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Would it be crazy to say that Inception is the greatest movie I’ve ever seen? Maybe. But that is how I felt while I was watching it. Here’s why…

CAST: 5 years ago I wouldn’t have believed that the runaway-adoptee from Growing Pains could carry a film, but DiCaprio does just that. And I was delightfully surprised to witness it. (I know that he’s led a lot of films recently, but I’ve just never really “bought it.”) Joseph Gordon-Levitt: again, I’ll always see him as the alien kid from 3rd Rock. He plays his role extraordinarily here, but I don’t know if he’ll ever achieve leading man status [Aside: Chris Nolan has a way of taking known commodities and turning them into gold - see Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. I'll be interested to see if rumors come true of JGL as the Riddler in Batman 3.] The rest of the cast turns out well and I love how Nolan is developing a group of recurring actors in his films, most notably Ken Watanabe (Batman Begins), Cillian Murphy (BB, TDK), and the always astounding Michael Caine (BB, TDK, The Prestige).

DIRECTION: I’m a mark for Christopher Nolan. I’ve seen all of his films except his first indie (Following) and I’ve loved them all (except for Insomnia). He tells great stories and creates believable realities from things that could never be. Case in point: create a concept that exists in your world and then develop a language and physics to support it. Let’s not forget that he writes all this stuff as well (except Insomnia). And in doing so, he doesn’t confine himself to strictly urban locations, but literally spans the globe to create jaw-dropping visuals.

STORY: Amazing. [Mild Spoiler: I knew that there was going to be a twist and I figured that the whole thing would turn out to be part of another dream. I knew that going in and it didn't really damage the movie for me at all.] It was captivating and engaging. You really had no idea what to expect next but you couldn’t help but be compelled to find out. A co-worker of mine said they could have cut 30 minutes. I say they could have added 30.

CONCLUSION: It reminded me a lot of the 2nd Matrix film both in visual and story but far more satisfying. I wish I had paid another $6 to see it in IMAX and I may go see it again that way. My brother tried to engage me in some existential discussion about what it all meant, I said, “leave it alone, that was a great film, don’t ruin it by trying to read stuff into it.”

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I know what you’re thinking… “‘Survivor News’?!? Is the band who wrote the incredible song Eye of the Tiger getting back together and going on tour?” As far as I know, they’re not… but they could be. This news, however, is related to the television program, Survivor, not the band.

So, the first bits of information about the next season of Survivor are starting to surface. Yesterday, ESPN radio reported that former Dallas Cowboys head coach, Jimmy Johnson will be a contestant on Survivor: Nicaragua this fall on CBS. Apparently, he was chosen to participate several seasons ago, but failed the physical. In additional news, the show will be going up on Wednesday nights this fall rather than its hallowed Thursday night slot. No news on the reasoning behind this. Perhaps they need to make room for CSI: Albuquerque.

Look, I’m a fan of Survivor, but I don’t like throwing celebs into the reality contest mix unless its a celeb only season – which is usually lame. I think that he’ll be ousted pretty quickly by the chicks. The guys will want to keep him around because they think that it’s cool. I say the sooner he’s gone the less chance he has to embarrass himself.

Either way, I’ll be watching.

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There’s something so awesome about gritty crime dramas that take place in or around Boston. I think it was when I first saw The Departed that I fell in love with those genre of films. The accents, the city, the community aspect of the people of Boston, I love it all! As we begin talking about the 2010 Fall Movie Season, I think we may have found the next great crime drama.

If I say the name Ben Affleck, what do you think of? Probably Good Will Hunting, Kevin Smith movies, being in connection with Jennifer Lopez, and some pretty odd comedic roles. But, what you should think about more than his roles are his talents as a director. Though I haven’t seen it, I hear that his directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone, was phenomenal and blew away everybody who saw it. I think I definitely love Affleck the writer-director probably a little more than Affleck the actor.

However you see or think about him, his next directorial film (in which he also co-wrote) is a Boston crime drama called The Town. I hear that it’s showing before the summer-savior Inception and it’s sticking with people through Nolan’s film. If you can’t make it to Inception to see the trailer, fear not, for Truth On Cinema has done it again and I have the trailer for you to see here.

Following the trailer is the official synopsis and release date for your viewing and scheduling pleasure.

Synopsis:

Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck) is an unrepentant criminal, the de facto leader of a group of ruthless bank robbers who pride themselves in stealing what they want and getting out clean. With no real attachments, Doug never has to fear losing anyone close to him. But that all changed on the gang’s latest job, when they briefly took a hostage–bank manager, Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall). Though they let her go unharmed, Claire is nervously aware that the robbers know her name… and where she lives. But she lets her guard down when she meets an unassuming and rather charming man named Doug….not realizing that he is the same man who only days earlier had terrorized her. The instant attraction between them gradually turns into a passionate romance that threatens to take them both down a dangerous, and potentially deadly, path.

The Town is in theaters September 17, 2010. The trailer is also available in HD here.

What do you think of the trailer? How do you like Affleck as the director/writer?

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Not since August of 2008 have I published anything about the so-called “Facebook Movie” and to you, my reader, I apologize. Whether it was being too busy or not thinking you would be interested in it, I regret that I have not prepared you enough for this cinematic treat. Let’s forgive and forget and move on to a really fantastically creepy trailer about the creation of Facebook.

The film is called The Social Network and it is being directed by the great David Fincher and more importantly, the screenplay was adapted from the novel “The Accidental Billionaires” by Aaron Sorkin! That’s right, the great writer of Sports Night and Studio 60 has put his pen to the “Facebook Movie.” What does that tell you about the quality of the film? The tagline for the film is “You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.” The tone looks dark and creepy and I love the opening music, it sets the tone for the entire trailer…creepy.

Source: Yahoo

What did you think? Can a movie about the creation of the biggest thing to happen to media since pencil lead actually work?

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The Green Lantern is a comic book franchise that has been running under the radar for a while and today we have our first official look of Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, The Green Lantern.

Back in April, /Film broke the story that Ryan Reynold’s costume was going to be fully CGI and even had a photo of him in his motion capture tights, complete with an underarmour wife beater and little dots on his neck:

It’s definitely a new way of thinking when it comes to a superhero’s costume by making it all CG, but hey, it could work. Here’s the first image of Ryan Reynolds in his full CGI costume: (click for hi-res)

What do you think of the costume? Will it work? Does it remind you too much of Watchmen?

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I know I am severely late to the game with this film and although I will plead innocent on the basis that zombies weren’t cool to me last year, it pains me that I just now got around to seeing this fantastic film.

Zombies have been a cultural phenomenon for about 3 years now, as far as I can remember, and it wasn’t until I started working with some of my friends on our own zombie film that I took an interest in zombies in cinema. What then worked out for me was that Hollywood decided to take an interest in showing zombies in film right about the same time. All I can remember hearing about when Zombieland came out was just how “cool” zombies were and with the release of the Zombie Survival Guide and the onslaught of YouTube short films about zombies, I think I got “tired-head” of the whole zombie craze and just missed this film.

This film starts out with a narration about the current state of the world and how pretty much it’s being ruled by zombies and is no longer called Earth, but Zombieland. And now you see where the name comes from. I actually thought the film was going to take place in or around some amusement park called “Zombieland” cleverly inserting “zombie” in the place of “Disney” or some such. Jesse Eisenberg plays “Columbus,” the insecure, computer-game nerd that is semi-narrating the story for us while navigating the zombie world with his self-written set of rules (think “Zombie Survival Guide”). He is your typical introverted, stay-at-home-on-Friday-nights-playing-World-of-Warcraft, computer geek with a great self-awareness and a charming wit. I know what you’re thinking, “So, didn’t you just describe Michael Cera?” No, I didn’t! Leave it at that. Anyway, back to the story, as Columbus makes his way to Ohio to find his parents (hence his name “Columbus”) he is joined by Woody “Tallahassee” Harrelson, Emma “Wichita” Stone, and Abigail “Little Rock” Breslin.

Right off the bat we are thrown into the zombie infestation, mangled bodies strewn over cars and streets, blood-crazed people dressed in business suits slowly slumbering their way to the nearest undead human to devour them…you know, the typical zombie scene. I actually really liked just being dropped into the middle of the craziness. Some zombie films spend some unnecessary time building up the whole “virus-infected-man-bites-something-that-starts-plague” scenario in some attempt at building tension and drama, but what I love about Zombieland is that Columbus just casually mentions how it all began and moves on. Maybe it’s because I am a zombie cinema newbie, but I like the action kick starting the film and not bogging down on why it’s all happening. I felt like the film had a great pace to it. It didn’t move too quickly into the “survival situation” where all of the characters have to work together to win, nor did it spend too much time on each character’s back story.

I need to say some stuff about Woody Harrelson. That man was absolutely a brilliant casting choice! He was the perfect comic relief when things slowed down to the point where it was depressing to think about the world’s current state, and even though this is a comedy, he delivered some heartfelt performances. I was rooting for him the whole time, I thought his “Father figure” character to Columbus, Wichita, and Little Rock was the perfect balance the team needed. I don’t know which film they are calling his “comeback” film, but whatever it is, I don’t care, I’m just glad he’s back.

Now, what I wasn’t expecting from what I’ve heard and the few trailers I did see was the amount of gore and foul language was in this film. The trailers painted it like it was a goofy zombie-buddy comedy with maybe a splash of blood here and there, but oh no, this was a zombie-genre film complete with blood and guts! It didn’t bother me at all, it was just something I wasn’t expecting. The comedy more than made up for the bloody pulps and flesh-between-teeth scenes. If you haven’t seen it, don’t go into it thinking you’re going to be watching a comedy that has some zombie stuff in it, this is a zombie movie with comedy.

Overall, there were a lot of laugh out loud moments for me, including a very hilarious and well played cameo that I won’t ruin, and it was a fun movie to watch. I don’t know what it has done for me, but I know that my next zombie film has to be Shaun of the Dead…which I hear is the Brit version of this film. (or this is the US version of S.O.T.D, or whatever)

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For those that are in the dark about what is going on and what has been going on, let me try and catch you up with all of the craziness involving Marvel, Edward Norton as “The Hulk”, The Avengers film, and how they all relate to each other.

Ever since The Incredible Hulk came out in 2008 and word came down that Marvel was indeed going to make an Avengers film, many people wondered if Edward Norton would reprise his role as Bruce Banner. Since The Incredible Hulk did quite a bit better in the box office than its predecessor starring Eric Bana, everyone just assumed that Norton would continue the Hulk journey into the Avengers storyline…but that wasn’t so.

Let me take an aside and at least tell you about the Avengers for the uninitiated. According to their wiki page they are “Labeled “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”, the Avengers originally consisted of Ant-Man, Wasp, Thor, Iron Man, and The Hulk(Captain America joined in issue #4). The rotating roster has become a hallmark of the team, although one theme remains consistent: the Avengers fight the foes no single superhero can withstand — hence their battle cry, “Avengers Assemble!” So, they are 5 or 6 (depending on the issue) of the baddest superheroes around who put their egos aside and join forces to kick some comic villain butt.

What’s Happened So Far

So, by now you should know that an Avengers film is going to be directed by Joss Whedon and as of right now, 3 of the characters are already established with Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, and Chris Evans securing roles as Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America respectively. The only remaining character is/was the Hulk and after Norton’s role, it was almost assumed that he would just naturally step into the role and round out the Avengers film (with Ant-Man & Wasp listed as “future film franchises”)…but that isn’t and hasn’t been the case.

Around last summer, IGN cornered Norton and talked to him about his involvement with The Avengers franchise and whether or not he would be reprising his role, and he had this to say:

“I probably won’t comment on that, just because they [Marvel] keep a pretty tight reign on what they are letting out. I’ll let them say.”

He was being very delicate in his responses but overall we got the hint: he wasn’t allowed to say anything. As time went on, reports kept surfacing about some creative differences he was having with the direction of The Avengers film and the Hulk’s involvement and whether or not he was going to commit to the film franchise, and the last thing anyone heard was that deals were being negotiated with Norton for him to return as The Hulk….

Currently Happening

Oh what a few days will do! Over the weekend, Marvel dropped a significant bomb on Hollywood coming through Kevin Feige that Edward Norton was NOT going to be in The Avengers as The Hulk. Here is their press release for all of the official mumbo-jumbo:

“We have made the decision to not bring Ed Norton back to portray the title role of Bruce Banner in the Avengers. Our decision is definitely not one based on monetary factors, but instead rooted in the need for an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of our other talented cast members. The Avengers demands players who thrive working as part of an ensemble, as evidenced by Robert, Chris H, Chris E, Sam, Scarlett, and all of our talented casts. We are looking to announce a name actor who fulfills these requirements, and is passionate about the iconic role in the coming weeks.”

Edward Norton’s agent fired back with a very official sounding, but intense, response:

“This offensive statement from Kevin Feige at Marvel is a purposefully misleading, inappropriate attempt to paint our client in a negative light. Here are the facts: two months ago, Kevin called me and said he wanted Edward to reprise the role of Bruce Banner in The Avengers. He told me it would be his fantasy to bring Edward on stage with the rest of the cast at ComiCon and make it the event of the convention. When I said that Edward was definitely open to this idea, Kevin was very excited and we agreed that Edward should meet with Joss Whedon to discuss the project. Edward and Joss had a very good meeting (confirmed by Feige to me) at which Edward said he was enthusiastic at the prospect of being a part of the ensemble cast. Marvel subsequently made him a financial offer to be in the film and both sides started negotiating in good faith. This past Wednesday, after several weeks of civil, uncontentious discussions, but before we had come to terms on a deal, a representative from Marvel called to say they had decided to go in another direction with the part. This seemed to us to be a financial decision but, whatever the case, it is completely their prerogative, and we accepted their decision with no hard feelings.

We know a lot of fans have voiced their public disappointment with this result, but this is no excuse for Feige’s mean spirited, accusatory comments. Counter to what Kevin implies here, Edward was looking forward to the opportunity to work with Joss and the other actors in the Avengers cast, many of whom are personal friends of his. Feige’s statement is unprofessional, disingenuous and clearly defamatory. Mr. Norton talent, tireless work ethic and professional integrity deserve more respect, and so do Marvel’s fans.”

If that’s all too much for you to handle or read, here’s Norton’s personal response found on his Facebook fan page in the form of an image:

What’s In Store For The Future

If all of this news wasn’t confusing and crazy enough, word has come out today in the form of a ridiculous rumor that Joaquin Phoenix is being considered for the role of Dr. Bruce Banner. Are you kidding me?! Did I read that right?

Ok, if you have survived this post and made it to the end, what do you think of all of this? Who would you like to see cast as the new Hulk? Do you even care now?

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Two types of television programs are canceled after only one or two seasons: the brilliant and the utterly stupid. Certainly among the former is the great work of the incomparable Aaron Sorkin. Of his three forays into the small screen, only one made it past its second season, the critically acclaimed The West Wing. It is his other two series, though, that you probably missed: Sports Night and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. (Aside: Aaron Sorkin is also the writer of several films including one of my all-time favorites A Few Good Men.)

Sports Night

Premise: What happens behind the scenes of a nightly sports news show? I know, you probably don’t care. It doesn’t really sound like a great premise, but the relationships between the dysfunctional staff, heavily relying on the witty banter that Sorkin is known for, makes for comedy gold. In short, there are the two anchors, the producer, her assistants, and their managing editor. Everyone has their own quirks and when you pit them against each other, sparks fly.

Fate: The show aired for two seasons (1998-2000) and failed to reach the audience that it needed to justify being kept around. For about the last 4 episodes of season two, the shows fate is mirrored within the series by the uncertainty of the show-within-the-show’s fate.  This culminates in the amazing two part finale – Quo Vadimus.

Legacy: I never really saw the show when it was on, but having Sorkin’s name attached compelled me to buy the entire series on DVD when I graduated from college back in 2002. I’ve watched the entire thing at least 5 times since. The original collection went out of print, but was revived in a 10th Anniversary Edition, which I read was not really that much better. Just this year, Season One was released as a stand-alone for who knows what reason, with some of the extras from the Anniversary Edition.

Studio 60

Premise: What happens behind the scenes of a late night sketch comedy show? Sounds intriguing, doesn’t it? In fact, what if you cast that news chick from SNL and Alec Baldwin? You’d have a hit on your hands. But, what if you cast Chandler from Friends and the skeezy guy from Billy Madison? You’d move to L.A., double your address, and get canceled after one season. The show itself bears too many similarities to Sports Night to count, though it does have a bit more of a serious side and more hot button issues are addressed.

Fate: If you missed my allusion to 30 Rock above, then perhaps you’ve been under one. As we all know, that program has gone on to do big things over at NBC. Unfortunately for the folks over at…NBC (???) their show didn’t do so well. Wait! Did I say they were both on NBC? Yeah. Now there’s some good planning. And as usual the “sheeple” voted with their remotes because “silly/stupid” sells better than “witty/intelligent.” And the Thursday night spot next to The Office didn’t hurt either. Oh, yeah, they launched the shows a month apart back in 2006.

Legacy: You just missed it. Studio 60 has been on Hulu for free for like the last two years (Update: The show has expired on Hulu). But, you can still pick up the DVD set. And you should.

Both of these are available on Netflix, if you roll like that.

So, do you know these shows? Do you have an intellectual man-crush on Aaron Sorkin? (It’s ok if…”You Can’t Handle the Truth!”)

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For the record, I wanted to write my review the night I saw the film. But I didn’t want a two page rant about how much I hated M. Night Shyamalan. I don’t know if a week was enough time to get all of my anger out, but I figure that only a handful of people will see the movie in the next couple of weeks, so this review is rapidly becoming irrelevant.

I might look at a few things that went wrong and I might attempt to walk you through the film. Mostly, however, I intend it to be a way for some of us who enjoyed the show simultaneously to lament the murder of our beloved and mercilessly mock the man who killed it. Let it be said that I don’t blame M. Night entirely. I also blame everyone who told him it was a good idea. And everyone else who didn’t tell him that it was a bad one. Let me start with the good news, because it will be much easier to get out of the way.

The best part of this movie was that it made me look like a genius. Every concern I listed in my previous post about it (a three page epic that, if nothing else, proved my undying love for the franchise) came to pass in some way or another. The plot was contrived and hard to follow, far too much had to be cut, the actors were all dreadfully underwhelming, the bending looked increasingly stupid, the tone was all wrong, and few of the characters really had time to come into their own. Anyone who has read my reviews knows that I tend to stick to a limited vocabulary when it comes to descriptions. The words “wonderful, amazing, incredible, fantastic,” and various other words for “excellence” are borderline overused. I get to add another word. Painful. This movie brought me as close to physical harm as a work of “art” can. But I promised you good news, didn’t I?

My best friend and I left the theater straining our brains to list everything we could that was good about the movie. Here’s a glimpse of our list:

• 1) Aang was, in fact, twelve years old and discovered in an iceberg.

• 2) Sokka used his boomerang in a fight.

• 3) Aang’s tattoos were cool.

• 4) All four elements were present and represented as in the show.

• 5) That ice village at the end sure looked cool.

And so on and so forth. This pretty much concludes the good news. The fact that the list is mostly a shout out to the costume designers, set builders, and make-up artists should set the tone for the rest of this review. It saddens me that this film has already been torn to shreds by a few thousands blogs and professional critics, but I’ll do my best to keep it as entertaining as possible.

Let’s begin with my biggest complaint: M. Night Shyamalan seems to have appointed himself the ultimate authority on culture. Nearly everything that went wrong in this film spawned from this surprising but not entirely uncharacteristic ego trip. First of all, Mr. Shyamalan decided that the majority of names in the series didn’t sound “Asian enough,” (I agree completely… like ten people in the US alone must be named ‘Aang’) and so took it upon himself to alter the pronunciations established in the canon. The result is a series of names that drew visible winces from fans in the audience as Sokka becomes Sew-kah, Iroh becomes Ear-oh, and Aang becomes Awe-ng. I guess he has the right to do it, since it was his work and all. Say, that gives me an idea…

Continuing in his rampage for the asian-ification of an eastern influenced American cartoon, Mr. Shyalaman reaches the conclusion that the best way to represent a world that sought to make all of its characters racially ambiguous was to establish a race that fully comprises each nation. It seems odd to me that one man can suddenly decide that the entire Fire Nation is of Indian descent and that everyone in the Water Tribe has a Siberian ancestry. I suppose there’s nothing really particularly wrong with that, as long as no one reads too much into it. And when does anyone read too much into anything racial? I mean, it’s not like there’s thousands of online forums attacking his decision, right?

M. Night also retains the flare for overly dramatic cinematography that makes him a hero to some and a pretentious moron to mostly everyone. The scene in which Awe-ng revisits his childhood home is especially suspect. Awkward camera angles abound as filters change faster than diapers on a baby with diarrhea and with about the same appeal. At one point we sat in Awe-ng’s face for a good ten seconds for no real reason. I suppose Shamealon’s artistic vision is just far more enlightened than my puny mind can possibly comprehend. Maybe that’s why he maimed our childhood friends: it was an exercise in meditation and self control. I guess it worked, since nobody has burned down a theater with errant firebending yet. Oh wait, we couldn’t do that anyway.

That’s right, everyone, Shimmadalimmidon did the unthinkable and changed the rules of bending itself. The first few glimpses we get of the art of bending don’t seem too horrible. In fact, I was actually impressed for about twenty seconds at the opening of the movie. That brings the total of “Time Steven Was Impressed” up to nearly a minute. I struggled for a while to figure out what was bothering me, but my buddy Andrew explained it quite succinctly. It simply wasn’t fluid. That sounds like an odd critique, given that at least half the bending was Tai-Chi based Waterbending, but it wasn’t the motions of the actors I was concerned with. In the show, benders move as one with their element. In the film, Awe-ng does a pretty little dance (complete with somersault) to shoot the same puff of air he could exhale in the series. Waterbending was even more painful and Earthbending was downright embarrassing at points. (Apparently it takes twenty men screaming at high pitches and moving in synch to move a rock the size of my head, who knew?). All of this pales in comparison to the crime that befalls the fierce and passionate Fire Nation.

Air is all around us. Water lives in all things and covers the majority of our world and at least half of the Avatar’s. Almost everywhere we go, there is Earth to be found. Fire, on the other hand, is rare. There are legends about what Fire has done for mankind, and about how hard it is to obtain and then sustain. Knowing this, the creators of the show wisely set out to make the Fire Nation the most powerful and intimidating benders, capable of generating Fire from nothing more than breath and bad temper. Such an enemy is imposing and formidable, capable of fueling a fleet of warships as long as they can eat and a series of twisted machines so long as there is breath in their lungs. M. Day decided that was far too much power. After all, we wouldn’t want the bad guys to be able to conquer the whole world or anything. Ergo, the Fire Nation can only bend pre-existing flames. Our heroes’ battle plan at the end of the film was literally “put out all the campfires!” Good thing there was some grass on the cold tundra of the North Pole, or Prince Zuko would’ve gotten owned.

I could go on and on about how the characters disappointed me, but it would just be adding salt to the wound at this point. Sure it’d help me heal, but it would also put us all through a lot of unnecessary pain. So let me sum it up: The Fire Lord, who we never even got to see until season three, is a chunky and un-intimidating jerk, Zuko is a pansy with a scar that we can barely see, Sew-kah tells about four jokes, all with the intensity one would expect from a Twilight saga actor, and Awe-ng is just flat out dull. But they did pronounce Katara right, so there’s a plus.

Overall, the film is an almost entirely unforgettable letdown with a few flashes of what could have been brilliance, had it been handled properly. All of the best parts of the first season were cut out for time constraints so that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Properly-Pronounced could add his own bits of gobbledy gook and almost nothing impressive or in-character ever seemed to stick for more than a few seconds. Let me say this: if you have never seen the series, this movie is merely mediocre. Go see it and then treat yourself to the real thing. It’ll seem even better. As for the rest of us, I suggest you do what I have done and forget it happened while we bide our time and hope that a) a sequel is never made or b) a sequel somehow magically redeems the first. This is a film project that never should have been attempted and I’m truly sorry for everyone who was affected by it. By the power of sheer optimism in the face of all the horror one can stand,

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