Movies

SAG-AFTRA is praising a federal appellate court decision on Tuesday that may bolster performers’ ability to control the use of their likenesses and images. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals said that Ryan Hart, a former star quarterback at Rutgers University, could again pursue his case against Electronic Arts, in which he alleged that the... Read more »

Docu helmer's technique blends flashes of melodrama with such naturalistic choices as shooting on location and working mostly with non-actors, resulting in a challenging fiction/nonfiction hybrid that’s stylistically neither fish nor fowl.

Jose here. I succumbed to what felt like a Satine-sque bout of consumption over the weekend and to show her sympathy Nicole Kidman stopped showing up at Cannes events. What do you mean she doesn't know who I am? She made two appearances on Sunday bringing the one accessory she'd been hiding so far, her husband Keith Urban. Who She Wore: her face designer L'Wrenn Scott Which Director She's Trying to Lure: this dreamlike blue, red and black leaf pattern was obviously made to grab the attention of the mysterious Apichatpong Weerasethakul who's known for his exotic settings and even weirder plots. (Nicole calls him "Joe" like the rest of the world but knows how to pronounce his name.) If this dress doesn't scream Uncle Boonmee then I don't know what does... What "Charlotte Bless" would think of this: "Mmhmm" More Kidman and the big Keith reveal pics after the jump...

Microsoft has scored a touchdown. The company announced a deal with the NFL, worth around $400 million over the next five years, to develop technology that will make watching football more interactive for fans who use the Xbox One videogame console and other Microsoft devices that feature Xbox Live. Partnership is the latest digital step... Read more »

Universal's "Endless Love" remake starring Alex Pettyfer and Gabriella Wilde has been slated for release on Valentine's Day 2014.http://www.hitfix.com

Director Michael Bay’s untitled Transformers 3 sequel (a.k.a. Transformers 4) will be one of those movies that blurs the line between what is considered a full-blown reboot and franchise re-tooling. It will not break narrative continuity with the previous Transformers films; yet, it features an entirely new cast of human players and will introduce multiple robots-in-disguise that haven’t made the jump to live-action form before now. The most-recently developed version of Jurassic Park IV has been described as a similar continuation of the over-arching story set in motion by director Steven Spielberg’s 1993 blockbuster - based on the late Michael Crichton’s novel – and its sequels, The Lost World and Jurassic Park III. However, JP4 is expected to stray away from all the previous films’ narrative formula (i.e. humans travel to an island that ...Click to continue reading Sam Neill Talks ‘Jurassic Park 4′; Not Likely to Return as Dr. Alan Grant

Guillermo Del Toro's 'Pacific Rim' is opening soon, and a new video today explains one of the film's biggest ideas, 'The Drift,' which allows two pilots to work together to drive the giant robots called Jaegers.http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/motion-captured

The second trailer for the action thriller (and comedy?) starring Jamie Foxx and Channing Tatum has been released online. It presents a standard premise in an until recently fresh setting – John Cale (Tatum) must rescue the President (Foxx) from …

This is a great Anime that is more unexpected then typical fantasy comedy romance ones. The story starts with Ririchyo a Girl who comes from a very wealthy family whom is sent to live in a special Hotel with other special wealthy people who each get their own Personal Body Guard. This one starts very typical with a few silly moments put in here and there. Until it gets to a point where some would be thieves decide to rob the residents. Its then revealed that the reason for the tight security and the Body Guards is not to Protect the Residents from the outside, but actually to protect the outside from the Residents. Every Resident and Body Guard are not what they seam and are actually quite powerful and dangerous if they want to be. In addition to this revelation, the viewers are also introduced to a budding love story between Ririchyo and her would be Body Guard. What makes this an excellent series is how it introduces the Audience to all the characters. Their personalities couldn’t be more different; she hides her shyness by being harsh with everybody and he is so desperate to please her that he is almost obsequious. Over the course of the series it becomes clear that she has feelings for him but it seems impossible that she will find away of expressing them. The other characters are an entertaining bunch which includes a self-styled delinquent who turns into a cute tanuki (Japanese raccoon dog) Ririchiyo’s ‘fiancé’ Kagero who believes everything is either sadistic or masochistic and Zange, a character who doesn’t appear to take anything too seriously. I rather enjoyed this series; at only twelve episodes it did not outstay its welcome; in fact I wouldn’t have minded if it had been longer. The characters are an entertaining bunch that provided plenty of chuckles. While it was fairly obvious that by the end Ririchiyo and Soshi would end up together there were some twists and turns along the way that made it seem possible that they wouldn’t. A background is given for all of them to give them all depth. This allows a viewer to understand the point of view of each character no matter who they are. Also an excellent attention to detail from one episode to the next is kept. What i mean by this is that if there is damage or something happens in a previous episode, this is recalled later which has an effect on the later episodes. Each episode is mostly encapsulated story wise so that the viewer doesn’t have to recall every single episode to keep up. And the comedy is superb with its flare of making fun of differing character types. It should be noted though that this series has a story that does not follow the Comic/Manga exactly. In essence its a retelling of the story in a differing way. With superb Animations and dialogue this is a definite must watch for anyone who is interested Fantasy/Comedy/Romance genre animes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krjnRF7esOc This DVD collection offers all 12 episodes from the series along with another “episode” that appears to be three shorts that I had never seen before. The shorts do require that you see the series to fully understand but no one in the client-agent class of residents from this apartment complex is left out. These shorts also touch upon later issues of the first manga series. Personally I found the English voice actors to be good but there were a few awkward moments when they spoke over each other and a voice seemed out of place; that’s an issue for the English version director. The subtitled version does not seem to have these issues. A very unusual romance with absurdity and a touch of kink makes this not for children but perhaps also not for every adult. The comedy is fairly gentle with little to offend and there isn’t too much fan service… although some viewers may think Nobara, the large chested blonde girl crosses the line a few times! Overall this is a fun series which is well worth watching if

Running Out Of Time was a box office success. Johnnie To decided to create a sequel to the film with Lau Ching-Wan coming back to reprise his role as Inspector Ho but something was missing. Andy Lau is nowhere in sight to cause havoc for Inspector Ho. Instead, Ekin Cheng replaces Andy Lau and plays the thief who will give Inspector Ho fits. How would their chemistry compare to the irreplaceable chemistry between Andy Lau and Lau Ching-Wan’s characters? How would Inspector Ho deal with this new adversary? Is Ekin Cheng a magician? Sorry, that last question isn’t really relevant. Or is it? Ekin Cheng plays a nameless thief (cause what’s cooler than a character with no name?) who brings Inspector Ho back into his comfort zone: a cat and mouse game with thieves. Inspector Ho is puzzled by this nameless thief and tries to figure out why this nameless thief is doing the wrong that he is doing. Later on, he teams up with a businesswoman played by Kelly Lin who is involved with the nameless thief because he has three priceless artifacts insured by Lin’s business. There is something about 20 million Hong Kong dollars in fake money and an eagle because the nameless thief trains birds. Unlike the first film, which gave Andy Lau’s character a reason for doing his cat and mouse game with Inspector Ho, the reason that there is a cat and mouse game in this film is not given. The character just smiles for the camera and acts like a complete clown. To put it lightly, their chemistry is nowhere near as relevant as Andy Lau and Lau Ching-Wan’s. The acting is okay with Lau Ching-Wan being the only real reason to smile but everyone else is just there to get a paycheck. Assistant Commissioner Wong Kai-Fat becomes even more of an idiot in this film and he almost destroys Inspector Ho’s case in the process which begs the question; why is he still a police officer? Shouldn’t he be fired? Did he get his brain removed? Does he owe Inspector Ho a favor or something? Kelly Lin’s acting is also unreliable and while she looks good, her acting is anything but. Ekin Cheng had to resort to using smoke bombs and magic tricks while Andy Lau just left without making a sound. Either Ekin Cheng’s character was a super genius or the cops in this movie were very, very stupid. While the film is mildly enjoyable, there is nothing here to truly recommend for people to watch. If anything, check out the first film because that film is a film that showcases Johnnie To’s directing abilities. The humor usually falls flat and the drama does not add any tension at all and it feels like everyone was trying WAY too hard to top the first film. If this film was in any other person’s hands, this film may have been a much worse film but regardless; this is a miss in Johnnie To’s resume.