White House Down (2013)

[fun and entertaining]

White House Down (2013)

IMDB- 6.1

RottenTomatoes- 47%

RJG Rating- 75

The White House is captured by unknown forces ,while only one man is left to protect the president.

Starring- Channing Tatum ,Jamie Foxx

Director- Roland Emmerich

Channing & Jamie Foxx play the lead roles in WHD.The entire movie heavily depends on these two to carry the job, and they definitely do a great job at it.They both support each other and the chemistry between them is great.Both are more than capable to do action scenes and can quip funny dialogues with ease.Maggie Gyllenhaal ,plays a supporting role but her role could have been done by anyone.As i said the movie heavily centers upon Jamie & Channing to carry this all the way to the end.

The story for WHD ,is undoubtedly almost 85% similar to March's Olympus Has Fallen.But i will prefer WHD to OHF.The story is more simple and lighter.Unlike OHF ,WHD doesnt have too many over the top patriotic scenes.The climax falters a bit,but its entertaining all the way till there.

The story cannot be taken too seriously and you must understand that its just a popcorn summer action flick.The story has its usual conspiracy cliches ,and some over the top action ,but its all in all fun.

Direction by Roland is good.He manages to unfold a pretty decent action flick.Its similar to the rest of his filmography like 2012,Day After Tomorrow and so on.The pacing of the movie was fast and there were almost zero dragging scenes.The movie rolls on pretty quickly ,thanks to the lead stars.

Overall.WHD is a fun movie which is entertaining all the way till the end.You are bound to love White House Down if you like Channing ,Jamie or are fans of movies by Roland.

Acting- 4/5

Story- 3/5

Direction- 3.5/5

Action- 4/5

Comedy- 3.5/5

Thriller- 3.5/5

Drama -3/5

PS:My pick between Olympus Has Fallen vs White House Down...

WHD!

Evil Dead (2013)

[cliched and least horrifying]

Evil Dead (2013)

IMDB- 6.8

RottenTomatoes- 63%

RJG Ratings- 45

5 teenagers visit a cabin in the middle of the woods ,where they find signs of witchcraft.

Starring- Jane Levy,Shiloh,Lou Taylor

Director- Fede Alvarez

Acting is below average.All are relatively new actors.They dont manage to bring the audience into the movie's worlds ,and neither are they very likeable.Its the usual set of cast that are present in most horror movie ,and they die in that order too.

The story for Evil Dead runs somewhat similar to the original 1981 movie.But just like the original ,this story is better suited to the 80's than the present.Almost every action of the characters are either dumb or have been done a million times in other horror movies.For ex:A satanic book ,found in a place where witchcraft has been practiced,has warnings saying not to be read.So what does the nerd guy of the group does?He takes an extra effort to write them down and read it out loud.

The writers havnt even thought of updating the script thats so outdated.Last years "Cabin in the Woods" was excellent because they did something new.

Another flaw is the lack of humour.The original movie escaped cliches and ridiculousness mainly because there was humour backing it up.The new version takes itself too seriously and ends up being ridiculous.

The direction was ok.The movie doesnt drag too much but its a dull experience sitting through this movie.After boasting that "this movie is the most terrifying movie youll ever see" on all their ads ,i expected some good horror.Unfortunately horror factor is pretty low.The scares are the same old gimmicks and arent too creative.Its really surprising on how poor its horror was.Aside from 2 or 3 quick flashes of torn faces ,Evil Dead can barely scare anyone.On the upside,the climax was good and gave the movie some redeeming factor ,but its too late to save the movie.

Like the original ,the movie has plenty of gore scenes.Cutting tongues in half,ripping off faces and more.But for some reason it doesnt really scare you.

Overall Evil Dead is a very poor remake,and also a very poor horror movie.Give it a watch if you are into bloody horror movies ,if not skip it.

Acting- 2/5

Story- 2/5

Direction- 2.5/5

Horror- 1.5/5

Gore- 4/5

New Cloudy2 Trailer

Latest trailer for Cloudy 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw6dECrl-BE

Europa Report (2013)

[realistic,yet dull]

Europa Report (2013)

IMDB- 6.3

RottenTomatoes- 64%

RJG Rating- 60

6 astronauts take a historic journey towards Europa ,one of Jupitar's moons.

Starring- Sharlto Copley,Michael Nyqvist, Anamaria Marinca

Director- Sebastián Cordero

Acting is pretty average from the cast.Some go a bit over the top while others dont get much time to shine.The most recognizable from the group is Sharlto Copley (District 9).Frankly hes the selling point of the entire movie ,and he does his work excellently.But his role is comparatively short and hes been under utilized.The rest of the actors try their best but it doesnt help the movie much.

The story for Europa Report is good ,but theres something lacking in it.It tries to convey something fresh but struggles during the course.Theres a severe lack of excitement.And the time jumps were a bit too much.

The direction was pretty good.The movie unfolds in a mockumentary (fake documentary) style.And the movie completely works under fixed cameras.In such areas ,Europa has done a good job.My major gripe with the movie was Sharlto's short role and the slow pace. Director Sebastián ,does get full marks for the way hes conveyed the movie.From the start itself it focuses on being as realistic as possible.The slow pace can be said to be due to the realism setting of the movie.

The visual effects ,and the shots of space were excellent.Europa itself looked very realistic.

Overall ,i wont recommend Europa to casual viewers ,its more enjoyable to people who like space related documentaries.

Acting- 3/5

Story- 2.5/5

Direction- 3.5/5

Drama- 3/5

Thriller- 2.5/5

Sci-Fi - 4/5

No more Batman for Bale

Christian Bale confirms that he wont be in the Justice League movie.

It was a dream everyone had , on whether Bale would make a cameo in this years Man Of Steel.But as all dreams go ,its time to wake up.Christian Bale who played Batman/Wayne ,in Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy ,said he wont play the role again and instead is ready to pass the torch to the next candidate for the Batman role.

“We were incredibly fortunate to get to make three. That’s enough. Let’s not get greedy…Chris always said he wanted to make it one film at a time. And we ended up sitting there looking at each other, saying ‘We’re about to make the third.’ We never really knew if we were going to get to be there, but if that was how it was going to be, this was where it should end as well.”

There were rumours about Bale & Nolan returning but its now confirmed as false.

Many thought that a large sack of money would tempt both Nolan & Bale to return to the series ,but thats not going to happen.Its great to know there are still actors and directors in Hollywood that dont sway according to money!

Hobbit & Walking Dead Stuff

First Production Video Blog from Hobbit Part 2!

https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10151701535221558
As usual its pure fun !

New Poster for Walking Dead Season 4!
The season will start this October!Anyone like this show?Like the page to stay updated

Monsters keeps the Heat down

Monsters keeps the Heat down

[June28-30]

#1-Monsters University kept the Pixar flag flying high as it topped the box office for the second week in a row.The movie made $46million in its second weekend.With that MU has already made $300 million worldwide and is another hit for Pixar.But it still has a long way to go to match the financial success of other Pixar movies.It all depends on how its going to stand upto next weeks release Despicable Me 2.

#2-The female oriented action-comedy The Heat made an excellent opening considering it faced tight competition from all around.The movie made $40million ,almost recouping its $43million budget.The movie has yet to open internationally and its a guaranteed superhit already.

Meanwhile reviews for Heat were above average.The movie has a rating of 63% ,with critics  praising its lead actresses.But it was the predictable story that brought the movie down.

#3-World War Z continued its good run ,making $29million this week.This brings the worldwide gross of World War Z to an excellent $259million.The movie has easily recovered its budget of $190million ,and is the highest grossing zombie movie of all time!

#4-Meanwhile all was not good for White House Down which made just $25million and is headed towards a FLOP status.Starring two big stars of 2012 ,Channing (21Jump Street,Vow,Magic Mike) and Jamie Foxx (Django Unchained) ,and directed by destruction king ,Roland Emmerich (2012,Day After Tomorrow,Independence Day) ,White House Down had big expectations.But its major stumbling block was March's Olympus Has Fallen ,which has a very similar story to WHD, that is ,Terrorists capturing White House and one guard trying to free it.

Unlike Olympus which became a surprise hit with a moderately sized budget of $70million ,White House Down is headed towards a flop with a huge budget of $150million.

Critics werent pleased with the movie either.The movie scored 48% ,with critics happy with Channing & Foxx, but irritated with Roland's poor direction.

This is Roland's second failure in a row.His 2011 movie ,Anonymous ,flopped badly.I guess 2012 (his 2009 movie) ,only brought disaster to Roland!

#5-Man Of Steel continued to slip down the charts as it made just $20million in its 3rd week.But MOS is safe from any danger as it has already crossed its expectations.The movie has made a solid $520million worldwide ,which is the highest grossing Superman movie and also Zack Snyder's highest grossing movie.

2013 Top 5

#5-Oz The Great and Powerful -$491million

#4-Man Of Steel -$520million

#3-The Croods -$577million

#2-Fast & Furious 6- $682million

#1-Iron Man 3 -$1.210 billion (#5 on all time grossing list)

2013 Top 5 welcomed Man Of Steel which entered the list within 3 weeks after its release.MOS looks set to overtake Croods by next week ,but it has very few chances of overtaking Fast Furious 6.

Next week ,we have 2 more anticipated movies locking horns!First my initial analysis on the two:

Despicable Me 2 - JUL3

story- Gru lives at peace with his 3 adopted daughters,but trouble crops up with the entry of Lucy from the Anti-Villain League. (animation)

+ The cute characters returns.So does the original team behind the first movie.Theres more new characters.

- Theres a slight chance it might go completely into the childish area

Lone Ranger- JUL3

story-A masked hero and a Red Indian Warrior team up to fight against corruption.

+Gore Verbinski (Pirates Of Caribbean) directs this action flick.Johnny Depp as another quirky character is as always an enjoyable watch.

- Casting a superstar as a supporting actor against an upcoming new actor doesnt sound like a great idea.Depp is bound to steal the show and divert attention.On the other hand ,Depp has not been delivering good movies as of late.This movie might just be all action with a weak story

My pick of the week is.............DESPICABLE ME 2!

I loved the first movie ,and the trailers for the second looked great.On the other hand Lone Ranger's trailers were downright boring.And checking the initial ratings i maybe right!Its bound to take down Monsters this week!

Despicable Me 2 -81% (Mini review-Not good as first but very very funny)

Lone Ranger - 25% (Mini review-poor story overloaded with action minus the fun)

JULY Analysis

6 Biggies of July

July will be the last of the packed to the brim of action powered movies.Just like June ,we have one solid animation sequel (Despicable) ,one superhero (Wolverine) ,one apocalypse movie (Pacific Rim) , 2 action comedies (Red2,Lone Ranger),1 action drama (Only God).

Here are my analysis:

Despicable Me 2 - JUL3

story- Gru lives at peace with his 3 adopted daughters,but trouble crops up with the entry of Lucy from the Anti-Villian League. (animation)

+ The cute characters returns.So does the original team behind the first movie.Theres more new characters.

- Theres a slight chance it might go completely into the childish area

Lone Ranger- JUL3

story-A masked hero and a Red Indian Warrior team up to fight against corruption.

+Gore Verbinski (Pirates Of Caribbean) directs this action flick.Johnny Depp as another quirky character is as always an enjoyable watch.

- Casting a superstar as a supporting actor against an upcoming new actor doesnt sound like a great idea.Depp is bound to steal the show and divert attention.On the other hand ,Depp has not been delivering good movies as of late.This movie might just be all action with a weak story

Only God Forgives -JUL9

story-a mother sends her son to avenge the death of his brother.

+Its the much awaited reteaming of Drive ,director Nicolas and actor Ryan Gosling.

-The story might just end up short especially with the huge anticipation for following up a movie like Drive.

Pacific Rim- JUL12

story-When Monsters from the oceans arise , humans build giant robots to defend themselves.

+ This is acclaimed director ,Del Toro's first movie since 2008's Hellboy 2.The trailers looks great,action scenes and visuals look awesome too.

- Chance of being all visuals ,dull story.

Red 2- JUL19

Story-Frank brings together his team to track down a stolen nuclear device.

+ original cast of Bruce Willis,Mary Louise,Malkovich,Helen return.

- Itll be a hard task to replicate the fun of the first.FIlling the movie with too many stars can be too much for the movie to handle.

The Wolverine- JUL26

story- Wolverine travels to Japan and meets an old foe after the events of X-Men 3.

+ The character ,Wolverine is a favorite among all.Huge Jackman returns.Acclaimed director ,Darren Aronofsky was set to direct ,but bowed out due to personal reasons.Considering he liked the script ,the story might be a solid one.

- Although the character is great ,his movies might not be so good.X-Men 3 & Wolverine Origins was met with poor reviews.Lack of a proper villain ,or subpar villains.

New Posters from Despicable Me 2

Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

[could have been a great Die Hard movie]

Olympus Has Fallen (2013)
IMDB- 6.9
RottenTomatoes- 47%
RJG Ratings- 70

The White House is taken hostage by terrorists.

Starring- Gerard Butler,Aaron Eckhart,Morgan Freeman
Director- Antoine Fuqua

The cast is good.Gerard Butler gives in a good performance and supported by Aaron ,they both give the movie a charged atmosphere.Morgan Freeman is great too.

The story for Olympus HF ,is not one to be closely examined.Its an action movie with not much priority for story.The story they do use is pretty decent but very over the top.Its hard to believe majority of the stuff that happens in the movie.Not to mention it has a cliched president character.Much of the dialogue are way too cheesy.

Direction by Antoine is good.He has maintained a good pace for Olympus and 2hrs easily slip by without the movie getting dull at anytime.With a good cast and some nice action scenes ,hes able to cover up for the lacking story.

Watching Olympus HF ,reminded me of the good ol Die Hard Part1.This had all the ingredients of such a movie and is a 100 times better than the recent Die Hard movies.

Overall ,Olympus HF is a good timepass action movie.It isnt anything great but will please those who love movies like Die Hard.

Acting- 3/5
Story- 2.5/5
Direction- 3.5/5
Action- 3.5/5
Drama- 2.5/5
Thriller- 3.5/5

Latest reports from AmazingSpiderman2

Amazing Spiderman 2 is one sequel that is piling the story with major characters.Other than the main 2 leads ,Peter Parker/Spidey and Gwen from the first movie ,we have Mary Jane and 3 villians Electro ,Harry Osborn ,Rhino.

Mary Jane's addition to the story was a bit weird considering ,Peter-Gwen relation was just starting off by the end of the first movie.But now Shailene ,who plays Mary Jane ,revealed that her scenes were being cut from the movie.As of now ,its not sure whether Shailene is being dropped from the movie completely,or if her scenes are being transferred for the Amazing Spiderman 3.

As one character is dropped off ,another was sort of revealed! Felicity Jones joined the cast for a role that has not yet been revealed to the public.But in a recent interview ,she mistakenly "sort of" admitted that she was going to play Black Cat.The best way to describe Black Cat is, she is a Marvel version of DC's Catwoman.Sometimes a villain ,sometimes a heroine ,Black Cat is in the grey area.

So it takes the number of villains in the sequel to 4 ,which i think is the most number of villains in a superhero movie (except the X-Men series).And as time has told us ,if a movie exceeds 2 villains ,its headed towards disaster.

Terminator reboot gets a date!

The Terminator series will be rebooted and the first part of the newly planned trilogy will be released on June 26, 2015.
After the poor response to Terminator Salvation ,and the legal issues of the franchise , a reboot was the best option.This will completely wipe the slate clean from the old series which consisted of 4 movies from 1984-2009.Arnold Schwarzenegger's involvement is still in doubt ,and a director hasnt been attached to the project as of now.

The planned reboot will be a stand-alone trilogy ,which means it would not be made on the existing storyline.Characters such as John Connor may not be even in the movie.
Dwayne Johnson is rumoured to have a major part in the movie ,but its still a rumour.

On the other hand ,2015 is gearing upto become one hell of a summer...Check this out!
The Avengers 2 (May 1)
Assassin's Creed (June 19)
Terminator (June 26)
Independence Day 2 (July 3)
Pirates of the Caribbean 5 (July 10)
Jurassic Park IV
Star Wars: Episode VII

New Posters

 

Monsters kick out Zombies & Superheroes

Monsters kick out Zombies & Superheroes

[Jun21-23]

#1-Monsters University made a solid debut as it opened with a powerful $82million.This is the 4th highest debut for a animation movie with only Toy Story3,Shrek2&3 ,making bigger openings.MU made $54million overseas to bring its worldwide total to $136million.

MU is the prequel to Pixar's classic Monsters Inc (2001) ,and follows the story of how Mike & Sully met.Critics were pleased with the result and MU has been getting good reviews.The movie has a rating of 77% which in Pixar levels ,is below average.

Excluding MU ,in Pixar's 13 movies ,only 3 movies have got a rating below 90% ,Cars 1&2 [74%&39%] and Brave[78%] ,and all 3 were a far cry from the usual Pixar standards of quality story telling.

MU's reviews pales in comparisons to previous Pixar classics ,but its definitely this years best animation movie (so far).

#2-Brad Pitt returned to big budget action movies ,with his World War Z ,the latest zombie apocalypse movie.The movie made a powerful $66million domestically and $45 overseas ,to make a worldwide gross of $111million.World War Z's budget of $190million looks to be easily recoverable considering the big opening.WWZ's opening is the highest debut for a zombie flick (Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead held that record for almost 9years with a distant $26million) ,and also Brad Pitt's highest weekend debut.

Reviews for the movie was average with a rating of 67%.WWZ's altering its source material (the novel its based upon) and its uneven plot is the major criticism.Although the action and Brad Pitt's acting is praised.

#3-Man Of Steel had a steep fall of 65% as it stumbled to $41million in its second week.But with a world wide gross of $398million ,the movie has safely recovered its budget and might be able to cross $600million if it doesnt lose steam this week.

MOS has now become the highest grossing Superman movie ,beating 2006's Superman Returns ($200million).

#4-This is the End held on making $13million ,bringing its total gross to $57.7million.For a small budget movie ,TITE is a big success.

#5-Now You See Me stuck around making $7.8million in its 4th week.The movie has so far made a worldwide gross of $134million.

2013 Top 5

#5-Star Trek Into Darkness -$430million

#4-Oz The Great and Powerful -$491million

#3-The Croods -$577million

#2-Fast & Furious 6- $645million

#1-Iron Man 3 -$1.207 billion (#5 on all time grossing list)

This week is going to be another action movie oriented one.And i must admit both dont look to be any good.One is an action comedy,The Heat, and the other an all out action movie,White House Down.My pick of the week is....WHD

White House Down- JUN28

story- after a group take over the White House ,a Secret Service Agent must rescue the President.

+ Stars Channing Tatum & Jamie Foxx who are both on a good run.

- its directed by Roland Emmerich ,who is known more for his liking of destruction rather than a good story.

Heat on the other hand is directed by Paul Feig ,who directed the superb Bridesmaids.The Heat stars Sandra Bullock & Melissa McCarthy.The trailers havnt been too funny and i think this will be a disaster.

As for WHD ,its directed by Roland (2012,Day After Tomorrow) and could be entertaining.

What your pick?

Robert Downey Jr. signs for Avengers2 & 3!

It isnt a shocking news as Downey is an integral part of Marvel's Avenger movies,but his contract renewal was in doubt after IronMan3.Even though no new Iron Man movies are planned as far as 2016 ,fans will atleast get to see him back in action in 2015's Avengers2