Tag Archive: Jai Courtney


Honest Thief–Liam Neeson returns to the big screen… for vengeance

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September 17, 2020

It was only a year ago that we reviewed Cold Pursuit here at borg, which star Liam Neeson revealed to be his final movie.  So what’s with the new movie Honest Thief?  Not that we’re complaining–Neeson is back again in revenge mode just as we like him best, plus he’s bringing a fun group of some of our favorite action genre stars.  The plot?  Neeson plays a man in love, a man in love who is a thief.  But he wants to turn over a new leaf.  But circumstances keep pulling him back in… into Taken and The Commuter’s vengeance Liam Neeson.

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Terminator: Dark Fate–Schwarzenegger and Hamilton are back in first trailer, with some new faces

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May 23, 2019

In 1984 The Terminator introduced us to Linda Hamilton′s young Sarah Connor and her first encounter with Arnold Schwarzenegger′s now classic T-800 “Terminator” cyborg.  In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, director James Cameron amped up Hamilton’s role, resulting in arguably the best female character in all of science fiction movies (in a close heat with Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley in Aliens, also from Cameron), while making Arnold’s T-800 a good guy.  In Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, we watched Sarah’s son John Connor (played by Nick Stahl) and his future wife (played by Claire Danes) as they approached Judgment Day–the day of the technological apocalpyse.  In the fourth film Terminator: Salvation, audiences saw an older John Connor (Christian Bale) fighting the machines after the series’ Judgment Day, along with a young Kyle Reese played by Anton Yelchin, recounting the origins of the T-800 Arnold would embody later in the timeline.  With Terminator: Genisys, John (next played by Jason Clarke) and Kyle (played by Jai Courtney) arrive at the future point where humans travel back in time to prevent Skynet, and in that timeline John encounters his own problems, and Kyle returns to a modified version of the past where Sarah (played by Solo: A Star Wars Story and Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke) is working with a T-800 (again played by Arnold, and again as a good guy) to prevent the Skynet future apocalypse from happening.

Welcome to the day after Judgment Day.

It’s now 35 years since we first heard the message from Kyle Reese given to Sarah Connor, “There’s no fate but what we make for ourselves.”  Producer James Cameron is back, with Tim Miller (Deadpool) directing the autumn theatrical release Terminator: Dark Fate.  This time we’re told audiences are supposed to ignore everything that came after Terminator 2, and substitute this next chapter, similar to the “picture hopping” the Halloween movie franchise has become known for.  The original Sarah Connor is back battling a Terminator.  Newcomer to the series, Mackenzie Davis is one, “almost human.”  And Gabriel Luna plays another, making them the faces of the next Terminators, following in the footsteps of Arnold, Jason Patrick, Kristanna Loken, Byung-Hun Lee, and Jason Clarke.

Check out this new poster for the film and the first trailer for the sixth Terminator flick, Terminator: Dark Fate:

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How about a Chaykin or Thorp-inspired story? Look for a young John McClane in Die Hard: Year One movie

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August 3, 2018

Another “prequel that is also a sequel” is in the works, and this time it’s for one of the action genre’s biggest franchises.  Director Len Wiseman confirmed at a Television Critics Association event that casting for both a young John McClane and young Holly Gennero will be part of a new film: Die Hard: Year One.  Wiseman is waiting for a final script from writers Carey W. Hayes and Chad Hayes.  He said that story will feature both a flashback element and a future story.  The past will focus on McClane in the 1970s.  And Wiseman said he and Bruce Willis want to be part of the process to select the actor who portrays the young McClane.

Back in 2015 when the idea for this movie first surfaced, one logical casting idea was floated:  Why not Joseph Gordon-Levitt?  Gordon-Levitt played a young McClane character in Looper, and he also has the acting chops to come back for more for such an iconic character.  No one else seems that obvious, yet Nicholas Hoult might be a good choice considering his age and significant (and critically acclaimed)action performances in the X-Men series and Mad Max: Fury Road.  Another choice that would be difficult not to rule out is Jai Courtney, who played McClane’s son in 2013’s A Good Day to Die Hard.

It also seems obvious that the script writers should look to the two pieces of source material that have already been written.  First would be the novel that inspired the film series, Roderick Thorp’s Nothing Lasts Forever (reviewed here at borg.com), the sequel to the 1966 novel The Detective, which was turned into a movie starring Frank Sinatra.  If you’re looking to get into the shoes of McClane, this would be the place to begin.  But next would be renowned writer Howard Chaykin’s own take on the same title, his comic book series Die Hard: Year One published by BOOM! Comics in 2010 (reviewed here at borg.com).  It doesn’t appear the new script writers are looking to these two books for ideas, but note the covers above to the Chaykin series have a great vibe fans would no doubt love to see on the big screen.

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SDCC 2016–DC saved the best for last with reveal of final Suicide Squad preview

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July 24, 2016

Worst Heroes Ever

It looks like the great preview that accompanied the premiere of Star Trek Beyond this week.  Suicide Squad finally has a great trailer that should entice everyone to climb aboard, courtesy of DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. at San Diego Comic-Con Saturday.  With brief but good looks at each of the key characters it is now established that this is definitely a take on the classic war movie The Dirty Dozen–the original and ultimate film about a band of prisoner misfits setting out to save the world.

This time we get a good look at each of the Worst Heroes Ever and for a motley group of villains, they’re looking pretty good.  And Warner Bros. is having a big day with its movie preview releases at Comic-Con.

Adam Beach (Everwood, Hawaii Five-0), is Slipknot, Jai Courtney (Jack Reacher, Terminator: Genisys) is Captain Boomerang, Cara Delevingne is Enchantress, Karen Fukuhara is Katana, Joel Kinnaman (RoboCop) is Rick Flagg, Margot Robbie (Pan Am, The Wolf of Wall Street) is Harley Quinn, Will Smith (Men in Black, I, Robot) is Deadshot, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Lost, Thor: The Dark World) is Killer Croc,  and they star along with Jared Leto as The Joker in the comic book take on The Dirty Dozen, as a group of super villains are released from prison to complete a hero’s mission.  And look for Jay Hernandez as Chato Santana aka El Diablo, a character created by our pals Jai Nitz, Phil Hester, and Ande Parks in 2008’s excellent six-issue series El Diablo: The Haunted Horseman (be sure to check it out at Amazon.com here if you haven’t read it yet).

flying bat

So this is it–the final trailer for Suicide Squad:

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Stream live panels now from Nerd HQ’s sixth year in San Diego

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July 23, 2016

Levi Barrowman Amell Rickards

Bummed that you’re not getting your convention fix this weekend because you’re not in San Diego?  Never fear, you can watch the weekend’s panels happening offsite in San Diego at the sixth annual Nerd HQ event online now.

Nowhere else can you watch every panel with Stephen Amell, John Barrowman, Nathan Fillion, Joss Whedon, Scott Bakula, Jennifer Morrison, Jai Courtney, Jared Padalecki, and Tom Hiddleston this weekend.  Chuck star Zachary Levi began Nerd HQ as a charity event alternative for fans who couldn’t get tickets to SDCC.  Ad hoc auctions occur throughout the panels to raise money for Operation Smile.  Check out the fun borg.com staff had at past Nerd HQ events here.

Streaming runs live through Sunday.  Here is the line-up for today and tomorrow (times are Pacific Time), followed by ALL of the Thursday and Friday panels below and the live streaming link:

ROBOT CHICKEN
July 23, 2016 11:00 AM

A Conversation with Breckin Meyer and the Robot Chicken Writers/Producers

SCOTT BAKULA
July 23, 2016 12:00 PM

A Conversation with Scott Bakula

Orphan Black Nerd HQ 2016

JENNIFER MORRISON
July 23, 2016 1:00 PM

A Conversation with Jennifer Morrison

WORKAHOLICS
July 23, 2016 2:00 PM

A Conversation with the cast of WORKAHOLICS

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Suicide Squad–The next “Dirty Dozen” gets two dozen new movie posters

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June 24, 2016

suicidesquad-poster-cereal-full    suicide squad -characterposters-batch1-poster8

How much marketing do you need to advertise a movie anyway?  For DC Entertainment, when your The Dirty Dozen-style ensemble cast movie features twelve distinct lead characters, that apparently means you role out 24 new posters.  That’s what happened this week–DC released two sets of character studies, one rancid candy cereal poster, and one comic booky explosive cast poster, giving fans of the team and movie poster collectors a new collect ’em all project.

Or you can view them all in high quality digital format below.

For cosplayers, it’s the first really good view of costume details.  Anyone else have the urge to Photoshop some extra characters (or friends) into the big cast poster?

suicide squad -characterposters-batch1-poster6    suicide squad -characterposters-batch2-poster9

Here’s the roster: Adam Beach (Everwood, Hawaii Five-0), as Slipknot, Jai Courtney (Jack Reacher, Terminator: Genisys) as Captain Boomerang, Cara Delevingne as Enchantress, Karen Fukuhara as Katana, Joel Kinnaman (RoboCop) as Rick Flagg, Margot Robbie (Pan Am, The Wolf of Wall Street) as Harley Quinn, Will Smith (Men in Black, I, Robot) as Deadshot, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Lost, Thor: The Dark World) as Killer Croc, and Jay Hernandez as El Diablo.  Viola Davis plays Amanda Waller, head of the agency A.R.G.U.S., and Jared Leto will play The Joker.

Check out all 24 of the new Suicide Squad posters after the break:

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DC and Warner Bros. deliver with new Suicide Squad trailer

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January 20, 2016

Suicide Squad

After some ho-hum teasers for the 2016 movie release Suicide Squad, Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment released a new full-length trailer for the DC Universe movie (set to Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”) Tuesday during the DC Films Presents: Dawn of the Justice League special on The CW Network.  This time we get a good look at each of the Worst Heroes Ever.

And for a motley group of villains, they’re looking pretty good.

Adam Beach (Everwood, Hawaii Five-0), is Slipknot, Jai Courtney (Jack Reacher, Terminator: Genisys) is Captain Boomerang, Cara Delevingne is Enchantress, Karen Fukuhara is Katana, Joel Kinnaman (RoboCop) is Rick Flagg, Margot Robbie (Pan Am, The Wolf of Wall Street) is Harley Quinn, Will Smith (Men in Black, I, Robot) is Deadshot, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Lost, Thor: The Dark World) is Killer Croc,  and they star along with Jared Leto as The Joker in the comic book take on The Dirty Dozen, as a group of super villains are released from prison to complete a hero’s mission.  And look for Jay Hernandez as Chato Santana aka El Diablo, a character created by our pals Jai Nitz, Phil Hester, and Ande Parks in 2008’s excellent six-issue series El Diablo: The Haunted Horseman (be sure to check it out at Amazon.com here if you haven’t read it yet).

Suicide Squad posters

Check out this entertaining trailer for DC’s Suicide Squad, and you couldn’t have a better tune to back it up:

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3D Blu-ray Review–Terminator Genisys has all the right stuff

Filed under: Movies, Retro Fix, Sci-Fi Café — 1 Comment
November 18, 2015

Arnold Terminator Genisys

Few sci-fi films are as revered as James Cameron’s Terminator and Terminator II: Judgment Day. Judgment Day is regarded by many as one of the greatest sequels to any movie ever made.  Both films made American Film Institute lists and are the kind of movies we can watch hundreds of times and still keep enjoying them.  Two sequels followed, no longer under the direction of Cameron, Terminator III: Rise of the Machines, a worthy but lesser sequel reviewed at borg.com here, and the far, far lesser Terminator: Salvation.  So coming into the fourth sequel this past summer with the opening of director Alan Taylor’s Terminator Genisys, expectations by many were low.  But fans of sci-fi and borgs knew a winner when they saw it.

Somehow Terminator Genisys manages to be not only good, but great, and not only that, it manages to equal the punch and excitement of both Terminator and Terminator II.  A pretty big feat that holds its own even off the big screen on the newly released 3D Blu-ray, DVD, and Ultraviolet releases available this month.

Terminator Genisys cast

That’s right, if you love the universe of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s sometimes villain, sometimes hero Terminator T-800, you’re going to love this film, which is not only loyal to James Cameron’s originals, it flat-out amps up the sci-fi and takes every element that made the earlier films great and expands them into new, exciting places.  This includes time travel, big action, story twists, casting, acting, and all the cybernetic tech you could hope for.  Adhering to a carefully laid out plan covering two parallel timelines (that we know of), we revisit the first Terminator trip to 1984 and learn about two other time jumps that illustrate Kyle Reese’s important line from the first movie: “The future is not set.  There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.”   In fact in Reese’s first conversation with Sarah he made the same point, calling her future “one possible future.”  These seeds planted in the original allow this new story to take off.

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SDCC 2015 News–DC/Warner Bros. Suicide Squad trailer release catches up to the Internet

Filed under: Comics & Books, Fantasy Realms, Movies, Superheroes — Leave a comment
July 14, 2015

Suicide Squad crew

Now that you’ve watched it at a 45 degree angle through the lens of a fuzzy cell phone camera in the dark, it’s time to see what you missed.  It’s the motley band of DC Comics’ own Dirty Dozen (give or take), the Suicide Squad.  The trailer premiered at the DC Entertainment/Warner panel this past weekend at San Diego Comic-Con, and millions watched it before Warner Bros. & Co. decided to go ahead and release the real thing Monday.

If a little make-up throws you off a bit, here’s the line-up:  Jai Courtney (Terminator Genisys) is Captain Boomerang, Cara Delevingne (Anna Karenina) is Enchantress, Will Smith (Men in Black, Independence Day) is Deadshot, Joel Kinnaman (RoboCop) is Flagg, Margot Robbie (Pan Am) is Harley Quinn, Jay Hernandez (Grindhouse) is El Diablo, Adam Beach (Cowboys & Aliens) is Slipknot, Karen Fukuhara is Katana, and our favorite, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Lost, G.I. Joe, Thor: The Dark World), is Killer Croc.  Oh, right, and Jared Leto (Urban Legend, My So-Called Life) is The Joker.

Suicide Squad clip

A pretty diverse group for a superhero universe hive of scum and villainy.

Here’s the trailer for Suicide Squad:

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Opening weekend review–Terminator Genisys triumphs

Filed under: Movies, Retro Fix, Sci-Fi Café, Superheroes — Leave a comment
July 5, 2015

Arnold Terminator Genisys

Review by C.J. Bunce

Few sci-fi films are as revered as James Cameron’s Terminator and Terminator II: Judgment Day.  Judgment Day is regarded by many as one of the greatest sequels to any movie ever made.  Both films made American Film Institute lists and are the kind of movies we can watch hundreds of times and still keep enjoying them.  Two sequels followed, no longer under the direction of Cameron, Terminator III: Rise of the Machines, a worthy but lesser sequel reviewed at borg.com here, and the far, far lesser Terminator: Salvation.  So coming into the fourth sequel this weekend with the opening of director Alan Taylor’s Terminator Genisys, expectations by many were low.  So against that backdrop, and countless bashings by both national film critics and time travel aficionados, how really is this sequel?

Somehow Terminator Genisys manages to be not only good, but great, and not only that, it manages to equal the punch and excitement of both Terminator and Terminator II.

Terminator Genisys cast

That’s right, if you love the universe of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s sometimes villain, sometimes hero Terminator T-800, you’re going to love this film, which is not only loyal to James Cameron’s originals, it flat-out amps up the sci-fi and takes every element that made the earlier films great and expands them into new, exciting places.  This includes time travel, big action, story twists, casting, acting, and all the cybernetic tech you could hope for.  Adhering to a carefully laid out plan covering two parallel timelines (that we know of), we revisit the first Terminator trip to 1984 and learn about two other time jumps that illustrate Kyle Reese’s important line from the first movie:  “The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.”  In fact in Reese’s first conversation with Sarah he made the same point, calling her future “one possible future.”  These seeds planted in the original allow this new story to take off.

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