red – Moe Lane

Movie of the Week: RED.

I started watching RED just for one particular scene, and now we’re in for the long haul. I mean, every time I remind myself that I have stuff to do tonight another A-List actor shows up and shoots somebody. What else am I gonna do?

Helen Mirren to play villain in next SHAZAM! film.

…Look, they had me at ‘Helen Mirren,’ honestly. She’ll be fine playing ‘Hespera,’ a hitherto unknown villain in the DC universe. If she could do RED, she can do this*.

Moe Lane

*To quote Warren Ellis, when they asked him how he felt about the way they took his comic book and stretched it out to movie length: “I mean, if you don’t want to see a film with Helen Mirren with a sniper rifle, I’m not sure I want to know you.“

So, they’re thinking of casting a female Doctor…

…look, I haven’t watched the show since Tom Baker (yeah, there are a LOT of things that I should be doing with my time, OK? Call me when they extend every day by eight hours), so in a sense this is me being a buttinsky, but I don’t know if you want to mess with the continu…

A host of names have been suggested in Sunday’s papers, among them Idris Elba, Dame Helen Mirren and John Hurt. [Bolding mine – ML]

…OK never mind. I wouldn’t quibble if it was Helen Mirren. As Warren Ellis said of her performance in RED (which, by the way, was a movie that I loved to death):

Helen Mirren with a sniper rifle.

I mean, if you don’t want to see a film with Helen Mirren with a sniper rifle, I’m not sure I want to know you.

Well, I’m not quite THAT prejudiced, but I can see it from here.

Moe Lane

PS: Yes, I am aware that I am inviting a war in the comments thread.

Movie of the Week: Coneheads.

Honestly, Coneheads should have sucked: it was a SNL-inspired movie that had Sinbad and Tom Arnold in it. And yet, it was an endearingly goofy film that managed to poke gentle fun at various American attitudes towards immigration without actually mocking them overmuch. Heck, even the titular villain of the piece got to stand his ground. I liked it.

And so, goodbye to Red.

Movie of the week: Red.

Red was one of those flicks that I actually got to see in theaters; it was cleverly done, had an excellent cast – it takes real skill to screw up a movie that has Morgan Freeman, Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, and Helen Mirren in it – and the plot was surprisingly sweet, considering the amount of explosions.

Quite a lot of explosions. And automatic weapons fire. Can’t have too much automatic weapons fire in a movie, in my opinion.

Anyway, that’s it for The Eagle Has Landed.

I’ve been meaning to mention…

…that I went and saw RED. It was worth it: the cast was solid, the explosions were many and varied, and there were a surprising number of sweet moments in the film. Fortunately, said sweet moments were the only time that the film took itself seriously, which is also a plus.

The trailer gives a good description, for once:

Check it out.

The ‘RED’ trailer.

I have had a bad track record this year of getting out to see Totally Awesome movies, so I am deathly afraid that fate will conspire somehow from seeing this movie in theaters, too:

Which would be almost a sin. Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, and Helen Mirren in an action comedy, heavy on the explosions. Yeah. DC Comics knows what I like.