Your mission, if you choose to accept it… During an undercover mission in Prague, IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) witnesses his spy team picked off one by one—including his mentor and friend, Jim Phelps (Jon Voight). With the blame of sabotage and treason on his head, Hunt goes on the run to clear his name, entrap the real conspirators and deliver the perfect dose of tentpole bravado.

Ben Affleck dipped his toe in the directing game by sticking to subject matter that he knew well, life in south Boston. After Gone Baby Gone and The Town did well with audiences and critics, Affleck seemed to get a bit of confidence in his new role. His next film Argo isn’t going to have anything to do with his life experiences at all. As a matter of fact, it’s kind of a globe-hopping tale about the CIA, undercover operatives, and hostages in Tehran. How’s work going on that project? I’d say pretty well, because THR is reporting that Affleck is already in negotiations to direct his next film, and this time he’s going to make the commitment to both direct and star. Unfortunately, the description of the film leads me to believe that Affleck is so comfortable as a director that he’s ready to stop doing things that interest him and start cashing checks to make crap. The film is called Line of Sight, and it’s an action movie that Joel Silver and Andrew Rona are putting together with Warner Bros. The concept is that the film will be about a team of elite commandos who have to transport some sort of precious cargo while a threat to world safety is happening and, get this, the film will be constructed of all point of view shots so that it looks like a first person shooter video game. How’s that for a twist? You know what I would have liked [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Even giving it action credit, The Expendables wasn’t the men on a mission movie that it could have been. It became the Stallone/Statham show with not nearly enough regard for a talented cast of former steroid users. The sequel could remedy that situation, but it also has to jump the hurdle of, you know, being an action sequel. Fortunately, the good folks over at Twitch are reporting that Donnie Yen – the badass of Ip Man and many more – has been offered a role in The Expendables 2. While this is great news for that particular cast, Yen shouldn’t take the job. Why not? Because he’s a leading man who would be playing second fiddle here – character and action-wise. He’d be given one cool fight scene and be overshadowed for the rest of the run time (even if that one fight scene proves he’s more talented at close combat than anyone else on that roster). Undoubtedly, the pitch here from producer Avi Lerner is a role that would launch Yen into the minds of American audiences. While that may be enticing, it also comes with the possibility of following in Jackie Chan’s footsteps. Chan is a phenom, but his career in the United States morphed so badly into mainstream meaninglessness that he started turning back to China to make the bulk of his movies.

It’s been a pretty hard life for John Rambo ever since he signed up to go overseas and serve his country in Vietnam. He was turned into an expert in guerrilla warfare. Made the best with guns, with knives, with his bare hands. He was trained to ignore pain, ignore weather, to live off the land. To eat things that would make a billy goat puke. In Vietnam his job was to dispose of enemy personnel, to kill, period. Win by attrition. And after a rough patch where the guy just couldn’t adjust to life after Nam, we sent him back there to slaughter hundreds more and get our POWs. Then we sent him to Afghanistan, where he killed about a thousand more people. I thought that was it for the guy, but then he ended up having to do the same in Burma. Isn’t it about time we let this guy live out his final years in peace? No. You just don’t turn it off. There’s a segment of the population out there who think that First Blood is a decent movie, but the subsequent Rambo sequels are cheesy and exploitative and lame. Those people are ridiculous. The Rambo sequels are cheesy and exploitative and awesome. Even 2008’s Rambo, where we get Rambo as an old man, is completely amazing. He tears out throats with his bare hand and explodes guys by hitting them with close range high caliber machine gun fire. What more do you want? Well, I [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

There’s something Schwarzenegger-esque about the opening to the first trailer for Underworld: Awakening. For one, we find out that it’s Selene’s (Kate Beckinsale) awakening. For two, she goes all Terminator by curling up naked in the fetal position before finding some conveniently skin-tight clothes and then kicking a bunch of ass. The way this trailer is edited together hints at the stupidity that the film might have in store, but there’s no denying that the action looks solid. At least it was enough to turn the entire thing black and blue:

This week, on a very special episode of Reject Radio, Jason Momoa talks Conan, director Joann Sfar talks Gainsbourg, concept designer Jerad Marantz talks rising Apes and Spidey’s costume, and action icon Renny Harlin discusses his latest film 5 Days of War. Plus, our old friend Scott Weinberg goes up against FSR’s own Gwen Reyes in a Movie News Pop Quiz that leads us to talking about sexy animated characters. Don’t judge. You know you think Ariel is the bee’s knees. Listen Here: Download This Episode

Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of it, I wasn’t aware of Strike Back‘s existence until the week of the season 2 premiere… or rather the season 1 premiere on Cinemax here in the States. Before we get into the premiere, let’s go through some history. Strike Back is a show that was created by the Sky1 over in the UK. The show was well received both critically and commercially. Recently Cinemax has been in the process of putting, for the first time ever, original programs into production. The most high profile was/is the upcoming Transporter show based on the hit film series. But rather than wait for that show to premiere later this year, they decided to pull a Torchwood and help Sky1 finance Strike Back. So, now with Cinemax as a co-financier, we have Strike Back season 2, which is being passed as season 1 in the U.S. And that brings us to the question that we’re all wondering, is season 1/season 2 any good?

Dwayne Johnson found out about Osama Bin Laden’s death before everyone else, and in this picture he posted on his twitter feed from G.I. Joe 2 makes it look like he was one of the ones hunting him. For the first day of shooting, Johnson finds himself heavily costumed and strapped down with weapons, standing in a desert that’s either in some exotic location or somewhere near Chatsworth. I’m not the foremost expert on the original characters, and I didn’t care that much about the costuming from the first film. So, fans, is this what Road Block should look like?

Marcus Nispel is known as a work-for-hire type of director. The type of filmmaker that’s brought onto a project to craft a studio’s vision versus his own. Coming from the world of Platinum Dunes’ micromanagement, he’s worked on films that are not meant for auteurs. The projects he’s been a part of are calculated products, and Nispel is more than aware of it. The Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw Massacre remaker knows how the game goes for his franchise starter films. With Conan the Barbarian, Nispel got the chance to make a different type of blockbuster: a hard-R that features a misogynistic, barbaric lead. However, the director still was a “dog on many leashes,” as he described the process. Hopefully, Nispel still managed to create a version of Conan that lives up to the idea of an R-rated tent-pole release about a barbarian who thirsts for blood. Here’s what Nispel had to say about avoiding film school, making someone else’s vision, and how filmmaking is like raising children:

It was bound to happen eventually. Alien invasions seem to be the note every production is striking these days (for better or worse), and there’s no way the paying public would want to see the fad die without Jean-Claude Van Damme taking a swing at those extra-terrestrial thugs. According to Variety, Dominic Burns will write and direct UFO, which sees Van Damme kickpunch his way through an invasion with help from several newcomers. Burns has acted, produced, written and directed most notably with Black & Blue Films (the studio that’s bringing you Strippers vs Werewolves!) which seems slightly like a Britain-based Asylum-style studio with a focus on schlocky horror and comedy. Sometimes at the same time. However, it’s Burns’s own Hawthorne Productions that will be handling this particular gem. Thus, the sky is literally the limit for this project. But honestly, who here among us doesn’t want to see Van Damme put his work boot through the slimy flesh of some alien with guts that hopefully explode out from his body? Exactly. None of us raised our hands. Bring it on. And if those aliens happen to look anything like snakes, they are boned (see above).

Why Watch? This is the short film version of a headshot. Video games make awful adaptation material because, for some reason, they’re more fun for executives to suck all quality from. They’ve invariably meant for high budgets, but instead of bringing the faithful along for the ride, most productions tend to flip fans the middle finger while destroying any sense of story just in case anyone else wanted to enjoy what they were watching. Not so here. With a small budget and an aim at showcasing action, director Brian Curtin has created a fantastic short based on Half-Life. It could use a bit more in the way of character, but producing such a threatening, obviously villainous group of killers helps us feel for the leads without messy exposition. There are a few low budget problems, but they’re overshadowed by how impressive everything else is. Well shot, interestingly paced, and featuring some stellar production design, this is just engaging as hell. Plus, the ending is truly explosive. I’ve never played the game, so I can’t speak to how close they nailed it, but everything I’ve read seems to praise them for staying faithful. How about it, Half-Life (and/or zombie) fans? Is this the kind of thing you’d like to see expanded into a feature? What does it cost? Just 12 minutes of your time. Check out Beyond Black Mesa for yourself:

Hopefully the spoiler warning is loud and clear enough here, and, yes, I still take them seriously. Even if a fancy scientific study shows that we like things that are familiar, there’s still no replacement for being surprised or awe-struck with the wonder of newness. So if you’re avoiding information about Superman: Man of Steel, you can stop reading now. And if you keep reading, simply know that all of this might be untrue – it’s the work of an “insider” with the production that scoop site Comic Book Movie trusts. Their track record is pretty stellar, but nothing is confirmed until it’s truly confirmed.

Welcome back to Commentary Commentary, the weekly analysis of our favorite films and what the filmmakers have to say about them. This week we’re calling someone. Not sure who. It’s almost like there should be a classic line to fit in here, but right now it’s escaping me. In addition to being a modern classic, Ghostbusters is also arguably the best comedy of the last 30 years. Plus, it features Reginal Veljohnson and William Atherton, two co-stars of Die Hard, so that’s something to note, right? The two also co-starred in Die Hard 2. We’ll have to cover Renny Harlin’s commentary on that classic some day. While you’re holding your breath for that, though, we’re in the mood to laugh, get slimed, and laugh heartily some more. So take a ghostly gander – yeah, I said it – at what we learned from the Ghostbusters commentary right here.

Wow. I love the age we live in and the things people do with their time and money. Someone somewhere thought it would be a solid idea to make a vigilante movie about Casey Jones from “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” That someone was Polaris Banks, that somewhere was Austin, and besides having an awesome comic book villain name, Banks has put together a movie that looks like it’s fun as hell. I say looks, because this trailer doesn’t have any dialog in it. But it does have a bad ass in a hockey mask doing a lot of street sweeping. And, no lie, Casey Jones has a human-sized, mutated turtle kicking ass right alongside of him. Watch this thing and revel in its glory:

Around the year 480 BC, an historical battle between a group of Greek city-states and a bullying Persian army began in a mountain pass of Thermopylae (literally translated to “Hot Gateway”). This epic war saw the Greeks vastly outnumbered by the self-appointed god-king Xerxes, who had spent years overthrowing other city-states to build up his human reserve. See, Xerxes is a classy king. He likes to send messengers to each threatening city-state, offering to spare the citizens in exchange for the allegiance to him. Well, when his trusty foot soldier ventured into Sparta, a town known for their militaristic nature and tough, no-bull-shit attitude, their refusal to join up with Xerxes was never heard. Spartan King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) all but told the offending Persians to fuck off and kicked them into a deep hole. Just like Helena before him, this kick ignited the fury of both the Greeks and Persians. Leonidas organizes 300 of Sparta’s best men to fight off Xerxes’ army, each man wanting the glory of dying in battle to defend their great city. While they’re out getting all hot and sweaty in just tiny pairs of war shorts, Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey) remains in Sparta trying to drum up support of the Spartan council to ready troops for war only to prove just how fierce Spartan women are when she’s threatened, assaulted, and almost killed by Theron (Dominic West), a senator more interested in power than glory. Two stories diverge in the course of Zach Snyder’s [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

You know Antoine Fuqua, right? He’s the guy who got a lot of attention for directing Training Day, and who keeps getting mentioned as the director of a possible Tupac Shakur biopic. Whether or not he will ever manage to get that Tupac production in front of the camera remains a mystery, but we do know about a new movie that he actually will make. Fuqua has been attached to helm Summit Entertainment’s new film Storming Las Vegas, which is an adaptation of a book about a real life casino robber named Jose Vigoa. Vigoa went on a crime spree during the 90s that lasted for 16 months and targeted some of Las Vegas’ most famous casinos. The book that will serve as the source material was written by John Huddy, and its full title is “Storming Las Vegas: How a Cuban-Born, Soviet-Trained Commando Took Down The Strip to the Tune of Five World Class Hotels, Three Armored Cars, and Millions of Dollars.” While rampant cowardice and pervasive sensibility will lead to the title being shortened for a film release, reading the outlandishly long book title does give us a better sense of the particulars of the story. It turns out that this Vigoa was some sort of commando, and it seems like he was pretty dang successful in his robberies. Also there’s something about a 23-year vet of the Vegas police force who was tasked with taking Fuqua and his gang down without letting their exploits hit the papers. [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

In Clash, a mercenary (Ngô Thanh Vân) gets a new job hunting down a very valuable, very missing hard drive that has a few important codes for the first Vietnamese satellite. She teams up with a few other experts, but as you might imagine, not everyone is trustworthy and feces starts flying at the fan as quickly as feet start hitting faces. It’s unclear what will happen if the hard drive winds up in the hands of the Chinese Triad, but we want to put a new Alienware laptop into yours. All it takes is a little spy skill and a little bit of luck. Plus, we’re teaming up with Indomina Releasing for this bad boy, and they’ve got a few other prizes just in case you aren’t the big, big winner. So how do you enter? Check this out:

Seriously folks. Battleship may very well turn out to be a fun action flick, but this trailer makes it look like a massive chore to sit through. Directed by Peter Berg (who has proven that he knows good character and story), this film shows off the talents of Liam Neeson’s one-liner abilities as well as the fill-in-the-blanks action prowess of Dolph Lundgern’s son Taylor Kitsch. It goes strictly by the book, and the comparison to Transformers and Skyline is so apt that you can still see the afterbirth pooling around the edges if you look hard enough. So, look hard:

Steven Soderbergh is perhaps the most versatile director working today. He hates to be pinned down, he enjoys non-actors acting, and he revels in action as much as dialogue. With Haywire it seems he gets to combine a lot of his creative interests into one throat-crushing experience. The trailer has hit, and it feels like every story ever told about an agent that’s the best of the best of the best being taken out back by her government. Of course, when it all goes wrong, she wants to know why and seek revenge. Beat by beat, it’s been told a hundred times, but Soderbergh is also a storyteller with tricks up his sleeve, and as for pure action, Gina Carano looks like she’ll pull everyone’s kidneys out through the hole she rips in their shoulders. Check out the trailer for yourself:

And welcome back to Commentary Commentary, our weekly scouring of the DVD shelves and all the vast film knowledge held therein. It’s time once again to listen to a feature length film commentary from one of our most beloved films and go over all the great pieces of information we learn from it. This week, we’ve got another classic, a film that sparked a whole sub-genre of other films. And, before you pitch the idea of “Die Hard on a Film Blog,” know that Joel Silver probably has three screenplays in his office with that exact same pitch. That’s right. This week, we’re cracking open our copy of Die Hard and going through the commentary. So sit back, enjoy how not Christmas-y it is right now, and drink some eggnog anyway. Hey, it couldn’t hurt.