I’m not sure whether the appropriate genre for Pain & Gain is comedy or thriller, but I am sure that it’s a story that the cosmos made specifically for Michael Bay. There’s bulked-up dudes, strippers, midgets, stereotypical gay guys, Miami, explosions, slow-motion, and cocaine and the ’90s. Mark Wahlberg is Daniel Lugo, a fitness instructor with the kind of intensity and single-mindedness that makes you feel like he’s constantly comparing his body to everyone else — and addressing each one according to rank.
His boss is the slightly-schlubby John (Rob Corddry), owner of the Sun Gym in Miami. And his best friend is fellow gym-jockey Adrian (Anthony Mackey).
That the movie opens with Daniel getting chased by the cops is a revelation that we know things won’t end well for Daniel, but the reasons take their time to unfold. We learn that Daniel’s a self-proclaimed go-getter — obsessed with his image and the idea that through physical perfection the rest of the world will lie down before you.
His heroes are Rocky, Scarface, and Don Corleone, suggesting that his understanding of reality comes from the movies and even then, he’s only read the Cliff Notes. He takes a seminar with Johnny Wu (Ken Jeong), one of those motivational speakers who similarly preaches that nothing in life is worth learning if it can’t be written on a note card or reduced to a buzzword.
This past weekend, 32 teams of four took up arms in the ultimate XBox Call of Duty Championship. In the end, it was the team Fariko Impact that took home the gold and $400,000 cash prize. Damon “Karma” Barlow, Adam “Killa” Sloss, Marcus “MiRx,” and team captain Chris “Parasite” Duarte (collectively known as Fariko Impact) faced off against EnVyUs in the final round Sunday after the three day tournament.
Fariko Impact would emerge victorious with the winner’s share of the $1,000,000 total pot. But don’t feel too bad for EnVyUs as the second place team would walk home with $200,000 themselves and third place team OpTic Gaming taking $120,000 with them.
Also revealed this past weekend alongside the images of the new Uprising DLC Map Pack was the latest Replacer trailer. After the original Replacer was revealed, it would only be a matter of time before more Call of Duty: Black Ops II players would need to call upon the services of these men in black.
This time, original Replacer Peter Stormare is joined by J.B. Smoove. This time, as you’ll see in the trailer below, the Replacers find themselves in even more awkward scenarios, the kind it takes two people to tackle.
Sometimes, when things in Hollywood are going too slow or the powers that be just can’t seem to get their shit together, somebody has to step up and take charge. In the case of a big screen Wonder Woman movie, that somebody is director Jesse V. Johnson.
Frustrated with the lack of progress on a studio adaptation of the beloved DC Comics character, Johnson decided to assemble a group of collaborators and make a trailer for a Wonder Woman movie he wanted to see. The result is pure action-packed, ass-kicking fun.
We hope Hollywood is watching. Check out all the action after the break.
Here’s the latest trailer for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s upcoming action flick The Last Stand. Forest Whitaker, Luis Guzmán, Peter Stormare, Johnny Knoxville, Rodrigo Santoro, Jaimie Alexander and Genesis Rodriguez are also in the movie. The movie, directed by South Korea’s Kim Jee-woon, opens January 18th.
Here’s the trailer. It’s about what you expect, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Long abscent from the big screen for a little detour into politics, Arnold is back and in several movies coming to a theater near you soon. This week he’ll be appearing in The Expendables 2, but he’s also in another movie called The Last Stand, which had a new trailer released for it today.
The Last Stand marks South Korean director Kim Jee-woon’s first English-language movie and will undoubtedly feture quite a bit of action, drama and poorly pronounced English. Previously, the movie has been described by the studio as “a Fast And Furious at the border with high speed car chases, drug cartels and the like.”
We’re particularly interested in this “like” we’ve heard so much about. Could be cool.
Look for The Last Stand to hit theaters on January 18, 2013. Check out the trailer after the break.
Corridor, directed by Johan Lundborg and Johan Storm (Sweden), is a darkly humorous suspense-thriller, the likes of which would make Hitchcock proud. Frank (Emil Johnsen), a socially withdrawn medical student, goes about his daily routine with as little contact with people as he can manage – such as declining the invitations made by a classmate to study together and avoiding the other residents in his apartment building.
Frank is reluctantly roped into helping Lotte (Ylva Gallon), his persistently friendly (and moochy) upstairs neighbor with increasing frequency, much to his frustration. In spite of this, an uneasy friendship forms between the two after Frank notices signs of domestic abuse between Lotte and her boyfriend Micke (Peter Stormare, who is always awesome) and as things progress, they get increasingly more complicated.
Because much of the action takes place out of sight, Frank makes assumptions based on what can be overheard from his downstairs apartment and his conclusions and actions set up a chain of events that topple into calamity.
I was reminded a bit of Rear Window while watching it, though Frank – unlike Jimmy Stewarts’ proactive voyeur – desperately tries to avoid social interaction and involvement with the people living in his building. The use of sound in the film is hugely important, as Frank’s perception of Lotte’s relationship with Micke is informed almost entirely by what he overhears from his flat.
