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

‘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.

Silver Linings Playbook Lining up for Gold

‘Silver Linings Playbook’ First Film in 31 Years Nominated in All 4 Acting Categories for Oscars

The romantic comedy-drama film released in November 2012 accomplished a feat that has not been done in over 30 years. The film is competing in all possible acting categories for the Academy Awards, with Jennifer Lawrence in the Best Actress category, Robert De Niro for Best Supporting Actor, and Bradley Cooper up for Best Actor. Additionally, actress Jacki Weaver was nominated for Best Supporting Actress as De Niro’s forbearing wife. The last film to accomplish this was “Reds” (1981), and in fact, only 14 films in history have accomplished this feat. Directed by David O. Russell, if this film sweeps all the acting categories, it will be the first film to ever do so in the 85 year history of the Academy Awards. I saw this movie last December, and I truly believe the actors/actresses deserved their nomination. Each performance was almost flawless, and the movie was the epitome of what a romantic comedy/drama should be, where the characters cleverly develop throughout the movie, and the dramatic and comedic elements were cunningly put into the movie’s situations and dialogue, and balanced each other out very well. Out of the many movies I saw in 2012, “Silver Linings Playbook” was easily one of the best, if not the best.

The First Post

We all know it. We all love it. The shining lights and colorful cardboard cutouts in the lobby. The familiar smell of popcorn and other baked items being prepared behind the counter. For more than 100 years, people have been going to movies to laugh, cry, cringe, or applaud. It’s a way to escape from everyday life, or connect on levels that we never thought were possible. Whether it is in 90 minutes, or 200, movies can create scenes and convey messages that stick with us forever. There is nothing quite like the experience of going into a theater and watching and experiencing with others a flick on the “big screen.” Whether it is in the theater, or at home with a blanket and popcorn, there is no better way to relax by immersing yourself in all the different worlds movies present. Movies are in my opinion, the greatest form of entertainment, and a passion of mine, and I will be providing any movie-related news, box-office numbers, rumors, trailers and more!