It’s a decent idea; Man on a Ledge.  Now what can we do with this?

Best guess is that this discussion went on all the way through shooting, because after taking in the 102 minutes, the only thing creative and truly engaging is in fact, the man on the ledge.

Sam Worthington makes the most of his predominantly statuesque role.  The guy is standing on a twenty-to-thirty story ledge of a plush hotel in New York City.  A crowd (spectators and first-response teams) form around him and the entire opening act is treated like a real jumper situation.  Of course, it’s not that simple.  When Worthington asks specifically for an officer, played by Elizabeth Banks, there is clearly more going on here.  And this act also ushers in the supporting duo of Jamie Bell and Genesis Rodriguez.  So the intrigue of what is Worthington’s ultimate agenda lingers around until about the halfway point.  Once revealed, the audience will hold on tight hoping they (filmmakers) can sell this.

Sorry folks, it’s just too scant to buy into.  Not that you won’t know what is going on (which is part of the problem), but you just won’t care enough after Worthington, or more specifically, the script, has played their hand.  Despite solid performances all around – including Ed Harris and Anthony Mackie jumping in – the script is underdeveloped and unable to sell what the characters are enacting.  For instance, Bell and Rodriguez have fun chemistry together but their role in the story is laughable.  There’s no way one can believe they are pulling off the things they are asked to do on screen.  Perhaps with some more background this would have worked, yet there’s none.  And this also leads to some of their intended comedic moments to be met with silence from an audience.  Also showing up are Edward Burns and Kyra Sedgwick in roles that are negligible.  Basically, they fail to use any of their talents so why bother even having them?

The one thing that gets developed is the aspects of what can occur with a possible jumper scenario.  If there’s any cleverness in the script it is how they execute certain things around Worthington’s actions.  Again, the concept, and how the story is flowing through Worthington’s perspective is quasi-catchy & original.  Sadly though, that’s about all the mental stimulation one will have.  As for physical stimulation, thank you Genesis Rodriguez.

Still can’t say enough about Sam Worthington here (obviously) as he firmly tries to pull this flick to something suspenseful.  He slowly has the ability to make you care about him.  The one flaw that the director needed to address was how his character telegraphs his every move when talking to Elizabeth Banks.  Moments like this are a buzz-kill for audiences expecting a thriller type emotion.  And though everything unfolding around him is painfully obvious and recycled, the guy can literally talk an audience into at least hearing him out.  Issue that arises is that you have to see other things happening outside of his stationery set piece (the ledge).  When the camera isn’t bringing the audience into his environment, it showcases the actions of the police – working on containing the situation, and Bell and Rodriguez – doing their respective parts.  And while the cinematography remains strong throughout, the story and screenplay can’t fully rise up to the levels of the titular idea.

Overall, Man on a Ledge had a thought, but couldn’t get evolve past the brainstorming stage.  Nice idea (and try), decent performances – though vague, yet it probably would have been more exciting if the film just depicted a true jumper situation.

RATING:  2 out of 5

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January and February are usually filled with awards and low-budget movies, but we only have to wait until March before the big films return. This year we have John Carter, The Hunger Games, and Wrath of the Titans, and Warner Bros. has started promoting the latter early with new TV spots containing lots of new footage.

You can watch both TV spots via the embed below:

A decade after defeating the Kraken, Perseus (Sam Worthington) cannot ignore his true calling when Hades (Ralph Fiennes), along with Zeus’ godly son, Ares (Edgar Ramírez), switch loyalty and make a deal with Kronos to capture Zeus (Liam Neeson). The Titans’ strength grows stronger as Zeus’ remaining godly powers are siphoned, and hell is unleashed on earth.

Enlisting the help of the warrior Queen Andromeda (Rosamund Pike), Poseidon’s demigod son, Argenor (Toby Kebbell), and fallen god Hephaestus (Bill Nighy), Perseus bravely embarks on a treacherous quest into the underworld to rescue Zeus, overthrow the Titans and save mankind.

Jonathan Liebesman (Battle: Los Angeles) directs, and the movie opens on March 30th.

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Another big trailer debut today, this time for Wrath of the Titans. With the sequel set for release in just over three months on March 30, 2012 i’ve been wondering when Warner Bros. would start the promotional run, but it starts now.

While technically a teaser this trailer is big on special effects and money-shots, and with The Kraken being a challenge for Perseus in Clash of the Titans they’ve gone all out with the Titans in this one. Also, Sam Worthington has hair.

Watch below:

A decade after defeating the Kraken, Perseus (Sam Worthington) cannot ignore his true calling when Hades (Ralph Fiennes), along with Zeus’ godly son, Ares (Edgar Ramírez), switch loyalty and make a deal with Kronos to capture Zeus (Liam Neeson). The Titans’ strength grows stronger as Zeus’ remaining godly powers are siphoned, and hell is unleashed on earth.

Enlisting the help of the warrior Queen Andromeda (Rosamund Pike), Poseidon’s demigod son, Argenor (Toby Kebbell), and fallen god Hephaestus (Bill Nighy), Perseus bravely embarks on a treacherous quest into the underworld to rescue Zeus, overthrow the Titans and save mankind.

Jonathan Liebesman (Battle: Los Angeles) directs. What do you think? Could it be better than the first one?

Read similar posts to Wrath of the Titans trailer at Filmonic

HeyUGuys have posted a new UK trailer for Man on a Ledge, the crime-thriller from Summit Entertainment starring Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks, Jamie Bell, Ed Harris and Anthony Mackie.

The trailer is much shorter than the US one, which makes it fast-paced and straight to the point, but will it be anything more than your typical average thriller?

Watch below:

In Man on Ledge, New York City cop Nick Cassidy (Worthington) has been wrongfully convicted of stealing a diamond worth $30 million. His last chance to prove his innocence hinges on a wild plot that involves an escape that lands him perched on a skyscraper’s ledge and begging the help of police negotiator Lydia Anderson (Elizabeth Banks).

The movie is set for a January 13th, 2012 release in the US (no UK date yet), and is directed by Asger Leth (Ghosts of Cité Soleil) and written by Erich and Jon Hoeber (Red).

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According to Thompson on Hollywood Gerard Butler, Sam Worthington, and Matthew McConaughey have signed on to appear in Iraq war movie Thunder Run, which is based on David Zucchino’s novel Thunder Run – The Armored Strike to Capture Baghdad.

This won’t be your typical war movie however, as it has apparently been in development for five years and will be the “first ever conventional war film made to utilize this revolutionary facial and motion capture technology and state of the art CG and 3D.”

Here’s a synopsis of the story:

Thunder Run is the untold story of the dangerous and bloody capture of Baghdad by American Forces at the onset of the Iraq War. In April 2003, three battalions and fewer than a thousand men launched a violent thrust of tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles into the heart of a city of five million, igniting a three-day blitzkrieg, which military professionals often refer to as a lightning strike, or “thunder run.” In telling the story of the surprise assault on Baghdad- one of the most decisive battles in recent American combat history—this movie paints the harrowing picture of the soldiers on the front lines and the realities of modern warfare.

Simon West (Con Air, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider) will direct from a script by Black Hawk Down writers Robert Port and Ken Nolan. No word on when filming will begin, but the director is currently shooting The Expendables 2 so maybe sometime next year. The only setting we’ve seen an all CG war environment is in video games such as Call of Duty, so it’ll be interesting to see how this works out.

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Summit Entertainment have released the first trailer for Man on a Ledge, a crime-thriller starring Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks, Jamie Bell and Ed Harris. You can probably guess the premise of the film simply based on the title, or can you?

Here’s the trailer:

The official synopsis for Man on a Ledge is as follows:

Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington) was an honest cop. Now he’s in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Desperate, he seizes the first chance to escape. Hours later, he is freshly shaven in an expensive suit, standing on a window ledge high above New York City. As a crowd gathers below, police cordon off the area and agree to Nick’s request to speak with pretty police negotiator Lydia Anderson (Elizabeth Banks). But Lydia doesn’t know that she is part of his grand plan, a plan that could give them both a second chance.

Speaking quietly into a lapel microphone, Nick coordinates the high-tech theft of a $30 million diamond—the same diamond he was convicted of stealing. It’s the only way he can prove his innocence, but he needs Lydia’s help—and he’s running out of time. When his identity is exposed, a SWAT team positions itself on the roof, read to take him out. Lydia isn’t sure he’s telling the truth, but if he really was set up for the diamond heist, it had to be an inside job, which means at least one of the cops on the scene wants Nick dead. With SWAT about to move, cops destroying the evidence that could save him and nowhere to go but down, Nick’s chances of survival are getting slimmer by the minute.

Man on a Ledge, set for release January 13th, 2012, is directed by Asger Leth (Ghosts of Cité Soleil) and written by Erich and Jon Hoeber (Red).

Read similar posts to Man on a Ledge trailer at Filmonic

The Debt is one of those movies where one simply needs to read the synopsis when deciding whether or not to give this a look. It’s a balanced spy-thriller where there is just as much rhetoric as there are old-school action sequences – due to the fact that this 114 minute flick takes place in Germany in 1965.

Knowing that, the script is penned by the fantastical Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class), who have found a way to blend substantial moments with over-the-top fun in their writing collaborations. This time around, there is no time for laughs or even smiles, as The Debt is serious gritty business.

The story begins in 1997 with former Israeli agents Rachel Singer (Helen Mirren) & Stephan Gold (Tom Wilkinson in a wheelchair) being celebrated by their daughter Sarah’s (Romi Aboulafia) literary account of how their team – which also included the absent David (Ciaran Hinds) – captured a Nazi war criminal, who was known as the Surgeon of Birkenau (Jesper Christensen). During the ceremony, Rachel is asked to read a chapter that depicts the climatic moment in their successful mission that is continuously lauded over the years in their home country.

At this point in the story, the film goes into flashback mode during the above reading, where the team of Rachel (Jessica Chastain), Stephan (Marton Csokas) and David (Sam Worthington) and devising a scheme to capture the famed torturer, who is hiding under the identity as a doctor with a legit practice. Once the reading concludes, the story quickly jumps back to 1997 where Stephan alerts his ex-wife Rachel that something from that mission may come back to haunt the entire team.

Once the audience sees that little exchange, the film goes back to 1965 Berlin and the entire mission that has been heralded throughout the years goes on display.

Although this captivating story is paced fairly well and the performances are all solid, there are some sloppy moments mechanically. First off, why Ciaran Hinds was chosen to portray an older Sam Worthington is just laughable. They look nothing alike! It doesn’t make or break the movie, but man that’s just lazy. They would have been better off just using a prosthetic on Worthington’s face. Minor examples such as this are really the only things that hamper the tone of this product (or just royally bug me).

A few other sequences where the film jumps back to 1997 – when the focus is on Helen Mirren and Tom Wilkinson – showed clever storytelling but placed the elder characters in situations that may be considered a stretch for the audience to buy into based on certain actions.

In all seriousness though, the last paragraph or two are drops in the proverbial bucket compared to the rest of the screenplay. Just when you think this flick has lost its marbles, the beautifully orchestrated twist comes in and this story is instantly elevated in your mind. It was already good to begin with, yet it gives one an emotional injection that keeps the interest levels high as the rest of the tale plays out. And both ladies, who are essentially playing the same character, rock this show in both the dialogue and action sequences.

Overall, The Debt gives the audience their money’s worth. A top-notch cast along with the creative delivery of the script pays-off by the time the credits roll. The performances and screenplay easily cover up the sparse continuity errors (eye-rollers) one may catch.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5

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Anchor Bay Films have released the first trailer for crime-thriller Texas Killing Fields, which is directed by Ami Canaan Mann (daughter of Michael Mann) and stars Sam Worthington, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Chloe Moretz.

Watch below:

The movie follows a local homicide detective (Worthington) in a small Texan town and his partner, a transplanted cop from New York City (Morgan) as they track a sadistic serial killer dumping his victims’ mutilated bodies in a nearby marsh locals call ‘The Killing Fields.’

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 a familiar local girl, Anne (Moretz) goes missing the detectives find themselves in a race against time to find the killer and save her life.

Texas Killing Fields will have a limited release on October 7th, 2011.

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Late last year Liam Neeson appeared to confirm that Wrath of the Titans would be the title to the Clash of the Titans sequel, however when announcing the start of production in March Warner Bros. didn’t mention the title anywhere.

Well with the marketing campaign for the March, 2012 release on the horizon the studio has made their decision, and the sequel will indeed be called Wrath of the Titans

A decade after defeating the Kraken, Perseus (Sam Worthington) cannot ignore his true calling when Hades (Ralph Fiennes), along with Zeus’ godly son, Ares (Edgar Ramírez), switch loyalty and make a deal with Kronos to capture Zeus (Liam Neeson). The Titans’ strength grows stronger as Zeus’ remaining godly powers are siphoned, and hell is unleashed on earth.

Enlisting the help of the warrior Queen Andromeda (Rosamund Pike), Poseidon’s demigod son, Argenor (Toby Kebbell), and fallen god Hephaestus (Bill Nighy), Perseus bravely embarks on a treacherous quest into the underworld to rescue Zeus, overthrow the Titans and save mankind.

Read similar posts to Clash of the Titans sequel title confirmed at Filmonic

The second trailer for The Debt, written by Kick-Ass duo Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman, has been released online. The movie stars Sam Worthington (Avatar) alongside Jessica Chastain (from the upcoming Tree of Life), as well as Helen Mirren (last seen in Arthur) and Tom Wilkinson (The Green Hornet).

From Focus Features:

In this espionage thriller, shocking news reaches retired Mossad secret agents Rachel (Academy Award winner Helen Mirren) and Stefan (two-time Academy Award nominee Tom Wilkinson) about their former colleague David (Ciarán Hinds). Back in 1966, the trio (portrayed, respectively, by Jessica Chastain, Marton Csokas, and Sam Worthington [“Avatar,” “Clash of the Titans”]) tracked down Nazi war criminal Vogel (Jesper Christensen) in East Berlin. At great risk, and at considerable personal cost, the team’s mission was accomplished – or was it? The suspense builds in and across two different time periods, with startling action and surprising revelations.

The Debt is directed by John Madden, who is best known for Shakespeare in Love. Normally I might be concerned about a director known for historical romances working on an espionage movie; but I just saw Hanna, directed Joe Wright, who did Atonement and Pride and Prejudice, and it was fantastic. So I’ll reserve judgment until I see it.

The Debt was one of the films caught up in the death of Miramax last year however Walt Disney Studios, who merged with Miramix and are now in control of it’s slate, has now set an August 2011 release date for the US.

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