New walkers, new villains, New York! Maggie (Lauren Cohan) forms a lethal alliance with Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) to rescue her kidnapped son. Together they will try to navigate the mean streets of NYC. If they can survive Dead City, they can survive anywhere.
The Walking Dead: Dead City premieres June 18th on AMC and AMC+.
This movie is so dumb it makes me want to go on a rampage.
This should be a winning formula: giant monsters wreck a city. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Even for a movie based on a video game, this is not good. It makes previous work by The Rock in other middling, more pedestrian fare (San Andreas, for example, which director Brad Peyton also helmed) look downright brilliant by comparison. It’s unfortunate, because the diverse cast members, including Malin Ackerman as a villainous billionaire and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as an irascible government agent, are utterly wasted and given nothing substantive to do.
Our hero Davis Okoye (Johnson) is a primatologist who also just happens to be ex-special forces — because there’s plenty of those, right? When his best friend George, an albino gorilla he has raised since childhood when George’s family were slaughtered by poachers, is exposed to an unknown chemical agent, he starts growing and becoming incredibly aggressive. In walks Dr. Kate Caldwell (Naomie Harris) who developed the “Rampage” formula for evil billionaire brother and sister Claire and Brett Wyden (Ackerman and Jake Lacy) to explain the plot to both us, the audience, and everyone else, as George starts destroying things.
Oh, and there’s also a wolf and some sort of alligator/snapping turtle/dinosaur creature that got exposed, too. But essentially, there’s no reason to care about any of this. Anyway, the evil scientist siblings turn on a device on top of the Chicago skyscraper to bring the creatures to them (like ya do) to force a final urban showdown.
Again, given this film’s arcade beat-em-up mayhem and destruction, it might have been acceptable, if any of the action scenes were in the slightest bit fun. Most of the film, you’re kept waiting, hoping that maybe there’s the tiniest possibility a spectacular ending which makes the previous 90 minutes of tedium barely worthwhile, a la Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
But it just never gets any better, and in the meantime is peppered with “jokes” and dialogue that 11 year old boys might think is funny or cool. As much fun as Ackerman, Morgan, and Johnson are having with these roles, it’s just boring to watch.
The test with all movies based on video games is, simply, “Would I rather have spent my time playing the game?” As repetitive as playing 100 minutes on a Rampage arcade cabinet might be, it would surely be preferable to this film.
At least there you get some fun and satisfaction out of mayhem and destruction.
1.5 out of 5 stars
The Critics’ Choice Awards were held this past Sunday and comic films represented not just with nominations, but also quite a few wins.
Margot Robbie won for Suicide Squad in the “Best Actress in an Action Movie” category. She was up against Gal Gadot for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Scarlett Johansson for Captain America: Civil War, and Tilda Swinton for Doctor Strange.
Deadpool did well winning “Best Comedy” up against Central Intelligence, Don’t Think Twice, The Edge of Seventeen, Hail, Caesar!, and The Nice Guys. Ryan Reynolds won for “Best Actor in a Comedy” for the title role in the film. Reynolds beat Ryan Gosling for The Nice Guys, Hugh Grant for Florence Foster Jenkins, Dwayne Johnson for Central Intelligence, and Viggo Mortensen for Captain Fantastic.
Ryan Reynolds was also honored as the “Entertainer of the Year.”
When it comes to television Jeffrey Dean Morgan won for “Best Guest Performer in a Drama Series” for his portrayal of Negan on The Walking Dead.
It wasn’t all wins though.
Doctor Strange lost in “Best Hair & Makeup,” “Best Visual Effects,” and “Best Sci-Fi/Horror Movie.” Captain America: Civil War, Deadpool, and Doctor Strange all lost in “Best Action Movie.” Finally, Benedict Cumberbatch for Doctor Strange, Chris Evans for Captain America: Civil War, and Ryan Reynolds for Deadpool all lost “Best Actor in an Action Movie.”
It’s not for playing baseball. “Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe.” Negan’s use of the classic nursery rhyme sent chills down the spines of all viewers everywhere during the Season 6 finale of the The Walking Dead TV series, right before he swung his trusted weapon, Lucille, at one of the beloved survivors. This adult roleplay replica of Lucille is crafted to match the exact specifications as the bat carried by Jeffery Dean Morgan, who portrays Negan on AMC’s The Walking Dead. The full-size plastic bat measures approximately 32-inches long and is displayed in AMC’s The Walking Dead-themed window box packaging. The highly detailed bat comes complete with identical markings and barbed wire wrapped barrel end.
Leader of the group known as The Saviors, Negan is one of the most merciless enemies to ever cross paths with Rick Grimes and the other survivors. With no remorse, Negan executes those who get in his way with his weapon of choice, Lucille. With the barrel end wrapped in barbed wire, Lucille is the iconic baseball bat that Negan wields to not only intimidate others, but eliminate them as well.
If you’ve recovered from the season seven debut you can get Lucille now for $29.99.
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A new international promo for The Walking Dead gives us our first glimpse of Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan and his trusty bat Lucille, the leader of the Saviors and Rick’s next big adversary.
The search has been the source of lots of rumors (and crap reporting), but The Walking Dead has officially announced that actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan has been cast as Negan, the next “big bad” that Rick and his group of survivors will face. Morgan has been a prolific actor and has appeared in three previous comic properties, The Watchmen where he played the Comedian, Jonah Hex where he was an uncredited Jeb Turnbull, and The Losers where he played the leader Clay, all DC Comic properties. In 2016 he’ll be in another DC property, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice where he’ll play Thomas Wayne.
Negan will appear in the finale of the current season. He’s the foul-mouthed leader of a group of survivors called the Saviors. The group uses its muscle to get tribute paid by neighboring communities, basically “protection money.” Of course Rick isn’t a fan which leads to an all out war, most likely to encompass season 7 (and hell it could go into season 8). Negan, with his bat Lucille, also killed *SPOILER*. Yeah not going to ruin that one. It’s a scene so brutal, I was close to stop reading the comic series.
How they’ll bring the character to the screen will be interesting due to the very R-rated dialogue, but also the massive amount of violence. Negan makes the Governor look like a kitten to put it into perspective.
So, what do you all think of the casting?
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