Sixish Years Later, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy Arrives

When Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy made its American debuted on July 9, 2004, it was instantly hailed as an insightful, groundbreaking masterwork of American Cinema. On this, Anchorman‘s six year, one month and one day anniversary, we take a look back at a towering achievement that not only affirmed who we are as human beings, but managed to capture that spirit in a glass case of emotion.

We salute you Will Farrell and Adam McKay and congratulate you and your plate of cat poop on the American Film Institute’s long overdue recognition of your film. Well played, gentleman. Well played, indeed.

Bark twice if you’re in Milwaukee.

Movie Review: The Last Airbender (C-)

By DAN VINTON

If there’s one thing The Last Airbender does well, it proves any mystique surrounding M. Night Shaymalan is gone. With this coffin-bound nail, all residual goodwill The Sixth Sense director retained from followup successes like Unbreakable, Signs and even the creepy but fatally flawed The Village has been throttled by his is own hands.

Shaymalan’s latest, (based on the 2005-2008 Nickelodeon cartoon series I’ve never seen), builds a likable, tactile, genuinely fascinating and lushly art-directed world of mishmashed fantasy/Asian mysticism where unique, element controlling tribes seek Aang, a lost kid who must find himself before he can bring them all together. Along the way, Aang is aided by a couple white kids and and an unexplained floating Wampa-thing that looks like Falcor‘s fat, lazy cousin– all while being pursued by angry members of the warmongering, machine-making Fire Clan.

The story follows a traditional theme undermined and sabotaged by offputtingly miscast high school amateur hour “actors” (including Twilight‘s awful Jackson Rathbone and Slumdog Millionaire’s still-wet-behind-the-ears Dev Patel) who force ear-punishing dialogue in cringe worthy combos in story progression unseen since Barney & Friends. And while a third act showdown between armies of fire and ice picks things up a bit and the action is kinetic and interesting enough to warrant some moderate thrills, the movie collapses against the traveshamockery of its mutton-fisted, amateur and ultimately uninvolving first 70 minutes.

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Trailer Tuesday (Thursday Bonus!): Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

If there’s anything summer 2010 movies have been severely lacking, it’s fun and originality.  Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (based on the comic of the same name) wants to change all that.

Michael Cera– whose one-note falsetto, whispered shtick is one I’m not quite tired of yet– is Scott Pilgrim, a dude who meets the girl of his dreams and is subsequently tasked with knocking her seven evil exes the crap out… in amplified video game/comic book style. The fact that it’s directed by the comedically capable Edgar Wright (Sean of the Dead and its much better brother, Hot Fuzz) is a bonus.

The new international trailer has arrived filled and overflowing with internationality. If this Prodigy-soaked ode to comic/pixelated geekery doesn’t get your juices flowing, either you’re too old or hate root beer floats, because this sucker is oozing hipster cred and light, frothy fun. Yeah, I strained that analogy, but click here and see for yourself.

Scott Pilgrim and his world of geekery-meets-reality debuts August 13th.

Enough talk. Let’s fight.

The A-Team Movie Review (Dan’s Take) B+

With childhood nostalgia anchored firmly in the 80s, I’m a prime target for Hollywood’s recent nostalgia sweep. Thanks to a raging ego, contrarianism and a cold black heart however, I’m a hard sell– or like to think I am. I tend to like 80s nostalgia planted firmly in the 80s- big hair, fluffy innocence, original charm and all. And while we here at AATM are never against a remake/reboot, oftentimes they’re thin rehashes that rely on name brand only and eschew what worked for material that’s simply meaner, uglier, sloppier and strainingly unhip in attempts to be hip.

Still, we’ve got two iconic 80′s pop culture survivors making a play for buckets of summertime dollars– between Karate Kid and The A-Team, welcome to 80′s flashback weekend, 2010. Happily, thanks to some bouncy dialogue, use of its TV predecessors elaborate ruses (peppered with Carnahan’s trademark planning cut to action and back again), cheerful doses of action-heavy camaraderie and enough balance between old and new, The A-Team arrives (10 years and close to 20 writers later) with a giddy dose of shenanigans that equal a testosterone soaked onslaught of both gregariousness and fun.

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Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Movie Review (B-)

With the combined might of uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Jake Gyllenhall’s rockin’ abs and respected director Mike Newell (Donnie Brasco, Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time hits Memorial Day weekend with a big question mark: will this video-game based movie finally pass over the threshold of wretched to mediocre and inspire a franchise in vein of Pirates of the Caribbean? I’ll always argue a movie’s success should be based on its merits as a film rather than comparison to a video game, but the short answer is this: Prince of Persia is both fun and miles beyond its pixel-inspired brethren. And while it shares the common theme of a heroic orphan thrust into a world of magic and adventure, it does lack a Depp-like meat hook and falls short of Pirates charm– though, surprisingly, not by much.

Steeped in the craggy canyons, expansive deserts and mile-high minarets of a romanticized height-of-power Persian Empire, The Prince of Persia succeeds in taking the Cliff note narrative of 2003′s video game of the same title– invading prince discovers a dagger able to turn back time and eventually helps a princess recover it to thwart the evil plans of a duplicitous court adviser–and beefs it out with enough neutral (though slightly overstuffed) mythology, plucky character and surrounding quest to elevate it beyond the simple cut and paste/flat fan service of previous game to film failures.

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The Hurt Locker Meets Justin Beiber

Thanks to an incessant parade of celebrity shilling, meaningless awardery and bottom-barrel joke muckraking, I’ve made it a point to miss the MTV movie awards over the last few years.

And while the award show made by the Hollywood Marketers Alliance is still a big shill, this clip kind of tilted me the other way, thanks mostly to the awesomeness of The Hurt Locker, the subtle self-effacing of Jeremy Renner and the smooth charm of Aziz Ansari.

Then again, there’s always the You Tube highlights.

Not Trailer Tuesday: (500) Days of Summer: The Thriller

(500) Days of Summer was an honest, funny, life-affirming romcom for dudes. That sentence in and of itself is a complete oxymoron,– an oxymoron that would be exploded if (500) turned out anything like this recut trailer plays it:

A-Team Clips a Predator

A-Teeeeeeeeeeaaaaaam! I may have some 80′s nostalgia tied to this one, but A-Team is one of the few summer movies I’m looking forward to. Refreshing, none-too-serious and over the top fun is always welcome– even if the green screen effects are a little… obvious.

Not Trailer Tuesday: Rourke Meets Bavaria Beer

Despite his intense, quirkily inspired acting chops, Mickey Rourke has a reputation for being a bit of a douche. Not that AATM has gone all TMZ– we’re not particularly concerned about the way he fuels his method acting/behaves amidst the general human population, but his disposition is the key to understanding the self-effacing humor that’s running amok in this Dutch Beer ad.

Say what you want about Rourke, but at least he’s got a sense of humor.

Batman 3 Gets All Official

In the event you haven’t heard, Chris Nolan must have Inception almost completely tied up: all of a sudden Batman 3 is scheduled for a July 2012 release date.

As is, that’s a very quick turnaround schedule for a big film we haven’t heard much of anything about for the last two years. Batman Begins to Dark Knight had the benefits of a three year production schedule– Batman 3 gets two. While a lot of the casting is already in place, there’s still actor schedules  to be adjusted, script hammered out, etc. But hey- that’s movie geek stuff.

In the mean time, the good news is that Batman 3 is finally on the table and hurtling toward its 2012 release date. That way, when the the world is exploding, sliding into the ocean and being perforated with comets and rhetorical “told you so’s” from everyone we now think is crazy, at least you’ll have your Batman 3 Bluray to cling to.