Author: Alton Williams

Here it is, the first pic from Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. What you do you think?
This is quite a departure Ol’ Wes. Still, I’m curious to see how this one will turn out.

Nicked from here.

Its good to have friends, so I wanted to pay some respect to some of the best groups of friends/gangs in movies. Here are just a select few of my personal favorites.

Lets fast forward to 2009 shall we? To a sleeper hit of the summer that caught everyone off guard. The Hangover contains some of the funniest movie moments of the year and that’s all thanks to the great cast brought together including man of the moment Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and comedy genius Zack Galifianakis (try and say that five times fast). This group of rag tag buddies really know how to party.

Stepping into the realms of blockbuster, we have 1998’s Armageddon. This Michael Bay mega hit has one of the best group dynamics I’ve seen. Headed by Bruce Willis (need I say more?) this gang of oil drillers is asked to save the world, and boy do they step up to the plate. Owen Wilson and Steve Buscemi provide some great laughs but the bit when Will Patton’s kid runs towards him at the end, gets me every time.

I have a problem with this next one, because they are both so good and of the same genre, I’m having to put them side by side. Here we have Tombstone and Young Guns. Both westerns, both featuring gun tooting, straight shooting legends of the west. These are guys that you would not mess with, unless you wanted a bullet in your skull.

From gangs of the past, to gangs of the future. Ripley leads a group of the toughest SOB’s in the galaxy to battle a bunch of Aliens that really messed with the wrong woman. Complete with flame throwers, rocket launchers and some big ass guns, this gang really owns some xenomorph ass. With Michael Biehn and Bill Paxton being a match made in James Cameron heaven.

Clearly there are other gangs that deserve a mention, such as Anchorman‘s Channel 4 news team, the genetic weirdos the X-Men and the classic coming of age kids from Stand By Me.

Respect has been paid, so until next time my minions.

Stephen Norrington’s Blade is a brilliant film, Guillermo Del Toro’s Blade II is Aliens to Blade‘s Alien and then along comes Blade: Trinity, directed by David S. Goyer (screenwriter on all three films), playing the Batman Forever card and guffing up a perfectly good franchise. What Blade 3 (Trinity’s an awful subtitle) did have though was the presence of one great performance, Ryan Reynolds as Hannibal King – seemingly channeling Jason Lee but in a rather ripped action star body, Reynolds gave far better than the movie deserved stealing the whole show from the likes of Snipes, Kristoffersen, Parker Posey and Jessica Biel.

Reynolds was no stranger to acting as lifeguard to drowning pictures, he single handedly made the absolutely bland Van Wilder: Party Liason very entertaining with his expert comic timing, delivered with perfect dead pan and his rogue-ish good looks. Similarly he made the totally risible Just Friends watchable, he popped up in Joe Carnahan’s messy Smokin’ Aces, he took an interesting – if flawed – project in the shape of The Nines, and most recently has acted in the so-so Adventureland and the terrible X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Now after much industry talk about the comic book spin-off Deadpool, Reynolds has been snapped up to star in Martin Campbell’s adaptation of The Green Lantern. Neither project particularly excites me on its own merits, though Reynolds’ Deadpool stole the entire film from Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine (despite only being on screen for about three minutes). It seems that Reynolds is finally getting his bid for super-stardom, but does this usher in a change for his career, will Reynolds now be head-lining bigger and better projects, or will this strange phenomenon of great performance, poor film continue?

Are there other actors out there who suffer from Ryan Reynolds Syndrome? And have I over-looked a film starring Reynolds that is actually as good as his performance in it?

Crude home movies from the 1970s depicting activities at a certain location in the San Fernando Valley.

Ryan Reynolds has been cast as The Green Lantern in a new comic book adaptation.

Reynolds, 32, recently played the character Deadpool opposite Hugh Jackman in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

If the new deal goes ahead, it would make Reynolds the only actor to have played heroes for comic rivals Marvel and DC.

Reynolds married actress Scarlett Johansson in 2008.

He is currently starring opposite Sandra Bullock in The Proposal, which topped the US box office.

Bradley Cooper, who stars in The Hangover, and music star Justin Timberlake also did a screen test for the role of the superhero who is armed with a magical ring.

The film is being directed by Martin Campbell, who was at the helm of 2006’s Casino Royale.

A spinoff movie for Reynold’s Deadpool character is also in development.