The Movie Paradise

I've been on board with this movie ever since I saw the first trailer. What caught my eye immediately was how well choreographed the action sequences were. It was very John Wick -esque, which makes sense, since the director of Atomic Blonde , David Leitch , had co-directed the first John Wick  with Chad Stahleski . While I really dug the trailer, I was afraid that Atomic Blonde  would be too much like John Wick . That the overall style of the film, and its action sequences, would be too similar, and thus making Charlize Theron  merely a female John Wick, as opposed to her being her own character. Another thing I was watching this movie closely for was the direction. Leitch is helming next year's Deadpool 2 , and I wasn't sold on him entirely as a director yet. Sure, he did a great job co-directing John Wick , but I wasn't sure exactly how competent he was at directing on his own. So, going into an advanced screening for  Atomic Blonde , those were the two things I

With the amount of trailers that come out each week, it's nearly impossible for me to talk about every single trailer I want to highlight. The sheer volume of trailers make it hard to watch them all, let alone review and talk about them. I've been meaning to do something about it for awhile, but I've never known exactly what to do. But now I've finally come up with a good idea on how to handle this. So, in this new weekly series, "Trailer Talk", I will take three new trailers to highlight and talk about. Normally I wouldn't have gotten to these if I were writing about them individually, in their own articles. But here I can go into full detail on them, and discuss them as thoroughly as I want to. Now, I will always do individual articles for some of the big trailers, like for  Marvel, DC  or Star Wars movies. But some of the smaller film tend to get lost in the shuffle, and now I have a chance to change that. So tune into "Trailer Talk" ever

Anyone who has read this site for a while knows how big of an Andy Serkis  fan I am. Whether it's his motion capture performances in The Lord of the Rings  or Planet of the Apes , or his supporting roles in movies like  The Prestige , I believe Serkis is one of the most underrated actors working today. He gives Oscar-caliber performances in most of his movies, and I never thought he was more robbed of a nomination than with Rise of the Planet of the Apes . What he was able to do with just his body motions, speaking no more than a couple of words, was just incredible. The level of emotion he was able to convey was staggering. He was just absolutely brilliant in that movie. For a while, Serkis has been talking about getting into the directing game. He worked as the Second Unit Director on Peter Jackson 's The Hobbit  trilogy, and certainly picked up a lot from there. He then talked about making his debut with big-budgeted, motion capture-led spectacles, with Animal Farm  and

I've actually been somewhat interested in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle . Whenever I hear Dwayne Johnson  is in a movie, I always give it the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes it doesn't work out, like with Baywatch  or Central Intelligence  (in my opinion). Or you get something really fantastic, like with  Moana  or the latest Fast and Furious  movies. But just because of how much I like him as an actor, an entertainer, and as a personality, I always give his movies a chance. While I didn't exactly care for Central Intelligence , I had said in my review that I wanted to see another movie with Johnson and Kevin Hart , because I thought they had real chemistry. So seeing that they were back together for this movie was intriguing. Jack Black  is a comedic genius, so he always adds to any film he joins. The question mark for me, in terms of the cast, was Karen Gillian . I have only seen her in the Guardians of the Galaxy  films, and I think she's the weakest aspect of

Just last week, we reported that Sony 's Spider-Man spin-offs, then just Venom  and Silver and Black , were confirmed to be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe . And that's exactly what Spider-Man: Homecoming  and former Sony head Amy Pascal  said. She said they existed in the same world as Tom Holland 's Spider-Man, which means they are, in turn, part of the MCU. You can read our full initial article  here . And, after Pascal's comments went viral, there were several days of complete silence, allowing the Internet and the fans to go wild with speculation. I thought the pairing made sense. How do you have a thriving cinematic universe of Spider-Man villains without Spider-Man? The question was raised once again when Mysterio  and Kraven the Hunter  were said to also be in the works, but my concern what not necessarily in regards to the MCU. It was more that spinning off those particular villains themselves. You can read all about that here . However, a week and a h

I've been kind of mixed on my anticipation for The Book of Henry . On one side, director Colin Trevorrow  is helming Star Wars Episode IX , and I wanted to see his latest feature. I really liked Jurassic World , and I'm probably more in the minority in that regard. I found it incredible imaginative and creative, and had really great direction. And after a director makes it big, it's rare that they're able to go back to telling a smaller and more contained story. Just look at Christopher Nolan . So the fact that Trevorrow could make Jurassic World , which went on to be the fourth biggest film of all time, and then do a smaller movie like The Book of Henry  before going off to do a Star Wars movie, is really amazing, actually. I didn't see this movie when it first opened, obviously, so I subsequently witnessed critics and fans destroy the film. It currently has a 22% on Rotten Tomatoes , with petitions even to remove Trevorrow as the director of Episode IX . So I

Welcome to this week's  The Movie Paradise Nerd Round-Up . Essentially what we do here is we take a look at all things nerdy. We break down everything in the world of nerdom, ranging from superheroes to  Star Wars  and every other geeky thing in between, and analyse the smaller bits of news that weren't big enough stories to necessarily warrant an entire article, but are still significant and important. Perhaps it's casting news, a contract detail, a set image, or something else that's more on the minor side, but is definitely worth checking out. Then we have a little bit of fun with some movie-related videos and clips. It's a time and place for all of us unabashed nerds to come together and talk about the things that we love so much. So, without further ado, let's get started with this week's Nerd Round-Up.  The News Coming off the heels of the announcement that Venom, Silver and Black , and other Sony  Spider-Man spin-offs would be part of t

While I haven't loved all of A24 's work, I am really excited by them as a studio. Their focus is to give really talented filmmakers a spotlight to tell strange and abnormal stories that another studio may never have greenlit. I didn't like The Witch  as much as everyone else did, and I am in the minority in not liking Green Room  at all. But I go in excited for every new A24 movie, because I think there is so much potential and promise in their mission as a studio. And I went into It Comes at Night  with a similar level of enthusiasm. Keep in mind, I was never through the roof for this movie. I really like Joel Edgerton  as an actor, and the trailers looked really interested. But it wasn't something I was rushing to the theaters to go see. In fact, I didn't go opening weekend, so I heard a lot of people complaining about how the trailers falsely advertised what the movie actually turned out to be. So, going in, I tried to temper my expectations. I went in tr

With the amount of trailers that come out each week, it's nearly impossible for me to talk about every single trailer I want to highlight. The sheer volume of trailers make it hard to watch them all, let alone review and talk about them. I've been meaning to do something about it for awhile, but I've never known exactly what to do. But now I've finally come up with a good idea on how to handle this. So, in this new weekly series, "Trailer Talk", I will take three new trailers to highlight and talk about. Normally I wouldn't have gotten to these if I were writing about them individually, in their own articles. But here I can go into full detail on them, and discuss them as thoroughly as I want to. Now, I will always do individual articles for some of the big trailers, like for Marvel, DC  or Star Wars movies. But some of the smaller film tend to get lost in the shuffle, and now I have a chance to change that. So tune into "Trailer Talk" eve

I've been looking forward to seeing Baby Driver  for sometime now. After Edgar Wright  was kicked off of Ant-Man  (and for the better), I've been interested in seeing his next movie. And when I first heard about and saw the trailers for Baby Driver , I was immediately hooked! They promised us a high-adrenaline thrill ride that expertly crafted the film to coincide with its soundtrack. It just looked incredible. And I love all the actors in it.  Kevin Spacey  is one of the best actors working today. He is just fantastic.  Jamie Foxx, Jon Hamm,  and  Jon Bernthal  are also great actors. I haven't seen  Ansel Elgort  or  Lily James  in a ton of stuff, but they looked decent enough from the trailers. And I've heard nonstop praise for this movie. Every critic I read and respect is saying this is one of the best of the year, and it currently has a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes . So when I saw there was an opportunity to see this a couple weeks early at an advanced screening, I

Just the other day, we learned that Phil Lord and Chris Miller  had been fired from the untitled Han Solo  anthology film, with just a few weeks left of filming. Full details still seem to evade us, but it seems to boil down to a divide between the directors and LucasFilm  president Kathleen Kennedy . Why this wasn't figured out long before filming began is still a mystery, but I won't get into it all again. If you want to know my full thoughts on Lord and Miller's firing, you can read it  here . The production on the film has been since halted, with a new director needed to finish the final weeks of filming, reshoots, and oversee post-production. Kennedy also mentioned that she wants extensive reshoots to take place, similarly to what happened with  Rogue One: A Star Wars Story , in order to reshape the film in its entirety. Kennedy then assured fans that the new director would be named soon, with Ron Howard  and Joe Johnston 's names thrown into the mix. And thin