Check Out Tom Cruise In The First Full Trailer For ‘Top Gun: Maverick’

Tom Cruise might be pushing 60-years-old, but thanks to the magical forces of the organization that shall not be named, he still looks like he’s 35-years-old.

In 1986, Cruise starred in the action-flick ‘Top Gun‘ and now in 2020, he’s starring in its sequel, Top Gun: Maverick.

The sequel to the 1986 flick follows Cruise’s Maverick as he tackles the role of test pilot instructor to a new generation of recruits.

The first full trailer was released today, and I must admit, it looks like a lot of fun. Of course, I’m a bit biased. I loved the first film and have probably watched it at least a dozen times.

Val Kilmer is returning alongside Cruise for this sequel. Miles Teller, Jon Hamm and Jennifer Connelly are also set to star.

Top Gun: Maverick is set to hit theaters on June 26, 2020.

The ‘Jumanji’ Sequel Shocks Everyone By Bringing In Over $60 Million During Its Opening Weekend

We told you last week that Sony was trying to downplay the opening weekend projections for ‘Jumanji: The Next Level’

They were reportedly expecting a $35 million opening. Other experts were thinking closer to $45 or $50 million.

Well, the sequel shocked everyone by bringing in $60.1 million over its opening weekend. The first film ‘Welcome to the Jungle‘ made only $36 million during its opening weekend, but then went on to make over $800 million at the worldwide box office.

Overseas, Jumanji 2 kicked off with $85 million for a global start of $145 million. The movie opened in a few foreign territories last weekend, bringing receipts to $152 million at the international box office and $213 million worldwide.

It’s certainly off to a good start, but will it have the staying power that the original film had? That remains to be seen. Critics aren’t as hot on this sequel, but the audience is responding well to it.

And while it was a good start for Jumanji, both ‘Black Christmas‘ and Clint Eastwood’s ‘Richard Jewell‘ failed to impress. They both were expected to earn at least $10 million. Instead, they didn’t even combine for $10 million.

‘Star Wars’ Actor John Boyega Forced To Apologize For “Badly Worded” Comments

Actor John Boyega was forced to apologize this week for comments he made to Variety during a recent interview about the social media storms created by intense Star Wars fan.

He told Variety

Through social media, we get to engage, we get to have fun. But at the same time, for those who are not mentally strong, you are weak to believe in every single thing that you read. That’s, you know, it is what it is. I don’t know, for me anyway, when I see that [backlash], I’m like, well, that’s actually not true. But no, it is actually not true.

Fans thought he was referring to his ‘Star Wars’ co-star Kelly Marie Tran, who quit social media last year after months of harassment from Star Wars fans.

Boyega was quick to clarify his statement, though. He issued an apology and made it clear he was not talking about Tran directly…

In no way was I referring to Kelly when I made my comments although the interviewer mentioned her given the topic. I was really speaking from my own perspective throughout this franchise. Sometimes I’ve felt strong and sometimes I’ve felt weak. Badly worded though. I apologize.

There you have it, folks. No drama here. Keep on moving.

Watch The First Trailer For Lin-Manuel Miranda’s ‘In The Heights’

The day has finally arrived. We are finally being gifted with the first complete trailer for the film version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony-winning musical In The Heights.

The film version of this musical is being directed by Jon M. Chu, the filmmaker behind the recent hit film, Crazy Rich Asians.

Miranda plays Piraguero—the Washington Heights local who sells flavored ice from a cart—in a cast that also includes Anthony Ramos as Usnavi, Corey Hawkins as Benny, Melissa Barrera as Vanessa, and Leslie Grace as Nina.

This movie is scheduled to hit theaters June 26, 2020, and there is potential for it to be a huge success.

Check out the trailer below…

‘Home Alone’ Reboot Casts Archie Yates, Ellie Kemper And Rob Delaney

Your favorite childhood Christmas film is getting a reboot, and yes Disney is responsible for it.

As you have probably heard, Disney is making a ‘Home Alone‘ reboot for their Disney Plus streaming service. The film will be directed by Dan Mazer, who will be working with a script from Streeter Seidell and Mikey Day.

According to a recent report, Archie Yates will be starring in the movie. He will not play another version of Kevin McCallister. Instead, he’ll be a new character in a similar predicament as Kevin.

Yates co-starred in the recent film ‘Jojo Rabbit‘ and he was pretty funny in the movie, so I’m happy with that casting decision, even if I’m unhappy with the idea of a reboot.

Ellie Kemper and Rob Delaney are also set to star, but their roles are unknown at this time.

Though originally thought to be Yates’ parents, sources now say Kemper and Delaney will be playing someone else in the film, possibly another couple not related to Yates.

No word on an exact release date.

Watch Daniel Radcliffe In Trailer For ‘Escape from Pretoria’

Ever since the ‘Harry Potter‘ franchise came to an end, Daniel Radcliffe has been taking on some bizarre roles, which he has the freedom to do. He has a net worth of over $100 million.

Radcliffe’s next film is a little political thriller titled, Escape from Pretoria. He stars in the movie as a political prisoner attempting to break out from a maximum security South African jail.

Daniel Webber co-stars…

The pair play freedom fighters Tim Jenkin and Stephen Lee, who were jailed in 1978 for being involved in covert anti-apartheid operations.

A trailer for the movie was released this week, you can check it out below. No word on an exact release date, but it’s scheduled to be released sometime in 2020.

Movie Review: ‘Lights Out’ Won’t Stay With You Long, But It Works For A Summer Horror Flick

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Dinner with your family. A hug from a stranger. Katy Perry songs. A stick of Fruit Stripe gum.

What do they all have in common? They’re all acceptable for a short amount of time. Lights Out started as a short film directed by David F. Sandberg, and it was an outstanding one. Coming in at just under three minutes, the simple premise managed to find a large audience and it ended up going viral. The buzz surrounding the short film got the attention of some powerful producers in Hollywood, and now three years later Sandberg is making his major directorial debut with an extended version of the short.

Did it deliver? Or will you leave the theater wanting to suffocate yourself with that plastic bag Katy Perry is always singing about?

The film starts out with a satisfying nod to the actress (Lotta Losten) who starred in the original short film. Just like in the short, we see her working that light switch. Turn the light off, the creature appears. Turn the light on, and the creature disappears. Sounds simple enough, right? Just keep the lights on and you’ll never have to worry about getting mauled by Diana.

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Yeah, Diana. The creature has a name, and it (she?) also has a surprisingly deep backstory. Most movie monsters are monsters because, well, the movie needs a monster. It’s like when you order a shake from a fast food restaurant and they dump a pound of whipped cream on top. Ask why they did it, and they’ll say, “I dunno…shakes need whipped cream,” and you accept that answer because no one wants to be that ungrateful customer complaining about receiving extra sweets for free.

Diana is more than just whipped cream though. She’s a friend. A childhood friend of Sophie (Maria Bello), the disturbed mother of Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) and Martin (Gabriel Bateman). As the events play out, we learn that Sophie and Diana were both treated at the same mental hospital when they were children. Diana had some rare skin disorder that made her sensitive to light. Any exposure to it would cause extreme pain and disfigurement. Doctors at the hospital tried to fix the condition by basically treating her like a human Hot Pocket and blowing her up in a microwave-like setting.

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Ever since then, Diana has been haunting Sophie and killing her husbands, but she never touched Martin and Rebecca because Sophie wouldn’t allow it. That all changes when Rebecca and Martin attempt to save their mom by trying to force her to take her medications to get her back to a healthier state of mind. A mind strong enough to fight off Diana.

As you might expect, things don’t go as planned. The same style of scares are repeated throughout the movie, so you shouldn’t go in expecting to jump out of your seat. There are several chill-inducing moments though, and they are mixed with some genuinely funny moments. There are at least two scenes in the film that had the entire theater laughing as if they were watching a comedy. And just to be clear here, they weren’t laughing AT the movie.

They were laughing with it.

It wasn’t all good though. Lights Out is sprinkled with cliches, the story felt a little rushed at times, and while Rebecca’s boyfriend Bret (Alexander DiPersia) provided most of the laughs, his constant need for reassurance during the worst times got a bit tiring.

Overall, it’s a decent horror flick with a powerful ending, and you won’t need a plastic bag after you leave the theater. But you’ll probably want to leave the light on for a few nights. You know, just in case Diana is real.

 

4star

(4/7 on the Gary Busey rating system, which refuses to end at 5 like normal rating systems)

 

Movie Review: Being Charlie – A Strange, Interesting Movie that Has A Problem With Clichés.

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Being Charlie is a movie about an 18-year-old addict, cloistered away in a rehab center, to be hidden away from the public while his father runs for governor. So yeah, it’s a real laugh riot.

To be honest, while the premise makes it sound a bit sappy and sentimental, the movie isn’t quite that. Charlie isn’t exactly likeable as a character. He’s arrogant, rude and unpleasant to be around. His father isn’t any better, so when it comes to the war between the two, it’s more like you’re picking the lesser of two evils when you side with Charlie.

The dynamic feels real. We meet Charlie, think he’s a douche, and say “screw this entitled rich kid.” Then we meet the father and it’s like “ok, that’s why the kid’s so screwed up.”

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One of the more endearing characters is a girl that Charlie meets in rehab. Eva (Morgan Saylor), with whom Charlie flouts rules that discourage romantic relationships among patients. Although Saylor brings some personality to her turbulent, unfocused character, you have the queasy sense that somebody decided the movie needed a pretty woman to give it some juice, because she becomes a side character as the movie takes a vicious turn.

This isn’t inspirational. It’s probably a bit less harsh than Rachel Getting Married, but not by much. It’s one of those hard to watch rehab movies because it feels far more true to life than most stories.

That being said, the movie has a bit of a problem with clichés. The characters feel a bit wooden, and it’s said that this movie is a very thinly veiled autobiography. Sometimes, when a movie is based on real life, I feel like they’re written out of revenge, kind of like Mommy Dearest. This is what that feels like. While the writer clearly didn’t pull any punches, even with his own character, he still comes across as a bit bitter in the end.

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It’s a dark film for most of it, then for some reason takes a weird upbeat turn at the end. I feel like they felt required to give Charlie a happy ending, when Charlie didn’t deserve one. The problem with the ending is that it takes a tragedy to get Charlie to see the light. They’re playing this character pretty true to life, in that there’s no growth at all, so the sudden epiphany at the end feels false.

It’s a strange movie, because the writer clearly doesn’t care if the audience likes the characters, but then feels afraid to commit to the dark ending, instead giving the audience what he thinks they want. That was a disappointment.

Also, for a movie like this, the run time is way too long. It’s a tense film, but the character is too shallow for you to want to watch his introspection, when he never seems to learn anything. In short, it’s about an hour and forty minutes of dealing with an addict. Despite it’s flaws, I will say it’s worth the watch.

WE GAVE IT : 3 STARS! Watch the Official Trailer and See the Official Movie Poster below

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Movie Review: Captain America Civil War

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So this was probably one of the most anticipated movies of the spring, despite the fact that it was up against some intense competition, with Jungle Book and Mother’s Day being strong performers. However, I was pretty sure this one would take the number one spot, as it’s already set records outside the US. And for once, a big budget blockbuster is pleasing critics and hitting all the right notes with audiences.

And it had a lot of notes to hit.

The film opens in 1991, with a frozen Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) being thawed out for another in a series of murderous missions. One after another, the code words needed to activate the killer are spoken: “daybreak … furnace … homecoming … freight car …” Flash forward to present-day Lagos, where an Avengers squad made up of Captain America (Chris Evans), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) is foiling the theft of a biological weapon. There’s a shit ton of casualties and it all goes downhill for the Avengers from there when they have to submit for government oversight.

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There’s a lot going on, but they managed to balance it pretty well. I never got too confused, despite a cast of what feels like millions. They go through ever doggone country in the world and tie in every other franchise that Joss Wheaton ever read a comic on, and they never stop moving. All the actors blended into their characters, and there’s a lot of characters to keep straight.

But for the most part, I still knew what was going on, because the plot’s pretty straight forward. They don’t want to deal with United Nations regulators telling them what to do, despite the wake of destruction they often leave. It doesn’t become a one sided argument, because it argues the point from both sides. I mean, when you see what they leave behind when they’re being heroic, you can kind of see the government’s point.

“Yeah, guys, you got that lady’s purse back from a mugger, but there were 45 civilian casualties and your caused $85 billion worth of damage to the city. Maybe next time, don’t start with the nuclear option?”

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It all eventually culminates in one of the best battle scenes I’ve ever seen. It should have been confusing, or too much, but it wasn’t. The direction is subtle but the action is perfectly choreographed, which is why I never felt like it was too much, when this movie should be the definition of too much. There’s a method to this madness, and I didn’t even resent the over the top ads for future movies.

The latest offering of Captain America is a misnomer, because it’s got just about every other character you can think of. But it’s extremely well-done to the point where you can follow it easily. It’s controlled chaos and worth the watch. It’s one of those rare movies that’s critic and audience approved and should not be missed.

WE GIVE IT: 4.5 STARS!

four and a half stars

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Movie Review: Hardcore Henry – Fun and Thrilling…..For a Few Minutes, Then I Had To Leave

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When I say a movie is stunning, I’m usually talking about how the special effects, scenery, or a combination thereof, leave you speechless with their beauty. In the case of Hardcore Henry, the stunning I’m talking about is a bit more like being stung by a jellyfish. You’re numb and disoriented for hours afterwards.

The film begins with Henry waking up in a lab with no memory of who he is or how he got there. A beautiful, blonde scientist, Estelle (Haley Bennett), is attaching high-tech prosthetic limbs to his battered, tatted body — and she says she’s his wife. But he quickly realizes he’s in danger and must go on the run throughout Moscow from the various bad guys who are after him, including a diabolical albino with telekinetic powers (Danila Kozlovsky) and his army of cyborg henchmen. Luckily for Henry, though, he’s a killing machine — part man, part science experiment — which makes the vast majority of Hardcore Henry a non-stop bloodbath.

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Ok, so the movie’s direction is strange. Let’s start with that. It’s filmed by (not making this up) slapping a bunch of Go Pro cameras onto stunt men. The goal is to make the viewer feel like they’re doing everything Henry is, using a unique first person perspective. Honestly, it’s a bit like watching someone play a first person shooter video game.

Which is why after about 20 minutes, it becomes too jarring to continue watching. I can’t tell you if Henry ever gets to save his wife and stop the bad guys, because I had to leave the theater to puke due to motion sickness.

That’s probably the first thing you should know. If you’re one of those people who gets nauseous on long car trips, this is not the place you want to be unless you have bulimia. Don’t get me wrong. It’s fun and thrilling for a few minutes, but once the nausea sets in, it’s there for good.

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Also, its incredibly violent. This is a rated R movie that I’m surprised didn’t earn itself and NC-17. I mean, Henry’s pretty much a half cyborg killing machine and you spend the movie in his body, watching his every move. What do you think happens?

The storyline is kind of cyberpunk, in that it’s got a Mad Max oddness to it. It’s strange looking, and made all the more strange by seeing it first person. I can’t say much as to the acting of the lead, because I never met the guy.

The movie relies on its gimmick to carry it, and I can see where it might be popular among those who enjoy video games of the first person shooter variety, but it just wasn’t me. The jarring camera action, and heavy bloodshed made it something I didn’t really want to see from first person. I can’t say it’s worth the watch, because I couldn’t even finish it but I can see its appeal for some audiences. Mainly, I think this was just really good marketing for Go Pro.
WE GAVE IT: 2 Stars – Watch the Official Trailer and Official Movie Poster below!

2 Stars

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