My Last Post For A While? (And The Movies I Am Most Excited For Upcoming In 2013)

Summer is coming soon, and that means that I will not be posting anymore in this blog for a while for different reasons. However, there are a plethora of movies that I am very excited for, most of them coming out in the next couple upcoming months in the summer of 2013.

     Iron Man 3, Star Trek Into Darkness, and Man of Steel are the top three action/adventure movies that I am most excited for. I have seen the first two Iron Mans, the previous Star Trek that came out in 2009, and movies that Man of Steel director Zack Snyder came out out with, such as 300, and they have all been great.

The Hangover: Part III, Kick-Ass 2, This Is the End, Monsters University, and even Anchorman: The Legend Continues that comes out in late December, are a great bunch of comedies that I am extremely excited for. I have seen all the predecessors for the sequels listed, and This Is the End is bound to be hilarious with its star-studded cast and unique plot.

Sources:

http://www.movieinsider.com/movies/summer/2013/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/summer-movie-guide-2013-star-trek-into-darkness-man-of-steel-and-more/2013/05/02/2aaf37be-b19f-11e2-9a98-4be1688d7d84_gallery.html

There are also many other movies of different genres I am anticipating to see that come out in the next couple of months, and I am ready to kick back, relax, and enjoy some summer “blockbusters” that will be coming out in the next coming months, and even after summer. It has been a great “semester” of posting, and always let the passion and the understanding of the art of films be instilled in all of you. Movie-ng On…

J.J. Abrams Talks Upcoming Projects

With his work on Star Trek Into Darkness now complete, J.J. Abrams can truly start putting all of his brainpower into making his newly assigned movie, Star Wars Episode VII. A big Star Wars fan, Abrams is applying all that he’s gleaned along the path so far to making the new movie in the extremely popular and successful franchise. He says “With Star Wars, one has to take into account what has preceded it, what worked, and what did not.”

Directing both Sci-Fi films mentioned above, he says that there is an advantage for directing Star Wars because he can go to George Lucas and ask questions and get his feedback on things. With Star Trek Abrams said was harder directing because he wasn’t much of a fan, did not have the same emotional feeling, and he did not have the director of the original series, Gene Roddenberry to go to. He said it has been hard, yet definitely enjoyable and a privilege to direct both major films, and both highly anticipated as well.

Star Trek Into Darkness opens May 9th in the United States, and Star Wars Episode VII is set to release in 2015.

New Star Trek Trailer:

Sources:

http://screenrant.com/jj-abrams-star-wars-episode-7-star-trek-3-cloverfield-2/

http://www.totalfilm.com/news/j-j-abrams-compares-star-trek-and-star-wars

New Website Shows Celebrities’ Favorite Movies

A new website, Flickathon, (http://celebs.flickathon.com/) was released to the Internet recently, that has archives of favorite movies of famous people. It has been quite popular around Internet websites such as Reddit and Rotten Tomatoes. It ranges from showing movies favorited by actors and actresses, sports stars, musicians, big CEOs of companies, and even government officials, such as the President of the United States, Barack Obama. The website has a slick, bold design to it, with an easy to use interface to explore all of the celebrities and the respective movies that they love.

Users can also recommend movies to other users on the website, and the most recommended movies aggregate into a “Top 100” category. Additionally, you can follow friends from your social media sites that are on the site and look at their favorite movies by category, and even search movies and get recommended films based on positive reviews and similar classifications. However, I think the coolest part of the website are the favorite movies by renowned people in our world today. There is also a YouTube video explaining all functions of the website:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ON4Fu_Yykck

Personally, I have gone through the website extensively and have absolutely loved it, because of the wide range of categories the website has, and how easy it is to navigate through the site. I have recommended it to all my friends, and if you are a movie lover, this will without a doubt not disappoint.

Related Sources:

http://www.shortlist.com/entertainment/films/favourite-movies-of-famous-people

http://www.pajiba.com/seriously_random_lists/35-actors-list-their-5-favorite-films-which-one-is-your-movie-soul-mate.php

Roger Ebert Says “I’ll See You at the Movies”

On April 4, 2013, a man who changed film and film reviews forever, died from cancer after a long fight. For a film with a daring director, a talented cast, a captivation plot or, ideally, all three, there could be no better advocate than Roger Ebert, who passionately celebrated and promoted excellence in film while clearly pointing out the mediocre, or plain awful. “No good film is too long,” he once wrote, and “no bad movie is short enough.” Ebert, who died at the age of 70 in Chicago, had been in poor health over the past decade, battling cancers of the thyroid and salivary gland. He reviewed movies for the Chicago Sun-Times for 46 years and on TV for 31 years, and who was without question the nation’s most prominent and influential film critic.

He was also technically savvy, being an early investor in Google, and having an extremely popular website, rogerebert.com. He also not only won a Pulitzer Prize and was the first film critic to do so, but his name was also added to the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2005. He also launched a new kind of television program to existence, “Opening Soon at a Theater Near You” (soon changed to “At the Movies”) with Chicago Tribune movie critic Gene Siskel, in 1975. The program was extremely successful, and ran for decades after. After Siskel died in 1999, Ebert auditioned a number of temporary co-hosts and settled Sun-Times colleague Richard Roeper in 2000, and at its height, “Ebert & Roeper” was seen on 200 stations. Additionally, Ebert wrote films, along with trademarking the term “two thumbs up/down” and inevitably ran at the top of movie advertisements. He believed his job was his identity, and had a huge amount of supporters, including Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Steven Spielberg, who said that Ebert’s “reviews went far deeper than simply thumbs up or thumbs down.”

I personally grew up reading movie reviews constantly, fascinated at how each critic analyzed and critiqued specific movies. I always remembered Ebert’s reviews, as his positive reviews were always highlighted for the respective movies, and noticing how in-depth and profound they were. He was not only a critic, he was an example for the entire film community.

Two days before his death, he ended his final blog post by saying, “So on this day of reflection I say again, thank you for going on this journey with me. I’ll see you at the movies.”

Sources:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/videos/2013/04/04/r-i-p-roger-ebert.html

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2013/04/11/ebert-memorial-chicago/2076259/

‘Spring Breakers’ is Breaking Out Some (Ex)-Disney Stars

The new movie Spring Breakers, directed by Harmony Korine, has been stirring up a lot of buzz the past couple of months. The buzz can be largely attributed to the raunchy pictures and advertising of the four female stars, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, and Rachel Korine, with Gomez and Hudgens largely known for their work in Disney movies and television shows, Benson as a star in the popular television show Pretty Little Liars, and Korine, who is the wife of the writer and director. The movie entails the story of four college-aged girls who decide to rob a fast-food restaurant in order to pay for their spring break trip to Florida. The movie also an interesting addition of actor James Franco as a hustling gangster with cornrows, who breaks the girls out of prison and takes them under his wing and into the vast criminal world. As ridiculous of a plot as this sounds, the movie was actually selected to compete at the 69th Venice International Film Festival, and has received an overall “fresh” rating on the popular film review aggregator website.

Some critics have slammed the movie for its poor acting and odd plot, but others have embraced it, calling it “fun” and “extremely entertaining.” With the risqué collaboration of the four female characters and the edgy storyline, some say that the movie only attracts by the looks of the girls, and that if Gomez and Hudgens wanted to advance their movie career, they should not have picked such a revealing movie with a weak premise. Regardless, many critics thoroughly enjoyed the film. Sources:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dinagachman/2013/03/15/spring-breakers-girls-gone-wild-or-wise-career-move/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2101441/

I myself, do not have much interest for seeing the film, even with the many positive reviews. However, I know many people will flock to see this due to its outright quirkiness. The movie will be released across the U.S. on March 22nd, 2013 and is rated R.

This Hangover Will Officially Be Cured in Returning to Vegas

Yesterday on March 6th, the first official poster for the movie The Hangover Part III was released. It showed one of the main characters, Alan, played by Zach Galifianakis, “facing off” with Leslie Chow, the main “villain” in every movie in the franchise, played by Ken Jeong. Today, the official teaser trailer was released. Not much was revealed, except that it will take place in Las Vegas, as the first movie did, it will have many of the same characters as the previous first two films, and that it will be the final movie of the series. Source:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/06/hangover-3-poster-new-teaser_n_2822265.html#slide=more219711

This is big news in the movie community, considering the first movie is presently the highest-grossing R-rated comedy ever in the United States, and the second movie out-grossed its predecessor in worldwide earnings to become the highest-grossing R-rated comedy of all time, even internationally. The first movie received very positive reviews, some critics acclaiming it is one of the funniest movie ever made, however the second movie was regarded with much less positive reviews, with many complaints directed towards it being too similar to the first movie.

Personally, I thought the first movie was a fantastic film, and probably one of the funniest movies I have ever seen, with the second being still very funny, even though the storyline was a bit too similar to that of the first movie. I am excited to see what happens in the finale, what characters the movie focuses on, and how they end the extremely popular franchise while incorporating the setting used in the first movie. The movie opens in all United States theaters on May 24, 2013. Source:

http://news.moviefone.com/2013/03/07/hangover-3-teaser-trailer_n_2829335.html

Official Trailer:

MacFarlane Not Much of a Family-Guy Last Sunday

Last Sunday, the 85th Academy Awards were regarded as entertaining and satisfactory by some, and plain bad by others, mostly due to the performance as Seth MacFarlane as the host. However, there were big winners in the night, including “Life of Pi” winning four awards, the most for the evening, including Ang Lee for the Best Director category, and “Les Misérables” and “Argo” winning three awards, including “Argo” for best picture, a second win for Ben Affleck, director in this case, in the history of the Academy Awards. Additionally, in the acting categories, Daniel Day-Lewis won Best Actor for “Lincoln,” and Jennifer Lawrence for Best Actress for “Silver Linings Playbook.” Source:

http://oscar.go.com/nominees

There were also many notable several first-time feats, including “Argo” becoming the first Best Picture winner in 23 years not to have a Best Director nomination, and Daniel Day-Lewis became the first actor in the history of the Academy Awards to win three Best Actor awards (1989, 2007, and 2012). Additionally, First Lady Michelle Obama presented the Best Picture award over telecast, drawing some appraisal by some, and criticism by others.

A hot topic following the Oscars pertained to Jennifer Lawrence and her like-ability and quirkiness in post-Oscar interviews, including:

Another was Seth MacFarlane and his hosting abilities and jokes. His job received criticism, including his jokes carried too much ideals of sexism, racism, antisemitism, and homophobia, with National Public Radio calling it “one of the worst hosting performances in Oscar history.” However, many liked his performance, with The Chicago Tribune saying “he kept a solid handle on the proceedings, and opened with a series of jokes that were bona fide winners, landing on just the right tone: confident but not cocksure.” Regardless, two days after his hosting, he said he will never host again, even though he had fun doing it.

I believe that each winner deserved their award, especially “Argo.” I thought Argo was undoubtedly the best movie I saw this year, and although I thought it would not win, I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed MacFarlane’s performance as well, as he has always been crossing the line, so it was to no surprise what his jokes entailed. I liked this year’s Oscars, and I hope to see who will be hosting next year’s Oscars and am excited to see some great movies this year.

Many Firsts for The 2013 Oscars

This Sunday (February 24th) the 85th Academy Awards will be hosted at the Dolby Theatre in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California. It will be hosted by “Family Guy” and “Ted” creator, Seth MacFarlane, with it being his first time ever.

There are nine pictures up for the Best Picture category, with five nominations in the Best Director category, including Steven Spielberg for “Lincoln,” with “Lincoln” also up for Best Picture.  The films receiving the most nominations was “Lincoln” with twelve, followed by “Life of Pi” with eleven.

There are also a number of special achievements in the 85th Academy Awards, such as “Amour” (French) becoming the first film in twelve years to be nominated for both Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film, with the last film doing so in 2000. Emmanuelle Riva, at 85, became the oldest nominee in the Best Actress category as well in the history of the awards. “Silver Linings Playbook” also became the first film in 31 years to receive nominations in all four acting categories, with the last film accomplishing this in 1981. Additionally, for the first time in the history of the awards, the Best Supporting Actor category consists only of previous winners, with Alan Arkin, Tommy Lee Jones, Christoph Waltz, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Robert De Niro being nominated in the category. (Now that is a star-studded [supporting] lineup.)

I have seen five of the nine nominated films for the Best Picture category, (“Argo,” “Django Unchained,” “Lincoln,” “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Zero Dark Thirty”,) and I thought all of them were equally great films in their own respective ways. Each film is completely different from the next, but whether it was comedy, drama, or action, the films were great examples of superior filmmaking, and I am excited to see which film comes out on top.

More Information:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/oscars/2013/

New Documentary from Keanu Reeves

Interview

“Side by Side,” a documentary directed by Christopher Kenneally and produced by Justin Szlasa and Keanu Reeves, will be released to theaters tomorrow. It premiered at the 2012 Berlin International Film Festival and was also shown at the Tribeca Film Festival. The film takes a tour of the past and future of filmmaking, and tracks the losses and gains of Hollywood’s move to digital cinema. By doing this, the documentary asks dozens of film-makers, including “legends” such as James Cameron, David Fincher, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Soderbergh about working in an industry that is changing rapidly in the digital age. The main goal of the movie was to explore the spectrum of opinion in the industry, at a time when both film and digital are still used to shoot.

The popular film aggregator and forum website “Rotten Tomatoes” has already given the film a “certified fresh” 95% of positive reviews, amongst almost 60 critics. As an obvious lover of films, I am very excited for this film and I hope to see it, and see how filmmakers feel about our changing movie industry, and see what direction Keanu Reeves takes it in.

Interview: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/feb/14/keanu-reeves-future-of-cinema

Super Bowl Sunday Helping the Super-Hero

Last Sunday, February 3rd, the Super Bowl showed a trailer for Iron Man 3 during the commercials. This movie will be the third installment of the Tony Stark legacy, and for the Iron Man series. This is big news for the movie world, because of the past success and records that the previous Iron Mans have won.

The original Iron Man, which was released in 2008, soared in the box office, grossing $35.2 million on its first day, giving it the thirteenth biggest opening day of all time currently, and grossing almost $99 million on its opening weekend, making it the ninth biggest wide release in terms of theaters of all-time, along with also having the second-best premiere for a non-sequel, and the fourth biggest-opening for a superhero film. In 2010, Iron Man 2 grossed $128 million in its opening weekend, making it the fifth-highest opening weekend ever. Both films also were nominated in the Academy Awards in their respective years, with Iron Man up for nomination for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Editing, and Iron Man 2 additionally for Best Visual Effects.

Directed by Shane Black, the movie will star some new people in this installment, including Oscar-winner Ben Kingsley as the villain, The Mandarin, and Rebecca Hall, who starred in 2010 film The Town as Ben Affleck’s love interest. It was also announced, that there will be a fourth film released as well. I have seen the first two films, and I thoroughly enjoyed both, with both films having a great combination of comedy and action, so I am excited for this third installment, as are many other people I am sure. Iron Man 3 will be released May 3rd, 2013 in all United States theaters.