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Captive State Trailer – Rise of the Planet of the Apes director takes on an alien invasion

24th September 2018 By Tim Isaac

Synopsis: ‘From the director of Rise of the Planet of the Apes comes a gritty and smart sci-fi thriller in the vein of District 9 and Arrival.

‘Set in a Chicago neighbourhood nearly a decade after an occupation by an extra-terrestrial force, Captive State explores the lives on both sides of the conflict – the collaborators and dissidents. Directed by Rupert Wyatt, and starring John Goodman and Academy Award-nominee Vera Farmiga.’

The film is due in cinemas Spring 2019. You can take a look at the first trailer for the movie below. It certainly looks like an ambitious one, which could be well worth a watch. [Read more…]

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARCHIVES:
ACTORS: John Goodman, Vera Farmiga  DIRECTORS: Rupert Wyatt  

Patriot’s Day (Blu-ray Review)

25th June 2017 By Tim Isaac

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, JK Simmons, Kevin Bacon, John Goodman, Michelle Monaghan
Directed By: Peter Berg
Running Time: 133 mins
BBFC Certificate: 15
UK Release Date: June 26th 2017 (UK)

Our Score

It’s April 15, 2013 and Police Sgt Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg) is preparing to provide security at the annual Boston Marathon. Along with various other people, he’s hoping for a great, celebratory day. However, that is ripped apart when twin explosion go off near the marathon finishing line, killing and maiming those who were there to cheer the runners as they completed the course. Tommy immediately puts his training into action to help those affected, even though he and the other people around don’t know whether there are any other bombs timed to go off.

Patriot’s Day then charts the days after the attack, when the FBI comes in to work with the police to find out who the bombers are, combing CCTV footage and following leads. Then there are the terrorists themselves, the Tsarnaev brothers, who haven’t finished their rampage, and become increasingly dangerous as the net closes in.

Director Peter Berg and actor Mark Wahlberg are becoming a bit of a real-life tragedy team, following Lone Survivor, Deep Horizon and now Patriot’s Day. As with their earlier movies, they successfully tread a very fine line between ensuring the movie is watchable and interesting, without making it feel exploitative.

Taking a strongly fact-based and sometimes fairly forensic approach – including incorporating images and CCTV from the real-life events – it is a stirring, dedicated and sometimes moving re-enactment, which sometimes verges on docu-drama. There’s a fascinating mix of powerful recreation of parts of the story that most people will know, alongside the lesser known aspects, including some very intense moments that help viewers more fully realise what happened but which, unlike the actual bombing, wasn’t captured on camera at the time. It also makes you realise quite how brave the police were, and how it was almost a miracle that more people didn’t die.

Patriot’s Day also benefits from taking a broad approach to the events. While Wahlberg is nominally the main characters, it also spends plenty of time with others involved in the bombing, including other policemen, those injured in the explosions, the FBI, those around the bombers, and the young Chinese man who was carjacked by the Tsarnaevs. These scenes involving Dun Meng (Jimmy O. Yang) are particularly tense, with the entrepreneur suddenly caught up in a very dangerous situation through no fault of his own.

While many films would have painted the bombers as moustache twirling villains, Patriot’s Day is smarter than that. By showing that they were just people – albeit extremely misguided and foul people – rather than some faceless, evil, ‘other’, it becomes all the more disquieting. The film compares the strong-willed, angry, true-believer older brother, Tamerlan, with his more laidback, Americanised younger sibling, Dzhokhar. It’s a familiar family dynamic, which becomes more disturbing as you realise that these are people who aren’t quite so different to the rest of us as we might like to believe (except, of course, in some extremely important ways).

Ultimately, it becomes a movie less about wallowing in tragedy and more about the human spirit, as well as how people and the city of Boston responded to what had happened. It suggests that they did so with love, compassion for one another and a resolution not to allow the bombing to bring them down. Patriot’s Day is a salute to the city as much as it is a retelling of the events, and it work well as both – and thankfully despite the title, it doesn’t drip itself in so much ‘Ooorah’ American-ness that it overpowers the human connection at the heart of the movie.

The Blu-ray includes some interesting featurettes involving the real people depicted in the movie, which helps show both how accurate the film is, as well as underlining the ‘Boston Strong’ spirit. It’s genuinely fascinating what many of these people have to say. It also helps demonstrate how some of the more improbable, and seemingly ‘Hollywood’, moments in the movie are actually true. That includes a scene where Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese has a long stream of bullets fired at him by one of the Tsarnaevs, but none hit him. In the special features, they get him Pugliese to stand where he did at the time, while behind him the bullet holes still pepper the house.

It’s a great package for a good film. It’s not often that you can say that the special features are as inspiring as the film they accompany, but in this case it’s true, helping to prove that it’s not just a Hollywood film trying to find some good in something very bad, it’s true of how those involved feel.

Overall Verdict: A tense, well-researched and often fascinating recreation of the Boston Marathon Bombing and its aftermath, which illuminates not just the events, but the power of the human spirit that the explosions revealed.

Reviewer: Tim Isaac

Special Features:
‘Boston Strong: True Stories Of Courage’ Featurettes
‘Researching The Day’ Featurette
‘The Boston Bond: Recounting The Tale’ Featurette
‘The Real Patriots: The Local Heroes’ Story’ Featurette
‘The Cast Remembers’ Featurette
‘Actors Meet Real-Life Counterparts’ Featurettes

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARCHIVES:
ACTORS: Mark Wahlberg, JK Simmons, Kevin Bacon, John Goodman, Michelle Monaghan  DIRECTORS: Peter Berg  FILMS: Patriots Day  

Atomic Blonde Trailer – Charlize Theron turns bisexual badass at the end of the Cold War

11th March 2017 By Tim Isaac

Every so often, Charlize Theron wants to kick ass, or that’s how it seems. Whether it’s Aeon Flux, Fury Road or now Atomic Blonde, she is good at taking names and looking badass doing it. In Atomic Blonde. based on Antony Johnston’s graphic novel The Coldest Winter, that involves her beating up a lot of men, and getting sexy with a female French operative.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘The crown jewel of Her Majesty’s Secret Intelligence Service, Agent Lorraine Broughton (Oscar® winner Charlize Theron) is equal parts spycraft, sensuality and savagery, willing to deploy any of her skills to stay alive on her impossible mission. Sent alone into Berlin to deliver a priceless dossier out of the destabilized city, she partners with embedded station chief David Percival (James McAvoy) to navigate her way through the deadliest game of spies.

‘A blistering blend of sleek action, gritty sexuality and dazzling style, Atomic Blonde is directed by David Leitch (John Wick, upcoming Deadpool 2). Also starring John Goodman, Til Schweiger, Eddie Marsan, Sofia Boutella and Toby Jones, the film is based on the Oni Press graphic novel “The Coldest City,” by Antony Johnston & illustrator Sam Hart. Kurt Johnstad (300) wrote the screenplay.’

The film is due out in August. Take a look at the trailer below. [Read more…]

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARCHIVES:
ACTORS: Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, Toby Jones, John Goodman, Til Schweiger, Eddie Marsan, Sofia Boutella  DIRECTORS: David Leitch  FILMS: Atomic Blonde  

Kong: Skull Island Final Trailer – Tom Hiddleston finds a giant gorilla & plenty more monsters

27th February 2017 By Tim Isaac

Kong: Skull Island will be one of Hollywood’s first big tests of the year. Warner has hopes for a franchise and is already planning to put Kong up against Godzilla, but it’s far from certain whether Skull Island will be the massive hit they’re hoping for. It certainly looks like it could be pretty fun though.

To help increase the hype, a big, final trailer has been released.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ “Kong: Skull Island” reimagines the origin of the mythic Kong in a compelling, original adventure from director Jordan Vogt-Roberts. In the film, a diverse team of explorers is brought together to venture deep into an uncharted island in the Pacific—as beautiful as it is treacherous—unaware that they’re crossing into the domain of the mythic Kong.

‘“Kong: Skull Island” stars Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Oscar winner Brie Larson, John Goodman and John C. Reilly. The international ensemble cast also includes Tian Jing, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, John Ortiz, Thomas Mann, Shea Whigham, Toby Kebbell and Eugene Cordero. Vogt-Roberts directs the film from a screenplay by Max Borenstein, John Gatins, Dan Gilroy and Derek Connolly. “Kong: Skull Island” is produced by Legendary’s Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni with Mary Parent. The executive producers are Eric McLeod and Alex Garcia. Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures Present a Legendary Pictures Production, “Kong: Skull Island.”’

The film hits cinemas on March 9th. [Read more…]

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARCHIVES:
ACTORS: Brie Larson, John C. Reilly, John Goodman, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hiddleston  DIRECTORS: Jordan Vogt-Roberts  FILMS: Kong: Skull Island  

Kong: Skull Island Trailer – Tom Hiddleston & Brie Larson find a big ape & a world of monsters

17th November 2016 By Tim Isaac

kong-skull-island-poster1-slideA few months ago we got a Comic Con trailer for Kong: Skull Island, which showed us plenty of things, but not much of the giant ape himself, Kong. However, that’s now been remedied with a new, final trailer, which has much more of the infamous simian, along with a variety of the the other creatures on the island, from gargantuan spiders to strange dinsosaur-like nasties.

You can watch the trailer and see a couple of new posters below.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ “Kong: Skull Island” reimagines the origin of the mythic Kong in a compelling, original adventure from director Jordan Vogt-Roberts. In the film, a diverse team of explorers is brought together to venture deep into an uncharted island in the Pacific—as beautiful as it is treacherous—unaware that they’re crossing into the domain of the mythic Kong.

‘“Kong: Skull Island” stars Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Oscar winner Brie Larson, John Goodman and John C. Reilly. The international ensemble cast also includes Tian Jing, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, John Ortiz, Thomas Mann, Shea Whigham, Toby Kebbell and Eugene Cordero. Vogt-Roberts directs the film from a screenplay by Max Borenstein, John Gatins, Dan Gilroy and Derek Connolly. “Kong: Skull Island” is produced by Legendary’s Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni with Mary Parent. The executive producers are Eric McLeod and Alex Garcia. Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures Present a Legendary Pictures Production, “Kong: Skull Island.”

‘The film will be released worldwide in 2D, 3D in select theatres, and IMAX in March 2017, from Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.’ [Read more…]

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARCHIVES:
ACTORS: Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, John C. Reilly  DIRECTORS: Jordan Vogt-Roberts  FILMS: Kong: Skull Island  

Patriots Day Trailer – Mark Wahlberg & Peter Berg take on the Boston Marathon Bombing

5th October 2016 By Tim Isaac

patriots-day-slideMark Wahlberg and director Peter Berg have only just been in cinemas with a film based around modern day disaster, with Deepwater Horizon. However, they’ll soon be back with another, Patriots Day, which has just dropped its first trailer.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘An account of the Boston Marathon bombing, PATRIOTS DAY is the powerful story of a community’s courage in the face of terror.

‘In the aftermath of an unspeakable attack, Police Sergeant Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg) joins courageous survivors, first responders and investigators in a race against the clock to hunt down the bombers before they strike again. Weaving together the stories of Special Agent Richard DesLauriers (Kevin Bacon), Police Commissioner Ed Davis (John Goodman), Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese (J.K. Simmons) and nurse Carol Saunders (Michelle Monaghan) this visceral and unflinching chronicle captures the suspense of one of the most sophisticated manhunts in law enforcement history and celebrates the strength of the people of Boston.

The film will be getting an Oscar qualifying release in the US in December, before rolling out wider and internationally in January. [Read more…]

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARCHIVES:
ACTORS: Mark Wahlberg, Kevin Bacon, John Goodman, JK Simmons, Michelle Monaghan  DIRECTORS: Peter Berg  FILMS: Patriots Day  
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