The Movie Paradise

Way back when Avengers: Age of Ultron was in pre-production, we heard that Andy Serkis was being brought on as a mentor to Mark Ruffalo for his motion capture performance as the Hulk. When that was initially announced, it was also reported that Serkis would have a small role to play in the film. Then, when the first trailer was released, we saw a shot of Serkis, looking a lot like a comic book character named Ulysses Klaw, who is the arch nemesis to Black Panther, who will be getting his own movie in 2018. For everyone, it was all but confirmed that Serkis was playing Klaw, and that his role would be to help Ultron gain vibranium from the secluded nation of Wakanda, which is where Black Panther is from. Finally, Serkis has confirmed who he is playing.
In a recent interview, Serkis confirmed that he is in fact playing Ulysses Klaw, but that his role in the film is minor. He said:
“It was really minimal. It’s a tiny role, a little cameo role. But I just loved doing it and it’s a great c…

This weekend, Home and Get Hard opened in theaters. Let's take a look at this past weekend's box office.
#1 Home- $52,107,731

On its opening weekend, Home came in first place. Right now, there isn't a lot of kids films in the medium. Granted, there is Cinderella, but that's already been out for a while. So it makes sense that Home would make good money. However, I was not expecting it to make nearly as much as it did. I was thinking it would make more like $30 million. Let's see how it fares these upcoming weeks. Animated kids films will either sink or swim at the box office, and Home may be making money now, but we'll have to see if it can keep it up.
#2 Get Hard- $33,803,253

On its opening weekend, Get Hard came in second place. The past year or so has really debunked the thought process that R-rated comedies can't make money. 22 Jump Street proved that to be entirely wrong. With two of comedy's hottest stars in Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart and an over-…

One project that is coming out this year that I'm very interested in seeing is Spectre, the latest James Bond film. 007 is a timeless character and has been played and interpreted by many different actors and directors. However, the latest Daniel Craig run has shown to be dark and gritty while also maintaining the suave and swagger of classic James Bond. So when the premise and cast was announced for Spectre, I was excited. The featurette we saw a month or so ago looked great and I was looking forward to the trailer.
This is definitely a teaser trailer. They give you a mere glimpse of what the film has in store. We see the darkness and the grittiness of the tone with a fantastic score in the background. We don't see much action in the teaser, but we get hints to how the story will unfold-- and what sorts of places Bond will visit. We see a lot of different locations. This teaser got me excited, but only excited for a full-length trailer. It gave us very little to actual get a…

Deadpool is a movie that has been stuck in development hell for so long, it was a complete shock when it was finally greenlit for a 2016 release. Honestly, it is one of my most anticipated films of that year. I love the character, and I think Ryan Reynolds is a fantastic choice for the role. He was so horribly butchered in X-Men Origins: Wolverine that he deserves to be redeemed, and I really think this movie is going to give us that. Back in February, Reynolds tweeted out a picture that revealed the mask for Deadpool, which you can see here. My biggest comment was that it looked right out of the comics. Well, I wasn't prepared for what the rest of the costume would look like.
Today, Reynolds tweeted out a picture, revealing his Deadpool costume in full:

When I first saw this, I thought it was animated for the video game that came out a couple years ago (which is a great game, by the way). For whatever reason, it still looks animated to me. But no, it is in fact the real costume a…

Jake Gyllenhaal is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors. Everything I've seen him in he has been brilliant, especially his latest films. He had Academy Award-level performances in both Prisoners and Nightcrawler. So I have been very interested in what he's doing next. Back in November, a picture of Gyllenhaal was released of him in his new movie Southpaw. You can read that article here. I commented on how he has been changing his physique drastically to fit his performances, not unlike Christian Bale. While my article was more focused on that comparison, I did say the movie looked interesting, but I had no idea.
This trailer is fantastic! This looks like it is going to be a very gritty, brutal movie in the boxing scenes, and we see some psychopathic moments in Gyllenhaal's character, similar to certain moments we had in Nightcrawler. The story looks really good, and this is going to be foremost a drama, which is Gyllenhaal's strength. From the looks of the traile…

When you think of a new Arnold Schwarzenegger movie coming out, you think guns, one-liners, swearing and more guns. But with his new film, Maggie, that's not the case. In the film, Schwarzenegger plays a father whose daughter is infected with a zombie virus that has decimated the Earth. He is supposed to take her to quarantine, but decides that, in order to protect his daughter, he has to take care of herself on his own. Going into the trailer, I thought this sounded like an interesting premise and could give a new twist on the zombie apocalypse we have seen so many times.
I liked the trailer. It was decent. A lot of people have been freaking out over this trailer but I really don't see it. We do see a completely different side of Schwarzenegger, but that's about it. The story of the zombie virus is a bit different from what we've seen before, but the rest of it looks to have a lot of clichés. The love story. The zombies. It just doesn't look like its going to be …

When a sequel to 2013's Man of Steel was first announced, there were so many fan castings for the famous Superman archenemy- Lex Luthor. One of the most popular actors was Bryan Cranston coming off of his run on the TV show Breaking Bad. However, DC shocked us all by casting a much, much younger Lex Luthor in Jesse Eisenberg. After seeing The Social Network, I think Eisenberg will play a really good Lex Luthor, though different than what we traditionally know the character as. Since the casting, a big question has been whether the character will be bald, as he is normally in the comics. We now know.
Today, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice director Zack Snyder tweeted our first look of Eisenberg as Lex Luthor:

Snyder had this to say with the release of the image:
 “He’s not any of the Lexes that you’ve seen, that’s for sure, other than him being a captain of industry and one person to the world and another person to himself. And bald, of course. Our Lex is disarming and he’s not…

It wasn't all too long ago that we learned that District 9 director Neill Blomkamp would be giving us a new Alien film, one that would ignore the events of the less-appreciated Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection. Since then, we have heard that Sigourney Weaver is considering returning to the franchise, and reports are saying that Michael Biehn has Ben contact for reprising his role as Hicks. How this will all come together is still rather unknown, but we do know that Alien 5 is on the way. Since the release of Blomkamp's third directorial film just a few weeks ago with Chappie, excitement for his spin on an Alien film has died down. Chappie was met with harsh criticism and many have considered the brilliance of District 9 to be a one-hit wonder. I still have optimism that Blomkamp will deliver, simply because of how much of a fan he is of re franchise. This will be the first time Blomkamp takes someone else's story and adapts it, and we know how special this franchise is to …

The other day, the title for the next Mission: Impossible film, a poster and a teaser trailer were all released (read our article about that here). The film, now called Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation, was originally scheduled for a December release but has since moved to July, to avoid competition with Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. With it now just four months out, we are all expecting something soon from the movie, which we got. Then, they released the full trailer. I usually hate it when movies put out a "teaser for a teaser" and show fifteen seconds of a trailer to get people hyped but this was different. It was a full minute, and the full trailer had mostly new footage from the teaser. It did it's job to get people hyped.

As for the new trailer, I thought it was great. It has the same feel of Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol, which I loved. It's going to be a fun action movie. I loved the cast last time, so it's great to see them returning.…

This weekend, The Divergent Series: Insurgent and The Gunman opened in theaters. Let's take a look at this past weekend's box office.
#1 The Divergent Series: Insurgent- $52,263,680

On its opening weekend, The Divergent Series: Insurgent came in first place. This was a no-brainer. This is the second installment in a popular young adult film series. The first one made a good amount of money, so there was no surprise that this took first place this week. However, similar to Fifty Shades of Grey, I think the bad reviews will catch up with it and it won't be nearly as profitable in the weeks to come. We will have to wait and see.
#2 Cinderella- $34,967,659

On its second week, Cinderella came in second place. Similar to the first place spot, it didn't surprise me that this film was still high ranking in its second week. Disney movies make a lot of money, and with the recognizable brand name, it was sure to still have a large presence. I wouldn't be shocked if it was stay…

It wasn't too long ago that the release date for Mission: Impossible 5 was moved from December to July, which meant that a trailer was bound to be released soon. This film is one of my most anticipated of this year, solely because of how awesome the fourth one was. Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol was an incredible film! It still amazes me that Tom Cruise really did that shot and climbed the side of the tallest building in the world. So, in short, I have been very eager to hear more about this film. Recently, the director of the film, Christopher McQuarrie, updated us with information on the film (you can read that here), where he said a trailer and a name was coming very soon. Well, today is that day.
A one minute teaser for the full-length trailer that comes out tomorrow was released, along with the film's title- Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation.

From what we gather in the trailer, the Rogue Nation is, as Simon Pegg puts it, an anti-MI6. They are an organization with ag…

One of the more surprising superhero castings in recent years was Gal Gadot, an actress who has yet to be very involved in the film industry. She has only been in a handful of movies, and has only had small roles. Then, she was cast to play Wonder Woman in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and for her own solo film. No one can deny that she's not the most skilled actor, and a lot of people (including myself) have wondered whether she can actually pull it off. Can Gadot actually lead a franchise as the most iconic female superhero ever? There have also been questions about her size. When she was first announced, she was quite small to be playing a character like Wonder Woman, who is known for being bigger and more muscular. Over the summer, the picture above was released of Gadot as Wonder Woman. I thought the costume design looked awesome and I think she looks like a good personification of Wonder Woman, but I still thought that she was a bit small for what the character is sup…

Probably one of the more divisive films of last year was famed (and my personal favorite) director Christopher Nolan's Interstellar. A lot of people loved it and saw it as brilliant. A lot of people liked and thought it was good, but a bit of a disappointment. Others were confused and didn't like it at all. I personally find myself between the first and second opinion. You can read my review of the movie here. But one of the most talked about parts of the film was it's ending. If you have not seen the film, stop reading here because there will be SPOILERS.


**LAST CHANCE FOR SPOILERS**


At the end of the film, we see Matthew McConaughey sucked into a black hole where he enters the fifth dimension. There he communicates with his daughter and tries to prevent the events of the film from happening using Morse code with the books. This doesn't work. McConaughey then wakes up on a future Earth, where he is reunited with his daughter, now on her death bed. The film then ends …

With the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron quickly coming up, it's easy to forget that Captain America: Civil War is just over a year away. The film will be an adaptation of the beloved comic, which will see former allies Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Captain America (Chris Evans) go head-to-head in a... well, Marvel civil war. The movie will officially begin filming in a couple weeks, where we will most likely learn some more information as to what is going on in the film. But as of right now, the biggest question has been what the cause for the civil war will be. In the comics, the government tried to pass the superhuman registration act, which forced those with superhuman abilities to reveal their identies to the public, similar to what has been a prevelent plot line in the early X-Men films. The problem with this is that no one in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has a secret identity. Everyone knows Tony Stark is Iron Man. Everyone knows Steve Rogers is Captain America. So …

When you look back at under-performing yet incredible loved films, one of the top ones is 2012's Dredd. The film was loved by fans and critics, yet made only $35 million worldwide ($13 domestically) on a $50 million dollar budget. It lost the studio a ton of money, yet fans have been lobbying for a sequel ever since opening weekend. Lead actor Karl Urban has been saying it's possible if the fans keep pressuring the studio for another one but nothing has been close to being confirmed. There's always been a lingering hope that this could become a reality. But the final nail may have been hammered into the coffin.
The film's screenwriter, Alex Garland, recently spoke out on the likelihood of a sequel happening. At first, he said he was disappointed with the film, saying:
“The ‘Dredd’ thing is a surprise. It’s a really complicated set of emotions. I have a lot of regret about how things worked out with ‘Dredd,’ but it’s very gratifying. The regret it – you do a kind of tra…

With Avengers: Age of Ultron just a couple months away, Marvel has begun going into its full-out marketing campaign. We've already gotten three trailers, a TV spot and a bunch of posters and stills. There can't be anything new they can show us without ruining the whole film, right? Wrong. This latest, one minute TV spot is comprised of mostly new footage and it is awesome! Not only that, but it gives us hints to some things that may play out in the film that we didn't know about before. Let's break it down and talk about it.
First off, it gives us the light-hearted humor that Marvel is known for but has been absent from the trailers so far. We get Robert Downey Jr. narrating the TV spot with his classic Tony Stark superego humor. We also get a great line from Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury in "Let's show them what we got!" During each of the moments the spot highlights each hero, they all have a one-liner unique to their character. While they may not …

How many sh*tty Adam Sandler movies need to be turned out before studios finally learn to stay the hell away from him? Yes it's a bit harsh but it's true. There has only been like two or three films Sandler has been in that I have actually liked. I still think he deserved an Oscar nomination for his role in Reign Over Me, but other than that he has been putting out stinkbomb after stinkbomb. When I first heard the premise for Pixels, I was optimistic. It had an interesting concept and while I thought it could be good, a voice in the back of my head was telling me that this was going to be just another crap Sandler film. I thought it could be good with the talents of Peter Dinklage, Josh Gad and Kevin James, but we've seen Sandler work in groups before-- and that was called Grown Ups 2. 
This is just not a good trailer. The only thing I found interesting was how big budget it seems. From what I've researched, the budget was around $110 million, which is a lot of money …

This weekend, Cinderella and Run All Night opened in theaters. So let's take a look at this past weekend's box office.

#1 Cinderella- $67,877,361



On it's opening weekend, Cinderella came in first place. I knew it would make money, but I didn't think it was going to make as much as it did. This is not the kind of movie for me, but this is the type of movie parents will take their kids to see multiple times. Lately, between Snow White and the Huntsman and Maleficent, live action adaptations of Disney stories haven't been good at all. I have heard better reviews for Cinderalla, however, and hopefully they have found a formula that works. 
#2 Run All Night- $11,012,305



On it's opening weekend, Run All Night came in second place. While I'm happy that it was up there in the top 5 this week, the difference in money from spot one to spot two is surprising. The film also did not make what the studio was hoping for. It had a $50 million dollar budget plus advertising …