Movie Beat 1/20/12 – Red Tails, Haywire, Underworld: Awakening, And More

Kate Beckinsale in Underworld: Awakening

There’s an interesting batch of films opening up this week in cineplexes – a little something for everybody. We’ve got Red Tails, Haywire, Underworld: Awakening, and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.

Red Tails:

This is the true story of the Tuskegee airmen – group of African-American pilots during WWII who faced segregation and were kept mostly on the ground during the battles, but were called into duty under the guidance of Colonel AJ Bullard, who got them into the air and fightin’ the Krauts, and the Japanese, and anyone else who would dare to take on our liberties.

Cuba Gooding Jr. stars in the film, along with Bryan Cranston and Terrence Howard, and is brought to you by George Lucas. He’s the producer, but did not direct. Luckily, Anthony Hemingway is the director. This is, by all accounts, a very inspirational story of the African American servicemen who helped fight for freedom in WWII.

It’s sounds pretty good. The only thing I have a problem with is how they’re trying to sell it on TV. Have you seen the commercials? I just think they’re talking down to their target audience by using hip-hop beats. This isn’t Step Up 3! This is a WWII movie. I don’t think they had dubstep beats in WWII or were Glen Miller and his band actually cranking up the crunk? I’m just sayin’…

Haywire:

Gina Carano, legendary female MMA fighter, stars in this film by Steven Soderbergh. He enjoys taking actors that you may not necessarily think of first and foremost for certain genres, and building a movie around them. He did it with pornstar Sasha Grey when he did The Girlfriend Experience, which was another experimental film and made a dramatic actress out of her, and he’s doing the same thing with Gina Carano.

In the film, Carano plays a black-ops super soldier who has to seek Payback when she is betrayed by the very people she works with. She’s set up during a mission and she takes out her aggressions on the rest of the cast.

The smart thing Soderbergh does when he has a newbie actor in a lead role is he surrounds them with great talent, and this film certainly has that. You’ve got Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Channing Tatum. There has been some talk about Gina’s performance being dubbed in completely by another actress. The story we’re hearing is that Steven wanted to separate her in-the-ring persona from her on-screen persona, and so he though that giving the actress a completely different voice would separate those two characters. [Editor's note: no reputable source has been found that supports the dubbing theory.]

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close:

This one’s expanding into wider release this week. This is the story of the 9 year old son of a man who dies in the World Trade Center on September 11th. He leaves behind a key to his son and his son goes on an adventure to try to find the lock that matches that mysterious key, while also discovering more about his relationship with his dad.

I’m sure this is a great film, but I’m going to pass on it. It just looks emotionally devastating! I don’t know if I’m up for it. Thomas Horn plays the 9-year-old, Oscar, and his dad is played by Tom Hanks.

Underworld: Awakening:

This is the film that I, personally, am looking forward to. Kate Beckinsale returns in the battle of the vampires versus the lycans. Mankind has now stepped in and they’re trying to eradicate both species, so the vampire warrioress, Selene, needs to lead the battle against humankind. They have to combine forces to take on a common enemy.

Just put Kate Beckinsale in a leather catsuit and just let her run around for two hours on my movie screen, and I’m a happy little fella.

***