With great power comes great irresponsibility

I'm sure for many super hero fatigue has set in when it comes to seeing people with special abilities on the big screen, but I'd encourage you to still check out this trailer for a new movie called Chronicle. The trailer doesn't offer much in the way of details, but it appears to be done in faux-documentary style as we watch a trio of high school students gain super powers and how they deal with it. Based on this first look, it seems like it may have enough of a unique approach to breathe some freshness into this genre.

Cleveland Beer Week

I've been away from the blog for a while partly because last week I went up north to Cleveland to partake in some of the Cleveland Beer Week festivities. Bars all around the Cleveland area held events all week where patrons could try out an assortment of beers from breweries both local and national. While I only got to go to the ones on the weekend, it was still an amazing time. The week concluded with an event called Brewzilla that was held at the Galleria in downtown Cleveland. Over 80 different breweries were on hand giving you 3-5 oz. samples of their beers. The place was packed with probably about 5000 people in attendance. Of the beers I tried, I tended to like a lot of the local brews the best. Of course, I always love anything from Strongsville's own The Brew Kettle. The Pumpkin Ale they made this year was AMAZING. I wish I could get more of it, but when I stopped in their brewery on Sunday they were already out of it. Speaking of pumpkin ales, I also thought the one made by Buckeye Brewing Company was strong as well. Brewzilla was truly a unique experience that I'm glad I got to be a part of. Not only did I get to try out a lot of interesting beers, but I also came away with some nice swag including a really great stein glass with the Samuel Adams logo on it. I would be remiss however if I didn't mention how I came to learn about all of these Cleveland Beer Week events in the first place. This all started when my father, brother and I came across an app called Untappd (that's how it's actually spelled). It's a social networking app that lets you check in whenever you have a beer. You can state what you're drinking, where you're drinking it at, comment on its quality and also give it a rating. One of the most appealing things about this app is that it also gives you 'badges' for accomplishing certain beer-related feats. For instance, if you drink a beer on your birthday, you get the 'Birthday Badge' or if you drink ten beers from the same brewery in a month, you get the 'Brewery Loyalist' badge. As for Cleveland Beer Week, anyone who attended at least 3 of the events earned the 'Cleveland Beer Week' badge, which I was able to do. It's really fun although if you get too hooked on collecting the badges, you may find yourself turning into an alcholic. But if you that it would be something you'd enjoy, I'd strongly recommend you download this app. If you do, look me up and 'friend' me on it.

Holmes run

The latest trailer for Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows hit the web yesterday and I continue to be stoked for this new film. And hooray for the brief Rachel McAdams appearance in this trailer. Check it out for yourself.

RBR: Zookeeper

I was really on the fence about whether or not I should bother with this one. On one hand I enjoy Kevin James' work and I typically enjoy Happy Madison pictures, but on the other hand this looked terrible. I should have used my better judgment because this turned out to be as dreadful as the previews indicated. Kevin James stars as the genial zookeeper who is unlucky in love. That is until he realizes that the animals in his zoo can talk and they offer him advice about how to win over the lady in his life. It basically combines Dr. Dolittle and Paul Blart: Mall Cop, yet fails to have any of the charm or comedy, little as there was, from those films. To make matters worse, this suffers from the same obnoxious problem that James' buddy Adam Sandler's last film, Just Go With It when it comes to the romantic storyline - the male protagonist is bending over backwards trying to win over beatiful, yet vapid woman, when there's an equally beautiful woman who's nicer standing by their side waiting for them to realize that they have feelings for them. It's just plain insulting to the audience and it's getting overused way too much in Hollywood these. One of the other odd things about the film is how poor it looks. There are a lot of seems that are dimly lit that give the film a darker feel than what its going for. Finally, while the animals are voiced by an impressive list of stars that includes Sylvester Stallone, Nick Nolte and Adam Sandler, none of them give a notable performance that would make you clamor to see more from them in any sort of sequel. This film is just lazy and then made poorly on top of it. Even within the limited genre of talking animal films, there are actually several films that are better than this awful dreck. Rating: **

Pawnee Rangers deleted scenes

More McClain

Are you a Die Hard diehard? Well get ready because everybody's favorite indestructible cop is going to be back for another go round. Here are the details from comingsoon.net:

The fifth entry in the Die Hard franchise officially has a title and a release date, with 20th Century Fox revealing that the film will be called A Good Day to Die Hard and will hit theaters on February 14, 2013.

The film, drafted by Skip Woods (The A-Team, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) will be directed by John Moore (Max Payne) and is officially described as follows:

Since the first Die Hard in 1988, John McClane has found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, with the skills and attitude to always be the last man standing, making him enemy #1 for terrorists the world over. Now, McClane faces his greatest challenge ever, this time on an international stage, when his estranged son Jack is caught up in the daring prison escape of a rogue Russian leader, and father and son McClane must work together to keep each other alive and keep the world safe for democracy.

The film is expected to begin production in January of 2012, filming on-location in Russia.

Instant gratification

Who's ready for some more pie? The entire American Pie gang is back once more time and even though they're adults now, it appears some things haven't changed. Here's the first teaser for next spring's American Reunion. Warning, the clip is NSFW

RBR: Hanna

This one totally caught me off guard and in a good way, which rarely ever happens. This is a engaging and well-made thriller that feels fresh even if the set-up isn't entirely new. The film stars Saoirse Ronan as Hanna, a young girl who has lived her entire life in the wilderness with her father, played by Eric Bana. Out in no man's land, she learns how to hunt and fight, which come in handy once the government begin hunting the two of them down. As Hanna gets chased, the film doubles as a action film and a coming of age story. In both the fight sequences and the quieter moments director Joe Wright is very clever with the way he lets the scenes unfold. A soundtrack by The Chemical Brothers also energizes the film. The shots are brought to life even more by some terrific performances, particularly by Blanchett and Ronan. The ending is disappointing, however, for a couple of reasons. It doesn't really answer all of the questions that were posed throughout the film and the twists and reveals that are given are not really that surprising. Still, this is likely a movie that went overlooked by many when it was in theaters and it would be worth your time to seek it out now on home video. I was pleased to see that my reservations about the film were unfounded. I'm not surprised often by the quality of a film, so when I am, I appreciate it even more. Rating: ****

Hero squad

I'm sure everyone's seen this by now, but if not, here's the first full trailer for the highly anticipated Avengers film, set to open in theaters next May.

The art of villainy

Slowly but surely we're getting information about the upcoming James Bond movie (due out next November). While a lot of it is speculation, there's one piece of news that has finally been confirmed. Actor Javier Bardem mentioned earlier this week that he will be part of the cast as a villain. The announcement came while he was being interviewed on Nightline. Here's exactly what he said:

"I am very excited, my parents took me to watch the movies, and I saw all of them, so to play that is going to be fun," he said about the James Bond film. "They chose me to play this man, but I cannot give you many details."

Now there has been speculation for some time that this latest Bond film will see the return of the classic villain, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Could Bardem be the one who plays him? No word on that yet, but one thing is for sure, given his performance in No Country For Old Men, we know this guy can play bad very well. I'll be sure to keep everyone posted on the latest developments so as they say in television land, 'stay tuned'.

Born and Raised deleted scenes

RBR: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

If there's one thing you can say about documentarian Morgan Spurlock it's that he's inventive in his approach to shed light on the world's problems. Whether he's gorging on McDonald's food for a month in Super Size Me or trying to get sponsors to pay for film about sponsorship as he does in this latest documentary. That inventiveness serves as a great hook to lure viewers in and keep them entertained for 90 minutes. However, it's also a narrative weakness as you find yourself leaving the theater feeling like you didn't really learn anything new. This is particularly true in Spurlock's latest as he gets too wrapped up in the cutsy idea of having his movie be paid for exclusively by corporate sponsors that he never really digs into the problems associated with the growing practice. The first part of the film is spent exploring his quest to finding sponsors, but since we've already been told, and most likely knew, how eager corporations are to have their brands inserted into films, it's an exercise in futility since we know he'll eventually find a willing partner. Occassionally the film begins to unravel something interesting - like how much control the corporation has over the content of a film once they've agreed to a deal with them - but it never digs deeper. Where the films lacks in substance in makes up for in Spurlock's amiable presence which allows the film to have a breezy feel, despite such a dirty subject. It's fun to see him not only discover a product exists that serves as shampoo for humans and horses alike, but to then also get them to cooperate in the making of this film. If you enjoy Spurlock's work, this is another fun adventure that you'll likely enjoy. Just don't expect to learn a whole lot once it's finished. Rating: *** 1/2

Finding the right Touch

So I realize we're just a few weeks into the new fall schedule, but there's already buzz surrounding a new show scheduled to come out next spring. It's called Touch and it stars Keifer Sutherland as the father of a 10-year old boy who has never uttered one word in his entire life. I've posted a trailer for the show below. Right now I'm having a lot of mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I love Keifer Sutherland and am anxious to see what he does as a follow up to 24. I also think that the story has a lot of potential. What's concerning me is that the man behind this show is Tim Kring, the creator of Heroes. That too started off very cool, but we quickly learned with that show that an interesting story means nothing if it doesn't have a sufficient payoff. Since we are still several months away from its debut, that gives us plenty of time to ponder the prospects of this show's quality. Feel free to chime in yourself in the comments section. Is this the next sci-fi smash? Or just another promising story about mystical numbers that turns out to be nothing more than hokum?

Promising Development

This is the best possible birthday present I could get. Not only are we going to get an Arrested Development movie, but we're also getting the Bluths back on TV for a limited run as well!! Here's all the details from EW.com...

Arrested Development may get another lease on life on the small screen: EW has confirmed that the producers of Arrested Development – the critically-acclaimed but short-lived comedy from Mitchell Hurwitz — is in talks with Showtime and Netflix about airing a limited number of original episodes that will update fans on the Bluth clan.

Hurwitz told attendees at the New Yorker Festival Sunday in New York that he wanted to shoot nine to 10 episodes that would air next fall and catch audiences up on the characters’ lives since the series ended in 2006 on Fox. The episodes would be produced by 20th Century Fox TV, which was responsible for the original single camera series that starred Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, and Portia DeRossi.

Hurwitz’ hope is that the limited series would serve as a walk-up to his long-gestating movie. “I have been working on the screenplay for a long time and found that as time went by there was so much more to the story,” he said at the festival, which was also attended by Development stars Bateman, De Rossi, and Cera, as well as David Cross, Will Arnett, Jeffrey Tambor, Jessica Walter, Tony Hale, and Alia Shawkat. Ron Howard, one of the comedy’s producers, even participated via speakerphone. “In fact, where everyone’s been for five years became a big part of the story. So, in working on the screenplay I found that even if I just gave five minutes per character to that backstory, we were halfway through the movie before the characters got together. And that kinda gave birth to this thing we’ve not been pursuing for a while and we’re kinda going public with a little bit. We’re trying to do kind of limited run series into the movie.”

Hurwitz then unveiled his very unconventional plan. “We’re basically hoping to do nine or 10 episodes with almost one character per episode, where like the first episode will just be Buster. We’re kinda picturing it like, um, well the latest joke we have is that, you know, it’s Cambridge, Massachusetts and there’s all these scientists in lab coats and they’re waiting for somebody and Buster comes through the door wearing a lab quote and says `let’s begin,’ and they say, `you don’t get to wear the lab coat, we’re experimenting on you. [garbled] And then we go through his life and we meet the people in his life and maybe he goes to see his therapist who he’s getting a good rate on because it’s Tobias and he’s lost his license. We can do cross overs and things like that. But it’s an unusual style of show I think and we get him to a certain point of peril in his life and then maybe we jump over to like Maeby and she’s living with Cornel West … We’ll do this kind of thing that builds the peril in their lives until they all come together, really, in the first scene of the movie. It requires, and Ron [Howard] has been working on this too, it just requires studios to work together, they don’t normal work together in film and TV. It’s a really ambitious project but it’s also a very simple project in a way because it kind of gives the fans a level of detail for `granularity,’ which is a big word on the East Coast.

“I really have to say, we’ve talked about this, we’re all game, we hated be coy, we’ve been trying to put together this more ambitious idea and I think we’re very close, the script is halfway done and we have to get the film companies on board,” Hurwitz continued. “They’ve always been great to us but you know times are tough and money is tight but I’m very hopeful , there is business left to be done but creatively we have a very specific plan of how it would come out and what we would do and when we would shoot it. Our hope is that, perhaps the series is in the fall.”

Granted, this isn’t the first time that Showtime has emerged as some kind of savior for Arrested Development. Back in 2006, the pay cabler was considering whether to rescue the canceled show but obviously no deal was reached. But this latest development on Development is a horse of a different color — and one that the actors seem to have embraced. The stars in attendance at today’s festival acknowledged that they were keeping their schedules free to make such a series .

RBR: Rio

This computer animated film from last spring is a complete paint-by-numbers effort. Admittedly, the paint used is a dazzlingly array of color. This is a great looking film with vibrant scenery and creatures. For me though, that only goes so far. It's the story here that is a let down. It centers on a domesticated bird (voiced by Jesse Eisenberg) who is taken back to Rio in an effort to repopulate his species with the only remaining female bird of his kind (voiced by Anne Hathaway). Along the way, we move through one cliched story point to the next as the movie heavily borrows from better films like The Defiant Ones and Finding Nemo. To pad things out they throw in a handful of musical numbers that are in the moment pleasant but utterly forgettable. This film will probably be best appreciated by small children who will be easily mesmerized by the bright colors and goofy characters but there's nothing much for anyone older to latch onto here and enjoy. Rating: ** 1/2

Flying high

I mentioned in my review of the SNL premiere that there was a very funny skit involving fake screen tests for the movie Top Gun. Well NBC has posted a video of some of the screen takes that didn't get included in what aired on the show. Even the stuff left on the cutting room floor is good. Check it out below.

Fall TV Report Card: (Returning Favorites pt. 4)

The Simpsons: Jack Bauer saves the day once again. Well, Kiefer Sutherland does at least thanks his voice work in the Simpsons' 23rd (!!) season premiere. He voices a new security guard at the Springfield Power Plant who Homer tries to befriend. But this guy has a mysterious past that gets revealed causing Homer to get caught up in some international espionage. This is by no means a classic, but after all this time, this show still finds ways of producing laughs. Credit to the show for throwing in some really absurd comedy here including a bizarre training montage involving Keifer's character and several fictional movie villains, plus a spoof on those animated Taiwanese news report videos. I realize this show will never be what it once was, but like SNL it has become an iconic comedy tradition that can still find ways to make us laugh. Grade: B+ The Cleveland Show: Most people seem to bash this show, but I often find it to be the best of the Seth McFarland trio. Perhaps its because a lot of the jokes on here feel fresher than they do on the other two shows. Their premiere was reflective of that again as Cleveland struggled to figure out who is best friends really are. This includes a guy's camping trip led by of all people Ric Flair (Woooo!). Of course, this naturally turns into a Deliverance parody, but they manage to avoid the cliches and still have a fresh take on that story. The subplot involving Rollo wasn't the best, but he's generally a very funny character so I was happy to see him get the screen time. Grade: B Family Guy: How the mighty have fallen. I have no idea what's going on with this show anymore. Like other recent episodes, this was more morose than funny. You would think a story involving the Griffin's winning the lottery would produce a high number of funny moments, but the writers opted to take a very dark turn involving Peter turning Quagmire and Joe into his servants after lending them some money. I felt unconfortable watching the story unfold. I guess they should have taken a note from Roseanne that winning the lottery on a sitcom is comedy death. Let's hope this show can recover from this lackluster opener. Grade: C American Dad: To show you how odd and complicated the animated process is, this year's opener was a story that was previewed in last year's Entertainment Weekly fall TV preview issue. I know this show didn't produce a full 22 episodes last year, so why this was held off until this year is unclear to me. Anyway it involves Stan buying a hot tub and quickly turns into a Little Shop of Horrors parody. The hot tub is voiced by Cee-Lo Green who also sings a few songs as the hot tub throughout the episode. From a narrative perspective this was a really strong episode, but it was somewhat light on laughs. I'm not sure if I would have aired this as the opener. It probably would have worked better on Halloween weekend. Grade: B

RBR: Paul

While some will recognize Simon Pegg and Nick Frost from cult films like Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, this film is likely the one that introduced them to a more mainstream audience thanks to the subject matter and supporting cast members along for the ride. The film is about two nerdy friends who encounter an actual alien named Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen) as they travel through the United States visiting famous alien landmarks. They're being chased by government agents, led by Jason Bateman and from there hijinx ensue. One aspect of the film's narrative is that Paul has been on Earth several years and has supposedly influenced some of pop culture's greatest alien stories (we're to believe he gave Spielberg the idea for E.T.). But this film does more than just name drop this other alien films, they often crib ideas from them as well. The end result is a mildly funny but wholly unoriginal film that does nobody any good. Fans of Pegg and Frost will likely find this to be a far inferior movie to their previous collaborations and those seeing these two for the first time will likely question why they are movie stars in the first place. I ended up seeing the 'unrated' version of this film and I found it to still be pretty tame given the work that I've seen everyone involved in this film do before. There are some fun cameos here from the likes of Bill Hader, Jane Lynch, Sigourney Weaver, Jeffrey Tambor, and even Blythe Danner, but none of the offer up much more than allowing the audience to say "Hey look, it's so-and-so". For sci-fi geeks, this has enough to make it worthy of a rental, but overall this is a disappointing effort from some talented individuals. Rating: ** 1/2