Affleck to Take On Superman in Batman vs Superman

You heard it right, Warner Bros. announced today that Ben Affleck has signed on to be the new Batman in the upcoming Batman vs Superman film. Affleck is the sixth man to don the cape and cowl after Bale, Clooney, Kilmer, Keaton and West on the big-screen. This comes as a bit of a surprise as Affleck's name wasn't mentioned in the rumor mill along with Josh Brolin, Jon Hamm and Armie Hammer.

When asked to speak about the casting, director Zack Snyder said this:

“Ben provides an interesting counter-balance to Henry’s Superman. He has the acting chops to create a layered portrayal of a man who is older and wiser than Clark Kent and bears the scars of a seasoned crime fighter, but retain the charm that the world sees in billionaire Bruce Wayne,” Snyder said in a statement. “I can’t wait to work with him.”

When the news of a Superman/Batman team-up was leaked during Comic-Con, I don't think anyone anticipated the former Daredevil stepping in for the job. And while Affleck's casting seems out of left field, it shouldn't come as too big of a surprise given that Warners Bros. asked him to helm the Justice League film a year ago.

Zack Snyder returns to direct, David Goyer will write and Christopher Nolan will produce the sequel to Man of Steel. Cast members Henry Cavill and Amy Adams are also scheduled to reprise their roles.

Batman vs Superman is slated to hit theatres July 17, 2015

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2013 Oscar Season Preview

The summer season is over and along with the changing of the leaves comes films where the third act isn't resolved by characters punching each other or a city being demolished. Studios shift from superhero origins to character studies, or message pieces that hit the sweet spot between pure entertainment and awards-bait.

This winter's offerings may not blow out your speakers or induce epilepsy, but they are thrilling in their own right.

All of these films feature A-list casts, acclaimed directors and choice scripts ranging from astronauts lost in space, a lawyer in over his head in the drug game, a corrupt Wall Street broker, a FBI sting of a New Jersey mayor, a runaway slave, and a man who chose to combat the pharamceutical system.

So with the awards in mind, here are a handful of winter's best bets for a shot at Oscar gold.

Read more at GotchaMovies!

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Steve Carell in Foxcatcher

Steve Carell hasn't gotten a chance to really convince audiences that he can separate himself from Michael Scott, but in Bennett Miller's upcoming Foxcatcher. The film depicts the insane, true story about the relationship between millionaire John duPont (Carell) and Olympic Wrestling Champion brothers, Mark and Dave Schultz (Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo). duPont is a dark role and one that could make moviegoers see Carell in a brand new light (aided by Carell's undergoing a transformation to embody the part).

Source: EW

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Muses and Maestros: Depp and Burton

Part three of a series about the most talented pairings of filmmakers today. On deck: Johnny Depp and Tim Burton.

The players: Johnny Depp and Tim Burton

The works: Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd, Alice in Wonderland, and Dark Shadows

While Johnny Depp's status as a leading man hasn't been a question since Pirates of the Caribbean launched him into the A-list stratosphere, Depp wouldn't have gotten that far without Tim Burton. The two started working together in 1990 after Burton's huge success with Batman turned into creative freedom for pictures like Edward Scissorhands. When that quirky tale of a young orphan turned into a big hit, a creative partnership was born.

Read more at GotchaMovies!

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Review: The Wolverine

Wolverine has fallen on some hard times with his last two endeavors in cineplexes. While X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine were both financial successes, but left the most famous X-man feeling stagnant. Expectations were raised temporarily when it was announced that Darren Aronofsky would be directing the next feature, based on Chris Claremont and Frank Miller's acclaimed graphic novel that sets Logan in Japan.

Aronofsky ultimately dropped out, but James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma and Walk the Line) stepped in. With that, the tide turned on the sequel and audiences were low on The Wolverine. So when James Mangold put something together that looked and felt like a character study, it was a very pleasant surprise in a season (with exception to a few indies) that has thrown out more sequels and franchise add-ons than it knows what to do with.

The Wolverine picks up some time after the events of The Last Stand, and Logan (Hugh Jackman), racked with guilt after having to kill Jean Grey, is in the midst of a self-imposed seclusion in the Canadian wilderness. Doctoring himself with liquor and classical music to deal with the grief, Logan is content to live out his days in the cold comfort of abyss, vowing to never hurt anyone again

That vow is pushed dangerously close to the edge when a local hunter poisons a grizzly bear, resulting in the death of several campers. The only thing that stops him is a mysterious woman who arrives in town and beckons him to Japan at the request of a Japanese prison guard Logan rescued from the Nagasaki atom bomb explosion years ago.

Since World War II that guard has amassed a fortune large enough to become the most powerful man in Japan, and now Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi) is dying. As a gift to Logan for saving him, he would like to offer him something no one else can: mortality. This gift does not come entirely out of gratitude, Yashida has been developing a system that will allow him to take Logan’s healing factor for himself.

Logan is hesitant to pass along that curse to anyone so he refuses Yashida's offer flatly.

Not long after the conversation Yashida's cancer finally takes his life. The Yashida clan is home to a great deal of strife, his granddaughter, Mariko (Tao Okamoto), is next in line to the throne much to the chagrin of her father, Shingen (Hiroyuki Sanada). Logan attends the funeral as a last gesture, but finds himself needed when the Yakuza kidnap Mariko. Injured during the attack, Logan finds that he is not healing as quickly as he used to.

Trying to protect Mariko and left vulnerable for the first time in his life, Logan is at his most dangerous.

The Wolverine is bolstered by a newly enthused Hugh Jackman reinvigorated with his character after a couple of subpar X-Men features. Jackman is always a magnetic presence, but Mangold has a knack for drawing superb performances from his leads (as exampled by Witherspoon and Phoenix in Walk the Line and Angelina Jolie in Girl, Interrupted) and he does it again here.

Paired along with Jackman is talented newcomer Rila Fukushima as Yukio and the much less interesting Mariko (she mostly serves as a plot device throughout most of the film, giving Logan cause to place himself in danger and also entangle himself in a romantic subplot that could have been left on the cutting room floor).

Why Marvel waited as long as they did to cover this storyline is beyond me. Placing Logan in Japan works in a sense because Wolverine has always fit into samurai culture. This is a culture that allows Logan to explore his personal definition, something he never found in the X-Men. He is the ronin wandering through life without a driving purpose. The Wolverine is at its best when it finds the divide in Logan, the divide between wild animal and the wounded psyche looking for solace.

Oh, if only things stayed that way, but The Wolverine has the misfortune of having a dog of an ending. For all the wonderful scenery and character exploration that we were treated to earlier, the film's third act retreats into a summer template rock 'em, sock 'em conclusion. Throw in a completely unnecessary villain (The Viper is about as bad as Poison Ivy in Batman and Robin. Yes, that bad.) and a large robot and the humanity of The Wolverine is gone.

That the ending doesn't completely botch all the goodwill the film had going for it is a testament to how well it succeeded as a character-based drama earlier on. I hope that this hot streak continues into Days of Future Past.

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Stay after the credits for a hell of a teaser sequence!

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Review: Kick-Ass 2

What a difference four years makes. Matthew Vaughn's 2009 adaptation of the Mark Millar graphic novel Kick-Ass was a mid-level success due to its smack-in-the-face riff on the superhero genre. Now that the novelty of the extreme language and excessive violence has worn off, there is little reason for a sequel to Kick-Ass to exist. That there even is a Kick-Ass 2 undermines any criticism that was could be construed about the superhero genre in the predecessor.

With so little going for the project, Vaughn jumped ship and now the reins are in the hands of Jeff Wadlow (known for low-budget fare like Never Back Down and Cry_Wolf). Really the only matter drawing attention to Kick-Ass 2 is that one of its stars, Jim Carrey, has decided to refuse supporting the film.

Dave/Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Mindy/Hit Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz given the gift of a more developed character) are about to put normal life behind them to become a full-time crime-fighting duo. The feeble Dave has bulked up thanks to Mindy's workout regiment, but his tendency to crumble under pressure sinks those efforts. With that, Mindy's new guardian tells her to hang up the uniform.

As Mindy hangs up her Hit Girl uniform and navigates the shark-infested waters of high-school, instead of bashing in skulls, she deals with sleepovers, dating, makeup and boy bands. Hit Girl's forced hiatus creates a drag for a lengthy portion of the film as the runtime is split between Mindy's high-school exploits and a new fighting group inspired by Dave's viral video shenanigans turned heroic antics. Oddly enough, this storyline is the more successful.

Chloë Grace Moretz is an increasingly popular presence in Hollywood and with Carrie coming up with fame sure to follow, she can put this schlock behind her and move on to better pictures.

Back to Dave (how the titular character can be as vanilla as this, I'll never know), Kick-Ass joins Justice Forever ranks to help clean up the streets. Justice Forever is fronted by a reformed mob enforcer known as Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey). His methods are extremely unorthodox (pet lovers beware), but they keep the streets clean. While the league begins to thinks they've made a difference, they have yet to face a the vengeful wrath of The Motherfucker, formerly known as Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse).

Determined to avenge his father's death, who died at the hands of Kick-Ass and Hit Girl, Motherfucker declares war on Kick-Ass and his cohorts in Justice Forever. Already a powerful crimelord with a legion of henchmen (including the WTF inducing Mother Russia), MF utilizes his sway to put down a ten million dollar bounty for Kick-Ass's head. Largely overmatched, Kick-Ass needs Hit Girl if they have any hopes of winning, and she must decide if it is worth it to give up the rest of her childhood to continue fighting crime.

When a studio cashes in on a sequel from a property that was only mildly successful to start, it's no surprise that the result is a series of diminishing returns. Jim Carrey is tasked with being the over-the-top presence that Nicolas Cage was as Big Daddy, but while the star power is about the same, Cage and Moretz were a much better pairing than Carrey is with Johnson. Even at his most animated, Carrey isn't enough to save scenes without Hit Girl.

Left with nowhere to go but down, Kick-Ass 2 goes for the depths of decency. There's being irreverent and there's being immature. Dogs maul people in the crotch, cops are brutally murdered with a lawnmower and rape is made light of. And, because the film goes exactly as expected, it all ends, rather unsurprisingly, with a giant horde of masked characters beating the hell out of each other. There is absolutely nothing worthwhile in any of the 107 minutes it runs.

The problem with this film is that it pretends to portray violence like a Quentin Tarantino, but it completely misses all of the moral subtext. Everything is about the destruction and none of the consequences.

Kick this sequel to the curb.

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Best Movie Apps

There are about a hundred million apps available for your iPhone and other smartphones, but there are only about five that are truly deserving of your attention. For your consideration, the top five movie apps available on your phone.

Fandango

Fandango is one of the best movie ticketing apps on App store that allows you to buy a tickets to any movie you want to see. Other useful features available by installing this app on your iPhone include movie trailers, clips, stills and exclusive interviews.

Movies by Flixster

Flixster users can create their own lists of "must-see" movies coming soon to theaters. Watch full length trailers, catch movie showtimes, and read reviews. With reviews gathered from Rotten Tomatoes, you can pick the best movie to watch with your family or friends. 

Netflix

Netflix iOS app lets you watch your favorite movies and TV shows on your iPhone or iPad. With Netflix, you can watch unlimited movies and TV shows at very low monthly subscription fee, browse your interested movies and TV shows by titles all on your iPhone or iPad.

IMDb

With IMDb you can scan through actors, actresses , directors, recaps of your favorite TV shows, the latest entertainment and find movie showtimes theater near you. IMDb Movies & TV comes with many useful features and large collection of movies, TV shows and celebrities info. Best of all? The IMDb app is free of cost.

CineMode

If you're like most movie fanatics, texting during a showing would drive you nuts, but why let that stop you from taking advantage of CineMode, which rewards you for not texting.  An easy way to earn rewards exclusive to Cinemark theatres all while being courteous during the show.

So get downloading, movies are waiting for you...

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