CGI machines that make with the boom-boom-booms. Even Liam Neeson will be on hand, now that he’s deep into his “seriously, what the hell am I doing showing up in these jackass action flicks?” phase.

Based on the Hasbro game of naval combat, Battleship is set for a May 18 release, at which point we can watch a bunch of underwater aliens mix it up with the navy—which is actually a pretty cool idea and I wonder why no one’s thought to try it before?

What do you think of the new scene from Battleship?

Source: Coming Soon

New Battleship Trailer offers a Plot

Damon Houx — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 19:45:50 +0000

2012′s summer is going to be interesting as many of the big films look like they might not work. Men in Black III is going for another round of re-shoots, and there are a lot of other question marks, as well. Now we have the full trailer for Peter Berg‘s Battleship - which on paper looks dicey – but it’s got scale and a story now. Taylor Kitsch, Liam Neeson, Rhiana, Brooklyn Decker and Alexander Skarsgard star. The film is set to open May 18. Check it out…

The best thing to say about the new trailer is that now we’ve got a story. Kitsch’s character is put in charge, and you don’t have to think of Star Trek to recognize this as a fun but dusty old trope. Model-turned-actress Brooklyn Decker (her name sounds like a slang term for something incredibly filthy) does not appear to have much chops, but from the gadgets of the villains to their full-body Halo suits, this looks about 20% less dumb than it did before.

Okay, it’s a stupid premise, and it’s great that they’re selling the Hasboro connection to Transformers (really?), but it’s got Jesse Plemons, who played Landry on Friday Night Lights, and who remains one of the great TV geek characters. As long as there is escalation and some actual chess-type strategy involved, this Battleship could be good stupid fun. Fingers crossed.

What Board Game should they adapt next?

Liam Neeson in The Grey Trailer

Damon Houx — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 19:21:36 +0000

After the huge success of Taken, it appears that the early months of the year will promise at least one Liam Neeson action movie for another couple years. In 2011 it was Unknown. In 2012 it’s The Grey, which hits theaters January 27. The film had a teaser spot, and now it’s got a full trailer. Both end with Neeson about to box a wolf. Check it out…

Moviefone got it first, so there’s that, and the trailer is hosted by Neeson and Frank Grillo. The Grey looks to tap into something primative, an adventure story based around life or death consequences. This sort of subject matter seems like prison movies.People tend to love them when they’re good, but they only come around once every couple of years. The Edge was released in the 1990′s, and it’s hard to remember one since.

It’s probably because it’s hard not to live the film, and you need someone as talented and as crazy as Joe Carnahan to want to direct it. Carnahan understands that there’s not much digital trickery that can be done with this sort of film – at least it seems that way from the trailer. You need to see that there’s snow everywhere for a film like this to work. We’ll see if it does January 27.

Do you have a favorite Man Against Nature film?

Liam Neeson fights Wolves, Cold in The Grey Trailer

Damon Houx — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 21:47:49 +0000

Liam Neeson has re-teamed with The A-Team director Joe Carnahan for The Grey and it looks to be an adventure. The film tells the story of oil riggers who survive a plane crash, and who are forced to survive in the wilderness and battle the nearby wolves. What looks to be a mixture of Alive and The Edge has at least one advantage – the trailer shows Neeson going up against a wolf wearing broken bottles on his hand. The trailer packs a punch, check it out.

The January 27 release date suggests that they’re going to try for another January/Taken-style success, and perhaps this is the film to recapture that magic (last year’s Unknown is probably best forgotten). These films seem to another story of survival that deals with what’s in a man’s heart, and the will to live and all that.

After years of developing projects only to see them evaporate, it’s also good to see Carnahan working steadily. So many of his former projects had gone through the rounds and died on the vine. Those must have been heartbreaking an include an adaptation of the James Ellroy novel White Jazz to star George Clooney and an adaptation of Lawrence Block’s A Walk among the Tombstones to star Harrison Ford. Perhaps teaming with Neeson is the best thing for Carnahan, as Neeson has been reborn as an action star since Taken.

What’s your favorite Liam Neeson role?

Battleship Trailer goes Boom

Damon Houx — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:57:26 +0000

It’s hard to know what to make of Battleship – the movie – even after the trailer. And that’s because it’s hard to call the board game (from which the film is derived) plot driven. It involves calling out numbers, which leads to hits and misses. Here there’s an intergalactic threat, and battleships. No on ei is currently calling out anything resembling numbers, but you know someone’s going to say it, someone’s got to say “you’ve sunk my battleship.” Peter Berg directs Liam Neeson, Alexander Skarsgard, Taylor Kitsch and Brooklyn Decker, and the teaser’s here now. Check it out…

This looks part Independence Day, but maybe a little Pearl Harborish. Post World War II saw a boom in films about war boats, but partly because location shooting is so temperamental, there haven’t been that many over the last twenty years. You also have submarine movies, but so many of those revolve around claustrophobia.

This must be the set up, but it doesn’t feel like there’s much meat here. There’s a love interest, and some back story (Berg is good with characters, so the first act shouldn’t be too painful, though Brooklyn Decker is still a model first), and then an alien attack. If it follows the board game, it could be a cat and mouse game, but nothing in the trailer suggests as much. So it’s still a weird film. But the footage looks good and the actors are likeable. Maybe once we get a sense that there is a story here, it could be more appealing. Word is that there were groans when the trailer showed at preview screenings of Cowboys and Aliens.

Did this sink your interest in Battleship?

Liam Neeson To Appear In ‘The Dark Knight Rises’?

Travis Woods — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 22:20:11 +0000

So this is kind of a big deal—it turns out that a major plot point may have leaked from the set of The Dark Knight Rises, as broken by Drew McWeeny at Hitfix. First, to recap what we already know—this is the last film in the Christopher Nolan continuity of Bat-films, Catwoman and Bane show up at some point, and a young version of Batman Begins villain Ra’s al Ghul will appear via flashbacks (as played by Josh Pence). However, rumor has it that a particularly big name actor will be returning to the film and portraying his villainous character from earlier in the series.

This, according to /Film:

“Drew McWeeny at HitFix got news today of a scene shot on Monday. He has tried to confirm his info with Warner Bros., which politely declined to comment at all. What he learned is that Liam Neeson was on set on Monday to shoot a scene in which he reprises the role of Ra’s al Ghul.”

Wowza. Now, despite the fact that this character is, you know, kind of dead (he was killed at the end of Batman Begins), his character, Ra’s al Ghul, was nigh-immortal in the Batman comic mythos. And if the new Batman film picks up that thread, it sounds like The Dark Knight Rises is ready to get weird on us.

What do you think of the Batman news?

Liam Neeson Is No Longer In ‘The Hangover 2′

Travis Woods — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:05:59 +0000

Sad news for fans of “distracting celebrity cameo that will also remind everyone that Mel Gibson was supposed to be here” as The AV Club calls it, as the oft-discussed Liam Neeson cameo in The Hangover II is now no longer happening (gasp!).

As you may remember, Mel Gibson was originally set to cameo in the film as a tattoo artist, which would be a nod to Mike Tyson’s cameo in the first film, and the franchises overall gimmick of casting celebrities who physically assault women in humorous roles (how cute, you guys!). But then Mel was ousted, and Liam Neeson was brought in, despite having no record of domestic assault (weird, huh?). Unfortunately, though, Neeson wasn’t available for reshoots and the role was once again recast:

“Neeson was unavailable to do reshoots of his scene as a tattoo artist (presumably the one who gives Ed Helms the Mike Tyson homage on his face), having already decamped to London to work on the Clash Of The Titans sequel. So instead, Phillips replaced Neeson entirely with Nick Cassavetes.”

I know what you’re thinking, Hangover fans—“but Nick Cassavetes hasn’t beaten anybody up, has he?”—but sometimes we just have to accept that things change, and that we might not be able to rely upon the Hangover anymore to present us with charming presentations of guys who beat women. At least until Chris Brown is available for Hangover III.

What do you think of the Hangover II news?

UPDATED: Taken 2 Now Coming With Liam Neeson, Not Without

Damon Houx — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 01:12:05 +0000

When Taken came out in January of 2009, it was not expected to be a runaway success. In fact, it was an action movie going up against the Super Bowl. But the film became an honest-to-goodness word-of-mouth hit. Liam Neeson was reborn as an action star – leading to The A-Team and Unknown – and the film made $145 Million at the box office. A sequel was assured and spoken of repeatedly. Earlier today Deadline Hollywood wanted to throw some cold water on that fire, reporting that either the film would go forward without Neeson, or shoot in another year. Now it appears that those contract disputes have been resolved, and shooting is to begin either at the end of the year or the start of 2012

Luc Besson wrote and produced the original, and has been working on a sequel with writer Robert Mark Kamen with eyes on Olivier Megaton to direct. Megaton previously helmed the Besson-produced Transporter 3, and Megaton comes from the stable of younger directors who’ve worked under Besson until they break into Hollywood. This group includes Clash of the Titans‘ Louis Leterrier and Taken‘s Pierre Morel, who was working on the update of Dune for a while. Besson – wanting to move forward – had come up with a list of suitable replacements, including Ralph Fiennes, Mickey Rourke and Sean Bean, but that list has proven unnecessary.

It’s likely that the earlier news break was part of ongoing contract negotiations. But if anything, the success of Taken suggests more of a right time/right place/right story than anything Neeson brought to the table, as he’s been hard pressed to capture the public’s attention as successfully (see also: Unknown). If Neeson wants a franchise, this is a good one to have in his pocket.

The biggest problem facing the sequel is that as much as audiences are willing to go to follow-ups to films like this, heroes like the sort Neeson played – be they like Paul Kersey in Death Wish, or John McClane in Die Hard - rarely make for good sequel stories, and often the second film just remakes the original to less effect, as in Escape From L.A..

Do you have a better joke title than Taken 2: Electric Boogaloo?

ScreenCrave.com » liam neeson

Take a Look at ‘Taken 2′

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Battleship: Movie Review

The Players:

The Plot:

The Good:

The So-So:

The Bad:

Overall:

The Rating: 6/10

Photo Gallery:

Trailer:

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