It's Wednesday again, and you know what that means, right? Right!  It's time for another sojourn into the Marvel Cinematic Universe!  This week's trip takes us to 2010's " Iron Man 2 "... Tony Stark discovers that the miniature arc reactor that's keeping him alive is actually slowly killing him.  Growing reckless and more morose as he contemplates dying, he searches for an alternative. Meanwhile, a ghost from his father's past comes forth with the intention of getting revenge for the sins of the father... While I wouldn't say that " Iron Man 2 " is as good as the first one, it is still a fairly solid movie for the franchise.  You can see that the actual building blocks of the MCU are starting to be put in place before the big team-up movie, " The Avengers ".  I loved that the story is much more character based than action based than many comic book movies- and deals with some pretty serious themes, such as facing our ...

My dad was the movie fan in our house when I was a kid and, growing up, we watched a lot of his favourite genre -- the Western.  I saw Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man when it was first released, and instantly knew it would be a movie dad would enjoy. It's a Western dressed up in semi-futuristic clothing. There's the noble outlaws, a train robbery (in this case an armoured car), a showdown right out of Pale Rider, and, you know, the Marlboro Man IS a cowboy.

My hopes haven't been very high for the sequel to Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez 's Sin City . To me, the flick is several years out of style, and although the cast is stellar, the first trailer gave me a been there, done that kinda vibe. This second trailer, however, has me more than a little jacked for A Dame to Kill For.

That's what some unnamed Bulgarian sources are saying. The Fat One himself is good to G-O for The Expendables 3. So says ExBlog , the "Ultimate Blog of The Expendables Franchise." And these same sources told ExBlog Mel Gibson is down for a role as the villain. Regular readers and listeners know we have a love/hate relationship with Steven Seagal in The Basement -- we love to make fun of the fact that we hate he got fat. If he has a role in the next installment of the action franchise, that's fine with us. If this rumour is true, Seagal and Gibson join fellow newcomers Jackie Chan, Nicolas Cage, Wesley Snipes and Milla Jovovich . Mickey Rourke returns after sitting out the second film. Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham and the rest of The Expendables are back as well. Red Hill director Patrick Hughes helms the flick, which hits theatres Aug. 15, 2014. Source: Ain't It Cool News

You read about this already you say? Tough! You haven't heard the news Basement style! So sit your ass down and deal with the fact that we're telling you the latest exercise in old people blowing shit up opens Aug. 15, 2014. And The Expendables 3 reunites series mainstays Sylvester Stallone , Jason Statham and Jet Li. Along for the ride are Mickey Rourke , Wesley Snipes , Jackie Chan , and Nicolas *spits* Cage. Veteran action hottie Mila Jovovich is in negotiations to join the cast and rumour has it Fat Steven Seagal buried the hatchet with Stallone and could come on board. Someone must have told him they're serving chicken. No word yet on what it's about, but we don't really care. We've already marked the date on our respective Basement calendars, because that's what old people do. Red Hill director Patrick Hughes helms the mayhem. Source: We Got This Covered Related articles Sylvester Stallone in talks with Steven Seagal for "T...

In the world of cinema, genres tend to become popular in waves.  One will see a belly laugh of romantic comedies for a couple of years, then it'll change over to caped flurry of superhero movies, then possibly flow into a beastly feast of zombie movies. And eventually, westerns come back around for popularity.  With movies like " The Lone Ranger " and " Django Unchained " kicking things off, we can expect several more six shooter specials to hit theatres.  Once such entry is " Dead in Tombstone " starring Mickey Rourke as none other than Satan. Roel Reine is directing this movie from a script by Shane Kuhn and Brendan Cowles, while Mike Elliott is the producer. The synopsis I've read seems interesting... kinda mixes in my love of horror with my love of westerns: " Guerrero Hernandez, is the leader of the Blackwater Gang of outlaws. But after freeing his half-brother, Red, from prison, Guerrer's plan to loot the mining town ...

By now it should be no secret that Jason and Shawn -- Shawn especially -- are hard-core Bruce Lee fans. He's the Elvis of martial arts, a worldwide fighting icon, and the debated father of Mixed Martial Arts. And he made some fucking good movies. Whether you're a movie fan or a martial arts fan, it's hard not to be interested in the life and times of Bruce Lee. Which is why our resident Basement Dwellers are keen to dive into Pete McCormack's documentary on the master, I Am Bruce Lee. Giving weight to the project is the support of Lee's wife, Linda Lee Cadwell, and daughter, Shannon Lee. But do we really need to know what basketball player Kobe Bryant and some guy from The Black Eyed Peas thinks of Lee? I suppose everyone is entitled to an opinion. Plus there's insight from the likes of Mickey Rourke and Gina Carano. Do all these elements, opinions and the promise of never-before-seen footage come together to make an effective documentary? You can find o...

13 Jason: I watched this movie with my wife and she summed it up best when she said “That's fucked up.” Her words. Not mine. But it is. Sure, it's got Jason Statham, Mickey Rourke, Ray Winstone and Michael Shannon. But they all have very small parts. Everything moves at a snail's pace and the action gets very repetitive. That said I did get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach every time the roulette rounds began. For three brief moments throughout the movie I was able to put myself in the characters' shoes, and I didn't like it one bit. But that's not enough for me to ever recommend this movie or watch it again. A Bad from me. Shawn: Wow. I came into this movie not knowing a damn thing. I was waiting for Jason Statham to be awesome and Mickey Rourke to fuck someone up. Neither happened. Disappointed. But then I got taken in by what the hell was actually going on. I don’t want to ruin it for anyone, but this was intense as hell. I really dug it. ...

There was a time when radio was king and people listened to nightly dramas more thrilling than anything one could watch on the big screen. Why were these pictureless stories so engaging? Because the telling of these stories was so well done the listener's imagination would create the images for them. This style of storytelling has almost disappeared, but John C. Alsedek and Dana Perry-Hayes are bringing it back with Blue Hours Productions . Their horror-anthology series As Darkness Falls has recently premiered and the production house intends to take radio, TV and the interwebs by storm. Our chat with John is the feature presentation of tonight's show. But Jason, Shawn and Cameron "The Establishment" Thompson also have a pair of movies to discuss and dismantle for your reviewing pleasure. First up is the Russian roulette thriller 13 starring Jason Statham and Mickey Rourke. Then the radio-friendly trio take on the supernatural thriller The Caller, about a stalker ...

On Friday Oct. 7, at 10 p.m., The Basement reopens. Not that we've actually been closed. Five summer special and almost-daily blog updates have kept Shawn and I pretty F-ing busy during the five months since Season One on The X came to an end. But a weekly show takes a lot of work, so the break has been nice. Time to focus on family, work, house renos, and other hobbies. But The Basement beckons, as do the movies we love to review. And we've got an awesome line up of films and interviews for your ear hole to enjoy on 22 glorious Friday nights of live radio! You wanna hear our thoughts on the slasher prequel Bereavement? Well, you're gonna! How about Kevin Smith's stab at horror with Red State? We're checking that shit out too. Did you know that Jason Statham and Mickey Rourke reunited for a Russian roulette thriller called 13? We're gonna watch it and share our thoughts. Plus we're got interviews with Scream Queen Brooke Lewis (just in time for Hallo...

And it won't just be a cameo this time either. Word has it from Deadline and Moviehole that Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger will be back in more substantial roles for the uber sequel.  And hey, we're down with that. Who wouldn't be. It doesn't get much cooler than this! But that's not all, an official cast list says Walker Texas Ranger himself Chuck Norris will join the carnage along with the Muscles From Brussels, Jean-Claude Van Damme. Jason Statham, Mickey Rourke, Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, Terry Crews and Randy Couture will also return. Leading the team again is Sly Stallone, but as we've reported before in The Basement, he's turned the directing duties over to Simon (Con Air) West. We know this is more of a Hollywoodesque story, but The Expendables films are independently produced. And it's our blog, so we can do what we want yo!

And he is Simon West. The same Simon West who directed the early 90s action flick Con Air and the recent and decent Jason Statham remake of The Mechanic. At least the man knows his action. To be honest, we all know Sly Stallone is the driving force behind this sequel to his 2010 hit. And does it really matter who directs with him writing and returning along with fellow cast members Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews and Mickey Rourke? No. It doesn't. The awesome has already been brought. The film begins shooting this summer. The plot, as we've reported before, is as follows: The Expendables are back and this time it's personal! After Tool (Mickey Rourke), the heart and soul of the Expendables, is brutally murdered on a mission, his comrades swear to avenge him. They're not the only ones who want blood. Tool’s beautiful young and wild daughter Fiona embarks on her own revenge mission, complicating matters when she is captured and ransomed by a rut...

I've had an excessively tough time sitting through Iron Man 2. I loved the first movie, dig Robert Downey Jr and think Jon Favreau is the cat's ass as a director and actor. But the second film is just, well, blah. Worse than blah. Boring! Even with Mickey Rourke. What's up with that!?! But I might have to force myself to catch the entire film now that Shane Black is in final negotiations to helm Iron Man 3. Who's Shane Black? He's considered one of the best screenwriters in the business. Black wrote the first two Lethal Weapon movies, The Monster Squad, The Last Boy Scout, The Long Kiss Goodnight, and Last Action Hero (we forgive you for that one, Shane). He also wrote and directed the brilliant Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang, which starred Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer. Oh yeah, he was also one of the soldiers in Predator. The guy who told all the jokes. This is great news. Black's scripts are edgy, funny and violent. He could breathe the right amount of life back ...

Remember films like Commando, Missing In Action, Cobra, and Rambo? That's The Expendables in a nutshell. Plot? Who cares. Character development? Minimal. Pathos? Fuck off! This is man's movie. There's so much testosterone in this thing that I think my biceps will explode like the villains dispatched by Terry Crews' beautiful automatic shotgun. The action scenes in this thing are so awesome, well, I'm awesomed out by how awesome they are. The cameos by Willis and Schwarzenegger? Perfect. Did I mention the action scenes are awesome? Hollywood, take note: this is how you make an action movie. A pure action movie. A balls-to-the-wall, knife-in-the-throat, fist-to-the-face action film for people who grew up on them during the 80s. A Good review from The Basement on this one. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go eat a steak.