To celebrate the release of Get Low today, 23rd May on DVD (order your copy here), Sony Pictures Home Entertainment have given us three copies of the movie to give away on DVD. Get Low is directed by Aaron Schneider and stars Academy Award® Winner Robert Duvall, Academy Award® Winner Sissy Spacek, Academy Award® Nominee Bill Murray and Lucas Black.

Synopsis: For years, townsfolk have been terrified of the backwoods recluse known as Felix Bush (Duvall). People say he’s done all sorts of unspeakable things — that he’s killed in cold blood; that he’s in league with the devil; that he has strange powers — and they avoid him like the plague. Then one day, Felix rides to town with a shotgun and a wad of cash, saying he wants to buy a funeral. It’s not your usual funeral for the dead that Felix wants. On the contrary, he wants a living funeral, in which anyone who ever has had a story about him will come to tell it, while he takes it all in.

Sensing an opportunity for a big payday, fast-talking funeral home owner Frank Quinn (Murray) enlists his gentlemanly young apprentice, Buddy Robinson (Black), to win Felix’s business. Buddy is no stranger to Felix’s dark reputation, but what he discovers is that behind Felix’s surreal plan lies a very real and long-held secret. As the funeral approaches, the mystery – involving the widow Mattie Darrow (Spacek), the only person in town who ever got close to Felix, and an Illinois preacher Charlie Jackson (Cobbs), who refuses to speak at his former friend’s funeral – only deepens. But when the big day comes, Felix is in no mood to listen to other people spinning made-up anecdotes about him. This time, he’s the one who is going to do the telling about why he has been hiding out in the woods.

DVD Bonus Features include:

• Commentary with Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Director Aaron Schneider & Producer Dean Zanuck
• Featurette: The Deep South: Buried Secrets
• Featurette: Getting Low: Getting into Character
• Featurette: A Screenwriter’s Point of View
• Cast and Crew Q&A
• On the Red Carpet

To be in with a chance of winning the movie on DVD, simply answer the following question using the form below:

Who plays the character Felix Bush in Get Low?

COMPETITION NOW CLOSED

The small print:

• Open to UK residents only
• Only one entry per household will be counted
• The competition will close 31st May at 23.59 GMT
• The winner will be picked at random from entries received

The usual T&Cs can be found here. Good Luck!

By our very human nature we are fascinated by folklore, especially where wrongdoing or a supernatural element are involved. Our curiosity grows when there is an unresolved factor to the tale, and even a presence or being in the frame.

Debut feature maker Aaron Schneider’s Get Low is based on one such Southern yarn about a real-life loner Felix ‘Bush’ Breazeale from Kingston, Tennessee in the 1930s who had a reputation for being eccentric, wild and dangerous, fuelled by the fact that he chose to live alone with his beloved mule. Bush wanted to know what people would say about him after he was gone – and especially the preacher, so arranged a living funeral, which drew national interest on the offer of lottery tickets for his valuable land. He died a couple of years later, taking the secret of his one true love to the grave.

As a film concept, it is an exciting one, full of possibilities. Schneider is considerate to the legend by getting the casting of his Bush just right in the equally legendary Robert Duvall who fully fleshes out the tired and crusty Bush with little effort. Whether the truer, uglier aspects of the real-life character are missing from this and tamed down is hard to tell, but Duvall’s Bush merely seems like a harassed old man with a shady past and an exceptional beard, simply wanting to be left alone in his latter years. Our empathy with that is vitally important for Schneider’s film to work and is tactfully sown from the start, especially when some pesky youths come a snooping on Bush’s land.

Indeed, be prepared for a slow burner of realisation and redemption that in turn allows for its multitude of colourful characters to evolve in a touching and comical way. It is absolutely a character-driven film with a hint of western theme, so placing an experienced actor like Duvall in the lead to drive the mystery was a wise and necessary choice. To match Duvall’s guarded and, at times, muted delivery needs a wit-matching catalyst of talent. Bill Murray injects the humour with his own brand of thrilling deadpan and nonchalant precision as the local, money-grabbing funeral home owner, Frank Quinn.

It feels like an odd partnership at first as we expect Murray to lead us done the farcical comedy path, as Quinn runs ragged around town and the state trying to host the biggest party ever. These are some of the joyous and memorable scenes of the film, especially getting Bush’s picture taken. But Murray retains his serious composure, making salesman Quinn and his calculating ways far more amusing to watch, and bringing a whole new dimension to the character. Quinn gains a healthy bank balance, but also heart, a place in the local community (as an out-of-towner from the big city, Chicago), and a purpose in life that the liquor-swilling boss craves. It is an intriguing journey in itself. However, slightly disappointingly, the character is left woefully unexplored, with Schneider preferring to cut dead any development in that respect to focus the story on his lead protagonist. This results in Quinn never rising above his comedy caricature.

Bush’s manipulating ways are exposed by Quinn’s by-the-book protégée, Buddy Robinson, who sees life in the old dog Bush yet. Robinson is the film’s human barometer, the voice of reason and the new blood in the situation. The ever scornful-looking and brow-furrowed Lucas Black nicely takes on the role with an attentive and determined manner, becoming the surrogate family Bush never had. Both Robinson and Bush’s old flame, Mattie, refuse to allow Bush to fester in his lot and shy away from society, gently coaxing out his dormant humanity, emotion and generosity of spirit. Sissy Spacek as Mattie gives her usual solid and tormented performance as the victim of unrequited love. Opposite Duvall, their appearances and acute facial expressions are compelling to watch as the mystery of Bush’s hermitage unfolds.

Indeed, Mattie is a fictional character and not part of the real-life tale. She has been created to allow Schneider to take the easy option out by revealing the mystery with a heart-felt, beans-spilling and rather theatrical ending, rather than opting for the trickier one of retaining some of Bush’s enigma, and giving the film a nice little twist. Admittedly, Duvall is always captivating to watch, giving one of his momentous screen speeches that is spoiled with the visual flashbacks for the hard-of-thinking. Hence, the reveal seems a little deflating and unsatisfactory an explanation as to his choice of lifestyle. By withholding some of his true feelings and intentions, Schneider could have concluded the film on an unnerving edge, allowing for the imagination to run wild and keeping the folklore in tact. Still, we get to respect and warm to Bush in the end, and in turn, give him a hero’s send off.

Get Low is a quirky and touching tale of the power of storytelling that completely relies on its rich character strength to see it to fruition. Its appeal lies solely on Duvall as Bush, even though his intrigue that is so brilliantly built up in the first half, somewhat crumbles in the second half, when the mystery comes flooding out in a weepy confessional. If nothing else, Duvall makes Bush iconic in stature, prompting a genuine sigh at the old man’s passing and the tragedy of time lost. It is a safe bet in feature film-making for Schneider who should be credited alone for attracting a stellar cast, as well as an apt platform for reintroducing the exceptional acting veteran Duvall as a leading protagonist, after many years away from centre stage.

***~~ (3/5)

Sony Pictures Releasing have just sent us the brand new UK trailer for Bill Murray and Robert Duvall’s new movie, Get Low. The movie also stars Lucas Black, Gerald McRaney, Sissy Spacek, Bill Cobbs, Andrea Powell, Lori Beth Edgeman and is directed by Aaron Schneider.

Synopsis: For years, townsfolk have been terrified of the backwoods recluse known as Felix Bush. People say he’s done all manner of unspeakable things — that he’s killed in cold blood; that he’s in league with the Devil; that he has strange powers — and they avoid him like the plague. Then, one day, Felix rides to town with a shotgun and a wad of cash, saying he wants to buy a funeral. It’s not your usual funeral for the dead Felix wants. On the contrary, he wants a ‘living funeral,’ in which anyone who ever had heard a story about him will come to tell it, while he takes it all in. Sensing a big payday in the offing, fast-talking funeral home owner Frank Quinn enlists his gentlemanly young apprentice, Buddy Robinson to win over Felix’s business. Buddy is no stranger to Felix’s dark reputation, but what he discovers is that behind Felix’s surreal plan lies a very real and long-held secret that must get out. As the funeral approaches, the mystery – which involves the widow Maddie Darrow, the only person in town who ever got close to Felix, and the Illinois preacher Charlie Jackson who refuses to speak at his former friend’s funeral – only deepens. But on the big day, Felix is in no mood to listen to other people spinning made-up anecdotes about him. This time, he’s the one who is going to do the telling about why he has been hiding out in the woods.

Check out the new trailer along with some new images below. We can expect to see it in our cinemas 21st January.

Legion is releasedon DVD and Blu Ray today and stars Paul Bettany, Dennis Quaid, Lucas Black, Adrianne Palicki, Charles S. Dutton,  Tyrese Gibson, Kevin Durand, Jon Tenney, Willa Holland, Kate Walsh and is directed by Scott Stewart.

The basic premise of the movie is that God (although never mentioned by name) isn’t happy with his people and decides to start all over again, much like the Bible story, Noah and the Ark. The difference here is that rather than sending a giant flood to wipe out the earth, God uses….. Us! Sound a bit odd. Well, it sort of is!

While God prepares his army of angels to come and possess us all, one angel, Michael (Bettany) stands up against the Lord and Creator. Michael is on a mission to save a baby which is currently in the womb of Charlie played by Adrianne Palicki. If the baby lives, humanity has a chance, if he/she doesn’t, it’s the end of the world as we know it. Along with Bettany, it’s down to a human with the stupidest name of all time, Jeep Hanson (Lucas Black) to try to defend the love of his life who couldn’t care less if he was attracted to her or not.

Legion is a very confused movie with a rather large cast and no real idea of where it’s going. The fact that a rogue angel stands up to God to defy his will is crazy will no doubt annoy any Christian who watched it.

Some redeeming qualities include the sound design which was just fantastic and the special effects but I’m afraid neither save this movie from the tripe that it turned out to be. I’m rather sad it was so bad because from the trailers, it has potential to be something great and I think if the screenplay had been better, we’d have seen a great movie. However it was full of so many absurdities and cliched lines that it’s probably destined to go to the bottom of the bargain bin at your local service/gas station.

If Terminator was merged with Dawn of the Dead with a splash of Childsplay and Men in Black thrown in for good measure, you’d get some way to explaining Legion’s storyline.

Legion is released on DVD and Blu ray – Monday, 9th August and you can purchase it here.

Go Behind the Scenes of Legion

Special Features:

• Designing Paradise Falls: Discover the creative process behind designing the apocalyptic vision of Paradise Falls.
• Blueprint of a Scene: An immersive, in-depth breakdown of a key battle sequence against the possessed.
• movieIQ+sync and BD-Live connect you to real-time information on the cast, music, trivia and more while watching the movie!
• BD Exclusive: Bringing Angels To Earth: Picture-in-Picture
• Creating the Apocalypse – Behind the Physical Effects
• Humanity’s Last Line of Defense – The Cast and Characters
• From Pixels to Picture – A Look at the Visual Effects

Variety have just announced the news that Robert Duvall and Lucas Black have both signed up to appear in new indie golfing drama-comedy, ‘Seven Days in Utopia’. The cast also includes Deborah Ann Woll, Brian Geraghty and Melissa Leo. They also point out that Seven Days in Utopia will be the third time that Duvall and Black have worked together after previously appearing in Sling Blade and Get Low. Utopia will be directed by Matthew Dean Russell.

Plot: The story follows a talented young golfer set on making the pro tour. When his first big shot turns out to be a very public disaster, he escapes the pressures of the game and finds himself unexpectedly stranded in Utopia, Texas, home to an eccentric rancher who forces the golfer to question not only his past choices, but his direction for the future.

The production begins filming in Texas next week. Head over to Variety for the full lowdown.

Earlier today, I put up the new poster for Bill Murray and Robert Duvall’s new movie, Get Low. Seems Yahoo weren’t far behind with the new trailer from the movie which was released last night while I was sleeping.

Get Low stars Bill Murray, Robert Duvall, Lucas Black, Gerald McRaney, Sissy Spacek, Bill Cobbs, Andrea Powell, Lori Beth Edgeman and is directed by Aaron Schneider.

Synopsis: For years, townsfolk have been terrified of the backwoods recluse known as Felix Bush. People say he’s done all manner of unspeakable things — that he’s killed in cold blood; that he’s in league with the Devil; that he has strange powers — and they avoid him like the plague. Then, one day, Felix rides to town with a shotgun and a wad of cash, saying he wants to buy a funeral. It’s not your usual funeral for the dead Felix wants. On the contrary, he wants a ‘living funeral,’ in which anyone who ever had heard a story about him will come to tell it, while he takes it all in. Sensing a big payday in the offing, fast-talking funeral home owner Frank Quinn enlists his gentlemanly young apprentice, Buddy Robinson to win over Felix’s business. Buddy is no stranger to Felix’s dark reputation, but what he discovers is that behind Felix’s surreal plan lies a very real and long-held secret that must get out. As the funeral approaches, the mystery – which involves the widow Maddie Darrow, the only person in town who ever got close to Felix, and the Illinois preacher Charlie Jackson who refuses to speak at his former friend’s funeral – only deepens. But on the big day, Felix is in no mood to listen to other people spinning made-up anecdotes about him. This time, he’s the one who is going to do the telling about why he has been hiding out in the woods.

I love this poster so much. It’s vibrant, shows two of the greatest actors on the planet and I think I might have to buy a copy! The poster is for new movie called Get Low which stars Bill Murray, Robert Duvall, Lucas Black, Gerald McRaney, Sissy Spacek, Bill Cobbs, Andrea Powell, Lori Beth Edgeman and is directed by Aaron Schneider.

IMDb give us the short synopsis which seems rather intriguing!:

A movie spun out of equal parts folk tale, fable and real-life legend about the mysterious, 1930s Tennessee hermit who famously threw his own rollicking funeral party… while he was still alive.

Get Low is released in the US 30th July. As yet I haven’t found a UK release date but i’ll keep you posted.

Source: Collider.com

Day 10 – Friday
Friday has to be one of my favourite days at EIFF.

It began with Superhero Me at the Cameo – a.k.a. the comfiest cinema in the universe. Enveloped in its cozy red seats, we were swept away on a magical journey of cheap spandex, a novice superhero named SOS, and a network of eccentrics. Superhero Me is a documentary from Steve Sale, a first-time filmmaker who wondered – “Long before Kick-Ass!” -  what it would be like to become a superhero.

Quickly taking action, he shot his forays into real life comic book filmmaking on home video equipment, camera phones, and whatever else he could get his hands on. It’s an enjoyable romp, with a poignant message to be found in later scenes with an Orlando-based superhero named Master Legend. Unfortunately it was ill-projected, so we missed the subtitles while he spoke with an Italian vigilante and some other details. Not amazing, but certainly enjoyable.

After getting some work done(!) I met up with a friend from home and we returned to the Cameo for Mai Mai Miracle. Directed by Sunao Katabuchi, once assistant to Hayao Miyazaki, it’s an autobiographical anime with Studio Ghibli flavour. Beautifully drawn, it has some sweet characters but does not quite develop into anything more than a parochial childhood tale.

Late that evening I caught the UK premiere of Get Low. Starring Robert Duvall and Bill Murray, it’s the directorial debut of cinematographer Aaron Schneider. Equal parts real-life legend and folk tale, it’s the story of a Southern hermit who threw his own funeral party. Set in 1930s Tennessee, the film explores what might inspire a man to do such a thing. Duvall is excellent as the misunderstood and curmudgeonly Felix Bush. Bill Murray provides comic relief in a strong performance as Frank Quinn, while Lucas Black makes a great appearance as his young protégé. Beautifully shot with excellent performances, it’s a solid, enjoyable picture. Aaron Schnieder also appeared for a Q&A to discuss working with Duvall and Murray.

After a spot of bowling, some friends and I made our way to the Honeymooner party. Star of the film Gerard Kearns was in attendance – you’ll recognise him as Ian Gallagher from Shameless. It was an interesting night to say the least, and perhaps the less that is said, the better. Let’s just say the brandy cocktails were a bit of a knock-out.

Day 11 – Saturday
On Saturday morning, Tilda Swinton and Mark Cousins’ flash mob took place, where they danced to Laurel and Hardy’s Way Out West ditty. Shortly afterwards, their event and screening took place. The 8 1/2 Foundation was founded by Mark and Tilda as a project that encourages children to celebrate cinema by way of a new kind of birthday – their 8 1/2th. The event began with Mark, Tilda, and a group of friends dancing around Filmhouse 1 with signs, before waving a flag with “The State of Cinema” splashed across it while a spotlight raced around the room. Quite disorienting, but everyone involved had a blast.

It’s rather a cool venture. By inviting children to celebrate film, it also encourages an active involvement from schools and clubs to become members and discover all kinds of films to which children might never have been introduced. The event rounded off with a screening of Jafar Panahi’s The White Balloon.

It was a quiet evening, for which I was thankful, as it was soon time to make our way to the closing night party! It was a fantastic night at the Caves in Edinburgh, a maze of a venue. I spotted Brian Cox (cutting in line right in front of me, the cheek!) and Jonathan Ames, writer of The Extra Man. I also spoke briefly to Morag McKinnon, director of Donkeys, who said that she had been approached by a buyer, so keep an eye out!

A brilliant night was had all round.

Day 12 – Sunday

As predicted, Edinburgh was a ghost town on Sunday. The combination of the usual Sunday silence around the cinematic triangle (locals have a less PG name for the area) and the departure of delegates made the festival feel truly over.

The delegate centre was a sight to behold, and pretty much summed up how I felt after almost 2 weeks of hard festing. There were boxes of magazines all around, the lights were dimmed, and there were people strewn across couches, curled up on chairs, and falling asleep into their own cupped hands.

After lunch, I decided to catch one last film. The last day of EIFF is second-chance Sunday, when the picks for Best of the Fest are screened. I caught Hotel Atlantico, a Brazillian film by Suzana Amarel. If you’ve been reading about ‘Slow Cinema’ in Sight and Sound lately, you’ll know the type. It’s the story of a solitary alcoholic actor traveling through the south of Brazil. The meandering storyline involves all sorts of absurd situations and human relations. I was dozing off at the beginning, then it became somewhat more engaging through the middle and downright strange towards the end.

After an evening of packing and trying not to collapse in a heap, I rounded off my festival with a party at the delegate centre followed by a few hours at the Blue Blazer (the unofficial pub of the fest). It was a lovely way to finish up, and after some solemn goodbyes it was time to shuttle back home to Glasgow.

I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about my EIFF adventures as much as I’ve enjoyed having them! As always, you can follow me on Twitter @robotnic, and more from me on my blog, and you can see all of my Edinburgh Film Festival coverage here.

If I don’t see you through the week I’ll see you through the window!

- Nicola

The new trailer for Bill Murray’s latest movie, Get Low has been released over on Yahoo. The movie also stars Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Lucas Black, Gerald McRaney and is directed by Aaron Schneider.

Here’s the synopsis and check out the trailer below.

For years, townsfolk have been terrified of the backwoods recluse known as Felix Bush. People say he’s done all manner of unspeakable things — that he’s killed in cold blood; that he’s in league with the Devil; that he has strange powers — and they avoid him like the plague. Then, one day, Felix rides to town with a shotgun and a wad of cash, saying he wants to buy a funeral. It’s not your usual funeral for the dead Felix wants. On the contrary, he wants a ‘living funeral,’ in which anyone who ever had heard a story about him will come to tell it, while he takes it all in. Sensing a big payday in the offing, fast-talking funeral home owner Frank Quinn enlists his gentlemanly young apprentice, Buddy Robinson to win over Felix’s business.

Buddy is no stranger to Felix’s dark reputation, but what he discovers is that behind Felix’s surreal plan lies a very real and long-held secret that must get out. As the funeral approaches, the mystery – which involves the widow Maddie Darrow, the only person in town who ever got close to Felix, and the Illinois preacher Charlie Jackson who refuses to speak at his former friend’s funeral – only deepens. But on the big day, Felix is in no mood to listen to other people spinning made-up anecdotes about him. This time, he’s the one who is going to do the telling about why he has been hiding out in the woods.

Some movies look great on paper but are either let down by the transition to the big screen. Let me sow that seed of information as you read on.

Legion is the new action thriller from Sony Pictures. It stars Paul Bettany, Dennis Quaid, Lucas Black, Adrianne Palicki, Charles S. Dutton,  Tyrese Gibson, Kevin Durand, Jon Tenney, Willa Holland, Kate Walsh and is directed by Scott Stewart.

The basic premise of the movie is that God (although never mentioned by name) isn’t happy with his people and decides to start all over again, much like the Bible story, Noah and the Ark. The difference here is that rather than sending a giant flood to wipe out the earth, God uses….. Us! Sound a bit odd. Well, it sort of is!

While God prepares his army of angels to come and possess us all, one angel, Michael (Bettany) stands up against the Lord and Creator. Michael is on a mission to save a baby which is currently in the womb of Charlie played by Adrianne Palicki. If the baby lives, humanity has a chance, if he/she doesn’t, it’s the end of the world as we know it. Along with Bettany, it’s down to a human with the stupidest name of all time, Jeep Hanson (Lucas Black) to try to defend the love of his life who couldn’t care less if he was attracted to her or not.

Legion is a very confused movie with a rather large cast and no real idea of where it’s going. The fact that a rogue angel stands up to God to defy his will is crazy and goes against everything The Bible has taught Christians since it was written. Some of the dialogue between characters us just laughable and in fact, if you had a camera on the lady sitting next to me, you’d think Legion was indeed full of laugh out loud jokes. She really was in hysterics at how terrible this film was. She was not alone with groans, yawns and people leaving the screening well before it finished as they couldn’t take anymore! I held strong to the end for you the HeyUGuys readers!

Some redeeming qualities include the sound design which was just fantastic and the special effects but I’m afraid neither save this movie from the tripe that it turned out to be. I’m rather sad it was so bad because from the trailers, it has potential to be something great and I think if the screenplay had been better, we’d have seen a great movie. However it was full of so many absurdities and cliched lines that it was destined to go to the bottom of the bargain bin at your local service/gas station.

If Terminator was merged with Dawn of the Dead with a splash of Childsplay and Men in Black thrown in for good measure, you’d get some way to explaining Legion’s storyline. It’s redeeming feature is that it only cost an estimated $26m to make an according to wikipedia, has already made double that in takings in the US so I guess it’s not to be sniffed at. The effects and cast that was used in the movie was actually quite respectable with a budget so low (and yes, i know $26m is still an awful lot of money).

Legion is released in cinemas this Friday. I really look forward to some of you seeing it so you can tell me if I’m wrong but please make sure you go on Orange Wednesday so you’re not paying full price to watch it!

Sony have released a brand new international trailer for Legion which stars Dennis Quaid, Charles S. Dutton, Kate Walsh, Tyrese Gibson, Lucas Black, Adrianne Palicki, and is directed by Scott Stewart.

The movie has been released in the US for a while now and you can see our early review here. This new international trailer shows us a bit more of the story and the characters. It’s scheduled for release in the UK 5th March.

There are films that you go to see because you just know that it’s going to be great.  There are films you go to see expecting greatness, and getting disappointment instead.  Then there are those films you go see because you expect it to be so bad that it’s good.  Everyone I’ve talked to has their “so bad it’s good” films.  I know I do.

Going into Legion, I just knew that it was going to be awful.  But it was one of those movies I just HAD to see.  When you go see movies with that mind set, one of two things can happen: 1) It’ll be great. Or 2) It’s just going to be so bad, it’s bad. I’m happy to report that Legion did not fall into category #2. While it didn’t quite make it into category 1, it was, never the less, a surprise.

To bring you up to speed, Legion tells the story of a fallen angel, Michael (Paul Bettany) who comes to Earth to ensure the survival of mankind from annihilation after the Man upstairs sends out the order to end it all.

Going against the wishes of his boss, he falls to Earth and makes his way to a desert diner to ensure that the diner’s waitress lives to bring her unborn baby to term, and is able to deliver.  With only the owner, employees and a few unlikely patrons, they all must work together to fend off the impending doom that is coming for them.

If you’re familiar with my reviews you know how I hate to give anything away, so I’ll say once again, I’m stopping there as far as the storyline goes.  So let’s talk about it in other terms.

The Film:
With a run time of 1:40, it doesn’t feel too long or too short.  The pacing seemed to be a bit slow in parts but overall, I’d say it was paced properly.  I didn’t feel bored and I didn’t feel the need to check my watch.  There were some cringe worthy scenes, especially the one involving the old lady.  If you’ve seen the trailer, you know what I’m talking about.  But really you should see the scene in it’s entirety to really appreciate it.

The effects were decent, but nothing really to write home about.  Same goes for the scenery.  At times you could really tell they shot on a lot, and some of the CG shots weren’t quite up to par, but it didn’t really bother me like it does in other films.  Perhaps it was due to my mindset.  I didn’t expect a lot so I wasn’t disappointed.

The showdown between Michael and the angel sent to finish the job he refused, Gabriel (played by Kevin Durand) was intense, but a bit choppy.  There were parts where it was difficult to see exactly what was happening.  You got the jist of the battle, but I would have liked to have been able to actually see more.  It was a combination of editing as well as lighting.

The Cast:
Angels:
The main reason I was interested in this film was because of Paul Bettany.  I just couldn’t visualize him in this type of role.  I have, up to this point, only been able to visualize him as he was in either Wimbledon or The Da Vinci Code.  I didn’t think he’d be able to pull of playing an ass kicking angel that packs a lot, and I mean A LOT of heat.  He executed his role very well and at no time did I think that he didn’t fit.

Kevin Durand was also a good choice for Gabriel.  He’s got the stature and menacing presence to pull it off.  While the character was a chunk of the story, his role was mainly confined to the second half of the film. 

Humans:
The rest of the cast includes Dennis Quaid, Charles S. Dutton, Kate Walsh, Tyrese Gibson, Lucas Black, and Adrianne Palicki.  While they may not have been stand out performances, they were effective.  Quaid’s character, Bob Hanson, is the owner of the diner, along with his son Jeep (Black), his cook (Dutton) and the pregnant waitress (Palicki).  Walsh and Gibson are both unsuspecting patrons.

Not all of the characters stories are told thoroughly, but they really didn’t need to be.  The film didn’t spend too much time focusing on each character, which can be both good and bad.  You don’t feel too attached, but at the same time you do have a basic idea of what brought them to the diner.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised and ended up liking Legion.  It’s got it’s flaws, but none of them were enough to ruin the film for me.  It’s not a movie that will change the world, but it was entertaining.  And really, isn’t that what going to movies is all about?

Even though Britain has come to a standstill because of snow, we’re still here to bring you all the latest movie news. This morning’s treat is a new clip from Paul Bettany’s new movie, Legion. The clip shows him having an epic battle with the Angel Gabriel in the form of Kevin Durand. Legion is directed by Scott Stewart and also stars Dennis Quaid, Lucas Black, Tyrese Gibson, Kate Walsh and Adrianne Palicki.

Legion is scheduled for release 5th March and after seeing the previous trailers and now this clip, I’m looking forward to it even more. Check out the clip below or head over to Yahoo to view in HD.

The Scott Stewart directed supernatural thriller  of Legion starring Paul Bettany looks like being a wonderfully violent and nasty film, and the trailer which debuted this summer had a nice vibe, sort of The Mist meets From Dusk till Dawn.

Recently we’ve seen a slew of motion comics, which is a process of animating the still frames of a comic book and now Legion has had the same treatment – and the trailer is now available below.

Paul Bettany does the voiceover for this and it looks to be a great accompaniment to the film which is released in January 2010.

Enjoy.

Here’s some awesome new images from Legion which we can expect to see on our screens 5th March. I can’t wait to see this movie. It looks like the perfect blend of action and Paul Bettany looking like he’s rather angry!

Legion also stars Dennis Quaid, Lucas Black, Tyrese Gibson, Kate Walsh, Adrianne Palicki, Charles S. Dutton, Willa Holland and is directed by Scott Stewart.

These new images come from Hollywood.com and look awesome. Check them out below (click to enlarge). You can see the red band trailer than we’ve posted previously here to get a bit more info on what the film is about.

JoBlo.com have posted six new awesome character poster for Legion. Click the above image to view all the posters in their montage form when you’ll notice that combined, they form a quote which is from Matthew 13:49 which states: ‘So it will be at the end of the age the angels will come forth to take out the wicked and throw them into the furnace of fire’. I’ve put the new posters below which you can click to enlarge.

Legion stars Paul Bettany, Dennis Quaid, Lucas Black, Tyrese Gibson, Kate Walsh, Adrianne Palicki, Charles S. Dutton and Willa Holland. Here’s the plot written by someone on IMDb:

After a terrifying biblical apocalypse descends upon the world, a group of strangers stranded in a remote truck stop diner in the Southwest unwittingly become humanity’s last line of defense when they discover the diner’s young waitress is pregnant with the messiah.

We can expect to see Legion, directed by Scott Stewart on our screens in the UK 5th March 2010. You can view the red band trailer which looks awesome here.

As intense trailers go, this one is probably up there in the top 5 I’ve ever seen!

Legion stars Paul Bettany, Dennis Quaid, Lucas Black, Tyrese Gibson, Kate Walsh, Adrianne Palicki, Charles S Dutton and Willa Holland. Here’s the plot written by someone on IMDb:

After a terrifying biblical apocalypse descends upon the world, a group of strangers stranded in a remote truck stop diner in the Southwest unwittingly become humanity’s last line of defense when they discover the diner’s young waitress is pregnant with the messiah.

It really does look excellent, even if it does look and have the feel of Terminator with angels! Watch the trailer after the jump…