The Movie Paradise

I enjoyed the latest installment in the Fast and Furious  franchise, The Fate of the Furious . I didn't think it was as good as Fast Five  or Furious 7 , but I did get a kick out of it for what it was. It definitely delivered on the insane stunts and crazy action sequences that the other movies gave us; it just felt a little emotionally hollow to me. You can read our full review  here . But even if you aren't the biggest fan of the series, you at least recognize that it's incredibly commercially successful. The Fast and Furious  franchise has become a billion dollar franchise, which is insane to think about. Furious 7  made $1.5 billion dollars at the worldwide box office, making it the sixth highest grossing film of all time. Now, I never expected The Fate of the Furious  to reach those numbers. Furious 7  was coming off of the recent passing of Paul Walker , and that definitely boosted the box office, among other reasons. But this is a hot property, and The Fate of t

With Ridley Scott  hard at work on his Alien  prequel films, between Prometheus  and now Alien: Covenant , there was also the prospect of an Alien 5 , written and directed by Neill Blomkamp . A long time ago, Blomkamp released concept art of the film, which rewrote much of the events of Alien 3  and Alien: Resurrection . With his new film, fan-favorite Aliens  characters Newt and Hicks would still be alive (as they were killed off in Alien 3 ), and would return alongside Sigourney Weaver 's character of Ellen Ripley. The concept art all looked fantastic, and Weaver was incredibly excited about the project. However, Scott put it on hold, as he wanted to finish his prequel movies first. However, Scott recently talked about potentially four more movies, equaling to be two trilogies (you can read about that here ). With this, the question lingered as to when Scott would finish his movies and allow Blomkamp to do his film. I personally wanted to see Alien 5  more so than another pr

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 While it was recently announced that James Gunn  would return to write and direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3  (which you ca

I didn't get a chance to see World War Z  in theaters, but I did see it later when it came to Netflix. What I saw was the director's cut, and maybe it was because it was the director's cut, but I really liked it! It was a great zombie film, and I didn't understand why the reactions were simply mediocre. Again, perhaps the theatrical cut was lacking and the director's cut was a major improvement, I'm not exactly sure, but I really enjoyed World War Z . And for years now we've been hearing about the prospect of a sequel. For the longest time, it was slated to come out in 2017. Obviously, that isn't going to happen. But it didn't seem like anything was actually happening with the sequel, until it was revealed that the studio was having talks with David Fincher  to direct. Considering Fincher's last big budget experience was Alien 3 , which he has personally disavowed as one of his films, I couldn't see Fincher wanted to jump back in with th

**Spoilers for Split , if you have not watched the film yet** I don't think there's been a person who has given M. Night Shyamalan  more sh*t than me. I absolutely loved The Sixth Sense , and it's one of my all time favorite movies. I thought Unbreakable was good, but not nearly as good as The Sixth Sense . And I haven't liked a movie of his since. The Visit  was a step in the right direction, but I didn't think it was tremendous or anything. And for the longest time, I thought Split  was going to be awful. The trailers were fine, but I think I (perhaps unfairly so) held a prejudice against Shyamalan. I was expecting Split to be the next The Last Airbender  or After Earth , and instead we got a really great movie. I thought Split  was really good, and probably Shyamalan's best work since Unbreakable , funny enough. When Split 's twist happened, and it was revealed to be within the same universe as Unbreakable , I freaked out in the theater! I cou

To me, it's a shame that not more people liked Jurassic World . I actually really loved that movie. It was a perfectly realization of what a real-world "Jurassic Park" would look like. It would be a lot like Disney World, but with, you know, dinosaurs. I thought all of those elements were fantastic, and perfectly executed. Did it, when everything erupted into chaos, feel a lot like Jurassic Park ? Yes, but it's a f*cking sequel! Of course it will have shades of that. Is it as good as the original? No, but I never expected it to be. For me, Jurassic World  accomplished pretty much everything I wanted it to. But no one could have predicted how big of a movie it was going to end up being. Jurassic World  slayed at the box office, becoming the fourth highest grossing film of all time with $1.7 billion dollars. No one saw that coming! And since 2015, when World  came out, I've been looking forward to seeing the sequel. Colin Trevorrow left so he could be available

With the rebirth of Star Wars in the form of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens , December has become the month dedicated simply to Star Wars. Sure, The Lord of the Rings  and The Hobbit  films owned December when they came out, as did Titanic  and Avatar , but it's Star Wars that has made December an event month for film. Every year now, we're getting a new Star Wars movie (whether an episode or a spin-off) in December. 2015 was The Force Awakens . 2016 was Rogue One: A Star Wars Story . And this year, we'll have Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi . Now, 2018 will break the mold a bit. The still untitled Han Solo  spin-off film will be coming out in May of that year. For awhile, it looked like it might move to December, especially with Avatar 2  moving out of that month (and two years later, mind you). However, Han Solo  remains in May. I understand why May is an appealing date for Star Wars. All of the Star Wars movies prior to The Force Awakens  came out in

The first Kingsman: The Secret Service  was a surprise hit for me. I went in looking forward to it, but I was really surprised by just how much I loved it. It was brutal and violent, with endearing characters. It was just so much fun. And how awesome was that church scene? It has to be one of the greatest action sequences recently put to screen. It was fantastic. So, naturally, I've been rather excited for the sequel, Kingsman: The Golden Circle . However, we know practically nothing about it. Matthew Vaughn  has returned to direct, and that's probably the center of my excitement for the film. If it was anyone other than Matthew Vaughn directing this movie, then I don't think I would really care about it at all. Because he infused so much of his own style into it, I think Vaughn is really the only one who could pull off a sequel. And really, this movie has gone completely under the radar. We have heard nothing about it, which is surprising considering the cast. You have

While studios have gotten cozy with releasing two comic book movies a year, three a year is an honor no one has held yet. Originally, Fox  was going to become the first studio to do so in 2016. They had Deadpool, X-Men: Apocalypse , and Gambit  all slated for 2016 releases. However, Gambit  fell apart, and the studio kind of swept it under the rug. Since then, Marvel  has risen up to seize that title. This year, Marvel will be releasing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Thor: Ragnarok . Even though Homecoming  is co-produced by Sony , it is still a Marvel film, and thus Marvel becomes the first studio to release three comic book movies in one year. And it kind of makes sense that Marvel would have this honor, since they are the leading studio in producing comic book movies right now. However, it looks as though Fox is coming back with a vengeance. Even though they can't take that title back, that's not stopping them from barraging us with a fury o

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.  **Normally, I try to mix the stories up with news about Marvel, DC, Star Wars, etc. However, there was so much important Marvel news that droppe

Whether you love or hate the Fast and Furious  franchise, there is one undeniable truth: they make sh*t tons of money. Furious 7  finished its theatrical run with $1.5 billion dollars worldwide, making it the sixth highest grossing film of all time. In its opening weekend, The Fate of the Furious has already made over $500 million dollars worldwide, making it the second highest grossing film of 2017, just in its first weekend! Whether Fate of the Furious  will catch Furious 7 's record is still an unknown, but it will no doubt cross the billion dollar mark, and will be a complete and utter success. While I personally did not think Fate of the Furious  was as good as some of the franchise's other installments, such as Fast Five  or Furious 7 , I did enjoy it quite a bit. This franchise has really honed in on and defined what a fun time at the movies is supposed to be, and absolutely excels at delivering on it. And Fate of the Furious  was just more proof of that. You can re

With Spider-Man: Homecoming  hitting theaters this summer, it's amazing to think about how unprecedented it is for two studios such as Sony  and Marvel  to come together and work on a film like this. It's something that is really extraordinary for fans of the character, like me. Sam Raimi  told some fantastic stand-alone stories, but there's something truly special about seeing Spider-Man ( Tom Holland ) interact with characters like Captain America ( Chris Evans ) and Iron Man ( Robert Downey Jr. ). Holland made a great debut as the character in Captain America: Civil War , and I'm excited to see his adventures continue in Homecoming . However, former Sony producer Amy Pascal  scared some of us fans when she seemed to suggest that, after Marvel and Sony's current deal, that Spider-Man's involvement in the Marvel Cinematic Universe  would be over. Of course, this sent tidal waves through the fan community. Recently, MCU head Kevin Feige  spoke about the dea

It's strange to think that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2  is only 19 days away from being released. I have been anxiously awaiting this sequel ever since I saw the first one in 2014, and it was incredible! I love that movie, and I've been excited for the sequel ever since. And a large portion of what made Guardians of the Galaxy  so fantastic and unique was the vision of writer/director James Gunn . He injected so much of his own creativity and personality into the film that it became just that... personable. Guardians  is so different from Thor  or Iron Man , because Gunn is such a different filmmaker from Kenneth Branagh  or Jon Favreau . And really, Gunn is what makes Guardians  work, in my opinion. So when Gunn mentioned that he wasn't certain whether or not he would write or direct Guardians of the Galaxy 3 , I was nervous. I would completely understand if Gunn wanted to leave the franchise in order to do new things, because he's a creative guy. As much as