BAFTA Rising Star Nominations
The winner will be announced on Sunday 16th February at the British Academy Film Awards 2014 ceremony, held at the Royal Opera House in London.
Transcendence Johnny Depp Official Trailer
Check out the first official trailer for Transcendence starring Rebecca Hall, Paul Bettany, Morgan Freeman, Kate Mara and Johnny Depp. The high tech thriller sees a team of computer scientists attempting to create artificial intelligence, while a radical anti-technology group fights to prevent derail their work, anxious of a world were computers can transcend the abilities of the human brain.
When an assassination attempt leaves Johnny Depp’s character facing certain death his friends and colleagues ill-advisedly decide to help download his consciousness into a computer. Potentially bringing about exactly the kind of dire technological nightmare those that tried to kill him had warned of.
Full ominous looking trailer below:
Last Vegas Review
The Plot:
Four childhood friends take a break from their daily lives after 60 years of friendship to throw an unlikely bachelor party in Las Vegas for the last among them to finally settle down. Determinedly they set out to prove that senior citizens can be just as wildly irresponsible and adventurous as the young party goers that inevitably surround them.
The Good:
Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Kevin Kline and Morgan Freeman are four astonishing actors who still have considerable screen presence, despite perhaps passing their performing peak. Gathered together for the first time they pool their considerable collective charisma to make material more watchable than it has any real right to be.
Michael Douglas is a world weary ladies’ man, Kevin Kline is a wry pensioner, De Niro is a charmingly cantankerous sour puss and Morgan Freeman is a wise-cracking geriatric fire-cracker. Giving the film unlikely credit, it’s actually perhaps the perfect example of art imitating life.
Mary Steenburgen adds some welcome feminine charm as the easy going Jazz singer who helps keep the misbehaving gang out of too much trouble. Her presence and the resulting love triangle at least add variety by interrupting proceedings with some actual emotions and plot.
The Bad:
As entirely expected, the film boasts a largely uninspired collection of regrettably clichéd jokes about old age. It’s an easy comedic target and the film unashamedly hits it over and over again, with mostly disappointing results. Lazy references to Viagra, early bed times and a complete ignorance of modern culture and technology fail to offer many genuine laughs.
The film offers a half-hearted attempt at adding some poignant subtext about love, friendship and the actual challenges of growing old. However, those occasional moments of melancholy and melodrama sit a little uncomfortably amongst the endless attempt at cheap laughs.
The Ugly Truth:
Last Vegas manages the occasional laugh but mostly falls flat. It’s only really watchable for its unlikely collection of star power. Morgan Freeman possibly steals the show slightly among an aging A-list cast clearly working hard to make something worthwhile out of a fairly forgettable situation.
The Raid 2 Berandal Trailer
Here’s the first official trailer for The Raid 2 Berandal, the much anticipated follow up to the violent 2011 cult classic The Raid: Redemption. The original saw a S.W.A.T. team trapped in an apartment tower block controlled by a ruthless mobster. Leaving them no choice but to fight their way through countless floors full of killers and vicious thugs.
The sequel picks up several hours after the end of the events of the first film and takes the action back outside and to another level. Armed with a bigger budget and fan expectations Gareth Evans seems to have continued the entertaining carnage that made the first film a word of mouth sensation.
You always know exactly what you’re getting when a film’s imdb cast list includes characters with names like ‘Hammer Girl’. Check out the trailer below for a glimpse of the blood, mud and inevitable bruises.
Iron Man 3 Tops 2013 Box Office
As 2013 draws to a close the box office results for the year have finally been counted, with Marvel sequel Iron man 3 topping the list as the year’s official highest grossing film. Taking over $1.2 billion in cinemas worldwide the third outing for Robert Downey Jr as the iconic iron suited superhero comfortably surpassed competition from Despicable Me 2 and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.
Full top ten list below:
- Iron Man 3 – $1,215m (£734m)
- Despicable Me 2 – $918m (£555m)
- The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – $795m (£480m)
- Fast & Furious 6 – $788m (£476m)
- Monsters University – $743m (£449m)
- Man of Steel – $662m (£400m)
- Gravity – $653m (£395m)
- Thor: The Dark World – $629m (£380m)
- The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – $614m (£371m)
- The Croods – $587m (£355m)
For some it may be a slightly worrying sign that all but two of the top ten highest grossing films of the year are sequels, prequels or remakes. Only Gravity and The Croods at number 7 and 10 respectively are entirely original efforts.
Depending on your viewpoint it’s either a symptom of Hollywood’s increasingly risk adverse attitude towards making original content, or alternatively it’ a pretty firm financial vindication of the studios reliance on proven box office commodities.