IN THIS ISSUE

After Earth The Avengers The Bling Ring Captain America 2 Catching Fire The Dark Knight The Heat The Incredibles The Internship Love Is All You Need Monsters University Spider-Man 2 Star Trek Into Darkness Superman: The Movie This is the End TMNT White House Down The Wolverine World War Z

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JUNE 2013

IN

FROM THE AWARD-WINNING HOSTS OF THE JIMMY AND LUKE SHOW COMES THE OFFICIAL MOVIE TACO PODCAST, RELEASED EVERY MONTH EXCLUSIVELY ON BUZZHUB.TK AND FEATURING EXCLUSIVE REVIEWS OF ALL THE BIGGEST MOVIES, AS WELL AS DISCUSSION OF UPCOMING RELEASES AND THE BIGGEST NEWS STORIES!

READ THE MAGAZINE, LISTEN TO THE PODCAST!

JUNE 2013

ZERO DARK ZOMBIES

For many years, Marc Forster was one of the most respected and reliable dramatic directors working in Hollywood. His second film Monsters Ball (no relation to University or Inc), won Halle Berry an Oscar, and his third, Finding Neverland, a Best Picture nomination. He followed that up with the excellent dramedy Stranger Than Fiction and the , once again, Oscar-winning The Kite Runner, an adaptation of the bestselling novel about two young boys living in Pakistan. Then, he was awarded his first major blockbuster directing gig: a James Bond film. The 22nd film in the record-breaking franchise was set to be fantastic after the brilliant franchise reboot that was Martin Campbells Casino Royale. The rest, in terms of Quantum of Solace, is history. Even the films screenwriters now admit that the film was awful. Not that anyone needed confirmation! Forsters last film was Machine Gun Preacher, starring Gerard Butler. It wasnt a major disappointment, but only because no one expected anything from it in the first place. Now, hes back and hopefully bigger than ever with his zombie-novel adaptation epic, World War Z, starring Brad Pitt (who, surprisingly, hasnt had as many hits recently as you would expect). It has a fantastic cast, including Matthew Fox, James Badge Dale (seen recently in Iron Man 3) and everyones favourite human being Bryan Cranston. The trailers make it look epic, and pretty awesome. Will it turn out that way? Well find out soon, as long as the zombies dont get us first!

SCHOOL OF RAAARGH!
Pixars last good film was Toy Story 3, so after a few years of badly-received films, what better way to make your comeback than with another sequel (actually a prequel) to one of your earlier, more beloved classics ( Cars 2 does not count). Monsters Inc is not Pixars best film. In fact, its not one of their 5 best films (The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Finding Nemo, Toy Story 3, Up), but it is excellent, and it would take a lot of effort to make this a bad prequel. John Goodman (the person who will be seen onscreen the most this Summer) and Billy Crystal are back in their original roles as Sully and Mike, along with a whole cast of other voice actors including Nathan Fillion!

SCHOOL OF RAAAAARGH!

THE GOOGLE CRASHERS

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(THATS NOT TECHNICALLY POSSIBLE)

Shawn Levys last film, Date Night, was very funny, but wasnt as big a success as anyone had hoped. So, for his latest film, hes reunited Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, two of a very small group of comedy actors who can headline a major film, and brought Google into the filmmaking business with probably the most lucrative marketing scheme in the history of Hollywood. The Internship is entirely set at Google, where Wilson and Vaughns characters are, you guessed it, on an internship. Presumably, mayhem insues. The Internship is out June 7. Monsters University is out June 20.

Who is the master of stupid-but-fun cinematic spectacle? Some would answer Michael Bay, but the correct answer is Roland Emmerich. Ever since Independence Day was released, smashing dozens of box office records, he has made big-disaster movie after big-disaster movie, and theyve all, surprisingly, been pretty good. Now, hes teamed up with Man of the Moment Channing Tatum and Django Unchained star Jamie Foxx for a DC-set thriller that is sure to bring even more success to everyone involved, especially Maggie Gyllenhaal, who hasnt scored a hit since The Dark Knight! White House Down is released on June 28.

CHAN ABOUT THE HOUSE

CLOSING THE RING

Emma Watsons first postPotter project was last years The Perks of Being A Wallflower, which received exceptional reviews but not much box-office success. Now shes following it up with Sofia Coppolas highly anticipated sex-drugs-rockand-burgling celebrity mansions drama, The Bling Ring. In it, she plays a handbag sales girl, and it looks like shell be in her sexiest and most adult role ever in the film. Will the parents of young Harry Potter fans allow their children to watch The Bling Ring?
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HOT FUZZ
After the unbelievable, unexpected smash hit that was Bridesmaids, it looked like Paul Feig and (the films real..) star Melissa McCarthy could do no wrong. Apart from the successful but unfunny detour that was Identity Thief, neither of them has gotten the chance to disprove this statement, until now. The Heat is probably the Summers highest anticipated comedy after Hangover III, with the Bridesmaids dream-pair teaming up with Sandra Bullock, a woman who has never failed to give a bad film the box office success it doesnt deserve. The early trailers arent promising, and a box office face-off with White House Down will provide trouble for McCarthy and Bullock, who play Boston police-detectives in the film. The Heat is released on June 28.
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END OF WATCH
Heres a first: a comedy featuring a bunch of comedy actors who have gained success through playing comically exaggerated versions of themselves: literally playing comically exaggerated versions of themselves! Yes, this is This is the End, where all your favourite supporting characters from Knocked Up and Pineapple Express assemble in James Francos LA house along with Emma Watson (pictured right) and Rihanna for a massive party, whilst the apocalypse rages outside! Have you ever wanted to see Watson running into a room and beating the shizz-nit out of Michael Cera? Nows your chance! This is the End is released on June 13.

Earth bound BOUND

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Heres a first: a new Will Smith film we couldnt give less of a monkeys arse about. Why? Because, firstly, its directed by M. Night Shamalayan, whos proven himself to be a truly awful director in recent years. Secondly, its real star isnt Will, but son Jaden, whos almost as bad an actor as his friend Justin Bieber is a singer! After Earth opens May 31.

If you went on the street and did a survey of ordinary people, I would bet a lot of money that, after Chrstopher Reeve and Tobey Maguire as men of Super and Spider respectively, the most widely recognised on-screen portrayal of a superhero would be Hugh Jackmans Wolverine. He has appeared as the conflicted character (can we even call him a hero?) in 5 films (this upcoming one being the 6th), yet how many of them are any good? 2? 3 at a stretch (we do like Origins: Wolverine here at Taco.) Why has such a great actor in such a fitting and perfectly cast role failed to appear in more than 2 or 3 actually good films as the character? Is it Bryan Singers fault, either for giving us two films that were so good, our expectations were raised far too high, or for abandoning the X-Men franchise and handing the reigns of X3 over to, shudder, Brett Ratner. Is it Jackmans fault, for refusing to give up the characters on screen persona? Is it 20 th Century Foxs, for hiring bad directors? Or, maybe its the fault of the bad directors! This is the test we will discover the results of with The Wolverine, hitting cinemas worldwide on July 26, and already at the very bottom of most peoples Most Anticipated lists. In all honestly, the trailer is pretty bad. It features a whole bunch of awful, cheap-looking action scenes, including one on a train. I dont know about you, but I saw train-scenes in Batman Begins and 9

The feature continues on the next page

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Spider-Man 2, and they were done pretty well. I dont feel the urge to see another any time soon! Another problem is the complete and utter lack of stars in the supporting cast. Jackman is a big star, but is he really enough to carry a film? This is, truthfully, the first time ever hes had to. Origins had Ryan Reynolds, Will.I.Am, Dominic Monaghan, Danny Huston and Live Schrieber. The Wolverine has loads of Japanese actors that absolutely nobody outside of Japan had heard of! Thats going to be a problem for Fox, especially when theyve given the film their major July blockbuster slot. The films superb release date does seem to be the best thing its got going for it, and the fact that itll probably be huge in Japan. Whats with all this negativity? Weve put the film on our bloody cover, for Wolverines sake! It does look pretty good, when you take a closer peek. There are samurai, hot female characters (see previous page) wearing knee-high boots and riding motorbikes (Catwoman and Black Widow were great), and of course, there is Hugh Jackman in the role he was born to play (except

FUTURE DAYS ARE COMING

If you want a bit more X-Men for your moneys worth, you may want to hold onto your dollars until next July, when X-Men: Days of Future Past hits the big screen. It was originally billed as a sequel to 2011s First Class, and was to be directed by Matthew Vaughn, but is now a sort-of X-Men 4: X-Men: First Class 2, with the franchises original helmer Bryan Singer at, you know, the helm, and Jackman, Stewart, McKellen, Berry, Page, Paquin and Ashmore joining First Class-mates McAvoy, Fassbender, Lawrence and Hoult. Plus, Peter Dinklage and Omar Sy! Why would you waste your precious time and cash on The Wolverine? 11 LEFT: JACKMAN ON THE DAYS OF FUTURE PAST SET, AS TWEETED BY BRYAN SINGER.

LEFT: Jackman does Wolverine Style with Korean popstar PSY. RIGHT: Logan fights a Japanese fighting robot. So thats . (translates as Real Steel).

maybe Jean Valjean, for which he SHOULD have won an Oscar earlier this year). The role that has made us laugh, cry, hang on to the edge of our seats and gibber to our friends about since we first saw him as Logan back in 2000s X-Men. The role that features in no less than 4 of the films on our Best Superhero Movies Ever list, in this very issue. Long live The Wolverine, lets go to see The Wolverine!

The Wolverine is in cinemas July 26, and will be reviewed in the September 2013 issue of Movie Taco.

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A Movie Taco presentation

THE GREATE ST
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THE DARK KNIGHT

Who doesnt love The Dark Knight? I mean, anyone? This film was so utterly groundbreaking when it was released in July 2008, it seemed impossible that anyone would ever say a negative word about it, and no-one ever has. For 5 years, people have continued to sing praises about its shockingly bleak tone, disturbing performance from Heath Ledger and striking, black colour scheme. No film, not even its predecessor Batman Begins had managed to bring these factors to the superhero genre. Superhero? There are no superheroes in The Dark Knight, for in the film, Batman is not presented as the witty, kind guardian of Gotham, but an extremely mentally damaged man who, whilst trying to help people, isnt afraid to get his hands dirty. Christian Bales Batman is the ultimate antihero, and every single superhero movie made since, from Thor to Green Lantern to the upcoming Man of Steel and The Wolverine, has tried to copy the characterization, imagery and script-writing techniques used by Christopher Nolan, that managed to make this such a world-renowned, spectacular, utterly rewatchable masterpiece. No superhero film will ever reach the watermark set by The Dark Knight again, nor should they try to. 14

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The only animated film even qualified to be on this list, The Incredibles is a very special film indeed. It was released in 2004, when Pixar were at the absolute height of their success, right after the smash-hit, both commercially and critically, that was 2003s Finding Nemo. Nobody expected much from it, considering what a bad time for superhero movies the early 00s was (excluding the X-Men and SpiderMans). What it turned out to be was a revolutionary, charming, entertaining, original and visually astounding masterpiece of animated cinema. Movie Taco would personally place it above The Dark Knight on any list, but this was your poll, and so it came in at a very close second.

Bryan Singers first X is the original 21st century superhero movie, the first of the modern era. However, its the second film, X-Men United, that is a true classic, with Jean Grey and Wolverines relationship put under the microscope whilst Brian Cox wanders around looking scary as hell. No X film has been as good since! 15

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Riddle me this: Youre the biggest fledgling movie studio on Earth. Youve had several massive successes in a row, over a mere 3 years. Youre about to begin production on the most highly anticipated film of all time, which is sure to make billions of dollars around the world. Youre faced with the task of picking a director to helm this project, and who do you choose? A TV producer whose only directorial film was a massive flop of a TV spin-off called Serenity (one of the best sci-fis of the noughties). Joss Whedon. Who would have thought that this man, this god, would produce an artwork so wonderful that it would climb to No. 3 on this list? We did. We knew Whedon had the comedic and dramatic skill, the action-setpiece directing knowledge and the genius to pull of making a mammoth Summer blockbuster which combined the intelligence of The Dark Knight with the spectacle of Transformers to make the ultimate blockbuster.

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Its not as impressive a work of cinema as its sequel, but Batman Begins is the most solidly entertaining piece of Christopher Nolans epic trilogy, and face it, Katie Holmes is waaaaay better than Maggie Gyllenhaal. Scarecrow isnt a great villain, but Cillian Murphy brings some charm to the role, and Liam Neeson is, well, Liam Neeson.

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Sam Raimis first Spidey flick was an unexpectedly smart summer blockbuster from a director who only had experience in cult, gory slasher films, and he followed it up with an even better film. Tobey Maguire was a perfect fit to play Peter Parker, the charming but out-of-luck teenager who discovers he had special powers after being bitten by a radioactive spider (eek!) Unfortunately for Andrew Garfield, he will always be Peter Parker. In this film, he gets to show off his acting skills, as do Kirsten Dunst as MJ (Shailene Woodley has a hard act to follow) and Alfred Molina as the villainous Doctor Octopus. The film is very long, but doesnt feel it for one second, due to superb pacing and a beautifully and lovingly crafted story arc. Spider-Man 3 is almost as good, in our opinion, but you chose SM2 as your No.4!

As you can see, Sam Raimis last Spidey film came in a close second to his second. This film has the best villains of the series, Thomas Hayden Churchs Sandman, Topher Graces Venom, James Francos New Goblin and a big crane. The only problem is, thats way too many villains, even for a 3 hours plus film, so things got a big muddled. Its still a forgotten classic, so if you didnt like it the first time, try 17 watching it again!

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With its groundbreaking special effects, brilliant cast and original story, Richard Donners 1978 Superman: The Movie still holds up as a classic, despite the camp costumes and extremely long running time (Zach Snyders Man of Steel is apparently less than 130 minutes). Christopher Reeve was a born star, and shines as Clark/ Superman, although the reason why a different actor portrayed 18-year old, Smallville-residing Clark has yet to be explained. Gene Hackman and Marlon Brandos appearances give it amazing credibilty, yet to be matched in a superhero film, which is surprising, considering how it basically created the genre (the only real superhero film before it being the even more camp Batman). Bryan Singer did a fairly decent job homaging it in 2006, to the acclaim of few fans but many critics. Itll be interesting to see how Steel does both artistically and commerically when it is released on June 15. You can read our review in next months Movie Taco!

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Although Tim Burtons Batman and Returns are widely considered the best of the 80s/90s films, we (and you) chose Batman Forever as our favourite, largely due to the hilarious performances from Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones as Riddler and Two-Face. Val Kilmer is, apart from Bale, the only actor who can actually pick up the phone and say Batman speaking.

In theatres at time of writing, this is a very impressive showing for Iron Man 3, clearly the best of the three solo Stark outings, but just beating the 2008 original. Ben Kingsleys The Mandarin is the most clever villain in years (although hes not Loki) and Robert Downey Jr gives a superb performance.

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And here we are, Jon Favreaus original shell-head movie, which unfortunately was beaten by The Dark Knight as Best Superhero Movie of 2008. However, it still holds up as a spectacular action thriller, with Jeff Bridges as the villain and Gwyneth Paltrow in her first appearance as Pepper Potts. Picking relative newcomer Chris Hemsworth to star in such an ambitious project was a big risk on Marvels part, but it worked, as he carries Thor. It does feel like an Avengers trailer upon watching it now, but is still amazingly entertaining, and Kenneth Branagh is such an actors director, he pulls the absolute best performances out of his cast.

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and so to the final entry on our list, Richard Donners excellent Superman II. It may not be as game-chaning as the 1978 original, but Terrence Stamps Zod matches Gene Hackmans Luther for hilarity and creepiness, of which is had both. For the full Top 30, visit BuzzHub.tk from June 20 .
th

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THIS MONTH IN 2012

This month last year, it was the worlds favourite web-slinger, Peter Parker/ Spider-Man, who graced Movie Tacos third ever cover. We had an in-depth preview of the film, which went on to receive a 3star review. A film which later received a slightly better review was the 4-star Prometheus, Ridley Scotts epic Alien prequel, starring Noomi Rapace, which we also had a comprehensive feature on in the issue. The reviews printed were of Men in Black 3, Moonrise Kingdom and Dark Shadows.

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Star Trek Into Darkness

Gene Roddenberry would turn in his grave if he saw this film. The Star Trek creator, who died in 1991, intended his idea as a tense, politically-infused drama that just happened to be set to the backdrop of space. Over the years, the ST shows and films got more and more action-packed, and less and less intelligently written, until 2013, when Jeffrey Jacob Abrams has given us a full-blown action/sci-fi spectacular. And its BRILLIANT! Both long-term Trek fans and fans of Abrams 2009 reboot couldnt possibly have asked for more from this sequel, which amps up the stakes from the first film more than any other sequel has before. Everything that was wrong with that film (and thats a short list) has been fixed completely here, and all the things Abrams and his team (writers Damon Lindelof, Bryan Burk and Alex Kurtzman, composer Michael Giacchino etc) got right have been brought back, for example, the timeline-hopping appearance of Master Leonard Nimoy and the super-awesome space jumps. Honestly, the space-jumping scene in Into Darkness is probably the most visually stunning scene of any film weve seen for a few years. For reasons that I doubt I will ever understand, Benedict Cumberbatch has been put front and centre on all the posters (particularly outside of the US). This is odd for two reasons. Firstly, hes not THAT AMAZING in the film. I was quite disappointed by what I had expected to be an Oscar-calibre performance from the Sherlock star, when what I got was a fantastic, dont get me wrong, but a very Loki-in-Avengers-type performance. Scary British villain just isnt enough any more: you have to have something more, and of all the actors working today, I thought BC would be able to bring it to Into

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Darkness. He doesnt fail, he just doesnt exceed any expectations. The second reason why I was surprised at all the publicity for his role is that, he isnt really in the film that much. He doesnt get a full scene of dialogue until past the 1-hour mark, and the film is less than 2-hours long (thank you Mr Abrams for making the shortest bloody blockbuster in a decade. What a relief!). His Khan (spoiler alert) is extremely important to the story of the film from start to finish, and will probably be relevant in future installments, but isnt the star in any aspect. The writing of Khan in this film is very well planned by all involved, and his motivations are far more believable, and easy to sympathise with, than say,Skyfalls Raoul Silva. Khan isnt the lead of Into Darkness. The films joint leads are most certainly Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto (or should be put ZQ first?) as Kirk and Spock. The two of them have some superb scenes together, both hilarious and heartbreaking, and Into Darkness truly is the Abrams film that explores their bromance in the most depth. They are of course, fantastic by themselves, and this film features some great solo Kirk action. The breathtaking final chase around future London involving Cumberbatchs Khan and Spock is another one of the films many, many great action set-pieces. Have we mentioned the opening yet? Well, in case you havent already heard, this film has the best opening scene since The Dark Knight Rises (although, in this case, the films villain is nowhere to be seen, and is irrelevant to the plot at this point), with a volcano, a red forest, the Enterprise emerging from underwater, and a planet inhabited by people whose faces look like paper mach masks. If you see one scene in IMAX this year, make it this
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Alice Eve, the films other new face, is a far more engaging presence than she was in Men in Black 3, and gives the viewer who finds Zoe Saldana to be extremely irritating a nice bit of eye candy (come on, the female viewers get, like, 20 hot guys)! As we all know, Abrams is abandoning us and going over to Lucasfilm to direct, well, our other favourite sci-fi franchise, Star Wars, and honestly, it couldnt be in better hands. Despite the fact that the whole third act of Into Darkness feels like part of A New Hope or Empire, all the characterisation and action scenes in this film just smell like Wars, and, for better or worse, the film does at times feel just a tiny bit like an audition tape for Kathleen Kennedy and George Lucas. But who cares? Star Trek Into Darkness is without a doubt the best film of 2013 so far, it is without a doubt better than Iron Man 3, and it is without a doubt the best film (not counting the Lost pilot) J.J. Abrams has ever directed. You couldnt ask for more, unless you can, in which case, start counting the days until Episode VII. 2015, people!

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Love Is All You Need

This poor film can hardly help being compared to 2008s smash-hit Mamma Mia! Between Pierce Brosnan, who we still cant forget the singing of, and the beautiful European setting, this film just shouts Mamma Mia!, until you see it. It begins with the main character (the wonderful Trina Dunham, described by Alec Baldwin as the best actor in the world) talking to her GP about her breast cancer treatment. In Copenhagen. Ive been to Copenhagen, and loved it, but its a fairly depressing place to start off a romantic comedy. But you see, this doesnt try to make you think its a romantic comedy, it just waits for you to accept what it is. Then again, its not much of a comedy, as the only joke in it (granted, a very funny one) revolves around an obnoxious mother who keeps calling her almost anorexic daughter obese and fat. In the film, Brosnan plays Philip, the father of a young man who is getting married to the daughter of Ida (Durham), in a beautiful Italian town. Ida and Philip meet before flying to Italy, and gradually start to fall for each other. The films picturesque setting and charming performances (Brosnans best in years) make it a very enjoyable watch, and one of the best romantic dramas of the year so far. Its not Mamma Mia!, at all.

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THE HOT LIST MONTHLY

The new, Michael Bay produced TMNT movie is currently shooting, and stars Megan Fox. Surprising, considering how she compared the Transfomers director to Adolf Hitler just a few short years ago. Anyway, its nice to see her back in a major film, even if she is an awful, awful actress.

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THE HOT LIST MONTHLY

Whats this, you say? Well, its only ScarJo as Black Widow on the set of Cap II: The Winter Soldier, a film that, surprisingly, has no connections to Game of Thrones, unlike its brother, Thor: The Dark World

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THE HOT LIST MONTHLY

The Cannes Film Festival is kicking off in France as we write, and there will be tons of new posters revealed at La Croissette, the first being this beauty for the upcoming The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, starring Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, the heroic young woman who must be the face of a rebellion that threatens to overthrown the dictatorship of the dystopian land of Panem. The film is released in November, and will feature on a future cover of Movie Taco.

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COMING NEXT MONTH.

MASSIVE COMEDY PREVIEW

STARRING.

GROWN UPS 2, ANCHORMAN: THE LEGEND CONTINUES, THE MUPPETSAGAIN, SPONGEBOB 2, THE WORLDS END and more!

PLUS MAN OF STEEL + THE HANGOVER PART III: THE VERDICT PACIFIC RIM, DESPICABLE ME 2, R.I.P.D, THE LONE RANGER