Sorry to say this because the movie looks pretty fun and to be a solid directorial debut for JGL, but I just can’t buy the conceit here. A girl who looks like that, walking around wearing only your shirt beats Internet porn without a doubt. Even the German type.

While speaking to press at the Berlin International Film Fest, Gordon-Levitt revealed he’ll trim down the pornography viewed in the film to secure an R-rating. “I think it is important that those images are in there but what precisely you see isn’t that important. What’s important is the rhythm of the film, the repetition of what the Don Jon character does, over and over.” Before adding, “Porn can get pretty gross.”

Trust him. He grew up in a culture of child actors. He knows the depths that porn can go to. (THR)

To promote Rian Johnson‘s trippy, futuristic action thriller Looper, the folks at Sony put together this new “mashup” trailer that takes you on a ride through the film’s exciting moments. In the future, time travel will be invented – but it will be illegal and only available on the black market. When the mob wants to get rid of someone, they will send their target 30 years into the past, where a “looper” – a hired gun, like Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) – is waiting to mop up. Joe is getting rich and life is good… until the day the mob decides to “close the loop,” sending back Joe’s future self (Bruce Willis) for assassination. Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, and Jeff Daniels also star.

Looper is available now on Blu-ray and DVD with 17 deleted scenes on the Blu-ray exclusive, making-of featurettes and feature commentary.

He’ll play Johnny, a new, smooth-talking gambler character created by both Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller for the film adaptation. Originally written for Johnny Depp, there’s no word whether or not the character will be renamed Joseph. It’s safe to say, however, that the character now won’t be expected to wear anything silly on his head. (THR)

Born to a human mother and an alien father, Star-Lord is an expert in close quarter combat, various human and alien firearms including his own Element Gun, which is a special pistol that fires projectiles made up of each of the four elements. He also wears a suit that grants augmented strength and durability and the ability to travel through space. Gordon-Levitt joins a few other actors up for the part. They include Joel Edgerton, Lee Pace, Zachary Levi, Jim Sturgess and Eddie Redmayne.

It’s unknown how serious his link to this film is, but now that I think about it, he’d be awesome as Ant-Man. They wouldn’t even need to shrink him that much.

In Manhattan, a bike messenger picks up an envelope that attracts the interest of a dirty cop, who pursues the cyclist throughout the city.

This new trailer reveals more of the plot as well as the loggerheads that the present and future individuals find themselves at. It also reveals more of what the Bruce Willification of Gordon-Levitt’s face looks like. It’s. Just. Plain. Weird. I’d never thought that the offspring of those two would look like some kind of Billy Zane monster. Then again, this is a work of science fiction.

I’m not saying that you should go see a movie that you’ve already viewed (though it is a good idea), but there are certain terrible date films you should avoid. First of all, you don’t want anything about ruined lives break ups, or spousal abuse. Those films are for legally-separated people.

At any rate, here are seven films to avoid on your next movie date.

(500) Days of Summer

Don’t allow yourself to be sucked in by this one. Yes. It has Zooey Deschanel. Yes. It has Joseph Gordon Levitt. Yes. It has quirky animated interludes. But it also shows a pretty dreadful portrayal of a relationship going to shit. Personally, I blame IKEA. There’s no way to get out of there without a fight.

Antichrist

Fellas, nothing is going to light her fire more than a film featuring a couple grief-stricken over the death of their child. Throw in some intense hallucinations and genital mutilation, and that kitten should be really purring. If that still doesn’t do the trick, go ahead and lean in closely before whispering how director Lars Von Trier sympathizes with Nazis.

6 photosBryce Dallas Howard

50/50 opens in theaters on September 30th and also stars Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, Phillip Baker Hall, and Angelica Houston.

Wait. I screwed it up. Nevermind. The big takeaway from that idiom was that Spielberg, despite a lower profile in recent years, can still command quite a turnout. Take, for instance, his current project, Lincoln, about the 16th president of the United States.

After scoring Sally Field and Daniel Day-Lewis, what does Spielberg do for an encore?

He gets Joseph Gordon-Levitt (the thinking man’s Shia LaBeouf). And Tommy Lee Jones. And Hal “The Hammer” Holbrook. And then, once he’s found his groove, he calls up James Spader. And then he hands the Spader call off to his assistant so he can speak with John Hawkes. Cause everyone knows it’s not a period piece in the south until The Hawk is on board.

(Due to schedule constraints, I’ll just list the other actors cast in Lincoln.)

They are: Tim Blake Nelson, Bruce McGill, Joseph Cross, David Constabile, Byron Jennings, Dakin Matthews, Boris McGiver, Gloria Reuben, Jeremy Strong and David Warshofsky.

All these actors are listed as “in negotiations,” so there might be a few additions or subtractions, but it’s Spielberg. You don’t say no to the guy that directed Amistad. You just don’t. (Variety)

Levitt confirmed in a recent interview he won’t be screaming “retreeeeeat” anytime soon, and won’t be back for GI Joe 2 to reprise his key role. Many of the characters in the first one aren’t coming back: only Storm Shadow, Snake Eyes and Duke. However, the movie has reportedly been subtitled Cobra Strikes. Does this mean another actor will step in for Levitt? If only we knew, because knowing is 45-55% of the battle. (Collider)

Watch The Trailer For 'Hesher' And Be As Confused As I Am

T.J. Forney (Devin Brochu) is a kid living with his depressed dad Paul (Rainn Wilson) and grandmother Madeline (Piper Laurie). One day he runs into Hesher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) squatting in a model home, so Hesher comes to stay with the Forneys instead.

Hesher is immediately a volatile character. His entrance is totally silent and you know exactly who he is from his look, his walk and his attitude before he even says one line. He’s not the charming “real world” mentor. He’s the real real-world crashing into T.J.’s life.

The story is about forcing T.J. to deal with an adult world. Hesher won’t stop a bully from beating T.J. up, but he’ll vandalize the bully’s car and leave T.J. hanging at the crime scene. Hesher stands up for T.J.’s friend Nicole (Natalie Portman) when she rear ends a mean driver, but she’s actually in the wrong. I don’t think the film tries to give Hesher a moral code and that’s why it works. It’s just there for T.J. to deal with.

But it gets harder Paul drags T.J. along to a support group where he has to hear really serious mourners talk about their dead daughter. That’s way too intense for a kid, but that’s reality. The film never coddles T.J. Adults won’t help him. He’s in mortal danger with major fire and explosive stunts. Hesher encourages T.J. to spend more time with his grandma, in the most vulgar way possible.

The great part about the movie is that writer/director Spencer Susser never explains where Hesher came from. He’s just there to be part of the Forney’s life and be mysterious. They do explain what happened to T.J.’s mom/Paul’s wife but it’s effective as backstory flashbacks go.

Susser never glorifies Hesher either. He only documents him. That’s why it’s fun to see this totally destructive character. It’s not some smug statement about shaking up social rules. It’s just guys like Hesher exist and right or wrong, you’ve got to face them. Of course, to watch Gordon-Levitt give a Nicolas Cage-worthy performance is worth watching the movie on its own.

“Gordon-Levitt will play John Blake, a Gotham City cop. Cotillard will play Miranda Tate, a Wayne Enterprises board member who wants to help a still-grieving Bruce Wayne resume his father’s philanthropic endeavors.”

Now we know! As far as I (and Wikipedia) know, these are not characters from any Batman comics, but instead are original creations for the movie. Kind of strange that they don’t even share a name with any major comics characters, but I guess that’s The Nolan Touch at work.

Anyway, this trailer has definitely done its job, because I’m very interested in seeing this, now. If you don’t feel the same way after watching, I don’t know what to say to you.

Which means we can continue to speculate about this and argue with our friends when our wives and girlfriends aren’t around. It also means there remains a good chance he may play a young butler competing for Alfred’s job with unorthodox and unethical butling. I’ll be really let down if there isn’t a twenty-minute Butler Olympics sequence randomly jammed in the movie. It would still be better for the flow of the plot than The Dark Knight‘s side-trip to Shanghai. (EW)

In “The Long Halloween,” Alberto is revealed to be Holiday, the serial killer who murders someone on holidays (as simple but elegant as any serial killer gimmick). This is leading many to speculate that The Dark Knight Rises would be a loose adaptation of “The Long Halloween” (much in the same way that Batman Begins was a loose adaptation of “Batman Year One“), or at least would feature the Holiday serial killer. I gotta say, if that’s the direction Nolan is headed, I’m even more excited for this movie. Because “The Long Halloween” is really cool.

Anyway, Warner Bros has not commented on this news yet, but Variety is reporting it, so I guess that means it’s happening. I fully expect Gordon-Levitt to knock this out of the park, even though it’s not as showy a role as Heath Ledger‘s in The Dark Knight. (/Film)

Today we got word that Gordon-Levitt has signed the Bat Contract with Warner Bros. and will enter Gotham city limits. However, we’re still left with the unsolved mystery of what costume the “3rd Rock” star will be rocking. Perhaps green spandex with question marks on them? A garish yellow, green and red ensemble? Some crazy looking metal stuff to play a dude named Deadshot?

I think it’d be funny if, after all the internet speculation, it turns out that he’s just playing a street vendor in a quick cameo. Hey, Batman likes the occasional chili dog.

Meanwhile, Juno Temple (Atonement) superfans will also be happy to know that she’s in negotiations to play a “street-smart Gotham girl.” To make that juicier, let’s all spread the rumor that she’s actually playing Harley Quinn. (Variety)

“The story centers on a grieving father and son (Wilson and newcomer Devin Brochu) who are helped on their journey by a young grocery clerk (Portman) who inadvertently becomes the object of the boy’s fantasies and the titular, mentoring/tormenting anarchist Hesher (Gordon-Levitt)”

Sounds good, but the movie’s been getting mixed reviews, with many viewers being thrown by the fact that rather than being a straight-up comedy, it’s “a twisted tale with dark comic elements.” “Twisted”? “Dark comic elements”? Cower in fear, middle America! (via The Playlist)

At the premiere for Red Riding Hood, Gary Oldman (Commissioner Gordon) hinted at the possibility of there being another villain in Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight Rises. With Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) and Bane (Tom Hardy) already confirmed, that’d be a whole lot more sinisterness in ol’ Gotham.

“If I told you who the villain was, they’d kill me,” said [Oldman] cautiously when pressed for details by E!. “I think it’s a villain from one of the old, old, from way back from the old comics … It is a Batman villian… It’s not going to be the Joker.”

You might think he was accidentally talking about Catwoman, except Oldman then discusses Hathaway later in the interview, saying she “will probably wear the cat suit pretty well.” So he must know that she’s been announced already. He. Must. Know. And that announcement went hand-in-hand with Bane.

So, Bat Detectives, who is this mystery crook the Commissioner’s alluding to? Perhaps it’s a character Joseph Gordon-Levitt will play, since he’s been cast, but his role remains a mystery. Crazy Professor Hugo Strange? He’s a little young for the role, but it’s a possibility. The Riddler? Nolan said there’d be no Riddler in this one, so that answer likely won’t solve this riddle. One hint: Nolan also said he’d like to give Bruce Wayne‘s story closure in this final installment.

Holy Cryptic Actor Statements, Batman. Guess we’ll have to wait and see. (ScreenRant)

Director: Sebastian Gutierrez

Cast: Carla Gugino, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Malin Akerman, Timothy Olyphant, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Adrianne Pilacki

Synopsis: Life for porn actres Elektra Luxx gets turned upside down when she finds out she’s pregnant.

Release Date: March 14, 2010

However, I’ve still got high hopes for Looper. The cast includes Bruce Willis, Paul Dano and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and the plot is about future criminals who send their victims back in time to be killed. Hopefully, the future criminals are either hovering or have lasers. (ComingSoon, More Photos At OnLocationVacations)

“They looked at the Ledges as well as a water treatment plant located inside the park. Sources say the area is being considered as a hideout for Batman sidekick Robin.”

“They,” of course, being location scouts for The Dark Knight Rises. This sounds pretty airtight to me, since a well-known part of the Robin mythos is that he lives in a water treatment plant. Is this who Joseph Gordon-Levitt is going to be playing? (via Screenrant)

Time to speculate on what character he’s gonna play, then be totally wrong about it later. At one time, Levitt was rumored to be playing The Riddler, but the main villains have already been announced as Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) and Bane (Tom Hardy). Some gossipy fanboys in Batman capes suspect Levitt will play evil genius Hugo Strange, an old, lesser-known villain who debuted even before The Joker. That instantly makes him the hipster choice for best Batman adversary ever.

The Dark Knight Rises will Batusi into theaters July 20, 2012. (Deadline via /Film)

A little privacy please, Dano.

Looks like Rian Johnson has found the perfect actor to fill the role of creepy, skinny guy in Looper. Milkshake enthusiastPaul Dano is in talks to join the sci-fi  film in an unspecified role.

The cast already includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, and Emily Blunt. As a refresher, the film is centered around killers who dispose of their victim’s bodies by sending them back in time. Because that is apparently less complex than clearing out their bank accounts and then setting them on fire beneath the old train bridge on the outskirts of town. Not that I’ve ever done that. Congratulations Paul. (Variety)

According to Production Weekly, Emily Blunt has signed up for Rian Johnson‘s sci-fi movie Looper. It’s expected that she’ll play the female lead, a MILF who finds Joseph Gordon-Levitt hiding out in her barn.

If Van Damme movies have taught me anything, Gordon-Levitt will stay with her and her son for a while, help with farm chores, teach the kid to play catch, get intimate with Emily, and then have to confront his past when his enemies show up on the doorstep. Or worse, he’ll be banned into exile when the family Netflixes G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra. Seriously, why was he in that?

The rumor that Joseph Gordon-Levitt has beat out Eddie Murphy for the role of Riddler in Christopher Nolan‘s Dark Knight sequel has been floating around the Internet and abstinence meet-ups for a little while. Today First Showing got there hands on a casting grid that confirms the thesp may sign on to tease Batman’s brain.

The grid lists the Riddler as a character appearing in the film, with Gordon-Levitt listed as "interested." Whether this will come together or not is anyone’s guess. Maybe they’ll need him for a G.I. Joe sequel instead. What we do learn from this is that the Riddler will show up to piss Batman off with confusing labyrinthian puzzles and traps. Think of it like Nolan’s reimagining of Saw.

PG-13, 148m., 2010
Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Ellen Page, Ken Watanabe, Dileep Rao, Tom Berenger with Cillian Murphy and Micheal Caine
Written and Directed by Christopher Nolan

Inception is this summer’s, if not this year’s, thrill ride. A film so tight and coiled in its storytelling you won’t even know what hit you.

After all these piss-poor big-budget movies to come out over the summer, Christopher Nolan returns to show that he is a master craftsman director, creating a treasure trove of an endless dreamscape. Within this world of endless worlds, Nolan beautifully and complexly exemplifies his love of philosophy, surrealism, and action cinema into a film richly layered with top notch performances.

Everywhere we go on this non-stop, action-packed journey, we are treated to a bubbling melting pot of cinematic moments containing sequences of James Bond adventure, thrilling brush strokes of action movies like Heat and Blade Runner, the encasing moody feeling of film noir, and mesmerizing zero-gravity fight choreography reminiscent of Fred Astaire footwork before the vacuum cleaner commercials.

Yet what is this movie really about? Well you have to see it to really believe it, most definitely in IMAX if possible. But for those who need a preface before entering the theater, let me try to explain a select portion of it without turning the whole premise upside down.

Taking place somewhere in the near future, Leonardo DiCaprio plays a mysterious man named Cobb, an extractor of dreams, who is hired by mega tycoon Ken Watanabe to implant an idea inside the mind of another tycoon played by Cillian Murphy. DiCaprio assembles an Ocean Eleven-like team of  Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Dileep Rao, and Ellen Page, each person having vast capabilities of shaping and changing each other’s dreams. DiCaprio is also haunted by the memories of his dead wife played by Marion Cotillard, giving us one hell of a great femme fatale performance.

For the rest of the film as they enter the minds of one another’s character’s, going several layers deep with dreams within dreams sequences, trust in Nolan as your guide, he will not lead you down a path that is confusing or contrived, a very rare occasion for a film-going audience.

About 3/4th of the way into the film, one gets a feeling that while it’s a great ride with all of its amazing special effects and mind-bending storytelling, we wonder where is the heart of the film’s characters at? Then it comes to us in an tender scene between Cotillard and DiCaprio, cuts deep with Hans Zimmer‘s intense score, and shows us the kinder side of the usually dark Nolan universe.

The hope in seeing a film with this kind of original epic caliber is that it will find success with audiences. If this happens, it will hopefully spawn a real ‘inception‘ in the filmmaking industry, giving back the power to the filmmakers and creating movies that are original and not just more superhero adaptations, video games, or 3D gimmicks.

With all of this swirling in and around Inception, one must go take the ride that it offers you then kick yourself back into reality and take it all over again. A true mind-blowing experience.

Grade: A

A new trailer for Inception has star-wiped its way online, and features a lot of new footage. We also get a look at each of the characters (including Marion Cotillard‘s mysterious Mal), and see a bit more about what the hell this movie is about.

From this trailer it looks like Mission: Impossible set amongst the perceived reality created by stochastic neurons. Except there’s no Ving Rhames. Which is dumb. Usually the only way I know that I’m dreaming is when Ving Rhames appears. But whatever, I trust Christopher Nolan. I’m just disappointed there doesn’t seem to be a scene where Ellen Page dreams she showed up for work in the nude. Missed opportunity right there.

VIEW THE TRAILER AND BEND YOUR MIND AFTER THE JUMP…

(via The Playlist)

In case you don’t make it to the theater thirty minutes before your movie to secure good seats so you don’t have to sit next to a mouth-breather or texting addict, here’s some Inception pre-show entertainment for you. The featurette gives us a teeny-eency-weency more in depth look at Christopher Nolan’s upcoming mindf*ck of a film. In fact, if the MPAA and society allowed it, I’m positive the title of Inception would be Christopher Nolan’s Mindf*ck. I guess we’ll just have to wait for the porno version to be released the following day.

Check out the trippy featurette after the jump...