Super Bowl Spots: THE LONE RANGER

Director Gore Verbinski channels the ghosts of the old west on July 3rd, 2013 with Armie Hammer, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, William Fichtner, Barry Pepper, and Tom Wilkinson.

Super Bowl Spots: STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS

The Crew of the Starship Enterprise Returns May 17th, 2013.

The film stars Chris Pine, Zachary Qunito, Zoe Saldana, Anton Yehlchin, John Cho, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Bruce Greenwood, Alive Eve, and Benedict Cumberbatch

Trailer Review: HANSEL AND GRETEL WITCH HUNTERS

Ummmmm...Huh?

In all honesty, I'm all for movie adaptions on fairytales and fables but now things are just getting a little out of control.  In 2012 and now in the beginning of 2013 the trend now seems to be superhero movies and adaptions of classic fairytales which one could argue run a fine line of being similar.  However the recent string of fairytale adaptions i.e. Red Riding Hood, Mirror Mirror, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, Beastly have all been really terrible adaptions on material that could haved been RE-TOLD, as these stories always are, through a unique vision. However studios just seem to want to get the hottest young star at the moment, put together the simplest story possible, make sure the main male lead takes his shirt off and...."yea let's post convert in 3D".

Originality gone.

But let's get back to this "fairy-fail".  The pitch for this movie is that Hansel and Gretel, who after killing the evil witch that tried to kill and eat them, now have a taste for blood and become witch hunters. Jeremy Renner stars as Hansel who as an actor has this swagger about him that makes even his most minor character very memorable. I look forward to his return as Hawkeye in the Marvel universe and The Avengers 2 in 2015. I don't see this being that much of a breakout role for him, his roles in The Town the most recent Mission Impossible are fair better game.  Gemma Arterton who plays his sister Gretel on the other hand I'm not a big fan of, she's always cast as these very weak and dainty princesses and annoying damsels and she's just terrible at them! It looks like this movie shows her as the more aggressive of the sibling pair, so it might be interesting to see what she can do with this "ballsy" female character.

The supporting cast include character Peter Stormare whose been in movies like Bad Boys 2, Jurassic Park 2, and Minority Report. He also played a key inmate in the prison drama Prison Break on Fox.   Famke Janssen rounds out the supporting cast, she is Jean Grey in the X-Men movies and has also been in the James Bond movie Goldeneye, and the Liam Nesson vehicle Taken.

The trailer itself looks very action packed and with the inclusion of 3D those close ups of guns cocking and shooting will most definitely wear-out their welcome.  With not a lot of story, a guarantee of witches being killed and some present day one liners, I feel like this movie will just land flat. This material and any fairy material is always ripe for a modern day take and its very disappointing that the opportunity to take the characters and dark themes of these stories somewhere new and unique has been passed up for "turn off your brain" movie with absolutely no substance.

My suggestion is get a better taste of revisionist fairytale, tales with Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrnith and Bill Willingham's graphic novel series Fables.

Leave this movie alone, but if you really have to see it, do a matinee. Please, do a matinee

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters begin the hunt on January 25th, 2013

Dueces!
StuntmanBob

THE. COUCH. PODCAST. BRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!! (inception sound effect).

Good Morning, Afternoon, or Evening!

Whatever time you are reading this I would just like to take the opportunity to announce that in 2013 The Couch will hit the airwaves in Podcast format!!!!!!

This little show, project/ passion of ours has gone through many incarnations but this next adventure will be one I hope gets us across to a wider audience. The overall jist of the podcast is to stick to our guns in reviewing movie trailers. Sure we could go the route of acquiring press passes and reviewing movies that require you to pay money to see; that is if you obey the law.  But we enjoy reviewing these couple minute highlights of upcoming movies because YOU, our audience can actually watch what we are talking about on your computer, smartphone, or tablet! And have an opinion on our opinion.

We are shooting to have our first episode up sometime in February! Exciting!

In addition to all of this we have added a wild card; Tyler Crane, our good friend and movie follower/lover to the mix. Tyler will be joining, myself (Bobby Navia) and Dorian Weinzimmer on the Podcast when the first episode goes up.

Thanks to everyone who has read what we've reviewed on here and still support this passion of ours. Look forward to hearing what you guys think of the 'cast when it becomes available!

Tweet or Email us at guysonthecouch@gmail.com and let us know of any trailers you think we should know about and or review!

Dueces!
StuntmanBob!

Trailer Review: THE LAST STAND

He said he'd be back.


After being Governor of California for eight years, Arnold Schwarzenegger returns as a local sheriff looking to stop a drug lord from crossing the US Mexico border. There's not much to say about this trailer other than it looks like a true return to form for the former Governor. The plays on his age and the opening line about not being recognized in regular clothes, made me chuckle quite a bit. With Expendables 2 coming out this weekend and now looking forward to this I think fellow cinephiles are on a high of seeing older war horses get back in the saddle of these 80's type action films. Nothing complicated, complex, just simple and executed well. Which is what I'm hoping for this movie. 

However... I cannot overlook the director; Mr. Kim Jee-Woon. Who you might ask?

Kim Jee-Woon is a South Korean writer/director who is making his American feature film debut. His last two films The Good, The Bad, The Weird and I Saw the Devil are very very good films. The Good The Bad, The Weird is an entertaining journey into the Clint Eastwood style spaghetti westerns where three individuals are after a map to a secret treasure that is on a train, however "The Weird" comes into posession of the map and from there its a chase to find the map and get the treasure. The ending of the film ending in true western fashion.

I Saw the Devil, is a fantastic, brutal, bloody and emotional revenge film. A mass murderer stalks and kills a young girl who ends up being the wife a police detective. The police detective is numb, numb to a point where he takes two weeks off to hunt the mass murderer down. However he does not kill him, he cuts him open and plants a tracking device inside of the murder and tracks him so that at his leisure can brutally beat and brake the murderer down. From then on its a game of cat and mouse. While being very bloody and graphic I Saw the Devil is a beautiful take on the morality of men pushed to their limits no matter what social position they hold.

Despite looking like your garden variety action film, I'm holding out big for this one. Its a return of one of the greatest action stars ever! and also the American debut of a director who execution on character of action and story I highly regard. I encourage you all to seek out those films.

The movie co-stars, Luis Guzman, Genesis Rodriguez, Johnny Knoxville, Jamie Alexander, Peter Stormare, and Eduargo Noriega

Join Arnold on his The Last Stand on January 18th, 2012

-StuntmanBob

Teaser Trailer Review: MAN OF STEEL

Hello fellow movie-goers, long time no post! This weekend THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, but another character from the DC universe makes his presence known: Superman. If you went to see TDKR this weekend in theaters then you were lucky enough to catch the teaser trailer to Man of Steel; the newest Superman movie to come out next year 2013.

This movie is Directed by Zach Synder whose filmography includes the graphic novel adaptions of 300 and Watchmen.  However, his third film Sucker Punch, while visually striking and filled with very attractive females who lived an insane asylum and fantasied their escape through highly stylized actions sequences, really didn't have enough weight or story to warrant a liking.

Christopher Nolan is producing this re imagining of Superman and has chosen director Zach Synder to helm it and while it was odd choice, I have full faith in Nolan's decision. I mean his track record in choosing talent, i.e. Heath Ledger as Joker and Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, hasn't failed him yet, why should it now.

Synder is a great director, his eye for action, the choreography of a scene and his pacing most notably in 300, is beautiful and poetic. Much like Nolan's Batman's films. So after all this let's breakdown this amazing looking and exciting 1:34.

This is a very moody teaser. The color tone is what really hits me first, very gray, dark, hopeless, and grounded. We see a bearded Clark Kent on a fishing dock, then on a boat, then finally hitchhiking. Images of a small child playing with a red cape on his back with Jonathan Kent's foreshadowing voice over; "You have to decide what kind of man you want to grow up to be, who ever that man is, good character or bad, is gonna change the world.", truly show us the weight this man will carry. Being the son of a destroyed world and being the adopted son of another. Never really fitting in, but eventually having the character and soul of a man who we all strive to be here on Earth.

Clark's father Jonathan Kent is played the great Kevin Costner, awesome right?!! I think his voice over is fantastic and will be tested when the villain General Zod appears and perhaps tries to get at the heart of what is right and wrong with the power they both possess. Being that Zod is from Kypton, Superman's home planet and while on Earth Zod posses the same powers that Superman does. What's great about analyzing this simplistic trailer is that there is so much subtext. Also the similarities between Bruce Wayne and Ra's Al Ghul in Batman Begins, played by Christian Bale and Liam Neeson could potentially mirror Superman and Zod. Both men are essentially the same however have taken different paths. It will be interesting to see how Zod is used more as a potential doppleganger in Man of Steel as opposed to a straight on villain from Superman's home world.

Who knew so much could be said about a minute and a half right? Well I hope I haven't talked your ear off or maybe this will inspire you to read some more Superman comics and get a feel for the true character out there.

I will leave with Batman Begins teaser trailer so that you can see how closely similar both are in the way they are edited and their voice overs. While director Zach Synder is at the helm of this movie, you can feel the hand of Christopher Nolan.

I cannot wait for a full trailer. Superman flies into theaters June 14, 2013 and bodes an all star cast that includes; Henry Cavill, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Amy Adams, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, and Michael Shannon.

Deuces,
StuntmanBob

p.s. Feels good to be back.


Batman Begins Teaser Trailer.

Trailer Review: AMERICAN REUNION

Its been 9 years since American Wedding, the supposed last movie in the American Pie series. But now the boys are back for their high school reunion and boy does it look fun.

Watching this trailer again, I was reminded of a Kevin Smith series Clerks. I wasn't old enough to watch the first Clerks when it came out but by the time the second was released I was a cinephile in my own right and Smith was a favorite. Watching interviews with him he touted that he would not have done the movie if he didn't have something to say about turning 30, which is where his characters are in the movie.

This is exactly where I think this series is going.

Generally speaking I'm a fan of the American Pie series of movies, NOT those fake ass "National Lampoon Style" movies that went straight to dvd. I'm talking about the ones with all the original actors in them. In their dirty minded way each movie has got something to say about growing up, going to college, getting married and just life in general. Now there are plenty movies like this out there, but some just stick to one part of life, its nice to have had a journey with a certain group of characters and see their progression in life. Its kinda like watching Boy Meets World. Anybody remember that show? What an awesome show. When Corey and Topanga (sp) got married in Disney, I think.

Ok sorry way off topic the show has been on MTV lately and I've been watching a lot of it. Back to our review.

We all have a Jim, we all have a Stifler in our group of friends and I think that's why anytime these movies come out, its not met with disappointment or with the title of a money grab; they've got something to say.

This outing of a class reunion plays great into the series, the characters are older now, some have families, are married and have real jobs. The fun of it will be seeing what they still think is still fun and what old antics still play in their small Michigan town. I'm sure none of you are surprised that I'm a fan of the series, "oh cause Bobby likes everything", but let me ask you this you still get excited to see a Die Hard movie right?

Cause you know exactly what your going to get.

The invitations for American Reunion go out April 6th, 2012


Dueces!
StuntmanBob