"Les GI Joes no sont plus"

It’s just goodies, goodies, goodies this week. We just got a new Super Bowl tv spot for GI Joe: Retaliation, that was very cool, and now we’ve got this international trailer along with a new still to pass along.

Channing Tatum is back for more, if only briefly (I’m guessing here, not spoiling), along with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (whose character name is Roadblock. I love that. Looking at the pic above, it certainly seems apt.), Bruce Willis, Adrianne Palicki, Elodie Yung, Ray Stevenson, RZA, D.J. Cotrona,Walton Goggins (YAY!) and Jonathan Pryce, who gets the best line from the new trailer: “Cool mask!”

I keep forgetting that Ray Stevenson is in this! One more reason to look forward to it. I didn’t see the original but this does look like big loud explosive, mindless summer fun. I have to say that I think the use of The Glitch Mob’s remix of The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” under these trailers is an inspired choice. GI Joe: Retaliation opens in the UK on June 22 and in the US on June 29. That’s still four months away so I look forward to more goodies between now and then. 

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This time it's personal: In The Expendables 2, Mr. Church (Bruce Willis- who seems to be the current ‘go to’ guy when an aging action hero is required. I say that even though The Expendables 2 is full of aging action heroes. Willis also has Red and GI Joe: Retaliation on his recent resume)  reunites Barney Ross (Stallone) and the rest of the Expendables for what should be an easy paycheck, but when one of his men is murdered on the job, their quest for revenge puts them deep in enemy territory and up against an unexpected threat.

The Expendables are compelled to seek revenge in hostile territory where the odds are stacked against them. Hell-bent on payback, the crew cuts a swath of destruction through opposing forces, wreaking havoc and shutting down an unexpected threat in the nick of time – six pounds of weapons-grade plutonium; enough to change the balance of power in the world. But that’s nothing compared to the justice they serve against the villainous adversary who savagely murdered their brother. That is done the Expendables way….

But really…do we care what it’s about? Are we looking for plot intricacies and character nuance from this band of lean, mean fighting machines? As long as they’re prepared to kick ass, take names and blow some sh*t up, I could not care less. Throw in a couple of gratuitious shots of Jason Statham and they really don’t even have to talk. Perhaps these master thespians could take a cue from The Artist?

Led once again by Stallone’s Barney Ross, Statham’s Lee Christmas and anyone who didn’t die in the first one, the crew includes Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger (who’s really hoping this will make you forget he’s a classless scumbag and has had his role expanded) who are joined by Chuck Norris, whose invitation to the last gig must have gotten lost in the mail, or he was on his Total Gym and couldn’t get up to answer the phone. How the hell did Jean Claude Van Damme miss out on the opportunity to do some ‘van-damage’ (sorry, I had to) last time out? Liam Hemsworth, fresh from the Hunger Games joins the party, but he’s not on the poster. His character is Bill “The Kid” Timmins. So it’s not Ross, but something tells me he’ll turn out to be Barney’s long lost son. As I said before, could be worse. Could be Taylor Lautner. In any case, the rest of the cast includes Terry Crewes, Jet Li, Randy Couture, Scott Adkins, Dolph Lundgren and Charisma Carpenter (So I guess Lacy forgave Lee? Or does she get kidnapped or tied to the railroad tracks?)

Check out the new pics below. There’s a bloody Scott Adkins, a bald and brooding Van Damme and Lundgren with a very big knife and a bad attitude. then check out the comic promo art from the film's Facebook page.

Directed by Simon West (Con Air, The Mechanic), The Expendables 2 opens August 17 in the US and the UK.

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Three great big huge movies coming at you this year got great big huge ad exposure during the (arguably) greatest, biggest, hugest television event of the year: The Super Bowl.

First up, The Avengers, which opens May 4.  Marvel is hoping that, along with Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, the world still believes in heroes.  Since this is the extended edition, you get the bit at the end with Loki and Iron Man. Love love love Robert Downey Jr.’s deadpan line reading. “We have a Hulk” (Hulk need love too! He’s not been in nearly enough of the marketing thus far, so this is a nice change.)

Avengers (extended) “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”

Peter Berg, a director capable of some subtlety (Friday Night Lights) has crafted what appears to be a big and loud and (probably) dumb blockbuster. If the special effects are as good as they appear in the trailer, it will probably earn the equivalent of the GNP of a small third-world country. Hopefully, at least for Universal, audiences should be enough in love with Taylor Kitsch after March's John Carter. Battleship opens May 18.

Battleship

It’s clear by now that Dwayne, The Rock, Johnson is the star of GI Joe: Retaliation and that Channing Tatum buys it early on. (Or at least we’re made to THINK he does – until they bring him back for the 3^rd installment. Yeah, I’m cynical like that.) Whatever else is going on here, ya gotta love that The Rock is quoting Jay Z and it ends with Bruce Willis’ “Call me Joe”.  GI Joe: Retaliation opens June 29

GI Joe: Retaliation

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Here’s a look at the brand spanking new trailer #2 for The Hunger Games which will air during this Sunday’s Super Bowl! The trailer includes a lot of new footage and dialogue. It includes glimpses of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss at The Reaping, in the arena, talking to Stanley Tucci’s Cesar Flickerman, as well as more of Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) and Lenny Kravitz as Cinna.

The long wait is almost over. The Hunger Games opens on March 23 so I expect we’ll be getting new goodies every few days or so until then. Stay tuned!

The Cold Light of Day with Henry Cavill, Bruce Willis and the 2^nd of today’s trailers that feature Sigourney Weaver, in which a young American Wall Street trader (Cavill) uncovers a conspiracy during his attempt to save his family, who were kidnapped while on vacation in Spain. Willis plays Cavill’s father, whom he discovers is not the mild-mannered businessman he was presumed to be, but a CIA operative.

This is director Mabrouk El Mechri’s English language debut and was written by Scott Wiper and John Petro. The trailer would seem to give a lot away. Some are calling this another “Bourne wanna-be”. I don’t see that but it does seem like a B movie given a good cast and trying for more. Oh well, we need something to tide us over until Man of Steel, right? The Cold Light of Day opens April 6 in the US and the UK.

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Stephen Frears’ Lay the Favorite is another eagerly anticipated film screening at the Sundance Film Festival this month. We don’t get a new Frears (The Grifters, The Queen, Dangerous Liaisons) film every day. His last was 2010’s Tamara Drewe, but considering it made half a million bucks in the US, I’m not sure how many people noticed. Lay the Favorite is a dramedy centered on Beth, a thirty-something woman who becomes involved with a group of geeky fiftyish men who have found a way to work the sportsbook system in Las Vegas to their advantage. The movie is based on the book, “Lay the Favorite: A Memoir of Gambling”.

From the book description: “Lay the Favorite” is the story of Beth Raymer’s years in the high-stakes, high-anxiety world of sports betting—a period that saw the fall of the local bookie and the rise of the freewheeling, unregulated offshore sports book, and with it the elevation of sports betting in popular culture. As the business explodes, Beth rises—from assistant to expert, trusted and seasoned enough to open an offshore booking office in the Caribbean with a few associates, men who leave their families up north to make a quick killing, while donning new tropical personas fueled by abundant drugs and local girlfriends, and who one by one succumb to their vices. They lie, cheat, steal, and run, until Beth is the last man standing.

The exciting news is that one of the “geeky fiftyish men” is played by Bruce Willis as Dink and Beth is played by Rebecca Hall (The Town). Catherine Zeta Jones plays Tulip, Dink’s ex-wife. While it’s billing itself as a ‘dramedy’, judging from the clip below, the comedy in Lay the Favorite is going to shine through.

Witness Rebecca Hall and Bruce Willis caterwauling to The Hollies’ “Air That I Breathe” and try to keep a straight face.

After it plays Sundance, I have no idea when the rest of us will get to see Lay the Favorite, but I will keep you posted.

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New Year, new movie: Focus Features has given us the first trailer for Wes Anderson’s eagerly anticipated Moonrise Kingdom.

Right off the bat, I have to say that if you’re a fan of Anderson’s previous fun, lyrical, non-linear films, including Rushmore, The Royal Tennenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Darjeeling Limited and the Fantastic Mr. Fox, then I think you’re going to like this trailer, and ultimately, the movie as well. (If you need a crash course, this AMEX ad will pretty much tell you everything you need to know.)

The official synopsis:

Set on an island off the coast of New England in the summer of 1965, MOONRISE KINGDOM tells the story of two twelve-year-olds(Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward)  who fall in love, make a secret pact, and run away together into the wilderness. As various authorities try to hunt them down, a violent storm is brewing off-shore — and the peaceful island community is turned upside down in more ways than anyone can handle. Bruce Willis plays the local sheriff. Edward Norton is a Khaki Scout troop leader. Bill Murray and Frances McDormand portray the young girl’s parents. 

The only way to align that simple paragraph with what we see in the trailer is to filter it through Wes Anderson’s skewed, quirky, Crayola-colored vision of the world.

The cast also includes Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel and Jason Schwartzman.

Murray and Schwartzman are two of the usual players from Anderson’s repertory company. They’ve been with him since Rushmore. I love that Frances McDormand is finally in something else with Edward Norton (after Primal Fear, his first film) and I’ll see this just to find out if they have a meaty scene together. By the way, Bruce Willis has SEVEN films set for release in 2012. (I couldn’t believe it either.) As for Swinton, I can’t believe it took Anderson this long to cast her. They seem made for each other. The only thing that could make this cast better would be the inclusion of Adrien Brody, but you can’t have everything.

Moonrise Kingdom, written by Anderson and Roman Coppola (co-writer, with Anderson and Schwartzman, of Darjeeling Limited), gets a limited May 25 release. I can't wait for more! Enjoy the trailer!

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