This week’s pick is Clint Eastwood’s World War II masterpiece Flags of Our Fathers that depicts the famous flag raising on Mt. Suribachi on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima. The film stars Ryan Phillippe (Navy Corpman 2^nd class John “Doc” Bradley), Jesse Bradford (Corporal Rene Gagnon), Paul Walker (Sgt. Hank Hansen), and Robert Patrick (Col. Chandler Johnson).

The film is told through a series of flash-forwards and flashbacks, through the three remaining men who were responsible for the flag raising which helped to raise America’s morale as the Pacific war raged on with no foreseeable end in sight. The seven Marines that are the focal point of the film begin their training at Camp Tarawa in Hawaii with mountain climbing and other P.T. drills.

As they set sail towards their destination, it is revealed that the target in question is the Japanese held island of Iwo Jima, which sits just seven hundred miles away from the Japanese mainland.

During a debriefing, the company commander, Captain Severance (McDonough) tells the men that they will meet stiff enemy resistance than ever before because Iwo is Japanese soil and its defenders will fight to the last man in order to prevent the Americans from gaining a closer foothold toward Japan.

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Mockumentaries are for the weak. Unless you’re Christopher Guest. Outside of that, sticking to a straightforward 3rd person style of filmmaking is still the best method. That’s exactly what Steven Silver did with his new film, The Bang Bang Club, which could easily be done in the faux documentary style.

Here’s the official synopsis.

The Bang Bang Club is the real life story of a group of four young combat photographers – Greg Marinovich, Joao Silva, Kevin Carter and Ken Oosterbroek – bonded by friendship and their sense of purpose to tell the truth. They risked their lives and used their camera lenses to tell the world of the brutality and violence associated with the first free elections in post Apartheid South Africa in the early 90s.

This intense political period brought out their best work (two won Pulitzers during the period) but cost them a heavy price. Based on the book of the same name by Marinovich and Silva, the film stars Ryan Phillippe, Malin Akerman and Taylor Kitsch and explores the thrill, danger and moral questions associated with exposing the truth.

Could be a fun ride, especially with Phillippe and Kitsch teaming up for the first time. Check out the trailer after the jump, and catch The Bang Bang Club in theaters on April 22nd.

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One of my favorite movies (mostly for the gratuitous violence and sardonic humor) is Mel Gibson’s Payback. In that 1999 film, director Brian Hegeland takes a rather unsympathetic character, an underworld thug, armed robber, and cold-blooded murderer named Porter, and transforms him into the story’s victim who blazes a blood-soaked trail of revenge and ends up getting the girl, even if she is a high-priced hooker.

What was most surprising to me was that, at the end of the film, Porter was the same amoral thug he was in the beginning with no noticeable character change. And even though character change is pretty much de rigueur by Hollywood story standards, its absence does not appear to have affected audience reaction to what went on to become a fairly successful movie.

Much the same appears to be the case with The Lincoln Lawyer and Matthew McConaughey’s character, Los Angeles defense attorney Mickey Haller. Haller, to be fair, is a manipulative, unethical, bottom-feeding lawyer who lies to his clients, bribes pubic officials, and uses his membership in the legal profession to influence judges and get the system to work for his convenience.

His office is a black Lincoln town car driven by a former client, Earl (Laurence Mason) who is working off his debt, and his current clients include a biker accused of drug dealing and a hooker with a cocaine problem, all of whom play key roles in making this story work.

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It’s unfortunate that Saturday Night Live has gotten a rep for being pretty unfunny in the past couple of years. Everybody will, of course, claim “the show stopped being funny when X left” but the truth of the matter is that it becomes a completely different beast every few years, starting when they made the first major cast change back in 1980.

These days, the level of writing, led by head writer Seth Meyers, has been adapted to a younger audience. With bits like music videos from The Lonely Island or the one-liners in Weekend Update, they are definitely appealing to a crowd under the age of 30. Even a skit like MacGruber, which is based on a bumbling protagonist (Will Forte) and the inevitable explosion ending isn’t exactly highbrow comedy, but mostly visual humor and random vulgarity.

Sadly, that’s exactly where the film adaptation of MacGruber picks up. It continues the trend of sight gags that don’t really pay off and more vulgarity than an uncensored episode of South Park. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of SNL, Forte, and the MacGruber skit, but the film lives up to the low expectation everyone had for it, in just being a 30 second skit stretched out into 90 minutes.

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Though our vote may have already been cast for Hot Tub Time Machine to go down as the “Comedy of the Year”, we are still early in the running, and by the looks of it, MacGruber may put up quite a fight.

We got our first look at the film back in January, with matching green and red band trailers. Since then, things have been a bit quiet while the film debuted at SXSW last month. Nothing but rave reviews have come from that screening, and we’re all pretty excited to hear more.

Before we get closer to the film’s release date, however, we’ve got some great new marketing for the film on the way. Starting with an awesome new iPhone app which comes with some great tools like The Mullet Generator, Bomb Defuser Challenge, a cool soundboard, and more.

MacGruber is also now trolling around on Twitter, being outrageous, and only a little inappropriate. Finally, there’s a brand new red band trailer, this time focusing more on Val Kilmer’s “Von Cunth” character.

Check that out after the jump, and be sure to catch MacGruber in theaters on May 21. By clicking through you certify you are eighteen years of age or older.

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While most of the internet community got to bask in the glory which was the MacGruber red-band trailer earlier this week, some people wouldn’t mind it with a little less profanity, and a little more action. Luckily, the first official green-band trailer recently hit the net for all of those folks.

The new trailer doesn’t give us a whole lot more, with the exception of a few more great lines like “I was talking to the missile”, a few more explosions, and way more WWE wrestlers. MacGruber’s “team” consists of WWE’s Kane, Christ Jericho, Great Khali, Mark Henry, and The Big Show. It’s surprising that Vince McMahon himself isn’t producing the film.

The film, for those not “in the know”, stars Will Forte as he reprises his character from Saturday Night Live, which is basically one big MacGuyver spoof. The film also features fellow SNL cast member Kristen Wiig, Powers Boothe, Ryan Phillippe, and Val Kilmer as Dieter Von Cunth.

Check out the official green-band trailer after the jump, and expect to see MacGruber blow stuff up on the silver screen starting April 23rd.

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Fans of Saturday Night Live and Will Forte rejoice! The very first trailer for the upcoming MacGruber, based on the Will Forte SNL skit, has finally hit the web, and it looks pretty damned funny.

Penned by Forte, along with other SNL writers Jorma Taccone (Hot Rod) and John Solomon, the script adapts the 30-second MacGuyver spoofs in which MacGruber must disarm a ticking bomb, which never happens due to the ensuing antics. The film was stretched and fluffed into a almost spy-like plot in which MacGruber must take down international terrorist Deiter von Cunth (Val Kilmer), all while sporting a blond mullet and looking cool.

This is the first SNL alum-starring, Lorne Michaels-produced film since 2008′s Baby Mama starring Tina Fey and Amy Pohler. Expect this film to do better than the aforementioned film, given the talent involved. MacGruber also stars Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Maya Rudolph, Ryan Phillippe, and others.

Check out the very first trailer (Red Band, so NSFW due to language) after the jump, and expect to see MacGruber blowing stuff up on screen on April 23rd.

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We haven’t posted much about the film adaptation of SNL’s recurring MacGruber skit here at the site, frankly because none of us think it’s a good idea. There’s now word coming in that Ryan Phillippe and Val Kilmer may be joining the cast as well, which may actually add to the film’s credibility. From the Hollywood Reporter,

Ryan Phillippe is in negotiations to star in the feature, with Val Kilmer in negotiations to also join the Relativity Media production. Will Forte and Kristen Wiig are reprising their roles from the skits. Jorma Taccone, who created the character and directed most of the skits, is helming; “SNL” producer and creator Lorne Michaels is producing.

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