Movie Review Doctor Strange

Movie Review, Doctor Strange

There are certainly shades of Iron Man and Thor, but what the film brings to the table to balance out its familiar elements is some of the most bombastic, exciting and beautiful action sequences we've seen in modern blockbusters, as well as the firm establishment of a legitimately exciting new hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The Major Role Johnny Depp May Be Playing In The Fantastic Beasts Movies

The Major Role Johnny Depp May Be Playing In The Fantastic Beasts Movies

Following news that Johnny Depp has joined the cast of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them 2 comes reports of who the actor might be playing in the Harry Potter-adjacent sequel. There were two roles Harry Potter fans surely speculated might be possibilities for the actor, and rumor has it, Depp is lined up for one of them.

Hypable provided the update, citing a source involved with the film who says that Johnny Depp will play none other than dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald.

If that's true, that's massive. And a bit surprising, given that Johnny Depp is an American actor, and Gellert Grindelwald is not, to our knowledge, an American wizard. Nevertheless, at 50-something, Depp does fall close enough to the age bracket of Gellert Grindelwald, who would be somewhere in his 40s around the time of Newt Scamander's trip to New York (in the 1920s.)

‘Michael Moore in TrumpLand’ Isn’t About Donald Trump

Review: ‘Michael Moore in TrumpLand’ Isn’t About Donald Trump

The filmmaker in a still image from “Michael Moore in TrumpLand,” released in a surprise sneak preview Tuesday night in Manhattan. Credit Dog Eat Dog Films

If the news that the documentarian Michael Moore was releasing a surprise film called “Michael Moore in TrumpLand” had you expecting a rollicking, full-force attack on Donald J. Trump, prepare to be disappointed. Mr. Moore, one of filmmaking’s best-known provocateurs, seems to be decidedly uninterested in provoking anyone with this new offering, which had its hastily arranged premiere Tuesday night at the IFC Center in Greenwich Village. The film is not an attack on Mr. Trump, but instead a paean to his opponent in the presidential contest, Hillary Clinton.

Movie Review, A Dark Song

Movie Review: The Black Magic Movie A Dark Song Flips Horror Expectations on Their Head

A Dark Song

A Dark Song is about a woman who recruits a man to help her complete a very long and complicated ritual of black magic. If done successfully, she’ll get to right a terrible wrong from her past. If mistakes are made, the ritual may make her accessible to demons from all eternity. It’s quite the gamble.

Written and directed by Liam Gavin (in his feature debut), A Dark Song takes this story deadly seriously. Every little detail seems so important that very quickly the audience is just as invested as the characters are in what they’re trying to accomplish. We dive deep into the sacrifices the characters need to make, chants they need to say, movements performed, and so much more. The movie almost feels like a how-to for this procedure, which is pretty unique for what basically should feel like a haunted house movie. Most movies would do the ritual in a montage leading up to the big reveal. In A Dark Song, the montage is the whole movie.

Because the characters, and the audience, are expecting bad things to start to happen, once they do, our reaction is quite unexpected. Their hard work has paid off and we’re actually excited. That feeling, however, subverts the expectations of a horror movie in an unsettling way. Watching a movie like this, we expect to be terrified. We expect to see the characters terrified. But A Dark Song has made it so clear what it wants to happen, and done it with such beautiful precision, that it’s not that scary. Which at first feels like a problem: it’s a horror movie that isn’t quite scary. But the more you think about it, the fact it’s a horror movie that makes you accept, anticipate and revere these evil entities is almost more impressive than not having a guttural reaction. Once things start to go down, not only are you curious about how right or wrong it can go, you’re happy all the hard work paid off.

Catherine Walker and Steve Oram are the man and woman in the film, and each goes to some deep, dark, disturbing places. Walker plays her role with the kind of determination that makes it impossible to take your eyes off her. Oram gives his character an ambiguity that almost makes it feel like he’s a scam artist. Like he’s just using this woman. And that only adds another layer of complexity to Gavin’s already intricate work.

None of this would work, either, if A Dark Song didn’t look or sound a specific way. It has to be believable visually, but creepy musically, just to give us both sides to struggle with. The film is beautifully shot and composed by Cathal Watters and the music in particular, by Ray Harman, really chomps at your guts with bold, off-putting sounds.

There’s no doubt the attention to detail and methodical pacing of A Dark Song aren’t for everyone. This isn’t some kind of haunted house, roller coaster ride. And the fact it’s so untraditional in its treatment of the supernatural that it comes as a shock to the senses. We want to be scared, not challenged emotionally. But a film that can take something familiar and do something new and different with it is always welcome. A Dark Song is an incredibly astute and confident debut film from Gavin that’s sure to spark conversation.




source: io9.gizmodo.com

‘Bad Moms,’ a Comedy of Outrage Pegged to Smother Mothers

Review: ‘Bad Moms,’ a Comedy of Outrage Pegged to Smother Mothers

From left, Annie Mumolo, Jada Pinkett Smith and Christina Applegate in “Bad Moms.” Credit Michele K. Short

Are women trending? I guess they are! Suddenly, they seem to be just everywhere, onscreen and offscreen, in comic-book flicks, in childhood-destroying comedies and even in the presidential race. The latest big-screen evidence that women are hot (kind of), and not simply in a frat-boy way, is “Bad Moms,” a funny, giddy, sentimental laugh-in from Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, who wrote the 2009 hit comedy “The Hangover.” That movie pretty much ignored the ladies but made enough money to spawn another smash and a second, less successful sequel that may have killed off the franchise.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: First review

Effects-stuffed stage sequel explores the past and future of The Boy Who Lived

“Why is everybody staring at us?” asks young Albus Potter nervously.

Better get used to it, kid.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has pulled off a transfiguration challenge worthy of Professor McGonagall: Converting the visually arresting world of Harry Potter into stage play. Currently in previews and officially opening July 30 in London’s West End, Cursed Child goes far beyond dutiful brand extension with an entirely original and hugely ambitious sequel to the Potter books, presented in two parts and nearly five hours long. Author J.K. Rowling, working with London theatre veterans Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, have delivered a production that’s as spectacular as it is ambitious, stuffed with special effects and twists that had a preview audience gasping, Cursed Child is a story that doesn’t play it safe with the Potter canon and will change how fans see certain favorite characters forever.

How The Dark Tower movie connects to Stephen King's other books

How The Dark Tower movie
connects to Stephen King's other books

The Dark Tower

Take a look at any stack of Stephen King novels, and what you’re really looking at are the chapters in one big story. At the center stands his epic – The Dark Tower, which binds them all together.

All of his worlds are one, but they’re simply different levels of the Tower, a stack of dimensions that came to symbolize the author’s imagination – or his mile-high bibliography.

“You know, everything I’ve done kind of reflects back to The Dark Tower books,” King says, although that wasn’t exactly intentional.

“Listen man, I’m the kind of writer that doesn’t know jack sh– about anything,” he says. “I’m totally intuitive about this. I don’t plot ahead, I don’t outline, and when you start to see those connections you embrace them. You don’t push them away, you don’t say ‘Oh no, that can’t be.’”

Unless… you’re making a movie and don’t have the screen rights. Then you have to count on the audience recognizing the covert connections.

There are countless ways his novels thread together, and you can explore them all on Uncle Steve’s website.

Below are King’s own thoughts on the unspoken ways The Dark Tower movie links to his other tales, ranked from “definite” to “ooookay, sure”:

Box Office: 'Secret Life of Pets'

Box Office: 'Secret Life of Pets' Heading for $90 Million-Plus Debut

Another animated film about animals is basking in the warm summer glow with Secret Life of Pets off to a strong start in its domestic debut. The Illumination Entertainment and Universal film is tracking to earn in the mid to high $30 million range on Friday on its way to a $90 million-plus debut.

Meanwhile, this weekend’s other new offering, Fox’s raunchy comedy Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, should earn around $6 million Friday (including $1.6 million from Thursday night) for a debut in the $13 million to $15 million range.

The Secret Life of Pets earned a strong $5.3 million in late night shows Thursday for Illumination Entertainment's second best opening behind Minions ($6.24M) and ahead of Despicable Me 2 ($4.7M) and Despicable Me ($590K). Minions opened to $115.7 million last July.

The film will earn enough to unseat the other animated film, holdover Finding Dory, from the No. 1 spot for the weekend. Disney and Pixar's hit has taken in more than $400 million domestically after three weekends in theaters, and is likely to grab another $20 million-plus this weekend.

Secret Life of Pets, which played in select theaters Thursday night before opening everywhere Friday (it will screen in roughly 4,300 theaters), reveals what pets do after their human friends leave the house. The voice cast includes Louis C.K., Eric Stonestreet and Kevin Hart (it's the first time the three have worked on an animated movie), Jenny Slate, Ellie Kemper, Lake Bell, Dana Carvey, Hannibal Buress, Bobby Moynihan, Steve Coogan and Albert Brooks. Chris Rinaud (Despicable Me, Despicable Me 2) directed.

The weekend's other new nationwide entry is Fox and Chernin Entertainment's R-rated comedy Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, starring Zac Efron and Adam Devine.

Directed by Jake Szymanski, Mike and Dave follows to debauched brothers who are tasked with finding respectable dates for their sister's wedding. They put an ad on Craigslist, and end up taking two best friends (Anna Kendrick and Aubrey Plaza) who are actually bigger troublemakers than they are.

source: hollywoodreporter

'Legend Of Tarzan' Snags Surprisingly Mighty $14M Friday

Box Office: 'Legend Of Tarzan' Snags Surprisingly Mighty $14M Friday

The Legend of Tarzan

Budgets matter. That’s one lesson for The Legend of Tarzan this weekend. The good news is that the Warner Bros./Time Warner Inc./Village Roadshow production opened a bit better than I was expecting over this holiday weekend. The film earned $14.04 million on its first day, including $2.55m in Thursday previews and $1.4m in IMAX alone. That means we’re probably looking at a Fri-Sun total of around $36m and a Fri-Mon cume of around $43m.

Considering how little heat the film had going into the weekend, and how bad the reviews turned out to be, that’s a genuinely pleasant surprise and a marketing triumph. If this David Yates film had cost $120 million to produce instead of $180m, I might be calling for a minor celebration. But that insane $180m budget means that Warner and friends are still betting on massive overseas interest. They may get it, but that’s a “wait and see” proposition.

It’s as I always say, don’t spend Return of the King money on Fellowship of the Ring. $180 million is what you spend on The Return of Tarzan after The Legend of Tarzan snags $600m worldwide. We’ve seen this play out so many times before, with John Carter, The Lone Ranger, Pan, Robin Hood, and probably with next year’s Knights of the Round Table: King Arthur, which stars box office dynamo Charlie Hunnam.

The film stars Alexander Skarsgård as the title character, Samuel L. Jackson as George Washington Williams (who deserves his own spin-off movie), Christoph Waltz as the villain, and Margot Robbie as Jane (who shockingly spends 75% of the film as a hostage). So once again we have a situation where an untested (white) male lead is tasked with headlining a would-be blockbuster franchise based on a known but not terribly beloved character with a budget so high that it has to capture the zeitgeist just to break even.

So the fact that this one is opening a bit better than expected means that it will at least make more than the likes of Pan or The Lone Ranger in America, not that it’s a hit quite yet. To be fair, the film may play a little better simply because it’s a “new” property in a summer of sequels. We haven’t had a live-action Tarzan movie since 1998 (the little-seen Casper Van Dien flop Tarzan and the Lost City) and then Greystoke way back in 1984. That may help King Arthur as well since we haven’t had an outright fanatical Knights of the Round Table movie since Excalibur in 1981.

But just because audiences have heard of your property/character doesn’t mean they crave a feature film/franchise based on said character. Or, at the very least, don’t spend so much on your Tarzan film that you’re still sweating bullets even if it passes $100m domestic. Still, that’s a hell of an opening for a movie most of us wrote off a long time ago.




source: forbes

Review: ‘Independence Day: Resurgence’

Review: ‘Independence Day: Resurgence’ Will Make You Wish Humanity Would Just Give Up

On July 2nd, they arrive. On July 3rd, they strike. On July 4th, we fight back. On June 24th, 2016, we…wish they had won.

In the summer of 1996, Roland Emmerich’s “Independence Day” reinvented the alien invasion genre for the blockbuster era, using newfangled digital technology to make a B-movie big enough to bring the whole world together. Its reputation may be overinflated by millennials who subsist on a steady diet of their own petrified kitsch, but Emmerich’s war of the worlds has nevertheless come to represent a type of full-bodied studio spectacle for which we all ought to be nostalgic. In fact, the self-described “master of disaster” seems really pissed at the people who aren’t. His lazy insult of a sequel — threatened since the day the first movie first cast its long shadow over America’s multiplexes — is ultimately nothing more than a giant middle finger to a generation of ungrateful moviegoers who didn’t appreciate how good they had it: “If you ingrates thought that was bad,” Emmerich cackles from behind the camera, “you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Every generation thinks that things were better in their day, but — if alien invasion movies have taught us anything — it’s that some warning signs shouldn’t be ignored. When considered in respect to the original, “Independence Day: Resurgence” is an immaculate case study in how far blockbusters have fallen. Where “Independence Day” had a wide cast of charismatic actors, “Resurgence” plugs in their Costco brand generic counterparts. Where “Independence Day” exhibited the patience of classic studio filmmaking, crescendoing to the alien attack by wracking up the tension for more than an hour, “Resurgence” scrambles for its money shots as though it’s afraid that audiences might click away to something more interesting. Where “Independence Day” was written with the gusto of a game-changer and the scale of an extinction-level event, “Resurgence” unfolds with the cynical grace of a cash-grab and the stakes of a shareholders meeting.

The first movie showed the world something it had never seen before; this sequel shows the world something we hope to never see again. As satellite technician David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum, bless his heart) ominously intones before the aliens drop Singapore onto London: “What goes up must come down.”

Except, that’s not true, because one of the first things we learn in the movie (via the blunt force trauma of embarrassingly transparent exposition) is that gravity no longer applies in a world graced with alien technology. When the slimy invaders retreated back into space after the events of the previous film, they left behind the tools required for humans to rebuild their planet and create a defense base on the moon. But that knowledge has come at a cost: Those who survived close encounters with the extraterrestrials are plagued by the same terrifying nightmare, and all of their children have matured into adults with no discernible personalities whatsoever (that’s an observation, not a plot point).

While President Whitmore (Bill Pullman, delegating 95% of his performance to his beard) obsessively draws a symbol that looks like the power button of a laptop, his grown daughter Patricia (“It Follows” star Maika Monroe, controversially replacing Mae Whitman) stands behind him and looks conventionally attractive. We’re told that fight pilot Steven Hiller (Will Smith) died in a training mission between films (sure, why not), but don’t worry because his step-son, Dylan — a child in the first film, now an adult played by Jessie T. Usher — has replaced him in the cockpit.

“Independence Day: Resurgence”

A quick note about Dylan Hiller: In a movie featuring spaceships the size of the Atlantic Ocean, his truly staggering dullness might be the most unrealistic detail — the character displays less charm over the course of these two hours than Will Smith’s actual son packs into his average tweet. Say what you will about Big Willie’s recent career moves, but his absence leaves this movie with a cratering hole of charisma. Big movies need big personalities to power them, and watching Usher and Hemsworth try to carry a large chunk of this studio tentpole is like watching someone try to fuel a race car with two AA batteries. There’s been a lot of talk about how brands are the new celebrities, but “Resurgence” is gallingly dull proof that the star system was a galaxy worth saving.

We never learn who begat renegade pilot Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth), but we can only assume that his parents were an Abercrombie catalogue and an errant piece of plywood that Emmerich found on set.

Anyway, some ominous crap happens, all of which suggests that the two decades between the two “Independence Day” movies was a lot more interesting than what happens in this misbegotten sequel (there’s a strong “District 9” vibe to how human civilization — and one African tribe in particular — has engaged with the aliens who were left stranded on our planet, but the film brushes right over it). And then, 20 years to the day since the first wave arrived (what are the odds!), the invaders return with a vengeance.

When the carnage starts, it feels like the work of a guy who has destroyed the world so many times that he’s completely lost sight of how insane it would be to watch the apocalypse firsthand. Never in the history of cinema has global annihilation ever felt so weightless and routine — one established character dies in the background of a wide-shot during the first act, but Emmerich cuts away with such a hilariously pronounced degree of indifference that the moment bypasses “cold” and moves straight on to “rude.” Special effects have emptied filmmakers of their empathy, so inured to leveling Earth’s cities that they’ve forgotten what carnage really feels like. Dr. Manhattan may have evolved into a God, but he sure would have been a terrible director.

Only in its craziest, chintziest moments does “Resurgence” recapture the B-movie spark that made the original so much fun. Without spoiling the story’s only unpredictable digressions (this subplot is hatched very early on), it can be said that humans are confronted with a second extraterrestrial force in this film. And it. Is. Hilarious. A mysterious space MacGuffin that feels as though it was beamed directly from an episode of “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” this nameless white sphere exists for no other reason than to map a broader Independence Day Cinematic Universe.

But the corporate transparency of its purpose is completely eclipsed by the goofiness of its role in the plot, and the breathtakingly stupid dialogue it inspires. It’s also worth noting that the fate of the (newly rebuilt White House) results in a sight gag that’s worthy of Pixar. Twenty years and $200 million in the making, and that’s what we’re left with.

That, and a valuable lesson that you can read between the lines: Nostalgia is a powerful thing, but just because you ache for the past doesn’t mean that the present isn’t significantly worse.

Grade: D-
“Independence Day: Resurgence” is now playing in theaters across this doomed planet.

source: indiewire

Box-Office Preview: 'Finding Dory' Set to Swim Past $100M in U.S. Bow

'Finding Dory' Set to Swim Past $100M in U.S. Bow.

Finding Dory Snap.

More than two decades after Finding Nemo won over audiences around the globe, Pixar and Disney's sequel Finding Dory swims into theaters this weekend with high hopes of energizing the summer box office.

If prerelease tracking is right, the sequel could debut to as much as $120 million in North America, marking an all-time best for Pixar in topping the $110.3 million debut of Toy Story 3 in summer 2010, not accounting for inflation.

To date, DreamWorks Animation's Shrek the Third (2007) holds the crown for the top animated opening of all time with $121.6 million, followed by Illumination Entertainment's Minions (2015) with $115.7 million.

Finding Nemo director Andrew Stanton returned to helm Finding Dory alongside co-director Angus MacLane. Ellen DeGeneres also returned to voice the title role of Dory alongside Finding Nemo's Albert Brooks. This time out, Hayden Rolence voices the character Nemo.

The sequel is set six months after the events of the first pic, and focuses on Dory's attempts to reunite with her family even as she battles an endless cycle of amnesia. Accompanied by Nemo and Marlin (Brooks), Dory arrives at the Monterey Marine Life Institute, where she engages with new friends, including a white beluga whale named Destiny (Ty Burrell), a white shark (Kaitlin Olson) and a cranky octopus (Ed O'Neill).

Idris Elba, Diane Keaton, Dominic West, Kate McKinnon, Bill Hader and Sigourney Weaver round out the voice cast.

The weekend's other new offering, Central Intelligence, teams Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart for the first time on the big screen. Tracking shows the action-comedy opening in the $30 million range, in line with last summer's Spy, the action-comedy starring Melissa McCarthy, Jason Statham and Jude Law.

Warner Bros. and Universal teamed on Central Intelligence, which cost roughly $40 million to produce. Box-office analysts say they wouldn't be surprised if the film comes in ahead of expectations, considering the popularity of its two leading stars.

In the pic, directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, Johnson plays a CIA agent and one-time teenage geek returning home for his high-school reunion, where he enlists the aid of a former classmate (Hart) and most popular guy in high school who is now a boring accountant. Amy Ryan and Aaron Paul co-star.

source: .hollywoodreporter

‘The Conjuring 2′ Is No. 1 at the Box Office This Weekend

‘The Conjuring 2′ Is No. 1 at the Box Office This Weekend

The horror sequel, about a pair of paranormal-activity investigators, grossed $40 million

From left: Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga in 'The Conjuring 2' PHOTO: NEW LINE CINEMA/COURTESY EVERETT /EVERETT COLLECTION

“The Conjuring 2,” the horror sequel about a pair of paranormal-activity investigators, grossed an impressive $40 million in first place — on par with the 2013 debut of the original film. The original “Conjuring” ended up grossing $137 million, and its sequel appears likely to break the string of disappointing sequels from Hollywood this summer that has included “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows” and “Alice Through the Looking Glass.”

“Warcraft,” based on the hugely popular video game series, disappointed in second place with $24.4 million — a paltry showing for a movie that cost about $160 million to make. But the movie has been setting records in China, where it grossed more than $90 million in its first two days of release.

“Now You See Me 2,” starring Jesse Eisenberg and Lizzy Caplan as members of a group of conniving magicians, followed in third place with $23 million. That’s down about $6 million from the original film’s debut.

The first “Now You See Me” kept pulling in audiences in the weeks after its release and eventually hit a domestic gross of $117.7 million; whether the sequel can do the same will be determined in the weeks to come.

Though none of the new releases is a hit with critics, moviegoers seemed to like them. Opening-weekend audiences gave “The Conjuring 2″ and “Now You See Me 2″ each an “A-” grade, according to the CinemaScore market-research firm. “Warcraft” received a “B+.”

source: http://blogs.wsj.com

Warcraft

Warcraft Is Ridiculous, But Paula Patton Is Not

Warcraft

The true horror of this film is that it features a roster of actors who shouldn’t have to resort to this sort of thing

Despite what you may have heard, Warcraft—a movie based on the staggeringly popular series of video games—is neither the worst movie ever made nor the greatest. Its director, Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code), actually knows what he’s doing, and the story hangs together surprisingly well, considering that the movie’s official synopsis opens with “The peaceful realm of Azeroth stands on the brink of war as its civilization faces a fearsome race of invaders” and ends with “From opposing sides, two heroes are set on a collision course that will decide the fate of their family, their people, and their home.” You try making a movie out of that while keeping a straight face.
Still, there are a few things in Warcraft to enjoy, at least in a pointing-and-grunting sort of way: Women characters flounce around in abbreviated animal-skin outfits almost glammed up enough to look at home Roxy Music album cover. The Azerothians, if that’s what you call them, strut around in silly but not-wholly unattractive medieval-faire garb, while the heavily CGI-enhanced Orcs—those would be the invaders, the most memorable of whom is Toby Kebbell, as the principled warrior Durotan—are bulked-up in a repulsively fascinating way. They stomp around on their heavy, beefy feet, looking perpetually a bit forlorn and perplexed, thanks to the specific dental characteristic they all share: underbite fangs.
Still, the Orcs aren’t a wholly uncivilized people. Their big problem is that they’ve come under the rule of a despot, which is why they’re on the rampage in the first place. Left to their own devices, they have some intricate societal rules, and they’re affectionate toward their children. That doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement: They show a fondness for over-accessorizing that would make even Iris Apfel blanch. Fave style accents include multiple facial piercings, necklaces made of bones and animal teeth, and hippie braids threaded through beads. Apparently, they’ve never heard of Coco Chanel’s apocryphal style rule: “Look in the mirror before you leave the house and remove one accessory.” Or even just: “Elegance is refusal.”
Anyway, that kind of visual insanity—plus a few crazy battle sequences—are the things that make Warcraft almost worth watching, if you still find yourself at loose ends after you’ve given the dog a bath, organized 10 years’ worth of tax returns and completely moth-proofed your closet. The true horror of Warcraft is that it features a roster of actors who shouldn’t have to resort to this sort of thing. In China, the film made $45 million on its opening day, so anybody who gets a cut of international box office profits will be laughing all the way to the bank. Even so—what is Dominic Cooper, perfectly fine in pictures like The Duchess, An Education and The History Boys, doing shambling about in sub-King Arthur gear? Seeing Ben Foster playing a magickal Merlyn-Gandalf hybrid (who isn’t even, by the way, enough of either) is dispiriting. The Ethiopian-born actress Ruth Negga plays a regal queen here, and she escapes with her dignity intact. Negga is so superb in Jeff Nichols’ Civil Rights drama Loving, to be released later this year, that she may just win an Oscar—unscathed, she will leave Warcraft behind her.
But Paula Patton, as a half-human, half-Orc warrior woman Garona, deserves so much better. Patton has one of the biggest roles in Warcraft, and is, hands down, the chief reason to bother with it—she gives a real performance, dusted with subtleties that are pretty much wasted in this otherwise big, dumb, Jethro Bodine-scaled spectacle. Patton has been terrific in some underappreciated pictures, like the 2008 Outkast musical Idlewild (a modern classic that will someday get its due), and she’s given sturdy, appealing performances in movies like Brad Bird’s Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol and Tony Scott’s Déjà Vu. In Warcraft, she can barely deliver her lines—her prosthetic underfangs keep jabbing at her upper lip, giving her a slight lisp. By the end of Warcraft, she’s the only character who makes you wonder: What will she do next? For this, she deserves combat pay.


source: Time

'Conjuring 2' is a demonic delight

Review: 'Conjuring 2' is a demonic delight

Vera Farmiga stars as Lorraine Warren in 'The Conjuring 2

When there’s something strange in your neighborhood, who ya gonna call? Ed and Lorraine Warren, obviously.

Played again by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, the real-life 1970s ghostbusters head to the British Isles in the horror sequel The Conjuring 2 (*** out of four; rated R; in theaters Friday). And after a trip to the action-film genre with Furious 7, director James Wan returns to the franchise with a freakier follow-up featuring creepy kids, villains who’ll keep you up at night and camerawork that puts moviegoers in a state of impending dread.

The opening sequence revisits the infamous Amityville haunting in 1976, and after Lorraine encounters a demonic nun during a séance, she proclaims, “This is the closest to hell as I ever want to get.” Well, it gets worse for her and her spouse — a year later, and with Lorraine wanting to pull back from their paranormal activity, they’re called to London to investigate why young 11-year-old Janet Hodgson (Madison Wolfe) suddenly has the voice of a 72-year-old dead guy.

Wan ingeniously utilizes snippets of the children’s ditty This Old Man in the background as struggling single mom Peggy Hodgson (Frances O’Connor) and her young brood are driven mad by beds violently shaking at night, weird shadows coming from the pop-heartthrob posters of yesteryear (one of the girls really digs David Soul), toy fire trucks randomly rolling down the hallway and the beat-up chair that seems to have a mind of its own.

A good bit of dark humor is mined for laughs in these moments, and Wan infuses some sweetness to break up the mood as well. There are some overly hokey elements — Wilson strapping on a guitar to sing Elvis to some English children almost makes it seem like you’re watching Blue Hawaii instead of a Conjuring movie. And at two-plus hours, some of those lighter moments derail the tautness of the storytelling.

Wolfe gives a great and eerie performance as the haunted kid who's either possessed or pulling a hoax. It’s hard not to think of Linda Blair in The Exorcist when it comes to these kinds of roles, but Wolfe does the pea-soup brigade proud.

While Wilson is solid as the good-hearted Ed, Farmiga is Wan’s true standout — her Lorraine really gets put through the wringer as she deals with the constant presence of a terrifying supernatural force, and Farmiga sells every gasp.

Like other masters of horror, your Stephen Kings and John Carpenters, Wan wisely utilizes beloved things and turns them against his players. The aforementioned ghastly nun and a room full of crucifixes turning upside down attack characters’ faith and offer a visceral depiction of good vs. evil.

Also, similar to what he did with the doll Annabelle in 2013's first Conjuring (and the toy's 2014 spinoff movie), the filmmaker introduces an innocent-looking zoetrope, which then spawns the Crooked Man. If that sinister sister doesn’t give you the heebie-jeebies, this wicked stringbean with a ghoulish maw of sharp chompers will.

Wan leans into the real history of the 1977 Enfield poltergeist legend, too, though it’s not like he needs any extra inspiration for his fright fest — when it comes to horror, the man pulls no punches or screams.

source: usatoday

Friday Box Office: 'X-Men: Apocalypse'

Friday Box Office: 'X-Men: Apocalypse' Drops 75%, Tops $100M As 'Alice' Plunges 67%

X-Men: Apocalypse’ image courtesy of 20th Century Fox

X-Men: Apocalypse earned just $6.55 million on its second Friday, down a harsh 75.1% from its opening $26.4m Friday (which included $8.2m in Thursday previews). Yes, we are at the point when films commonly earn more on their Thursday previews than they do on their eighth day of release. But a 75% drop isn’t remotely a franchise-low for this famously un-leggy series. X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: Days of Future Past both opened on Memorial Day and they dropped 77 % ($10.3m) and 73% ($9.4m) on their second Fridays, respectively. And X-Men Origins: Wolverine plunged 75.8% ($8.3m) on its second Friday as well. It also crossed the $100m domestic mark, so there’s that.

More troubling is that it’s close to the same drop with smaller figures overall, and especially disconcerting is that it’s less than the $7.5 million (-64%) second Friday of X-Men: First Class back in 2011 and in 2D. If Apocalypse plays like the last two Memorial Day X-Men movies, it’ll earn around $21-$22 million in weekend two. If it plays like X-Men Origins: Wolverine, it barely gets to $20m on weekend two. So we’re looking at a second-weekend drop of around 66% and a ten-day total of around $117m. It’s still looking like a $156-$167m domestic total.

That’s less than what Deadpool earned in its first week, and may be below the $157 million gross of X-Men and just above the $148m (from 2011 and in 2D) total of X-Men: First Class. but it may be irrelevant if overseas muscle pulls it out of the domestic fire. It will be interesting to see what’s to be done if X-Men basically becomes the comic book superhero franchise equivalent of the Ice Age franchise. That’s not the worst problem to have, but, again… interesting. As for the culprit, it’s less that the film was “rejected” by moviegoers so much that it didn’t make much of a ripple this week. Most of the conversation was about a somewhat grotesque poster/billboard of Jennifer Lawrence being choked by Oscar Isaac (in an otherwise solid campaign), so that’s not exactly a win.

But the other big Memorial Day debut, Alice Through the Looking Glass, has no real hope of rescue. The Walt Disney DIS +0.03% sequel earned $3.155 million yesterday, a 67.5% drop from its opening Friday for a new $43.24m cume. The ill-received (and unrequested) sequel is on is on track to earn $11 million this weekend, a 59% drop from last weekend’s underwhelming $27m Fri-Sun frame. The picture should have a $51m ten-day cume, and it took eight days just to top the $40.8m opening day of Alice in Wonderland. At this rate, the $170m Mia Wasikowska/Johnny Depp/Sasha Baron-Cohen picture will be lucky to top $75m in the states. It’s a real splotch in Disney’s otherwise stellar run, but it’s not one that should be entirely swept under the rug even as they prepare to drown in Finding Dory money.

Sony and Columbia’s The Angry Birds Movie (produced by Rovio, animated by Sony Imageworks) earned $2.6 million on its third Friday of release, a drop of 48% from last Friday. The $73m animated video game adaptation should make around $9.7m on its third weekend (-50%) for an $86m domestic cume. That will put it just past Pokémon: The Movie ($85m) as the third-biggest video game adaptation of all time, just below Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time ($90m). The $131m domestic total of Tomb Raider (back in 2001 and in 2D) may be out of reach. But with around $280m worldwide by the end of tomorrow, it’ll soon pass Resident Evil: Afterlife ($294m) to sit behind only Prince of Persia ($336m) among all video game adaptions. Your move, Warcraft.

source: Forbes

The Rock Movies

The Rock Movies: A List Of Upcoming Films Starring Dwayne Johnson

What’s the next step up from "movie star"? Because that’s where we need to classify Dwayne Johnson. The man isn’t just blowing up at the multiplex. He’s capturing the explosion in a headlock, pile-driving it into the ground, cracking a joke as he does so, then finishing us off with his trademark, 1,000-watt mega-smile. If we’re lucky, he’ll even arch an eyebrow, just to remind us that this is The Rock’s world. We’re only renting space for a limited time.

The Rock has at least four movies heading to theaters in the near future. Beyond that, he has attached his name to various projects, all of which sound like they will keep the one-time wrestler and current big-screen phenom in the blockbuster business for years. Because we know that you love The Rock as much as we love The Rock, we’ve documented the actor’s next films… even the ones that have just been announced and are still wading though different forms of development. Which of these are you most interested in seeing? Yes you can answer "all of them" if you so choose.

Central Intelligence

CIA(Johnson)

Let’s start with the movie that we’ll be able to see next month. From the director of We’re the Millers, Central Intelligence casts The Rock and Kevin Hart as former high-school classmates who reunite years later, with one being in the CIA (Johnson) and the other reluctantly helping him crack a difficult case. Not surprisingly, Rock and Hart seem to have incredible chemistry with each other, and the trailers for Central Intelligence had a ton of authentic laughs… many coming from the Rock shower scene that involves some incredible prosthetics (pictured above).

Release date: June 17

Moana

We won’t see The Rock in Disney’s animated Moana, but we’re bound to hear him when the film opens over the Thanksgiving holiday. Set in the ancient South Pacific world of Oceania, Moana will follow a young woman and skilled navigator who sets sail on a thrilling adventure to find a fabled island. Johnson isn’t voicing Moana. Instead, he’ll lend his pipes to Maui, a demi-god who helps Moana on her journey… especially when she starts to encounter sea creatures and legendary oceanic obstacles.

Release date: November 23

Fast 8

Fast 8, Hoobs

You can’t keep a good franchise down, and so – even though they lost one of their founding fathers in Paul Walker – the eighth Fast & Furious film is expected to race into theaters in 2017, with new locations (New York City and Cuba, according to reports) and a new villain in Charlize Theron. Still, the F&F series is about family, and The Rock has been part of the crew since Fast Five (still the highwater mark, in my opinion, of this wildly entertaining series). What will Hobbs be doing in Fast 8? No clue, but we’re willing to bet it will b bloody, brutal and totally badass.

Release date: April 14, 2017

Baywatch

Baywatch

After pounding bad guys as part of his Fast series, it’s back to the beach for Dwayne Johnson as he heads up a remake of the classic TV show Baywatch. Only, from everything we have been hearing, this one is NOT television friendly. Co-starring Zac Efron, Alexandra Daddario, Priyanka Chopra and several members of the original Baywatch cast, this new comedy is going to be pushing the hard-R rating… which can come from violence (it’s going to have a criminal element to it) but likely will come from the language and humor. So long as it’s funny, and given the Rock’s increasing sense of humor and confidence as an on-screen comedian, we’re feeling optimistic.

Release date: May 19, 2017

Jumanji

JumanJi

This one, all of a sudden, has been on The Rock’s radar. And it feels like it might be happening sooner rather than later (or later than other projects on this list), because casting news broke fairly recently. Johnson has said that his Central Intelligence co-star Kevin Hart would be part of the remake. And Jack Black recently joined the cast. He Rock has even talked about how they have a great tribute to Robin Williams, the original star of Jumanji, planned, so it seems like this one if further along than we thought.

Release date: July 28, 2017

San Andreas 2

San Andreas 2

After Baywatch, we start to get speculative, as nothing on The Rock’s calendar has an actual release date… just a lot of chatter, and updates from the actor’s camp on project possibilities. San Andreas 2 is a no-brainer, as the first movie earned a whopping $473 million in global ticket sales. Rumors at the time of announcement had Dwayne Johnson’s character – an LAFD search-and-rescue helicopter pilot – going up against the Ring of Fire… which means The Rock is going to punch a volcano. No release date yet, but seeing as how Rock loves working with Alexandra Daddario, we think this one’s destined to happen.

Doc Savage

Doc Savage

Shane Black returned to theaters recently with his ‘70s detective noir The Nice Guys, and while he was on the publicity circuit, he talked about projects from his past, and his hopeful future. The writer/director has scripts in motion for The Predator, a reboot of that popular franchise, as well as a stab at Doc Savage, a pulp magazine character. Shortly after that news broke, The Rock teased a collaboration with Black that he would film in 2017. It’s likely Doc Savage, as that story would be about a heroic character who’s damn near perfect in every way… sounds exactly like Dwayne Johnson! Look or more news on this one soon.

The Robert Ludlum Universe

The Robert Ludlum Universe

This one might be the most recent addition to The Rock’s calendar… because the man clearly isn’t satisfied unless he has double-digit projects on his cinematic To-Do list. The late Robert Ludlum wrote thrillers and espionage stories (the Bourne series drew inspiration from Ludlum’s stories), and Dwayne Johnson recently broke the news that he would be backing an adaptation of the author’s The Janson Directive, which would cast The Rock as an ex-Navy SEAL who gets caught up in a far-reaching government conspiracy that has him hunted by assassins from the Consular Operations. Naturally, if this hits, The Rock could have another franchise on his hands. Because the only thing The Rock likes more than kicking ass if having a new franchise to his name.

Journey to the Center of the Earth 3 and 4

Journey to the Center of the Earth 3 and 4

We’re going to combine these last two into one entry, because if they happen, they will be a package deal. Before Dwayne Johnson and his Journey director Brad Peyton turned their attentions to San Andreas, they announced plans to make two more Journey to the Center of the Earth films (meaning, parts 3 and 4). Then again, Journey 2: Mysterious Island came out in 2012, and there hasn’t been much news on new stories since – whereas, as this list proves, The Rock has added 11 other movies to his schedule. These may still happen, but for now, they come with a massive grain of salt.


source: cinema blend

The First Superman: Getting To Know Doc Savage

The First Superman: Getting To Know Doc Savage

Doc Savage

The news that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson will play the role of superhero Doc Savage in a live-action film has got fans of the movie muscleman excited. Yet many of the younger generation are probably wondering who this legendary character is. Heck, even I wasn't too familiar with Doc Savage, other than the fact that there was once a movie released in 1975 and a Batman crossover written by Brian Azzarello.

Yet, as I dove into this character, I found that Doc Savage was extremely popular back in the day and was considered the original Superman. Doc made his debut in 1933, whereas the Man of Steel was originally released by Action Comics in 1938. Created by the trio of Henry W. Ralston, John L. Nanovic and Lester Dent, and first published by Street & Smith in 1933, Clark Savage, Jr., known all over the world as the Man of Bronze, had absolutely no superpowers whatsoever. Yet the man had a particular set of skills that would classify him as the baddest black ops guy ever!

So Who Is Doc Savage?

Doc Savage was an actual doctor as well as a scientist, inventor and explorer. In his origin story, a team of scientists brought together by Doc's father trained Savage's mind and body to near-superhuman abilities from the moment he was born. Savage had above-average strength and a pro-athlete level of endurance. He developed a photographic memory and had extensive knowledge of all the sciences. And he's also a master at hand-to-hand combat.

X-Men: Apocalypse is what happens when a superhero franchise runs out of ideas

X-Men: Apocalypse is what happens when a superhero franchise runs out of ideas

Oscar Isaac as X-Men: Apocalypse's unfortunate title villain.

To really understand X-Men: Apocalypse, you have look back to director Bryan Singer’s first film about the team of superpowered mutants. Released 16 years ago this summer, X-Men was the first fully formed entry in the modern superhero movie canon, and it played a major role in launching the current comic book movie boom.

X-Men succeeded largely on the strength of its faithfulness to the tone and character of the comics. It boasted strong performances in the main roles, particularly from Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart as the leaders of dueling mutant factions, as well as from newcomer Hugh Jackman, who delivered a career-making performance as the grizzled, tri-clawed mutant Wolverine.

Singer’s approach blended cleverly staged comic book action and soap opera-style character drama with an air of cultural inclusivity, casting the mutant heroes as all-purpose social outcasts struggling to gain acceptance in a world that demanded conformity. His 2003 sequel, X2, expanded and improved on these ideas with high-concept action and a deeply political sensibility; it's still one of the high points of superhero filmmaking.

Singer started work on a third X-Men film, but left before production began to direct Superman Returns, an elegant but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to revive the Superman franchise. He then tooled around in Hollywood for a few years, working on films like Valkyrie and Jack the Giant Slayer before returning to the X-Men franchise in 2014 with the widely praised Days of Future Past.

Singer, in other words, has been working on the X-Men franchise for the better part of two decades. And it’s finally starting to show.

Apocalypse is the sixth film in the main franchise and the ninth in the X-Men universe if you count solo outings from Wolverine and Deadpool; it's also the fourth one Singer has directed. And while it’s not quite an awful movie, it is a deeply tired one, in which the kinetic spark and social engagement that animated Singer’s previous entries has been entirely drained, replaced with a glum sense that everyone involved is merely going through their contractually obligated motions.

It’s a movie, then, that should serve as a warning to other filmmakers and studios as they pursue a strategy that bets heavily on superhero movies and other long-running film series: This is what happens when a franchise runs out of ideas.

Apocalypse squanders what should be a very strong cast

Almost every element of Apocalypse feels like a wasted opportunity, but the characters and performances are probably the biggest disappointment. The movie manages to fail almost all of its cast members.

Oscar Isaac plays the title character, the movie’s main villain. He's one of the most promising and appealing young actors in Hollywood today, blessed with the skill to effortlessly switch between moody indie-film character parts and effortlessly charming leading-man roles. And yet Apocalypse manages to make him both uninteresting and faintly ridiculous, dressing him up in goofy purple face paint and piling on prosthetics until he looks like a castoff from a Star Trek fan film. Worst of all, the movie disguises his voice, giving it a deep, computer-generated rumble — he sounds like he’s talking through a 1980s synthesizer.

But maybe that's fitting, since the character — an ancient mutant with vaguely defined, god-like powers and no discernible motivation whatsoever to explain his pursuit of world domination — feels more than a little like a bad prog-rock concept album figure come to life. He’s a cheesy villain, not a relatable character with a reason for his actions.

That’s a big transition from Singer’s previous X-films, which grounded their mutant battles in culturally relevant debates about how outcasts should engage with the rest of society. Most of those debates were housed in the relationship between the leader of the X-Men, Professor X, who argued for an open and productive relationship with human society, and the mutant rebel leader Magneto, who tended to support a more aggressive, oppositional stance against humans.

But in Apocalypse, that conflict is almost entirely absent, and so is the rivalry between Professor X and Magneto that has long served as a backbone for the series. Without it, or anything else to define them, both James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, who have played the two mutant leaders in recent installments of the franchise, end up delivering flat, unconvincing performances.

Just about every player in the movie seems adrift: Returning supporting cast members like Nicholas Hoult and Rose Byrne have almost nothing to do except deliver snippets of exposition, and the slew of new, young heroes are unmemorable at best, grating at worst.

Sophie Turner, for example, appears as a young Jean Grey, a role previously played by Famke Janssen. Turner is usually solid as Sansa Stark on HBO’s Game of Thrones, but here she comes across as both whiny and emotionally blank.

Tye Sheridan, who plays a teenage Scott Summers, seems entirely out of his element, and he has none of the preppy swagger that James Marsden brought to the role in the first three X-Men films. Ben Hardy, Alexandra Shipp, and Lana Condor as Angel, Storm, and Jubilee, meanwhile, fill out what looks to be a new, young team of X-Men, but barely make any impression at all.

The characters' and motives are largely missing and/or illogical

The problem for all of the characters is essentially the same: None of them have any basis for doing what they’re doing, which eventually turns out to be battling each other in a clunky, computer-generated finale that casually destroys a handful of major global metropolises. They’re just going through the motions of appearing in a superhero movie, because that’s what movie superheroes do, and superhero franchises have to go on forever.

Even Apocalypse’s best moments are weighed down by a sense of obligation and repetition. A cameo by one of the franchise’s most beloved characters delivers a bloody, violent kick, but doesn't offer anything new or interesting about said character. There's an elaborate, extended sequence showing off Quicksilver’s powers, but it doesn't inspire the same unexpected thrills as the similar sequence that wowed us in Days of Future Past. It’s entirely perfunctory.

Several older characters, including Grey and Summers, appear in the form of newly recast young actors via the magic of the complex time-travel related continuity reset at the end of Days of Future Past. But the specifics of the how the new continuity works, and how all the different timelines fit together, are terribly unclear. They appear to have been worked out mostly to allow for the cheaper, younger cast to step in and take over.

Viewed this way, the motivations start to make more sense — not as narrative, but as franchise imperative. X-Men: Apocalypse’s story and characters only make sense as a series of business decisions. It’s less of a movie and more of a two-and-a-half-hour-long announcement of a new franchise marketing plan.

The movie only exists because the X-Men franchise must go on, at least in the studio's eyes

This is one of the big dangers for the extended franchise model of filmmaking — that characters and series will be kept alive not because there’s a story to tell, but because the franchise must be kept alive.

We’ve already seen this happen with Sony’s ho-hum efforts to reboot the Spider-Man series — leading to two competent but essentially repetitive Amazing Spider-Man films that struggled to justify themselves. Like X-Men: Apocalypse, they were franchise placeholders, existing only because some movie with Spider-Man in the title had to exist.

Industry leader Marvel has largely avoided this problem, in part by expanding its universe to include a wider variety of characters, some of whom are not obvious bets for standalone movies, and in part by letting those characters play off of each other in ways that generate character-driven tension and conflict.

Indeed, one reason Spider-Man was so successful in Captain America: Civil War was that we got to see the character interacting with the larger cast of Marvel universe characters, playing his youthful sensibility off the older heroes. It wasn’t exactly a risky move, but it placed him in an environment we’d never seen him in before — in contrast to Sony’s dull reboots, which insisted on showing him in situations we’d seen so, so many times already.

Ultimately what these sorts of long-running, fantasy film franchises thrive on is a continual injection of fresh ideas, and a willingness to try new things. It’s not an accident that Marvel Comics has long referred to itself as the House of Ideas. Marvel’s films have their flaws, but they are stuffed, maybe even overstuffed, with ideas. Not all of those ideas work, but enough of them do. (This is part of what made Deadpool work as well.)

X-Men: Apocalypse, in contrast to both Marvel and Singer’s earlier X-films, is a by-the-numbers production with no ideas at all, just a dutiful sense that something like it has to exist. It's primarily an advertisement for the franchise’s future, and it’s not a promising one — especially given the recent news that Singer has been put in charge of expanding the X-Men franchise into an entire, Marvel-style universe of films. It’s clear at this point that Singer doesn’t have enough material for even one more X-Men movie, let alone an entire universe of them.

source: www.vox.com

X-Men: Apocalypse Actor Wants to Team Up With Deadpool in X-Force Movie

X-Men: Apocalypse Actor Wants to Team Up With Deadpool in X-Force Movie.

"It would definitely be cool to see Deadpool and some of the other X-Men characters gather for an X-Force movie," Olivia Munn said.

With X-Men: Apocalypse n theaters now, people are looking towards the next movies in the X-Men's cinematic universe. In an interview  with USA Today, Psylocke actor Olivia Munn said she wants her character to team up with Deadpool in an X-Force movie.

"That would be a really cool thing to do. What [Ryan Reynolds] did with Deadpool was genius and I'm so excited for him," she said. "It would definitely be cool to see Deadpool and some of the other X-Men characters gather for an X-Force movie. I think that's what the whole world is coming to--everybody unites together, right? It's never just one character any more. We all just become one movie."

Munn also discussed her big fight scene with Beast, which she trained from April to September for. She said it was the last scene on the last shooting day in Montreal, and it didn't seem like they'd be able to get it done in time. She asked for 30 minutes of overtime and got it done in five takes.

“You only have 30 minutes to set up, light it, get everything ready, get up there and then get into the harness, flip, flip, flip, flip, flip, and then call it a day and everybody gets to go home," she explained. "It was one of those things where if someone had given us more time, we'd probably mess up a lot more. It was the panic that got us to do it."

Munn talked about her character, Psylocke, in a previous interview, where she explained why you won't see her telepathic powers used in the film.

"Psylocke is telepathic and telekinetic. In the movie, we see her being a telekinetic. It's a decision [we made], because this is the first time we've really been able to see the character of Psylocke and have her really, truly exist in the movie," she said.

"When you are telepathic, I feel that it's a power that you want to hold close to your chest. It's a card that you don't want a lot of people to know about because it's so much more powerful when people don't know that you have this power."

In GameSpot's review, critic Tony Guerrero said, "[X-Men Apocalypse] juggles a lot of characters, and many don't get the time to be fully explored or utilized, but the movie never fails to keep you entertained for its entire running time thanks to the action and heart of the protagonists."

source: www.gamespot.com