Meet the free, proud, independent people of Ukraine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzNxLzFfR5w Nothing but reviews. In excess.
From ZERO to 6 ♥s. 100% ad-free. Run on pure love for movies, documentaries and TV-series. June 2025: Countdown to: Top 10: Best horror comedy movies - Upcoming review: There's Still Tomorrow (2023)
Eagerly anticipating this month ... (6-25)
Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value (2025)
Showing posts with label Legendary Pictures. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Legendary Pictures. Show all posts
This poster for Ben Affleck's The Town conjures up a threatening vibe
A young, beautiful bank director is taken hostage, then freed. One of the robbers falls in love with her. We get to know the bank robbers' mecca: Charlestown, Boston, Massachusetts.
The Town is written by Peter Craig (Blood Father (2016)), Aaron Stockard (Gone Baby Gone (2007)) and great Californian co-writer-director-star Ben Affleck (Argo (2012)), based on the novel Prince of Thieves (2004) by Chuck Hogan (The Standoff (1995)). It has a good car chase, and Jeremy Renner (Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)) is good in it.
The film is pretty entertaining, although it bears the mark of being another 'training movie' for Affleck as director and has a very drawn out ending. The purpose of the film seems to hang in the air to some degree.
Jeremy Renner gives an interview about the film at the Toronto International Film Festival here
Cost: 37 mil. $
Box office: 154 mil. $
= Big hit
[The Town premiered September 8 (Venice International Film Festival) and runs 124 minutes. Warner bought the rights to the book in 2006. Sheldon Turner's developing job was tossed out, as Affleck was hired in 2008. He and his high school mate Stockard did research in Charlestown, including involving locals as extras, and Affleck went specifically for Pete Postlethwaite, who died soon after its release, for the film after seeing his audition tape for Inception. Filming took place from August - September 2009 in Massachusets, including Charlestown, and Connecticut. The claims in The Town about the crime in Charlestown are hugely exaggerated and also refer to a (smaller) spike that happened in the 1990s. The film opened #1 with a 23.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for 3 weeks in total and grossed 92.1 mil. $ (59.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 8.9 mil. $ (5.8 %) and the UK with 7.4 mil. $ (4.8 %). The film received one Oscar nomination: Best Supporting Actor (Renner), which it lost to Christian Bale for The Fighter. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA. A 2012 extended cut of around 150 minutes has also been released; it apparently has a darker ending and is preferred by Affleck. The Town is certified fresh at 94 % with a 7.7 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
Best Screenplay: Christopher Nolan Best Cinematography: Wally Phister Best Practical Effects
9 Film Excess nominations:
Best Film (lost to The King's Speech)
Best Screenplay: Christopher Nolan (won)
Best Director: Christopher Nolan (lost to Sofia Coppola for Somewhere) Best Cinematography: Wally Phister (won) Best Sound(lost to Insidious) Best Practical Effects (won) Best Digital Effects (lost to Alice in Wonderland) Best Makeup and Hair (lost to The Wolfman) Best Music: Hans Zimmer (lost to Treme S1) + Best Science Fiction Movie of the Year
The folding effect is showcased on this poster for Christopher Nolan's Inception
Cost: 160 mil. $ Box office: 825.5 mil. $ = Big hit [Inception premiered July 8 (London's Odeon Leicester Square) and runs 148 minutes. Nolan had been developing the ideas in the film since before 2002, when he handed in an 80-page treatment to Warner Bros. for a dream-centered horror. After gaining experience with huge films (the two first in his Batman trilogy and The Prestige), Nolan sold his spec script to Warner in 2009 with production beginning a few months later. Filming lasted June - November 2009 in Japan, England, France, Morocco, LA and Canada. Inception was released normally and in the IMAX format, although it was not shot with IMAX cameras. An additional 100 mil. $ was reportedly used on marketing the film, which, with DVD/Blu-ray sales also accounted for, leaves the film merely a box office success. It opened #1 to a 62.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed atop for two more weeks before getting booted down by The Other Guys and grossed 292.5 mil. $ (35.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 68.4 mil. $ (8.3 %) and the UK with 56.6 mil. $ (6.9 %). It was the 6th highest-grossing film of the year in North America and the 4th internationally. It made many critics' top 10 lists of the year and was given a 4/4 star rating by Roger Ebert. Inception was nominated for 8 Oscars: It won for its visual effects, sound editing, sound mixing and cinematography. It lost score to The Social Network, art direction to Alice in Wonderland and original screenplay and picture to The King's Speech. It has made in excess of 68 mil. $ on DVD/Blu-ray sales. Inception is certified fresh at 86 with an 8.1 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes and is currently #14 on IMDb's user-generated Top 250.] What do you think of Inception?
A bearded man and a brutish orc with paint-splattered faces divided by a sword make up this poster for Duncan Jones' Warcraft
Warcraft is the long-awaited computer game adaptation, based on the popular Blizzard Entertainment games and novels, which is the 3rd film for great English director, Duncan Jones (Moon (2009)). An alarming number of brutal orcs crash into the human world through a portal, but it may be in collaboration that man and orc should have to secure the future. The good news for WoW (World of Warcraft) fans is that Warcraft isn't as bad as some critics make it out to be, - and the critical video game adaptation ridicule seems to have become somewhat tiresome and ritualistic by now, I think, - and that many fans of the universe seem to be delighted with it. I have never played the game, but the film only achieved status as an okay time-filler in my opinion. The script, by Jones and Charles Leavitt (Seventh Son (2014)), tries to create an ambitious story where we are introduced to, and supposed to care for an orc family, a steadfast, human commander, a human wizard, a human guardian, a half-human/half-orc female, and the king of the humans. Those are many characters, and also too many, I think. I still can't tell you who was the protagonist of Warcraft, a film that clearly should have elected to focus on one of its stories.
The film presents a bombastically sounding, war-crazed universe, (befitting its title, I suppose), with muscular, often ugly characters. The CGI, landscapes and orc designs are mildly interesting. The fantasy universe feels like a thin cup of The Lord and the Rings with such place names as 'Stormwind' and character names as 'Orgrim Doomhammer'. The film has to move fast to tell its wide story, which happens at the expense of scenes, which play out fast, - so fast that characters rarely get to show personality and the locations never get to sparkle or impress any charm. Backgrounds shift again and again, and nothing sticks with you. The actors do mostly well: Travis Fimmel (Vikings (2013-16)) is intense as the commander, Ben Foster (Rampart (2011)) is engaged as guardian Medivh, (though it takes a minute to get used to his look), and Ben Schnetzer (Pride (2015)) brings a much-needed whiff of lightness and humor to the film as the guardian who might have made a good protagonist. Paula Patton (Deja Vu (2006)) looks fierce while struggling to act and look attractive with massive orc incisors, and Dominic Cooper (Need for Speed (2014)) seems conspicuously uninvolved as the king, especially if compared to Fimmel. The voice-over in the beginning of the film states that man and orc have fought as long as anyone can remember. The king of men later claims no knowledge of orcs at all. This is another head-scratcher. SPOILER Finally I was puzzled to see that the film eliminates so many of its characters in the end: Both likable orcs die, the guardian and the king. Whether we shall see more Warcraft, (which is called Warcraft: The Beginning in many countries so as not to cast any doubt that the companies behind it would like it to be the first in a lucrative franchise),on the silver screen after this venture seems dubious at best, - but of course it is ultimately up to audiences across the world, and their willingness to purchase tickets, - or lack thereof.
Cost: 160 mil. $ Box office: 31.7 mil. $ and counting = Too early to say [Warcraft premiered May 25 and runs 123 minutes. It has been in development since 2006, with directors Uwe Boll and Sam Raimi earlier in talks to head it. Jones' involvement was marred by his wife's breast cancer in 2013 and his father, David Bowie's death due to cancer in 2016. Filming took place from January - May 2014 in and around Vancouver. Warcraft has opened in much of the world already, but will not open stateside until June 10, going up against other new titles Now You See Me 2 and The Conjuring 2, while also battling the holdover powers of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, X-Men: Apocalypse and Alice Through the Looking Glass. Warcraft is rotten at 18 % with a 4.4 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.] What do you think of Warcraft?
