Since there are as many slow days from a quality news standpoint in this industry as there are, I figured I would go ahead and do a recap of some of the movies I have recently seen from my Netflix queue.  These will just be quick shots, mini-reviews of these dvd rentals; just my feelings on the films I have seen.  I’ll try to update a post like this every so often, once I have enough to report on.  Maybe every month or two, something along those lines. Just work with me on this, cool?  I’ll even throw in my Netflix rating, based on their 5-star system.  Not the same system I use here, so my official The Film Nest ratings might be different.  Anyway, here are the latest movie rentals I have seen from my Netflix queue.

Brooklyn’s Finest

Don Cheadle and Wesley Snipes in Brooklyn's Finest.

This is a movie I was really excited about upon first hearing about it, but then mediocre reviews led me to skip it in theaters.  (This is a common theme with many of my Netflix movies BTW.)  Nevertheless, the movie didn’t do it for me.  I was hoping for a mini-New Jack City or Training Day, but while in some ways it came off as Training Day 2, with Ethan Hawke still there, I’ve never been a huge Richard Gere fan, though he was fine here.  Visually the film was good looking, it just didn’t have any emotional resonance and the script was a bit jumbled.  Essentially a talking head movie, when I was hoping for something more action oriented.  The suspense was there, but something was just missing.  2 stars of 5

The Wolfman

Benicio really didn’t need much make-up to become the Wolfman, based on the original film.  Cheesy graphics didn’t help this.  The film had a strange tone.  Really, Emily Blunt’s character is going to fall for the Wolfman even though her husband/fiancee just died?  Silly really.  There wasn’t enough rhyme or reason to why certain things were the way they were in the film.  Hopkins was actually tolerable as Wolfman senior, but this was just a poor effort overall.  1 star/5

Edge of Darkness

Mel Gibson dreams of Oksana's fate. Just kidding. I think.

Mel Gibson’s return to the big screen before we heard the recent tapes from dude’s personal life.  He is thrashed, but again, I was down with seeing him return to his action roots.  Unfortunately, this was far too much if a talky to ever get too involved.  Where was the action? This was basically him investigating the entire time.  Disappointed.  The best part was (spoiler!) when that chick got killed by a car when exiting Mel’s vehicle. That was cool.  2 stars/5

Shutter Island

I’d already seen it in theaters, so you can see what I felt about it right here.  Very good movie.

The Book of Eli

Denzel and the Hughes Brothers sounded like an intriguing combination.  The look of the film was cool, with the washed out film stock.  I actually liked this about as much as I expected to.  I didn’t find the spiritual elements too overwhelming and actually thought that the end of the movie was pretty cool.  Maybe a little unrealistic for Denzel to care about the Mila Kunis character enough to worry about her the way he did, but it made for a decent film.  3 stars/5

Un Prophete (A Prophet)

This was a bit of an unexpected movie in terms of the way it played out.  It is set nearly entirely in prison, on the inside.  Not what I was expecting from a story about the rise of a kid into a gangster, baller.  Still, it was unique, a little gritty and pretty cool direction.  I was overall pleased.  If you can handle the foreign aspect of the film, I recommend it.  It was a little graphic in its violence and had some weird undertones with the ghost hanging around as much as he did, but still a nice work.  4 stars/5

The Burning Plain

I’ll watch a lot of Charlize Theron since I respect here so much as an actress.  This movie qualifies as one I wouldn’t otherwise have seen.  Catching Charlize naked was enough to make me finish the film.  Unfortunately, it all takes place the first five minutes of the movie.  Still, the story was interesting, if a little uneven.  I was down with the youngsters forbidden love storyline.  This was one of those full circle sort of films.  Not enough to recommend it highly though.  2 stars/5

I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell

Bad acting is the law in I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell.

I expected this to be unwatchable and it essentially was.  Its a guy movie through and through and yet it plays the happy-ending card at the end.  Completely lame, with marginal acting, an unbelievable story in some ways (that was supposedly based on true events); I am just shocked I actually sat through it all. A rare movie I watched during daylight hours just to finish the film.  Highly unrewarding in every way. 1 star/5

District 9 (Note: o.g. review not mine)

Saw it already last year and liked it enough to re-watch it. Not quite as good the second time through, but still an original story. Check it if you are a sci-fi fan. 4 stars/5

A lot of news to get to today, so let’s just dive in.

Chris Evans, aka Johnny Blaze, joins Stringer Bell (Idris Elba) and The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) in a DC/Vertigo comic adaptation for The Losers. It’s about a special ops team betrayed by their superiors having to do what they do best and enact stealthy revenge. I like the cast. I’m getting flashbacks of playing “Rainbow 6″ on the PC back in the day. Could be cool. [Mania]

If you like yourself some Twilight, you can see the new photo of the famed Wolf Pack for the upcoming Twilight sequel, New Moon. [Twilight-Movie.org]

Angelina Jolie is on the verge of acquiring the rights to a series of Patricia Cornwell novels involving a character named Dr. Kay Scarpetta who’s a medical examiner that solves crimes. I accidentally wrote “crap” when I was writing “crimes.” Maybe subconsciously that’s what I think this “franchise” will be. [Ace Showbiz]

In more Twilight-related news, director David Slade is confirmed to be helming the third film in the franchise, Eclipse. Slade’s directorial debut in Hard Candy was great. I thought he’d do something better than this, but Alfonso Cuaron directy a Harry Potter film. It could be a great move for the franchise. [Twilight Lexicon]

“Empire” is at it again, releasing new set pics. This time it’s for the new Scorsese/DiCaprio collaboration, Shutter Island. It’s another one of our anticipated films of the year. Be sure to check it out. [Beyond Hollywood]

Another new set pic is revealed via [Film School Rejects] for the upcoming Matthew Vaughn adaptation of the graphic novel, “Kick-Ass.” This is one I’m pretty hyped about. Vaughn’s Layer Cake is pretty dope, and I like the concept for this one.

[Dread Central] has some news on Vanessa Hudgens gearing up to star in an update of Beauty and the Beast alongside Harrison Ford, Brendan Fraser and Keri Russell in Beastly. The animated Disney film is the ultimate telling of the tale and Belle is the hottest Disney princess ever created. Agree or disagree?

Want to see the first pic of Mel Gibson’s return to acting? [Coming Soon] has the first set pic for Edge of Darkness.

Here’s your big rumor for the day: Remember how Steven Spielberg is going to direct the first Tintin film and Peter Jackson is going to direct the second in a trilogy? The third film was supposedly going to be co-directed, but now the name Edgar Wright is being bandied about. He says he doesn’t know anything about it, but Shia LeBeouf said the same thing about his role in the last Indiana Jones film until he was, of course, in it. [Rama's Screen]

Are you hyped for the new Pixar film, Up, like I am? We shared the first screengrab of the short that will show before it, Partly Cloudy, last week. Now, thanks to [Cartoon Brew] we have a bit of a description of the short and a couple other images. One more month, baby!

Finally, Director Henry Selick (Coraline) foresees film advancing past 3-D and into “holograms.” One of my friends and I have always discussed this possibility, but for now the industry will almost certainly stay focused on 3-D. After all, Hollywood still hasn’t embraced Maxivision. [Thompson on Hollywood]

On a writing rampage since 2005′s Kingdom of Heaven, which includes The Departed, Body of Lies and the forthcoming Mel Gibson-starrer Edge of Darkness, William Monahan really wants to direct. He is currently prepping London Boulevard from a script her wrote, and now comes news from “Variety” that he will direct an adaptation of the non-fiction book “The Art of the Heist: Confessions of a Master Thief, Rock-and-Roller and Prodigal Son.” Fit that on the marquee.

The book chronicles the soon-to-be-published memories of Myles Connor. “Connor became an art connoisseur and a rock musician whose band, Myles and the Wild Ones, backed Roy Orbison. He was also an accomplished art and antiques thief who was involved in a series of museum robberies that grabbed headlines in Boston in the 1970s and 1980s.”

Kind of sounds a bit like The Thomas Crown Affair, to me. Minus the rock-and-roll part, of course.

I usually love myself a good heist movie, if done cleverly. The Italian Job remake leaps to mind. A great unheralded heist film is the 1955 classic, Rififi. The trailer is below. The “30 minute silent sequence” “Time Magazine” quotes is absolute bravura filmmaking. The trailer doesn’t do it justice:

Pick up the Criterion DVD here.

Given Monahan’s written track record, are you on board with this news?