On paper, action and horror can seem like a match made in heaven. Suspense and scares meets combat and destruction; complete with a supernatural presence. This combination has been hit-or-miss in the last decade (scales tipping on the side of miss). Flicks such as Blade and Underworld faired better using this formula than say Doom or the last few Resident Evil installments. So the brief 87 minute feature that is Priest, had a choice of either sticking to the pattern its predecessors in the genre have followed; or try shaking things up. Let’s just say, one will be able to tell exactly how this will be handled after the first five minutes.

Based off the graphic novel series, the story chronicles the war between vampires and humans.This war is similar to the Crusades fought in the Holy Land centuries ago.  Vampires dominated the battles for years, until the church found a secret weapon in a group of gifted individuals, creatively titled “Priests.” This blessed army captured the momentum and vanquished the vampires into a quarantined area of sorts; away from the handful of fortress-like cities that still remain. After the war was won, the Priests were disbanded and scattered throughout the Cathedral cities.

The most talented of the bunch, Priest (Paul Bettany), roams the streets in robes stolen from George Lucas’ Jedi closest. Keeping a reluctant low-profile, he senses that the vampire creatures are still along the outskirts of the massive city walls. His instincts prove true, when a young local sheriff (Cam Gigandet) goes looking for Priest, alerting him about a deadly attack on his brother’s (True Blood’s Stephen Moyer doing a cameo – or favor) land. Priest learns that his bro’s 18 year-old daughter (Lily Collins) has been taken by this rogue colony, and begs the head of the catholic order (Christopher Plummer) to allow him to leave the confines of the city to investigate. When he is told to behave, he goes against orders; and with the help of the ambitious, yet in over-his-head sheriff, they track down the vamps that kidnapped his last remaining relative.

No…There is no depiction of the great war between vampires and mankind. Unless you count the quick Anime that ran in the beginning to bring the audience up-to-speed on the back-story. It’s pretty much our quiet duo (each of them say about two sentences in every scene) riding motorcycles taken off the set of Escape from New York or Beyond Thunderdome, through baron wastelands.

The scenery and coloring are designed  to show an apocalyptic atmosphere. Think the 2010’s Book of Eli. When the action takes place against vampires, who are more creature-like than human (no eyes, walk on all fours, have a body like Gollum on steroids, can‘t speak), the fight choreography is emulating a videogame. Our lead isn’t armed with a ton of cool weapons (mainly knives & cross-shaped shooting stars); but the CGI vamp action is executed well enough to catch the eye. Issue that arises is that these are the only times where the characters begin to have a pulse.

Karl Urban ends up being the antagonist (finally) and his character is the most intriguing, since little development is given to any of the others. Why these Priests are so special is vaguely expounded upon. It’s just a shame Urban’s scenes were all too short, save for the uneventful final one-on-one battle. Whether or not writer Cory Goodman & director Scott Charles Stewart were sticking to the Korean comic this story was based off (a western-horror), the cinematography suggest they were big fans of the Star War’s footage on Tatooine. You know, when Anakin Skywalker snapped and started slashing up “Sand People.” And when you factor in the set designs and technology they tossed in, it felt as if John Carpenter decided to make a third Snake Plissken movie (Escape from NY & L.A.). At least they provided a nice scope of the surroundings.

Frankly, that is one of the few elements that kept yours truly interested – comparing sequences to cinema’s past – since the under-developed story will fail to keep your attention. With that said, one will enjoy their over-indulgence in the cinematic wide-shots they constantly execute. After you realize the dialogue is essentially worthless, and the story is about as smooth as sandpaper, the visuals are the only elements to keep one attentive, as this story quickly moves into a new setting (inside mountains, beat-up towns, and a train for good measure). Although, the epic sounding musical score is so out of place, and introduced at all the wrong times, it will get you chuckling. The sounds needed to be moody, not Passion of the Christ.

Overall, Priest probably has enough sustenance to please the niche market of this genre. It’s not painful to sit through but it will not give your system a jolt. Be sure to save your money and avoid doing the 3D screenings. The atmosphere is there, but the uncontrollable tone, cardboard characters, and fundamental screenplay & edit, suggests that a re-watch of Blade II may satisfy your craving for this type of material. The filmmakers played it a little too safe here. Someone needs to go for it and try to evolve this genre.

RATING: 2 out of 5

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Although his work in Iron Man and Iron Man 2 took him less than two days to complete, Paul Bettany has an important (albeit small) role to play in the franchise. In a recent interview the actor revealed that his vocal cords will be required once again as J.A.R.V.I.S, the computer voice in Tony Stark’s house, lab and suit, will appear in The Avengers.

While on the rounds promoting Priest Bettany spoke about how he got involved with the films, and confirmed his return. From SHH (via SplashPage):

“Well, I just met with Jon [Favreau] one time, talked things out and I’ve recorded some lines for the movie, not knowing anything about it,” the actor said. “Then, one day, when ‘Iron Man I’ was released, my friends started to tell me: ‘You’re in ‘Iron Man’!’ and I kept saying ‘What? No, I’m not!’, and then, after I saw the movie, I’ve realized, that I’ve had quite an interesting part in this movie.”

“With ‘Iron Man 2′ it was kinda the same, but now I knew what I was working on. After I recorded another pair of lines with Jon, we would go to some place, have some drinks & fun. He’s really a nice guy!”

Of course he was also asked about “The Avengers,” and confirmed his involvement in the 2012 team-up movie.

“Yes, I am involved in this project,” he said. “Don’t know when we will start though, usually they [guys at Marvel] call me, when they’re almost finished with the movie, so we will see where this goes.”

I assume Bettany will be required again for Iron Man 3, but this time it’ll be Shane Black giving him the call instead of Favreau.

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With its May 13th release just over a month away Screen Gems have released a new trailer for their post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller Priest. The movie stars Paul Bettany as a priest who lives in obscurity until his niece is abducted by a murderous pack of vampires.

On his travels he is joined by a trigger-fingered young wasteland sheriff (Cam Gigandet), and a former Warrior Priestess (Maggie Q) who possesses otherworldly fighting skills. Karl Urban also appears as Black Hat, a former Christian and currently a Satanist who is a cult leader of a group of vampires.

You can watch the trailer below:

Director Scott Charles Stewart is also responsible for Legion (also starring Paul Bettany) which looked cool but wasn’t all that in the end. IGN recently attended WonderCon where footage from the film was shown, and they described it as “like an amalgam of Matrix wire-fu fighting and costuming, with some post-apocalyptic Mad Max western stuff, vampires reminiscent of those in Blade 2, and even elements of Equilibrium.”

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Screen Gems has released a new trailer for Priest, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller starring Paul Bettany as a priest who lives in obscurity until his niece is abducted by a murderous pack of vampires.

On his travels he is joined by a trigger-fingered young wasteland sheriff (Cam Gigandet), and a former Warrior Priestess (Maggie Q) who possesses otherworldly fighting skills. Karl Urban also appears as Black Hat, a former Christian and currently a Satanist who is a cult leader of a group of vampires.

Watch the trailer below:

Priest will be released on May 13th, which means it will have to compete with Thor and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

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It seems that the campy approach isn’t just limited to horror and comedy flicks anymore. Over the last few years, the campy element has been inserted in all genres and The Tourist is no exception. A remake of the 2005 French film titled Anthony Zimmer, the 104 minute American product goes light on the mood and old-school with regards to the production qualities.

Elise (Angelina Jolie) is roaming around France as covert British financial crimes division monitor her every move. The reason for all this attention, Elise is the lover of an elusive financial criminal named Alexander Pierce. He is wanted in fourteen countries by federal authorities, Interpol and even the local police. Not so hot on Pierce’s trail is Agent Acheson (Paul Bettany). After years of unsuccessful stings – which has cost his agency millions of pounds – his superior Chief Jones (Timothy Dalton) is ready to pull the plug on the whole operation. However, Acheson is given one last chance and believes that Elise is about to reunited with her long lost lover. Problem is, no one knows what he truly looks like anymore.

Pierce has always been one-step ahead of Acheson and his agency though. By slipping random notes to Elise via numerous carriers, his latest instructions – or smokescreen – is for Elise to find someone who looks just like him and trick Acheson’s team in thinking that they have him located. Elise chooses unsuspecting tourist Frank Tupelo (Johnny Depp). A math teacher on holiday in Venice, Italy, Frank instantly falls to the charm of Elise and follows her around like a little puppy. As Elise executes Pierce’s plan to perfection, Frank becomes a target. However, Pierce has wronged more people than just the government in his life. He has looted the ruthless Russian mobster Ivan Demidov (Steven Berkoff) as well. Upon learning of Pierce’s reappearance in Venice, the criminal lord sends his men to snag Frank.

So this turns into a nice little cat-and-mouse game with Frank playing the familiar innocent victim who just wants to win the heart of Elise. Of course, the real hook to the story…Who is Pierce and when will he make his grand entrance? This flick is pretty much The Thomas Crown Affair with more mystery. It can also feel like a mature and/or polished Pink Panther caper during the lighter moments. Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (can you think of a more arrogant name) doesn’t tip the scales in favor of seriousness or campy. Instead he finds a compromise by keeping the tone of the script straight-forward with the obvious foreshadowing twist at the end.

Which can be appealing if the performances can stay coherent enough so the audience can buy into them. A flick that comes to mind that manages to keep the plot engaging and the performances campy is Ocean’s Eleven. Tourist flashes the same personality of an Ocean’s flick. Yet the amount of flashes are more in line of friends taking pictures of a local band rather than the Super bowl kickoff. The characters are just not as crisp and/or lively. What hampers this flick is that it only has a small handful of players that are interesting. Add in the retro-pacing and the bare-bones action sequences, the audience could be forgetting this flick by the time they get to their car. Or before the credits. Frequent fans of this genre will have a solid chance of guessing how this will turn out. That said, the goal of this story is have one second guessing themselves. And they do achieve that response.

Once the story concludes, the performances start to make more sense. This aspect actually enables this flick to have replay value, if one couldn’t see where this is heading. Enough intriguing sequences qualify this as a thriller. Well, a thriller by 1960s standards. Thankfully, the Russian mob angle is highlighted just enough and stops the repetitive torture of seeing Angelina constantly give a stripper-stare to Johnny Depp and all the supporting players. Speaking of the enigma character actor, seeing Depp play a normal role took some adjusting to. Once he is allowed to break out of the restraints of being boring, Depp slowly becomes the main attraction.

Overall, The Tourist is a conservative piece that tries to be playful. Having said that, the crew probably needed to extend recess time. One will find moments that are just uneventful. Similar to being on a guided tour. A few stops along the way are worthless but occasionally something interesting keeps your mind involved. Sticking with the guided tour comparison, this flick is more a tour of the plain Australian outback as opposed to the eye-catching ruins of the Roman Empire.

Rating: 3 out of 5

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Screen Gems has released the first official trailer for Priest, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller starring Paul Bettany as a priest who lives in obscurity until his niece is abducted by a murderous pack of vampires.

On his travels he is joined by a trigger-fingered young wasteland sheriff (Cam Gigandet), and a former Warrior Priestess (Maggie Q) who possesses otherworldly fighting skills. Karl Urban also appears as Black Hat, a former Christian and currently a Satanist who is a cult leader of a group of vampires.

Watch the trailer below:

Director Scott Charles Stewart is also responsible for Legion (also starring Paul Bettany) which looked cool but wasn’t all that in the end. Because of this i’m expecting an average movie, despite being slightly impressed with the trailer.

Priest will be released on May 13th, which means ir is slotted in between Thor and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Will the competition suck it dry, or will the vampire craze continue?

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Legion had a lot going for it: a message about humanity, faith, and mercy amongst an edgy and controversial setting, really embellished special effects, and superb acting. The two biggest weaknesses the film suffers from: a convoluted story plot, and too many hacked action and horror clichés from much more polished and classic movies.

This review is hard to pull off. Since I grew up going to new movies in the theaters, I have a tendency to come away from the movie thinking that they were all masterpieces. Since this is my first review, I didn’t want to sit down and start praising the film without having time to think about it. So that’s why I settled in to gather my thoughts by watching Family Guy’s Blue Harvest and almost devouring my bag of Twizzler Pull N’ Peels to really think about the movie. Simply put, the film was a big swing, followed by an uninspired and disappointing miss.

The plot revolves around the idea that God has lost faith in mankind, and instead of a flood, he would send his angels to exterminate the human race. If you’re anything of religious, that idea might have you cringe initially, but you have to sit the whole movie through to discover that it becomes a film that tries to send a message about repentance and faith; keep in mind the principal word is “tries”. Stewart attempts to get this message through in an innovative way, of using action, horror, and fantasy elements to grab the attention of all audiences.

His background in special effects also is the only other plus in the making of this film. Angels like Michael and Gabriel are depicted as powerful beings of stoic might, have mystical and mysterious weapons that come straight out of paintings of angels from modern and renaissance periods, as well as Catholic imagery, and have wings that are fire and bullet proof. The details on these angels go so far as putting angelic language tattooed on the arms, chest and neck. All other angels are never really seen, but are shown as human possessing beings turning them into demonic wall crawling monsters allowing Stewart to manipulate their usefulness into ripping off films like The Ring, The Grudge, The Mummy, and several George A. Romero films. Not to mention the way the angels are seen in how they possess people is so much like The Matrix, I thought sentinel agents were coming after the heroes initially. The action sequences involving close combat between characters are well played, but let’s not forget the firefights. There are many gun play scenes to testosterone the film up, and they don’t do the film justice, since many of the photographed shots are just stolen from better films like The Matrix. Half way through the shell crazed sequences I kept wondering “how many bullets do they have exactly?”

Paul Bettany is the real star of this picture. His acting is amazing, and he looks fantastic on screen as well. He’s been a veteran of several films in the last decade with a resume that includes both Ron Howard films The Da Vinci Code and A Beautiful Mind. The man has a lot going for him. He is a chameleon of talent and I should expect to see him become a fan favorite in future films. His character is a former angel named Michael, better known in Catholic folklore, mythology, and tradition as the archangel who is General of God’s armies, the Prince of the Church, and a Saint to boot. The revised script by Stewart doesn’t give the character of Michael any justice, as Michael is essentially a glorified Kyle Reese knock-off with all the Terminator trimmings to boot, with Terminator being another one of the storyline’s heavy influences in terms of events. Bettany is also returning as the voice of “Jarvis” in Iron Man 2, and is also set to star in Stewart’s next film Priest, which is in post-production.

Dennis Quaid stars in the film as a poorly inspired character named Bob Hanson, The thing that makes his role forgettable is that he plays a father who initially starts out in explaining to his son Jeep (played by the redeemable Lucas Black) that when he was his age, he did things that he couldn’t explain as well. But quickly goes from being warm and reassuring to being cold, awkward, and lacking of encouragement by telling his son that he’s being stupid and making the same mistakes. Adrianne Palicki plays the non virgin Mary of this piece curiously named “Charlie”, as she doesn’t have any real growth to her character, while serving the story’s purpose of being pregnant with the second coming of Christ. The writing suggests that she wanted to do an abortion at first and really hated the thing growing inside her, that it ruined her life. But I was curious as to why it’s never explained why she decided to keep it when she shows such disinterest in the baby, as the film shows moments of her smoking cigarettes, and being incredibly selfish and pig-headed, that it makes her new interest in the baby when it’s born sudden and unfulfilling. Other characters that are more interesting are not given enough development and go through the film with unsatisfactory finishes.

Tyrese Gibson plays your typical inner-city black guy named Kyle Williams, who stops to make a phone call to a courthouse, and is demanding to speak to his son or something like that, but after a misinterpreted heroism leading to an unfortunate death fighting possessed people, the scene where he calls the courthouse might have been better off being left on the cutting room floor, since it serves no important purpose to the story. Charles S. Dutton plays a good hearted short-order cook named Percy who has a mechanical hook for a hand and although a likeable character, he is killed off halfway through without the film ever explaining why he had the hook in the first place, and it served no real purpose except to set up a frivolous joke before the first firefight against the angels. Other characters serve the purpose of playing selfish, but with enough therapy and help redeemable, representations of the human race, and the way they die easily confuses the audience in how the surprise ending justifies God’s actions in violently killing perfectly good people in horrendous and torturous ways, that serve as bold imagery, but come off unnecessary and uneasy to a movie-goer’s constitution and logical understanding.

Other critics have called the film “boring” and that it took itself “way too seriously”. These are two things I will have to disagree with. The film’s story moves at a decent pace, and the imagery keeps the audience on their toes as to what will happen next. As for taking itself “way too seriously” part, Stewart did pull off timing the moments of humor, as the piece is laced with them during moments when things are calm and quiet. The complaint other critics have issued about it being “dialogue heavy” is not completely without reason, as certain pieces of dialogue slow the film a bit, but a lot of dialogue is usually the sign of lack of content in the script. Maybe the film would have been better off without the director re-writing the draft by Peter Schink.

If you like cheesy dialogue and monster hunting, or like films like The Day After Tomorrow or Constantine, this film might become your guilty pleasure, but if you want a much better presentation of blasphemous story-telling about angels and prophecies against a horror-action background, I’d recommend renting the first three Prophecy films starring Christopher Walken.

Score: 3 out of 5

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The first trailer for Legion is now online thanks to Myspace. I didn’t know about this film until last month when we got the poster, and we were told that it was “angels with machine guns”. Having watched the trailer numerous times Legion has sky rocketed onto my “must see” list. The trailer is age-restricted as it contains blood and violence. It also shows an elderly lady telling everyone they are all going to f***ing die before taking a chunk out a man’s neck and scaling the walls (that’s after she tells a pregnant lady her unborn baby is going to f***ing burn).

It’s 5 minutes long, so get comfortable before you watch it!

Legion stars Paul Bettany, Tyrese Gibson, Doug Jones, Kevin Durand and Dennis Quaid, and will be released January 22nd in the US and March 5th in the UK.

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It was only last week that we saw a poster for Legion, which had Paul Bettany spreading his wings as an angel, and now we have another poster featuring Paul Bettany however this time he is a vampire hunting priest.

In a world ravaged by centuries of war between man and vampire, a warrior priest turns against the church to track down a murderous band of vampires who have kidnapped his niece.

Priest is an adaptation of the TokyoPop comic book and is scheduled to open on August 13, 2010.

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Below we have our first look at Legion in the form of a poster. Director Scott Stewart has described the film as “angels with machine guns”, and thankfully the poster clearly demonstrates that concept to us. As well as Paul Bettany the film stars Tyrese Gibson, Doug Jones, Kevin Durand and Dennis Quaid.

After a terrifying biblical apocalypse descends upon the world, a group of strangers stranded in a remote truck stop diner in the Southwest unwittingly become humanity’s last line of defense when they discover the diner’s young waitress is pregnant with the messiah.

Paul Bettany always seems to land roles in religiously themed movies. He played an albino monk in The Da Vinci Code and will next be seen as Charles Darwin in Creation. From the looks of things he is a badass angel in Legion, and he will play a priest who disobeys church law to track down vampires in Priest. At least he has a break from it all when he gets to voice Tony Stark’s house in Iron Man 2.

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