• Full Cast and Plot revealed for “Riddick”: It’s been eight years since “The Chronicles of Riddick” came out and Vin Diesel and director David Twohy have been fighting for funding for a third movie in the franchise and they were finally able to get it on track this year.  The cast and plot was revealed this week and it sounds more in line with Pitch Black, which is a good thing, and follows Riddick as he’s left for a dead on a planet full of deadly alien predators and must fight his way to an emergency beacon so he has a chance to be rescued by a shipful of mercenaries.  Karl Urban, Jordi Molla, Katee Sackhoff, Matt Nable and Bokheem Woodbine co-star.
• Insidious 2 in the works: Insidious was one of the surprise horror hits of 2010 and made a crapload of money for a $1.5 million budget.  Insidious 2 is now in the works with director James Wan back along with screenwriter Leigh Whannell.  No word if Patrick Wilson or Rose Byrne will return or what the movie will be about.
• Adam Sandler starring in Candy Land: In what I think is one of the signs of the apocalypse, Adam Sandler will be starring in the adaptation of the board game Candy Land for Columbia Pictures.  There’s no mention about what the plot will be but it will probably follow a group of kids making their way through the various candy themed areas of Candy Land with Sandler as their guide.
• Robocop remake being rewritten by Gran Torino writer: After Darren Aronofsky left the project, the remake of Robocop went a little dormant but it’s apparently being rewritten by Nick Schenk, who wrote the screenplay for Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino.  Jose Padilha, director of Elite Squad, is signed on to direct.
• Stretch Armstrong movie changes studios, drops Taylor Lautner: Universal had a bunch of Hasbro properties in various states of production but one of them, Stretch Armstrong, has moved to Relativity Media and Taylor Lautner and director Rob Letterman are both off the project.
• Joe Carnahan directing and writing Death Wish remake:  Joe Carnahan, currently riding high with The Grey, is signed on to direct and write a remake of the Charles Bronson classic, Death Wish.  Frank Grillo, who has had great supporting roles in the aforementiond The Grey and also last year’s Warrior, is set to star and the movie will be set in a Collateral/Drive style Los Angeles.
• Matthew Vaughn signed on for X-Men First Class sequel:  I’m on board for anything they do.
• New Images from Skyfall and Dredd:

Rorschach by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo (4 issues)

Minutemen by Darwyn Cooke (6 issues)

Ozymandias by Len Wein and Jae Lee (6 issues)

Comedian by Brian Azzarello and J.G. Jones (6 issues)

Silk Spectre by Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Conner (4 issues)

Nite Owl by J. Michael Straczynski and Andy & Joe Kubert (4 issues)

Dr. Manhattan by J. Michael Straczynski and Adam Hughes (4 issues)

February isn’t the most stellar time for movies but it looks there could be a couple of solid movies this month, including Denzel Washinton in full bad ass mode in Safe House and the first major superhero movie with Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.  Check out all of the movies coming out this month below.

February 3

• Chronicle- A found footage take on the superhero genre, Chronicle follows a group of three friends who mysteriously gain super powers and get in into random shenanigans until one of the group starts to get corrupted by the power and starts to go out of control.
• Big Miracle- Based on a true story, Drew Barrymore leads an effort to save a group of stranded whales in Barrow, Alaska after their path to the ocean is frozen over.
• The Woman in Black- Daniel Radcliffe makes his first attempt to escape the shadow of Harry Potter in the Victorian era horror movie, The Woman in Black, where Radcliffe plays a lawyer who goes to finalize the sale of a house of one of his recently deceased clients, only to find it haunted by an evil spirit.

February 10

• Safe House- Denzel Washington stars as Tobin Frost, the CIA’s most wanted criminal who CIA agent Ryan Reynolds must reluctantly team up with when the CIA safe house they are holding at is attacked.
• Journey 2: The Mysterious Island- The Rock+terrible first movie= hit?  Hopefully it will work this summer with GI Joe: Retaliation and the people behind the Journey franchise(?) hope it will work on this sequel to Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D as The Rock and Nick Hutcherson drag Vanessa Hudgens and Luis Guizman to the titular island in search of Michael Caine and find crazy creatures, Atlantis and other Jules Verne inspired antics.
• Star Wars: Episode 1- The Phantom Menace 3D-  The Star Wars saga begins it’s six year return to theaters in 3D as easily the most hated movie in the franchise, The Phantom Menace, gets re-released.  It might be worth it to sneak in and watch the last 20 minutes in 3D.
• The Vow- Shockingly not based on a Nicolas Sparks novel, The Vow finds Channing Tatum trying to help Rachel McAdams remember their relationship after she loses her memory in a car crash.

February 17

• Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance- Hopefully able to erase the taste of the mediocre original Ghost Rider movie, Spirit of Vengeance sees Nicolas Cage returning as Johnny Blaze and Crank directors Neveldine & Taylor behind the camera.
• The Secret World of Arietty- Hayao Miyazaki’s latest animated feature is a new take on The Borrowers as a young boy discovers a family of little people living in the walls of his house.
• This Means War (February 14th)- Chris Pine and Tom Hardy star as CIA agents and best friends who become romantic rivals when they realize they both have been dating the same girl (Reese Witherspoon) and use the full arsenal of the CIA to sabotage each other.

February 24th

• Act of Valor- Real Navy SEALs star in this action movie as an elite SEAL team uncovers a terrorist plot after they are sent in to rescue a kidnapped CIA agent.
• Gone- Amanda Seyfried plays a kidnap victim who is convinced the man who kidnapped her has returned and kidnapped her sister, but no one believes her.
• Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds- The annual Tyler Perry movie, this one finds a man on the verge of his marriage developing feelings for a single mother.
• Wanderlust- The latest comedy from David Wain stars Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd as a married couple who are forced to leave their fast paced NYC business careers and find themselves on a rural commune.

The Oscar nominations were finally announced for the 84th annual awards and it’s about as stodgy and conservative as any Oscars I can recall.  War Horse, Moneyball, The Descendants, The Artist and Hugo were the major nominees while movies like Drive got snubbed hardcore.  We also have to wait another year to see if motion capture will be recognized as a legitimate form of acting as Andy Serkis was not nominated for Rise of the Planet of the Apes, despite heavy campaigning by Fox.  The only interesting category is Best Animated Movie, which is wide open as Cars 2 and Pixar was shut out and two completely unknown movies took it’s place along with Rango, Puss in Boots and Kung Fu Panda 2.  Check out the complete list below.

Best Picture

• The Artist
• The Descendants
• Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
• The Help
• Hugo
• Midnight in Paris
• Moneyball
• The Tree of Life
• War Horse

Best Director

• Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
• Alexdander Payne, The Descendants
• Martin Scorsese, Hugo
• Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
• Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life

Best Actor In a Supporting Role

• Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn
• Jonah Hill, Moneyball
• Nick Nolte, Warrior
• Christopher Plummer, Beginners
• Max von Sydow, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

• Bérénice Bejo, The Artist
• Jessica Chastain, The Help
• Mellisa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
• Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
• Octavia Spencer, The Help

Best Actor in a Leading Role

• Demian Bichir, A Better Life
• George Clooney, The Descendants
• Jean Dujardin, The Artist
• Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
• Brad Pitt, Moneyball

Best Actress in a Leading Role

• Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
• Viola Davis, The Help
• Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
• Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn

Animated Feature Film

• A Cat in Paris, Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli
• Chico & Rita, Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal
• Kung Fu Panda 2, Jennifer Yuh Nelson
• Puss in Boots, Chris Miller
• Rango, Gore Verbinski

Cinematography

• The Artist, Guillaume Schiffman
• The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Jeff Cronenweth
• Hugo, Robert Richardson
• The Tree of Life, Emmanuel Lubezki
• War Horse, Janusz Kaminski

Foreign Language Film

• Belgium, “Bullhead”, Michael R. Roskam, director
• Canada, “Monsieur Lazhar”, Philippe Falardeau, director
• Iran, “A Separation”, Asghar Farhadi, director
• Israel, “Footnote”, Joseph Cedar, director
• Poland, “In Darkness”, Agnieszka Holland, director

Music (Original Song)

• “Man or Muppet” from The Muppets, Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie
• “Real in Rio” from Rio, Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown, Lyric by Siedah Garrett

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

• The Descendants, Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
• Hugo, Screenplay by John Logan
• The Ides of March, Screenplay by George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon
• Moneyball, Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin.  Story by Stan Chervin
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Screenplay by Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan

Writing (Original Screenplay)

• The Artist, Written by Michel Hazanavicius
• Bridesmaids, Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig
• Margin Call, Written by J.C. Chandor
• Midnight in Paris, Written by Woody Allen
• A Separation, Written by Asghar Farhadi

Art Direction

• The Artist: Laurence Bennett (Production Design); Robert Gould (Set Decoration)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Stuart Craig (Production Design); Stephenie McMillan (Set Decoration)
• Hugo: Dante Ferretti (Production Design); Francesca Lo Schiavo (Set Decoration)
• War Horse: Rick Carter (Production Design); Lee Sandales (Set Decoration)

Costume Design

• Anonymous, Lisy Christl
• The Artist, Mark Bridges
• Hugo, Sandy Powell
• Jane Eyre, Michael O’Connor
• W.E., Arianne Phillips

Documentary Feature

• Hell and Back Again
• If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
• Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
• Pina
• Undefeated

Documentary Short

• The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement, Robin Fryday and Gail Dolgin
• God is the Bigger Elvis, Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson
• Incident in New Baghdad, James Spione
• Saving Face, Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
• The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom, Lucy Walker and Kira Carstensen

Film Editing

• The Artist, Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius
• The Descendants, Kevin Tent
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall
• Hugo, Thelma Schoonmaker
• Moneyball, Christopher Tellefsen

Makeup

• Albert Nobbs, Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnston and Matthew W. Mungle
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Nick Dudman, Amanda Knight and Lisa Tomblin
• The Iron Lady, Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland

Music (Original Score)

• The Adventures of Tintin, John Williams
• The Artist, Ludovic Bource
• Hugo, Howard Shore
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Alberto Iglesias
• War Horse, John Williams

Short Film (Animated)

• Dimanche/Sunday, Patrick Doyon
• The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg
• La Luna, Enrico Casarosa
• A Morning Stroll, Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe
• Wild Life, Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby

Short Film (Live Action)

• Pentecost, Peter McDonald and Eimear O’Kane
• Raju, Max Zähle and Stefan Gieren
• The Shore, Terry George and Oorlagh George
• Time Freak, Andrew Bowler and Gigi Causey
• Tuba Atlantic, Hallvar Witzø

Sound Editing

• Drive, Lon Bender and Victor Ray Ennis
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Ren Klyce
• Hugo, Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl
• War Horse, Richard Hymns and Gary Rydstrom

Sound Mixing

• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Bo Persson
• Hugo, Tom Fleischman and John Midgley
• Moneyball, Deb Adair, Ron Bochar, Dave Giammarco and Ed Novick
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Peter J. Devlin
• War Horse, Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson and Stuart Wilson

Visual Effects

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Tim Burke, David Vickery, Greg Butler and John Richardson
• Hugo, Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossman and Alex Henning
• Real Steel, Erik Nash, John Rosengrant, Dan Taylor and Swen Gillberg
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White and Daniel Barrett
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Dan Glass, Brad Friedman, Douglas Trumbull and Michael Fink

(http://www.slashfilm.com/84th-academy-award-oscar-nominations/)

• A&E developing prequel series to “Psycho”:  A&E, former of home of Steven Seagal: Lawman and other fine programming, is developing a prequel series to the Alfred Hitchcock classic, Psycho.  Called “Bate Motel”,  the series will go into the backstory of Norman Bates and how his relationship with his mother turned him into a murdering psychopath.
• CW developing a Green Arrow television series:  Proabably reeling from the loss of their only notable show, Smallville, the CW is looking to DC for another show, this time based on Green Arrow.  Green Arrow actually appeared on a few episodes of Smallville but this version will have nothing to do with that.  Green Arrow is a character that could be cool if done right but also has an insane history ranging from being a wandering hippy to mayor of his city to a billionaire playboy.
• BBC confirms that Sherlock is getting a third season:  Give us the second season already!
• Star Trek 2 starts shooting: Great.
• The Expendables 2 will be PG-13: It started out as a rumor earlier this week but it was confirmed by Stallone that The Expendables 2 will be PG-13 as per Chuck Norris’ contract.  Norris opposed mostly to the foul language of the script but I’m more concerned how this will effect the violence of the movie, easily one of the most fun parts of the first Expendables.  Hopefully they push it as far as they can.
• Star Wars novel “Darth Plagueis” out now: In the continuing mission to expand on the back stories of every character mentioned in Star Wars, a novel detailing the history of Darth Plagueis, the Sith master who, I believe, trained Emperor Palpatine and could bend the Force to do pretty much anything, even creating life.
• Billy Bob Thorton, Tom Jane and James Marsden battling a bear in Red Machine:  Next week we have Liam Neeson battling wolves in “The Grey” and announced this week is another “man vs beast” movie with Red Machine, directed by David Hackl of Saw V.  Tom Jane and James Marsden star as a pair of estranged brothers who take their girlfriends on a camping trip to help mend their relationship when they come under attack by a legendary, and vicious, grizzly bear nicknamed the Red Machine.  Billy Bob Thorton co-stars as a legendary bear hunter.
• First Look at the new Riddick movie:

• Battle Royale coming to Blu Ray in March: The cult classic about Japanese school kids who are forced to battle each other to the death will arrive to North America for the first time officially in a special edition Blu Ray set from Anchor Bay.  The set will include the theatrical and director’s cut of the movie along with Battle Royale II and a ton of special features.
• James Bond 22 Film Blu Ray set coming later this year: As it’s the 50th year of Bond on film and with a new Bond movie coming later this year, MGM & Fox are releasing a massive box set of all the previous Bond movies, from Dr. No to Quantum of Solace.  Nine of the movies have never had an HD release before and the set will include hours of bonus material.
• Mad Men returns March 25th:  Finally.
• Police Academy reboot in the works:  Scott Zabielski, co-executive producer of Tosh.0, has been hired by New Line to direct a remake/reboot of the first Police Academy.  The original 80′s movie has become a pop culture classic, being referenced by numerous other movies and TV shows and launching the rocket that is the career of Steve Guttenberg.
• Goodfellas TV show coming to AMC: A television adaptation of the Martin Scorsese classic gangster movie, Goodfellas, is coming to AMC sometime in the future but details are few and far between.  The author of the original book the movie was based on, Nicholas Pileggi, will be a writer on the show.
• Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and Ultimate Spider-Man debuting April 1:  DisneyXD is launching a block of programming in April called Marvel Universe that will feature the second season of the amazing Avengers: EMH cartoon and also see the debut of Ultimate Spider-Man, based on the fantastic series by Brian Michael Bendis.  Ultimate Spider-Man will seemingly tie in to the Marvel movie universe as Nick Fury and Agent Coulson will be recurring characters (with Chi McBride and Clark Gregg voicing respectively) and JK Simmons will reprise his role as J. Jonah Jameson.  Drake Bell will voice Peter Parker/Spider-Man.
• The Dark Knight Rises IMAX Tickets on sale now: It’s months away but AMC is pre-selling tickets for midnight IMAX showings of The Dark Knight Rises in select theaters in select cities.  By all accounts, they are going extremely fast.
• 24 and Party Down could be filming by Summer: Keifer Sutherland announced at the recent Television Critics Assosciation press event that the 24 movie should hopefully begin shooting by the end of April, early May and that will be a direct continuation of the show, picking up six months from the end of Season Eight.  Jack Bauer was on the run after going on a murderous rampage in NYC that involved several high ranking American and Russian officials.  Party Down, the cult Starz comedy, might also begin filming in the spring, according to Megan Mullally, and will pick up after season two of the show.
• Arnold Schwarznegger might be joining Stallone in The Tomb:  One of Sly Stallone’s upcoming projects is the prison thriller, The Tomb, where Stallone plays a prison security expert who is wrongfully imprisoned and must use his knowledge to escape.  The latest news is that Arnold has been approached to co-star which would be the greatest Stallone prison team up since Tango & Cash.

• Benedict Cumberbatch the villain of Star Trek 2: The modern day incarnation of Sherlock Holmes, Bendict Cumberbatch, has been cast in JJ Abrams’ sequel to Star Trek as the main villain.  It’s not mentioned whether he will be one of the many alien races or just an evil human.
• World War Z might be a trilogy of films: The long in development adaptation of Max Brooks’ World War Z, starring Brad Pitt, is being considered now for a trilogy of films.  There’s certainly tons of stuff from the book to flesh out three movies but I think they should focus on just getting one done first.
• Horrible Bosses and Bridesmaids Sequels in the Works: In all the R rated comedies that came out last year, Horrible Bosses and Bridesmaids were probably near the top in terms of success and that means that sequel talk is starting.  Horrible Bosses 2 has the screenwriters from 1 on board and the trio of Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day are set to come back as well.  Bridesmaids 2 is a little shaky in that, even if Kristin Wiig doesn’t come back, Universal will still move forward with it.
• Paranormal Activity 4 coming this year: Firmly establishing itself as the new Saw, Paranormal Activity 4 will be released this coming Halloween.  It’s not clear whether it will go further back into the lives of Katie and Kristi or move forward from PA2 but the directors of 3 will be back to direct 4.
• Most Rented Movie from Redbox, Most Pirated Movie of 2011: Redbox released the fact that Just Go With It was it’s most rented movie of 2011 while Fast Five was the most pirated movie (besides porn of course) of 2011 on torrent sites.
• Arnold Schwarznegger’s next project “Black Sands”: Arnold is currently wrapping up “The Last Stand” and will have a bigger role in The Expendables 2 but his next starring role is in the supernatural action movie “Black Sands”.  Arnold said he’s “sort of an angel” and it’s being described as Commando meets Constantine.  Hopefully it’s better than Arnold’s last attempt at supernatural action, End of Days.

January is typically a dumping ground for movies the studios have had lying around or didn’t think were strong enough to be released in November/December.  The seems to be the case for a bunch of this month’s releases but there’s still a couple that look solid like The Grey with Liam Neeson and Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire.  Check out all of this month’s offerings below.

January 6th

• The Devil Inside- A young woman travels with an unauthorized team of Catholic priests who perform exorcisms in an attempt to figure out what’s wrong with her psychotic mother.

January 13th

• Contraband- Mark Wahlberg stars as a former smuggler who is pulled in for “one last job” when his wife’s brother blows a job for a ruthless drug dealer.
• Beauty and the Beast 3D- The Disney classic gets converted to 3D and returns to theaters.
• Joyful Noise- Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton star as church rivals who must join forces to get their choir ready for a massive competition.

January 20th

• Haywire- Steven Soderbergh directs his first straight up action movie with Gina Carrano starring as an elite CIA agent who is betrayed and goes on a revenge fueled rampage against her former employers.
• Red Tails- George Lucus produces this World War II movie about the all African American fighter squadron, the Tuskegee Airmen.
• Underworld Awakening- Kate Beckinsale returns to the Underworld franchise as vampire Selene, who awakens from cryostasis to find humans have not only become aware of the war between between vampires and lycans, but have entered it.

January 27th

• The Grey- Liam Neeson leads a crew of oil workers through the Alaskan wilderness after their plane crashes but things get more dangerous when a pack of vicious wolves starts stalking the group.
• Man on a Ledge- Sam Worthington stars in this Inside Man looking crime movie as a man who is seemingly on the verge of committing suicide but is really just the diversion for a heist.
• One for the Money- Yet another Katherine Heigl romantic comedy, this time she stars as bumbling bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, who goes on the trail of her old high school boyfriend, who has skipped bail and has a massive reward on his head.

It’s the end of another year here at Everything Action and that means that it’s time for each of your Everything Actioncast hosts to give you their picks for the ten best movies of the year.  It was kind of a disappointing year but there were a couple of great summer blockbusters and the latter half of 2011 had some great movie as well.  Tune in to the Everything Actioncast next week for some elaboration on our lists but, for now, check out the top tens below.

Brian’s Top Ten

Honorable Mention: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

You know it’s been a slow movie year if a fourth sequel happens to make my list. But the thing about Pirates 4 isn’t that it’s a “great movie” per se — far from it — but it happens to shake off the rust from the who-cares doldrums of “At World’s End”. Instead Depp here is more of the main focus with Knightley and Bloom out of the way, this time supported by Penelope Cruz and Ian McShane as excellent secondary characters. Not everything here hits the right note (mermaid romance, anyone?) but it manages to garner some of the charm that make the first one such a thrill ride.

10. Thor

Yet another Marvel movie, and perhaps the one that doesn’t hold up as much. (I’m still pondering Iron Man 2.) Despite a fluky plot and questionable character development, Thor has a bad-ass Anthony Hopkins and amazing special effects. Natalie Portman and Kat Dennings are meh-worthy indeed, but at least Chris Hemsworth does a good job in the title role.

9. Horrible Bosses

I do enjoy me some black comedies. Horrible Bosses is a key example of that, with its twists and turns powered by an all-star-esque cast. Charlie Day, who’s been stealing scenes left and right on FX’s “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”, finally gets a role to shine unlike the buddy he’s played in a dozen romantic movies. Also, who knew Jennifer Aniston could be play the perfect evil vixen? Funny stuff.

8. The Hangover Part 2

A textbook example of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Pretty much the same plot as the first film, except this time the guys are in Bangkok and it’s Ed Helms’ future brother-in-law that’s missing. The first Hangover had a bunch of shock moments and in the sequel they try to top them only to come out as… gross. But the bond between the characters that was in the first movie is still there and Zach Galifianakis still shines as Alan. A fun romp that doesn’t improve over the first movie but still worth your time.

7. Paul

I like to describe this movie as a love letter to geek culture. The fact that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost star doesn’t hurt either.

6. Bridesmaids

Before you grab those pitchforks, hear me out. This movie is laugh-out-loud funny. And Kristen Wiig, who has been relegated to playing one-note characters on SNL, is fantastic. I think she might give Amy Poehler and Tina Fey a run for their money. Wiig is supported by a great cast, including Melissa McCarthy whose Megan plays off like a female Zach Galifianakis.

5. X-Men: First Class

Let me get this off my chest: I’ve forgiven Brett Ratner. Mostly since 2011 wasn’t such a good year for him. X3 was a pretty terrible movie but I can gladly say that “First Class” has completely removed that bad taste in my mouth. Hiring Matthew Vaughn (“Kick-Ass”) was a great choice. Michael Fassbender is awesome as a young Magneto. And while I wasn’t too keen on their choices of character history, namely the Xavier/Mystique friendship that was never brought up in the previous movies, I did like how they handled some of the lesser-known “first” X-Men. A step back in the right direction for this franchise.

4. Rise of the Planet of the Apes

I’m an unabashed fan of the original Apes movies. So imagine my horror upon seeing Tim Burton’s travesty in 2001. Really? That’s what he came up with? And don’t get me started on that ending, Marky Mark. Luckily this time around they have smart people behind the scenes and the result is a logical reboot. They could’ve easily made James Franco the focus here but the surprise is Andy Serkis as Caesar who is absolutely amazing. What’s more impressive is that this film not only gives the franchise a fresh start after Burton mucked it up, it also improves on 1972′s eye-rolling “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes”. Very excited to see the direction they take now.

3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

After I finished reading “Deathly Hallows” I knew the movie had to be epic. The Battle of Hogwarts… how could that NOT be a movie masterpiece? While Part 1 contained mostly exposition, Part 2 is mostly a bang with the mighty showdowns that have been hinted at all series long. A thrilling conclusion to one of the most intriguing movie franchises of this young century.

2. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

Yeah, a late addition but well worth it. It’s hard for me to find a fourth film in a franchise that is still as engaging and entertaining as this one. Cruise returns yet again as venerable agent Ethan Hunt who returns to the field to stop a madman from inciting global nuclear war. Simon Pegg returns as the comic relief/tech guru Benji and Jeremy Renner provides a welcome boost as chief analyst Brandt. There’s twists and turns, both literally and plot wise, with some absolutely jaw-dropping action scenes scattered throughout. A fine blend of what made the first and third films so intriguing.

1. Captain America: The First Avenger

Another Marvel movie, only this time our focus is on the first Avenger, Captain America. Mostly a propagandist, it can easily be seen how a character and a movie like this can be easily screwed up. But leave it to Joe Johnston, who 20 years ago nailed the 1930′s aesthetic with “The Rocketeer”. This time he nails the whiz-bang excitement of war-time America in the 1940′s. All while supported by an awesome cast: Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Tommy Lee Jones and Hugo Weaving as the menacing Red Skull. A great lead-in to what’s sure to be one of the best action movies of 2012, “The Avengers”.

Chris’ Top Ten

10. Transformers: Dark of the Moon

9. Rango

8. 13 Assassins

7. Thor

6. The Hangover Part 2

5. X-Men: First Class

4. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

3. Rise of the Planet of the Apes

2. Captain America: The First Avengers

1. Horrible Bosses

Joe’s Top Ten

10. Cedar Rapids

9. Drive Angry

8. Horrible Bosses

7. The Mechanic

6. Insidious

5. Fast Five

4.  Thor

3. X-Men: First Class

2. Rise of the Planet of the Apes

1. Captain America: The First Avenger

Honorable Mentions:

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

The Hangover Part II

Paranormal Activity 3

Zach’s Top Ten

10. Thor- Thor kicked off the Summer superhero movies in a great way and, while still fun, feels more like setup for the Avengers than the more standalone, and superior, Captain America.  Chris Hemsworth was fantastic choice as the God of Thunder.

9. Drive- It probably got a little over-hyped upon release but Drive is still a great crime movie with a surprisingly menacing Ryan Gosling as the unnamed wheelman “hero”, a great soundtrack and atmosphere and some shockingly over the top violence including the best head explosion since Scanners.

8. Real Steel- Rock ‘Em, Sock ‘Em Robots: The Movie seems like the stupidest idea ever but with the charm of Hugh Jackman, better CG robot battles than Transformers and a healthy dose of Rocky IV (Ivan Dragobot!) made Real Steel one of the funnest movies of the year.

7. Fast Five- Expectations were low after the incoherent CG mess that was Fast & Furious but fortunately The Rock came in and delivered a much needed burst of energy and his brutal fight with Vin Diesel was one of the best fights of the year.  The movie also delivered some of the most awesome, over the top action sequences of the year from the opening train heist to the end chase where Diesel and Paul Walker use a giant safe and their muscle cars as weapons.

6. X-Men: First Class- Much like Fast Five above, expectations for a new X-Men movie probably couldn’t be lower, especially after the disaster that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine but First Class came out of nowhere to be the second best superhero movie of the summer and, hopefully, the start of new X trilogy.  The standout of First Class has to be Michael Fassbender as Magneto but James Macavoy was fun as well as a swinging Charles Xavier.

5. Contagion-  The scariest movie of the year, by far, Contagion will give germaphobes a heart attack and non-germaphobes into them.  An all-star cast led by Matt Damon gives different viewpoints into a global outbreak of a deadly virus and the lingering shots of doorknobs and water fountains are scarier than any slasher in a horror movie.

4. Rise of the Planet of the Apes-  Washing the bitter taste of Tim Burton’s disasterous reboot, Rise of the Planet of the Apes was the biggest surprise of the year, one of the best movies of the summer and featured one of the most impressive pure CG creations yet with Caesar, brilliantly performed by Andy Serkis.  Each third of the movie has a distinct feel from the coming of age beginning to the prison break middle to the all out ape rampage of the end, they all work together to create a smart and exciting summer blockbuster.

3. The Muppets- If you didn’t leave The Muppets with a smile on your face, you have no soul.  It was so great to see the entire Muppets gang back on the big screen from the big three of Kermit, Fozzie and Miss Piggy to obscure characters like Uncle Deadly and the new additions (80′s Robot!) were great as well.  Add tons of catchy songs and awesome celebrity cameos and you have one fantastic, hilarious movie.

2. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol- Thankfully I was able to see MI: Ghost Protocol before the year ended because it’s an amazing action movie and the best entry in the Mission Impossible series.  Tom Cruise still kicks all kinds of ass as Ethan Hunt and Jeremy Renner seems like a fine choice to possibly take over the franchise.  It features some amazing action sequences in exotic locations like Dubai, especially Ethan’s death defying climb of the world’s tallest building.  It’s a must see if you like the MI series or just great action in general.

1. Captain America: The First Avenger- The best superhero movie of the year and the best action movie of the year, Captain America was just tons of fun with Joe Johnston going back to his forte; pulp, 40′s era adventure with super heroic bad guys and over the top evil bad guys.  Chris Evans was an absolutely fantastic choice to play Steve Rogers and the effects to show him pre-super soldier serum were amazing.  Cap had a great supporting cast as well from Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving as Red Skull and Hayley Atwell as Agent Carter.  Unlike Thor, Captain America was also a great stand alone movie as well as a great stepping stone to the Avengers.

Honorable Mentions:

Rango

Hobo With a Shotgun

Source Code

Paul

The Mechanic

• Book sequel to “Drive” coming out in April: Drive, one of the most well received movies of 2011, was based on a book by author James Sallis and Sallis has finished a sequel, called “Driven”, that will continue the adventures of the unnamed wheelman/stuntman, played by Ryan Gosling in the movie.
• American Horror Story house actually for sale:  The murder magnet, ghost filled house of FX’s American Horror Story is actually for sale in the greater Los Angeles area for $4.5 million.  The house and it’s interior were used in the pilot of the show and currently an exact replica of the interior has been built at a soundstage.  Demonic gimp suits and slutty ghost maids are not included in the price.
• Green Goblin Makeup Test video from Spider Man 1:  I don’t know about you guys, but I personally cannot get enough of these abandoned special FX like the animatronic Hulk, Nicolas Cage’s Superman suit and now we have the rejected Green Goblin FX from the first Sam Raimi Spider Man movie.  We all know that they eventually went with the weird Power Rangers armor for the Green Goblin but watch this and just imagine how amazing it would have been and how they could not gone this direction.

• Avatar: Special Edition coming to iTunes with enhanced special features:  Different versions of Avatar keep coming out and the latest is coming to iTunes and will allow you to switch, on the fly, between the final cg, rough CG and original green screen footage.  It seems to be only on certain, “memorable” scenes however and will be available for $19.99 in HD and $14.99 in SD sometime next year on the iTunes music store.
• First Look at Stallone in “Bullet to the Head”:  Besides The Expendables 2, Stallone is continuing his return to action with “Bullet to the Head”, directed by Walter Hill and co-starring Jason Momoa and Christian Slater and based on a graphic novel where a hitman and cop have to team up to solve a series of grisly murders.  The first image of the movie came out this week and features Stallone battling, more than likely, Jason Momoa with fire axes.

• Guy Ritchie possibly directing The Man from U.N.C.L.E. movie:  Originally supposed to be a Steven Soderbergh project, Soderbergh recently dropped out and now rumors are that Guy Ritchie might be stepping in to direct an adaptation of the classic 1960′s spy TV show.  The show starred Robert Vaughn, Barbara Moore, Alexander Waverly and David McCallum and followed the adventures of American spy Napoleon Solo and Russian spy Illya Kuryakin as they battled the evil organization THRUSH for international organization UNCLE.  I think if Guy Ritchie was to come on board and apply the Sherlock Holmes mix of grit and humor, it could be pretty cool.
• American Psycho being remade: Last week we found out that Starship Troopers was being remade and now we found out that Lionsgate is moving forward with a new version of American Psycho and have hired a screenwriter.  The original movie is a cult classic, put Christian Bale on the map and is one of the rare movies that is generally agreed upon to be better than the novel it’s based on, so there’s even less reason for this new version to exist.  There is basically no chance of even finding anyone who could match Christian Bale’s amazing, unhinged performance of murderer Patrick Bateman (well, maybe Miles Fisher)
• Neil Marshall directing Hellfest: Neil Marshall (The Descent, Doomsday, Centurion) is a very divisive director, you either love his super violent, cheesy, genre movies or you think he’s a hack (I’m completely on the love side BTW).  Marshall’s next project is the horror movie “Hellfest” and follows a group of unsuspecting visitors to a theme park on Halloween where a costumed killer starts murdering people.
• Peter Weller joins Star Trek 2: Robocop himself, Peter Weller, is now cast in JJ Abrams’ Star Trek sequel.  No information about who he’s playing.
• 24 Movie could start shooting in Spring: Something we’re definitely excited for is the long in development 24 movie.  Apparently a new draft of the script is due to be turned in and, if it’s approved, shooting could start in April of next year, when Keifer will be available.  Keifer is due to return to the small screen early next year on Tim Kring’s “Touch”.
• Joesph Farrell, the man who invented movie trailers, passes away:  Joesph Farrell, who came up with the concept of showing trailers before movies, passed away this past Wednesday at the age of 76.  Farrell founded the National Research Group and, along with trailers, also created the idea of test screening movies and the four marketing “quadrants” of men and women under and over 25.

Something I think we’re going to do on a monthly basis here at Everything Action is give you a briefing about what’s coming up, movie wise, for the coming month.  We’re going to kick it off with this month, which has an especially confusing Christmas week and a couple of movies we’ve been looking forward to (like Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol), along with some that could probably be banned as torture by the Geneva Conventions.

December 9th

• The Sitter
• New Year’s Eve

December 16th

• Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked
• Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

December 18th

• The Darkest Hour
• War Horse

December 21st

• The Adventures of TinTin
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

December 23rd

• We Bought a Zoo

• Universal Studios closing the Jaws ride in January: Following on the heels of other classic Universal Studios Orlando rides like Back to the Future that have been closed, Jaws: The Ride is being shut down in January to make room for an “exciting NEW experience”.  The Studios part of Universal has sort of become the second tier park to Islands of Adventure, especially in the wake of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opening.  The Jaws ride was a great classic boat ride, sort of a more exciting version of Jungle Cruise over at Disney.  I’m wondering if they are closing it to make room for a version of the Transformers ride, the first of which just opened in the Singapore.
• Rifftrax debuts the Riffplayer:  This week Rifftrax debuted their revolutionary new RiffPlayer, a downloadable application that allows you to automatically sync up your Rifftrax audio files to your DVDs.  You open a DVD with the RiffPlayer, open the MP3 and the application keeps them synced up and you can resync if they get out of sync.  There is a list of compatible Riffs on the Rifftrax website.
• Manos: The Hands of Fate coming to Blu Ray:  I think Nostradamus made some kind of prediction about if Manos was ever seen in high quality, it would open a portal to hell but we’ll be tempting fate in the near future as a, possibly psychotic, individual named Ben has found the original 16mm print of Manos: The Hands of Fate, one of the most infamous MST3K episodes ever and one of the worst movies ever made.  Ben has a website called www.manosinhd.com.
• Steven Seagal’s “True Justice” coming to Reelz Channel:  We’ve been hearing about this weird Steven Seagal, scripted TV show for a while but now we now that it is coming to Reelz Channel, who scooped up the controversial “The Kennedys” miniseries earlier this year from History Channel.  True Justice stars Steven Seagal as Elijah Kane (perfect Seagal character name BTW), head of an elite Seattle police unit of undercover cops trying to take down the worst of the worst of the cities criminals.  The show is scheduled to debut in March of next year.
• The Raid coming to US theaters in the spring:  Indonesian action movie “The Raid” made a huge splash at the Toronto International Film Festival a couple months ago and Sony quickly snapped up the rights and are planning on making a remake of it but the original should be coming to, probably limited, theaters sometime next Spring.  Sony had Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda working on a new score for the movie and the best guess is that as soon as it’s done and the movie is re-edited, it will make it’s way to US theaters.
• Starship Troopers remake on the way:  Sony has recently tasked the screenwriters of Thor and X-Men: First Class to get started on a new version of Starship Troopers, which joins Robocop and Total Recall as remakes of Paul Verhoeven movies.  The original Starship Troopers is beloved by many whether you think it’s a masterpiece of satire or just an incredibly hilarious/violent action movie.  I don’t think any movie could match Verhoeven’s over the top take but they could distance themselves by hewing more toward the original Robert Heinlein novel, which was incredibly serious and dark and featured the titular troopers using mechanical power armor to fight, not just Arachnids, but various other alien species.  That seems to be the route that the Total Recall remake is going and I think if they made it like an intergalactic Hurt Locker or something, it could be pretty interesting.

Whenever someone asks me what Everything Action is about, I’m simply going to point at this poster.

This week the trio of Zach, Chris and Joe discuss classic literature that has been turned into movies, the premiere of Season Two of The Walking Dead, question why the new The Thing exists, Batman, the bizarre new genre of action/romantic comedies and much more.

• Show and Tell: Chris and Zach watched the season premiere of The Walking Dead and Chris also caught up on other TV and watched Soldier, Joe watched Fast Five, Joe has been watching his “stories”, Everything Must Go, Fast Five and Batman: Year One and Zach watched Trollhunter and The Thing (2011)
• News: This Means War Trailer, Matt Reeves directing The Twilight Zone, Justified Season Three villains announced, possible actors for John McClane Jr and the New Release Round Up.
• Special Feature: With the release of the latest version of The 3 Musketeers out this weekend, the guys talk about some of their favorite (and not so favorite) movies that have been on classic literature like Frankenstein, The Time Machine, The Lost World, The Count of Monte Cristo, Romeo+Juliet, The Man in the Iron Mask and a bunch more.

We want to hear your comments, feedback and, most importantly, suggestions for discussion topics. Send them all to contact@everythingaction.com. Also, be sure to subscribe to us in the iTunes music store (just do a search for Everything Actioncast in the store) and follow us on twitter @evaction and on Facebook (www.facebook.com/everything.action)

The Walking Dead is finally going to be back on October 16th and to get everyone excited, AMC released six webisodes that highlights a side story that occurs in the early days of the zombie outbreak as a mom and her two children take shelter at a neighbor’s house and things quickly fall apart.  The acting isn’t quite up to the standards of the show but the amazing zombie make up is still in full effect.  You can check out episode 1 below and then follow the links at the end of the video to check out the rest of the episodes (6 in all).

We learned a couple weeks ago that Source Code was getting turned into a TV show by CBS and today we learned that two more movies would be getting “The Series” added to their titles.  First up is The Adjustment Bureau, which SyFy is adapting into a show.  SyFy didn’t say what the series would be like but it’s hopefully going to go more in depth about who the Adjustment Bureau agents are and their methods besides the “magic hats and doors” idea the movie focused on.  It’s also not clear whether the show will focus on one person who figure out the Bureau exits, a la Matt Damon’s character or if each week there will be a new target for the Bureau.

The other movie getting adapted into a show is the Van Damme/Dolph Lundgren “classic”, Universal Soldier, which has been refusing to die for the past 20 years.  Original producers Allen Shapiro and Craig Baumgarten are atteched to the series but no other real information is known like who will star, what the premise is, or what network it will be on.  I’m thinking maybe a “Highlander: The Series” sort of thing where the main character has to fight a new, evil UniSol every week but it seems like a show based on Universal Soldier should have hit during the golden age of syndication that was the mid 90′s.  Original Universal Soldiers, Van Damme and Lundgren, are supposed to be starring in a new Universal Soldier movie, subtitled “A New Dimension” which is going to be 3D and scheduled to be released next year.

Conveniently taking place right before the new TV season starts up, the Emmys handed out awards for the previous season. Modern Family is still the greatest show in the world apparently but perennial favorite Mad Men’s grip on the Drama category seems to have loosened and fan favorites like Margo Martindale of Justified and Peter Dinklage of Game of Thrones won well deserved Supporting Actor awards. Check out the full list below and feel free to argue about what should/shouldn’t have won.

Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series: Julie Bowen, Modern Family
Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series: Ty Burrell, Modern Family
Outstanding Direction, Comedy Series: Michael Allen Spiller, Modern Family
Outstanding Writer In A Comedy Series: Steven Levitan And Jeffrey Richmond, Modern Family
Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series: Jim Parsons, Big Bang Theory
Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series: Melissa McCarthy, Mike & Molly
Outstanding Reality Series: The Amazing Race
Outstanding Writing, Variety/Music/Reality Series: The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Outstanding Directing, Variety/Music/Reality Series: Don Roy King, Saturday Night Live
Outstanding Variety/Music/Reality Series: The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Outstanding Writing In A Drama Series: Jason Katims, Friday Night Lights
Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series: Margo Martindale, Justified
Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series: Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones
Outstanding Directing In A Drama Series: Martin Scorsese, Boardwalk Empire
Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series: Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights
Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series: Julianna Marguiles, The Good Wife
Outstanding Writing In A Movie/Miniseries/Dramatic Special: Julian Fellowes, Downton Abbey
Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Movie/Miniseries/Dramatic Special: Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey
Outstanding Lead Actor In A Miniseries or Movie: Barry Pepper, The Kennedys
Outstanding Directing In A Miniseries, Movie, Or Dramatic Special: Brian Percival, Downton Abbey
Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Movie/Miniseries/Dramatic Special: Guy Pearce, Mildred Pierce
Outstanding Lead Actress In A Movie Or Miniseries: Kate Winslet, Mildred Pierce
Outstanding Miniseries Or Movie: Downton Abbey
Outstanding Drama Series: Mad Men
Outstanding Comedy Series: Modern Family

(List of winners courtesy of Screened.com)

Appearing on the Thor DVD that will be out in a couple weeks is the first of what Marvel says will be a bunch of short films on their upcoming DVDs and possibly in front of future Marvel films in theaters.  This first one, entitled “The Consultant”, features SHIELD Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) as he schemes to figure out a way to keep the Abomination in the custody of General Ross, even though some government higher ups want him pardoned and placed on The Avengers.  It’s pretty quick, but it’s a cool extra to Incredible Hulk and the other Marvel films.  You can check out the short below.