Entertainment Weekly has received confirmation from Pitts reps that Brad Pitt is officially on for Tarantino’s ‘Inglorious Bastards’. Think of what a bad-ass Tarantino will make Pitt! This is very exciting news.
Category: War Movies
Review: ‘Mongol’
Instead of having to read separate reviews of what each of our geeks thought … we combined them! Read what the geeks thought of this movie below:
Ram Man:
Mongul is the new film by Sergei Bodrov that chronicles the rise to power of Genghis Kahn. The movie itself is breathtaking and tells a fantastic story of an a boy who is forced to grow up alone in order to stay alive.
The story starts with Temudgin (Tadanobu Asano) on a journey to pick a bride before he was 10 years old. This was to build his family and unite the Monguls. This journey change his life forever. His father killed by a rival clan, family deserted and he is forced to flee in order to live and become Kahn (ruler of the Monguls). Young Temudgin is taken in by Jamukha, a mongul from another clan. The two bond and become blood brothers. This bond remains over years.
Temudgin grows to an adult. He seems to have more lives than a cat though. He is captured and set to be killed numerous times just to escape over and over again. He returns to claim his bride Borte (Khulan Chuluun) and returns to his home and family to start his own. This family moment is short lived. Temudgin is still a hunted man and is wounded and his bride kidnapped. Temudgin seeks the assistance of his “brother” Jamukha with his warriors to reclaim what’s his. Borte is reunited with Temudgin and legend of Genghis Kahn begins. One thing about Borte, every time she is abducted she returns to Temudgin she is pregnant. Temudgin does nothing a claims each child as his.
Mongul features picturesque battles and some of the most realistic sword-play I have seen in a film. The blood-splatter alone would make Hannibal Lecter’s mouth water. This is a foreign film… this means SUBTITLES. Don’t let it scare you away. The film flows smoothly and by the end of the film you will feel as is you are fluent in Mongolian. Genghis Kahn… loner… lover… father… fighter… ruler… MONGUL!
4 out of 5
Scott:
Let me first say that for the most part I cant handle movies with subtitles, but this movie drew me in instantly, and I couldn’t avert my eyes. I, unlike Charles, stayed awake the whole time and thoroughly enjoyed all 2 hours and 6 minutes. The story of Genghis Kahn rising from an entitled child, to becoming a slave and the eventual khan of all mongols. This movie was truly inspiring and it made me want to conquer the internet(s) even more..eventually becoming the king of all movie site!
4 out of 5
Travis:
If you’re an amateur history buff like myself, Mongol is the kind of movie you look forward to seeing. Now, by amateur, I mean I really don’t know much about history in the scheme of things, but I do like to learn what I can. So, I’m not making ANY claims as to the “accuracy” of this film … I am making claims as to the quality of the film. Mongol tells the life story of Temudjin, from a child up to the point at which he becomes the legendary warrior-leader Genghis Kahn.
The film’s 126 minutes running time may get to be just slightly tedious for some who go into this movie expecting lots of action. My advice … don’t go into this movie expecting lots of action! Instead, be patient with this well-told story that flows in a smooth linear fashion, presenting this historical figure’s early life in a way that doesn’t blow him up into an unrealistic God-like superhero. Sure, legend and artistic license does come into play on occasion, but I never felt like the film was crossing any boundaries and disrespecting any “truths” of history.
With that said, Mongol does offer its willing viewers some really good battle action at the end as a pay off. Even these scenes are accomplished with minimal exploitation and sensationalism. The character of Temudjin is portrayed with several layers of humanity, all of which allowed for me to empathize with his struggles and achievements. Between the vast picturesque landscapes, the excellent costume design and vividly quiet sound design, this is one truly magnificent film that deserves its Oscar nomination, even if it failed to take the gold guy home.
4 out of 5
Michelle:
An insightful look at the man who unified the Mongols and became ruler of the largest empire in history – Genghis Khan. Shame that it went home Oscar night without the golden statue.
5 out of 5
Overall:
We all seemed to love this movie(except charles fell asleep multiple times), and we give the movie a final rating of [rating: 4.5/5]
‘Inglorious Bastards’ will be Tarantino’s next pic …
“The next movie I’m doing is my World War II movie. I just finished up the first draft and if ALL GOES WELL, I will be here, in Cannes, in 2009 with INGLORIOUS BASTARDS!”
This is what has been translated on a french video from Cannes, thanks to joblo.com
Now..for those of you that don’t know, Quentin Tarantino has been working on this damn movie for YEARS. It was supposed to have come out after Kill Bill, but obviously he setup ‘Death Proof’ for that..so now, maybe finally it will happen.
Here is the synopsis:
“Set in World War 2, Tarantino’s story revolves around group of soldiers on their way to be executed, only they get the chance for a reprieve. He describes them as “Not your normal hero types that are thrown into a big deal in World War II.” This is the only information he will release at present.”
Thus far Michael Madsen, Arie Verveen, Tim Roth, and a few others have been rumored.
‘Rambo: First Blood’ is being rereleased to theaters …
One day, One Showing, One man … Rambo: First Blood will be re-released to theaters on May 15th and will have one show time that day. This is going to be a remastered version of the 1982 Sly Stallone flick, but it will show with an alternate ending, there is also a never before seen interview with Mr Stallone that will be shown. Thanks to Slash Film for the info … If you want to see where its playing close to you go here.
Why is this being re-released? I have no idea … but you can’t say anything bad about this movie, its a must see for any fan of action/war genre. I will be there? Will you?
‘Valkyrie’ pushed to 2009
For the second time this movie is being pushed back. Originally slated for a Summer 08 release, it got pushed to October 08 … now its being pushed to February 09! What the hell is going on with this?
Review: ‘Stop Loss’
Scott:
Let me first say that I was really looking forward to this movie. The movie is marketed very, very different than the actual product. Now, don’t get me wrong … the movie is, for the most part, pretty enjoyable. They probably could have removed about 35-40 minutes from the flick and it would be a much better movie. I loved seeing Joe Levitt. I think this guy could really be big in the coming years. I really had a hard time buying Ryan Phillipe’s southern Texas accent. He didn’t sell it that well at all. Outside of the movie being too long in the middle and Ryan’s bad accent, this was a good movie.
Phillipe plays Billy King, who was a high ranking officer serving in Iraq. He leads his squad into a deadly situation, loses a couple guys and after words comes home. He decides, along with his best friend, played by Channing Tatum, not to sign a new contract and goes to sign his papers for release. Once there, he realizes that he has been “stop-lossed” and most go back overseas for another campaign. Everything up to this point has been great with some pretty good action, somewhat touching story … then it all falls apart. I won’t go into details because it will spoil the movie, but if you must … go see it for yourself and let me know what you think.
(3 out of 5)
Zac:
Kimberly Peirce’s latest starts off with an exceptional bang, but quickly makes a turn for the worse and devolves into a meandering road film that fails to captivate us nor really care about the fate of these characters.
The film starts in Iraq where we get a quick credits sequence that effectively captures the life of these soldiers over there through pictures, hand held camera work, and production footage that is done effectively well then throws us quickly into the mess of action that can take place in the alleys and streets of Iraq. The squad in pursuit is lead by Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe) who on there last day of their tour has a couple of his men killed in an ambush in an alley way. The action is intense and does a great job at capturing the shit storm that battle can turn into in a hurry in Iraq. Though, the film quickly transitions back to the states and meat of the movie begins to kick in. The boys are heralded as home town heroes as they return to their girlfriends, wives, and families, with Brandon and best friend Steve Shriver (Channing Tatum) ready to settle down and end their service in the army. This is where the wheels coming flying off.
In the first night of their weekend of R&R the two fore mentioned best friends and the third male lead, Tommy Burgess (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) manage to beat their fiancà ©e, incur a post traumatic stress breakdown digging a sleeping trench in their front yard, get piss drunk, get in a fight with civilians over nothing, and have their wife end the marriage and throw him out of the house; in one night! What the fuck?! The movie’s plausibility and complete disrespect for time is unavoidable. There is no way all of this happens in less than 12 hours, no way, it’s ludicrous for me as a viewer to believe it.
Brandon then discovers he has been stop-lost, being forced to stay in service to avoid a decrease in troops, and he goes on the run with Steve’s fiancà ©e, Michelle (Abbie Cornish), as he tries to get to DC to enlist the assistance of a Senator that offered a helping hand at the big parade ceremony the day before. I won’t spoil the film any further for those interested, but the movie continues to have no concept of time and throws these characters threw an unbelievable amount of craziness over the course of only a few days, it just doesn’t make any logical sense.
The actors do an alright job here, but no one does anything amazing. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the stand out, as he should be, though Tommy is an under utilized character that only serves as an emotional plot device throughout. I take that back, Gordon-Levitt gets one upped by Victor Rasuk who plays an injured comrade, and his scene is the most touching and effective of any scene in the film. Phillippe does a fairly good job as well though, Tatum doesn’t seem like a soldier at all, and not a good sign for the G.I. Joe movie for which he is the lead and Cornish is really kind of all over the place.
The movie is also supposed to be a message that Stop-Loss is wrong and we should try and stop it, which I agree with, but this meandering mess didn’t convince me of that. I could have simply read a simple paragraph report on the issue and would have disagreed, but if this gets the word out to more people, great, but it is a mess of a film that I can’t recommend unless you were really interested before hand.
(2 out of 5)
[rating: 2.5/5]
When will Inglorious Bastards come to life?
Quentin Tarantino has stated that after Death Proof he needed about one more year to finish off the script/screenplay for the movie. Most of it was done between Jackie Brown and Kill Bill.
The Synopsis: “Based on Tarantino’s comments, this film is set during WW2, with U.S. soldiers who are about to be executed, are offered a chance at reprieve. Tarantino has also described this as a “guys-on-a-mission” movie.”
Honestly, I have been hearing about this movie for so long, and I think this will be a perfect fit for Mr. Tarantino in the war flick genre. I think he can easily get by with more gore, guts, and blood in a war movie, than in a revenge hack em up type flick.
This movie will also star Michael Madsen which is also bad-ass. So this bears the question … when the hell will we see Inglorious Bastards?