So? What do you think? I'm all in!

While this is just the first teaser, I’m looking forward to what Gilroy will bring to this series. From what we see here, the style looks akin to that of Michael Clayton, which is by no means a bad thing. I’m a Gilroy fan. I championed Duplicity back in ’09 as a smart, sexy romantic mystery for grownups in the vein of Charade. I’ve said from the first that I think the Bourne franchise would be safe in Gilroy’s hands. This first trailer reaffirms that for me. I look forward to a lot more before August 3 when The Bourne Legacy hits theaters!

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This is a pretty big week for new dvd releases. We have a driver who just wants to drive, a man who needs more time, robot wars on the moon, a defrosted alien, dark secrets emerging while Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz fall in love on camera, a ne’er-do-well dad with a talented daughter, cops looking for a serial killer, three bozos bird watching and the CIA and the FBI working together to bring down a Soviet assassin.

Drive: Ryan Gosling stars as a Hollywood stunt driver for movies and mechanic by day who moonlights as a wheelman for criminals by night. Though a loner by nature, “Driver” can’t help falling in love with his beautiful neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan), a young mother dragged into a dangerous underworld by the return of her ex-convict husband (Oscar Isaac). After a heist goes wrong, Driver finds himself driving defense for the girl he loves, tailgated by a syndicate of deadly serious criminals (Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman). Soon he realizes the gangsters are after more than the bag of cash and is forced to shift gears and go on the offense.

Drive also stars Bryan Cranston and Christina Hendricks.

Blu-ray and DVD highlights:

-I Drive

-Under The Hood

-Driver and Irene

-Cut To The Chase

-Drive Without A Driver: Interview With Nicolas Winding Refn

Includes UltraViolet

In Time stars Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried and takes place in a future where people stop aging at 25, but are engineered to live only one more year. Time has become currency; having the means to buy “time” is a shot at eternal youth and immortality. Will Salas (Timberlake) finds himself accused of murder and on the run with a hostage (Seyfried) – a connection that becomes an important part of the way against the system.

In Time also stars Olivia Wilde, Cillian Murphy and Johnny Galecki

Blu-ray and DVD highlights:

Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy combo pack presents the film in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1 with a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track. This disc also has a number of bonus supplements, such as:
 

• The Minutes behind-the-scenes featurette
• Deleted/extended scenes
• Access to In Time: The Game app

Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the third film in the franchise, finds the Autobots (Bumblebee, Ratchet, Ironhide and Sideswipe led by Optimus Prime) back in action taking on the evil Decepticons, who are eager to avenge their recent defeat. The Autobots and Decepticons become involved in a perilous space race between the United States and Russia, to reach a hidden Cybertronian spacecraft on the moon and learn its secrets, and once again Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf) has to come to the aid of his robot friends. The new villain, Shockwave, who rules Cybertron, is on the scene while the Autobots and Decepticons continue to battle it out on Earth.

TDotM also stars Rosie Huntington-Whitely, Josh Duhamel, Patrick Dempsey, Tyrese Gibson and Frances McDormand (?!)

Blu-ray and DVD highlights:

-Feature Film — Blu-Ray

-Special Features — Blu-Ray

Above and Beyond: Exploring Dark of the Moon 
- Rising from the Fallen: Development and Design 
- Ready for Prime Time: Filming Across America 
- Battle in the Heartland: Shooting in Chicago 
- Attack of the Birdmen: Aerial Stunts 
- Shadow of the Sentinel: Post-Production and Release 
- Uncharted Territory: NASA's Future Then and Now

Deconstructing Chicago: Multi-Angle Sequences 
- Previsualizations with optional commentary by director Michael Bay and previsualization supervisor Steve Yamamoto 
- Previsualizations/Final Shot Comparison with optional commentary by director Michael Bay and previsualization supervisor Steve Yamamoto 
- Visual Effects with optional commentary by visual effects supervisors Scott Farrar and Matthew Butler 
- Visual Effects/Final Shot Comparison with optional commentary by visual effects supervisors Scott Farrar and Matthew Butler

The Art of Cybertron 
- Autobots 
- Decepticons 
- Environments 
- Weapons and Gear 
- Ships

The Dark of the Moon Archive 
- 3D: A Transforming Visual Art 
- Moscow World Premiere 
- Birdmen Featurette 
- Cody's iPad 
- The Sound of Transformers: Dark of the Moon

The Matrix of Marketing 
- Trailers 
- Marketing Gallery

The Thing is a remake (even though they call it a prequel) of the 1982 John Carpenter classic, directed by Matthijs van Heijningen. From the producers of Dawn of the Dead comes the chilling prelude to John Carpenter's cult classic film.  When paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) travels to an isolated outpost in Antarctica for the expedition of a lifetime, she joins an international team that unearths a remarkable discovery.  Their elation quickly turns to fear as they realize that their experiment has freed a mysterious being from its frozen prison.  Paranoia spreads like an epidemic as a creature that can mimic anything it touches will pit human against human as it tries to survive and flourish in this spine-tingling thriller.

The Thing also stars Joel Edgerton, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Ulrich Thomsen and Eric Christian Olsen

Blu-ray highlights (NO special features on the single disc dvd):

-Fire and Ice (5 min.; HD): focuses on the pyrotechnics

-The Thing Evolves (14 min.; HD making-of featurette

-Deleted and Extended Scenes (9 min.; HD

-Audio Commentary. Director Matthijs van Heijningen is joined by producer Eric Newman (and producer Mark Abraham, kind of

The second disc in the set is an anamorphic widescreen DVD. The Thing comes packaged in an embossed slipcase, and a code for an UltraViolet digital copy is tucked inside. 

Dream House stars Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz and despite the fact that director Jim Sheridan was not happy with the finished product (any more than the public was) it will forever be known as the film in which you can watch Craig and Weisz  fall in love.

Some say that all houses have memories. For one man, his home is the place he would kill to forget. A family unknowingly moves into a home where several grisly murders were committed…only to find themselves the killer's next target. Successful publisher Will Atenton (Craig) quit a job in New York City to relocate his wife, Libby (Weisz), and two girls to a quaint New England town. But as they settle into their new life, they discover their perfect home was the murder scene of a mother and her children. And the entire city believes it was at the hands of the husband who survived. When Will investigates the tragedy, his only lead comes from Ann Paterson (Naomi Watts), a neighbor who was close to the family that died. As Will and Ann piece together the disturbing puzzle, they discover that the story of the last man to leave Will's dream house will be just as horrifying to the one who came next.

Blu-ray and DVD highlights:

-Burning Down The House: is a four minute look at the special effects work

-Building The Dream House:  five minutes with the set designer on how he tried to make the house as much a character in the movie as the humans that populate it.

-Dream Cast: clips showing of the primary cast members

-A Look Inside: a two minute promo spot

-Theatrical Trailer 

All of the extras are in high definition, the disc is Blu-ray Live and D-Box motion control enabled. As this is a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack, a DVD disc is also included with the same extras on it.

Janie Jones is a little indie we told you about that never really got much of a theatrical release. It stars Abigail Breslin as a young girl who has been abandoned by her former-groupie mother (Elizabeth Shue), after she informs a fading rock star (Alessandro Nivola) that the girl is his daughter.

Ethan Brand (Alessandro Nivola, Junebug, Face/Off) and his band are on the comeback trail when a former flame (Academy Award® nominee Elisabeth Shue, Leaving Las Vegas) drops a bomb in his lap: their 13-year-old daughter, Janie Jones (Academy Award® nominee Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine, Nim’s Island). Ethan refuses to believe Janie is his kid, but when her mom suddenly leaves for rehab, the child has no place to go but into the tour bus and on the road with the band. With no inclination toward fatherhood, Ethan continues his hard-living ways, leaving Janie to fend for herself in dive bars and sleazy motels along the way. As Ethan's self-destructive spiral threatens to destroy his band's future, Janie uses her own surprising musical talents to help guide him down the rocky road to redemption. Featuring original music by Gemma Hayes and Eef Barzelay – sung by Nivola and Breslin, who both give impeccably detailed performances. JANIE JONES is a rock-and-roll road movie that can’t be missed.

Worth a look on dvd or VOD for the cast alone, in my opinion.

Blu-ray and DVD highlights:

-Interview with JANIE JONES Team, presented by American Express

-Audio Commentary with Director and Producers

Texas Killing Fields is another indie that got lost in the fall shuffle. It played TIFF and then disappeared from the radar. I was looking forward to it, so I’m happy it made it to dvd. It stars Sam Worthington and perpetual “almost star” Jeffrey Dean Morgan, along with one of the eight Jessica Chastain performances of the year.

Inspired by true events, this tense and haunting thriller follows Detective Souder (Sam Worthington), a homicide detective in a small Texan town, and his partner, transplanted New York City cop Detective Heigh (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) as they track a sadistic serial killer dumping his victims' mutilated bodies in a nearby marsh locals call ''The Killing Fields.'' 

Though the swampland crime scenes are outside their jurisdiction, Detective Heigh is unable to turn his back on solving the gruesome murders. Despite his partner's warnings, he sets out to investigate the crimes. Before long, the killer changes the game and begins hunting the detectives, teasing them with possible clues at the crime scenes while always remaining one step ahead. When familiar local girl Anne (Chloë Grace Moretz) goes missing, the detectives find themselves racing against time to catch the killer and save the young girl's life. 

Directed by Ami Canaan Mann, Produced by Michael Mann and Michael Jaffe, Texas Killing Fields also stars Jessica Chastain (Coriolanus,The Help), Jason Clarke (Public Enemies, FOX's ''Chicago Code'') and Stephen Graham (Snatch, HBO's ''Boardwalk Empire''). Executive Produced by Bill Block, Paul Hanson and Ethan Smith, with music by Dickon Hinchliffe.

Blu-ray and DVD highlights:

-Theatrical Trailer

- commentary track from director Mann and writer Donald F. Ferraone. 

The Big Year stars Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson as three avid bird watchers who compete to spot the rarest birds in North America at a prestigious annual event.

Blu-ray and DVD highlights:

-Extended Feature Film

-"The Big Migration" featurette

-12 Deleted Scenes

-Gag Reel           

The Double stars Richard Gere and Topher Grace. It begins with the mysterious murder of a senator bearing the marks of a Soviet assassin, who was long thought to be dead. To hunt down the killer, a retired CIA operative, who spent his career going toe-to-toe with his Soviet nemesis, is teamed with a young FBI agent.

The Double also stars Martin Sheen, Odette Yustman, Stana Katic and Stephen Moyer.

Blu-ray and DVD highlights:

-Producer interviews

-Trailer

-Commentary with Michael Brandt (Director/Writer) and Derek Haas (Writer)

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This week on dvd we have cancer comedy, family dysfunction, robot boxing, a brave woman doing the right thing, pretty twenty-somethings without a clue and things that go bump in the night.

Inspired by a true story, Golden Globe nominated 50/50 is a comedy centered on a 27-year-old guy who learns of his cancer diagnosis, and his subsequent struggle to beat the disease.

Directed by Jonathan Levine and written by Will Reiser who based the film on his own experiences fighting cancer, this poignant comedy stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Adam, a 27-year old public radio employee who discovers he has cancer. As his best friend Kyle (Seth Rogen) tries to help out, his girlfriend Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard) proves to be a less than ideal life partner for this particular crisis. All the while, Adam's overprotective mother Diane (Anjelica Huston) tries to overcome her son's continued attempts to keep her out of his life. As Adam begins to discover how hard it is to deal with his situation, and to maintain various relationships in his life, he begins seeing a young counselor (Anna Kendrick) who might prove to be just as helpful personally as she is professionally. Matt Frewer and Philip Baker Hall co-star as Adam's fellow chemotherapy patients.

Special Features:

Audio Commentary

Deleted Scenes

The Story of 50/50

Another Happy Day was the first feature film from writer and director Sam Levinson, and received its world premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival

A wedding brings together one very dysfunctional family in this dark comedy-drama. Lynn (Ellen Barkin) was married to Paul (Thomas Haden Church), but they split up on bad terms, and Lynn took custody of their daughter Alice (Kate Bosworth) while Paul got their son Dylan (Michael Nardelli). Years later, Lynn attends Dylan's wedding at Paul's estate, with her younger sons Elliott (Ezra Miller) and Ben (Daniel Yelski) in tow; Elliott is a chronically depressed drug addict and Ben prefers to look at life through a camera than confront the world head on. Meanwhile, Alice deals with her anxieties through cutting, Dylan hasn't spoken to Lynn in years, Lynn is fearful of Paul and his wife Patty (Demi Moore), Lynn's mother (Ellen Burstyn) blames her daughter for her family's many troubles, and her father (George Kennedy) is in poor health and hardly cares what's happening around him. To the surprise of no one, all this has left Lynn an emotional wreck, and she's not sure just how she's going to get through the day.

Need a diagram? Another Happy Day is the screenplay I will forever wish I’d written. I’ve been threatening to write a tell-all about my family for years. Sam Levinson beat me to it. If you can relate you’ll howl with laughter. If not, you’ll be confused.

Real Steel is about a retired pugilist, played by a ripped Hugh Jackman, who  transitions to the business side of the ropes after human boxers are replaced by robotic ones in director Shawn Levy's feature-length adaptation of the Twilight Zone episode "Steel."  I was surprised to learn that. I don’t think I read it in any of the press prior to the film’s release.

Charlie Kenton (Jackman) was a true contender when the sport of boxing was changed forever. Now, instead of humans duking it out for the masses, huge, powerful steel robots trade blows in the ring. As a result, former gladiator Charlie has been forced into the role of two-bit promoter, piecing together cut-rate fighting bots from scrap metal as he makes the rounds on the underground boxing circuit.

Just when it seems that Charlie has sunkas low as he can go, his estranged 11 year old son, Max (Dakota Goyo), offers him the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity at a comeback by constructing and training a true champion. Now the stakes are higher than ever before, and Charlie is about to get a second chance at leaving an indelible mark on the sport he once dedicated his life to. 

Cue Rocky theme. 

Real Steel costars Evangeline Lilly, Anthony Mackie, Hope Davis and James Rebhorn.

Special Features:

Bloopers

Making of Metal Valley

Building the Bots

Audio Commentary with Director Shawn Levy

Based on English novelist David Nicholls’ book of the same name, One Day is a romantic weepie starring Anne Hathaway as Emma and Jim Sturges as Dexter.

SYNOPSIS: After one day together – July 15th, 1988, their university graduation – Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew begin a friendship that will last a lifetime. She is a working-class girl of principle and ambition who dreams of making the world a better place. He is a wealthy charmer who dreams that the world will be his playground. For the next two decades, key moments of their relationship are experienced over several July 15ths in their lives. Together and apart, we see Dex and Em through their friendship and fights, hopes and missed opportunities, laughter and tears. Somewhere along their journey, these two people realize that what they are searching and hoping for has been there for them all along. As the true meaning of that one day back in 1988 is revealed, they come to terms with the nature of love and life itself.

Let’s see – we’ve got Emma who is smart and Dexter who is charming. After spending one night (without having sex!) after meeting at their graduation, we see them coming together every July 15th. Through the years they grow apart as their lives take very different directions. Will they eventually be together? Dun Dun Dun…. Sounds like Same Time Next Year for the new millennium with a little When Harry Met Sally thrown in for good measure.

Director Lone Scherfig caught fire with An Education, the movie that catapulted Carey Mulligan into our hearts. Hopefully this is just a sophomore slump and her next feature will return engaging storytelling.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Feature Commentary with Director Lone Scherfig

Deleted Scenes

Em and Dex: Through the Years

Anne Hathaway: Bringing Emma to Life

The Look of One Day

Inspired by real events, writer/director Larysa Kondracki's intense docudrama, The Whistleblower, tells the tale of an American policewoman (Rachel Weisz) who uncovers evidence of human trafficking while assisting a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Bosnia. Nebraska cop Kathy Bolkovac is caught in the middle of a vicious custody battle with her ex-husband when she seizes the opportunity to make a quick $100,000 tax-free (yeah, I get being tempted by that) by spending six months in Bosnia as a U.N. peacekeeper. Shortly after her arrival in Bosnia, Human Rights Commission head Madeleine Rees (Vanessa Redgrave in her other great performance of 2011) promotes her to the U.N.'s Gender Office, where she begins studying sexual-assault cases. But when Kathy discovers that her fellow peacekeepers are involved in a human-trafficking ring, the ensuing controversy makes her the target of some very powerful — and incredibly ruthless — people.

Costarring Benedict Cumberbatch, David Strathairn, Monica Bellucci and Nikolaj Lie Kass, The Whistleblower is an an important film that doesn’t make the misstep of seeming too “earnest”. Rachel Weisz gives another powerful performance (and in any other year would have been nominated for it, but no one saw The Whistleblower and the little bit of awards buzz she got has long sinced faded.) It’s an engrossing story all the more horrifying because it’s true. I can heartily recommend this one.

Special Feature

Cast & Crew Interviews

Paranormal Activity 3, whose tagline is “It Runs In The Family”,  is more of a prequel than a sequel. It stars Katie Featherston, Sprague Grayden, Christopher Nicholas Smith, Lauren Bittner, Chloe Csengery, Jessica Tyler Brown and  Dustin Ingram.

In 1988, young sisters Katie and Kristi befriend an invisible entity who resides in their home, the same home that will be the subject of Paranormal Activity (1). The directing duo of Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman (Catfish) taking on the helming duties from a script by the returning team of Christopher Landon and Oren Peli.

I have to wonder if there’s anyone left who had any interest in this that hasn’t already seen it. From a budget of $5M, this thing grossed more than $200M worldwide.  (I’m sure that among those that have, there will be a lot of repeat viewers. Their target demographic will buy it and wear out their copies.)

Blu-ray Special Features

Original theatrical version of the film

Unrated version of the film

Lost Tapes

DVD Special Features

Unrated version of the Film

Digital copy of unrated version—compatible with iTunes® and Windows Media

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Poor Rooney Mara. She’s the star of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and yet all eyes were on her costar Daniel Craig and his bride, Rachel Weisz as they stepped out on a red carpet for the first time as a couple, let alone as husband and wife, last night January 4 in the Spanish capital of Madrid.

Mara looked fabulous, of course, continuing to showcase her edgy yet chic fashion sense, last night in Rodarte, sporting a stunning cream and black polka dot dress from the Mulleavy sisters Autumn / Winter 2011 collection. Earlier in the day she and Dan attended the obligatory photocall, in which he sported his trademark jeans with the rolled cuffs and Mara wore a Givenchy military inspired jacket.

No idea who Mrs. Craig was wearing on the red carpet, but I don’t think it would have mattered. Photographers and the web were all going ‘cuckoo for cocoa puffs’ over the fact that she was there and had her husband grinning. Director David Fincher, whom Craig has recently compared to Hitchcock is along for the world tour before getting back to work on the next film in the trilogy, The Girl Who Played with Fire.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo opens in Madrid on January 20. Next stop on the tour, Berlin!

Enjoy the pics, including some of the happy couple at Charles DeGaulle airport in Paris on their way to Spain.

Daniel Craig, whose new film, David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo opens toward the end of December, is on the cover of the January 2012 issue of British GQ.  Good lord, those eyes!

Craig, certainly one of the most intelligent and compelling actors of his generation, and his costar Rooney Mara were on the cover of Entertainment Weekly last week and Empire last month. The publicity machine on this thing goes to 11. I am by no means complaining. Whenever we get news and pics of the notoriously publicity reticent Craig, I’m happy. This has been a big year for him, in terms of having his mug in the news.

He did publicity for last summer’s Cowboys and Aliens right after his super secret surprise stealth wedding to Rachel Weisz. Even though he walked red carpets from San Diego to London sans new bride, it’s what everyone wanted to talk about, naturally. (Both he and Weisz appeared on The Daily Show – for separate films- and Jon Stewart is the only chat show host to resist the urge to ask. The newly minted Daniel Craigs did no joint publicity for the turkey that reignited their spark, Dream House.) He gave a candid interview to Esquire, but at the time of the article, he and Weisz were only “dating” so that reporter got no dish either.

GQ got a little more about his newly married status, even if it was only that Craig once again said, “I’m not going to talk about it”, but in a different, more comprehensive way.

"We got away with it. We did it privately. And we've got a lot of people to thank for that. But that was the point. We did it for private reasons. Because we didn't want it f***ed up, because that would be sharing a secret. And the whole point is that it was a secret. A secret is a secret in my mind."

"I'm in love, I'm very happy. And that is as far as I'm prepared to go. Life is long, life goes wrong and I don't want to say something now that might be thrown back later. Ultimately, people are saying, 'Give it six months.' Well guess what? I'm not responding. Life is long and I am hopefully in this for the long run."

Ya know what, I believe him. Congrats to the happy couple. At least by the time he needs to make the rounds for Skyfall, the next James Bond film, they’ll have more than a year of marriage behind them. I’m sure another celebrity couple will have done something outrageous enough to take the heat off by then.    GQ hits the stands in Britain on 1^st December.

Source

We have a new UK trailer and poster for, The Deep Blue Sea from Artificial Eye. Written and directed by Terence Davies​ (The House of Mirth​), The Deep Blue Sea was the closing night film of the BFI London Film Festival back in October and stars Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddleston​ (Thor, The Avengers) and Simon Russell Beale.

Hester Collyer (Weisz) leads a privileged life in 1950s London as the beautiful wife of high court judge Sir William Collyer (Beale). To the shock of those around her, she walks out on her marriage to move in with young ex-RAF pilot, Freddie Page (Hiddleston), with whom she has fallen passionately in love.

Set in post-war Britain, this adaptation of Terence Rattigan’s classic play, The Deep Blue Sea is a study of forbidden love, suppressed desire, and the fear of loneliness – but is at heart a deeply moving love story. Stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea, what – or whom – should Hester choose?

I’m a huge fan of Mrs. Daniel Craig. Whenever she’s in something, I go. The Deep Blue Sea opens in the UK on 25 November and sometime in December in the US.

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