“The Gate Way” Starring Shea Whigham, Olivia Munn, Frank Grillo & Bruce Dern – The Poster and Trailer are Here!

The Gateway looks good!  While the poster mostly goes with the big photoshopped heads of the stars, it does have a lower half of art.  The real joy though is the trailer.  It features a compelling story and what a cast!  Deal me in.

Shea Whigham (American Hustle), Olivia Munn (X-Men: Apocalypse) and Frank Grillo (The Grey) star in this edge of your seat, gritty crime thriller. Whigham is Parker, a down on his luck social worker who finds himself in over his head when he tries to protect his client from her recently paroled husband. Can Parker save the family from the violent threat of the maniacal drug dealer and his crew, desperate to reclaim their priceless stash at any cost?

THE GATEWAY – In select theaters September 3rd and on Blu-ray/DVD September 7th- Shea Whigham (Parker), Olivia Munn (Dahlia), Taryn Manning (Corey), Mark Boone Junior (Gary), Taegen Burns (Ashley) with Frank Grillo (Duke) and Bruce Dern (Marcus).

“Untold” – The Poster and Trailer are Here!

The poster for Untold is okay, but the trailer makes me want to learn the rest of the stories.  Deal me in.

From the creators of WILD WILD COUNTRY, comes a five-part sports docuseries event that brings fresh eyes to some of the greatest stories in sports. From tennis to boxing to basketball, these stories aren’t the ones you’ve heard before, even if you think you have.

“The Card Counter” Written/Directed by Paul Schrader; Starring Oscar Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, Tye Sheridan and Willem Dafoe – The Poster and Trailer are Here!

Wow!  I love the poster and trailer for The Card Counter.  Written and directed by Paul Schrader it stars Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, Tye Sheridan and Willem Dafoe.  Deal me in!

Redemption is the long game in Paul Schrader’s THE CARD COUNTER. Told with Schrader’s trademark cinematic intensity, the revenge thriller tells the story of an ex-military interrogator turned gambler haunted by the ghosts of his past decisions, and features riveting performances from stars Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, Tye Sheridan and Willem Dafoe.

Reckless: Destroy All Monsters by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips Now Available for Pre-order.

The next graphic novel in Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ Reckless series. Destroy All Monsters, is now available for pre-order.

Bestselling crime noir masters Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips bring us a new original graphic novel starring troublemaker-for-hire Ethan Reckless.

It’s 1988 and Ethan has been hired for his strangest case yet: finding the secrets of a Los Angeles real estate mogul. How hard could that be, right? Only what starts as a deep dive into the life of a stranger will soon take a deadly turn, and find Ethan risking everything that still matters to him.

Another smash hit from the award-winning creators of RECKLESS, PULP, MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN JUNKIES, CRIMINAL, and KILL OR BE KILLED — and a must-have for all Brubaker and Phillips fans!

I can’t wait to get my mitts on it.

“Army of Thieves” – The Poster and Trailer are Here!

Here are the poster and trailer to Army of Thieves.  I look at the poster as more of a teaser.  The tagline More Safes Less Zombies is cute.  The trailer is pretty good and makes me want to see more.

I’m a huge fan of Army of the Dead and look forward to the animated prequel more than this movie, but I do want to see Army of Thieves.  It is interesting that Army of the Dead was a horror/zombie film while Army of Thieves is a heist movie.  Has there ever been movie sequels/prequels in different genres that carried over one character to both?

In this prequel to Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, small-town bank teller Dieter gets drawn into the adventure of a lifetime when a mysterious woman recruits him to join a crew of Interpol’s most wanted criminals, attempting to heist a sequence of legendary, impossible-to-crack safes across Europe.

Top 10 Hitmen from Movies, Novels & Comics!

I was reading a discussion between Andy Rausch and Michael Gonzales titled HOW TO WRITE A MEMORABLE HIT MAN: A CONVERSATION AMONG CONNOISSEURS.  If you’re a crime fiction fan, especially the sub genre of hitmen, then you’d enjoy the post by Michael Gonzales.

At the end of the article Gonzales listed his Top Ten Hitman List from popular culture.  It’s a good list, so I decided to come up with one of my own (listed in alphabetical order):

  1. Arthur Bishop played by Charles Bronson in The Mechanic
  2. Jackie Coogan played by Brad Pitt in Killing Them Softly
  3. John Rain written by Barry Eisler from his Hitman Series
  4. John Wick played by Keanu Reeves in the John Wick movies
  5. Keller written by Lawrence Block from his Hitman Series
  6. Leon played by Jean Reno in Leon aka The Professional
  7. Luca Torelli from the Torpedo Graphic Novels written by Enrique Sánchez Abulí and drawn by Jordi Bernet
  8. Michael Sullivan played by Tom Hanks in Road to Perdition based on the graphic novel written by Max Allan Collins and drawn by Richard Piers Rayner
  9. Robert Rath played by Sly Stallone in Assassins
  10. Vincent played by Tom Cruise in Collateral

M. Knight Shyamalan’s Films From Best to Worst!

Chris Evangelista at /Film took a swing at ranking M. Knight Shyamalan’s Movies From Worst to Best.  Evangelista took into account all of M. Knight’s films including his newest (Old – which I haven’t seen) and his earliest work (that didn’t see wide release).  I decided to rank Evangelista’s top five to see how we’d compare.  I also included my thoughts on some of M. Knight Shyamalan’s films that didn’t make the top five.

Evangelista

Zablo

5. Split 5. The Village: I liked The Village up until the twist. It just didn’t work for me.
4. Signs 4. Unbreakable: I enjoyed Unbreakable but not as much as most. I need to revisit it.
3. Unbreakable 3. Split: I thought Split was surprisingly good.
2. The Village 2. Signs: I really love Signs, great cast and fun story with scares along the way.
1. The Sixth Sense 1. The Sixth Sense: Absolutely loved it. Proud to say I figured out the twist early on.
  • Lady in the Water: I’ve seen this once and remember liking it better than most folks.
  • Old:  I haven’t seen this and am in no rush to.
  • The Happening:  I had really high hopes for The Happening.  The trailers were creepy and I was excited to get to a theater to experience it.  What a let down The Happening turned out to be. I do remember that the scariest part was the old lady.
  • The Visit: I am a fan of The Visit.  I thought it was pretty good.  The tension builds and builds. It had the M. Knight twist near the end that he is known for.  I’d have included in this in the top five.

J.J. Abrams’ “UFO” Documentary Series – The Poster and Trailer are Here! “Are You Ready?”

J.J. Abrams’ UFO documentary series looks interesting.  If I had Showtime, I’d tune in.  Oh, and I like the movie’s tagline: Are You Ready?

UFO is a four-part docu-series from J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot and Glen Zipper exploring our fascination with unidentified flying objects, and what clandestine influence the American government, lucrative private companies and the military may have in shielding the truth behind extraterrestrial phenomena to further their own agendas. Watch the premiere on Sunday, August 8 at 9/8c on SHOWTIME.

 

 

“Way of the Gun” – Any fans of this film? I am!

This alt movie poster for Way of the Gun by Derek Zimmerman got me thinking about the movie.  I’m a big fan of it, yet Way of the Gun isn’t a movie you often hear discussed.  That’s a shame.

Way of the Gun was written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie lately best known for writing and directing the Mission Impossible mega-hits.  When Way of the Gun came out McQuarrie was best known as the writer of The Usual Suspects and that was enough to get me in the theater.  I wasn’t disappointed.

Way of the Gun also contains a amazing cast: Ryan Phillippe, Benico Del Toro, Juliette Lewis, Taye Diggs, Nicky Katt, Geoffrey Lewis, Scott Wilson, James Caan and Sarah Silverman.  

Here’s the synopsis:

Two criminal drifters without sympathy get more than they bargained for after kidnapping and holding for ransom the surrogate mother of a powerful and shady man.

I think perhaps the opening turned off some folks and they didn’t finish the movie.  I’ve watched Way of the Gun more than a couple of times and enjoyed it more with each revisit.  Perhaps it’s time for another viewing.

Charles Bronson is “The Mechanic” in Nikos Bogris’ Poster!

I really like this poster for Charles Bronson in The Mechanic.  The artist who created it is Nikos Bogris.  You can see more of his work here.  

The original movie poster had the tagline: “The call him the Mechanic.  He has 100 ways to kill… and they all work.”  Bogris left off the tagline, so his poster doesn’t really tell/show you that Bronson is a hit man.  For all we know he is a womanizing auto mechanic.  I still prefer Bogris’ poster to the original.  I hope you like it as well.