[RECOMMENDATION] Ted (2012)

BRO!

Ted is a comedy movie co-written, produced, and directed by Seth MacFarlane. The movie is the feature-length directorial debut of McFarlane. The movie stars Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis and Seth MacFarlane, and is narrated by Patrick Stewart. The movie also features a notable cameo by Sam Jones (playing himself). The movie was released in 2012.

'Just you and me, no girls!'

Ted is the name of a teddy bear given to a young John Bennett on Christmas in 1985. John makes a wish that his teddy would come to life to be his friend, and with the help of a shooting star, he does. The two grow up together and remain best friends, but John's long term girlfriend Lori, wants to move their relationship forward but feels like she can't while John still has Ted in his life.




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[COMMENTS] Fox previews awards slate with 'Revenant,' 'Martian,' 'Joy'

Fox previews awards slate with  'Revenant,' 'Martian,' 'Joy'

Most studios come to CinemaCon to show off their summer blockbusters -- flashy tentpole movies exhibitors know will bring hordes of filmgoers to their theatres.

But 20th Century Fox took a different approach on Thursday, unveiling early footage of its awards season hopefuls: Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s “The Revenant,” David O. Russell’s “Joy” and Ridley Scott’ “For the past two years, New Regency and Fox Searchlight have won the Oscar for best picture, and that’s a hell of an accomplishment,” he said. “Since we’re in Vegas, I’d say that partnership is a pretty good bet.”

Adapted from Michael Punke's 2003 novel, “The Revenant” stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a 19th century fur trapper who is left to die in the wilderness after being mauled by a bear. But if you’re thinking Cheryl Strayed’s “Wild,” you’ve got it all wrong. The footage unveiled to the crowd on Thursday -- shot in the “harsh Canadian wilderness” using only natural light, according to a title card -- was far more violent than you’d expect from a survival picture.

“Joy,” too, looked surprisingly unjoyful. In it, Jennifer Lawrence reteams with her "Silver Linings Playbook" and "American Hustle" director Russell to play Joy Mangano, a single mother who invented the Miracle Mop. Fox didn’t give much of the movie away on Thursday -- just a seconds-long montage with snippets from the film set to church bells. Lawrence was often stone-faced, or looking sad -- at the mop factory, on set at the Home Shopping Network, at a funeral, behind bars, in a snowstorm. This housewife doesn’t have time for exploding science ovens, folks.

The crowd got to see far more of “The Martian,” Scott’s latest film about an astronaut (played by Matt Damon) stranded on Mars. Yes, that’s right -- Damon is playing yet another astronaut stuck in space, just like he did in his surprise role in “Interstellar” last year. But it looks as though Damon will really have room to shine here. He called the film “one of the best projects I’ve worked on in years” in a video message to exhibitors.

In the film, Damon’s character is presumed dead after a storm hits Mars during a mission he and his colleagues are on. But his crew mates -- including Jessica Chasten, Michael Pena and Kate Mara -- never fully give up hope that their friend is alive.

Indeed, Damon is hard at work up in the sky, trying to figure out a way to make contact with NASA and survive in the meantime, growing four years' worth of food on a planet “where nothing grows.” When one of his messages finally gets beamed down to Earth, he giddily exclaims, “In your face, Neil Armstrong!”

Though the three heavy-hitting films left the biggest impression on the crowd, Fox made a little room for its popcorn fare too -- “Fantastic Four,” “Spy” and “Poltergeist.” In fact, the event kicked off on a jubilant note with an acrobatic dance performance from the group Academy of Villains, set to a remix of the “Peanuts” song by DJ Enferno. Chris Aronson, Fox’s president of distribution, even walked out wearing a tilted baseball cap, puffy yellow jacket and bedazzled headphones.

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[NEW] 'Furious 8' will roll into theatres in April 2017

 'Furious 8' will roll into theatres in April 2017

"Furious 8" is a go. The next installment in Universal Pictures' blockbuster action franchise will hit theaters April 14, 2017, series star Vin Diesel announced at CinemaCon in Las Vegas.

"I swear to you and I swear to my brother upstairs we're going to make the best movie you've ever seen," Diesel said, referring to his late costar Paul Walker.

Walker's 2013 death partway through the filming of "Furious 7" in an unrelated single-car crash put the movie and the future of the franchise into doubt. Director James Wan, producer Neal Moritz and the studio halted production for months, pushed back the release date and finished the film using special effects and enlisting Walker's two brothers as body doubles.

Released April 3, "Furious 7" became Universal's first film to gross $1 billion at the worldwide box office, and it did so in just 17 days.

Diesel did not provide any plot details about "Furious 8," which does not yet have a director. During a recent appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," though, he said the action would head to New York City next.

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[COMMENTS] Is This The Reason Why Marvel Didn't Jump on Female-Led Comic Book Films?

Is This The Reason Why Marvel Didn't Jump on Female-Led Comic Book Films?

A new Sony email has surfaced via The Huffington Post that gives us some insight into why we haven’t seen a female superhero movie from Marvel yet. Captain Marvel is coming in 2018, but we’ve still got a ways to go. Just in case you were wondering why the studio hasn’t jumped on getting a female-led movie out sooner, this e-mail from Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter to Sony CEO Michael Lynton sheds some light on what their thought process is based on: money. Perlmutter was responding to an e-mail that offers some examples of terrible female-centric comic book films that bombed at the box office.

1   

       >Electra (Marvel) – Very bad idea and the end result was very, very bad. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=elektra.htm

2     >Catwoman (WB/DC) - Catwoman was one of the most important female character within the Batmanfranchise. This film was a disaster http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=catwoman.htm

3    >Supergirl – (DC) Supergirl was one of the most important female super hero in Superman franchise. This Movie came out in 1984 and did $14 million total domestic with opening weekend of $5.5 million. Again, another disaster.

So there you go. The CEO wasn't very thrilled about pumping money into a film that he thought would bomb. I guess Perlmutter isn’t as confident in Marvel Studios as we thought he might be after all the success they've had. The studio's been producing one great comic book movie after another, but there must still be a fear that a movie focusing on a strong female character could still bomb. 

The thing is, superhero films have changed so much since those movies were released, and it seems like Marvel has a working formula that has proven to be successful no matter what movie they produce.

Let's face it though, these CEOs probably live in a sheltered world, and they are all about making money, and they are going to push the projects that rake in the cash. Hopefully when Captain Marvel is released on November 2nd, 2018, it succeeds and blows away their expectations, so that we will see more of them. 

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[NEW] Home (2015)

Home’ centres around an alien named Oh, from a race known as the Boov, famous for their talents in the field of escape. Oh meets a young girl called Gratuity Tucci A.K.A Tip, who is looking for her mother. The two characters find themselves requiring one another’s help, and together they go on an adventure to find Tip’s missing mother.


The visuals may not have been on par with the ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ franchise, but it still had quite a few visually appealing scenes. One of the interesting things about the Boov is that their skin changes colour depending on their mood. They also don’t have a complete grasp of the English language and I liked that. It was an interesting aspect to the movie, one which made it stand out for me in a positive manner. Despite their inability to speak fluent English, their point was always clear and aided by the transformative nature of their appearance.

voiced by Rihanna & Jim Parsons

Overall, the film was rather enjoyable. ‘Home’ is definitely aiming for the younger audience with its humour, but it has enough heart that parents can enjoy it as well – what more can you ask for? It may not be Oscar worthy but I think you can walk out of the movie satisfied and adequately entertained. ‘Home’ certainly had opportunities to be better, but it’s worth the cinema trip with the kids.


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[Recommendation] Seventh Son (2014)

It has been a tiring weekend at the movies. Actually, it’s been a tiring few weeks at the movies, as studios nearly always wait until the start of the year to release the projects they are less than enthused about. Ironic really, since this is also award season, and while the industry is patting itself on the back for the quality work they released at the end of last year. They are simultaneously dumping their worst material on us in the hope to recover production costs. This last weekend was tougher than most. On Saturday the 7th of February, I lost two hours of my life to Jupiter Ascending, the day after that, I lost another 102 minutes of planet time to Seventh Son.

Seventh Son is based on a novel called ‘The Spook’s Apprentice’ by Joseph Delaney, and finally arrives in our theaters after several release date changes. Did you know this was originally scheduled for February 2013? It tells a pretty familiar story about a young man called Tom Ward (Ben Barnes), a farm boy yearning for adventure, who is, you know; “The One!” The Seventh Son of the Seventh Son, which apparently makes this kid special, not that the film really bothers to explain what that actually means. And he’s only brought into the story after Master Gregory (Jeff Bridges), gets his last assistant killed. Which immediately had me asking ‘if Ward was so important, why was not he already Master Gregory’s apprentice?’

Beyond the incredibly underdeveloped back story of the titular character, this is your standard Dungeons & Dragons style nonsense with lots of visual effects sequences. Complete with a tired plot involving an evil witch trying to take over the world, the aforementioned farm boy, and a sage Spook looking to pass on his teachings. Sound familiar? I don’t know about you, but a certain classic space adventure flick* released in 1977 came to mind.

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[FEATURE] David Fincher & his movies Part I

If you watch movies, I would say you must have seen at least one of David Fincher's movies. His movies are famous for his unique way of telling stories and strong logical connection between every scene in his movie. Frankly, you have to be smart enough to understand his movie. Well, that kinda hurts. Anyway, even you cannot fully understand the movie after the lights are on (check the reviews afterwards, some of them are masterpiece!), you will still be impressed by David's ability to tell stories and arrange the fragments of scene.

Gone Girl (2014)

Gone Girl is David's latest movie. I was so thrilled when I walked out of the theatre. Her love to her husband is so creepy and extreme. 

The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo (2011)

I clearly remember that I watched this film with my mate before bed one night. I had never seen any 'rape' scenes before so I was really sick after that [caution]. The film is about that a journalist was asked to investigate a family murder happened 40 years ago. The tatoo girl Liz hacked the journalist's computer and he invited her to investigate the murder together since the girl has an outstanding research ability. 

The Social Network (2010)

David rarely makes any biographic film, but this one is an exception. Unlike traditionally telling the story along the timeline, the film is based on a law suit between Mark (CEO) and Endardo (CFO). Whether the story is real is doubtful, but the film is basically on that 'you cannot be successful without making enemies, losing friends and being lonely'.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

It's starred by Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett and directed by Fincher, which somehow guarantee the quality of the movie. The movie started with an old lady's diary, which a man called Benjamin wrote. He was born looking like an old man, but he was growing younger. Inverse growth was a new topic in films at that time. Worth watching!

5 more David Fincher films will be introduced in our next FEATURE session!

BTW, this is what this great director looks like!

===To be contimued===

Fanqing XU 43392202

FEATURE-- David Finch

David Finch started his career with a lengthy stint on Top Cow Productions' Cyberforce, after series creator and studio founder Marc Silvestriceased his run as writer/artist on that book.

Finch went on to co-create Ascension with Matt "Batt" Banning. He would later work on the first three issues of Aphrodite IX with David Wohl.

In 2003, Finch returned to comics for a year-long arc on Ultimate X-Men with writer Brian Michael Bendis. Following that stint, the duo moved on to Avengers, where they destroyed Marvel's premiere superhero team only to relaunch it as The New Avengers featuring a radically different cast.

Finch has also worked on the revamped Moon Knight series together with novelist Charlie Huston. After leaving the series, he illustrated Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America #4, featuring Spider-Man. This was followed by the crossover event "Ultimatum" for the Ultimate Marvel Line. In addition to comic interior work, he has drawn several covers, including those of "World War Hulk", X-Men #200 and the "X-Men: Messiah Complex" storyline and the cover art for the X-Infernus miniseries.

Finch illustrated the cover to Disturbed's 2008 album, Indestructible, as well as doing concept design for the film adaptation of Alan Moore‍ '​s Watchmen.

In 2009, Finch was awarded the Joe Shuster Award for Outstanding Artist.

It was announced in January 2010 that Finch had left Marvel and would become a DC exclusive artist.^[3] In July, 2010 DC announced that Finch would be writing and drawing a new ongoing series entitled Batman: The Dark Knight, the first story arc of which deals with the detective's more supernatural cases.

In 2014, Finch and his wife, Meredith Finch, took over the creative duties on Wonder Woman, beginning with issue 36, their first collaborative effort.

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[NEW] ALOHA--New comedy by Bradley Cooper & Emma Stone

A celebrated military contractor (Bradley Cooper) returns to the site of his greatest career triumphs and re-connects with a long-ago love (Rachel McAdams) while unexpectedly falling for the hard-charging Air Force watchdog (Emma Stone) assigned to him.Who will he choose at the end? 

Personally, I really miss Emma Stone after her 'death' in 'The Amazing Spiderman 2'. This time her uniform- appearance in ALOHA is so stunning! Compared to Jennifer Lawrence, who worked with Bradley at 'Silver Linings Playbook', Emma looks more highschool-graduate, I am curious whether she can make it as a cool army officer! 

Emma is stunning in uniform! 

Who will he choose?

Can't wait till 18 JUNE!

      

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