Despite not being too hot on the whole plethora of superhero movies and multi-faceted franchises, I have to admit that I enjoyed the first Avengers film. Which means that I'm probably going to enjoy the second Avengers film, Avengers: Age of Ultron, especially if director Joss Whedon has anything to say about it.
Every day I check on movie news, and every day I'm met with yet another toy-turned-movie marketing ploy in the making. Monster Trucks? Check. Monopoly? Check again. Troll Dolls? And one more check. I'm not certain who to blame for this. I'd like to lay it at the door of Michael Bay and his absurdly bad, absurdly successful Transformers franchise, but these kinds of toy-based films really have been coming at us for years. Indeed, we actually have one more to add to the pile, as Sony and Mattel announce their intention to make a live-action Barbie movie.
It has been years since the long-running series Mystery Science Theater 3000 went off the air, but the show and the millions of snarky copycats and critics it helped generate have carried on into the new millennium. The crew behind MST3K have gone on to produce similar works of epic snark, including the increasingly popular RiffTrax and Cinematic Titanic. But the first is always the best, and it appears that Mystery Science Theater 3000 could very well be primed for a reboot.
In a move that seems to be a regular thing for big budget films nowadays, DreamWorks Animation has released the first five minutes of their upcoming animated sequel How To Train Your Dragon 2. It provides exactly what you might expect from a five minute clip: a brief reminder of where we are, for those who have forgotten the events of the first film; some high-flying dragon action; and, of course, witty repartee between our animated characters.
Given that we're unlikely to hear much more than rumor about Star Wars: Episode VII for the foreseeable future, we have to take any concrete information we can get. The next little tidbit to emerge surrounding the multitude of Star Wars sequels and spinoffs comes courtesy of writer Simon Kinberg. He reveals what was probably already assumed (but it's nice to be confirmed): the Star Wars sequels will remain grounded in the cinematic canon.
Once more, fans of a certain age may have cause to rejoice! As we reported not too long ago, director Richard Donner confirmed (via TMZ, so take it with a grain of salt) that he was indeed preparing The Goonies 2, hopefully with the entire original cast back in their parts. Now Donner has also mentioned, once more to TMZ, that original writer Steven Spielberg has come up with a new idea for the sequel.
Yeah, we're all really excited about high art and the Cannes Film Festival line-up and everything, but you know what else is cool? Old dudes blowing things up. While no one is more facetious about big budget Hollywood films than than yours truly, I still have affection in my heart for The Expendables franchise. This means that when new images from The Expendables 3 pop up, I just have to talk about them.
So-called existential westerns are making something of a comeback in recent years, with many of them taking place in the Australian outback. Guy Pearce already appeared in one such drama: 2005's The Proposition. Now, he's starring in The Rover, a Cannes-selected film from David Michod, the director of Animal Kingdom. Today, in preparation for the film's premiere, the first trailer has landed online.
I am very much on the fence about Marvel's upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy. While I welcome the departure from the usual "guys in capes/iron suits" motifs that characterize the earth-bound section of the Marvel Universe, I have yet to see anything to convince me that Guardians of the Galaxy will be worth the ticket price. The stars and producer of the film, however, would like all of us naysayers to know that Guardians is both going to be a very different experience, but also remain in the same general universe we know and, maybe, love.
Sword and sandal epics are all the rage once more; we've had 300: Rise of an Empire, Noah, and The Legend of Hercules in 2014 alone. Now, Dwayne Johnson enters the fray as the title character in Brett Ratner's Hercules, coming to theatres this summer. We've already seen trailers and clips from the film, and today we have yet another TV spot featuring CGI animals and Johnson's biceps.
