Recent Movies
Grid List

NICOLAS CAGE AND SELMA BLAIR IN - MOM AND DAD (2017/2018) - FILM REVIEW

Posted on January 31, 2018 with No comments

Mom and Dad (2017)



A teenage girl and her little brother must survive a wild 24 hours during which a mass hysteria of unknown origins causes parents to turn violently on their own kids.

Director:

Writer:

Stars:


Country:

Language:

Release Date:

19 January 2018 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Mum and Dad  »

Filming Locations:

Company Credits

Production Co:


Like many great(er) cult films before it, the American horror-comedy "Mom and Dad" is an acquired taste. Your enjoyment depends mostly, though not entirely, on your response to its skyscraper-high concept: what if a mysterious epidemic, triggered by something as simple and inexplicable as a television signal, led parents to want to kill their children? It's a great idea, one that writer/director Brian Taylor—half of the duo behind the gleefully unsound "Crank" films and the relatively tame, but otherwise adequate superhero whatsit "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance"—has a lot of fun with. Still, "Mom and Dad" is also like other great cult movies in that its creators fail to follow through on many of their more tantalizing ideas. You'll either love or hate this movie based on its energy, and attitude, not its conceptual accuracy, or insightfulness. But what Taylor and his game cast, led by Selma Blair and Nicolas Cage, do get right will leave you excited, and eager for more. 
With this in mind: what's most surprising about "Mom and Dad" is how Taylor is usually able to translate his shifting interests in his film's core ideas into a long, gear-shifting adrenaline rush. Many contemporary genre films only have a couple of stand-out moments, or ideas. In fact, if you've heard of "Mom and Dad" by now, it's probably because film festival audiences have already talked up the delirious scene where Cage, delivering one of his characteristically inspired on-camera meltdowns, attacks a pool table with a sledgehammer while singing "The Hokey Pokey." But early audiences don't talk enough about how that sequence ends: Cage and Blair, as unhappy parents Brent and Kendall, have a weirdly touching heart-to-heart conversation about their post-parenthood disillusionment. He had dreams for their future that simply didn't pan out. She responds in kind by reassuring him: so did she. In this moment, you're reminded that Cage isn't just a great man-sized disaster zone—he's also (sometimes) great responding to attentive co-stars like Blair, or even "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" co-star Eva Mendes before that. And the best part about this scene? Brent and Kendall are bonding right before they make a renewed effort to take a power-saw to their basement door so that they can kill their own children.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. "Mom and Dad" isn't just one of Nicolas Cage's best recent films. This is a movie with such an infectious personality that it somehow manages to transcend a couple of tiresome initial mis-steps. The set-up is simple: Brent and Kendall are cartoonishly repressed parents. This would stand to reason at first since "Mom and Dad" is tentatively grounded by a child-like perspective. More accurately: this is the cataclysmic, hormone-spiked world according to Carly (Anne Winters), a bratty, self-centered high school sophomore who rolls her eyes at everyone but her mild-mannered African-American boyfriend Damon (Robert T. Cunningham). Then again, Taylor's vision for "Mom and Dad" isn't so consistent that we only see events through Carly's eyes. Carly's perspective fitfully takes a back seat to her parents' point-of-view, since Taylor flirts with their pent-up anger, and unaired grievances. We also never really learn much about Carly's skittish younger brother Joshua (Zachary Arthur). All we know about Joshua is that he plays with toy trucks, and doesn't understand what's happening to Brent when Cage's character spaces out whilst daydreaming about his own adolescence, a free-wheeling time when he did donuts in his sports car, and a girlfriend forcefully shoved her breasts in his face.

Yes, "Mom and Dad" is the kind of movie with half-realized ideas and under-developed characters that are cast aside with the same reckless abandon as the film's most casually unsettling material. For example, Damon's dad is a stereotypically drunk, abusive black man. We are led to believe that Damon's dad's post-outbreak actions are not out of character since Damon whines about how his old man is being drunk, and hurtful "again." This one-off joke wouldn't be so offensive if there were more context for Damon's relationship with his dad, like either more scenes with Damon, or maybe even other African-American characters. Instead, there's a Chinese maid who talks like she's fresh off the boat. She also tellingly corrects Brent about her country of origin ("I'm Chinese, not Charlie!"). These two characters, when viewed together, suggest that other-ness is supposed to be funny, or at least ironically amusing in a film where all parents want to slaughter their own spawn. Alas, these two unresolved, and unproductively icky asides go nowhere, and only reveal Taylor's imaginative limits.

Still, Taylor gets so much right here that I can't help but strongly recommend "Mom and Dad" ... with some qualifications. This is the kind of movie whose soundtrack has everything, including Debussy's "La Mer" and two cues from the East Coast punk band Reagan Youth (Queens, New York, represent!). It also features a gruesome, and darkly funny use of Swedish '80s pop duo Roxette's "It Must Have Been Love." Another way that you can tell if you'll like "Mom and Dad?" Measuring your blood pressure after you learn that character actor Lance Henriksen has a hilarious cameo (that's not a spoiler since he's listed in the opening credits). If this news makes you psyched, you are definitely going to plotz for "Mom and Dad." 
There are also a couple of scenes that are shockingly well-executed. Taylor and his creative partner-in-crime Mark Neveldine are not usually known for their ability to follow-through on their more outrĆ© ideas. But Taylor's enthusiasm is infectious during scenes that appear to be inspired by George Romero's formative zombie films, like ones where throngs of moon-eyed parents loom in schoolyards, hospitals, and classrooms, just waiting for the chance to lash out at their progeny. Cage and Blair's chemistry during the film's dizzyingly entertaining back-half is also noteworthy, as Taylor's dialogue and direction bring out the best in both performers. So yes, I'm sure you think you already know how you're going to feel about "Mom and Dad." But it's better than that, and in ways that you really must experience for yourself.

***


Thanks for reading and have fun watching movies.
Read more »
Labels: , ,

MAYBE THE MOST WORST HORROR MOVIE - DELIRIUM (2018) - FILM REVIEW

Posted on January 30, 2018 with No comments

Delirium (2018)

R | Horror, Thriller
 
 
 
A man recently released from a mental institute inherits a mansion after his parents die. After a series of disturbing events, he comes to believe it is haunted.

Director:

Writer:

Stars:

, ,
 

Country:

Language:

Also Known As:

Home  »

Filming Locations:

Company Credits

Production Co:

, ,
 
Fun fact: this movie has been kicking around since 2014, when it played the Carmel International Film Festival under the title “Case #13.” As of this writing (January 15, 2018), “Case #13” and “Delirium” are listed as two separate movies in the IMDb directorial filmography of Johnny Martin, a longtime stuntperson and actor who made his feature directorial debut with this picture.

Even if it had actually been released in 2014 (the sole showing, according to the IMDb, was at the Carmel International Film Festival that year), “Delirium” would have felt at least a trifle dated. The opening scene sets up a large portion of the premise: subjective camera in the mode of a million other found-footage horror movies. And of course it’s nighttime. And of course there are a bunch of bros with flashlights. Running. Towards something. Being chased maybe. But they’re somewhere they’re not supposed to be. And there’s an abandoned swimming pool that’s pretty funky. And a red rubber ball that comes from out of nowhere. And a little girl sitting in the corner of the of the pool away from one of the bros. Will her face be bloodied, or horribly scarred, or in some other way misshapen, when she turns to face the bro? Of course it will be. 
Written by Andy Cheng and Lisa Clemens from a story “by” Martin (I put quotes around that word because given how much blatant borrowing this scenarios does from “The Shining” and other horror classics or near-classics, the scenario is more a collage than an original creation), “Delirium” then goes back in time and unsuccessfully attempts to differentiate the bro characters and give them a sense of mission. The bros, a self-described “Hell Gang,” are initiating a new member, and there’s a dare involved. Get to the porch of a deserted mansion where a crazed doctor murdered more than a dozen of his own children, and stand at its porch in the dead of night. Chronicling the whole thing on video will be Chase, and most of the movie is told from his camera’s point of view. 

The action proceeds in what I came to see as movements; first there is the “What happened to Eddie” one, in which the Hell Gang start worrying about Eddie, the initiate who seems to have gotten to said porch but hasn’t come back. Then there’s the “What’s wrong with Chase” movement, in which Chase, nerdy-intellectual of the group (I guess, given his glasses) seems possessed despite his deep knowledge of the grisly events that took place in the house the Hell Gang have broken into in search of Eddie. Then there’s the “No, Muzo” movement, in which the boys tell the jock, Muzo, “no.” 

Various ghosts and ghouls enter the shots at times, and there’s even a naked seductive girl ghost (and yes, she is introduced in a manner that recalls “The Shining”). In spite of creating a mental atmosphere of mildly irritated indifference in this viewer, the movie has some real film making talent behind it. Director Martin has a way with a camera, and in cutting between the “found” footage stuff and an ostensibly objective camera within scenes he creates some unusual rhythms that would, I think, have yielded genuine suspense had they involved characters that weren’t complete yawns. Had this been the work of a young novice filmmaker, I would say it showed some promise. But as it happens, Mr. Martin is approaching his mid-fifties. He should look for better writers, to begin with.
 

*

 
Thanks for reading and have fun watching movies. 
Read more »
Labels: ,

AROUND THE WORLD - THE ROAD MOVIE (2016) - FILM REVIEW

Posted on January 29, 2018 with No comments

The Road Movie (2016)



Country:

Language:

Release Date:

19 January 2018 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Š”Š¾Ń€Š¾Š³Š°  »

Filming Locations:

Box Office

Gross USA:

$24,681, 25 January 2018

Company Credits

Production Co:




Russian dashcam videos—the ones that show dashboard footage of ridiculous car crashes and random madness on the roads of the Motherland—became popular on the Internet presumably because people enjoy watching chaos from a distance. Mayhem, especially found mayhem, can be genuinely entertaining, and many of these videos honestly live up to their ludicrous, brutal reputation. Of course, there are social and political reasons for the prevalence of dashcams in Russia (a check against widespread insurance fraud and police corruption), as well as for the country’s high rate of car accidents (crumbling infrastructure coupled with nasty winters tend to create poor road conditions), but these videos flatten out all those tangible complications. Queasy implications of layered voyeurism notwithstanding (after all, you are watching a stranger watch real destruction), Russian dashcam videos simply satisfy a broad “football in the groin” desire that many folks, including myself, hold dear.

That might be a protracted justification for entertainment that’s in the same ballpark as, say, Roadrunner cartoons, but it goes a long way of explaining the base appeal of “The Road Movie.” Dmitrii Kalashnikov’s debut feature is a 70-minute compilation of these dashcam videos uploaded to the Internet by Russian citizens. These videos run the gamut from manic car accidents to utterly surreal encounters. Kalashnikov, who serves as the film’s editor, selects videos that have their own internal rhythm, yet they all follow a familiar structure: a calm, then a storm, and then the aftermath. “The Road Movie” operates on a unique tonal wavelength, one that’s both manic and oddly comforting. It may be an anthology of bedlam, but it eventually settles into a calming mode that derives from a director providing his audience exactly what they signed up to watch.

Describing any of the clips in “The Road Movie” at length will inevitably do a great disservice to the experience of actually watching them, especially since they’re predicated upon shock and awe. However, some of the highlights from the film include a drunken joy ride that lands a car in a river (“We are sailing,” one passenger calmly states as the vehicle floats downstream), a humorous yet mundane conversation between a taxi driver and prostitute about fee structure, and a car chase in which the police are downright incapable of quartering their suspect. Each “scene” has its own identity, but when juxtaposed against similar events, they become a tapestry of the absurd.

Maybe it goes without saying, but “The Road Movie” is very funny, albeit in the pitch-black sense. Much of the humor comes from the passengers’ po-faced narration to disorder just outside their window, or casual asides right before an accident, such as when a driver remarks, “Man, it’s not even stylish … to wear a sombrero in the car” just before another car crashes inches away from them. It’s not quite accurate to say that “The Road Movie” demands that you laugh at people’s pain, but it does ask the audience to treat the bizarre with a certain amount of levity, even if the surrounding reality is fairly disturbing.

Kalashnikov opens up a few interpretive pathways with “The Road Movie.” Someone could make the case that the film wryly captures something specific to the Russian character, though I’m struggling to suss what that would be, considering that “road rage,” “recklessness,” and “bystander apathy” are common to Americans as well. Kalashnikov mildly interrogates the nature of unconscious performance in moments of extreme terror. How much are the passengers “acting” for the camera during these scenes? If the camera isn’t pointed at them, does its presence still amplify their behavior? Admittedly, he doesn’t answer these questions, but he foregrounds them to an extent, particularly in scenes that linger on the aftermath of an accident. There are also a couple severe breaks from Kalashnikov’s voyeuristic approach that suggests an attempt to push the viewer from observer to active participant.

Yet, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that “The Road Movie” works best as spectacle. Kalashnikov’s editing schema, with its thematic rhyming and seamless transitions, elevates “The Road Movie” above supercut status, but it still plays like a greatest hits tape. Frankly, there’s nothing wrong with that. It might be slight, but “The Road Movie” never overstays its welcome and rarely becomes monotonous, which is remarkable given the nature of the beast. It’s designed to provoke laughter and raised eyebrows, and it does exactly that with minimum fuss. Sometimes you want heart, and other times you just want a football in the groin.
 

*** 

 Thanks for reading and have fun watching movies.
Read more »
Labels: ,

MAZE RUNNER: THE DEATH CURE (2018) - FILM REVIEW

Posted on January 28, 2018 with No comments

Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018)



Young hero Thomas embarks on a mission to find a cure for a deadly disease known as the "Flare".

Director:

Writers:

(screenplay by), (based upon the novel by)

Stars:

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

26 January 2018 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Maze Runner 3  »

Filming Locations:

Box Office

Budget:

$62,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$8,400,000, 26 January 2018

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$26,339,755, 26 January 2018

Company Credits

Production Co:


The thing about zombies is that they’re hard to kill. Sure, you shoot ‘em in the head and that’s supposed to do the trick. But when they’re rushing and gnashing and flailing at you—as modern-day zombies tend to do—it can be hard to concentrate and get a good shot. This is especially true when they’re coming at you en masse across a desolate wasteland, the kind you find in so many movies based on Young Adult novels.
Such is the sensation of watching “Maze Runner: The Death Cure,” the third and final film in the series based on James Dashner’s novels. It just… won’t … end. For better and for worse, it’s an overwhelming experience. And just when you think it’s over, there’s another coda, and then another. The music will swell to a crescendo, signaling our need to experience peak emotions and planned catharsis, and then there are more loose ends to be tied up, more overly explanatory narration to endure.

I mean, I get it. It takes a long time to find a death cure. But come on.

For a while, though, Wes Ball’s film moves really well. He’s directed all three installments in the franchise—including 2014’s “The Maze Runner” and the 2015 follow-up “The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials”—and what separates his films from the overcrowded field of teen dystopian dramas is his visceral sense of space and energy.

Ball’s action sequences have a tangible, accessible quality about them, which is especially true in his doozy of an opening sequence: a 10-minute car chase/train robbery across the desert that’s got a grit, intensity and rough-hewn aesthetic reminiscent of “Mad Max: Fury Road.” And as is the case in all the “Maze Runner” movies—especially the original—the sound design is powerful and immersive. You certainly would never want to spend any time in the Glade, or the Scorch, or any of the adjacent, post-apocalyptic hellholes, but Ball’s films make you feel as if you’ve done just that.

Working from a script by returning writer T.S. Nowlin, he drops us right into the action—there’s no “Previously on `The Maze Runner …’”—so if you’ve forgotten this place and these characters, you may feel a little lost. Still, there’s no time to worry about that. Our hero, the obligatory YA Chosen One, Thomas (Dylan O’Brien), and his crew must free their friends from the clutches of the bad guys at WCKD. (With an acronym like that, what else could they be?)

A team of scientists led by the coolly minimalist Ava Paige (Patricia Clarkson) and a team of law enforcement agents led by the relentlessly evil Janson (Aidan Gillen) maintain control of the imposing Last City. (No, really, that’s what it’s called.) Simultaneously, they’re still rounding up all the remaining children and performing experiments on them to see who is immune and can provide a serum to cure this decimated world of the zombie plague.

The man at the center, O’Brien, remains hardworking and blandly handsome, but at least he’s got compelling figures surrounding him to help him sneak inside and burn it all down. They’re mostly character actors with intriguing screen presences and captivating faces: Rosa Salazar, Giancarlo Esposito, Barry Pepper, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Ki Hong Lee, Dexter Darden and an almost unrecognizable Walton Goggins. They are overqualified for this noisy nonsense.

But they also bring an effortless multiculturalism to these movies that I’ve always appreciated, and they all get a moment to shine. That’s especially true when it comes to the strong women who play crucial roles in the “Maze Runner” universe, from the villainous Clarkson to the virtuous Salazar to Kaya Scodelario as Thomas’ would-be love interest, whose inner conflict leaves her facing tough decisions somewhere in the middle.

None of these characters or their stories is nearly as engaging as the movie’s many gonzo action sequences, though. Besides the one that opens the film with a bang, there’s a thrilling one toward the end involving a crane, a bus and a bunch of screaming kids that’s begging to be turned into a theme-park ride. In between are massive shootouts, elaborate hand-to-hand combat and death-defying leaps—both physically and of faith.

You may forget them all afterward in the blur of teen angst and annihilation that so many of these types of movies provide, but they’re fun while they last. If only they didn’t last so long.

**

Thanks for reading and have fun watching movies.
Read more »
Labels: , , ,

LET'S DO SOME ACTION - THE COMMUTER - FILM REVIEW

Posted on January 16, 2018 with No comments

The Commuter (2018)

PG-13 | | Action, Crime, Drama | 12 January 2018 (USA) 


A businessman is caught up in a criminal conspiracy during his daily commute home.

Director:

Writers:

(story by), (story by) | 3 more credits »

Stars:


Country:

|

Language:

Release Date:

12 January 2018 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

El pasajero  »

Filming Locations:

 »

Company Credits

Production Co:

, ,  »
Show more on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

Color:

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1 
 
Frustratingly not-quite-there from start to finish, the paranoia-soaked railroad thriller "The Commuter" is the latest installment in the unofficial "Liam Neeson Late Winter Butt Kickers" series. The LNLWBKs started in January 2009, with the surprise smash "Taken," and continued with more "Taken" movies, plus three Neeson adventures by Jaume Collet-Serra, the director of this new one ("Unknown," "Non-Stop" and "Run All Night" were the others). They're a staple of our moviegoing diet by this point, nearly as ingrained in the seasonal calendar as the holidays themselves. Like nearly every entry, this new one is worth seeing for the unfussy determination of Neeson, a couple of impressively choreographed action sequences (in particular a one-take, hand-to-hand fight that attempts to one-up the famous hammer sequence in "Oldboy"), and an intriguing premise that the filmmakers never manage to fully exploit. By "worth seeing," I don't necessarily mean "rush to the nearest theater, forsaking all else," but rather, "if this comes on TV, you'll probably watch the whole thing, as long as you're not in a hurry to be somewhere." Who knows, it might even be ideal train viewing. The plot has all the hallmarks of a daydream that got obsessively worked-over for years during somebody's daily rides to and from work.

Neeson's character, Michael MacCauley, is a 60-year-old ex-cop turned insurance salesman who works in midtown Manhattan. His boss tells him that he's being fired right when he's about to begin his return trip home to see his wife (Elizabeth McGovern, who deserves better than this) and college-aged son (Dean-Charles Chapman) in Westchester, Long Island. Michael loses his phone in the train station due to a pickpocket he doesn't realize bumped him on purpose, then meets a mysterious stranger (Vera Farmiga) who tells him he has to locate a certan passenger on the commuter train before it arrives at its final stop and plant a tracking device on him/her, at which point that person will be killed. Michael will get $25,000 up front and another $75,000 upon completion of the mission—enough to offset the economic havoc wrought by his firing, including the potential scuttling of a reverse-mortgage on the family home that would've paid for his son's college.

This is one of those moral conundrums that really only generates suspense if you believe that a working class hero who radiates decency would condemn another person to death for $100,000. Nevertheless, Neeson goes the extra kilometer trying to sell us on the character's economic desperation as well as his macho pride (Michael couldn't bring himself to tell his wife and kids that he just got fired, so there's pressure to make this right immediately so he'll never have to spill the truth).

Director Collet-Serra, who did the mostly terrific shark thriller "The Shallows" and seems to have a knack for stripped-down, goal-directed action flicks, has clearly absorbed Alfred Hitchcock films where the action occurs on the boundary separating the real from the metaphorical or dreamlike. The kaleidoscope of humanity that Michael meets on the train is a touch of "Rear Window," the arrangement between him and Farmiga's character is a faint echo of "Strangers on a Train," and there's a hint of "North by Northwest" in the notion of a (mostly) ordinary New Yorker getting pulled into a conspiracy and struggling to regain control over his life. In the end, though, this is a tweedy suburban version of a confined-space action flick. Michael is on his own the whole time. Any allies he picks up along the way are temporary, and not all can be trusted.

The class-warfare, eat-the-rich messaging feels rather slapped-on, though, and the movie never gets close to generating the political framework it would have needed to to be taken seriously as a parable of this or that, as opposed to yet another movie where Liam Neeson beats people up. It should be assumed that there are no extraneous scenes in a film like this—by which I mean that, if you meet Michael's ex-partner (Patrick Wilson) and their former supervisor (Sam Neill) early in the story, and get a couple of moments where Michael talks about the economic collapse of 2008, and a scene that ends with Michael giving the finger to a jerkbag of a stockbroker, and one where Michael looks up from a bar to see a TV news story about officials being arrested on corruption charges, you can bet it will all come together in the end, haphazardly. No one involved in the production seemed to think we'd care about clarity when it came to stuff like this. They weren't entirely wrong, but the articulation is still wanting: why even do this kind of politically allegorical action picture if you're not going to, y'know, really do it? Like, with feeling?

I did care very much about Neeson's character, though, thanks mainly to his mastery of the same "just say your lines and hit your marks" style of film acting. No matter who he's playing in these movies, he always attacks the problem at hand with the low-key focus of a guy trying really hard to open a stuck jar of jam. It's my considered opinion that Neeson's late-career brand of business class dad machismo has yet to meet a director that can fully do it justice, but reasonable minds may differ. In any case, it's doubtful that any will be debating the fine points of his late-career filmography when Michael is hanging underneath a moving train like Indiana Jones, or breaking the little glass box at the end of a car so that he can use the hammer on someone's skull.
 





Thanks for reading and have fun watching movies.



Read more »
Labels: , , ,

16 MINUTES - CHECK OUT ALL TRAILER OF WEEK 2 2018

Posted on January 15, 2018 with No comments
Let's have a look at the best trailer of week 2 in 2018.


The Strangers 2: Prey at Night 
Red Sparow 
Black Panther 
Blockers 
Victor Crowley 
Teen Titans GO! To the Movies 
The Vanishing of Sidney Hall 
Tully 
Breaking In 
Beirut 
Ghost Stories

Thanks for watching.
Read more »
Labels: , ,

BEAUTIFUL EYES TO SEE IN - ALITE: BATTLE ANGEL - TRAILER

Posted on January 12, 2018 with No comments

Alita: Battle Angel (2018)


An action-packed story of one young woman's journey to discover the truth of who she is and her fight to change the world.

Director:

Writers:

(screenplay by), (screenplay by) | 2 more credits »

Stars:




Alita is a creation from an age of despair. Found by the mysterious Dr. Ido while trolling for cyborg parts, Alita becomes a lethal, dangerous being. She cannot remember who she is, or where she came from. But to Dr. Ido, the truth is all too clear. She is the one being who can break the cycle of death and destruction left behind from Tiphares. But to accomplish her true purpose, she must fight and kill. And that is where Alita's true significance comes to bear. She is an angel from heaven. She is an angel of death. 


Country:

| |

Language:

|

Release Date:

20 July 2018 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Alita: Ɓngel de combate  »

Filming Locations:

Box Office

Budget:

$200,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

, ,  »
Show more on  »

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Color:

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

James Cameron confirmed in an interview that this will be a combination of the first four books in Yukito Kishiro's series of manga books ("Motorball" from books 3 and 4, and the story from books 1 and 2). In another interview, Cameron also said that should this film be successful, he hopes to make another two "Battle Angel" films. See more »

Quotes

[from trailer]
Alita: I'd do whatever I had to for you. I'd give you whatever I have. I'd give you my heart.
[she offers Hugo her mechanical heart]
See more »

Connections

Version of Gunnm (1993) See more »
 
Thanks for reading and have fun watching movies.
Read more »
Labels: , , ,

LATE NIGHT REVIEW OF A MASSIVELY BRUTAL HORROR MOVIE - DEVIL'S GATE

Posted on January 12, 2018 with No comments

Devil's Gate (2017)



Set in the small town of Devil's Gate, North Dakota, the film examines the disappearance of a local woman (Regan) and her young son. Schull plays an FBI agent who helps the local sheriff (... See full summary »

Director:

Writers:

,

Stars:


Set in the small town of Devil's Gate, North Dakota, the film examines the disappearance of a local woman (Regan) and her young son. Schull plays an FBI agent who helps the local sheriff (Frakes) search for answers. Partnering with a deputy (Ashmore), they track down the missing woman's husband (Ventimiglia) and find that nothing is as it seems.  


Country:

|

Language:

Release Date:

5 January 2018 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Devil's Gate  »

Filming Locations:

 »

Company Credits

Production Co:

,  »
Show more on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Color:

Did You Know?

Trivia

Shawn Ashmore (Conrad 'Colt' Salter) and Amanda Schull (FBI Special Agent Daria Francis) have both worked with actor Aaron Stanford: Shawn and Aaron appeared together in both the movies 'X-Men 2' and 'X-Men: Last Stand', playing Bobby Drake/Ice Man and John Allerdyce/Pyro respectively, while Amanda and Aaron appeared in the TV show '12 Monkeys', playing Dr. Cassandra Railly and James Cole respectability.
 
A farmer's fringe-y religious beliefs prove oddly rooted in reality in Devil's Gate, the first feature by director Clay Staub and his co-screenwriter Peter Aperlo. The fact that the pic is titled Abduction in other territories more than hints at the fact that what this troubled man sees as angels or demons may in fact be old-fashioned extra-terrestrials. But his confusion and zeal add little texture to this unmoving genre exercise. A cast with plenty of exposure on TV series may help with the film's commercial prospects, but only the least critical genre auds are likely to enjoy it much.

Milo Ventimiglia (This Is Us) plays Jackson Pritchard, whose family has owned this plot of land for several generations, barely scraping by but believing angels will some day make the ground fertile. Though he's known to be unkind to his wife and son, local good-ol-boy lawmen don't want to question him when they disappear. It takes an out-of-town FBI agent, Amanda Schull's Daria Francis, to force the issue, insisting that sheriff's deputy Colt Salter (Shawn Ashmore) accompany her out to the family compound.
In addition to creaky, booby-trapped buildings that scream "hillbilly serial killer," the two encounter some phenomena they can't easily explain; with Pritchard trying to threaten them off his land and sabotage their attempts to search his home, they have little chance to protect themselves before they realize what the man has trapped in his basement.

Suffice to say that the icky thing down there is not only connected to Pritchard's family's disappearance, but it has friends. Soon, the humans are in a siege situation, trying to fend off beasts until they can find a way back to safety.

Though the FX and photography are competent for a film of this scale, the screenwriters appear to have put much less effort into dialogue and pacing. That, plus hit-and-miss acting, means viewers may have a hard time sticking with the film until the real action starts. Even then, they won't be rewarded with much in terms of mystery: Though Aperlo and Staub allude not just to religious faith but to real-world themes of colonialism and conquest, what's onscreen isn't persuasive enough to give those themes the appropriate weight.
 




The movie is extremly brutal and bloody and some of sequences do not make any sense. It gets lots in its own brutality.

Thanks for reading and have fun watching movies.
Read more »
Labels: , , , ,

RECRUITING TO: RED SPARROW - TRAILER 2

Posted on January 10, 2018 with No comments

Red Sparrow (2018)


 
Ballerina Dominika Egorova is recruited to 'Sparrow School' a Russian intelligence service where she is forced to use her body as a weapon. But her first mission, targeting a CIA agent, threatens to unravel the security of both nations.

Director:

Writers:

(screenplay), (novel)

Stars:


Official Sites:

| |  »

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

2 March 2018 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

OperaciĆ³n Red Sparrow  »

Filming Locations:

 »

Company Credits

Production Co:

, ,  »
Show more on  »

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Color:

Edit

Did You Know?

Trivia

When the project was announced in 2013, Darren Aronofsky was in talks to direct it. Aronofsky dropped out in 2014, and in the same year, David Fincher and Rooney Mara were in talks to direct and star in the film, respectively. In July 2015, it was reported that Francis Lawrence was in talks to direct the film. In September 2015, Jennifer Lawrence was announced in the lead role with Francis Lawrence as the director. See more »

 Thanks for reading and have fun watching movies.
Read more »
Labels: ,

PREY AT NIGHT: THE STRANGER 2 - TRAILER

Posted on January 10, 2018 with No comments

The Strangers: Prey at Night (2018)




A family staying in a secluded mobile home park for the night are visited by three masked psychopaths, to test their every limit.

Director:

Writers:

(original screenplay), (screenplay) | 1 more credit »

Stars:


A family's road trip takes a dangerous turn when they arrive at a secluded mobile home park to stay with some relatives and find it mysteriously deserted. Under the cover of darkness, three masked psychopaths pay them a visit to test the family's every limit as they struggle to survive.

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

9 March 2018 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

The Strangers: Part 2  »

Filming Locations:

 »

Company Credits

Production Co:

 »
Show more on  »

Technical Specs

Color:

Did You Know?

Trivia

Was announced back in 2009. See more »

Connections

Follows The Strangers (2008) See more »

Soundtracks

I Think We're Alone Now
Performed by: Tiffany

Thanks for reading and have fun watching movies.
Read more »
Labels: ,
 
Copyright © 2017. MOVIETOWN
Blogger Templates