I don’t expect The Lone Ranger to be a substantive or intellectual work of American cinema, however it sure looks like a boat load of fun. Hit the jump to watch!
Documentary I’m Officially Looking Forward To: Deceptive Practices: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay
I don’t remember how old I was. I was already a fan of magic and illusion, although I never pursued it as a hobby. I was surfing channels on the 10 foot satellite dish we had when I was a kid and I stumbled across a show called _”Ricky Jay and his 52 Assistants”_. From that point on, through his appearances in film and television I have been a fan of Ricky Jay. The man has a sense of quiet theatricality and an immese pool of knowledge and skill, and he handles a deck of cards so well that if given the chance to play with him I’d _never_ let him shuffle.
And now there is a documentary about him. Lets watch after the jump!
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Man of Steel Trailer Gives Me A Nerdgasm
Wow, between Star Trek and this it’s turned out to be a pretty damn good day for us nerds.
So let me be the millionth person to say this: this looks like it might be really fucking good. Everything from the tone to the scope of the plot to the performances to the look of things, this looks like it might be _really_ fucking good and I hope that it is.
Second, I kind of feel sorry for Zack Snyder if it does because while he’s made a couple of crap movies but he’s also made a couple of good movies and if this turns out to be good people are going to say “well that’s because Nolan was involved”. Now, Nolan being involved certainly couldn’t hurt, but he also didn’t direct or style this.
Third, I mean just _look at it_. It looks gorgeous.
What do you guys think??
Everything Wrong With Transformers in 7 Minutes of Less
You’re probably aware by now that I love the “[Everything Wrong With…” series of videos by CinemaSins](https://awesomefriday.ca/tag/everything-wrong-with/), and although –as they rightly point out– no movie is without sin I really do feel like they’re at the best when they are picking apart terrible, terrible movies. So here is their take on Transformers.
THERE IS A NEW STAR TREK TRAILER AND I AM VERY EXCITED
IS IT 17TH MAY YET?
All joking aside, this is looking good although perhaps a little predictable. Clearly looks like the bad guy gets the better of Kirk due to Kirks arrogance which ends disastrous consequences and then has to fight back from a place of defeat with perhaps these help of his friends and colleagues.
None of this is a bad thing necessarily, that could be an amazing movie. It is well worn material though so we’ll have to see.
Then again, they might be leading me to think that so that they can hit me with something totally different. Either way, seriously, is it 17th May yet????
Review: The Place Beyond The Pines
I have a lot I’d like to say about The Place Beyond the Pines but I can’t because it would spoil the plot and that would diminish your enjoyment of this great film. Yes, it’s great and you should see it. Derek Cianfrance has assembled a feature of great power and thought and you should see it.
In fact, that’s the TL;DR version of this review. It’s great. Go watch it before you read this. I’m going to avoid saying anything that would spoil the plot but there’s plenty beyond the plot to spoil and I feel you’d go into this best if you go into it blind.
So go. I’ll wait here. Last chance. Ok good.
The Place Beyond The Pines is a fantastic film about fathers and sons and they’re influence on one another and about sins and feelings that are passed from one generation to another. It follows Handsome Luke (Ryan Gosling), a motorcycle stunt rider turned bank robber, and Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper), a rookie cop who ends up involved in his case, and their relationship with their respective sons.
To say it’s a powerful film would be the understatement of the year. Gosling and Cooper as the two leads both give tremendous performances as characters under stresses they never anticipated and circumstances they’ve put themselves in.
Gosling, as with previous performances in Drive and earlier films such as The Believer seems to have mastered the art of calm, quiet rage. The rage in this case comes explicitly from his circumstance and implied self loathing rather than from an unexplored backstory.
Cooper by contrast manages to convey his characters barely covered guilt and fear with a visceral realism, and I can’t help but be reminded that he was nominated for an Oscar last year.
Both these men I am sure will win all the accolades they deserve in the next few years.
Following them is their sons, and Dane DeHaan playing Luke’s son Jason. This kid is going places. He hasn’t been in much, but between this and Chronicle the kid has some chops and I expect he’ll be one of the next big kids on the block.
The supporting cast, rounded out by Ben Mendelsohn, Mahershala Ali and Eva Mendes is pretty stellar as well. I wish Ben Mendelsohn has more to do in the film but that’s a minor quibble.
All of this is of course due largely because of Cianfrance’s directorial style. Much of the film is filmed in long single shot takes shot with unsteadied cameras. The desired effect of this –which often does not work– is to create a more intimate feeling for the film. In this case it works incredibly well, creating the feeling of being right there beside the characters as they are going through their trials.
Further, while many films will have a character (or two) explicitly state the moral or message of the film, Cianfrance elects to show instead of tell; the characters actions inform us rather than the script and i very much appreciate a film that trusts it’s audience in this way.
Cianfrane has only directed 3 features so far, and only two of those have released wide, but he can count myself as a major fan moving forward. This film is ambitious in it’s message and scope and it pulls it off on all fronts.
This [one of the films I’ve been most looking forward to this year](https://awesomefriday.ca/2013/01/matts-most-anticipated-of-2013/) and I’m happy to report that it’s the first one to knock it right out of the park.
A Beacon of Hope in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Teaser
The Hunger Games, like it or not, was a huge hit last year. I didn’t think it was bad, I just wished it were better. So here’s the first teaser for the second movie, Catching Fire:
To be fair, there’s a lot we don’t see here and it is just a teaser, but it any of this is as well executed as it looks and the cast brings their A game (which they are all more than capable of doing) then this might end up being great. Hopefully.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire comes out this November.
AMC Considering Breaking Bad Spin-off Starring Saul Goodman
[Nellie Andreeva at Deadline](http://www.deadline.com/2013/04/breaking-bad-spinoff-series-bob-odenkirk-saul-goodman-amc/):
> As AMC‘s Breaking Bad is heading into its final eight-episode run this summer, the network and series producer Sony TV are exploring keeping the franchise alive with a spinoff series centered on one of Breaking Bad‘s most recognizable supporting characters, Bob Odenkirk‘s unflappable criminal lawyer Saul Goodman. There are no deals in place yet as the project is in its nascent stages, but I hear it is being conceived by Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan and series writer-producer Peter Gould, who created the Saul character together for a Season 2 episode written by Gould.
> […]
> Goodman, who has been a regular presence on the show since, is a sleazy but highly competent criminal lawyer with a penchant for over-the-top TV commercials in which he uses his signature tagline “Better Call Saul!” Saul has served as Breaking Bad‘s comic relief, which is not surprising given Odenkirk’s strong comedy background. As a result, I hear the potential spinoff is eyed as a comedy, which could be one-hour, but a half-hour format also is being explored.
My immediate reaction to this is “this would awesome!” but then I remember every other time that the zany, funny supporting character has been given the main role in a subsequent outing (most recently this would be Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean 4) and how that’s never really worked out.
See, the amoral character works really well as a supporting character because he doesn’t need to grow or evolve but as the central character he does. Since Saul is already a “criminal lawyer” the only choices are to make him evolve towards good or towards worse, and I’m not sure how that would play out. Then again, given that Walter White has been slowly moving towards bad it might be interesting to see the same writers do just the opposite with Saul.
The Hangover III Is a Thing That Is Happening
The Hangover was a great film. A comedy with a hard R rating and great chemistry between its three main players. The Hangover part 2 was the same move just in Thailand.
To it’s credit, The Hangover part 3 looks like it might deviate in it’s plot at least a little bit. On the flip side though it looks like Ken Jeong has a much larger part in this one and I’ve grown tired of his schtick.On the flip flip side, John Goodman as the antagonist = FUCK YES.
So it’s a mixed bag, is what I am saying.
What and let me know what you think.
The Way, Way Back Trailer
This movie looks pretty by the numbers but it has a couple of very important things going for it. Sam Rockwell is one of those things as he’s very generally amazing. Steve Carell, Tony Colette, Alison Janney, and Rob Corddry are another as that’s a pretty stellar supporting cast. I haven’t seen Liam James in much but this could be a good start for him.
The best thing about this though is that it’s written by Jim Rash and Nat Faxon who previously won an Oscar for penning The Descendants
Yeah, it seems like a pretty standard coming of age movie but given the people involved I’ll likely see it.
Filth Red Band Trailer is Filthy
Let’s see, James McAvoy as a psychotic drug addicted dirty cop trying to solve a murder while probably not overcoming his personal demons? I mean, I’ve seen that before, but this still looks good. Oh, and the trailer is definitely NSFW.
Now You See Me Trailer 2 Certainly Full of Talented People
I like movies about magic and movies about bank heists and this is a movie about magicians who pull off bank heists Toss in a pretty stellar cast and yeah, I will indeed see this one.
Did I mention stellar cast? Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine as the older men, Mark Ruffalo as the cop? Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco as the magicians? Damn that’s some stellar casting.
One other thing, Dave Franco is barely mentioned I know he’s the up and comer in the group however this could be the one that pushes him to star status, especially after great supporting turns in Warm Bodies and 21 Jump Street.
Review: 42
As you may recall [42 is one of the movies I was most looking forward to this year](https://awesomefriday.ca/2013/01/matts-most-anticipated-of-2013/). As both a baseball fan and history buff, how could it not be? Jackie Robinson is one of the all time great players and his story is one of the most important in American history, not just baseball history but American history.
Given these two things I feel I could be forgiven that I hoped this movie would be great but unfortunately it isn’t. That’s not to say it’s bad, it’s actually a good movie but it’s also not exemplary. Other than being about Jackie Robinson there’s nothing that really sets it apart from any other “underdog/outsider makes good” sports story.
Like I say, that’s not a problem per se however it is kind of disappointing. There are a lot of things about 42 that are great though, so let’s talk about them.
First, the story is tight. It focusses on Robinson’s first season and not his whole career. This is a good thing because he ended up playing for a long time and eventually won a world series in 1955 a full 8 years after he debuted. There is a lot to explore but keeping the movie to his first major league season keeps the story more focussed and honestly, these sports movies always have 2 minutes of footnotes at the end about where the characters ended up and the World Series fact works as one of those given that his first season was by far his most important.
If I have complaints about the story they are first that the film, admittedly likely out of necessity glosses over how Branch Rickey chose Jackie Robinson ignoring basically all of the scouting and selection process (save seeing Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson’s names of a board at one point). It likely would have made the movie too long, but I still would have liked to see some more of the “who do we choose” stuff than just the one scene we get.
Second, it’s pretty much entirely predictable. To be fair, it’s a true story that I know, but also it’s an “underdog/outside makes good” sports movie, there’s a pattern to these things. Everyone is uncomfortable or doesn’t know what to think at the start. Antagonists say things like “you’ll never make it” and “you don’t belong here” and eventually he wins over most everyone and wins the day.
As an extension of this, while the film does actually very well with lot of these tropes it also does pretty poorly with others and the film is peppered with scenes that feel like they’re right out of a lifetime movie of the week that just scream “LOOK AT HOW BAD RACISM WAS AND HOW AWFUL PEOPLE WERE”.
Where the movie does shine greatly is in it’s supporting cast. Chadwick Boseman is good as Robinson but Harrison Ford is great as Branch Rickey, the owner of the Dodgers determined to integrate baseball. Ford is a great actor and it’s nice to see him remembering that for a change instead of just playing a grumpy old man. Oscar worthy? I’m not sure, but it’s certainly the type of role that the academy loves.
The other standouts for me are Christopher Meloni as Leo “Nice Guys Finish Last” Durocher, the manager of the Dodgers famous for telling the team if they didn’t like Robinson they would be missed, and also Alan Tudyk as Ben Chapman (manager of the Phillies) who famously opposed Jackie Robinson’s presence. There are a string of scenes where Tudyk has to yell a string of racial epithets that, were it myself in his place, I think would have made me sick as soon as the camera stopped rolling and as a member of the audience made me legitimately uncomfortable.
So to repeat myself, 42 is a good movie but not a great one. If you like sports even a little you should probably see it. If you don’t like sports you could certainly do worse (Scary Movie 5 is out, for example). I only wish that it were a great movie instead of just a good one.
First Elysium Trailer is Kind of Epic
Neill Blomkamp’s follow up to District 9 has a cyborg Matt Damon attacking the space station where the rich live from a ruined Earth where the unwashed masses are barely scraping by. Yeah, I am indeed down with that.
Marvel Taking a Second Shot at Giving Away All The Comics
Remember last month when Marvel announced they were going to give away 700 digital comic books and it ended up crashing Comixology and no one ended up getting the comics?
Well they’re trying again, but you have to act fast. You have to go to the Marvel [promo site][1] ad sign up for an invite. They staggering will allow them to roll the comics out to a few people at a time and not overload the servers, which is good.
On the downside you have to register before midnight eastern time tomorrow (that’s 9pm here at Awesome Friday World Headquarters) in order to get in on it. The account is free, so I suggest you sign up even if you’re not a huge comic book fan because this is probably the perfect opportunity for you to never have to ask me a question about Marvel continuity ever again.
I mean, uh, yeah. A perfect time to get a bunch of free books to read.
[Sign up for the promo here][1]
[1]: https://promo.marvel.com
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