This Week's New Releases and Movie News | thesubstream BEAT: August 7, 2012

- In Case You Missed It: Celeste and Jesse Forever, Some Movie News and Step Up Revolution

Total Recall Review | WTI Why make sci-fi? Mike thinks there's two reasons. Either you want to talk about man (or woman) and his/her role in society and where we're all going because of it OR you have some crazy ideas like tri-tittied prostitutes and brain-bugs that have to be removed nasally, and you need to invent a universe where such images can comfortably reside. The Total Recall remake dilligently avoids both–it has nothing to say, and provides us with nothing we haven't seen already—and is, really, nothing more than another old action movie. Which stinks. Mike suggests a way more stylish alternative.

AND THE WINNER FOR Our The Dark Knight Rises Contest IS... Thanks to everyone who entered our The Dark Knight Rises contest! We salted questions in and around a month's worth of Batman content—villains, what IMAX is - and isn't, a look at what makes Batman such a singular cultural presence—and challenged you to answer all of the questions to win a big bag o' Batman stuff. We had a great response, and have drawn a name at random from the entrants. We are proud to reveal the identity of the winner... Jacob C. of MOORE, OK! Two runners-up, Sam O. and Gena M., will win secret consolation prizes that we still think are pretty cool. So Jacob, Sam, and Gena, please send us your addresses so we can get your prizes in the air! Thanks everybody for playing and keep your eye on our site for more contests coming VERY soon!

The Bourne Legacy (Jeremy Renner + Rachel Weisz + Edward Norton) - Untangling the Bourne films' relationship to the source material is difficult. They've preserved the titles of author Robert Ludlum's books—The Bourne Identity, Supremacy and Ultimatum–but tossed almost all of the plot save the central character, Jason Bourne, amnesiac bad-ass. To make things even more confusing, the fourth Bourne film­–The Bourne Legacy, which is based on the book written by Eric Van Lustbader after Ludlum's death­–isn't even about Jason Bourne. The book is, but the film isn't. Even though it has "Bourne" in the title.

The fourth film maintains some links to the rest of the series, however, with Tony Gilroy (Duplicity, Michael Clayton) taking over as director after having written the first three scripts. Robert Elswit, who shot both of Gilroy's previous films is replacing the series' til-now cinematographer Oliver Wood, who helped give the first three Bourne films their trademark documentary realism. Will a Bourne without Matt Damon, shaky-cams and Robert Ludlum work? Gilroy and Elswit are talented as all get out, but we'll see on Friday if they can make it work.

The Campaign (Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis) - Expectations are bound to be high when the two hottest comedic talents of the last, what, decade? meet go toe to toe. Veteran comedy director Jay Roach (Austin Powers, Meet the Parents) lends further dream-teaminess to the proceedings. Nobody does arrogant buffoon better than Farrell, and nobody does weird, dangerous nebbish better than Galifianakis. But how long can these guys go playing, more or less, the same guys over and over?

Coming Soon We will be talking all the new releases including The Bourne Legacy in Watch This Instead as well as Zach Galifanakis and Will Ferrell in The Campaign. In The Film Lab, Mike will be telling you all about shakey cams. We've got all that plus more coming up this week!

In Case You Missed It Last week, Mike told you how much he liked Andy Samberg and Rashida Jones in Celeste and Jesse Forever. He also gave you a bunch of bits o' movie news, from Arnie as, well, Arnie to news about some of our fave directors of all time. Amanda let you know her thoughts on Step Up Revolution in Teens 'n' Tweens.

That's it for now! See all of you over on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and right here on this super cool site.

- Tara