VinDiesel Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Whatever you may think of Vin Diesel as an actor, you have to admire his dedication to his franchises. I mean, who else but Diesel would hang in for another round of extreme adventure sports and espionage? About a year ago we got the news that Diesel was reuniting with Rob Cohen for another installment of the xXx franchise, but according to The Hollywood Reporter there has been a small personnel change, and now Ericson Core (Invincible) will be stepping in to direct since Cohen is off to work on his period actioner Medieval.

Diesel likes to be in control of his franchises and xXx was no exception. Apparently, the muscly actor had to give Core his blessing before the DP/ Director could get to work, although I'm sure their previous working relationship on Fast and Furious probably helped. According to reports, the film will be called xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, and focus on Cage's return to the 'agency' after an eight-year absence. Now, if you remember, Cage was reported as dead in the second film, but Richard Wilkes (who wrote the original movie) will have to think of something, I guess.

Now I'll admit that I've seen both xXx films (I even went to the theater for the first one) and other than a marginally clever joke about the 'death of Bond' and some truly craptastic dialog, I don't remember much about it (and when it comes to Ice Cube's installment in the franchise, I think I'd probably be better off if I didn't remember that one, too). So I guess on the upside we can take solace in the fact the latest installment couldn't be worse than last time, or can it?

xXx: The Return of Xander Cage begins shooting early next year.

If you're going to dump Vin Diesel and XXX: The Return of Xander Cage for anything, it should be The Magnificent Seven. Nothing less would do. Now, if your heart stopped at the idea of Rob Cohen directing The Magnificent Seven, let me pause here to laugh, and assure you that he isn't ... he's just going medieval.

According to Variety, Cohen has dumped Diesel for Medieval, "an event-sized action film" that the director is describing as Magnificent Seven meets the Middle Ages. Fox and New Regency paid a nice chunk of change to Alex Litvak and Michael Finch for their spec script, and brought McG on to produce. They're hoping to get underway by October. Regency is determined to keep the details of this medieval tale under tight wraps, but the Seven reference stems from it reportedly being about a group of warriors who hail from different cultures, and come together to fight ... something. that exists Cohen's promise of "a heightened reality" and gigantic action pieces. Knowing his past films, I would bet very good money on it being a dragon.

While this has shades of 10,000 B.C., I have to give props to Cohen for carrying around a degree like mine, and finding some way to use it. All those facts about the Plantagenets don't come in handy nearly as often as I thought they would.

I'd like to hear from a few of the people who contributed to Fast & Furious's staggering $71 million gross over the weekend. Why did you go? What were you expecting, and did you get it?

See, I'm not in the camp of critics who detest this film and this franchise. But I also think that it cannot possibly be taken at face value. Fast & Furious, with its story of a daredevil FBI agent/street racer who has to go undercover to bust up a drug smuggler who regularly holds elaborate street races on the streets of Los Angeles, complete with hordes of women who are gyrating constantly, doesn't just strain credulity, it rips credulity apart with its teeth. It exists to be laughed at. And as such, it sort of works -- I spent most of the movie chuckling merrily under my breath. Fast & Furious is a constant parody of itself, and I am sure that Justin Lin -- an intelligent, skilled filmmaker -- knows that.

But that alone won't get you to $71 million. The most obvious possibility is that people went for the cars and scantily-clad females, in which case I wonder what they made of the film's sagging midsection, which contains more absurd macho brooding than anything else. (I also wonder where they were for the underperforming Tokyo Drift, which I'd suggest was more entertaining in this respect.) The fact that the franchise's box-office resurgence coincides with the return of Vin Diesel and Paul Walker also suggests, disturbingly, that some folks actually see this as the compelling saga of Dom Torreto and Brian O'Conner, as if those were actual characters. "Nothing matters unless you have a code," etc. Will anyone fess up to that? (Not that I am judging you. Well, maybe a little.)

The films in the Fast and the Furious series have gotten progressively dumber since the harmlessly energetic 2001 original, and the latest, reductively called Fast & Furious, takes it a step lower. Not only is the story silly, but there's not even much car-racing in it -- and why would anyone want to watch this movie if it doesn't have a lot of car-racing in it?

Like the rest of us, Fast & Furious has nothing to say about the last film, Tokyo Drift. instead, it picks up a few years after 2 Fast 2 Furious left off. Thick-necked carjacker Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and surfer-voiced FBI agent Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) are reunited when both have cause to infiltrate a Mexico-based drug cartel operating in Los Angeles. Dominic's reasons are personal and revenge-based, while Brian has the law on his side.

As luck would have it, the mysterious drug kingpin Arturo Braga is looking for expert drivers, which Dom and Brian both happen to be. If they can prove themselves worthy in a street race (who would have guessed?) they're hired, giving them access to the inner workings of the cartel. I guess this is more effective for Braga than conducting traditional job interviews.

It all amounts to far more espionage and intrigue than a movie that's ostensibly about fast cars ought to have. I would like to have witnessed the pitch meeting where the screenwriter, Chris Morgan (Tokyo Drift), convinced the producers that an emphasis on Dom and Brian's personal lives would be of much greater interest than car racing. They must be kicking themselves now for believing him, because here's the finished product -- with lots of dumb storytelling and only a couple auto-racing sequences -- and it's worse. It turns out minimizing the one entertaining element of a franchise was a BAD idea!

Say what you will, but The Fast and Furious franchise has always been a guilty pleasure for gear-heads and novices alike -- just don't look too close for things like character development, or, say, a plot...because by now we all know these movies are about watching shiny things motor at the speed of light. If you don't believe me, go take a look at the new theatrical trailer for the latest installment over at Yahoo! Movies, because it's chock full of all the engine revving and glowering from the driver side window you have come to expect from any film starring Vin Diesel behind the wheel of a 68 Dodge Charger.

The whole cast from the original flick is back this time around, as Dominic Toretto (Diesel) and Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker) reunite to take on a common enemy with the oh-so-delightfully tacky name of Rico (Don Omar). Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster return to play the two women in Toretto's life (his girlfriend and little sister respectively), but let's be honest, these gals are just window dressing to the action at hand.

The latest installment was directed by Justin Lin, who is usually credited with making the better sequel (Tokyo Drift) in the franchise, so it's probably for the best that he took the driver's seat this time around. Furious will be premiering a new trailer during the Superbowl (a coveted time slot to say the least), so it looks like Universal has pretty big expectations for the action flick. One thing is for sure, these movies might not be winning Oscars any time soon, but as long as they give me a few more tricks like this; you can count me in.

Fast & Furious will arrive in theaters on April 3rd.

Talk about an unbelievable casting announcement, it would appear Brad Pitt, Hugh Jackman and Vin Diesel have landed parts in a live-action Thundercats movie. Not only that, but somehow this news managed to remain hidden long enough so that the folks behind the scenes could create the film's first trailer. I'm, like, completely shocked and blown away ... and totally f**king with you.

The following fan made trailer was actually created by WormyTV, who spent somewhere in the ball park of a year and a half working on this fictional marketing ploy. Seriously. To spend that long on a fake trailer means you have to be one sick and twisted Thundercats fan, but we here at Cinematical certainly applaud that kind of geeky determination. Check out the trailer -- which is being passed around the internet today faster than a joint at a Jonas Brothers concert (OH, he did not just go there!) -- down below, and try to name all the different films featured. Which of these actors could you actually see starring in a film like this?

I was originally going to start out this post by going off on those studios that habitually change dates on their releases and wait until the last minute to do so. Instead, I'll try to remain positive and emphasize one particular studio that has given us a head's up on the shuffling of their 2009 slate: Universal.

Of utmost priority is director Joe Johnston and star Benicio del Toro's take on The Wolfman, which has been bumped back from this spring to next November (not unlike The Box). Usually, such shuffling might seem like a bad thing, but about six more months to polish what I'm guessing are so very many special effects sounds like a fair enough compromise (which isn't to suggest that Oscar-winning make-up wizard Rick Baker didn't do a fine job the first time around). Also moving back is Ridley Scott's Nottingham, now pushed to a TBD date in 2010.

Monika mentioned it a few months back, but we now have a lot more details regarding the highly-anticipated xXx: The Return of Xander Cage. And when I say "highly-anticipated," I mean anticipated by folks like Vin Diesel, director Rob Cohen, and the screenwriting team of Michael Ferris and John Brancato. Because they're getting paid.

According to Variety, the writers are the newest employees on the project, and if you're a fan of their work if you're a fan of The Net, The Game, Catwoman, Primeval, or Terminator 3. (They also have T4 on the way.) Diesel and Cohen (who recently directed the nigh-unwatchable Mummy 3) worked together on the first xXx flick, and we all remember how awesome profitable that movie was. The sequel (xXx: State of the Union) went with director Lee Tamahori and leading man Ice Cube -- and we all remember how that turned out. Actually, do we remember anything about these movies, really? One of them had an avalanche, I think.

For more on mindless action franchises that Diesel once bailed on, only to return a bit later, I refer you to this article.

Just what you needed at the end of a long day: more stuff (and things) to look at:

-- Is anyone else getting sick of these celeb-stacked Vote videos? Election day is when? Really? I haven't heard a peep about it. (See below)



-- So remember that totally awesome Ghostbusters video game that was supposed to come and then didn't? (Watch the trailer over here) Well the good news is Atari has bought the right to publish not only the Ghostbusters game, but also The Chronicles of Riddick ... so you can spend hours pretending to be a bald Vin Diesel wearing blacked-out swim goggles. [Variety]

-- And speaking of Vin Diesel (who's currently trying to revive his acting career by going back and starring in sequels to all his older movies), Collider tells us that the new xXx film will be called xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, and Rob Marshall Cohen is currently eying a summer 2010 release.

-- A new batch of images from Sherlock Holmes have made their way online (via The Bad & Ugly), and yep, Downey Jr. and Jude Law are still wearing those hats. Until one of them is photographed beating the living crap out of a villain, I think we're about done looking at these boring set pics. Whaddya think?

-- IESB spoke to Brandon Routh recently about whether he'd be down for a darker version of Superman in the sequel. Here's what the dude has to say about which villain he'd like to square off against: " I know that DC is working on a Brainiac storyline that they are excited about and I think combining the two and have that flow between the comics and the movie would be a nice thing. I honestly think there are a lot of interesting things you can do with Brainiac. Controlling people, controlling technology, a lot of cool things."

-- Fans of Twilight will be happy to know that starting tomorrow you can pre-order your Twilight movie ticket over at Fandango. Oh, but that's totally not all -- with each ticket purchased, you'll also get a free download of "Bella's Lullaby (Remix).