"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.
Silver Linings Playbook is a heart touching, riotous movie based on the same name novel of Matthew Quick. The story of The Silver Linings Playbook revolves around the life of Pat Solitano, an ex-teacher, who is just released from a mental institution. David O. Russell who directed the film and wrote the screenplay immerses us in the Pat's mind allowing him to narrate the movie. We follow Pat endeavors to reunite with his ex-wife, despite of her treacherous betrayal. His family trying their best to help him, but situation changes dramatically when Pat meets Tiffany, a mentally depressed girl who agrees him to help with the reunion in exchange of some "contract" Pat agrees to "sign" with her. Step by step Pat understands that his "The Silver Lining", a theory he developed while being in a mental institution, are somehow connected with Tiffany's one. As he realize that fact, it becomes absolutely clear for him that their lives are connected and predetermined now by God's design. The movie pleases us by outstanding cast: Bradley Cooper is Pat Solitano, while Jennifer Lawrence is Tiffany. Pat's father is played by magnificent Robert De Niro and Chris Tucker is Danny.
A ludicrous to absurdity teen comedy released in 2012 by Paramount Pictures, Fun Size is revolving around a teenage girl Wren, who is in love with Roosevelt. He is older than Wren and very popular in their school as political debates superstar. Roosevelt invites Wren to Halloween party at his house exact that day when Wren's mother asks her to watch all night after her little brother Albert. Wren of course much more worries more about her crush's invitation than about her brother safety. In these circumstances she decides nothing better than to take her little brother to Halloween party in order to not miss the opportunity to be with Roosevelt. However this untoward decision leads to catastrophically developing consequences: the little Albert disappears in a crowd of trick-or-treaters. Wren with the help of her best friends Roosevelt, Peng and April tries their best to locate Albert before Wren's mother learns what happened. This unfortunate foursome take a journey thru the Halloween night in pursuit to find Wren's little brother, meeting some weird and odious personalities along their trip. un Size (2012) features some perfectly combined cast ensemble: Wren is played by Victoria Justice, a famous Fun Size from Victorious TV series, while Roosevelt is portrayed by Thomas Mann. You may know Thomas Mann as Thomas from Project X.
Mark O'Brien is a paralyzed 38-years old journalist who is confined to his iron lung forever, and, one more detail… he is a virgin. Furthermore, all her dreams are about how to have a sexual intercourse with female. After he asks for a beatification his Father Brendan and receives his blessing for the sessions of sexual therapy, he goes for it. Very soon Mark meets Cheryl Cohen Greene, professional sexual therapists, who helps him to discover all the sweets of life and suddenly makes them discover each other. Unexpectedly, six sessions of sexual therapy turns into something more valuable: a passionate and cognitive journey from isolation to spiritual emancipation. The story is loosely based on real life events happened with real Californian journalist who decided to dramatically change his "paralyzed" existence and succeeded. The film premiered on Sundance Film Festival in 2012 and gained mostly positive critics alongside with Audience Award in "Dramatic" category and Special Jury Prize in category "Dramatic Acting - Cast". As for cast ensemble – it represent a perfectly combined blend of true personalities pooled by a genuine chemistry between each other. The leading role of paralyzed writer was acquired by unparalleled John Hawkes, who may be familiar to you by his roles in The Playroom as Martin Cantwell, Arcadia as Tom and Contagion as Roger. Helen Hunt plays his soul mate and the sexual sessions partner, Cheryl Cohen Greene; you may remember Helen as Darcy Maguire in What Women Want, a Nancy Meyers movie, which was filmed in 2000.
The idea of The Master, which was filmed and released in 2012, could be traced back in 2000, when, as it was reported that Paul Thomas Anderson had the plans to create the movie about The Church of Scientology. However, the issues with the financing have blocked the implementation of conception until The Weinstein Company alongside with Megan Ellison, daughter of billionaire Larry Ellison (co-owner of Oracle Corporation), secured the financing of The Master in full. Likewise it has been some rumors that the movie was stalled because of too much of truth about The Church of Scientology has been revealed by Paul Thomas Anderson when he showcased The Cause sect (which was definitely prototyped from The Church of Scientology) in his movie. And because Hollywood has lots of influential and high-powered scientologists in his womb they have, allegedly, throw sand in the wheels of The Master filming and financing. In spite of the fact that The Church of Scientology Officials have rejected these rumors to be true and repeatedly insisted on their indifference concerning this movie, we have lots of doubts about it. The movie rather colorfully describes the sect and its leader Lancaster Dodd, whose personality was clearly copied from Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and very plausible displayed by talented performance of Philip Seymour Hoffman. You may be familiar with him by the roles in Moneyball, where he played Art Howe and in The Ides of March (Paul Zara). Dodd's apprentice, Freddie Sutton, who has climbed to the top of "The Cause" hierarchy suddenly starts to doubt about his teacher's belief, more and more being convinced the all he has to believe to is nothing more than fruits of his teacher's sick fantasies.
Could you imagine that Oz: The Great and Powerful, which is loosely based in L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was planned to be filmed by Disney since 1937? The rights for this movie was sold and resold for many times before, finally, Walt Disney Production acquired them and signed a contract with Sam Raimi to direct the film. Disney's series of decisions to reduce the filming costs had lead to unsuccessful negotiations with Robert Downey, Jr. and Johnny Depp for the leading role of Oscar Diggs/Oz, till, finally, James Franco was chosen for the role. You may remember him as Will Rodman form Rise of the Planet of the Apes. As the movie is the prequel for the core story The Wizard of Oz, there are no lovely Dorothy Gale, instead we have three witches. The Wicked Witch of the West, Theodora is portrayed by Mila Kunis which recently has had leading roles in Hell & Back and Friends with Benefits). Evanora The Wicked Witch of the East and the Ruler of the Munchkin Country is played by Rachel Weisz (The Bourne Legacy, To the Wonder); she inferiors in power of magic with Glinda the Good Witch of the South which is most powerful sorceress of Oz and is the ruler of the Quadling Country. In Disney's version of Oz: The Great and Powerful, Glinda is portrayed by Michelle Williams, which was quite smart decision, taking in consideration the amazing performance of Michelle Williams in My Week with Marilyn as Marilyn Monroe.
Alex Cross, which was previously named «I, Alex Cross» on early development stage, was renamed lately by the distributional company Summit Entertainment , due to the marketing reasons. The movie follows the steps of police detective Alex Cross as he chases a serial killer, who murdered Alex's pregnant wife. This cold-blooded murder was committed as revenge. Just before his wife was killed Alex takes the wind out of the serial killer's sails while he planned another contract killing. The assassination was failed and the murderer in a fit of rage commits a vengeance by killing Alex most loved one. After these the hitman hides and waits for Alex next move. His masterplane is to evade Cross and put him on the edge, between his lust for revenge and ethical principles. However, as Alex Cross gets close to the murderer, it becomes clear that the unbelievable evidences point on everything-changing revelation. Besides the twisted plot, the movie features quite a peculiar cast ensemble: Dr. Alex Cross is portrayed by Tyler Perry, you may recognize him as Madea, if you are quite insightful; while the main antagonist Michael "The Butcher" Sullivan/"Picasso" is played by Matthew Fox, who may be familiar to you by his roles in such movies as Vantage Point as Kent Taylor and We Are Marshall as Red Dawson.
The premise of Here Comes the Boom is ludicrous and absurd yet funny and preposterous. A tired of cost cutting school plans, 42- years old biology teacher dares to change how thing run and the extra-curricular music program from being closed and his teacher from being laid off. The way he chooses to raise the money for school budget is quite extraordinary one. He decides to start a career as the professional mixed-martial arts fighter. There is one only problem that stands between him and preventing the financial collapse – he cannot fight. But an incredible luck combined with a strong will work wonders together, because even if you lose the fight you get your money anyway. This simple idea motivates Scott Voss (Kevin James: Zookeeper, The Dilemma) to raise the money for the school and impress the nurse he unsuccessfully trying to seduce. You would perhaps be trying too, if you know that the nurse is portrayed by a sultry beautiful woman, Salma Hayek.
Sitting on the 15th place in The Greatest Directors of All Time list, Woody Allen is a talented writer, who has got more Oscars than fingers on both of your hands. And his next masterpiece To Rome with Love is likely to bring him another one (an Oscar, of course, not a finger). The events of the movie, that seem to be unconnected at the first blush, are masterfully intertwined with each other, mostly not physically, but spiritually, which is an Allen's bonanza anyway. The first story follows a famous NY architect, Jack (Jesse Eisenberg: 30 Minutes or Less, The Social Network) who is nothing more than a younger "reflection" of John (Alec Baldwin: The Good Shepherd, The Departed), who is trying to go back in the past to his youth. Another story is Antonio (Alessandro Tiberi) and Milly's (Alessandra Mastronardi) amorous drama which they are going through separately. This story also involves an Italian prostitute Anna (Penélope Cruz: Broken Embraces, Vicky Cristina Barcelona), and Italian cinema celebrity Luca Salta (Antonio Albanese). There are two other stories (or vignettes) that seem to be separated and unconnected but all of them are nothing more than beads on a curved string of life. By the way, Woody Allen has refuted the assumption of vignette intersection, leaving the audience an opportunity to decide what unites the stories.
It doesn't even matter if you've ever read the novel written by the greatest Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, or, maybe, you doesn't even heard about Anna Karenina (what is unlikely.) Anyway, this awesome story deserves to be laid on film tape more and more times. And for those, who plans to get an Oscar in this year there are no better way to do it than to make a movie using the unparalleled Tolstoy's masterpiece. The whole plot of the novel has been left intact: the action unfolds in the 19th century Russia, where the social elite have its own rules and traditions, and where adultery is counting as the worst sin ever. In those classy times, the story follows a young woman Anna (Keira Knightley), who is happily married to top-echelon officer Alexei Karenin (Jude Law). She unexpectedly meets the man of her dreams, Count Vronsky (Aaron Johnson) and falls in love with him. Their mutual romantic relationship leads the cinematic adaptation's plot to the predictable dramatic end, where a train plays a crucial and a final role.
For those who can't get enough of Glee, Universal Studios created an out-loud musical, Pitch Perfect which acclaimed to be a successful hit in 2012 alongside with Step Up Revolution. The story of Pitch Perfect is revolving around a girl Beca, which is portrayed by Anna Kendrick (if you have no idea, who Anna Kendrick is – just remember Rosie from Twilight Saga and you will get a clue). In Pitch Perfect, Anna plays a music-addicted teenager who just arrived to her new college and seems to be mismatch for any clique there. Nevertheless, she herds a group of mean and weird girls that are climbing their way to the heights of recognition as college acappella. Fortunately, Beca features a strong and beautiful vocal talent which will be certainly very helpful in their music battle against male acappella of the college. Namely around that battle most of the Pitch Perfect action revolves.