When Robert Zemeckis makes a live-action film, you have to pay attention. Following a break of a decade, Zemeckis has made Flight, The Walk, and now returns this summer with two fellow Oscar-winners, Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard, in the World War II espionage thriller Allied. The film will open in theaters on November 23, 2016.
The story of intelligence officer Max Vatan (Brad Pitt), who in 1942 North Africa encounters French Resistance fighter Marianne Beausejour (Marion Cotillard) on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Reunited in London, their relationship is threatened by the extreme pressures of the war.
Each Thursday we look at what is going to be coming out in theaters this weekend, show you the trailers for the big releases, predict the box office winner and just generally give you enough of a carrot to pull you through the rest of the work week. June 10th brings three new heavyweights to the party guaranteeing that at least one of them will bomb and that the Turtles reign atop the box office will be very short. The Conjuring 2 has the reviews, though lower that the original, while Now You See Me: The Second Act and Warcraft…..do not. Still, it’s a diverse group if you have cabin fever and want to get out there. Continue reading In Theaters This Week (6/10/2016) – The Conjuring 2, Now You See Me 2, and Warcraft→
Cloverfield was a brilliant marketing campaign. Much like it’s follow-up, 10 Cloverfield Lane, which opens Friday, Cloverfield appeared out of nowhere from the black hole of secrecy that JJ Abrams apparently owns a timeshare in. The concept is great. It’s basically experiencing a Godzilla attack from the standpoint of the tiny ant people running out of its way. It uses the “found footage” style of filming, but the conceit is that the attack happened at a party where they were filming it so it largely works.
I say “largely” because it doesn’t quite get pulled off, but it’s still a lot of fun and I enjoyed it. My favorite moment is at the beginning of the attack when the stakes are announced by Lady Liberty’s head bouncing down the street toward our group of survivors. Statement made. JJ Abrams produced it, Matt Reeves directed it and went on to do Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and writer Drew Goddard is the showrunner on Daredevil. 10 Cloverfield Lane looks like a completely different film and Abrams has already said we won’t see the monster, but I’m intrigued to visit this world again.
One year after outwitting the FBI and winning the public’s adulation with their Robin Hood-style magic spectacles, The Four Horsemen resurface for a comeback performance in hopes of exposing the unethical practices of a tech magnate. The man behind their vanishing act is none other than Walter Mabry, a tech prodigy who threatens the Horsemen into pulling off their most impossible heist yet. Their only hope is to perform one last unprecedented stunt to clear their names and reveal the mastermind behind it all.
Now You See Me got mixed reviews, but, I thought it was absolutely brilliant fun. They left the end of the first movie open for the possibility of more and more is coming in summer 2016. The thing that stands out to me is that the female leads from the first film, Isla Fisher and Melanie Laurent, are not returning for the sequel. Fisher was 1/4 of the Four Horsemen and her place appears to be taken by Lizzy Caplan. It does look like Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine are returning, and I hope this ends up being as much of a blast as the first. Now You See Me: The Second Act opens June 10, 2016.
I have never liked Katy Perry than I have after watching this film.
We’ll get back to that, but before discussing The Interview as a film, it’s impossible to ignore the unprecedented uproar surrounding its release. Sony pulled the film from its Christmas Day release after hackers produced “evidence” that North Korea was ready to literally go to war over the film. After a freedom-of-speech backlash in the States, Sony did an about-face and didn’t just release The Interview: it saturated the world with the film. It’s in theaters and available via nearly any online video provider you can name. It’s already Sony’s top online film ever. But is it any good? I can honestly say that I laughed more during The Interview than I have in the past four months combined. It’s absurdist, incendiary political satire of an unprecedented nature that’s not only a subversively gleeful mockery of the world’s most secretive nation and the funniest comedy of 2014. Continue reading Movie Review: The Interview (2014) *MAJOR SPOILERS*→
Killing Time 