Iron Man 3
Oh, times are tough for Tony Stark . . .
Actually, this looks pretty awesome, and while I like Jon Favreau, I’m excited to see what Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) can do with the material. Obviously, I’m seeing this opening night. My two biggest concerns are this:
A: Ben Kingsley. I’m not sure how I’m feeling about the voice, and while I’ve never actually read the comics, I’m almost positive that the Mandarin is supposed to be, you know, Chinese.
B. Dealing with post-Avengers fallout. Clearly, this movie isn’t just going to ignore what happened in The Avengers (which THANK GOD), but I hope that they’re going to give legitimate reasons on why the other Avengers can’t help when someone’s blowing up Tony’s pad. I figure we’ll probably get at least one cameo, but this is an Iron Man movie, so I’m not expecting, say, Captain America and the Hulk to come rushing in and save the day. That being said, they totally would do that if they were able to. I just want the issue to be addressed, is all.
Also, you know things are dark because they’re destroying the Bat Cave all of the various Iron Man suits. You know what that means. Shit just got real.
Evil Dead
Red-band trailer, people. Probably NSFW. You know what that means! GORE!!!!
I’ll admit to being skeptical when I first heard about this remake, but . . . I don’t know, this looks kind of good. I don’t have any real deep thoughts about it, and I’m not sure if I’m going to go see it in theater or not, but I will say I’m considerably more optimistic about this film than I was this time yesterday.
Safe Haven
There are no more appalling words in the English language than “from Nicholas Sparks.” (She says, unfairly, since she’s never read a book by Nicholas Sparks, nor seen a film based on one of his works. And she probably never will.) Throw in an unnecessary Fleetwood Mac cover and a romantic dash through the rain, and you’ve pretty much guaranteed that I will only watch this film under pain of death.
(Also, who wants to bet that the girl’s big secret is that she’s actually Julia Roberts’s character from Sleeping with the Enemy? Anyone?)
And finally . . . A Good Day to Die Hard
This is another fairly short trailer for the latest film in the Die Hard series, although it gives you a tiny bit more info on the actual plot than the last one. Which is to say, we now know that John McClane goes to Moscow and helps out his son, who’s apparently the kid in trouble this time. (I think the third movie is the only one where a member of McClane’s family isn’t in danger.) Also: lots of people rather spectacularly (and presumably unrealistically) crash through giant ass panes of glass.
This movie is schedule to come out on Valentine’s Day. I don’t have a boyfriend (or a romantic bone in my body), but if I did? I would rather go see this on a date than any freaking Nicholas Spark’s film.
My Geek Blasphemy 
I want a movie *with* Ash, McClane, and Iron Man. Just saying.
Re: Nicholas Sparks – I will totally admit to loving The Notebook. However, I read the book and blech, you aren’t missing anything. Plus, once you’ve seen one Nicholas Sparks movie, there’s really no point in seeing any others, cause they are all the same. So, you aren’t missing anything.
I know, right? That would be an awesome movie.
So, if I do see a Nicholas Sparks film, I should see The Notebook, then? Well, I suppose it’s the one with Ryan Gosling. (And James Marsden, though I suspect no one really cares about him in that film, considering that he’s — as far as I can tell — the second banana love interest that no one wants the girl to be with.)
I really don’t understand Ryan Gosling as a leading man. He seems like a skinny, pencil-necked geek to me. How is that sexy? I can see how some women might think so, but not enough to make him a star…
Well, personally, I go for skinny geeks, but to each his own, I suppose. Actually, I’m not sure skinny is exactly the adjective I would use. Slim, yes. But when I think skinny, I think more like Matthew Gray Gubler. He’s skinny. Course, I like him too.
Also, talent and charisma are both turn-ons, generally. And a nice smile. I’d say Gosling’s got a bit of all three.
Maybe as a straight dude I can’t see it, but I don’t think so as I can see the appeal to chicks (and guys for different reasons) of guys Clooney, Pitt, a young Redford, Newman, those guys had the looks, the charisma, and the talent. Gosling is a good actor. I liked him in Half Nelson and Lars but there are plenty of great actors who could never be leading men. Gosling’s among those. Charisma? No. Looks? No. Part of that is the physique or lack of it. (Skinny I’d say describes him. Gubler I’d call scrawny. A (much) better looking Screech type. A nerd to Gosling’s geek.) You say you like that type, great – I guess there must be a few of you out there as they seem to be setting him up as a successor to some of the guys I mentioned above.
I’m more or less gay, so I can’t speak from personal experience, but still, I see how other ladies would fall for Ryan Gosling, or describe him as charismatic. Mostly based off of Drive, and I guess the flashbacks in Blue Valentine. I’ve never seen Half Nelson, but I doubt he was meant to radiate sex appeal in Lars And The Real Girl, at least, given his character was a weird, shy geeky type in a woolly sweater.
From what I saw, I liked Gosling in Crazy Stupid Love. There was this scene with him and Emma Stone where I found him fairly appealing. (Admittedly, I watched most of that movie with my headphones on, listening to music because I wasn’t initially interested — but listening to music has not stopped me from following the plot of movies before. I had a great time following the entire story of Burlesque while only catching tiny snippets of dialogue between NIN and Radiohead songs.)
I haven’t seen Drive yet, but I’ve heard it’s really good. (I haven’t seen Blue Valentine or Half-Nelson, either, but I’m more interested in Drive.) Worth the watch?
You know, Burlesque seems like it’d be funny to try and follow just visually. Isn’t it just like a somewhat less sleazy version of Showgirls? That’d also be funny to follow without the benefit of dialogue. Particularly the sex scene – without the music to tip you off, I think it really might be difficult to tell for a minute whether she’s climaxing or having an epileptic fit during pool sex.
IMO Drive is well worth watching. For an action movie, it’s pretty character driven, and quietly told. There isn’t much in the way of fancy set pieces, or cool action scenes for the sake of it, and I think that works for the movie. Ryan Gosling’s pretty awesome. He has so much damn screen presence. My two real complaints would be that Carey Mulligan is more a motivational tool than a character, and also there was some whitewashing there, which isn’t cool. But apart from that, it was really good. And it does seem like the kind of movie you might like, from what I know of your tastes.
I didn’t say that he was, I listed Lars as an example of having talent as an actor, not as having any kind of sex appeal. He would have had some appeal, though, but more as his kind of Breaker High harmless and loveable, skinny, geeky, oddly charming in a pathetic way kind of appeal.
Sorry, I just meant that, if (and that’s admittedly a strong if – still haven’t seen Half Nelson, and I don’t know which other Ryan Gosling movies you may have seen) you’ve mostly or only seen an actor in roles where the character obviously wasn’t meant to have a whole lot of sex appeal, I don’t think that’d be a great representation of their sex appeal potential on the whole. If they’ve got the range required, as I think Ryan Gosling does, they could’ve been turning it off for the camera. So a movie where they’re meant to be sexy or charismatic would be a better test of how much sex appeal they have, or at least how much they can have when he want to.
I mean, I still wouldn’t go casting someone like Michael Cera right off the bat to play a cool, sexy bad boy, but until I see him attempting such a role (I also haven’t seen Youth In Revolt) I guess I can’t be 100% sure that he couldn’t.