Trailer Time: Newsroom Season 3 Teaser #1 (HBO – 2014)

I would read the phone book if Aaron Sorkin wrote it.  In fact, I’m sure the phone book could be improved with snappy dialogue best consumed when walking quickly from one place to another.  No one uses the phone book anymore anyway, so why ISN’T Sorkin writing it is the real question.

I’m not sure why The Newsroom never found favor with the critics that past Sorkin series (The West Wing, SportsNight) have.  I think the first cold open of the series is one of the best scenes I’ve ever seen on TV, and maybe that the rest of the series never got to that level consistently ended up sandbagging it.  I’m glad it’s getting a third and final season though.  Sorkin has said that he feels like he’s just figured out how to write the show, so while it’s sad that’s happening in a final season, it should be one to remember.  The Newsroom returns to HBO this November.

How to Train Your Dragon 2 Blu Ray/DVD Release Date and Details

While I loved the first film, How to Train Your Dragon 2 didn’t really have the joy of the original.  That being said, obviously others disagree because it made over half a billion globally, and I still thought it was fun and absolutely stunning animation.  Dreamworks is loading the Blu Ray with tons of extras to sate your dragon-riding needs until the third film is released in 2017.  How to Train Your Dragon 2 releases on Blu Ray and DVD on November 11th.  The full press release and details on the extras are below.

Top 5: Scenes From The Dark Knight

Once a month in the Top 5 column, we do a little something different.  Moving down the IMDB (International Movie Database) Top 250 films, we’ll name the top five scenes (in chronological order) from films so good that our regular “My Favorite Scene” column can’t do them justice.  You can see our first effort with #1 on the IMDB 250 – The Shawshank Redemption – by clicking here , our #2 – The Godfather by clicking here, our #3 – The Godfather Part II  – by clicking here.  Today we look at one of my favorite films of all-time #4 The Dark Knight.

Steve Rogers Story Will End in Cap 3! Will There Be a New Cap?

There have long been rumblings that Chris Evans wants to retire from the MCU, maybe even acting, after his contract is up.  He’s contracted for two more Avengers films and Captain America 3, which is already scheduled for 2016.  The Russo Brothers are returning to direct the third film, which is fantastic news after they delivered, in my opinion, the best Marvel movie yet.  In making press round promoting the Blu Ray release of The Winter Soldier, they talked a little about Cap 3.  (Though they did not address the rumors coming from Jeremy Renner that Hawkeye will be in the third Cap film.)

The first draft of the script is done, we will be seeing The Winter Soldier again, and they basically said that Caps 2 &3 could be looked at as two halves of a larger arc that leaves things open for the shield to be passed.  There’s a history of people other than Steve being Cap (in fact Sam Wilson – Falcon – is about to become Cap in the comics).  Transitioning to a new Cap is going to be a lot easier than transitioning to a new Iron Man.

With Iron Man and some of the characters that will be much more difficult to recast, I think you’ll see them transition off the revolving membership of the Avengers and fade to the background for a while as other Phase 2 and Phase 3 characters step forward.  This will allow Marvel time to retool, recast and reintroduce the core characters down the line.  The full article and comments from the Russos is below.  Captain America 3 is currently scheduled for a May 6, 2016 release.

Killing Time August 28, 2014 – What the F*ck, PG-13?

Note: Due to an attempt to keep this column PG-13 (at least by MPAA standards), the word “f*ck” will be replaced by the word “woodchuck”.

This is a rant that’s been long in coming, probably since John Malkovich dropped an F-bomb in the third Transformers movie (classy).  The MPAA, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that you can still maintain a PG-13 rating with one, possibly two, “woodchucks”.  It used to be sporadic (and in a Michael Bay film not even in the top 25 of most appalling things), but this summer X-Men: Days of Future Past, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Edge of Tomorrow and even Hercules (really?) have used their allotted “woodchuck”.  Just because you CAN, doesn’t mean you SHOULD, you woodchucking idiots.