The Karate Kid

Starring: Jackie Chan, Jaden Smith, Taraji P. Henson

Directed by: Harald Zwart

Plot: After his mom gets a job in China, Dre becomes the target of his new school’s bullies but gets help from Mr. Han, a secret master of kung fu.

Rotten Tomatoes Freshness: 67%

Critic Consensus: “It may not be as powerful as the 1984 edition, but the 2010 Karate Kid delivers a surprisingly satisfying update on the original.”

The A-Team

Starring: Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson

Directed by: Joe Carnahan

Plot: Charged for a crime they didn’t commit, a special forces team escapes from a military stockade and goes on a mission to clear their names.

RT Freshness: 52%

Critic Consensus: “For better and for worse, Joe Carnahan’s big-screen version of The A-Team captures the superficial, noisy spirit of the TV series.”

So the day after we get the groin grabbingly awesome Expendables trailer we get a new longer trailer for it’s summer competitor, The A-Team.  Liam Neeson is Hannibal, Rampage Jackson is BA, Bradley Cooper is Face and Sharlto Copley is Murdock, pretty great casting but I gotta go with the internet consensus which is we are way less excited for this after seeing The Expendables trailer.  In the trio of  mercenary team movies coming out this year Expendables is definitely my number one must watch and I think I might want to see The Losers more than the A-Team just because I think it’s looking like it’s got a better sense of humor and it’s not going to be stupidly ridiculous i.e. no tanks blowing up planes in mid air. It looks like they’re going in a little bit of a parody route with The A-Team and it’s not working from what I’ve seen (Why would BA hum the A-Team theme?) I’m definitely still going to see the A-Team but I’m a little worried it might be a train wreck. Which mercenary team movie are you most looking forward to?  Check out the trailer and let us know in the comments.

The big screen debut of the A-Team is this summer and we have the first trailer for it.  Starring Liam Neeson as Hannibal, Bradley Cooper as Face, Rampage Jackson as B.A. and Sharlto Copley as Murdock, the trailer looks pretty good.  They’ve got the voice over intro, the van, everybody looks and sounds like their 80′s counterpart. I’m on the fence about the end where the team bails out of a plane in a tank on parachutes and then proceeds to blow up another plane with the tank’s machine gun.  It’s like something out of Crank but the show was always ridiculous so hopefully it will work in the actual movie.  Judge for yourself by watching the trailer below:

The idea has been kicking around for a while but it looks like the A-Team movie might be ramping up.  It was announced a while back that Liam Neeson was to play Hannibal and that Bradley Cooper was going to play Faceman.  Last week news came out that UFC star Quinton “Rampage” Jackson was going to play B.A. Baracus.  The most recent news is that Jessica Biel and Sharlto Copley were the newest cast members added.  Copley, fresh off of District 9, is being offered the role of Howling Mad Murdock and Jessica Biel is being offered an as yet unknown role.  The movie is being produced by Fox and is being directed by Joe Carnahan, who previously directed Smokin’ Aces and Narc.  Ridley Scott is supposed to be on board as a producer.  What do you think of a remake of the A-Team and what your ideal new A-Team be?  Let us know in comments.

Zach: District 9 was a fantastic way to (almost) end the summer.  It has fantastic action and suspense and a brain on it’s shoulders to boot.  Blomkamp makes the universe of the film completely believable with the introductory documentary style and all the little touches like signage and grafitti expressing people’s opinions of the aliens.  The movie then pretty seamlessly transfers into a more traditional narrative as our “hero” Wickus leads an eviction operation into District 9 and gets contaminated by an alien power cell.  The transformation he goes through is horrific and very reminiscent of David Cronenberg classics like The Fly.  Sharlto Copley needs to get some sort of recognition come award time because he is amazing in his ability to run the entire gamut of emotions and makes you at numerous times either hate him, like him, feel disgusted by him or pity him.  The amazing thing is that you also care about his alien “co-star” Chris Johnson, who has figured out a way to jump start the ship and get his people home. The CG of the alien “Prawns” is amazing and has set the bar pretty high for movies like “Avatar” which are promising photo realistic CG.

Blomkamp can handle the drama but he can also handle action, as seen in the last 45 minutes/hour of the film.  Wickus and Chris use some awesome weapons including a gun that fires what looks like electricity that instantly explodes whatever it comes in contact with and Wickus eventually pilots a super powerful mech in an all out battle through District 9.

There is really not a lot to say that’s negetive about the movie.  I guess the main thing would be that everyone besides Wickus is pretty much a stereotypical character, there’s the evil bureaucrats, sadistic military men and the worried wife.  None of the humans are in the same league as Copley in terms of performance.

District 9 is an original, fun, thrilling and also thought provoking movie from someone who is surely going to be a director to watch for in the future.  If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend you go and check it out.

5 out of 5

Brian: I may not be a filmmaker, but I know that making a good action movie with some cultural relevance is hard. Sure, “Rambo” contained a deep current events issue with the atrocities in Myanmar, but you didn’t really learn anything from it. “District 9″ is a movie that takes place in South Africa and contains a story about a group separated from culture and treated horribly… but doesn’t straight-up allude to apartheid.

The thing I found most remarkable about this movie about aliens and a scrappy underdog action “hero” was that it seemed so real. Blomkamp has a knack for using the “mockumentary” style to give us a good look at just what is going on at the beginning of the movie. While this techinque has been over-played recently in films, Blomkamp uses it to familiarize the audience with the predicament.

Even though District 9 has the intention of being a movie with a message, it also balances the drama with the action to keep the casual moviegoer interested. When we are introduced to Wilkus he’s the perfect shrimpy little nerd… but by the end of the movie, he has something to fight for. He becomes the little guy to root for.

Not to mention, the special effects are just awesome. The aliens are definitely realistic, but I found the weapons and explosions to be particularly impressive. District 9 may not win Best Picture, but it does more to keep itself from being more than a moronic movie with shit blowing up. (You hear me, Mr. Bay?) It’s a surprise hit with reason. Let’s hope Hollywood learns from this success instead of beating us over the head with superheroes and transforming robots.

5 out of 5