Saturday, April 4, 2015

"Furious Seven" (2015)

Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Jason Statham
Written by Chris Morgan
Directed by James Wan
Rated PG-13: Violence, language
Running Time: 140 Minutes
Trailer

After defeating Owen Shaw and finally returning home to the United States with full pardons for their crimes, Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and Brian O'Conner think they're in the clear. But while Dom struggles to help Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) deal with her amnesia and Brian can't quite seem to settle into domestic life with his wife Mia (Jordana Brewster) and his son Jack, something is going quite wrong. Shaw's brother Deckard (Jason Statham) is out for revenge. In short order, he puts Hobbs (Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson) in the hospital in LA and kills Han (Sung Kang) in Tokyo.

A CIA agent calling himself Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russel), in need of some help, makes Dom an offer he can't refuse: rescue a genius hacker named Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) from a terrorist organization led by Mose Jakande (Djimon Hounsou) and Dom will be granted use of a top-secret surveillance system that can find anyone, anywhere in the world, to track Deckard Shaw and end their feud once and for all.

To pull off this job, Dom reassembles his crew including Brian and Letty, as well as Tej (Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges) and Roman (Tyrese Gibson). And then it's on.

Sunday, March 29, 2015

"Dead Snow: Red vs Dead" (2014)

Starring Vegar Hoel, Orjan Gamst and Martin Starr
Written by Tommy Wirkola, Stig Frode Henriksen and Vegar Hoel
Directed by Tommy Wirkola
Rated R - Strong violence and language
Running Time: 100 Minutes
Trailer

Following the events of the first film, Martin (Vegar Hoel) barely manages to escape the Nazi zombies that killed all his friends on their mountain vacation in Norway. He crashes his car, and is brought to a nearby hospital where he's horrified to hear upon waking up that not only is he being charged with the murders of all his friends, but also that the doctors say they've reattached his severed arm. The only problem with that is it's not his arm they found — it's Herzog's, (Orjan Gamst) the zombie leader. The arm turns out to be super-strong and have something of a mind of its own and a lust for blood.

To find out why, Martin contacts the Zombie Squad, a group of Americans he thinks will be able to help him kill the zombies once and for all. The Squad, led by Daniel (Martin Starr) is actually just a trio of nerds who have seen too many movies, but they come to Norway anyway. Along with a World War II museum guide named Glenn (Stig Frode Henriksen), they'll have to figure out a way to stop Herzog from completing the last mission given to him by Hitler decades earlier: the destruction of an entire town as revenge for sabotaging Nazi war plans.

"Mission: Impossible" (1996)

Starring Tom Cruise, Jon Voight and Emmanuelle Beart
Written by David Koepp and Robert Towne
Directed by Brian de Palma
Rated PG-13 - Violence, language
Running Time: 110 Minutes
Trailer

Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) of the IMF has just been framed for the murder of his entire team. They were tasked with preventing the theft of a non-official cover or NOC list from an American embassy in Prague, but the mission went disastrously wrong. Worse, Hunt learns that as the only survivor, he's now the prime suspect in the agency's mole hunt and that the list was a fake to draw out the mole.

Hunt has no other choice but to go on the run. He soon finds another member of the team has survived: Claire (Emmanuelle Beart), wife of team leader Jim Phelps (Jon Voight). Together, Hunt and Claire hatch a plan to draw out the real mole, this time by stealing the actual NOC list which happens to be kept in one of the world's most secure locations: CIA headquarters.

Saturday, March 28, 2015

"Parallels" (2015)

Starring Mark Hapke, Jessica Rothe and Eric Jungmann
Written and directed by Christopher Leone
Unrated - Violence, language
Running Time: 83 Minutes
Trailer

Estranged siblings Ronan (Mark Hapke) and Beatrix Carver (Jessice Rothe) both receive a cryptic message from their father (Yorgo Constantine) demanding that they go to a certain address before a certain time. When they arrive, with their friend Harold (Eric Jungmann) in tow, they find an abandoned building, the interior of which is covered in strange graffiti that references things that never happened.

Soon enough they discover that the building itself is somehow a portal to alternate versions of Earth. Every 36 hours, anyone inside the building "jumps" to a new world with an alternate history. The first world the trio encounters is a post-apocalyptic wasteland where they meet Polly (Constance Wu) who explains the "rules" to them. Together, the four of them embark on an adventure to find Ronan and Beatrix's father, discover the nature of the building and the strange device their father left that Polly says could be technology from something called "The Core World."

Friday, March 27, 2015

"Brick Mansions" (2014)

Starring Paul Walker, David Belle and RZA
Written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen
Directed by Camille Delamarre
Rated PG-13 - Violence, language, drugs
Running Time: 90 Minutes
Trailer

In the near future, the city of Detroit has become so dangerous that the government declares martial law and cordons off a section of the city, giving it up to the criminal element that has taken over a huge section of housing projects known as the Brick Mansions. Inside is a war zone ruled by criminals, gangs, drug cartels and weapons dealers, while the rest of the city is allowed to prosper.

Undercover cop Damien Collier (Paul Walker) is sent into brick mansions to recover a dangerous neutron bomb that the mayor (Bruce Ramsay) tells him was stolen from a military convoy. To aid him, Collier arranges the escape of a prisoner named Lino (David Belle) who knows his way around the brick mansions like the back of his hand. Together, they have to infiltrate the criminal organization led by Tremaine Alexander (RZA), who has taken control of the bomb and kidnapped Lino's girlfriend Lola (Catalina Denis).

But even with millions of lives hanging in the balance, this is more personal for Damien: Tremaine is the man who killed his father years earlier.

Monday, March 9, 2015

"Big Hero 6" (2014)

Starring Ryan Potter, Scott Adsit and TJ Miller
Written by Jordan Roberts, Dan Gerson and Robert L. Baird
Directed by Don Hall and Chris Williams
Rated PG - Animated superhero violence, peril
Running Time: 102 Minutes
Trailer

In the city of San Fransokyo, young Hiro Hamada (Ryan Potter) uses his robotics genius to win money hustling underground bot fights. His older brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney) worries that Hiro is going to get hurt or waste his life not tapping into his potential, and encourages him to join the robotics program at his college. There, Hiro meets Tadashi's friends: GoGo (Jamie Chung), Wasabi (Damon Wayans Jr.), Honey Lemon (Genesis Rodriguez) and Fred (TJ Miller). Hiro also discovers that one of his idols, Professor Robert Callaghan (James Cromwell) is one of Tadashi's teachers, and Hiro immediately decides he needs to become the school's next student.

To do so, he'll have to come up with a project that impresses the great Professor Callaghan. And so Hiro invents a revolutionary new form of robot: microbots, controlled by his own thoughts, which can form any shape or do any action he can think of. But on the big night, a fire breaks out at the robotics expo, claiming the lives of his brother Tadashi and Professor Callaghan, and destroying the microbots... or so Hiro thinks.

Hiro soon discovers that someone is mass-producing his microbots, and using them to commit crimes across the city. To find out who this mysterious villain is and stop him, Hiro activates Tadashi's last project: Baymax (Scott Adsit) a puffy inflatable robot designed to administer gentle medical care. He also recruits Tadashi's friends, and together, they'll solve the mystery, save the city, and heal Hiro's grieving heart.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

"John Wick" (2014)

Starring Keanu Reeves, Alfie Allen and Michael Nyqvist
Written by Derek Kolstad
Directed by Chad Stahelski and David Leitch
Rated R - Violence, nudity, strong language
Running Time: 101 Minutes
Trailer

John Wick (Keanu Reeves) grieves the loss of his wife (Bridget Moynihan). Not long after her funeral, a package arrives at his door — a small puppy named Daisy, a gift from his wife so that John will have something to love and won't have to grieve alone. Unfortunately for John Wick, his bad luck is going to continue. Iosef Tarasov (Alfie Allen), the spoiled son of the mobster John used to work for, takes a liking to John's car — a 1969 Ford Mustang. When John refuses to sell it to him, Iosef gathers his buddies and breaks into John's home in the night. They beat John, kill Daisy and steal his car.

Big. Mistake.

Because John Wick, as Iosef's father Viggo Tasarov (Michael Nyqvist) explains, was the Boogeyman — an assassin so good, and so feared, that killing him will be next to impossible. Viggo is not unsympathetic to John's plight, but he certainly can't allow him to simply kill his son. And so, Viggo puts a contract out on John Wick... and prays someone will get lucky.