Category: Movies

“How dare you distribute such sensitive information to the common people!” CJ Entertainment debuted the official trailer for the Korean film The Map Against the World, about a geographer and cartographer who traveled around Korea in the 1800s making a detailed map. The film is directed by veteran Korean filmmaker Kang Woo-Suk, and stars Cha Seung-won as the lead character, along with Yu Jun-Sang and Nam Ji-hyun. The idea is based on the true story of Kim Jeong-ho, who went under the pen name Gosanja, devoting his life to the creation of the “Daedongyeojido” map of Korea first published in 1861. This looks like it has lovely cinematography about a humble man who wanted to share the world with the people. ›››

Continue reading Watch: Official Trailer for Korea’s ‘The Map Against the World’ Film

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“If you must blink, do it now.” Those words told in voiceover kickstart Kubo and the Two Strings, the latest effort from Laika, the stop-motion,animation studio that has brought us Coraline, ParaNorman, and The Boxtrolls. They are a production company whose films have blended majestic visuals with thoughtful, heartfelt stories resonating effortlessly with one another to deliver impressive works of cinematic art. Kubo is their strongest work to date, a powerful story at its core with some of the most magnificent animation bringing it to visual life. Easily a strong, early contender for animated film of the year, Kubo takes adventure storytelling as well as stop-motion animation to stirring, new heights raising the bar even higher ›››

Continue reading Review: Laika’s ‘Kubo & the Two Strings’ is Animated Film of the Year

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“One, two three…” Monument Releasing has debuted the official US trailer for a film called Chronic, a drama starring Tim Roth which first premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2015. Roth plays a home care nurse who works with terminally ill patients at their home, isolating himself from the burdens of his past. The cast includes Elizabeth Tulloch, Michael Cristofer, David Dastmalchian, Tate Ellington, Sarah Sutherland and Claire van der Boom. This looks like it’s a very tough film to watch with some complex emotional aspects, but it has played at numerous film festivals and won the Best Screenplay award at Cannes, so there’s definitely something to it. As usual, Tim Roth looks outstanding in his role. See below. ›››

Continue reading Watch: Tim Roth in New US Trailer for Michel Franco’s Drama ‘Chronic’

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“How many times have you done this? And how many times have you been caught?” The short film we’re featuring this week is actually connected with a feature film arriving in theaters over the next few months. Titled Transpecos, the film is about three Border Patrol agents working a remote desert checkpoint – see the trailer here. Before making the feature, director Greg Kwedar and producer Clint Bentley made a short film titled Dakota, also about Border Patrol agents who aren’t the stereotypical agents we’ve all heard about on the news. The story is about a discovery in a truck that causes one agent “to question the very nature of his job”. It’s an impressive little short film and it’s cool to see that this was the inspiration directly leading to the feature-length film. This is also a good look at what it takes to make a career as a filmmaker. ›››

Continue reading Check Out the Short ‘Dakota’ That Inspired the Feature ‘Transpecos’

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“Be bold. Be brave. Be epic.” That’s one of the taglines for this movie, but it could also easily be the motto of Laika, the animation studio that created this excellent animated adventure. Kubo and the Two Strings is now playing in theaters and it’s a must see. Please, go see this movie in theaters while you can, and enjoy the heck out of it. Please go see it because stop-motion animation needs all the love and support it can get nowadays, especially in the form of tickets purchased to see this beautiful work of art in theaters. It’s all hand-made, animated and painted and created by hand (in Portland, Oregon), and it’s wonderful. I really can’t recommend it enough and I’m very happy to go out of my way to write an entire post about seeing this. ›››

Continue reading Support Hand-Made Films – Go See Laika’s ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’

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“When you come into the ring, you come to fight. No to dance, or to clown…” The Weinstein Company has debuted a last minute red band trailer for Jonathan Jakubowicz’s Hands of Stone, which opens in theaters next weekend. The film stars Edgar Ramirez as famous Panamanian boxer Roberto Duran, preparing to fight against the legendary Sugar Ray Leonard, played by Usher Raymond. This trailer spends as much time on Sugar Ray as it does on Duran, and the only reason it’s red band is because they’ve tossed in a few sex scenes in hopes of making a few more people interested in this. Since, unfortunately, this seems like this year’s boxing movie that is going to be quickly forgotten (unlike, perhaps, Bleed For This but who knows). The performances look solid, but the rest of it seems so by-the-numbers. Even with Robert De Niro in it. ›››

Continue reading One More Red Band Trailer for ‘Hands of Stone’ with Edgar Ramirez

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“The past… the present… the future… A journey from the birth of the stars through the origin of humanity.” Whoa. I can’t wait for this, it looks so enchanting. Empire has released a trailer for the alternate full-length version of Terrence Malick’s long-awaited documentary Voyage of Time. This version is called Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey, a 90-minute feature extended from the separate Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience which runs 45 minutes (see the trailer for that one) and is narrated by Brad Pitt. This version is narrated by Cate Blanchett, who you can hear in this trailer, and features all of the same footage with even more shots of the stars forming, and Earth being created, and life starting and evolving over millions of years of time. The score is by Simon Franglen & Hanan Townshend. You need to see this for yourself. ›››

Continue reading New Trailer for Malick’s Extended Doc ‘Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey’

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Uncork’d Entertainment has released an official trailer for the documentary Doomed!: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four, directed by Marty Langford, which is actually getting released on VOD + DVD later this year. As the title explains, the film examines the curious case of the 1994 version of The Fantastic Four, which was made by Roger Corman and distributed by New Horizons, but it was never actually released. The film has since ended up online as a bootleg, but this doc goes back and tells the complete story of how it all fell apart. “The average moviegoer doesn’t know that, ten years before releasing Tim Story’s version, Roger Corman was asked to produce a Fantastic Four movie. Unbeknownst to cast and crew, the film was never going to be released though – and for a variety of reasons.” Find out why in the film. ›››

Continue reading Watch: Trailer for ‘Doomed!’ Doc About Roger Corman’s Fantastic Four

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“No party, alright!” Oscilloscope has debuted a trailer for the upcoming release of an Australian coming-of-age indie comedy called Girl Asleep, the filmmaking debut of theater director Rosemary Myers. The film stars Bethany Whitmore as Greta Driscoll, a girl about to turn fifteen whose whole life is thrown into disarray when her parents invite the whole school to her surprise birthday party. It has been described as “equal measures Wes Anderson and Lewis Carroll“, which sounds quite appealing, and an “enchanting journey into the absurd – and sometimes scary – depths of the teenage mind.” The cast includes Harrison Feldman, Matthew Whittet, Amber McMahon, Eamon Farren and others. This looks so weird and so wacky and definitely Wes Anderson-inspired, but it seems like it will be fun to watch. Have a look below. ›››

Continue reading Watch: Official Trailer for Australian Coming-of-Age Indie ‘Girl Asleep’

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“We are at war – and you are the front-line troops in this war.” Vanish Films has released an official trailer for the “chilling” documentary Do Not Resist, a powerful look at the current state of policing in America. Directed by cinematographer Craig Atkinson, this doc begins on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri and progresses through a number of different situations and key moments in history. It also includes views from both sides of the battle – the public and the police – with a SWAT ride-along and police training seminar profiled. This is obviously a very major topic in America at this time in history, and it’s fascinating to see this kind of documentary arriving right in the thick of it, when there is no real solution to any problems just yet. This is a fantastic trailer – it let’s all the footage speak for itself without trying to explain too much else. ›››

Continue reading Official Trailer for ‘Do Not Resist’ Doc on the Current State of Policing

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