Friday, October 15, 2010

Advance Review: RED

I was lucky enough to catch a free screening of this flick earlier this week. Filled with action, laughs, and some romance thrown in, I really think everyone would enjoy this comic book adaptation.

DC Comics does not have the film track record that marvel does. They have some shining examples like the Batman series, but when it comes to bringing lesser known characters to life they just haven't had much success. Just look at Jonah Hex for a perfect example of this.

The story revolves around Frank (Bruce Willis) after he's been tagged RED: Retired Extremely Dangerous. While he's out of the business, someone deemed him too dangerous and knowledgable of US secrets to stick around. His crush, played hilariously by Mary Louis Parker, gets swept into the madness as she soon becomes a target too. Frank then uncovers a conspiracy that puts all his old cohorts in danger. He reunites the old team, consisting of Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, and Helen Mirren, to keep them alive and take out whoever it was that tagged them all RED.

I loved the humor they were able to infuse throughout the film. Helen Mirren got some good laughs, but the biggest were for Mary Louis Parker and John Malkovich. Mary Louis was the fish out of water, the civilian swept into the spy madness, and she handled the shock and awe supremely well. And no one does crazy as well as John Malkovich! He had the most gags but also had some of the best gun action.

The action was huge and oftentimes hilarious. Given the age of the cast, you may think they couldn't pull of fight scenes, but you'd be mistaken. There's a rough and violent fist fight between Bruce Willis and Karl Urban that elicited applause from the audience. There were a few scenes, like the fist fight and the bazooka gun fight seen in the commercials, that had the audience clapping for the awesome action and exploding people.

It was a nice change of pace to see senior citizens kicking butt. While I don't know how many people in that age bracket will see this movie, I think it's got a nice unintentional anti-agist message within it.

If you're going to the movies this weekend, skip Jackass 3D with it's juvenile, gross-out humor and check out RED instead.

Related Article:
Helen Mirren on RED, guns, and Harvey Pikar

Linkulous: M. Night Shymalan, Fat Fat Foods, and 500 Days of Summer

Danny Elfman and "Nighmare" in 4D come to El Capitan - the box sets they mention are definitely getting added to my Christmas wish list!

8 Facts You Didn't Know about M. Night Shymalan - while he gets a lot of hate now, I actually really liked Unbreakable. At least, I remember liking it. I wonder if my opinion would be different if I saw it again today. 

Joseph Gordon-Levitt Studies: The Boys of Summer - a great look at the inherent sexism in (500) Days of Summer.


50 Fattiest Foods in the States  - I am SHOCKED to see the In-N-Out Double Double on this list!

Why There Aren't More Interracial Couples

Thursday, October 14, 2010

The LXD: Season 2 Trailer



We met the heroes in Season 1, now we see the origin of the villains. This trailer is so epic; I can't wait for the new season!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

The Vampire Diaries: Soundtrack Out Now

One of the things that The CW (and the old WB) shows got consistently right was the music choices. They seemed to always have their finger on the pulse of up and coming artists and genres. Before The OC soundtrack was a success, I already had the soundtracks from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Roswell, and Smallville.

The latest soundtrack out is the new album from The Vampire Diaries. Check out the complete track listings below:

1. Stephan's Theme by Michael Suby
2. Running Up That Hill by Placebo
3. Currency Of Love by Silversun Pickups
4. Hammock by Howls 
5. Sleep Alone (909s in DarkTimes Mix) by Bat For Lashes
6. Bloodstream (Vampire Diaries Remix) (2010 Digital Remaster) by Stateless
7. We Radiate by Goldfrapp
8. Obsession by Sky Ferreira
9. Head Over Heels by Digital Daggers
10. Down by Jason Walker 
11. Beauty Of The Dark (2010 Digital Remaster) by Mads Langer 
12. Cut by Plumb
13. All You Wanted Sounds Under Radio/Alison Sudol
14. The Fellowship by Smashing Pumpkins
15. On Melancholy Hill (Feed Me Remix) by Gorillaz
16. 1864 by Michael Suby

You can pick it up at your local Target, or online by clicking the link below!

Mad Man Theme Meets Nature Boy



This video is done by a group called "VideosRecordedLive" where all the music is recorded live in one long shot, no autotuning and no dubbing; which I think is pretty fantastic!

For more information on the video and the group, check the original article at Variety.