2014 Movie Preview: #8 - Guardians of the Galaxy

Release date: August 1

Plot summary:
My take: This may be the biggest gamble of the year, at least of the movies I am previewing on this list. Marvel has certainly shown that they can take commodities that were not well known to the public at large and turn them into successful film franchises, but a movie based on a group of space travelers that includes a tree-like character and a talking raccoon may be a bit out there for the mainstream audience. Hopefully that isn't the case, because Marvel has already laid the groundwork through some of their other films to make this a pretty awesome extension of their film empire. The cast is excellent here so my expectations are pretty high for this one.

Running on Diesel power

From JustJared.com:

Vin Diesel has officially landed the voice role of Groot in the upcoming Marvel film Guardians of the Galaxy!

The 46-year-old actor confirmed the news by posting the image of himself and the detailed character bust on his Facebook page. Director James Gunn also tweeted the news, saying he “is a super awesome dude. I can’t tell you how much I like this guy.”

Guardians of the Galaxy follows an unlikely cast of characters including Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Groot (Diesel), and Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) who must join forces to defeat a cosmic force of epic proportions.

Rocket powered

We've got even more Marvel casting news today. This time from Comingsoon.net

Following rumors late last week, Marvel has officially confirmed a new addition to the cast of James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy: Bradley Cooper is set to voice Rocket Raccoon!

"Rocket has been genetically and mechanically altered," Marvel Studios' President Kevin Feige said of the character in a recent interview. "He's an experiment from one part of the galaxy."

Cooper, recently nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in Silver Linings Playbook, joins Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, Benicio del Toro, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, Vin Diesel and Gregg Henry in the sci-fi adventure, set to hit theaters August 1, 2014.

Father time

The teaser was released a few weeks ago and now here's your first full look at Delivery Man, the new dramedy starring Vince Vaughn as a man who has unknowingly fathered over 500 kids.

Oh baby!

Vince Vaughn will be gracing the screen in just a couple of weeks with The Internship, but if that isn't good enough for you, you can also check him out here in a teaser trailer for another comedy he'll be starring in later this year called Delivery Man.

Hip to be Square

GQ made the wise choice of honoring the cast of Parks and Recreation in their Man of the Year issue and to commemorate the honor, the gang from Pawnee made this awesome video playing a game of Hollywood Squares. Enjoy it below!

RBR: The Five-Year Engagement

Some pairs just seem like a match made in heaven. But as we all know, looks can be deceiving. This is true for the characters in The Five-Year Engagement. Tom (Jason Segal) and Violet (Emily Blunt), are a couple who seem to be deeply in love at their engagement and yet struggle to actually tie the knot. This idea is also applicable to the film itself - a movie that has a great cast and setup and yet can't turn that into something successful. This is certainly through no fault of the casting. Segal is his usual doughy, loveable self and Blunt is consistently charming (As a side note, she is quickly becoming one of my favorite actresses who has shown tremendous range in her past few roles). Rather, this movie commits a few of my 'mortal sins' when it comes to filmmaking. One of them is the reliance on cliched characters. I mean how many times do we have to see the 'lecherous older male professor' character. Maybe given my profession, I'm more sensitive to this cliche than others, but it just felt unoriginal and you knew every beat to that character's story arc. The other sin committed here is poor communication. I had expected this film to be about a series of events that conspire against the film's leads, preventing them from getting hitched. Instead, there's really on one primary issue here and it could have been resolved or dealt with in much more succinct manner. It should not have taken five years to arrive at the resolution they come to by the movie's end. It's feels more like a six months to a year issue at best. And while the timeline in the film doesn't feel very long, watching the film feels like five years of the viewers' time has passed. More time was needed in the editing room for this film. Somewhere buried inside is a good film. The cast and everyone else involved is too talented to turn in an effort like this. As it stands, this comes off as a disappointment. Rating: ** 1/2