Muppets Most Wanted (Review)
Muppets Most Wanted
2014
Written by James Bobin and Nicholas Stoller
Directed by James Bobin
The Muppets return again with a new adventure that feels strangely familiar. While it is great to see the Muppets actually being the stars of their movies again, Muppets Most Wanted lacks the emotional depth of some of the prior films to focus instead on a heist caper that features an evil twin and Muppets running wild under no supervision. The center core is buried a bit deeper, showing the Muppets can’t really survive on their own as they need Kermit’s guidance to keep them from drowning in their own excess.
In Muppets Most Wanted a new manager – Dominic Badguy – signs with the group and gets them to go on a world tour that suspiciously is happening in towns needed to get pieces for a jewel heist. More importantly, Constantine, the world’s most dangerous frog, has escaped from his Russian gulag and managed to switch places with Kermit, who finds himself incarcerated while Constantine takes the place of our main frog. Hijinks then ensue.
Muppets Most Wanted shines when it’s doing meta-commentary and breaking the never-present fourth wall. It continues literally from the final seconds of The Muppets, complete with Muppet confusion on what to do next. The opening song will go on to be touted as a manifesto for the film itself, and I particularly like the song Constantine sings as an apology to Miss Piggy, because it summarizes his entire allure to the group and why no one seems to notice anything is wrong. Constantine becomes a Satan character, promising the Muppets whatever they want to keep them happy while he and Dominic Badguy plot to steal the crown jewels of England. The various characters take this to extremes, resulting in increasingly bizarre and disastrous acts. Both Constantine and Dominic use unbridled freedom as a weapon and a distraction, but it soon becomes apparent just why oversight and control is needed. At times Muppets Most Wanted turns into Muppets Needful Things, but luckily things get solved for they start getting Stephen King disturbing.
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Categories: Good, Movie Reviews Tags: Bill Barretta, Chloë Moretz, Christoph Waltz, Danny Trejo, David Rudman, Eric Jacobson, Frank Langella, James Bobin, Jemaine Clement, Lady Gaga, Matt Vogel, Muppets, Nicholas Stoller, Peter Linz, Ray Liotta, Ricky Gervais, Rob Corddry, Ross Lynch, Salma Hayek, Steve Whitmire, Tina Fey, Tom Hiddleston, Tony Bennett, Ty Burrell, Zach Galifianakis
In the Blood trailer is more Gina Carano kicking butt!
Gina Carano beats up a whole island of people when her husband is kidnapped in In the Blood. It will get a limited theatrical release and a DVD/VOD push. The action and look harkens back to some nice direct to video action movies that I (and many like me) rented all the time from video stores. Which is why the theatrical release is a bit surprising, but as it’s Gina Carano, she was in Fast and Furious 6, there’s money to be made. Luis Guzmán, Stephen Lang, and Danny Trejo also star. John Stockwell of Into the Blue and Blue Crush fame took a break from directing movies with “blue” in the title to direct. Bennett Yellin and James Robert Johnston wrote the script.
Gina Carano stars as Ava, a trained fighter with a dark past. When her new husband (Cam Gigandet) vanishes during their Caribbean honeymoon, Ava uncovers a violent underworld of conspiracy in the middle of an island paradise. Armed with a deadly set of skills, Ava sets out to discover the truth – and to take down the men she thinks are responsible for his abduction, one by one.
April 4 is when In the Blood will hit theaters and VOD.
Categories: Movie News Tags: Danny Trejo, Gina Carano, Luis Guzmán, Stephen Lang
Rise of the Zombies on SyFy Saturday
Rise of the Zombies is not about zombie Viagra as far as I can tell, but it does have French Stewart as a zombie survivalist. Along with Mariel Hemingway, LeVar Burton, Danny Trejo, and Ethan Suplee, they hang out on Alcatraz, until zombies overrun it and they have to go searching for a cure across an overrun America. Rise of the Zombies airs October 27. I couldn’t find a trailer, but there are a series of interviews at this link.
Categories: Movie News Tags: Danny Trejo, Ethan Suplee, French Stewart, LeVar Burton, Mariel Hemingway, SciFi Channel, SyFy, Too many damn zombie movies
Upcoming SyFy original movies Boogeyman and Haunted High
SyFy (aka SciFi Channel for us purists!) is continuing the non-stop stream of creature features. Coming August 11th is Boogeyman, where some kids free the Boogeyman and he goes on a killer rampages. Notably, the Boogeyman is depicted as dating from the time of the Book of Genesis. Eddie McClintock plays the sheriff who’s got to bring him down. Emma Samms also stars. No word yet on if the Boogeyman will be as creepy as when he was on the Real Ghostbusters cartoon.
August 25 gives us Haunted High, which sadly is not about ghosts doing pot, but a bunch of kids trapped in a high school being killed by the ghost of an ex-principal. Danny Trejo, Charisma Carpenter and M.C. Gainey star.
via DreadCentral
Ghosts are afraid of ME!!
Categories: Movie News Tags: Charisma Carpenter, Danny Trejo, Eddie McClintock, Emma Samms, Haunted High, M.C. Gainey, SciFi Channel, SyFy
A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas
A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas
2011
Directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson
We all knew there was going to be a third Harold & Kumar film eventually. And when it was revealed that the third film would involve them saving Christmas, we were like “Sure!” because when you’ve ridden a cheetah, saving Christmas is just an eventual future step. But what we weren’t prepared for was the third installment being in 3D. Arriving just in time for not everyone to be burnt out on 3D yet, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas gives us a real 3D experience combined with grossout stoner comedy and wacky hijinks ensuing all over you in three dimensions.
The original Harold & Kumar is among my favorite films. It is also an important film in recent history as it showed you could have a film Asian American leads that was successful, entertaining, and profitable. It also helped rekindle Neil Patrick Harris’s career as an awesome fun guy. But you know all this by now. What everyone cares about is if A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas is any damn good.
And it is good. It’s not spectacular, but it holds its own. A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas is just as good as the previous installment, though doesn’t approach the original, as few films can. It is still a goofy stoner comedy, filled with wacky adventures and hijinks, and plenty of scenes of characters taking or tripped out on
Should you watch it in 3D? Yes, because the entire film is non-stop 3D effects. The smoke, the eggs, the giant claymation dongs, all effects you need to see in 3D to better immerse yourself in the world of Harold & Kumar. Unfortunately, this super 3D mania may hurt the film when it hits DVD. Even though characters in the film purchase a 3D tv, many Americans do not have one, particularly the stoner audience targets Harold & Kumar thrive on.
3D Christmas is stuffed with callbacks to previous installments, including a trip to White Castle itself. And how many times can you see people breaking the fourth wall in the third dimension? Only a couple of dozen times, if you’re lucky! And I must mention I saw this for free, because I’m awesome like that. And also honest.
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Robert Rodriguez also making Machete film
So says Variety. Based on one of the fake trailers during the Grindhouse film, Machete had Danny Trejo killing people and kissing naked chicks, so hopefully the film follows that winning formula. Rodriquez wrote the script and is codirecting with Ethan Maniquis. No word on how Rose McGowan will be shoehorned in.
Categories: Movie News Tags: Danny Trejo, Machete, Robert Rodriguez
