All About Movie

Senin, 23 Desember 2013

DA VINCI’S DEMONS (2013) SEASON 01 [AIRING]

Tanggal Rilis : TV Series (2013– )
Jenis Film : Adventure | Drama
Diperankan Oleh : Tom Riley, Laura Haddock, Ian Pirie

Ringkasan Cerita DA VINCI’S DEMONS (2013) SEASON 01 [AIRING] :

Leonardo Da Vinci is tortured by a gift of superhuman genius. He finds himself in a conflict between truth and lies, religion and reason, past and future. His aspirations are used against him by opposing forces – luring him into a game of seduction where those who despise his intellect need him most. His quest for knowledge nearly becomes his undoing, but Da Vinci’s genius prevails and he emerges as an unstoppable force that lifts an entire era out of darkness and propels it into light. His story becomes a mirror into our own world, calling us all to join his fight to Free the Future.

[IMDb rating : 8.2/10]
[Awards : - ]
[Production Co : BBC Worldwide Productions]
[IMDb link : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2094262]

EPISODE 1: THE HANGED MAN
Synopsis

A chronicle of the life of Leonardo da Vinci begins with the Italian artist-inventor in his mid-20s, when he is commissioned by the Medicis to create an Easter spectacle in Florence. Later, he’s hired to build war machines, and meets a mysterious Turk.

[Quality : HDTV 720p]
[File Size : 400 MB]
[Format : Matroska >> mkv]
[Resolution : 1280x720]
[Source : 720p.HDTV.x264-2HD]
[Encoder : nItRo]

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EPISODE 2: THE SERPENT
Synopsis

Leonardo continues his quest for the Book of Leaves. The Pope’s nephew arrives and meets his spy. Leonardo’s war designs fail, causing a rift with the Medicis. The Pope learns of Leonardo’s prowess.

[Quality : HDTV 720p]
[File Size : 375 MB]
[Format : Matroska >> mkv]
[Resolution : 1280x720]
[Source : 720p.HDTV.x264-IMMERSE]
[Encoder : nItRo]

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EPISODE 3: THE PRISONER
Synopsis

Riario engages the Pope and a mysterious prisoner in a discussion concerning the count’s defeat, while Leonardo searches for a rational explanation when an outbreak of demonic possession occurs at a convent, and the blame is placed on the Medicis.

[Quality : HDTV 720p]
[File Size : 375 MB]
[Format : Matroska >> mkv]
[Resolution : 1280x720]
[Source : 720p.HDTV.x264-IMMERSE]
[Encoder : nItRo]

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EPISODE 4: THE MAGICIAN
Synopsis

Bechhi is accused of spying for Rome and arrested; Leonardo unveils his latest weapon when the armies of Rome and Florence square off. Later, at a party in his honor, Leonardo is arrested and charged with sodomy.

[Quality : HDTV 720p]
[File Size : 400 MB]
[Format : Matroska >> mkv]
[Resolution : 1280x720]
[Source : 720p.HDTV.x264-IMMERSE]
[Encoder : nItRo]

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EPISODE 5: THE TOWER
Synopsis

Lorenzo demands that Leonardo’s estranged father defend his son in court. Later, Leonardo surprises a corrupt judge during a performance for visiting royals, and is surprised himself when the Turk makes an appearance at the workshop.

[Quality : HDTV 720p]
[File Size : 400 MB]
[Format : Matroska >> mkv]
[Resolution : 1280x720]
[Source : 720p.HDTV.x264-EVOLVE]
[Encoder : nItRo]

Download English Subtitle
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EPISODE 6: THE DEVIL
Synopsis

The Turk’s clue about the Book of Leaves leads Leonardo to Wallachia and an encounter with Vlad Dracula, while Lorenzo and Piero have a meeting with the Duke of Urbino. Later, the spy search intensifies.

[Quality : HDTV 720p]
[File Size : 375 MB]
[Format : Matroska >> mkv]
[Resolution : 1280x720]
[Source : 720p.HDTV.x264-EVOLVE]
[Encoder : nItRo]

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EPISODE 7: THE HIEROPHANT
Synopsis

Leonardo builds an underwater suit and uses the sewers to enter the Vatican, where he meets the Pope and the mysterious prisoner. Giuliano reveals the true identity of Rome’s spy.

[Quality : WEB-DL 720p]
[File Size : 375 MB]
[Format : Matroska >> mkv]
[Resolution : 1280x720]
[Source : 720p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BS]
[Encoder : nItRo]

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Sabtu, 21 Desember 2013

Cannes Review: ‘Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian’

I want to talk a little bit about boring movies. Boring comes in a few different varieties, and they are different from plain old bad movies. They offer nothing to laugh or scoff at. They just do their thing and, when you are done consuming them, they just lay there asking “what? You wanted more? That’s all you get.”

There’s the slow burn – where you can sense the inevitable conclusion coming, a vice grip and its methodical turn. When done right, you laser in on each scene, savoring the nuance of performance or writing. A good example I’ll elect as this subgroup’s representative is Cristi Puiu’s “Death of Mr. Lazarescu” – exhausting but tremendously rewarding.

Then there’s a “zone” movie. I’m gonna go ahead and pick Bela Tarr’s “Turin Horse” for this group. Repetitive, monotonous, but when it has a gorgeous texture and a tone that exudes importance and truth and a richness of history, a film like this can send you off (or in) on a journey in a way few other artforms can. You leave dazed and worn-out, but, if lucky, a tiny bit transformed.

Also check out: The 10 Best Films of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival

Then there are movies, like Arnaud Desplechin’s “Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian,” that are just “not-horrible” enough, yet are still thoroughly and transcendently boring, that you come away with almost no reaction at all. It’s like being in a rush but you need to wolf down some lunch to prevent getting lightheaded. You inhale a sandwich without tasting it. The mayonnaise wasn’t spoiled so it doesn’t give you a stomach ache, but there’s no way you can ever reproduce the taste in your mind. If Desplechin wanted to make a movie like this, well, mission accomplished.

So what’s “Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian” about? It’s. . . oh, it’s so boring. But here goes. Benecio Del Toro plays a WWII vet who suffered a head injury. As such he has horrible blackouts and blindness spells. His older sister (who takes care of him) takes him to a special army hospital in Topeka, Kansas. The docs can’t find anything wrong with him. A shrink looks into it, but Del Toro is a Blackfoot, and he all but says “what do I know from these Indians?”

They call in Mathieu Amalric, a quirky anthropologist who is an expert on the Mojave (close enough) and who also dabbles in psychoanalysis. If he can’t cure him, then no one can!

You might be thinking, hey, this doesn’t sound that horrible. And that’s the problem with the movie. You keep waiting for something, anything, to kick in. It never does. Instead the two of them just yap at each other.

Listen: I’m no philistine. A can handle a two-hander of people talking. Hell, I’ll even go and watch a play from time to time if I can’t get out of it. But, seriously, there is just no life, nothing interesting going on between these two. This is not “The Chief’s Speech.” What you learn is that Del Toro’s character had a few sad things happen to him as a kid and young adult. Nothing too bad, in the great scheme of things. But, once he talks about them, he’s cured. The end.

Along the way there are filler scenes between Amalric (whom I usually adore) and some gal he’s seeing. But it’s barely in there. Yet, when she splits there’s a teary eyed letter where she bursts emotion all over the place. So, at the one hour and fifty-five mark we’re supposed to care about this woman we barely know, which is secondary to the main plot that we also don’t care about. It doesn’t land.

Amalric is fine in the piece and Del Toro is okay, I guess. Desplechin and he decided that Jimmy P. should speak Every. Single. Word. As. If. It. Is. A. Sentence. It’s almost unendurable. He’s just a frowny sack of potatoes in this film and, yeah, I feel sorry for him, but I also don’t want to see him mope for two hours if I’m not getting anything out of it.

Most baffling: this is based on a true story. So Desplechin at some point learned about this and said “yes! I will be the one to bring this fantastic tale to the screen!” Only, there’s just nothing there. Depressed Indian talks to shrink, tells bland stories. That’s really it. There are moments when you think there will be some conflict about new psychological technique locking horns with more traditional methods – or maybe some great insight into the struggles of American Indians. . . but not really. Instead it’s just boring – and boring in a way that apparently has no endgame.

3.0

Categories: Reviews

Tags: Arnaud Desplechin, Benicio del toro, Cannes 2013, Cannes film festival, Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian, Jordan hoffman, Review

Jumat, 20 Desember 2013

SNITCH (2013)

Tanggal Rilis : 22 February 2013 (USA)
Jenis Film : Drama | Thriller
Diperankan Oleh : Dwayne Johnson, Jon Bernthal, Susan Sarandon

Ringkasan Cerita SNITCH (2013) :

Construction company owner John Matthews learns that his estranged son, Jason, has been arrested for drug trafficking. Facing an unjust prison sentence for a first time offender courtesy of mandatory minimum sentence laws, Jason has nothing to offer for leniency in good conscience. Desperately, John convinces the DEA and the opportunistic DA Joanne Keeghan to let him go undercover to help make arrests big enough to free his son in return. With the unwitting help of an ex-con employee, John enters the narcotics underworld where every move could be his last in an operation that will demand all his resources, wits and courage to survive.

[IMDb rating : 6.8/10]
[Awards : - ]
[Production Co : Summit Entertainment, Exclusive Media Group, Participant Media]
[IMDb link : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0882977]

[Quality : BRRip 720p]
[File Size : 675 MB]
[Format : Matroska >> mkv]
[Resolution : 1280x536]
[Source : 720p.BluRay.x264-AN0NYM0US]
[Encoder : nItRo]

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Rabu, 18 Desember 2013

7 Female Film Critics You Should Be Reading

Judith Crist

A study released today by San Diego State professor Martha Lauzen, as reported by The Wrap, has some pretty distressing statistics about gender equality in the world of film criticism. The study tracked more than 2000 reviews written by authors designated as “Top Critics” on the aggregation service Rotten Tomatoes over the course of several months and found, incredibly, that a whopping 82% were written by men. A similar study conducted in 2007, which tracked reviews written for the top 100 American dailies, found that men accounted for 70% of the material—which suggests not only have the numbers gotten worse, but that, more alarmingly, things are actually worse for female critics online than they were exclusively in print media. Whatever the reasons (or excuses), this is clearly a sorry state of affairs.

There are many great female film critics writing outstanding film criticism every week, and maybe the best thing we can do in response to a study like this is read more. We need more women writing about movies, certainly, but we also need to be more aware of the women who are writing about movies already. Men have a tendency to shout over other people; we don’t need to hear more of that.

With all of this in mind, we thought it would be a good idea to highlight a few of the most essential female critics working today, from some of the most respected names in criticism to less established voices on the rise. If you’re not reading these women already, get on it.

- Farran Nehme – New York Post, Self-Styled Siren
Twitter: @selfstyledsiren

Nehme has long been well-regarded for her incredibly insightful film blog “The Self-Styled Siren”, where she muses on obscure works of classical Hollywood cinema and unearths rare bits of film-legend arcana. Over the last year or so she’s been steadily contributing feature reviews to the New York Post, which is an excellent fit.

Read: Her hilarious takedown of “No One Lives.”

- Kiva Reardon – Cleo Journal, Cinema Scope, Reverse Shot
Twitter: @kiva_jane

Kiva Reardon made a name for herself as a regular contributor to respected outlets like Cinema Scope and Reverse Shot, offering in-depth criticism that goes much deeper than an ordinary review. But her biggest achievement is also her most recent: last month she founded Cleo, a new journal offering feminist perspectives on film.

Read: Her thorough consideration of Soderbergh’s “Magic Mike”

- Zeba Blay – Slant Magazine, Black Voices
Twitter: @zblay

Blay’s recent festival coverage for Slant Magazine’s House Next Door has been superb, but some of the most notable writing she’s offered to date hasn’t been strictly reviewing movies, but looking at them more deeply for issues of race and representation (including a provocative piece for Huffington Post about Lena Dunham and “Girls”). Her deep engagement with issues too few critics pay mind to is refreshing and important.

Read: Interesting thoughts on the use of “yellowface” in “Cloud Atlas”

- Miriam Bale – The L Magazine, NY Daily News, MUBI, Filmmaker Magazine
Twitter: @mimbale

Miriam Bale is one of my very favorite film critics for the simplest of reasons: her writing makes me think. Writing with intelligence, curiosity, and wit, the only bad thing about Bale is that she doesn’t write enough. We need more critics like this.

Read: A sharp analysis of “Sleeping Beauty”

- Stephanie Zacharek – Film.com, The Village Voice
Twitter: @szacharek

Our former critic, the wonderful Stephanie Zacharek has been rapidly gathering readers and esteem lately, culminating in her recent and much-deserved takeover as chief critic for the Village Voice.

Read: A killer D+ pan of “Les Miserables”

- Karina Longworth – LA Weekly, Grantland Vanity Fair
Twitter: @KarinaLongworth

Karina Longworth might be the most widely read name on this list, and so needs no introduction. But her writing remains as vital as ever, not only in her role as a film critic but also as the author of a newly published book on Al Pacino.

Read: Her award-winning piece on the Sundance Film Festival

- Dana Stevens – Slate
Twitter: @thehighsign

Dana Stevens is one of the most respected film critics working, and for good reason: her direct, candid style is engaging and inflected with personality, her voice as open as it is authoritative.

Read: A recent reappraisal of “Heaven’s Gate”

Categories: Features, Lists

Tags: Calum Marsh, Dana Stevens, Farran Nehme, Female Film Critics, Karina Longworth, Kiva Reardon, List, Miriam Bale, Stephanie Zacharek, The Wrap, Zeba Blay

Selasa, 17 Desember 2013

Review: ‘The East’

This review was originally published on January 21, 2013 as part of Film.com’s coverage of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

If “The East” were from anyone other than writer/director Zal Batmanglij and writer/star Brit Marling, I’d be much more excited about it. That may not be fair to the work, but it is how I feel. Their independently produced sci-fi thriller “Sound of My Voice” was so sharp, exciting and itching to dazzle that this solid but conventional outing can’t help but feel a tiny bit like a sophomore slump. My number one takeaway from “The East” is annoyance — why did these two feel they needed to make their movie in this traditional way?

“The East” is still a good yarn, though, and I shouldn’t blame it for being made by people who made it. Brit Marling plays Sarah, a whip-smart young intelligence agent recruited by a firm providing information and security to corporate clients. An Anonymous-esque group called The East is currently targeting individuals at the top of conglomerates whose products and practices have deleterious environmental consequences. These actions, called “jams,” are more than just street theater. The East’s “eye for an eye” attitude is heightened radicalism, and while their intentions certainly elicit our sympathies, their actions are only for too-far-gone believers.

Dyeing her hair and hanging out with banjo players gets Sarah in with the freegan anarchists fairly quickly. At first the collective, ostensibly led by Benji (Alexander Skarsgard) but balanced by Izzy (Ellen Page), seems like a weirdo cult. This perception soon fades, though maybe that is because Sarah’s attitude toward them starts to shift.

Marling’s character is no mere blank vessel, though; her boss Sharon (Patricia Clarkson) describes her as “smart enough to be at a disadvantage.” She’s also a practicing Christian, so The East’s call for social justice surely resonates with her. When she tags along for jams, she is torn between doing her job, warning the marks who may be in danger or going through with the plan.

Sarah and the other group members are all fascinating. An evening of spin the bottle may sound like trite screenwriting, but Batmanglij and Marling wrote it as a marvelous, revealing sequence. Some of the revelations concerning how the members of the group got there may seem a little obvious, but each of the performers nail the desperation that comes with total political commitment.

My main beef with the film is the somewhat facile attitude toward big fat corporations. Come on, every single one of them is poisoning us? I’m cool with “The East” believing that, but not so sure about “The East” believing that.

That said, I offer genuine huzzahs to the film’s conclusion. Without giving away final twists or action beats, this is a movie that proposes a genuine, intelligent solution, both for the main character and for us. It comes at you kinda quickly (and economically, in about three wordless shots), but it hit me like a bag of dumpster-dived apples to the gut.

It feels strange to be disappointed by what is, by all rights, a good movie. Perhaps that’s just because of my absolute admiration of “Sound of My Voice,” with its ineffable tone and ambiguous plotting. But if “The East” has any lesson it’s that complete, fanatical devotion may not be the best course of action. To that end, I ultimately recommend “The East” in any context.

SCORE: 7.5 / 10

Categories: Reviews

Tags: Alexander skarsgard, Brit Marling, Ellen page, Patricia Clarkson, Sound of my Voice, Sundance, Sundance 2013, The East, Zal Batmanglij

Minggu, 15 Desember 2013

Cannes Review: ‘The Last Days on Mars’

My heart lives dead center of the Venn diagram for hard science-fiction author Ben Bova and low-rent schlockmeister Roger Corman. Yet “The Last Days on Mars” leaves me as cold as the inky void of space. This would-be smart horror pic with the elevator pitch you can’t refuse – “The Thing” on Mars – should be kept on file for further study of just how to screw up what ought to be an awesome movie.

The first thirty-five minutes (I timed it) are rock solid. An international team of scientists are on a Mars mission and director Ruairi Robertson wisely decides to just throw us in and let us work out the characters, power dynamics and technical capabilities for ourselves. The team is led by Canadian Charles (Elias Koteas) and the top (competitive) scientists are Russian Marko (Goran Kostic) and Briton Kim (Olivia Williams.) Both are driven to a fault – their desire to find more than just dirt on the red planet may be making them a little nuts, so much so that they will lie cheat or steal to get a few more minutes at a dig site.

We’re witness to all this through the eyes of the American Chief Engineer Vincent (Liev Schreiber,) a bit of a downer due to a panic attack he suffered on the six month “ride in a coffin” it took to get to Mars. They’re all looking at another six months in just a few hours as their current tour of duty is about to end – but not before one last attempt to make a discovery.

When Marko gets a chance to go out in the rover one additional time, sending Kim (the film’s only interesting character) into a rage, curious microbes appear to have reacted positively to a test he planted. Before he has a chance to dub himself the most important scientist in the history of mankind the ground swallows him up. The team reacts to his partner’s mayday and that’s when this well-observed look at working scientists down-shifts into disinteresting schlock.

I’ll leave the specifics of “how” out of it and leave you with two words: Space Zombies. And, not even cool looking Space Zombies! At the aforementioned thirty-five minute mark we get our first kill, followed by the usual tropes of comrades getting infecting and rising from the dead. Glimpses of the baddies got a well-deserved chuckle from some folks in the audience. None of the action is shot in a particularly interesting manner, and the only differentiator is that there are some good “c’mon! c’mon! c’mon!” moments while waiting for decompression chambers and airlocks to reset.

The other thing that makes this film unique is very baritone Schreiber in an action picture’s leading role. He plays his trauma flashback scenes in a rather sympathetic way; he and director Robertson decide to go the unlikely hero route to such an extent that he is something of a space wuss. This makes for a nice act three (and good last scene) but that doesn’t do much to alter the great big dud that is act two.

Romola Garai plays “the girl” and she’s absolutely gorgeous, but there’s not much in this film to let you connect with their relationship. Schreiber saves it to an extent with some unusual performance choices, but when you compare this ending to the emotional supernova of Danny Boyle’s “Sunshine” it comes way short.

The opening of the film and its wonderful not-that-different tech ought will delight fans of, say, Duncan Jones’ “Moon” or, as I already name-checked, the “Grand Tour” novels by Ben Bova, but the remainder of the film does nothing more than remind us what a visionary a fella like Paul W.S. Anderson is. Not that his virus-zombie films aren’t superlatively stupid, but at least they have some panache.

SCORE: 5.0 / 10

Categories: Reviews

Tags: Cannes 2013, Elias koteas, Jordan hoffman, Review, The last days on mars

Jumat, 13 Desember 2013

Trailer Showdown: Ranking the Week’s Best New Trailers (Jeunet Returns!)

Time for what? Let me hear it. TRAILER SHOWDOWN! That’s right, it’s Friday and time for us to rank the trailers released this week from very best to the very worst.

This week we’ve got a veritable smorgasbord of tasty treats, just barely lounging into fall and smaller indie films certainly seem to rule the day, from small town growing up in “The Young and Prodigious Spivet” and “As Cool As I Am” to films with loads of star power like “We’re the Millers” and “Don Jon”. In any case, whether your tastes range from the wild to the mundane, there’s a movie here that you’re sure to love.

Enough with the blathering, on to the rankings! If you feel like we got it right, let us know in the comments below.

1.) ‘The Young and Prodigious Spivet’

Best of the Week: In this stylized and kinda weird movie from director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, a young inventor takes off on his own, leaving his family behind as he travels to Washington D.C. to accept a prize from the Smithsonian Institute. As long-winded and wild as Jeunet’s films can be, there’s something lovable about this premise of striking out on your own and it’ll be nice to see Helena Bonham Carter not in an unrecognizable wild get-up.
Starring: Helena Bonham Carter, Robert Maillet, Niamh Wilson
Release Date: 2013

2.) ‘Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay’

A documentary look at one of the finest magicians and tricksters operating in the world today, Ricky Jay is the best of the best practitioners of entertaining deception. This film sees Jay at many ages performing tricks of all kinds, as well as features interviews with his collaborators and mentors. A must-see for any fan of magic and any fan of this wonderfully talented man.
Starring: Ricky Jay
Release Date: 2013

3.) ‘As Cool As I Am’

A coming of age story of a responsible teenager who is trying to make a life with her self-centered parents, who had her when they were teens themselves. Babies raisin’ babies, man, but this looks especially touching and has a flair of the unique about it. Claire Danes is perfectly suited to the role of a selfish mom, and the struggle for happiness is at the center of all human existence. And stuff, you know.
Starring: Claire Danes, James Marsden, Thomas Mann
Release Date: June 21, 2013

4.) ‘Don Jon’

Girls! Pad! Gym! Porn! In this directorial debut from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the writer/director also stars as a sex-obsessed Italian Jersey boy, who is happily stuck in his ways until he meets a voluptuous, gorgeous girl. The film looks chock full of hilariousness, perfectly weird and it’s fantastic to see Gordon-Levitt branching out from acting to other creative pursuits.
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore
Release Date: October 18, 2013

5.) ‘Europa Report’

A thriller that finds a group of astronauts on a mysterious mission to one of Jupiter’s moons. What begins as a simple journey quickly unfolds into a terrifying nightmare. Yep, that’s about it. OH WAIT NO. This space odyssey looks too wonderful to be spoiled, so maybe watch the trailer with one eye shut.
Starring: Sharlto Copley, Michael Nyqvist, Christian Camargo
Release Date: June 27, 2013

6.) ‘Blood Ties’

A sprawling, complicated view of familial ties and broken relationships in the ’70s, Clive Owen and Billy Crudup face off as brothers on opposite sides of the law. This film is riddled with talent, and has all the makings of an emotional powerhouse. Billy Crudup can totally be in all the movies set in the ’70s ’cause he always does it right.
Starring: Zoe Saldana, Mila Kunis, Marion Cotillard, Clive Owen
Release Date: 2013

7.) ‘Maniac’

Elijah Wood playing a serial killer? Yes, please. In this first person POV thriller, he plays the owner of a mannequin shop who kills for sport and pleasure. The premise seems grisly but the execution (pardon my pun) might just be perfection. Wood as a murderer has a kind of perfect symmetry to it as well, and it’ll be fun to see him descend into the darker, creepier side of his personality.
Starring: Elijah Wood, America Olivo, Nora Arnezeder
Release Date: June 21, 2013

8.) ‘Byzantium’

Though we’ve featured this one before, there’s never a bad time for vampires!! A centuries old curse, and two women on the lam caught up in the troubles of a small town find even greater danger when their true nature is revealed. Vampires! Sayyy-oooorsayyy Ronan! This looks beyond, but kind of beyond in a good way. If you’re into the grown up possibilities of vampires, this one’s for you.
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Arterton, Caleb Landry Jones
Release Date: June 28, 2013

9.) ‘We’re the Millers’

A comedy where Jennifer Aniston plays a stripper and a bunch of people pretend to be a family to get some marijuana from Mexico to the United States. Implausible, yes? But, if you’ve ever wanted to see Aniston prance about in undies and pretend to strip, now’s your chance. Embarrassing, dumb dialogue, but maybe there’s a few laughs to be found.
Starring: Jennifer Aniston, Emma Roberts, Ed Helms
Release Date: August 9, 2013

10.) ‘Just Like a Woman’

Two down on their luck women leave their homes and troubles in search of a better life through belly dancing. This could be a very moving exposition on the power of female friendship, or it could just be a kind of a waste of time and energy. Sienna Miller is a bit of a chameleon and I actually can’t remember the last movie I saw her in, so good on her.
Starring: Sienna Miller, Golshifteh Farahani, Bahar Soomekh
Release Date: 2013

11.) ‘Metallica Through the Never’

Partial concert film and partial… scenes of demolition and destruction? In any case, it’s apparently Metallica, which is some kind of “heavy” “metal” “band” as you’ve never seen them before, which sort of assumes that you have seen them previously, but I can’t actually think of anyone I know who’s super into Metallica concert films. Nonetheless, I’m sure there are people out there who want, nay, demand a 3-D Metallica experience. This one’s for y’all.
Starring: Dane DeHaan, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich
Release Date: August 9, 2013

12.) ‘Delivery Man’

In this “comedy,” a mixup at a fertility clinic leads to one man fathering over 500 children, who must decide whether or not to come forward when a bunch of them sue him. Vince Vaughn stars, and while we only see a little snippet of this teaser trailer, this already looks weirdly depressing.
Starring: Cobie Smulders, Vince Vaughn, Chris Pratt
Release Date: November 22, 2013

Come back next week for more rankings!

Categories: Columns, Trailer Roundup

Tags: Blood Ties, Don Jon, Europa Report, Maniac, Ricky Jay, The Young and Prodigious Spivet, Trailer showdown

Kamis, 12 Desember 2013

BEHIND THE CANDELABRA (2013)

Tanggal Rilis : 7 June 2013 (UK)
Jenis Film : Biography | Drama
Diperankan Oleh : Matt Damon, Michael Douglas, Rob Lowe

Ringkasan Cerita BEHIND THE CANDELABRA (2013) :

HBO Films presents “Behind the Candelabra”, starring Academy Award winners Michael Douglas and Matt Damon; executive produced by Emmy award winner Jerry Weintraub; and directed by Academy Award winner Steven Soderbergh from a script by Oscar nominee Richard LaGravenese. The film is produced by Gregory Jacobs, Susan Ekins and Michael Polaire.

[IMDb rating : 7.0/10]
[Awards : 1 nomination]
[Production Co : HBO Films]
[IMDb link : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1291580]

[Quality : HDTV 720p]
[File Size : 775 MB]
[Format : Matroska >> mkv]
[Resolution : 1280x720]
[Source : 720p.HDTV.x264-SYS]
[Encoder : nItRo]

Download English Subtitle (Muxed)
Download Indonesian Subtitle (Not available yet)

Selasa, 10 Desember 2013

Cannes Review: ‘The Great Beauty’

Brashly stepping up and standing beside Giovanni from Antonioni’s “La Notte” and Marcello from Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” is Jep Gambardella from Paolo Sorrentino’s “La Grand Bellezza.” Go out on the town with this bunch and you are sure to observe plenty of outrageous behavior and perhaps have a melancholy romantic entanglement. Just be sure you are in a five thousand dollar tailored-suit, or don’t bother humiliating yourself.

Translated into English the title of Sorrentino’s film means “The Great Beauty,” but, please, let’s leave it in its mother tongue. There’s not a single frame of this abundantly gorgeous film that isn’t pure Italian. Gambardella’s world-weary look back at his sweet life, eclipsed by his turning sixty-five, is a dizzying fantasia of flash and filigree, and what it lacks in direct narrative is well patched-over with frenetic and emotion-rich sequences. This movie is a sight and sound workout.

“La Grand Bellezza” is so indulgent it actually has three opening scenes – all marvelous. First, one of a series of moments unrelated to the plot in any strict way. The camera floats around a historical religious site, where Asian tourists snap photos. A man falls to the ground, perhaps victim to Stendhal Syndrome. Then black, and a scream. What follows is among the finest choreographed bacchanalia sequences I’ve laid eyes upon. At its close we meet Jep (Toni Servillo), debonair, cultured and just intellectual enough to feel great sadness at a beautiful life wasted on frivolous hedonism.

The third opening is Jep at work – he is an interviewer for culture journal and he’s watching an performance piece where a naked woman wearing makeshift hijab and Soviet flag painted on her pubis rams her head into the side of a two-thousand year old aqueduct (as a perfectly framed train crosses the background at magic hour.) During the following interview Jep reduces her to tears and exposes her as a fraud with just a few sharp remarks. He isn’t cruel, he’s just seen it all, and, most importantly, he’s unimpressed.

These episodes continue – Jep quietly strolls among Rome’s most decadent and elegant settings at a slight remove. He easily seduces a gorgeous but intellectually unstimulating women. He ditches her, uninterested in looking at her Facebook photos, announcing in voice over that, at his age, there is simply no time to do things he doesn’t want to do.

In time we learn that Jep as he is now is not quite what Jep envisioned for himself. As a young man he wrote a novel, and was involved in leftist causes and, naturally, had a pure, perfect love that got away. To Sorrentino’s credit we only catch glimpses of this through flashbacks or overheard dialogue. Not much will stop the mad rush of Jep’s study of the carnival that is modern Rome.

Along the way he meets a 12-year-old girl that’s an action painter, visits an underground plastic surgery church, sees a man who can make giraffes disappear, looks at a photographer’s lifetime of self-portraits, meets up with an old comrade/heroin junkie looking to marry off his 40 year old stripper daughter and, eventually, hosts a dinner party for a 104-year-old Mother Teresa-esque saint. This last one comes at the end and, not surprisingly, is the encounter with the most depth – though you shouldn’t worry that the movie goes all soft or anything.

The great thing about “La Grande Bellezza” is that, once you get on its wavelength, you soon recognize that if one sequence isn’t doing it for you, the next one might. At two-and-a-half hours Sorrentino offers up a maximalists’ delight. Even with the expanded running time, however, it is very difficult to know or care about many of the side characters in Jep’s life. “Wait, which one was that?” may be a common refrain among those discussing the picture afterwards.

SCORE: 7.7 / 10

Categories: Reviews

Tags: Cannes 2013, Cannes film festival, Jordan hoffman, La Grand Bellezza, Paolo sorrentino, Review, The Great Beauty

Senin, 09 Desember 2013

Review: ‘Epic’

When you name your film “Epic” you’re probably just setting yourself up for failure, right? For instance, if I named a documentary “Awesome Sauce” people would likely complain that it wasn’t awesome, or even sauce, and they’d be well within their rights to do so. Still, naming aside, “Epic” could have been good, except that it wasn’t, it was stone cold terrible, something even a six-year-old might scoff at. I know, I’m just as sad as you are about the whole thing.

The plot is simplistic, if not exactly simple. Mary Katherine and her dad, Bomba (voiced by Jason Sudeikis) are trying to reconnect after what one can only assume was a very long estrangement. It’s tough to piece the timeline together, but evidently Mary’s mom passed away, but only after the mom and Bomba divorced, probably because his name was Bomba. Erm, no, it was because Bomba’s life work was finding little “Leaf Men” in the forest, so he didn’t have room for a special lady in his life, as he was always too busy traipsing through the forest, hoping to catch a glimpse of these Leaf Men riding their hummingbirds (what would a couple’s therapist have made of that?).

The Leaf Men, of course, do actually exist, Bomba is on to something, and they are locked in a perennial battle with a group called the Boggins, who only want to see the forest destroyed. These worlds, big Bomba land, and the tiny Leaf Man one, will collide in old and not exciting ways, playing out something like “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” meets “Apocalypto”. No, that’s not precisely accurate, as that might have actually been an interesting film, whereas this one is decidedly not. “Epic” is classic commercialism with no real connection to organic storytelling, odd, because the tale takes place completely surrounded by nature.

Issue number one for the movie is death. Not as in “the first issue kills the story,” it’s more like “Epic” decides to tackle death exclusively in the opening act. Sure, that’s an odd place to start a children’s film, but it’s exactly where “Epic” plants its flag for the opening ten minutes. Our teenage heroine, Mary Katherine (voiced by Amanda Seyfried), has a recently deceased mother. This seems to be a common theme in family fare, though I have no idea why films meant for young people so often go this route, but it’s not a deal breaker in and of itself. But then too the main fella, Nod (voiced by Josh Hutcherson) has a recently deceased dad. Is this so they can relate? Or perhaps form their own “Brady Bunch”?

There’s no telling, but thankfully death isn’t through with us yet. The bad guys, who are pretty much orcs riding crows, launch an attack on the Leaf Men (who are pretty much elves). During the attack, one of the Boggins (orcs) is thrown off his ride and falls to his death. You read that correctly, he plummets and then splats on a car windshield. Evidently life is cheap within “Epic,” which brings us to our fourth victim, Mary Katherine’s turtle, who it’s hinted was left to starve to death, and all because her idiot father didn’t feed him for a couple years. So kids, take note, death is right around the corner, adults are perishable, and feeding your animals isn’t mandatory. Awesome sauce!

The screenplay credits a stunning five writers, which means that everyone took a shot at making this film a little worse. Jokes like Bomba being clumsy (and falling in the forest) are repeated continually, a putrid love angle is considered, and there’s no real pacing or story arc to speak of. Scene by scene, you hope they’ll pull out of it, but everything proceeds exactly as you’d predict, until the movie finally goes “splat”. There’s the rebellious hero theme, the “gotta get back to my world” nonsense, and the Queen of Nature (voiced by Beyonce!) just wants everyone to smile and for the forest to stay in balance. The overly sullen protector guy, Ronin (Colin Farrell) learns a lesson, oh heck, everyone learns a lesson, until the lessons beat you about the head and shoulders like mosquitos next to a swamp. Plus, that python coming to get you is the third act, egads, it might be a decent plan to take your little ones to an hour of this … and then bail for the playground or greener pastures.

To hand out a few kudos, accentuating the positive, Aziz Ansari as “Mub the slug” was generally fun to listen to; he had the only jokes in the entire endeavor that landed. Additionally, Christoph Waltz voices an excellent villain, Mandrake, though the character is massively one note. Sadly, their contributions are like a stone against a raging river of obvious, nothing and no one could have saved this movie (short of starting over).

Near the end, “Epic” truly reaches new depths when it doesn’t gild the lily, it blasts it with glitter spray paint until there’s nothing left but a wilted flower and a noxious fumes. “Epic” is a film that looks relatively good, and it has a somewhat positive message (once you get past the mortality angle), but it’s going to be pure punishment for adults. Sure, parents regularly make sacrifices for their children, but it sure seems like everyone’s time could be better spent watching a real movie, with real characters, based in a world where creatively isn’t forgotten, and decent storytelling rules the day .

SCORE: 3.0 / 10

Laremy wrote the book on film criticism and thinks crows have been unfairly targeted by the animation business.

Categories: Reviews

Tags: Animation, Dreamworks, Epic, Laremy legel, Review, Slugs

Sabtu, 07 Desember 2013

STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (2013)

Tanggal Rilis : 16 May 2013 (USA)
Jenis Film : Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi
Diperankan Oleh : Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana

Ringkasan Cerita STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (2013) :

When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis. With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction. As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.

[IMDb rating : 8.3/10]
[Awards : Top 250 #160 | 1 win & 2 nominations]
[Production Co : Paramount Pictures, Skydance Productions, Bad Robot]
[IMDb link : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1408101]

[Quality : HQ TS]
[File Size : 525 MB]
[Format : Matroska >> mkv]
[Resolution : 720x320]
[Source : TS XVID AC3 HQ Hive-CM8]
[Encoder : nItRo]

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