Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a 2023 animated superhero film produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson, it is the sequel to the Academy Award-winning Into the Spider-Verse (2018).
Shameik Moore returns as Miles Morales, who is pulled across the multiverse and introduced to the Spider-Society — an interdimensional task force of Spider-People led by the severe Miguel O'Hara/Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac). When Miles learns the Society operates on a rigid doctrine about which tragedies must be allowed to happen, he finds himself at odds with hundreds of versions of himself. Hailee Steinfeld returns as Gwen Stacy, with Jason Schwartzman voicing the villainous Spot.
Released on June 2, 2023, the film grossed over $690 million worldwide and drew rapturous reviews, with critics calling its animation among the most ambitious ever committed to a mainstream feature. It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature and ends on a cliffhanger leading into Beyond the Spider-Verse.
Centered at the political fight around Emancipation Proclamation, filmed by Steven Spielberg in 2012, Lincoln tell us a story of struggle of the Americas most known president against his enemies both on the civil war frontline and in lobbies and meetings. Focused to cancel slavery in America, Lincoln faces a horrible emotional stress, especially when it comes to controversies with his cabinet. The astonishing Joseph Gordon-Levitt performance as Robert Todd Lincoln and brilliant play of Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln are both overshadowed by pretentious play of Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens, which, of course, means that genius Steven Spielberg's ability to gather fantastic cast ensemble took place this time too. The film generously depicts president political and family life, showcasing him not only as a hero, but as an ordinary man faced to the most glorious challenge of his life in the dramatic circumstances when whole nation is divided into two opposing camps and the authorities are torn by serious contradictions.
If you've ever dreamed about seeing together such a brilliant ensemble cast as Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Helena Bonham Carter, Patrick Godfrey and Sacha Baron Cohen in one movie, your dream has come true with Tom Hooper's film Russell Crowe produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward and Cameron Mackintosh. William Nicholson has written a screenplay for this musical based upon the Les Misérables aka Les Mis or Les Miz, a 19-th century French theatre musical which was incredibly popular both in the Europe and America. The original source of Les Misérables is Victor Hugo's novel of the same name which was written in 1862. The story of Les Misérables is focusing on the live and fate of ex-convict Jean Valjean and his experience of the redemption. The musical immerses us in the turmoil of the pre- June Rebellion times starting in 1815 and reaching its pivotal point in 1835 with all the well-known consequences. However, let's back to Tom Hooper's adaptation: the brilliant cast is not the everything of this musical drama – you just need to hear the voice of Russell Crowe singing in Les Misérables to understand what a huge hit you faced.
Tommy Wirkola's Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters storyline is set the fifteen years after the events described in Brothers' Grimm book "Hansel and Gretel" which was written in 1812. The story of Grimm's characters, two siblings Hansel and Gretel, is well known around the world. Two children were left deep in the forest by their merciless father and stepmother provoked him to do such a horrible thing. After the days of wandering and starving, siblings have encountered a strange house built of gingerbreads, cakes and caramel. Hungry children began to eat the house walls when "very old woman" came out of house and greeted poor children, welcoming them to enter her abode, promising to feed them and give them a rest in soft and clean beds. The reality was that "very old woman" was nothing more than a ordinary witch willing to cook and eat Hansel and Gretel. However, smart siblings recognize her true intentions and happily escape home outwitting the old with by luring her into the oven. Besides this, they have stolen most of her gold, making them and their father incredibly rich (thanks to God their evil stepmother were dead by unknown reason by this time.) Coming back to the movie, after the fifteen years Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton) became the professional witch hunters equipped by the last word of modern warfare industry of those times: pneumatic shotguns, arbalests etc. The nice pair was hired by the Mayor of Augsburg to track down and slay the most powerful witches of that region. This easy at the first look task, is going to be much more complicated as the local Sheriff, named Berringer (Peter Stormare), steps into this business. The movie is colorful by all the meanings: the horror, action, black humor and awesome witches are united in one watchworthy story – what could be better? As per witches, they are really great. Just imagine Monique Ganderton, Joanna Kulig, Ingrid Bolso Berdal, Zoe Bell as the 3D-enchanced furiously powerful godless creatures and Renner with Arterton exterminating them. Huh?
An incredibly perfect adaptation of a cultish in 50' Jack Kerouac's novel which became a huge landmark in its time, On The Road immerses us into the atmosphere of that paranoidal decade where any discrepancies of "normal" behavior was a suspect. There were the times of Second Red Scare incepted by McCarthyism which led the nations of USA and USSR to Cold War. In these ambiguous times a just-married couple, a young ex-prisoner Dean Moriarty (Neal Cassady) and his beautiful wife Marylou (Kristen Stewart) travel across the America in pursuit of new sensations. In their voyage they meet young writer Sal Paradise (Sam Riley) , who recently buried his father and who decides to break with the past and heads into the new future where he hopes to find the inspiration for book he writes. This autobiographical storyline which is prominently implemented in the book runs through the movie too. The fact is that Jack Kerouac was really in the crisis when he started the book, and he actually was traveling across the USA with his friends to find an inspiration for the book he later named On The Road, which became a basis for Walter Salles movie of the same name in 2012.
It's a Christmas time of 2004. An ordinary British family Henry (Ewan McGregor) and Maria (Naomi Watts) visits Thailand on vacations with their three children: Lucas, who is just turned 7, and his younger brothers Simon and Thomas (children are played by Tom Holland, Oaklee Pendergastand and Samuel Joslin, accordingly). As they reach the Thai hotel, their family suit is upgraded to villa, a horrible decision, as it turns after. They are exchanging some Christmas gifts and heading to the coastline the morning after. Nothing has presaged a catastrophe. But meanwhile the terrible roar is heard from the seaside, and, in the moment, a giant wave of Tsunami covers the shoreline with all the tourists on it, including Henry, Maria and their beloved children. The wave is crashing trees, houses, cars, throwing human bodies to right and left. In a few seconds it appears that Henry, Simon and Thomas were picked up by the strong current and wiped to the inner part of land while Maria and Lucas are struggling for their survive in the roaring waves full of fallen tries which strike them inflicting terrible wounds, and making "the happy end" for them almost impossible. The movie, filmed by Juan Antonio Bayona, an outstanding Spanish director and producer, keeps us on the toes these first 20 minutes. The super-realistic 3D sound of imminent Tsunami is awesome, the pictures of scorched post-Tsunami landscape are phenomenally affecting, and the rest of the story based on true life events is very touchable and tragic.
I'll be back, he promised in a 1984 sci-fi action movie The Terminator , and we see how California ex-governor keeps his promise: "The Last Stand" features exactly that kind of Arnold Schwarzenegger as we have remembered since the times of The Terminator and Commando. His character Ray Owens is a sheriff in small peaceful town on the USA-Mexican border, reluctantly involved into the last stand of local policemen against the most wanted drug kingpin who just spectacularly escaped from FBI and now heading to the Mexican border in order to slide abroad as soon as possible speeding above 200 Mph on his Corvette ZR1 with a hostage in a tow. But Ray Owens is not just a sheriff, he is the former FBI anti-drug department officer recently retired after some bungled operation (and, what is more important, he is also ex-Terminator as we know). Of course, he could not stand aside, and this is where bloody massacre begins. We'll see Arnold Schwarzenegger with shotgun blowing out enemies brains; we'll see him with monstrous machine gun doing the same, etc. Furthermore, aside of these "special features" we will se definitely brilliant cast of actors: Rodrigo Santoro, Zach Gilford, Genesis Rodriguez, Forest Whitaker, Jaimie Alexander, Eduardo Noriega, Luis Guzmán, Johnny Knoxville – an exciting list, isn't it? However the most serious thing you need to know that this movie is the first American action film directed by Kim Ji-woon, a talented Korean cinematographer, worldwide known for his masterpieces: "The Good, the Bad, the Weird", "A Bittersweet Life" and "I Saw the Devil."
Bullet to the Head is the next Sylvester Stallone's attempt to revive nostalgic feelings of steroid-action movies of 80'. Based on Alexis Nolent's graphic novel Du Plomb Dans La Tete (which could be translated from French exactly like "Bullet to the Head" or "Lead In The Head" as per Google Translator's version) movie's script was rewritten for several times (Sylvester Stallone's is one of the co-authors of storyline) until it was accepted by Warner Brothers. The film's cast is well-thought-out too; while Sylvester Stallone plays Jimmy Bobo a New Orleans hitman witnessed murdering of his partners, Sung Kang plays a cop Taylor Kwon, whose partners were killed too. Teamed up with each other in a kind of unnatural but tough alliance they seek vengeance for these deaths and finally discover a powerful MOB group well accreted in corrupted authority bodies of United States of America. If you've ever thought that 66 is the age closer to cemetery than to Hollywood, you have to take a look on Sylvester Stallone's body – he looks even more "in mood" than at the dawn of his fame. As for Sung Kang, you are probably familiar with most of his filmography which includes such well known films like Fast Five and Fast & Furious 4.
It seems absolutely clear that the gap left by ending of Harry Potter and Twilight Saga in 2012 could not be empty for a long time. And, here it is – Warner Bros attempts to bring brand new hit to young adult audience with film adaptation of Kami Garcia's and Margaret Stohl's Beautiful Creatures, a young adult novel which has gotten some very rave reviews in 2009 when it was published by Little, Brown, and Company. So, WB hopes to put a beginning of new money making movie series, by not only taking the very promising book as a storyline but gathering most talented actors to star in the new film. The main protagonist Ethan Wate is portrayed by Alden Ehrenreich, who was "discovered" by Stiven Spielberg and starred in Melanie Shaw's Running Wild and Chan-wook Park's Stoker at the time of Beautiful Creatures release. His character Ethan tries to escape a boring reality of a teenager living in the dead end of the small town. At one day Ethan awakes after a recurring dream about unknown girl. He listens a creepy-hypnotic song called Sixteen Moons on his iPad then smelsl a quite surprising aroma of rosemary and lemon coming from nowhere and goes to school to know that there is a new girl in his class. Meanwhile, returning home he almost runs over this new girl standing in the middle of the road. He hears the familiar Sixteen Moons playing in her car and smells and notes of rosemary and lemon from her hair. Soon, he learns that this new girl is a kind of sorceress, a Caster, and his dream somehow connected with the destiny of this girl. Her name is Lena (Alice Englert) and she is about her sixteen birthday when she has to decide which part of magic force she belongs: Light or Dark.
If you've ever visited or participated Mardi Gras at New Orleans, you'll definitely agree that it is extremely impossibly to find the victim of the kidnapping locked in the soundproof trunk of the cab located in the midst of the bustling, rowdy and roaring crowd. However, it takes one Nicolas Cage teamed up with beautiful and sexy Malin Akerman to prove otherwise. That's a briefly represented storyline of Simon West's action thriller Stolen filmed and realized in 2012. The movie centers on Will Montgomery (Nicolas Cage), an unlucky thief, who is sentenced in jail for 10 years being caught on robbery, went awry. His criminal partners are very interested in ten millions of dollars which they believe Will concealed after the last job. To make Will convinced that he owes this money to his friend, they've kidnapped his daughter upon Will's release from prison. In order to secure their goals, gangsters have locked the girl (Sami Gayle) in cab's soundproof trunk somewhere in the midst of Mardi Gras making her impossible to find. .. for anyone, but not for Nicolas Cage. The problem is that Will doesn't have ten millions USD. Furthermore FBI Investigator (Kyle Russell Clements) and FBI Surveillance Agent (Mustafa Harris) are scouring the trails of key characters of this affair.
Successfully debuted at The Dallas International Film Festival, Liberal Arts is an American romantic-drama film directed by talented Josh Radnor, who not only written a screenplay for the movie by performed the leading role of the Jesse, a lonesome mid-aged university admissions officer who visits his old college in order to honor his ex-mentor. At this pivotal moment of his live he meets a girl, a 19 years old Zibby (the role performed by lovely Elizabeth Olsen, whose sole presence in the film makes it worthy to watch). Zibby and Jesse relationships develop in the way typical for 36-years old mature man and romantic 19-tears old girl, who know nothing about what this world is like. The only thing that makes their relations seemingly not icky is the Jesse serious take of this moral dilemma, which sometimes crossing the border between serious and funny. Especially in the scene when he calculated the deeps of his lapse from virtue: "When I was 19, she was 3; when I was 16 she was 0….hmmm…when I'll be 86, she will be 70" the last equation makes him sort of more easy looking on this hefty age difference (but he, and everyone in the move; and even we understand the point well).