jonathan rhys-meyers Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I've yet to determine whether John Travolta shot The Taking of Pelham 123 or From Paris with Love first, but it's nice to see him progress from a shaved-bald baddie with a fu manchu and a fondness for the f-word to a shaved-bald bad-ass with a full goatee and a fondness for the f-word. Such range he has.

Travolta's Agent Wax (yes, really) is teamed up with American lackey Richard Stevens (played by Dublin's own Jonathan Rhys Meyers) to prevent a terrorist attack in Paris (played by Paris). If the new expletive-laden trailer from Movie City News is any indication, there'll be plenty of wisecracks and crack shots in Pierre Morel and Luc Besson's follow-up to Taken, whose credits alone should've told us as much.

It's strange to see a trailer takes its own tonal turn towards the end, but it looks like things go from cheeky fun to Training Day 2. Let's hope the movie doesn't get bogged down in the same way come next February. You can check out the trailer after the jump, but bear in mind that it is a bit NSFW.

As I was watching the just-released trailer for August Rush on Moviefone, I thought to myself 'this seems a lot like one of those emotional fantasy films that Robin Williams used to make' ... and then Robin Williams showed up in the trailer. Guess I called that one. The film tells the story of two musicians, played by former IMF agents Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Keri Russell, who get together and have a baby. Something then happens that causes them to actually lose the baby. The baby grows up into an orphan kid played by Freddie Highmore (Charlie from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) who inherits the natural musical talents of his parents. The fantasy part comes into play when the kid uses music to send out some kind of actual signal to his parents to come and find him, or something like that. And Robin Williams is dressed as a cowboy. Terrence Howard is also in the film, although after watching the trailer twice, I couldn't quite figure out what his role was. He seems to be giving people advice.

Nick Castle, who helmed Major Payne, Mr. Wrong, and Dennis the Menace has a screenwriting credit on this thing along with another writer, and it's being directed by Kristen Sheridan, whose last film was 2001's Disco Pigs. I'm actually a fan of both Russell and Rhys Meyers -- I think they can do good work when the material is there, so I'll probably check this one out. However, having not even seen the film, I'm advising them to seriously consider cutting down the Robin Williams cowboy shtick. That stuff has an expiration date of 1994. August Rush hits theaters not in August, but on October 19.

• Æon Flux - This empty sci-fi flick's listing on IMDB.com is loaded with glowing user endorsements, leading everyone else who has seen it to believe that either drugs were involved in forming these opinions, the Pod People took these users over or an army of undercover PR lackeys is spinning overtime. This cinematic equivalent of a bronzed cow pie, an unimaginative Logan's Run pretender set 400 years in the future after a global plague, stars Charlize Theron as a rebel trying to take down the corrupt government of Bregna, the only city on Earth. From the way-lazy back story title cards and opening narration to the silly costumes to the cartoonish action sequences to the awful deadpan performances, this should be called Peed-On, Sux. Maybe Theron's mother needed an operation or something, but this is a very bad and brainless example of sci-fi, a puffed-up issue movie that ultimately offers nothing but regret. Instead, check out creator Peter Chung's original, pre-anime craze animated MTV series, which was released on DVD late last year.

Keri Russell, just off a joyous reunion with Felicity creator J.J. Abrams on the set of Mission: Impossible III, has now signed on to co-star with Jonathan Rhys-Meyers in August Rush, a drama from Warner Brothers. The film is the story of its titular character, "a young musical prodigy performing on the streets of New York who uses his talent to seek his parents." Freddie Highmore - the kid from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - has been cast as August, and Russell and Meyers will play his parents; Russell's character is "a sheltered cellist," and music "plays an integral role in the story." And for those of you who love a good-hearted, hairy mentor, the news is fantastic: Robin Williams has been cast in the role. Woo hoo.

The film, which will be directed by Kirsten Sheridan (an Oscar nominee for In America's screenplay), starts shooting in New York this summer. Rhys-Meyers is so hot right now that anything with him attached has a chance at success. That said, though, the presence of Williams as "mentor" is undeniably scary - the man can be great when he manages to act in a way that fits into a film's tone, but otherwise he's a walking disaster.