Being familiar with the Warren Ellis original property, I was curious going into the panel for Summit Entertainment’s Red to see how far the tone of the film was going to change from the dark, violent graphic novel to the lighter blackly comic adaptation.

Moderator Eric Mora, Editor in chief of IGN Movies, introduced original Red comic creator Warren Ellis, artist Cully Hammer, producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, and actors Karl Urban, Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren, and Bruce Willis to the panel.

Bruce Willis praised the work of his co-stars, Mirren noted that with her and Morgan Freeman that they had both “the Queen and God” in the film, as she sported a Harvey Pekar memorial sweater. Warren Ellis noted that his motivation for allowing his property to be adapted was “lots of money… I could buy most of you now.” He wanted the producers to roll with the film in whatever direction they wanted.

The first trailer for the DC Comics adaptation RED has been released online. The movie is an adaptation of the three-issue comic mini-series by the great Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner.

The first thing that will catch your eye is the great cast. Starring in the movie is Bruce Willis, Mary-Louise Parker, Academy Award®-winners Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, Richard Dreyfuss, and Ernest Borgnine, John Malkovich, Karl Urban (Star Trek, Lord of the Rings), Brian Cox (Super Troopers, Troy), Julian McMahon (Fantastic Four, Nip/Tuck), James Remar (Dexter, Battlestar Galactica) and Rebecca Pidgeon (The Unit, The Shield).

Make your way on over to the other side to read a synopsis and check out the first trailer for RED!

Invictus
DVD | Blu-ray
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Starring Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman
Warner Home Video
Release date: May 19, 2010

A South African newspaper’s heading read “he won the election, now can he lead a country?” This unhopeful question is referring to Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman), who in 1994 was elected the first black President of an apartheid stricken South Africa. After emerging 27 years from prison for political upheaval, Mr. Mandela had no inclinations to seek revenge on the white Afrikaners who placed the cuffs on him. Instead he disarmed any such thought, and the film, entitled Invictus — after an 1875 poem by British writer William Earnest Henley — is attracted to this passive stance which had, at its focal point, the sport of rugby.

Rugby is a primitive sport that glorifies brutality. A character in the film refers to it as a hooligans’ game. A bunch of ferocious men never hesitate to jolt another’s anatomy, leaving the victim writhing in pain on a field of grass that resembles man’s outer state; dirty, muddy, torn and worn. Each team interlocks with the other trying to move the opposition out of place so one team can snatch the ball up and progress it up-field. Despite the over-populated yelling crowd and the groans of the rugby players when their flesh smacks one another, communication is still tried amongst each team with hope of keeping order amongst each other. This does not sound so much like sport. Rather, it has characteristics that resemble wars, battles, and even apartheids (split teams).

As always, we like to have the results of the big awards ceremonies here for all to see, and tonight was the biggest of them all: the 82nd annual Academy Awards.

This, the king of all awards shows, has faced much criticism the last few years, and their nominations this year did not help bring validity to their cause. Many of the films and actors were very deserving of their nominations, but many others were passed over in lieu of some big box office successes of questionable overall quality. And though they made a valiant effort to increase the excitement of the show with 10 Best Picture nominations, the end result was frustrating to we the film lovers of the world?

In the end, some fantastic films and performances were justly awarded, and as always, there were a few that rubbed the wrong way. Continue on over to the other side to see all of the final results!

For we the movie fanatics of the world, the Academy Awards are just as exciting as the Super Bowl. Many of us throw or attend Oscar parties, and even go so far as to print out that ballot and lock our picks into place.

Over the past few years, this and a lot of other awards shows have kind of lost their flare. It has become apparent that deciding nominees and voting for winners is not about who is the best and who is most deserving, but about what has the best side-story and what the popular names and titles are. This massive flaw is hard to swallow, and the appeal of the whole event is bordering on non-existent.

To help bring more appeal to the game, the folks behind the Academy Awards chose to make a few changes in the format of the show. The biggest of these alterations was of course changing the amount of Best Picture nominees from 5 to a whopping 10, which meant that all of the deserving but not-so-traditional contenders (The Dark Knight) could get their chance to be underdog heroes.

Continue reading on for more and to check out the full list of this year’s nominees!