RIP Top Gun Tony Scott!

This week has been marked with the sad demise of Top Gun director Tony Scott, the younger brother of Ridley Scott. While Tony Scott’s reasons for jumping off the Vincent Thomas Bridge in Los Angeles continue to elude the investigators, the film fraternity has of course lost a director with panache to spread thrill amongst the audiences with ease and perfection. While Top Gun that brought Tom Cruise to stardom would no doubt remain the epitome of his work, two of his other films define his style of movie making more clearly, the 1995 Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman starrer Crimson Tide and the 1998 Will Smith and again Gene Hackman starrer Enemy of the State. If you have not set your eyes on these flicks yet, you are missing out on something. Both these movies move at such a brilliant pace, never losing their focus from the theme at hand, oozing with style, keeping the audience at the edge of their seat, wanting for more. These are what Tony Scott movies delivered – 2 hours of freedom from the outside world, with the tempo so quick that even a blink could be distracting. RIP Tony!

There have been a number of casting news and rumours floating around this week. The one that is most intriguing is the possible casting of Jim Carrey in Kick-Ass 2 to reportedly play Colonel Stars, the creator of a group of superheroes called Justice Forever. Not having read the comic series, I cannot comment on the suitability of Carrey in this role (if they can cast Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher, anything can be done right?), though there is a lovely star presence that he would bring to this franchise (no repeat of a Riddler, please!). Kick-Ass had earned rave reviews when it released in 2010, bringing forth some talents like Chloe Grace Moretz aka Hit Girl, apart from providing old timers like Nicolas Cage with one of his better performances in recent years. Am hoping for a bigger release for Kick-Ass 2: Ball to the Wall, currently scheduled for June 2013. This would be a superhero group, with lotsa difference! 

Action Heroes and Super Heroes!

 You could be forgiven to believe that you have been magically transported back to the 80’s. With The Expendables 2 releasing last weekend, all that you would have heard or seen around were the stills of men your father idolised, or maybe you did as a kid! Old men, who should be hunched and walking with a crane, seated on a bench in a peaceful garden catching up on reading books that youth never had the time for. But as they say, the spirit never dies! These so called old men are not going down, at least not any time soon. Their muscles have not flattened, they carry machine guns and other assortments, they hit, they scream, they fight like vicious animals, and they still get the adrenalin pumping. When Stallone created The Expendables in 2010, it became a raving success for the studio, a definitely unexpected one, that not only warranted a sequel but also more oldies / action stars, more firepower and more fun! And from what I hear, The Expendables 2 is exactly that. Talks are already doing the rounds for The Expendables 3 and names are being thrown around with vigour, Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Nicolas Cage, etc etc. This series is not gonna go away mates! And then to top it all up, two of the veterans are returning for more action stuff in early 2013 with the trailers for Arnie’s The Last Stand and Sly’s Bullet to the Head coming out yesterday. Quite exciting to see the return of the former Terminator back to the big screen, with the teenager inside rooting for his success. And the trailer for The Last Stand has not disappointed yet again. His growling accent is still there, his on-screen presence is still mesmerising and he could teach a less or two to the wannabe action heroes (Collin Farrell, you listening?) on how you make a punch count. Eagerly awaiting the release of this flick in January 2013.

And once you manage to take a breather from the bodies flying around, there is further news that Marvel Studios keeps throwing at us. They cannot stop being in the limelight anymore, can they? So The Avengers 2 has been given a release date. May 1, 2015. Uhhm... ok, I’ll wait! Joss Whedon is back in the realm of things for the sequel. Yay! But what I am more intrigued about is the buzz on the Guardians of the Galaxy. Created in the same Marvel universe, Guardians of the Galaxy is likely to throw more superheroes our way who could find themselves mixing up with the original Avengers some way in the sequel. The way Marvel has managed the integration of all the different characters in their respective movies to finally culminate in The Avengers has been unique and highly appealing, thus leading to the understandable buzz about the Guardians of the Galaxy. With standards set so high, we can only hope that the scripts for the individual superhero movies continue to be water-tight. 

But someone who is not going to be part of the Avengers group, and is walking a solo path, which only he can do best, is Wolverine. The initial pictures of a ragged looking Hugh Jackman as Wolverine has already been doing the rounds and with the official synopsis being released (summary of synopsis: Wolverine in Japan to fight with some samurais! Crunch, wack, rip!), The Wolverine goes in my watchlist too for next year. Wolverine, Superman, Iron Man, Thor... hmm am I missing anyone? Gonna be another superhero year in 2013!