All posts by Chris Tansuche

‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ Casts More Stars From Movies Past

January 26, 2013 Chris Tansuche Leave a comment

In the X-Men Universe, I always thought that Days of Future Past was one of the best storylines out there and helped define them as the go-to comic for me. While the Phoenix Saga ranks as number one to me, I remember reading the comics for Days of Future Past at a friend’s house and loved the story of alternate futures and seeing it as a possibility if things were to go wrong. Imagine my own glee when I heard that the sequel to X-Men: First Class was going to be an adaptation of the Days of Future Past storyline. I got even more excited due to the return of Bryan Singer as director, the excitement after X2: X-Men United got squandered immediately with Brett Ratner’s X-Men: The Last Stand (HOLY CRAP, it was awful). I did think that Matthew Vaughn did a terrific job in X-Men: First Class and am glad that he still helped write the script for this sequel. However, this seemed to be Singer’s baby and I am happy he returns to fold. As it turns out, he won’t be the only one…

Also slated to return according to SuperheroHype, are Rogue, Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat) and Bobby Drake (Iceman), which means you get to see Anna Paquin, Ellen Page and Shawn Ashmore back in the mutant world once more. They join the list of several coming back, with Hugh Jackman coming back as Wolverine and Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart returning as Magneto and Professor X, respectively. Obviously with the time jumps and alternate realities, we were going to get glimpses of the cast but just hearing their involvement in the series makes me giddy.

Also confirmed back are Michael Fassbender (THE reason to watch X-Men: First Class), Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, and Nicholas Hoult. No word yet on anyone else joining the fun parade from the old movies as Famke Janssen is still waiting on her invite as Phoenix/Jean Grey along with James Marsden as Cyclops. Seeing as Ratner killed them off (seriously, every third Marvel movie blows, I’m so scared for Iron Man 3), it’s still open ended on who’s going to be in or out. We do know that Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert and January Jones as Emma Frost have yet to hear back on their odds in returning after First Class so I’m sure once we get closer to the date, we’ll get more information.

The Kitty Pryde thing seems to be the most significant casting considering her role in the comic storyline. It still remains to be seen as how big Ellen Page’s role will be once the movie hits the screen but that doesn’t damper the high hopes for the movie, or the fact that they care enough about the fans to bring back the same people in the old roles. I guess we’ll find out July 18, 2014 to see exactly how this bit of awesome news translates to the screen.

Movie News & Opinions

J.J. Abrams Is Your Star Wars: Episode VII Director

January 24, 2013 Chris Tansuche Leave a comment

Get ready fans of the Force, you’re about to meet your newest accompanying special power: Lens flare!

That’s right boys and girls, according to several sources, including Deadline.com, the Los Angeles Times, MTV.com, and the Hollywood Reporter, the next installment of the Star Wars saga will be directed by none other than J.J. Abrams. Confused a bit like me? Of course you should be because let me throw out a quote from J.J. Abrams from Empire in December about rumors of his involvement with the storied franchise:

[quote][Lucasfilm president] Kathy Kennedy is a friend and there are no smarter producers,” he said at the time. “It’s in great hands. There were the very early conversations and I quickly said that because of my loyalty to ‘Star Trek,’ and also just being a fan, I wouldn’t even want to be involved in the next version of those things. I declined any involvement very early on. I’d rather be in the audience not knowing what was coming, rather than being involved in the minutiae of making them.[/quote]

Obviously something changed. Let’s just assume that Disney threw bunches of money at J.J. to test his actual loyalty to the Star Trek franchise. It is more than apparent Disney wants to launch the franchise in the biggest way possible and landing J.J., who is very well respected amongst all the filmmakers out there under consideration for this epic film series, is a huge get for Kathleen Kennedy and the Mouse House. It was interesting to note that Ben Affleck was listed in the article sources above as a frontrunner to take over the franchise. I think that would’ve been a great choice as well as it would solidify him as one of the premier directors out there but again, if you want the go-to guy in Sci-Fi, Abrams is it (unless you can get Ridley Scott a few decades ago).

I do like the selection of J.J. quite a bit as I do love Lost (even as convoluted as it got), Fringe and everything that he touches (except for the second half of Super 8). I’m also curious how this affects the Star Trek franchise. I think J.J. will be able to separate both franchises and make sure that we see new things as opposed to borrowed elements from both series (which, imagine if that happens, the internet message boards and trolls would be out in full force claiming one is a rip off another, people rioting at Comic-Con, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria, that sort of stuff). I have faith in this plan because Michael Arndt is writing the new Star Wars Episode VII and he did a great job in incorporating family in Toy Story 3 and Little Miss Sunshine that I think it’ll be great if we follow the story of the Han and Leia kids. Again, we don’t know the actual story yet but we can assume that there will be so many hands involved with Star Wars, Abrams job will be to make sure it all clicks together on the big screen. With the Star Trek franchise, he was pretty much ‘it’ as producer and main decision-maker, let alone director on those flicks so I’m sure we’ll see the differences enough to make both enjoyable experiences.

I will say this, as soon as this news came out, I went “Wow.” He’ll do a good job and with the team behind him, they’ll make sure he doesn’t screw up too. Although if they borrow the monster from Cloverfield and Super 8, I’m going to have a Jar Jar moment. In case you need the information, Star Wars Episode VII is due out on 2015. Start getting excited friends.

GAMING

More Call of Duty: Black Ops 2? You Got It Thanks to the Revolution DLC…and Peter Stormare

January 22, 2013 Chris Tansuche Leave a comment

This could possibly be my favorite Call of Duty video of all time. I’ll get into the rest of the article you view the video but I give props to Peter Stormare, he made this video awesome.

“Now you go pick up my sh*t.”

Obviously it’s not the official trailer of the map but just a fun promotional bit. Luckily there is another trailer for what to expect with the new Revolution DLC, coming out on January 29th first on X-Box Live. It boasts four new multiplayer maps, a new zombies co-op map, a new game mode for zombies, and a new multiplayer weapon called the Peacekeeper that is exclusive to the game mode. There’s more in the video below, which serves as the actual trailer and preview for the new DLC.

Hydro seems like a cool map and having the spillway used to flood and flush out people seems to be a cool element, a la the train in Express. Grind is just going to be a giant chaos map with no real place to hide or hug walls although I can imagine it being a sniper’s haven to like Carrier, which would annoy the living crap out of me. I know Downhill will be a big hit because of people of the white stuff…the snow I mean, not cocaine. Mirage looks cool too because it seems to incorporate wide open space and claustrophobic environments to satisfy everyone involved…unless you’re on the losing end of course.

Die Rise is the new zombie map that takes place in a skyscraper and I’m looking forward to this map because I haven’t gotten into zombies that much in this iteration of CoD but this somewhat reminds me of Die Hard in the high rise so if it provides that type of element to it, I’m sure we’ll play it non-stop. With that, comes the new game mode called Turned, where this time, you take control of the zombie and hunt down the lone human player. If you’re successful at doing so, you then become the lone human player and take turns killing others and the one with most kills as the human player seems to be the winner. At least that’s my assumption looking at the video itself. Regardless, it’s about time we get to see the other side and stalk our human compatriots and make their life hell.

Lastly, we have a new gun called the Peacekeeper coming to multiplayer exclusively. The gun is a hybrid between a submachine gun and assault rifle so you get a bit of the stopping power of the assault rifles, with the versatility of the SMG. Overall, I think this will be a giant success and am looking forward to the new DLC dropping on XBL on January 29th. Too bad for the other systems though because they don’t get the map packs until later but hey, pick up a 360 and join some of the Grizzly Bomb people. I guarantee you’ll be way better than us.

Movie News & Opinions

‘Gangster Squad’ Clips and Interviews For All To Enjoy

January 11, 2013 Chris Tansuche Leave a comment

So this weekend marks the release of the Gangster Squad movie that has been delayed for several months starring Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Nick Nolte and Sean Penn amongst others. This has been a high anticipated movie since last year but it was delayed due to the shootings in Colorado at a movie theater and a scene was subsequently reshot because it involved a similar event. However, we here at Grizzly Bomb were lucky enough to score some scenes from the movie and some interviews as well from on set to help mark the release of the movie. I’m looking forward myself to seeing the movie, despite the mixed reviews it has been getting, and these clips just remind me what a great cast they have in the movie and the look of old Los Angeles circa 1940s just gets me excited to see it. It may not be L.A. Confidential but hopefully it’ll be entertaining to watch. Below are seven clips from the movie and interviews with the cast so enjoy!

MOVIES

GB’s Dartboard Box Office Predictions – Jan. 11-13

January 11, 2013 Chris Tansuche Leave a comment

It’s been awhile since I’ve ventured back into the prediction business and after today’s Oscar nominations, I’m pretty fired up now and ready to view some good movies and see the impact it’ll have on the marketplace. That’s right people, the Dartboard Box Office Predictions are back and I’m ready to be embarrassed yet again with some misguided picks.

There are three major releases this weekend, with one of them being a wide expansion. First, we have Gangster Squad, the Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, and Sean Penn led period flick, then we have A Haunted House from Marlon Wayans, trying to recapture the glory days of Scary Movie, and then Zero Dark Thirty goes wide finally to take advantage of the Oscar nominations announcement. In regards to Gangster Squad, I’ve been trying to think of a good comparison for the movie. It’s not quite a complete A-list filled movie, just actors that are either on the cusp of movie star or rising stars ready to break out. The closest thing might be Looper in my mind with rising stars compared to Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt and the backing of an older star like Bruce Willis. With Gangster Squad sporting Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, and Sean Penn playing the role as legitimate Hollywood veteran, that’s the best comparison I could think of. Looper came out in almost 3000 screens and grossed almost 21 million with an almost 7k per screen average. I see something similar for Gangster Squad, although the movie might lose a bit of its legs because it’s getting mixed reviews. Gangster Squad opens in 3100 screens and should drum up about 6.5k per screen, so that will give it 20 million to start the weekend off.

Tougher to predict is A Haunted House. With only one Wayans brother trying to duplicate the magic of the Scary Movie franchise, it’s hard to think that this will succeed. But that might also do with the fact that the franchise was complete garbage so my initial prejudice is to completely ask this movie to bomb. However, the people always come out in force for these types of movies. The last spoof movie to come out was Vampires Suck and that grossed 12 million in 3200 theaters, which is shocking because I had no recollection of that even being in theaters to begin with. I’d like to add that I hate 90% of all spoof movies so seeing commercials for this made me want to throw up. With that, it should do something similar to Vampires Suck, which had almost 4k per screen average. A Haunted House opens on 2100 theaters so I predict a 4k per screen average for a 8.5 million opening frame. I will say that this can blow up quickly and I’m wary about under-predicting on this one. With no real competition against it, I have a feeling this will be a movie to watch closely. Despite the fact I have zero desire in seeing it.

Lastly, we have Zero Dark Thirty going wide and this should challenge for the top spot this weekend. Obviously they were relying on challenging Lincoln for the most nominees but surprisingly, they ended up with only 5, not even including a Best Director nod for Kathryn Bigelow. This should still receive a boost in the box office though as it moves to 2900 theaters nationwide. Last year, when The Artist expanded, it drew in a 39.8% increase on box office output, although it only increased by 235 theaters. Last year The Descendants increased their theaters after the nominations came out to 2000 theaters, a 1400 screen increase. That resulted in a 170% increased box office dollar result. I think that might be more in line but still only resulted in a 3k per screen average. Last weekend, in 60 theaters, Zero Dark Thirty averaged almost 45k per screen. Obviously that is way too out of line to be expected this week. So let’s go with a 8k average per screen for a final result of 23 million for the weekend.

As for the holdovers, we expect Lincoln to get a mini-boost, as well as the other Oscar-nominated pictures. Looking at Django Unchained first, that should only decline by 30% despite competition for the R-rated audiences so it’ll result in a 14 million dollar take. Les Miserables will also see a slight decline of 30% as people check out the Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway nominated movie so that will result in an 11 million dollar take. Lincoln should see a big increase probably from the previous week so look for a 9 million dollar weekend for them. Life of Pi will get a slight increase too but only to probably 4 million as the marketplace is flooded and the movie is already two months into its current run. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will continue it’s 50% decline, giving it 9 million for the weekend. Parental Guidance is also proving to be a solid hit and should decline about 40% to reach 6 million, as well as Jack Reacher which also will get about 6 million with new films in the marketplace to take from its demographic. This Is 40 will get about a 40% decline to result in a 5 million dollar frame as well. Texas Chainsaw 3D will probably get a MASSIVE decline of 70% and end with 8 million as horror movies never hold up over the long period of time. The horrific reviews don’t help either. Overall, let’s see how it all shapes out:

[box_dark]**1.) Zero Dark Thirty: 23 million
2.) Gangster Squad: 20 million
3.) Django Unchained: 14 million
4.) Les Miserables: 11 million
5.) (tied) Lincoln: 9 million
5.) (tied) The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: 9 million
7.) A Haunted House: 8.5 million
8.) Texas Chainsaw 3D: 8 million
9.) (tied) Parental Guidance: 6 million
9.) (tied) Jack Reacher**: 6 million[/box_dark]

Those are the predictions, so we’ll see. Otherwise, it’s going to be a busy weekend for me. Time to catch up as I fill up some Oscar ballots and win me some Oscar pools!

Movie News & Opinions

Here’s the 2013 Academy Award Nominations! Let the Whining Commence!

January 10, 2013 Chris Tansuche Leave a comment

So the nominations for the 85th Academy Awards were released and admittedly, the one thing that I figured they could not mess up, they massively screw up. I’ll get to that in a second but let’s start off with who got the most nominations. Lincoln led the way with 12 nominations, with Life of Pi coming up with 11 nominations itself. Silver Linings Playbook managed to get nominations in all the acting categories, ending with 8 nominations. Argo also got 7 nominations but it should have been 8. Again I digress so before I drop into what I thought were true crimes, let’s go over which movies I thought deserved major props.

I am glad that Joaquin Phoenix did make the nominee list for best actor, despite his rant on hating the Oscar campaigning process and the idea of acting awards. Yeah it’s a political process that is kind of stupid and narcissistic but that should have no effect on how great he was in The Master. I still think he’ll lose to Daniel Day-Lewis in the end but, I mean seriously, who else can stop Lincoln‘s momentum after scoring 12 nominations? As for Best Actress, I’m happy that Jennifer Lawrence got her Oscar nomination because I thought she did a great job in Silver Linings Playbook on a role that could have gone south with any other actress. Ditto with Bradley Cooper getting his first nomination for his portrayal of the bi-polar protagonist. He’s come a pretty long way since we saw him The Wedding Crashers. Also, seeing 9 year old Quvenzhané Wallis and 85 year old Emmanuelle Riva nominated is pretty cool to see, considering it creates a record for the largest age gap in nominees in Oscar history. Supporting Actor made me happy with Alan Arkin and Robert De Niro being nominated for Argo and Silver Linings Playbook respectively. De Niro did a terrific job especially with his understated role as the father struggling to help and connect with his son.

Now to the major issues I have with the list. Number one? Why in the living crap is Ben Affleck not nominated for Best Director? This is the most mind-baffling thing in the world to see considering I thought that Argo was one of the best movies of the year. It did score 7 nominations but I felt it was massively due to the deft handling behind the camera by the actor/director. This honestly kept me in shock for a few minutes before I started writing this article. I can understand why Tom Hooper was not nominated for Les Miserables because people were either loving or hating his direction but Ben Affleck made Argo work and flow beautifully. Another surprise was that Kathryn Bigelow was not nominated for Best Director as well and that Zero Dark Thirty only scored 5 nominations. With that, I think we can predict that Lincoln will have a good chance to dominate the Oscars next month at this rate.

Also why the heck did Perks of a Being a Wallflower and Looper not get nominated for Adapted and Best Original Screenplay respectively? Looper was one of the most creative stories I’ve seen in a movie and it’s a crime that Rian Johnson did not get recognition from the Academy for this one. Stephen Chbosky, in adapting and directing his own novel, should have also got recognition for the great writing and translating to the screen. It kept the spirit of the novel and yet made it entertaining and movie ready so he deserved props for that. Also, why not nominate Skyfall or The Dark Knight Rises for Best Picture? In terms of The Dark Knight Rises, that movie gets better with every viewing and while not as strong as The Dark Knight, it should’ve gotten some sort of nomination, maybe getting Christopher Nolan on the board for Best Director. Again, that’s asking a bit much considering my earlier rant on the snubbed nominees. About Skyfall, I thought it was brilliant and deserved the recognition of being one of the smartest Bond, if not action, movies in a long while. Speaking of, why not even throw in Javier Bardem at least for his Bond villain portrayal? His stuff was great and he owned the screen. Maybe even Samuel L. Jackson or Leonardo DiCaprio for Django Unchained but that Supporting Actor list is pretty solid so I can’t argue that too much. How about Ann Dowd in Compliance? I know it was an uphill battle but man, it would have been cool to see her make the list.

I could go on and on but I’m going to provide the list, thanks EW.com for getting it organized by the way, so you can argue with me on social media about it because…man, I’m a little annoyed with some of the movies and actors not getting their due. I guess we’ll find out on February 24th who the big winners will be. Although if Paperman doesn’t win Best Animated Short, I’m going to riot.

Best Picture
Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

Best Actor
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts, The Impossible

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, Argo
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, The Master
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook

Best Director
Michael Haneke, Amour
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Original Screenplay
Amour, Michael Hanake
Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino
Flight, John Gatins
Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola
Zero Dark Thirty, Mark Boal

Best Adapted Screenplay
Argo, Chris Terrio
Beasts of the Southern Wild, Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin,
Life of Pi, David Magee
Lincoln, Tony Kushner
Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russell

Best Animated Feature:
Brave
Frankenweenie
ParaNorman
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Wreck-It Ralph

Best Cinematography
Anna Karenina, Seamus McGarvey
Django Unchained, Robert Richardson
Life of Pi, Claudio Miranda
Lincoln, Janusz Kaminski
Skyfall, Roger Deakins

Best Costume Design
Anna Karenina, Jacqueline Durran
Les Misérables, Paco Delgado
Lincoln, Joanna Johnston
Mirror Mirror, Eiko Ishioka
Snow White and the Huntsman, Colleen Atwood

Best Documentary Feature
5 Broken Cameras
The Gatekeepers
How to Survive a Plague
The Invisible War
Searching for Sugar Man

Best Documentary Short
Inocente
Kings Point
Mondays at Racine
Open Heart
Redemption

Best Film Editing
Argo, William Goldenberg
Life of Pi, Tim Squyres
Lincoln, Michael Kahn
Silver Linings Playbook, Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers
Zero Dark Thirty, Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg

Best Foreign Language Film
Amour, Austria
Kon-Tiki, Norway
No, Chile
A Royal Affair, Denmark
War Witch, Canada

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Hitchcock, Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane
Les Misérables, Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell

Best Original Score
Anna Karenina, Dario Marianelli
Argo, Alexandre Desplat
Life of Pi, Mychael Danna
Lincoln, John Williams
Skyfall, Thomas Newman

Best Original Song
“Before My Time” from Chasing Ice, music and lyric by J. Ralph
“Everybody Needs A Best Friend” from Ted, music by Walter Murphy; lyric by Seth MacFarlane
“Pi’s Lullaby” from Life of Pi, music by Mychael Danna; lyric by Bombay Jayashri
“Skyfall” from Skyfall, music and lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth
“Suddenly” from Les Misérables, music by Claude-Michel Schönberg; lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil

Best Production Design
Anna Karenina, Production Design: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, production Design: Dan Hennah; Set Decoration: Ra Vincent and Simon Bright
Les Misérables, Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Anna Lynch-Robinson
Life of Pi, Production Design: David Gropman; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
Lincoln, Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Jim Erickson

Best Animated Short
Adam and Dog
Fresh Guacamole
Head over Heels
Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare”
Paperman

Best Live Action Short
Asad
Buzkashi Boys
Curfew
Death of a Shadow
Henry

Best Sound Editing
Argo, Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn
Django Unchained, Wylie Stateman
Life of Pi, Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton
Skyfall, Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers
Zero Dark Thirty, Paul N.J. Ottosson

Best Sound Mixing
Argo, John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia
Les Misérables, Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes
Life of Pi, Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin
Lincoln, Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkins
Skyfall, Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson

Best Visual Effects
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White
Life of Pi, Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott
The Avengers, Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick
Prometheus, Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill
Snow White and the Huntsman, Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson

Conveyors of Common Sense…