WWE Films Present: Legendary (John Cena)

WHYTEHD

dont know if its showing over there for you guys but here in England John Cena`s new movie is showing next weekend in vue cinemas, just in case anyone doesnt know.

http://www.myvue.com/wwelegendary/

Syferus

Oh, this doesn't look even a bit suspect. Not a bit.

WHYTEHD

Syferus wrote: »

Oh, this doesn't look even a bit suspect. Not a bit.

have I done something wrong by posting this

D2D

WHYTEHD wrote: »

have I done something wrong by posting this

No, you haven't done anything wrong:) He's just on about the contest on the vue site

jaykhunter

Is this going to be shown in Dublin?

Charisteas

I couldn't find it on the Cineworld website, but if it is showing in Dublin cinema, I would be up for going to watch it with anyone here. Havn't been to the cinema in ages, but really wanna see Legendary, Machete, and Saw VII 3D

On a side note, watched MacGruber today. Horrible movie. I only watched it to see the WWE guys but

they were only in it for about 5 minutes, then they all got blown up!

. Had to turn it off after 45 minutes, it really was that bad.

Legendary looks pretty good though.

Butch Cassidy

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/sep/02/wrestling-movies

How wrestling is taking over the movies

Wrestling stars are muscling their way into cinema multiplexes – but can WWE really beat Hollywood on its own mat?







Brace yourself, adjust the volume controls and get ready, in a very real sense, to rumble – because the wrestlers are coming. The good news, at least, is that they're not here to grapple or drop-kick, but instead to emote, frown, wisecrack and demonstrate the full range of the emotional register.

This summer, the drip-drip of US wrestling's incursions into mainstream cinema under the aegis of World Wrestling Entertainment's in-house movie production arm, WWE Studios, has shown its first real signs of becoming a surge. In August, former WWE wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's ascent into legitimate crossover status resumed with the US release of The Other Guys, a Will Ferrell comedy in which Johnson co-stars. And, this month, current ace face John Cena's new film, the WWE-produced Legendary, is also released. As Cena says: "WWE studios has got five movies in the can right now and every one of them has come out ahead of expectations. We have all the channels in place and I think it's going to be a good time for us." At a time when many studios are facing financial pruning, a new and aggressively resourced presence is stalking the multiplex, rippling its perma-tanned pectorals. Wrestling wants in.

WWE has stealthily pursued its move into cinema ever since the foundation of its Los Angeles-based production arm in 2002. "We saw this as a broadening and a natural extension of the entertainment business we're already in," says Andrew Whittaker, WWE executive vice-president. "It is natural for WWE superstars who are already well known in 149 countries to extend their brand status around the world. Nine films planned for release gives you as clear an indication as you need of our ambition."

Ambition – and opportunity – aside, what wrestling can really boast is its production line of camera-ready, six-packed, violently extroverted talent. Its hottest product at the moment is Cena (pronounced see-nah), a 33-year-old nine-time WWE champion described by Whittaker as "the top world star in the current era". Cena's big break as an actor came with 2006's The Marine, a critically panned Iraq war drama but a commercial success, making $30m in its first 12 weeks on DVD. The Marine was followed by 2009's 12 Rounds, a cop revenge yarn that is, above all, extremely loud. Legendary, the new film, is an entry in the strangely undersaturated small-town high-school wrestling family action-drama genre. "It was a bit of a change to what I was used to," Cena says. "But I was really attracted to the storyline and by the chance to play somebody's brother. When I read the script, I realised it was a great chance to show I can do more than just dodge bullets. I knew it wouldn't be too far out of my range."

In fact, Cena is a convincingly weighty presence in Legendary. Within the first 10 minutes he appears broodingly stripped to the waist. He pouts, he flexes, he fights in bars. And throughout he does indeed have something of the glacially square-jawed leading man about him, coming on a bit like Matt Damon's harder, perennially cross bad-boy cousin. Legendary follows the story of a nerdy schoolboy, played by Devon Graye, who takes up wrestling to follow in the footsteps of his estranged brother, a troubled, bull-necked ex-champ (played by Cena) – a decision that causes his mother to slam down her dinner plate:

"I know wrestling … It will take you away from everything else."

"But … Dad wrestled."

"And it ate him up."

Actually, Legendary isn't all that bad, and Cena is easily the best thing in it. A college-educated native of Massachusetts, he trod a familiar pre-WWE path through minor athletic success, a subsequent excursion into bodybuilding and a stint as a chauffeur. His wrestling career took off overnight when he adopted a Vanilla Ice-style white-rapper persona that proved hugely popular with fans. Even before taking to acting, Cena already had a diverse portfolio of entertainment credits: his rap album You Can't See Me entered the Billboard chart at No 15.

Versatility is everything with WWE: even Legendary, with its chirpy sentimentality and family-orientated plotlines, is an embodiment of Whittaker's dictum that "we wanted to do things differently to what you might expect – not just action films, but all genres: comedy, drama." It is a theme Cena warms to: "Anybody who sees me automatically assumes I'm just the big, strong, beat-'em-up kind of guy. This movie, I'm so happy with the way it came out. I don't want to say it's going to shut anybody up, but it's certainly going to open a few people's eyes." Is he genuinely interested in expanding against type into other genres? Into comedy? Period drama? "Yeah, absolutely. Not only myself but the other WWE superstars. We've got a ton of talent in that locker room, and any time we get the chance, we'll show what we're all about."

Perhaps where things go from here for Cena will depend on whether mainstream audiences can absorb another likable slice of wrestling beef when they already have Johnson, now a bona fide self-employed movie star. WWE's four break-out co-productions – The Scorpion King (2002), The Rundown (2003), Walking Tall (2004) and Behind Enemy Lines (2009) – all had Johnson in the starring role. His ascent has been mirrored by his gradual shedding of the cloak of his WWE title: from "The Rock" in his early film credits, to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and now simply Dwayne Johnson. He had conquered the wrestling world so absolutely by 2001 that there were no fresh peaks left; so he began acting that same year. He made his debut with a brief appearance in The Mummy Returns, in which he so uncannily nailed the role of taciturn, muscular bad guy that he landed his own spin-off vehicle, The Scorpion King; its dizzying $5.5m fee is still the highest salary for an actor in his first starring role. Johnson has since appeared in The Rundown, Be Cool, Walking Tall, Gridiron Gang, The Game Plan, Get Smart, Race to Witch Mountain, Planet 51, Tooth Fairy, Doom, and Why Did I Get Married Too? You might not have seen them all, but Johnson has now undeniably broken through the Lycra ceiling into that other place where wrestling becomes merely his backstory.

That is no mean achievement. Wrestling has had a long and at times difficult relationship with the movies. WWE first dipped its toe in the waters as long ago as 1989, with the Hulk Hogan vehicle No Holds Barred. Hogan had previously played Thunderlips in Rocky III, a high-water mark in a short-lived period of semi-ironic muscle-hunk superstardom, which would eventually map out a familiar trajectory: from wrestling vehicle to action vehicle to zany family comedy. (Hogan's career would reach tipping point with Mr Nanny in 1993.) Around the same time, Jesse Ventura appeared in 1987's Predator, followed by bits and bobs in The Running Man, Demolition Man and Batman & Robin. Heading back into wrestling's mistier past, Tor Johnson, "The Super Swedish Angel", starred in some well-known B-movies, most notably as police inspector-turned-zombie Dan Clay in 1959's Plan 9 from Outer Space, an oddity still cherished by the movie-kitsch crowd.

In more recent times, the likes of Johnson and Cena have arrived not as tentative pioneers, but with a mob-handed back-up crew. Triple H appeared as a vampire heavy in Blade: Trinity. Kevin Nash wrestled under the excellent alias "Big Sexy" before taking a role in the 2004 action film The Punisher. There isn't that much of a stretch in all this, from one form of rehearsed and character-driven punch-up to the world of big-screen action filler. As Cena says: "It's really an extension of what we do. It's just in a different form. There's a ton of similarities."

And maybe this is simply wrestling's time for other reasons. WWE may be a venerable behemoth, tracing its lineage back to the formation of the Capitol Wrestling Corporation in the 1950s, and coming of age in the 1980s with the syndication of its high-adrenaline, high-drama, high-camp version of the grapple game; but it is decidedly cutting-edge in its intimate global reach. There is a sense that the real masterplan here may be the chance to use WWE's well-grooved pre-existing multimedia channels to outflank the traditional studio distribution methods. "We co-produced our first four movies," Whittaker says. "It was a learning experience to work with top-notch studios. Post that experience, we saw efficiencies in going on our own, with our distribution paths in DVD, digital and pay-per-view. We knew we were going to be able to expand into non-traditional release space."

Wrestling isn't just rattling the door handle – it's brushing the chalk from its hands and preparing to vault the elasticated ropes. It has the distribution, the personnel, and above all a spirit of energetic can-do, a bicep-flexing assertiveness. "The worst thing we could do would be to come out with a really crappy movie," Cena says. "Other studios make so many movies they can get away with making one that fails. We will be watched by so many people, under such a microscope, that we just have to put out good movie after good movie."

Legendary is released on 10 September, and on DVD on 27 September.

Hollywood studios are really tightening their belts with regards to what films are getting greenlit and how much the budgets are. It's always been the case that out of 10 films a studio finances maybe only one will provide a good return but it seems even tighter these days. So WWE seem to be making fair headway in pushing into the film biz at the moment.

I don't think the quality of films with wrestlers in them have really improved since the days of No Holds Barred, Suburban Commando and Back in Action. The Rock's films are dreadful tripe, Stone Cold's films are awful, Cena's films are terrible.

jaykhunter

Did you actually see 12 Rounds and The Condemned? They're at least as good as the average action schlock that gets released. Much better than The Marine or Behind Kennedy Lines.

Tribesmen7

I hear WWE Magazine just rated this film 5/5. After such an unbiased review we better make sure to see it.

That is if your nearest cinema has the privilege of screening it as Lawlor and Cole so adequately put it on Raw.

Stylesclash07

Oh i hate cena and everything he does i did get a laugh from the marine