Watchmen reviewed by The Hollywood Reporter

The Hollywood Reporter have put this review of Zack Snyder's Watchmen online. To sum up they didn't like it and as you are probably aware it has been getting mixed reviews.

I don't mind if the critic, Kirk Honeycutt, doesn't like it (I have my doubts that it will be the great movie we all hope it will be). However, it does bother me when reviewers knock something because they think it is cool to do so. I'm guessing Kirk hasn't read the comic and I also think he probably loved The Dark Knight because everyone else did.

I think it is this line of his review that irks me the most, "And it is nonsense. When one superhero has to take a Zen break, he does so on Mars. Of course he does."

He later goes on to describe Dr Manhattan with his god like powers but he find the fact he pops over to Mars as nonsense. Any comic book movie, well actually pretty much most films when you look at them closely enough are nonsense. He's just not consistent in his review. Just smacks of lazy reviewing. I also think he gets the Silk Spectre's mixed up. If memory serves it is Malin Ackerman's Spectre (the daughter of Carla Gugino's character) who hooks up with Dan.

"And what's with the silly Halloween getups? Did anyone ever buy those Hollywood Boulevard costumes?"

It's a comic book film about superheroes Kirk. That's the reason for the costumes. I could go on butI've said enough. Here's his review in full. Let me know your thoughts on the matter. I'll post more reviews as and when I find them.

It's not easy being a comic-book hero these days. The poor boys have taken their lumps in "Hancock," "The Dark Knight" and even "Iron Man." Self-doubts, angst and inadequacies plague them. And now comes "Watchmen." Its costumed superheroes, operating in an alternative 1985, are seriously screwed up -- and so is their movie. If anyone were able to make a nine-figure movie, something like "Watchmen" would have been the opening-night film at the Sundance Film Festival.

As stimulating as it was to see the superhero movie enter the realm of crime fiction in "The Dark Knight," "Watchmen" enters into a realm that is both nihilistic and campy. The two make odd companions. The film, directed by Zack Snyder ("300"), will test the limits of superhero movie fans. If you're not already invested in these characters because of the original graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, nothing this movie does is likely to change that predicament.

That's bad news for Warner Bros. and Paramount, which hold domestic and international rights, respectively. Opening weekends everywhere will reflect the huge anticipation of this much-touted, news-making movie. After that, the boxoffice slide could be drastic.

Snyder and writers David Hayter and Alex Tse never find a reason for those unfamiliar with the graphic novel to care about any of this nonsense. And it is nonsense. When one superhero has to take a Zen break, he does so on Mars. Of course he does.

The film opens with a brutal killing, then moves on to a credit-roll newsreel of sorts that takes us though the Cold War years, landing us in 1985 when Nixon is in his third term, tipping us that we're in an alternate 1985 America, where our superheroes have taken care of Woodward and Bernstein and other forces have evidently taken care of the U.S. Constitution.

The opening murder happens to a character called the Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who was once a member of a now banished team of superheroes called the Masks. Fellow ex-Mask Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) -- his mask one of perpetually shifting inkblots -- takes exception to his old colleague's death. He believes the entire society of ex-crime-fighters is being targeted even as the Doomsday Clock -- which charts tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union that could lead to nuclear war -- nears midnight.

His investigation and renewed contacts with former buddies fills us in on the complicated histories and problematic psychiatric makeups of these colleagues.

It's all very complicated but not impenetrable. We pick up the relationships quickly enough, but soon realize these backstories owe more to soap operas than to superhero comics.

The thing is, these aren't so much superheroes as ordinary human beings with, let us say, comic-book martial arts prowess. The one exception is Billy Crudup's Jon Osterman, aka Dr. Manhattan, who in true comic-book fashion was caught in a laboratory accident that turned him into a scientific freak -- a naked, glowing giant, looking a little bit like the Oscar statuette only with actual genitals -- who has amazing God-like powers.

These powers are being harnessed by an ex-Mask, Matthew Goode's menacing though slightly effeminate industrialist Adrian Veidt.

When Dr. Manhattan's frustrated girlfriend, yet another former Mask, Carla Gugino's Sally Jupiter, can't get any satisfaction from Dr. M, she turns to the former Nite Owl II, Dan Dreiberg, who seems too much of a good guy to be an actual superhero, but he does miss those midnight prowls.

The point is that these superheroes, before Nixon banned them, were more vigilantes than real heroes, so the question the movie poses is, ah-hah, who is watching these Watchmen? They don't seem too much different from the villains.

Which also means we don't empathize with any of these creatures. And what's with the silly Halloween getups? Did anyone ever buy those Hollywood Boulevard costumes?

The violence is not as bad as early rumors would have one believe. It's still comic-book stuff, only with lots of bloody effects and makeup. The real disappointment is that the film does not transport an audience to another world, as "300" did. Nor does the third-rate Chandleresque narration by Rorschach help.

There is something a little lackadaisical here. The set pieces are surprisingly flat and the characters have little resonance. Fight scenes don't hold a candle to Asian action. Even the digital effects are ho-hum. Armageddon never looked so cheesy.

The film seems to take pride in its darkness, but this is just another failed special effect. Cinematographer Larry Fong and production designer Alex McDowell blend real and digital sets with earthen tones and secondary colors that give a sense of the past. But the stories are too absurd and acting too uneven to convince anyone. The appearances of a waxworks Nixon, Kissinger and other 1980s personalities will only bring hoots from less charitable audiences.

Looks like we have the first real flop of 2009.

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Watchmen Interview - Carla Gugino - Sally Jupiter

Interview with Carla Gugino, who plays Sally Jupiter in Watchmen.

1. The character (:34)
2. The Watchmen world (:35)
3. Sally's relationship with her daughter (:30)

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Watchmen - an early review. Oh dear!

Jeffrey Wells has posted this review by one of his friends over on Hollywood Elsewhere. Looks as if Watchmen may have had all it's good bits in the trailer. I hope he's wrong, but looking at some of the recent clips I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this.

"I've seen Watchmen," he began. "And speaking as a huge admirer and devotee of the graphic novel, the film is a staggering failure. On the plus side, you've got a pretty literal adaptation of the source material. It is at times a meticulous and gorgeous recreation of Alan Moore's original work. Unfortunately it's an empty, inert, meandering and, yes, boring 2 hours and 45 minutes.

"Oh, and it's horribly acted throughout. Truly. Malin Akerman (i.e., Silk Spectre II) confirms whatever fears you may have initially felt after The Heartbreak Kid and 27 Dresses. Carla Gugino (the other Silk Spectre) just looks silly. Patrick Wilson (Nite Owl II) is his usual blah self. Only Jackie Earle Haley's Rorschach and Billy Crudup's Dr. Manhattan register at all.

"Sadly even the presumed up-and-comer Matthew Goode plays Ozymandias, the world's smartest man, as an arch and slightly bored Bond villain. I had high hopes after being wowed by him in The Lookout, but he's bungled this great opportunity. (It's clear in retrospect the part should have gone to a real star. Say what you will but Tom Cruise would have been perfect.)

"I say all of the above as a person who was very much into the 20 minutes they screened for all of us months ago. Sorry to confirm our worst fears but those scenes in fact remain the best and among the few that work on any level.

"Watchmen is just not much of a movie. It has no narrative pull and no characters to invest in. It uses rotely shoehorned-in action scenes, and has a sheen that doesn't befit the dark material.

"So much for the visionary vistas of Zack Snyder. Oh, what Paul Greengrass could have done!

"And to reduce it all to dollars and sense, I'll be shocked if this one plays to a wide audience after an admittedly huge weekend. Watchmen fans are in for a rude awakening."

What do you make of that review? Anyone else out there seen it?

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Watchmen Portraits - Moloch, Silk Spectre, Dr Manhatten and Big Figure

Here are some more lovely photos by Clay Eno from his collection, Watchmen: Portraits. Above is Matt Frewer as Moloch. Below is Carla Gugino as the original Silk Spectre.

With the motion capture spots all over his face is Billy Crudup as Dr Manhatten and below is Danny Woodburn as Big Figure who is a big fan of Rorschach.
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The Unborn - New posters - Oldman and a monster. Neither are wearing small white panties...someone call Odette back

Looks as if the marketing people were trying to lure us in with the last poster of Odette Yustman in her tighty whities. Apparantly, the film is not a sex romp as no-one considered. Instead it is a frightful frightner with Gary Oldman singing opera (either that or he's doing a cracking impression of Ian Paisley) and that poor chap above who is never going to have any friends.
You can check out the trailer and an interview with Odette and David Goyer.

Casey Bell (Odette Yustman) hated her mother for leaving her as a child. But when inexplicable things start to happen, Casey begins to understand why she left. Plagued by merciless dreams and a tortured ghost that haunts her waking hours, she must turn to the only spiritual advisor who can make it stop. With his help, Casey uncovers the source of a family curse dating back to Nazi Germany: A creature with the ability to inhabit anyone or anything that is getting stronger with each possession. With the curse unleashed, her only chance at survival is to shut a doorway from beyond our world that has been pried open by someone who was never born. The Unborn!

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Watchmen featurette - Zack Snyder tells us more about the film in 4 minute featurette

This is really cool - more footage, Zack Snyder telling us stuff and it all looks amazing. Sad to think that it will probably be delayed more and more as the Fox / Warner Bros legal battle rumbles on.
Director Zack Snyder introduces the story, characters and stars of Watchmen, starring Jackie Earle Haley, Billy Crudup, Malin Akerman, Carla Gugino, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Goode and more.

Watchmen Exclusive

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Discuss: Batman 3 rumours - Who could play the bad guys?

Bearing in mind Christopher Nolan has not yet signed up for the third Batman film, no story has been decided, no script has been written, no casting has been made and no characters have been chosen, the old casting rumours keep on coming.

Remember all of this is basically the internet throwing up whatever it can think of, but it does get the old brain juices flowing.

Nolan has made a point of saying he wouldn't have any super powers in his Batman films so people have been saying things will stay realistic. However Nolan did set up the fact that things keep escalating once the Batman hit the scene so it could go a little madder now that the Joker and Two-Face have appeared in Gotham. The great thing about Batman's bad guys is that most of them have no powers they are just disfigured freaks.

The Riddler keeps getting mentioned and we have had Johnny Depp mentioned for that. Now I have heard that Eddie Murphy could play him, as Axel Foley said "Get the fuck out of here!" springs to mind with that rumour. If they do use The Riddler I hope they have him as a buttoned up obsessive kind of criminal who out thinks the Bat. Depp would be cool in the part, but Crispin Glover could bring a weirdness to the part. Guy Ritchie could be another interesting choice and his work with Nolan on Memento shows he can play the obsessive rather well.

Catwoman is another one that many people think will be in the next film. If she is I'd like to see her as the thief she is and not as the big bad. Maybe a cameo or just in the background. Although if they do use her she'll probably end up as the love interest in the film. Rumours as to who would play her have included Cher, Maggie Gyllenhall, Angelina Jolie and most recently Rachel Weisz. Basically, any actress people can think of but I would like to see Carla Gugino take the part of Selina Kyle.

The Penguin. In the comics he has recently been portrayed as an arms dealer, criminal kingpin and a go to kind of guy for illegal goods. All of these would be okay for the next film and again, he wouldn't necessarily have to be the main villian. Philip Seymour Hoffman is the main rumour for this one and I can't really think of anyone better for the part.

The Ventriloquist. Not one of the most well known of Batman's adversaries but a good one none the less. Like many of the villains in Gotham he has major mental problems. Basically it is an old bloke with a dummy called Scarface. The old bloke is totally unassuming and the dummy is the one running things and treated as if he is a real person. Anthony Hopkins would be great in the role and he has previous experience with ventriloquist dummies controlling people in the film Magic.

Ice Man. Now we are getting into the realms of the super power although his ice gun could be explained as advance technology. Maybe stolen from Wayne's company or he was working on it for Wayne when the accident happened. Only person I can see in this part is Patrick Stewart who would be amazing.

Robin. I think there would be a massive outpouring of rage if it was announced that Robin was to be in the next film which is a shame. If done right Robin is a great character and works really well. Unfortunately the memories of Robin in the old TV series reins supreme. Shia Labeouf is the one rumoured for this part but they are missing the point on the old rumour mill. Robin should only be a young teenager or slightly younger, who loses his parents and is taken under Bruce's wing and is eventually adopted by him as his son. Maybe the kid out of The Spiderwick Chronicles would be good in the role.

There are many other characters in the Batverse - Bane, Black Mask, Poison Ivy, Firefly, Clayface, Harley Quinn to name a few more so Christopher Nolan will be spoilt for choice when he eventually sits down to write the next film.

Everything above is just a rumour. Let me know who you would want to see in the next Batman film and who could play them.
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Carla Gugino to play porn star Elektra Luxx

Variety have the news that writer-director Sebastian Gutierrez is directing Carla Gugino in Elektra Luxx. She will play a porn star whose life is turned upside down when she discovers she's pregnant.

This is a sequel to Women in Trouble, an ensemble comedy about one day in the lives of 10 Los Angeles women that has yet to find distribution.

Elektra Luxx has the same characters a month later, again covering a full day. The original starred Gugino, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Adrianne Palicki, Marley Shelton, Connie Britton, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Simon Baker.

Timothy Olyphant, Alicia Silverstone and Justin Kirk are also down to play characters in "Elektra Luxx," and many of the actors from the first film are reprising their roles.

Gutierrez is planning a third installment tentatively titled "Women in Ecstasy." Filming of the first sequel is under way, and all three pics are financed independently and produced by Gutierrez's Gato Negro Films.

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Race to Witch Mountain Trailer - The Rock's in it.

Obviously based on Escape to Witch Mountain this is the new entry in the series by Disney.

Race to Witch Mountain is a thrilling action-adventure about a hard luck Las Vegas cab driver Jack Bruno (DWAYNE JOHNSON), whose life is thrown into chaos when apparent ‘runaway’ teenagers Sara (ANNASOPHIA ROBB) and Seth (ALEXANDER LUDWIG) jump into his taxi. He soon realizes his two fares are children with exceptional paranormal powers whom he must protect as they elude a collection of ruthless enemies. It also stars Carla Gugino.

What do you think of the trailer? Do you have fond memories of the original? Does this compare?
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Watchmen Featurette - Girls Kick Ass

Here is a new Watchmen featurette titled “Girls Kick Ass” which takes a look at the girls of Watchmen, or more specificly: Malin Akerman (Laurie Juspeczyk/Silk Spectre II) and Carla Gugino (Sally Jupiter/Silk Spectre). We get to see some of the mother/daughter sequences in Jupiter’s Florida home, and more importantly - Akerman’s fight scene in the jail. It also shows what Billy Crudup was wearing on set when playing Dr Manhatten. Looks like a cheap version of Tron!

Watchmen Exclusive: Girls Kick Ass

What did you think of that?

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Carla Gugino talks about Under the Hood. The Watchmen documentary for DVD

Carla Gugino (Silk Spectre) has been talking to MTV about some of the extra work they have been doing on the Watchmen movie that won't be seen on the big screen.

An inter-chapter filler in the graphic novel, the memoirs of the first Nite Owl, “Under the Hood,” will be a bonus feature on the DVD — bringing together all the old Minute Men for a mockumentary-style biography. The idea, Gugino insisted, was to try not to lose anything from the source material.

“That is what was so amazing too about working on this movie. Zack and Debbie, the producers, were continuously thinking of new ways to get more of the graphic novel into the movie in really creative ways,” Gugino enthused. “‘Under the Hood’ was something they just came up with and they were like, you know, in the next few weeks I think we are going to shoot this as a documentary. And then all of a sudden I ended up doing all of this research on what my character had said in certain things that were not actually said in the movie. We had such a great time doing it and I can’t wait to see it.”

Since it details certain events which aren’t exactly in the novel (or are, but only shown from secondhand accounts or memories), “Under the Hood” left the cast with a lot of room for improvisation, Gugino said.

“We had sort of a script we worked off of loosely and then I just improvised a bunch in character,” the woman soon to be known as Silk Spectre I revealed. “At the point [they film the documentary in the timeline of the novel] my character was in her 50s, so I’m wearing prosthetics. It was really fun to do.”

What do you think of that?

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The Random

Ain't It Cool News has reported that director Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption) has quit the Law Abiding Citizen production. There is no word on who will replace him. Gerard Butler will star as a successful assistant D.A. who finds himself at the center of a vigilante plot hatched by a traumatized victim of the legal system, played by Jamie Foxx.

Carla Gugino is set to join Every Day, starring opposite Liev Schreiber and Helen Hunt in the drama written by Richard Levine, who will also make his feature directing debut.
According to Variety, Schreiber and Hunt play a married couple in turmoil as he plods along as the unsatisfied writer of a semi-pornographic TV show. Gugino plays a sexy colleague who propositions him, creating a crisis that strains his marriage to the breaking point.

Fox 2000 has picked up rights and is teaming with Ridley Scott to adapt Joe Haldeman's 1974 science fiction novel The Forever War. According to Variety, Scott intended to follow Blade Runner and Alien with The Forever War, but rights complications delayed his plans for more than two decades."I first pursued 'Forever War' 25 years ago, and the book has only grown more timely and relevant since," Scott said. "It's a science-fiction epic, a bit of 'The Odyssey' by way of 'Blade Runner,' built upon a brilliant, disorienting premise." The book revolves around a soldier who battles an enemy in deep space for only a few months, only to return home to a planet he doesn't recognize some 20 years later, Scott said.
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Righteous Kill, 2008 - Movie Review

Director: Jon Avnet
Starring: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Carla Gugina, Brian Dennehy, John Leguizamo

Running Time: 101 minutes

Score: 1 /10

This review by Van Roberts. I've still not seen it but it doesn't sound too good.

"Fried Green Tomatoes" director Jon Avnet's new movie "Righteous Kill" qualifies as far from righteous. This gritty whodunit about corrupt cops with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino suffers from quite possibly the worst screenplay in film history. Some of Jean-Claude Van Damme's straight-to-video martial arts thrillers surpass this nonsense. "Inside Man" scenarist Russell Gewirtz gets it all wrong. Gewirtz takes the "Dirty Harry" sequel "Magnum Force" and rewrites it as an Agatha Christie mystery for tough guys. Indeed, sixty-five year old Robert De Niro quotes "Dirty Harry" at an Internal Affairs hearing when he observes, "Nothing wrong with a little shooting, as long as the right people get shot." Clearly, De Niro and Pacino made this clunker with its sloppy, incoherent, convoluted, unbelievable script for the bucks. "Righteous Kill" lacks excitement, suspense, and creativity. The eleventh hour revelation of the killer is so incredibly contrived that you wonder how they could have foisted this pathetic potboiler onto movie audiences. Everybody who buys a ticket to watch this tawdry tedium is expecting something as good as--if not better than--the two previous De Niro & Pacino pictures. Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather, Part 2" won a Best Picture Oscar in 1975, while "Miami Vice" creator Michael Mann's urban crime thriller "Heat" ranks as one of the great law & order epics. Righteous Kill" is, simply put, righteously ill in its criminal abuse of a stellar cast including Carla Gugino, Brian Dennehy, 50 Cent, John Leguizamo, Barry Primus, and Donnie Wahlberg, not to mention the hour and forty minutes that you'll waste watching it.

"Righteous Kill" involves vigilante justice. Several unsavory citizens die in this R-rated opus. A serial killer guns down a black drug dealer (Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson), a white rapist (Terry Serpico), a child killer (Frank John Hughes), a pedophile Catholic priest (Malachy McCourt) , a pimp, and a Russian wrestler (Oleg Taktarov) in cold-blood. The same killer leaves a poem on a card at each homicide. Talk about poetic justice! Homicide Detectives Thomas Cowan (Robert De Niro) and David Fisk (Al Pacino) have been partners for 30 years in the New York Police Department. An Internal Affairs investigator comments that Cowan & Fisk are closer than Lennon & McCartney. These two profane, sharp-shooting, tough-talking veterans have witnessed the seamy side of life and eventually it affects their mindset. Cowan and Fisk had to stand by helplessly while the courts cleared a child killer from a crime that he committed. A self-righteous Cowan plants evidence that convicts the child killer of another crime to put him behind bars. Cowan behaves like "Dirty Harry" and his partner Fisk describes him aptly as "a pit-bull on crack." Initially, Cowan and Fisk have no luck catching the serial killer and Detectives Simon Perez (John Leguizamo of "The Rock") and Ted Riley (Donnie Wahlberg of "Saw 2") join their investigation when one of their cases coincides with our heroes. Cowan and Perez hate each other because they have been bedding down a nymphomaniacal Crime Scene forensics expert, Karen Corelli (Carla Gugino of "American Gangster"), who loves rough sex. No matter what they do to solve the case, they cannot crack it, until Fisk suggests that the killer is a cop. Cowan suspects a disgruntled cop busted off the force has the motive. Meanwhile, the feud between Perez and Cowan fuels Perez's belief that Cowan is the murderer. Cowan admits he knew the priest and Lieutenant Hingis (a shrunken looking Brian Dennehy of "Silverado") puts him on a desk and allows the younger detectives to engineer a sting that will expose Cowan. Cowan's partner Fisk laughs in Hingis' face as well at Perez and Fisk.

Things begin to fall into place when one victim, the Russian, survives the killer's three bullets and the N.Y.P.D. guards his hospital room. The best mysteries give audiences the chance to figure them out. "Righteous Kill" deprives us crucial background material that would have made it far easier to fathom the killer's identity. Instead, Gewirtz and Avnet treat us to scenes where our heroes rarely get into any dangerous predicaments. Avnet stages a clumsy shoot out in an African-American nightspot, but every time somebody dies in "Righteous Kill" the crime is shown from the killer's perspective. Repeatedly, what you don't see and what you're not told about the protagonists keeps you in the dark. For example, we know De Niro and Pacino's characters only by their nicknames. The filmmakers refuse to establish the identities of either De Niro or Pacino from the start. The criminal investigation takes weird turns and red herrings—things designed to distract us—appear everywhere. Actually, the best clue to the killer's identity is broached early in the action, but you won't pay any attention to it because it seems to have little relevance.

Television series like CBS-TV's three "C.S.I." shows make this big-budget Hollywood whodunit look sophomoric. At one point, Lt. Hingis asks our heroes if they want to retire because they aren't making any headway. Neither Cowan nor Fisk are prepared to back down from this challenge, even if it means disaster for them. In that moment, De Niro and Pacino behave like 'Grumpy Old Cops' out to solve one last crime. Watching "Righteous Kill" will give you a bad case of the N.Y.P.D. Blues.
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Green Lantern - David Boreanaz and Carla Gugino maybe?

Who could play Hal Jordan - Green Lantern? That's the question that is going around the web.

After comparing concept art for the new movie it would appear that fanboys think they figured it out. David Boreanaz and Carla Gugino as the Lantern and his love. Geekfiles speculates:

Of course, this doesn’t mean Boreanaz and Gugino will be cast but it does show who the creative team had in mind for the roles. And they are not bad choices either, although fans have mentioned other names for the Green Lantern role including Nathan Fillion, Josh Duhamel, Jim Caviezel and Ben Browder.

Boreanaz, 39, best known as the character Angel in TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, has been one of the top choices, and this was strengthened when he voiced Green Lantern in the animated DVD movie Justice League: The New Frontier, in 2006. He has also appeared in TV series Bones and in the finale of the third season, his character Special Agent Seeley Booth was shown reading a Green Lantern comicbook as he lay in the bath.

Gugino, 37, has had roles in numerous TV shows including Spin City, Chicago Hope and Karen Sisco, and was in films including Spy Kids, Night at the Museum, American Gangster and next year’s superhero movie Watchmen, in which she plays the original Silk Spectre.

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