35 Responses to “Badass Trailer Roundup”

1. 

   CJ Holden

   November 27th, 2013 at 12:17 am

   I laughed my ass off at that WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE trailer and I’m surprised how many talented people (well, JCVD, Kristen Schall and Dennis Haybert. That’s already 3.) are attached to it. Something tells me though, that JCVD will disappear for a huge chunk of the movie.

2. 

   Amazing Larry

   November 27th, 2013 at 12:41 am

   I saw the trailer for Need For Speed in front of Captain Phillips (damn good movie, but I think the critics are singing the praises of Tom Hanks’s performance a little to stridently), and is it any surprise that there’s a new movie riding the wave of the Fast & Furious resurgence? Total no-brainer. I got nothin’ for Aaron Paul; he’s no Vin Diesel or even Paul Walker, and clearly suffers from CDD (Charisma Deficit Disorder). But hope was restored when Michael Keaton showed up, then I IMBbed the sucker, and HOLY SHIT!— Nick Chinlund is in this? Damn, I hope he’s got a role he can sink his teeth into. As far as Alpha Male Character Actors go, IMO there are few better.

   If Arnold can bring even HALF of the rejuvenation to Sabotage that made him such a crowd pleaser in Escape Plan, then… HELL yes, I’m right there.

   Damn shame Ninja II isn’t getting a threatrical release. Seriously, what’s it gonna take to elevate Scott Adkins up to the upper tier of action movie stars? I think Obamacare should be amended to the following: You 1.) sign up, and then 2.) You have to watch Undisputed II & III. One viewing of both should be quite enough to win over the uninitiated and the skeptical.

3. 

   Amazing Larry

   November 27th, 2013 at 12:59 am

   Yeah, one more thing:

   POP QUIZ, hotshots! Terrorist holding two Thanksgiving Weekend Release movie tickets in his hand (one for Homefront, one for Oldboy), and you have choose to see one & ONLY one, or he’s gonna blow a theatre in half. What do you do?… WHAT do you do?

4. 

   Eddie Lummox

   November 27th, 2013 at 1:13 am

   I saw another movie by the Raze guy at a festival last month, and it was awful, just pathetically awful. A dull, unimaginative cop-on-the-edge picture called McCannick. Not really looking forward to Raze.

5. 

   KaeptnKrautsalat

   November 27th, 2013 at 2:07 am

   @Amazing Larry
   Watch Homefront, wait for the unrated DVD of Oldboy or just watch the original. Spike Lee said something about the theatrical version having a cut in the famous one-take hammer fight scene.

   Apparently Enemies Closer is getting a theatrical release, what a pleasant surprise.

6. 

   KaeptnKrautsalat

   November 27th, 2013 at 2:10 am

   Edit: No theatrical release for Enemies Closer, that’s just an error on IMDB.

7. 

   Amazing Larry

   November 27th, 2013 at 2:45 am

   KaeptnKrautsalat— I like the way you think. I’m down with Homefront, if only because I saw one (and strangely enough, ONLY one) TV spot that mentioned Stallone wrote the screenplay adaptation. Cool; he and Statham have already proved to be a good fit, and James Franco as the baddie is a good playing-against-type addition. Seems promising.

   But to remake Oldboy? Fuck… that’s a tall order for two specific reasons:

   1.) Those who saw the original Chan wook-Park movie are gonna feel compelled to compare it, and it’ll probably come up short.

   2.) Those who DIDN’T see the original are gonna be confused as fuck, and it probably won’t make a lick of sense to them.

   I mean, this isn’t akin to Gus Van Sant remaking Psycho or Rob Zombie remaking Halloween; the vast majority of the American audience it’s aimed at has no clue about the intricate convolutions of the original Oldboy. I applaud Spike Lee for such a bold move, but still… it’s just gonna confuse a good many sheeple/people.

8. 

   Franchise Fred

   November 27th, 2013 at 3:20 am

   I actually saw WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE and it’s a hoot. Van Damme is a total ham in it making fun of himself. He even does the BLOODSPORT face. You’re correct that he disappears at one point but be comes back sooner than you think and is in more of the movie than I expected. I mean it won’t mean shit to anyone who doesn’t already love JCVD but for us it’s a fun one for him.

   I suspect we won’t see Adkins at his best in HERCULES PRE-ROCK but at least we have NINJA II with the Franchise Fred approved numerical title.

9. 

   Knox Harrington

   November 27th, 2013 at 4:00 am

   I’m not quite sure that I would call Spike Lee remaking Oldboy a bold move. The man is really struggling to get his films greenlit these days. I think he’s doing this as more of a “one for them” deal. Plus, there’s a part of me that’s convinced he took the job simply so he could fuck with Sharlto Copley for being a white South African, which would make for some awesome behind-the-scenes footage.

   Speaking of SA, check out this trailer for iNumber Number, a local crime/action movie that’s been doing very well at some international film festivals. It co-stars Presley Chweneyagae from Tsotsi.

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tfXb9jUELI

10. 

    pegsman

    November 27th, 2013 at 5:32 am

    The Rock’s THE RUNDOWN was called WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE here in Europe. Does that mean that WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE will be called WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE II over here?

11. 

    ron

    November 27th, 2013 at 6:12 am

    i was the guy on twitter, i saw raze at a fest a couple weeks ago and i was actually looking forward it based on what i knew (which was just: zoe bell, women fighting) but it was pretty terrible. i am willing to forgive A LOT of flaws in a fight-based movie if the action is good. in raze, it was poorly shot and terribly edited garbage, and there was really nothing else redeeming about it. the only moderately entertaining part for me was some mild amusement from doug jones chewing the scenery as the villain.

    on the plus side at the same fest i saw CHEAP THRILLS which was fucking outstanding on every level and everyone should see it ASAP.

12. 

    Marco

    November 27th, 2013 at 8:35 am

    Check out the new and better trailer for Enemies Closer (released today):

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYaLG5Wnz4w

13. 

    TJ

    November 27th, 2013 at 9:01 am

    Speaking of Ayer- anyone want to weigh in on his End of Watch?

    Finally got around to watching it the other night, and thought it was decent if unspectacular. The one thing about the movie that bugged me to no end was the documentary/found-footage angle. Some parts of the movie were the cops filming themselves for a documentary, but then it would randomly switch to eye-of-God views and back and forth.

14. 

    Nick

    November 27th, 2013 at 9:20 am

    NINJA II looks so fucking good. And for that, I’m thankful.

    Vern-Happy Thanksgiving. Hope you’re doing something awesome/eating well.

15. 

    Gabe T.

    November 27th, 2013 at 10:01 am

    Mirielle Enos. I never knew.

    RAZE just struck me as being overly brutal. I didn’t think the fights were shot too close or unclear, but there’s really nothing to the movie other than women punching the shit out of each other. After awhile it’s super not-fun, fists crushing skulls and stuff, semi-realistically. Also, apparently Rosario Dawson was in it, and I would NEVER miss a Rosario appearance, but I could not find her. I guess she was having her face smashed in. Which I do not endorse.

    HOMEFRONT is awesome, as far as Statham efforts go. Very straightforward, basically Statham and his daughter accidentally giving birth to a Hatfield and McCoys situation in the deep south. Franco’s pretty good and realistic as Gator – it’s not a maniacal, eeeevil villain turn.

    Oldboy, though… Spike Lee screwed this one up quite a bit. It’s kind of awful. I LOOOOVE Spike, but aside from a few brief touches, it feels entirely anonymous. Terrible performances. If you’ve seen the original, this one is COMPLETELY unnecessary.

16. 

    ron

    November 27th, 2013 at 10:14 am

    rosario dawson had a super brief cameo as a lady standing in the crowd at the end

    and yeah it was monumentally depressing, but “brutal” is too kind of an adjective, its more like just plain ugly. and dont get me wrong i can get behind that vibe sometimes, but everything was written and executed so poorly it never generated the kind of emotional investment i need to make something like that hit home.

17. 

    MaggieMayPie

    November 27th, 2013 at 1:16 pm

    SABOTAGE & ENEMIES CLOSER look awesome. I love the new path for JCVD & while, it’s not exactly a NEW path for Arnold, it seems to be a little bit of an evolution for an aging action star. I love how ENEMIES CLOSER has all of the actors playing something unexpected. I don’t know that I ever thought I’d see Orlando Jones or Tom Everett Scott playing bad asses. I hope they pull it off, because I love unexpected performances.

18. 

    RBatty024

    November 27th, 2013 at 2:27 pm

    Of all the older 80s/90s action stars who have come back over the course of the last five or six years, I think JCVD may have come out on top. He’s turning in better performances and making better movies than he did during his heyday, in my opinion. Schwarzenneger might be a close second, because he seems intent on really branching out. I still like Stallone’s newer work, but a lot of it seems to use nostalgia as a crutch. But JCVD, who knew?

19. 

    Knox Harrington

    November 27th, 2013 at 2:30 pm

    TJ, I went into End of Watch expecting a found footage film, only to find that it really isn’t one. It does incorporate a lot of video footage from cameras in the film itself, but I’m guessing that was done simply to make it seem more authentic and “gritty”. I think it works. It’s a decent way of getting some of that “this really happened” atmosphere, but without any of the leaps in logic that usually accompany found footage movies (like constantly having to justify the presence of the camera).

    Anyway, I’m much more excited about Fury, his World War 2 tank movie with Brad Pitt. Goddamn, Pitt knows how to pick good projects.

20. 

    RBatty024

    November 27th, 2013 at 2:31 pm

    As far as the Homefront v. Spike Leed Oldboy, I decided to go with Oldboy. It’s a well made film. It just also happens to be a somewhat pointless film. It’s like a good cover of a song that stays pretty close to the original. The new band knows what made the song great in the first place and they dutifully reproduce that. But in the end people will always prefer listening to the original.

21. 

    Paul

    November 27th, 2013 at 4:11 pm

    Well I will ignore “Raze” then. I mean, it didn’t look great from the trailer, but from what you guys are saying about it… wow.

    I usually try to avoid trailers, and this is why: I feel like I’ve pretty much watched “Enemies Closer” already. I’m getting a distinct “gives away FAR too much” vibe in it. Honestly I’d have preferred it if they’d have kept Van Damme’s role completely secret and made it look as though it were just a battle between the two guys at the start. But that doesn’t sell it as a “Van Damme film” I guess. Unless this is another case of the Jet Li’s (where the actor turns out to have a huge body of work that I’ve never even heard of that’s far superior to the stuff I HAVE seen), I cannot see anybody going to watch this film because Orlando Jones is the bad guy. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nothing against Jones, but I’ve not seen a single film of his that I felt he really shone in either.

    Don’t agree with the majority on “Sabotage” though. The trailer puts me RIGHT off this film. The first half of it seems to be mostly one-liner cliches used to evoke the idea of cameraderie, except that these particular one-liner cliches seem pretty insufferable in a two-minute trailer. The prospect of watching an entire movie filled with them does not fill me with glee. Then the second half of it brings up the spectre of Bad Mole Subplot #631.

    (A word to filmmakers out there: Unless you’re going to do a proper suspense story where the paranoia is the whole point, DON’T USE THIS CLICHE’D PLOT POINT. Look, I love trying to work out “whodunnit”, but most of the time this kind of thing ends up as a clue-free guessing game in which the answer is a huge and probably predictable letdown anyway. See: “Fast and Furious 6”, which would’ve been a helluva lot better if they’d either given away the Mole’s intentions from the get-go and got some tension out of it, or made it a proper whodunnit subplot with clues and – again – tension. Not just thrown it in at the end as a dumb “twist”. This kind of thing just irritates me a lot. It’s VERY lazy, and it takes advantage of a trope that at one time was used with craftsmanship and a respect for the intelligence of the audience, but has now just grown stale.)

    I’m hoping “Sabotage” turns out to be a case where the marketing puts me off but the film itself turns out to be much greater than I expected it to be. (And it’s not as if there hasn’t been a lot of that happening regularly: “Dredd”, “Chronicle”, etc. Films that I really enjoyed but almost didn’t see because I thought their trailers made them look like the worst movies ever made.)

22. 

    Illinois Smith

    November 27th, 2013 at 6:33 pm

    JCVD and Kristen Schaal hanging out on a tropical island sounds like something out of my fever dreams.

23. 

    doubleh55

    November 27th, 2013 at 9:44 pm

    I said it in the forum, that new Hercules movie by Renny Harlin looks embarrassing.

24. 

    Mr. Majestyk

    November 28th, 2013 at 8:16 am

    Happy Thanksgiving, gentlemen. I am here in my suburban hometown with fuck-all to do, which means there should be some matinees in my immediate future. I want to see HOMEFRONT but I’ve heard bad things about the action. Can anyone who’s seen it give it an ACR for me? If it’s below a 2.5 I might not even bother, unless someone can make a compelling case for its adherence to the badass unities or even the ill-considered and probably entirely conceptual mega-acting of the Franco.

25. 

    CrustaceanHate

    November 28th, 2013 at 6:15 pm

    When I saw that HERCULES trailer I thought it was some sort of joke. I’m glad Scott Adkins is getting a paycheck, but Jesus.

    I wish Gabe hadn’t described RAZE as a non-stop orgy of brutal woman-on-woman violence and semi-realistic skull-crushing, because now I kind of want to see it.

    Maj, almost every review I’ve read has complained about the terribly shot action, even people who are indifferent to shaky-cam.

    Happy Thanksgiving, Americans. May you feast on giant roasted fowl and give thanks for all the badass filmmakers of the world.

26. 

    Captain Aktion

    November 28th, 2013 at 7:34 pm

    We are inching ever closer to that JCVD/Nic Cage co-starrer we’ve all been dreaming of…

27. 

    Gabe T.

    November 28th, 2013 at 9:44 pm

    Majestik, would probably go with a 3 or so on HOMEFRONT, not aggressively poorly shot, but not a lot of standout stuff – really feels like Gary Fleder (Kiss The Girls, Runaway Jury) left the action to the second unit. Franco doesn’t do any mega-acting – he plays his villain basically as if Daniel Desario from Freaks and Geeks grew up to sell meth. Just exasperated, sarcastic, weirdly randomly condescending, purposely squandering his potential.

    It does kind of hint that Statham starts a country-fried rivalry with another family through his daughter, one that the young lady Statham will live to fight decades from now. Also, Frank Grillo plays the head of a badass biker gang and Clancy Brown and Chuck Zito also pop up, so there’s some interesting faces. And Kate Bosworth… I dunno, man, she’s been doing a lot of super low budget work in the last few years and she’s kind of been killing it, she’s pretty good here. As far as Statham films, it’s not as good as SAFE, better than PARKER and DEATH RACE. Maybe even with the TRANSPORTERs. I’d prefer a HOMEFRONT 2 more than I would have wanted a TRANSPORTER 2 back then.

28. 

    ANoniMouse

    November 28th, 2013 at 10:25 pm

    Came on to wish a late Happy Thanksgiving and see I all my fellow Americans survived the holiday with few familial casualties. Plus, the Sabotage trailer reminded me how thankful I am for the Beastie Boys.

29. 

    Franchise Fred

    November 29th, 2013 at 3:42 am

    3 is about right for HOMEFRONT. Only the opening sequence is aggressively shaky and you can generally see how Statham is hitting people. I think it’s interesting as a Stallone script. Not as fun as the Transporters and nowhere near the brilliance of Safe. Perfectly serviceable though and we should all be talking more about Frank Grillo. I liked Winona Ryder as the biker chick too.

30. 

    Stu

    November 29th, 2013 at 7:26 am

    Which genre is SABOTAGE meant to be more? Action Movie or Thriller?

    I approve of the hairstyle choice for JCVD in ENEMIES CLOSER, while WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE(which was the name THE RUNDOWN had in the UK) at least seems to recognise the power of his BLOODSPORT type facial expressions.

31. 

    Mr. Majestyk

    November 29th, 2013 at 9:47 am

    Gabe & Fred: Thanks for the insights. For this kind of movie, I’m not too concerned with the standard-issue shooting-and-sploding stuff, which are probably gonna be pretty perfunctory anyways, as long as the basic beats of the story come through. I need the “Oh shit it’s on” moment to be strong and the villain death to be satisfying and the rest of it should take care of itself.

32. 

    HT

    November 29th, 2013 at 11:22 am

    Maybe Seagal should walk away from Keoni Waxman and these other journeyman DTV directors. His current output feels just too damn much the movies come out of an assembly line. Cheap looking, with stock plots and unimaginative fight scenes. And often they’re bringing in some younger action guy so Seagal can take a back seat in his own movie.

    I wish Steven would branch out and try something new. Maybe an unknown director with a burning desire to make an awesome action movie, or take more unconventional roles or branch out to different kind of movies. Van Damme still has his foot solidly in the DTV arena, but he’s dabbling with interesting things like JCVD, or that recent commercial, or just taking crazy weird roles.

    Seagal’s appearance in MACHETE was a good start, but I feel like he’s not really pushing for a new stage in his career.

33. 

    renfield

    November 30th, 2013 at 4:45 pm

    Although I didn’t dislike Oldboy as much as Gabe T, he’s not wrong in his criticisms. I heard the studios cockblocked Spike Lee pretty hard on this one and it’s a bit incoherent perhaps as a result.

    Really bizarre seeing Sharlto Copley with a refined upper class British accent. What were they thinking I wonder? I’m enthusiastic about the past work of all three lead performances and I’m bummed to see them turn in such mediocre work here.

34. 

    Ok Corralles

    November 30th, 2013 at 11:00 pm

    Oh my god, Paul Walker died in a car crash today. He wasn’t driving. So sad.

35. 

    Paul

    December 1st, 2013 at 3:56 am

    Ok – daaaaaaamn.

    I suppose the “Fast and Furious” star going out like that can be classed as “bitter irony”?

    Kinda bugs me that I’ve read two news stories about Walker’s death now though, and neither of them has mentioned the name of the friend he was with who also died. I know Walker is the “big news” but that just seems disrespectful. Somehow I don’t think Walker would want his friend to just be ignored.

    Regardless, RIP Paul Walker and friend. Condolences to their families and friends.