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Posts Tagged ‘bruce willis’
Monday, March 1st, 2010
AUGH! This movie is so frustrating! Not like a “math problem you just can’t get” frustrating, but a “what the hell were these people thinking” kind of frustrating. COP OUT used all of these stars, all this talent, and the direction of a great comedic writer/director in Kevin Smith who should know better and gave us a movie essentially made for 13-year-olds. Knock-knock jokes, really? Poop jokes, seriously? I felt bad for Bruce Willis and Kevin Pollack – the older, better actors pulled into this either on a dare or because they lost a bet. And I feel bad for Tracy Morgan, whose stock was really rising with his success on “30 Rock,” though he essentially plays the same outlandish character here. But I really feel bad for those people, myself included, who walk into this movie thinking they’re going to see a funny action/buddy cop movie, and instead get endless sophomoric garbage, including Sean William Scott spending way too much of the movie, and seemingly countless time out of my life, repeating other people.
First, the title. Kevin Smith initially wanted to call this movie A COUPLE OF DICKS. The studio, fearing the small box office of his last movie with the word “Porno” in the title, made him change it. So in an effort to stick it to the studio he titled it COP OUT. Ha ha very funny…but it still leaves movie-goers scratching their heads. Next, the actors. Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan are funny guys, and I did get a few laughs out of this movie. But most of the jokes either seemed forced or juvenile… and in most cases were just stupid. The funniest ones were used in the trailer. There’s the typical rival cop partners played by Kevin Pollack and Adam Brody, and they exchange insults as the rivals do, but their scenes together and side stories are just dumb. But then the plot of the movie itself is dumb, a generic construct used to put these characters in funny situations. It starts out with a search for a drug dealer – then becomes about Willis’ character, Jimmy Monroe, needing to sell an old baseball card to pay for his daughter’s wedding – leading to a robbery of said card by sensitive idiot Sean William Scott – leading to a stolen car with a beautiful woman in the trunk – leading back to the drug dealer.
Tracy Morgan has a side story with his wife played by Rashida Jones, a funny actress in her own right but this is a Boy’s Club here, and she couldn’t even fake chemistry in her limited scenes with Morgan and despite being his wife never kisses him. The villain is played by Guillermo Diaz, in a menacing turn he is used to after his character in “Weeds,” with the ridiculous name of Poh Boy. And though most of Sean William Scott’s character annoyed the hell out of me, he did have some funny lines as the thief who steals Willis’ prized baseball card, and then the writer’s (Robb and Mark Cullen, who are apparently in middle school), put in a stupid aside in which Scott breaks into houses just to use their bathrooms. And though I say I should expect more from Kevin Smith as a director, I have to remind myself in DOGMA he did have a 6-foot Poop Monster.
But no, we should expect more. Kevin Smith is funny and talented. Bruce Willis has a resume riddled with great action/buddy pictures. Kevin Pollack is a funny, respected actor. And Tracy Morgan was Dominican Lou on “Saturday Night Live.” Okay, lowered expectations a bit. But by and large, this movie is a waste of time and money, both on the part of everyone who made it, and everyone who watches it. And I realize, in retrospect, that that last statement was a little harsh, so I wanted to apologize to Bruce Willis…but come on. Poop jokes, Bruce?
Tags: bruce willis, Kevin Smith, Sean William Scott, Tracy Morgan
Posted in Reviews |
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
Posted by: Brad Sturdivant
There have been some good tidbits from the COP OUT junkets. We’ve already learned about Sean William Scott’s involvement with another American Pie movie. Yesterday, Bruce Willis “announced” that DIE HARD 5 will start shooting next year. When he said that, I thought for sure he was either joking or that someone from Fox would quickly release a statement saying Bruce was cuckoo. But then I thought; if you’re an executive at Fox and Bruce Willis said DH5 is starting next year, wouldn’t you go ahead and get things going, even if you didn’t know about it? So whether or not anyone else in the world knew that DH5 was starting next year, the fact that the one person in the world that needs to be on board is, in fact, on board basically means this thing is going to happen. But anyway, the man boldly declared “I think we’re going to do a Die Hard 5 next year”. So there you have it.
But he also mentioned that he’s had continued talks with Mr. Shyamalan about an UNBREAKABLE 2 and mentioned that if Samuel L. Jackson is on board, he is too. I thought UNBREAKABLE got a bad rap and was a better movie than what its domestic box office totals said. Personally, I’d like to see a sequel to either of these and if Bruce is up for it, they can make a Die Hard movie every year.
Source: MTV
Tags: bruce willis, M. Night Shyamalan, Sameul L. Jackson, Sean William Scott
Posted in News |
Monday, January 11th, 2010
Posted by: Kristy Sturdivant
John Malkovich will join Morgan Freeman, Bruce Willis and Helen Mirren for the thriller RED based on the Wildstorm/DC comicbook. The film follows an ex-CIA agent who is hunted by a ‘high-tech’ assassin. Malkovich replaces John C. Reilly in the movie which begins production this month. John Malkovich can be seen later this year in the films JONAH HEX and SECRETARIAT.
Even though Mr. Malkovich has picked some crummy roles in the past (ERAGON) I still think he’s an outstanding actor and I look forward to seeing him in this comicbook thriller.
Source: Variety
Tags: bruce willis, helen mirren, john c. reilly, john malkovich, morgan freeman
Posted in News |
Friday, December 25th, 2009
DIE HARD + REINDEER GAMES + LETHAL WEAPON
by: Nathan Swank
You can’t go out and party every weekend, so on those nights you want to take it easy, Flix66.com has put together a bi-weekly column to help you with your movie selection. The Trifecta is a recommendation of three movies that set a mood, that showcase an actor or director, that acquaint the viewer with a geographic location, or maybe even have some obscure link like a Best Boy or Key Grip.
With the release of AVATAR a week before Christmas and SHERLOCK HOLMES on Christmas day, it feels like Hollywood may have forgotten what season it is. Dramatic Oscar bait is meant for winter and blockbuster action movies are reserved for summer, right? Well apparently not this year, but this began me thinking about action movies that have celebrated Christmas. If you are one of those people that need some action all year round, this Trifecta is meant for you. Sorry folks, but although HOME ALONE does have some great action, I’m vetoing it for it’s family friendly content. Only ‘R’ rated Christmas action on this list. Tis the season to shoot, rob and blow things up.
DIE HARD is quite possibly the quintessential best action film ever. It’s basically what all action films strive to be, so much so that they will use DIE HARD’s name to describe their own film in a different location – “It’s DIE HARD on a boat” or “DIE HARD on a plane.” Which ironically DIE HARD 2 and 3 did have a plane and a boat. John McClane (Bruce Willis) is visiting his (separated from) wife at her company Christmas party in a high rise building in L.A. when a team of foreign terrorists hijack the building and McClane has to disassemble the group one by one hiding throughout the building.
Best Christmas Moment: Listening to the epitome of all bad guys, Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) read a blood written message on a dead henchman’s body sent by McClane. (In a German accent) “Now I have a machine gun HO – HO – HO.”
It also introduced me to the song, “Christmas in Hollis” by Run-DMC
REINDEER GAMES isn’t quite the quality action film that DIE HARD is; in fact, it’s not very good at all… ok it’s awful. But it is entertaining in that cheese factor sort of way. You can sit around and laugh at all the ridiculously absurd and yet predictable plot points. Gary Sinise heads up a group of bad for the sake of being bad guys, planning on robbing a casino in full on Santa Clause attire. They kidnap Ben Affleck who recently was released from prison to be there vault guy in a case of mistaken identity. Affleck is pretending to be his dead cellmate to hook up with his girl – and he’s supposed to be our hero, what a winner.
Best Christmas Moment: Charlize Theron in an absolutely unnecessary, gratuitous nude sex scene to the song, “Let It Snow” by Dean Martin… I just really like that song.
LETHAL WEAPON is in my opinion another classic. This is the first installment, which is a lot darker than it’s more comedic sequels. Riggs contemplating suicide while watching a Bugs Bunny Christmas Special is pretty dark. Sergeant Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) is about to retire when he gets partnered up with crazy reckless Sergeant Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson). Glover and Gibson have the best chemistry any buddy duo movie has ever had. They are so likeable that we are immediately drawn into their world and rooting for them all the way as they track down drug smugglers and fight Gary Busey. They never miss a shot or a funny quip. “Jingle Bell Rock” is played over the opening credits before a half naked girls falls to her death from her apartment building.
Best Christmas Moment: Riggs busting a small drug ring masked as a Christmas tree lot. The drugs are free but the tree will cost ya.
Tags: Ben Affleck, bruce willis, danny glover, mel gibson
Posted in Trifecta |
Thursday, December 24th, 2009
Posted by: Brad Sturdivant
Remember when Kevin Smith’s new movie was titled “A Couple of Dicks”? Ahh, those were the days. Thankfully, Kevin Smith took the high road and changed the title to COP OUT, so maybe this film will have a better fate than ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO, which he refused to change the name of. It should also help that he has Bruce Willis, Tracy Morgan, Rashida Jones, Michelle Trachtenberg, Sean William Scott and Kevin Smith’s favorite Jason Lee helping him out. The movie is about…well…a couple of cops on a big case that don’t like playing by the rules. The movie opens February 26th, 2010.
Watch the trailer here.
Tags: bruce willis, Kevin Smith, Michelle Trachtenberg, Rashida Jones, Tracy Morgan
Posted in News |
Friday, November 13th, 2009
Posted by: Kristy Sturdivant
Julian McMahon is in talks to co-star in RED with Richard Dreyfuss, Bruce Willis, Brian Cox, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, John C. Reilly and Mary Louise Parker. The story is based on the Wildstorm/DC Comics miniseries that follows a retired black-ops agent, played by Willis, who has to battle assassins trying to kill him. Julian McMahon will play the VP of a company at the heart of the conspiracy. The movie will start filming in January of 2010.
Movies based on comic series are either really good or pretty average, hopefully director Robert Schwentke will give us a good story to go with this great cast.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Tags: bruce willis, helen mirren, julian mcmahon, morgan freeman, Richard Dreyfuss
Posted in News |
Monday, October 26th, 2009
Posted by: Sturdy
This is perhaps the coolest thing I’ve ever posted or even read about. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone filmed a secret scene for the upcoming film THE EXPENDABLES (watch the trailer). Publicist Maria Lascala wrote as much in her blog and apparently witnessed the whole thing. The blog is loooooonnnnnngggggg, but the gist is that they met in a church and had a good time filming the scene. Yeah, we don’t know much else, but the mere fact that they’re together, on screen, at the same time is incredible. As if we needed another reason to look forward to this movie that already has Jason Statham, Jet Li, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Dolph Lundgren and Mickey Rourke.
Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, bruce willis, dolph lundgren, Jason Statham, jet li, mickey rourke, steve austin, sylvester stallone
Posted in News |
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
Bruce Willis has done sci-fi before, and the results have been both fun (THE FIFTH ELEMENT) and dramatic (TWELVE MONKEYS), both of which exceptionally provided in their respective goals. But this latest effort, SURROGATES, is neither fun nor written or acted well. It is a thought provoking plot just done poorly, and made me wish I had a surrogate of my own to send to the film, while I stayed at home and watched THE LAST BOY SCOUT.
The film has Bruce playing the time honored favorite, a grizzled old cop (more accurately FBI agent), Tom Greer, but we don’t get to see that agent until 30 minutes in. We first only get to see the surrogate of Greer, which is a mentally controlled robot representation of the user, made to look like the user wishes to look, in this case a younger, blonde version of Bruce, and the plastic look of the flesh is unnerving. Surrogates are used by practically everyone since their creation by the inventor, Dr. Lionel Canter, played by James Cromwell – who you’ll remember created the robots in I, ROBOT, the man is typecast as robot-inventor. Those who refuse and outright loathe the use of surrogates, called Dreads, have formed their own communities and are led by The Prophet (Ving Rhames giving speeches Marcellus Wallace-style), who preaches of a time when surrogates will no longer be used and people will actually experience the world again.
Greer and his partner Peters (Radha Mitchell) investigate a murder, what they say is the first murder in 5 years to go along with a total decrease in crime over those years as well, which begs the question: What did they do before this? A surrogate has been killed and also killed its controller, which is precisely what the surrogates are used to prevent. So Greer and Peters have to find the device capable of killing both surrogate and controller, and also do so quietly so as to not arouse a panic amongst the population of surrogate users. There’s a conspiracy plot, some decent chase scenes, manufactured intrigue and a bunch of mess they throw at the viewers to hide the fact that there’s just not that much here. Rosamund Pike plays Greer’s wife, hiding away from life in her surrogate since the loss of their son. This simply adds to the contrived formula, meant to add conflict and angst to our grizzled Fed, and Willis wears that angst well, but it’s also a page out of the I,ROBOT book, and as such seems like déjà vu all over again.
Finally, if a surrogate of Bruce is used to represent him at an earlier age, why did they make him this weird blonde? Why didn’t they model the surrogate after David Addison on “Moonlighting”? In fact, it would have even been better if they just spliced in clips from “Moonlighting” and altered them to fit the situations. Or maybe I’m just trying to think of something, anything, to make this a less formulaic sci-fi flick. If you want an avatar-based action movie to quench your thirst at movie theaters, sorry to say you’re going to have to wait until James Cameron’s movie comes out in late December. As for SURROGATES, wait until it hits the Scifi network…or Syfy, or whatever they’re calling themselves now.
Tags: bruce willis, Jonathan Mostow, Radha Mitchell, Rosamund Pike
Posted in Reviews |
Thursday, September 17th, 2009
by:Jeremey
You can’t go out and party every weekend, so on those nights you want to take it easy, Flix66.com has put together a bi-weekly column to help you with your movie selection. The Trifecta is a recommendation of three movies that set a mood, that showcase an actor or director, that acquaint the viewer with a geographic location, or maybe even have some obscure link like a Best Boy or Key Grip.
The first Trifecta has to pay respect…and my generation reserves a lion’s share of its respect for a wise-cracking, Irish flat foot named John McClane – the modern action star Bruce Willis. But what am I gonna do, use the first installment to suggest you watch three out of four Die Hards? (I’d be leaning hard away from DIE HARD 2 – sorry Renny Harlin) Perish the thought. That’s not how we play stickball in this neighborhood.
 First, you start the party the way Bruce did, with a comedy. Bruce was still making his bones in “Moonlighting” when he did BLIND DATE, a romantic comedy based on getting a girl drunk to take advantage of her, so maybe a better title would have been “Blind Date Rape.” Kim Basinger plays the vixen, and she and Bruce have a disastrous date in which both get some hilarious scenes of drunken buffoonery and John Larroquette gets to showcase his typecast role as 1980’s slimeball. Keep a listen out for the voice of KITT from “Knight Rider” (William Daniels) in a supporting role, and notice Bruce’s excellent form at throwing a grape into a woman’s cleavage. We could all see this kid was a star.
Then, for the entree, take it up a notch with The LAST BOY SCOUT, a Tony Scott action flick with Bruce as the alcoholic detective – seen first passed out in a car with a dead squirrel – and Damon Wayans in a great role as a disgraced ex-football star as his sidekick (giving hope to all Wayans; hope vanquished by WHITE CHICKS and LITTLE MAN). Aside from Wayans and Willis playing off each other beautifully, you’ve got Halle Berry as a stripper, Bruce saving President Carter, and, in true badass fashion, driving a henchman’s nose through his skull…after telling him he’d do so! Hey, when Bruce asks for a light, you light the man’s cigarette.
 And how do you close the night? Not with Bruce as a supporting player in PULP FICTION or with the obvious blockbusters like ARMAGEDDON or THE SIXTH SENSE, or even the full frontal nudity of COLOR OF NIGHT (really, Bruce?), no you end it with the sense of style only brought by the 1991 Razzie Award winner for Worst Film, co-written by Willis himself- HUDSON HAWK! This is how you end a marathon. Bruce cracks a one-liner Henny Youngman-style in almost every scene, Andie MacDowell makes dolphin noises, James Coburn shows off his kung fu fighting, and Bruce and Danny Aiello rob a museum using a skateboard while singing “Swinging on a Star.” It’s vintage Bruce with that classic smirk in every frame and yes, it even has Frank Stallone. And even with Sandra Bernhard making your ears bleed with every scene she’s in, I’d say the movie caps the perfect McClane-less Bruce Willis evening. Catch the excitement, catch the adventure, catch the Hawk.
Total running time for the trifecta: 300 minutes.
Tags: blind date, bruce willis, die hard, hudson hawk, last boyscout
Posted in Trifecta |
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