Analysts are calling for this one to open at $10 million or less, but I think they have it wrong.  It’s going to open bigger than that.  Nothing crazy like ‘#1 at the box office’, but it won’t be dismissed as just a teen faith based story of hope – it arguably has all the elements the teen, tween and beyond crowd is looking for; a haunting sense of doom as you inevitably witness the shark bite that takes her arm for their horror craving.  For the sexual appeal side, there is a plethora of incredibly gorgeous surfing hotties (both male and female) led by the heroine of the film although her nemesis in the film is a really close second.  For the religious side there is definitely a message of faith (albeit carried by another character).  And finally for the romance side there’s a playful and endearing courting.  All the elements you need to squeeze into the $15-20 million neighborhood while simultaneously appealing to a wider demographic than church goers.

Soul Surfer is the ‘ripped from the headlines’ story of courageous surfer girl Bethany Hamilton, who after losing her arm from a shark attack, manages to find a center in herself, family and friends and through a steadfast belief in Christ.  Determined to make a comeback from the attack, her faith and community’s support, help her to do and learn, so much more.

Surprisingly this film had some really great production value.  Sure the guys and gals in rock hard bodies were easy and inexpensive to come by, but the wiping effects to hide Bethany’s arm were reminiscent of Bob Zemeckis’ work in 1994’s Forrest Gump when he managed to make actor Gary Sinise’s (Lt. Dan) legs vanish.  It wasn’t until deep in the 3^rd act that you started to question the effects integration of the true life actors over the surfers bodies.   The camerawork focused on following the surfers through and under the waves was top notch though, and sometimes had me gasping.

AnnaSophia Robb (Jumper) does a great job of looking the part, but not playing the part but I think that was most in part to how the film limited the religious side of Bethany, the character she portrays.  Although faith is definitely noticeable throughout the film, it’s never a defined portion of it or in Bethany’s character.  In reality, the real Bethany admits the film takes license here as she was much more pronounced in her beliefs (praying daily and before tournaments, even with her family at night).  The film seems to relegate the moral Christian compass to singer Carrie Underwood who portrays church leader Sarah Hill.

Still it never focuses on religion.  It’s never a pervasive or focused point of the film and for Director Sean McNamara, I take my hat off – that’s not easy to do.  Where I take issue with the film is with its encapsulation of the true storyline.   The transitions are too hurried at times and don’t give the audience a chance to truly believe and feel the accomplishments as they play out.  At one point in the film, Bethany aids a small child from a tsunami ravaged country in such an endearing way, but it’s lost behind the belief that she could have accomplished a bond in such a short span of screen time.  Add to that, what I perceived to be, a lack of depth from Bethany’s character.  Her transition to a deeper level of faith seemed like a default maneuver due to lack of options, and less because it was religiously motivated by her faith.

It’s got great bodies, great waves, and a very lush and vivid view of the Hawaiian Islands.  It looks good thanks to AnnaSophia and newcomer Sonya Balmores who portrays Malina Birch; Bethany’s chief competition.   It plays well thanks to strong performances by Helen Hunt as Bethany’s mother and Dennis Quaid as her father. (Slight spoiler:) It has a story of hope at its core, and you will walk away with a great montage of the real life Bethany within a rolling pictorial during the end credits which accomplishes in minutes what the actual film couldn’t do in an hour and forty.

3 Stars out of 5.

Soul Surfer is rated PG for an intense accident sequence and some thematic material.  Running Time: 106 minutes

Movies are never just movies. For most of us there’s the poster first, then the trailer, finally the movie. Sometimes. if not most of the time, there will be multiple versions of the posters and trailers before we see the movie. The movie is what it is – or is it? The posters and trailers have the ability to change our perception of what the movie is before we’ve seen the movie. How many times have you seen a really good-looking poster and thought “I wanna see that movie!” only to be disappointed by a film that didn’t live up to the poster’s representation? After all isn’t that what the poster and trailer are supposed to do, for better or worse, represent the product they’re pitching?

Of course there are also those times when a poster (this happens all too often, usually involves a head on a CG body) or a trailer convinces you to not see the movie? For me the best example would be the trailer for Frequency starring Jim Caviezel and Dennis Quaid. I saw the trailer and immediately knew I didn’t want to see the movie. Eventually I did see the movie, and enjoyed it! I hope whoever put that trailer together got a lot of grief for making an entertaining movie look so bad.

Why am I talking about this? Because I finally watched In the Loop. This is a movie that hit the trifecta – great art and trailer both left me foaming at the mouth for the film (although I somehow missed my opportunity in theater) and when I saw the film it lived up to the expectations created by the poster and trailer. Take a look at the poster

and trailer

Please tell me we’re on the same page and you’re expecting something completely Kubrick, a Dr. Strangelove for the new millenium. Admittedly the movie is more Dr. Strangelove meets The Office (not the NBC cute fest, but the original Ricky Gervais laughapalooza); the point is everything delivered on everything! What? The cool poster (I want one for my room!) and the frantic, A Clockwork Orange-ish trailer preceded a very good movie! jackpot! Peter Capaldi was perfectly horrible as the fire-breathing, foul-mouthed boss and possibly the best fictional boss since Gervais’ David Brent. I would love to share some of Capaldi’s lines from the movie but my asterisk key just doesn’t have the stamina! James Gandolfini’s Lt. Gen. George Miller is the orange to Capaldi’s apple, and David Rasche seemingly reprising his role from Burn After Reading (but not really). Where can I get more David Rasche? Rasche is J.K. Simmons good. See In the Loop.

Out of curiosity does anyone know who designed the poster for In the Loop? What are some of your favorite movie posters? What are your favorite movie trailers? Do you know of some other movies that hit my aforementioned ”trifecta?” please share!

This week in “where in God’s name did this come from?”: the red band trailer for the new Paul Bettany apocalyptic action movie Legion has arrived on the scene, looking twisted, bloody and more than a little silly.

The film centers on Bettany’s archangel Michael, who must protect an unborn child who is in effect the second coming of Christ after God “loses faith in humanity.” This is all according to Variety, as details are limited. The cast also includes Dennis Quaid, Kevin Durand, Charles Dutton and Tyrese Gibson.

Legion is scheduled for release on January 22, 2010. It’s directed and written by the Orphanage’s visual effects guru Scott Stewart (along with Peter Schink), so hopefully it turns out to be a more personal project for the budding filmmaker and not a brief volley into the directing field a la the Brothers Strause with Alien vs. Predator: Requiem. Time will tell; we could have the makings of a pretty spiffy action-horror flick on our hands.

View the red band trailer below:

G.I. Joe, where have you been all summer? Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and X-Men Origins: Wolverine failed to deliver the kind of mindless, entertaining fun that summer so often brings while everything else outside of Star Trek has been more concerned with being artistic than enjoyable. It’s strange, scribing those sentences and the ones that will be written considering all the bashing and hate I’ve spewed toward Stephen Sommers ever since he poisoned humanity with Van Helsing. He picked the right year to finally make a decent film; Sommers not only beat, but destroyed Michael Bay at his own game. Yes, as much of a shock as this will be to some of you, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is not the worst film ever made. In fact, it’s the G.I. Joe movie one imagines when playing with action figures as a boy.

Sommers not only beat, but destroyed Michael Bay

Back to Sommers though, who (for starters) I owe an apology to. The material is well-suited for him – cheesy, patriotic and bombastic. True, a serious G.I. Joe film would be intriguing. Sommers is able to capture the spirit and tone of the cartoons and comic books. We’re never promised an award-winning plot or artiste acting. Not the product Sommers wants to deliver to us. He provides us with exactly what we wanted out of all those comics and ‘toons which is good guys and bad guys knocking the hell out of each other. And boy do we get plenty of that, as G.I. Joe assaults with one exciting action scene after another, giving just enough time for everyone to catch his breath before ramping things back up again. The much hyped Paris scene doesn’t disappoint and maintains a perfect thrill ride of an action sequence. Missiles whiz by, men jump over and through trains and mayhem ensues. Best of all, the entire thing is coherent and displays some engaging action shots that tell the adrenaline to pump.

Yet with these exciting, thrilling sequences, Sommers is kind enough to let each of the characters have a moment to shine. No one character takes the spotlight from the others as each contributes to taking down the villains in some way, shape or form. For instance in the last battle, one can easily follow who’s fighting who and who’s doing what. Snake Eyes has an epic showdown with Storm Shadow, Duke chases down Cobra Commander and Destro, Ripcord has to save D.C. and Moscow, while Heavy Duty destroys Cobra subs left and right. Sommers allows the characters to all be unique so we know who’s on screen, and it’s not carbon copies of Duke or General Hawk. It’s not a case of getting to know a main character, but knowing who is who and how different purposes mesh. Quite honestly, this is a pretty good example of how to handle a film that deals with a team working together.

Taking a deeper look at the team, most of the actors fit like a glove and, like in Paramount’s other great summer film, they help to elevate the movie. The biggest surprise comes in the form of Marlon Wayans’ Ripcord who actually has some form of a screen presence. Known for his comedy stylings, Wayans keeps it in check here and delivers a solid leading performance. The movie, for many fans, will rest on how Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow are portrayed. Fear not, both are handled exceptionally well, especially Ray Park’s turn as the mute ninja. Unfortunately he’s only in a handful of scenes but by the same token, he gets the best stuff to do. Essentially, Park is in Darth Maul-mode but that doesn’t make Snake Eyes any less of a performance. While the film doesn’t delve into her romance with the aforementioned ninja, Rachel Nichols just feels right as Scarlett. She’s tough when she needs to be, sassy when she needs to be, and sexy at all times. Rounding them out is Dennis Quaid, who hams it up to just the right degree as General Hawk.

On the Cobra side of things, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Cobra Commander. He was a worry going into the picture, but he comes out as the best of all the Cobra operatives by far. He’s menacing and recreates the voice long-time fans are accustomed to without having it sound too over-the-top. Christopher Eccelston holds his own as Destro, although he’s really a downgrade compared to what Gordon-Levitt is doing. Eccelston is still enjoyable, but hardly menacing or conniving. His main squeeze (The Baroness) will surely take away the breath of any male left by Rachel Nichols. Sienna Miller’s fine here, even when she’s not being sexy (which she excels at in this picture). Lee Byung-hun compliments the great work by Ray Park as Snake Eyes’ rival Storm Shadow, never playing the character with angst but a competent coldness. Arnold Vosloo is pure gold as Zartan.

With all of these fine performances on hand, the one who messes up the worst is Channing Tatum. He was originally against doing the film and maybe it should have stayed that way. He’s the John Cena of this group, always showing one emotion and only two or three tones of voice. He’s a tough sell as Duke largely due to Tatum’s complete lack of screen presence. If that’s not enough, he doesn’t have any of the aura of command that the role of Duke needs. The film doesn’t necessarily need it, as it does focus on the team, but it lacks the presence of the other strong protagonists. Duke is just there, admiring all the cool stuff and going along with the flow like his audience. The difference, though, is that he needs to be engaging. We don’t.

Having finally seen the movie, it’s a letdown that Paramount handled things like they did. Understandably it was a troubled production as the trailers didn’t excite anyone and the accelerator suits were huge turn-offs. They had the film they wanted with Revenge of the Fallen and it’s entirely possible The Rise of Cobra will perform better with critics and audiences. It should, as it has some top-notch effects (surprising for Sommers, who usually goes cheap), and some of the most engaging action of the summer.

That’s what G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is at the core. Pure dumb fun, this is the G.I. Joe film fans want and should come away happy with. It doesn’t mask what it is, and that works in the movie’s favor. After Terminator Salvation, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen it’s time for a movie to come and keep to the basics of stupid fun. The boy (or girl) in all of us will want to proclaim it the greatest movie that ever happened and it’s good to know these type of films still exist. Welcome back, Dumb Fun Action Film. This summer’s needed and missed you.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

The Horsemen starring Dennis Quaid

Focus Features has released the crazy freaky trailer for The Horsemen, a new film starring Dennis Quaid. In case you aren’t aware, The Horsemen is in reference to the 6th chapter of Revelations. Watch the trailer and see below for more info on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are described in just eight verses of the book of Revelation, which is the last book in the bible. The four horsemen appear when the Lamb (Jesus) opens the first four seals of a scroll with seven seals (which is described in Revelation chapter 6). As each of the first four seals are opened a different coloured horse and its rider is seen by the apostle John as described in Rev 6:1-8.

The Four Horsemen are as follows:

a white horse appears, its rider held a bow (conquest)

a red horse appears, its rider holds a sword (war)

a black horse appears, its rider holds a pair of scales (famine)

a pale horse appears, its rider is called Death

The Horsemen is directed by Swedish filmmaker Jonas Åkerlund. Focus Features will give us The Horsemen in theaters on March 13th.

Well all of the below have been strewn about the internet as of yesterday, I thought I would wait just a bit for the cast to come together. Below is what we have so far. GI Joe is due to hit theaters on August 7th 2009. So we shall see how much will change by then.

Marlon Wayans as Ripcord

Channing Tatum as Duke

Sienna Miller as The Baroness (Hottie!)

Dennis Quaid as General Hawk (Nice Beret)

Saïd Taghmaoui as Breaker

Byung-hun Lee as Storm Shadow

Chris Eccleston as Destro

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Heavy Duty (Echo is that you?)

What do you think? I am not impressed and it looks to be alittle on th cheesy side if you ask me! Thanks goes out to /Film for the link gathering!!

Click the photos for the direct links to the exclusive pics.