The new trailer for The Dark Knight Rises was released Monday. The film's director-cowriter Christopher Nolan is serious about besting The Dark Knightand, by the looks of this footage, he may have pulled it off. The trailer reveals loads of intense action, drama, cool gadgets, and a bloodied, beaten and unmasked Bruce Wayne asking his hulking captor Bane, "Why don't you just kill me?" "Your punishment must be more severe," comes the chilling reply. July 20 can't get here quickly enough. For those that can't wait like me, check out this amazing trailer.
What do you think? Are you excited to see it too? Let us know.
Written by Kirk Baird About seven years ago, Tom
Cruise’s career was at a crossroads. The actor was a PR nightmare, first with
his couch-dance “I’m in love with Katie Holmes” routine on Oprah, followed by
his criticism of psychiatry during a heated interview/debate with Matt Lauer on
NBC’s Today.
Neither national
television moment sat well with the general public. It was so bad, in fact,
that in 2006 Paramount Studios ended its 14-year relationship with Cruise. The
divorce was as much about the actor’s sinking public opinion as it was
financial concerns over his box-office reliability.
The actor’s 2006 Mission:
Impossible III failed to make money domestically as did Robert Redford’s
political drama Lions for Lambs in 2007, which featured Cruise, along with
Meryl Streep and Redford. The 0-for-2 box-office streak was followed by the
mildly successful Valkyrie in 2008, and then the summer action-comedy dud
Knight & Day with Cameron Diaz in 2010.
There were some
not-so-quiet murmurings that Cruise was no longer one of the more dependable
bankable stars in Hollywood. What a difference one film
can make.
December’s Mission:
Impossible — Ghost Protocol was Cruise’s biggest hit since 2005’s War of the
Worlds, and only his second $200-million-plus film since 2000’s Mission:
Impossible II. Cruise was back with another successful Paramount film and just
like that all seems to be right again with the actor and moviegoers.
There’s already talk of a
fifth Mission: Impossible film — no surprise. But longtime Cruise fans will be
happy to know there’s also serious discussions of a sequel to 1986’s Top Gun,
the film that launched Cruise from star to superstar status.
Adam Goodman, Paramount
Film Group president, recently told The Hollywood Reporter: “We'll likely make
a Top Gun sequel with Tom Cruise first. Jerry Bruckheimer would produce, with
Tony Scott returning to direct. All parties are moving ahead. We've hired Peter
Craig to write the script.” Cruise also
said he’s on board with a Top Gun 2 as well.
“If we can find a story
that we all want to do, we all want to make a film that is in the same kind of
tone as the other one and shoot it in the same way as we shot Top Gun," he
told MTV News.
Frankly, it’s difficult to
root against Cruise, who turns 50 on July 3. No matter what you think of him
off camera — his outspoken dedication to Scientology certainly rubs many the
wrong way — on screen he’s a true movie star. He’s handsome, smart, funny, and
no one will ever be able to accuse him of not giving 100 percent in every film.
Watch Cruise in his barely
recognizable comedic tour de force as Hollywood movie mogul Les Grossman in Ben
Stiller’s Tropic Thunder. It’s a painfully funny and crude role, one few would
have envisioned for Cruise. That was in 2008 and now he tweaks our expectations
for him again with the upcoming singing performance of fictional rock star
Stacee Jaxx in the musical-drama Rock of Ages, which opens June 15.
As much as Hollywood fetes
its favorite actors come Oscar season, it needs its dependable movie stars
during the box-office season: summer and the holidays. And for many years few
were as dependable as Cruise — and hopefully is again.
The 2012 Alberta Library Conference kicked off last night in Jasper, Alberta. The event started with an opening receptions and appreciation of the library vendors. Once again CVS Midwest Tape is proud to be a vendor partner for ALC and exhibiting and the conference. If you are in the area stop by table #62 and say "Hi" to Dave Narciso.
The Avengers kicks off this summer's film season and
is one of three hotly anticipated superhero films releasing in the next
three months along with The Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing
Spider-Man. But it’s not all skin-tight suits and masks to be a good superhero
film—for every Dark Knight there’s a Batman and Robin. Here are some of the best from the genre:
Superman (1979): At the time of its 1978 release
this was the biggest superhero movie of all time. The film with the slogan “You
will believe a man can fly” was also the first superhero movie that got it
right. Richard Donner’s film strikes the perfect balance between reverence for
the Man of Steel and lighthearted fun, and newcomer Christopher Reeve embodied
the look and spirit of Superman as none before or since. But Superman
isn’t just Reeve’s movie; a marvelously hammy turn—some might say a bit too
campy—by Gene Hackman as Superman’s arch nemesis Lex Luther, and scene
stealer Ned Beatty as Luthor’s dimwitted assistant Otis are just a few of the
“other” highlight performances. Superman 2, while it doesn’t soar quite
as high as the original, remains a worthy sequel as well.
The Dark Knight (2008): Batman has at three
separate moments redefined the superhero film. In the 1960s on TV and with a
feature film, Adam West introduced Batman as celeb-happy campy fun for
kids and adults. That cartoony image and “bat-tastic” lingo stuck around for
years—until Frank Miller’s groundbreaking graphic novel The Dark Knight
Returns in 1986 redefined the hero as a grim force of violence and
vengeance.
Batman as a sociopathic hero inspired the look and feel of Tim
Burton’s Batman from 1989. Burton amped up the dark and brooding and
pondered what would compel a billionaire playboy to hide behind a black mask
and cape and fight crime. Then Christopher Nolan made the darkest superhero
film yet, The Dark Knight, including an iconic, Oscar-winning
performance by Heath Ledger as the immoral and catalyst-for-chaos Joker. Can
Nolan possibly top his 2008 classic? We have only until late July to find out.
X-Men (2000) and X-2 (2003): Filmmaker
Bryan Singer’s two X-Men movies, like the comics about the mutant heroes
that spawned them, are all allegory. But the films combine said allegory with
impressive effects, clever stories, and fine acting by most of the cast—James
Marsden as Cyclops never really fits the role—that make the first two X-Men
movies so entertaining.
Just as superhero movies were devolving into campy treatments
again, Singer resurrected the idea of real-world superheroes by treating their
comic-book world seriously on film. If Superman made you believe a man could
fly, the first two X-Men movies made you believe that mutants with
incredible powers walked among us. Unfortunately for the series, Singer left
before completing his trilogy and director Brett Ratner took over in 2006 with
his mutant version of the movies, X-Men: The Last Stand. The 2011 X-Men
prequel, X-Men: First Class, however, got the series on track again,
with Singer back on board as producer.
The Incredibles (2004): Brad Bird didn’t have much
box-office luck with his debut animation film in 1999, the painfully overlooked
The Iron Giant. So he joined the Pixar brain trust and with his first
feature at the animation studio made a film about a nuclear family of four
superheroes burdened with some of life’s most mundane problems: having a job
you hate, being invisible to others, the stresses of raising a family. In place
of too many wink-nod moments to the audience, there was considerable heart and
fun, along with some splendid animation and battle sequences. The
Incredibles is the Fantastic Four movie everyone wishes had been made—including Marvel.
Unbreakable(2000): At the time of Unbreakable’s
release, its director M. Night Shyamalan was at the peak of his career with the
unexpected 1999 blockbuster The Sixth Sense. Unbreakable
showcased a more mature filmmaker who delivered a tense thriller full of
surprises, including his signature twist ending. The film explores the origins
of an ordinary man played by Bruce Willis who discovers he has unique powers.
Samuel L. Jackson has a blast as the would-be hero’s mysterious purple-clad
adviser. It’s a shame there was no sequel, though given Shyamalan’s track
record lately with The Lady in the Water, The Happening, and TheLast Airbender, maybe that’s for the best.
Spider-Man (2002) and Spider-Man 2 (2004):
Technology and Sam Raimi made the Spider-Man movies something special.
Special effects created a convincing Web crawler-slinger, and the filmmaker
delivered movies that were more than summer-event releases as he deftly weaved
drama and character arcs throughout the action-packed spectacle. Unlike many
superhero films, the antagonists never get in the way of the protagonist, but
only add to his story of triumph over adversity in super villain form. A sturdy
cast that buys into the make-believe world also helped audiences buy into the
movie. Unfortunately, everyone stuck around for one film too many with
2007’s Spider-Man 3, an excessive, more-is-worse anticlimax to the first
two films that’s in a rush to get to the ending.
Iron Man (2008) and Iron Man 2 (2010): Has
there ever been an actor born to play a superhero more than Robert Downey, Jr.,
as Tony Stark/Iron Man? The smart, witty actor brings those same traits to the
role, delivering an acerbic, bright, and petulant billionaire playboy found of
booze, women, and wearing a one-of-a-kind armor suit tricked out with rockets,
lasers, and enough gadgets to make Batman jealous. The films’ Achilles’ heel is
its villains: neither Jeff Bridges in the original nor Mickey Rourke in the
sequel were particularly memorable opponents for the man of iron. But Downey is
having such a blast in the role—and is such a blast to watch—none of it
really matters. Look for Downey as Iron Man in the upcoming The Avengers.
What do you think? What's the best superhero flick?
You may have noticed several new posts written by one Kirk Baird. He's CVS Midwest Tape's newest blogger!
A member of the Detroit Film Critics Society and a film critic for a daily newspaper, TV station, and now CVS Midwest Tape, Kirk Baird spends a sizable portion of his week watching and then dissecting movies: classic and obscure, arty and blockbuster, foreign and direct from Hollywood.
Look for his commentaries on movie-industry trends and DVD-Blu-ray reviews here on News & Views. Also check out his film and filmmaker spotlights in CVS Midwest Tape’s monthly catalogue. Any and all feedback is welcomed. Drop him a line at kbaird@cvsmidwesttapes.ca.
Every week film critic and Detroit Film Critics Society member, Kirk Baird, recommends new DVD releases for your library.
Camelot on Blu-ray
The 1967 classic musical Camelot makes its Blu-ray debut this week in a splendid-looking version that receives a fresh digital scrubbing. Written by Alan Jay Lerner and based on the successful 1960 stage musical he wrote with Frederick Loewe, Camelot is the story of good King Arthur (Richard Harris), whose noble dream of a land ruled by law and protected by a special band of knights (“might for right”) is sullied by his wife Lady Guenevere (Vanessa Redgrave) and his most-trusted knight Sir Lancelot du Lac (Franco Nero) and their affair for the ages. It’s a stellar, beautiful cast blessed with the acting and vocal chops to pull off the dramatic scenes and regal musical numbers.
The transfer of the 45-year-old film to high-definition is reliably stunning. The gorgeous, Oscar-winning set designs by John Brown and the Oscar-nominated cinematography by Richard Kline, making his feature-film debut as director of photography, have never looked this vibrant, though there are the occasional lapses when the film goes grainy for a few moments. The Blu-ray, at three hours in length, is also the original theatrical release and includes the restoration of deleted scenes, dialogue, and musical numbers. It also includes a soundtrack sampler from Rhino, featuring four of the Lerner-Loewe songs. This is the definitive version of the musical, and it's the best way to celebrate “that … one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot!”
Also Out This Week
Marvel Anime: X-Men & Marvel Anime: Ironman
X-Men and Ironman go anime in two new Japanese series from Marvel-Sony. The idea was to introduce the American comic-book icons to an Asian audience, with a more adult look to the superheroes to go along with more mature stories written by veteran comic-book scribe Warren Ellis (Red). This isn’t your bland Saturday morning cartoon series. Rather, it’s an engaging and engrossing movie-ready plot sold to audiences via stylish animation that makes these familiar characters fresh again. And naturally, both series feature Japan heavily in their stories. The DVDs even include a choice of Japanese or English audio as well as subtitles. If you’re a fan of superheroes in film and TV, both Marvel Anime sets are worth a look.
Cinema Verite is a star-studded HBO film from 2011 that’s a behind-the-scenes account of the 1973 PBS documentary, An American Family, one of the first American reality TV showcases. The cast includes Diane Lane, Tim Robbins, James Gandolfini, Kathleen Quinlan, Patrick Fugit, and Lolita Davidovich.
Every Tuesday film critic and Detroit Film Critics Society member, Kirk Baird, recommends new DVD releases for your library.
Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol The Mission: Impossible movies have been a game of one-upmanship among the four different directors in the series. But it’s Brad Bird, a filmmaker best known for the animated features The Iron Giant and The Incredibles, who tops them all with the biggest, boldest, and most audacious Ethan Hunt adventure yet.
Hunt (Cruise, in a return to action-hero form), as usual, is on the wrong side of the U.S. government, and he and his team of spy operatives are blamed for the bombing of the Kremlin. The film’s plot is about restoring their names and, of course, saving the world in the process.
Jeremy Renner is a great addition to the cast as a former field agent, and the film’s impossible-to-believe stunt on Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai—the world’s tallest building—is not for those with a fear of heights. Ghost Protocol was the best-loved film in the series by audiences (nearly $700 million worldwide) and critics (93 percent “certified fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes) for a reason: This is the best mission yet.
Shame
Michael Fassbender appeared in four films last year. His best role among the quadrumvirate was also his riskiest: a New York City sex addict whose controlled life disintegrates after his sister (Carey Mulligan, also terrific) moves in.
Fassbender is creepy and pathetic, a damaged character difficult to like, and the script by Abi Morgan (The Iron Lady) doesn’t give us reason to, either. Shameis rated NC-17, and there is a considerable amount of nudity, but an honest film about sexual addiction wouldn’t have worked without it.
Old School Flick Now on DVD
Tom Selleck was originally cast as Indiana Jones, but his TV commitment to Magnum, P.I. kept him from the role. If you’re curious about how Selleck would have fared as an action-adventurer, check out 1983’s High Road to China, co-starring Bess Armstrong.
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