While finals are still looming in the immediate future, it’s not too early to start thinking about how you’re going to reward yourself for getting through the week. There's an incredible amount of movies coming out in the next week, so get your planner out and start deciding which ones you want to go to.

Iron Man 3 – May 3^rd

In the third installment of the franchise, Tony Stark is recovering from the events hat occurred in The Avengers by creating suit after new suit with more advancements in order to keep himself safe. After an attack on everything he knows by new enemy Mandarin, Tony is left to his own devices to protect all that he holds dear and to figure out whether he that makes the Iron Man suit or whether it is what makes & defines him.

The Iceman – May 3^rd

Based on the real life contract killer Richard Kuklinski, the movie tells the story of his early days when Kuklinski killed over 100 people under the payment of the mob. While on the outside he seemed like the everyday normal husband, father, and pursuer of the American Dream, his inner self was a ruthless, cold, and calculating killer whose arrest shocked everyone who knew him.

And Now a Word From Our Sponsor – May 10^th

Adan Kundle, who is a CEO of a major advertising agency, is found unconscious in front of a bank of TVs. When he wakes up in the hospital, he can only speak through advertising slogans. With nowhere else to go, he gets taken in by a friend from the past, Karen Hillridge, and through his occasionally inappropriate catchphrases, changes her relationship with her daughter. All the while, Adan’s business partner Lucas Foster is working to take over Adan’s company by blatantly attacking Adan’s mental capacity.

The Great Gatsby – May 10^th

Based on the book by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the movie tells the story of Jay Gatsby through the eyes of his new neighbor Nick Carraway, a Midwesterner just returned from war. It isn’t long before Carraway is dragged into Gatsby’s world of booze, riches, darkness, obsession, and more than a fair share of tragedy as Gatsby becomes enraptured with Daisy Buchanan, the wife of an old-money Yale graduate, who he was involved with in the past.

Star Trek: Into Darkness – May 17^th

In this installment of the rebooted Star Trek franchise, the crew of the USS Enterprise is thrown into a proverbial battle of good vs. evil after being summoned back to Earth, only to find that Starfleet has been demolished and that their planet has become a war zone. An incredibly powerful villain known as John Harrison is on a path of revenge and responsible for the outstanding amount of destruction.

The Hangover Part III – May 24^th

The third and final act in the Hangover Saga, this movie has no wedding and no bachelor party. After Alan’s father dies, the group decides to take him to get help for his mental issues but things go, as per usual, awry. Doug is kidnapped and the pack must find Mr. Chow in order to trade the man to the gangsters that have taken Doug.

Man of Steel – June 14^th

The Last Son of Kryptonite is back in a new movie that focuses on his childhood and his beginnings at The Daily Planet, as well as his burgeoning relationship with the journalist Lois Lane.  When Earth is attacked by a force we are unable to defend against, Clark Kent must become Superman and fight to protect the human race, even though some try to stop him from doing so, wary of his powers that make him seem more like the one’s attacking us.

Image Source: http://www.ticketliquidator.com/livetoast/2013/04/2013-Summer-Entertainment-Preview-Part-2-Movies.aspx

Baz Luhrmann has really gotten The Great Gatsby fans all balled up as of late, and dag nabbit am I ready for all of this baloney to be over.

He not only ruined Christmas by moving the release date of his Fitzgerald adaptation from December 2012 to May 2013, but Luhrmann too squashed awesome rumors that Jay-Z was working on the score for the film.

He also used MY theme song, Jay and Kanye’s Watch the Throne track “No Church in the Wild” for his teaser trailers, which was just plain rude seeing as he didn’t ask me if that was alright.

In the words of Hova’s main squeeze, no one man should have all that power.

However, after announcing that Jay does in fact have an official connection to The Great Gatsby—he’s titled as executive producer of the film’s soundtrack—and revealing that the picture will open the Cannes Film Festival on May 15^th, Luhrmann is beginning to gain back my trust.

This is great news for Leo, seeing as he asked me to the May 10^th US premiere and doesn’t want any date-director drama.

If you’re looking for a Fitzgerald fix and have already read The Great Gatsby six times like me, two relevant (and incredible) books have gotten totally lost during the hype of this movie:

The Paris Wife, historical fiction and New York Times bestseller by Paula McLain, is set in Chicago, 1920 (of course). The novel narrates the whirlwind romance between Ernest Hemingway and Hadley Richardson—the power couple in the fabled “Lost Generation” that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and last but not least, F. Scott Fitzgerald. How casual.

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald is another historical fiction by Therese Anne Fowler, this time giving its readers an insight to the romance between her and F. Scott Fitzgerald (duh). Much like McLain’s novel, Fowler narrates both stories of the Lost Generation and of the years before Fitzgerald finds fame.

Image Source: http://www.impawards.com/2013/great_gatsby_ver6_xlg.html

Warning: Potential Spoilers Ahead

This was my first experience with the series, and I must say that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a very good movie complete with interesting characters, suspense and believable action.

Looking back, it’s hard to say exactly who the protagonist is. The impetus in the story lies within Mikael Blomkvist’s (Daniel Craig) journalistic troubles but when all is said and done, at least to the extent that this story tells, I found myself much more curious about the past and future of Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) who bears the dragon tattoo.

Now, it would be easy to say Salander is the protagonist but it is through Mikael that she is able to shine. He is no James Bond and finds himself in situations and interactions that many other people might experience – he sleeps with his boss, doesn’t quite understand his daughter and trips over his own feet.

And through this potential normalcy are the effects of Salander’s character, her immense social awkwardness, allowed to affect the audience. This combined with her technical intellect and the movie’s opening sequences are ways in which the movie seemingly tricks the audience into thinking it’s experiencing a story about the girl with the dragon tattoo when it is in fact experiencing an episode from the life of Lisbeth Salander, private investigator.

Well played.

Image Source: http://unlimfiles.com/img_store/0/45/17/35.jpg

For all the cool, useful things on YouTube, there exists 10 times as much stupid crap. Where else would you find a mash-up of anime and Creedence Clearwater Revival? Or a Creed tribute to some video game from when I was six? Or whatever the hell this is? But the absolute bottom-of-the-barrel insults to humanity itself are fan films. Basically, strip everything good and effective from some popular movie/game/TV program, add fat guys and shoot eight minutes with a camcorder, and you’ve got yourself a show. For example:

Disney’s latest crash-grab “Mars Needs Moms” has bombed so phenomenally it would make J. Robert Oppenhemier proud. It had the 12th worst opening ever for a film playing in 3,000-plus theaters and currently is on track to lose roughly $100 million. My question: Why the hell is anyone surprised?

I recently saw the “True Grit” remake, and my first thought was, “Hey, that was pretty decent”. Then I found out it was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including a best lead performance for Jeff Bridges. Really? At the very most, you can only understand about 60 percent of what the hell he’s saying during the movie. I didn’t see “Pootie Tang” sweep during award season. But instead of complaining, for once I’m going to take a positive approach and talk about some great movies nobody liked.

As we approach awards season, one thing I notice is that the Oscars neglect to give some very important distinctions to some very special motion pictures released last year. So without ado, here are my accolades for the films of 2010:

I am going to be blunt: "The Town" really pissed me off. Here is a movie that has a cast of talented actors and a solid director, yet manages to waste its potential thanks to an absolutely boneheaded script. With a few rewrites, we could have had an excellent thriller that showcases the varying emotional conflicts faced by members of the criminal underworld (for this done right, see "The Professional"). Instead, what we are left with is a movie that is merely above average.

As we are all aware, 2010 has been a pretty terrible year for movies. Aside from a few bright spots (Inception, The Social Network, uh...Jackass 3D, I guess) the past eleven months have been dominated by crappy sequels and even crappier remakes. Personally, the prospect of another “Saw” movie seemed about as enjoyable as bad case of herpes, but seeing as it made 50 million at the box office I guess some weirdoes out there still needed their torture fix.

Not from "Twilight," but might as well be

At the Russell House: Twilight Eclipse (Oct. 8)

“The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” is a lot like the stomach flu: quick, nasty and likely
to induce vomiting. The sequel to arguably the worst movie I had to review last
year, “Eclipse” is slightly less boring and significantly more stupid. I guess that
technically makes it better. Picking up where “New Moon” left off, this installment
continues the timeless story of sparkly vampires, shirtless werewolves and the
women who love them (this Tuesday on "Maury"). I can tell you’re excited already.

I’m not exaggerating when I say without a doubt that “Eclipse” makes no damn sense
whatsoever. Take for example, the scene where a vampire punches a guy’s head
causing it to bloodlessly explode with the sound effect of a pot shattering. Or the
random Prohibition-Era-rape flashback, which seems a strange thing to include in what
I thought was a kid’s movie. In addition, the dialogue sounds like it was penned by
someone who has never once interacted with another human being. An example:

Edward: “Marry me.”
Bella: “I can’t, I have to be back at four.”

Oscar-worthy. Other than the occasional “so stupid, it’s funny” moment, “Eclipse” is
more of the same boring garbage we sat through two times before.

Overall when it comes to vampire movies, “Eclipse” ranks worse than “Jesus Christ:
Vampire Hunter” but slightly better than “Bleeders” (which is about incestuous mutant
midget-vampires battling a fat alcoholic Rutger Hauer). This brings me to my main
point: almost all vampire movies are really bad. The original Dracula is honest-to-
god pretty boring. “Near Dark” is just “Twilight” with texans. “Dracula 3000” had robot
prostitutes and Coolio . “Blade Trinity” somehow found a way to make even Blade suck.
Sure there are a few exceptions (“Blade II,” “Let the Right One In,” the first half of “the
Lost Boys”) but can these movies really make up for “Van Helsing”? I don’t think so. As
bad as Twilight is, it’s unfair to claim it ruined the vampire movie. After all, how do you
kill what’s already dead?