Quick Review: THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT...

I saw The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent at AMC theaters earlier today. It's about Nicolas Cage playing Nick Cage—with all of his actual financial problems—as he gets caught up in a kidnapping plot by a crime syndicate run by none other than The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal, whose name in this flick is Javi Gutierrez)...who wants nothing more than to write a screenplay in this "movie within a movie" action drama. I dig that. Unsurprisingly, it's the legendary actor from The Rock, Con Air, Face/Off, Gone in Sixty Seconds and Kick-Ass that Javi wants to star in his film.

The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent is an interesting flick. I had to go on Google to see if Cage does have an ex-wife named Olivia and a daughter named Addy. He does not.

One thing I like about The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent that isn't actually in the movie itself is the use of the song Kill This Love by female K-pop band Blackpink. Check out its music video and the film's trailer below!

X-Men: Days of Future Past...

Last Sunday, I saw Bryan Singer's latest installment in the X-Men movie saga, and needless to say, it did not disappoint. In fact, I believe that it was the best comic book movie I've seen over the last two years—since The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises were released in theaters in 2012. Clearly, Singer wanted to make up for the disappointment of 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand (directed by Brett Ratner) by creating a story that not only featured the excellent cast of 2011's X-Men: First Class but also (spoilers ahead) resurrecting characters who were killed off in Ratner's flick. The portrayal of the Sentinels (particularly the ones in the future) in X-Men: Days of Future Past was awesome, and it will be interesting to see how Joss Whedon portrays Quicksilver (played by Godzilla and Kick-Ass' Aaron Taylor-Johnson) in Avengers: Age of Ultron after Evan Peters' exhilarating turn as the fast-moving mutant in Days of Future Past (that scene in the Pentagon kitchen was probably the best highlight of the film). Michael Fassbender's performance as Magneto in this installment is how I always pictured the depiction of the metal-manipulating mutant in a live-action movie (sorry, Ian McKellen), and Hugh Jackman was once again terrific as Wolverine...even if he didn't have adamantium on his claws for much of the film.



Along with Evan Peters' take on Quicksilver, another cast member who stood out was Jennifer Lawrence, unsurprisingly. Being a three-time Oscar nominee with an Academy Award under her belt, Lawrence deserved to be the focus of Days of Future Past...with her character Mystique playing a prime role (and sometimes speaking Vietnamese while doing it) in events that would either spell the end or salvation for a mutantkind decimated by the Sentinels. Peter Dinklage, who worked on such fare as HBO's Game of Thrones, did a great job as the diminutive but dangerous Dr. Trask—who was the one responsible for creating the Sentinels.



I believe that Days of Future Past did for the X-Men series what The Dark Knight did for Batman— X-Men: First Class and Batman Begins notwithstanding. (Some spoilers ahead, again) Lurking on the horizon is Apocalypse and his Four Horsemen...and Cyclops, Jean Grey and company (which possibly includes Channing Tatum as Gambit) will need to work together under the leadership of Professor X to fight this all-powerful mutant when X-Men: Apocalypse hits theaters in 2016. If Days of Future Past is any indication, Singer will create with Apocalypse another epic flick whose comic book excellence could rival that of The Avengers and Marvel's other cinematic hits. But I'm too busy raving about a film that doesn't hit theaters for another two years; watch Days of Future Past if you want to see how phenomenal comic book movies can be when they feature the right director, story and actors on it. That is all.

Avengers: Age of Ultron...

Director Joss Whedon began filming next year's highly-anticipated follow-up to the 2012 mega-hit The Avengers a week ago, with first glimpses of Godzilla's Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch, Kick-Ass' Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Quicksilver and Jeremy Renner reprising his role as Hawkeye. While Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. weren't on set, we also see that the suits for Captain America and Iron Man have been re-designed for Age of Ultron. And of course, making his debut on the set for the Avengers sequel is none other than Ultron himself—even if he's in the guise of a stunt performer wearing a padded metallic suit that will later be replaced with a computer-generated version of the title villain. Good stuff.

This Is the End... "Like tears from the tip of my penis." So were the words from party crasher-turned-evil cannibal Danny McBride when describing what happened when he had a good time at James Franco's house party in the hilarious movie, This Is the End. I saw the comedy flick last weekend (right after I watched Man of Steel), and it did not disappoint in delivering the kind of nasty but all-out funny gags that one would expect from Seth Rogen and company after seeing such films as Superbad, Pineapple Express and Knocked Up. What's ironic is that Michael Cera, who exchanged tons of witty banter with Jonah Hill in Superbad, was more interesting playing himself than say, Nick in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist or Scott Pilgrim in...Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Of course, this must've been due to Rogen (who co-directed and wrote the screenplay for This Is the End with Evan Goldberg) allowing Cera to perform such shenanigans as slapping R&B singer Rihanna on the butt and blowing (as well as getting blown; no comments) cocaine powder at Kick-Ass's Christopher Mintz-Plasse's face. Also game to showing up in This Is the End (and meeting their demise once the Apocalypse begins less than 30 minutes into the film) is Mindy Kaling, Paul Rudd, Aziz Ansari and Jason Segel. Trying to survive the end of the world with Rogen, Franco, McBride and Hill is Craig Robinson, Jay Baruchel (who along with Rogen is the star of the movie), Emma Watson and Channing Tatum—in a hilarious cameo that I'm sure will be more than welcomed by females in the audience.



All-in-all, This Is the End was totally entertaining. Along with ball-busting humor, it had some pretty amusing visual effects that you would see in 1980's summer blockbusters like Ghostbusters (the first one, mostly) and Gremlins. The highlight of this flick was seeing James Franco constantly sparring with Danny McBride over such issues as wasting limited food and water and not staining Franco's porno mags with McBride's um, tears. Jonah Hill, even when he was possessed by a demon that molested him while lying in bed, was still reserved in his performance...which is due to the fact that Hill is obviously playing himself and also because he's trying to act more serious ever since his Academy Award nomination for Moneyball. Rogen, Robinson and Baruchel played their usual selves—while Ms. Watson must've had fun spouting profanities after playing Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films for so many years. If I were to recommend a comedy to watch after being bombarded by non-stop comic book action in Man of Steel and Iron Man 3, it would definitely be This Is the End. Unless of course, you hate boy band groups...'cause then you might wanna leave the auditorium before the start of the final scene. Backstreet's back, alright!

Kick-Ass 2... For those of you who enjoyed the hit 2010 satirical flick about normal people trying to act like superheroes, check out these photos from the upcoming movie that will continue the exploits of Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), Hit-Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz) and the evil Red Mist—now known as The Mother F*cker (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). Also returning for Kick-Ass 2 is the lovely Lyndsy Fonseca (who's been kicking ass on her own in the CW Network's Nikita), with Jim Carrey making an appearance as Colonel Stars and Stripes, John Leguizamo as Javier and Morris Chestnut as Sergeant Marcus Williams. Kick-Ass 2 gets released in theaters nationwide on August 16.

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KICK-ASS... I saw the satirical comic book flick this weekend, and all I can say is...Kick-Ass kicked ass! I could care less about what people are saying about Hit-Girl, she f***in’ rocks! One of my co-workers who I watched the movie with yesterday pointed out how some people are objecting to that scene where she’s dressed up as a schoolgirl (since Hit-Girl is around 11-years-old in the movie)...because it makes her look like a sex object. Um, really? Hit-Girl says the word c**t, uses profanity left-and-right, stabs people left-and-right, and blows people’s brains out with a Glock left-and-right, and the schoolgirl outfit is what people are taking issue with the most? Um...okay.



A lot of you will probably be asking why I think Hit-Girl is awesome despite her doing the despicable things mentioned above, but that’s what makes Kick-Ass an amusing film. The title character of the movie is portrayed as some douchie punk teenager who constantly gets his ass kicked whenever he dons his green superhero outfit, and yet here comes this little girl clad in bulletproof attire, using night vision goggles during a gun battle and fights in a way that would remind you of The Matrix or a number of Japanese anime that The Matrix was ripped off from. Oh, and her dad (Big Daddy) is what Chris Nolan’s Batman would be like if he actually decided to use guns (and made an intentionally poor but hilarious Adam West impersonation). It just comes to show you that someone can become a superhero in the real world if they had the right equipment (RE: firearms and body armor) and amazing fighting skills. Haha. Of course, the short answer for why I find nothing wrong with Hit-Girl is that Kick-Ass is a friggin' dark comedy. Get over it.



Will I buy Kick-Ass on DVD? You bet. Will I buy the Kick-Ass film score (I don't care what my co-worker thinks, the music was cool)? If it was available on CD—yes. Do I think Lyndsy Fonseca is as hot in this movie as she was in the recent film Hot Tube Time Machine? You bet again. Oh, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse was as much a dork playing Red Mist as he was being McLovin in 2007’s Superbad. That was a compliment. Later.