In 2011 Gareth Evans present us a very impressive action/martial arts film: ‘The Raid: Redemption‘ or ‘Serbuan Maut’ (original title). An Indonesian production it features the impressive acting and fighting skills of Iko Uwais, who joins the family of Jackie Chan’s, Jet Li’s, and Tony Jaa’s. The original film is about a S.W.A.T. team who becomes trapped in a tenement run by a ruthless mobster and his army of killers and thugs. The sequel, takes place “immediately following the events of the original, ‘The Raid 2′ tracks Officer Rama as he is pressured to join an anti-corruption task force to guarantee protection for his wife and child. His mission is to get close to a new mob boss, Bangun, by befriending his incarcerated son, Uco. Rama must hunt for information linking Bangun with corruption in the Jakarta Police Department while pursuing a dangerous and personal vendetta that threatens to consume him and bring his mission-and the organized crime syndicate-down around him” (source: Sundance Festival). I am pretty sure, in a very near future, we will see the talented Evans and Uwais working on US productions.

Check out the smashing trailer and comment what you think.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg6IiGjJyM4

Comic book fans out there probably know this, but for those who do not, I will like to clarify that Pietro Maximoff or Quicksilver character is going to appear in two different films. First, in Josh Whedon’s ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron‘ (2015) produced by Marvel Studios, and played by Aaron Talyor-Johnson. The second one is Bryan Singer’s ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past‘ (2014) produced by Twentieth Century Fox. Today, Fox published a picture of Quicksilver played by Even Peters, who like Taylor-Johnson, appeared in ‘Kick-Ass’. I think his look is dated and a silly. Hopefully, the pic doesn’t do justice to the character design. I don’t think Bryan Singer would approve this. What do you think? 

Matt Reeves definitely knows how to direct and write spectacular movies, just rent ‘Cloverfield’ and ‘Let Me In’ to find out what I am talking about. Probably he is doing something right with the upcoming ’Dawn of the Planet of the Apes‘ film, not only the trailer is impressive, but the executives at Fox (according to Deadline) just signed him to direct and co-wite the third installment.

Check the cool Caesar character poster as well as the trailer. Are you as interested as I am?

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes stars Gary Oldman, Andy Serkis, Keri Russell, and Judy Greer. Opens nationwide July 11th, 2014.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0wP5ZkaUGg

Domestic vs. Worldwide Gross (source: box office mojo)

Overall:

2013 was a profitable year for superheroes. Man of Steel, Thor: The Dark World and Iron Man 3 sizzled on screen, grossing almost 2.7 billion dollars combined. This year, also brought us interesting surprises, such as the fantastic ‘Gravity’. It was a humongous success among critics and moviegoers alike. Speaking of ‘Gravity’, Sandra Bullock, boy did she shined this year. With ‘Gravity’ and ‘The Heat’ she proved she can make us cry and laugh. Of course, she had the help of the excellent Mellissa McCarthy.

Which studio won?

Warner Brothers and Disney. WB worldwide revenue was $5.04 billion while Disney’s was $4.73 million.

Small budget movies that made big bucks.

The Conjuring: $20 million budget - $318,000,141 worldwide
Mama: $15 million budget – $146 million worldwide
Evil Dead: $17 million budget – $97.5 million worldwide
A Haunted House: $2.5 million budget, $40 million worldwide
The Purge: $3 million budget, $81 million worldwide

What do they have in common? Horror and raunchy humor.

He does look Dazed and Confused.

Finally, we got to see a glimpse of Christopher Nolan’s next project ‘Interstellar‘. Although the teaser shows a couple of seconds of the film actual footage, the narration is pretty impressive. The plot is rumored about a ‘group of explorers who make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage. Sounds like another “Inception” trip to me. This time Nolan didn’t pick Leonardo or Bale for the leading male role; instead he picked Matthew McConaughey who just had a superb performance in “The Dallas Buyers Club”.

Watch the trailer and comment below or tweet us here.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WzHXI5HizQ

Sony Pictures and Columbia Pictures released the second ‘The Amazing Spiderman 2′ trailer. It features more details of the film’s villains: Green Goblin, Electro, and The Rhino. Also, it provides us a glimpse of Spiderman’s relationship with his loves ones; such as Aunt May and Gwen Stacy, who accidentally calls “Peter” to Spiderman while he is wearing the suit. So far, the film seems to promise, it’s a shame “The Rhino” is more like a human tank, and not an organic creature. Maybe Marvel had bad experiences with “The Lizard” and “Abomination” (‘Hulk’).

The film stars Andrew Garfield (Peter Parker/Spider-Man), Jamie Foxx (Max Dillon/Electro), Emma Stone (Gwen Stacy), Martin Sheen (Uncle Ben), Sally Field (Aunt May), Paul Giamatti (The Rhino), Dane DeHaan (Harry Osborn), Chris Cooper (Norman Osborn/The Green Goblin?). Marc Webb returns as the film director and this time Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, wrote the script.

Enjoy the trailer below and don’t forget to write any comments or Tweet us 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXhv7CoLAOo

 

It seems mega robot Ultron (James Spader) will be outnumbered in the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron. Specially now that Nick Fury’s list is bigger than ever. First, we have the Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) who will welcome new the members Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and sister Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen).

Today Marvel announced another one: and now War Machine (Don Cheadle). Joss Whedon made a wise choice. Not only because Don in a great actor, but War Machine and Iron Man make a great duo, hopefully Hulk doesn’t get jealous. I wonder if Joss Whedon is going to bring additional villains. So far, the details of the movie plot have not been published.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced this morning the nominees for the 2014 Golden Globe Awards. ’12 Years a Slave’ and the ‘American Hustle’ lead the 71st annual Golden Globes with seven nominations each.

Best Motion Picture, Drama:

- 12 Years a Slave

- Captain Phillips

- Gravity

- Philomena

- Rush

The big surprise here is Ron Howard’s racing drama “Rush’, which tank at the box-office, but received decent critic reviews. 

Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy:

- American Hustle

- Her

- Inside Lewin

- Nebraska

- Wolf of Wall Street

I have not seen ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ but it doesn’t look like a comedy film.

Best Director:

Alfonso Cuarón – Gravity

Paul Greengrass – Captain Phillips

Steve McQueen – 12 Years a Slave

Alexander Payne – Nebraska

David O. Russell – American Hustle

Best Actress, Motion Picture Drama

Cate Blanchett – Blue Jasmine

Sandra Bullock – Gravity

Judy Dench – Philomena

Emma Thompson -Saving Mr. Banks

Kate Winslet – Labor Day

Best Actor, Drama

Chiwetel Ejiofor – 12 years a Slave

Idris Elba – Mandela

Tom Hanks – Captain Phillips

Matthew McConaughey -Dallas Buyers Club

Robert Redford – All is Lost

Best Actor, Musical or Comedy:

Christian Bale – American Hustle

Bruce Dern – Nebraska

Leonardo DiCaprio – The Wolf of Wall Street

Oscar Isaac – Inside Llewyn Davis

Joaquin Phoenix – Her

Best Actress, Motion Musical or Comedy

Amy Adams – American Hustle

Julie Delpy – Before Midnight

Greta Gerwig – Frances Ha

Julia Louis-Dreyfus – Enough Said

Meryl Streep – August: Osage County

Best Supporting Actress:

Sally Hawkins -Blue Jasmine

Jennifer Lawrence -American Hustle

Lupita Nyong’o – 12 Years a Slave

Julia Roberts -August: Osage County

June Squibb – Nebraska

Best Supporting Actor:

Barkhad Abdi – Captain Phillips

Daniel Bruhl – Rush

Bradley Cooper – American Hustle

Michael Fassbender – 12 Years a Slave

Jared Leto – Dallas Buyers Club

Best Screenplay:

Spike Jonze -Her

Bob Nelson -Nebraska

Jeff Pope Steve – Philomena

John Ridley -12 Years a Slave

David O. Russell and Eric Singer Warren – American Hustle

Best Original Song – Motion Picture

“Atlas” by Chris Martin, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

“Let It Go,” Frozen

“Ordinary Love” by U2, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

“Please Mr. Kennedy” by Ed Rush, T-Bone, Justin Timberlake, Inside Llewyn Davis

“Sweeter than Fiction” by Taylor Swift, One Chance

Best Original Score – Motion Picture

All Is Lost

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom Gravity

The Book Thief

12 Years a Slave

Best Animated Feature: The Croods

Despicable Me 2

Frozen

Best Foreign Language Film:

Blue Is The Warmest Color (France)

The Great Beauty (Italy) The Hunt (Denmark)

The Past (Iran)

The Wind Rises (Japan)

The 71st Golden Globes ceremony will be held on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2014. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will co-host the Golden Globes awards. 

This is no risky business

It seems films heroes have the “Cassandra complex’. What do I mean by this? They can predict an apocalyptic future, and because no one listens, they suffer. Remember Bruce Willis in “12 Monkeys”? Now it is for Tom Cruise. In ‘Edge of Tomorrow‘ he pays Lt. Col. Bill Cage. A one-man-army who teams up with a special forces soldier Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) to fight hostile aliens known as the Mimics. Problem is Lt. Cage continually returning to a fatal battle through a time loop, much like Bill Murray in ‘Groundhog Day’.

‘Edge of Tomorrow’ also co-stars Lara Pulver, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Jeremy Piven, Bill Paxton and Charlotte Riley, and it is directed by Doug Liman. 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLe_qO4AE-M

JUAN ANTONIO BAYONA

Paramount Pictures and Plan B Productions (Brad Pitt’s production company) have decided to battle zombies one more time in ‘World War Z 2′.  Juan Antonio Bayona (‘The Impossible’ and ‘The Orphanage’) will direct the film. The original one made over $540 worldwide. Brad Pitt is expected to star.

Let’s not forget ‘World War Z’ is based on ‘World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War‘ a 2006 apocalyptic horror novel by Max Brooks. It is a follow-up to his 2003 satirical survival manual, ‘The Zombie Survival Guide‘. Whether Max will be involved it has not been announced.