film
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Originally released in 1989 Robert Zemeckis classic Back to the Future 2 is due for a one day only re-release and Great Scott this guy right here is very excited – Back to the Future 2 happens to my favorite of the trilogy, it’s so well written, insanely fun and contains some of the most memorably shot scenes in movie history – here’s a new poster for the upcoming event !!
Let me start by saying how much I loved Kyle Newman’s love letter to Star Wars the brilliant 2009 picture Fanboys, so obviously upon hearing Newman was involved in directing a new picture with a whole bunch of his acting mates on-board I was giddy with excitement.
Barely Lethal is one of them movies that could have & should have been so much better – I’m not saying Newman is out of his film making depth but presenting us with an action movie with little bite, characters that have no chemistry, music from Matteo Messina that’s just horrible & a picture that fails to get the best out of it’s talented cast does not help the arguement – maybe the film is a victim of previous and much better executed versions of teenagers trained to be assassins, kicking ass whilst balancing everyday life style of movies but whatever the excuses Kyle Newman has delivered a real stinker of a picture, lets hope his next effort (Chewie or the planned Fanboys sequel) is better and he does not wait for another six years to do either.
Overall – In my opinion Barely Lethal should have committed to it’s darker, grittier premise, for me there should have been far less Mean Girl and much more Hit Girl – don’t get sucked in by it’s stellar star cast, Newman’s Barely Lethal is one big letdown, save your dollars and check it out when some TV channel shows it for free ★★½
CONGRATS to Kristen Stewart who has become the first US actress to win a Cesar award (the French equivalent of the Oscars) for her brilliant role in Clouds of Sils Maria – the film was directed by Olivier Assayas and also starred Juliette Binoche and Chloë Grace Moretz
Finally our first look at BIG GAME the latest feature from that wonderful Finnish filmmaker Jalmari Helander (Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale) – Big Game has a great cast that includes: Samuel L. Jackson, Ray Stevenson, Jim Broadbent, Felicity Huffman, Ted Levine, Jorma Tommila and of course the wonderful Onni Tommila – after watching this teaser (four times) I am so excited… Enjoy
“The fate of the most powerful man in the world lies in the hands of a 13-year-old boy. Plunged into a deadly game of cat and mouse, Oskari and the president must team up to survive the most extraordinary night of their lives”
The Interview (2014/5) – Movie Review ★★★★
“They Hate us caus they Ain’t-us”
Director: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg – Cast: James Franco, Seth Rogen, Lizzy Caplan, Randall Park, Diana Bang and Charles Rahi Chun – Synopsis: The Interview follows Dave Skylark and Aaron Rapaport as two friends running a TV show in the US called “Skylark Tonight” interviewing celebrities who usually spout trashy & outrageous nonsense – the show somehow manages to catch the eye of a certain North Korean leader Kim Jong Un who as it turns out is big fan of the show and grant the pair a one on one interview, upon hearing of this the CIA recruit Skylark and Rapaport to help assassinate the Korean Leader and that’s when the fun really begins Verdict: as you may know The Interview has become a movie shrouded in controversy, and just like a script from a Hollywood movie it all started with Sony axing the film from its planned Christmas schedule due to hacking threats (possibly the North Koreans?) which immediately saw a whole host of celebrities including George Clooney and the President of the United States taking to social media & many news outlets to decry the decision calling Sony weak and asking them to reconsider – it only took a few days for Sony to capitulate, with the FBI now involved in tracking these hackers a statement was put out that The Interview would return to the festive schedule and be shown in selected cinemas after all ! Overall: As a fan of Rogen and Franco’s style of brainless, moronic, insanely daft humor I had high hopes for this film their latest big screen pairing and by it’s end credits boy was I not disappointed – if you dislike gross-out comedy satires that produce the side splitting laughs but also in turn make you reach for the vomit bag, and your only thinking of watching the film due to the nonsensical over the top attention it’s received then you may want to reconsider – The Interview is made of the blackest of humor, some may even call the film distasteful and maybe it is – but overall it’s a well executed, tongue in cheek comedy that centers around a subject matter that shouldn’t be funny but really is, and that all due to it’s great material, it’s high tempo and a superb cast that includes a delicious turn by Randall Park playing Kim Jong Un who’s not only uncanny in resemblance to the North Korean leader but his camp & creepy portrayal makes his performance one of the true comic highlights of the year – if you have loved Rogen & Franco’s past movie pairings in Neighbors, This Is the End and Pineapple Express then I am pretty confident you will love The Interview it’s a comedy that will tickle you senseless, make your eye’s stream like a river and make your belly bounce till it hurts – the scenes that include that Eminem interview, Rapaport’s insertion, Kim Jong Un’s seduction of Skylark including the basketball come orgy and the tank ride, every moment on screen that included Sook played by the fabulous Diana Bang and each and every Franco smile, grimace and utterly stupid sentence spoken make The Interview one of 2014’s finest comedy achievements and one I can not wait to re-watch !!
Rare Exports : A Christmas Tale (2010) – Movie Review ★★★★
“This Christmas Everyone Will Believe In Santa Clause”
Director: Jalmari Helander Cast: Onni Tommila, Jorma Tommila, Tommi Korpela, Rauno Juvonen, Jens Sivertsen & Risto Salmi Synopsis: In the depths of the Korvatunturi mountains, lies Christmas’s biggest secret – a sacred grave where the occupant is awaiting excavation – It’s Christmas Eve in the wintery depth’s of Finland, and an ‘archeological’ dig has just unearthed the real Santa Claus. But this no ordinary white bearded, present baring Santa this is one nasty piece of work – and after the local children in their town begin mysteriously disappearing, a reindeer hunter’s son Pietari and his father Rauno set out to capture Santa, free the children and sell his ass to the evil, misguided boss of the corporation sponsoring the dig. But Santa has some helpers and his elves, will stop at nothing to free their master – Verdict: Based on the 2003 short, Rare Exports Inc., by Jalmari & Juuso Helander – Rare Exports : A Christmas Tale is one of them movies that until now has escaped my film watching radar, this is not a traditional festive movie so whilst eating your mince pies & your craving that slice of sentimentality, that warm feeling that the likes of It’s A Wonderful Life or White Christmas give you then stay well clear of Rare Exports – Jalmari Helander‘s movie is a well wrapped creepy Finnish Horror that succeeds in it’s cool & unique concept and delivers in it’s finale a festive message that’s of equal to the Christmas Classics of yesteryear – I must stress although the main star of the film is Onni Tommila who is absolutely brilliant like a throwback to them child star of the classic 80s movies Rare Exports is not really a movie for children as it contains a twisted, violent storyline that feature Slaughtered Reindeer and Naked Elves, it’s a much more evil, black humored take on our puffy faced, sleigh riding Saint Nick Overall: Rare Exports is one of the most delightful, enjoyable movies I’ve had the pleasure of watching over the holiday season for many a year, not since 74’s Black Christmas have I drooled over the screen, laughed and hid cowering behind my pillow – Rare Exports : A Christmas Tale is one film I shall no doubt add to my every growing list of Annual Festive viewings – it’s a truly brilliant, original and surprisingly fun movie !!
Here’s two new images from movies that already have my film juices flowing – the top still is from Guy Ritchie’s The Man from U.N.C.L.E. yep that one! based on the popular 1960s TV series and stars Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Debicki and Jared Harris – and the bottom image is from EVEREST starring Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, John Hawkes and Jake Gyllenhaal and is directed by Baltasar Kormákur – Enjoy !!
OMG !! if this film trailer doesn’t whet your appetite for George Miller’s post-apocalyptic action film MAD MAX FURY ROAD then I don’t know what will – If like me you loved the original trilogy that starred Mel Gibson as Max then May 2015 can’t come quick enough, Miller’s back in the directors chair and he’s brought along a fabulous, mouth drooling cast that includes Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy, Nicholas Hoult and Hugh Keays-Byrne – hope you enjoy the trailer….
“An apocalyptic story set in the furthest reaches of our planet, in a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, and almost everyone is crazed fighting for the necessities of life. Within this world exist two rebels on the run who just might be able to restore order. There’s Max, a man of action and a man of few words, who seeks peace of mind following the loss of his wife and child in the aftermath of the chaos. And Furiosa, a woman of action and a woman who believes her path to survival may be achieved if she can make it across the desert back to her childhood homeland”
Happy 98th Birthday to the greatest movie star of his generation KIRK DOUGLAS – back in 1949 Kirk was slowly starting to make a name for himself on screen when cast as the lead actor in Mark Robson’s great boxing film CHAMPION – below are some rare photo’s of Kirk taken around that time – I hope you agree Kirk Douglas is a cinematic treasure & these are wonderful!!
The Babadook (2014) – Movie Review ★★★★½
“Baba dook dook dook!!!“
Director: Jennifer Kent – Cast: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Daniel Henshall, Tiffany Lyndall-Knight & Tim Purcell – Synopsis: a single mother, haunted by the death of her husband, battles with her son’s fear of a monster lurking in the house, but she soon discovers an evil presence all around her – Overall: Scary & well acted horror films are quite a rarity these days, sadly we live in a movie world of endless remakes that only a quarter of which are decent and the rest once watched sit gathering dust amongst our film collection’s SO as you can imagine when I came across this film, a horror that felt so personal, so dark and one that left the hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention I DECIDED that I should shout the praise to all and sundry, to whomever would listen and most of all to the those who love a good old fashioned scare !! The Babadook starts with a thump, within its first 15mins I was already invested in its characters, I felt for Samuel we’ve all been there scared of the demons in our closet or under our bed – and I sympathized with Amelia Samuel’s mum, tortured by her loss, fighting to keep her own sanity and trying to bring up her son in a somewhat normal existence. Being a big fan of the horror genre and not easily scared by things that go bump in the night I was surprised by how haunting an effect Jennifer Kent’s film-making debut had on me, the story also written by Kent is almost like a ghost story of yesteryear, the majority of which is set inside a creepy house in the suburbs that adds to the movies scare, giving you the sense of confinement, suffocating you, a movie cabin fever that just keeps building, and building and building – of course along with its terrific story, it’s effective Kubrick-esque camerawork & an eerie score that at times would make your heart beat twice as quick – filmmaker Jennifer Kent also had to find an actress that would help bring her creation to life, become this broken women, this mum who would do unspeakable things and in Aussie Essie Davis she found exactly that, if I tell you that Essie Davis delivers the best horror performance for an actress since Shelley Duvall went visiting the Overlook in Kubrick’s The Shining then you know that this performance and this movie is something very special – Essie captures Amelia’s vulnerability, she’s a mother unhinged, you can almost feel her pain & you witness her terror as things really do go bump in the night. The Babadook is a nail biting, pillow hiding, lights on kinda horror that’s very reminiscent of early Polanski with splashes of Hitchcock, Kubrick and the imagination of Roald Dahl thrown in – the use of the illustrated book throughout is a master stroke, it’s images are effective and its words within pretty scary – there are some spoiler scenes throughout the movie that pull at the heart strings and these are only possible due to Kent’s groundwork in building characters you truly care for – I can’t remember many filmmakers making their horror movie debut with such gusto but Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook is up there with the very best of them ! This is one subtle, chilling horror that deserves your attention – just make sure you lock all the doors first….
Here’s some exciting casting just released by Warner Bros for the latest comic to screen adaption SUICIDE SQUAD villains-forced-to-be-heroes from the DC universe – the brilliant David Ayer (Fury & End of Watch) is on directing duties with Rick Flag played by Tom Hardy, Deadshot played by Will Smith, The Joker will be Jared Leto and the gorgeous Margot Robbie is tackling the role of Harley Quinn – also on-board is Jai Courtney as Boomerang and Cara Delevingne as Enchantress – so what do you guys think?
It will also be interesting to see who Warner Bros get to play Amanda Waller and will Lex Luthor appear in this film as expected? SUICIDE SQUAD no doubt will burn the screens down on August 5th, 2016 – get excited this looks all sorts of delicious fun !!
Excited? Arnie is Back ! Here’s the first Terminator Genisys trailer from the Thor 2 director Alan Taylor that stars Emilia Clarke, Jason Clarke, Matt Smith, Jai Courtney and Arnold Schwarzenegger – if the film is anywhere near as fun as this trailer then we are in for a treat…. Enjoy !!
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