Before watching the trailer for James Mather’s sci-fi thriller Lock-Out, I had never heard of it, so it is safe to say I knew nothing about it. I’m not sure after watching this first look international trailer I know much more, other than I don’t like anyone beating on Guy Pearce. Maybe that’s just me. He apparently is having a ball. It is still kind of compelling. It goes from an empty room with Peter Stormare interrogating Pearce while playing with a lighter to full on action with space ships and explosions.

Luc Besson (whose The Lady is garnering awards attention this year) is Executive Producer and he knows a thing or two about sci-fi (The Fifth Element). Director Mather  (making his feature film directorial debut) cowrote the screenplay with Stephen St. Leger and Besson. It was originally called “Section Eight” and was to be in 3D.

Synopsis: A man wrongly convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage against the U.S. is offered his freedom if he can rescue the president’s daughter from an outer space prison taken over by violent inmates. 

Now that is a wacky premise. I like it.

Costarring Maggie Grace as the President’s daughter (she always plays someone’s daughter and she’s usually in some sort of peril), Vincent Regan, Lennie James and Tim Plester, Lock-Out breaks into theaters 13^th April in the UK and April 20 in the US.

via JoBlo

This is all kinds of sadness mixed in with a whole lot of doubt. Angelina Jolie has admitted that she finds Amazon.com confusing. It's hard to believe the mother of 6, humanitarian, actress, writer and director isn't able to navigate her way through the website but apparently it's true. Is this some kind of genius marketing ploy she and Amazon have cooked up? 

During her promotional tour for her directorial debut in The Land of Blood and Honey, Angelina told USA Today that she shops early in case they have to travel and as for shopping online:

"Brad and I were on Amazon.com for the first time a week ago. But we got lost. After an hour, we just shut it off. My brain is too scattered and the wires go in different directions. I'll stick to catalogs."

Um. Do they even make catalogs anymore?

She also talked to the newspaper about how her life has completely changed from her wild days:

"I was just being a young girl who was experimental, bold and a bit nutty," she says. "I was absolutely self-destructive. I think a lot of young people in this business lose their way. You don't know what is of value. You don't know where you are. And you know something's wrong, because it isn't life as it actually is. It's like living in some warped reality."

And that change came courtesy of one little man known as Maddox:

"I knew once I committed to Maddox, I would never be self-destructive again. Now I have five more," she says with that famous smile. "So I have to behave."

As for her future career as a director it looks promising. Even Clint Eastwood has given the thumbs up:

"I think it's a tough movie and that it's extremely well made, and tough movies that are extremely well made are very hard to do."

But will Angelina direct again:

"I did love directing. If I'm allowed, if I'm accepted, I will do it again. I am still very shy about it."

It seems that no matter what she touches, it turns to gold. Except shopping on Amazon.com.

Well, after having watched the second trailer a few times, I’m not really any more enthused about Battleship (ostensibly based on the board game of the same name but the similarities end there) than I was after the first one. Universal has dropped a new ‘feature trailer’ for its Spring/Summer 2012 tent-pole release. It’s about twenty seconds longer than the initial trailer, but it still reeks of ‘Transformers-At-Sea’.  In fact, it’s difficult to believe that this is not Michael Bay, but a Peter Berg film. Producer/director Berg is capable of nuance and character development (Friday Night Lights) as well as intelligent action (The Kingdom). Michael Bay…not so much. He just likes to blow things up.  And this looks like a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing.

Synopsis: A fleet of ships is forced to do battle with an armada of unknown origins in order to discover and thwart their destructive goals. 

Here’s a look at the new trailer.

Battleship stars Taylor Kitsch as Lt. Alex Hopper, Liam Neeson as Admiral Shane, Alexander Skarsgard as Hopper’s older brother, Stone, Brooklyn Decker as Sam Shane, Alex’s fiancé, and you guessed it, the Admiral’s daughter (cue power ballad), Jesse Plemmons (I love how “Friday Night Lights” co-star Kitsch is now an adult but Plemmons is still playing a boy), Peter MacNichol as the Secretary of Defense and Rihanna in her big screen debut, as Petty Officer Raikes.

Battleship starts chumming the waters on 20^th April in the UK and May 18 in the US and Canada. We also have new posters and stills to share. Enjoy.

Last night saw Rachel Crow eliminated from the X-Factor much to the shock of all of America and most of the world watching. The cute little 13 year old power house broke down on stage and Nicole Scherzinger had to be consoled by Paula Abdul. A lot of people are of the opinion that was acting. What do you say?

TMZ has the exclusive video footage of when it all went down and Nicole backstage crying and speaking with Rachel. What an emotional night! Although Nicole may now be known for ruining a 13 year old girl's life, she appears truly upset.

But don't cry for Rachel just yet. The folks over at Disney have already arranged a meet and greet and are itching to get this girl signed for TV, movies and radio. Something tells me she'll be just fine in the long run.

What did you think of Rachel Crow being eliminated? Do you think Nicole's are crocodile tears? Speak to me, it's dark and lonely in this basement.

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Tom Cruise and the Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol Road Show rolled into Moscow today for a photocall and then the red carpet premiere (it’s already well over since they’re eight hours ahead of us here in EST). The Russians appeared not to hold a grudge for the fact that the Kremlin gets blown up in the first reel of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. That’s not a spoiler, it’s in the trailers. Whether they were paid to swarm Cruise and co. (as is alleged re: the crowd in Dubai), I don’t know, but the crowds were there to greet Tom Cruise, Paula Patton, Simon Pegg and director Brad Bird. They seem to have lost Anil Kapoor somewhere over the Caucasus’.  Oh well, the throngs look sincere.

The international leg of the tour over with, cast and crew will head back to the states. Although Tom won’t have Oprah’s couch to jump on anymore, he’ll still be making the rounds of the chat shows when the press tour starts its domestic swing next week.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol opens in IMAX December 16 and wide on December 21.

Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire is another film I’m looking forward to in the new year. It’s not that I think that it promises anything new. On the contrary, it appears to tread some familiar territory but with slightly different shoes. Instead of the size 14 combat boots of a Stallone or a Statham (or even Matt Damon’s Bourne), we get the size seven stilettos of former MMA fighter, Gina Carano as the highly skilled assassin betrayed by her bosses.  Carano is Mallory Kane, a black ops specialist, dispatched by Ewan McGregor, as her handler, to apply lethal force wherever its needed in the world. After a mission goes wrong, she is set up and betrayed by agency she works for. On the run and hunted, Kane has to keep on the move and one step ahead as she attempts to unravel the conspiracy.

As I said, it’s in no way original. In fact in the recent past we’ve had variations on the theme with Hanna, Knight and Day, The American and Salt. Not all of them successful.  I’ve put forward by theory, more than once, that there’s nothing new under the sun and it’s all in the execution. Having said that said, the action in Haywire looks fierce, kinetic and as over-the-top entertaining as one could wish for in a film of this nature. Relative newcomer Carano is more than ably supported (in fact, I’ve heard that she’s the weakest link-too bad she’s the lead) by talented and charismatic actors like McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, Bill Paxton and oh, yeah Channing Tatum-tot.

Check out the UK trailer below. Not much we haven’t seen before but edited more tightly. Haywire opens in the US, Canada and the UK on January 20.