Today, we have got the first images from Dreamworks upcoming fall sci-fi drama, Real Steel for you. From the looks of things, everyone’s favorite X-man, Hugh Jackman is playing Mickey to a giant battling bot’s Rocky. The pics showcase some of the sets and the look of the robots that will appear in the film.

The plot? It really is an underdog story with a basic character arc that we have seen before (and the kind that John G. Avidsen was more than happy to give us back in the 70’s/80’s); the retired athlete who gets his chance to reconnect with his family and his former life when he bets his cards on a darkhorse up-and-comer.

The big switch here is that the ex-boxer’s meal ticket is a giant battling robot, a discarded model that Jackman’s Charlie will rebuild and train with his estranged son (Dakota Goyo) in a future world where mechanical fighters have replaced human one’s in the boxing ring.  

Eerily reminiscent of an old Twilight Zone episode with Lee Marvin (incidentally titled ‘Steel’) and more than a little evocative of the old table-top game, Rock’em, Sock’em, Robots’, Real Steel has ‘Date Night’ director Shawn Levy in the driver’s seat, and joining Jackman is a cast that will include Evangeline Lily, Kevin Durand, Hope Davis, Anthony Mackie and James Rebhorn.

Will it work? Hard to say. The pics give us a little of the flavor of the film, including Jackman giving instructions to his bot, ‘Noisy Boy’, who is apparently about to go up against ‘backroom brawler’ Midas. Not sure where this falls within the film’s structure, but I imagine it’s one of those early fights that establishes the underdog nature of this team-up. The second pic shows Levy and Jackman discussing a scene on the same set, which is ‘Crash Palace’, an underground robot fight club that is probably the equivalent of seedy street fights in more human-themed fighting films.

Jackman has an erratic history when it comes to sci-fi/fantasy films. He’s done some really interesting and odd pictures like The Prestige and The Fountain, and then he’s also cashed paychecks with the likes of Van Helsing and the last two X-Men movies. Which will Real Steel be?

Sci-fans eager to find out will just have to wait until November 18^th, 2010 when Real Steel releases nation wide. Stay tuned to Atomic Popcorn for the first trailer of the film later this year.

Oh my goodness, my inner five-year-old (who is always quite present) is absolutely giddy right now.

The last couple of months have seen screen adaptations of a couple of my favorite childhood books: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and Where the Wild Things Are. Now, another of my childhood staples is hitting the big screen.

I remember my parents reading me a different Berenstain Bears book almost every night before going to bed, complete with different voices for each of the characters and the occasional insertion of mine and my brother’s names in place of Sister Bear and Brother Bear.

Now, the beloved family of The Berenstain Bears is getting its own feature film, courtesy of Walden Media who recently acquired the movie rights to the series.

Clearly, my inner five-year-old is filled with sentimental excitement.

For those of you who happen to be unfamiliar with the series, The Berenstain Bears is a series of books following Mama Bear, Papa Bear, Brother Bear and Sister Bear as they encounter various life issues. Each book tackles a different issue, ranging from everything from cheating on tests to healthy eating habits to dealing with envy.

The books present the issues in a way that’s accessible and understandable for kids, and leaves them with a moral message to take away from what they’ve read.

Walden Media’s goal with the film is to create a family friendly comedy that mixes live action and CGI characters. I’ll be curious to see how well they manage to capture the look of the bears in a medium so different from the classic look we all know and love.

The movie will be produced under Shawn Levy’s (director of the Night at the Museum films) 21 Laps Banner along with Nelvana, the producer of the PBS cartoon series of The Berenstain Bears.

Since the series was created by Stan and Jan Berenstain in 1962, 250 Berenstain Bears titles have been published, with over 260 million books sold. The series has already seen television adaptations with various NBC specials in the ’70s and ’80s, as well as two animated series.

Some news just fails to make any sense to me. The immensely talented Hugh Jackman is currently in discussions with Shawn Levy, studio-led director behind Night at the Museum, The Pink Panther and Cheaper by the Dozen, to star in Real Steel.

Variety discusses the concept behind the film as:

“A Rocky-esque tale of a fighter who has to reinvent himself when human boxing becomes obsolete, replaced by 2000 pound human-like robots. Jackman is negotiating to play the ex-fighter, who becomes a Robot Boxing promoter, but whose chances of success are hampered by his access to sub-standard robot parts.”

This sounds like super-hokey family science fiction, with a strange marriage of genres. The original concept was engineered by genre writer Richard Matheson, creator of I Am Legend. In any director’s hands, I’d be expecting at least a creative hodgepodge of ideas, but with Levy helming the film, we’re almost guaranteed something bland. Real Steel is being co-written by John Gatins, the brilliant mind behind Meet Dave, Norbit and … Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings!?

The film will be executive produced by Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis. Details on Real Steel here on AtomicPopcorn as the project develops.

Check out the pics of Tina Fey and Steve Carell on the set of their upcoming comedy, Date Night. Taken during production in downtown Manhattan, you can see the hilarious (HILARIOUS!) duo as they embark on their date. Might I suggest that Mr.Carell is trying to tip a man. Wacky stuff there. Wacky.

Date Night is directed by A Night at the Museum 1-2 director Shawn Levy and also stars Mark Wahlberg, James Franco, Taraji Henson, Kristen Wiig, Ray Liotta (the list keeps going), Mila Kunis and, of course, Mark Ruffalo. The film is due out next summer.

Source: Coming Soon

This wasn’t supposed to happen. A sequel to a mildly amusing family adventure flick isn’t supposed to be funny, entertaining and easily the most delightful film seen this year, yet, despite nearly the same plot from its predecessor and most of the same jokes, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian is a blast. But please, the sequel to 2006′s mammoth hit Night at the Museum (it made over half a billion worldwide, not counting DVD sales), is world class summer fare, not to be confused with anything artsy or deep. Instead, its mayhem keeps its target in mind and presents not only silliness and an upsurd amount of witticisms, but a good dose of historical education to boot.

Getting their adventure on.

Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) is back, yet this time he’s successful. When his needless gadget company is booming, Larry is knee-deep in Blackberry calls and business suits. But the perils of success makes lovable Larry a sad sack. Lucky for him, his former posse made up of Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams), mini Jed (Owen Wilson), mini Octavius (Steve Coogan) and the Huns and Neanderthals, are there to point it out. However, Larry’s absence in the museum has left the exhibits without an advocate, forcing them to be replaced with technologically advanced features like a buggy holographic President Teddy. The exhibits next stop? Buried in the Federal Archives -a basement- at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C.

Shortly before yet another late night business meeting, Larry receives a mysterious call from Jed screaming about Egyptian pharaoh Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria) coming back to life. Quickly, Larry embarks to D.C. and discovers what the ruckus is. As he soon learns, the Tablet of Akmenrah has brought back to life some of history’s greatest villains including Ivan the Terrible (Christopher Guest), Al Capone (Jon Bernthal) and Napoleon (Alain Chabat). With his friends in grave danger, Larry, alongside Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams), works towards ridding the world of Kahmunrah before he unleashes his army of the dead. Sounds treacherous, but with a giant stone Abe Lincoln on your side, who can be against you?

While Stiller is in vintage form, easily the break-out performances are courtesy of Amy Adams and Hank Azaria. Adams, through her exuberant charm, makes any scene that is lucky enough to include her, instantly better. Azaria not only plays Kahmunrah hilariously, but pulls voice duty on The Thinker (who turns out to be a meathead) and Honest Abe, who turns Battle of the Smithsonian into his own playground. SNL funnyman Bill Hader as General Custer is humorous though, tragically for the notorious scene-stealer, winds up being more annoying that pleasant.

As fun as Shawn Levy’s film is, viewers can not escape the fact that in order to get the Smithsonian’s approval to film in the museum, certain measures had to be taken. Namely, it was turning the film into a giant advertisement. This pales in comparison to other features that blatantly showcase Coke cans in every scene or that every citizen has been assigned a Ford to drive. That aside, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian is one fun drive through popcornville.

Movies like the film in question are pretty critic proof. What my review is for anyone over the age of ten is more of a survival guide even though I’m approaching it like I do every film. Kids are going to want to see it and most parents aren’t going to bring them to the latest action spectacle. It’s bigger than the first film, certainly throws in as many historical references as it can, and has two monkeys join in on slapping Ben Stiller around as opposed to just one. Night at the Museum: Part Deux is a family film through and through, and doesn’t care if the parents in the audience will know it.

For those parents, brothers, sisters, and whoever that will be dragged into this, you have someone you can enjoy who gets a fair amount of screen time. This woman (along with Cyclops) made a Disney film from two years ago much more enjoyable than it needed to be. Amy Adams lights up the screen with enough sass and spunk to create one of the best performances of the summer with her take on Amelia Earhart. The girl is really picking her battles well and it’s now time she gets more starring roles in bigger films as she could make Twilight almost bearable. She may very well be one of the best actresses working today as she seems to have an understanding on how to create characters and make them flow with the film. Assisting her is Bill Hader’s very fun take on General George Armstrong Custer. He’s shallow and dim-witted which is a nice change from what we’re used to seeing from him. Steve Coogan returns as Octavius and delights the screen with comedic nobleness that is really harmless. Coogan is becoming one of the forgotten comedic talents of the screen and he’s no different here.

Too bad most of the cast isn’t as interesting as the ones mentioned above. Ben Stiller can be golden, but he’s as lifeless as the statues that surround him in this movie. He shifts through scene to scene without any personality or charm. It’s rugged to see him against Adams in their romance scenes as she carries the both of them. A colleague of mine suggested he’s created a new persona in bland do-gooder and I have to agree with him. The worst offender is a man who normally isn’t this bad, and that’s Hank Azaria. He plays three roles in this as The Thinker, the Abe Lincoln statue, and the part I’m targeting, Kah Mun Rah. Every time he speaks one hopes a Spartan comes to life so he’s murdered in glorious Zack Snyder fashion (which the film actually parodies.) Partially it’s due to the film extending every joke to the point of annoyance, but Azaria thinks he’s a statue of Liberace than a would-be Pharaoh. He gets two of the three characters he plays so well, and mucks up the main one so terribly he should carry rocks for renovations to the pyramids. The rest of the players are serviceable, with Robin Williams return to Teddy Roosevelt being fine. Owen Wilson is in Shanghai mode here, which isn’t bad while Ricky Gervais does a decent if stereotypical of the museum owner.

The movie is billed as a family comedy and it’s disheartening to say that for the adults much is left to be desired. There’s a silly gag involving Ben Stiller’s Larry Daley touching, talking and stealing one of his friends to the annoyance of Kahmunrah. It garners some chuckles at first but it overstays it’s welcome much like an unnecessary bit involving everyone BUT Ben Stiller catching onto Amy Adams being infatuated with him. The other jokes are just a lot of been there, done that seem to be in every single family comedy released. Really though, it’s not worth analyzing as is the supremely numb story that’s present. Yes, the film is what it is and it shouldn’t matter but this makes no bones about it’s predictability and sending everyone home happy. Although I do admit, the end of the movie is pretty interesting to the least. Being fair, director Shawn Levy and writers Thomas Lennon & Robert Ben Garant don’t do terrible work with this picture. They just don’t do anything memorable or exciting to engage the older patrons.

The film is marketed towards kids and on that account it gets the job done. For the adults, only the beautiful Amy Adams the reason they’ll be able to make it out of this one unscathed. The overall film isn’t anything atrocious and it does it’s job well to please the families. This isn’t a movie one can hate and call it the worst piece of poop to ever happen to the galaxy and the kids will be entertained at the very least. On that note it’s a harmless film and a success, albeit it fails to have any life of it’s own just like the statues that embody the halls of the Smithsonian.

Rating: ★★½☆☆ 

Ben Stiller is ready to dawn his security guard outfit again as the sequel to the surprise hit Night at the Museum returns in one of this summer’s anticipated sequels, Night At The Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian. Slapped on down below is the latest TV spot for the upcoming comedic flick directed once again by Shawn Levy. In this latest adventure, security guard Larry Daley infiltrates the Smithsonian Institute in order to rescue Jedediah and Octavius, who have been shipped to the museum by mistake. In this is a ton of appearances by historical figures, including Darth Vader? When was Darth Vader a huge piece of regular history (not movie wise), unless were all actually living on Alderaan. Take a look below at the clip and let us know what you think.

Night At The Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian is set to release on May 22 in theaters and IMAX everywhere.

Check out the video after the jump: