JohnCena Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Review: 12 Rounds
Filed under: Action », Theatrical Reviews », Fox Atomic »
Poor New Orleans! As if the real-life horrors of Hurricane Katrina and the broken levees weren't bad enough, now the beautiful city must suffer from the devastation wrought by Danny Fisher, played by former * WWE wrestler / entertainer John Cena in 12 Rounds, the latest train wreck from director Renny Harlin. "Damn the property damage! I'm going to save my girlfriend, whatever the cost!" is a noble sentiment, especially when you don't have to pay the bills.
Danny isn't really responsible for the carnage he causes, of course, even though he politely apologizes whenever he crashes into other people's vehicles or accidentally kills people. (Cena furrows his brow and turns his smile upside down, just so you know he's not happy with himself.) The real blame lies with Miles Jackson, who is seeking revenge on Danny for the death of his girlfriend. Jackson is described as an international arms dealer, but he spends much more time blowing things up and changing SIM cards in cell phones than any actual dealing of arms.
Aidan Gillen, who was superb as a cagey, ambitious, well-intentioned politician in The Wire, has much less to play with here, but it's fun to watch him try to juice up the role of an exceptionally-nasty master criminal with absolutely no scruples or second thoughts. He provides one of the few true pleasures in 12 Rounds, which should be a lot more fun than it is. Instead of embracing its loonier plot elements -- a fire engine crashing across town, a ticking time bomb on a public bus, an out-of-control street car -- 12 Rounds insists on playing it straight as a sober drama, ending up as Speed without the flirtations or thrills.
The Cinematical Roundtable, with Guest Brian Orndorf
Filed under: Action », Animation », Comedy », Horror », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Thrillers », Mystery & Suspense », Lionsgate Films », 20th Century Fox », Dreamworks »
Damned if you have a mic, damned if you don't... Coming to you loudly (at least in my case) is the latest episode of The Cinematical Roundtable, and this time, we don't even dare leave the lobby before offering up our thoughts on the rock-'em-sock-'em likes of 12 Rounds, in addition to the week's other wide releases, The Haunting in Connecticut and Monsters vs. Aliens.
Rounding out the proverbial 'we' this week is Brian Orndorf, he of multiple outlets, not the least of which are eFilmCritic and DVD Talk. Also, my good friend Tyler serves as a last-minute substitute for a colleague fallen ill (that, or he just really didn't want to sit through a John Cena flick). He knows his stuff, which I can't say for all in our field, and he happened to be co-anchor of our college movie talk show, "Matinee Idle," which was pretty much a podcast before podcasts were podcasts.
So... yeah. He's good people. Enjoy!
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Discuss: The Action Flicks of 2009
Filed under: Action », Comedy », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Thrillers », Mystery & Suspense », Disney », Paramount », Sony », Universal », Warner Brothers », Fandom », 20th Century Fox », The Weinstein Co. », Quentin Tarantino », Johnny Depp », Harry Potter », Comic/Superhero/Geek », Remakes and Sequels »
So Erik-with-a-k covered the coming comedies of 2009, Scott was all over the horror picks (though his inclusion of Race to Witch Mountain still boggles my mind), Eric-with-a-c nabbed the family-friendly fare, and Elisabeth went over the geek fodder that awaits. But while I respect their calendar years and made-up math alike, I've opted to divide my list of 2009's action and adventure flicks into four categories: Action Flicks I Couldn't Care More About, Action Flicks I Couldn't Care Less About, Action Flicks That I Hope Surprise Me, and Those Which Fell In Between. Enjoy!Action Flicks I Couldn't Care More About: First and foremost -- Watchmen (March 6th). It's one hell of a graphic novel and looks to be one hell of an adaptation (with or without the Giant Blank), but the only problem is it may not hit theaters on time if 20th Century Fox has anything to say about it. Both Fox and Warner Brothers are fighting over who actually owns the rights, and if a judge favors Fox comes January 20th (when the court date is set), we're looking at a delayed release and a whole ton of angry fans. Then there's Public Enemies (July 1st), which has me sold on not the subject matter, but sheer pedigree: Michael Mann directs Johnny Depp and Christian Bale as '30s gangsters. (It doesn't hurt that the earliest word ranges from damn good to great.) On the skimpier side, I can only hope that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (July 17th) streamlines its source material as the previous one had, and I can only hope that Crank 2: High Voltage (April 17th) lives up/down to the depravity of its predecessor. There's one last action movie that I couldn't care more about because, well, I've already seen a version of it. The international cut of Taken (January 30th, though reportedly opening with some R-dodging trims) is about as brisk and butt-kicking as one might hope out of a man-on-a-mission kidnapping thriller, and if you disagree, I'll send Liam Neeson to change your mind.
Renny Harlin and John Cena Go '12 Rounds'
Filed under: Action », Casting »
Just in case you can't get enough of the WWE already, they're really getting into the movie biz. Variety reports that they're teaming up with Fox Atomic for a new action movie called 12 Rounds. The flick will be helmed by Renny Harlin -- the man behind Die Hard 2, Deep Blue Sea, and my personal favorite -- A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. (Yes, I like that movie. A lot.) Now, being a WWE feature, there's got to be some wrasslin' in the mix, so the cast will be led by John Cena, and also include Steve Harris (The Practice), Aidan Gillen (The Wire), and Brian White (Stomp the Yard).The picture will follow "a New Orleans police detective (Cena) whose girlfriend is kidnapped." Harris will play an FBI agent, presumably helping on the search, White is a cop who works with Cena's character, and Gillen, who used to be sweet as Aidan in Circle of Friends, is taking on the role of the kidnapper. According to IMDb, that also makes him an "evil crime lord" who forces him to go "12 Rounds," hence the film's title.
Should this work out as well as Cena's last WWE feature, The Marine, this should be a sweet moneymaker for the company. In the meantime, we've got to see if any of the rumored cast sticks around -- everyone from Al Pacino to Piper Perabo and Method Man have been rumored to have parts.
Next from WWE: The Marine
Filed under: Action », Thrillers », Movie Marketing »
We reported back in April on the rise of WWE Films, a new division of World Wrestling Entertainment dedicated to creating and financing (as long as distribution is in place before production begins) vehicles for the wrestlers who ply their trade for WWE. The label's first film, a horror flick called See No Evil, starred Kane and was released earlier this year -- albeit to largely dismal reviews -- by Lionsgate. Though the original report indicated that WWE Films' second release would be a Steve Austin vehicle called The Condemned, it turns out that an action/revenge film called The Marine will be hitting screen in October; Austin's film doesn't yet have a release date.Now, I'm embarrassed to say this, but the Marine trailer really, really worked, at least on my little brain. It had me, as they, say at "hello" -- if by "hello" you mean "Robert Patrick as baddie." Patrick plays an evil, violent bastard who takes the wife of John Cena's character hostage at as a gas station, and drives off with her. Which, needless to say, is a bad idea -- in addition to being played by a badass professional wrestler, the guy is also an ex-Marine, giving him to ability to defeat legions of bad guys with his bare hands. What's so great about all of this, though, is the way Patrick has totally bought into his character's sleaze, and the sort of joyful irritation that colors his delivery -- you never dreamed "I tried to kill this guy twice today" could be pronounced quite so perfectly. He's basically playing Walken-lite, and seems utterly thrilled by the whole silly thing.
So, yeah. Maybe this WWE Films thing isn't such a bad idea after all.
[via JoBlo]
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