So, It Looks Like They Finally Got Someone To Play Cable in DEADPOOL 2

Well, talk about a casting choice that I didn't see coming. Yes, after a few months of searching, Fox has finally found an actor to play fan-favorite Cable in the upcoming sequel to Deadpool. I'm just going to bet that half the people reading this are pretty excited hearing this while the other half don't have a clue about what I'm talking about. And, for those in the latter category, allow me to take a moment to explain a couple things.

You see that big tough guy up there with the absurdly oversized gun? THAT's Cable. Honestly, even as a comic book fan myself, I know little to nothing about this guy other that he's a cyborg from the future and that his numerous partnerships with Deadpool make them both essentially Marvel universe's equivalent to Riggs and Murtaugh from the Lethal Weapon movies. I'm happy to see that they've chosen Josh Brolin (a real heavy-hitter in the acting crowd) for this role and even curious, considering that this guy's going to play Thanos (the purple guy from the end of Avengers 1 & 2) in Avengers: Infinity War around the same time this is released into theaters.

Also, this discussion of Deadpool 2 casting has gotten me thinking about one question that hangs over every sequel: will it be too much like the original? Clearly, they're going to do some sort of expanding with this new follow-up; thus, I'm only referring to structure. While I'm still disappointed that they chose someone else to play Domino* over Mary Elizabeth Winstead (seriously, how anyone has an actress with her level of talent on a casting shortlist and doesn't choose her is mind-boggling to me), the cast still seems pretty okay. The thing that has me worried about stagnation in the sequel is that they might be repeating the same dynamic and story beats that Deadpool had with Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (go watch the first movie if you're in the dark on this) in the last one.

Now, don't get me wrong. The first Deadpool was a perfectly solid superhero parody that just so happened to take place within the universe of an actual superhero franchise; however, there are still plenty of things that could be (and should be) improved in future installments. Ultimately, in spite of my tangential ram blings, this is a good bit of casting and I'm hoping the actual film is good. I mean, David Leitch (the wunderkin behind the first John Wick and Atomic Blonde) is in the director's chair. So, it has to be worth something. We'll know for sure next year.

Source -> http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/04/12/deadpool-2-josh-brolin-cast-as-cable

*For the uninitiated, that's Domino. She's an assassin and one of Deadpool's many romantic interests.

Home Video Catch Up: SPLIT

It should be noted that I, not as a critic but rather an individual human being, can't see everything in theaters. Part of this is owed to the fact that I don't have the clout to where I can be invited to press screenings, which means that I'm stuck with the mere mortals by paying ten bucks for each trip to the multiplex (well, that and I don't to blow ten greenbacks on a potential stinker). With that in mind, allow me to introduce a new occasional series of posts where I review movies that I didn't get to discuss while they were still making their rounds in theaters. I call it HOME VIDEO CATCH UP. Now, with that out of the way, let's get the ball rolling.

Boy, it's been a long time since M. Night Shyamalan made a movie that's worth watching unironically. After Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, his career seemed to take what is probably the most epic nosedive that I've ever seen, with most of his more recent films ranging from unintentionally hilarious disasters like The Happening or Lady in the Water or grating tests of endurance like After Earth or The Visit (that last one I turned off after only the first five minutes). Many people have described Split as a sort of arthouse B-movie or something of the sort. To be honest, that description is right on the money. Yeah, it's all very well shot, the score's fantastic and it's got some talented actors; but, when you think about the plot, this sounds more like material ripe for cheesy drive-in material rather than traditional studio-backed arthouse fare.

Granted, while I do agree with the majority of the Internet film community that this is a relatively solid flick and easily Shyamalan's best film in quite some time, some of his more negative quirks still pervade the proceedings. Like how the dialogue, while elegantly worded, doesn't sound like stuff normal people would say. There are some plot elements that (while I won't mention them by name for fear of spoilers) feel tone-deaf and contextually unsuitable. And, sometimes, it just feels awkward and uncomfortable (and not in the way its supposed to feel). But, with all of that said, Split still supplies its fair share of popcorn thrills.

James McAvoy absolutely shines in his role (or rather roles). This kind of role is difficult to pull off without making an actor look like the most foolish person in the room. Yet, McAvoy to lend gravitas to his portrayal of a man with multiple personalities who at one point dresses up as a woman and acts like a nine-year-old. Any actor with that level of skill to make something like this believable (or, at least, not cringeworthy) has to be commended. Betty Buckley also deserves a mention for her work as the nurturing psychologist trying to decode the mentality of McAvoy's numerous personalities. She turns in some pretty good work here.

And, with the exception of the twist involving Anya Taylor-Joy's character being completely ill-fitting and kind of grossly inappropriate, the finale is an utter thing to behold. Up until the third act, McAvoy's been the normal type of psycho (if there is such a thing); but, at the end, he figuratively and literally gets to cut loose. Also, that stinger at the end is something that's already blown the minds of my fellow cinephiles (once more, I won't give it away).

Overall, Split is an exceptionally entertaining bit of schlock horror cinema and a beyond welcome return to form for a prolific filmmaker.

SPLIT gets a...
SATISFACTORY out of TEN

Trailers! Trailers! Trailers! #3

Okay, I just did a big piece on the first trailer for Thor: Ragnarok. But, there have been a couple other new trailers that have hit the web recently. So, you know what that means.

ATOMIC BLONDE

The latest trailer for Atomic Blonde is a lot like the previous one; however, given that this one's a green band, so it's not as violent, lurid or profane as the last trailer. Frankly, even with the more R-rated bits being toned down a notch, this still looks like a lot of fun. The action looks solid (I mean one of the guys who did John Wick is in the director's chair for this, so how could it be anything less than stellar). Plus, the cast looks like they're bringing their A-game (especially Theron and McAvoy). Plus, I love the whole neon drenched, synthwave aesthetic that seems to pervade the film. Overall, just keep your eyes out for this one once July comes knocking.

BABY DRIVER

Well, it looks like great second trailers that aren't too dissimilar to the ones that preceded them is a recurring theme in this piece. Moving on, anyone who knows me knows that I've been itching for a new Edgar Wright picture for about three or four years now. Baby Driver definitely looks like my cup of tea. This latest preview is basically a shorter, sweeter version of the last one (i.e. fun looking action scenes, interesting angle on the movie's use of music, and interesting looking characters).  All of that's just fine... but, the reason I'm even happier now more so than I was when even the first trailer dropped is because of a release date shift. Instead of coming out in August, Sony's shifted the release date to the tail end of June. Getting potentially great movies sooner than initially anticipated is always a cause for celebration (or, at the very least, a smile).

You may have noticed that this installment of Trailers! Trailers! Trailers is a bit shorter than normal. Honestly, there weren't too many trailers that came out in the past few days; that said, I really wanted to talk about these two movies. I didn't get to sound off about them when their initial trailers were dropped; so, I figured now would as good a time as ever to give these two films a spotlight on my platform. Anywho, see you around when I find something else to sound off about.

THOR: RAGNAROK looks like a modern-day Flash Gordon

Honestly, the Thor movies have been on the few things in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that haven't really clicked with me. The first one's a fun fantasy flick and that's about it, really. And, the less said about Thor: The Dark World, the better. Thus far, that's been the main reason why I've been curious (but not necessarily excited) about the upcoming, Thor: Ragnarok. In comes this teaser trailer...

...and I'm now completely stoked for this. You've noticed that I mentioned the sci-fi cult classic Flash Gordon in regards to this trailer and I don't make that comparison lightly. Everything from the tone to the costumes and even the title design* looks like some VHS genre movie** fare from the tail end of the Reagan era. You better bet your bottom dollar that I'm digging this. Between this and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. It looks like that Marvel might actually start doing something interesting with its films from a visual standpoint. I'm hoping that I'm right and that these sudden splashes of color in a sea of entertaining but visually stagnant Marvel movies (yeah, I said it, come at me). Okay, all that gushing about how much this reminds me of retro stuff that I like is all well and good; but, let's discuss the actual trailer.

First things first, there are two big moments that I think are going to be the reason the geek community is going to be discussing this for a while. One of them is this shot of Thor's hammer being obliterated...

...and the other is the reintroduction of the Hulk.

Most people who knew about this flick already knew that A) Hulk and Thor were going to team up and B) Thor was going to lose his hammer. That first part didn't bring many surprises; however, Mjolnir (that's the name of his hammer for the uninitiated) being completely destroyed completely caught me offguard. But, if Iron Man 3 proved anything besides the fact that Shane Black should be doing more movies, it proved Marvel can do the "strip protagonist of powers and see how things go from there" rather well. Overall, this is a pretty great trailer and I'm beyond hyped to see it all plays out once Thor: Ragnarok hits theatres on November 3rd.
...
Also, this poster's okay, I suppose...


*Seriously, LOOK at this.

**For anyone who doesn't know what a genre film is...

Trailers! Trailers! Trailers! #2

WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES

So far, the Planet of the Apes reboot series has been the high watermark for how to do a reboot properly. Rise of the Planet of the Apes was solid and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was, quite frankly, marvelous. In terms of the little details, Woody Harrelson looks like he's going to make for a great villain and the characters seem rich/nuanced. And, how can I not be excited for a movie where monkeys wield machine guns? Overall, I'm getting a strong feeling that this flick's going to be a pretty excellent trip to the multiplex.

ANNABELLE: CREATION

Let me get the obvious joke out of the way now: Releasing this on April Fools Day was a rather bad joke. Hardy har har har! Now, then, let's get down to brass tacks. This movie doesn't look very good. It looks almost identical to the first one (which was also not very good). It's riddled with obnoxious cliches and horribly done jump scares. If nothing else, I'll give Warner Brothers credit for getting a better director, if nothing else. But, yeah, don't get your hopes up for this.

THE MUMMY

The Universal Monsters cinematic universe is a pretty strange creature in the current trend of modern blockbusters. For starters, it's both weird and kind of exciting that we're finally getting a movie universe (that was supposed to be kicked off with Dracula Untold way back in 2014 but that ended up being kind of meh) comprised of the iconic classic movie monsters. I wasn't sold on the first trailer because it just looked like a generic action blockbuster. As for this second trailer, I'm a bit more enticed to check out the actual flick. Don't get me wrong, it still looks kind of dumb; but, it looks like my kind of dumb. This trailer reminded me a lot of that one for Guy Ritchie's King Arthur movie that's coming out in a couple months. Both look like enjoyably silly pulp with quixotic but awesome needledrops (only here it's Rolling Stones not Led Zeppelin). Color me cautiously optimistic for this one.

BRIEF ADDENDUM: For those wondering, yes, I am aware that there was another trailer for King Arthur: Legend of the Sword that was released yesterday. What are my thoughts on it? Basically what I just said about the previous one in my bit about the Mummy (heck, they even used "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" again, no complaints there). So, yeah, it still looks like dumb fun. 

GHOST IN THE SHELL Review (MILD SPOILERS)

BRIEF DISCLAIMER: Hey guys! I just wanted to say before we get to the nitty-gritty, there's going to be a spoiler or two in this review. So, if you want the short version (which isn't saying much considering that this review might end up being one of the shortest things I've written for this site yet): it's okay at best, stay for the eye-candy visuals and the fantastic score. With that out of the way, on with the show!

Up until its recent release, I was predicting that Ghost In The Shell would be this year's equivalent to the 2013 Tom Cruise sci-fi flick Oblivion. And, after finally having seen this long-awaited American adaptation of the much revered anime franchise, I can confidently say that I was... pretty much right.

For context, I use Oblivion as a comparison because both films are visually stunning works from competent directors backed up by fantastic scores from accomplished artists (no joke, Clint Mansell's work for this flick is absolutely solid)... that are rather unspectacular when you get right down to it.

Seriously, it hasn't even been 24 hours since I've seen this thing and I'm already having to scour Wikipedia and Reddit just to remember what the plot was. Going back to Oblivion for a moment, while I'm admittedly unfamiliar with the source material, Ghost in the Shell seems to share even the basic story beats of that forgotten affair (i.e. Main character works for big company/organization, ends up uncovering some big secret about his/her existence, and spends the rest of the proceedings exacting revenge). Side note relating to the revenge stuff: am I the only person who thinks this movie should've have been much more R-rated. Honestly, the action here is so dull and lifeless, that it feels like adding just a tiny bit of bloodshed would've made things just a little more interesting.

And now, let's talk about the elephant in the room: casting Scarlet Johansson as the franchise's traditionally Japanese protagonist. Now, let be clear, I am NOT the guy to approach when it comes to the subject of how race is handled in movies or "whitewashing" (if you want more thoughtful looks into that sort of territory, there are plenty of other movie news rags with plenty of other writeups on it); but, suffice it to say, Johansson (like pretty much everyone else in this movie) is basically sleepwalking through this. Oh well, at least she and the rest of the cast have been in better motion pictures.

Overall, my suggestion would be to wait until this thing hits Redbox or Amazon Video (AKA the point where the world at large forgets this was a thing that existed) to check it out; however, the visuals and score* are strong enough to earn at least the price of a matinee showing I suppose. As for me, I'm just content in the knowledge that I'll be getting a better version of this sort of cyperpunk fare once Blade Runner 2049 hits theaters about six months from now.


GHOST IN THE SHELL gets a...
MEDIOCRE out of 10

*Message to Paramount: Why haven't you released Clint Mansell's work for this yet? Most film scores are already released either ahead of/after the movie comes out or on the day of. Seriously, why are you holding it back? Just release it already.

Trailers! Trailers! Trailers! #1

Here's the thing. I finish my write-up on the new Justice League trailer, post it and then get on with my life. Now, there's a whole bunch of trailers that've been released. So,

SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING

Honestly. my thoughts on this trailer are almost the exact same as my thoughts on the last trailer: this movie contains the best Spider-Man costume made for a movie. Michael Keaton's probably going to kill as the bad guy, and the high school setting feels like a nice change of pace. With that said, there is some new stuff here worthy of discussion. First, Peter losing the suit and having to use what's essentially a DIY version of it is an interesting plot development and I'm curious to see where it goes in the actual movie. Second, that plane fight looks pretty intense. Color me excited!

A GHOST STORY

From the get-go, two things stick out to me. One, the aspect ratio. In case anyone's wondering, yes, I've heard the whole film is shot like this and that it serves a purpose to the film's broader themes. Two, yes, that is Casey Affleck dressed as a stereotypical "white sheet with holes for eyes" look of a ghost in a non-comedic context. The idea of building a serious drama around a ghost that looks like this is a tough sell; that having been said, keep in mind the people behind this. For starters, A24 has proven that letting people fulfill their creative vision has more often that not worked out for the better with films like Swiss Army Man, Under the Skin and countless others. Besides, David Lowery is a serious player in the indie scene; aside from that, he's proven to be the only filmmaker to do a live-action Disney remake that was a genuinely great movie (seriously, if you haven't seen Pete's Dragon yet, go watch it). This one's already been screened at Sundance a few months ago and the buzz has nothing but positive. So, definitely keep this one on your radar.

IT

I'll be frank for a moment. This trailer was kind of a disappointment. Granted, some would say that holding out any hope for a film that's already given the world this gem of a meme would be extremely foolish.

From the looks of it (no pun intended), this looks like a subpar version of a James Wan movie. Despite this version of Pennywise actually having a pretty creepy design, none of what's shown of him here actually looks scary. In some respects, it (again, no pun intended) looks about as silly as Tim Curry's work in the first time they tried to adapt this book. The stuff with the kids looks pretty interesting, though. Overall, I'm hoping for the best on this one, folks; but, if it sucks, I won't be surprised that Warner Bros. decided to dump this one in September.

So, those are my thoughts on some recent trailers. Agree? Disagree? Talk amongst yourselves in the comments below. Anywho, I'm off to do something that doesn't have to do with movie trailers.