SLY STALLONE REMINDS US THAT HE'S A MAN

I think the 'I never knew it until now but that's something I've always wanted!' feeling is universal for anyone who's seen trailers for THE EXPENDABLES. The comic book turned feature film tells the story of a group of mercenaries on a mission to overthrow a South American dictator. Of course, Mr. Stallone has proven himself to be more than capable of writing and directing action flicks, but I feel he's gone above and beyond by gathering an impressive cast of beat 'em up veterans. (Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Steve Austin, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terry Crews, and UFC champion Randy Couture) Last week Lionsgate released some of the behind the scenes footage just to wet your appetite all the more. Links and videos follow. The film comes out on August 13th. THE EXPENDABLES trailers and footage


>B.S.

ComiCon Wrap Up

Kumi here. While my partner has been attending a sneak preview for an awesome summer flick, yours truly has been languishing in obscurity going through the news from ComiCon trying to sort out this media overload. Anyway, ComiCon 2010 has come and gone, so now is the time for a best and worst list from this year's event.

Best Upcoming Comic: Strange Tales II
This isn't your father's Strange Tales. In what looks to be Marvel's next sleeper hit, Strange Tales II features some of the industry's premier independent talent taking a stab at some of Marvel's most iconic characters. If this sounds strangely familiar to DC Comic's "Bizarro" Anthology series...well it is...
The cast of luminaries remains almost unchanged from DC's version, including Harvey Peakar, Tony Millionaire, Terry Moore, and the ubiquitous "and more!"

Worst Upcoming Comic: More Deadpool than anyone can stand
After Marvel had milked the cash cow known as Wolverine completely dry, they turned to another Canadian government experiment in Deadpool. In addition to appearing in the upcoming Marvel vs Capcom 3, The Merc with a Mouth stars in no less than three of his own series' (Deadpool, Deadpool Team-Up and Deadpool Corps) also look for the upcoming Deadpool movie slated to be released in 2012, as well as a bevy of guest appearances in Avengers, Spider-Man, X-Men and Fantastic Four.
Sometimes there is such a thing as too much of a good thing


Best Upcoming Video Game: Street Fighter x Tekken and Tekken x Street Fighter
In what had to be one of the most bizarre moments of ComiCon, Street Fighter Producer Yoshinori Ono was answering questions in the "Street Fighter and More" panel when suddenly out of no where Tekken Producer Norihiro Hamada appears and challenges Ono to a fight. After a short skit, the pair announced Street Fighter x Tekken and Tekken x Street Fighter. The former to be made by Capcom in the Street Fighter style and the latter by Namco in the style of Tekken.
Here's a sample of the gameplay from Capcom's version

Worst Upcoming Video Game: Gran Turismo 5
Now...I loved the Gran Turismo games. The series is the be-all and end-all for car and racing enthusiasts world wide. And GT5 doesn't look to disappoint on that end. But the reason why this game gets Worst Game is it's coming too late. Five. Years. Too Late. GT5 was originally promised to be a launch title for the PS3 and it never came. Fans have waited and waited but no news had come. Finally at this year's ComiCon it was revealed that GT5 will come out sometime in late 2010 or early 2011. Will it be worth the wait? Yes. If you're willing to spend the money. Sony is planning to release, along with the game, a special driving controller. Unlike other driving controllers which feather a simple wheel/pedal set up, this one will feature a whole God Damn Chair AND Sony plans to make the game 3D, for those of you lucky (or stupid) enough to have purchased a 3D TV. Yes, for the price of an actual high performance sports car, you too can have the most immersive driving experience available! Unless of course, you actually spend that money on a real car...
And if you don't want to drop all that cash? Well it's just another Gran Turismo game


Best Upcoming Movie: Thor
Kenneth Branagh tries to prove that he can direct a movie, without casting himself in the lead role in Marvel's upcoming Thor movie. A five minute trailer was shown exclusively at ComiCon and as luck would have it, it got leaked online.
What follows are scenes of Thor being interrogated by a government agent and flashbacks of Thor bickering with his father Odin (played by a cyclopian Anthony Hopkins) and being banished to Earth
See the full trailer here

Runner Up: Green Lantern
Pictures were leaked of Ryan Reynolds sporting the Green Lantern suit in the upcoming film. Directed by James Bond mainstay Martin Campbell and featuring Mark Strong as GL's nemesis Sinsestro, it looks like it won't disappoint

Worst Upcoming Movie: Sucker Punch
Okay, I'm a little biased here, but I've never really been a big fan of Zach Snyder. In his latest "Comic Book Movie" not based on any particular comic book, Snyder tells the story of a young girl who is institutionalized and beings to halucinate (or does she?) a fantasy world for herself in which she fights samurai and dragons and various other fantasy villains. Snyder calls it "Alice in Wonderland with machine guns." The trailer makes this movie look good, but Snyder has never skimped on the visuals. But I'm calling it now: This film will be all flash and no substance


Best Cosplay: Sasquatch (Darkstalkers)
Anyone who is willing to wear this in SoCal in the dead of summer gets my vote

Runner Up: Old School Luke Cage
Much respect for a guy that can make a yellow pirate shirt look good. Sweet Christmas!





Worst Cosplay: The Return of Man-Faye



Barf
~Sammo

BAD NEWS FOR SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD

Broken Pencil's own Burt Saxby (that's me!) attended an exclusive showing of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World last night, and he has some bad news for expectant fans. If you thought SPvTW was going to be the most amazing movie of the year, or even just pretty good, unfortunately you aren't going to receive a stamp on your frequent 'wrong ' card today. Because it most absolutely is freaking awesome!

Edgar Wright, director of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Spaced, has made his bread and butter with genre-acknowledging films that temd to give the audience a feeling that their sense of irony has just been given a lobotomy. In his first venture out of the comfort of working with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, Wright has developed a cult-pop world with anything-goes rules that is brilliant to watch, and hilarious throughout.

While I might not have very many of the cast members on any of my 'Top 10  blankiest blanks' lists, this particular cocktail of actors is a quick kick to the junk that feels soo good. I never would have expected the blend of Michael Cera, Chris Evans, Kieran Culkin, Brandon Routh and Jason Schwartzman to taste as abrasively smooth, but they clearly managed to have a lot of fun making this movie while still taking it seriously. (attempted unsuccessfully in the past by such films as Ocean's 13) I can't say I've been following the career of Kieran Culkin but his performance is chuckle inducing to say the least, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead is adorably sharp.

Brandon Lee O'Malley created a world where-in there was one rule; Even the most tragic heart break can be made hilarious. Edgar Wright, along with a very well put together cast has brought it to life in the most vivid and perfect way I can think of. Trust me I wanted to pick it apart as much as possible, and every time a criticism started to creep into my head, Pilgrim would, very ostentatiously, beat it back with a comically large hammer. This movie quickly and easily sought rank in my 'Top 10 Perfectiest Movies of 2010' list.

Pilgrim is the newly reinvented everyman and I expect this movie will make quite a splash on August 13th weekend, I know I plan on seeing it one or two more times in theaters. I didn't even know Scott Pilgrim was based on a graphic novel series until recently, at which point I figured 'yeah but there's a movie coming out. . . duh', but I have it on the very good authority of the ten people on either side of me in line before the movie that it 'cut out only inconsequential things, and left in a few inconsequential things that were just too fun to leave out. otherwise it was a completely accurate adaptation'. So do with that what you will.

 A tidbit of advice from ol' uncle Saxby though, stop watching previews for this movie! Don't make the mistake of inadvertently seeing the entire film without realizing it.

In summary, brilliant, amazing, jaw dropping, laugh out loud, subtext becomes text, coming of age pop-art love-comedy that you must see?  SCOTT PILGRIM vs. THE WORLD.

>B.S.

And I thought I was excited for Cowboys & Aliens

A sad day in Comic-Con history today as an altercation over seating in Hall H for presentations about Cowboys and Aliens/Paul resulted in a man being stabbed just above his left eye with a pen. Just after a Resident Evil panel let out, two men argued about one sitting too close to the other and broke out in violence which resulted in the stabbing. The assailant was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon and the victim taken to the hospital. After a brief hiatus in events throughout the entire expo, things returned to normal and the C&A/Paul panel continued as planned. Rumor has it the men were actually good friends, and that it's mostly a superficial wound.

COMIC-CON 2010 UPDATES!

Comic-Con 2008 was the first year that SDCC completely sold out before the event had even begun. In 2009 over 125,000 people preregistered to attend the annual Comic Book Convention at the beautiful and gigantic San Diego Convention Center. Now, marking it's 41st year, hopeful attendees were clawing for passes on ebay, craigslist, and dirty street corners as much as six months in advance. And with good reason;


Huge news in VIDEO GAMES this year including Capcom's announcement of Marvel v. Capcom 3 (featuring the very welcome playable characters Amaterasu from Okami and Thor), as well as the Capcom and Namco team-up for Street FighterXTekken.

In Addition, new trailers released for such titles as Dead Space 2, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (starring Neil Patrick Harris as the voice of your friendly neighborhood etc. . .), Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, James Bond 007: Blood Stone, and Infamous 2, not to mention some ominous suggestions from Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune that "2010 will be a big year for Mega Man fans" adding only that the imminent announcement  was something Mega Man fans have been wanting for years. As you may have noticed, there isn't a great deal of original story coming out in gaming anytime soon, at least not that we know of just yet. . .

In MOVIES, James Renner was confirmed at the Con to play Hawkeye in Joss Whedon's The Avengers.  Renner, of 28 weeks later and The Hurt Locker, joins a cast of industry giants including Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johanssen, Chris Evans and Mark Ruffalo,

Said Whedon:
"There will be some avenging that takes place during the film and that's about all I can tell you. I think it's well-known that Jeremy Renner is joining us as Hawkeye, which is so exciting for me and the rest of the cast."

We expect to hear much more about Disney/Marvels plans for 2010-2011 season tonight at their panel discussion.

But DC Comics isn't letting Marvel get the best of them this year. News of a Wonder Woman movie being in preproduction was just the tip of the iceberg for DC. There were also by hints of a Green Lantern Video Game to accompany the Movies release, confirmations of Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy rehashing their roles as Joker and Batman for DC universe online, and very strong insinuations that one Joseph Gordon Levitt would be working once again with master Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan on a third installment of the Batman franchise. (we're all thinking it, I'm just saying it, all reason indicates the introduction of The Riddler.)

All-in-all a huge first three days of Comic-Con 2010, and you can bet that in keeping tradition with past expos, the best is yet to come. Stay tuned for more!

TRON: LEGACY Theatrical Trailer Released at Comic-Con

If this doesn't excite you beyond belief then you may want to consider counseling, because you're probably a communist.

Broken Pencil Movie Review: Inception

What kind of a pop-culture blog would we be if we didn't take a second to look at the summer's biggest movie? I feel it is our obligation, nay our duty, to dissect Christopher Nolan's latest foray into cinema. Chances are you've seen the movie by now. Or heard people talking about it. Well here's my opinion, which really, is the only opinion that matters.

The film certainly holds all of the confusing themes of Nolan movies in the past. Cyclical story-telling, questioning of reality, dead wives. It really feels more like a follow up to previous Nolan flicks Memento and The Prestige than to 2008's Dark Knight.

Ah but you make Earth-Shaking Super-Hero Block Buster and it casts a long pale over the rest of your career. Take a look at Christian Bale. Pre-Batman, Bale was a well respected dramatic actor known for his complete transformations for roles and delivering amazing performances in films like American Psycho and The Machinist. His post-Batman roles? The decidedly popcorn fair of Terminator and Public Enemies.

[An aside: Last year my esteemed Broken Pencil colleague and I were closely examining the poster for Inception, CONVINCED it was a Red Herring and that it was really going to be a Batman follow up. With Leo in the role of The Riddler]

But Nolan rejects this notion. He's going to make the movie that he wants to make. So what if it takes liberally from Nolan's pre-Batman work? At least he's stealing from himself.

The film opens up with Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) washing up on a beach, apparently having survived the events of Titanic, in a "what's going on here?" opening so present in the Nolanverse. From there he and his partner Arthur (Joseph Goron Levitt) are hired by an unscrupulous Japanese business man (Ken Wantanabe) to enter the dreams of a competitor (Cillian Murphy) and alter his mind. They must assemble a team of misfits to help them complete the task.

At it's heart, Inception is a caper flick. The trailers describe it as "James Bond meets The Matrix", but I feel that "Ocean's 11 meets Scanners" would be a more apt description.

The ensemble cast puts in some brilliant performances, including a cameo by Michael Caine and Cillian Murphy playing his first non-creepy-guy role as the target of Leo's plot. The only weak link in the film's cast is Ellen "I was the girl from Juno" Page.

The movie isn't without it's flaws. After The Matrix, I became very sick of the "Is what's really real really real?!?" plot device. Nolan has played with this before, first in Memento and then again in The Prestige. He needs to hurry up and solve his own existential crisis and leave that old chestnut of a plot device at home.

But leaving my personal biases aside, I have to say that Inception is certainly worth the price of admission. Heck, Joseph Gordon Levitt's zero G fight scene is worth it. Go. See it. See it now.

[Aside #2: The only person on the planet who has a bigger man-crush on Josephy Gordon Levitt than me, is my esteemed Broken Pencil colleague]

~Sammo