In a tweet from BATMAN-ON-FILM’s writer, Batman-News seems to believe that there’s one more villain left unannounced – Hugo Strange, for which many believed Tom Hardy was originally going to play. “The tweet above from BOF’s Jett peaked my interest this morning. Jett has mentioned Robin Williams before on his BOF message board and Facebook page… could he be onto something? The last time Jett dropped hints about possible The Dark Knight Rises villains was when he kept mentioning Bane on his message board, and we know how that turned out.”

Maybe it was a lucky guess that he knew Bane was going to be in the third Nolan Batman film, but if Rises is anything like The Dark Knight, the film could have a multitude of villains. I guess, we’ll see. Thoughts?

Now, Robin Williams is at it again. “I would do Batman in a second, playing anyone, I’d play The Riddler in the next one, although it would be hard to top Heath as the villain and I’m a little hairy for tights… The Batman films have screwed me twice before: years ago they offered my The Joker and then gave it to Jack Nicholson, then they offered me The Riddler and gave it to Jim Carrey. I’d be like, ‘OK, is this a real offer? If it is, then the answer’s yes. Don’t pump me again motherf**kers.”

Fans of Christopher Nolan should remember that Nolan cast Williams in Insomnia. Yes, we understand that we can just throw this onto the Batman 3 rumor pile, as speculation once had the very busy Johnny Depp cast as The Riddler. Remember, nothing is concrete yet on this film, outside of the date.

Source: Music Rooms

The Film:

Old Dogs is pretty disjointed, there’s no other way to describe it. It wants to be so many things, yet can’t decided on which to be. It’s a big, broad, generic comedy, not unlike Wild Hogs, a film where they share the same producers. The film follows Robin Williams and John Travolta, two guys who are successful sports marketers. All seems well, until a women Williams had a one night stand with comes back to tell him, that he is a daddy. Hilarity ensues-supposedly.

The film is predictable from start to finish. Of course, the wild single guys will find it in their hearts to be dads, like their children really want them to be. Of course, the kids will get them into outrageous situations. Of course, none of this is reality. As I was thinking after the film, maybe this isn’t my comedy, meaning my generation’s type of laughs. Having Seth Green in here is probably the best part, but he appeals to that ever so key demographic: 18-35 year olds. Travolta and Williams appeal to the aging Baby Boomers. It’s an odd mix, but the film tries.

Old Dogs is completely harmless, with comedy is fine for anyone. If you seen the bits in the trailer, like the one with them at the zoo, you can get a good idea of the type of humor Old Dogs is going for. If the screenplay didn’t feel like a first draft, and polished some of the things they gloss over, maybe it could have achieved what it thinks it is. Not everyone is going to like it, because it is too broad, very sitcom-like in terms of plot developments and humor, and Robin Williams’ character quickly changes right after the big bad thing he does. Very typical, and standard issue, and plenty tiresome, if you ask me, and you are.

Old Dogs isn’t out to compete with the Judd Apatow’s or the Wes Anderson’s of the comedy world, and those looking for a quickie family fix will be please, even if the events are forgettable, and they are. The film really feels like a safe, calculated movie that was worked over my studio executives looking at the demographic score cards. If they would’ve aimed it more at the older crowd, who enjoy these actors, as well as, the sitcom style of comedy, I would be hard to discredit Old Dogs. It aims to please too many sectors of the demographic, making many 18-35 year olds, wish they just rented The Hangover again.

The Blu-ray:

Audio/Video: As with any Disney high-def release, one can expect it to be stellar and this is no different. The film (a comedy) looks as good as it did when I saw it digitally projected. I did notice a few instances of noise in the night scenes, which really aren’t that bad, and the color tones are a bit over-done, yet it’s still a superb looking transfer, even with my minimal complaints. The DTS track is pretty powerful for a comedy. Bass is deep in certain scenes, Debney’s scores is powerful in most scenes, and everything is presented well in the sound design.

Commentary: Director Walt Brecker, the two screenwriters, and the producer sit down for a rather dull chat. They really didn’t offer up much info on the film that’s worth sitting through to get, and grew silent far-too-often for anyone to enjoy this track. It’s one to skip.

Deleted Scenes: In HD, we get an alternate ending and two cut scenes that aren’t much special.

Young Dogs Learn New Tricks: This short HD piece has the two kids interviewing Travolta and Williams. It’s cute, but hardly anything substantial.

Music Videos, BD-Live features, and a pretty funny Outtakes round out the slim helping of extras. Look for a second disc that contains the film on DVD and a third disc that has a Digital Copy of the film.

Conclusion: I’d recommend this for the older readers, but younger fans of comedy pass on it. The Blu-ray is a decent effort from a top-notch studio.

The Film: Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

The Blu-ray: Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

The Film

Say what you want about the first Night at the Museum, but I found it both humorous and a fairly creative way to do a little superficial education for the younger crowd. The writing team of Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon continue this style while also adding a few more subtle laughs for older audiences in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.

The cast, from the onset, appears like the producers wanted a hit regardless of the actual plot. Comedians Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, and Steve Coogan reprise their previous roles while joined by Hank Azaria, Christopher Guest, and Bill Hader. They each get their own little spots to do what they do best. Despite the overwhelming cast, I have to give it to Amy Adams; she steals the show as the scarlet-haired Amelia Earhart.

At least that was up until the story takes them into the Smithsonian’s Museum of Art. The art they chose to come to life couldn’t be any better, with a famous photo being an important part to the story. The incorporation of the museum was substantially more in-depth in comparison to the first one, while not being too gimmicky with the fact that the entire museum comes to life, only focusing on a few areas. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian has a lot of features of a time-traveling movie without the pesky Space-Time Continuum interfering.

On the down side, one of my bigger complaints is the lack of development in Custer (Hader) for the majority of the movie. He does a good job of portraying Custer, but there are a few scenes which feel almost forced, with no real progression of the story line. Also, the carried-over characters from the first movie to the second one that serve no purpose are a little out-of-place and feel like random breaks, but the overall pacing of this movie has improved vastly over the first Night at the Museum. Two glaring flaws come at the end of the movie, but the fun from the rest of the film let me suspend the disbelief for the few minutes remaining.

Overall, I thought the movie was an improvement over the first. Pacing, plot, and story depth were a lot more even and developed, while keeping the fun, museum-loving nerd in all of us entertained for 105 minutes.

The Blu-ray

Audio/Video

The audio was pretty good, but couldn’t touch the beautiful picture. The colors on the 1080p transfer were beautiful and crisp detail really made this flick look amazing.

Special Features

Commentary: The track with director Shawn Levy wasn’t awesome but contained some interesting snippets of information, and the track by the film’s writers was pretty much the same. If your a huge fan of this franchise then they are worth checking out, but if not, you might want to scan through them.

Deleted Scenes: There are 12 deleted scenes including an alternate ending and all of them have commentary tracks with Shawn Levy. I’m not usually a fan of these, but there were a few that stood out and made this feature worth it.

Curators of Comedy: Behind the Scenes: I enjoyed this feature, but not as much as some behind-the-scenes featurettes. This one was more of a nice interview session, enjoyable but not what I was looking for.

Historical Confessions: Famous Last Words: The characters from the film are given a chance to speak one last time. I enjoyed this feature more than I was expecting, it’s definitely worth checking out.

Phinding Pharaoh: Hank Azeria elaborates on exactly how he came up with the Pharaoh character.

Scavenger Hunt Mode: This solid trivia track offers two different difficulty levels for the viewer to challenge themselves. I had fun with this feature, and I’m sure it’ll go over well with like minded trivia fans.

There are a ton more features on this disc including, Trailers, Gag Reel, and more! Also included is a standard DVD copy and Digital copy of the film.

The Film: Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

The Blu-ray: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

]]> http://www.killerfilm.com/film_reviews/read/night-at-the-museum-battle-of-the-smithsonian-blu-ray-review-20631/feed 0 http://www.killerfilm.com/articles/read/wedding-banned-gets-the-ax-20601 http://www.killerfilm.com/articles/read/wedding-banned-gets-the-ax-20601#comments Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:13:12 +0000 Melissa Molina http://www.killerfilm.com/?p=20601 In the most recent of moves from Walt Disney Pictures in their live action department, the upcoming romantic comedy Wedding Banned is no more. “Banned” revolves around a long-divorced couple (Williams and Keaton) who kidnap their daughter (Faris) on her wedding day to prevent her from making the same mistakes they did. The parents rekindle their relationship as they elude cops and the angry groom (THR).

No exact word on why this particular piece ended up getting canned, but it is one of many moves that Rich Ross has made ever since taking control of his new post. Walt Disney Pictures has recently started re-working the story for The Black Hole and also acquired the rights to the novel series Fallen.

Director and writer George Miller is strapping himself back in those two seats for the sequel. Word on what exactly the second film will be about is still not known, but the script is reportedly finished already. Animal Logic is doing the animation for the film, that is expected to be released in 3D, which will be released on November 18th, 2011.

Old Dogs Exclusive Featurette

Trailer Park | MySpace Video

Now here’s the huge slew of pictures for you to gaze at:

The Flick:

Everyone knows that Kevin Spacey is a phenomenal actor, but every now and again we need to be reminded of just how amazing he really is. In Jonas Pate’s Shrink, Spacey churns out his best performance since Consenting Adults, playing an a-list Hollywood therapist suffering from depression over his wife’s recent suicide.

Out of the gate I’m sure Shrink is going to be compared to the highly overrated Crash, but don’t let yourself be fooled by these comparisons. Shrink weaves believable characters together in a world that is unfamiliar to most, yet undeniably interesting. Choosing to show a side of Hollywood that is not usually focused on in films, Jonas pate shoots the famous Hollywood sign from behind instead of focusing on it’s glorious facade, he shows his characters’ pain without over verbalizing it, locations aren’t hand picked from the most popular episodes of Entourage. For once we see a side of Hollywood that’s not all glitz and glamor.

Henry Carter’s (Kevin Spacey) clients are sometimes in better shape emotionally than he is, yet despite his depression these clients are even more connected to him than one would expect. Maybe it’s easier to share your feelings with someone that obviously has as much trouble processing emotions as you do or maybe it’s Carter’s honesty that keeps his clients coming back for more, either way, it works.

I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that this is the most solid cast I’ve seen this year. Spacey of course is amazing, Keke Palmer proves that she has what it takes to be a world class actress in her portrayal of Jemma, Dallas Roberts is perfect as Patrick, and the uncredited Robin Williams is simply wonderful as a troubled alcoholic actor. The entire cast was perfect. Besides the heavenly casting, the flicks visual style was breathtaking. Cinematographer Ken Andrews perfectly illustrates the uncharted side of Hollywood with striking precision.

Shrink is one of those movies that sticks with you long after you’ve finished watching it, and it absolutely demands multiple viewings. I highly recommend purchasing this flick as soon as you finish reading this, because Shrink is positively a killer film.

Audio/Video: The audio on this disc is stellar and the video transfer is beautiful.

Special Features

Audio Commentary: Director Jonas Pate and producer Braxton Pope provide interesting insights on the production of this flick.

Interviews: Jonas Pate and  Braxton Pope talk about the flick in short interviews. These were pretty good but a little short.

Music Video: The video for Jackson Browne video Here is pretty solid, a good song worth checking out.

Deleted Scenes: I’m not a huge fan of deleted scenes because usually they deserve to be deleted. Some of these fall into that category but there is one that is pretty solid.

Flick: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

DVD: Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

If a producer was to be smart, he or she would give some money to Bobcat Goldwait, walk away, and let Bobcat go on and make his film, come back and say thank you, because that producer would have a great little film on their hands, and financial profitability notwithstanding, a perfect anti-Apatow comedy to be released into the world. Bobcat is making dark comedies, that are in the anti-Apatow style, one that has clearly dominated this genre for the last few years. Bobcat’s films are sick, yet funny, done with great care and great humor. Bobcat is making films about scenarios that aren’t teen comedies or coming-of-age stories, but perverse little gems about things that are talked about in between a close circle of friends, and the friends laugh, but yet remark on how incredibly screwed up that story is.

Case in point, World’s Greatest Dad.

Robin Williams stars as a hapless dad, Lance, to a son, Kyle, who is a mean, sex obsessed reject. Lance is also a would-be novelist, except his stories are never published. Even his super sweet and hot girlfriend, might be having an affair, with a fellow colleague. Nothing is going right it seems, but he tries. His son is so into obscenely dirty sex acts, that he cannot conceive of doing something normal like going to the movies with his dad. This back fires, as he dies from autoerotic asphyxiation. To cover up the shame, Lance stages his son’s death as a suicide, even going as far as to write a suicide note. This seems to work, this cover up, for a time, until someone prints the suicide note. Suddenly, through his dead son, Lance is a ghost writer to his “brilliant” son, as Kyle is championed as a new voice amongst teenagers.

Yeah, I know it’s weird and odd, but it works. Obviously, the autoerotic asphyxiation is a timely subject since David Carradine supposedly died from such an act, but it isn’t the topic many discuss on a daily basis. That’s a key reason why World’s Greatest Dad is so refreshing. It’s different, it’s kooky, it’s so dark, yet funny, it’s amazing it even got made. I’m glad it did, because, while a lesser hand would have made this into a cheap laugh and failed miserably, Bobcat is a fine writer, appropriately handling the material with a sharp eye for satire as well as sensitivity.

If you blush easily, this material isn’t for you, but if you knew of Bobcat’s last film, Sleeping Dogs Lie, a film about a relationship issues due to a past college sexual encounter with a dog, then maybe this material is easier to handle. Bobcat is crafting himself into a comedic filmmaker that is counter-culture to what is being popularized today. World’s Greatest Dad isn’t a masterpiece of comedy, but it’s a perverse ode to that bar talk we all seem to be a part of, but will never admit to.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Source: HULU

Say what you want about the first Night at the Museum, but I found it both humorous and a fairly creative way to do a little superficial education for the younger crowd. The writing team of Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon continue this style while also adding a few more subtle laughs for older audiences in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.

The cast, from the onset, appears like the producers wanted a hit regardless of the actual plot. Comedians Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, and Steve Coogan reprise their previous roles while joined by Hank Azaria, Christopher Guest, and Bill Hader. They each get their own little spots to do what they do best. Despite the overwhelming cast, I have to give it to Amy Adams; she steals the show as the scarlet-haired Amelia Earhart.

At least that was up until the story takes them into the Smithsonian’s Museum of Art. The art they chose to come to life couldn’t be any better, with a famous photo being an important part to the story. The incorporation of the museum was substantially more in-depth in comparison to the first one, while not being too gimmicky with the fact that the entire museum comes to life, only focusing on a few areas. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian has a lot of features of a time-traveling movie without the pesky Space-Time Continuum interfering.

On the down side, one of my bigger complaints is the lack of development in Custer (Hader) for the majority of the movie. He does a good job of portraying Custer, but there are a few scenes which feel almost forced, with no real progression of the story line. Also, the carried-over characters from the first movie to the second one that serve no purpose are a little out-of-place and feel like random breaks, but the overall pacing of this movie has improved vastly over the first Night at the Museum. Two glaring flaws come at the end of the movie, but the fun from the rest of the film let me suspend the disbelief for the few minutes remaining.

Overall, I thought the movie was an improvement over the first. Pacing, plot, and story depth were a lot more even and developed, while keeping the fun, museum-loving nerd in all of us entertained for 105 minutes.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars