Movie Review: Shutter Island

There’s something mesmerizing about Martin Scorsese and the answer as to what finally dawned on me while watching him accept the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes almost a month ago. No, it’s not his furry caterpillar eyebrows tucked behind his bold, thick-framed glasses, nor is it his infectiously happy speech and big-toothed grandpa grin. To be precise, it’s his absolute and lasting love of all things cinema, which was unmistakable as I listened to his gracious remarks after receiving the prestigious award from the Hollywood Foreign Press.

Don’t believe me? Consider Scorsese’s 64 Oscar nominations and 15 wins (along with 51 Golden Globe nominations and 9 wins) over the last 42 years and show me another director with the similar accolades who isn’t considered one of the greatest of all-time. Add to Scorsese’s resume his romance with film history and film preservation and it’s easy to see the pure love and craftsmanship he saturates in each and every movie he directs. Nothing could be truer of his newest picture, Shutter Island, faithfully adapted from the 2003 novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane, who is also the brains behind Gone Baby Gone and Mystic River (made into fantastic movies by Ben Affleck and Clint Eastwood, respectively).

… Continue Reading

Twilight Eclipse Levi Lovin’ Photos Removed via Cease and Desist

Faithful readers of AndyatTheMovies.com probably saw a post a few days ago that featured some new Levi lovin’ images from the upcoming (June 2010) release of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. We have since been asked formally by Summit Entertainment’s legal counsel to take the images off the site. You can read the full text of the letter after the jump.

I can’t imagine why Summit wouldn’t want a little free press, even if I am mocking the film to some extent. But more importantly, what are they trying to protect? Secrets from the movie? I doubt it, because those images are so bland and non-descript they could have been from any of the three Twilight movies. Seems to be they’re being heavy-handed and uptight, but that’s ok, because while I can’t share the images any more, I can share an artist’s interpretation of what was shown in the images. Click for the full-sized masterpiece.

Enjoy.

… Continue Reading

Trailer Tuesday: Killers

Despite the triumphant return of Tom Selleck’s hallowed mustachio– which incidentally, has been missing from theaters far too long– and Katherine Heigl’s chest, Trailer Tuesday presents to you a movie that looks so lifeless, it doesn’t have a poster yet: Killers.

I’ll come to an understanding of the metaphysical laws of dark energy before ever I fathom Katherine Heigl’s appeal. Seriously. Since Knocked Up, the lady’s screen presence is so blase and nondescript as to being completely replaceable via any other blond actress with teeth.

So, Killers: An oh my dreamy boyfriend turned husband isn’t who I thought he was–he’s a spy!!– romcom-thingy. Killers doesn’t look like it’ll be sweeping the knee of any trends except letting Heigl nail a hat trick of mind-numbingly boring and completely uncharismatic movies.

Watch the blah-ness below– then diagnose why this trailer ruined my Tuesday in our comments section.

Trailer Tuesday: Get Him to the Greek

The first trailer for the upcoming Jonah Hill (Funny People) and Russell Brand (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) comedy, Get Him to the Greek, premiered last week and on first watch it looks to be pretty damn funny. I will admit, there was no knee-slapping, gut-splitting moment for me in the preview, but considering the two stars and the folks behind the camera (it’s directed by Forgetting Sarah Marshall helmer, Nicholas Stoller), I can’t imagine this will suck. On the other hand, I said that about Judd Apatow’s (he’s producing, of course) Funny People and that movie was a huge disappointment.

Brand is actually reprising the role he played in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, that of drugged-out, sexed-out, cuckoo rocker Aldous Snow. Hill’s character must fly to England to bring Snow back to the states for an anniversary concert at L.A.’s Greek Theater. The movie also stars Sean “P.Diddy” Combs, Rose Byrne (Knowing), Colm Meany (Law Abiding Citizen), Aziz Ansari (Funny People) and cameos from Katy Perry, Christina Aguilera, Pink, Lars Ulrich, Dee Snider and Meredith Viera.

Take a peek at the trailer below and let me know what you think? Yay or nay?

New Hit Girl Poster Makes Me Giddy for Kick-Ass

Next to Clash of the Titans, there is no movie in the next two months I am more excited to see than Kick-Ass. In fact, I’d say there’s nothing in 2010 that has me more giddy than Perseus and Hit Girl. I just can’t fathom how Kick-Ass won’t be anything but a stellar success both critically and monetarily. Matthew Vaughn, the movie’s director, is the man behind the slick (but somewhat over-glorified) Layer Cake, and the under-appreciated Stardust. Below is a UK poster of the filthy-mouthed and deadly Hit Girl, played by up-and-coming Chloe Moretz, last seen as Tom’s wise (and filthy-mouthed) little sister, Rachel, in (500) Days of Summer.

Click to biggie size the image for fresh Kick-Ass goodness. The movie hits megaplexes in the United States on April 16, 2010.

Cupid Rules the Day at the Box Office

The star-studded Valentine’s Day is the box office champ this weekend, besting Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief and The Wolfman by $20 million, the latter two finishing neck-and-neck with $31 and $30 million respectively. The top five was rounded out by the strong-as-ever Avatar ($22 million) and the one-and-done Dear John ($15 million).

Now the question is will next week’s lone release, Shutter Island, take over the top spot? I’m going to say no. As of today, I’d say next weekend finishes like this:

• Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
• Shutter Island
• Avatar
• Valentine’s Day
• The Wolfman

Agree? Disagree? While I’m pining for Shutter Island, I just don’t see a dark, brooding Martin Scorsese movie coming in as the champ next weekend.

Centurion Trailer Looks Sword and Sandals-riffic

Neil Marshall’s a guy whose name most people won’t recognize by name, but by work. The guy’s responsible for the fantastically creepy and claustrophobic The Descent and Dog Soldiers (the good werewolf movie no one’s seen). Sure, he’s also guilty of spawning the craptastic Doomsday, but we’ll consider that dump-fest a pass for keeping his sword sharp.

Apparently keen to revisit the middle-aged themes weirdly introduced int he second half of Doomsday, Marshall’s next project is the dramatic-licensed Centurion. Based on the Roman Ninth legion that went missing (massacred!) during a tour of Britian, Centurion promises all kinds battling, running and Marshall-esque appendage lopping, squishy crunching and gushing blood.

The trailer plays like an alternate universe from Gladiator had the Romans lost the opening battle. And that’s ok by me. You can never have enough sword and sandal epics.

Inglorious Basterds‘ British bullet receptacle Michael Fassbender stars as the Legion’s corporal while the lovely, ex-boob-baring Olga Kurylenko (Hitman, Quantum of Solace) weirdly stars as some warlord lady. Weird because rail-thin models gussied up in war paint and  trying their damnedest to swing a sword and look threatening feels less like gritty realism and more like geek-fantasy comedy. I get the whole hotties in barbarian bikinis thing but man, that image playing out in real life is goofy.

Centurion hits UK theaters in April and US theaters who-knows-when. At least you know you’ll see it on Bluray before the year is out. Watch skinny girls scream at their swords because they’re not carrot sticks below:

New Toy Story 3 Trailer is Pixarriffic, As Expected

So I watched the new trailer for Toy Story 3 and I laughed and smiled and tipped my hat to Pixar. These guys can’t lose. But maybe that’s what’s wrong with this preview. I didn’t circle June 18, 2010 on my calendar and I’m not doing cartwheels and openly crapping my drawers over the prospect of seeing Buzz, Woody and Potato Head for a third time.

I suppose part of my reluctance to embrace Toy Story 3 is it seems so easy. With all the originality Pixar has churrned out in the last 15 years (only one sequel, Toy Story 2), returning to the talking toys just seems more of a cash cow than a presentation of Pixar’s storytelling skill and deft animation. I know, I know. I’m probably being bitter. Even my least favorite Pixar movies (Finding Nemo and Cars) are still loveable. Plus, giving Pixar the brown helmet is like shooting a puppy in the testicles with an Airsoft pellet gun, or drop kicking a bunny.

But please, tell me I’m not alone. Tell me I’m not the only one that feels kinda meh to the Toy Story 3 movie. Check out the trailer below and, as always, speak your mind.

Nothing Says Love Like a Greenlit Riddick Sequel

Happy Valentine’s day to me and the rest of the sadsacks who actually liked Chronicles of Riddick. Universal has announced they’re bringing Vin Diesel’s glassy-eyed alter-ego back in the obviously named sequel Riddick.

As much as Chronicles is slapped around geek circles, the movie went on to make some modest coin, despite it’s $110 million budget. Still, gross receipts aren’t an indicator of quality– they’re an indicator of future profitability. With a rich home market and a popular video game offshoot to back Riddick 3 up, Universal is apparently all in.

And really, I couldn’t be more thrilled. I’m not a huge fan of the uber-anti-hero Riddick character himself, but the world-building periphery around Pitch Black and Chronicles is rich, nerdtastic and very goofy fun. With space ships. And explodin’.

Word is this outing will return to the lean mean focus of Pitch Black and will be penned and directed by genre stalwart and Riddick inventor David Twohy (A Perfect Getaway, Chronicles of Riddick). Shooting could start as early as this year, so long as Diesel can shuffle his way around Universal’s other buff guy tent-pole set to film this year: Fast and the Furious 5.

Either way, this kid is stoked.

Movie Review: The Wolfman

The Wolfman, Universal Pictures’ remake of the 1941 classic, is a taut backlot tram tour of a dour, sunless 1880s England, complete with cobweb-infested castles, fog-filled cemeteries and forests, and topped with blood-soaked werewolves that would make the phony Lycans in the Twilight Saga quiver in their own puppy piddle. Simply put, The Wolfman is a devilishly fun haunted house thrill ride, only with more severed limbs, decapitations, popped out eyes, disembowelments and torn flesh.

The movie opens, like the original, with the poem:

Even a man who is pure in heart

and says his prayers by night

may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms

and the autumn moon is bright.

And then we happen upon Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt) writing a letter to Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro), asking him to return to his childhood home of Blackmoor to aide in the search for his brother, her fiancé. Lawrence, a stage actor who, since leaving home, has been living in New York City, leaves London immediately. When he arrives at Blackmoor he is greeted by his father, Sir John (Anthony Hopkins), and is told his brother’s body was found. But we already know this because we saw his face slashed and his stomach torn open by a werewolf. Lawrence tells Gwen he won’t rest until he figures out what happened to his brother.

… Continue Reading