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Friday, March 29, 2024

Tag: Scarlett Johansson

Sing (2016)

Title: Sing
Rating: PG
Directed by: Christophe Lourdelet and Garth Jennings
Written by: Garth Jennings
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane, Scarlett Johansson, John C. Reilly, Taron Egerton, Tori Kelly, Nick Kroll, Beck Bennett, Nick Offerman, Jennifer Saunders, Garth Jennings, Peter Serafinowicz, Leslie Jones and Jay Pharoah
Release Date: 12/21/2016
Running Time: 108 minutes

Official Site
IMDb

What did you think of this film?
Set in a world like ours but entirely inhabited by animals, Sing stars Buster Moon (McConaughey), a dapper koala who presides over a once-grand theater that has fallen on hard times. Buster is an eternal—some might even say delusional—optimist who loves his theater above all and will do anything to preserve it. Now faced with the crumbling of his life’s ambition, he has one final chance to restore his fading jewel to its former glory by producing the world’s greatest singing competition.

Five lead contestants emerge: Mike (MacFarlane), a mouse who croons as smoothly as he cons; Meena (Kelly), a timid teenage elephant with an enormous case of stage fright; Rosita (Witherspoon), an overtaxed mother run ragged tending a litter of 25 piglets; Johnny (Egerton), a young gangster gorilla looking to break free of his family’s felonies; and Ash (Johansson), a punk-rock porcupine struggling to shed her arrogant boyfriend and go solo.

Each arrives under Buster’s marquee believing that this is their shot to change the course of their life. And as Buster coaches each of his contestants closer and closer to the grand finale, he starts to learn that maybe the theater isn’t the only thing that is in need of saving.


Are There Any Extras During The Credits? No

Are There Any Extras After The Credits? No

Note: The closing credits are framed by moving formations of colorful squid.

Memoriam: In memory of our dear friend Igor

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Captain America: Civil War (2016)*

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Title: Captain America: Civil War
Rating: PG-13
Directed by: Anthony Russo and Joe Russo
Written by: Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely
Starring: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Emily VanCamp, Frank Grillo, Martin Freeman, William Hurt and Daniel Brühl
Release Date: 5/6/2016
Running Time: 147 minutes

Official Facebook
IMDb

Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War” finds Steve Rogers leading the newly formed team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. But after another incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability, headed by a governing body to oversee and direct the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers, resulting in two camps—one led by Steve Rogers and his desire for the Avengers to remain free to defend humanity without government interference, and the other following Tony Stark’s surprising decision to support government oversight and accountability.


During Credits? Yes

Click to see whats: during the credits

 

After Credits? Yes

Click to see whats: after the credits

Special thanks to Ivan and Jim for this submission

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Jungle Book, The (2016)*

Title: The Jungle Book (aka. The Jungle Book 3D)
Rating: PG
Directed by: Jon Favreau
Written by: Justin Marks
Based on the book by: Rudyard Kipling
Starring: Neel Sethi, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong’o, Scarlett Johansson, Giancarlo Esposito, Christopher Walken and Garry Shandling
Release Date: 4/15/2016
Running Time: 105 minutes

Official Site
IMDb

“The Jungle Book” is an all-new, live-action epic adventure about Mowgli, a man-cub raised by a family of wolves. But Mowgli finds he is no longer welcome in the jungle when fearsome tiger Shere Khan, who bears the scars of Man, promises to eliminate what he sees as a threat. Urged to abandon the only home he’s ever known, Mowgli embarks on a captivating journey of self-discovery, guided by panther-turned-stern mentor Bagheera, and the free-spirited bear Baloo. Along the way, Mowgli encounters jungle creatures who don’t exactly have his best interests at heart, including Kaa, a python whose seductive
voice and gaze hypnotizes the man-cub, and the smooth-talking King Louie, who tries to coerce Mowgli into giving up the secret to the elusive and deadly red flower: fire.


What did you think of this film?

During Credits? Yes

Click to see whats: during the credits

 

After Credits? No

Is this stinger worth waiting around for? Vote DownVote Up (+33 rating, 65 votes)

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Hail, Caesar! (2016)

HailCaesarPoster
Title: Hail, Caesar!
Rating: PG-13
Directed by: Ethan Coen and Joel Coen
Written by: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Starring: Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill
Release Date: 2/5/2016
Running Time: 106 minutes

Official Site
IMDb

Four-time Oscar®-winning filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men, True Grit, Fargo) write and direct Hail, Caesar!, an all-star comedy set during the latter years of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Starring Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes, Jonah Hill, Scarlett Johansson, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton and Channing Tatum, Hail, Caesar! follows a single day in the life of a studio fixer who is presented with plenty of problems to fix.


What did you think of this film?

During Credits? No

After Credits? No

Note: “This motion picture contains no visual depiction of the godhead.”


Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)*

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Title: Avengers: Age of Ultron (aka. Avengers: Age of Ultron and IMAX 3D Experience and Avengers: Age of Ultron 3D)
Rating: PG-13
Director: Joss Whedon
Writer: Joss Whedon
Based on the comic book by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Cobie Smulders, James Spader and Samuel L. Jackson
Release Date: 5/1/2015
Running Time: 142 minutes

Official Site
IMDb

When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and it is up to the Avengers to stop the villainous Ultron from enacting his terrible plans.


What did you think of this film?

During Credits? Yes

Click to see whats: during the credits

 

After Credits? No

Note: After the credits we see “The Avengers will return”.

Is this stinger worth waiting around for? Vote DownVote Up (-18 rating, 458 votes)


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Avengers: Age of Ultron


Lucy (2014)

LucyPoster

Title: Lucy
Rating: R
Director: Luc Besson
Writer: Luc Besson
Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Min-sik Choi, Amr Waked and Julian Rhind-Tutt
Release Date: 7/25/2014
Running Time: 89 minutes

Official Site
IMDb

A woman, accidentally caught in a dark deal, turns the tables on her captors and transforms into a merciless warrior evolved beyond human logic.

What did you think of this film?


During Credits? No

After Credits? No

Memoriam: In Memorial Jack Mongovan ILM Years: 1981—2014

Chef (2014)*

ChefPoster

TITLE: Chef

RELEASE DATE: 5/9/2014

RATING: R

A chef who loses his restaurant job starts up a food truck in an effort to reclaim his creative promise, while piecing back together his estranged family.

What did you think of this film?


Amazon

IMDb


During Credits? Yes

Click to see whats: during the credits

 

After Credits? No

Is this stinger worth waiting around for? Vote DownVote Up (+8 rating, 14 votes)


Captain America: The Winter Soldier Review – 3/5 Stars

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Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a film that can only go up due to the last film showing everything that is wrong with the Marvel Avengers franchise. Thor 2: The Dark World stands as one of the most boring and draining action films to be released as of late, without a doubt in my mind it is the worst of the most recent Marvel films. Nonetheless, Marvel shows to be going one step in the right direction at least with at least this time around delivering a more compelling storyline that I’m actually able to care about.

The Winter Soldier continues the story of Captain America (Chris Evans) as he comes to terms with the new America that he lives in as he battles new foes and tries to find out secrets of his past and present.

For as jumbled as the screenplay becomes, I firstly think this film at least deserves some credit for being the most ambitious Marvel Avenger film thematically since Iron Man. CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldierStill18The movie goes in great length about how America’s military and commercialism has changed for the worst and is now used as a shadowy, lifeless function rather than as a service of good and unity. The antagonist in the film is the head of a very corrupt, rich militia and he literally turns Captain America’s kind and generous military friend into a soulless, heartless killing machine. With such huge themes like these, I think this film could work as a thought provoking blockbuster much in the way of most recently the far superior Catching Fire.

However, I think all of the films problems come off of the classic criticism of something biting off massively more than it can chew. Beyond having a thought provoking theme, the film also features countless new characters, plenty of plot twists, a very complex stories revolving around many areas and all at the same time attempts to make a fun, rousing popcorn flick. And frankly, I feel like the difference between The Winter Soldier and Catching Fire is that Catching Fire had much more competent a director and writer working behind it.

Above all things, Winter Soldier still feels like in some ways a user of the lifeless stock format highlighted in The Avengers and Thor: The Dark World. The direction, visual effects and dialogue still feels very similar to stuff you’ve seen before in the franchise. And that I think it is the soul perpetrator behind the films failings. The film is going for something very different that thinks outside the box in many areas but the film still is entrapped to a need to stay with the norm. The film therefore sabotages its cool premise with red herrings, a reliance on clichés as well as one sided answers to very thought provoking questions. As for the question of the sudden darkness and change in America, the film blames everything on the stereotypical bad guy excuse and leaves behind no moral ambiguity. The film has so many smaller storylines and aspects that the film ends up rather dumping them or answering them all at the same time in a choppy fashion. How can a film be so daring and yet so undaring at the same time? It’s all highly entertaining but I can’t wash off the feeling that the movie was failed by the naivety of the directors. I don’t even think the film is poorly directed but directors Joe and Anthony Russo are not competent enough filmmakers to be able to tackle something this complex and succeed like that of what Sam Mendes did for Skyfall. Of course some of its works (the relationships between characters mostly) as it is in many times in which a film tackles a lot different stuff but the screenplay and the story of the film fails because it glues everything together using 50 cent bubble gum and big shock…a lot of it ends up falling apart near the end.

Nonetheless, I will say the reliance on cheesy entertainment despite being the films downfall also redeemed the film in terms of being solid entertainment. The action scenes for as unoriginal as they have become in these films were surprisingly original in this one. My favorite scene in the film is near the start when a man is trying to survive despite being shot at from every angle from inside his bullet proof car. The action in the film is shaky and nowhere near as nauseatingly dull as the colorless, thrill less scenes of action shown in Thor 2.

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The film is also in some way very well edited. I think the problems of the film being choppy were less the fault of the editor and more that of the screenplay. In fact, despite being a 2 hour and 18 minute film, this was so competently edited that the film felt like 90 minutes. I found the energy and entertainment held in the editing to be very admirable on the films part even if the storytelling was weaker.

Finally, I thought all the acting was very impressive. Chris Evans’ performance in the film was pretty good and he added a lot of emotion to his character and he seemed to do a great job in sharing dialogue with other actors. Robert Redford played what was a very stereotypical villain but his great ability to act as seen by his most recent role in All is Lost which I went as far as to call the best performance of 2013 allowed his to add to memorability to the character. Samuel L. Jackson continues to be one of the most exciting aspects of the franchise and Scarlett Johansson through great energy and delivery of dialogue manages to be the best thing of this film. I also enjoyed the performance of Anthony Mackie as Captain America’s sidekick Falcon even if the character fell to pieces near the end in terms of his story arc. The cast I would say certainly succeeded in carrying emotion and humor to the movie and I have to say that the performances in the film is the one reason why I could buy a lot of the story throughout despite being a mess, I was motivated to see what happened to these characters.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier has respectable goals and exciting performances as well as some good popcorn fun in the action and in some of the dialogue. However, the screenplay stays way to close to the Marvel checklist and ends up becoming less of a memorable, thought provoking blockbuster film and more of a light yet fun, interesting piece of entertainment that’s more worth seeing when it comes to being able to rent it. It’s always a shame when a film tries so much and achieves so little.

Rating:(3/5)

Review by: Ryan M.

Release Date: 4/4/2014

Rating: PG-13

Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Redford, Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan

Directed by: Anthony Russo and Joe Russo

Screenplay by: Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely

Concept and Story by: Ed Brubaker

Based on the Comic Book by: Joe Simon and Jack Kirby

Under the Skin (2013)

UnderTheSkinPoster

TITLE: Under the Skin

RELEASE DATE: 4/4/2014

RATING: R

An alien seductress preys upon hitchhikers in Scotland.

What did you think of this film?


Official Site

IMDb


During Credits? No

After Credits? No

NOTE: In loving memory of Mark Mason and Terry Smith.


Her (2013)

HerPoster

TITLE: Her

RELEASE DATE: 1/10/2014

RATING: R

A lonely writer develops an unlikely relationship with his newly purchased operating system that’s designed to meet his every need.

What did you think of this film?


Official Site

Amazon

IMDb


During Credits? No

After Credits? No

NOTE: Dedicated to our friends: James Gandolfini, Harris Savides, Maurice Sendak and Adam Yauch.


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