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Just got back from 'Central Intelligence'. Oh, boy. What a train wreck. Not funny and boring action. The Rock acts weird as fuck in this and Kevin Hart has never been funny to me. Its like a less funny version of 'Knight and Day'.
Director: Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow)
Cast: Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Sela Ward, Liam Hemsworth, Vivica A. Fox, Judd Hirsch, William Fichtner, Patrick St. Esprit, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Brent Spiner, Jessie Usher, Maika Monroe, DeObia Oparei, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Chin Han, Angelababy, Joey King
Synopsis: We always knew they were coming back. After Independence Day redefined the event movie genre, the next epic chapter delivers global spectacle on an unimaginable scale. Using recovered alien technology, the nations of Earth have collaborated on an immense defense program to protect the planet. But nothing can prepare us for the aliens’ advanced and unprecedented force. Only the ingenuity of a few brave men and women can bring our world back from the brink of extinction.
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FREE STATE OF JONES
Director: Gary Ross (Seabisquit, Pleasantville)
Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Keri Russell, Mahershala Ali, and Brendan Gleeson
Synopsis: Set during the Civil War, The Free State of Jones tells the story of defiant Southern farmer, Newt Knight, and his extraordinary armed rebellion against the Confederacy. Opposed to both slavery and secession, Knight launched an uprising of poor white farmers that led Jones County, Mississippi to itself secede from the Confederacy, creating a "Free State of Jones."
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THE SHALLOWS
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan, Unknown)
Cast: Blake Lively (mine!), Óscar Jaenada, Sedona Legge and Brett Cullen
Synopsis: When Nancy (Blake Lively) is attacked by a great white shark while surfing alone, she is stranded just a short distance from shore. Though she is only 200 yards from her survival, getting there proves the ultimate contest of wills.
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THE NEON DEMON
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn (Only God Forgives, Valhalla Rising)
Cast: Elle Fanning, Karl Glusman, Jena Malone, Bella Heathcote, Abbey Lee, Christina Hendricks, and Keanu Reeves
Synopsis: Jesse (Elle Fanning), an aspiring model, moves to Los Angeles, where she is recruited by a fashion mogul (Alessandro Nivola) as his muse. Upon entering the city's modeling industry, she finds that her vitality and youth are devoured by a group of beauty-obsessed women who will use any means to get what she has.
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SWISS ARMY MAN
Genre: Adventure Comedy Drama
Cast: Paul Dano, Daniel Radcliffe, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Timothy Eulich, Richard Gross and Andy Hull
Synopsis: Hank (Dano), a man marooned on an island and at the verge of suicide, sees a corpse (Radcliffe) wash up on the beach and engages in a surreal friendship with the dead body. Hank soon finds that his new friend, whom he names Manny, possesses the ability to talk and a myriad of supernatural powers...which may help him get home.
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THE PHENOM
Genre: Sports Drama
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Paul Giamatti, Johnny Simmons, Louisa Krause, Alison Elliot, Yul Vasquez, Paul Adelstein
Synopsis: A Major League rookie pitcher loses control over his pitching and is sent down to the minor leagues, where he begins sessions with an unorthodox sports psychologist. In the process, hidden conflicts with his overbearing father are brought to light.
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WIENER-DOG
Director: Todd Solondz (Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness)
Cast: Greta Gerwig, Julie Delpy, Danny DeVito, Kieran Culkin, Keaton Nigel Cooke, Tracy Letts
Synopsis: A dachshund is taken in by a veterinary technician named Dawn Wiener (Greta Gerwig), who soon sets off on a road trip. The lovable dog also encounters a young boy, a film professor, and a troubled grandmother and granddaughter. The character of Dawn Wiener first appeared in the 1995 coming-of-age film Welcome to the Dollhouse, which was also written and directed by Todd Solondz.
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THE DUEL
Genre: Western Drama
Cast: Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Alice Braga, William Sadler, Benedict Samuel, and Emory Cohen
Synopsis: The Duel stars Liam Hemsworth as a Texas Ranger who investigates a series of murders in a small town led by a charismatic preacher played by Woody Harrelson. However, the routine undercover investigation soon turns personal for the ranger who must solve the case before he loses everything to the mysterious town.
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HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE
Director: Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok, What We Do in the Shadows)
Cast: Sam Neill, Julian Dennison, Rima Te Wiata, Rhys Darby, Rachel House and Taika Waititi
Synopsis: Raised on hip-hop and foster care, defiant city kid Ricky gets a fresh start in the New Zealand countryside. He quickly finds himself at home with his new foster family: the loving Aunt Bella, the cantankerous Uncle Hec, and dog Tupac. When a tragedy strikes that threatens to ship Ricky to another home, both he and Hec go on the run in the bush. As a national manhunt ensues, the newly branded outlaws must face their options: go out in a blaze of glory or overcome their differences and survive as a family. Equal parts road comedy and rousing adventure story, director Taika Waititi masterfully weaves lively humor with emotionally honest performances by Sam Neill and Julian Dennison. A hilarious, touching crowd-pleaser, Hunt for the Wilderpeople reminds us about the journey that growing up is (at any age) and those who help us along the way.
Dragonlord's Review of INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE
Bottom Line: More Like Independence Day: Retread
Independence Day (1996) is widely considered as the father of the modern epic, global disaster/alien invasion movies. Sure it was cheesy and filled with cardboard characters but if you watched it during its initial release, I wouldn't be surprised if you said it was one of the most awesome movie spectacles you've seen in your life. I would know because that's what I also said at that time.
Two decades later, the sequel Independence Day: Resurgence is here. Despite being blown away by the bombastic trailers, viewing the movie as a whole was an unsatisfactory experience. The film is set twenty years after the War of 1996. It's a pleasant ride at the beginning where we are re-introduce to the original characters and see what the world looks like after the invasion.
But when the alien invaders finally show up, the rehash sensation is so strong that you just can't get excited at anything happening onscreen. The narrative structure is just too familiar with the first film. Everything is bigger but it's all been done before. There's nothing clever or original occurring.
Most of the original cast have aged gracefully (except for Judd Hirsch who seems to have not aged at all) and there's a certain charm to their presence. Half of the new characters on the other hand are too bland or annoying. But didn't mind seeing the gorgeous Angelababy for eye candy and Maika Monroe, who I'm a fan of due to her terrific work in The Guest and It Follows. Still, the film suffers from being overstuffed with too many characters.
The only standout among the new characters is the African warlord Dikembe Umbutu (Deobia Oparei). In fact Dikembe's backstory, where his people fought for years a small faction of aliens in a remote part of the African Congo, is much more fascinating and would have made for a more interesting movie.
Noticeably absent from the original cast is Will Smith, whose character Colonel Steven Hiller was killed offscreen. Some people were relieved that Smith wasn't involved but after watching Resurgence, Smith's charisma and star power would have significantly benefited the film.
The special effects are admirable and the massive global destruction exhibition are impressive but lacks any dramatic impact. The Moon Tug vehicle looks cool though. Aside from the biggest mothership ever seen on screen (it spans the Atlantic Ocean), the other major new offering is the giant alien queen (looks a bit similar to the Cloverfield monster). My affinity to anything giant kaiju-related made me appreciate the final battle.
FINDING DORY Capsizes INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE on Friday
Pixar's Finding Dory continues to drown out the competition. The animated tentpole will have no trouble staying atop the North American box-office chart in its second weekend, while Roland Emmerich's Independence Day: Resurgence is coming in behind expectations.
On Friday, Finding Dory earned $23.2 million from 4,305 theaters for a projected weekend haul of $76 million-$77 million. Independence Day: Resurgence followed with $16.8 million from 4,068 theaters, putting it on course for a subdued $42 million domestic debut.
Fox is counting on ID4 2 doing big business overseas, where it's launching in numerous markets this weekend, including China. Box-office analysts believe it has a strong shot at opening to $100 million or more offshore, despite the absence of Will Smith, who didn't return for the sequel.
Elsewhere, Sony's shark thriller The Shallows, is the only new film to be overperforming in a needed box-office win for Sony. The shark movie, starring Blake Lively, bit off $6.9 million Friday from 2,962 theaters for an estimated $16 million-$17 million weekend.
The Shallows cost a modest $17 million to make and is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, known for such action films as Non-Stop and Unknown. In an unexpected twist, Shallows is the best-reviewed new film of the weekend, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 75 percent.
Rotten Tomatoes:33% approval rating (39 out of 117 critics like it)
Critics Consensus: It's undeniably visually impressive, but like its predecessor, Independence Day: Resurgence lacks enough emotional heft to support its end-of-the-world narrative stakes.
Entertainment Weekly - Resurgence doesn’t make a friggin’ lick of sense. I’ll go with nonsense as long as there’s something else to hold onto. Instead, what we get is a film whose idea of wit is having Liam Hemsworth take a leak on alien space ship while giving it the finger. Which, in a sense, is exactly what Independence Day does to its audience. F
Richard Roeper - Most of the performances in the film are as forgettable as the storyline and the special effects. There’s a lot of hugging and cheering and weeping and speechifying, but precious little of it rings true. We see CGI explosions and battles and we cut to the actors in the cockpit or command central or squinting up at the sky, and it just doesn’t connect or resonate. 1.5/4
Empire Magazine - As spectacular as you’d hope from a sequel to the 1996 planet-toaster, and as amusingly cheesy. You’ll enjoy yourself enough that you won’t even miss Will Smith. Allowing the same blend of multiplex-rattling spectacle and ‘yeah, you got us’ daftness, Emmerich has gone all out to recapture his ’96 mojo and, for the most part, succeeds. 4/5
Rolling Stone - You don't buy a ticket to something like this to see a soap opera with C-list acting. You want aliens. And you get them. At first, they're kind of cool in a creepy way. And then repetition dulls the effect. Finally, you think, is that all there is? Yup. The only thing resurgent in this humorless mess is Hollywood's passion to charge us more and deliver less. 1.5/4
Don't get the lack of love for The Shallows. I thought it was amazing. Clearly the best "shark movie" since Jaws. Genuinely scared me in a couple parts, beautiful cinematography, eye candy for days, great score. Wow.
Rotten Tomatoes:40% approval rating (36 out of 90 critics like it)
Critics Consensus: Free State of Jones has the noblest of intentions, but they aren't enough to make up for its stilted treatment of a fascinating real-life story.
Entertainment Weekly - Ross wants to shake up the format ... but like so many directors who have tackled historical social issues before him, he confuses noble, cornball sermonizing for art. C
New York Daily News - McConaughey's star turn is straight-up and persuasive. Gugu Mbatha-Raw is earthy and believable as Rachel, the slave Knight falls for and has a child with. 3.5/5
Arizona Republic - "Free State of Jones" is a well-intentioned slog through a potentially fascinating bit of Civil War history, brought to life only by Matthew McConaughey's performance, and then only occasionally. 2.5/5
Richard Roeper - This is no history lesson, but it's mainstream Hollywood entertainment that respects the history and seems to invite discussion and debate. 3.5/4
Rolling Stone - If you think a thick, juicy slab of Civil War history can't be boiled down to 145 minutes of speechifying, stultifying cinema, then grab a seat. Even McConaughey is sucked dry of his usual acting panache. 1/4
Rotten Tomatoes:74% approval rating (59 out of 80 critics like it)
Critics Consensus: Lean and solidly crafted, The Shallows transcends tired shark-attack tropes with nasty thrills and a powerful performance from Blake Lively.
Entertainment Weekly - Clocking in at a svelte 87 minutes, the film knows its audience and the limits of that audience's patience with fare like this. If you’re in the right mood, though, it’s a ridiculous, eye-rolling hoot: A sub-90 minute, check-your-brain-at-the-ticket-window diversion not unlike 1997’s Deep Blue Sea. B-
Newark Star-Ledger - Lively can act, and she does a good job with a very difficult role here – holding our interest and sympathy for a feature-length movie with no one to talk to for most of it. The seascapes are gorgeous. Lively is lovely and warm. And in a summer full of toothless adventures, this movie – sorry – has bite. 3/4
Chicago Tribune - If the amount of surfing/suffering/staring-at-dark-skies footage rendered in slow motion were depicted at normal speed, "The Shallows" would run about a minute and a half. The climactic battle of wits between human and shark leads to a conclusion that got the audience whooping pretty good though. 2/4
Rolling Stone - It's all patently ridiculous. But Blake Lively, director Collet-Serra and a digital shark show no mercy in hooking us with the B-movie tension. And we bite. But while this nailbiter sure as hell ain't swimming in the same classic waters as Jaws, it gets the jolting job done. 2.5/4
Richard Roeper - The Shallows is a great-looking film, peppered with overhead long shots of the amazingly clear water, and some terrific underwater photography as well. A climactic scene so insanely ridiculous and beyond implausible I actually clapped, and I almost never clap at the movies. 3/4
Rotten Tomatoes:48% approval rating (61 out of 126 critics like it)
Critics Consensus: The Neon Demon is seductively stylish, but Nicolas Winding Refn's assured eye can't quite compensate for an underdeveloped plot and thinly written characters.
Entertainment Weekly - The ending will shock just about everyone, but to what end? Neon Demon is as beautiful and empty as the industry it sends up. But the series of meandering scenes that comprise the first three quarters of Neon Demon will leave you begging for the characters to just freaking gore someone already! D+
New York Daily News - But nothing happens for a long time in this long, drawn-out film. You can patiently wait for something to happen for over an hour while enjoying the beautiful images ... and yet you're still left waiting. As with many supermodels, "The Neon Demon" is gorgeous to the eye but ultimately quite vacant and shallow. 1.5/5
Empire Magazine - The Neon Demon pulls off the unique feat of being both boring and bravura all at once. Like the world it depicts, it's a feast for the eyes but little else. 3/5
Richard Roeper - It’s trippy and pretentious and off-putting and occasionally funny, though it’s difficult to say for certain whether the humor was intentional. For a film so aggressively intent on Big Shock Moments, it’s more often stultifying and tedious than provocative. 2/4
Rolling Stone - A special kind of awful. I'd talk about the acting, but I never saw any; it's all posing. Director Refn seems to saying that the L.A. beauty business is superficial and needs to be avoided. Ditto this movie. 1.5/4
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