Best New Movie Trailers - August 2013 HD

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

I saw the first Hunger Games and I thought it was OK. I really felt that the author sampled heavily from an 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie called the Running Man (see my review on this site).
This squeal starts off slow but builds to a really good movie towards the end.
The characters Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) become targets of the Capitol after their victory in the 74th Hunger Games sparks a rebellion in the Districts of Panem.   
For those of you who didn't read the books (I didn't)  don't worry about it you will be able to understand whats going on.
In this version they have brought in the great Phillip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) and the also fantastic Jeffrey Wright from this season's Boardwalk Empire. So in the beginning I am watching all of these "A" List actors on the screen an wondering why they took on these roles because not much was happening. Well without giving the ending away ( and for those who didn't read the books) there is a twist at the end. The end reminded me of The Matrix Reloaded. Look for a breakout performance from newcomer Jena Malone as Johanna. She steals every scene she is in.

Verdict:
Worth seeing but you have to see HG 1 first. I look forward to HG3.

The Best Man Holiday

15 years has past since the original Best Man movie and amazingly the entire cast is back and they look the same. How do you spell moisturizer.
In the movie the cast reunites after 15 years over the Christmas holidays, they discover just how easy it is for long-forgotten rivalries and romances to be ignited.
The movie is very good but predictable in a good way. If you are a fan of the original movie you want it to end a certain way.
You will laugh and cry but don't get it twisted that this is only a date movie. The screening I attended had groups of men who were bonding before and after the movie. It is also the perfect movie for the Holiday season but it's not for kids.

Verdict:
Excellent sequel. I hope I don't have to wait another 15 years for Best Man 3.

The Raid 2: Berandal - Red Band Trailer (2014) [HD]

12 Years A Slave

Chiwetel Ejiofor has for years been a great actor but he was always in somebody else’s movie. Chiwetel finally has a breakthrough role with 12 Years a Slave. The movie is based on a true story. Solomon Northup, (played by Chiwetel ) is a free black man from upstate New York, he is abducted and sold into slavery.

The movie is a graphic retelling and shows how black people suffered under the hands of their slavers. Director Steve McQueen, who so brilliantly cast  Michael Fassbender in his awesome movie about sex addiction titled Shame, brings him back as one of the plantation owners. Brad Pitt, who helped bring this story to the screen, plays a key role in the movie.

The question I asked myself after seeing this movie is why didn’t I learn about this story when I was taught American History in school? Also how many other stories is there like this that have been buried?

Verdict:
12 Years A Slave is "Hands Down" one of the Best Movie of the year. I hate to use the term "Game Changer" but this movie is one. It is nothing like Django, which incorporated comedy and theatrics. There is no need for that in this stunning, brutal movie experience. Yes there were slaves that rose up and fought against their Masters, which was what Django was based on, but slavery was no joke.

It will be an injustice if Chiwetel Ejiofor does not win the Best Actor Oscar award.

Last Vegas

It's hard to see Michael Douglas fall from the cool guy he was back in the day. He was the cool cop in Basic Instinct who Sharon Stone could not resist. He held his own against a young Glenn Close (from Damages) in Fatal Attraction, and let's not forget he was Gordon Gekko! He was fantastic and he won an Oscar for Wall Street. It seems like 100 years ago but now we see him in the scandal sheets saying that he got cancer from kissing his wife's (Carmen Zeta Jones who looks like Douglas sucked the youth out of her) private parts?!? Then we see him playing Liberace? Now he truely shows that he is a cuckold in this movie where he is about to marry a girl that could be his granddaughter.  The movie is about three sixty-something friends who take a break from their day-to-day lives to throw a bachelor party in Las Vegas for their last remaining single pal, Douglas.   
The movie is cute and contrived but not worth going to the theater to see.

Verdict:
Greta Garbo was a great actress that retired when she was 36 yrs old. Douglas, it's time to hang it up. Ditto for Robert Di Niro.

The Counselor

How can you have all of these great actors and the movie turns out to be a flop?
The Counselor is about a  lawyer, who is just about to get married, finds himself in over his head when he gets involved in drug trafficking. The lawyer is played by Michael Fassbender who has been great in X-Men & Shame but not so much here. Director Ridley Scott is also great but he ends up putting in too much dialogue between the chracters which left me exhausted and bored. It felt like a Quetin Tarantino movie without his flair for words and editing.
This movie is predictable and an enormous waste of time for all involved including the audience.

Verdict:
Humongous failure.  

Captain Phillips

No doubt that Tom Hanks is a great actor. In Captain Phillips he does a good job of portraying a Captain who gets kidnapped by pirates. The movie is the true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years. If you followed this story when it happened then you know how it ends. So like The Titanic you have to be entertained for over 2 hrs. knowing what happens to Captain Phillips and his crew. Director Paul Greengrass keeps the film moving so that there are no boring scenes. The real star of the movie is Barkhad Abdi who plays the lead pirate and had zero acting experience prior to this movie. He pretty much steals the show.

 Verdict: You can wait to see it on the small screen. One of Hanks best roles but not worthy of an Oscar.

Escape Plan

Yes both Arnold and Stallone are way past their prime but this movie is not as bad as I expected it to be.
The story is about when a structural-security authority, Stallone, finds himself set up and incarcerated in the world's most secret and secure prison, he has to use his skills to escape with help from the inside. That being Arnold Schwarzengger. This movie would have been a hit during the late 80's early 90's. It's not as bad as The Last Stand and Bullet to the Head. These were comeback movies for Arnold and Stallone that were major flops.
Both stars surround themselves with A-List actors: Jim Caviezel, Vincent D'Onofrio, &   Sam Neill.
All of these actors help shore up these AARP actors who are on their last leg.

Verdict:
A good B movie and there is a twist at the end. The twist is not that they wake up from a dream and find out that they are trying to escape a retirement home :-)