'All Is Lost' Poster Drops

J.C. Chandor's All Is Lost gets checked out by quite a few critics at Telluride Film Festival this week and along with that receives a theatrical one-sheet. There isn't much to the poster, just star Robert Redford, his boat and some very bad weather coming his way.

The minimalist poster fits the film perfectly and should give audiences an idea of what to expect: dialogue is virtually nil and Redford will be putting on a one-man show with no supporting performances to back him up. It's a risky move this late in Redford's career, but it should be a thrill to watch.

All Is Lost hits theatres October 18th.

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Telluride 40th Film Festival Lineup

The Telluride Film Festival starts tomorrow and for the past few months the lineup was a complete mystery. Telluride has a tradition of keeping critics and attendees in the dark until the last moment and today they revealed their slate of this year's contenders.

Top mentions include: Cannes winner Abdellatif Kechiche‘s Blue Is The Warmest Color, Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity, Jason Reitman‘s Labor Day, Asghar Farhadi’s The Past, Ralph Fiennes‘ The Invisible Woman, Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin and documentaries from Errol Morris (The Unknown Known), Werner Herzog (Death Row: Blaine Milam and Robert Fratta). With the aforementioned list of films, I think it's safe to say that this is a solid group, most notable among the pictures being J.C. Chandor's All Is Lost, the Coens' Inside Llewyn Davis and Alexander Payne's Nebraska — all big coups for Telluride considering those three pictures will not be making it to Toronto International Film Fest this year.

Along with the screenings offered, special presentations include tributes to Robert Redford, Iranian director Mohammed Rasoulof and the music/movie collaborations of T Bone Burnett and the Coen brothers.

The 40th Telluride Film Festival is proud to present the following new feature films to play in its main program, the ‘SHOW’:

“All Is Lost,” J.C. Chandor

“Before the Winter Chill,” Philippe Claudel

“Bethlehem,” Uyval Adler

“Blue Is the Warmest Color,” Abdellatif Kechiche

“Burning Bush,” Agnieszka Holland

“Death Row: Blaine Milam and Robert Fratta,” Werner Herzog

“The Invisible Woman,” Ralph Fiennes

“Fifi Howls From Happiness,” Mitra Farahani

“The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden,” Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine

“Gloria,” Sebastian Lelio

“Gravity,” Alfonso Cuaron (in 3D)

“Ida,” Pawel Pawlikowski

“Inside Llewyn Davis,” Joel and Ethan Coen

“La Maison de la Radio,” Nicolas Philibert

“Labor Day,” Jason Reitman

“The Lunchbox,” Ritesh Batra

“The Missing Picture,” Rithy Panh

“Nebraska,” Alexander Payne

“Palo Alto,” Gia Coppola

“The Past,” Asghar Farhadi

“Slow Food Story,” Stefano Sardo

“Starred Up,” David Mackenzie

   preceded by “Three Two,” Sarah-Violet Bliss

“Tim’s Vermeer,” Teller

“Tracks,” John Curran

“Under the Skin,” Jonathan Glazer

“The Unknown Known,” Errol Morris

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Gravity Receives Raves from Venice Film Fest

There are only five weeks left before Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity hits theatres and the early word from critics at the Venice Film Festival is that it's a sure-fire hit. Test screenings that took place last year were also positive, but know that the film is complete the good word has turned into universal praise from all that have seen it.

The critics are in agreement that Gravity is a technical marvel thanks to some stunning camerawork from cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (Tree of Life) that could warrant a trip to an IMAX theatre near you. It's not just the cinematography and effects that are drawing good word though, Sandra Bullock's performance as Ryan Stone is right up there as a career best.

Varietys Justin Chang said:

"Suspending viewers alongside Bullock for a taut, transporting 91 minutes (with George Clooney in a sly supporting turn), the director’s long-overdue follow-up to Children of Men is at once a nervy experiment in blockbuster minimalism and a film of robust movie-movie thrills, restoring a sense of wonder, terror and possibility to the bigscreen that should inspire awe among critics and audiences worldwide."

HitFix's Guy Lodge:

"Certainly, the unfeasibly mobile camera of Cuarón’s loyal, invaluable cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki seems drugged – or perhaps purely entranced – by its possibilities, gliding and weaving across seemingly impracticable distances with a deliberate fluidity that no previous screen depiction of weightlessness (whether in outer space or the subconscious hotel suites of Christopher Nolan’s mind) has come close to approximating. "

My favorite reaction to the film comes from Empire's Nick de Semlyen:

"Now that the embargo is up, I can say what Jaws did for water, Gravity does for air."

If that doesn't sell you on the picture, I don't know what will.

Gravity hits theatres in IMAX 3D on October 4th.

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Dallas Buyer's Club Trailer

Following the success of his roles in Killer Joe, Magic Mike, Mud, it seems like the man who couldn't escape romantic comedies has an upcoming slate that most actors would kill for. After Dallas Buyer's Club, he has The Wolf of Wall Street and Interstellar on his plate. Pretty nice for a guy who was only remembered for being shirtless there for a while.

Dallas Buyer's Club tells the story of Ron Woodroof, a Texas man diagnosed with HIV in the early days of the disease. Desperate to live and running out of time, he finds alternative treatments from other countries, and eventually smuggles them into the country to share with a “buyers club” of other HIV-positive people.

Dallas Buyers Club lands in theaters November 1, 2013.

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Rumor: Bryan Cranston Cast As Luthor in Batman vs Superman

News of more additions to the Batman vs Superman cast just keep rolling along this week. Hot off of the announcement that Ben Affleck would be playing the Caped Crusader, it appears that the villain hinted at multiple times in Man of Steel is to be played by none other than The Man Who Knocks.

Bryan Cranston, most widely known for his role as Walter White on Breaking Bad is set up to play Superman's nemesis, Lex Luthor, in the upcoming Man of Steel sequel. And Cranston isn't just signing up for Batman vs Superman as reports speculate his deal could be for at least six films and up to as many as ten if Warner Brothers if the sequels prove as successful as the studio hopes they can be. The announcement that Cranston would be stepping in as a baddie on the film came as a pleasant surprise as he had expressed interest in the role a few weeks ago, but it was just written off as an actor having some fun with the press.

Kind of funny that Ben Affleck is Batman now isn't it? All we need is John Goodman and Alan Arkin and we could possibly have an Argo reunion.

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Hitmen Movies to Kill For

Films about assassins can sometimes be trite, but every once in a while a gem comes out. The best flicks that capture these professionals don't just feature killing machines, but fully-fleshed with motivations they keep all to themselves. These characters are fascinating with their natural charisma and yet merciless nature when dealing with others. Characters like Vincent (Tom Cruise) and Anton Chiguhr (Javier Bardem) are oddities in cinema, but their unique behavior makes for compelling viewing.

Check out the rest of the list on GotchaMovies!

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Review: The World's End

As the Cornetto Trilogy draws near an end, let us take a moment to appreciate how we got here. Before Simon Pegg was a key fixture in massive studio properties like Mission Impossible and Star Trek, he caught on as a layabout, who played video games with his buddy Ed (Nick Frost) before the impending zombie apocalypse. Ten years later and the smashing success of 2004's Shaun of the Dead and 2007's Hot Fuzz have brought Pegg, Frost and Edgar Wright to the mainstream.

As we gather to say goodbye to the wild romps that Wright, Pegg and Frost are known for there is only one question. Will their third feature come out on top?

Gary (Simon Pegg, taking his lead in a different direction this time) was an "outlaw" in high-school, his trademark black duster alerting everyone that he was on the scene. Gary wasn't really liked then and he certainly isn't now as a wayward 40 year old still rebelling against the system.

There was a time though when people did like him, twenty or so years ago during a pub crawl when Gary led Andy (Nick Frost), Oliver (Martin Freeman), Steven (Paddy Considine) and Peter (Eddie Marsan) on a drinking marathon that lasted nearly twelve pubs. They had three stops left before The World's End, but the beer caught up to them and the crawl ended in defeat.

Flash forward two decades and Gary's development is firmly arrested: still rebellious, still dressed like a Criss Angel groupie while the rest of his pals have moved on with their lives—families, careers, responsibility, you know, adulthood. Jonesing for a nostalgia trip, Gary convinces his friends to put life on hold and get together one last time to complete the historic pub crawl and reach the fabled World's End.

Reluctantly, Andy, Oliver, Steven and Peter go back to their hometown to appease Gary and to accomplish what they couldn't do twenty years ago.

Going home is never really the same, yet the rose-tinted shades of time usually don't distort things that much. The folks back at Newton Haven don't seem to remember Gary or the rest of the crawlmembers at all. In fact, much of the town looks different, the pubs that had each possessed their own little personalities and quirks look white-washed and homogenized. Even the menus are identical, down to the blue chalk and exaggerated font.

With each passing pint, Gary and the gang take another stab at reconciling their past with where they are now. Of course, as with any other get together with old friends, nothing goes according to plan, squabbles arise and Gary nearly winds up getting his ass kicked when something very peculiar happens. An event that makes the gang realizes their race to World's End isn't just a pub crawl anymore, it's a struggle for the entire human race.

Six years since their last film together hasn't dulled the comic timing of Wright, Pegg and Frost. Each line of the script is delivered with precision and an ample amount of irreverence. Riffing on genres is what made their careers and it's because they are the best at it. Zombie movies, check. Action movies, check. The box on apocalypse movies has a hole punched through it now.

The problem with most end of the world flicks is most get caught up in the spectacle of the special effects and completely lose sight of the people at the heart of the film. We already knew Pegg and Frost could craft loveable characters, but Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman and Eddie Marsan give tip-top contributions as well.

The entire team is at the top of their game here and firing on all cylinders. They bring the wit hard and fast in between rocking some hardcore fighting choreography that I didn't know they had in 'em (Plus, keep an eye out for another Timothy-Dalton-level-fun cameo!). Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead are certified cult classics with infinitely quotable dialogue and memorable characters, consider The World's End safely among them as a classic.

Send summer out with a bang this weekend and send it out with a pint in hand.

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Affleck to Take On Superman in Batman vs Superman

You heard it right, Warner Bros. announced today that Ben Affleck has signed on to be the new Batman in the upcoming Batman vs Superman film. Affleck is the sixth man to don the cape and cowl after Bale, Clooney, Kilmer, Keaton and West on the big-screen. This comes as a bit of a surprise as Affleck's name wasn't mentioned in the rumor mill along with Josh Brolin, Jon Hamm and Armie Hammer.

When asked to speak about the casting, director Zack Snyder said this:

“Ben provides an interesting counter-balance to Henry’s Superman. He has the acting chops to create a layered portrayal of a man who is older and wiser than Clark Kent and bears the scars of a seasoned crime fighter, but retain the charm that the world sees in billionaire Bruce Wayne,” Snyder said in a statement. “I can’t wait to work with him.”

When the news of a Superman/Batman team-up was leaked during Comic-Con, I don't think anyone anticipated the former Daredevil stepping in for the job. And while Affleck's casting seems out of left field, it shouldn't come as too big of a surprise given that Warners Bros. asked him to helm the Justice League film a year ago.

Zack Snyder returns to direct, David Goyer will write and Christopher Nolan will produce the sequel to Man of Steel. Cast members Henry Cavill and Amy Adams are also scheduled to reprise their roles.

Batman vs Superman is slated to hit theatres July 17, 2015

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2013 Oscar Season Preview

The summer season is over and along with the changing of the leaves comes films where the third act isn't resolved by characters punching each other or a city being demolished. Studios shift from superhero origins to character studies, or message pieces that hit the sweet spot between pure entertainment and awards-bait.

This winter's offerings may not blow out your speakers or induce epilepsy, but they are thrilling in their own right.

All of these films feature A-list casts, acclaimed directors and choice scripts ranging from astronauts lost in space, a lawyer in over his head in the drug game, a corrupt Wall Street broker, a FBI sting of a New Jersey mayor, a runaway slave, and a man who chose to combat the pharamceutical system.

So with the awards in mind, here are a handful of winter's best bets for a shot at Oscar gold.

Read more at GotchaMovies!

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Steve Carell in Foxcatcher

Steve Carell hasn't gotten a chance to really convince audiences that he can separate himself from Michael Scott, but in Bennett Miller's upcoming Foxcatcher. The film depicts the insane, true story about the relationship between millionaire John duPont (Carell) and Olympic Wrestling Champion brothers, Mark and Dave Schultz (Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo). duPont is a dark role and one that could make moviegoers see Carell in a brand new light (aided by Carell's undergoing a transformation to embody the part).

Source: EW

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Muses and Maestros: Depp and Burton

Part three of a series about the most talented pairings of filmmakers today. On deck: Johnny Depp and Tim Burton.

The players: Johnny Depp and Tim Burton

The works: Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd, Alice in Wonderland, and Dark Shadows

While Johnny Depp's status as a leading man hasn't been a question since Pirates of the Caribbean launched him into the A-list stratosphere, Depp wouldn't have gotten that far without Tim Burton. The two started working together in 1990 after Burton's huge success with Batman turned into creative freedom for pictures like Edward Scissorhands. When that quirky tale of a young orphan turned into a big hit, a creative partnership was born.

Read more at GotchaMovies!

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Review: The Wolverine

Wolverine has fallen on some hard times with his last two endeavors in cineplexes. While X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine were both financial successes, but left the most famous X-man feeling stagnant. Expectations were raised temporarily when it was announced that Darren Aronofsky would be directing the next feature, based on Chris Claremont and Frank Miller's acclaimed graphic novel that sets Logan in Japan.

Aronofsky ultimately dropped out, but James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma and Walk the Line) stepped in. With that, the tide turned on the sequel and audiences were low on The Wolverine. So when James Mangold put something together that looked and felt like a character study, it was a very pleasant surprise in a season (with exception to a few indies) that has thrown out more sequels and franchise add-ons than it knows what to do with.

The Wolverine picks up some time after the events of The Last Stand, and Logan (Hugh Jackman), racked with guilt after having to kill Jean Grey, is in the midst of a self-imposed seclusion in the Canadian wilderness. Doctoring himself with liquor and classical music to deal with the grief, Logan is content to live out his days in the cold comfort of abyss, vowing to never hurt anyone again

That vow is pushed dangerously close to the edge when a local hunter poisons a grizzly bear, resulting in the death of several campers. The only thing that stops him is a mysterious woman who arrives in town and beckons him to Japan at the request of a Japanese prison guard Logan rescued from the Nagasaki atom bomb explosion years ago.

Since World War II that guard has amassed a fortune large enough to become the most powerful man in Japan, and now Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi) is dying. As a gift to Logan for saving him, he would like to offer him something no one else can: mortality. This gift does not come entirely out of gratitude, Yashida has been developing a system that will allow him to take Logan’s healing factor for himself.

Logan is hesitant to pass along that curse to anyone so he refuses Yashida's offer flatly.

Not long after the conversation Yashida's cancer finally takes his life. The Yashida clan is home to a great deal of strife, his granddaughter, Mariko (Tao Okamoto), is next in line to the throne much to the chagrin of her father, Shingen (Hiroyuki Sanada). Logan attends the funeral as a last gesture, but finds himself needed when the Yakuza kidnap Mariko. Injured during the attack, Logan finds that he is not healing as quickly as he used to.

Trying to protect Mariko and left vulnerable for the first time in his life, Logan is at his most dangerous.

The Wolverine is bolstered by a newly enthused Hugh Jackman reinvigorated with his character after a couple of subpar X-Men features. Jackman is always a magnetic presence, but Mangold has a knack for drawing superb performances from his leads (as exampled by Witherspoon and Phoenix in Walk the Line and Angelina Jolie in Girl, Interrupted) and he does it again here.

Paired along with Jackman is talented newcomer Rila Fukushima as Yukio and the much less interesting Mariko (she mostly serves as a plot device throughout most of the film, giving Logan cause to place himself in danger and also entangle himself in a romantic subplot that could have been left on the cutting room floor).

Why Marvel waited as long as they did to cover this storyline is beyond me. Placing Logan in Japan works in a sense because Wolverine has always fit into samurai culture. This is a culture that allows Logan to explore his personal definition, something he never found in the X-Men. He is the ronin wandering through life without a driving purpose. The Wolverine is at its best when it finds the divide in Logan, the divide between wild animal and the wounded psyche looking for solace.

Oh, if only things stayed that way, but The Wolverine has the misfortune of having a dog of an ending. For all the wonderful scenery and character exploration that we were treated to earlier, the film's third act retreats into a summer template rock 'em, sock 'em conclusion. Throw in a completely unnecessary villain (The Viper is about as bad as Poison Ivy in Batman and Robin. Yes, that bad.) and a large robot and the humanity of The Wolverine is gone.

That the ending doesn't completely botch all the goodwill the film had going for it is a testament to how well it succeeded as a character-based drama earlier on. I hope that this hot streak continues into Days of Future Past.

--

Stay after the credits for a hell of a teaser sequence!

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Review: Kick-Ass 2

What a difference four years makes. Matthew Vaughn's 2009 adaptation of the Mark Millar graphic novel Kick-Ass was a mid-level success due to its smack-in-the-face riff on the superhero genre. Now that the novelty of the extreme language and excessive violence has worn off, there is little reason for a sequel to Kick-Ass to exist. That there even is a Kick-Ass 2 undermines any criticism that was could be construed about the superhero genre in the predecessor.

With so little going for the project, Vaughn jumped ship and now the reins are in the hands of Jeff Wadlow (known for low-budget fare like Never Back Down and Cry_Wolf). Really the only matter drawing attention to Kick-Ass 2 is that one of its stars, Jim Carrey, has decided to refuse supporting the film.

Dave/Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Mindy/Hit Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz given the gift of a more developed character) are about to put normal life behind them to become a full-time crime-fighting duo. The feeble Dave has bulked up thanks to Mindy's workout regiment, but his tendency to crumble under pressure sinks those efforts. With that, Mindy's new guardian tells her to hang up the uniform.

As Mindy hangs up her Hit Girl uniform and navigates the shark-infested waters of high-school, instead of bashing in skulls, she deals with sleepovers, dating, makeup and boy bands. Hit Girl's forced hiatus creates a drag for a lengthy portion of the film as the runtime is split between Mindy's high-school exploits and a new fighting group inspired by Dave's viral video shenanigans turned heroic antics. Oddly enough, this storyline is the more successful.

Chloë Grace Moretz is an increasingly popular presence in Hollywood and with Carrie coming up with fame sure to follow, she can put this schlock behind her and move on to better pictures.

Back to Dave (how the titular character can be as vanilla as this, I'll never know), Kick-Ass joins Justice Forever ranks to help clean up the streets. Justice Forever is fronted by a reformed mob enforcer known as Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey). His methods are extremely unorthodox (pet lovers beware), but they keep the streets clean. While the league begins to thinks they've made a difference, they have yet to face a the vengeful wrath of The Motherfucker, formerly known as Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse).

Determined to avenge his father's death, who died at the hands of Kick-Ass and Hit Girl, Motherfucker declares war on Kick-Ass and his cohorts in Justice Forever. Already a powerful crimelord with a legion of henchmen (including the WTF inducing Mother Russia), MF utilizes his sway to put down a ten million dollar bounty for Kick-Ass's head. Largely overmatched, Kick-Ass needs Hit Girl if they have any hopes of winning, and she must decide if it is worth it to give up the rest of her childhood to continue fighting crime.

When a studio cashes in on a sequel from a property that was only mildly successful to start, it's no surprise that the result is a series of diminishing returns. Jim Carrey is tasked with being the over-the-top presence that Nicolas Cage was as Big Daddy, but while the star power is about the same, Cage and Moretz were a much better pairing than Carrey is with Johnson. Even at his most animated, Carrey isn't enough to save scenes without Hit Girl.

Left with nowhere to go but down, Kick-Ass 2 goes for the depths of decency. There's being irreverent and there's being immature. Dogs maul people in the crotch, cops are brutally murdered with a lawnmower and rape is made light of. And, because the film goes exactly as expected, it all ends, rather unsurprisingly, with a giant horde of masked characters beating the hell out of each other. There is absolutely nothing worthwhile in any of the 107 minutes it runs.

The problem with this film is that it pretends to portray violence like a Quentin Tarantino, but it completely misses all of the moral subtext. Everything is about the destruction and none of the consequences.

Kick this sequel to the curb.

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Best Movie Apps

There are about a hundred million apps available for your iPhone and other smartphones, but there are only about five that are truly deserving of your attention. For your consideration, the top five movie apps available on your phone.

Fandango

Fandango is one of the best movie ticketing apps on App store that allows you to buy a tickets to any movie you want to see. Other useful features available by installing this app on your iPhone include movie trailers, clips, stills and exclusive interviews.

Movies by Flixster

Flixster users can create their own lists of "must-see" movies coming soon to theaters. Watch full length trailers, catch movie showtimes, and read reviews. With reviews gathered from Rotten Tomatoes, you can pick the best movie to watch with your family or friends. 

Netflix

Netflix iOS app lets you watch your favorite movies and TV shows on your iPhone or iPad. With Netflix, you can watch unlimited movies and TV shows at very low monthly subscription fee, browse your interested movies and TV shows by titles all on your iPhone or iPad.

IMDb

With IMDb you can scan through actors, actresses , directors, recaps of your favorite TV shows, the latest entertainment and find movie showtimes theater near you. IMDb Movies & TV comes with many useful features and large collection of movies, TV shows and celebrities info. Best of all? The IMDb app is free of cost.

CineMode

If you're like most movie fanatics, texting during a showing would drive you nuts, but why let that stop you from taking advantage of CineMode, which rewards you for not texting.  An easy way to earn rewards exclusive to Cinemark theatres all while being courteous during the show.

So get downloading, movies are waiting for you...

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Win A Signed Poster from the Star of In a World

PartnersHub and Roadside Attractions have teamed up to promote Lake Bell's In a World and to also award a lucky reader a signed poster from the star/writer/director herself!

In this hilarious and heart-felt new film, In A World... Lake Bell (No Strings Attached, “Children’s Hospital”) stars as a struggling vocal coach who strikes it big in the cutthroat world of movie-trailer voiceovers, only to find herself in direct competition with the industry’s reigning king—her father!

Want to win? Simply take the movie trailer voiceover quiz in the app above and post your score (and email if possible) in the comments below. Scores will be tallied and the winner will be announced on August 24th.

U.S. residents only please.

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Review: Elysium

The summer movie season, in this day and age, is almost strictly reserved for rock 'em, sock 'em superheroes, super spies and giant robots and monsters. Escapism is in full swing during these months and audiences generally reward those pictures that put a smile on their face as they exit the theatre.

Neill Blomkamp is no stranger to this season (his debut film District 9 was also a summer release) but where he differs from the action crowd is a tendency to lean toward the subversive. District 9 was an example of dropping some real-world truths into the cineplex and introducing viewpoints typically not seen in a blockbuster.

Earth in the year 2154 is a world made up of favelas and a lack of resources, the wealthiest citizens have left and inhabit a station above the Earth where overpopulation, hunger and sickness is no longer an issue. With the technological innovation of medpods present on Elysium, broken bones are mended immediately and cancer can be waved away in seconds. Citizens there are virtually immortal.

Such luxuries are vied after by people like Max DeMarco (Matt Damon) who we meet as an impoverished child reaching toward a paradise he could never afford to live in. Flash forward a twenty or so years, and the boy is now a weary ex-con, who no longer rages against the machine. His only opportunity to vent lies in trying to shoot the breeze with robotic police and parole officers, who have a failing in humor or sarcasm. For put upon Earth dwellers like Max the only recourse available to leave Earth is a hacker (Wagner Moura) named Spider with few qualms about stealing and kidnapping to get others to Elysium.

Opposing those seeking a reprieve are Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster) and her private mercenary Kruger (a maniacally unhinged Sharlto Copley). Delacourt is the head of Homeland security on Elysium, tasked with protecting the space station in all the ways that would be deemed unacceptable to others, especially Elysium leadership. Kruger renders these services personally for Secretary Delacourt and takes great delight in doing so.

Max refuses Julio (Diego Luna) and Spider's initial offer to earn some cash moonlighting as a car thief, but after he is doomed to death by a mishap in the workplace, Spider is his last chance to get to Elysium and to one of the medpods that could be his salvation. That chance? It comes by kidnapping the CEO of Armadyne, the company that services Elysium.

What follows afterward will be familiar to those who watched District 9: careful world building that loses itself in the high-speed chase between Max and Kruger.

Matt Damon and Sharlto Copley ground the proceedings with physicality while both operating from the opposite spectrum of humanity. Damon distances himself from his Bourne character here by falling prey to the fears and selfishness that don't inhibit other template action characters. Copley, known mostly for his roles as Wikus and Murdock (The A-Team), creates a vicious chracter in Kruger, one whose psychotic nature gives Max a very frightening obstacle.

The degree of world building that takes place in Elysium is staggering, District 9 was very impressive for its budget, but Elysium shows off what a talented filmmaker can do with a bigger budget. The panicked nature of living in a slowly dying, overpopulated planet blends seemlessly with the surveillance state that is Earth in the twenty-second century. It's a lived in Los Angeles that doesn't resort to that over-saturated cityscape of most sci-fi films.

However, a movie is only as good as its flaws allow it to be and there are some incongruities as the third act rolls out. The security on the habitat consists of gigantic holes that should not be there in order for Max to proceed through his journey. Robots are on the spot immediately to throw poor people out of med pods, but when firefights break out later, they are nowhere to be found. Other characters find themselves making spontaneous changes of heart that don't correlate with any prior scenes.

Given those issues, the overall product and positive impressions regarding all other aspects of Elysium are more than enough to recommend Blomkamp's sophomore effort. Original material like this should be rewarded.

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Breaking Bad Series Primer

The second half of the fifth season of Breaking Bad premiered on Sunday night and for those of you who aren't in the know, it's not too late to catch up before one of television's best series concludes. Here is everything you need to know before catching the next episode of Breaking Bad on AMC.

Walter White (Bryan Cranston) started in life as a good man: a schoolteacher with a wife and son who love him dearly. To make ends meet he works part-time at a car wash for a man who treats him like garbage. Then a cancer diagnosis changes his whole existence. He has lung cancer and not much time left.

Suddenly, the unremarkable life Walt led isn't enough anymore. He can't leave his pregnant wife and son with the debts that are bound to plague them with a stage four cancer diagnosis. In the hopes of leaving his family with something--anything--he teams up with former student and current burnout Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul). Jesse knows the business of meth, Walt knows the chemistry. They have to be careful though, Walt's brother-in-law Hank is a DEA agent, so the duo cook in secret in an RV out in the wilderness.

Their start is an mixed one: the first drug deal is a success, but ends with two dead and a hole in Jesse's house. To protect himself from the dangers of the meth market and Tuco, Walt creates a persona: Heisenberg. Still, Heisenberg isn't enough to scare off men like Tuco. Walt and Jesse find themselves kidnapped by Tuco and taken to a home in desert, presumably to be murdered. They escape that situation by the skin of their teeth and an appearance by Hank, who kills Tuco.

Of course that disappearance needs an explanation, so Walt fakes a nervous breakdown and Jesse talks his way out of a police interrogation room. With Tuco out of the way, Albuquerque is theirs for the taking. A new influx of cash prompts them the two to hire ambulance chaser, Saul Goodman.

Roses aren't all that blooms for Walt and a new set of challenges spring up. Jesse's new relationship with a new girlfriend prompts him and Walt to part ways after a financial disagreement. Jane takes it upon herself to blackmail Walt and he eventually gives in, but Walt feels obligated to make sure the money goes to Jesse. Walt returns to the apartment to discover that they have taken heroin again and this time Jane chokes to death right before Walt's eyes.  Paralyzed by indecision, Walt could save her, but Jane could also send Walt to prison for a long time. Walt never tells Jesse her death wasn't his fault, and Jesse falls into a deep depression blaming himself.

To boot, Skyler discovers that Walt is a drug dealer through his second cell phone and she tells him she wants a divorce. After she leaves the house, Walt witnesses a large explosion in the sky.  Jane's father, an air traffic controller, distraught by his daughter's death mistakenly directed two planes into one another and the wreckage rains upon Walt's home.

The aftermath of all that has transpired has worn on Walt: his family has left him, Jesse is no longer as close as he once was, and Jane's death is a guilt he has to shoulder alone. The 737 carnage rained down on him literally and his role in that disaster is quickly becoming a harder one to distinguish. Walt may only manufacture crystal meth, but his cold-hearted rationalization in the ordeal is a reach for certain. The big dilemma for viewers throughout the series is how much can one enjoy a show where almost all of the characters are morally reprehensible?

The third season opens with a simple premise - death is coming for Walt. Two identical twins, nameless for a majority of the season, make their march across Mexico into Albuquerque with as many casualties as possible. Even innocent bystanders suffer brutal deaths as exhibited when they blow up an entire caravan of immigrants traveling to the states just because one talkative teen recognized their boots. The twins are undoubtedly used as an example of the horrifying violence taking place in the Tijuana drug wars. Driven by a single purpose - killing Walter - the two wait in plain sight only to be called off by Gustavo Fring in a move that has horrific reverberations throughout the season.

Gustavo Fring runs a large meth operations behind his fast food chicken business and, thanks to the beckoning of Goodman, Walt is convinced to quit playing small potatoes and cook enough so that they can sell to Fring. Gus is another plateau for Walt to reach. The quiet man exudes a stone-cold authority that forces Walt to swallow his pride. He can calmy waltz into work at the chicken fast food joint in the morning and ,with no qualms at all, order the death of his competitors at night before going to bed. He earns the majority of the profits put forth from the crystal meth trade, but does not bloody himself in the process. He is the banality of crime that is such a dangerous step in the evolution of the drug trade.

Jesse and Walt's relationship shifts from a father-son bond to one at odds over the course of the show. When Walt tries to warn him that he can't protect them both any longer Jesse can only respond with indifference. How long Walt and Jesse can work together again after Gus became involved in their operation is anyone's guess. Jesse seemed like a tragic figure at the beginning at the season pining for his dead girlfriend Jane, but it doesn't take long for him to fall under Saul's spell to start cooking again (the most disgusting scene of the season is when he uses the recovery sessions to put out his product). Walt insists to himself that, "he can't be the bad guy" but Jesse seems to revel in it. After being informed by Gus that he is only kept alive by Walt's wishes, Jesse is told and to keep peace between himself and the dealers. Jesse replies with an indignant "No." This is the first time this season that someone has shown a backbone against Gus, and Jesse refuses to let the dealers continue to have children do their business. A deal is struck and the issue is resolved, or so we think.

Andrea (Jesse's new girlfriend) receives a call from her grandmother and her son's death is a clear signal that Gus intervened. Jesse, distraught after the boy's death decides to end his long sobriety streak and to take justice into his own hands. Pistol cocked, he attempts to get rid of these bastards personally. Unfortunately, the dealers know he is coming and are waiting for him. When it looks like Jesse is a goner Walt comes rampaging through in his Aztec mowing down the one dealer shooting the other in the head. Although Walt never wanted to be the bad guy, he is completely consumed by Heisenberg now.

Gus is furious that Walt had his dealers killed and rehires Gale, implying that Jesse and Walt will be killed once he learns their process. Convinced that Walt will to be too valuable to be killed if he is the only high quality cook, he persuades Jesse to kill Gale.

The finale of season three conflicts beautifully with the way Walt looked at the beginning of the season. Walt and Skyler, looking considerably younger, touring a house for sale. Skyler seems insistent that this house should be theirs, but Walt is hesitant. They could aim so much higher than this "fixer-upper". The hope that Walt used to possess in his heart is gone and you can see it in his face. Walt stands idly by the pool he once obsessively kept clean and abruptly decides to burn the money on a gas grill. Within seconds he panics and shoves the grill - cash and all - into the pool to save it. Walt was a conflicted man then. That is not the case anymore.

Originally, Walt had only become a meth manufacturer to regain control of his existence and to set aside money for the inevitable point when he would no longer be around to support his family. In an effort to create a more financially stable future for Skyler, Walt Jr. and his infant daughter he put himself in shackles again - only instead of fate being his master, it is simply one man.

Held hostage in the lab, Walt and Jesse await Gus's decision following Gale's death. Gus promptly arrives and, in silence, dresses into lab gear and slits the throat of one of his crew members. Gus leaves the body for Walt to dispose of and business returns to usual. Skyler and Walt buy a carwash to launder their profits and he moves back home. Jesse falls back on drugs and parties and Hank begins investigating Gus for Gale's murder. Gus is not one to let go of his empire that he has built, so he turns on Walt and his family.

Thinking he can circumvent Walt out of his business, Gus brings Jesse to Mexico to see if he can replicate Walt's methods. While there, Gus finishes some old business and wipes out an entire cartel in Mexico with poisoned drinks, his bodyguard Mike is injured in the following shootout and he and Jesse hideout in Mexico.

Later on, Walt is captured, blindfold and brought to the desert where Gus tells Walt he is fired and that he'll murder Hank and if Walt intervenes, he'll kill Skyler and the children.  A panicked Walt rushes home to find that there's not enough money in the crawlspace to disappear, Skyler gave the money to her old boss, Ted, so he could pay back the IRS and she could avoid an audit.

With disaster eminent, Skyler and the kids go into DEA protection with Hank and Marie and Andrea's son, Brock, is rushed to the hospital. Jesse is arrested under suspicion for poisoning the boy and when Jesse finds the ricin cigarette missing (originally intended to kill Gus), he assumes Walt intended on killing the boy.  Jesse races to Walt's house ready to kill him, but Walt convinces him that Gus was behind the poisoning.  The two devise a plan to rig Gus' car with explosives, but before Walt can detonate the bomb Gus suspects something is wrong and walks away.

Left with no other alternative, Walt visits Tuco's uncle Hector, who hates Walt with a passion for his nephew's death, yet his intense hatred for Gus manages to convince the old man to help kill the druglord. After Hector leads Hank on a DEA goose chase, Gus comes in, furious that he spoke with the authorities. Ringing his bell, Hector sets off a crudely made bomb and blows up the wing of the nursing home talking Gus with him. Jesse and Walt torch the lab under that Gus provided them and, with that, they are in the clear.

With Gus out of the picture and Mike joining Walt and Jesse, the sky is looking bluer than Walt's crystal. But what started out as a means to an end has turned into a inherent greed, nothing will ever be enough for Heisenberg to leave the game. The events afterward unfold with Walt convincing himself that all of the menace is gone from their equation, that everything can continue free of complications. That a man with his recent past could think that is almost enough to make the viewer wonder if Walt is deluding himself or everyone around him.

Not content with simply being the largest meth operation in the West Coast, Walt uses a connection of Mike's to go global. Jesse and Mike are hesitant, this new associate could make them empire-builders, but he also comes with a much larger risk: there is no one to blame if the Feds figure it all out. It all lands square on their shoulders. Jesse drops out completely and when Mike wants to be bought out, Walt becomes paranoid, any number of loose ends could send his way of life crashing down. Once again, Walt becomes the danger who knocks on the door and he send Mike to an early grave before a DEA investigation sends him to prison.

Jesse is replaced by an apprentice with no scruples and Walt is finally complacent with his lot in life. Millions come pouring in from his overseas meth trade and Walt can claim to be the King that his ego has told him he was for so long. Noting that, he leaves the business for good.

Seemingly, everything is over. Walt is out clean and he and Skyler have enough to live comfortably without working ever again. Last year's finale ends with Walt, Skyler, Marie, Hank and the children sitting and enjoying a pleasant meal together. Maybe they really will just start over again. Any hopes of that are dashed as Hank discovers a misplaced copy of a Walt Whitman novel that implicates Walt as the chemist behind Gale's murder. Now the house of cards that Walt has built is crumbling upon itself. Hank, is just beginning to uncover the many layers of what was Gustavo Fring's and now Walt's drug enterprise.

The last image we see of Walt, he is eating alone at a Denny's celebrating a birthday he never anticipated living to see. There is no Skyler or Walt Jr. or daughter to comfort him, only a presence that scares him enough to purchase a small armory that he stores in a car in the parking lot. Where Walt goes from here is a mystery, but Hank is definitely after him, as is a Czech meth ring. How can this end without bloodshed?

By dispatching Tuco, Jane, Gale, Gus, and Mike, Walt shreds a little more of his humanity with each new notch on the wall of bodies. I sit writing this and still find it hard to depict Walt as evil. Whether that will ever change is beyond me. It took four seasons for Walter White to get here and as you sit watching a man doomed to fall to an inoperable tumor you root for him. From his first run-in against a crazed drug dealer in Tuco, to a showdown against a benignly sadistic corporate man in Gus Fring. After all he is only providing for his family. What harm is there in that?

Do you remember the beginning of season one five years ago? When a drugged-out loser named Jesse told Walter that you can't "break bad," well he was wrong. The little decisions along the way have proven most instrumental in defining a man in such stark contrasts. We might have agreed with some of the choices Walt has made, but the fact is Walt is a changed man. When he didn't turn over a sleeping Jane, when he found himself choosing between Jesse and Gale, when he found no other way to make Jesse change his mind about Gus. These are all his conscious decisions. Being bad isn't a product of your environment, genetics, or attitude, it's about choices.

You can't "break bad," but you can sure as hell not be good. The irony of Breaking Bad is that if Walt had died he would have been better off than he is now. The tragedy is he didn't. 

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The Works of Roger Deakins

Perhaps the greatest living cinematographer, Roger Deakins has been working in Hollywood for the better part of forty years. Cinematographers tend not to have a great deal of name recognition, but his filmography speaks for itself. Chances are if a shot in a movie remains particularly memorable, Roger Deakins was behind it.

His work? The Shawshank Redemption, Fargo, Kundun, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Jarhead, The Man Who Wasn't There, No Country for Old Men, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Revolutionary Road, The Reader, True Grit and Skyfall. And those are just the films he received an Academy Award nod for.

People are so impressed with Deakins' abilities, his announcement that he would no longer be working on celluloid after True Grit was met with disappointment. Some saw it as a small death of cinema that a leading cinematographer would stop using film. Flash forward two years and we have his remarkable digital work on Skyfall, the picture that earned his tenth nomination.

Deakins' work with digital effects has been widely praised, but he knows better than to rely on that crutch. "You've got to know why you’re doing it, it’s got to be for a reason within the story, and to further the story. There’s nothing worse than an ostentatious shot.” And there's nothing ostentatious about his work. The most exquisite sequence of Assassination of Jesse James required no special effects, just the natural light of a train illuminating the West's largest mythic character.

As impressive as his work has been, Roger Deakins has yet to receive cinema's greatest honor in the form of an Academy Award. Deakins has been in the industry since the mid 70s and has ten Academy nominations to his name, yet, zero victories.

On the surface, 2007 appeared to be his year. He lensed for both No Country for Old Men and The Assassination of Jesse James, the Academy Award would have to be his. Well, that didn't happen. Votes were split among the two films and Robert Elswit wound up winning for There Will Be Blood. 2012 also looked like a good shot with his universally-praised work in Skyfall, but Mr. Deakins didn't carry home the trophy that year. It will happen... eventually. Oscar is an foregone conclusion for a man of his talent.

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The Disappearance of the Action Star

Every once in a while there will be a murmur through theatre lobbies, "what happened to action stars?" It is a legitimate question and one that has been offered more and more. Over the years there has always been a marquee star of the action genre, but there is a noticeable absence at the moment. Jason Statham is the closest we have to an action star now, but his star burns nowhere near as brightly as the action icons of the 80s, men like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Jean Claude Van Damme, who dominated the cinematic landscape for years without anyone questioning their status.

So what changed?

Read more at GotchaMovies!

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Not Your Average Rom-Com

Romantic comedies are a studio-designed template in this day and age. The formula works, so it isn't tinkered with often. Boy and girl meet cute, go on some dates, fall in love, make love, and an argument is manufactured in before the last twenty minutes so that they can declare their love for each other once again. Then along comes a picture like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, it took the template, bent the frame, pulled it back through itself and added some science fiction along the way. 

Eternal Sunshine isn't alone though, here are eight other romantic comedies that don't follow the formula. Check out my list on GotchaMovies!

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Review: Only God Forgives

Few films in 2013 have been (or will be) as divisive as Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives, depending on who you ask, the film is either an arthouse masterpiece, or an overly existensial mindfreak. The words critic-proof couldn't be a more perfect descripter.

Drive was Refn's big break-through on the scene for mainstream audiences, but this effort is much closer to the rest of the auteur's filmmography. Those who were big fans of Drive may want to temper their expectations before walking into Only God Forgives, this picture is much closer to something like the acid trip that was Valhalla Rising than the more straight-forward Ryan Gosling vehicle.

Brothers Julian (Ryan Gosling) and Billy (Tom Burke) run a boxing club that serves as a front for a drug operation. Dealing drugs is the least offensive attribute of Billy, who regularly seeks the services of underage prostitutes and beats them for his amusement. One evening, he goes too far and murders one of the prostitutes, drawing the ire of Bangkok police lieutenant Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm). Rather than arrest Billy, Chang allows the father of the murdered girl to exact his own revenge.

Chang is less an officer of the law and more an archetype completely aware of every evil act committed, particularly those done by Julian's clan. He enforces justice, not as we know, but more in the Old Testament sense, taking an eye for an eye, or in Billy's case, a life for a life.

News of Billy's death reaches Billy and Julian's mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) in Florida and before long Crystal comfortably muddles herself in the filth of the locale, hiring thugs to take care of Chang. Outraged that Julian didn't kill his brother's murderer, Crystal chastises Julian for not only not seeking vengeance for his brother's death, but thinking that he deserved it in the first place.

Julian is impotent in all aspects of his life except rage. The only time he feels in control is when he smashes his fist into someone's face. Bound to protect his mother, Crystal's decision to take retribution into her own hands places Julian and Chang on a collision course.

No one would accuse Refn of loading up on plot for Only God Forgives and in many ways, the film serves as the perfect example of an economic narrative. All you need to know about the characters and story is present, but nothing more is given. Dialogue is on the sparse bordering on the verge of becoming a silent picture. Communication is limited to glances, clenched fists and awkward silence.

Refn knows exactly how to visualize Julian’s internal pain, keeping him bathed in neon red and framing him within narrow halls and cages. As impressive as Refn's handling of the film's aesthetic is, there isn't enough on the screen to justify a full-feature. The characters are thinly sketched and the motivations provided are not enough to sustain the visual oddities and dreamlike sequences that pop up.

If the camp of the material isn't immediately obvious, the string of obscenities that flows from Thomas's mouth with regularity will make it clear. Kristin Scott Thomas relishes the role of Crystal in a way that would make Mommie Dearest blush. Thomas doesn't just chew scenery, she swallows it whole. The only problem with that is she is the only actor relishing the opportunity, Gosling and Pansringarm act on a purely physical level, rarely venturing to anything compelling. Such flaws are expected from a grindhouse homage, but Refn lets himself indulge in incredulous moments too often.

An exercise in audience identification, Only God Forgives utilizes violence as a currency like many of Stanley Kubrick's works or those of Martin Scorsese, but Refn has no such social messages present in his film. Coupled with overly-stylized moments that have no meaning and a waste of a very talented leading man, audiences can only hope that Refn and Gosling's third film together will be closer to Drive than Only God Forgives.

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