Hercules

Hercules is an American adventure film directed by Brett Ratner and starring Dwayne Johnson, Ian McShane, Reece Ritchie, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Joseph Fiennes, and John Hurt. It is based on the graphic novel Hercules: The Thracian Wars. Distributed jointly by Paramount Pictures and MGM, it was released on July 25, 2014. It is one of two Hollywood-studio Hercules films released in 2014, the other being Summit Entertainment's The Legend of Hercules.

Hercules (Dwayne Johnson) is the leader of a band of mercenaries comprising the spear-wielding prophet Amphiaraus (Ian McShane), the knife-throwing thief Autolycus (Rufus Sewell), the feral warrior Tydeus (Aksel Hennie), the Amazon archer Atalanta (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal) and his nephew storyteller Iolaus (Reece Ritchie). Hercules is said to be the demigod son of Zeus, who completed the legendary Twelve Labors, only to be betrayed by Hera, who drove him insane and caused him to murder his wife Megara (Irina Shayk) and their children during a visit to King Eurystheus (Joseph Fiennes). Hercules has since rejected Zeus and chosen to live as mortal, and is tormented by visions of Cerberus.

One day, Hercules and his men are approached by Ergenia (Rebecca Ferguson), on behalf of her father, Lord Cotys (John Hurt), who wants Hercules to train the armies of Thrace to defend the kingdom from bloodthirsty warlord Rheseus (Tobias Santelmann). Hercules accepts after he and his men are offered his weight in gold, and the band is welcomed to Thrace by King Cotys and General Sitacles (Peter Mullan), leader of the Thracian army. After training the army, Hercules and his men lead them into battle against local barbarians as a test of their strength. After the barbarians are defeated, Hercules and Sitacles confront Rheseus and his soldiers, believed to be Centaurs, but soon proven to be men on horseback. Rheseus is defeated and taken back to Thrace as a prisoner, where he is tortured and humiliated. Noticing that Ergenia has taken pity to him, Hercules confronts her and finds out Rheseus was merely retaliating against Lord Cotys' aggressive attempts to expand his kingdom, and, although Ergenia doesn't agree with his methods, she abides to them for the sake of her son, Arius, Lord Cotys' successor to the throne.

This film and the concept of the storyline had fantastic potential. Sadly the director and the writer and the producer all failed horribly. The battles were poorly designed and executed, the worst was the battle against Rhesus, he was allegedly waging this incredible campiagn thru Greece and then he faces Hercules and suddenly his army turns into nothing more than individuals charging into a wall of spears. The horse charge at the start of the battle is stopped without breaking the shield wall at all and all the calvary are suddenly and mysteriously gone including any dead horse. The shield wall is shown multiple times and there are almost no bodies in front of it but we are to believe that they are stunningly victorius and completely destroy the 'enemy'? The final battle against the true evil king, Lord Cotys, has Hercules and his companions knocking over 'bowls' that anyone can see are filled with burning charcoal. These then catch the stairs completely on fire pouring down the staircase like molten lava. Finally Hercules topples a statue of Hera to break the armies attack and the head roles down the stair a hits Lord Cotys knocking him of the side of a cliff. sadly in all previous scenes there was no cliff anywhere near him. The next wide pan shows a giant hole in the courtyard that was not their before and is not explained at all and is apparently the spot Lord Cotys fell into.

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Magic in the Moonlight

Magic in the Moonlight is a 2014 American comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen. The film stars Emma Stone, Colin Firth, Hamish Linklater, Marcia Gay Harden, Jacki Weaver, Erica Leerhsen, Eileen Atkins, and Simon McBurney. Set in the 1920s on the French Riviera, the film was released on July 25, 2014 by Sony Pictures Classics. Magic in the Moonlight received a generally mixed reception. Critics were complimentary of Colin Firth's acting, but also felt the script was too rushed.

In 1928, an illusionist, Wei Ling Soo, performs in front of a crowd in Berlin. His pièce de résistance is making an elephant disappear. As he walks off stage we see that he is actually a British man, Stanley (Colin Firth). He berates his employees and is generally curmudgeonly towards his well-wishers. In his dressing room, he is greeted by an old friend and fellow illusionist, Howard Burkan (Simon McBurney). Howard enlists Stanley to go with him to the Côte d'Azur (French Riviera) where a rich American family, the Catledges, has been taken by a clairvoyant and mystic, Sophie (Emma Stone). In fact, the son of the family, Brice (Hamish Linklater), is smitten with Sophie, and his sister Caroline (Erica Leerhsen) and brother-in-law George (Jeremy Shamos) are concerned Brice is considering proposing marriage. Howard says that he has been unable to uncover the secrets behind her tricks and he admits that the more he watched her the more he believed she really has supernatural powers. So he would like Stanley, who has debunked charlatan mystics in the past, to help him prove she is a fraud.

Greetings again from the darkness. One of the most prolific writer/directors since the end of the studio era, Woody Allen cranks a new script and film out every year. A few are great, while the others fall somewhere between highly entertaining and watchable. None would be considered a true dud. His latest is a bit fluffy and falls comfortably into the watchable category ... with nary a glint of anything more ambitious.

The line of actors maneuvering for a role in Mr. Allen's films stretches around the proverbial casting couch. The lineup here is again quite impressive: Colin Firth, Emma Stone, Marcia Gay Harden, Jacki Weaver, Eileen Atkins, Simon McBurney, Catherine McCormack and Hamish Linklater. They each perform admirably, but aren't enough to elevate the somewhat lackluster script. Ms. Stone and Ms. Atkins are especially enjoyable here.

Woody mixes his love of magic with his cynical religious views, and blends those with his too frequent older man/younger woman sub-plot. The scenes with Firth and Stone are fine, but their on screen banter would have been better served as Uncle and Niece than awkward rom-com aspirants. Despite this flaw, there remain some excellent lines and moments, plus a hand full of staggering shots from the south of France locale. The wardrobe and cars are stunning ... the film is set in 1928.

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Lucy

Lucy is a 2014 French action film directed, written and edited by Luc Besson, and produced by Besson and Europacorp. It was released on 25 July 2014. The film was shot in Taipei, Paris and Cité du Cinéma. It stars Scarlett Johansson as the title character, along with Morgan Freeman playing Professor Norman.

Lucy is a 25-year-old American woman living and studying in Taipei, Taiwan. She is tricked into working as a drug mule by her new boyfriend, whose employer is a Korean mob boss and drug lord named Mr. Jang. Lucy delivers a briefcase to Mr. Jang containing a highly valuable synthetic drug called CPH4. Lucy is captured and a bag of the drug is forcibly sewn into Lucy's abdomen and that of others who will also transport the drug for sales in Europe. While Lucy is in captivity, one of her captors kicks her in the stomach, breaking the bag, releasing a large quantity of the drug into her system. As a result, she begins acquiring increasingly powerful mental talents and enhanced physical capabilities, such as absorbing information instantaneously, telekinesis, mental time travel, and can choose not to feel pain or other discomforts, in addition to other abilities. She kills off her present captors and escapes.

Lucy travels to a nearby hospital to get the bag of drugs removed from her abdomen. The bag is successfully removed, and Lucy realises that she requires the bags inside the other three drug mules to continue expanding her neural capacity and that the process of rapid cell growth the drug is stimulating will eventually kill her. Returning to Mr. Jang's hotel, Lucy assaults him and telepathically extracts the locations of all three drug mules from his mind.

At her shared apartment, Lucy begins researching her condition and contacts a well-known scientist and doctor, Professor Samuel Norman, whose research may be the key to saving her. After Lucy speaks with the professor and provides proof of her developed abilities, she flies to Paris and contacts a local police captain, Pierre Del Rio, to help her find the remaining three packets of the drug. Her powers continue to grow, leaving her able to mentally disable an entire police force and the men who made her a drug mule. Lucy recovers the drug and must hurry to meet Professor Norman, with whom she agrees to share everything she now knows, after he points out that the main point of life is to pass on knowledge. Jang and the mob also want the drug and a gunfight ensues with the French police.

This film is complete - beautiful cinematography, great story, a gripping score and tension that crawls into you and won't let go. Fans of the Fifth Element will recognize the increasingly frenetic pacing and staccato use of scene cuts, as well as the gorgeous, flowing camera work and the use of visual allegory from Besson's previous projects. Old film tricks used in new ways serve to build the tension from the first frame to "Lucy"'s final, shuddering climax. Elements of Leon The Professional and La Femme Nikita are present but feel more refined here, more sophisticated and deliver even more "oomph" to action fans.

However, beyond what we know of Besson's previous work lies the truth of why "Lucy" is such a fantastic film and a true, "must-see". If you love sci-fi - It's an excellent rendition of a classic theme. If you love Scar Jo, she's never been better and again demonstrates the range of a true talent. But, if you love films - be you a student, an enthusiast or "in the biz" - you must see "Lucy". It is on of those rarest of works that will remind you of why you started loving movies in the first place.

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I Origins

I Origins is a 2014 American science fiction film written, directed, and produced by Mike Cahill. The independent production premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2014. It is distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures, and opened in limited release on July 18, 2014.

A graduate student, Ian Gray (Michael Pitt), meets an interesting woman, Sofi (Astrid Berges-Frisbey), at a Halloween party, and he photographs her eyes. They start to have sex in a washroom, but she abruptly leaves without providing her contact information.

Gray is researching the evolution of human eyes with Karen (Brit Marling) and Kenny (Steven Yeun). Gray's goal is to prove that eyes have evolved in order to discredit creationists.

One day, Gray sees a number of elevens all at one time. He gets on bus number 11, but gets off when a seeing-eye dog starts barking at him. He sees a billboard a cosmetics ad featuring Sofi's unmistakable eyes, and uses it to track her down. Despite their different belief systems, Gray and Sofi's relationship develops and they eventually plan to marry. On their would-be wedding day, however, Karen calls Gray, informing him of a species of worm that is blind, but had the DNA required to develop an eye. This is the breakthrough they have been searching for.

Sofi is upset, and suggests that humans are like the blind worm. Just because they cannot see light, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Just because humans can't see God doesn't mean that God doesn't exist. Gray argues with her and grows impatient with her views, telling her that she is a "child." Later that day, though a freak accident in an elevator, Sofi dies in his arms. Gray is distraught, and Karen takes over much of his research. One evening, she brings him a meal at his home. He breaks down, and she comforts him - leading to a more intimate situation.

The biggest flaw in I Origins is its predictability. Perhaps this is due to the trailer leaving very little of the plot development to the imagination. Yet, having said that, I still found myself moved even to tears by several scenes in this emotional roller-coaster of a film. I'm admittedly a junkie for supernatural themed films (Ghost is a favorite of mine) and this film's attack on a sort of mentality that holds that science must equal atheism in its strictest form won me over after some hesitation. I think the numerous bad reviews of this film by mainstream critics come from those who hold some version of this aforementioned mentality, and took offense at the premise of this film, but for anyone either truly open minded, or else already convinced that there is more to life than meets the eye (pun intended), this film is a true joy, albeit a joy born of great suffering.

A scientist who spends his life trying to disprove God and intelligent design (I'm all for science and learning, and am NOT religious at all, but what satisfaction anyone could achieve by trying to deny the existence of omnipresent Love and Knowledge is beyond me - but I digress) meets a woman who seems to exist within a deeper realm of direct being - i.e. she seems to live with a connection to Love and Knowledge that the scientist only strives for. They fall in love. Things happen and their relationship is no more. Life goes on and strange things happen. Many people took great umbrage with the remaining development of the film, considering the concept too wild or far fetched, when in actuality it is a natural concept that (at least in a symbolic sense) would be more surprising if it were not true than if it was. For feel good entertainment value I give this film ten stars. Is it actually a perfect film? No. No film is perfect. But those who will not love this film would not love it under any revisions because it is not a film for such people. If you love the idea of life eternal and ideas about the real, tangible existence of a soul, this is a film you should not miss.

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A Most Wanted Man

A Most Wanted Man is a 2014 British espionage-thriller film based on the novel of the same name by John le Carré, directed by Anton Corbijn and written by Andrew Bovell. The film stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe, Robin Wright, Daniel Brühl and Nina Hoss. It was released at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and competed in the main competition section of the 36th Moscow International Film Festival.

When a half-Chechen, half-Russian, brutally tortured immigrant turns up in Hamburg's Islamic community, laying claim to his father's ill gotten fortune, both German and US security agencies take a close interest: as the clock ticks down and the stakes rise, the race is on to establish this most wanted man's true identity - oppressed victim or destruction-bent extremist? Based on John le Carré's novel, A MOST WANTED MAN is a contemporary, cerebral tale of intrigue, love, rivalry, and politics that prickles with tension right through to its last heart-stopping scene.

Greetings again from the darkness. If you aren't an avid reader of John le Carre' spy novels, perhaps you've seen movie versions such as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Constant Gardener, or The Russia House. If not, how about director Anton Corbijn's previous film The Amercian (2010 with George Clooney)? The more you've read and seen these, the more you are prepared for this latest.

Mr. le Carre' actually was part of MI5 and MI6 (British Intelligence) and uses his experience even so many years ago to provide the type of post 9/11 anti-terrorism spy thriller that doesn't focus on explosions and gun play, but rather the subtleties of communication when very smart people go up against other very smart people who may or may not share their goals. Secrets and misdirection abound. Traps are set, and sly maneuverings are pre-planned.

As if all that weren't enough, how about another mesmerizing performance from the late Philip Seymour Hoffman? He is a master at the top of his craft here. Sure, maybe the German accent is a bit distracting at first, but it was necessary because movie audiences needed a constant reminder that he is not playing an American! I cannot explain how this chain-smoking, mumbling schlub can so dominate a scene and disappear into a character, but Hoffman most certainly does both.

In addition to a very cool script, excellent support work comes from Grigor Dobrygin as Issa, the central figure in Hoffman's character's work, Willem Dafoe as a somewhat shady banker, as well as Robin Wright, Daniel Bruhl, Nina Hoss, Homayoun Ershadi, and Rainer Bock. The only miscast is Rachel McAdams as rich girl turned terrorist sympathizer.

Parts of the score were excellent - the droning, ominous piano notes. The composer was Herbert Gronemeyer, a German rock star (you'd never know from the score). This is a delicious, challenging look at international spies and how one never knows where they fall on the food chain ...

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Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a 2014 American superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character Captain America, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger and the ninth installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film is directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, with a screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. It stars Chris Evans as Captain America, with Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, Emily VanCamp, Hayley Atwell, Robert Redford, and Samuel L. Jackson. In the film, Captain America, the Black Widow, and Sam Wilson join forces to uncover a conspiracy within S.H.I.E.L.D. while facing a mysterious assassin known as the Winter Soldier.

Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who wrote Captain America: The First Avenger, stated before that film's release that they were working on a sequel, and in June 2012, Anthony and Joe Russo entered negotiations to direct. The following month, casting of the supporting roles began with the additions of Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan. Principal photography commenced in April 2013 in Los Angeles, California before moving to Washington, D.C. and Cleveland, Ohio.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier premiered in Los Angeles on March 13, 2014. It was released internationally on March 26, 2014 and in North America on April 4, 2014, in 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D. The film became a critical and financial success, having grossed over $713 million worldwide. A sequel set to be directed by the Russo brothers is scheduled for release on May 6, 2016.

With the success of the recent marvel films, this one again is sure to do well at the box office. whats more pleasantly surprising is that this film is probably the best they've made so far, even rivalling the avengers. I'm sure that with these positive reviews this movie will make upwards of 600 million, beating Thor: the dark world, but i doubt that it will beat iron man 3. however with the success of this movie, i feel that many more people with be eagerly waiting for the third instalment so watch out Batman V superman!!

The acting as expected from Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans and Samuel L. Jackson was excellent. Robert Redford was impeccable in his role and he was worth the effort that Marvel put in to get him on board. The rest of the cast all play their roles extremely well and Marvel have done the right thing by bringing the Falcon in the movie, which was played well by Anthony Mackie.

The movie is a great political thriller and i must admit, even without the bonus of superheroes, the script/story is a great movie. The superheroes is what we pay and want to see but the amazing flow of the movie itself should leave many satisfied. The superheroes and villains were all great and i hope we continue seeing the Falcon in the future along with Black Widow. This movie is the most closely linked with The Avengers and also Avengers Age of Ultron, from the rest of the phase 2 films. This is a great movie and one that i highly recommend watching.

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The Amazing Spider-Man 2

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (released with the subtitle Rise of Electro in some markets) is a 2014 American superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man, directed by Marc Webb and released by Columbia Pictures. It serves as a sequel to the 2012 film The Amazing Spider-Man and was announced in 2011. The studio hired James Vanderbilt to write the screenplay and Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci to rewrite it. Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan, Campbell Scott, Embeth Davidtz, Colm Feore, Paul Giamatti, and Sally Field star.

Development of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 began after the success of The Amazing Spider-Man. DeHaan, Giamatti, Jones, and Cooper were cast between December 2012 and February 2013. Filming took place in New York from February to June 2013. The film was released in 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D on May 2, 2014 in the United States. The film received mixed reviews, and grossed $708 million worldwide, making it the lowest-earning entry in the franchise.

I had very high expectations on this sequel as The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) was an amazing film. This film exceeded my expectations. The action was brilliant, casting and special effects were amazing and there was a great use of comedy thrown in there too. Many people say that there was too many villains in the film but I don't see how 3 villains is too much! Speaking of villains, the villain choices were great, Electro's big screen debut was an amazing one as was the Rhino's, and the Green Goblin, I think, was not as good as the Willem Dafoe Goblin but a close second. A VERY close second. One downer was that they killed Gwen Stacey. I didn't like that as she is a strong female character in the Spider-Man universe and much much better than MJ Watson but, if they want to follow the comics, then I guess the Death of Gwen Stacey comic is a brilliant one to follow. Overall, I think The Amazing Spider-Man is truly amazing and I do look forward to The Amazing Spider-Man 3 in 2016 and The Amazing Spider-Man 4 in 2018!

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