Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom - coming soon

A chronicle of Nelson Mandela's life journey from his childhood in a rural village through to his inauguration as the first democratically elected president of South Africa











Cast
Credited cast:
Idris Elba     ...Nelson Mandela
Naomie Harris     ... Winnie Mandela
Tony Kgoroge     ... Walter Sisulu
Riaad Moosa     ... Ahmed Kathrada
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Captain Phillips

As a film a few band of ostensibly " evil " Somali pirates versus a ocean captain played by Tom Hanks, the foremost all-American of all American white actors, Captain Phillips is asking for hasslewhen one thinks of depictions of race, and odds are it issure to create accusations of chest-beating, supremacist nationalism. Directed by Paul Greengrass, scripted by Billy Ray, and based mostly on Richard Phillips's autobiographical book, A Captain's Duty, in regards to the attempted ship-hijacking and kidnapping Phillips endured in 2009, the movie continuously walks a really delicate line during this regard.

On the eve of the attack on, and eventual seizing of, the Maersk Alabama, a towing ship Phillips (Hanks) and his crew are piloting through Somali waters on anyschedule delivery mission, the pirates are shown within theenergy struggle on a singleof the ramshackle skiff boats. It's a scene which ends along with one pirate bloodying an additional, suggesting these malescan savagely eat their very owninside thetitleof the gangster-sanctioned plunderings. The scene which immediately follows sees Phillips leisurely shaving in her creature-comfort-filled cabin. Captain Phillips is essentially a feature-length compilation of first-world and third-world parallels, however misguided bits such as this, and an additionalduring which Phillips offers the pirates fruit as thoughhe isattempting to feed wild, gun-toting animals, off-puttingly detract coming from the film's objective of thoughtful balance.

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Prisoners

Keller Dover ( Hugh Jackman ) , a deeply religious man who runs a failing carpentry business , attending a Thanksgiving dinner with his family in the house of a neighbor and family friends birches . Families' six year old daughters, Anna Dover and Joy Birch, go for a walk outside with their older siblings, Ralph Dover and Elizabeth Birch . Children must forcefully pulled away from a parked motor home with his siblings when they start to climb on it. After dinner , the younger daughters leaving to go back to Anna's house to get her whistle, she is supposed to wear at all times, but they will never return. After a police chase , the RV was found parked outside a gas station next to a wooded area. When Detective Loki ( Jake Gyllenhaal ) , who leads the case, go to confront RV drivers , Alex Jones (Paul Dano ) , Alex panics , trying to rush off and crashing into trees. Alex brought in for questioning, but it turns out he has the IQ of a 10 year old and rarely speaks . RV shows no forensic evidence suggests girls with raped into it, and Alex low intelligence means that he could have covered up such evidence .  

Although polygraph test by him proves compelling because of his low IQ , and he repeatedly denied ever having seen the children. Detective Loki goes to see Alex 's aunt , Holly Jones (Melissa Leo ) , who raised him with his uncle after his parents died when he was six . Alex 's uncle left home a few years ago after a domestic dispute with his aunt. Alex spends most nights sleeping in the RV and do not have many things. Since the police can not find evidence against Alex, he was released two days. Keller attacking him in a parking lot where he says Alex tells him , " They just cried when I left them. " While no one is close enough to hear this to confirm, but he takes it as a proof that Alex took the girls .

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Elysium

In 2154, the very wealthy live in Elysium, a Stanford Torus high-tech space station by President Patel (Faran Tahir) regulated in a utopian setting, which includes access to private medical machines that offer instant cures, while all other lives below on the overcrowded, disease-ridden, "Third World slum" that the earth has ruined himself. Who Elysium at nothing to keep enforcing anti-immigration laws and protect their citizens to stop lifestyle, even destroying ships, try to get there.

After an accident leaves him to die radiation, has 36-year-old factory worker and ex-con Max Da Costa (Matt Damon) just five days to get from Los Angeles to Elysium to be healed. Max is a powerful exoskeleton and tries to kidnap a rich businessman (William Fichtner) to steal his identity and kidnap his manner provided in Elysium. This pits him against Elysium Secretary of Homeland Security Delacourt Rhodes (Jodie Foster) and her violent secret police, led by Kruger agent (Sharlto Copley).

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Rush

Those who have seen the trailer will know that Rush is the "cinema Formula 1" . The presence of Ron Howard and Chris Hemsworth names above the title may put some bums on seats , but the fact that it is a film about motor racing certainly ostracize some potential viewers .
So stop there. Fever is not a movie about racing speed fans than the Titanic was sailing merchant seamen . Rush is a great shot, edited and directed the film made ​​that transcends the sport of auto racing, as well as the main protagonists themselves made almost forty years ago .
The rivalry between F1 drivers James Hunt ( Hemsworth ) and Niki Lauda ( Daniel Brühl ) is common knowledge. Just a couple of minutes drive of gifts Google tells you how many championships won every driver, how they met, how they trained , how they lived and (almost ) dead ... Fever is not a film that tells his story. Rush is the film that takes you into his world and shows how the story unfolded in all its fast , crazy, wild , dazzling cynical, too , fearless. At the end you may still not want to be an F1 driver or even see a great prize, but sure would like to have been there for at least part of the 70 .

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Lee Daniels' The Butler

Butler begins as a fascinating personal biopic about a man that many people have never heard of, but soon finds himself lost between growing political program , with nothing interesting as far as history is concerned. It plays like a TV movie lame, and probably would have been much more interesting as a miniseries .Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker ) is a White House butler who served under eight presidents of the United States. The film sheds light on their history, their family problems and his involvement in the Civil Rights Act .The major flaw of this film is that its protagonist is not really that interesting. It's great that worked for many presidents , in such an important moment in the history of our country , but there really much more to him than that. The family members are much more interesting , with his wife Gloria ( Oprah Winfrey ) being a lazy alcoholic who changed her life as she grew up, and his son Louis ( David Oyelowo ) who helped fight in the civil rights movement . Make it a point from the beginning that Cecil is not a political person , and tried to get away as he could to not cause any problems . This means that it spends most of the film just to see other people argue politics.

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The Fifth Estate

The story begins at a hacker conference in 2007. WikiLeaks, a little-known organization founded by Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch), has gained a degree of notoriety within the hacking community for publishing information about the corrupt practices of Kenyan leader Daniel arap Moi. One of the site’s admirers is Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Bruhl), a German tech wiz whom Assange immediately trusts, even confiding in him about his mother’s abusive boyfriend who was a member of the Aussie cult “The Family,” and used to abuse young Julian and force feed him psychiatric drugs. “Why do you think my hair’s white?” he says.

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City Island (2010)

Vince Rizzo is a lifelong resident of the tiny, tradition-steeped Bronx enclave of City Island. A family man who makes his living as a corrections officer, Vince longs to become an actor. Ashamed to admit his aspirations to his family, Vince would rather let his fiery wife Joyce believe his weekly poker games are a cover for an extramarital affair than admit he's secretly taking acting classes in Manhattan When Vince is asked to reveal his biggest secret in class, he inadvertently sets off a chaotic chain of events that turns his mundane suburban life upside down. Inspired by the exercise, he decides to bring his long-lost ex-con son Tony home to meet the family, and it soon becomes clear that everyone - including his college student daughter, teenaged son Vinnie, Jr., charismatic acting partner and drama coach - has something to hide. A perfect storm of deception, half truths and confusion makes Vince and his family members realize that the truth may not set them free, but it is easier to keep track of than all their well-intentioned white lies. Release Date: March 19th, 2010 (limited) Distributors: Anchor Bay Films Actors Andy Garcia Vince Rizzo Paul Diomede Bill Julianna Margulies Joyce Rizzo Emily Mortimer Brit Molly Alan Arkin Drama Teacher Steven Strait Tony Nardella Dominik Garcia-Lorido Vivian Rizzo Ezra Miller Vinnie read more...

Green Zone

United 93 director Paul Greengrass explores the aftermath of the Iraq invasion in this feature adaptation of author Rajiv Chandrasekaran's literary exposé of the same name. A one-time Baghdad bureau chief of the Washington Post, Chandrasekaran was present as American forces attempted to set up a provisional government on the grounds surrounding former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's opulent palace. The resulting governing body, according to critics, existed in a bubble so far removed from the grim realities of the Iraq War that it failed to properly assess the needs of the people. In this fictional thriller set during the U.S.-led occupation of Baghdad, director Greengrass and screenwriter Brian Helgeland use Chandrasekaran's novel as the foundation for the story of an officer who joins forces with a senior CIA officer to unearth evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon) is certain that Hussein has been stockpiling WMDs in the Iraqi desert, but in their race from one booby-trapped site to the next, they soon stumble across evidence of an elaborate cover up. As a result, the objective of their mission is inverted, and Miller realizes that operatives on both sides of the conflict are attempting to spin the story in their favor. Now, as Miller searches for answers made ever more elusive by covert and faulty intelligence, the truth becomes the most valuable weapon of all. Will those answers prove pivotal in clearing a rogue regime, or escalate the war in a region that grows increasingly unstable with each passing day? Amy Ryan co-stars as the New York Times foreign correspondent who travels to Iraq investigating the U.S. government's allegations about weapons of mass destruction, with Greg Kinnear appearing in the role of an additional CIA officer, and Antoni Corone essaying the role of a colonel. Brendan Gleeson rounds out the main cast for this Universal Pictures production. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide Releases : March 12, 2010 Director :Paul Greengrass Distributor:Universal Pictures Full Cast :Matt Damon,Amy Ryan,Greg Kinnear,Antoni Corone,Jason Isaacs,Brendan Gleeson read more...

The Crazies (2010)

Be grateful that Breck Eisner's brain-dead remake of George Romero's "The Crazies" (1973) runs a meager 101 minutes. That means less time robbed from of your life when you could be doing any number of more interesting things, like watching popcorn pop, or counting sheep. Romero's fourth film was his favorite, though it bombed with critics and audiences, mostly due to lousy marketing and the mistaken assumption that it was just another version of "Night of the Living Dead." How sad, then, that the master not only executive-produced but wrote this monumentally dumb, dull remake. Even on the level of killer-virus-gone-wild gore-fest, "The Crazies" as rejiggered by Eisner ("Sahara") is a dud. Primarily what makes it such a stinker is its simplemindedness, the packaging of any idea or location or event or character or shot into something guaranteed not to challenge viewers with complexity. Bereft of talent or vision, Eisner reduces Romero's apocalyptic juggernaut to tinker toy. (Rumored to be planning a remake of David Cronenberg's "The Brood," Eisner should be permanently barred from the director's chair.) Romero opened "The Crazies" with a bang: a farmer, inexplicably become affectless monster, butchers his wife and burns down his home, kids still inside. You're instantly immersed in horror, any sense of ordinary reality totally shattered. The remake opens with a cliché: Main Street ablaze, full of wrecked cars and debris, followed by a cut to bucolic farm country labeled "Two days earlier." This is the equivalent of horror movie advertising, a snapshot of bad stuff to come. It's an announcement, in cinematic baby talk -- the antithesis of a movie reaching out and dragging you into horrific drama. Seems a military plane has crashed near the small town of Ogden Marsh, contaminating the water supply in this pleasant little farming community with a nasty virus that drives people crazy and causes bleeding from various orifices. First sign of something gone terribly wrong occurs during a baseball game attended by half the town. Suddenly, an expressionless fellow toting a shotgun shambles purposefully out on the field. The sheriff (Timothy Olyphant of "A Perfect Getaway" and HBO's "Deadwood") tries to talk down the guy (apparently drunk, really the first of the crazies) but is forced to shoot him dead. You'd expect such a weird, unexpected invasion of everyday reality to raise a few goose bumps, but the scene plays out perfunctorily with no authentic shock, just the jaded recognition of a familiar horror-movie trope. Everything in Romero's low-budget original was raw, a visceral assault. The Pennsylvania setting felt authentic: woods, fields, farmhouses and back roads places you might glimpse on the breaking news. The remake lacks a genuine sense of place or geography, so the intrusion of fatal virus and faceless soldiers doesn't have up-close-and-personal impact. Romero filled his rural evenings with the reassuring sounds of crickets and tree frogs, further heightening the horror of the "ghosts" (men in white bio-hazard suits) who begin to haunt the night. Eisner resorts, with metronomic regularity, to "scary" music, with blasts of sound to cue you that something is about to make you jump. If it works once, keep doing it. What does it mean to be crazy in this cautionary tale about biological warfare? In Romero's version, the impulses and fears that civilized life requires us to suppress can no longer be censored, so what his "crazies" act out delivers a psychological punch. An overly protective father commits incest with his daughter; the hero's best friend can contain neither his sexual jealousy nor his envy of his Vietnam buddy's military success. In the remake the complexity of relationships and repression gets pretty literal-minded: rabid hunters take to stalking human beings; the sheriff's deputy refuses to take orders. Consider the appalling and moving death of an infected girl in the original film. Like some flower child she dances within a ring of soldiers, inviting them to play with her. Freaked out by her crazy innocence, they open fire. The remake substitutes the mechanical execution of a mother and her son at disengaging distance. Their ensuing incineration seems less an outrage than an opportunity for a prurient close-up of charred remains. That's typical. By means of a series of separate set-pieces (in funeral home, nursery, truck stop), the new "Crazies" racks up body count and buckets of blood, hoping to emulate the real shock of a town-killing movie like "30 Days of Night." Shockingly prescient about bio-terrorism, "The Crazies" No. 1 delivered a nuanced reading of the careless impotence of science and the military alike, which still rings true in light of Hurricane Katrina and our adventures overseas. Romero's downbeat ending wasn't popular, but it courageously kept faith with the tone of his film, chronicling the probable demise of civilization. Climaxing with a big bang, the new version mostly aims for easy, black-and-white targets: soldiers are mostly masked killers; and aerial surveillance screens, clicking from close-up to god's-eye views, suggest the presence of Big Brother watching from the air as well as listening in on tapped phone lines. But Eisner fails to invest these "villains" with real power. They don't inspire paranoia or hatred or terror; they're just straw men (and screens) existing only to advance the plot, not to lend weight and significance to what happens to the hapless citizens of Ogden Marsh, or any other "infected" community. Cast : Timothy Olyphant,Radha Mitchell,Joe Anderson,Christie Lynn Smith (full Credit) Released :February 26, 2010 Director :Breck Eisner Distributor:Overture Films from Kathleen Murphy, Special to MSN Movies read more...

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Review 1 : Set in medieval Persia, the story of an adventurous prince who teams up with a rival princess to stop an angry ruler from unleashing a sandstorm that could destroy the world. Which is why after the prince was tricked by a dying Vizier to unleash the Sands of Time that turns out to destroy a kingdom and transforms its populace into ferocious demons. In his effort to save his own kingdom and redeem his fatal mistake, it's up to the prince and the princess to return the sands to the hourglass by using the Dagger of Time, which also gives him a limited control over the flow of time. review 2 : From the team that brought the "Pirates of the Caribbean" trilogy to the big screen, Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films present "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time," an epic action-adventure set in the mystical lands of Persia. A rogue prince (Jake Gyllenhaal) reluctantly joins forces with a mysterious princess (Gemma Arterton) and together, they race against dark forces to safeguard an ancient dagger capable of releasing the Sands of Time—a gift from the gods that can reverse time and allow its possessor to rule the world. In Movie Theaters: May 28, 2010 Wide Directed by: Mike Newell Starring: more credits Jake Gyllenhaal Ben Kingsley Gemma Arterton Alfred Molina Steve Toussaint Distributed by: Walt Disney Pictures read more...

Robin Hood

Oscar® winner Russell Crowe stars as the legendary figure known by generations as “Robin Hood,” whose exploits have endured in popular mythology and ignited the imagination of those who share his spirit of adventure and righteousness. In 13th century England, Robin and his band of marauders confront corruption in a local village and lead an uprising against the crown that will forever alter the balance of world power. And whether thief or hero, one man from humble beginnings will become an eternal symbol of freedom for his people. The Robin Hood adventure chronicles the life of an expert archer, previously interested only in self-preservation, from his service in King Richard’s army against the French. Upon Richard’s death, Robin travels to Nottingham, a town suffering from the corruption of a despotic sheriff and crippling taxation, where he falls for the spirited widow Lady Marion (Oscar® winner Cate Blanchett), a woman skeptical of the identity and motivations of this crusader from the forest. Hoping to earn the hand of Maid Marion and salvage the village, Robin assembles a gang whose lethal mercenary skills are matched only by its appetite for life. Together, they begin preying on the indulgent upper class to correct injustices under the sheriff. With their country weakened from decades of war, embattled from the ineffective rule of the new king and vulnerable to insurgencies from within and threats from afar, Robin and his men heed a call to ever greater adventure. This unlikeliest of heroes and his allies set off to protect their country from slipping into bloody civil war and return glory to England once more. In Movie Theaters: May 14, 2010 Directed by: Ridley Scott Starring: more credits Russell Crowe Cate Blanchett Vanessa Redgrave Eileen Atkins Danny Huston read more...

My Name Is Khan

Rizwan Khan (Shahrukh Khan) suffers from aspergers syndrome, a kind of autism that makes him walk in a challenged manner. Loud noises make him nervous; the color yellow freaks him out and he unable to express his emotions clearly. But because of good cognitive skills, he learns facts quickly, and becomes a kind of a Mr.Fix it- repairing broken things. When his mother dies, Rizwan moves to America to live with his unsympathetic younger brother (Jimmy Shergill) and his wife (Sonya Jehan). Even as Rizwan finds it hard to adjust to the new and busy environment, he gets a job as, believe it or not, ‘a shop to shop’ beauty product salesman. Upon being disoriented by a yellow zebra crossing and almost getting killed by a ‘speeding’ tram, his life is saved by Mandira (Kajol), a single mother who works at a beauty salon. Taken by Rizwans honesty, she buys a whole range of his products and a romance ensues between the two. Rizwan's intelligent mind charms Mandira’s young son Sameer and before Rizwan can say ‘Marry me’ for the 100th time, Mandira and he are wed. But the happy Khan family portrait doesn’t last long. It is rudely turned around by the 9/11 WTC attacks and a communal bashing incident at school proves fatal for Sameer. A distraught Mandira blames Rizwan for their misfortune and regrets having the last name Khan. Madira leaves Rizwan and he embarks on a picturesque journey through America. His mission is to meet the president with the message that all Muslims are not terrorists. Unfortunately this message is repeated so many times that the awe factor is taken out of its ‘big’ climax. Infact everything is overstated, with moist eyed characters and big music swells making too many appearances in this film. Take an autistic protagonist and put him in an antagonizing post 9/11 America. Let him find love and then ruin it all instantly by crashing the twin towers. Then kill off his son because he bears his fathers Muslim name and before Khan can stammer what could very well be 'Asparagus' syndrome, get him dumped by the love of his life. My name is Khan bears all the emotionally manipulative elements that one can expect from a Karan Johar film but some somehow manages even to nosedive into the realm of the absurd. Take the sub plot of a hurricane ravaged African American town that the hero saves and top it up with the appearance of the American president. Make that two president’s. ‘Yes. We Khan!’ Shahrukh Khan has moments where he seems to have stretched himself as an actor bringing to Rizwan a certain vulnerability that is uncharacteristic of Khan in recent roles. Yet this is not enough to hold together a film where the protagonist makes no real journey. Rizwan knows right from the start where his character will end up. Kajol looks beautiful but comes accross as unnnatural and her emotional outburts are sadly shrill and screamy. Yet, there are some great moments in the film; like when Rizwan is taught by his doting mother (Zareena Wahab) ) that one's religion does not differentiate him from another. The only difference between people is that there are good people and there are bad people. The supporting cast performs well. Besides Zareena Wahab's awesome screen mother debut there is Sonya Jehan (last seen in Akbar Khans Taj Mahal) who plays the part of Rizwaan's sympathetic sister in law with grace. Jimmy Shergill as Rizwan’s jealous brother pitches in a controlled effort and Navneet Nishan brings some genuine laughs. While the subject matter seems good intentioned and the story does attempt to push the envelope, the outcome of My Name is Khan is disappointing. Packaged overtly like Forest Gump’s ‘box of chocolates’, the myriad web of characters and sub plots suffocate under too many issues (Autism, Minority, 9/11, Hurricanes). Maybe if the writers had stuck to one or two issues and fleshed them out sincerely, My Name is Khan might have struck a deeper chord. Cast : Kajol, Shah Rukh Khan Director : Karan Johar Producer : Dharma Productions, Red Chillies Entertainment & FOX Star Entertainment Genre : Drama Release Date : Febuary 12, 2010 read more...

SHUTTER ISLAND

In any good twist-and-turn thriller, there needs to be something for the audience to grasp onto other than said twists and turns. If the story and characters are merely clotheslines on which to hang periodic plot twists or a climactic reveal, the film basically descends into a waiting game. Why bother becoming emotionally invested or even paying attention to the onscreen events when anything and everything is just a series of clues or red herrings to a mystery that will be explained in the third act anyway? Shutter Island is a film that fails to exist outside of its puzzles. From the opening frame onward, you can sense that it's all about a lead up to a big reveal of some kind. Worse yet, it telegraphs its twists (big and small) so early that you immediately realize that, regardless of your theories, you really can't trust your own lying eyes. A token amount of plot - It's 1954, and Federal Marshals Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) have been sent to a mysterious mental hospital located on a remote island in Boston, Massachusetts. It seems that a deluded child-murderer named Rachel Solando has escaped from her locked cell and Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley) is eager to get her back. So the investigation begins, as the hard-boiled detective interviews various colorful characters (played by various colorful character actors whom I won't reveal) in pursuit of the truth. But as Teddy and Chuck investigate deeper, they discover that this asylum for the criminally insane may have some dark secrets, and that the disappearance of Solando may be part of a bigger conspiracy. As Teddy deals with his own past traumas, the mystery behind Dr. Cawley's seemingly benevolent treatment methods are slowly revealed, and the larger story at play begins to take shape. That's all you need. The majority of the film unfolds in a manner befitting any number of haunted house genre pictures. Teddy is forced to deal with his own personal demons, and his time in the scary old hospital conjures of terrible memories of past trauma as well as questions as to what separates him from those locked away. Fair enough, I generally relish directors like Martin Scorsese playing around in the B-movie sandbox. Goodness knows it did wonders for Spike Lee, who scored his biggest hit (and made one of his very best films) with Inside Man. But the picture is hamstrung by its very premise. You know from the very beginning that all is not what it seems. And the film is presented is such an over-the-top, melodramatic manner, and every performance and every moment seems bathed in intentional artifice, that we quickly realize that nothing can be taken at face value. If we never know when we're being lied to, it's impossible to get involved on any real visceral or emotional level. Since the big twist is telegraphed so early on, and several minor reveals are all-but noted with a yellow highlighter, not only do we know where the story is likely heading, we quickly realize that they cannot even believe our eyes or ears for much of the picture. When you know you're being duped in one way or another in nearly every scene, it's impossible to stay involved in the narrative. Why bother to pay attention if can't even trust that the story that's being told will even matter by the time the credits role? And since every moment and every character beat is either a clue or a false lead, there is no emotional hook in which to invest in the characters and the story. We also don't care because absolutely nothing makes sense leading up to the finale. When anything can happen and nothing is what it seems, then nothing is of consequence. While the film has solid technical credits and a fine pedigree (aside from the director and fine cast, the film is based on a book by Dennis Lehane), the film fails as entertainment because we never know what's true and what's false, so we have no choice to presume that everything is fraudulent. Like an improv comedy that feels entirely staged or action sequences that are rendered in inadequate computer-generated effects, Shutter Island is a film that fails to entertain because it refuses to give the audience a reason to believe what they're seeing. Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Max von Sydow, Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earle Haley Director: Martin Scorsese Screenwriter: Laeta Kalogridis Script: Novel Adaptation Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Drama read more...