Let's be honest. Both of these films look pretty terrible. Both feature over-the-hill action icons who can barely walk at a quick pace let alone engage in all-out fight scenes. The films look just a big better than substandard direct-to-DVD action fare, and that's not even counting the *good* DTV stuff like Universal Soldier: Regeneration and Undisputed 3. Both Stallone and Schwarzenegger seem to be acting as badly as possible. Schwarzenegger is obviously out of practice, but Stallone has little excuse, having delivered perfectly fine turns in Rocky Balboa, Rambo, and The Expendables (I'm hopefully seeing The Expendables 2 tomorrow night). So, The Last Stand (from Jee-woon Kim, helmer of I Saw the Devil) opens from Lionsgate on January 13th, 2013. Walter Hill's Bullet To the Head (following oodles of reshoots) debuts via Warner Bros. on February 1st, 2013. They both look pretty terrible. But as a longtime fan of Homicide: Life on the Street, Bullet To the Head gets bonus points for viciously murdering Jon Seda (who very nearly killed the show during season six) in the opening reel. Which one looks less awful to you? Are you surprised that 20th Century Fox didn't have a A Good Day To Die Hard trailer ready for this weekend? Please share below...
Scott Mendelson
Scott Mendelson
Arnold's trailer lacks Sarah Shahi. Stallone's is automatically better. (Not to mention more diverse in front of the camera.)
ReplyDeleteI think The Last Stand actually looks pretty good, and I'm excited by the notion of Jee-woon Kim making his US debut. He's a terrific filmmaker.
ReplyDeleteThe Last Stand looks genuinely good. A couple of half-decent jokes, a self-aware performance and cool action. Bullet to the Head looks like a straight-to-DVD thingy.
ReplyDeleteJee-woon Kim in the director's chair for The Last Stand is helping me to forget this trailer and still give the film a shot.
ReplyDeleteI thought I SAW THE DEVIL was slightly overrated, but he's no 'I've directed two music videos now give me $175 million for my first film' rookie.
ReplyDeleteThe Last Stand has Genesis Rodriguez for eye-candy. As for Sarah Shahi, this is another classic 'television is better for women' example. On TV, Shahi has been a lead in two different series. On film, she plays 'the hostage'.
ReplyDeleteOut of the two, despite being a bigger fan of Arnold, I'm more eager to see "Bullet to the Head". Maybe it's Walter Hill. I had to stop watching the trailer midway when it was clear that it was a "tell the audience the entire movie trailer".
ReplyDeleteI dug "I Saw The Devil" but when was the last time an acclaimed director from overseas came and made a good genre movie? Robocop was 25 years ago.
The Good, The Bad, and The Weird is my favorite film of his, and if he uses elements of that as a template for this, it could certainly be better than the standard trailer implies. We'll see.
ReplyDeleteYeah, definitely only even considering seeing the Last Stand because of Jee-Woon Kim. Even though A Bittersweet Life is my favorite film of his, The Good, The Bad, and The Weird will probably be closer to what the Last Stand will be like (considering that it is more of an action/comedy than an action/drama). But, back to the question at hand, I think that Last Stand has a worse trailer but the potential to be the better movie.
ReplyDeleteI agree that The Last Stand looks fun while Bullet to the Head feels like the average "straight-to-DVD".
ReplyDeleteI noticed something on the "Bullet" trailer: It hints that Stallone and the villain (Jason Momoa) will have a mano-a-mano fight at the end, involving axes. As the film is directed by Walter Hill, it's hard to notice the axe fight echoes another of his films: Streets of Fire.