Super hero movies that aren't Marvel or DC

Amidst all the buzz for the next DC or Marvel movie it's rare to see a super hero or comic book movie that isn't attached to the comic book giants. Here are a few of my favorites. 

1. The Incredibles (2004)

Many good things can be said about my personal favorite Pixar film and it's a shoe in on this list for me. Brad Bird finished working on his long time project Tomorowland so he's finally reported he'd get started on the highly anticipated sequel which I'm super excited for. 

2. Chronicle (2012)

Not a super hero movie in the traditional sense but a more realistic representation of what it would be like if a couple of teens were granted super human abilities. This movie is a solid action movie and one of my favorites in the "found footage" category. Also this movie introduced me to one of my favorite up and coming actors Dane DeHaan who really carries this movie. 

3. Watchmen (2009) 

Dark, gritty and captivating! The world created in this adaptation of the popular graphic novel is a perfect example of Zack Snyder's visual prowess. Definently the darkest take on a super hero universe   this movie is a breath of fresh air in this genre. Also Rorschach is one of the best anti heroes the world has ever seen. 

4. Sky High (2005) 

Yes this is cheesy but I found it to be a pretty solid kids movie so I showed it to my nephews and nieces and it quickly became one of those movies they watch on repeat several times a day. 

5. Hellboy (2004) 

Another movie much like watchmen that perfectly encapsulates the directors visionIn this case Guillermo Del Toro calls this his masterpiece. A huge plus for this movie was the art direction along with it's amazing use of make up and practical effects. It took Doug Jones and Ron Perlman 5+ hours to have their prosthetics and Make up fully applied for their respective roles. 

I hope these films will be a nice little change of pace in an otherwise Marvel/DC dominated genre. 

Jurassic World - Trailer Premiere Thursday November 27 (HD)

Irrfan Khan as Simon Marsani in Jurassic World

Just five more days until the trailer premiere and I for one can't be more excited! Here's a teaser for that trailer.
Also released were several photos and stills from the movie and you can find those Here.

First official poster for Get Hard (2015)

The Kevin Hart and Will Ferrell duo comedy now has an official poster. 

Plot summary: When millionaire James King is nailed for fraud and bound for San Quentin he turns to Darnell Lewis to prep him to go behind bars. 

What to watch: Dumb and Dumber To (2014)

When this was first announced I immediately knew two things, one is that it wouldn't be as good as the first and two was that I'd watch it anyway. Why? Well because it's the sequel to one of the biggest cult hit comedies and the Farrelly brothers have an undeniably impressive track record in comedy. I know I'm in the minority but I very much enjoyed The Three Stooges and Hall Pass was decent so I thought maybe they could make a Dumb And Dumber film that translates well in the 2010's...I don't think it did. 

Obviously you can't take a movie like this too seriously but at least the slapstick in The Three Stooges changed its demographic to cater more towards a younger audience. This movie was actually raunchier than the first so that was out of the question, so at times I chuckled but sometimes I grimaced from the absurdity of some of these jokes and it was a little hard to watch. The story was just a rehash of the first film so that made it feel lazily written. The worst thing about this movie was the daughter character though, she was dumb to the point where it was annoying and not charming like Harry and Lloyd. Again I can nitpick this film but I shouldn't because it wasn't made to be taken seriously, So we'll just leave it at that. 

If you sift through all the terrible aspects of this movie is it worth it? Maybe, maybe not. If you love the first and don't care about the films integrity then go ahead and watch this, although I wouldn't pay full price. This is bad so if you must I recommend a rental or maybe even just waiting until it's on television. 

Rating: Rental

First look at Patrick Stewart as a Neo-Nazi in The Green Room

Jeremy Saulnier director of Blue Ruin is currently working with Patrick Stewart and others on his next film The Green Room. 

If you haven't already I highly recommend checking out Blue Ruin which is available on Netflix. 

Brenton Thwaites lands role opposite Johnny Depp in upcoming Pirates film.

According to variety the young actor will have a "significant" role in the next Pirates installment and personally I'm stoked! This kid has been in everything lately and I feel like this is what will take him to that next level. Recently watched him in The Signal which was pretty good. 

First official poster for Pitch Perfect 2 released as well.

'Pitch Perfect 2' Trailer

Good thing all of America watches The Ellen Show because the hugely popular talk show had an exclusive trailer premier earlier today for the highly anticipated sequel to Pitch Perfect!

Sony drops Steve Jobs Biopic, Universal looking to pick it up.

While the reasons are still unknown Sony has decide to drop the Danny Boyle directed biopic. After seeing the casting rumors and actors that were once connected to the film dropping out of the film it's pretty safe to assume this pre production process hasn't been smooth sailing.

see the full story over at TheHollywoodreporter.com HERE.

Official poster for SciFi Thriller Predestination

The film is the second time Ethan Hawke has worked with directors Michael and Peter Spierig after Daybreakers. The film will center around a time traveling agent who hunts down the one criminal who's evaded him thought the years. 

Disney's Cinderella Official US Trailer

It seems disney is really taking a step back and trying to reintroduce their fairy tale style of films with Maleficent earlier this year and Into the Woods coming this christmas. Unlike maleficent though this seems to really be sticking to the source material and not trying to give a different perspective on an already wildly famous story. My girlfriend got me to watch Maleficent recently and I was pleasantly surprised with how much I actually enjoyed it. Hopefully this will do the same.

Netflix will finally be available for New Zealand and Australia

The most popular movie streaming app/website is expanding to include New Zealand and Australia.

"For a “low monthly price” Australian and NZ users will be able to subscribe to Netflix and stream from “a curated selection of popular movies and TV shows” in HD (or even 4K where available)."

see the full story on Ign.com HERE.

What to watch: The Babadook (2014)

Okay let me start off by saying that this isn't actually out yet. It has been shown at several festivals around the states but won't get a theater release until November 28th and even that will be limited. Here's hoping it get's shown close by to wherever you or I live. 

I think I should explain why I'm so critical of horror films and why most make me bored instead of scared or interested. When I was young I was very easily scared, I didn't watch scary movies and I had nightmares all the time. I was terrified of the dark, and it made me feel weak, like I knew I wasn't supposed too. One day I just gave that all up and convinced myself that all the things I feared like monsters and things like that didn't exist. After that it's always been hard for me to suspend disbelief when it comes to supernatural and horror elements so in turn I found films on these matters to be laughable and boring. All that being said I still am very fearful, I'm terrified of the deep ocean or the thought of being lost in space. I'm also very scared of mental illness, a terrifying and very real thing that claims many victims every day. This movie can be interpreted as a case of mental illness so it was scary to me for reasons that others might find absurd. Okay so enough about that, let's get into why this is one of my favorite movies in a long time. 

The Babadook is the story of a mother and son struggling to live a normal life after a traffic accident claims the life of the husband and father. Our story begins like any other and some might say it takes a while before it begins to pick up. Please if you watch this give it time to build up the story and don't dismiss it for boring in the first 20 to 30 minutes. Once things beging to unfold and we're introduced to the Babadook it becomes apparent that this story can be supernatural or a case of mental illness and that's why I was interested/scared. The fact that the movie didn't use jump scares or excessive gore to build tension and to scare, is what turned this from a good movie to a great one for me. The threat seemed real and I actually cared about the character's well being. I won't say too much more because I loved that for once I was scared and I finally felt that feeling that makes people want to see horror movies. 

The performances by our two leads were amazing. You can feel the helplessness of the mother through Essie Davis portrayal and Noah Wiseman really blew me away when I found out this was his first and only acting role. The Babadook is terrifying and reminded me of something out of the "Scary stories to tell in the dark" books I used to read in middle school. My favorite thing about this movie and probably the scariest thing was the sound, really the combination of sounds, voices and eerie music really had me on edge and it builds an atmosphere that's hard to forget and shake off. 

So obviously I loved this movie and everything about it. Will you? I really hope so because I want this to do really well so I can see more like this. I want to do a more extensive review with spoilers and everything but I'll leave that for when we get a dvd/bluray release. Until then I can't recommend this enough so please if it eventually comes out in your area see it! If it doesn't try online because it'll definitely be there. 

Rating: Very enthusiastic Full Price!!!

A couple things for Jurassic World have been released!

While it is obvious we're getting a trailer soon i've gathered here some of the Viral Marketing campaign sites that were started up to garner interest in the highly anticipated Jurassic World.

First we have a website for the company that is funding Jurassic World in the film seen here at Masrani Global...it's a very realistic and beautiful website introducing us to the company prior to seeing the movie.

We also get our first look at the character Dr.Wu, who is supposed to be the only character from any of the first three films. Seems he hasn't aged a day since 1993.

Along with that we were given an official website for Jurassic World this time for the actual park itself. It is displaying a countdown on it's front page that currently stands at 10 days 01 hours 26 mins and I'm pretty sure that's counting down to a trailer release although no confirmation about that has been given. You can see all that right here at www.jurassicworld.com

More news is surely on the way so i'll be keeping an on this so stay tuned.

Also don't forget to check out the internship program on the Masrani page it'll give you an I.D. badge it's pretty awesome.

What to watch: Hercules (2014)

There's no simpler way to say this but Dwayne Johnson is Hercules. 

It was the role he was born to play and he's definitely cemented himself as the Schwarzenegger of this generation. While the film was mediocre in story and acting, Johnson commands the screen with his presence and charisma. While I knew exactly where this film was headed I jumped in anyway solely on my admiration for Rocky, because in my opinion he's the hardest working entertainer in the business and I've never seen anyone be more passionate about a project than he was even offscreen. Whether it was touring the world promoting the movie or giving excited interviews and taking pictures with the fans this man deserves an award for how much effort he put into this project. 

Now let's talk about the movie. You know those films where all the interesting battles and set pieces are in the trailer or within the first ten minutes of the film? This is definitely one of those although that sounds like a negative I can't say I was completely disappointed with the rest of the story. While very cliche and "done before" this movie still managed to keep my attention. The film is about 90 minutes long but I felt that was an advantage because I don't know if I had been interested had this gone passed two hours. 

This movie had a budget of 100 million although given the sometimes poor special effects (mostly during the animal scenes) I would've never guessed. Sadly this movie is barely breaking even at 30 million domestic and 70 million worldwide I don't know how much longer before this turns a profit. Now I'm all for more roles for the rock but hopefully Hollywood realizes that big budgets don't always mean big profit. This film is decent at best and will probably eventually be somewhat forgotten but for now I'd say at the very least it's worth a rental or maybe catch while on television. 

Rating: Rental