Dragonlord's 2015 Movie Guide

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THE WALK **Must-Watch**

Release Date: Oct. 2 (Wide Release)

Genre: Biographical Drama Thriller

Director: Robert Zemeckis (Flight, Back to the Future)

Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ben Kingsley, James Badge Dale, Charlotte Le Bon, Ben Schwartz

Synopsis: Twelve people have walked on the moon, but only one man has ever, or will ever, walk in the immense void between the World Trade Center towers. Guided by his real-life mentor, Papa Rudy (Ben Kingsley), and aided by an unlikely band of international recruits, Petit and his gang overcome long odds, betrayals, dissension and countless close calls to conceive and execute their mad plan. Robert Zemeckis again uses cutting edge technology in the service of an emotional, character-driven story. With innovative photorealistic techniques and IMAX 3D wizardry, The Walk is true big-screen cinema, a chance for moviegoers to viscerally experience the feeling of reaching the clouds. The film is a love letter to Paris and New York City in the 1970s, but most of all, to the Towers of the World Trade Center.

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LONDON HAS FALLEN **Interested**

Release Date: Oct. 2 (Wide Release)

Genre: Action Thriller

Director: Babak Najafi

Cast: Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Robert Forster, Melissa Leo, Jackie Earle Haley, Radha Mitchell, Sean O'Bryan, Mehdi Dehbi, Charlotte Riley

Synopsis: The story picks up in London, where the British Prime Minister has passed away under mysterious circumstances. His funeral is a must-attend event for leaders of the Western world. But what starts out as the most protected event on Earth turns into a deadly plot to kill the world's most powerful leaders and unleash a terrifying vision of the future. Only three people have any hope of stopping it: the President of the United States of America Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart), his formidable Secret Service head Mike Banning (Gerard Butler), and an English MI-6 agent who rightly trusts no one.
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DOCTOR FRANKENSTEIN

Release Date: Oct. 2 (Wide Release)

Genre: Horror Drama Thriller

Director: Paul McGuigan (Lucky Number Slevin, Wicker Park)

Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, James McAvoy, Jessica Brown Findlay, Andrew Scott, Mark Gatiss

Synopsis: Told from Igor's perspective, we see the troubled young assistant's dark origins, his redemptive friendship with the young medical student Viktor Von Frankenstein, and become eyewitnesses to the emergence of how Frankenstein became the man who created the legend we know today.

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PAN

Release Date: Oct. 9 (Wide Release)

Genre: Fantasy Family Adventure

Director: Joe Wright (Hanna, Anna Karenina)

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Levi Miller, Garrett Hedlund, Rooney Mara, Amanda Seyfried, Adeel Akhtar, Jack Charles, Taejoo Na, Nonso Anozie, Kathy Burke, Kurt Egyiawan, Lewis Macdougall, Leni Zieglmeier

Synopsis: Peter (Levi Miller) is a mischievous 12-year-old boy with an irrepressible rebellious streak, but in the bleak London orphanage where he has lived his whole life those qualities do not exactly fly. Then one incredible night, Peter is whisked away from the orphanage and spirited off to a fantastical world of pirates, warriors and fairies called Neverland. There, he finds amazing adventures and fights life-or-death battles while trying to uncover the secret of his mother, who left him at the orphanage so long ago, and his rightful place in this magical land. Teamed with the warrior Tiger Lily (Rooney Mara) and a new friend named James Hook (Garrett Hedlund), Peter must defeat the ruthless pirate Blackbeard (Hugh Jackman) to save Neverland and discover his true destiny—to become the hero who will forever be known as Peter Pan.

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THE JUNGLE BOOK

Release Date: Oct. 9 (Wide Release)

Genre: Family Fantasy Adventure

Director: Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Cowboys & Aliens)

Cast: Neel Sethi, Emjay Anthony, Idris Elba, Ben Kingsley, Scarlett Johansson, Lupita Nyong'o, Christopher Walken, Giancarlo Esposito, and Bill Murray

Synopsis: An orphan boy is raised in the jungle with the help of a pack of wolves, a bear, and a black panther.
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VACATION

Release Date: Oct. 9 (Wide Release)

Genre: Comedy

Director: John Francis Daley (feature film directorial debut)

Cast: Ed Helms, Christina Applegate, Leslie Mann, Chris Hemsworth, Charlie Day, Beverly D'Angelo, Chevy Chase, Keegan-Michael Key, Regina Hall, Elizabeth Gillies, Michael Pe

 

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CRIMSON PEAK

Release Date: Oct. 16 (Wide Release)

Genre: Supernatural Horror Thriller

Director: Guillermo del Toro (Pacific Rim, Pan's Labyrinth, Blade II)

Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Hunnam, Jessica Chastain, Burn Gorman, Doug Jones, Jim Beaver, Emily Coutts, Leslie Hope, and Javier Botet

Synopsis: Set in Cumbria, in a crumbling mansion in a largely rural and mountainous region of northern England in the 19th century, young author Edith Cushing (Wasikowska) discovers that her charming new husband Sir Thomas Sharpe (Hiddleston) is not who he appears to be.
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ST. JAMES PLACE **Must-Watch**

Release Date: Oct. 16 (Wide Release)

Genre: Biographical Espionage Drama Thriller

Director: Steven Spielberg (Munich, Catch Me If You Can, Schindler's List)

Cast: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Amy Ryan, Alan Alda, Mark Rylance, Billy Magnussen

Premise: The still-untitled drama tells the true story of James Donovan, a lawyer working on behalf of the CIA to secretly negotiate the release of a U.S. pilot shot down over Soviet airspace in 1960. Tom Hanks fills the role of Donovan in the picture, which boasts a screenplay by Joel and Ethan Coen.

 

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BEASTS OF NO NATION

Release Date: Oct. 16 (Limited Release)

Genre: War Drama

Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga (True Detective season one)

Cast: Idris Elba, Ama K. Abebrese, Abraham Attah, Grace Nortey, and David Dontoh

Synopsis: In an unnamed West African country, when civil war tears his family apart and militants kill his father, a young boy named Agu (Abraham Attah) is forced to join a unit of mercenary fighters led by the ferocious Commandant (Idris Elba), who takes him in as a child soldier.

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MEADOWLAND

Release Date: Oct. 16 (Limited Release)

Genre: Drama

Director: Reed Morano (feature film directorial debut)

Cast: Olivia Wilde, Luke Wilson, Juno Temple, Elisabeth Moss, Giovanni Ribisi, John Leguizamo

Synopsis: Sarah (Wilde) and Philip (Wilson), deal with the unthinkable in the wake of their son's strange disappearance. Philip, a New York City policeman, attempts a more traditional form of healing, only to lose his moral compass. Sarah goes down an unexpected path towards acceptance as she places herself in increasingly dangerous situations.

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ROOM

Release Date: Oct. 16 (Limited Release)

Genre: Drama

Director: Lenny Abrahmson (Frank, What Richard Did)

Cast: Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Joan Allen, Sean Bridgers, and William H. Macy

Synopsis: This drama tells the extraordinary story of Jack, a spirited 5 year-old who is looked after by his loving and devoted Ma. Like any good mother, Ma dedicates herself to keeping Jack happy and safe, nurturing him with warmth and love and doing typical things like playing games and telling stories. However, they are trapped in a windowless, 10-by-10-foot space, which Ma has euphemistically named "Room." As Jack's curiosity about their situation grows, and Ma's resilience reaches its breaking point, they enact a risky plan to escape, ultimately bringing them face-to-face with what may turn out to be the scariest thing yet: the real world.

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TRUTH

Release Date: Oct. 16 (Limited Release)

Genre: Biographical Political Drama

Director: James Vanderbilt (feature film directorial debut)

Cast: Cate Blanchett, Robert Redford, Topher Grace, Elisabeth Moss, Bruce Greenwood, Dennis Quaid

Synopsis: Truth is an independent feature film based on the book “Truth and Duty” by Mary Mapes. In the vein of All The President’s Men and The Insider, it is the incredible true story of Mary Mapes (played by Cate Blanchett), an award-winning CBS News Journalist and Dan Rather’s producer, who broke the Abu-Ghraib prison abuse story, among others. The film chronicles the story Mapes and Rather (played by Robert Redford) uncovered that a sitting US president may have been AWOL from the United States National Guard for over a year during the Vietnam War. When the story blew up in their face, the ensuing scandal ruined Dan Rather’s career, nearly changed a US Presidential election, and almost took down all of CBS News in the process.

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EXPERIMENTER

Release Date: Oct. 16 (Limited Release)

Genre: Biographical Drama

Director: Michael Almereyda (Cymbeline)

Cast: Peter Sarsgaard, Taryn Manning, Kellan Lutz, Winona Ryder, Anton Yelchin, John Leguizamo, Lori Singer, Dennis Haysbert, Anthony Edwards and Jim Gaffigan

Synopsis: In 1961, social psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted the "obedience experiments" at Yale University. The experiments observed the responses of ordinary people asked to send harmful electrical shocks to a stranger. Despite pleadings from the person they were shocking, 65 percent of subjects obeyed commands from a lab-coated authority figure to deliver potentially fatal currents. With Adolf Eichmann's trial airing in living rooms across America, Milgram's Kafkaesque results hit a nerve, and he was accused of being a deceptive, manipulative monster. Experimenter invites us inside Milgram's whirring mind, beginning with his obedience research and wending a path to uncover how inner obsessions and the times in which he lived shaped a parade of human behavior inquiries.

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THE LAST WITCH HUNTER

Release Date: Oct. 23 (Wide Release)

Genre: Fantasy Action Adventure

Director: Breck Eisner (The Crazies, Sahara)

Cast: Vin Diesel, Rose Leslie, Elijah Wood, Michael Caine, Rena Owen, Lotte Verbeek

Synopsis: An immortal witch hunter is tasked with the job of coming between the covens of New York City and their goal to destroy humanity by way of a horrific plague. In order to accomplish this he must partner up with a beautiful female witch, something that he thought he would never do.
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JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS

Release Date: Oct. 23 (Wide Release)

Genre: Musical Comedy Adventure

Director: Jon M. Chu (G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Step Up 3D)

Cast: Aubrey Peeples, Stefanie Scott, Hayley Kiyoko, Aurora Perrineau, Ryan Guzman, Juliette Lewis, Molly Ringwald, Nicholas Braun, Isabella Kai Rice, Samantha Newark

Synopsis: In a hyper-linked social media age, an orphaned teenage girl, Jerrica Benton, becomes an online recording sensation, and she and her sisters embark on a music-driven scavenger hunt - one that sends them on an adventure across Los Angeles - in an attempt to unlock a final message left by her father.

 

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SCOUTS VS. ZOMBIES

Release: Oct. 30 (Wide Release)

Genre: Zombie Horror Comedy

Director: Christopher B. Landon (Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones

Cast: Tye Sheridan, Logan Miller, Joey Morgan, Halston Sage, Sarah Dumont, Patrick Schwarzenegger

Synopsis: Three Scouts who, on the eve of their last camp out, discover the true meaning of friendship when they attempt to save their town from a zombie outbreak.

 

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SPECTRE **Interested**

Release: Nov. 6 (Wide Release)

Genre: Espionage Action Thriller

Director: Sam Mendes (Skyfall, American Beauty)

Cast: Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, L

 

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THE HATEFUL EIGHT **Must-Watch**

Release: Nov. 13 (Wide Release)

Genre: Western Drama Thriller

Director: Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained, Pulp Fiction)

Cast: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Samuel L Jackson, Demian Bichir, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, Kurt Russell, Tim Roth, Walton Goggins, James Remar, James Parks, Dana Gourrier, Zoe Bell, Denis Menochet

Synopsis: Set six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Leigh), race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as “The Hangman,” will bring Domergue to justice. Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren (Jackson), a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix (Goggins), a southern renegade who claims to be the town’s new Sheriff. Losing their lead on the blizzard, Ruth, Domergue, Warren and Mannix seek refuge at Minnie’s Haberdashery, a stagecoach stopover on a mountain pass.

When they arrive at Minnie’s, they are greeted not by the proprietor but by four unfamiliar faces. Bob (Bichir), who’s taking care of Minnie’s while she’s visiting her mother, is holed up with Oswaldo Mobray (Roth), the hangman of Red Rock, cow-puncher Joe Gage (Madsen), and Confederate General Sanford Smithers (Dern). As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, our eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all…

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FRIDAY THE 13TH 3D

Release: Nov. 13 (Wide Release)

Genre: Suspense Horror

Director: David Bruckner (V/H/S, The Signal)

Cast: Derek Mears

Synopsis: No plot details are available yet.

 

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THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY - PART 2 **Interested**

Release: Nov. 20 (Wide Release)

Genre: Science Fiction Action Adventure

Director: Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend, Water for Elephants, Constantine)

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Jeffrey Wright, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland, Julianne Moore, Natalie Dormer, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sam Claflin, Gwendoline Christie, Wes Chatham, Elden Hensen, Patina Miller, Lily Rabe, Stef Dawson, Willow Shields, Paula Malcomson, Meta Golding, Mahershala Ali, Evan Ross, Michelle Forbes, Omid Abtahi and Robert Knepper

Synopsis: After being symbolized as the 'Mockingjay' Katniss Everdeen and District 13 engage in an all-out revolution against the autocratic Capitol.

 

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Pixar's THE GOOD DINOSAUR **Interested**

Release: Nov. 25 (Wide Release)

Genre: Animated Comedy Adventure

Director: Peter Sohn (feature film directorial debut)

Cast: Neil Patrick Harris, John Lithgow, Bill Hader, Frances McDormand, Lucas Neff, Judy Greer

Synopsis: The Good Dinosaur

 

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KRAMPUS

Release Date: Dec. 4 (Wide Release)

Genre: Christmas Horror Fantasy Comedy

Director: Michael Dougherty (Trick r' Treat)

Cast: Emjay Anthony, Adam Scott, Toni Collette, David Koechner, and Alison Tolman

Synopsis: When his dysfunctional family clashes over the holidays, young Max (Emjay Anthony) is disillusioned and turns his back on Christmas. Little does he know, this lack of festive spirit has unleashed the wrath of Krampus: a demonic force of ancient evil intent on punishing non-believers. All hell breaks loose as beloved holiday icons take on a monstrous life of their own, laying siege to the fractured family's home and forcing them to fight for each other if they hope to survive.

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CHI-RAQ

Release: Dec. 4 (Limited Release)

Genre: Drama

Director: Spike Lee (Oldboy, Do the Right Thing)

Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Hudson, Wesley Snipes, Nick Cannon, Angela Bassett, John Cusack, Dave Chappelle, Teyonah Parris, D.B. Sweeney, Harry Lennix, and Steve Harris

Synopsis: After the murder of a child by a stray bullet, a group of women led by Lysistrata organize against the on-going violence in Chicago's Southside creating a movement that challenges the nature of race, sex and violence in America and around the world.

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THE LADY IN THE VAN

Release: Dec. 4 (Limited Release)

Genre: Biographical Comedy Drama

Director: Nicholas Hytner (The Crucible, The History Boys)

Cast: Maggie Smith, Alex Jennings, Roger Allam, Deborah Findlay, Dominic Cooper, Jim Broadbent

Synopsis: A big screen adaptation of writer Alan Bennett’s iconic and celebrated memoir, directed by long-standing Bennett collaborator Nicholas Hytner. The film tells the true story of the relationship between Alan Bennett (Alex Jennings) and the singular Miss Shepherd (Maggie Smith), a woman of uncertain origins who 'temporarily' parked her van in Bennett’s London driveway and proceeded to live there for 15 years. Their unique story is funny, poignant and life-affirming.

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MACBETH

Release: Dec. 4 (Limited Release)

Genre: War Drama

Director: Justin Kurzel (Assassin's Creed, The Snowtown Murders)

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Sean Harris, Paddy Considine, David Thewlis, Elizabeth Debicki

Synopsis: Macbeth is the story of a fearless warrior and inspiring leader brought low by ambition and desire. A thrilling interpretation of the dramatic realities of the times and a reimagining of what wartime must have been like for one of literature's most famous and compelling characters, a story of all-consuming passion and ambition set in war torn Scotland.

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YOUTH

Release: Dec. 4 (Limited Release)

Genre: Comedy Drama

Director: Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty)

Cast: Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Rachel Weisz, Paul Dano and Jane Fonda

Synopsis: From Paolo Sorrentino, the director of Italy’s Oscar foreign language winner The Great Beauty comes Youth, about two longtime friends vacationing in the Swiss Alps. Oscar winning actor Michael Caine plays Fred, an acclaimed composer and conductor, who brings along his daughter (Rachel Weisz) and best friend Mick (Harvey Keitel), a renowned filmmaker. While Mick scrambles to finish the screenplay for what he imagines will be his last important film, Fred has no intention of resuming his musical career. The two men reflect on their past, each finding that some of the most important experiences can come later in life.

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LIFE

Release: Dec. 4 (Limited Release)

Genre: Biographical Drama

Director: Anton Corbijn (The American, A Most Wanted Man)

Cast: Robert Pattinson, Dane DeHaan, Ben Kingsley, Joel Edgerton, and Alessandra Mastronardi

Synopsis: Dennis Stock (Robert Pattinson) was only 26 when he was commissioned to photograph James Dean (Dane DeHaan), Hollywood’s rebellious free spirit on the verge of superstardom, for LIFE Magazine in 1955. In the months leading up to the premiere of Dean’s infamous role in East of Eden and filming Rebel Without a Cause, Stock and Dean took a photographic journey across the United States, from Los Angeles to New York and finally to Dean’s childhood farmhouse in Indiana. And while Stock thought he was capturing a young actor in the instant before he became a household name, in fact he documented the last moments of intimacy and simplicity that James Dean ever knew.

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STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS **Must-Watch**

Release: Dec. 18 (Wide Release)

Genre: Science Fiction Fantasy Action Adventure

Director: J.J. Abrams (Star Trek, Mission: Impossible III, Super 8)

Cast: John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong

 

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ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS 4

Release: Dec. 23 (Wide Release)

Genre: Family Comedy Adventure

Director: Walt Becker (Wild Hogs, Old Dogs, Buying the Cow)

Cast: Jason Lee, David Cross, Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler, Jesse McCartney, Christina Applegate, Anna Faris, Amy Poehler

Synopsis: No plot details are available yet.

 

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POINT BREAK

Release: Dec. 25 (Wide Release)

Genre: Action Thriller

Director: Ericson Core (Invincible)

Cast: Luke Bracey, Edgar Ramirez, Ray Winstone, Delroy Lindo, Teresa Palmer, Nikolai Kinski, Tobias Santelmann, Bojesse Christophe

Synopsis: Thrill-seeking criminals perform a series of daredevil stunts to steal money and gems, only to give it away to the poor and less fortunate. Training for a job with the FBI, young recruit Johnny Utah suspects that only extreme athletes could pull off these heists. Utilizing his own special skills, Utah infiltrates the gang of thieves after befriending their charismatic leader, Bodhi. As Johnny experiences the rush of their lifestyle, his superiors fear that his loyalties are being tested.


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DADDY'S HOME

Release: Dec. 25 (Wide Release)

Genre: Comedy

Director: Sean Anders (Horrible Bosses 2)

Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Will Ferrell, Linda Cardellini, Thomas Haden Church, Hannibal Buress, Paul Scheer, Bobby Cannavale, John Cena and Alessandra Ambrosio

Synopsis: Brad Taggart (Will Ferrell) is a kindhearted radio executive who wants to be the best possible stepfather to his wife's (Linda Cardellini) two children. When her freewheeling ex-husband Dusty (Mark Wahlberg) breezes back into town, Brad's feeling of insecurity quickly develops into an inferiority complex. As Dusty demonstrates his flair for athletics, home repair and bad-boy charisma, Taggart finds himself in a no-holds-barred battle to one-up his rival and win the approval of his family.


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JOY

Release: Dec. 25 (Wide Release)

Genre: Biographical Comedy Drama

Director: David O. Russell (American Hustle)

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper, Edgar Ramirez, Diane Ladd, Virginia Madsen, Isabella Roselllini, and Elisabeth Rohm

Synopsis: A story of a family across four generations, centered on the girl who becomes the woman who founds a business dynasty and becomes a matriarch in her own right. Facing betrayal, treachery, the loss of innocence and the scars of love, Joy becomes a true boss of family and enterprise in a world of unforgiving commerce. Allies become adversaries and adversaries become allies, both inside and outside the family, as Joy's inner life and fierce imagination carry her through the storm she faces.


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CONCUSSION

Release: Dec. 25 (Wide Release)

Genre: Biographical Sports Drama

Director: Peter Landesman (Parkland)

Cast: Will Smith, Alec Baldwin, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Albert Brooks

Synopsis: While conducting an autopsy on former NFL football player Mike Webster (David Morse), forensic pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu (Will Smith) discovers neurological deterioration that is similar to Alzheimer's disease. Omalu names the disorder chronic traumatic encephalopathy and publishes his findings in a medical journal. As other athletes face the same diagnosis, the crusading doctor embarks on a mission to raise public awareness about the dangers of football-related head trauma.

 

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THE HATEFUL EIGHT

Release: Dec. 25 (Limited Release)

Genre: Western Drama Thriller

Director: Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained)

Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demián Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, Channing Tatum

Synopsis: While racing toward the town of Red Rock in post-Civil War Wyoming, bounty hunter John "The Hangman" Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his fugitive prisoner (Jennifer Jason Leigh) encounter another bounty hunter (Samuel L. Jackson) and a man who claims to be a sheriff. Hoping to find shelter from a blizzard, the group travels to a stagecoach stopover located on a mountain pass. Greeted there by four strangers, the eight travelers soon learn that they may not make it to their destination after all.


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THE REVENANT

Release: Dec. 25 (Limited Release)

Genre: Western Revenge Drama

Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Birdman, Babel, Biutiful)

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Will Poulter, Domhnall Gleeson

Synopsis: While exploring the uncharted wilderness in the 1800s, legendary frontiersman Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) sustains injuries from a brutal bear attack. When his hunting team leaves him for dead, Glass must utilize his survival skills to find a way back home to his beloved family. Grief-stricken and fueled by vengeance, Glass treks through the wintry terrain to track down John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), the former confidant who betrayed and abandoned him.

 

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THE D TRAIN

Genre: Comedy

Director: Andrew Mogel and Jarrad Paul

Cast: Jack Black, James Marsden, Kathryn Hahn, Jeffrey Tambor, Mike White, Kyle Bornheimer

Synopsis: With his 20th reunion looming, Dan can

 

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SLOW WEST

Genre: Western Action Thriller

Director: John McLean (feature film directorial debut)

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Rory McCann, Ben Mendelsohn, Brooke Williams

Synopsis: Set at the end of the nineteenth century, 16-year-old Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee) journeys across the American frontier in search of the woman he loves. He is joined by Silas (Michael Fassbender), a mysterious traveler, and hotly pursued by an outlaw along the way.
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LILA & EVE

Genre: Drama Thriller

Director: Charles Stone III (Mr 3000, Drumline)

Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Shea Whigham, Julius Tennon, Ron Caldwell, Aml Ameen

Synopsis: Lila, a grief-stricken mother reeling from her son

 

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STRANGERLAND

Genre: Mystery Drama Thriller

Director: Kim Farrant (feature film directorial debut)

Cast: Nicole Kidman, Joseph Fiennes, Hugo Weaving, Lisa Flanagan, Meyne Wyatt

Synopsis: Newcomers to the remote Australian desert town of Nathgari, Catherine and Matthew Parker's lives are flung into crisis when they discover their two teenage kids, Tommy and Lily, have mysteriously disappeared just before a massive dust storm hits. With Nathgari eerily smothered in red dust and darkness, the townsfolk join the search led by local cop, David Rae. It soon becomes apparent that something terrible may have happened to Tommy and Lily. Suspicions run riot, rumours spread and public opinion turns savagely against the Parkers. With temperatures rising and the chances of survival plummeting with each passing day, Catherine and Matthew find themselves pushed to the brink as they struggle to survive the mystery of their children's fate.
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SEOUL SEARCHING

Genre: Comedy Drama

Director: Benson Lee (Battle of the Year, Miss Monday)

Cast: Justin Chon, Jessika Van, In-pyo Cha, Teo Yoo, and Esteban Ahn, Byul Kang

Synopsis: A comedy set in the

 

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Update: December 21, 2015

J.J. Abrams Explains Shocking Kylo Ren Scene from THE FORCE AWAKENS (Spoilers)

To create someone new that Star Wars fans would hate and fear, J.J. Abrams says they made the hard choice to kill off someone who definitely made that type of mark, someone we love: a particular scoundrel who also proved he was more heroic than anyone might have guessed back when we first met him.

“Star Wars had the greatest villain in cinema history. So, how you bring a new villain into that world is a very tricky thing,” Abrams told the crowd. “We knew we needed to do something f—king bold. The only reason why Kylo Ren has any hope of being a worthy successor is because we lose one of the most beloved characters.”

The act was intended to be proof — to Ren himself, if no one else — that there was no light left in him.

“Long before we had this title, the idea of The Force Awakens was that this would become the evolution of not just a hero, but a villain,” Abrams said. “And not a villain who was the finished, ready-made villain, but someone who was in process.”

“It’s this massive tradeoff,” Abrams said of Han Solo’s death. “How can we possibly do that!? But… if we hadn’t done that, the movie wouldn’t have any guts at all. It felt very dangerous.”

“J.J. rightly asked, ‘What is Han doing in this movie?’" co-writer Michael Arndt said. "If we’re not going to have something important and irreversible happen to him, then he kind of feels like luggage. He feels like this great, sexy piece of luggage you have in your movie. But he’s not really evolving. He’s not really pushing the story forward.”


J.J. Abrams on the most 'dangerous' and shocking act in 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'










Update: December 21, 2015

Which THE FORCE AWAKENS Character Was Originally Supposed to Die? (Spoilers)

When Oscar Isaac was first approached to play Poe Dameron in the film, his character was supposed to die. Speaking with GQ, Isaac recounted the conversation:

“He’s amazing!” said Abrams. “Sounds good!” thought Isaac, whose first experience in a movie theater had been seeing The Empire Strikes Back. “He opens the whole movie!” said Abrams. “Sounds great!” thought Isaac. “And then,” Abrams went on. “He dies.” “Oh,” thought Isaac.

In Abrams’ mind, it was a chance to “create a role that could live on in all corners of the Star Wars universe—novels and comic books and video games and so on.” Isaac was still hesitant, but he reluctantly agreed, only to have Abrams change his mind about the character’s fate:

“I went back home [to New York], and I thought about it,” he says. “Then I wrote him and said, ‘Okay. I’ll do it!’ I figured it would be a cameo: I’ll come in, do my thing, and maybe it’s actually better not to have to sign myself up for three movies.” By that time, though, things had changed and Abrams soon wrote back: “Never mind. I’ve figured it out. You’re in the whole movie now.”


Which ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Character Was Originally Supposed to Die?

 

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Update: December 21, 2015

J.J. Abrams Reveals More Secret Cameos for THE FORCE AWAKENS (Spoilers)

When Daisy Ridley‘s Rey first touches Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber, there are a series of flashing images, including two well-known images of Skywalker patting R2D2 and Kylo Ren with his acolytes on a planet with torrential rain, Abrams was more revealing about the audio and who they involved in the clips of dialogue that are heard in this sequence. Here’s what Abrams had to say:

“The idea of the voices was, we wanted the audience to feel – but not necessarily be presented right in your face — this idea that familiar, Force-strong voices were connecting with her. At least as well as they could…You do hear a little bit of Yoda. You hear Luke yelling out, ‘Nooo!’ from that moment in Empire. And you hear Obi-Wan at the end say, ‘Rey, these are your first steps.’…"

"Here’s the cool part. We asked Ewan McGregor to come in and do the line. And he was awesome and we were very grateful. He was incredibly sweet and handsome, and all that stuff. Then he rode off on his motorcycle. Literally the coolest voice over actor ever.”

Abrams also opened up about the use of the late Alec Guinness and Frank Oz‘s voices in Rey’s waking dream sequence. Here’s what he had to say about cutting audio to have Guinness say “Rey…” during the scene:

“I said, ‘That’s cool, is that the thing from Ewan McGregor?’…He said ‘No, we took a line from Alec Guinness saying ‘Afraid.’…They cut it, and you hear the performance – he’s saying it the way I would have begged Alec Guinness to have said it. It is so crazy perfect. So when you hear Obi-Wan talk to Rey it is both Alec Guinness and Ewan McGregor doing the voice.”

“He [Frank Oz] was incredibly generous and came in to Bad Robot, where we had a recording area, and he was doing Yoda, saying a number of lines we gave to him…This whole experience has been one outrageous moment after another. Just watching Frank Oz, you look at him and talk to him and his voice is very deep. I don’t know why I would have thought he sounded like Miss Piggy!…He was very generous to say, ‘Whatever makes the movie better, I’m happy to help out.”


More Star Wars: The Force Awakens Cameos Revealed by J.J. Abrams









Update: December 21, 2015

R2-D2's Closing Scene in THE FORCE AWAKENS Explained (Spoilers)

At a post-screening Q&A for the movie on Saturday, director J.J. Abrams and co-writers Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt explained why they sidelined R2 – and why he finally had his own “awakening.”

When they find R2 beneath that dust cloth, the heroes already have a piece of a holographic map, but they lack the larger section of this uncharted region of space that will allow them to track down Luke. That’s where R2 became a useful storytelling device: he could be the missing framework.

The story group’s thinking went back to the 1977 original movie, when R2-D2 accessed the Empire’s mainframe as the heroes searched for the captured Princess Leia. “We had the idea about R2 plugging into the information base of the Death Star, and that’s how he was able to get the full map and find where the Jedi temples are,” Arndt said.

Abrams says he chose to spell this out indirectly in the movie because he didn’t want the story to get bogged down in “how s–t happened 30 years ago.”

“But the idea was that in that scene where R2 plugged in, he downloaded the archives of the Empire, which was referenced by Kylo Ren,” Abrams said. Thirty-eight years later, in both our own and galactic time, that data becomes useful in The Force Awakens when a new droid approaches the dormant R2.

“BB-8 comes up and says something to him, which is basically, ‘I’ve got this piece of a map, do you happen to have the rest?’” Abrams said. “The idea was, R2 who has been all over the galaxy, is still in his coma, but he hears this. And it triggers something that would ultimately wake him up.”

The director acknowledges that R2’s sudden “awakening” at the end was designed to be an emotional storytelling utility: “While it may seem, you know, completely lucky and an easy way out, at that point in the movie, when you’ve lost a person, desperately, and somebody you hopefully care about is unconscious, you want someone to return.”

So for those let wondering: BB-8’s earlier question rattles around inside R2’s dome for a while. Those old astromechs must just take a while to boot up again. Then as the movie draws to a close, our old friend finally comes back – and leads us to another one.


J.J. Abrams explains R2-D2's closing scene in Star Wars: The Force Awakens










Update: December 21, 2015

Writers Reveal Previous Versions of THE FORCE AWAKENS Script (Spoilers)

At a post-screening Q&A for the movie on Saturday, J.J. Abrams and co-writers Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt explained how they grappled with the question of how to present Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker – who, as those who’ve seen The Force Awakens already know, was also held back as a climactic reveal in the final minutes of the movie.

“Early on I tried to write versions of the story where [Rey] is at home, her home is destroyed, and then she goes on the road and meets Luke. And then she goes and kicks the bad guy’s ass,” Arndt said. “It just never worked and I struggled with this. This was back in 2012.”

The trouble was a simple case of upstaging. “It just felt like every time Luke came in and entered the movie, he just took it over,” Arndt said. “Suddenly you didn’t care about your main character anymore because, ‘Oh f–k, Luke Skywalker’s here. I want to see what he’sgoing to do.’”

The good news for Abrams was, he got to make a Star Wars movie. The bad news was, his toybox wouldn’t include a real-life Luke Skywalker action figure. Some of the early MacGuffins of the movie – the thing that drives a movie’s plot – were a search for Darth Vader’s remains, or a quest to the underwater wreckage of the second Death Star to recover a key piece of history about sacred Jedi sites in the galaxy.

Ultimately, the writers decided to make Luke himself the MacGuffin – the thing Rey, Han, Finn and Chewie are trying to find. And they figured that if a horrific past trauma forced Luke to retreat from the world.


Writers Reveal Previous Versions of Star Wars: The Force Awakens Script