for reasons I can't really explain I watched the tomb raider movie the other night and was shocked to realize the villain was Ser Jorah from Game of Thrones, his side kick is the Guy from Green Wing and James Bond is in it putting on a silly voice

The world of The Hunger Games (only the movie - I haven't read any of those books) seems pretty interesting, but the plot doesn't have enough substance to it. It reminds me a little of The Chronicles Of Riddick. The action can be entertaining, but it's a one-time watch.

I watched 2001 expecting "the best movie ever made"...

Saw GI Joe Retaliation this past weekend - much better than the first movie and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It has its problems, some inherited and some of its own, but I liked it.

Yeah, we've talked about it in another thread and I posted the teaser trailer in the Cool Trailers thread too. It's the final part of the Wright-Pegg-Frost 'Cornetto Trilogy' that also included Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. I can't wait to see it

So Spielberg and Lucas have figured out what some of us already knew - the film industry is "imploding".

The Finder
(Moderate spoilers for the first episode)

So I ran across this the other day on netflix and thought I'd give it a try as I'd seen the backdoor pilot they did, and remembered I'd been curious to check out the actual show.

If you don't know what The Finder is, basically an ex-military genius has a gift and an obsession with finding people and things. A pretty simple and fun idea. It's based off some book that I have no idea about, this incarnation first appeared as a backdoor pilot in an episode of Bones, it was fun, light and quirky, the core Finder cast had a really amazing chemistry and it was generally and sincerely fun. So I was looking forward to the actual show (And then forgot about for 2 years).

And I don't know what they hell they did to it, but the actual show is down right verging on horrible. They retain most of the core elements, he's ex military and likes to find things. But removed 1/3 of the trifecta core cast that was in the Bones backdoor pilot, the Saffron Burrows character, So the entire dynamic of that is thrown out of wack. And moreover they kept trying to make it a dark and gritty show about fractured characters and eeeemoooootioooons, and every single time it falls flat. Seriously in the first episode we are introduced to the ex-juvie hippy girl with a vengeful parole officer whose soul mission in life is to send her back to juvie, the idea the Walter (The titular "Finder") is mentally ill, and Walter has some sort of dark and sullied parts of his military history; and it's all presented with the artistic gracefullness of a fully loaded pack mule doing ballet on the freeway. They also introduced the obligatory cop character for every show about a detective, in this case played by Mercedes Masöhn, who... how do I put this, couldn't act her way out a wet paper bag. And I will admit, I've never seen her before, so she might be the victim of bad script or director. I really wish I could find a copy of one part on youtube because it is truly so cartoonishly horrible, basically they are discussing some mob boss Walt wants to meet and the cop character just stops deadpans and mutters the mob bosses name under her breath like some cartoon character, and then when they are on the mob bosses boat (at sea mind you) staring at the mob boss (Played by the delicious Jamie Murray...in a gold one piece swimsuit playing the trombone cartoonishly bad, while surrounded by body guards in florescent orange tracksuits...oh just wait) the trained and seasoned cop stares at her with the kind of look you give someone who just slapped your dog and says (literally word for word here) "We haaate her."

And that's where I pretty much checked out.

The show seems to be constantly trying to straddle the lines of retaining that fun, quirky sensibility and turning it towards this darker more realistic thing, and yet has this weird turrets like tick of throwing in these flat out cartoony moments and it ALL falls flat at every turn. Which really makes me sad. I went into the show, coming off the bones episode, expecting a kind of fun, quirky, lighthearted detective show about a guy who is just really really good at finding anything and everything and so has a kind of unofficial detective business on the side of running his rural florida lakeside bar, kind of a Pushing Daisies crossed with Bones sort of a deal. And what I got was something so completely not that at all.

I do have to credit to a couple things though, Geoff Stults is really good and carries the show as much as he can with pure charm and charisma (But he's carrying a lot of weight), and Michael Clarke Duncan is ...well...  the motherfucking Michael Clarke Duncan and that's all there is to it. (It was really cool to see him again, I miss that big guy).

I don't really have anything more to say on it, it just makes me sad.

No longer a stalwart?

Die Hard With A Yawn: Bruce Willis Says He’s ‘Bored’ Doing Action Flicks

THANK GOD someone is finally talking about Rocket Raccoon. I feel like I have been waiting for this moment (the moment where a raccoon is a star in what might be the most popular movie franchise ever) my entire life.

I think it's a flight suit or uniform of some sort, Trey. Rocket Raccoon is an accomplished starship pilot and military leader!

I am sure those details helped convince you that this movie is going to be the former.

Now they just need to get Nic Cage to do the voice and we're all set