Last Flag Flying: Richard Linklater’s Latest Film Starring Bryan Cranston, Steve Carell And Laurence Fishburne Releases First Trailer!

If you’ve been following this site for the past few years, then you’ll know we are huge fans of Richard Linklater. The filmmaker has created some truly entertaining and emotional films, including Boyhood, The Before Trilogy, School of Rock, Dazed and Confused, and the list goes on and on.

Linklater’s latest film, Last Flag Flying, promises to be another great film in his collection. It has a pretty incredible cast with Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston and the always lovely Laurence Fishburne.

The movie was adapted by Linklater and Darryl Ponicsan from Ponicsan’s novel Last Flag Flying, which is a sequel to The Last Detail

“Which itself inspired the 1973 Hal Ashby film that earned Jack Nicholson an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Given the awards appeal of Last Flag Flying, Cranston, who takes over Nicholson’s role as the hard-drinking Billy ‘Badass’ Buddusky, might just score one of his own.”

Last Flag Flying will debut at the New York Film Festival in late September. From there, it’ll be released in theaters on November 3. Check out the synopsis and trailer below…

“Last Flag Flying stars Steve Carell as Doc, a former Navy medic whose son is killed during the Iraq War. Not content with letting his son’s remains reside in Arlington National Cemetery, Doc recruits two of his ex-Marine buddies (Bryan Cranston and Laurence Fishburne) to help him drive the casket up the east coast to be buried at his home in New Hampshire.”

Richard Linklater Lands Steve Carell, Laurence Fishburne And Bryan Cranston For His ‘The Last Detail’ Sequel

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Showing any excitement for sequels is something I try to avoid doing, but as a Richard Linklater fanboy, I am finding it difficult to hold back my excitement for his latest project.

Back in 2006, Linklater talked about his interest in adapting Darryl Ponicsan’s 2004 novel Last Flag Flying, which is a follow-up to his own 1970 novel The Last Detail. As some of you probably know, the original book was made into a feature film in 1973, starring Jack Nicholson, Randy Quaid and the late Otis Young. The comedy-drama was nominated for three academy awards, and in a 1996 interview, Nicholson called it his best role.

The original story follows two Navy men (Nicholson and Young) who are ordered to bring a delinquent sailor to prison but decide to show him “one last good time along the way.”

The second book, released in 2004, reunites the audience with the trio in a post 9/11 American life. The Hollywood Reporter explains

“The former Naval petty officers come to the aid of their former prisoner, who needs their help to bring home the body of his son who was killed in Iraq. The request sends them back retracing their journey from Norfolk, Va., to Portsmouth, N.H.”

This is the story Linklater wants to tell, and he originally wanted to bring back Nicholson and Quaid, but now it looks like he is hoping to get your attention by casting some hot names in Hollywood.

Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston and Laurence Fishburne are in talks to join the sequel, which might start filming in November. Amazon Studios will be helping out Linklater with this project. It’ll be their first time working together.

No release date has been announced, but we’ll keep you posted.

Movie Review: Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice – After the Opening, it all Goes Downhill.

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God, the comic geeks must have spooged themselves when they learned that finally, all their ‘batman v superman’ arguments were coming to the movies. I never got that. To me Batman Versus Superman is the same as the ratio of ghosts to snork berries; nonexistent.  But, with the intent of becoming the wet dreams of 13-year-old boys everywhere, director Zack Snyder and screenwriter David S. Goyer put this together.

And now it’s time for a rant. How many times have I said “too many Superman movies”? How many times have I said “too many Batman movies?” So what do they do? Put them together. And, as if they’re making fun of me, they stick Ben Affleck in the lead.

That’s it. I quit. <typing stops abruptly, sound of footsteps, door slams>

Ok, not really. But that’s the kind of abrupt change of attitude you can expect from this newest DC adaptation. Dawn of Justice peaks in its opening sequence, a slow-motion, Sucker Punch-esque dispatching of the Batman origin story in three minutes or less, which sets the stage for the introduction of an older, broken, kinda fat Batman (Ben Affleck), who engages in increasingly violent and futile attempts to clean up Gotham City. The rest of the introductory character work sees Superman (Henry Cavill) grappling with public criticism over his actions in his last cinematic outing and the young Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) attempting to build a weapon capable of stopping Superman.

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After the opening, it all goes downhill. I have to admit; I didn’t hate Ben Affleck in this. He makes a passable Batman. Henry Cavill came across better as Clark Kent. Jesse Eisenberg was almost embarrassing as Lex Luthor. It felt like he was doing an impression of Heath Ledger playing the Joker. Watching Jesse Eisenberg, I wasn’t entirely sure if he’d ever heard of Superman.

Now me, I’m not a person who has a big problem with violence. Heck, I love everything by Quentin Tarantino and he’s turned violence into an art form. But this movie seemed to be rushed in order to get to the next violent fight scene. The characters become completely interchangeable and really, you stop caring about who wins. The problem is there really are no stakes. This is such an obvious cash grab; we know that they’d never kill off anything they can franchise. Hell, if a spork tested well with a focus group, they’d give it a franchise. And I’d watch the Adventures of Sporky just like everyone else.

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It’s not worth the watch, but it’s inevitable. It’s one of those bad blockbusters that everyone will go to, but eventually forget until the next one gets spit out by the studio.  They’re raking in garbage bags of money and we’re watching what they tell us to.

I’d say if it’s a choice between this and a Trump rally, I’d go with the Trump Rally. While the Trump Rally will be violent, at least Ben Affleck won’t be there.

WE GAVE IT: 2 Stars – Watch the Official Trailer and Official Movie Poster below!

2 Stars

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