I know this summer has been jam-packed with action movies, but I'm always up for more. So here are a few trailers for films that range from action thriller to political action drama.
Rush Hour 3
Of all the sequels this summer, this is probably the one people were barely looking forward to and have already forgotten is on the way. But, Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker do make a good team and you're guaranteed at least great action sequences from Jackie. Not to mention, up and coming action stars are known for appearing in Rush Hour films: Ken Leung (X-Men 3), Zhang Ziyi (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), and now Devon Aoki (Sin City). By the trailer, I can tell there are going to be a lot of references to the first film. ("You go this way, and I'll go that way.") But surely there will be more catch phrases to add to our pop culture repertoire by the end of the summer, especially since it takes place in Paris, which is a breeding ground for racist jokes.
Release Date: Aug. 10th
War
There hasn't been that much press about this film, except for maybe the posters all over the city. However, any movie where British action star Jason Statham battles with any other martial arts expert is bound to at least be full of moments that'll have your eyes popping. His opponent for this film is Jet Li. It's funny, because from the trailer it seems like Li doesn't even get lines. But who's really going for the dialogue. Statham plays an FBI suit who's avenging his partner's murder, and Li plays the ass he's going to kick. I don't know if it's going to be very believable if he beats Li though. Even at the end of The One--which they starred in together--Li's character was just sent to a hell dimension instead of executed. Aside from all the testosterone, Nadine Velasquez ("My Name is Earl") makes her big screen debut and Devon Aoki (Sin City) mooches off of her Japanese heritage to woop some ass. This is, however, the director Philip G. Atwell's first feature film (not to mention the writers' as well). So if Velasquez and Atwell impress the critics they might have budding futures to look forward to.
Release Date: August 24th
3:10 to Yuma
I'm not really a western kind of girl, but it's Christian Bale and Russell Crowe, who's on a combeback mission after his continuous flops (Master and Commander, Cinderella Man, and A Good Year). That just screams intrigue. In this tale, Crowe plays the leader of a gang of outlaws who rob and kill people. Bale plays a volunteer who helps the law bring him to a train station at Yuma, where he'll be taken to his execution. Despite the fact that Crowe's crew is doing everything in its power to kill all the officers and get their leader back, Bale ends up being the only one brave enough to keep going. Ben Foster (X-Men 3) plays Crowe's ruthless right hand man who'll burn men alive just to get him back. If you've seen Hostage, you know he's really good at being bad. Logan Lerman (The Number 23) plays Bale's son who stupidly follows his father on this journey and sees the good in Crowe. Something tells me he'll have to choose between saving his father and saving the outlaw. It stands to make a few bucks.
Release Date: Sept. 7th
Eastern Promises
I literally tremble at the sight of a pissed off Viggo Mortensen (History of Violence). Watching him in his spot-on Russian accent reminds me that it's been a long time since I've seen someone portray a European in a cryptic light convincingly. Even the bad guy in Casino Royale was barely frightful. So, he crushed Bond's balls. Big deal. Mortensen manages to make your skin crawl with just one creepy look. Oh right...the plot. Mortensen plays the extremely violent muscle for a London crime family who's trying to cover up the death of a pregnant girl, and Naomi Watts plays a meddling midwife who is devoted to translating the girl's diary so she can find someone to take care of the baby. Unfortunately, the diary has a lot more than family names in it, and Vincent Cassel (Ocean's Twelve) and Armin Mueller-Stahl (The X-Files) plan on making sure no one every reads it. Cue the ominous music.
Release date: September 14th
Hitman
After his critically acclaimed HBO series "Deadwood" was canceled, Timothy Olyphant stacked up a butt load of films to star in. He's done the romantic drama Catch and Release and the action film Live Free or Die Hard, and now he's playing Agent 47 in this thriller that may be mistaken for the comic by the same name but has no relation. The film follows a gun-for-hire who works for "The Agency." Throughout the film he has to dodge Interpol and the Russian military. Dougray Scott ("Desperate Housewives") and Robert Knepper ("Prison Break") are also in it. Expect a lot of strutting, shooting, and car chasing.
Release Date: Oct. 12th
Gone Baby Gone
Ben Affleck hasn't exactly hit pay dirt since his Gigli flop with ex-fiance Jennifer Lopez, but he did get a lot of respect for his performance in Hollywoodland. So maybe the critics won't completely torch his directorial debut and second dip into the writer's field. Placing his little bro, Casey, in the leading man spot, he tells the story of two Boston cops and a street wise insider searching for a missing girl. It's an adaptation of Dennis Lehane's novel by the same name. I think the most interesting part of this formulaic kidnap-tragedy scenario is that two detectives (Ed Harris and Robert Wahlberg) are searching for her using the law and Casey is using the streets--which I think would be more effective. There's also an underlying conspiracy in the police bureau, which could add to the suspense. Morgan Freeman plays the voice of reason unsurprisingly. Meanwhile, Michelle Monaghan is Casey's supportive girlfriend (??). This would be her first notable drama. Both she and the Afflecks are going to have to step it up and take this genre into unchartered territory if they want to graduate from the B to the A list.
Release Date: Oct. 19
Lions for Lambs
Tom Cruise begins his campaign to finally get that whole winning an Oscar thing out of the way. In this drama, he plays a congressman who has to deal with the after effects of two army rangers suffering injuries behind enemy lines in Afghanistan. Meryl Streep plays the journalist who "made his career" and is challenging his positions on the war. Robert Redford plays a professor who uses the two rangers, his former students, to convince one (Andrew Garfield) to not throw away a good education. Garfield must be a pretty impressive actor if Redford chose him to act alongside him in one-on-one scenes. Michael Pena (Crash) and Derek Luke (Catch a Fire), who are guaranteed to deliver amazing performances, are also in the film, which should add to their already impressive resumes. Redford is directing for the first time in 7 years since The Legend of Bagger Vance, which bombed at the box office and was trashed by the critics. Matthew Michael Carnahan, a new writer hopeful who's also done Kingdom (Jennifer Garner, Jamie Foxx) and has two other films in the works, might help him out this time around. I'm interested in hearing the poetry behind the title. But will audiences rush the theaters and brush Cruise's celebrity status aside for two hours of gripping political debate? I guess that all depends on what publicity stunt he pulls the week before it opens.
Release date: Nov. 9th
National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets
Nicolas Cage recoops from his box office flops Ghost Rider and Next to return to more familiar territory with the sequel to this 2004 hit. This time the political conspiracy surrounds the assassination of Abe Lincoln. The original cast returns along with the addition of Helen Mirren, who I believe plays his mother. It's the perfect way to spend the holiday season and celebrate the birth of Jesus...or you know entertain yourself while you're on that blessed two week vacay.
Release Date: Dec. 21st
Vantage Point
I saw this trailer a couple of weeks ago and at first it reminded me of Mark Wahlberg's Shooter. The president makes a public speech--in this case in Salamanca, Spain--and gets shot down by a sniper, people are scattering, etcetera etcetera. The twist on this political action film is that it has that Babel/Crash effect of viewing the attempted assassination from different point of views and perspectives. Matthew Fox used up his "Lost"-hiatus very wisely, playing a secret service agent. Also adding cred to this thinking man's action thriller are Forest Whitaker, who plays a tourist who caught it on tape, Sigourney Weaver, who plays a TV producer watching from the control room, Dennis Quaid, who plays Fox's partner, William Hurt (Mr. Brooks), who plays the leader in the investigation, Zoe Saldana (Guess Who), who is a reporter on the scene, and Edgar Ramirez (Domino). I'm most interested in seeing French and Moroccan actor Said Taghmaoui (Three Kings), who predictably plays a suspected terrorist, get more face time since he's been in the business for 13 years and has barely gotten any critical acclaim. Although this is the director, Pete Travis', first feature film it looks like it might be a gripping tale.
Release date: February 15, 2008 (happy valentine's??)
No comments:
Post a Comment