Atomic Popcorn brings you an instant classic, The Fighter. Staring Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg, you cannot lose on this. I am calling awards season already!!

Don’t miss out on this one, it will be the one to see.

Synopsis:

The Fighter tells the story of Boston fighter “Irish” Micky Ward and how he was helped to the world lightweight championship by half-brother Dicky Eklund. Eklund once decked Sugar Ray Leonard and went the distance against the boxing legend before forfeiting his career to drugs and crime. He redeemed himself by training Ward through his Rocky-like run to the title.

Trailer:

CLICK HERE FOR YOUR PASS:

Secret Code:

ATOMIC9XLZ

Make sure you check out our other free screenings in the Baltimore Area.

There’s something magical about the buddy cop genre, so it’s fitting that ‘The Other Guys’ conjures up the perfect mix of laughs, action, titillation, and redemption the genre is known for.  Posing as the ultimate parody to the buddy cop theme, ‘Other Guys’ hits theatres this weekend and will be #1 with a bullet (So far, I’m 9 for 10 on that call).

Spinning the action-buddy line on its head like a top, the film follows the exploits (or lack thereof) of the lesser known members of a city crime unit.  Detectives Hoitz & Gamble battle the boredoms of office life while watching the precincts superstars (portrayed to tongue-in-cheek perfection by Samuel Jackson & Dwayne Johnson) hog the headlines and glory.  When a perp chase goes wrong and the heroes are lost – it’s up to the other guys, Hoitz & Gamble to solve the city’s crimes.  Enter David Ershon (Steve Coogan – Tropic Thunder), a buffoonish but loveable money manager embroiled in a scheme to bilk billions out the state and guarded by a CIA style hit squad that’s seemingly conflicted with protecting or killing him.  The detectives follow a series of gum drop clues on their way to solving one of the biggest cases in the city’s history.

What’s great about the film are its alternated references to truly great past cop movies.  From clichéd explosions mocking the Lethal Weapon franchise, to its spin on the grit of daily cop life like The French Connection, the parodies of them all are executed with really good laughs.  The visual transitions to show progression of a plot situation are inventive and vivid.  The 2^nd act includes a montage to a great night out with the boys and it is a true gut-buster.   Hoitz’s character portrayed by Mark Wahlberg (Boogie Nights, The Happening) is a polar opposite of the tough Sgt. Dignam he portrayed in ‘The Departed.”  Gamble, delivered insanely well (as expected) by Will Ferrell (Elf, Stranger Than Fiction).  Ferrell’s character wrestles with a past as a business manager for ladies of the night, and his ability to deliver a performance of steady progression back to the dark side of that job is priceless.

An outstanding supporting cast round out the film including Eva Mendes (2 Fast 2 Furious) slinking throughout the film as Gamble’s wife Sheila.  A buxom successful doctor who seemingly enjoys a life of cow-towing to Gamble’s excessive and unrealistic home-life demands.  Even through the subterfuge of misguided affection on his part, the two still manage to produce a believable dynamic of a loving couple; and bless Sheila’s poor mother who is forced to courier a lurid series of exchanges for the two.  Aged, but still on his game is Michael Keaton as the precinct Captain.  It was refreshing to see him as a leader of men, but oddly eye-opening to see just how much he’s aged.

Past collaborator for Ferrell, Adam McKay helms this spoof on big action.   He’s had plenty of experience with Ferrell having written, produced or starring in past hits like ‘Talladega Nights,” and “Ron Burgundy, Anchorman.”  He does a fantastic job of tapping back into Ferrell’s talent and produces a genuinely perverse, likeable and rage filled fellow.  You won’t walk away thinking you just saw the best buddy movie of the year, but you will get a surprise or two in the plot and a steady stream of gags and laugh lines.  Stay in your seats at the conclusion to get a PowerPoint style slideshow of statistics on corporate greed and government tolerance.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

The Other Guys is rated PG-13 for sequences of crude and sexual content, language, violence and some drug material.

Any of you like to laugh? Do you find Will Ferrell highly entertaining? Do you like his shtick? Well here is your chance to possibly wet your pants a little bit in a dark theater next to a stranger!

You are invited, by Atomic Popcorn, to join us for Sony’s upcoming comedy, THE OTHER GUYS, starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg.

For all of you that need a laugh out there, here is the synopsis of the film:

NYPD Detectives Christopher Danson and P.K. Highsmith (Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson) are the baddest and most beloved cops in New York City. They don’t get tattoos – other men get tattoos of them. Two desks over and one back, sit Detectives Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell) and Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg). You’ve seen them in the background of photos of Danson and Highsmith, out of focus and eyes closed. They’re not heroes – they’re “the Other Guys.”

But every cop has his or her day and soon Gamble and Hoitz stumble into a seemingly innocuous case no other detective wants to touch that could turn into New York City’s biggest crime. It’s the opportunity of their lives, but do these guys have the right stuff?

Now to wet your pants, Ferrell style:

How to Enter:

1. Join our mailing list here. You must verify your subscription!
2. Fill in the form below.

The only rule is that we will not be allowing multiple signups from the same family to sign up for our screenings any longer. You have 1 admit-two pass per family. The first 50 folks to sign up will get the tickets!

THIS SCREENING IS NOW FULL. THANKS!

Make sure you check out our other free screenings in the Baltimore Area.

Atomic Popcorn brings you yet another Top 10 Tuesday! This time we are bring you a list of some of the best chase scenes around. While most of us think about chase scenes involving cars, I have added a few to my list of chases without cars. While this list begs for more attention, I think i have highlighted some of the best there is, and I ask for your additions to this list.

I am aiming to have this column be something in which we can talk about and struggle with coming up with the best of the best for that Tuesday’s topic.

If you all have ideas for a top 10 list or want to see something specific send us an email at top10@atomicpopcorn.net and we will try and get it up here for you!

Without further ado – here is our Top 10 Chase Scenes. Enjoy!

10. Mad Max -What more can you say about this one, a true Gibson classic.

9. Matrix Reloaded – I can only find half of it online, but only half of it still garners a top 10 spot!

8. Gone in 60 seconds – This is the ORIGINAL baby!

7. Tranporter 3 Bike Chase – Yes I am well aware that this is on a bike and can’t possibly happen, but it’s fun as hell to watch.

6. Bullitt – Featuring Steve “badass” McQueen.

5. James Bond The Spy Who Loved Me – Skiing anyone? The Winter Olympics should be proud!

4. Enemy of the State – this still holds up as a great flick along with some great chase scenes. If you can find the full chase scene let me know -

3. Casino Royale – Madagascar in HD! Enjoy it.

2. Italian Job – chase scene -The Original !

1. Ronin – watch and have fun!

As a big fan of Peter Jackson it pains me to say this. The Lovely Bones simply doesn’t work.

Based on a dreamy, meditative book by Alice Sebold, Bones is the very definition of an unfilmable property. On paper it is the haunting story of a 14-year-old girl who is raped and murdered by a man in her neighborhood, and then watches the resulting effect this has on her mother, father and younger sister. Author Sebold, herself a victim of rape, created a phantasmal dreamscape for Susie to inhabit after she’s dead; not Heaven, but a kind of ephemeral waiting room, referred to as the ‘in-between’ by those already there.

On film and in the hands of a director as literal as Jackson (this is the same guy who once evaporated hordes of zombies with a push mower) Lovely Bones seems far too passive and breezy to account for its most sinister and disarming scene; Susie’s death at the hands of her murderer, played by Tucci as an uncomfortably sleazy pedophile stereotype. Jackson handles it with a delicate touch and doesn’t show anything terribly disturbing, but all of the surrounding details generate their own queasiness.

The technical achievements of the film are hard to argue with. The cinematography by Andrew Lesnie is spellbinding and lush and it captures such lyrical scenes as Susie’s father staring at a flickering candle and wondering if his daughter might be nearby, or Susie’s moments late in the film where she’s reaches beyond the grave to experience a few stolen moments of adolescent pleasure. The visual effects in the ‘in-between’ are also well done and relatively imaginative. Unfortunately there’s nothing for the filmmakers to grasp because in Sebold’s prose this afterlife is little more than a plot device.

The result is a series of computer-generated images that feel like a music video instead of a functioning and expansive dream world. The score by Brian Eno may be the element of the film most capable of standing on its own, but it fails to really add much commentary on the rest. Jackson’s directing has always been expressive and immediate. When he’s staging a fantasy battle between monstrous armies or a giant gorilla and hungry dinosaurs he can deliver the goods like nobody’s business. Here, where a softer, more thoughtful touch is required, he ends up decimating moments that were awkward to begin with.

On the acting front, there are some great performances on display. Saoirse Ronan proves she has the potential to become a great actress, and I hope that Jackson finds a use for her elfin features and charming persona in one of the upcoming Tolkien adaptations. As Susie she registers almost immediately and when her life is cut short, so is her character’s impact on the storyline. Wahlberg and Weisz are usually capable actors who usually elevate the films they are in. Here, where their story should be the primary focus, they are pushed to the background and have to settle for capturing small moments of grief and loss. Susan Sarandon as the hippie grandmother and Stanley Tucci as the creepy killer fare the worst. They aren’t bad per se, but the movie abuses their effort and they swamp the boat every time they show up. Jackson seems at a loss for what to do with them and when he finds something it feels ham-handed and forced. Tucci’s final moments on the film are inexcusably laughable and bewildering.

After seeing The Lovely Bones and having read its source material, it’s hard to imagine how this one could have been done effectively. When I saw the trailers I hoped that Jackson would be able to give Bones a tone and atmosphere similar to 1994′s Heavenly Creatures, but the whole production just gets away from him. The result is an emotionally empty film that wants to be important but instead comes as off creepier and more pointless than it means to be.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 

Adam McKay’s The Other Guys has quickly developed a great cast. The film centers upon Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (who I maintain has the chops to become an excellent comedic-action actor if given the right material to work with) and Samuel L. Jackson, who play “an elite cop tandem whose exploits are the envy of the department and the second-tier fellow cops played by Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg.” Steve Coogan also plays an unknown role in the cast.

Now we can add two more names to that roster: Andy Buckley and Ben Schwartz. Buckley is known as the real-life financial executive whose part time hobby as an actor led to his casting as Michael Scott’s boss in the American version of The Office, while Schwartz is widely known for Mystery Team, and is soon to be seen alongside Robert De Niro in Everybody’s Fine.

Buckley in particular is a great addition to this cast. His sense of authority and comedic timing could be a wonderful asset to McKay. I can’t wait to see this cast in action.

Mark Wahlberg is getting a taste of Iceland in the newest remake Reykjavik-Rotterdam. Based off of the 2008 film of the same name, Wahlberg takes on the lead role in the newest thriller. The plot centers on a security guard and former alcohol smuggler on the Iceland-Netherlands route who is tempted back into illicit business by a dubious friend after encountering financial problems. Producing under Working Title is Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, while Stephen Levinson produces under Leverage.

The original film is currently in the running to gain a spot on the best foreign film category at this year’s Academy Awards. Along with that, the original won five awards at the Iceland Edda Awards for best director, screenplay, editing, music and sound.

Straight from the creative talents of Peter Jackson comes the latest fantasy thriller, yet another novel adaptation, The Lovely Bones. Starring the wonderful talents of Susan Sarandon, Rachel Weisz, Mark Wahlberg and so on, this is one of the more anticipated films of this fall lineup. Finally jumping its way onto computers everywhere, here is the trailer for you all to enjoy. The film comes out in theaters December 11th.

The Lovely Bones Trailer