It should come as no surprise that I have been anxiously awaiting the release of the new Paramount Studios movie Stop-Loss every since I first saw the movie trailer late last year. Generally war movies aren't really my cup of tea but this one looked different ... after all, it stars some of the hottest actors in Hollywood right now -- Ryan Phillippe, Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt along with newcomers Victor Rasuk and Rob Brown. When you also consider that the film was directed and co-written by Kimberly Peirce (who directed Boys Don't Cry) you know that chances are you've got yourself a pretty good movie ... and something I was deffo into checking out:


The story revolves around a group of soldiers who come back from serving their tours of duty in Iraq and the effects that wartime service has on their lives when they return home. Ryan Phillippe's character, Brandon King, comes home a highly decorated hero only to discover that he has been stop-lossed -- ordered back against his will to serve another tour of war duty by the authority of the President of the United States. This is the central storyline of the film but the individual stories of the other characters are highlighted as well.

Here are a few pictures from the red carpet of last night's Hollywood premiere of Stop-Loss which was held at the Director's Guild of America:


Photo credit: Splash News
As you would expect, all the main boys showed up for the premiere and they were joined by their director Kimberly Pierce, Step Up's Jenna Dewan (who showed up to support her former co-star Channing Tatum) and Never Back Down's Sean Faris. I was *very lucky* to be invited to attend last night's premiere screening and Steph and I got to have our very own spot on the red carpet to take our own pics and ask our own questions ... here are a few of our red carpet pictures:


Doing red carpet duty is always a very hairy experience ... everyone is jockeying for position and the stars can't always stop to talk to everyone. I missed out on talking to Ryan on the red carpet (tho I did get to speak with him at the after party reception) but I did get to ask a question of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, click below to hear my question and his answer:


Because I only got to ask him one question, I wanted to see if he would be able to give us a hint as to which character he will be playing in the new GI Joe movie (which, incidentally, also stars Channing Tatum who plays Duke in the movie) but he was smarter than I was and didn't reveal any secrets. The rumor is that he will portray the character who will eventually become the supervillain Cobra Commander.

While I didn't get to ask any questions, per se, of Channing Tatum, I did record the brief interview he gave to the French media outlet who was stationed next to me, click below to hear his short interview:


I will post my full movie review a little bit later on (along with my pics from the afterparty reception which I can't wait to share) in today's personal post but I will say this right now. The movie is not at all what I expected. It doesn't necessarily take a singular position on the war overall, it really leaves the determination up to the audience. It left me thinking about how, when talking about war and an on-going military conflict, there are no absolutes. There is no absolute right and no absolute wrong ... each person's individual circumstance and belief is unique and no singular answer is right for every case. I found the movie quite stunning ... but more on that later.

In the meantime, you can head over to PinkismyPicturetown.com to check out a bunch of my pics from last night's premiere in all their glory, including my pictures from the afterparty reception.

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