'Moneyball' Trailer

For anyone who is both a baseball and movie buff like myself, it's more than likely you've heard of the long in-development adaptation of Michael M. Lewis's best-selling baseball novel, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game.

Moneyball is the story of how a once truly gifted baseball player, Billy Beane, becomes General Manager of the Oakland Athletics and turns them into a winner using a new-age data approach called sabermetrics, despite the team's small revenue.

I have read Moneyball and can vouch it is a great book and always hoped it would make for a hell of a movie.  After seeing this trailer, I don't need to hope anymore.  I know it will be.

Take a look for yourself below:

Columbia Pictures presents Moneyball, directed by Bennett Miller from a script by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin. Opening in theaters on September 23, the drama stars Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright, Stephen Bishop, Kathyrn Morris and Chris Pratt.

Based on a true story, Moneyball is a movie for anybody who has ever dreamed of taking on the system. Brad Pitt stars as Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A's and the guy who assembles the team, who has an epiphany: all of baseball's conventional wisdom is wrong. Forced to reinvent his team on a tight budget, Beane will have to outsmart the richer clubs. The onetime jock teams with Ivy League grad Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) in an unlikely partnership, recruiting bargain players that the scouts call flawed, but all of whom have an ability to get on base, score runs, and win games. It's more than baseball, it's a revolution – one that challenges old school traditions and puts Beane in the crosshairs of those who say he's tearing out the heart and soul of the game.

Dementors! Giant Spiders! Final Deathly Hallows Trailer Premieres

It all ends here.  Warner Bros has unveiled the final trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, which opens on July 15.  The trailer is a good mix of both epic finale and brutal tearjerker, and it looks like it will be going out with bang:

Tickets are already on sale for this final Harry Potter film.  I would suggest getting your tickets soon.

Movie Review: Green Lantern

This film marks the first time the character's ever graced the big screen before, brought to life here by Ryan Reynolds. The film as I'm sure you're aware has been plagued with delays, shitty rumours, and a down right awful marketing campaign from the start. Luckily for Warner Bros and DC they seem to have actually delivered the end result they were aiming for. I can't say I was ever really a fan of the character before, aside from the direct to video animated releases, and I've never actually read a Green Lantern comic; so my opinion on the film is as unbiased and objectively viewed as it gets.

Ryan Reynolds casting as Hal Jordan the arrogant and cocky Air Force test pilot was as spot on as Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark. Similar to Reynolds previous roles he brings his sarcastic wit and charm, only this time he's also given a few brief moments to showcase his acting ability, he doesn't disappoint. Blake Lively as Carol Farris, Hal's love interest, felt like the most indispensable role of the film. They could have done with out the character or Lively and not had to change any serious element of the plot. Peter Sarsgaard's portrayal of Dr. Hector Hammond the main villain was both menacing and sadistic. Even Mark Strong who's screen time didn't seem nearly long enough was fantastic as the leader of the Green Lantern Corps, Sinestro.

The film starts off right away by assuming the audience isn't at all aware of the Green Lantern mythology and in turn gives a breif narrated back story to get the ball rolling. For those unfamiliar like I for the most part was as well; The Green Lanterns rings were created by an ancient mortal alien race known as the guardians. The rings were sent out to seek a Lantern in each corner of the universe to protect their individual sector or galaxy. They were forged by the power of will, and it's the will power of each lantern that grants them their abilities. Alternatively The guardians also attempted to harness the power of fear, there efforts turned unsuccesful when they realized the power could only be used for evil doing, thus giving us our main antagonist.

The opening sequence has the space ship of Abin Sur, a purple humanoid alien Lantern', being attacked. The trailer really did no justice to this action sequence at all. Sur really is one bad motherfucker, I'm sure he even has that stitched onto his wallet. We also get our first look at the power possessed by the rings as Sur fights off the invading force, only to be cornered into an escape pod. After crash landing on earth he allows the ring to seek out and find his predecessor, Hal Jordan, the first and at this point only human Lantern. Unlike the promotional images released early on the suit actually looks amazing on screen.

Without giving too much of the film away or spoiling any of the surprises, Green Lantern serves very much as a launching pad for the character; this is definitely an origin story, but much like Batman Begins it works quite well. The special effects and cinematography were well beyond what I'd expected going in, although aside from a few key scenes the 3D was used entirely as a gimmick. In the action sequences it was kinda fun to watch, getting the extra depth and scope of 3D, but for the dialogue scenes and everything in between it was distracting as hell. Regardless of what you may have also heard or even assumed the plot and the tone aren't at all as campy or cheesy as you may of thought. Martin Campbell did a great job at taking the source material a lot more serious than I think anyone expected.

I would also suggest staying until after the intial credits end for a special surprise.

Guess Who's Coming To The Dark Knight Rises?

Don't read if you're a spoiler-pussy. You just know the first full-on trailer will let the cat out of the bag. But I'll be brief nonetheless.

Given the rumored story-arc involving Talia al Ghul, Bane and the League of Shadows as the baddies blended together with those spy-pictures of what may, or may not, be the Lazarus Pit, this revelation isn't jaw-dropping per say. But it's surprising in that it heavily suggests Christopher Nolan will follow in the foot-steps of The Prestige and throw in an other-worldly aspect to The Dark Knight Rises after all that talk about making his Batman trilogy "realistic."

Hit Fix reveals Liam Neeson reported for filming of one scene, that we know of so far, for the Batman threequel as the title hero's mentor-turned-nemesis Ra's al Ghul from Batman Begins. Whether this is a flashback (since Josh Pence will also play the character via flashback) or his character is resurrected from the dead remains to be seen.

Again all we have to do is look at The Prestige to know it's not 100% out of the realm of possibility Nolan could head in this direction.

Jurassic Park 4 Is Still Very Possible

There is still money to be made off the brand-name, and surprisingly Universal, Amblin and Steven Spielberg have yet to greenlight Jurassic Park 4 despite various attempts since 2001.

While this update doesn't mean that movement is full-speed ahead, there appears to be renewed interest in the property, reports Heat Vision. Spielberg has been said to have recently met up with Mark Protosevich (screenwriter of I Am Legend and has a "Story by" credit on Thor).

Nothing to officially get excited or translating this to mean something will come of this get together. Just two guys shooting the shit and tossing around ideas for how to update the age-old "dinosaurs running amok and tearing shit up" story.

It does seem inevitable a new Jurassic Park in some capacity will drop on the silver screen in our lifetime.

Well, There We Go...The Wolverine Has a Director

That figures.  Just as I finish writing about the possibility of Hugh Jackman starring in a Les Miz film, we get an update on just who will be directing that Wolverine sequel.  Must be karma.

According Deadline, James Mangold will be the lucky person who gets to replace Darren Aronofsky, who dropped out of the project several months ago.  Mangold's previous directing credits include 3:10 to Yuma, Knight & Day, and Walk the Line.  He also previously directed Jackman in 2001's Kate & Leopold. 

The Wolverine, which will center around Logan's adventures in Japan and will hopefully be closer in quality to the awesome X-Men: First Class than 2009's lackluster X-Men Origins: Wolverine, is set to start shooting in the fall.  No word yet on whether or not they still plan on shooting in Japan, which was unfortunately hit by a devastating earthquake back in March.

X-Men: First Class made terrific strides in restoring my faith in my favorite franchise in the superhero movie genre...let's hope that continues with The Wolverine.

Hugh Jackman in Talks for "Les Miserables" Film?

Suddenly, I no longer care about who's directing the Wolverine sequel anymore.

Variety is reporting that Hugh Jackman is in talks to star in the big-screen adaptation of the musical Les Miserables.  Then again, Deadline is saying they haven't quite reached the "talks" stage yet.  Universal, who is producing the film along with Working Title, won't comment yet on what the status of the talks are or which of the two lead roles Jackman is supposedly in the running for, but the thinking is that it will likely be role of Jean Valjean, the escaped convict who is pursued for decades by the ruthless police inspector Javert in 19th century France. 

Back in his early theater days, Jackman turned down the Javert role in an Australian stage production of Les Miserables.  In a recent interview for his upcoming concert gig in Toronto, he expressed an interest in playing the Valjean role in the film version, which will be directed by The King's Speech Oscar winner Tom Hooper.  The script is being written William Nicholson. 

Jackman, of course, is a well-known theater guy whenever he's not playing Wolverine.  On Broadway, he won a 2004 Tony Award for his performance in The Boy From Oz (which I saw 5 times), appeared opposite Daniel Craig in the cop drama A Steady Rain (which I saw twice) in 2009, and starred as Curly in the London production of Oklahoma!.  Back in his native Australia, he played Joe Gillis in Sunset Blvd and Gaston in Disney's Beauty & the Beast.  This past weekend, he performed a scene-stealing duet with Neil Patrick Harris at the Tony Awards. 

So, hopefully this works out.  Les Miserables is my all-time favorite musical.  I've seen it 9 times, and honestly...if you don't think this is one of the most beautiful songs ever written, then you may just be dead inside.  A movie version has been in the works for a very long time - I have a program from the Broadway production that I got during a school field trip (at the same theater where Hugh later played The Boy From Oz!) with an advertisement for a movie version that was supposed to open in 1991.  Obviously, that never happened, and it's about time it finally did.

Now, I better not hear he can't be in the movie because of the damn Wolverine sequel. 

Movie Review: The Tree Of Life

Terrance Malick’s The Tree of Life is one of the most intellectual and visually appealing films to be released in the last decade. The film spans from the dawn of creation and the dinosaur ages to 1950s Texas. The core element of the plot is the comparison between the relationship a father has with his son and the relationship between God and Mankind.

The film opens with a biblical passage from Job 35:4

I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee.

Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than thou.

If thou sinnest, what does thou against him? Or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?

If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand?

Even opening with a passage from the bible it didn’t really solidify the films belief in Christianity. The inclusion of evolution and dinosaurs alone contradicted the religious elements but lent them self so well at the same time. The plot did jump around a lot, but it’s really wasn’t all that hard to follow.

Brad Pitt is amazing in his role as a 1950s family man struggling to reach his true feelings for his son. However Sean Penn on the other seemed damn near useless as the grown version of Pitt`s son. The films spends half its time in flashbacks during Penn’s characters childhood, exploring his relationship with his father which is intended to parallel the relationship between God and mankind. Although it may seem like a large pill to swallow, the general concept gets itself across fairly easily

It’s not until part way through that things become slightly convoluted and oddly out of place when nearly 40 minutes is spent exploring the beginning of time in the universe and life on earth. The pacing and continuity in the plot at this point are all over the place, but the cinematography and score are so brilliantly put together you could care less if the plot works as one cohesive whole from beginning to end.

Although it may not be the next big superhero blockbuster or the mind bending sci-fi thriller of the summer, the film doesn’t try to be. Malick doesn’t appear to be aiming the film towards the audience that wants to turn their brain off in order to enjoy giant fighting robots and explosions. He would rather give you his magnificent looking take on evolution, religion and life here on earth from the dawn of creation and it’s comparison to a simple family in 1950s Texas. More or less it felt as though the film did come full circle, but for most people it’ll be harder to comprehend then if it were spelled out for them like all too many films tend to do.

He DID Say He Wanted To Be Like Marlon Brando - Russell Crowe Is Superman's Daddy

In what appears to be simultaneously an attempt to add more acting cred to the production and deflect those toxic Green Lantern reviews, word has leaked to the latest name-actor to join The Man of Steel, the Zack Snyder-directed, Christopher Nolan-produced Superman reboot for next Christmas.

Variety says Russell Crowe will portray Jor-El, the wise, but ultimately doomed father of Superman/Clark Kent/Kal-El (Henry Cavill).

Great power-house actor, legendary hot-head and hey, he even once sung about how he wanted to be like Marlon Brando. And he's already got the weight and acting prowess. Interestingly, Crowe is also in need of a hit himself as audiences seemed to have waned from him over the years. Gotta say I love the Hell outta this choice.

"Conan The Barbarian" TV Spot #2

TheMovieBox.net has the 2nd TV Spot for "Conan The Barbarian"

The tale of Conan the Cimmerian and his adventures across the continent of Hyboria on a quest to avenge the murder of his father and the slaughter of his village.