Review in a Hurry: After leaving the third film to the just-as-sexy Rhona Mitra, Kate Beckinsale is back in skintight black for the fourth installment. Death Dealer Selene (Beckinsale) wakes up in a future where humans have discovered the existence of vampires and Lycans. Led by Stephen Rea, they have waged a war to eradicate both.

The budget is bigger and the 3-D is pretty much a given nowadays, but Awakening keeps it simple and most importantly knows Beckinsale never needs a wardrobe change. Fans will be pleased, although if you’ve never seen an Underworld film there’s probably no reason to start now.

The Bigger Picture: Like last year’s Resident Evil: Afterlife, Awakening is a reboot of sorts for the Underworld series. And like RE4, U4 has ditched a lot that came before in favor of a new look that’s natively shot in 3-D and feels like…Resident Evil. Now that the humans are the enemy, there are plenty of masked soldiers on patrol in a world gone to hell by way of the Umbrella Corp. or some facsimile thereof. Save for one scene set in a vampire lair, gone too are the Gothic-looking castles.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it points to what has always been the series’ biggest problem: no real identity. The first Underworld was nearly a decade ago and that film, with it’s hundreds of bullets and heavy use of slow-mo, was a Matrix clone.

The producers have finally figured out that the demo for these films—young dudes—probably never cared whether Selene would find love with her hybrid hottie Michael (originally played by Scott Speedman, here recast by a marginally OK look-alike.) So now they’ve given Selene a killer hybrid pre-teen offspring instead named Eve (India Eisley). Yup, that pairing should do well for parts five, six and beyond.

What the producers haven’t figured out is that playing these films so deathly serious still gets monotonous. The only humor comes from the satire-tasic teaser that plays before Awakenings…for the new Resident Evil.

For what it’s worth, this might be the best in the series. There’s barely any needless backstory anymore and the action scenes are pretty effective whether experienced in 3-D or 2-D. Credit should go to Beckinsale who is front and center for nearly the entire run time. We know it’s all wirework and heavy CGI but at the very least it always feels like our black spandexed heroine is vaulting into the air offing those pesky humans.

The 180—A Second Opinion: With a reported budget of 70 million—twice as much as the other films—things still feel way too shot-on-an-Eastern-European-backlot cheap. Just how many underground garages and austere office complexes can one dystopian future have?

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“Underworld Awakening” begins with a tidy, three-minute wrap of the series’ first two movies (the third, a 2009 prequel minus star Kate Beckinsale doesn’t figure into the equation) before revealing the current grim state of affairs for its clashing vampires and werewolves.

Humans, at least those oblivious to the charms of the “Twilight” movies, have decided to stop killing each other and focus on eradicating creatures possessing fangs. Our vampire antiheroine Selene (Beckinsale) finds herself cryogenically frozen in a laboratory before someone (or something) mysteriously breaks the glass, facilitating her reemergence. Conveniently, her captors have left her spandex suit and knee-high black boots right next to her pod, though you’d think wiggling into that get-up after a dozen years of slumber would require a dexterity beyond even her extraordinary skills.

And make no mistake, those superhuman skills receive a workout in “Underworld Awakening,” a brisk creature-feature that ditches the series’ dreary mythology in favor of a more direct, action-oriented approach. The “Underworld” movies could never exactly be called “fun,” but Swedish directing duo Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein manage to bring a bit of visual affair to the bloodletting along with another quality previously in short supply — competence.

That either makes “Awakening” the best movie in the burgeoning “Underworld” franchise or the worst, depending, I suppose, on how deeply you value the series’ previous strained attempts at myth-making. Here, the four credited screenwriters have created a workable (though easily solved) mystery surrounding the 12-year-old girl (India Eisley, Shailene Woodley’s little sister on the ABC Family series “The Secret Life of an American Teenager”) who was frozen along with Selene, while wasting little time setting up a scenario that pits vampires against steroid-pumped werewolves (or Lycans, if you must) in numerous CGI-aided scenarios.

Beckinsale, playing Selene as a memory-swiped Jason Bourne, finally manages to perfect the monotone delivery she’d been honing for the series’ first two entries. As if by explanation, she tells the girl at one point, “My heart’s not cold. It’s broken.” At least she has all that spandex and leather to keep her warm.

One of the outright pleasures of the “Underworld” movies has always been watching fine British thespians — Michael Sheen, Bill Nighy, Derek Jacobi — chew scenery along with various other body parts. “Awakening” gives us two new additions: Stephen Rea playing a mad scientist with all the relish of a man about to go into a sensory deprivation tank and, on the other side of the spectrum, a campy Charles Dance as the pragmatic leader of one of the last remaining vampire covens.

As to whether either will be around for the fifth film that this movie’s finale dutifully sets up, we can’t say. But that’s OK. Now that the “Harry Potter” movie franchise has come to a close, there are plenty of notable English actors available. Hopefully they can keep the costumes along with the paychecks.

Article Source: latimes.com

An action movie starring Mark Wahlberg and Kate Beckinsale is filming near City Hall and the surrounding areas beginning Tuesday, according to the city’s film office.

Farraday Films is shooting “Contraband” from now through Feb. 2 between Bolivar Street and South Prieur Street north of Interstate 10.

No parking will be allowed on those blocks or under the I-10 overpass until after Feb. 2, and “no parking” signs have been posted in the area, according to a news release.

People in the area may hear gunfire and explosions during the filming, and New Orleans police officers will be in the area to oversee traffic and monitor safety.

Screen Gems and Lakeshore have signed Swedish directors Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein to direct “Underworld 4.”

Marlind and Stein helmed supernatural thriller “Shelter,” starring Julianne Moore and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Kate Beckinsale signed in September as the lead in the fourth installment of “Underworld.”

Production on the latest tale of vampires vs. werewolves is set to start in Vancouver in March. Screen Gems has already set a Jan. 20, 2012, release date.

Lakeshore’s Tom Rosenberg and Gary Lucchesi are producing with Len Wiseman. John Hlavin penned the script with revisions by J. Michael Straczynski.

The three “Underworld” pics — released in 2003, 2006 and 2009 — have combined for about $300 million worldwide B.O.

- Thanks JJ for pointing out the article

Contraband (Thriller) A former smuggler is lured back into the business by financial troubles. Starring Mark Wahlberg and Kate Beckinsale. Casting: Sheila Jaffe, Walken and Jaffe Casting, c/o Working Title Films, 9720 Wilshire Blvd., 4th floor, Beverly Hills, CA 90212. Shoots in January in New Orleans.

- backstage.com

The last time we checked, Universal wasn’t the most popular or successful studio in Hollywood. Over the past few years they’ve had more than a fair share of bombs, but that’s not stopping them from taking risks. According to Deadline, the studio has emerged as a financier for the Kate Beckinsale, Mark Walhberg film Contraband, the American remake of the 2008 Icelandic feature Reykjavic-Rotterdam.

In the original version of the film, it centered on a security guard and former alcohol smuggler on the Iceland-Netherlands route who is tempted back into illicit business by a dubious friend after the security guard encounters financial problems. Contraband has been bouncing from Universal, to Working Title, to Relativity Media before ultimately ending up at Universal.

The budget is set at a modest $30 million with Wahlberg and Beckinsale in the package. Contraband will be directed by Baltasar Kormakur, but we’re awaiting info on when production will officially start. Even though we’re happy that the film has found a home, we’re not sure if Universal is the best place for it to be. How will they market the film? Do they expect it to bring in a large commercial audience? These questions need answers.

- screenCrave.com

Actress Kate Beckinsale has signed onto the upcoming remake Contraband, which was formerly entitled Reykjavik-Rotterdam.

Latino Review reported the casting news for this upcoming thriller, which also stars Mark Wahlberg. The story centers on a reformed criminal who used to be an alcohol smuggler along the famed Iceland-Netherlands route. Now, he is a lowly security guard who is tempted back into his life of crime due to money troubles. It wasn’t clear what role Kate Beckinsale will take on in the movie.

Aaron Guzikowski wrote the script, which Baltasar Kormákur will direct from. Baltasar Kormákur starred in and produced the original Reykjavik-Rotterdam movie.

No production schedule was given at this time.

Contraband comes to theaters in 2011 and stars Mark Wahlberg, Kate Beckinsale. The film is directed by Baltasar Kormákur.