Right Cinema

Several Hollywood names are angry with the war in Iraq, and while actors and actresses have long voiced their anger in the media, few have gone so far as to make a movie that directly satirizes the conflict. But that’s exactly what John Cusack aims to do in his new movie “War, Inc.”.

John Cusack In “War, Inc.”

“War, Inc.” premiered at Tribeca, and as Cusack surprisingly found, opened to pretty good reviews. He helped write the screenplay, which he also stars in alongside Hilary Duff, Marisa Tomei, and Sir Ben Kingsley.

In the film, Cusack plays a hit man who is hired by Tamerlane, a company occupying the country of Turaqistan which is run by a former U.S. vice president. Cusack is hired to assassinate a Middle Eastern oil minister because he plans to lay an oil pipeline through Turaqistan, which would foil Tamerlane’s plan for sole proprietorship of the country.

For her part, Duff plays a trashy central Asian pop singer who is set to wed a powerful local politician. She hopes that moviegoers will see the humor in the movie, as serious as the subject is.

“We’re trying to raise awareness with it. It is funny and it is bizarre and a little disturbing. But really at the end of the day it’s looking at what (our country is) doing, and it’s not right.”

I’m sold – watch the trailer and you will be to (although it’s nice to have a plot overview going into it because otherwise it’s a little confusing).

See more photos of “War, Inc.” and the trailer below.

Photos and Video

The weekend movie releases are getting better every Friday – you can tell we’re getting close to the summer blockbuster season. As the movies get bigger, the previews get more prevalent and constant. That’s how you know that the movies releasing tomorrow are “Speed Racer” and “What Happens In Vegas”.

Speed Racer Releases Tomorrow

Speed Racer

For as many big names are in this family-friendly action movie, including Susan Sarandon, John Goodman, Christina Ricci, and Emile Hirsch, I just don’t see “Speed Racer” being the big box office hit the commercials are making it out to be. Then I saw a preview promoting the movie as the perfect Mother’s Day movie. No way! This is a kid’s birthday movie, romantic comedies (or anything but “Speed Racer”) are Mother’s Day movies.

I’m sure there’s a plot in there somewhere – young race car driver uncovers an evil plot and saves the day to save the family racing business. It’s really about the visual stimulation with this one. Have you seen those neon lights – you might need sunglasses.

What Happens In Vegas

Now, this movie looks great – funny and cute, the way a romantic comedy is supposed to be. Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher star in this film about two crazy kids who go to Vegas, get hammered, get married, win millions from a slot machine, and then fight over the money. The trick is that whoever bails on the marriage loses the money, so there’s a lot of antics. And yes, hilarity ensues. But, just as you’d expect, it appears that the plot is predictable and characters one-noted.

See the trailers for “Speed Racer” and “What Happens In Vegas” below.

Videos

Remember the good old days of the 1980s, where Richard Dean Anderson could save the world with a Q-Tip and a Bic pen? The “MacGyver” television series ended in 1992, and since then we’ve been waiting for a down-to-earth hero who doesn’t need super powers to save the day, but rather just a brain and a couple everyday items. Well the time has come – the “MacGyver” movie is coming!

“MacGyver” Movie

The creator of the television show, Lee David Zlotoff, also has the rights to the movie, and he recently announced that he is in the planning stages for a big budget film revolving around the MacGyver character. So the big question is, in today’s world of gadgets and technology, will MacGyver stay true to form, or will he evolve with the rest of us? One can only hope that they at least bring back the mullet.

See more photos of the original MacGyver and a video clip of the television show below, to remind you why you loved it so much in the first place.

Photos and Video

The new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull trailer is out for your viewing pleasure. If you were one of the many who saw “Iron Man” this weekend, you also saw the new trailer. If not, check it out below.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

The fourth installment of Indiana Jones brings back Harrison Ford as Dr. Henry and this time he’s joined by Shia LeBeouf and Cate Blanchett. Jones is in a race with Soviet agents to find the “crystal skull.” There is a total of 13 skulls made of crystal quartz hidden around the world and the movie looks packed with action while the Jones crew is on the hunt. This latest film is sure to add to the $1.5 billion the movies have grossed worldwide so far.

As legend has it, at 5-years-old I jumped in the aisle and started clapping during “Raiders of the Lost Ark” so needless to say I can’t wait to see this one. Can’t believe that was 27 years ago. Steven Spielberg’s summer blockbuster opens May 22.

You can see photos from the movie and the new trailer below.

Photos and Video

Here is the trailer video teaser for the Twilight movie which has been long anticipated. This is the unedited official trailer.

Twilight Movie Trailer

Twilight is about a 17-year-old girl named Bella Swan, played by actress Kristen Stewart, who relocates to the rural town of Forks, Washington so that she live with her father. She soon develops a crish on Edward Cullen, played by actor Robert Pattinson. He tries to push her away for the most noble of reasons. You see, Edward Cullen and his entire family are vampires. That little secret does not phase our heroine who remains hot under the collar for her boy toy.

The video from MySpace TV is below.

Video

Just when you thought Tuesday was the worst day of the week, think again. It’s new DVD day, and you can’t go wrong there. So set your Netflix queue because we’ve got a few new DVDs releasing this week.

P.S. I Love You

P.S. I Love You

In one of the funniest and saddest romantic comedies in a long time, Hilary Swank stars in this movie about a woman who loses the love of her life, and gets his help from the great beyond to move on. Husband Jerry had time to prepare for his death, so he also prepared for his wife’s life after his death. He sends occasional packages with various tasks to Swank’s character in the hopes that she finds that she is strong enough to live life without him. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll miss your man immensely as soon as the movie is over. And then you’ll want the soundtrack. So grab your pint of Ben & Jerry’s and snuggle up.

I’m Not There

In this creative portrait of Bob Dylan, tons of actors star as the brilliant musician that embodied the spirit of the sixties. The movie selects six different stages of Dylan’s life, and portrays the artist in very distinct ways. Each of the stages has a different name (like Jude or John, for example), and follows Dylan on his path to becoming the legend he is today. An interesting bit of the movie: not once is Bob Dylan’s name mentioned. And it sounds like it’s worth seeing the movie for Cate Blanchett’s performance alone. Rolling Stone writes,

She burns through Haynes’ head-trip odyssey like an illuminating torch. Blanchett’s soon-to-be-legendary performance is not a stunt, it’s some kind of miracle. Playing the skinny, androgynous Dylan in his electric years — when his hair stood on end to match his fried nerves — Blanchett extends the possibilities of acting. You won’t see a better example of interpretive art this year by man or woman.

First Sunday

I have to admit, I have a very strong bias against Ice Cube, at least as an actor – if someone made a list of actors that will ruin a movie just by being cast in it, he’d be on it. Lucky for this movie Tracy Morgan and Katt Williams are here to save it. After Ice Cube’s ex tells him she’s moving his son to Atlanta because she can’t afford the rent at her beauty shop, he and Morgan come up with a not-so-brilliant yet comical plan … to rob a church. Unfortunately for these new criminals, someone beat them to the punch. To figure out where in the world the money is, the bumbling duo is forced to spend the night in the church. I’m not sold, but I’m willing to bet I’d laugh at least twice.

Over Her Dead Body

Wow, this movie went to DVD quickly! It appears Eva Longoria can’t carry the big screen crowds the way she does with “Desperate Housewives”. Quick synopsis: Eva Longoria dies on the day she’s supposed to marry Paul Rudd. The spirit talker falls for Rudd and tries to help him get over the loss, but Longoria’s ghost is there to haunt her every step of the way. There’s a reason I haven’t seen this movie yet – it was almost universally panned by critics. One reviewer so bluntly puts it,

Over Her Dead Body will find its best audience on airplane flights, where viewers will be unable to get up and leave without parachutes.

Ouch.

See the trailers for the movies below.

Videos

A couple years ago a friend of mine recommended that I watch episodes of Arrested Development. I was immediately hooked and Arrested Development became one of my favorite sitcoms in the past five years. For those who may be unfamiliar, the show included some extremely funny actors like Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, David Cross, and Jeffrey Tamboor, to name a few. However, since the show has ended, no one’s career has taken off more than Michael Cera’s, and deservedly so.

What’s ironic though is that Michael Cera never really stood out to me when watching the show. He played the awkward, timid, sexually confused adolescent extremely well, but his humor never jumped out at you. Since then, I have come to learn that Cera does not steal scenes with his brand of comedy, but rather he heightens his scenes with a subtle realism that makes you feel as if his character is perpetually trapped in awkward moments like ones you have squirmed through from time to time when you were growing up.

After Arrested Development, Cera’s career has flourished in movies like Superbad and Juno. However, a look at his filmography and you will notice that he has been acting since he was about 10 years old in the late 90’s.

With Juno and Super Bad both doing well with critics and in the box office, Cera has arrived and hopefully the best is yet to come. Cera is also known for making a lot of short skits distributed on the world wide web. So I scoured the internet to find some of Cera’s finer moments. Click below to watch some of these hilarious clips.

Videos

Just two movies coming out this weekend, but they’re both getting a lot of airtime as far as previews go. If you didn’t know that “Iron Man” and “Made of Honor” were the movies releasing tomorrow, I’m not sure what you were doing for the past few weeks. It’s like no matter where I look, there’s Robert Downey, Jr. and Patrick Dempsey, shilling their films.

“Iron Man” Releases Tomorrow

Iron Man

The latest in comic-book movies finds Robert Downey, Jr. creating a one-man army whose uniform gets better and better as the film goes on. By the third or fourth version he’s flying through the sky. The suit begins as a way to escape captivity, but evolves into a crime-fighting machine.

In “Iron Man”, Downey plays businessman Tony Stark who makes his money selling ideas to the military industry. Of creating the character, Stan Lee said, “I’m gonna make him the kind of guy that normally young people hate.” The comic book was set in the 1963, when America was at war with Vietnam and Communism, and Stark was the proud capitalist businessman who moonlighted as Iron Man. For a great political commentary of the whole idea of capitalist as hero, check out this Slate article. I never read the comic books, so it makes me want to see how bad Tony Stark really is.

Made of Honor

Romantic comedies follow one of three plotlines: (1) crazy love triangle, (2) boy and girl fall madly in love, but must be separated for one reason or another before finding each other again, and (3) friends become lovers. Typically, in the third variety, one friend realizes he loves the other just one minute too late, and the other friend has already moved on, giving up on her life-long dreams of romance with the first friend in the minute just before. And that’s what we seem to have here with “Made of Honor”. While I like the cast (Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan), the plot seems like a poor twist on the old friends become lovers story. And the critics agree. With a 9% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it seems that movie was almost universally panned. But I’m sure Dempsey still makes for good eye candy for an hour and a half.

See the trailers for “Iron Man” and “Made of Honor” below.

Videos