Statham True to Form in ‘Parker’ Trailer

UK Release Date: 25th January 2013

Stars: Taylor Hackford (director), Jason Statham, Jennifer Lopez, Michael Chiklis, Nick Nolte, Wendell Pierce

Plot: A thief with a unique code of professional ethics is double-crossed by his crew and left for dead. Assuming a new disguise and forming an unlikely alliance with a woman on the inside, he looks to hijack the score of the crew’s latest heist.

Jason Statham’s career over the past few years has been a little bit hit and miss; The Expendables and Safe went down pretty well whereas Crank 2 and Blitz just haven’t particularly impressed a lot of people. Couple this with the fact that Jennifer Lopez is in this film (and she is an atrocious actress) then you may not want to see Parker. But watching the trailer you can tell that this is Jason Statham at his finest; wise-cracking, ass kicking and he is even a good actor!

There are things throughout this trailer that would interest the real Statham fans and fans of the action genre in general. I love watching Jason Statham films and I love seeing his fight scenes as they are some of the best around in modern films in my opinion. In a time where films are full of CGI and actors just fighting made up creations of animators it is refreshing to see Statham going hand to hand with foes.

Whilst obviously Parker will be nothing special in the broad spectrum of films it will be an hour and a half of fun and that is guaranteed. There are some humorous lines through the trailer although “I always follow through” sounds more like a bad case of diarrhoea than something that would strike fear into the heart of enemies.

 

Gangster Squad Will Be The Coolest Movie of 2013

Gangster Squad was originally set to be released this year (2012) back in September, yet due to the tragic Aurora shootings the release date was pushed back and Hollywood execs felt the need to re-shoot what would no doubt have become an iconic scene in film history. The scene in question featured several of the characters shooting in to a packed screening at the cinema from behind the screen; obviously, this was changed as to not be associated with the Aurora shootings. However, now that everything has been amended Gangster Squad has a new trailer and a new release date of January 2013.

Gangster Squad is inspired by true events (although when a film says that you can never be sure just what is true and what has been fabricated) and Sean Penn plays famous gangster Mickey Cohen. The LAPD are undertaking an operation to keep the Los Angeles area free of gangsters in the 1940s and 50s and Cohen is at the centre of this scheme as he seems to be the most wanted gangster out there. Here is the trailer, you’ll get a better taste of the story from that:

 

 

The trailer does raise a couple of questions: Why does Ryan Gosling have such a squeaky voice? Did Emma Stone really believe that Ryan Gosling was a bible salesman? Is Emma Stone the most attractive actress working today? Who is the main good guy? But one thing the trailer does make clear is that Gangster Squad is determined to be a very stylish and quintessentially cool film.

The cast is one of the most exciting that I have probably ever seen. You’ve got the seasoned professionals in the form of Nick Nolte and Sean Penn; actors who have been around for a while but are now enjoying a reboot in their careers such as Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling, the latter of whom has established himself this year as one of the coolest men on the planet. Then you have the rising stars of the bunch with Emma Stone and Anthony Mackie all topped up with those actors you see in a lot of movies but never have a main role; Michael Pena and Giovanni Ribisi.

 

With a cast this good, this experienced and this versatile you need a director who is going to be able to get the best out of every single one of them whilst telling a brilliant story and giving the audience a real sense of being in the mid-twentieth century LA. In Ruben Fleischer I am not sure if they have that kind of director. Fleischer is pretty inexperienced and Gangster Squad looks as though it should be aiming to become one of the best gangster films of all time, yet Fleischer has mainly worked on comedies up until now so it could be a risk with him at the helm. If he gets it wrong the majority of the blame will fall his way, but if it goes right then this could be where Fleischer’s career really takes off.

Gangster Squad resembles Ocean’s Eleven in the way it carries itself and oozes style and substance and it has a cast to rival the George Clooney film as well. I am a fan of gangster and crime films and I am very excited to see how Gangster Squad turns out; I have a very high expectation for this one and am sure that it will not disappoint!

Robert Redford’s The Company You Keep Trailer

UK Release Date: TBA.

Stars: Robert Redford (acting & directing), Shia LaBeouf, Terrence Howard, Richard Jenkins, Anna Kendrick, Brendan Gleeson, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Nick Nolte, Chris Cooper.

Plot: A thriller circled around a former Weather Underground activist who goes on the run from a journalist who has discovered his identity.

StudioCanal has the distribution rights for The Company You Keep in the UK but a date is yet to be named. Despite this, I think that this is one of the most promising trailers/casts/premises I have seen in a long time. With a cast that boasts no less than four Oscar winners and another four Oscar nominees you can’t really expect to be disappointed here.

The storyline looks pretty good to me and seems to be a very good (if not a little similar to other thrillers) story for a thriller film. Robert Redford’s character, Jim Grant, has been hiding from the FBI for over thirty years and is wanted for bank robbery and murder. After his identity is exposed by a journalist he goes on the run to find his ex-lover in the hope that she will clear his name and prevent him from losing his eleven year old daughter (seems to me that if a man Robert Redford’s age was to have daughter she would be older than 11 though so this is clearly for a bit of emotional leverage with the audience).

Shia LaBeouf is an actor that still has to prove to me that he deserves the title of an actor but here I do think he actually looks decent and I am pretty interested in seeing his performance. Hopefully Redford being the director doesn’t take away anything from his performance in front of the camera. The trailer seems to do the film a real justice (or makes it look good anyway) as it seems to have a very good pacing and could be a good hint at what the film will be: back story to begin with, slow pacing with information through the middle, with a fast paced ending. If so, I can’t wait.

 

Terrific Trailer for ‘The Gangster Squad’!

UK Release Date: 9th November 2012.

The Gangster Squad is an upcoming crime drama chronicling the LAPD’s fight to keep the East Coast Mafia, led by Mickey Cohen, out of Los Angeles in the 1940s and 50s.

Ruben Fleischer is at the helm of The Gangster Squad and while he may be inexperienced in the genre (his previous directorial outings being comedies Zombieland and 30: Minutes or Less) the cast is star studded. Taking the lead as Mickey Cohen is the brilliant Sean Penn and the LAPD officer charged with stopping him is Josh Brolin. Support comes in the form of Hollywood hot property Ryan Gosling, the wonderful Emma Stone, Nick Nolte, Giovanni Ribisi and Anthony Mackie.

This is an absolutely fantastic trailer and is a brilliant advert for the film. It clearly defines the opposing characters (Penn and Brolin), it provides a great insight of the sort of action and tone of the film and provides a bit of comic relief in the form of Gosling’s character. I think that The Gangster Squad looks like a fantastic film and this trailer has certainly peaked my interest.

The crime genre is a timeless one and audiences are always going to be interested in it. Two of the greatest films of all time were gangster flicks, The Godfather and Goodfellas, but while the more recent Public Enemies and American Gangster failed to make any real waves in the film industry both were well received both critically and commercially. Success is surely on the cards for The Gangster Squad.