"Bull Durham" is a 1988 sports romantic comedy film directed by Ron Shelton. The story revolves around the world of minor league baseball and follows the lives of three main characters: Crash Davis, a veteran catcher; "Nuke" LaLoosh, a talented but inexperienced pitcher; and Annie Savoy, a passionate baseball groupie who chooses one player each season to mentor.
As the baseball season progresses, Crash takes Nuke under his wing, teaching him not just about the game but also about life and love. Meanwhile, Annie finds herself caught in a love triangle between Crash and Nuke, leading to amusing and heartfelt moments of romance and rivalry.
The film explores themes of love, loyalty, and the pursuit of dreams. It has been praised for its witty dialogue, authentic portrayal of the baseball world, and the chemistry between the lead actors. "Bull Durham" is often considered one of the best sports films ever made and has become a cult classic. It stars Kevin Costner as Crash Davis, Tim Robbins as "Nuke" LaLoosh, and Susan Sarandon as Annie Savoy.
Noah is Darren Aronofsky's 2014 foray into Biblical storytelling. Aronofsky is well known for his body of directorial work, including The Fountain, Black Swan, Pi, and Requiem for a Dream. Aronofsky has a penchant for disturbing stories that challenge the viewer philosophically and provide a vivid, surreal experience, and Noah is no exception. Starring Russell Crowe as Noah along with Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone, Emma Watson, Logan Lerman and Anthony Hopkins, this film takes viewers on a mythical journey. Noah addresses important issues of our time, including environmentalism and animal rights. The film focuses not only on the mission that God calls on Noah to carry out, but the very deep human struggles he faces as he is forced to answer the question, "Does the human race deserve to survive?"
In this continuation of the Hobbit Trilogy (proceeded by The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in 2012, and concluded by The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies in 2014), Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and the dwarves (led by Thorin Oakenshield II, played by Richard Armitage) continue on their quest to reclaim their homeland from the dread dragon Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch), who has taken up residence in the Lonely Mountain. Meanwhile, Gandalf the Grey (Sir Ian McKellen) investigates the ruins of Dol Guldur, where a growing evil stirs. This film features a faster pacing than the previous installment, and bridges the events between the first and third movies in the fantasy trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved classics. Giant spiders, beautiful wood elves and evil orcs wait in this epic film, along with politics, intrigue, and even a dash of romance.
The storyline of Alfonso CuarГіn's psychological sci-fi drama Gravity (2013) revolves around the destinies of two astronauts on the extraordinary pivotal points of their lives. Dr. Ryan Stone is a newbie in the space. She's an awesome DNA-biology specialist and her mission is to perform some experiments in the outer space while staying at the space station. She accompanied by Matt Kowalsky, an experienced space veteran, whose mission is to provide technical assistance to Dr. Ryan Stone. It was their ordinary spacewalk. They were observing the breathtaking views of Earth, when Space reminded them that it is definitely not a pleasant place for sightseeing. A horde of space junk has bombarded their space station and destroyed it while they were in outer space. They were lucky enough not to be inside, but how long they survive outside, with no radio connection with Huston space center and limited oxygen supply on their space suits? When fear turns to panic, an every additional breath decreases both their lifetime and chances to survive. Dr. Ryan Stone is portrayed by Sandra Bullock, whose filmography includes such a brilliant roles as Leigh Anne Tuohy in The Blind Side and Gracie Hart in Miss Congeniality, while Matt Kowalsky is played by George Clooney (The American, Ocean's Friends franchise, From Dusk Till Dawn.)
The most anticipated adaptation of 2013 Ender's Game is loosely based on the same name book, that was probably the most iconic sci-fi novel in mid of 80s. Its author, Orson Scott Card has had many chances during 80s and 90s to make a movie after his book as the astronomically budgeted Hollywood movie. However he has kept his creative rights till 2000, when he finally decided to film the bestseller with the co-founding the Fresco Pictures to make a movie and write a screenplay himself. The action of Ender's Game unfolds in the distant future when Earth is invaded by myriads of Formics, an aggressive alien race also known as Buggers for their insects-alike appearance. The humanity is on the verge of distinction when the Strategist of the Earth takes a historical decision – to search a potentially talented child to train him as Great War Commander using the sophisticated space battle simulators. After a severe screening, they found Ender, a promising boy who shows the astonishing results on battle simulators. While his training is in progress it becomes absolutely clear that Ender is a last hope of human race to survive. His mentors decide to accelerate his learning by promoting him to Command School where he trains using state-of-the-art simulators that create an illusion of real space battle. Meanwhile, Ender's psychentonia makes him on the verge of nervous breakdown when he decides to fail his last exam: facing enemy's superior forces leaving no chances to win, he leads his spaceships to imminent death hoping that at least one could reach the planet to launch the MD, a devices that destructs all the object with positive mass around. That means a total annihilation of both human's and alien's spaceships and the planet in addition. Upon the "success" he surprisingly gets an ovation from his examiners: all his simulators' games were real space battles since he entered the Command School, and the last battle was the real Last Battle of International Forces against the Aliens where Earthlings have won thanks to Ender's brilliant strategy. Asa Butterfield stars in Ender's Game as main character Ender Wiggin. His filmography includes Hugo (as Hugo Cabret), Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang (as Norman Green) and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (as Bruno). Harrison Ford (Apocalypse Now, Star Wars franchise, Witness) plays as Colonel Graff, Ender's mentor.
It's a third appearance of Chris Hemsworth as mighty Thor after Kenneth Branagh's Thor filmed in 2011 and Joss Whedon's The Avengers filmed in 2012. The story of Alan Taylor's Thor: The Dark World is a direct sequel of the first movie and it takes place just year after the events of The Avengers. Now Thor stands against the ancient evil embodied in Malekith and his henchmen. This concentrated evil existed even before the history of our Galaxy has began. And there are no forces neither in Asgard nor on Earth to withstand them. Once again the destiny of the whole world is in Thor's hands. Once again he has to come back to Earth and fight with Malekith. When he meets his passion, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), his quest becomes more complicated – to rescue his love interest and save both Earth and Asgard. As for ensemble cast it's quite clear that previous movies successes inspired producers to inflate the budget significantly, besides the actors which were starring in the first movie Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgard, Ray Stevenson, Idris Elba, Kat Dennings, Rene Russo and Anthony Hopkins there some new Hollywood stars: Christopher Eccleston (Doctor Who, Heroes, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (The Thing, Killer Elite, Faster), Zachary Levi (Stuntmen, Shades of Ray), and Tadanobu Asano (Battleship, 47 Ronin).
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is the second film in The Hunger Games sci-fi trilogy that depicts the events that are supposedly taken place in future or in alternative universe where inhuman annual deathly games are held by Capitol to distract the attention of poorest segments of society (which seem to represent almost 100% of population) from troubles of their miserable lives. The movie storyline is loosely based on Suzanne Collins's book Catching Fire. Simon Beaufoy and Michael Arndt have adopted the book for filming and written the screenplay for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. The movie's story is revolving around "Victor's Tour" of the 74th Annual Hunger Games winners Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson). Now they are heroes adored by all the people and the Capitol is betting on them to calm down incipient rebellion. Katness and Peeta finds themselves drawn in series of intrigues all meaning death for them in grand finale. The brilliant play of Jennifer Lawrence, who may be familiar for you by her recent roles in House at the End of the Street and Playbook, undoubtedly has "make" the movie. For Josh Hutcherson, The Hunger Games mean great breakthrough in his career although he has shown the best of his actor's skill in Red Dawn and The Forger.
Imagine the world divided on two societies: the richest one living on the luxurious orbital station located at the Lagrange Point 1 between Earth and Moon; and the rest of the human population living their worthless lives on the overpopulated and extremely polluted Earth. The space habitat called Elysium has state-of-art medical technologies that could save billions of live on Earth, but they serves to extend the lives of richest ones who live on Stanford torus: an Earth-gravity equipped hollow doughnut stuffed with enormously expensive houses, pools and golf courses. At this time, inhabitants of the planet Earth, have struggling for their lives, surviving the corruption, banditry and poverty without a ray of hope for a better life. But there is the man on the Earth who has his own mission to save his life. The only thing he needs is to get into Elysium and restore the justice. The destiny of both of the world now depends of his fight with Elysium's mayor Secretary Jessica Delacourt. His name is Max Da Costa. Elysium's director Neill Blomkamp managed to gather a brilliant ensemble cast to turn an ordinary sci-fi movie to an extraordinary one: Matt Damon (True Grit, Invictus, The Informant!) stars as Max Da Costa, while Jodie Foster (Carnage, The Brave One, Panic Room) acts as main antagonist Jessica Delacourt.
2 Guns is an adrenaline action crime drama directed by iconic European director and actor Baltasar Kormákur, a man behind such the great movies as White Night Wedding, Contraband and The Deep. The movie follows the adventures of undercover agents, a DEA agent Bobby Trench and a Naval Intelligence Officer, Marcus Stigman. One day they got the order to rob the bank where local drug cartel is laundering money. Upon the stealing of US$50 million they suddenly realize that they just have stole CIA funds, with all the following consequences. Now they have to investigate who has set them up, and have to work together to save their lives and find the way to return the money. Baltasar Kormákur has considered Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn for the main roles but finally choose Denzel Washington (Flight, Safe House, Unstoppable and The Book of Eli) for the role of DEA agent Bobby Trench, while Mark Wahlberg (Pain & Gain, Broken City, Ted and Contraband) was chosen to star as Naval Intelligence Officer Marcus Stigman.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 which was previously known as Cloudy 2: Revenge of the Leftovers is a sequel of filmed in 2010 Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. The movie's screenplay is loosely based on original film, not a Barrett's second book Pickles to Pittsburgh, and follows the events which took place just after the end of the first movie. Its plot centers on Flint Lockwood, a young genius who invented a food machine, which nearly destroyed the planet with a disastrous food storm. Nowadays Flint works on The Live Corp. He is idolizing Chester V, who runs the company and tries his best to meet his expectations. Nevertheless, when he gets to know that his monstrous food machine is still active and now producing food-animal hybrids, Flint decides to leave The Live Corp. Now his mission is to destroy dangerous machine, before its creatures destroy the Earth. Saber cucumbers, taco-diles and apple boas are not those who can be easily got rid of, but it's time for Flint to invent something to separate the food from animals.
Riddick (2013), which previously was titled as The Chronicles of Riddick: Dead Man Stalking is the third movie of the Riddick franchise. The first one was low budget Pitch Black, which was filmed in 2000. This film gave a start both for The Chronicles of Riddick franchise and Vin Diesel career. The movie was a "sleeper hit" grossing over US$53 million in theaters with budget less than US$23 million. The second film in the franchise, The Chronicles of Riddick was less successful in profits: it generated over US$115 million with budget around US$100 million, but met mostly positive audience feedback, although critics met it with tepid reviews. Nevertheless, the third movie is aimed to repeat the success of the first film: it has relatively low budget grossing around US$38 million. The story of the Riddick (2013) revolves around the antihero, Richard B. Riddick. He is left on the scorched planet inhabited by alien predators. When he manages to activate an alarm beacon, it attracts the attention of two spaceships. The first one carries the hordes of thugs hired to kill Riddick, while the second one is captained by the man well known to him. Uncommon intelligence and inhuman strength help Riddick to use these guests to get away from the planet, commit an act of retaliation and rescue the people of his homeworld planet Furya from mass destruction.