Trailer for 'Before I Disappear' starring Emmy Rossum and Ron Perlman

Unless you're someone who pays extremely close attention during the Academy Awards, you may not know the name Shawn Christensen. Last year he won an Oscar for Best Live-Action Short for his film, Curfew, which he then went and expanded into the feature, Before I Disappear. And it turned out to be a smart move as it won him an Audience Award at SXSW, and now as it gears up for release next month the first trailer has arrived.

Starring Emmy Rossum, Ron Perlman, Fatima Ptacek (the voice of Dora the Explorer), Paul Wesley, and Christensen himself, the story follows Richie, who at the lowest point in his life is asked to spend the day in New York City with his 11-year-old niece. Despite the high praise heaped on it, to me this looks like the kind of film designed to please festival audiences, but may not work elsewhere. There certainly hasn't been a lot of buzz around it.  I could be wrong, though. Before I Disappear opens November 28th in theaters and VOD.


Before I Disappear Official Trailer #1 (2014) - Emmy Rossum, Paul Wesley Movie HD by MOVIES Coming Soon

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Review: 'The Book of Life' featuring Channing Tatum, Diego Luna, and Zoe Saldana

We can all appreciate the brilliant and gorgeous animated films of Disney, Pixar, or Dreamworks, but let's be honest that they all kind of look and feel the same. They're either selling toys or retelling old fairy tales, and while that doesn't diminish how good they are the animated field has been in desperate need of a kick in the pants for a long time. Actually, what it needed was a dash of spice, or in the case of the visually breath-taking The Book of Life, a dash of Mexican flavor.

Directed with obvious passion by Jorge Gutierrez, The Book of Life is a smorgasbord for the eyes, bursting with colors and energy like an overstuffed piñata. It's good to see a film that doesn't try to diminish its Latin heritage, but embraces it in a universal story of love and friendship based on the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos, the "Day of the Dead". The story begins simply enough, both narratively and visually, with a museum tour guide (Christina Applegate) introducing a group of kids to a very special exhibit. The story she tells involves powerful gods, best friends, magical realms, and lots of music. It follows the friendship of the passionate Manolo (Diego Luna), the spirited Maria (Zoe Saldana), and heroic Joaquin (Channing Tatum), all of whom are burdened by their families' expectations. Manolo has the heart of a musician but comes from a long line of brave bullfighters, while Joaquin was born to protect the town from a scourge of bandits. Once this part of the story gets into gear, the animation switches to something unlike anything we've seen before, with decorative wooden models reflecting the characters' personalities, and worlds that are never less than festive.

The boys may be pals but they both desire Maria's love, and that's when two scheming gods see fit to make a gamble on the outcome. The villainous Xibalba (voiced by Ron Perlman, confidante of producer Guillermo Del Toro) bets on the brave Joaquin, while his wife La Muerte (Kate de Castillo) chooses Manolo, with control over the "Land of the Remembered" the prize. Fearing he may lose the wager, Xibalba gives Joaquin a special medal imbuing him with courage and invulnerability, which he uses to become a greater hero than his legendary father. Manolo becomes a bullfighter who refuses to kill the animals he faces, bringing shame to the family. When a grown up Maria returns to town, they begin competing for her heart once again, and the gods can't help themselves from meddling.

A fun selection Latin-flavored renditions of Mumford & Sons, Radiohead, and Biz Markie hits give the film a distinct sound, and is a smart way to embrace multiple cultures maximum appeal. You can sense Del Toro's influence in every frame, especially when Manolo is forced to descend into the "Land of the Remembered" and the "Land of the Forgotten"; one a carnivale of colors the other a gloomy wasteland. But the real find here is Gutierrez in his feature debut, and in The Book of Life he's created an animated film with so much passion and soul it deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as The Lego Movie, and at least for me it's even better. You can feel the love for his Mexican heritage in every character, from the luchadore-masked priests to the goofy mariachi bands. There's so much to take in that it's impossible to catch it all at once. Fortunately for us, The Book of Life is destined to go the way of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas as an annual holiday classic.

 Rating: 4 out of 5

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Roland Emmerich Adds Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Ron Perlman, and Joey King to 'Stonewall' Cast

Before Roland Emmerich embarks on his Independence Day sequel or a Stargate reboot, he's fitting in a drama that's a bit off the beaten path for him. Filming has begun on Stonewall, a gay rights drama titled after the famous 1969 Stonewall Riots. With much of the cast already in place, the final additions have now been made.

Bouncing back off the cancellation of NBC's Dracula, Jonathan Rhys Meyers is joining the Stonewall cast, along with Ron Perlman and Joey King. Already on board are Jeremy Irvine, Jonny Beauchamp (How to Make It In America) and Caleb Landry Jones (X-men: First Class), with the film centering on Danny Winters (Irvine), a young gay man in 1969 New York caught in the middle of the violent riots between the bar's gay patrons and the police that became a galvanizing even in the fight for gay rights.

King will play Irvine's sister while Perlman is the shady bar owner colluding with the corrupt police. Is this Emmerich reaching for an Oscar? Or will his more outrageous tendencies (He won't add a bunch of world-destroying earthquakes, will he?) sink what sounds like a promising and important film? [THR]

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Review: 'Pacific Rim', Directed by Guillermo Del Toro

While it's preferable to leave aside the movie politics and the Internet hype that surrounds any film, it's tough to do that with a summer blockbuster the size of Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim. To put it bluntly, a lot of people have saddled his sci-fi juggernaut with a ton of expectations, some good and some not so good, that are unfair in a number of different ways. Whether it's the negative and vastly out of whack notion that it's little more than a Transformers knock-off, or that it's the most important original property in ages and must be supported (lest it flop like analysts project), it's tough to not walk into the film without some opinion already formed about it.

                                

The simple truth of the matter is that Pacific Rim is way smarter than Transformers, and even though it's not the most original of concepts, through sheer size, scope, and audacity it stomps every other summer blockbuster flat. Nothing else compares to the gargantuan Colossus-inspired scale of giant monsters slugging it out with equally massive robots. It's truly impressive what Del Toro, who just a few years ago was the guy who made really cool creatures for Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth, can do when his imagination is allowed to run unfettered. So even if the script co-written by Del Toro and Travis Beacham, riffs on many familiar war movie tropes and takes liberally from the likes of Top Gun, the line of American movies that look anything close to Pacific Rim is extremely short. Which is to say the line doesn't exist at all.

Drawing inspiration from the likes of Robotech, Gundam, Voltron, and other Japanese pop cultural phenomenon, Del Toro lovingly and enthusiastically lets his geek flag fly. What's more, this isn't just a blind clashing of clunky robots with all of the grace of a garbage compactor. Pacific Rim is gorgeous, glittery, and the over-sized battles choreographed with operatic precision. Under any other director's hands this could have been a logistical nightmare, at worse an ugly assault on the senses, but Del Toro is always in complete control.

Less promising is the storyline itself, and the lack of human characterization that gets lost while you're in awe watching a Jaeger wield a battleship like a katana. A brilliant intro clues us in to the fate befalling humanity in the near future, when towering creatures known as Kaiju began emerging from a rift in the ocean floor, destroying coastal cities and wiping out the population. To fight the threat, the world's governments put aside all of their petty differences and began the Jaeger program creating skyscraper-sized robotic warriors to combat the Kaiju. In full-on Maverick mode, Charlie Hunnam plays Raleigh Beckett, a hot shot Jaeger pilot whose reckless stunts got his brother killed, forcing him out of the program just when he's needed most. Six years later, the Kaiju are stronger than ever, and the governments have grown tired of funding the failing program. But that doesn't sit well with the awesomely-named General Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), who decides to round up his few remaining Jaegers and mount one final assault. To do it, he'll need Raleigh back, and he'll also need his old washed-up Jaeger to be brought back from the scrap heap.  Because every story like this needs them, there are a couple of goofball scientists (Charlie Day and Burn Gorman) to provide comic relief and explain things. There's also the General's troubled right-hand woman, Mako Mori (Oscar nominee Rinko Kikuchi), who shares a past with the General nobody knows about.

So you have all of the familiar archetypes in place, and it's impossible to escape the fact that some aspects of the film are riddled with clichés. Raleigh needs to learn how to be a team player and put his ego aside, and as he does so he squabbles with a fellow pilot (Rob Kazinsky) who has a chip on his shoulder. Mako has vengeance on her mind but must overcome her fears to ever have a real chance at it. We've seen it all before, but there's nothing really wrong with that, and in some ways it’s comforting that the script bothers to make this a story about humans as much as it is about monster brawls. The simple story also leaves plenty of room for a few brilliant ideas to take root. The best by far involves the Jaeger pilots needing to form a neural bridge and meld minds to fight effectively. It involves the unrestrained sharing of memories, can make or break a partnership real fast. The Kaiju design, mostly taken from various forms of lizard and aquatic animal life, draws from the story's other surprising idea. It’s probably left unspoiled, but Del Toro and Beacham clearly put a lot of thought into why the Kaiju look the way they do. And of course, at times of tragedy there are always those seeking to make a dollar from it. Enter the gruff and eccentric Ron Perlman as a black market dealer and Kaiju aficionado. Most of the performances are functional at best, with Hunnam only coming to life when he's throwing punches. Elba is as cool and authoritative as ever, but his Braveheart-esque "we're canceling the apocalypse" speech feels forced and uninspired.

This is Del Toro's show, though, and he does a masterful job of creating a sense of awe around every single Kaiju encounter. They're so huge that we never see one in full, but we can see of them is spectacular. The mecha design is even better, with each Jaeger adopting traits specific for their locale. The American 'bot Gipsy Danger has an Art Deco model reminiscent of New York skyscrapers, while the Japanese one will have Robotech fans salivating. Most of the fights take place at night, but even with 3D it never gets murky or tough to follow. The amount of destruction would give Man of Steel a run for its money, but unlike Zack Snyder's film it never slips into repetition.

Clearly, Pacific Rim has a very specific target audience, and it mostly consists of folks who are packing their bags for Comic-Con right now.  But those who pass it by because they think it will be too geeky will be missing out on what is definitely the biggest movie of the summer. It may not be perfect in the way it handles characters, but Pacific Rim is fun, epic, exhilarating, and the reason why we get excited for this time of year.

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Elbow Rockets and Ron Perlman In Two New 'Pacific Rim' Clips

The arrival of the monstrous Kaiju in Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim isn't just the impetus for humanity to finally unite as one against a common foe, but it's also opened the door for some to make a profit. Not unlike Jude Law's character in Contagion, I guess, there will always be those looking to capitalize off of tragedy. Two new clips from Pacific Rim show very different sides of the robots vs. monsters flick, but both give a fuller picture of what to expect.

The first highlights what looks like one of the centerpiece battles as Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi slug it out with a giant Godzilla-esque Kaiju in the city streets, hitting it with everything at their disposal including a devastating "elbow rocket" punch.  The second centers on the characters played by Ron Perlman and Charlie Day, with the latter looking to acquire a Kaiju brain for some top secret experimenting. Probably not for a good cause. We also learn that the Kaiju may be genetically linked to dinosaurs.

Pacific Rim opens in 3D, 2D, and IMAX on July 12th.

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New Trailer and Images From 'Pacific Rim'

A new trailer for Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim has been released, giving us yet another look at what could be the special effects spectacle of the season with giant glittering robots battling monsters that fill up the entire screen. This particular trailer, titled "At the Edge" emphasizes a couple of other aspects, as well, namely that there's plenty of geeky science talk involving the creation of the robotic Jaegers, and that Idris Elba will spend much of his screen time as the bearer of rousing patriotic Braveheart-esque speeches.

The phrase "neural handshake" is repeated often, and while it's unclear exactly what it is, the name suggests its how the two human pilots bridge their minds to control the Jaeger warriors. Hopefully they don't spend too much time breaking down all of the fine details, and get right down to leveling some more cities. There's plenty of gloriously-constructed destruction here, backed by Elba's rallying of the troops: “At the edge of our hope, at the end of our time, we have chosen not only to believe in ourselves, but in each other.  Today there’s not a man or woman in here that shall stand alone.  Today we face the monsters that are at our door.  Today we are cancelling the apocalypse!” Well I'm ready to fight, how about you?

It's hard to believe it's been a full year since the first unfinished footage was revealed at Comic-Con. I remember being stunned by it then, and the crowd was equally amazed. So to say my expectations for this are high would be a huge understatement. 

Pacific Rim opens on July 12th.


Pacific Rim - "At the Edge" [HD/VO] by ExtraterrestresTV

 

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New trailer for Guillermo Del Toro's 'Pacific Rim' is 2500 tons of awesome

Is it possible that Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim is being looked over just a little bit as we turn the corner into the summer blockbuster season? Maybe it's just a by-product of Warner Bros. putting all of their marketing eggs in the Man of Steel basket, but for whatever reason it seems like Del Toro's giant monsters vs. giant robots flick is flying a little bit under the radar. For the most part, Del Toro has chosen to keep the monsters, known a kaiju, hidden in fog, only teasing at their massive scope. But the latest trailer does away with all of that and reveals the monster vs. robot action is going to be truly epic.

The footage premiered for WonderCon and CinemaCon attendees, but now it's been made available to the rest of us, and we're all much better off for it. Revealing deeper looks at the origins of the human Jaeger program, which involves two humans mind-melding so as to pilot one of the gigantic robots, we're also treated to Charlie Day as the token science nerd ("2500 tons of awesome"), and Idris Elba as the inspirational leader of the resistance. But most importantly, this shows off just how much mayhem Del Toro is planning to put on display, from rip-roaring sea battles to aerial destruction, and yeah, that was a jaeger using a battleship as a friggin' sword! Guh! Geek juices are flowing!

Pacific Rim finally arrives on July 12th, starring Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi, and Ron Perlman.


Pacific Rim - WonderCon Footage by Flixgr

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Guillermo Del Toro and Ron Perlman developing 'Hellboy 3'

Ron Perlman and Guillermo Del Toro just can't quit one another, and why would we ever want them to? The two have been friends and colleagues ever since hitting it off in 2004's Hellboy, based on the Mike Mignola comic book. The film did okay at the box office and was a decent start to a potential franchise, but the sequel was even better. Hellboy II: The Golden Army saw Del Toro really putting his creature building talents to the test, and the film was a moderate success. With Pacific Rim wowing audiences during its Hall H panel yesterday, and Perlman having a small role in that film as well, the two spoke to EW about the future of Hellboy...

Del Toro: "I can say publicly that now we are together in trying."

Perlman: "The [first] two movies were really set up to have this unbelievable resolve. Everything that was done in both movies was leading up to this destiny, written in stone, of what Hellboy has been summoned to Earth to do. To not do it, particularly in light of the scope that Guillermo is thinking of for the resolve, would be in my mind a little bit of a shame.”

He's right. The sequel really expanded the Hellboy world, and put the crimson, cigar-chomping brawler in a new position. His fiery girlfriend, Liz(Selma Blair), is pregnant with twins, and she's just made a deal with the Angel of Death to save Hellboy's life. The only problem is, he's got this destiny where he's supposed to bring about the apocalypse. D'oh.

The Hellboy movies weren't huge hits, but if Pacific Rim does as well as many expect, it should be no problem for Del Toro to find a studio to finance it. First, he'll need to get approval from Mignola, who I'm sure will give his blessing. They're a nice little change of pace to the big budget behemoths that are the Marvel flicks, and take place in a totally unique world of fantasy creatures, underground cities, and magic everywhere. If you haven't seen them, watch both Hellboy movies along with the animated flicks that are part of the canon as well.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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Sure Shots: The Hunger Games; Kirsten Dunst; Pacific Rim

* Lionsgate must be feelin' pretty good after the wave of good reviews for The Hunger Games' trailer. So much so that rumors are they're already at work trying to snag a writer for the sequel, Catching Fire. Gary Ross will be back to direct, and the studio is said to be aiming for Academy Award winning writer Simon Beaufoy(Slumdog Millionaire) to pen the script. He hasn't taken the job yet, so this is still pretty early, but it shows that enthusiasm for The Hunger Games is pretty high. The sequel, which is set for a March 9th 2012 release, expands on the world of Panem considerably, but I don't want to say more and spoil who comes out of the first film alive. [Deadline]

* Kirsten Dunst, Best Actress award winner? She's got my vote, thanks to her gripping performance in Melancholia, and I've been very happy that others are starting to take notice and give her roles that will make people forget she was ever in those Spider-Man movies. The latest addition to her slate is Red Light Winter, based on the play by Adam Rapp(Winter Passing). Starring Mark Ruffalo and Billy Crudup, the story centers on two friends who travel to Amsterdam to get away from their lives, only to have a sexy prostitute(Dunst) get between them. Sounds like another mature role for the actress, who has a number of interesting flicks on the way. Filming will kick off in January. [Thompson On Hollywood]

* If it wasn't enough that Pacific Rim sounds like the perfect film for Guillermo Del Toro to make his directing return to after what'll be five years at the time it comes out, but he gave us a drool worthy cast that promises it'll be one of the most fun films of that year. Charlie Hunnam, Charlie Day, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, and Max Martini are all lined up for the massive creature feature. But wait...isn't there an old Del Toro favorite who seems to be missing? Like say...Ron Perlman? No need to worry, as Del Toro recently revealed to Wired that his Hellboy star will have a role in the film, which chronicles a futuristic battle between humans and an invading swarm of monsters.

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Season of the Witch

Where to begin with Season of the Witch? I guess you could say it's your typical January film. Not a lot of originality or effort put into a single iota of it, it's only purpose seems to be to fill an empty slot on some studio's release schedule.  The production of this lousy Lord of the Rings meets the Salem Witch Trials adventure has been one I've had a good old time following. Over a year ago a trailer was released that painted the film as a sortof gothic horror, which isn't that bad of an idea. Then after disappearing from everyone's mind a brand new, re-cut trailer tried to push the film as a medieval adventure film. Wha? Who you tryin' to fool? The end result is a knightly road trip mess best left in the Dark Ages.



Count Season of the Witch as another one of Nicolas Cage's steadily growing collection of paycheck flicks. I hope he stays in debt forever as long as he keeps making awful, comedic junk like this.  With his boyish haircut and ill-fitting helmet, he takes on the role of Behman, a knight fighting in the Crusades alongside his tough as nails brother-in-arms, Felson(Ron Perlman). After a nauseatingly extended sequence showing the two slaughtering thousands of enemies in wars fought over the course of years, the two finally realize that maybe an innocent or two got killed along the way. They quit the fight, and take off for parts unknown on horseback.

Their journey is cut short when the two are labeled deserters and thrown in jail, but before they get boiled in oil or hanged, they're recruited for a desperation mission to escort a supposed witch(Claire Foy) to a monastery where she can be put on trial by a bunch of monks. See, the witch has caused a plague to break out that has ravaged the kingdom. Behman is skeptical because she's kindof a hot, innocent looking chick. The two tough as nails warriors are joined on their quest by an overzealous priest, a young wannabe knight, and of course there's the requisite thief.


A pretty bland setup, one that is continually hampered by an overwhelming lack of action or thrills. The film is shot in such a dark, muddy tone that you might find more enjoyment staring at the back of your eyelids for 90 minutes. Much like the issue with the trailers, the tone of the film jumps around wildly. There are a few opportunities where the mystery of the girl's true nature could have been interesting. Is she a witch? Is she evil? Is she the true cause of the plague? Unfortunately the script never focuses enough on the issue to matter. It's not as if they were too busy keeping us entertained with thrilling battles. The most tense moment comes when the group has to cross a broken down bridge. Yeah, the old broken down bridge thing. There's always a broken down bridge.

The only thing preventing this from being a complete disaster is the presence of Ron Perlman. A rugged actor with a wealth of comedic timing who can withstand any cinematic casualty, he seems to be the only one who realizes just how cheesy and campy the film really is. Maybe it comes from starring in so many movies just like this(hello Dungeon Siege!). Cage is painfully serious the entire time. It's strange because he's so unhinged in most of his best movies, but those are typically the legit productions with tons of potential. He needs to figure out at some point that it's the lousy flicks like this that need that wildman spirit so much more. If I thought he was having a lick of fun maybe this wouldn't have been such a boring movie to sit through. 

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Ron Perlman joins Nicholas Refn's Drive

How is it that I haven't been covering Nicholas Winding Refn's next film, Drive?  Because I'm a completely unforgiveable slacker. Refn scored critical raves for Bronson(starring Inception's Tom Hardy) back in 2008. His follow-up, Valhalla Rising, has received some mixed reviews but I won't judge it til I see it. 

The latest from the set of Drive is that Ron Perlman, he who underwent no absolutely no cosmetic changes to portray Hellboy(just a joke, although he is a little monstrous), has signed on to the action thriller. He'll be joining star Ryan Gosling(The Believer), Christina Hendricks(Mad Men), Carey Mulligan(Never Let Me Go), Bryan Cranston(Breaking Bad), and Albert Brooks(Defending Your Life).

Gosling will portray a a stuntman who moonlights as a wheelman for criminal organizations, until he finds out that a contract has been put out on him after a failed heist.

Filming is set to begin in Los Angeles later this month. Drive is based on the 2005 crime novel  by James Sallis.

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