27 Comments | Add

 

Rate & Share:

 

Related Links:

 

Info:

• Series: Thor, Black Panther, Dredd (Judge Dredd), R.I.P.D., Dredd (Judge Dredd), Thor, Cowboys & Aliens, Priest, Walking Dead, Green Hornet, The Dark Knight Rises (Batman 3), Young Justice

New PRIEST Trailer Online

Comics2Film: PRIEST, starring Paul Bettany
© Mania

New Priest trailer online. Plus: Actresses circle Dark Knight Rises roles. Green Hornet reviews go live. Dredd gets genre babe for villain and more! It's your Comics2Film 11.1.12!

C2F Saw GREEN HORNET

C2F saw Green Hornet last night. We'll leave the in-depth review to our on-record Maniac, Rob Vaux. Here are our quick impressions:

The movie is pretty darn entertaining if a bit uneven. Seth Rogen brings consistent laughs throughout. What his good natured Britt Reid lacks in intelligence and experience, he makes up for with heart, vision, boyish enthusiasm and an earnest desire to do good in the world. Christoph Waltz's insecure villain is great and easily won us over from his opening scene with James Franco. Jay Chou is very watchable, though his difficulty with English hampers him a bit.

The relationship between Reid and Kato is touching enough to make the story matter and was surprisingly our favorite thing about Green Hornet. The pair bond early but are strained by the ongoing question of who the alpha is in the team. But like any good buddy relationship, the two learn from and are bettered by the other.

Director Michel Gondry delivers some interesting visual tricks, particularly with Chou's fight scenes, though we'd already seen most of them in the clips and trailers. Our favorite bit of Gondryism is a sequence where a scene unfolds into a ten-panel split screen.

Skip the 3D. It adds little to the movie when it's working and is distracting and even irritating in a few spots.

Overall we'd give it a B- and recommend it for some winter fun.

More GREEN HORNET Reviews

Lots of other outlets saw Green Hornet last night as well. Here's a roundup ranging from slightly negative to over-the-top gush:

The Hollywood Reporter: "Despite some entertaining moments, this long-in-gestation crime-fighter feature never reaches top speed."

Variety: "Though the film is a blast, marketing has been a challenge, with Sony fighting bad buzz, date changes and confusion...that perfect storm allows the team to defy the purists and reinvent the retro vigilante to their rowdy, irreverent specs, delivering the goods for a punchy 3D breakout."

IGN:  "While it may not ultimately prove memorable enough to launch a new film franchise, The Green Hornet is still a fun action-comedy and clever superhero satire that's about as close to a cool summer movie as you're going to get in the dead of winter."

HitFix: "...when the film is working, it's enormously fun, and overall, it's a pleasant surprise.  It is confident, sly, silly, thrilling, and a nice tribute to the genre and the character both."

Spinoff: "Gondry has delivered an action-comedy that climbs as high as the best examples available in the genre, if not higher. In The Green Hornet he turned a so-so collection of story beats and run-of-the-mill characters into an incredible ride and a fantastically entertaining movie."

Producer Says RIPD Rolls This Year

Collider.com talks with Green Hornet producer Neal Moritz about his upcoming slate of projects.

He said his long-gestating R.I.P.D. movie is in pre-production and will begin filming this year.

"We’re working with [RED director] Robert Schwentke right now, he’s doing pre-vis, and we’re budgeting and we’re getting a new draft of the script and we’re doing a big presentation for the studio at the end of the month," Moritz said.

R.I.P.D. focuses on a cop who is killed and finds himself enlisted into the ranks of an after-life organization tasked with policing ghosts and the like.

Moritz also assured Collider that actor Ryan Reynolds is still attached in the lead and aims to do the movie directly after his publicity tour for Green Lantern. There may be some measure of optimism in the producer's words but if Reynolds is actually committed to the movie, it makes us wonder if he'll get to Deadpool. Reynolds has said in the recent past that he can't do both movies, at least not this year.

Thanks to AntoBlueberry for the submission.

C2F Quick Hits

• Animation artists Jeffrey Thomas & Celeste Green have posted artwork and info about a failed cartoon pitch called Gotham High which would have transplanted the characters from Batman into a high school setting.
   
• Bleeding Cool chats up the cast and director of Green Hornet in their featurette on the film.
   
• The Directors Guild of America has nominated Frank Darabont's pilot for The Walking Dead for their "Dramatic Series" award. Other nominees in that category include Jack Bender for Lost, “The End, Part 1&2”, Allen Coulter for Boardwalk Empire, “Paris Green”, Jennifer Getzinger for Mad Men, “The Suitcase” and Martin Scorsese for Boardwalk Empire, “Boardwalk Empire”.
   
• Newarama chats with Reginald Hudlin about the difficulties of getting the animated adaptation of his Black Panther comics on the air at BET. The toon did air on Australian TV and is available on iTunes. It also enjoys a home entertainment release from Shout Factory on the 18th of this month.
   
• Cloneweb.com have revealed a new Thor teaser poster for European markets.
   
• Late last night director Jon Favreau tweeted that he's cutting a trailer for Cowboys & Aliens that will air during the Super Bowl.
   
• Thanks to AntoBlueberry and Calibur454 for the submission.

Lena Headey Cast As DREDD Villain

Bleeding Cool reports that Lena Headey of The Sarah Connor Chronicles and 300 fame has been cast as the villain in the now-filming Dredd movie.

We're no experts on Judge Dredd so we'll leave it to BC to describe her role in the pic:

The role is that of Madeline Madrigal, aka Ma-Ma. In the Dredd script she’s described as a woman in her late fifties or early sixties with a big scar through her cheek and lip. I can imagine they’ll just ignore the first part of that description, and the only make up Ms. Headey will be subject to will provide the scar tissue but not age her. Ma-Ma is the leader of a gang who over run the Peach Tree City Block. Almost all of the film takes place here, an extended action sequence not too dissimilar, I guess, to the Die Hard paradigm.

Actresses Circle DARK KNIGHT RISES Roles

Heat Vision has rolled out a new list of actresses vying for the two female leads in The Dark Knight Rises.

According to their sources Keira Knightley, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Biel, Kate Mara and Charlotte Riley will be reading for parts in the film in the next two weeks. Gemma Arterton is also slated for a meeting, but she's just signed on to Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters so her schedule may not permit it.

Heat Vision said the two roles are for a villain and a love interest. They mention Talia Al Ghul as the name coming from "sources". Vaguely attributed as that is, it's hard to say if "sources" refer to the solid industry insiders that Heat Vision often cites, or less-reliable types who may just be repeating the rumors that have been churning on the interwebs for months. Of course, Talia makes sense in the mythology that Nolan is working with, given that the franchise positioned Ra's Al Ghul so prominently in Batman Begins.

As an aside, the mostly-unknown Riley has an "in" given that she's engaged to Tom Hardy, who was cast in the movie months ago.

Finally, Heat Vision reports that actresses Naomi Watts and Eva Green have not been cast and are busy with other projects.

Thanks to AntoBlueberry for the submission.

New PRIEST Trailer Online

Yahoo! Movies have posted the latest trailer for the manhwa-based Priest. This extended preview gives new insights into the story and looks pretty cool to our eye.

The movie stars Paul Bettany, Karl Urban and Maggie Q and arrives in theaters May 13.

Thanks to AntoBlueberry for the submission. 

Rob M. Worley is the writer and creator of the all-new, all-cat kids comic book series Scratch9, named by School Library Journal as one of the "Best Comics for Kids 2010"! Issues #1, #2, #3 and #4 are in stores now. The paperback collection is coming in March and available for pre-order . Visit Scratch9.com for news and info!