Following immediately after Dawn of the Planet of the Apes such that a recent viewing of the previous entry is required to understand this one, Caesar (motion-captured Andy Serkis) leads a band of apes that are being hunted by fanatical humans under the command of the deranged Colonel (Woody Harrelson). An attack by The Colonel
If you’ve missed the explanation for the FOSCARS list, look here. I’m doing this one year at a time. The biggest trend of the 1930s was the adjustment to new technologies, particularly sound. Many stars and directors would not last out the decade. Noticeable movements included Universal Horror (with 5 nominees and 1 win; James Whale
In the early ‘70s, Bill Randa (John Goodman), the only survivor of a ship destroyed years ago by a giant monster, is obsessed with finding giant monsters in the world. As his last chance, he puts together a team that includes ex-S.A.S tracker James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston), photographer Mason Weaver (Brie Larson), and a military
An old sub-genre is getting a kick in China now—tomb raiding adventures stories. The newest incarnations are not examples of China just now discovering Indiana Jones, as some have suggested, but are part of a movement set off by an ebook: Ghost Blows Out the Light (2006). The series set records in China and physical
The arrival of twelve spaceships causes worldwide panic. Linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) and physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) are brought into a military team tasked with determining what the aliens want. Each day they can enter a ship and confront the mutli-tentacled aliens behind a glass wall and try and work out some form
Star Trek is a cultural phenomenon, with five, soon to be six, TV series, more than a hundred books, plus an uncountable number of collectables. Considering that, and the quality of many of the Original Series episodes, the films often fail to raise to the level of their history. But there are some gems in
Alton (Jaden Lieberher), a super-powered kid who can’t control his powers, has been kidnapped from a cult by his father Roy Tomlin (Michael Shannon) and his friend Lucas (Joel Edgerton). They take a very, very slow drive through very dark, nowhere roads while pursued by the cult that thinks the child is their salvation and
Batman (Ben Affleck) is very grumpy because his life has sucked and Superman’s big fight in Man of Steel killed his friend. Superman (Henry Cavill suffering from depression) is grumpy because…he’s just an asshole. Lois (Amy Adams napping) is grumpy because director Zack Snyder told Adams to act that way. They all express their grumpiness
Ah, the Bond title sequence. It is as iconic as Bond himself, or at least has been since the playbook was completed with Thunderball: Beautiful female silhouettes undulating about with weapons pointed at them or in their hands against surreal backdrops. Good ones can set the film up. Bad ones pull the audience down. I’m
The Marvel One-Shots were a fantastic idea in a long list of fantastic ideas from the Marvel Cinematic Universe team: shorts films that could tell smaller stories, expand on concepts from the features, introduce or flesh out characters, and fill in missing pieces. This brilliant idea was followed by a horrible one: stop making the
