The end is near

Yes fans of Harry Potter, the time is drawing ever so close to that epic finale.

Today, ABC Family premiered the first teaser trailer for “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” or in this case, the last Harry Potter film.

You can now witness what The Battle of Hogwarts is going to look like. Many highlights include: Mrs. Weasly dueling Bellatrix, The knights lining up for battle, all the wide shots around Hogwarts, all of the wizarding community shooting bolts of light at Hogwarts, Harry and Voldemort jumping off a cliff, the dragon destroying Gringotts bank, etc.

Take a look for yourself below at the teaser of this brilliant and astonishing teaser:

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2″ blasts into 3D and Imax theaters on July 15.

From “Glee” to Moe, Larry and Curly

Deadline is reporting today that Jane Lynch has signed on to star in The Farrelly Brothers’ upcoming comedy “The Three Stooges.”

On her Emmy winning show, which she won one herself, Lynch plays a bullying cheer leading coach; In the film, it’s been confirmed she will take on the role of Mother Superior.

In the film, her character runs the orphanage where the three misfits are raised.

The production for this film reboot of the once popular franchise will start production in May; In the meantime, you can catch Lynch screaming through a megaphone in “Glee” Tuesday nights on Fox.

Look out Michael Oher!

The Baltimore Ravens have more than just talented players on their roster, they have budding filmmakers.

No, we are not talking about 2009′s Oscar nominated “The Blind Side,” but we are mentioning about another player on this star studded team.

In light of what’s been going on in the NFL with the lockout and the upcoming draft, Helmet2Helmet.net reported quite the interesting story a few days ago.

Terrell Suggs’s, a Baltimore Ravens linebacker, is submitting his short film, that he produced and c0-wrote, to the 64th Annual Cannes Film Festival this year.

His mini movie, entitled “When Beautiful People Do Ugly Things,” is centered around two people and the 24 hours that accounts for their upcoming marriage.

Once it premieres, hopefully it will get distributed so we can all get a chance to see this.

]]> http://twothumbsdown.wordpress.com/2011/04/27/baltimore-ravens-terrell-suggs-film-screened-at-cannes/feed/ 0 Largemen terrell suggs http://twothumbsdown.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/review-water-for-elephants/ http://twothumbsdown.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/review-water-for-elephants/#comments Mon, 25 Apr 2011 01:18:33 +0000 Largemen http://twothumbsdown.wordpress.com/?p=432 ]]>

The Greatest Show on Earth?

Robert Pattinson, if you don’t already know him, is a household name by now. He is well-known for the “Twilight” movies and teenage girls are obsessed with him. Last year was his sort of breakout role into drama, entitled “Remember Me”. Ironically enough, the film did quite poorly and not very many people cared to see him without his fangs.

I remember reading about “Water for Elephants” last year when it was in production. With such a cast, Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz, the film was sure to be a hit. One person though stuck out to me like a sore thumb, Robert Pattinson. I was very hesitant in caring about whether to even see this film. After watching the trailers I was convinced that this has to be a good film. So I went and bought a ticket to this circus filled ride.

Was it worth it?

In this period piece an old man named Jacob Jankowski, played by Hal Holbrook, stumbles upon a circus and is brought inside by one of the workers. He tells the supposed infamous story of his life working for the Benzini Brothers Circus in 1931. Jacob as a young man, Mr. Pattinson, was currently finishing up becoming a veterinarian at Cornell. He finds out one day that his parents are killed in a car accident. The bank takes his parent’s home and leaves him with no money. Jacob decides to hitchhike and one night stumbles across a circus train. Destined to climb aboard thinking he has nothing to lose, he embarks upon a life changing adventure. Along the way, he meets the boss of the circus, August (Christoph Waltz), a man desperate enough and crazy enough to do anything that involves making money; This film does take place during the Great Depression. Jacob also comes across his wife Marlena, played by Reese Witherspoon, who is the star attraction of the show. No one is allowed to come into contact with her, but Jacob soon changes that.

Once a nasty incident involving a horse takes place, yes animals are treated cruelly in this film, Jacob becomes the circus vet and invokes August to partake in a new star attraction – an elephant – which he believes will put their show on the map. As the film progresses Jacob and Marlena start to have feelings for each other. As this is going on we take a glance at August going crazy to not only the animals, but the people involved in the show.

As the climax rears it’s lengthy head, all hell breaks loose in the circus and the film goes from a slow romance to a brutal massacre.

The setting of this film is mostly on a train or in a circus tent. You have to give the team behind this costly film a lot of credit; so much work went into making everything perfect. Little things such as posters, bed sheets and even record players truly make the film feel as if we were standing there in the film.

The soundtrack was phenomenal as well. James Newton Howard captured not only the sound of this movie, but you could actually feel it play to the tune of your heart.

As for the cast, I not only enjoyed everyone’s performances but nonetheless believed their roles. Robert did a wonderful portrayal as the adolescent Jacob. He didn’t even need to sparkle in the sun to make us enjoy his performance. Reese Witherspoon was sensational. Ever since she stole the show in “Walk the Line,” I’ve had a new found respect of her as an actress. She makes you feel for this tortured and torn soul as she is not only abused by August but caught in a forbidden love with Jacob. As for Christoph Waltz, all that can be said is I never knew one person could be as evil as a ring leader at a circus; he even played a Nazi in Quintin Tarintino’s marvelous “Inglorious Basterds”. This time around he seemed much more menacing from beating Marlena to hurting the animals, but I’ll be damned if anyone thinks he didn’t put on a great performance.

Overall, I quite enjoyed this film. There are a few times where the film tends to drag. Instead of this being a 2 hour film, it more so feels like a 4 hour film. Even though I’ve mentioned this already, animals do get abused in this film; If you are squeamish and don’t like to see that, just cover your eyes as they are over with quickly.

If you feel in the mood for a well done period piece or just want to check out the circus, step right up and see the wonderful and mesmerizing “Water for Elephants”.

My Review:

8/10

Jason Bourne 2.0

After making three Bourne movies with director Paul Greengrass, Matt Damon decided to throw in the towel and leave this successful film series. With new director, Tony Gilroy, putting the film in a new direction has he found the new face of action?

Jeremy Renner, famous for the explosive Oscar winning film “The Hurt Locker” and Ben Affleck’s ode to Beantown “The Town,” has been officially cast in the new Bourne film.

Deadline reports he will play a spinoff character in the picture and will be an even bigger threat than Jason was. Names like Dominic Cooper and Garrett Hedlund, “Tron Legacy, Country Strong,” were easy candidates; In the end Renner had the best chance and background of films to pull it off.

Currently, Jeremy is developing another action character in “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol,” alongside Ethan Hunt himself, Tom Cruise.

Shooting schedules are set to begin in September of this year for “The Bourne Legacy”.

]]> http://twothumbsdown.wordpress.com/2011/04/22/jeremy-renner-officially-cast-for-the-bourne-legacy/feed/ 0 Largemen Jeremy-Renner1 http://twothumbsdown.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/transformers-dark-of-moon-shockwave-banner-revealed/ http://twothumbsdown.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/transformers-dark-of-moon-shockwave-banner-revealed/#comments Thu, 21 Apr 2011 23:17:09 +0000 Largemen http://twothumbsdown.wordpress.com/?p=420 ]]>

Shockwave gets an upgrade.

Paramount has been rather quiet promoting their big summer blockbuster, “Transformers: Dark of the Moon”.

Yahoo, exclusively, started releasing character banners last week starting with Optimus Prime and most recently, Bumblebee. Today, we are given a glimpse of the film’s first villain — and no, it’s not Megatron.

Presented to you is the main antagonist of the Decepticons: Shockwave.

For most fans of the original animated phenomenon, it will come as no surprise to who he is and what role he plays in the Transformers series.

Shia LeBeouf and The Autobots will finish the fight against the Decepticons in “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” which blasts into theaters on July 1st.

You can’t run from high definition

Blu-ray.com announced today that Matt Damon’s newest thriller, “The Adjustment Bureau,” will enter your dwellings on June 21st.

This time around, Damon plays a politician running for Senate in New York. He comes across a beautiful ballerina, played by Emily Blunt, in which the two instantly hit it off. As the star-crossed lovers make goo goo eyes at each other, a group of men in trench coats and top hats called “The Bureau” keep  ”adjusting” their fates. Will Matt and Emily be broken apart or can they escape the clutches of these few individuals?

The DVD will include:

• Feature Commentary with writer and director George Nolfi
• Leaping Through New York
• Destined to Be
• Becoming Elise
• Deleted and Extended Scenes

The Blu-Ray will include:

• The contents of the original DVD
• The Labyrinth of Doors: Interactive Map of New York
• BD-Live
• pocket-Blu
• uHEAR
• My Movies
• Standard DVD copy
• Digital Copy

Here is a screenshot of the Blu-Ray Combo Pack Cover:

Any takers for Tonto?

Johnny Depp will have to be looking for another partner in Disney’s upcoming “The Lone Ranger”.

Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine, Lars and the Real Girl), who was set to play The Ranger’s Native American sidekick Tonto, has bailed from the project.

Entertainment Weekly is reporting that over this past weekend, he was in talks to join the film. These “reports” were false and unexpected as Ryan’s schedule didn’t solidify him to be available.

“The Lone Ranger” which is being directed by Gore Verbinski (Rango, Pirates 1-3) is set for an uncertain release in 2014.

You can catch Mr. Gosling in the upcoming “Crazy, Stupid, Love” alongside Steve Carell on July 29.

He is also set to start shooting the highly anticipated Sci-Fi remake of “Logan’s Run” for Warner Brothers. Pictures this fall.

Voice your opinion on Mr. Gosling’s departure from the film and who you think would be a better replacement as Tonto.

Frank Castle who?

Thomas is well known for, sadly, as Frank Castle in 2004′s “The Punisher” a.k.a. the only superhero with guns.

Nowadays, being Thomas Jane isn’t so bad. Not only does he have a successful HBO show (Hung) set to air it’s third season this summer, but it appears he will redeem himself in the action genre.

This time around he co-stars with veteran actor Sylvester Stallone in what sounds like a straight to DVD movie entitled “Headshot”.

Recently, he sat down to chat with Joblo’s Arrow in the Head crew and spoke on this upcoming gun-slinging film that is in talks to shoot sometime this year.

Here is the plot from Arrow’s crew:

A New Orleans hitman (Stallone) who teams with an NYPD detective (Jane), as they are brought together by two vicious murders. The two proceed to take on all who stand in their way.

Jane stated:

“He’s a hitman, I’m a cop, and we’re just opposite in every f*cking way, and we need each other to get this job done. And of course I’m like, ‘As soon as this job’s over, I’m going to take you to jail, you know, you’re a killer.’”

Sounds to any fan of guns, explosions, and buddy films that this will be a must see.

In the meantime, Jane just wrapped up a film with of all people Miley Cyrus entitled “LOL” which is supposed to be released to the world on July 20.

Voice your opinion on what you think of Jane and Stallone killing baddies together.

Will this epic biography ever get off the ground?

Variety is now reporting that Nick Cassavetes has left the helm of directing the upcoming John Gotti Biopic.

Nick was discharged on account of scheduling conflicts due to his new indie film “Yellow” starring Ben Foster (Pandorum, The Mechanic) and Sienna Miller (Layer Cake, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra). The film is due out sometime in 2012.

As of now, the producers are looking for a new director and ICM (International Creative Management) is going to distribute the picture.

The cast includes John Travolta as John Gotti Sr, Joe Pesci as Anfelo Ruggiero and Lindsay Lohan who is rumored to play Victoria Gotti.

What Nick has done here is of similar fashion to what Darren Aronofsky, of “Black Swan” fame, did recently with “The Wolvervine”.

Mr. Cassavetes has brought us such tearjerkers as “The Notebook”, “John Q” and “My Sister’s Keeper”.

Voice your opinion on what you make of this story.