The Conjuring

Just when I didn't think I had really anything left to ramble on about with this blog....I get pulled back in.  And surprisingly, it has nothing to do with anything Christopher Nolan related.  Although with his upcoming film Interstellar to soon begin production, I'm sure whomever is reading this will end up reading my fanboy gushing over that.

Until then however, I have been thinking more and more about this blog, and what I had originally intended to do with it.  At the beginning when I first decided to create it, I wanted to review movies, on top of discuss upcoming movies and why I think they should be on peoples radars.  For a while I wrote reviews for movies, and not just new ones, old ones as well.  Somewhere I lost it and started only posting about Christopher Nolan films, which gets boring to write about and boring to read about.  So I am going to attempt to get this thing focused back on to reviewing any movie I watch, new and or old.  But also bring up upcoming films, and why I am excited about them. Which brings me to the reason I am writing this now.

I just saw a trailer for an intriguing film titled, "The Conjuring"  As some of you know, I am always on the lookout for a legitimately scary film, one that can give me the eerie feeling of something crawling up my back.  Many trailers capture my attention, and almost always the films let me down harder than they have any business doing.  But as always, I hope for the best, and I am hoping and expecting a lot from this.

Starting off with The Zombies song Time of the Season, which can be overused, adds to the mood perfectly.  It starts out completely cliched, having a hide and seek game whilst blindfolded, we know something sinister is going to happen.  But then its just the hands clapping.  Everything leading up to her being along in the basement is intense and atmospheric.  My favorite thing though is that we are all expecting to see some sort of ghost when she is in the dark...but again with the hands.  It isn't what we are expecting, and it works brilliantly.  Another positive is that they aren't CGI hands.

I love that we don't get a sizzle reel of all the scariest moments (I'm sure we will though, which I'll avoid like the plague) its just basically two scenes to help set the mood. Even the title screen in the trailer oozes with old school eerie atmosphere that really completely sold me on it. James Wan has proven he can do atmosphere with the original Saw and the popular Insidious.  He has shown that he can do Horror, but I am hoping this is a far better addition to his resume than anything we have seen yet.  I will naturally continue to get my hopes up for this....lets hope I'm not let down yet again!

Cloud Atlas

I know, it's shocking that I am posting something that is completely irrelevant to Christopher Nolan or Batman.  But its something I think worthy of attention and hype.  The Wachowski siblings have given us some great things (The Matrix) and some terrible things (The Matrix sequels) but they have always been interesting.  So when I heard the premise for "Cloud Atlas" I was intrigued.

It's based on a novel, where different stories, dating all over history and the future, intertwine.  I've never read the book, I plan to, so I don't know how good the source material is but the idea is pretty crazy.

We (meaning other film snobs and geeks) kept hearing about different things, like Tom Hanks being cast, followed by Hugh Grant...yeah Hugh Grant in a non chick-flick?  That's enough to peak my interest  But you also have Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Ben Wishaw, Jim Sturgess and of coure Hugo Weaving.   So my interest grew even more.  Finally we have been given a glimpse into what this is actually going to look like.  Honestly, I'm even more in the dark of what this movie is about after viewing the extended trailer.  But the visuals look more than amazing and the acting looks extremely solid.  Unfortunately Warner Bro's have taken down any video except the exclusive Apple Trailer's one so I have to just link you to it here.  Enjoy!

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/wb/cloudatlas/ 

The Dark Knight Rises - Featurette

What a better way to send the already unbelievable hype of this movie into literal overdrive then release this featurette.  In true Christopher Nolan fashion it doesn't spoil anything, we see many clips that we have already seen through trailers and tv spots, but hearing the insight from Chris and Wally Pfister (my favorite Cinematographer) is amazing.  The scale of this movie is unbelievable, and to watch some of the stunts that are done here makes me so giddy it's not even funny.

 I can't stress enough to people how this movie is going to far exceed any of the insane hype I have been throwing at it.  I realize that I am the worst kind of fanboy and that I would blindly follow this director anywhere he took me, but seriously this is going to be something incredible.  Yesterday test screenings were held and people at Super Hero Hype that saw it raved about it, claiming it is better than both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.  Everyone who tweeted about their reactions to seeing it boasted that the last twenty minutes are phenomenal....so let the hype continue to build!  Less than two weeks to go!

Les Miserables: First Look

Sitting through countless terrible musicals based on Broadway plays, I always wished someone with real talent at directing would take a musical adaptation of Victor Hugo's book, based on the hit Broadway play, and turn it into an incredible movie.

About a year and a half ago a movie called "The Kings Speech" was winning an Oscar for best picture.  It was directed by an unknown named Tom Hooper, and if you saw "The Kings Speech" it was proof he had immense talent.  Around this same time I was rereading one of my favorite novels of all time, "Les Miserables" and thought yet again how amazing it would be if someone made it into a film instead of  junk like "Hairspray" or "Mama Mia".  How come we couldn't get something like this, that had real meaning and real substance?

Well suddenly on the Internet movie databases news page, it announced that Tom Hooper was in talks to direct a musical adaptation of "Les Miserables" (there has already been a film based off the book, that was non-musical)  and I have been following its production ever since.

Russell Crowe as Inspector Javert

Finally the first trailer and look into the film has been released.  It looks incredible, and with a cast that includes Hugh Jackman as the protagonist Jean Valjean, Russell Crowe as the antagonist Inspector Javert, Anne Hathaway as the heartbreaking Fantine, and the perfect casting of Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter as the Thenardiers..this promises to be incredible.

Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean

I personally think it has the best chance at the next Academy Awards and giving Spielberg's "Lincoln" a run for it's money.  Check out the trailer below

The Dark Knight Rises - TV Spot #3 Rise (HD)

We now have a third tv spot...and it may just be the best yet.  I am for sure writing in Christopher Nolan on the presidential Ballot this year.  Check it out below!

The Dark Knight Rises: 4 New Banners

So its officially the week of The Dark Knight Rises!  We got the new tv spots, posters and now four epic new banners! These literally just hit the web a few minutes ago! I am so completely giddy its not even funny.  Check them all out below! (click on em for larger high res images)

My personal favorite!

The Dark Knight Rises: TV Spots + 6 Character Posters and Lots of New Stills.

So it appears that the marketing has finally kicked into gear.  First this week we got the new official third poster for The Dark Knight Rises, but I won't even post that because it was a terrible poster.  The following day we got six new character posters though, that are quite excellent.  We also ot lots of new great looking stills from the film. And finally tonight we got two T.V spots for it (one premiering during American Idol, the other during Modern Family), showing LOTS of amazing footage that was not shown in the trailers.  With these two trailers it seems that they are trying to highlight the more "fun" elements of the film as opposed to the very serious and gloomy three theatrical trailers.  Probably a good marketing move on WB's part to try and highlight the more "fun" moments now that the super fun Avengers was such a hit.

The more I see of this movie, the more confident I am that Christopher Nolan can do now wrong, and that this will be the best he has done yet. It also looks like I have got what I missed most in The Dark Knight...more Bruce Wayne (I feel that this is where Christian Bale's acting is best in the series)

Check out  all the new epicness below!

T.V Spot 1:


T.V Spot 2:





New stills below (click on picture for High Res)

Bane looking epic as usual

Catwoman as she (my theory anyways) is about to witness Bane beat the crap out of Batman

Joseph Gordon Levitt as cop John Blake

Anne Hathaway as Catwoman

Christopher Nolan being the genius that he is

Chris directing the cuss out of Christian Bale and Morgan Freeman

Anne Hathaway just prooving all the naysayers wrong.

More Bane looking epic