“The X-Files: I Want to Believe” is a stand-alone story in the tradition of some of the show’s most acclaimed and beloved episodes, and takes the complicated relationship between Fox Mulder (Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Anderson) in unexpected directions. Mulder continues his unshakable quest for the truth, and Scully, the passionate, ferociously intelligent physician, remains inextricably tied to Mulder’s pursuits.
Release Date : July 25, 2008
Studio : 20th Century Fox
Director : Chris Carter
Screenwriter : Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz
Starring : David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Xzibit, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly, Callum Keith Rennie, Adam Godley
Based upon Mark Millar’s explosive graphic novel series and helmed by stunning visualist director Timur Bekmambetov — creator of the most successful Russian film franchise in history, the ‘Night Watch’ series — ‘Wanted’ tells the tale of one apathetic nobody’s transformation into an unparalleled enforcer of justice. In 2008, the world will be introduced to a hero for a new generation: Wesley Gibson.
25-year-old Wes (James McAvoy) was the most disaffected, cube-dwelling drone the planet had ever known. His boss chewed him out hourly, his girlfriend ignored him routinely and his life plodded on interminably. Everyone was certain this disengaged slacker would amount to nothing. There was little else for Wes to do but wile away the days and die in his slow, clock-punching rut.
Until he met a woman named Fox (Angelina Jolie).
After his estranged father is murdered, the deadly sexy Fox recruits Wes into the Fraternity, a secret society that trains Wes to avenge his dad’s death by unlocking his dormant powers. As she teaches him how to develop lightning-quick reflexes and phenomenal agility, Wes discovers this team lives by an ancient, unbreakable code: carry out the death orders given by fate itself.
With wickedly brilliant tutors — including the Fraternity’s enigmatic leader, Sloan (Morgan Freeman) — Wes grows to enjoy all the strength he ever wanted. But, slowly, he begins to realize there is more to his dangerous associates than meets the eye. And as he wavers between newfound heroism and vengeance, Wes will come to learn what no one could ever teach him: he alone controls his destiny.
Star(s) to watch : Angelina Jolie (”Mr. & Mrs. Smith”, “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”, “The Bone Collector”, “Taking Lives”, “Original Sin”) as Fox, & Morgan Freeman (”Lucky Number Slevin”, “Bruce Almighty”, “Seven”, “Deep Impact”) as Sloan.
The story is shopworn, but not without dramatic potential: Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg play brothers on the opposite-ish sides of the law; Joseph (Wahlberg) has followed in the footsteps of their father (Robert Duvall) and joined the NYPD while Bobby (Phoenix) rebels by running a seedy nightclub. With a drug dealer inching into Bobby’s territory, he’s forced to reconsider his loyalties.
With this third work, Gray sets all inhibitions aside and begins confidently with a series of black-and-white cop photos set to melancholy saxophone followed by the image of uninhibitedly sexy party girl Amada (Eva Mendes) pleasuring herself on a ’70s-style gold couch. Her boyfriend Bobby (Joaquin Phoenix) enters the frame and caresses her thigh, then her breast there’s a cut to them waiting to kiss, with Amada’s tongue fluttering in the air, then a cut of Bobby pulling down her top, so that one of her breasts pops out?all set to Blondie’s “Heart of Glass.” This arousing vision of a warm erotic paradise, unrepentantly heightened by the use of drugs, haunts the rest of the movie, which deals with raw loss, the chill of betrayal, and the opposing institutions of the mob and the police force.
The good brother, played with sullen intensity by Mark Wahlberg, is decorated New York City policeman Joseph Grusinsky. The bad brother — well, he’s not really all that bad — is the playboy-ish Bobby Green, played at first with devil-may-care glee by Joaquin Phoenix, later with a sullen intensity that goes way beyond Wahlberg’s character. Bobby, who tells his disapproving deputy police chief father (Robert Duvall) that he has changed his last name to something easier to pronounce, runs the swanky El Caribe nightclub in an old Brooklyn movie palace that’s owned by kindly Russian immigrants. Bobby is in love with vivacious club dancer Amada Juarez (Eva Mendes), toys with drugs and knows a lot of unsavory characters, although he isn’t part of their illicit schemes that usually involve drugs and murder.
Star(s) to watch : Eva Mendes (”Once Upon a Time in Mexico”, “2 Fast 2 Furious”, “Ghost Rider”, “Urban Legends: Final Cut”, “Exit Wounds”) as Amanda Juarez, Mark Wahlberg (”The Big Hit”, “The Italian Job”, “The Departed”) as Joseph Grusinsky, & Joaquin Phoenix (”Signs”, “Gladiator”) as Bobby Green.
A gritty, fast-paced action thriller, Shoot ‘Em Up kicks into high gear with a memorable opening scene and never relents. Clive Owen stars as Mr. Smith, a mysterious loner who teams up with an unlikely ally (Monica Belluci) to protect a newborn baby from a determined criminal (Paul Giamatti) who hunts them throughout the bowels of the city. Shoot ‘Em Up is written and directed by Michael Davis (Monster Man) and is scheduled for a Sept. 7, 2007 release.
The tone is set right from the get-go. He’s minding his own business and sipping a cup of coffee when a pregnant woman comes running down the street screaming for help. She ducks down an alley, and a guy with a gun follows her. Smith gets up to help and ends up in a massive gunfight. As he fires back at the bad guys, his shell casings bounce off the pregnant woman’s stomach. She delivers her baby in the middle of all this, and Smith cuts the umbilical cord by shooting it, then stabs a bad guy to death with a carrot.
Shoot ‘Em Up — which pits Owen as everyman action hero against Paul Giamatti’s scenery-chomping criminal commando —goes gonzo less than five minutes in, as a pregnant woman flees a gun-brandishing predator by ducking into an empty warehouse. Innocent bystander Owen comes to the woman’s rescue and ends up delivering her baby while fighting off a dozen or so attackers in a lavish gun battle as remixed Nirvana pounds away on the soundtrack.
Star(s) to watch : Monica Bellucci (”Asterix and Obelix Meet Cleopatra”, “The Matrix Reloaded”) as Donna Quintano, & Clive Owen (”Sin City”, “The Bourne Identity”) as Smith.
Neil Warner (Gerard Butler) is a successful ad exec that isn’t afraid to burn bridges with his co-workers to score the biggest clients. Neil lives a perfect little life outside of work with his beautiful wife Abby (Maria Bello) and their adorable daughter Sophie, inside a giant house with loads of money. When Abby and Neil leave the house one day for separate vacations the babysitter kidnaps Sophie, and a frightening man named Tom Ryan appears in the couple’s back seat with a gun and a list of demands. If they refuse to comply with the cold and calculating sociopath’s demands, Sophie will be killed.
Neil (Gerard Butler, 300) has the perfect life: a fat bank account, a rising career, and an ideal family. Then a stranger (Pierce Brosnan The Matador) rises out of the backseat of his car. He has a gun and Neil’s daughter and if Neil and his wife (Maria Bello A History of Violence) don′t do everything he says he′ll take that perfect life away.
Had Bram Stoker set out to write romance rather than horror, he might have written Paradise Shattered . Had he sampled the mushrooms in the woods behind his house, he might have replaced the venerable professor with a demon or a warlock who harbors a deep hatred of vampires. He left that up to Lee and Bonias.
Star(s) to watch : Pierce Brosnan (”The Thomas Crown Affair”, “After the Sunset”, “Live Wire”) as Tom Ryan, Gerard Butler (”300″, “Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life”) as Neil Warner, Claudette Mink (”Paycheck”) as Judy, & Maria Bello (”Payback”, “A History of Violence”) as Abby Warner.
D-War released in North America as D-War: Dragon Wars, also referred to colloquially and in some marketing materials as Dragon Wars, is a 2007 South Korean film written and directed by Shim Hyung-rae. It is a fantasy-action film that was its nation’s largest-budgeted as of 2007.
Dragon Wars, or D-War as it was originally titled, is a Korean film set in Los Angeles, financed with Korean money and helmed by a Korean director (former comedian Hyung-rae Shim), starring a largely American cast. Its plot revolves around TV reporter Ethan (Jason Behr) who discovers that L.A.’s recent earthquakes aren’t just natural plate tectonics but the awakenings of a giant ancient serpent — a Korean serpent — that he is fated to battle because, well, the 500-year-old spirit of a warrior lives within him. He’s charged with finding the reincarnated version of that warrior’s soulmate, now a hot girl named Sarah (Amanda Brooks), and defeating the serpent before it becomes a dragon, destroys L.A., wreaks havoc on the world, etc.
Originally titled Dragon Wars (and still referred to by this title in publicity material), D-War has a long production history in South Korea. The film was announced in 2002 by director Shim Hyung-rae as his follow-up project to Yonggary.
Star(s) to watch : Jason Behr (”Skinwalkers”, “Freddy vs. Jason”, “The Grudge”) as Ethan Kendrick, & Amanda Brooks (”Flightplan”) as Sarah.
Death Sentence is a 2007 film loosely based on the 1975 novel by Brian Garfield. The film is directed by Saw director James Wan, and stars Kevin Bacon as Nick Hume, a man who becomes a vengeful vigilante killer after his son is murdered by a gang as an initiation ritual. The film premiered on August 31, 2007. It was filmed at and it took place in Columbia, South Carolina.
A little background first, to connect Bronson to Bacon. Both were pulp thrillers, and the latter, released in 1975, was a sequel to the former. The movies do not share this close a kinship, especially considering that Death Sentence the movie has almost nothing to do with Death Sentence the novel (other than the title and the broad thematic content) but it’s clear - despite the pretensions of the 2007 feature - they are cut from the same whole cloth. Death Wish has taken its share of knocks over the years but at least it doesn’t pretend it’s something more important and meaningful than it is - a mistake made by Death Sentence to its detriment.
Bacon’s performance in “Saw” creator James Wan’s laughably extreme revenge thriller “Death Sentence″ is six degrees of ham. Playing an insurance executive out to exact revenge against the gang that killed his precollege son, Bacon exhibits every facial expression except one you might have seen on a real person.
Star(s) to watch : Kelly Preston (”Sky High”, “Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat”) as Helen Hume, Kevin Bacon (”Hollow Man”, “Trapped”, “Apollo 13″) as Nick Hume, & Aisha Tyler as Detective Wallis.
Based on the epic graphic novel by Frank Miller, ‘300′ is a ferocious retelling of the ancient Battle of Thermopylae in which King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and 300 Spartans fought to the death against Xerxes and his massive Persian army. Facing insurmountable odds, their valor and sacrifice inspire all of Greece to unite against their Persian enemy, drawing a line in the sand for democracy. The film brings Miller’s (Sin City) acclaimed graphic novel to life by combining live action with virtual backgrounds that capture his distinct vision of this ancient historic tale.
Star(s) to watch : Gerard Butler (”Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life”) as King Leonidas, Lena Headey (”The Cave”) as Queen Gorgo, & David Wenham (”The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”, “Van Helsing”) as Dilios.
Genre : Action, Adventure, Drama, Adaptation, War.
Based on the Elmore Leonard story, 3:10 TO YUMA is a riveting remake of the 1957 classic Western. It’s the story of Dan Evans (Christian Bale), a down-and-out rancher who lost his leg in the Civil War.
TO YUMA is about a small-time rancher (Bale) who agrees to hold a captured outlaw (Crowe) who’s awaiting a train to go to court in Yuma. A battle of wills ensues as the outlaw tries to psych out the rancher.
to Yuma is a 2007 Academy Award nominated Western film that is a remake of the 1957 film of the same name, making it the second adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s short story. Filming took place in various locations in New Mexico. to Yuma opened September 7, 2007, in the United States.
Star(s) to watch : Christian Bale (”Batman Begins”, “Equilibrium”) as Dan Evans, Russell Crowe (”Gladiator”) as Ben Wade, & Ben Foster (”X-Men: The Last Stand”, “The Punisher”) as Charlie Prince.
Maggie Q and Andy Lau’s latest epic movie ‘Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon’ finally gets a trailer. The movie is based on “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”, a vast 600-year-old novel by Luo Guanzhong that ranks as one of China’s four most important pieces of literature, which also provided source material for John Woo’s upcoming ‘Battle of Red Cliff’ which stars Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, and Taiwan supermodel Lin Chiling.
As usual, Chinese war movie is good. The action and the fighting of this movie is good. The dialog is also cool and the acting is awesome. You′ll be easily satisfied by watching the action without thinking the story line.
Andy Lau stars as Zhao Zilong, a veteran general of the Kingdom of Shu who took a last stand against the invading forces from the Kingdom of Wei. Maggie Q is the fictional Cao Ying, a grand-daughter of the warlord Cao Cao, whose son Cao Pi became the first emperor of the Kingdom of Wei.
Star(s) to watch : Andy Lau (”Infernal Affairs”, “The Warlords”) as Zhao Zilong, & Maggie Q (”Naked Weapon”, “Live Free or Die Hard”, “Mission: Impossible III”) as Cao Ying.
Genre : Action, Adventure, War, Drama, Adaptation.
