Tag Archive: Colin Farrell


All the movies you’ll want to see in 2019

Filed under: Fantasy Realms, Movies, Retro Fix, Sci-Fi Café, Superheroes — Leave a comment
December 25, 2018

Merry Christmas!

It’s that time of year again, time to take a look forward at what movies should be on your radar for 2019.  Are you going to see them all?  Heck no.  These are the genre films we think borg readers will want to know about to make their own checklists for the coming year–and they are only the films we know about so far.  We pulled 78 of the hundreds of films that have been finalized or are in varying stages of final production, slated for next year’s movie calendar.

What looks to top the list for most fanboys and fangirls?  The last of the nine films in the Star Wars saga.  Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, and Spider-Man: Far From Home.  Shazam! is DC’s contribution.  Quentin Tarentino returns to movies to direct Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and Martin Scorsese is back with an all-star cast in The Irishman (on Netflix).  M. Night Shyamalan finishes his dark superhero trilogy with Glass.  Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton return in Terminator.  Jordan Peele is back with another horror film with Us.

Do you like sequels?  This is your year.  Another Men in Black, X-Men, Shaft, Happy Death Day, Lego Movie, Hellboy, John Wick, Kingsman, Jumanji, The Secret Life of Pets, How to Train Your Dragon, Fast and the Furious, Zombieland, Addams Family, Charlie’s Angels, Godzilla, Shaun the Sheep, Annabelle,and Stephen King’s It and Pet Sematary—Disney is trying to get you to move into your local theater with another Toy Story, Aladdin, Dumbo, Frozen, and Lion King–all in one year.  Yep, lots and lots of sequels are coming.

Some films don’t have locked-in release dates yet.  Amazon Prime and Netflix haven’t revealed dates for these 2019 releases:

  • Martin Scorcese’s The Irishman, a film about Jimmy Hoffa starring Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel, Ray Romano, and Bobby Cannavale (Netflix)
  • The Kid, a Western biopic with Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Dane DeHaan, and Vincent D’Onofrio (Netflix)
  • The Man Who Killed Hitler Then Bigfoot, starring Sam Elliott (Netflix)
  • 6 Underground, a Michael Bay film starring Ryan Reynolds, Ben Hardy, Dave Franco, and Mélanie Laurent (Netflix)
  • The Last Thing He Wanted, Dee Rees directs Anne Hathaway, Ben Affleck, Willem Dafoe, and Toby Jones; journalist quits newspaper job to become an arms dealer for a covert government agency (Netflix)
  • The Laundromat, Steven Soderbergh directs Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, Antonio Banderas, James Cromwell, about the Pentagon Papers (Netflix)
  • Radioactive, Rosamund Pike plays Marie Curie, with Anya Taylor-Joy (Amazon)

Some of these films will have revised release dates, or get pushed to 2020.

So grab your calendar and start making your plans–here are the movies you’ll want to see in 2019 (and many you might not):

January

Glass – Superhero, M. Night Shyamalan trilogy part 3, stars Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, James McAvoy; continues where Unbreakable and Split left off – January 18.

Serenity – Mystery/Thriller, stars Anne Hathaway, Jason Clarke, Djimon Hounsou, Jeremy Strong, Diane Lane; sorry, no relation to Firefly – January 25.

King of Thieves – Heist Comedy, stars Jim Broadbent, Tom Courtenay, Charlie Cox, Michael Gambon, and Ray Winstone – January 25.

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All the Movies You’ll Want to See in 2017

Filed under: Fantasy Realms, Movies, Retro Fix, Sci-Fi Café, Superheroes — 1 Comment
December 24, 2016

rocket

Our annual “All the Movies You’ll Want to See…” series has been one of the most viewed of all of our entries at borg.com each year.  So this year we again scoured Hollywood and its publicity machine for as many genre films coming out in 2017 that have been disclosed.  The result is a whopping 58 movies, many you’ll probably want to see in the theater or catch on video (and some you may want to skip).  We bet you’ll find a bunch below you’ve never heard of.  Bookmark this now for your 2017 calendar!

Most coming out in the second half of 2017 don’t even have posters released yet.  We’ve included descriptions and key cast so you can start planning accordingly.

What do we think will be the biggest hits of the year?  How about Star Wars: Episode VIII or Wonder Woman?   Luc Besson’s Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets?  Ghost in the Shell?  Or Beauty and the Beast? 

justice

You’ve heard endlessly about Logan and Justice League, but 2017 will also see numerous other sequels, like Alien: Covenant, Blade Runner 2049, Thor: Ragnarok, and sequels for Underworld, Resident Evil, Planet of the Apes, Pirates of the Caribbean, XXX, John Wick, King Kong, The Fast and the Furious, Cars, The Kingsman, Transformers, Despicable Me.   And The Six Billion Dollar Man is finally on its way.  Look for plenty of Dwayne Johnson, Tom Cruise, Vin Diesel, Ben Affleck, Samuel L. Jackson, Zoe Saldana, Hugh Jackman, John Goodman, Michael Peña, Ryan Reynolds, Sofia Boutella, and Elle Fanning in theaters this year.

So wait no further, here are your genre films for 2017:

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Fantastic Beasts–The world of Harry Potter without the wonder

Filed under: Fantasy Realms, Movies — Leave a comment
November 28, 2016

fantastic-beasts

Review by C.J. Bunce

There’s no such thing as a “sure thing.”  If there was, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them–the big screen adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s spin-off novel from the Harry Potter series–would have been an easy success.  Released in the same month, a trailer  for Beauty and the Beast starring Emma Watson set YouTube viewer records.  Why?  Fans of Potter can’t get enough, they’ll never get enough, and that means anything related to Hogwarts is prime territory to exploit, including its actors.

So why should Fantastic Beasts work?  It’s a story written by Rowling.  It’s in the same universe as her past successes (or is it?).  It’s about fantasy beasts (or is it?).  Fantastic Beasts follows a Dr. Doolittle-inspired wizard named Newt Scamander (played by Eddie Redmayne), who is in 1920s New York City hunting a new beast to protect for his unique version of a magical zoo.  He keeps these beasts in a suitcase, which is either bigger on the inside (sounds familiar?) or it somehow serves as a portal to a wider world where Scamander can protect the beasts from those that don’t fancy beastie types.  If the  beasts remained the focus of the story, a journey where we met several of these creatures and explored the awe and majesty of these brilliant creations from the visual effects artists, liked the klepto duck-billed platypus or the Groot-like Bowtruckle–or maybe actually explore where in the world to find them as the title says–Fantastic Beasts could have been what fans are looking for.  Unfortunately the story doesn’t know what it wants to be and instead gets bogged down in a dark and gloomy drama about a troubled, victimized orphan of the Anakin Skywalker variety.

fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-queenie-and-kowalski

A glimmer of heart can be found in a hapless wannabe baker named Kowalski, played by Dan Fogler, and a woman from the magical world named Queenie, played by Alison Sudol.  You could edit out every scene these two characters are not in and be left with a compelling story.  Their acting, the characterization, and chemistry is the stuff of a good romance movie.  Their performances are also the only strong ties in the film to a believable 1920s setting–both, with their accents and mannerisms, seem to fall out of a film from the Golden Age of Hollywood, despite art direction that never quite gives the feel we’re in the Roaring ’20s.

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SDCC 2016–Warner Bros releases new trailer for Fantastic Beasts

Filed under: Con Culture, Fantasy Realms, Movies — Leave a comment
July 23, 2016

fantastic Beasts SDCC 2016

At San Diego Comic-Con this weekend, Warner Bros. has released a new look at J.K. Rowling’s return to the wizarding world, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, derived from the Hogwarts textbook of the same name by magizzoologist Newt Scamander.   Fantastic Beasts is a prequel with a screenplay written by J.K. Rowling–her first–and it’s set in 1926 New York City.  It follows Eddie Redmayne as Scamander, a Charles Darwin of sorts cataloguing magical creatures.  It is a prequel, but don’t expect to see young Hogwarts professors or other familiar names.  However, the trailer and possibly the film is borrowing at least some musical cues from John Williams’ Harry Potter theme.

Fantastic Beasts is directed by David Yates, who served as director of the final four Harry Potter films. Harry Potter fans will learn some new lingo, like “No-Maj”–American for Muggle.  A No-Maj named Jacob, played by Dan Fogler, has a run-in with Scamander, Scamander loses his magical case, and some beasties escape, which may reveal the wizarding world to the rest of us.  Fantastic Beasts co-stars Katherine Waterston (Steve Jobs) as Porpentina, Alison Sudol (Transparent) as Queenie, Ezra Miller (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) as Credence, Ron Perlman (Hellboy, Star Trek Nemesis) as Gnarlack, Samantha Morton (Minority Report, John Connor, Jane Eyre) as Mary Lou, Jon Voight (Mission Impossible, National Treasure) as Henry Shaw, Sr., Carmen Ejogo (Selma) as Seraphina, Jenn Murray (Brooklyn) as Chastity, and Colin Farrell (Total Recall, Phone Booth, Minority Report, Daredevil) as Percival Graves.

Fantastic Beasts comic con trailer

Take a look at this new behind-the-scenes feature for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (and raise your hand if you wish Colin Farrell were playing a young Professor Snape):

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First look–J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Filed under: Fantasy Realms, Movies — Leave a comment
January 31, 2016

fantastic-beasts-cast-xlarge

This weekend Warner Bros. has released a behind the scenes look at J.K. Rowling’s return to the wizarding world, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, derived from the Hogwarts textbook of the same name by magizzoologist Newt Scamander.  Fantastic Beasts is a prequel with a screenplay written by J.K. Rowling–her first–and it’s set in 1926 New York City.  It follows Eddie Redmayne as Scamander, a Charles Darwin of sorts cataloguing magical creatures.  It is a prequel, but don’t expect to see young Hogwarts professors or other familiar names.

Fantastic Beasts is directed by David Yates, who served as director of the final four Harry Potter films.  Harry Potter fans will learn some new lingo, like “No-Maj”–American for Muggle.  A No-Maj named Jacob, played by Dan Fogler, has a run-in with Scamander, Scamander loses his magical case, and some beasties escape, which may reveal the wizarding world to the rest of us.  Fantastic Beasts co-stars Katherine Waterston (Steve Jobs) as Porpentina, Alison Sudol (Transparent) as Queenie, Ezra Miller (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) as Credence, Ron Perlman (Hellboy, Star Trek Nemesis) as Gnarlack, Samantha Morton (Minority Report, John Connor, Jane Eyre) as Mary Lou, Jon Voight (Mission Impossible, National Treasure) as Henry Shaw, Sr., Carmen Ejogo (Selma) as Seraphina, Jenn Murray (Brooklyn) as Chastity, and Colin Farrell (Total Recall, Phone Booth, Minority Report, Daredevil) as Percival Graves.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them poster

Take a look at this new behind-the-scenes feature for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (and raise your hand if you wish Colin Farrell were playing a young Professor Snape):

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On video–Total Recall remake doesn’t measure up to the sci-fi classic

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February 7, 2013

Total Recall Farrell

By Elizabeth C. Bunce

The 2012 remake of Total Recall was one of our most hotly-anticipated films.  Somehow we missed it in the theater, and our first efforts to catch it on video ought to have told us something (two broken Blu-Rays, an extra-long wait for a Netflix copy, and part of the audience dozing off during the initial screening).  It all seemed so promising–proven material, a top-notch cast (Colin Farrell, Jessica Biel, and Kate Beckinsale in her signature running-and-jumping role), and some pretty cool teasers at Comic-Con.  What could go wrong?

Total Recall trip to Australia

Well, as it turns out, everything.  Gloomy set design and glacial pacing dragged down the first act, and while the action sequences are acceptable genre fare, the movie just doesn’t have any zip to it.  The actors seem bored with the material, and the story (which owes more to the Bourne franchise than to Philip K. Dick’s classic short piece “We Can Remember it for You Wholesale”) suffers from utterly uninteresting gimmicks and a preposterous premise.  The villain has one of the least credible goals I can remember seeing in movie (kill everyone in Australia and replace them with robots, and I am not making that up).  But most baffling of all is the filmmakers’ decision to abandon the Recall plot device almost from the get-go.  There is none of the mind-bending “is it real, or is it Recall?” mystery played up so well in the 1990 version starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone, let alone Dick’s bizarre original story.  Why call this film Total Recall at all?  Because they couldn’t get the rights for The Bourne Future?

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And now… the actual trailer for the new Total Recall movie

Filed under: Movies, Sci-Fi Café — Leave a comment
April 3, 2012

Last Thursday we posted the short teaser for the full length trailer for the new Total Recall movie, due to hit theaters August 3, 2012.   The full trailer has finally been released and here it is:

We like seeing John Cho here, the actor who is the new Sulu in the Star Trek franchise and Harold from the Harold and Kumar movies.

Kate Beckinsale seems like an odd choice for the role originally played by Sharon Stone.  But we like the idea of Jessica Biel as Quaid’s old spy partner:

The big action sequence after the memory implant seems a bit off, but we can chalk that up to initial trailer-itis–that inability of Hollywood to get their marketing guys to really nail a good preview from the millions of dollars of film footage.  Colin Farrell will take some getting used to, filling Arnold Schwartzenegger’s shoes.  Still, the cop outfits look great so far:

The trailer looks like this might be a bit in the vein of Paycheck, the Philip K. Dick short story adapted to film starring Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman–and a very fun film at that.  Here is the official movie poster for the film:

There seems to be a lull in getting some good sci-fi, fantasy, or superhero movies into the theaters right now.  Maybe it’s this crazy early spring but it seems like we’ve been waiting for some new movies for a while now… waiting and waiting… Bring on the summer blockbusters!  Avengers isn’t out for another month!

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First look: A teaser… for a trailer… for the new Total Recall

Filed under: Comics & Books, Movies, Sci-Fi Café — Leave a comment
March 29, 2012

I’ve got to admit, I can’t get enough of movies based on the works of Philip K. Dick.  And even though I can’t imagine anyone playing Cohaagen better than the great sci-fi character actor Ronny Cox (Robocop, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Stargate, Medium), I am sure Bryan Cranston (The Flash, X-Files, Breaking Bad, John Carter) will do nicely.  I’m talking about Total Recall–the new adaptation of Dick’s short story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” originally adapted 22 years ago into the 1990 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger at the peak of his acting career, which became a sci-fi classic.  Since last year when we saw the Columbia Pictures display across the street from the San Diego Comic-Con, revealing one of the future cops and police vehicles, we’ve been eagerly looking forward to this film.

Columbia just released a teaser for a trailer coming this Sunday.  That’s right–a teaser for a teaser.  Check it out:

You can also find some early marketing at the official Total Recall website.

Colin Farrell (Minority Report, Phone Booth, Daredevil), Kate Beckinsale (Underworld, Much Ado About Nothing), Jessica Biel (Stealth, Next), Bill Nighy (Shaun of the Dead, Doctor Who, Harry Potter, Underworld, Pirates of the Caribbean), Ethan Hawke (Gattaca), John Cho (Star Trek)–that’s a pretty good cast with something for everyone.  And consistent with past envisioning of Dick’s future Earth, this teaser looks a good deal like the art design is similar to that used in Minority Report, which also featured Colin Farrell.  Still, at 30 seconds this one truly is a teaser in the truest sense of the word.

So we can look forward to even more this Sunday!  But the release date?  August 3, 2012.  Ugh!!  Enough teasing already.

C.J. Bunce

Editor

borg.com

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First look: Total Recall 2012

Filed under: Backstage Pass, Movies, Retro Fix, Sci-Fi Café — Leave a comment
July 30, 2011

One of the reasons tens of thousands of fans flock to San Diego each year is for an advance look at the best of what’s to come in the next year.  Sometimes Hollywood fulfills our expectations and sometimes it lets us down, but the advance peeks always leave you eager to see even more.  Across the street from the San Diego Convention Center this year during Comic-Con weekend, Columbia Pictures revealed a futuristic police car and future police officer from the new  remake of the movie Total Recall, to hit theaters in 2012. 

  

I think the general consensus is that it seems a little early for a Total Recall remake or re-imagining.  The original movie starring Arnold Schwartzenegger as Doug Quaid is a sci-fi classic, with standout supporting performances by Ronny Cox as Cohaagen, Michael Ironsides as Richter, and Sharon Stone as Doug’s wife Lori.  The special effects were first rate when the original premiered in 1990, including Arnold wearing a fake woman’s head as a disguise that splits apart, X-ray body scanners at the future airport–years before they would become commonplace, and that scene you can’t forget were Arnold has to pull a tracking device out through his nose.  The original is also cited by anti-violence types as having one of the highest body counts of innocent bystanders in any film.  It was–and still is–the ultimate sci-fi, action adventure.  So why remake it?  For one, the original had a box office take of $261 million.   Special effects technologies are constantly changing, so the best answer is probably “why not?”  Here is the only movie still released so far:

The new look from the San Diego display last weekend immediately resembles another Philip K. Dick story turned major motion picture: Minority Report.  And like Minority Report, the new Total Recall will feature Colin Farrell (Phone Booth, Daredevil), this time in the lead role, as Doug Quaid.  The remake also stars Kate Beckinsale (Underworld series, Much Ado About Nothing) as Doug’s wife Lori, Jessica Biel (Stealth, Blade: Trinity, Next, The A-Team) as Melina, Bill Nighy (Doctor Who, Underworld:  Rise of the Lycans, Pirates of the Caribbean series, Harry Potter series) as Kuato, John Cho (Star Trek 2009, Harold and Kumar series), Ethan Hawke (Gattaca, Assault on Precinct 13, Alive), and this time out Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad, Batman: Year One) plays the tough Cohaagen, the leader of Euromerica who, under the cover of protecting his people, is secretly readying an invasion of New Shanghai.  That’s right, this story doesn’t take place on the surface of Mars as the original and so there will be no reference this time out to sustaining oxygen for the planet’s residents.

Philip K. Dick’s original short story “We Can Remember it for You Wholesale” is a brief story as short stories go so there is definitely room to expand the story in any number of directions.  But the producers promise this version will come closer than the 1990 film to the original short story.  Total Recall is currently in production at Pinewood Toronto Studios with filming expected to wrap in September 2011.

C.J. Bunce

Editor

borg.com

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