BUTLER AND FUQUA TASTE AFTERBURN

I still harbor mild resentment for the choppy way he shot the action in CYF's American debut RK, but over all I like Furqua -- I feel like his heart is in the right place. He's not trying to overwhelm you with flash, he wants to tell stories that still pack a punch, and in some cases he succeeds quite ably

Butler I'm not as fond of. He's affable enough, and has a certain degree of natural charisma I guess, but I'm less than confident in his ability to carry a film.. still though, this solar flare business sounds very cool and I'd like to see that world put to screen. I hope this movie gets made, and if Butler attaching himself to the project is what's needed to make that happen; so be it

One thing I needed to comment on from the article though:

SHOOTER is good fun. It's the kind of role that fit's Whalberg to a T, it has some good action, and generally crazy anti government sentiment. It's by no means great cinema, but it's still one of the more visceral and hard hitting action films of 2008

I don't see how you could say that about SHOOTER and then go on to write

GAMER? I couldn't even finish GAMER, and I've tried twice -- with the viewings separated by months apart. It's loud, ugly and incoherent. Worse, it attempts to tackle some half way interesting ideas only to handle them as crassly and tastelessly as possible. GAMER is one of the worst films of 2009, IMHO. If nothing else, it's worse than SHOOTER

PS Maguire has grown on me since I saw BROTHERS. I wish it was him and not Butler, as Tobey is not as used to sci fi

I'll actually come to SHOOTER's defense (as would a good chunk of the B-Action club, I gather).

AFTERBURN's premise has some promise.

I've rooted for Fuqua to fail ever since hearing him bitch about not getting nominated as best director for Training Day, obtusely suggesting that some sort of racism was involved. Think about that for a second.

SHOOTER is great. Stroked-out Glover was firing on all cylinders.

Eh I rarely disagree with you Molt but Shooter just didn't cut it. Fuqua has skills but he needs to really dig deep to pull out a strong studio backed film. Butler just doesn't have much of a stink finger so who knows how this will turn out.

Wish Fuqua could have made some Without Remorse/Taken like flick with Cole Hauser's character in Tears of the Sun.