47 Ronin Review

The critics might be unforgiving with 47 Ronin but I was amused with the story and the visuals and some other stuff. Here's my full review. 

47 Ronin follows the story of Kai, a half breed that's been a trained killer and grows up in humility in a prosperous town amidst Shogunate Japan. He falls in love, gets dissed and gets beaten up a lot. The main plot here is a nefarious scheme concocted by Lord Kira (Tadanobu Asano) and The Witch (Rinko Kikuchi) to take over the good kingdom and dishonor the former lord and his house's name. Then revenge, sword fights and dragons and a twist that you'll probably from a mile away. 

Reeves was a good pick for the role. It's not overdone and he's got the physicality to actually fight people with a katana. It's actually believable that he can jump around lopping peoples' heads off looking like an evil version of Peter Pan. Props for not making everything about him, in all honesty, Reeves had like 60% of the billing which was good because we need to actually like and root the other characters such as Oishi (Hiroyuki Tanada) and Mika (Ko Shibasaki). 

The visuals for the film were nice. Nothing we've never seen before; I did like the character designs for that chimera creature they were hunting as well as for Kikuchi's dragon form. The Tengus creeped me out (which should be good) but their way better than the last Tengus I've seen which was in Power Rangers: The Movie. 

Rinko Kikuchi looked like hell here. She looks like Farrah from Choudenshi Bioman. I'm much displeased... but that's part of the role so it has to be done. I like her character because it's a mix of "I don't care what you think" and "I'll do anything my lord", hell even her mannerisms were well fleshed out (i.e. sitting with her legs open, showing her legs, being deathly flirty with the princess). On the other hand you've got Ko Shibasaki who looks beautiful. Fine, I get that we can't expect her to really kick butt but I'm good with how she was written in this "adaptation" of the classic "47 Ronin" story. She did try and looked fine while doing it, so it's OK. 

Polarized on my look at the actors Hiroyuki Sanada and recent RP visitor Tadanobu Asano. Sanda's role had meat and he brought it to new heights. Asano had potential to really be an evil Nobunaga level character but it was done lazily. Actually that's two strikes now for Asano since he barely played jackshit in Thor: The Dark World (he's Hogun there BTW)

I like the touches of fantasy in this movie. It might not be everybody's cup of tea but I'm sold on that bit. After all, it's not overdone which might also explain why Kai is not using his powers (yes he has) too much in this movie. Oh and I'm giving this film bonus props for adding in Masayuki Deai (Bouken Silver and KyoryuGrey) as one of the Ronins.

Also I recommend seeing this in 2D as the 3D is barely visible. The money you save, you can buy popcorn with. 

47 Ronin is a decent movie. It's not even mediocre well, unless you factor in the fact that it just ripped the 47 Ronin story and twisted it sideways. Yes it might have bombed and is critically disparaged but if you want to wash down your MMFF grease with something more... 'worth your money' then this film is for you.

VERDICT: B++

Special thanks to SOLAR-UIP... 

47 RONIN NOW SHOWING IN THEATERS NATIONWIDE

Kenneth Branagh playing villain and directing Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.

Kenneth Branagh playing villain and directing Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.

When Kenneth Branagh is working on a project – whether it’s playing Macbeth in front of a small, lucky few in a deconsecrated church or directing, and starring in, a big Hollywood thriller, namely Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit – he wants the experience to be as authentic as possible.

The chance to direct a bang up to date contemporary thriller and to introduce Jack Ryan, a character who has featured in eight novels by Tom Clancy and several films based on his books, to a modern audience was one that he seized upon immediately. Quite simply, he says, the script was a ‘page turner’ – a great compliment from an actor and director who has seen plenty down the years.

Did you read the Jack Ryan novels before taking on this project?

I had read some, but not all of them. One that I read that was very helpful for this was one of the Russian set novels, The Cardinal of the Kremlin. It’s very effective and it’s about someone in the Russian military who decides to betray the military, and Jack Ryan goes to Russia. It was very interesting and it was helpful to look at some of those novels.

There have been movies featuring Jack Ryan in the past so was there anything you had to follow or acknowledge from what had gone before?

Nobody said ‘it has to be this or that’ but the thing that David Koepp and I both identified was that Jack Ryan is a man with a very brilliant mind – he is the best of the best and in that regard we took him right back to his academic time at the London School of Economics – and numerous Nobel Prize winning economists have come from there – but that he was, in many other senses, an everyman. So he has a revolutionary mind and a rather bourgeois background in terms of his life in Washington and Baltimore. So if you like, in the crudest sense, he is an everyman with a brilliant mind.

Does the villain who you play hark back to the Cold War?

I didn’t see it that way and I guess I would say that because I’m playing him (laughs). We never referred to him as the ‘villain’ or the ‘heavy guy.’ And I’ve just played Macbeth here in the summer and there were four other versions of Macbeth going on so everything has been done before, everything in the world of classical drama and in the world of richly trodden genre stuff, so there is no question that we have the elements of things with which we might be familiar. But for us, the starting point was, ‘who is Jack Ryan?’ Jack Ryan lives in a world that we live in and know about from newspapers today where you have people questioning what should remain secret and what should not be secret. Do secrets revealed endanger the lives of us all or endanger the lives of those who allegedly are operating on our behalf? And so apropos are its Cold War antecedents; it’s interesting and not as easy nowadays for someone like Jack Ryan to make a decision about how he enters the CIA. So the first third of our film is interesting territory where Kevin Costner’s character has to some extent persuade or explain to a Jack Ryan in the 21st century why potentially working for a covert operation, if you believe such things are possible anymore, is a sensible way to serve and help your country. And we explore the difference between America and Russia.

And there are the other divisions that we have in this movie, which are between East and West, old and young, older and younger in terms of protagonist and antagonist, and old empire and new empire – in this case old empire is America and new empire is Russia potentially. And it’s about financial empires and the way politics blurs into that and they are the kinds of things that Jack Ryan wants to know about and wants to take a view about. Jack Ryan is not a paid assassin; he’s not being de-programmed and doesn’t have a ton of fancy gadgets. He’s a guy with a really sharp mind who wants to know why he is doing what he has been asked to do so it means he asks a lot of questions up front before he decides he’s going to arrive abandoned, friendless, deceived and deceiving in Moscow.

Chris Pine was already attached when you came to the project. Why is he the right actor for Jack Ryan?

Chris is a very smart, sexy lad and he’s also very complex and has wit. I so loved his performance as Kirk in the first J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie. That’s a terrific movie with substance and it’s partly because the actors are all so good in it. Chris has intelligence and he has wit and he doesn’t take himself too seriously and he has a bit of a twinkle in his eye. Chris can make you believe that his Jack Ryan is as smart as we needed him to be but kind of also in terms of the image that we could present, very WASPY. And that’s what Jack Ryan is on the surface and we weren’t denying that kind of DNA. And Chris is a very, very committed actor and performer. And when he arrived we had supper together on a Sunday night and I hadn’t told him what I was planning to do.

So the preparation with Chris was all about linking up to various aspects of Jack Ryan’s life?

Yes. For example, we took him to a rehab hospital in the southeast of England where they work with war veterans and that helped in terms of understanding the types of injuries that he might have sustained in a helicopter accident that we witness in the movie and so we already were into a whole different territory in terms of what we wanted to do with that character. And so by the end of that week of preparation, the first week that Chris had arrived in England and into proper rehearsals, and as soon as you put him into a room with Costner or Keira Knightley, it started to feel like we were doing a sort of character piece that happened to have an action movie built around it. And yes, we’ve seen Russian villains before, we’ve seen East versus West before, we’ve seen spy movies before, but our chance to make it different or original was to try and bring that specificity of character from the inside out and Chris was the one we started with and then we tried to apply it to everybody else.

What about casting the actor who plays the Russian villain?

(laughs). Yes, the director had a hand in casting that particular actor. He discovered he was very, very cheap and very available and we knew where he was every minute of the day. Paramount kept asking me to do it and so did Chris and I realized that with that part we had actually managed to stop people from talking about it as the ‘villain’ or ‘the baddie’ and they started talking about Victor or Cherevin and everything became a bit more specific.

incompetence at high levels within famous financial institutions or misappropriation of funds. And what we also know is that even if you put that financial bond in the perfect place and that is perfectly understood by a brilliant mind then, if all the variables we’ve talked about go together, it can be catastrophic and this does happen. There was an enormous impact, as we know, on the economy after 9/11 because of the reaction of the markets to that degree of instability, so it’s something that is part of what is considered by those who wish to destabilize the financial order from the point of view of terrorism.

Tell us about casting Keira Knightley as Cathy. A contemporary thriller seems like a bit of a departure from the kinds of roles she has done in the past…

Well first of all, we were trying to take the characters seriously and make sure that they have believable backgrounds. And essentially, one of the things David Koepp wanted to write about was deception inside a relationship. Jack and Cathy are not married at the beginning of the picture and Jack is hiding something. When you are in the CIA, you can’t tell people you are a covert operative unless you are married and so there is a pressure that ultimately becomes something that she is suspicious of. And he wants to marry her so that he can tell her he is in the CIA, which is obviously not very romantic if you choose to absorb it only in that way. She is a smart professional woman in her own right, she is an eye surgeon and we get a sense of her own world as a professional in this and that she is a strong and passionate character rather than just the frightened woman that can be part of the cliché traps of this world. And I’ve always thought that Keira is a terrific actress.

What was it like filming in Moscow?

It’s a hectic pace (laughs). I wasn’t quite geared up for how fast everybody drives in Moscow. I thought I had been in cities where people drive fast but they drive really fast in Moscow so crossing the road is tricky and if you are filming in the road, it’s very tricky. I found it no more or less challenging (than filming in other places) but it’s very noisy, very packed, and very dense and you have a sense of the landscape of that city changing very quickly. I felt that even in the time we were there I saw buildings go up and come down. There’s a lot of construction and it gives a kind of physical energy to the place – it’s fast and noisy and there’s a tremendous intensity. It was quite a contrast to our time in New York, a city of equal but different intensity. And for me as a filmmaker I’d not been to Moscow before so that was interesting to try and evoke what it was like and then evoke it elsewhere. I hadn’t shot as a director in New York before so that was interesting, too and in both cases we employed the policy that Jack Ryan has in the movie – we had to be very fast moving and light on our feet.

The intelligence agencies in the US and Britain have been in the news a lot lately, not least because of Wiki-Leaks. Do you think there should be subject to tighter controls about how intelligence is gathered?

I think it’s inevitable and necessary that there is a debate and the issue is addressed. The world has changed and without simply saying ‘our film is so contemporary’ it is true that one of the things David Koepp was interested in writing about was whether there is a line you draw beyond which we say to a government, an elected body in a so-called democratic society, ‘it’s all right, you make a decision for us, you decide what we need to know and if you think that a lot of people knowing this information makes us more at risk, then we empower you to make that choice.’ The spirit of the new digital age is that information should be available to everyone and it should democratize our lives. And that’s one point of view but on the other hand, we have so-called professionals telling us that it endangers us so it’s a pretty vital area of debate. And the first third of our film is Jack Ryan asking those things of Kevin Costner’s character and saying, ‘why would I join up?’ And also, ‘why would I join up and trust you? I might be one of those 50,000 secrets and the first thing that happens is my wife gets killed...’

Let’s talk about the character you play. Did you have any reference points in creating the character?

I think you look for anything where you feel you have been surprised by that kind of antagonist. You look at it from every which way. One was to look at the world of the Russian oligarch, ex Russian military – people from my generation who would have lived during the communist regime through to the explosion of the economic redevelopment with the invasion of other people who were telling the new Russia how to make money and then kicking out those people and saying, ‘no, we’ll have the money thank you very much..’ And then there were the political/ commercial turf wars and everything. Cherevin is of an age that he would have lived across all of that. And it was interesting to find models that had been there before the wall came down in another part of the empire and who had lived through a period of economic and social wild, Wild West as some people I spoke to described it. And to have survived all of that, you have to be pretty tough. And sometimes you don’t survive it even if you don’t stay in Russia – as we know there are instances of people who have met bitter ends here in the UK in unusual ways. So that generation lived across a revolutionary period and so that in itself was a way of understanding that this is a different kind of person who isn’t out to just rule the world.

‘Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit’ is released and distributed by United International Pictures through Solar Entertainment Corp. Showing January 15. Nationwide.

Rinko Kikuchi from Kaiju destroyer in ‘Pacific Rim’ to fighting Keanu Reeves in ‘47 Ronin’

Oscar-nominated RINKO KIKUCHI has shown range and depth with every role she plays.

Landed her first professional role in the Japanese film Ikitai in 1999. Since then, she has displayed her talent as an actress, starring in critically acclaimed Japanese films such as Hole in the Sky and The Taste of Tea, and continues to gain popularity within Japan’s film industry. In Universal Pictures, Oscar®-nominated Rinko Kikuchi, who came to worldwide attention with her stunning performance in Babel and was most recently seen in Pacific Rim, discusses her exposure to the legendary tale ’47 Ronin’ : “I’ve known this story since learning about it at school, but this film will be quite different from versions Japanese audiences have seen before. The creatures, sets and characters are totally new.” Brought onto the production to play the duplicitous Witch, the actress knew there would be challenging days ahead. “My character doesn’t exist in the original version, but she adds a fantasy element to this story and I had a lot of fun with it.”

Kikuchi was thrilled to play such a strong role. The actress sums: “It’s fun to play such a wild female. Carl told me my part would be provocative, sexy and wild. The Witch is a shape-shifter who is clairvoyant and play tricks on others, but she is not a typical witch. She has the heart of a woman, but she just follows her instincts.”

Director Carl Rinsch’s goal has been to show audiences a side to Japan none have ever seen, while simultaneously paying homage to the country’s cultural traditions. “The Japanese want to see something new, too,” Kikuchi adds. “Rather than a traditional story performed and created just by the Japanese, we would love to see this traditional story from a new angle. This film strikes a perfect balance between what is universal and something totally creative and new.”

Kikuchi was catapulted onto the international feature film scene with her Academy Award®-nominated role for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel. Playing the role of young deaf high-schooler Chieko with fervent energy and commitment, Kikuchi achieved an outstanding reputation around the world for her dramatic performance. The film garnered seven Academy Award® nominations, securing Kikuchi’s status as one of Hollywood’s leading young actresses.

Kikuchi followed up her success with a number of highly acclaimed international films such as Rian Johnson’s The Brothers Bloom, with Adrien Brody and Rachel Weisz; Isabel Coixet’s Map of the Sounds of Tokyo, with Serge Lopez; Mikael Håfström’s Shanghai, with John Cusack and Ken Watanabe; and Anh Hung Tran’s Norwegian Wood, a highly anticipated adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s international bestselling novel of the same name. Kikuchi hails from Hadano, Japan, and is a skilled sword fighter as well as an accomplished motorcyclist and horseback rider. In 2007, she was named one of Variety’s 10 Actors to Watch.

‘’47 RONIN’’ is released and distributed by United International Pictures through Solar Entertainment Corporation. Showing JANUARY 2014.

Rest in Peace Department: The Greatest Lawmen to Live and Die

Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds headline the 3D supernatural action-adventure R.I.P.D. as two cops dispatched by the otherworldly Rest In Peace Department to protect and serve the living from an increasingly destructive array of souls who refuse to move peacefully to the other side.

Veteran sheriff Roy Pulsifer (Bridges) has spent his career with the legendary police force known as R.I.P.D. tracking monstrous spirits who are cleverly disguised as ordinary people. His mission? To arrest and bring to justice a special brand of criminals trying to escape final judgment by hiding among the unsuspecting on Earth.

Once the wise-cracking Roy is assigned former rising-star detective Nick Walker (Reynolds) as his junior officer, the new partners have to turn grudging respect into top-notch teamwork. When they uncover a plot that could end life as we know it, two of R.I.P.D.’s finest must miraculously restore the cosmic balance...or watch the tunnel to the afterlife begin sending angry souls the very wrong way.

Starring alongside Bridges and Reynolds in R.I.P.D. are KEVIN BACON (X-Men: First Class) as Bobby Hayes, Nick’s partner before he’s taken out in the line of duty; MARY-LOUISE PARKER (television’s Weeds) as Proctor, Nick and Roy’s tough-as-nails bureau chief in the R.I.P.D.; and STEPHANIE SZOSTAK (Iron Man 3) as Julia, Nick’s widow who must find out the reason behind his untimely departure before she is forced to play an unwelcome role in the world’s end.

Rounding out the cast of supporting roles are legendary character actor JAMES HONG (Blade Runner) as Nick’s very unexpected elderly avatar and supermodel MARISA MILLER (television’s Gary Unmarried) as Roy’s very sexy one. Playing three felons on the run from the R.I.P.D. are ROBERT KNEPPER (TV’s Cult) as the pack rat Stanley Nawicki, MIKE O’MALLEY (TV’s Glee) as the Boston Red Sox-obsessed Elliot and DEVIN RATRAY (Side Effects) as the swaggering, Elvis-inspired Pulaski.

R.I.P.D. is directed by Robert Schwentke (Red) and produced by Neal H. Moritz (Fast & Furious series, I Am Legend), Mike Richardson (Hellboy, Hellboy II: The Golden Army) and Michael Fottrell (Fast & Furious series, Live Free or Die Hard).

R.I.P.D. is based on the Dark Horse comic created by PETER M. LENKOV (television’s 24, Hawaii Five-0), and it is from a story by DAVID DOBKIN (Wedding Crashers, The Change-Up) & PHIL HAY & MATT MANFREDI (Clash of the Titans, upcoming Ride Along). The film’s screenplay is by Hay & Manfredi.

Executive producers on R.I.P.D. are ORI MARMUR (The Green Hornet), Reynolds, JONATHON KOMACK MARTIN (The Change-Up), Dobkin, KEITH GOLDBERG (17 Again) and Lenkov.

“RIPD” is now showing in theaters nationwide is released and distributed by United International Pictures through Solar Entertainment Corporation.

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‘Chloë Grace Moretz’ Hit Girl is back in Kick-Ass 2

Kick-Ass wouldn’t be half the hero he is without Hit Girl, and no sequel would begin production without her in the mix. Imagined by Award winning writer Mark Millar as a tribute to his eldest daughter, Hit Girl has struck a chord with readers since her introduction and grown exponentially in popularity. The young woman who brought her to life, Chloë Grace Moretz, has been working up a storm—earning critical acclaim in such fare as Let Me In, as well as working with the likes of Martin Scorsese in Hugo and Tim Burton in Dark Shadows and soon to be seen starring opposite Julianne Moore as the title character in the remake of Carrie. Like her co-stars, she was thrilled to step back into her Kick-Ass role as Hit Girl, unfazed by the commotion caused by her appearance the first time around.

"The obvious difference is that I'm older now, and the difference between 11 and 15, which is how old I was when we finished, is that you're a different person, obviously," Executive Producer Neal H. Moretz reveals. "You're calculating more ideas, you're experiencing more things in your own life, you're not just living through other people's eyes, you're making your own decisions."

For the 2010 film, the now 16-year-old actress took the world by roundhouse kick with not only her acting abilities, but her phenomenal mastery of weaponry and martial arts. Indeed, Moretz didn’t know she was prescient when she joked at the premiere of the first film that she wanted to ride a purple Ducati: Hit Girl’s bike of choice in Kick-Ass 2. Laughs Moretz: “To get in the costume again and do all the stunts was pretty amazing. I’ve had such a great time reliving the character and bringing in more dimensions, while taking an older approach to the role. I liked seeing what I could play within the part.”



We meet a now-orphaned 9th grader in Kick-Ass 2, a girl who is more terrified of the treacherous girls in school than she ever was of the villains that she and Big Daddy took down. Moretz describes where we meet Mindy: “She’s skipping school, still being a vigilante and caring more about Hit Girl’s life than Mindy’s. Because she doesn’t have Big Daddy anymore, and Marcus is much more of a normal parent than Big Daddy, she starts to question herself. She promises Marcus she’ll stop being Hit Girl and begins to figure out her life a bit. The thing is…Mindy can’t really change.”

Mindy McCready's life also comes as a direct response to the previous one (also known as 2010's "Kick-Ass"), and that chapter doesn't read the same way this time around.



"Here's this little girl who is basically raised to be an assassin by this man who is insane," director Jeff Wadlow explains. "I mean, Big Daddy is treated like a hero in the first film, but in our film we even take a step back and say, no, he loves his daughter and that's a good thing, but he was totally crazy and he robbed her of any kind of normal life. We try to deal with that in a very real way."

"What Jeff and I really wanted to improve was the real heart of it," says Moretz. "Because I wanted to show that this girl didn't have a father anymore and how much that affected her. She's really confused and going through the self-torture of, 'Am I killing people because this is what I was raised to believe was a good thing, or am I just murdering people?'"



Moretz also promises that Hit-Girl's physicality will be different in the sequel, thanks to one big change: no guns. Well, mostly no guns.

"I wanted to show this darker side to her, and I also wanted to make the action a little bit different. So we basically scrapped the guns. I do use guns a little bit in the movie, but we basically do hand-to-hand combat and it's just a lot more hands-on."

Drawing on the source material, Director Jeff Wadlow and the producers were interested in exploring what happens when Mindy stops being Hit Girl and grapples with life and love as a high-school student. The director felt that no other performer but Moretz could possibly deliver that. He says: “There’s something incredibly special about Chloë that is hard to describe and quantify, but when you see her on screen you instantly understand. As a director, it was exciting for me to work with someone like her, because normally I like to dissect the character and intellectualize the story. Chloë just gets it immediately; she doesn’t need me to pontificate.”



Wadlow found that the usual manner of directing an actor wouldn’t work with Moretz. He proudly says: “Chloë understands how to create a moment in a way that you can’t teach or talk about it. She just does it, and she does it every take. It’s funny because we’d talk about a scene, about where I wanted it to go or how it fits into the larger story, and sometimes I’d wonder if what I was saying even made sense. But then we’d shoot it, and Chloë would deliver—take after take. I don’t think of her as a kid at all. I talk to her as a peer because she is so incredibly savvy and mature, but also willing to be goofy and not at all self-conscious. She’s just an amazing actress.”



“Kick-Ass 2” is released and distributed by Universal Pictures and United International Pictures through Solar Entertainment Corp.

THE PURGE Review

Reviewing the film THE PURGE starring Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey,Adelaide Kane and directed by James DeMonaco.

It's hard not to love THE PURGE for all it's suspenseful and intelligent storytelling but the film does falter before hitting the finish line. That being said, it's not entirely a bad thing that it did.

In a nutshell, this reality is one where the USA has been reborn after a time of civil unrest. But to get to that stability and crime-free Utopia the so-called "new founding fathers" allows people to 'release the beast' once a year. This of course is called THE PURGE. Ethan Hawke is Jim Sandin, a security system salesman who made it big. He and his family plan on going through the Purge safe in their 'locked down' home but things just go south quickly.

Director James DeMonaco has a winner here with a thought provoking premise, a solid cast and lots and lots of supposedly scary visuals. Sadly the film falters due to a short running time, some missed opportunities and some kinks in the film making process. Case in point, it was never explained how Zoey's boyfriend snuck in. What part of the story did he snuck in?

Ethan Hawke has aged. There's a difference between growing old and aging (with the latter better than the former). He was 'just OK' here in this film. Nothing really stellar. Playing a desperate father might be new to him.

Lena Headey on the other hand was great, especially her motivational change towards the end. She's suddenly channeling Sarah Connor, Queen Gorgo and Queen Cersei in her buttkicking mode by the time the Purge ends. Oh and did I mention that she IS STILL HOT?!?

Special props to Adelaide Kane here. She provides the younger, fresher eye candy in the film what with her abandoned racy scenes. I'd like to point out as well that she's been running around the house (and thusly being absent for majority of the movie) in a SCHOOL GIRL uniform.

And if you're a Power Rangers fan, you'd be happy to know that she was also part of POWER RANGERS RPM playing the role of villain Tenaya 7.

Another raving comment for the leader of the gang of teenagers who invaded the home of the Sandins. Actor Rhys Wakefield was spot on casting here. The dude might not have been a bloodthirsty killer but he could've been.

The dude's looks plus the character itself was just brilliant. Here we have a prepschool guy, probably goes home to his family for the Purge and then goes on and kill homeless dudes for fun. He's polite and a gentleman and with a drop of a hat, kills people that pisses him off. Sadly, it's never explored.

Again, that's what makes me frown with THE PURGE. It's got potential to fight the bigger suspense movies this year but a short TRT (total running time) and under developed storytelling drags it down instead of acting like rocket boosters.

Verdict: 8/10

Special thanks to SOLAR-UIP for the invites. THE PURGE opens JULY 31.

Here's the Official KICK ASS 2 Synopsis

In case you live in a rock and you don't know that they decided to make a sequel/ adaptation-to-the-comic book sequel stilled based on a book by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.

SYNOPSIS: Kick-Ass, Hit Girl and Red Mist return for the follow-up to 2010’s irreverent global hit: Kick-Ass 2. After Kick-Ass’ (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) insane bravery inspires a new wave of self-made masked crusaders, led by the badass Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey), our hero joins them on patrol. When these amateur superheroes are hunted down by Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse)—reborn as The Mother F%&*^r—only the blade-wielding Hit Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) can prevent their annihilation. When we last saw junior assassin Hit Girl and young vigilante Kick-Ass, they were trying to live as normal teenagers Mindy and Dave. With graduation looming and uncertain what to do, Dave decides to start the world’s first superhero team with Mindy.

Unfortunately, when Mindy is busted for sneaking out as Hit Girl, she’s forced to retire—leaving her to navigate the terrifying world of high-school mean girls on her own. With no one left to turn to, Dave joins forces with Justice Forever, run by a born-again ex-mobster named Colonel Stars and Stripes. Just as they start to make a real difference on the streets, the world’s first super villain, The Mother F%&*^r, assembles his own evil league and puts a plan in motion to make Kick-Ass and Hit Girl pay for what they did to his dad. But there’s only one problem with his scheme: If you mess with one member of Justice Forever, you mess with them all.

"Kick-Ass 2" is released and distributed by United International Pictures through Solar Entertainment Corporation.

Filipinos loves it minions!

United International Pictures and Solar Entertainment Corp. “Despicable Me 2” blasted onto Philippine screens one week ahead of the U.S. release, kickstarting 2013 with the year’s all-time highest single day box office sales for an animation and ringing in the 2nd biggest all-time opening for an animated movie.

Opening Day Top 10 screens ( in rounded figures): 1. Php664,000 (SM North), 2. Php625,000. (SM Mall of Asia), 3. Php470,000. (SM Megamall),4. Php371,000. (Glorrieta 4), 5. Php368,000. (Eastwood), 6. Php355,000. (Gateway), 7. Php338,000. (Trinoma), 8.Php333,000. (Greenbelt), 9. Php322,000. 10. Php312,000. (SM Cebu)

'Despicable Me 2’s biggest opening weekend release for an animated movie of all time with over P100M box office sales and dominated the market on over 120 screens nationwide!

‘Despicable Me 2’ success here overseas, the 3D toon has grossed $94.4M through Friday in 45 international territories. The film opened #1 in 35 of the 38 new markets where it was released. The new worldwide cumulative easily passed $200M Saturday on its way to a projected $300M through Sunday Territory highlights/records: biggest opening ever for an animated film in Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, Trinidad and Vietnam; highest opening day ever for all films in South Africa; Universal’s biggest opening day ever in Brazil, Hungary, Mexico and South Africa.

“Despicable Me 2” is released and distributed by Universal Pictures/United Intl. Pictures
through Solar Entertainment Corp.

Still showing and counting!

First Look at the Characters from Darren Aronofsky's Noah Movie

Massive respect for Darren Aronofsky; the guys a brilliant director and although not all his films equate blockbuster returns, they have depth and meaning that other directors miss out on. That being said, I'm giving his next film "Noah" a try. Here's our first look at the characters in the film including main star Russell Crowe playing the legendary ark builder.

Russell Crowe

Comments: Shouldn't he be holding a hammer rather a dirk? The Noah stories my mom told us when we were kids felt like a jolly (and sometimes very drunk) old man. So why is he all Jor-El mode again? Still, this is Maximus we're talking about so better shut up.

Ray Winstone

Comment: Can't figure out how to look at Ray Winstone. On one side, he's this fierce Viking warrior in Beowulf and the next he's that traitor in "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull". Still good choice if you want menacing, semi-old warrior.

Jennifer Connely

Comments: What the fuck happened to Jennifer Connely? She was beautiful in "A Beautiful Mind" moreso in Ang Lee's crappy "Hulk" movie. So why does she look faded??? Maybe that's what the script calls for.

Logan Lerman

Comments: You can't talk about mythology and deity stories without having to chuck in Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson). He just has to be in this film. Plus it also involves flooding and death so it could be that he's asking his pappy ol' Ned Stark himself to bring the rain.

Emma Watson

Comment: OK we're screwed. After Percy Jackson calls the floods, Hermione Granger's casting the Cruciatus curse on the animals. Just joking.

Anthony Hopkins

Comments: Oh gawd, why did they have to add in Anthony Hopkins, let alone cast him as one of those wise-old-men. Hey for all we know, he could actually be Yahweh here. Something that might be interesting. Still I personally miss the old Hannibal Lecter Hopkins. Oh and Odin doesn't seem so bad as well.

New Stills from Despicable Me 2

A couple of new stills from Dreamworks' upcoming film "Despicable Me 2" featuring the voice of Steve Carell as the bumbling evil genius Groo.







More photos after the break...









Totally loved the first movie so the second warrants a review. Plus never in animated cinema history have I ever seen something as amazing as this:



Yeah boy! That's a masked luchador taking to the skies with a great white shark strapped with fin-missiles! Nothing can spell epic as that.

Star Trek Into Darkness Non-Spoiler Review

I've seen JJ Abrams' follow-up to his rebooted Star Trek movie entitled "Star Trek Into Darkness" courtesy of Solar Entertainment. Is it a victim to the 'sequel curse' or does it stand in line proudly with the pedigree of the first movie?

Let me just get out of my system that initially I didn't have any respect for Benedict Cumberbatch. That statement alone will probably earn me some flak from the British actor's fangirls (there's a lot actually, the screening I attended alone had lots of young to teen-ish girls lining up to see Kh err, John Harrison).  Yes, now stick around and find out what I think of him after cut. 

Another New Poster for Brad Pitt's World War Z

While the previous World War Z poster played on the ghastly zombies in the film as a theme, the new one has a more cinematic vibe. Oh and it's got Brad Pitt this time.

As for me, I've come to terms with the fact that this is going to be so far from Max Brooks' book. So the expectations are lowered. Still this one looks pretty good. World War Z will be released locally by Solar Entertainment.