New Dawn of the Planet of the Apes trailer!

The new trailer of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes shows us what happened in the aftermath of the revolution that had just begun in Rise of the Planet of the Apes with Caesar at the helm.  Now, a decade has passed and the humans and apes will be brought to fight against each other yet again with the victor getting to call Earth home.  Motion Capture Wonder Man, Andy Serkis is back as Caesar (How impressive is that stare!) along with new cast members Jason Clarke, Keri Russell and Gary Oldman.  The film is directed by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) and releases right in the middle of summer, July 11, 2014.  Make sure you go see this one in IMAX!

New Studio Ghibli Feature: When Marnie Was There

Studio Ghibli is already embarking ahead on its post-Miyazaki era with its next feature, When Marnie Was There, an adaptation of author Joan G. Robinson's book.  The British story is about a lonely girl Annie who befriends Marnie and learns that there's more to her new friend than meets the eye.  Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi (The Secret World of Arrietty), the film will release in theatres summer 2014.

Are you looking forward to Studio Ghibli's new direction without master animator Hayao Miyazaki? 

Movie Review: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

The sequel to last year's wildly successful The Hunger Games, Catching Fire builds on its momentum and delivers a solid middle film that sets up the action for the final two-parter, Mockingjay.  Book adaptations are usually so difficult and people have a love or hate relationship with them especially with a book series that's as successful as The Hunger Games have been.

Catching Fire is a near faithful adaptation of the book that keeps in the best parts of the story and elaborates nicely on its central themes. Jennifer Lawrence steps back into the shoes of Katniss Everdeen who has to adjust to life as one of the winners of The Hunger Games along with Peeta Mallark (Josh Hutcherson).  What both of them don't realize the spark of hope the two of them, especially Katniss, have ignited by challenging the system and President Snow (Donald Sutherland).  Snow wants this new found hope squashed by making sure Katniss knows her place.

While Katniss and Snow are watching each other's moves on the mandatory victory, neither are appeased by their actions and President Snow has to move forward with Plan B.  What exactly does Plan B entail? The plan is much grander, invoking an ages old rule that allows all the contestants to compete in the  Quarter Quell,  the 75th anniversary of The Hunger Games and of Panem's victory and dominion over the rest of the districts.

This time around, it's not just Katniss and Peeta but all former winners of previous Hunger Games.  Team Katniss and Peeta (including Haymitch, Effie and Cinna) have to be that much more on edge and alert to survive.  Katniss has allies in the arena like Beetee (Jeffrey Wright) and Wiress (Amanda Plummer) but others like Finnick Odair (Sam Claflin) and Johanna Mason (Jena Malone) are harder to read. Are they out to help or will they kill her to survive?

This film puts much more emphasis (and rightly so) on the sense of survivor's guilt and trauma these winners feel and how much they and their families are at risk under President Snow and the Capitol's arbitrary laws.  But the film is also laying down the blocks which will make up the arc of the final films where Katniss must choose what and who is worthing fighting for.  In the final scenes, it is made evidently clear that the lines are now clearly drawn in the sand, the fight is now on.

Overall, the film was hugely enjoyable, with great new additions to the cast.  This is the American Harry Potter series, in that as the British series drew the creme de la creme of actors from the island nation, so does this franchise, adding Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman as Head Gamekeeper Plutarch Heavensbee.  The screenplay too features two Oscar winners in the category with Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire) and Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine).

I always thought Catching Fire would be the most difficult one to film and get across to the audience because it contains so much information and has so much takes place in difficult island, but it ended up surprising me with how neatly all of it was laid out without losing the core of the book.  It suddenly made me wish that had happened with some of the Harry Potter films.

Director Francis Lawrence has carried over the mantle started by Gary Ross in the first film and hopefully will continue to do so over the next two.  And of course, Jennifer Lawrence IS Katniss completely as she brings out her inner vulnerabilities and strengths.  The movie is all her.  And it's worth nothing that this franchise brings in not only the youngsters (the girls and the boys) but also the adults based on her name alone.  That is quite the achievement for a 23-year-old to have.

If you are a fan of the books or simply curious about the movies, I'd suggest you check out The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.  This heroine is worth following.

Directed by Francis Lawrence; Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy and Michael Bruyn aka Michael Arndt; Based on the book by Suzanne Collins; Cinematography by Jo Willems; Editing by Alan Edward Bell; Music by James Newton Howard

Additional cast: Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, Willow Shields,

Rating: 

19th Annual Critics Choice Award Nominations

So I'm a bit late in posting these but I do enjoy these critics awards because they take time to notice the films in popular categories as well. So you might notice Man of Steel, Star Trek Into Darkness and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire getting some awards love.  They don't just have their box-office receipts to console themselves with. 

Anyway, this year is a difficult year for any film to be a clear frontrunner and the awards are given out the same day as the Oscar nominations are announced.  Last year, Ben Affleck won the Best Director award after he had been snubbed in the morning for the best director Oscar nomination.  Needless to say, these awards definitely get interesting.  The winners will be announced on January 16, 2014. 

Here's the full list of the nominations:

BEST PICTURE
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska
Saving Mr. Banks
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street

BEST ACTOR
Christian Bale – American Hustle
Bruce Dern – Nebraska
Chiwetel Ejiofor – 12 Years a Slave
Tom Hanks – Captain Phillips
Matthew McConaughey – Dallas Buyers Club
Robert Redford – All Is Lost

BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett – Blue Jasmine
Sandra Bullock – Gravity
Judi Dench – Philomena
Brie Larson – Short Term 12
Meryl Streep – August: Osage County
Emma Thompson – Saving Mr. Banks

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Barkhad Abdi – Captain Phillips
Daniel Bruhl – Rush
Bradley Cooper – American Hustle
Michael Fassbender – 12 Years a Slave
James Gandolfini – Enough Said
Jared Leto – Dallas Buyers Club

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Scarlett Johansson – Her
Jennifer Lawrence – American Hustle
Lupita Nyong’o – 12 Years a Slave
Julia Roberts – August: Osage County
June Squibb – Nebraska
Oprah Winfrey – Lee Daniels’ The Butler

BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS
Asa Butterfield – Ender’s Game
Adele Exarchopoulos – Blue Is the Warmest Color
Liam James – The Way Way Back
Sophie Nelisse – The Book Thief
Tye Sheridan – Mud

BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE
American Hustle
August: Osage County
Lee Daniels’ The Butler
Nebraska
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street

BEST DIRECTOR
Alfonso Cuaron – Gravity
Paul Greengrass – Captain Phillips
Spike Jonze – Her
Steve McQueen – 12 Years a Slave
David O. Russell – American Hustle
Martin Scorsese – The Wolf of Wall Street

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Eric Singer and David O. Russell – American Hustle
Woody Allen – Blue Jasmine
Spike Jonze – Her
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen – Inside Llewyn Davis
Bob Nelson – Nebraska

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Tracy Letts – August: Osage County
Richard Linklater & Julie Delpy & Ethan Hawke – Before Midnight
Billy Ray – Captain Phillips
Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope – Philomena
John Ridley – 12 Years a Slave
Terence Winter – The Wolf of Wall Street

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Emmanuel Lubezki – Gravity
Bruno Delbonnel – Inside Llewyn Davis
Phedon Papamichael – Nebraska
Roger Deakins – Prisoners
Sean Bobbitt – 12 Years a Slave

BEST ART DIRECTION
Andy Nicholson (Production Designer), Rosie Goodwin (Set Decorator) – Gravity
Catherine Martin (Production Designer), Beverley Dunn (Set Decorator) – The Great Gatsby
K.K. Barrett (Production Designer), Gene Serdena (Set Decorator) – Her
Dan Hennah (Production Designer), Simon Bright (Set Decorator), Ra Vincent (Set Decorator) – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Adam Stockhausen (Production Designer), Alice Baker (Set Decorator) – 12 Years a Slave

BEST EDITING
Alan Baumgarten, Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers – American Hustle
Christopher Rouse – Captain Phillips
Alfonso Cuarón, Mark Sanger – Gravity
Daniel P. Hanley, Mike Hill – Rush
Joe Walker – 12 Years a Slave
Thelma Schoonmaker – The Wolf of Wall Street

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Michael Wilkinson – American Hustle
Catherine Martin – The Great Gatsby
Bob Buck, Ann Maskrey, Richard Taylor – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Daniel Orlandi – Saving Mr. Banks
Patricia Norris – 12 Years a Slave

BEST MAKEUP
American Hustle
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Lee Daniels’ The Butler
Rush
12 Years a Slave

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Gravity
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Iron Man 3
Pacific Rim
Star Trek into Darkness

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
The Croods
Despicable Me 2
Frozen
Monsters University
The Wind Rises

BEST ACTION MOVIE
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Iron Man 3
Lone Survivor
Rush
Star Trek into Darkness

BEST ACTOR IN AN ACTION MOVIE
Henry Cavill – Man of Steel
Robert Downey Jr. – Iron Man 3
Brad Pitt – World War Z
Mark Wahlberg – Lone Survivor

BEST ACTRESS IN AN ACTION MOVIE
Sandra Bullock – Gravity
Jennifer Lawrence – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Evangeline Lilly – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Gwyneth Paltrow – Iron Man 3

BEST COMEDY
American Hustle
Enough Said
The Heat
This Is the End
The Way Way Back
The World’s End

BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Christian Bale – American Hustle
Leonardo DiCaprio – The Wolf of Wall Street
James Gandolfini – Enough Said
Simon Pegg – The World’s End
Sam Rockwell – The Way Way Back

BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Amy Adams – American Hustle
Sandra Bullock – The Heat
Greta Gerwig – Frances Ha
Julia Louis-Dreyfus – Enough Said
Melissa McCarthy – The Heat

BEST SCI-FI/HORROR MOVIE
The Conjuring
Gravity
Star Trek into Darkness
World War Z

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Blue Is the Warmest Color
The Great Beauty
The Hunt
The Past
Wadjda

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
The Act of Killing
Blackfish
Stories We Tell
Tim’s Vermeer
20 Feet from Stardom

BEST SONG
Atlas – Coldplay – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Happy – Pharrell Williams – Despicable Me 2
Let It Go – Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez – Frozen
Ordinary Love – U2 – Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Please Mr. Kennedy – Justin Timberlake/Oscar Isaac/Adam Driver – Inside Llewyn Davis
Young and Beautiful – Lana Del Rey – The Great Gatsby

BEST SCORE
Steven Price – Gravity
Arcade Fire – Her
Thomas Newman – Saving Mr. Banks
Hans Zimmer – 12 Years a Slave

Movie Review: Thor: The Dark World

After the events of Thor and The Avengers, many worlds have been altered.  Mortals now know about the existence of gods and while a demi-god named Thor (Chris Hemsworth) pines away on Asgard for a mortal named Jane Foster (Natalie Portman).  Jane is the catalyst in this sequel for accidentally unearthing a dark matter aka 'the ether' which is being pursued by the leader of the dark elves, Malekith (a scary looking Christopher Eccleston).

This put all the Nine Realms and Earth in danger as once-in-a-lifetime event that lines up all the realms together can change the universe irrevocably.  The story allows for Jane to see Asgard for the first time and meet Thor's parents, Odin (a disapproving Anthony Hopkins) and Frigga (Rene Russo).  We also see Asgard and its people suffer great losses as the kingdom is brutally attacked by the elves who want to possess the ether.

But where's foster brother Loki (a great Tom Hiddleston) in all this? He's unfortunately in a fine dungeon dig snarling at everyone and biding his time. In general, it's Loki being Loki and it's great fun.  And we're all waiting until he'll be unleashed. And the unleashing occurs as the brothers have to work together to save Asgard and the realms from Malekith's grand plans. The good and bad part of Thor is that his counterpart and sometime nemesis Loki is much more interesting than him. Tom Hiddleton as Loki has such an mischievious smirk on him, you're often rooting for him over Thor.

But I must say, there need to more moments of levity when Thor interacts with the mere mortals of this world. His interactions with Darcy (Kat Dennings) and Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgaard) were great, but nothing beats the shot of Thor of using the underground to get to his destination. Or quietly hanging up his hammer on the coat rack of Jane's flat.  I came thisclose to missing Thor: The Dark World in cinemas.  I'm glad I didn't because the film was a enjoyable experience. I hope I can say that about the next installment of Thor's saga too.

Directed by Alan Taylor; Screenplay by Christopher L. Yost, Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeeley; Story by Don Payne and Robert Rodat; Cinematography by Kramer Morgenthau; Editing by Dan Lebenthal and Wyatt Smith; Music by Brian Tyler

Rating:

Movie Review: Frozen

Walt Disney Animation's latest theatrical release Frozen is a wonderful mix of its own esteemed animation history and a positive step forward into its future.  Co-directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee were tasked with bringing to the screen the difficult tale of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, a story even Walt Disney couldn't see to its completion. However, by adapting it and making the heart of caper about two sisters who just really need to learn how to communicate with each other, the makers have successfully made one of the more endearing and enchanting stories to come out of the legendary studio.

As young princesses of Arendelle, Elsa and Anna are like any young little girls who love to play. Except Elsa has a secret that her parents don't want to the public to know, that with a touch of her fingers, everything turns into ice and snow. One night, Elsa accidentally freezes little Anna's head, making a long lock of her hair turn white. With the help of some wise trolls, her parent are in time to reverse any wrongdoing by erasing any memories of Elsa's special powers.

But this leads to a long and deep rift between the two sisters.  Elsa spends her formative years in a self-imposed exile to protect the world from her powers while Anna grows up yearning for her elder sister. When their parents are lost at sea and the sisters become orphans, it soon becomes time to Elsa to be crowned Queen of Arendelle.  But at the coronation and celebration, things go horribly wrong as Elsa and Anna don't see eye to eye, causing Elsa to flee Arendelle forever.

As she does, she leaves a kingdom trapped in an eternal winter wonderland. It's up to Anna to find her sister and undo the magic she has left behind.  Until then, the story was bumping around in predictable Disney animation territory. I thought I knew what was going to happen next. But the story moves forward with wonderful twists and turns.  We are introduced to some wonderful characters like Kristoff (voiced by Jonathan Groff) and Olaf (voiced by the perfectly cast Josh Gad).  In fact, Olaf is competing for best animated character of 2013 in my books. Josh Gad's Olaf is absolutely terrific as the hopeless snowman who longs for summer days. Silly snowman!

But the real stars of the film are its leading ladies, Elsa (voiced by luminous Idina Menzel) and Anna (voiced by Kristen Bell) who are behind the real emotional core of the story and whose performances make the story soar. Their characters are beautiful animated as they show their vulnerabilities and strengths. Here are two Disney princesses who are strong role models for the new generations of little girls growing up as well as older generations who have grown up on Disney animated films. And it's never more evident as in the song "Let It Go", a sequence featuring Elsa that gave me goosebumps and whose lyrics are empowering in so many ways.

The music by Christophe Beck and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez (from Broadway's Avenue Q) are first class and retain the usual tropes of a musical while maintaining its own originality. Directors Buck and Lee (who also wrote the screenplay) have made a wonderful animated feature, one which stands tall and is one of the best animated films to come out of Walt Disney Animation (alongside last year's Wreck-It Ralph).  If you see one animated film this year, watch Frozen. 

Directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee; Story by Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, and Shane Morris; Screenplay by Jennifer Lee; Inspired by The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen; Editing by Jeff Draheim; Music by Christophe Beck

Rating:

First Teaser for Christopher Nolan's Interstellar!

It's here! An early Christmas present has arrived. The highly anticipated trailer for Christopher Nolan's Interstellar was launched yesterday and is being shown in theaters with The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.  Nolan has an all star cast of old favorites from his previous films like Michael Caine and Anne Hathaway and first timers like Matthew McConaughey, Jessica Chastain, Casey Affleck, Topher Grace, John Lithgow and David Oyelowo assembled for his follow up to the The Dark Knight Rises.  His last original film was wildly imaginative Inception that blew audiences away.  And after watching the teaser trailer once, twice, thrice, okay numerous times now, I can safely say this film too will be in a similar vein. The film's synopsis has this to say about the secretive film:

Interstellar chronicles the adventures of 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.

So, what will you be doing 'One year from now'?  I know where I'll be: in the theater, probably on my second viewing of Interstellar.