Trailer Lockout (2012)

Guy Pearce stars in the futuristic 'Lockout,' in which he tries to rescue the president's daughter from inmates in a prison in space. The film has a lot of action and one-liners, but is pretty weightless.

 "Lockout" is about a troubled prison in space, starring Guy Pearce as an ex-secret agent all muscled up and throwing as many one-liners as punches. The mission is improbable, the film's logic loosey-goosey, and there are many explosive shortcuts — as in, if it doesn't make sense, just blow it up big time and maybe the audience won't notice. Ah, but they will.

Starring Guy Pearce and Maggie Grace and set in the near future, Lockout follows a falsely convicted ex-government agent (Pearce), whose one chance at obtaining freedom lies in the dangerous mission of rescuing the President's daughter (Grace) from rioting convicts at an outer space maximum-security prison. Lockout was directed by Stephen St. Leger and James Mather from their script co-written with Luc Besson, who is also a producer. Peter Stormare co-stars. -- (C) Open Road  

The Avengers

Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, Tom Hiddleston
Directed by Joss Whedon

Let me sprint right to the point: The Avengers has it all. And then some. Six superheroes for the price of one ticket: Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Widow and the Hulk. It's also the blockbuster I saw in my head when I imagined a movie that brought together the idols of the Marvel world in one shiny, stupendously exciting package. It's Transformers with a brain, a heart and a working sense of humor. Suck on that, Michael Bay.
All hail the warrior king of this dizzying, dazzling 3D action epic. That would be writer-director Joss Whedon, enjoying the afterglow of stellar reviews for deconstructing horror in The Cabin in the Woods. Here, in his second directing feature (after Serenity), Whedon stages the most exultantly good-humored, head-on, rousing series of traps and escapes since Spielberg was a pup. It's Citizen Kane for Citizen Geek.
The plot is merely functional. The world will end if Loki (Tom Hiddleston), the banished demigod, has his way. Loki hates his brother Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and lusts to destroy Earth with help from an alien army. As head of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) has one recourse: Bring in the Avengers, a group of paragons with a rep for not playing well with others.
That's the conflict, and the signal to unleash the FX. But Whedon is exploring richer ground. He sees the Avengers as the ultimate dysfunctional family. Their powers have estranged them from the normal world. As a result, they're lonely, cranky, emotional fuck-ups, which the actors have a ball playing. Robert Downey Jr. still seems blissfully right as Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man (there's a disarming tickle in his portrayal). He mocks the costume of Captain America (a canny Chris Evans) and calls the World War II hero an "old man." The captain wonders what's under that iron suit, sparking a priceless Downey deadpan: "Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."
There's no doubt that the two Iron Man hits overshadowed Thor, Captain America and two Hulk movies at the box office. But Downey doesn't hog the spotlight. Hemsworth's giant-size Thor gets big laughs dismissing his comrades in arms ("You're all so tiny"). And everyone gets to show their skill sets, including Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), the expert arch­er, and Natasha, a.k.a. the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), a killer in gymnastics and martial arts. Johansson has a terrific bit dispatching some Russian goons with her hands literally tied behind her back. And wait till you see the funny and touching stuff the sly Clark Gregg does as Agent Phil Coulson.
Mark Ruffalo is the newcomer to the team, replacing Edward Norton and Eric Bana as Bruce Banner, the nuclear physicist with anger issues that turn him into a hulking green rage machine. Ruffalo brings a scruffy warmth and humor to the role that's revelatory. His verbal sparring with Downey – two pros at the top of their games – is a pleasure to watch. And, wonder of wonders, the tech­ies finally get the scale of the Hulk right. The computerized unjolly green giant is a jumbo scene-stealer. And it's hard not to cheer when Hulk wipes up the floor with Loki.
Speaking of Loki, and it's hard not to, bring on a shower of praise for Hiddleston. A superhero movie is only as good as its villain, and Hiddleston is dynamite. The role of Loki demands intuition, wit and crazy daring, and Hiddleston brings it. The British actor (War Horse, The Deep Blue Sea) is a force to reckon with.
Loki claims early in the film that his heart "burns with glorious purpose." He's got nothing on Whedon, a filmmaker who knows that even the roaringest action sequences won't resonate without audience investment in the characters. Whedon is not afraid to slow down to let feelings sink in. Fanboy heresy, perhaps, but the key to the film's super­smart, supercool triumph. In the final third, when Whedon lets it rip and turns the battle intensity up to 11, all your senses will be blown. I have one word for The Avengers: Wowza!

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/the-avengers-20120430

Prometheus

Ridley Scott has only two science fiction films on his resume, but both were massively influential. With Alien in 1979, Scott gave us clean white walls and dark, densely patterned bio-structures, plus a showdown between the kill-or-be-killed ethos of big business and its literal evolutionary equivalent. For Blade Runner three years later, Scott created a crowded, cold, multicultural urban tomorrow that was like today but tripled. Just try to imagine a science fiction film from the last 30 years since that doesn't reference one or both of his looks and themes. Hence the excitement to see Scott refresh his own visions in his return to science fiction with Prometheus. Beneath the hype and promises, however, it's almost a letdown that the actual film is merely very good: a better-than-average 3D big-budget space tale. Seen as such, it's sure to bring in summer audiences eager for smarter-than-usual spectacle, even if it won't inspire the next 30 years of science fiction flicks.

Prometheus starts as academics Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) link a series of ancient paintings from disparate cultures that all share a common link: a giant pointing at the same constellation. And so, Weyland Industries, headed by patriarch/CEO Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce), packs Shaw, Holloway and a rag-tag mix of scientists and crew on the ship Prometheus and rockets them off an Earth-like moon orbiting one of the constellation's planet. By 2093, they land. And that's when they finally think to ask if the map was an invitation or a warning.

Soon, the crew are exploring the planet's vast and colossal wreckage, which looks like a Pottery Barn version of a Mayan death temple-rustic and spooky with lots of giant carved heads-that also holds a spaceship and petrified alien life forms. As Shaw and Holloway work, other crew members like corporate overseer Vickers (Charlize Theron), rough-and-tumble captain Janek (Idris Elba) and cold, calm helper-droid David (Michael Fassbender, whose sly work is the best thing here) pursue their own agendas.

Any similarities to Alien and Aliens are purely deliberate. You have, in fact, seen all of what's in John Spaihts and Damon Lindelof's script before, but at least you're in the hands of a master, not a studio gun-for-hire like in Fox's last trip to the Alien universe (which involved the depressing modifier vs. Predator). Prometheus is no lame cash-grab fanboy nonsense that plays like the daydreams of a violent 12-year-old, and it's nice to have Sir Ridley classing the neighborhood back up. Scott's more of a visual stylist than a visual storyteller—his Robin Hood failed because you can't shoot rollicking medieval adventure from a helicopter—and the addition of 3D to his tool chest is both welcome and nicely under-done. Still, cynics will argue that filming people in bluish-black outfits against blackish-blue backgrounds hardly screams for the effort and expense of 3D. The special effects are top-notch, even if we're left pondering why the ship Prometheus is more high-tech than Alien's Nostromo, built for 2122.

The interesting thematic questions are all about creation: do we owe our creators obeisance, or defiance? How do we move forward in our present when our past is built on the temples of fallen gods and men? In fact, when we slam into the final act of shouting, shooting and stomach-stretching monster effects, their familiarity is both comforting and confounding. I found myself wishing that the scary stuff had started earlier (so as to not feel rushed) or not at all (so as to not feel tacked-on). But these are idle and subjective complaints, and even if Prometheus just repeats the haunted-house-in-space visceral horrors of Alien, that still puts it ahead of the pack. We live in a dim and dark era when Michael Bay's idiot fantasies of moralistic robot trucks or the simple metaphors of Battle: Los Angeles are considered "science fiction." Let Prometheus be a reminds that a real science-fiction film this superbly-made, smart and satisfying throws off the light and heat of a fire stolen from heaven.

Distributor: 20th Century Fox

Cast: Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace, Guy Pearce, Patrick Wilson, Benedict Wong, Sean Harris, Idris Elba, Kate Dickie, Rafe Spall, Logan Marshall-Green, Emun Elliott

Director: Ridley Scott

Screenwriter: David Giler

Producers: Ridley Scott, Damon Lindelof, John Spaihts

Genre: Action/Science Fiction

Rating: R for sci-fi violence including some intense images, and brief language

Running time: 124 min.

Release date: June 8, 2012

source : http://www.boxofficemagazine.com/reviews/2012-06-prometheus

Warrior

Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton

Directed by Gavin O'Connor

Director Gavin O'Connor comes out swinging in this flawed but fiercely moving family drama about two feuding brothers competing in a martial-arts tournament. The script, co-written by O'Connor, isn't always steady on its feet, but the actors score knockouts. Tom Hardy, the fireball star of Bronson, brings animal force to Tommy Conlon, an Iraq War veteran returned home to Philadelphia after 14 years. He has no use for his troubled father, Paddy (an exceptionally fine Nick Nolte), who abused his late wife. But Tommy wants Daddy dearest, a wrestling coach, to prep him for an MMA competition that could earn him $5 million. Tommy's married older brother, Brendan (a very fine Joel Edgerton), also wants the prize, to save his home from foreclosure. The brutal MMA action is skillfully staged. ButWarrior aspires to myth. It's Cain and Abel battling it out in the face of a decidedly ungodly father before humanity goes down for the count. Strong stuff.