Outside The Letterbox

If you were to define underground success, you would probably have to include something about “The Boondock Saints”. A movie with a practically unknown cast (with the exception of the always fantastic Willem Dafoe), an unknown writer/director, and little or no ad campaign that clawed its way to popularity by being passed around college dorm rooms and frat houses.
Now it appears the boys are back and haven’t skipped a beat. The film looks very similar to the first, with a few new additions to replace other characters. My favorite being Cliffton Collins Jr. who fits into a sleazy role like an old pair of jeans. The most memorable of which being from “Rules of Attraction”.
Hopefully this movie doesn’t disappoint and is able to recapture what made the first one a huge success.

Hmm.. What to do when the legend is much more interesting than the actual story? Make a movie about it!

This movie got quite a bit of hype. Of course, with two huge movie stars, you should expect nothing less. Too bad Christian Bale doesn’t have near as much screen time as anticipated. Not to mention we only get one scene where our two lead roles even have dialogue together.

I’m really getting tired of Michael Mann’s movies. He started off well, but his later ones, have been somewhat…boring. Even his obsession with high-def filming has grown kinda tired.

The movie of course follows John Dillinger during his prime and ultimately to his death. (yeah he dies, its history, not a spoiler) There is just not enough substance for a decent full length feature film. Nothing gets focused on long enough to really grab your interest. A big part of the trailer was Dillinger getting arrested and escaping from prison. This accounts for about 15-20 mins of the actual film. The rest of the film kinda drags along with the exception of a few bank robberies/shootouts scattered throughout. The only saving grace of this film is what Dillinger’s name is known for, gunfire. They really let the bullets fly, which have a great and realistic sound to them being fired.

I give the film 1.5 Tommy-Guns out of 5.

What do Woody Harrelson, Abigail Breslin, and Bill Murray have in common? Appently a zombie movie.

I ran into this trailer the other day and really enjoyed it.  I’m a huge fan of zombie movies. Something about them really interests me. I think the zombie apocalypse is a uniquely threatening situation that has a hard time being matched. This one does seem like it may have been torn from the pages of “Shaun of the Dead”, but looks like it may be good for some laughs. I really enjoy how Woody Harrelson seems to bring his whole “Cowboy Way” vibe to the world of zombies. Also, the credits of the movie say that Bill Murray is a zombie. He will undoubtedly be himself in the role: dry, sarcastic, and of course hilarious. There is also a rumor floating around that McConaughey has a cameo. I bet he’s shirtless.

I’m not going to give a full review for this movie. Let’s face it, you’ve already seen it. If you haven’t seen it, you might just need a taser to the face. But I just wanna throw out my thoughts on the recent monster hit.

I have to compare this movie to rolling down a big hill in a tractor tire. It’s unpredictable, rediculous, and so much fun you probably wanna do it again.  I love to see a movie like this succeed. It takes three practically unknown actors and puts forth a completely hilarious and profitable film.  Bradley Cooper who has until now been known as “the guy from wedding crashers” puts forth an A-list starring role performance. He is crude, to the point, and leads the trio like a champ. (Does this dude remind anybody else of Dierks Bentley?). Ed Helms is best known for earning his starting position on”The Office”.  He obviously does his best work playing a huge dork. I’d really like to know how they did his missing tooth. It looked pretty real… And of course, we have Zack Galifianakis. I have loved this guy ever since “Out Cold”. His brand of comedy is something we haven’t really seen before. His random comments are from so far out in left field, you couldn’t see them coming with binoculars.  He gets the most laughs in the movie by far.

I see all of the guy have signed on for part 2. Lets all hope for the best. Whatever it ends up being about, I will pay to see it.

Oh yeah, the pictures at the end. They are for lack of a better word, legendary. As for the last 2  or 3, I don’t know if it’s real. Let’s just say it is. Its funnier that way.  Check out this over at the gate blog.

I went to the movies here recently. I got there early, got my snacks, got a good seat in the middle with nobody in my relative area, then got ready for my favorite part of the movie-going experience.. The Previews.

It disappoints me to see that Hollywood has such a hard time coming up with fresh content. I know that in a long enough time scale, all originality will cease to exist. But they need to try a little harder. I can stomach the “reboots” of film franchises, because with every film there is the question of “what if we had done this?”, and we are always interested in seeing more of our favorite characters. But when they come out with unnecessary remakes and sequels it becomes down right irritating. Sometimes we get gems like Star Trek or T2, and other times we get Caddyshack 2.

The two that brought on this blog were The Goods and Gamer.
Now they didn’t come right out and say they were remakes with a copy-and-past title, but dammit, I know a remake when I see one. The Goods is a story where Jeremy Piven plays a fast talking, silky smooth salesmen that is called upon to sell a lot of cars in a short period of time. I know, the character sounds like such a stretch for Piven to play.  Here is the trailer, see if you can name the classic 1980 film starring Kurt Russel that this movie is modeled after. Gamer is a new action movie starring Gerard Butler. Imagine playing Call of Duty, but the guy on the screen is a living person. Check out the trailer and see if this movie doesn’t give you flashbacks of  a classic from Ahnolds prime. (Hint: It’s Running Man)

Will either of these be worth much? Probably not. But hey, you can’t expect much out when you don’t put much in.

If you’re like me, and I hope you are, then you love you some Tom Jane. I found an early trailer for this film a while ago which had no dialogue, just video with music playing. Now they have recently released a real-ish trailer for the film and I’m still pretty pumped for this flick. It could be terrible, or it could be BA.

What is the meaning of love?

Here is a list I compiled of my all time favorite movie cars.

10.  1971 Plymouth Cuda - Phantasm
Proof positive that when shit goes down, all you need is a badass car.

9.    ‘32 Coupe - American Graffiti
“You got a bitchin car”  …  “Yeah I know”

8. 1974 Dodge Monaco – Blues Brothers
Too bad the cigarette lighter is broken.

7.   1958 Plymouth Fury – Christine
“You better watch what you say about my car.  She’s real sensitive.”

6.  ‘68 Mustang GT390 Fastback – Bullitt
Cool car.. Even cooler is hearing McQueen actually double-clutching during the chase.

5.  Turbo Interceptor – Mad Max
Beats anything on the road…if you can find some gas.

4. 1961 Ferrari 250GT California – Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
“He never drives it! He just rubs it with a diaper!”

3.  1978 Pontiac Trans Am – Smokey and the Bandit
The redneck Ferarri

2. Eleanor – Gone in 60 Seconds
Not near as cool without the body mods, but one of the hottest cars ever.

1.  Delorean – Back to the Future
It flys, travels in time, and runs on old cans of Miller!

If you haven’t heard yet, Jake Gyllenhaal is going to star in the movie adaptation of Prince of Persia. An interesting pick for the role, considering that Jake G doesn’t really have any action under his belt (unless you count Jarhead..which I don’t).  I just snagged this screenshot from a behind-the-scenes clip I saw on the net.  The guy is JACKED.  This is not a fake pic, even tho it looks like it. Apparently he’s been hanging out with Gerry Butler from “300″ or something. Quite a transformation for a role.

I’m just going to say right now, that I love X-Men. They are by far my favorite comic book out there. I grew up them. I have a hardback copy of “Weapon X” that I have had for years upon years. Although, I have to say Wolverine is not my favorite comic character. Gambit is my favorite.  He is also my mother’s favorite, haha.  Needless to say, I was incredibly anxious to see gambit in this film, especially there for a week or two when I heard they were talking to Josh Holloway (Sawyer on Lost) to play the card slingin’ cajun.

Going into this movie, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Sure the franchise has changed hands in terms of director before, but this time the director didn’t have anything noteworthy on his resume. And when I say “noteworthy”, I mean films that I enjoyed. Singer had done The Usual Suspects and Ratner had done Rush Hour. When I first saw the trailer, I thought “Man, this is going to be epic” or “Wow, this is going to be lame”.  I didn’t really feel that it was either.

-Do not read on if you haven’t seen it

I thought this movie was quite a bit of fun.  It’s not going to win any awards or anything, but I wasn’t expecting Citizen Kane. I think a lot of the reason people critiqued this movie so harshly is that The Dark Knight has set the bar so f’n high, everybody else is struggling to keep up.  I couldn’t really find any flaws in the acting of the movie. Jackman is of course great as Wolvie, but I thought Liev Schreiber was terrific, possibly a better fit for his role than Jackman.  The dude just has that sinister look about him, and not to mention those perfect K9’s in his grill. Of course Reynolds slides into the role of Deadpool like an old pair of jeans. He seriously plays the same character in every movie, but I still love him in every role.

Oh god, the claws. I dunno if anybody paid that much attention, but did they ever, in the entire movie, show Wolverine with prosthetic claws as opposed to CGI ones? They looked horrible the entire film. Even the bone claws looked better.

As for the Deadpool character, yeah he’s a lot different than the comic, but I’m going to let it play out. I don’t quite understand how swords that extend out your knuckles can be as practical as swords in your hands, but whatever.  Atleast the spinoff seems inticing with Reynolds as the merc with the mouth.

I give the film 3 “Hey Bub”s out of 5.

Ahhh, the first post.  I suppose this should include some sort of an introduction.  My name is Brandon and this is my movie blog.  I am an avid movie watcher and know a multitude of things about them. Whether its who played in what, or how did they do that, I’m usually the guy that gets asked.  This will be my on space to give reviews on movies, inform on upcoming movies, and talk about miscellaneous things related to the hollywood industry.  I just ask that everyone be respectful. Naturally, we are not all going to have the same opinion, especially when it comes to movies.

Also, I should probably give a shout out to the guys over at the sportsblog.  I think one of them is probably responsible for the idea behind this blog.  Another shout out to the mastermind behind it all, Libra.