Back Seat Producers

When you see the logo for Robert Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios, you can pretty much bet that if you enjoy genre entertainment, you’re in for a good time.

Producer Robert Rodriguez was pretty much given carte blanche from 20th Century Fox to do something with the Predator franchise. And I think that he and director Nimrod Antal have got something pretty cool here.

Predators starts with our main character, an American mercenary, plummeting from the sky to the ground below. He’s just wakened up and realizes that he has some sort of parachute around him, but he can’t activate it. It activates on it’s own at the last moment and this mercenary lands in the midst of a steaming jungle. One after another, others also land. All of them are warriors from other cultures with one seeming exception, a doctor. They all form a reluctant truce to try and find who tossed them out of an airplane. Well, soon our little band of warriors find that they’re no longer on Earth and they’ve been brought to an interplanetary game reserve. They realize that they’re the game and they’re being hunted by the most fierce hunters in the galaxy, the Predators.

What follows is a pretty cool cat and mouse chase story with this fierce band of prey trying to outwit and escape from the Predators. Oh, there’s really nothing new here, though a new twist is thrown in with the Predator race, but that doesn’t really matter. If you’re familiar with the other Predator movies, you pretty much know what you’re going to get, and that’s some slick and brutal science fiction action.

Predators delivers on that count for sure. While this isn’t anything overly complex in how it’s set up, director Antal manages to have his action unfold logically and for the first half hour of the film, really builds up a nice sense of dread. Our characters are all of the two-dimensional variety, but again, with this series, that’s not really a detriment. And there are some nice bits thrown in along the way, though you really won’t find yourself necessarily identifying with any of these folks, other than just through their desire for survival.

It all really looks good, and in some scenes, I almost get the feeling that Antal and Rodriguez are channeling the art of Frank Frazetta in some places. The visual effects are really nice and of course, with a movie like this, the main standout is more in make-up effects. When you have the best in the business, KNB EFX Group, handling that, you know you’re in good hands.

Another huge plus for the movie is it’s musical score by John Debney which is basically repurposing Alan Silvestri’s scores from the first two Predator movies. With this series, it’d be wrong to do anything any different.

Now as I said, the characters are all two-dimensional (again not a bad thing) but still you want a cast that can give it all some credibility and fortunately, they have a good cast here with a couple of surprises for me anyway.

Adrien Brody leads the cast as our American mercenary (and yeah, he does have a name, but it’s left unrevealed until the end of the film- the name itself isn’t really a big deal, but it’s revelation is something of a turnaround point for this character, so I’m not going to reveal it). Now I’d never expect to see Brody head up this sort of action film, but I have to say, he’s really got the chops to do it. His character seems the most hardened out of the entire cast, so much so that he’s the most ready to sacrifice everyone else for his own survival. As far as I’m concerned, he’s had a pretty good year this year with genre entertainment with both this movie and earlier this summer with Splice. He’s an intense character, not a lot of joy in this man, but you definitely get the feeling that he’s having a good time doing this sort of part.

He’s backed up with a solid supporting cast that includes Alice Braga, Walton Goggins, Topher Grace and Laurence Fishburne. Fishburne comes into the movie a little later as previous bit of prey who’s managed to survive in this environment for quite a long time, and as such, he’s a little off his nut. It’s still good work from him though, and again, he’s just the right sort of guy to give this some credibility. the real surprises for me though were Alice Braga and Topher Grace. I’ve not necessarily been a fan of either previously. The last thing that I saw Braga in, Repo Men, she was quite the drag in that film. But here though, she holds her own well with this group of hardened guys, being both tough and having a little maternal quality to her. Topher Grace was really unexpected. He plays the doctor amongst this crew. I really don’t want to reveal anything further about his character, but I’ll just say that for me, this might be the best thing that I’ve ever seen him do, so take from that what you will.

And of course, this wouldn’t be a Robert Rodriguez film if Danny Trejo wasn’t in it in some way or another. Trejo’s here and doing just what we want him doing, playing the badass. Even better though, is that running with Predators we get the trailer for the next Rodriguez movie, which will be Trejo’s starring vehicle, Machete which we first saw with Quentin Tarantino’s and Rodriguez’s Grindhouse and is already looking like it might be some of the most fun on the big screen this year, but I digress…

Predators is just a whole lot of B-movie fun and it really helps to put this franchise back on the map again. I’m not going to denigrate the Aliens Vs. Predators movies (I actually really enjoy them), but it’s nice to see them back in their own movie. You’ve got a rock solid cast here, a great look, terrific visual and make-up effects, and the music that you want to hear with this franchise. By all means, see this one.

M. Night Shyamalan, I really was rooting for you.

After making a big splash with movies like The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs, an M. Night Shyamalan movie was something like a mini-event when it would come along. These were nice movies that embraced genre filmmaking and all punctuated with a twist of some sort, and they resonated with audiences Then came The Village and Lady In The Water. Things got a little more ponderous. While I like these, I don’t like them to the same extent that I like the other three movies. Then came The Happening, Shyamalan’s only venture into R-rated territory and things really devolved. The movie was ill-cast, there was little credibility to what was on screen and overall it was just plain laughable… and not in the good way.

But I like M. Night Shyamalan, I really do, and so when I heard he was going to adapt the Nickelodeon cartoon, Avatar, The Last Airbender, I was hoping that he was going to succeed with something that didn’t rely on his past formula.

With it’s alternate history setting, The Last Airbender tells the story of the four nations of the Earth, each represented by different elements- Water, Air, Earth and Fire. All are kept in check by a being known as the Avatar, who has mastery over all of the elements. 100 years ago (from the present day shown in the movie), a young boy named Aang was chosen to be the next Avatar. Aang was part of the Air Nation and has mastery over the element. Aang didn’t want the responsibility and ran away. He got into trouble and found himself encased in ice only to be discovered 100 years later by Katara and Sokka, two siblings part of the oppressed Water Nation. In the time that Aang was gone, the harmony that the other nations had was no longer in place. The Fire Nation sought domination over the rest of the tribes and now rule the world. Aang now accepts his responsibility, but in order to succeed, he must first master the other elements. He sets off on a journey with Katara and Sokka at his side to first master Water.

The Last Airbender is a loose adaptation of the first season of the animated show. Shyamalan’s got a difficult task here in that he has to encapsulate that first season (20 episodes) into something that can run a reasonable time in movie theatres, and honestly, I think it was more than he could handle. The way the movie plays out, it’s almost as if the season was broken down into a bare bones outline without any of the glue that binds it all together. Of course liberties are taken, and I expected that they would, but some just seem to come out of left field. The biggest of these is just a mispronunciation of Aang’s name. I mean this is just about as basic as it gets- you already have 20 episodes of a show that pronounces the main character’s name in a pretty exact way. That’s right in front of you, so why ignore it?

So that’s the starting point and from there, everything else falls. Characterization hardly exists here. One of the big charms of the animated series is that Aang likes to have fun along the way and he develops a real bond with Katara and Sokka. Well, that fun aspect of the character is almost entirely lost here. There’s little bits in Noah Ringer’s performance as Aang, but it’s real threadbare (and no I don’t blame Ringer or any of the other actors for this). The bond with Katara and Sokka is just there. There’s nothing to show how it develops, it’s just there to move things forward. The only character to have any real sort of development is Prince Zuko played by actor Dev Patel (best known for his role in Slumdog Millionaire). Zuko is the disgraced son of the leader of the Fire Nation. He seeks to gain redemption by being the one to find the Avatar and bring him back for his father to control. Patel does a pretty good job with the character and at least by what’s shown on-screen, he gets the chance to show that he’s not just one-note.

The rest of the cast I think looks really good here, this script just uses them more as placeholders more than giving you something to really care about.

Now I might be willing to forgive the lack of characterization if there was more flow in how events happen here. Like I said above, this plays out as if it was just a plot outline with high points to hit. It hits the points, but it’s disjointed in how it goes from point A to B, it just happens without any real continuity. And when there is continuity, it’s told to us in either narration by Katara or long passages of dialogue by other characters. There’s nothing else to give us any real resonance, it just moves forward.

The animated series is also known for it’s action and the action on the show is quite good. It looks like Shyamalan has studied the action work of directors like The Wachowski Brothers and Zack Snyder and he tries some pretty cool stuff here, but it just doesn’t carry the same impact that you’d get from the Wachowskis or Snyder. They have a real affinity for action and I just don’t think that’s in Shyamalan. He’s never really been a guy to deal with this sort of fast-paced action in the past and I just don’t think that’s something that’s been real important to him. It shows here.

Now I only recently started to watch the animated series. I never watched it when it was on Nickelodeon originally. I only watched the show because I knew this was going to be Shyamalan’s next movie and I wanted find out a little bit more about it before going into the movie. I thought this whole thing was going to be little too “kiddie” for me. I was pleasantly surprised. The series is a whole lot of fun and it’s really sucked me in. Everything is there to craft a good live action movie out of it and yet Shyamalan misses the boat on just about every point. To it’s credit, as I said above, the cast certainly looks good in their parts. The production design is pretty decent and overall the visual effects are very nice. James Newton Howard provides a pretty stirring score. All nice parts, but the man in charge just can’t bring them all together. As the credits roll, the first thing you see is “Written, Produced and Directed By M. Night Shyamalan” and so there’s only one person to blame for the whole thing and that’s really unfortunate. I really did want him to succeed with this and get back on the right track.

One final note, this movie is being presented in 3D. I did not see it in 3D. After seeing Clash Of The Titans, I was pretty much in the camp that if it was a movie where the 3D was simply being tacked on- I was going to avoid seeing the 3D version and save myself a bit of money. I read a few things about the 3D in advance of this and if there was anything that was universal in what I read, it was just that the 3D wasn’t very good. So obviously, I can’t comment on that. It doesn’t matter though, all of the other elements are so far gone here, that even a good use of 3D couldn’t save this mess.

I’d still like to see M. Night Shyamalan succeed, but after the universal drubbing this movie has been getting (and justly deserved), I’ve little hope that that will ever happen again in a big Hollywood production. This one’s right up there with Robin Hood and Jonah Hex as one of the worst that I’ve seen this year.

Near the end of the Civil War, Confederate officer Jonah Hex turns on his commander, Quentin Turnbull as Turnbull is about to lay waste to a hospital full of innocents. As a result of this, Hex in turn kills Turnbull’s brother, Jeb. The war is over and Hex is living a peaceful life with his wife and son. Quentin Turnbull catches up to Hex and enacts his revenge upon him, killing his wife and son and forcing Hex to watch as it happens. In a final moment of torture, Turnbull takes a branding iron and leaves his mark on Jonah’s face. Left for dead, Hex is revived by an indian tribe and as a result of their rituals, now has the ability to talk to the dead.

Hex now makes his living as a bounty hunter and he’s good at what he does, with his vengeance fueling his path. Quentin Turnbull resurfaces and now wants to take vengeance on the entire United States and he plans to with an ultimate weapon designed by Eli Whitney. President Ulysses S. Grant thinks that this bounty hunter, Jonah Hex, is the man to go after Turnbull and thusly, enlists his aid.

And so that’s the basic premise of Jonah Hex directed by Jimmy Hayward, who previously directed Horton Hears A Who from an original screenplay from Neveldine & Taylor, who have previously made Gamer and the Crank movies. Neveldine & Taylor were originally supposed to direct this as well, but left due to creative differences and so, from what I understand, their script was heavily altered.

Jonah Hex is also the latest comic book-to-movie adaptation out there. Now, I am a comic fan, but I was never a devout Jonah Hex reader. I’ve read a story or two with, to me anyway, always his most memorable stuff from writer Michael Fleisher (and now his latest series by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray is getting much acclaim). Now even though I wasn’t a fan, I do know a little something about the character and one of the things that I know was that Hex never had any sort of paranormal abilities.

I go into most comic book adaptations knowing that liberties will be taken, but this one seems to come at us right from left field. It doesn’t really help that the whole way in which Jonah acquires this ability is told through a bit of animation and voiceover. And while the animation is nice in it’s limited sort of way, it doesn’t really have any sort of weight for how the use of this power plays out. It’s there to speed things up and get us right into the action. Because this does get sped up, well there’s not a whole lot here to really get invested in.

The whole movie suffers from an edit job that seems more like a salvage operation more than anything else. There’s lots of jump-cutting from scene to scene and not really a lot of glue to hold the whole thing together. Oh sure, it’s plot does progress forward, but it does so at the expense of making this a fuller experience. As such there’s really little to care about when it comes to our main character. From what I understand of the character in the comics, there’s a lot more to him than this two-dimensional drive that he has here.

Now none of this is the fault of lead Josh Brolin who plays Jonah Hex. when I first heard Brolin was taking the part, I thought it was pretty cool, especially since Brolin was coming off of some high-profile work in things like American Gangster, Milk and No Country For Old Men. I think Brolin has certainly invested himself here, and it’s seen through little bits with his character. But as to a big picture, it’s hard to tell, because the editing of the film doesn’t really allow anything to breath.

Much ado has been made about Megan Fox being in this movie. She plays Lilah, a cold prostitute who has a warm spot in her heart for the disfigured Hex. My expectations were pretty low for her coming into this, and while she’s only on-screen for a short portion of the movie, I actually think she does a pretty decent job with what she has (and this isn’t really making huge demands on her, considering what’s on screen) and certainly looks good. My bigger problem is with John Malkovich who plays Quentin Turnbull. Now I’m a fan of Malkovich’s, but here he comes off more disinterested than anything else. There’s no magnetism to the character and you’re sort of hoping you’ll get him as he was in Con Air or In The Line Of Fire but it’s more like he’s just reading the lines and waiting for the check to clear. Even though I’m saying that, it’s still a little hard to fault him due to the editing of the movie and it’s bigger concern to just get action on the screen more than letting anything develop.

Other members of the cast include Michael Fassbender, Will Arnett, Tom Wopat, Michael Shannon, Aidan Quinn and Jeffrey Dean Morgan who’s uncredited as Quentin’s brother Jeb. Everything here from these guys is certainly serviceable, with standouts being Fassbender, who’s definitely eating things up being Quentin’s right hand man, and Morgan who has a pretty good scene as Hex raises him from the dead.

To the movie’s credit, it does have a nice look to it and in the words of SCTV’s Big Jim McBob and Billy Saul Hurok, they blow things up real good. But that’s about it. The way this is edited, it doesn’t want to do anything fuller let alone do anything that could make it be a nice western adventure. Of course though, I have to wonder just what they had originally which would cause this, and unfortunately, I doubt we’ll ever find out. It’s a shame, there’s a lot of talent here and (from what I understand) a rich comic book mythos to mine from and it’s all squandered away.

Young Andy isn’t as young as he used to be, he’s now 17 and he’s not playing with his toys any more. Andy’s about ready to go off to college and now Woody, Buzz Lightyear and all of the rest of our Toy Story friends are worried about their future. Woody, of course being the leader of the group tries to calm everyone down and tells them that they’re going to be going to the attic and still being all together and there for whenever Andy should need them next. But the worries continue, and now Andy’s mother has issued him an ultimatum that he needs to decide what he’s going to do with the toys- either put them in the attic or put them in the trash.

Well, Andy decides to put all of his toys except for Woody in the attic. Woody, gets to go with Andy to college. As Buzz and the rest are ready to be put in the attic, something unexpected happens and they end up mistakenly being put out for the trash. Well, Woody sees this all happening and naturally he wants to save his friends and he does, though his friends aren’t convinced that Andy wanted them to go in the attic. The toys make the jump to another box marked for donations and soon they find themselves in an all new adventure at a daycare center where it looks like their life after Andy is going to be rosier than ever… but of course, it’s not.

This is the premise to Pixar’s and Disney’s latest chapter in the lives of these magical toys for Toy Story 3 and right off the bat, I’m going to tell you this is the best movie I’ve seen all year.

This one has it all- comedy, action, adventure, romance and sentiment. It’ll probably end up being one of the funniest movies that you’ll see all year and at the same time it’ll get you all welled up by it’s end- it certainly did for me.

I’m continually stunned at just how well Pixar makes movies. Oh sure, we know that their computer animation is just the best all around, but the fact that all of their movies are terrific stories is truly amazing. They’ve come so far since the first Toy Story (and that’s still brilliant), especially with their cinematic techniques, but none of it has ever been at the expense of their stories or their characters.

Pixar has always managed to truly make something for everyone, and Toy Story 3 is no exception. There’s plenty of entertainment for the kids to be sure, but there’s always something there for the adults as well. I saw this preview screening in a packed house with probably a 50/50 split of adults and kids, and from what I could tell, all were entertained.

All of your favorites are back, but we also get introduced to some brand new characters- Lotso, the “kindly” but villainous old teddy bear who’s in charge of the toys at the daycare center, Big Baby, Lotsie’s “enforcer,” and my personal favorites, Ken and Barbie. Barbie starts off with the rest of the crew at Andy’s house, she being one of Andy’s sister’s toys and getting ready to be donated. We’re introduced to Ken at the daycare center and of course, it’s love at first sight for these two. For me, the funniest gags in the whole movie revolved around Ken and of course, his impeccable fashion sense.

The voice cast is truly fantastic. Of course Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, Estelle Harris, Wallace Shawn are all back and it wouldn’t be a pixar movie without John Ratzenberger. New to our main cast is comedian Blake Clark taking over for the late Jim Varney with the voice of Slinky Dog. New to this movie are Ned Beatty as Lotso and Michael Keaton as Ken, and they perfectly fit in with the main cast. Out there on the side though is Timothy Dalton doing one of the voices and it’s only for a couple of scenes, but he’s truly memorable with what he does.

I saw this in 3D, and much like the 3D was with Up, the 3D here is used mainly for depth of scenes more than give you an eye-popping effect. It’s good, but it’s not essential to your enjoyment of this movie. Like all of the previous Pixar features, we get a short film with this as well. This little film is called Day & Night and really this is more of a showcase for their use of 3D than the main movie. It’s a really nice combination of 2D and 3D animation that features two characters, one filled with night and the other filled with day and it will not disappoint.

Don’t miss this. As I said above, this has now become for me the best movie that I’ve seen for the year, and I’m looking forward to seeing it again in a couple of weeks. Pixar knocks another one right out of the park, and I can’t wait to see what they do next.

By coincidence, (or as one character of this movie might think, extreme planning), four elite Army Rangers come together on one special mission. Those men are:

• Colonel Hannibal Smith, known for having a plan for everything.
• Lt. Templeton “Faceman” Peck, a smooth talker and Smith’s comrade for this mission.
• Sergeant Bosco “B.A.” Baracus, a disgraced Ranger who unexpectedly gets drafted into this mission.
• Captain H.M. “Howling Mad” Murdock, their pilot who is “recruited” at the hospital where he’s being held for reasons of insanity.

Their mission is a success, and eight years and 80 missions later, this team is now highly regarded as an elite unit who basically specialize in the impossible. Now stationed in Iraq, the team is contacted by a CIA Agent named Lynch to take on a mission. Lynch reveals that the Iraqi are in possession of U.S. treasury plates being used to manufacture counterfeit currency. Lynch wants the team to steal the plates and over a billion dollars in cash before it can make it out of Baghdad. At the same time, a Department of Defense captain, named Sosa comes into play, warning her ex-lover Faceman to stay far away from this mission. Of course, the team takes the mission and they’re successful with that, but it all falls awry in the end, and now the team finds themselves all dishonorably discharged and having to serve prison sentences.

Six months into their sentences, Agent Lynch makes contact with Smith again, and gives them the chance to clear their names.

That’s the premise to The A-Team, the big-budget film re-birth of the iconic 80s TV series from producer Stephen J. Cannell. When the TV series made it’s debut, I saw a few of them, but wasn’t really a big fan of the show (though I wasn’t really against it either). It was criticized for being the most violent hour of television on the air and along with that, of course, a sign that TV was going to hell in a handbasket. It was in essence, a big live-action cartoon with bigger than life characters and ridiculous situations and that’s certainly recognized by director Joe Carnahan.

Carnahan knows he’s dealing with a live-action cartoon and he surely amplifies that with this movie. The characters, at least to me, are even more extreme and the film’s action scenes are just really ridiculous… but for the most part, it all works and it’s a pretty fun ride, as long as you know what you’re getting into.

Yes, the action scenes are ridiculous, but they’re also pretty thrilling and very well-made. They fit this film and if Cannell and company would’ve had the budget back in the day, they probably would’ve done the same type of stuff on television. For the biggest set pieces, Caranhan does a pretty skillful job of interweaving the action with the description of the plans. It’s a nice touch and if this should go to a franchise, this should remain as a signature for future films.

I do have a few problems with the film though, and those are mostly with the casting and an element of the casting.

Now our main players are really well cast. Liam Neeson plays Smith, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson plays B.A., Bradley Cooper plays Faceman and Sharlto Copley plays Murdock. Neeson was the big surprise to me when I first heard about this movie. Even though it is a huge cartoon, putting an actor of his calibre here is a huge, huge plus and he genuinely looks like he’s having fun in the part. Jackson’s really rock solid as B.A. and while I’m not exactly looking for huge depth in something like this, he actually does try his best to bring some to the role and it works. Cooper and Copley were both coming off of some big films before making this (Cooper had The Hangover and Copley had District 9 and I still think Copley should’ve been Oscar nominated for District 9) so their stars are on the rise. Copley’s my favorite in this cast and yeah, he’s nuts, but he also brings a huge zest for life in just about every scene he has. Cooper is smooth and suave and he certainly looks good. He does a nice job with the part, but he’s also one of my problems with the film.

Basically, near the end of the film, this starts to lose the team dynamic that was built up so well at the start and it becomes the Bradley Cooper show. Now this isn’t really Cooper’s fault, it’s more in the script and taking advantage that this guy is popular now and on the rise. I get that, I understand why they’re doing it, but it does hurt the film and shortchanges the rest of the main cast, in particular Copley. I would’ve liked this even more had they been more even with everyone for the final action scene.

Patrick Wilson plays CIA Agent Lynch and Brian Bloom (also one of the film’s writers) plays a leader of a private military contractor group and they’re the bad guys of the movie. They both do a pretty good job with this with Bloom getting to be the more venal of the two and Wilson getting to have the better dialogue moments. Jessica Biel plays Sosa and she’s my other problem with the movie. I’m sorry, I’m just not a fan and with the exception of her part in the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I tend to think she’s ill-cast in everything else that I see her in. This doesn’t really make any huge demands on her, but she doesn’t really bring anything to the table either.

This is the second of the three big “men on a mission” movies for the year. I prefer The Losers over The A-Team so far and am still hoping for greatness from The Expendables. Overall, director Joe Carnahan and the writers do a nice job of translating this TV series to the big screen, with the stumbles just being in a part of the casting and the amplification of one of the main characters over the others by the film’s end. If you have an appreciation for the TV series or love big over-the-top action films, you’ll have a pretty good time with The A-Team.