Photos of the Day... Technically, Leo said "I'm the king of the world" in Titanic, but it's all good.

Looper... Earlier this week, I watched the new sci-fi film starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt and Jeff Daniels. It was $6 well-spent (I attended a matinee screening of the flick). Looper is an excellent movie about a hit man (a.k.a. a 'looper') named Joe (Gordon-Levitt) who's paid to eliminate targets sent to the past (Joe's present day) via time machine. Needless to say, things start to go wrong for Joe as he carries out his dirty work...and is suddenly confronted with executing someone who's obviously very important to his own life: himself. Bruce Willis plays an older version of Joe, and when the two finally confront each other, all hell breaks loose.



Not only does Looper convey the interesting theme of what people do when they confront an older version of themselves (obviously not possible...currently), and are forced to kill them, the movie also presents such other themes as a man bent on seeking revenge for the death of his wife, and how far a mother named Sara (Blunt) will go to protect her own son. Not only is time travel possible in the world of Looper, but so is telekinesis...which plays a major part in why Sara (Blunt sports a nice American accent portraying this character) is both fearful and protective of her son. And why Bruce Willis' Joe goes to the past to eliminate—well, I won't spoil this part of the movie for you.



Unlike more genial time travel flicks like Back to the Future, Looper treats the ability to visit the past as something totally not to be trifled with. Time travel is banned in the realm of Looper...with only the criminal underworld taking advantage of this volatile technology (one gang using time travel for nefarious purposes being the one led by Abe, played by Jeff Daniels). As mentioned at the start of this paragraph, Looper is not really a feel-good film...and it ends on both a dreary and heartfelt note. It's heartfelt in that Sara goes through all lengths—including risking her own life—to save her own son, and it's dreary in that Gordon-Levitt's Joe—realizing that his own personal actions (including those committed by his older self) will lead to a cycle of pain and anger—chooses to perform the ultimate sacrifice to ensure that the misdeeds of his past (and future) won't cause any more harm to those closest to him. Intense stuff. Which is why you should check out Looper if you haven't done so already.

End of Watch... Earlier today, I watched the new film starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña as two officers of the Los Angeles Police Department who cross paths with members of a Mexican drug cartel. If you're a fan of such TV shows as Southland and other cop dramas, then this is the movie for you. End of Watch is totally intense and also very funny (intentionally, that is)... Some of the best moments in the flick are when Brian Taylor (played by Gyllenhaal) and Mike Zavala (played by Peña) pit both good-natured and self-deprecating jokes against each other while patrolling the streets of L.A. in their police cruiser. This film is about friendship, family and brotherhood, and Gyllenhaal and Peña convincingly convey these three themes even as the dangers they face continue to become more potent as they run into suspects that prompt other LAPD officers to tell Taylor and Zavala to "watch your six."



While light-hearted scenes featuring Gyllenhaal's girlfriend (played by Anna Kendrick) and Zavala's wife (portrayed by Natalie Martinez) are definitely welcomed, the highlights of the film are, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, when the two cops run into various criminals of all walks of life in the City of Angels. In the opening scene of End of Watch, Taylor and Zavala engage in a car chase whose conclusion ends up making heroes out of the two officers—causing Taylor in particular to become bolder in his pursuit of suspects that he and Zavala should otherwise not be confronting alone. This recklessness eventually causes the patrolmen to gain the attention of the Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico...leading to a climax that most decisively doesn't weigh in the favor of the two LAPD officers.



Even though the climax of End of Watch is not a happy one (unless, of course, you're rooting for the drug cartel), the movie goes back to the aforementioned themes of friendship, family and brotherhood...with the final scene of the flick being of Taylor and Zavala having a funny conversation in their police cruiser about Taylor not allowing his daughter to date anyone when she grows up. Of course, this particular scene is not necessarily happening in the present day—as Taylor and Zavala wore portable digital cameras on their cop uniforms to record their on-street exploits throughout most of the film (since Taylor is working on a personal 'project' that isn't elaborated on). The final scene of End of Watch is meant to remind us that two police officers have essentially become brothers while working together to make their city safer. End of Watch is a gritty, well-made film, and it should be watched if you enjoy stories about cops who forge a close bond even while they're putting their lives at risk performing in the line of duty.

Image of the Day... I recently stumbled upon the illustration above at an art store inside my local mall. Cool artwork...though I'm wondering why it features the Batsuit from The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises but uses the monorail and stylized architecture of Gotham City from Batman Begins in the background. I guess the artist obviously wanted to combine elements from all three Christopher Nolan films in this piece. Makes sense.

Dredd 3D... I saw the reboot of the 1995 Sylvester Stallone sci-fi action film yesterday, and one thing I need to ask is, was Stallone this badass in the original Judge Dredd? Dredd 3D has Karl Urban (from 2009's Star Trek) as the one-man judge, jury and executioner...but unlike Stallone in the original flick, Urban's identity is concealed by the large, Boba Fett-like helmet for the entire film. And while Stallone's version of "I am the law" sounded funny enough for co-star Rob Schneider to ridicule onscreen in Judge Dredd, Urban's utterance of that line is not to be taken lightly in this new film—especially when he already has his multipurpose automatic rifle in hand. As for Dredd 3D's main villain, Lena Headey (from 300 and the defunct FOX TV show, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) is interesting as the scarred, drugged-out gang leader, Ma-Ma. In fact, Headey is so relentless as Ma-Ma that the final scene between her and Dredd is rewarding because he hands her the verdict and punishment that she so thoroughly deserves. Urban's co-star Olivia Thirlby, who plays the telepathic judge named Anderson, kicks ass once things really start to heat up inside the Peach Trees apartment structure where she and Dredd are trapped by Ma-Ma's gang. I'd say more about this but I don't want to spoil the movie for y'all.



All-in-all, Dredd 3D is an entertaining flick. The 3-D itself is pretty awesome...especially during scenes where Ma-Ma and/or her gang inhale a drug, called Slo-Mo, that gives off the effect of (you guessed it) time slowing down. In one particular scene, Ma-Ma's thugs force a couple of victims to inhale Slo-Mo just before they're thrown off a balcony dozens of stories above the ground. The 3-D plays well as we get a P.O.V. shot from one of the victims as he slowly falls to his death. This is a horrible way to bite the dust in real life, but onscreen, it looked really cool. In terms of Dredd being a reboot, I hope that next year's version of RoboCop and even Starship Troopers will be as interesting as Dredd is. I never saw the new Total Recall, but based on how it fared at the box office this summer, it's safe to say that it didn't live up to Ah-nold's original 1990 flick. Carry on.

© 2012 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey... Check out the newest trailer to the first installment of The Lord of the Rings' prequel trilogy. Originally, there were only supposed to be two films for The Hobbit, with There and Back Again being released in cinemas on December 13, 2013. With the recent addition of a third flick, however, There and Back Again will be shown at theaters in 2014, while The Desolation of Smaug will be released next year.

It's not a surprise that Peter Jackson is going back to the movies that made him the Oscar-winning director he is today. George Lucas obviously returned to the Star Wars saga 16 years after the release of Return of the Jedi with The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith...while Michael Bay will be back to helm a fourth Transformers flick after his first three films did stellar business at the box office in 2007, 2009 and 2011, respectively. And of course, Steven Spielberg and Lucas returned to the Indiana Jones series with Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and an upcoming fifth installment. Along with the first two Star Wars prequels, however, I don't think the new Indy flicks are very good examples of why filmmakers should go back to the movie franchises that help boost their careers. Oh well.

The Iron Dark Knight... Ironically, this is probably how Azrael-Batman would look if Christopher Nolan actually featured him in any of the Dark Knight movies. Much more ironic is the fact that if the person who created the cool illustration below didn't tamper with Iron Man's red and gold color, the Iron Dark Knight would look even more similar to the Bat Who Broke The Man Who Broke The Bat (that would be Azrael defeating Bane, who in turn broke Bruce Wayne's— You know the story if you watched The Dark Knight Rises) in the Knightfall, Knightquest and KnightsEnd comic book series. That is all.

Lawless... I saw the gangster drama two days ago, and I must say, Tom Hardy has nine lives! (I'll resist the urge to lamely joke that he should've played Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises because of this.) Lawless is based on a true story, but I think it's safe to point out that the filmmaker (John Hillcoat) embellished the moments where the outlaw named Forrest Bondurant, who's played by Hardy, came so close to death in the movie. Shia LaBeouf, who plays Jack, Forrest's brother, did a good job portraying the young naive sibling who strives for greatness—even if it's as a bootlegging criminal during the Prohibition Era—after he witnesses a mob hit committed by the ruthless gangster Floyd Banner, portrayed by Gary Oldman. Kinda weird to see Oldman in a villainous role once again after playing Commissioner James Gordon in The Dark Knight trilogy, but it was awesome (though seldom) to see him weld a Tommy Gun as he nonchalantly laid waste to enemies in nondescript Virginia locales. Guy Pearce was cool as special agent Charlie Rakes, who kicks ass before taking names...even if he does wear a bow tie while trying to lay down the law. Mia Wasikowska, who played Alice in Tim Burton's 2010 version of Alice in Wonderland, was constrained (appropriately so) but lovely as the preacher's daughter named Bertha Minnix. Jessica Chastain, in contrast, was all-out seductive as Maggie Beauford, a dancer from Chicago who wants to find some peace and quiet in a small forest town. Just ask Forrest Bondurant.



Film critics have pointed out that cinematography-wise, Lawless is visually bland. And I agree with them. From the looks of it, the movie was shot digitally, since it looks nowhere near as crisp as another mob flick like say, 2007's American Gangster (directed by Ridley Scott and featuring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe). Or The Godfather. Definitely not like The Godfather. Or even Scarface. But you get the idea... Carry on.

Michael Clarke Duncan (1957-2012)... I admit that I never saw Green Mile, but I did see Armageddon, Daredevil, 2001's Planet of the Apes, The Scorpion King, The Island, Sin City and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby at the theater. It was Green Mile that Mr. Duncan received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor back in 1999, but he was cool, hilarious and/or intimidating (as intended) in the movies mentioned above. May Duncan Rest In Peace.

Courtesy of Unreality Magazine

$1 Billion... That's how much The Dark Knight Rises has made worldwide as of today. The actual box office gross is $1.005 billion...which is attributed to TDKR making $574 million internationally and $431.2 million domestically at the cinemas. TDKR is only the 13th flick in history to reach the 10-figure dollar mark. The Dark Knight made $533 million domestically and $469.7 million internationally back in 2008...giving Christopher Nolan's second Batman film a worldwide gross of $1.003 billion.

Speaking of The Dark Knight, here are three extremely cool pieces of artwork of the Joker that I found online. These illustrations are amazing...but it angers me that when I looked up 'The Joker' on Google, photos of the S.O.B. who shot up that Aurora, Colorado movie theater on July 20 shows up next to awesome pics of Heath Ledger in the role that won him a posthumous Oscar back in 2009. Pretty frustrating.


Courtesy of Iricolor's deviantART page


DC Comics - Lee Bermejo