Ben Affleck impressed a lot of people with Gone Baby Gone and The Town, but while we were only half impressed with his Boston rendition of HEAT, he still has some undeniable talent. His next project is an ambitious story which details the declassified events about a hostage crisis that took place in Iran on November 4th, 1979. 6 of 52 American hostages managed to escape the siege when militants stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Taking refuge in the home of the Canadian ambassador, the film shows the efforts that CIA “exfiltration” specialist Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) came up with to get them safely out of the country. Have a look for yourselves……
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Ohhh, Look…In Case You Missed It – Marvel Easter Eggs Leading Up To The Avengers
Now that everyone who got to see The Avengers this weekend helped contriute to its $200.3 Million opening, let me ask you, how did you like it? Well it should be no secret that we loved it. But while it was the culmination of the 6 origin stories that preceded it, it’s not exactly more than the sum of its parts. Hints, references, reveals and Easter Eggs aplenty from the Marvel universe have been carefully placed in each film leading up to The Avengers, but were you able to catch them all? Hopefully if you haven’t see The Avengers yet, and if it’s been a while since you saw Captain America, Thor, and both…
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"What’s New on Blu?” – Week of 05/07/12
Whether you rent or buy movies, Blu-ray offers the ultimate in sight and sound. Streaming is convenient, but if you plan on watching the movie more than once, you need Blu. Check out what’s hitting the shelves this week… ——————————————————————————————————————————— Underworld: Awakening is about the vampire warrioress Selene, who escapes imprisonment to find herself in a world where humans have discovered the existence of both Vampire and Lycan clans and are conducting an all-out war to eradicate both immortal species. For fans of both Kate Beckinsale, and the series, run out and grab your copy this week. I plan on picking up the 3D Blu-ray myself. Blu-ray Release Date (U.S.): …
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G-S-T Review…The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Older actors have fewer and fewer roles. Sure, some male leads have consistent roles here and there (often as villains who don’t do any action), but the women have little to show. The Hollywood system is cruel in that it will use you for the best years of your life and spit you out just when you become comfortable. Not so in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Oscar-winning director John Madden’s latest. The film follows a group of retirees in England who decide to take a chance and jump at an advertisement for an exotic hotel in India recently renovated just for the “elderly and beautiful”. These leads to many interesting…
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G-S-T Review…The Avengers
After leaving The Avengers, the first thought likely to come to mind is wow, wow and more WOW. That’s right comic friends, Joss Whedon isn’t joking around with this one. He delivers the comic book experience fans have been anticipating since Stan Lee co-created these iconic heroes decades ago. In what is the most ambitious and large scale comic film to date, there is no shortage of spectacle, excitement and near-epic story all rolled into one 142 minute feature. Whedon is known for being a fan boy at heart and as such delivers this film with such respect to not only the comics but also, and maybe more importantly, the fans. Nothing…
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G-S-T Review…Sound of My Voice
Following the success of her previous film Another Earth, Brit Marling gives us a new story, on par with Christopher Nolan level brilliance, that similarly messes with your mind and your beliefs. Sound of My Voice is about a purported time traveler, only there’s no machine, no demarcation of time, no futuristic setting or locales and probably most depressing of all, there’s no real proof. So what makes this interesting? Like Nacho Vigalondo has done with did with Timecrimes, the film shows that a less-is-more approach can make for a very engaging story. Sound of My Voice grabs hold of you and never lets go, nor do you want it to. Like curiosity that killed the cat, once it gets going you,…
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“The CineMagic 8-Ball” – In Theaters 5/4/12
When so many movies are released each weekend and trailers often seem better than the movie itself, what should one do? In this precarious situation, we consult the The CineMagic 8-Ball (TM) to help us see through the nebulous marketing haze. Doing so just might save us all a disheartening trip to the cinema and spare us unnecessarily springing for $7 popcorn. See what the 8-Ball says about this week’s releases… Annd since everyone in the world is probably planning to see The Avengers, here are some alternatives if you didn’t pre-order your tickets and can’t get into Joss Whedon’s comic book blockbuster this weekend. ——————————————————————————————————————————————- THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL British retirees travel to India…
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Sweet 2nd Trailer…The Expendables 2
While we were sorely let down by Sly’s original opus The Expendables the entertainment and America is all about underdogs and second chances right? Case in point. Going for a bigger and badder but still deliciously 80’s era outing, Sly gets the band of bad-asses back together for Lionsgate’s The Expendables 2. This time Sly has given the helm to Simon West (Con Air, The Mechanic) to spend more time in front of the camera which, we hope, this time is a good thing. Anyway, lock and load, The Expendables 2 is going in hot… Sly (as Barney Ross) is again joined by Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, Randy…
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[USAFF Review]…The Giant Mechanical Man
In Lee Kirk’s indie film The Giant Mechanical Man, two lost individuals find that they are not as alone or hopeless as they think they are. Janice (Jenna Fischer) can’t hold down her temp jobs and Tim (Chris Messina) spends his days as a thankless street performer; a silver painted, dry-wall stilt wearing 9 foot “mechanical man“. When nothing is going right, their paths cross and they prove to be the only one who truly understands the other, especially when the world thinks they’re both nuts. Sure, details aside, this has the set up of many films (indie or otherwise) you’ve seen before: quirky character A meets quirky character B, romance ensues, roll credits.…
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[IFFBoston Review]…Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
There’s a degree to which the story of Chinese artist-activist Ai Weiwei– filtered through the lens of director Allison Klayman– is incomprehensible. Not in terms of our ability to latch onto and absorb the information Klayman conveys to us, mind; referring to craft and technique, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry has much and more to recommend it. Supporting all of that is the compelling narrative Klayman constructs about Ai’s life, career, and confrontations with Chinese authorities, and that final detail represents the element that makes the film so difficult to process. Ai, perceptive, compassionate, and endlessly clever, lives in a world where creative expression can lead to a person vanishing into…
