More details are now available on the movie that should never be: Beverly Hills Cop 4 or “Beverly Hills Cop 2009″ as director Brett Ratner (infamous director of Rush Hours 1, 2, & 3) would like you to call it. Latino Review had a chance to review the script and their reaction shouldn’t surprise anyone:

It’s been 15 years since Axel Foley was last in Beverly Hills, and screenwriters Michael Brandt and Derek Haas needed a good reason to bring him back. That reason comes just a couple of pages into the latest script for Beverly Hills Cop IV (which calls itself Beverly Hills Cop 2009) - Judge Reinhold’s Billy Rosewood takes a leap out the 20th story of the Los Angeles Police HQ. When Axel hears that his former partner and best buddy became sidewalk salad he knows it wasn’t a suicide and he flies to Beverly Hills to get all the facts for himself.

Blah, blah, blah. Foley spends 2 hours running around with a fat, rookie cop who has the hots for another officer way out of his league. Foley helps land hot-cop in fat-cop’s lap while nabbing his buddy’s killer. Sha-zam!

Overall, LR says the script isn’t horrible, but it isn’t great either:

The basic story of Beverly Hills Cop 2009 isn’t terrible. It’s a pretty standard police corruption story that has a personal edge for Axel Foley, and Brandt and Haas make it feel like an 80s action film by keeping the action more grounded, even though the final fight does include RPGs. But there’s no fun in the movie and it feels like it needs another draft to make the film an Axel Foley adventure and not a generic cop getting revenge picture.

C+

I’ll pass. You?

Here’s our first look at Johnny Depp as John Dillinger and Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis in Michael Mann’s crime film “Public Enemies.” Mann is fantastic with his crime action films (”Heat”, “Miami Vice”) so I’m psyched for “Enemies”. Check out the photos of Depp and Bale in costume below.

Described as a sort of Heat II, the film tells the story of charismatic criminal gang leader John Dillinger (Depp) and determined lawman Melvin Purvis (Bale), the FBI agent tracking him down. Also in the cast is Marion Cotillard as Dillinger’s girlfriend, Channing Tatum, Giovanni Ribisi, David Wenham, Leelee Sobieski and Emilie de Ravin, with Billy Crudup as the legendary J. Edgar Hoover.

Source: Empire

The holiday weekend belonged to Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon as their “Four Christmases” stayed just ahead of Disney’s “Bolt” with $31 million and $26 million, respectively, for the top two spots at the box office. The teenybopper hit “Twilight” slumped in its second week with a drop of over 60% of its earnings down to $26.4 million.

There were three other new films besides “Four Christmases”, but none of the rest did as well as aforementioned. “Australia” was kept under $15 million while “Transporter 3″ and “Milk” brought in just $12.3 million and $1.3 million, respectively.

Domestic box office movie earnings this weekend, Nov 28 - 30, 2008:

1. “Four Christmases” $31.6 million [$46.7M total]
2. “Bolt” $26.5 million [$66.8M total]
3. “Twilight” $26.3 million [$119.6M total]
4. “Quantum of Solace” $19.5 million [$142.0M total]
5. “Australia” $14.8 million [$20.0M total]
6. “Madagascar 2″ $14.5 million [$159.5M total]
7. “Transporter 3″ $12.3 million [$18.5M total]
8. “Role Models” $5.2 million [$57.8M total]
9. “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” $1.6 million [$5.1M total]
10. “Milk” $1.3 million [$1.8M total]

I don’t think I can recall any other movies ever releasing an animated movie poster before, so this is pretty cool. Sony has put out the following Flash poster for Terminator Salvation (T4) which shows the destruction of L.A. as it becomes a familiar face.

Looks like Judgment Day now lands in 2018. An extra 19 years isn’t too bad!

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Ethan Hawke and Mark Ruffalo are teaming up for “What Doesn’t Kill You,” a tough life-on-the-streets mafia story. At first I rolled my eyes at the idea of another one of these films, but the trailer looks decent and Ruffalo and Hawke should make for an impressive duo.

Based on events from director Brian Goodman’s life, WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU, stars Mark Ruffalo (Brian) and Ethan Hawke (Paulie), as friends who grew up like brothers on the gritty streets of south Boston. They do whatever it takes to survive, living by the code of their dog-eat-dog neighborhood. Petty crimes and misdemeanors grow into more serious offenses and eventually, they fall under sway to organized crime boss Pat Kelly (played by Goodman).

Although its original theatrical release date was September 2008, I’m still looking forward to Liam Neeson in “Taken” when it finally arrives at the end of January 2009. January/February films are generally nomad land for Hollywood’s worst, but I’m going to stay optimistic on this one. After rewatching “Batman Begins” and noting the big boost Neeson gave to the film made me wonder on this project’s status, and voila! there was a new poster.

If you’ve missed the trailer for “Taken”, co-starring Maggie Grace (Lost), watch it here.

After watching a Thursday night episode of “The Office” have you ever been left wishing it was longer? That’s what she said! NBC is releasing online-only episodes each Tuesday of “The Office” with extended footage over what was seen the Thursday before.

“What fan of ‘The Office’ wouldn’t want to see more?” said Vivi Zigler, president of NBC Universal Digital Entertainment. “There is such great material with ‘The Office,’ and it doesn’t always fit into the TV show. We’re thrilled to let the online fans see the full version.”

Since broadcast episodes are roughly 23 minutes long I’d hope for maybe another 5 minutes or so, though no specifics have been released on just how much will be added.

I’ve searched around NBC’s site for “The Office” and have yet to find the link to the extended episodes. The extended online episodes were supposed to be launch today starting with last Thursday’s (Nov. 20) episode, so something should be up soon.

Update: Bingo! “The Office” extended cut for Nov 20th is now available here.

Source: THR

Sam Mendes upcoming film, “Revolutionary Road” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, has a new trailer out in the wild and oddly it reminds me of the trailer from “The Strangers” with the skipping record. I’m definitely interested in seeing this one as Mendes has delivered some great movies in the past (”American Beauty” & “Jarhead”).

“Revolutionary Road” plot:

A young couple living in a Connecticut suburb during the mid-1950s struggle to come to terms with their personal problems while trying to raise their two children.

“Revolutionary Road” trailer:

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Greg Mottola (”Superbad”) is back with another teenage tribulations comedy with “Adventureland” starring Kristen Stewart (”Twilight”) and Jesse Eisenberg as two teenagers spending their summer working at a low paying theme park:

Set in 1987, the film follows James Brennan, an uptight recent college grad forced to take a minimum wage job at an amusement park when he realizes he can’t afford his dream tour of Europe.

Mottola based the story off his own experiences of working in a theme park when growing up. Finally, I have hope and reason to write a comedy about my own life story of making sneakers for pennies an hour when I was seven.

Source: /Film

There was a huge amount of buzz back in July over Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker in “The Dark Knight.” People seriously questioned whether or not Ledger would bring about an Oscar nod and even win it for Best Supporting Actor. Warner Bros. is behind the push this time when the release of full page ads in Variety like the poster below.

While Ledger wouldn’t be the first posthumous win for Best Actor he would be the first dead actor to be nominated. Peter Finch won it for “Network” in 1976, but secured the win after dying postnomination.

I’d love to see Ledger be nominated for his impressive performance, but no, I don’t think he can win it. The Academy just doesn’t trend towards the action genre for such award categories. And while many people have said there isn’t any competition this year, I think they’re wrong and so does /Film:

He will have to contend with Michael Shannon in Revolutionary Road, Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt, John Malkovich in Changeling, Ralph Fiennes in Duchess, John Malkovich and Brad Pitt in Burn After Reading and Robert Downey, Jr. in Tropic Thunder.

It’ll be tough. Do you think Heath Ledger can win Best Supporting Actor?