Latest Movies
Sunday 17 August 2014
Tuesday 12 August 2014
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Peter Parker finds
that his greatest battle is about to begin. It's great to be Spider-Man
(Andrew Garfield). For Peter Parker, there's no feeling quite like
swinging between skyscrapers, embracing being the hero, and spending
time with Gwen (Emma Stone). But being Spider-Man comes at a price: only
Spider-Man can protect his fellow New Yorkers from the formidable
villains that threaten the city .
With the emergence of Electro (Jamie Foxx), Peter must confront a foe
far more powerful than he. And as his old friend, Harry Osborn (Dane
DeHaan), returns, Peter comes to realize that all of his enemies have
one thing in common: Oscorp
Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier (2014)
After the
cataclysmic events in New York with his fellow Avengers, Steve Rogers,
aka Capt. America (Chris Evans), lives in the nation's capital as he
tries to adjust to modern times. An attack on a S.H.I.E.L.D. colleague
throws Rogers into a web of intrigue that places the whole world at
risk. Joining forces with the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and a new
ally, the Falcon, Rogers struggles to expose an ever-widening conspiracy, but he and his team soon come up against an unexpected enemy.
22 Jump Street (2014) Action Movie
After making their
way through high school (twice), big changes are in store for officers
Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) when they go deep
undercover at a local college. But when Jenko meets a kindred spirit on
the football team, and Schmidt infiltrates the bohemian art major scene,
they begin to question their partnership. Now they don't have to just
crack the case - they have
to figure out if they can have a mature relationship. If these two
overgrown adolescents can grow from freshmen into real men, college
might be the best thing that ever happened to them.
Divergent (2014) Action Movie
In a world where
people are divided into distinct factions based on human virtues, Tris
Prior is warned she is Divergent and will never fit into any one group.
When she discovers a conspiracy by a faction leader to destroy all
Divergents, Tris must learn to trust in the mysterious Four and together
they must find out what makes being Divergent so dangerous before it's
too late
The First Trailer for 'Camp X-Ray' Showcases a Different Side of Kristen Stewart
The Teen Choice Awards have been throwing surfboards at the most popular things in teen pop culture for over a decade, and last night's ceremony continued the tradition with huge wins for films like The Fault in our Stars and Divergent. While the organization doesn't always lend to the most surprising list of winners, but there have been cases where shockingly good (and shockingly bad) things have walked away with the night's big prizes. Here is our list of the top five best and worst winners of the Teen Choice Awards.
The Best
Black Swan
Who knew teens loved Darren Aronofsky? The soul-crushing drama Black Swan earned the director the well-deserved Teen Choice Award for Choice Drama, something even the Academy Awards failed to do that year. You can't surf an Oscar, so we'd say Mr. Aronofsky came out ahead.
Toy Story 3The Teen Choice awards rightly heralded Pixar's Toy Story 3 as the best animated film of 2010, presumably because it was impossible to vote for The Vampire Diaries in this category.
Jennifer Hudson for DreamgirlsActress and singer Jennifer Hudson was awarded the hallowed surfboard in 2007 for her theater-shaking performance in Dreamgirls. We're sure the gigantic, sea-worthy trophy enjoys a place of distinction right next to Hudson's Academy Award, which the actress won for the same performance.
The Sixth Sense
Back in 2000, when director M. Night Shyamalan was being heralded as the next Spielberg (boy have things changed), the filmmaker netted the Teen Choice Award for Choice Drama for his spooky thriller, The Sixth Sense.
The Hunger Games: Catching FireThe second installment in the Hunger Games franchise winning the award for Choice sci-fi film has always been a foregone conclusion, given the film's audience, but The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is actually a fantastic science fiction film in its own right, and the best one to be released in 2013. The film would have won the award regardless of its quality, but a broken clock is right twice a day, and this time, it was on the money.
The Worst
Taylor Lautner for Abduction
Residual heat from the Twilight series is the only explanation we can fathom for Taylor Lautner winning anything for Abduction. Despite the fact that hardly anyone actually bothered to see the film (it only managed to gross $28 million domestically) and it was universally panned by critics (currently sitting pretty at a 4 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), the actor walked away with the Choice Action Star flotation device in 2011. The film also won the award for Choice Action Film over Mission Impossible: Ghost Protoc0l, but let's not even open up that can of worms.
Rihanna for Battleship2012's Battleship didn't do Taylor Kitsch many favors, but it did net Rihanna an award for acting. The R&B mega-star took home the Choice Breakout Star award, even though her performance is almost exclusively made up of one line utterances and exclamations like "What happened?", "Ahhhhhhh!", and "You look like Colonel Sanders, actually." The even bigger crime was that Noomi Rapace was passed over in the same category.
Adam DeVine for Pitch PerfectNow there's nothing particularly awful or even wrong with Adam DeVine's smarmy performance in Pitch Perfect. In fact, we even sort of liked him in the movie. Unfortunately, DeVine earns a spot on this list for the sheer quality of talent he beat out for the Choice Villain award. Acting heavyweights Javier Bardem, Tom Hardy, and Ben Kingsley left the Teen Choice Awards empty handed in favor of DeVine.
Drake Bell for Superhero MovieThankfully, the string of awful spoof movies that ran rampant in the 2000s is finally over, but back in the craze's heyday, Drake Bell won the Choice Breakout Star award for Superhero Movie. Anyone that has seen more than one frame of Superhero Movie knows why that's a travesty.
Ashton Kutcher for KillersRemember that film with Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl where Kutcher plays a secret assassin? No? Good
The Best
Black Swan
Who knew teens loved Darren Aronofsky? The soul-crushing drama Black Swan earned the director the well-deserved Teen Choice Award for Choice Drama, something even the Academy Awards failed to do that year. You can't surf an Oscar, so we'd say Mr. Aronofsky came out ahead.
Toy Story 3The Teen Choice awards rightly heralded Pixar's Toy Story 3 as the best animated film of 2010, presumably because it was impossible to vote for The Vampire Diaries in this category.
Jennifer Hudson for DreamgirlsActress and singer Jennifer Hudson was awarded the hallowed surfboard in 2007 for her theater-shaking performance in Dreamgirls. We're sure the gigantic, sea-worthy trophy enjoys a place of distinction right next to Hudson's Academy Award, which the actress won for the same performance.
The Sixth Sense
Back in 2000, when director M. Night Shyamalan was being heralded as the next Spielberg (boy have things changed), the filmmaker netted the Teen Choice Award for Choice Drama for his spooky thriller, The Sixth Sense.
The Hunger Games: Catching FireThe second installment in the Hunger Games franchise winning the award for Choice sci-fi film has always been a foregone conclusion, given the film's audience, but The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is actually a fantastic science fiction film in its own right, and the best one to be released in 2013. The film would have won the award regardless of its quality, but a broken clock is right twice a day, and this time, it was on the money.
The Worst
Taylor Lautner for Abduction
Residual heat from the Twilight series is the only explanation we can fathom for Taylor Lautner winning anything for Abduction. Despite the fact that hardly anyone actually bothered to see the film (it only managed to gross $28 million domestically) and it was universally panned by critics (currently sitting pretty at a 4 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), the actor walked away with the Choice Action Star flotation device in 2011. The film also won the award for Choice Action Film over Mission Impossible: Ghost Protoc0l, but let's not even open up that can of worms.
Rihanna for Battleship2012's Battleship didn't do Taylor Kitsch many favors, but it did net Rihanna an award for acting. The R&B mega-star took home the Choice Breakout Star award, even though her performance is almost exclusively made up of one line utterances and exclamations like "What happened?", "Ahhhhhhh!", and "You look like Colonel Sanders, actually." The even bigger crime was that Noomi Rapace was passed over in the same category.
Adam DeVine for Pitch PerfectNow there's nothing particularly awful or even wrong with Adam DeVine's smarmy performance in Pitch Perfect. In fact, we even sort of liked him in the movie. Unfortunately, DeVine earns a spot on this list for the sheer quality of talent he beat out for the Choice Villain award. Acting heavyweights Javier Bardem, Tom Hardy, and Ben Kingsley left the Teen Choice Awards empty handed in favor of DeVine.
Drake Bell for Superhero MovieThankfully, the string of awful spoof movies that ran rampant in the 2000s is finally over, but back in the craze's heyday, Drake Bell won the Choice Breakout Star award for Superhero Movie. Anyone that has seen more than one frame of Superhero Movie knows why that's a travesty.
Ashton Kutcher for KillersRemember that film with Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl where Kutcher plays a secret assassin? No? Good
How Michael Bay Can Make a Better 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Sequel
The sullen critical reaction to the latest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie is unsurprising, but the box office intake for the Michael Bay-produced feature's opening weekend might warrant a double take: early numbers indicate that Turtles took in $65 million, a sum that allowed the flick to trounce expectations by 20 grand, top Guardians of the Galaxy by a similar figure, and — perhaps worst of all — spawn a sequel. Via the Los Angeles Times, Paramount is moving forward with a second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, already scheduled for 2016.
Considering the fact that Turtles was hardly the worst thing
we've seen this year (perhaps not even the worst thing to come from
Michael Bay, in fact), we don't want to write off the newly developing
follow-up just yet. There might be a way to save this '16-bound film,
but it'll entail a few major changes to the process that brought us this
year's Turtle movie:
1) Clean up the Turtles' look
The choice to make the Turtle brothers look darker, grittier, and more "real" this time around is a particularly confusing one considering how broad and silly the film goes with its material. The grotesque appearance of the foursome doesn't mesh whatsoever with the tone of the movie, nor is it at all pleasant to look at. A dramatic redesign might not be necessary, but something smoother, cleaner, and altogether sillier would benefit future audiences. Splinter, on the other hand, could use a complete makeover.
The choice to make the Turtle brothers look darker, grittier, and more "real" this time around is a particularly confusing one considering how broad and silly the film goes with its material. The grotesque appearance of the foursome doesn't mesh whatsoever with the tone of the movie, nor is it at all pleasant to look at. A dramatic redesign might not be necessary, but something smoother, cleaner, and altogether sillier would benefit future audiences. Splinter, on the other hand, could use a complete makeover.
2) Replace Jonathan Liebesman as director
Liebesman proved with Turtles that he is still developing his directorial skill set. A filmmaker with an established understanding of how to harmonize action and comedy would serve the second feature well.
Liebesman proved with Turtles that he is still developing his directorial skill set. A filmmaker with an established understanding of how to harmonize action and comedy would serve the second feature well.
3) More time on the shelled foursome
With so much ground to cover in regards to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' nonsensical plot, too much time was spent away from the Turtles themselves. Although they might not be the work of comic genius, they were more or less endearing in the grand scheme of things. More Turtles, less everything else. Oh, and for that matter...
With so much ground to cover in regards to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' nonsensical plot, too much time was spent away from the Turtles themselves. Although they might not be the work of comic genius, they were more or less endearing in the grand scheme of things. More Turtles, less everything else. Oh, and for that matter...
4) Simply, simplify, simplify!
Whoever it was that demanded this movie's premise to be more tiered and complicated than A Most Wanted Man does not understand the appeal of the Ninja Turtles. Keep things light, simple, and straightforward. We don't need several dozen conspiracies, puppet regimes, and plot twists. Oh, and for THAT matter...
Whoever it was that demanded this movie's premise to be more tiered and complicated than A Most Wanted Man does not understand the appeal of the Ninja Turtles. Keep things light, simple, and straightforward. We don't need several dozen conspiracies, puppet regimes, and plot twists. Oh, and for THAT matter...
5) Enough with that one sci-fi contrivance that seems to be popping up in every big movie this year.
If you don't know what I'm talking about (I'm being coy for fear of spoilers) check out Mike Ryan's excellent diatribe against the phenomenon.
If you don't know what I'm talking about (I'm being coy for fear of spoilers) check out Mike Ryan's excellent diatribe against the phenomenon.
6) Oust Will Arnett's character
Will Arnett is an adroit comic actor, but his character in Turtles is about as pointless as a pastel bandit mask on the face of a gigantic reptilian vigilante. If April O'Neil had her own car, Arnett's character's contribution would have been instantly nullified.
Will Arnett is an adroit comic actor, but his character in Turtles is about as pointless as a pastel bandit mask on the face of a gigantic reptilian vigilante. If April O'Neil had her own car, Arnett's character's contribution would have been instantly nullified.
7) Encourage an actual performance out of Megan Fox
While Turtles can get rid of Arnett without missing a beat, it's unlikely that Fox can be dismissed so easily (although there Bay-universe is precedent for such banishment). If we're stuck with her, then let's at least try to get her invested in the story and character this time; all she does in this latest Turtles entry is babble flat exposition and grimace in ambiguous dread.
While Turtles can get rid of Arnett without missing a beat, it's unlikely that Fox can be dismissed so easily (although there Bay-universe is precedent for such banishment). If we're stuck with her, then let's at least try to get her invested in the story and character this time; all she does in this latest Turtles entry is babble flat exposition and grimace in ambiguous dread.
8) Make Michelangelo less creepy
An innocent crush on April O'Neil would be fine, but Michelangelo's character was full on sexual deviant with his obsessive come-ons and offhand erection jokes.
An innocent crush on April O'Neil would be fine, but Michelangelo's character was full on sexual deviant with his obsessive come-ons and offhand erection jokes.
9) Stop destroying New York City
We've seen it. We're sick of it. It weighs hard on those of us who actually live here. Enough.
We've seen it. We're sick of it. It weighs hard on those of us who actually live here. Enough.
10) Krang!
His big screen debut is long overdue.
His big screen debut is long overdue.
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