Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
The Once Upon a Time in Hollywood poster above was created by Nuno Sarnardas. His poster came in 2nd place in a recent contest at Poster Spy. You can see the contest winner as well as all the entries here. Selecting the top three must have been tough because there were quite a few well designed posters in the running!
Disturbing the Peace staring Guy Pearce has just made my must-see list. I love the look of the poster and trailer. Yeah, deal me in on January 17, 2020.
6 Underground (2019)
Director: Michael Bay
Screenplay: Paul Wernick, Rhett Reese
Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Mélanie Laurent, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Ben Hardy, Adria Arjona,Corey Hawkins and Dave Franco.
The Pitch: “Michael Bay wants to make an action movie.”
Tagline: They Say No One Can Save The World. Meet No One.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Ryan Reynolds plays a billionaire who recruits folks with special talents to join his team to right wrongs throughout the world. That’s all you really need to know other than the fact that this mission’s goal is to replace an evil dictator with his democracy-loving brother.
Think a low-budget Mission Impossible movie made with a big budget.
The star of the movie isn’t Ryan Reynolds, it’s the action scenes directed by Michael Bay. The movie starts with a 20 minute car chase where we learn the bare bones plot and who the players are. We’re literally off and running with cars, trucks, motorcycles and parkour.
And that’s the opening.
Before 6 Underground is done we’ll have action on roof tops, in pools, hotel rooms, boats, construction sites, the desert, and museums. Bad guys are wiped out in bunches and I’ve never seen a movie where pedestrians are just as likely to be killed as the bad guy’s henchmen.
There are a lot of car wrecks and we all know the analogy — It was like watching a car wreck, I couldn’t look away. Well, that’s a good analogy for 6 Underground, because the action comes so (pardon the expression) fast and furious, you’ll find yourself watching. The movie never slows long enough to become boring before the next action scene is ramping up. So you keep looking… watching the shoot-outs, car chases and fights until the movie ends.
6 Underground is entertaining in the way a roller-coaster is fun – it moves fast, has a few surprises and doesn’t slow down long enough to bore you. When it’s over, you’ll probably say, it was fun but you’ll be ready to move on to the next ride.
Rating:
I’d be surprised if any regular visitor to this site didn’t recognize the guy on the left. It is, of course, Clint Eastwood. My guess is that a high percentage of folks also know the guy on the right… especially if they look at the art between the two. The hard case on the right is the legendary Frank Frazetta.
Frazetta was commissioned to create the poster for Eastwood’s movie, The Gauntlet. I like the movie and the poster. Love must be in the air, because I’m a fan of both gentlemen as well.
You can see larger versions of both photos as well as a detailed shot of the painting at Frank Frazetta Art.
Check out the Inherit the Viper trailer below!
VFW, directed by Joe Begos and staring Stephen Lang, William Sadler, Fred Williamson, Martin Kove, Sierra McCormick and David Patrick Kelly is like something you’d see at a drive-in back in the day. And you know how much I loved drive-ins.
VFW looks like Assault on Precinct 13 meets The Wild Bunch. That can’t be a bad thing, can it?
Stallone fans are going to love this: Eye See You is getting a special edition Blu-ray release from MVD Collector’s Brands. What makes this release especially special is that in addition to the theatrical Eye See You release, the disc will also contain director Jim Gillespie’s cut known as Detox!
From MVD Collector’s Brands’ release (bold text is my doing)…
EYE SEE YOU – Update!
It’s with great pleasure that I am able to report that director Jim Gillespie (the guy that made “I Know What You Did Last Summer”) took time and energy to dig up and locate a copy his original cut of “Eye See You”, known as “Detox” (that’s how it’s spelled on his cut of the film). While I personally have not seen this version yet (it’s being used to author the disc right now), I’m told that it’s a “darker” and more horror-ish in tone (Fincher’s “Seven” was what I think they were going for here) version of the film, which was his original intention before the film was recut, re-titled and changed.
“Detox” is being included on this disc as a bonus feature. It is not in HD. The quality is VHS. It is in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio and had time code under the letterbox (see image for reference). We will be reformatting the image for 16 x 9 which should eliminate most (if not all) of the time code. I don’t know what the audio quality is but given the quality of the video I would say manage your expectations accordingly.
We’ve included all of the previous available bonus features and we’ve also adding a new photo gallery (see list of “final” bonus features below). I have also made the decision to create a LIMITED RUN SLIPCOVER for the first pressing (as you know we really don’t do slips for Marquee titles anymore but I’m making an exception for this one) so if you want to guarantee a slipcover, I would suggest pre-ordering this title. After street it’s hit or miss.
I’m really excited to have produced this new “Special Edition” Blu-ray release of ‘Eye See You”. I’ve always considered this to be an underrated title. In my opinion, it’s the closest thing to a horror movie Sylvester Stallone has ever done (at least up til now) and hopefully this alternative cut will finally give everyone a chance to see what director Jim Gillespie had intended.
STREET DATE = April 14, 2020
You can pre-order using this link.
SURVIVAL IS A KILLER.
A brutal serial killer is targeting cops, and detective Jake Malloy is on the warpath. But now the killer is making it personal, and this dedicated agent is twisted in an emotional nightmare. Time is running out, and so are the options, as Malloy engages in an extreme game of cat-and-mouse with a killer who won’t be stopped.
I’m on board! Who’s with me?
Today we have a new poster for Underwater.
When I was a kid, in the years before the dawn of the internet, easy access to trailers and movie news, a movie poster was often THE thing that made folks want to see a movie. If the poster was good, if it made you want to see the movie, you did. Often the poster was better than the movie.
I’m getting that vibe for Underwater. I really like this poster. I’m not sure I’m going to feel the same about the movie.
The trailer (not so much the poster) for 6 Underground makes it look like a fun way to spend way to spend a couple of hours.
The poster and trailer for the new 007 film, No Time to Die is here and it’s a good one!
What do ya think of the Black Widow poster and trailer? I’ll probably wait to check it out when I can stream it.
Collin Schlicht created this retro Pulp Fiction poster. You can see a larger version by clicking on the photo above. Want to check out more of Collin’s art? Click here to go to his site.
A woman and young boy are chased through the streets of downtown Los Angeles. Battered and exhausted, they protect something highly valuable and extremely dangerous.
THE KID is a 6 minute proof-of-concept short film directed by Nicholas Wenger and starring Ellen Wroe (Animal Kingdom) and Evan Alex (Us). The feature screenplay is currently being written.
I want to see The Kid as a feature film or limited tv mini-series. Wenger has shown he has the writing and directing chops — I hope someone finances his vision. Perfectly cast — keep Wroe and Alex. The Kid needs to be made! Click on the link in the description. You can thank me later! ; )
Gerardo Moreno is back, and this time he’s brought with him a potential sequel to Cobra starring Sylvester Stallone. Not only do I dig the poster but props also to Moreno for his suggested title, Angel of the City: Cobra II.
If you”d like to see more of Gerardo’s art click here!
The Irishman (2019)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Screenplay: Steve Zallian based on the book by Charles Brandt
Stars: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel, Ray Romano, Bobby Cannavale, Anna Paquin, and Jesse Plemons.
The Pitch: “Martin Scorsese wants to do a new gangster movie!”
Tagline: His story changed history.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
On his deathbed in 2003, Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, a former bodyguard and alleged mob hitman confessed to a killing that if true would resolve a mystery that has remained unsolved for decades. Sheeran’s confessions (of that murder and more) became the basis of I Heard You Paint Houses: The Inside Story of the Mobsters, the Teamsters & the Last Ride of Jimmy Hoffa by Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran and Charles Brandt. That book became the inspiration for The Irishman.
The Irishman re-teams Scorsese, De Niro, and Pesci, then adds Pacino for good measure. De Niro plays Sheeran who accidentally meets and becomes friends with mobster, Russell Bufalino (Pesci). As the years pass Sheeran works his way into Bufalono’s inner circle because of his willingness to take care of business. Sheeran’s choices take him down a road that leads inevitably to the loss of his family, friends and the betrayal of those he cares about.
The Irishman is getting almost universal praise. It should. Scorsese is in top form and gets the best performances from De Niro and Pacino that we’ve seen in years. Pesci gives his best performance ever. Pesci deserves all of the awards he’ll receive for this role. I was worried that Pacino would be too over the top for his role as Hoffa, but he reined it in and pulled it off.
Now to the two nits, many are picking: 1) The de-aging CGI and 2) the length of The Irishman.
I’ll admit that at first the CGI is distracting. As the film went on it became less so. Scorsese has said that a lot of attention was paid in the de-aging scenes to make sure the main actors (all 70+) moved age appropriately for their scenes. (“Uh, Al, let’s do that again. Remember when you’re getting out of the chair in this scene, you’re 45.”) There were a couple of scenes where the faces look younger but the body movements don’t have the same snap as a younger man. Minor distractions in my opinion, but some folks are complaining big time so your mileage may vary.
The second nit some are picking is the length of The Irishman which clocks in at 3 hours and 29 minutes making it the longest movie Scorsese has directed, and reportedly the longest mainstream film released in decades. I thought the film moved at the right pace. I was never bored. I never checked my watch. It didn’t feel like a three hour plus movie. Again your mileage may vary.
I loved The Irishman.
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