True Grit Returns to the Screen

The John Wayne classic True Grit (1969) directed by Henry Hathaway is about to be remade by The Cohen Brothers set for Christmas of this year.

Personally, I'm not exactly sure of the wisdom of the release date. Seems to be all you want to do on the holidays is sit down to a nice, rugged Western movie, right?

The role of Rooster Cogburn, made famous by Wayne, is to be played by the current favorite, Jeff Bridges, who recently won an Oscar for Best Actor, among INNUMERABLE other awards for his role in Crazy Heart (2009).

Joining Rooster on his quest to find the outlaw Ned Pepper (played, coincidentally, by Barry Pepper) are Texas Ranger La Boeuf (Matt Damon) and Mattie Ross (new actress Hailee Steinfeld), who are each after one of Pepper's gang, Tom Cheney (as yet, no word who plays this role) for their own reasons.

I'm on the fence on this one, to tell you the truth. Remakes are nice and all, but damn... there sure do seem to be a lot of them floating around nowdays.

A Restoration of Faith

You know, I've never been a great fan of Tom Cruise. His movies are good, I will admit, but nothing spectacular. Usually, if one of his movies was spectacular, it probably didn't have a great deal to do with him, the writing was good, someone else was better, etc. etc.

Personally, I think the dude's a douchebag.

I mean, all that crap between him and Brooke Sheilds, about how you don't go to a psychotherapist because they're all quacks, and in turn, she's a quack, or whatever the hell all that crap was, not to mention all the Scientology bullshit. Douchetastic.

All that said, I want to see Knight and Day (2010) because he's in it, and he looks funny.

Why the sudden change in perspective? Why do I suddenly enjoy the idea of watching Tom Cruise, specifically, on screen? Find out after the jump.

Upcoming Look - A Nightmare on Elm Street

 

In the quiet town of Springvale, Ohio, a group of teenage friends finds themselves being stalked in their dreams by the ghost of a child serial killer, burned alive by vengeful parents. The only chance they have is to stay awake, but if they fall asleep, there's no escape.

This is a remake of the 1984 classic slasher film by Wes Craven. This version is directed by first time filmmaker Samuel Bayer, with Jackie Earle Haley in the role of Freddy Krueger.

More and a recently released trailer after the jump.

The Word - Arrrgh

It appears, and none of us are really surprised, that there will be a new Pirates of the Caribbean coming out sometime this year or next. The new film, entitled Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides will indeed feature Johnny Depp in his brilliant and swarthy role of Jack Sparrow.

Some new developments have come up concerning it's casting.

In a press conference, Depp had revealed that "there’s no Keira or Orlando in there." But what about the favorite Jack Sparrow? "I don’t know. I don’t think we’d ever throw too much Jack Sparrow in there. There will be a little bit of everybody."

When we left Sparrow in "At World's End" he was on a personal mission to find that which he wanted most: The rum, next to him. Once he had that, the thing he wanted most was immortality, through something known as the Fountain of Youth, which brings us to the premise of On Stranger Tides.

On Stranger Tides is a book, written by Tim Powers, which concerns the pirate Blackbeard and his quest for the Fountain. So who shall play the feared Edward "Blackbeard" Teach?

Ian McShane, that's who! Fans of HBO's "Deadwood" should definitely be excited by this news, as I was. McShane was absolutely brilliant as Deadwood's brash mobster-like tavernkeep, and will now be playing the brash, powerful Blackbeard. I think it's a perfect fitting.

It appears that filming for the fourth Pirates movie will commence sometime this summer. Certainly looking forward to a sweet trailer!

JC's Theater Review - Avatar

 

Alright, so it might be just a tad late to be writing a review about James Cameron's latest film, Avatar (2009). Better late than never, as the saying goes, so here we go:

The beautiful and deadly moon of Pandora is inhabited by an indigenous blue-skinned people known as the Na'vi. They are much taller than humans (nearly twice as tall) and much stronger, with a powerful bone structure that makes them quite resilient.

Halfway through the 22nd century, a paraplegic marine, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) arrives on a Pandoran mining colony after the death of his identical twin brother. He is selected, in place of his brother, to enter into the Avatar project, led by Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver). An Avatar is a life-form shell created from the merged genetics of the Na'vi and humans, where the consciousness of a human is transmitted into the Avatar's brain.

The Avatars are used for diplomatic endeavors, to form an understanding between the two races. In a fluke of circumstance, Jake Sully is given a very unique and personal education of the Na'vi world by Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), and soon he must choose between his loyalty to the marines at the mining colony and this newfound world.

It might be a little pretentious to call it the best film of all time, but I personally believe I'm rather safe. Find out why after the jump.

JC's New Release Review - Inglourious Basterds

 

Once upon a time

in Nazi occupied France...

The place is France, during the time of the Nazi occupation. A notorious Nazi colonel, Hans Londa (Christoph Waltz in his first American film), aka "The Jew Hunter" slaughters a family in hiding, save for one girl, Shosanna (Mélanie Laurent) who escapes. Years later, Shosanna, under a new identity, has acquired a theater, and soon discovers that it shall premiere a German war film, with only the cream of the Nazi military in attendance, including the Fuhrer himself. Shosanna devises a plan for ultimate revenge.

Meanwhile, Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) leads a group of Jewish-American commandos on a very simple mission. Kill Nazis.  He bears his men with only one demand, that each give him 100 Nazi scalps. They call themselves "the Basterds."

The Basterds discover the location of the premiere, and begin following their own plan to take down the German High Command.

This is... a Quentin Tarantino movie. Tarantino has managed to create a genre of film specially reserved for him, and this is, obviously, no exception. More after the jump.

HL's New Release Review - The Time Traveler's Wife

The Time Traveler's Wife (2009) is a romance-drama about Chicago librarian Henry DeTamble (Eric Bana) with a genetic anomaly that causes him to involuntarily time travel, based on the novel by Audrey Niffenegger.

When Henry meets Clare Abshire (Rachel McAdams) in the library where he works, she reveals that she knows that he is a time traveller, and that he himself told her that they would one day meet. It is quickly revealed that she knows much more about time travel than he does, as he has not yet visited the times and places where they meet previously. He falls for her, as she has already been in love with him 'her whole life', and they eventually get married. His continuing and sudden travels through time, and the subsequent learning of their future, makes things ever more difficult on their marriage.

Read the review after the jump.

JC's Favorites - Australia

 

In 2008, a story of adventure, of intrigue, and of romance swept into US Theaters late in the year. Baz Luhrmann's Australia is one of my favorite films of all.  

Lady Ashley (Nicole Kidman), in her estate in England, decides to travel to her husband's Australian cattle ranch, Faraway Downs, and sell the failing ranch for some much needed quick cash to the cattle monopolizer Leslie 'King' Carney (Bryan Brown). She is escorted by the rough-and-tumble Drover (Hugh Jackman) to Faraway Downs.

Her husband, Lord Maitland Ashley, had been murdered just before her arrival. The accused: an aboriginal gulapa, or magic-man, King George. A small aboriginal boy, Nullah (Brandon Walters), tells Ashley that the ranch's manager, Neil Fletcher (David Wenham) is not all he seems, that he has been creating the problems the ranch has been facing, even stealing cattle and driving them into Carney's property. 

Ashley dismisses Fletcher upon learning this, and forms a grudging alliance with the Drover to drive 1,500 head of cattle into the wharf in Darwin to sell to the army and break Carney's monopoly on the cattle business. 

And that is where the story REALLY begins, and truly is only the beginning. The review, however, begins after the jump.

JG's Theater Review - From Paris With Love

Okay, so here's the deal; I can't decide between whether or not to treat this movie as your average shoot em up style action flick, or a movie with something of a deeper meaning, so I won't. For my first ATM review I will give you two sides of one very mismatched coin, possibly its one of those funny Canadian pieces, the loonie if you like.

Read the rest of my review after the jump.

Upcoming Look - Clash of the Titans

Director Louis Leterrier hasn't got many films under his belt, but those he does (Transporter 2 (2005), The Incredible Hulk (2008)) are known blockbusters. His new project, Clash of the Titans, a remake of the early 80's classic, has blockbuster written all over it.

Sam Worthington plays the protagonist Perseus, the mortal son of Zeus (Liam Neeson) who must journey into the underworld to stop the evil machinations of Hades (Ralph Fiennes) and battle against such mythological beasts as the feared Kraken and the deadly Medusa. Read more and watch the trailer after the jump.