Dark of the Moon is not only the best entry in Michael Bay’s Transformers saga, it’s also one of the best action movies of the year. Bay does what he does best – make stuff look awesome – but more importantly, the story and characters actually feel important to the film instead of ancillary functions of a purely CGI-driven creation. Ehren Kruger’s script is a perfect match for Bay’s directing style, balancing just the right amount of story with terrific action beats. Though it clocks in around two hours and forty minutes, the last hour is one of the most action packed segments in recent film history.

Let the record show that I believe Michael Bay is a brilliant filmmaker. Allow me to be clear: the man doesn’t necessarily make brilliant films (OK, never), but he’s a craftsman of the highest order who is able to accomplish things that no other director in Hollywood can. He has made an art of shooting helicopters, explosions, chase scenes, and destruction. He uses his actors as chess pieces in a larger game, and if you’re willing to play that game along with him, you’re going to have a hell of a good time.

One of the many reasons the second film, Revenge of the Fallen, didn’t work that well for me was because (and I realize this may sound crazy) there was an overabundance of robots. It was nothing but gnashing metal and mechanisms, a soulless piece of work that reeked of problems due to the then-in-full-swing Writers Guild of America strike. Dark of the Moon corrects all of these issues, boiling down the number of Transformers to the essential players and avoiding unnecessarily complicated mythologies.

The action in this film is jaw-droppingly impressive. The opening scene, an epic (and I don’t use that word lightly here) battle between the Autobots and Decepticons on their home world, rivals any space battle from any of the Star Wars films in the realm of size and scope. Much of this credit should be given to ILM for creating the visual effects, which, aside from being gorgeous, are easy to comprehend and immensely complicated. I normally don’t put much stock in the Oscars, but if the Academy fails to acknowledge the incredible effects work done in this movie, they truly are an irrelevant organization.

The reason I believe the action works so well in Dark of the Moon is because Bay essentially took scenes from the original Transformers and improved upon them. There is a fantastic highway car chase sequence (among the director’s best, an accomplishment in itself) that’s basically a more involved version of a similar scene in the first film. Same goes for the final 20 minutes, in which Shia LaBeouf runs through a huge city against all odds toward a piece of alien technology. Though some may find this a bit repetitive, I have absolutely no problem with it: since these scenes are all bigger and more bombastic than the first film (there are District 9-type alien ships floating above Chicago this time, and FAR more destruction and chaos in the streets), the movie doesn’t feel like a poor imitation of something we’ve already seen. Bay’s use of live action 3D here is phenomenal, and best used in a base-jumping sequence that was shot practically with the same technology that James Cameron invented for Avatar.

Rosie Huntington-Whitely is a step up from Megan Fox, and even though Rosie’s character isn’t quite as involved as I would have liked, she’s still a tenfold improvement from Fox’s Mikaela Banes. Rosie is definitely a “Michael Bay girl” (women in his movies should have their own classification, like Bond girls) and therefore isn’t relied on as much as the male protagonists, but for what it’s worth, I liked her a lot. She gives Sam Witwicky added motivation for self-improvement, and her presence seemed to insert a jolt of energy into what could have been a tired performance from Shia (who I’d imagine is getting sick of this character by now). And as a longtime LaBeouf fanboy, it should come as no surprise to that I was a big fan of his schtick here. He’s a true movie star in my mind – tremendously watchable and easily foreseeable as the next big A-list powerhouse in line with DiCaprio.

Dark of the Moon also succeeds in pulling together a strange collection of character actors to fill in the human roles in the movie, including John Turturro, Frances McDormand, Ken Jeong, Patrick Dempsey, Alan Tudyk, and the always-entertaining John Malkovich. I’ve heard complaints that the comedy didn’t work for many people, but I laughed a lot and found almost everyone enjoyable to watch. The exception, surprisingly, was McDormand, an actress I normally like, but found severely annoying after her first five minutes on screen. Even Ken Jeong was fun to watch, though he was acting as an amalgamation of every character he’s ever played.

In my review of the original Transformers, I wrote that I had “never seen so much debris in my life,” and now it falls on me to update that statement: Dark of the Moon now holds the record for the most debris of any film I’ve ever seen. Even if you’re not in it for the whole thing, the last forty-five minutes stands as one of the most impressive visual spectacles to hit theaters in a long time. Every other summer action film – Thor, Green Lantern, X-Men: First Class, Super 8, even Fast Five – must bow down to Michael Bay as the king of the summer blockbuster. When Bay is at his peak, nobody does it better. Until next time…

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Update: Amazon has made Red available to pre-order on DVD and Blu-ray.

Summit Entertainment has announced that they will be releasing Red on DVD and Blu-ray on January 25th.

The movie was released back in October and follows the story of Frank Moses (Bruce Willis), a former black-ops CIA agent, who is now living a quiet life. That is, until the day a hi-tech assassin shows up intent on killing him. With his identity compromised and the life of the woman he cares for endangered, Frank reassembles his old team (Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren) in a last ditch effort to survive.

Red, directed by Robert Schwentke (Flightplan and The Time Traveler’s Wife), managed $150 million at the worldwide box office on a $60 million budget which, combined with positive reviews, means Summit officially has a hit.

The DVD and Blu-ray features include:

- Audio commentary with retired CIA field officer Robert Baer
- Deleted and extended scenes
- Access: RED – Activate a variety of “scene-specific” features including interviews with cast members, real-life CIA expert commentary, animated documentary shorts on controversial CIA operations and more

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If you’ve seen the trailer for Red, you know exactly what you’re getting yourself into. There’s no deception with this marketing campaign: if you’re the type of person who digs movies in which bullets and bazookas are fired at the same time and collide in the middle (causing a massive explosion, naturally), chances are you’ll probably like this movie.

Based on the comic by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner, Red tells the story of Frank Moses (Willis), a lonely, retired CIA black ops agent. He calls the agency just to speak with the cute customer service rep Sarah (Parker), and the two have a blossoming friendship over the phone. But when a team of agents breaks into Moses’ apartment to kill him, he knows that Sarah’s life is in danger, too. In order to stay alive, he has to “[get] the band back together” by reassembling his old (hiYO!) team: Joe (Freeman), an 80-year-old rascal; Marvin (Malkovich), made insane by years of government testing; and Victoria (Mirren), a woman who can’t force herself to fully retire. Hunted by up-and-coming agent Cooper (Karl Urban), the gang gets caught up in the remnants of a operation they worked on thirty years prior.

This movie is utterly inconsequential, but that’s exactly what it’s aiming for. The writing provides plenty of opportunities to let loose and have some fun, with almost all of the leads playing variations of characters they’ve depicted on screen before. Freeman and Willis fell right back into their natural chemistry from Lucky Number Slevin, almost as if they never left that film’s set. Malkovich was perfectly crazy, striking just the right balance of slapstick and insanity. And as the action comedy equivalent of Betty White, it was surprisingly exhilarating to see Helen Mirren (notable for playing traditional, serious roles) brazenly fire automatic weapons until all of the cartridges were spent. And Mary-Louise Parker played the “Cameron Diaz in Knight and Day” part with such effortless charm and humor that I was instantly enamored with her.

The supporting cast is really a joy to watch, with hugely entertaining performances from the always-reliable Brian Cox and Richard Dreyfuss. Even Ernest Borgnine has a small role, sure to raise the enjoyment of the older audience this film caters to. But the break-out to me was easily Karl Urban (who played Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek) as Cooper, standing out in an office fight scene with Willis that cements him as one of the next big blockbuster stars. [He's already been signed to play Judge Dredd in a reboot of that franchise.] Cooper’s casual indifference when executing orders was effectively chilling, and his go-getter attitude seems to mirror Urban’s own rise to movie stardom.

Perhaps my biggest surprise was with the assured confidence of the film itself, handled notably well by director Robert Schwentke. His filmography thus far (Flightplan, The Time Traveler’s Wife) didn’t seem to indicate he could pull off this type of tone, but he did an admirable job portraying the action, thankfully avoiding the quick-cut mantra of action films of the past decade. (It’s so refreshing to see an action movie that doesn’t give you a headache.) There are a couple of excellent sequences, one involving a car crash and Willis (predictably) being a total badass, and one involving the destruction of a house reminiscent of The Rocketeer and The Book of Eli.

Red is pure, self-assured escapism. It’ll surely become a staple of cable networks in the next few years, but there’s nothing wrong with that – especially when the movie is as fun as this one. The cast practically oozes enthusiasm, and their excitement seems to complement the ridiculous nature of this movie. I’d definitely recommend checking this one out if you’re a fan of the action comedy genre; Red continues this year’s trend of “team up” action flicks, but this one falls more on the The A-Team side than The Expendables side. Until next time…

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Hollywood has always had an obsession with casting young, good looking actors and actresses in movies so they can capture the teen demographic. However Bradley Cooper getting his abs out in The A-Team and Zoe Saldana firing guns in her underwear in The Losers is nothing compared to Dame Helen Mirren, John Malkovich and Morgan Freeman kicking ass in Red.

A second trailer for the film was revealed today at Comic-Con, and you can watch it below;

Red, directed by Robert Schwentke (Flightplan and The Time Traveler’s Wife) is the story of Frank Moses (Willis), a former black-ops CIA agent, who is now living a quiet life. That is, until the day a hi-tech assassin shows up intent on killing him. With his identity compromised and the life of the woman he cares for endangered, Frank reassembles his old team (Freeman, Malkovich and Mirren) in a last ditch effort to survive.

The film also includes Brian Cox as a former Cold War spy and nemesis of Willis, Richard Dreyfuss as a wealthy man who builds a fortune out of lucrative government contracts, and Julian McMahon as the Vice President with a dark side who is at the center of a conspiracy.

Red will be released by Summit Entertainment on October 15th.

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Helen Mirren firing a 50-caliber machine gun, Morgan Freeman getting frisky looking at ladies bottoms, John Malkovich getting all paranoid thinking that everyone is out to kill him, and Bruce Willis having a brutal fight in an office with Karl Urban.

I present to you the teaser trailer for Red!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EREb0EZHHE

Red, directed by Robert Schwentke (Flightplan and The Time Traveler’s Wife) is the story of Frank Moses (Willis), a former black-ops CIA agent, who is now living a quiet life. That is, until the day a hi-tech assassin shows up intent on killing him. With his identity compromised and the life of the woman he cares for endangered, Frank reassembles his old team (Freeman, Malkovich and Mirren) in a last ditch effort to survive.

The film also includes Brian Cox as a former Cold War spy and nemesis of Willis, Richard Dreyfuss as a wealthy man who builds a fortune out of lucrative government contracts, and Julian McMahon as the Vice President with a dark side who is at the center of a conspiracy.

Summit Entertainment has set an October 15th release date for Red. It’s good to see they are putting their revenue from Twilight into good use.

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Warner Bros. has released a second trailer for Jonah Hex via IGN. The first trailer was only released a few weeks ago, but the studio need to make up for all the time they haven’t been marketing it due to re-shoots.

I prefer this trailer to the previous one. It contains some cool shots and goes for the ‘badass’ angle, however i’m still not sure if I want to see it. All the re-shoot talk has caused the film to be tainted in my mind and these average-to-good trailers aren’t getting me excited.

Jonah Hex, which stars Josh Brolin, Megan Fox, John Malkovich and Michael Fassbender, is a Western featuring a scarred-faced bounty hunter. The movie centers on the gunslinger enlisted to track down a former Confederate general who is raising an army of the undead and bent on liberating the South.

The film will be released on June 18th. What do you think of Jonah Hex from the trailers? Will you be seeing it?

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Update: Click here to view the second official Jonah Hex trailer!

The first official Jonah Hex movie trailer has arrived online. Finally. The re-shoots and delay in marketing has lead people to suspect the movie may suck, and it still might, but the trailer is pretty watchable. I was expecting far worse.

The beginning of the trailer is similar to the Ghost Rider teaser trailer. They’ve even used the same music. This may have subconsciously interfered with my viewing as all I could think about is how Jonah Hex looks just as good and as bad as Ghost Rider.

Watch below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2AS9DjwR-o

Jonah Hex, which stars Josh Brolin, Megan Fox, John Malkovich and Michael Fassbender, is a Western featuring a scarred-faced bounty hunter. The movie centers on the gunslinger enlisted to track down a former Confederate general who is raising an army of the undead and bent on liberating the South.

The film will be released on June 18th. Will you be seeing it?

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Warner Bros. will be playing catch-up with the marketing for Jonah Hex now, seeing as though there has been pretty much nothing released so far. By the end of this week we will have the first official trailer for the film, and today Yahoo! received the first poster which features Josh Brolin, Megan Fox, John Malkovich and Michael Fassbender.

Megan Fox, who plays a tough, no-nonsense prostitute, said last year that her role is “basically a cameo”, however she was required for reshoots in January so her role may have expanded somewhat.

Jonah Hex, which will be released on June 18th, is a Western featuring a scarred-faced bounty hunter. The movie centers on the gunslinger enlisted to track down a former Confederate general who is raising an army of the undead and bent on liberating the South.

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Last week we heard that the first trailer for Jonah Hex will be shown on the SyFy channel on April 29th, and will then be available online soon after. Well SyFy has been advertising the event and they’ve shown around 11 seconds of footage in the process.

As it is only 11 seconds we don’t see a great deal. There’s an explosion, Megan Fox, a machine gun and Josh Brolin with his Jonah Hex face.

Watch below:

Jonah Hex, which also stars John Malkovich and Michael Fassbender, is a Western featuring a scarred-faced bounty hunter. The movie centers on the gunslinger enlisted to track down a former Confederate general who is raising an army of the undead and bent on liberating the South.

Check back for the full trailer later this week.

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Back when Spider-Man 4‘s production was moving along relatively well John Malkovich was in talks to join the film as The Vulture. Director Sam Raimi had wanted the winged villain to appear in previous Spider-Man movies, and it seemed he was finally going to get the chance to introduce the character as Peter Parker’s foe in Spider-Man 4. That was, of course, until the film was scrapped.

Since then Malkovich has moved on and recently signed up to appear in Transformers 3, however in a recent interview he spoke of his disappointed about the situation, and suggested that The Vulture may have actually been a reason for the films demise.

From Collider:

Well, I think a lot of the people who sort of follow that genre… I’m not sure, I never really spoke with Sam about this, but I’m not sure they — maybe the kind of fanbase, the fanboys — either didn’t approve of that character as an adversary for him to some extent…or maybe the studio. Or maybe that was totally unrelated to why it fell apart.”

I then told him the fanboys and online community were extremely excited that he was going to be the Vulture. So was he disappointed when the project fell apart?

“Yes [I was disappointed],” he says. “But because I like Sam and I like Toby [Maguire] and all that stuff, and the producers, two of whom I’d met before because I’d been offered the first [film] … I came to like them, so sure why not? But it didn’t play out.”

In case you were unaware, he was offered Green Goblin in the first Spider-Man.

Malkovich’s statement seems to back up what New York Magazine’s Vulture blog (funnily enough) suggested in February:

Condensed, it went something like this: Peter Parker gets over MJ, finds a new girl, falls in love. But: Peter also discovers her father is actually the Vulture, a naughty green guy with wings to be played by John Malkovich. Peter is torn between the love of his new lady and taking down the Vulture. Being a Spandex tight-ass, he decides to take down the Vulture, and kills him. This patricide goes down poorly with Peter’s new fiancée, and she rejects him. Despondent, Peter decides to abandon his superpowers, and Movie No. 4 ends with Peter Parker throwing away his Spider-Man mask, and audiences wondering if they are watching Superman II.

Sony’s execs didn’t much care for this dour story line, and its consumer-products division especially detested the villain who, let’s face it, is pushing 60. (But hey, John Malkovich, from one Vulture to another, we think you look great! Really!) Columbia’s toy partner, Hasbro, also worried that suggesting its main character was packing it in might hurt future toy sales. And these days, toys are a key revenue stream, and demand far more forethought than that given to the scripts of $200 million movies.

I was actually looking forward to Spider-Man 4 but maybe the film falling apart was a blessing in disguise. The script underwent numerous re-writes and Raimi and Sony were having disagreements over the story, casting and budget. Sony also hired James Vanderbilt to write the reboot while Spider-Man 4 was in production as a back-up plan in case the film didn’t go ahead, and in the end they chose the (less expensive) reboot.

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