By now you’ve surely seen the teaser trailer for Rango starring Johnny Depp (Alice in Wonderland, Ed Wood) directed by Gore Verbinski ( The Ring, The Weather Man, Pirates of the Caribbean)

So what is Rango? How about this teaser poster-

Johnny Depp is a chameleon. Well, we all already knew that what I mean to say is that Johnny Depp lends his voice to be the voice of Rango a chameleon “with an identity crisis.” The new trailer helps clear this all up for us, enough teasing-

I only wish we didn’t have to wait until March 4, 2011 to see what looks to be a fun family film! Starring along side Depp will be the voices of Timothy Olyphant, Abigail Breslin, Bill Nighy, Isla Fisher, Alfred Molina and Ray Winstone. Great cast. Okay now we can talk about the Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas resemblances, mostly the desert setting and flowery shirt. What do you think of Rango?

Against all odds and desire, I have yet to see Zombieland. However, this hasn’t stopped the film from raking in some serious dough, hopefully a sign that more horror comedies will be headed our way.

The $25 million success of the film has led to obvious discussions of a potential sequel. Co-screenwriter Paul Wernicke had this to say on the subject:

“We would love it, and everyone involved creatively wants to do another one. Woody [Harrelson] came up to us after the final cut of the last scene and gave us a hug and said, ‘I’ve never wanted to do a sequel in the previous movies I’ve done until this one.’ “

Wernick and Rhett Reese plan to return to write a sequel if Zombieland 2 gets greenlit, and they claim that Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin and director Ruben Fleischer all have interest in a sequel.

“It has lived in our heads for four-and-a-half years,” Wernick said. “We developed it and wrote it as a spec TV pilot in the summer of 2005. We’ve got a long brainstorming document that still to this day gets updated on a near-weekly basis with ideas. We’ve got tons of new ideas swimming in our head.”

If the gang’s all back, I’m all for it. Hopefully Fleischer goes and does another interesting project in the interim though — I hate when talented directors get stuck in the rut of their first film’s success. It works for some (Eli Roth, for example), but many, like Sam Raimi, have the desire to move on to other pastures.

Wernick and Reese have also been working on Venom for Sony.

More news on Zombieland 2 as it develops here on AtomicPopcorn.net!

First of all, it’s all-cards-on-the-table time.  Zombieland is only the third zombie flick I’ve ever seen.  I know,  I know.  I’m sorry.  28 days later and Shaun of the Dead are the other two.  Not even one of the real “Dead” series.  They’re on my Netflix queue and have been for quite some time.  I just haven’t gotten around to them.  Things come up, y’know?  Wha’d’ya do?  I also saw Planet Terror, but I’m nearly done blocking that from my memory so it doesn’t count.  That all being said I got to go to an advance screening of this film, sat down with some popcorn and soda (as is appropriate) and thoroughly enjoyed Zombieland.

Before the film started, a gentleman, I’m assuming from the studio, got up in front of the theater, asked for our attention and told us we were one of the first audiences to see this film.  He said that the film was incomplete and had imperfections that would be fixed before it gets released.  I did notice some CGI that needed work, the color correction wasn’t finished, some night scenes were very grainy, and there may be some editing and music cues that will be fine-tuned.  None of it was really distracting, but I am intrigued to see how different the final product will be.  The CGI that was there looks like the computer jockeys were taking a page from the “Zack Snyder Style of Filming Violence” – extreme slow motion and blood that looks like cherry Jell-O.  Even the opening credits’ style was nearly identical to what Snyder did in Watchmen, except that each vignette shows either a zombie kill or a zombie chase – all set to “Knights of Cydonia” by Muse.  It is effective, so I don’t blame them for ripping it off.  I am led to believe that zombies come in two flavors: fast and suh-low.  The ones in this film are fast, sprinting at people and ripping them apart in gory ways, all while bodily fluids of all disgusting sorts spew from their gaping maws.

Our narrator (yes, there is heavy voiceover throughout the entire film and somewhere Robert McKee is shaking his head) is Jesse Eisenberg as Columbus.  This being Jesse’s second “–land” film of the year, he is making a nice niche of being Michael Sera’s understudy.  However, I prefer Eisenberg over Sera since Sera seems to be unable to get past an awkward stammering shtick.  In this film Jesse does the unconfident shtick but he adds in personality – some heart and some guts added convincingly when the story calls for it.  I see Eisenberg someday being Woody Allen’s alter ego in one of Allen’s films.  When we meet him, Columbus is on his own as the zombie apocalypse has turned everyone he knows into a flesh-eating monster.  Along the way, he has created 32 rules for staying alive.  These rules get posted on the screen as they are used, often to very comic effect.

Before the film gets too far into Omega Man territory, Columbus meets Tallahassee.  All the main characters are named for the cities they come from… or are heading to, it was unclear.  This is supposed to keep them from getting too close to one another in case one of them gets bit and the rest need to put him away.  Woody Harrelson, no doubt summoning Mikey Knox back up from where he lays, plays Tallahassee to Snake Plissken perfection.  He is an unapologetic sociopathic badass with a heart of gold, played to the hilt, and he will go down in history with the best of them.  Pure fun.  As Columbus is being dragged on Tallahassee’s ongoing quest to find one more Twinkie to consume, they meet sisters, Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin).  There are many trust issues between the four survivors that threaten their wobbly alliance throughout the rest of the flick but the girls become the motives for the guys for the rest of the film.

This film is not a horror film – it’s a action/comedy in the Shaun of the Dead vein.  On top of that, it’s a road trip and their destination is wherever they see hope on the horizon.  Wichita and Little Rock are on their way to an amusement park near Los Angeles called Pacific Playland.  It is a place that held good memories for them both and it becomes the main set piece for the finale.  But before getting there they decide to crash in a Beverly Hills mansion they believe is unoccupied.  This leads to one of the funniest parts of the film and one of the best cameos I’ve seen in a long time.  I’ll say no more here, for to do so would spoil the fun.  Suffice it to say this movie is filled with all sorts of pop references which may date the film, but which will not take anything away from it.

Zombies on film are often used as metaphors.  From indictments of the Vietnam War, commentaries on the Civil Rights movement or critiques of our own consumer-based culture, zombies have been stand-ins for many many things.  So what are the filmmakers trying to portray with the undead here?  Thankfully, they obliterate any uncertainty in the last line of the film.  “Without other people, you might as well be a zombie.”  And with that they set up a sequel very nicely.  If it comes, I’ll be there on opening weekend.

Rating: ★★★★½ 

Zombie movies have been one of the staples of horror cinema for years, known best through George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. Horror and comedy rarely make a fine mix; one of the very few exceptions was the 2004 hit Shaun of the Dead. A new film enters that exclusive list, Ruben Fleischer’s Zombieland. Tying in a proper balance of gore and laughs, this movie is blood-gushing roller coaster ride that you will not want to get off of.

The story follows ‘Columbus’ (Jesse Eisenberg), a soft spoken college student who is one of few survivors of what’s better known as Zombieland. Quickly he joins an unlikely group of people, like the zombie-killing machine Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), the seductive Wichita (Emma Stone) and the clever Little Rock (Abigail Breslin).

One of the stronger points of the film is not the comedic timing, but the overall pace. There is not a single dull moment that takes place in this movie, leaving you at the end of it wanting more. The story is predictable to a degree, but with the colorful characters and direction, that does not become much of a factor.

Jesse Eisenberg’s character Columbus is timid yet brave, and he plays it out to its full extent. Even though he’s already well-known for being the soft-spoken hero, his chemistry with the rest of his co-stars works perfectly. Woody Harrelson, taking on the role of the gun-toting Tallahassee, is the most enjoyable part of the film. He’s the crazy bad ass person you love to cheer for as he carries on his quest for the last Twinkie. Emma Stone sticks on as the sassy and strong female lead, bringing her own persona and proving that she is an actress to keep an eye on. Abigail Breslin continues to slowly blossom in her own acting abilities, showing she is well able to hold her own among some more seasoned actors.

Ruben Fleischer proves that he can take the lead, driving us head first into the terrifying alternative present. Though his style may not stand out to an excessive degree, he gets the job done and tells a well-rounded story. The cinematography from Michael Bonvillain worked on all levels, not only in his depiction of this bleak apocalyptic world but the connection of unity (or lack thereof) between the four main characters. The production design from Maher Ahmad was simple yet effective, being able to better showcase the utter chaos that ensues scene after scene after scene throughout the film.

What originally was an all-but-dead time for zombies has re-emerged through comedy with this film. Zombieland packs the laughter, action, and horror all into one movie that has been long overdue.

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

More adventure than Adventureland

In the most ridiculously awesome news of the day, the kind souls at Columbia have released the undead trailer for their upcoming horror-comedy Zombieland.

Directed by Ruben Fleischer and starring Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin, Zombieland takes place in a world overrun by zombies. It’s fiction, just so you know…

Harrelson and Eisenberg (Adventureland) play two dudes who seem to have the keen ability to stay alive in a world run by the living dead. They join forces with two other survivors (Stone and Breslin) and the two teams are forced to work with each other…or face being zombie food.

Zombieland opens in theaters October 9th.

Enjoy the trailer below:

How do you go head to head with one of the summer’s most anticipated blockbuster movies? You do it by crafting a masterpiece on family dynamics that should draw everyone but teenage boys and young adult males. Based on Jodi Picoult’s novel by the same name, My Sister’s Keeper takes you into the family life of a child with cancer. Exploring the boundaries of what is ethical in keeping your child alive, you find yourself wrestling with the choices the family made and wondering what lengths you would go to for your own child.

As Sara (Cameron Diaz) and Brian (Jason Patric) struggle to make the right decisions for their sick child, Kate (Sofia Vassilieva), we see how it affects the other two kids. Older brother Jesse (Evan Ellingson) is the one that gets neglected to the point of basically being invisible. And while younger sister Anna (Abigail Breslin) gets a lot of attention, it isn’t the kind she wants. This leads to the crux of the film as Anna goes to ‘91% successful lawyer’ Campbell Alexander (Alec Baldwin) to sue for medical rights to her own body. It seems Anna is tired of being the living donor keeping her older sister alive.

While this is a poignant, tear-inducing movie for any parent (or anyone who has been touched by cancer or a child’s terminal disease), the brilliance behind the story are the uplifting moments of beauty that are celebrated throughout. From a first boyfriend, to a late in life trip to the beach, the snapshots of life show what it means to live everyday to the fullest instead of simply waiting for the inevitable.

And those snapshots come alive with this cast. Diaz is brilliant as a successful lawyer turned unrelenting advocate for her suffering daughter. Understated performances by Baldwin, and Joan Cusack (as the judge who presides over the case) round out a distinguished cast that keeps this from being just another teary chick flick. And while Breslin continues to show acting skills beyond her years as she did in Little Miss Sunshine, Sofia Vassilieva steals the spotlight. Her presence, and her smile, fills the screen with a joy that breaks through the sorrow of the film with a promise that there is more to life than pain.

Readers of the book will be surprised by some major changes in the story, but I believe they’ll see that the spirit of the book has been captured and released on a movie-going public that will cherish this adaptation. And while there will be some disappointment that there couldn’t be more focus on the father and son dynamic or the lawyer’s role from the book, they’ll have to acknowledge that you simply can’t include everything in a movie. What director Nick Cassavates (The Notebook) leaves out from the book, he makes up for in the careful weaving together of the different points of view and story pieces that tie this tour de force together.

They’ll be plenty of loud, action, summer extravaganzas to check out all season long. Take a break from the sensory overload and go with a friend to remember what really matters: doing life together with the ones we love.

Rating: ★★★★★