Atomic Popcorn brings you yet another Top 10 list! This time we are bring you a list of some of the best on-screen duo’s there are! Below is a list of my top 10 on-screen duo’s of coarse you will have your own opinion. I promise to not use the word chemistry more than 4 times also!

If you all have any 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 what I think are the top 10 on-screen duo’s of recent memory.

10. Ben Affleck & Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting- This unlikely duo of two kids from Boston making a movie based on something they wrote. Well the movie was a hit and the duo are still just that in Hollywood. Damon and Affleck both have a great career both behind and in front of them.

9. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in Bad Boys- who can see these guys without at least humming “Bad Boy Bad Boys, whatcha gonna do?” I know I can’t. A great on screen chemistry between these overly large men. The acting is on par with any action flick but these two bring to the table something special. I think they may be channeling a little something from another of our top 10 contenders for Top 10 Duo’s.

8. John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction – These extremely violent yet stupid criminals made a movie and a career for a certain Director. While these two came onto the scene quietly, they left with a very large bang after this film. Such chemistry and great writing lead these guy’s onto our Top 10 list.

7. Sam and Frodo in LOTR Trilogy – This unlikely duo has melted ring’s around the world. All jokes aside about being gay lovers, this on-screen duo shares a lifetime of pain and love throughout these films. This duo was something that I don’t we had seen on screen in a while. A true chemistry between two guys in the midst of uncertain times.

6. Brad Pitt and George Clooney in the Ocean’s franchise – two of Hollywood’s leading men, leading the charge for some awesome bank robbing. What more can you want from two Joe Cool’s. Great acting, great suave, these two ooze cool.

5. Tyler and The Narrator in Fight Club – Didn’t we just mention Joe Cool above this, well he is back along side Edward Norton as number 5 on our list. These two really gave us a run for our money in Fight Club. Writing aside, the acting between these two made the movie what it is today.

4. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in the Lethal Weapon franchise – oh my, two entirely different people trapped with one another made these two real men of the 80′s. The boys of Lethal Weapon brought to the screen an on-screen chemistry that not many have or will match. The laughs, the tears, the fights, true brothers ended up on screen with these two crazies!

3. Woody and Buzz from the Toy Story franchise – Yes I am well aware that they are artistically enhanced characters. Yes I am also aware I have a animated feature as my number 3. Without a doubt you have to include Tom Hanks and Tim Allen on this list. Starting as fierce rivals for Andy’s love, they have grown into a duo among the best. The interaction and delivery from this duo brings to life what we only know as animated history!

2. Robert Redford and Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting – Suave and complete. The acting and everything that follows and it includes these guys had it and brought it to the screen. These movies are classics for two reason and the two reason are the men above and below this blurb. These guys we looked at the men of men and rightfully so.

1. Steve Martin and John Candy in Planes, Trains and Automobiles – the funny men of the 80′s paired together to bring to the screen one of the best on screen duo’s ever. With Candy gone we can only assume what could of been but this was and is still a great movie. Due in large, or in whole, to these two completely crazy comedians.

Well, it looks like the possibility of a sequel to Independence Day is more than just a rumor. In a recent interview with MTV News, director Roland Emmerich revealed that, while there’s no script as of yet, there is definitely an idea for what the sequel will entail.

Emmerich plans on the sequel having a much larger scope than the original film, and says that the sequel will actually consist of two films that simply pick up where the first left off.

While I’m still skeptical as to how well an Independence Day sequel will play out, it’s reassuring to know that several of the stars from the film have already agreed to reprise their roles for subsequent films. Audiences will get to see Will Smith once again grace the screen as Captain Steve Hiller, and Bill Pullman will return as the president who helped steer the world through its alien invasion.

No plot details have been revealed yet (after all, the film is still in idea mode), but Emmerich did say that the film will not take place in space. According to the director, “It’s always about earth and that earth gets invaded,” so the plan is to keep the film’s action rooted on earth.

An official title for the sequel(s) hasn’t been decided on, but Emmerich’s is currently playing with the title ID4-ever.

More news to come as details are revealed.

There’s no doubt that Will Smith is one of Hollywood’s biggest  power players: he’s one of Tinseltown’s highest paid actors, and if his name is put on a project, chances are pretty good that film is going to do well at the box office.

However, Smith is not one to rest on his laurels and go for easy roles just to bring in the cash. Instead, he’s ever pushing himself forward as an actor, working to expand his repertoire and make his name receive equal accolades for both his comedic and serious work.

His next role will certainly require him to take his acting to the next level.

Smith has signed on with Sony Pictures to produce and star in a modern-day adaptation of Daniel Keyes’s novel Flowers for Algernon. Now, I’m going to have to step aside from the movie part of this for a second to let the book nerd in me address the novel itself for a minute.

If you have not read Flowers for Algernon, you should. It is without a doubt one of the best literary works I have ever read (and I read a lot). It follows the story of Charlie Gordon, a man with an IQ of 68 who volunteers to be a human lab rat for an experimental surgery to increase IQ. The surgery triples Charlie’s IQ, making him significantly more intelligent than those around him, which subsequently leads to him feeling as isolated in the world as he did when his IQ was 68.

The novel raises numerous moral and ethical questions, and even makes the reader look at human nature itself. More importantly though, especially for a screen adaptation, Flowers for Algernon is an incredibly emotionally evocative piece of writing.

It’s told in the form of journal entries by Charlie, starting before his surgery and continuing through the development of his intelligence and his eventual devolution back to low IQ. The writing is made to mirror this progression, starting out with spelling and grammar errors in plain writing before the surgery, and getting more sophisticated as Charlie’s intellect grows.

As Charlie’s intelligence starts to fade away, the reader begins to see errors returning to his writing, and immediately knows Charlie is on a downward descent. This makes the last quarter of the novel absolutely heartbreaking to read.

Now back to the movie. As I said, Flowers for Algernon is going to force Smith to have to take his acting to the next level. Since the movie obviously won’t follow Charlie’s journal entries, Smith is going to have to pour everything he has emotion-wise to make the audience connect to the character to the extent that they can really follow his progression and then relapse.

Smith has been nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor twice (for Ali in 2001, and The Pursuit of Happyness in 2006), but hasn’t yet won. Given the role and content of the story, it’s likely he could see another nod with Flowers for Algernon, and if he can push his acting ability to the brink and really embody Charlie it could even be the role that finally earns him the win.

Flowers for Algernon will be produced by Smith’s production company Overbrook Entertainment, with Polksy Films as well. Tracy Nyberg, an associate producer on Hancock and an assistant to Will Smith on I Am Legend, is also set to produce.

Having recently revisited Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy, I’ve come to the conclusion that that film has a little slice of everything. It has incredibly light humor followed by the darkest of gallows humor,  and then proceeds to toss any funny business aside to strike at some of the darkest themes I’ve ever seen in a film. It’s one of those movies that could only be satisfactorily completed in another country with values and tolerance levels significantly different from our own.

Which is why the idea that Steven Spielberg would be teaming with Will Smith to deliver a remake of the film was a horrible one indeed. There’s no way they could possibly create something as powerful as the original. It just wasn’t feasible in Hollywood.

The great news is that Latino Review is reporting the remake dead in the water, as Spielberg and Smith have jumped ship. If any filmmaker stood a chance at bringing this thing to light, it would have been Spielberg, so I have faith that the beast has truly been slain.

If you’re interested in seeing just what they couldn’t have gotten away with, I encourage you to check out the original film.

I didn’t fall head over heels in love with Tropic Thunder as many other people did; I found it overlong and Jack Black’s performance sucked all the air out after Robert Downey Jr. would fill it up again. That’s not to say it’s bad. It’s really very good, just not mind-blowing.

One film that was very very bad was Men in Black 2, which rehashed every element of the first Will Smith/Tommy Lee Jones vehicle and halved the amount of laughs.

So, the news that Tropic Thunder scribe Etan Cohen (also responsible for the criminally underrated Idiocracy) will be taking over screenwriting duties for Men in Black 3 is definitely good news for the franchise. What isn’t good news is that so far, Smith and Jones haven’t signed deals to return. Maybe it’s time for new actors to fill the MiB shoes, but somehow I think I’d miss these two far too much.

However, there’s hope: Variety states that it’s fairly unlikely that Columbia Pictures would greenlight the project without the involvement of Will and Tommy Lee.

It often happens that movies that seem to end on a nicely wrapped up note still leave that slight dangling thread from which a sequel could potentially be weaved. This does not, however, mean that filmmakers should grab the opportunity to do so.

Independence Day is one such film that should be left alone. In 1996, writer and director Roland Emmerich gave audiences an action-packed movie that left us cheering for humanity, while also leading us to wonder about what would happen if aliens ever did attack earth.

After Jeff Goldblum’s computer genius and Will Smith’s flying skills give armies around the world the opportunity to take down the alien invaders, humans achieve victory, the aliens are blown to bits, the world is saved, and the 4th of July takes on a new significance. Although we can ponder what happens to the film’s characters after earth’s near-destruction, for the most part Emmerich gave his audience a rather tidy ending.

Still, Emmerich has written a sequel to Independence Day, and is currently in talks with 20th Century Fox to work out the production specifics. Considering that the film ended with the aliens being destroyed, after having left their own ravished planet, one has to wonder what a sequel could entail. It wouldn’t make sense for more aliens to return, and does anyone really want to see a movie about David/Jeff Goldblum getting back together with his ex-wife? Or Captain Hiller/Will Smith’s newlywed years with his exotic dancing bride? What does that leave Emmerich to work with?

The biggest issue the sequel is facing as far as production goes, though, is the financial aspect.

Will Smith is one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood, largely because he receives a cut of the profits from every movie he does. Because of this, FOX is hesitant to cast Smith in his original role, a decision that would severely damage the chance of an Independence Day 2 being any good at all.

For now, the possibility of Independence Day 2 remains just that– a possibility. Personal opinion is that it should stay as such, but if it does go forward, it’ll be interesting to see whether they can manage to make a movie that is anywhere near the quality of the original.

Just read this at the Hollywood Reporter and I hope it is true. I loved the first two “Bad Boys” movies and think they are great action flicks and some of the best mindless fun I’ve seen on the big screen.

Columbia Pictures is developing a third installment of the high-octane “Bad Boys” franchise, tapping Peter Craig to pen the screenplay.

The hope is to have a script that would reunite director Michael Bay, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. At this point, with the project in the early stages, none has a deal to return.

The “Boys” movies feature Smith and Lawrence as Miami detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett, caught up in cases involving car chases and explosions.

The first “Boys,” released in 1995, helped launch Bay as a director and Smith as an action star even though it was not a fire-stamped blockbuster — it grossed $66 million domestically and $141 million worldwide.

The sequel, released in 2003 when Bay and Smith’s stars had risen, grossed $138 million domestically and $273 million worldwide.

All parties have expressed a willingness to return if a story can be hammered out. One potential hurdle, however, would be the costly deals with the players.

Yes ladies and gentlemen, you can expect to see Will Smith return in a sequel to Hancock. You have ample time to develop a sense of enthusiasm and cross your fingers for a more interesting and dynamic film than the first.

Director Peter Berg has been talking up ideas for the sequel since the original was released, and now two screenwriters have been hired by Columbia Pictures to sculpt this vision: The Shield and Dexter writer Adam Fierro and, also from The Shield, Glen Mazzara.

While the first film gathered around $600 million dollars, it was because of the star power of Will Smith and not the quality of the script, which was tainted and neutered from its’ original form to deliver a more accessible and mainstream picture. Hopefully these writers will be able to take the concept of Hancock (which is actually quite a good idea) and take it in more interesting directions.

It’ll be a while before this project sees the light of day — both the star and director are incredibly sought after individuals. However, as the script gets developed, I’m sure tidbits will be revealed along the way.