Pitch Perfect 2
Genre: Comedy, Music
Tempo Prediction: 4.5 stars
A collegiate a cappella group called the Barden Bellas enter into an international competition that no American team has ever won before.
Fun Fact: The Super Bowl spot for the film reportedly cost the distribution company a total $4.5 million. Given that the budget of the film is $20 million, the short ad used 20% of their entire production cost on 30 seconds of ad time.
Directed By: Elizabeth Banks
Cast: Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Hailee Steinfeld
Tomorrowland
Genre: Adventure, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Tempo Prediction: 4 stars
Bound by a shared destiny, a teen bursting with scientific curiosity and a former boy-genius inventor embark on a mission to unearth the secrets of a place somewhere in time and space that exists in their collective memory.
Fun Fact: Brad Bird was sought out as the first choice for the director’s job of Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015). Bird respectfully declined the offer in order to do Tomorrowland (2015). Bird stated when you get the rare chance to do an original film like Tomorrowland (2015), you take the opportunity. Bird went on to say, he is a huge Star Wars fan though and he looks forward (as a fan) to seeing the film like everyone else.
Directed By: Brad Bird
Cast: George Clooney, Britt Robertson, Hugh Laurie
Hot Pursuit
Genre: Action, Comedy
Tempo Prediction: 4 stars
An inept police officer must protect the widow of a drug dealer from criminals and dirty policemen.
Fun Fact: Prior to naming the film Hot Pursuit, the original name was Don’t Mess with Texas.
Directed By: Anne Fletcher
Cast: Sofía Vergara, Reese Witherspoon, Michael Mosley
Mad Max: Fury Road
Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller
Tempo Prediction: 4.5
In a post-apocalyptic world, in which people fight to the death, Max teams up with a mysterious woman, Furiousa, to try and survive.
Fun Fact: Instead of the reboot being a remake of the original “Mad Max”, revealing how Max Rockantasky became The Road Warrior, George Miller decided that the reboot will take place in the post-apocalyptic Australia, years after the new Max (Tom Hardy) lost his family. He did not wish to do a remake or retell the story that had already been told but rather wanted to update the universe and the wasteland and wanted new moviegoers to remember Max as a man with nothing to lose after losing his family.
Directed By: George Miller
Cast: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult
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Tempo Reviews:
by Aleece Smith
The Homesman
How does the place you live shape you? Set on the American Great Plains in the 1850s, The Homesman presents an uncommon view the adverse conditions of frontier life have on the people trying to scratch a living from it. Images of a stark, unforgiving landscape are the backdrop to circumstances that force enterprising pioneer woman Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank) to recruit the help of the drifter George Briggs (Tommy Lee Jones). Their trek across the plains reveals the many faces of human desperation and its consequences.
The Homesman gives a representation of the fears and dangers faced by settlers of the American West that fails to reach the audience on an emotional level. It was difficult to care about the hardships faced by the characters until about 75 minutes in, when Writer/Director Jones finally decided to focus in on what those hardships drive people to do.
The individual performances by Swank, Jones, John Lithgow, James Spader and Meryl Streep showed glimpses of each actor’s considerable talent, but the ensemble effect was nothing special. And this wasn’t a particularly pretty movie to watch either. That isn’t to say that this film doesn’t bring anything of value to the cinemascape. It is an excellent story about people who are not usually part of the pioneer family narrative and leads us to ask, “what are we to do with these misfits?”
Catch it on Blu-Ray!
Chicken with Plums
Marjane Satrapi’s 2011 movie Chicken with Plums (Poulet aux Prunes, adapted from her 2004 graphic novel) showcases the director’s appealing way of telling stories. A story told in French, Chicken with Plums looks back on the life of Nasser-Ali Khan (Mathieu Amalric), a renowned musician haunted by the memory of an ill-fated love. Although the story touches on emotionally weighty milestones in Khan’s life, the signature humour found in Satrapi’s graphic novels shines through, keeping the mood of the movie up.
Satrapi and co-director Vincent Paronnaud construct an adaptation that is a wonderfully light take on love and loss. The cinematography is reminiscent of comic book frames; even though this is a live action film, you get the sensation that action is happening without actually seeing it. Well-placed animation and a nonlinear plot add to the feeling of being in a familiar place – the whimsy of one’s memories.
Bottom line, there are a few good reasons to give this movie a try: 1) stunning visuals: whether taking in the beauty of Irâne (played by Golshifteh Farahani) or the scenery in frame, 2) you like a good family-centered drama, and 3) you like a good family-centered comedy.
