New Star Trek Posters

Check out these awesome posters for Star Trek. All of which, if I’m not wrong, are international posters. Check out the 2nd one. Spanish. Love it!

Click to enlarge. Enjoy!

Finnish Wolverine Poster

Here's the Finnish poster for X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I don't know about you but I was kinda expecting Wolverine or Sabretooth or Gambit or someone to be holding a Nokia to their ears.

I am incredibly ignorant. Nokia is the only thing that comes to mind when Finland is mentioned. But really, what else is Finland renowned for?

[Opening This Week] Righteous Kills in Shinjuku are Fast & Furious Incidents

This week in theaters are 2 Hollywood films and 1 Hong Kong film. Let's jump straight into the previews for Fast & Furious, Righteous Kill and Shinjuku Incident.


Fast & Furious (2009)
Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster
Director: Justin Lin
USA release: 3 April 2009
Msia release: 2 April 2009
Genre: Action
Runtime: 107 mins
Rated in USA: PG-13 for for intense sequences of violence and action, some sexual content, language and drug references
Rated in Msia: N/A

Reunited in Los Angeles, Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) must work with agent Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker) to bring down a common enemy. Putting aside their feud, Dom and Brian do what they know best behind the wheels of fast and furious cars.

I never really liked the franchise, with an exception for 2 Fast 2 Furious. So I'm not excited about this one. I have a feeling its gonna be crappy. I might very well be wrong.




Righteous Kill (2008)
Starring: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino
Director: Jon Avnet
Writer: Russell Gewirtz
USA release: 12 September 2008
Msia release: 2 April 2009
USA gross to date: $40,081,410
Worldwide gross to date: $78,300,685
Genre: Crime, Mystery
Runtime: 101 mins
Rated in USA: R for violence, pervasive language, some sexuality and brief drug use
Rated in Msia: N/A
IMDb User Rating: 6.1/10
Rotten Tomatometer: 21%

Aging NYPD agents Turk (Robert De Niro) ans Rooster (Al Pacino) are on one of the biggest cases in their 30 year careers. The case they are working on involves a serial murderer whose victims are suspected criminals who slipped through justice. As the decorated agents get closer to tracking down the killer, they find out it very well be another cop.

De Niro and Al Pacino side by side in the same film, its gotta be at least decent.




Shinjuku Incident (2009)
Starring: Jackie Chan, Daniel Wu, Ken Watanabe
Director: Derek Yee
Country: Hong Kong
Language: Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese
HK & Msia release: 2 April 2009
Genre: Action, Drama
Runtime: 112 mins
Rated in Msia: 18PL

Steelhead (Jackie Chan), from China, enters Japan illegally to look for his girlfriend. He finds out she has married Eguchi (Ken Watanabe), a Yakuza leader. Steelhead then decides to stay in Japan and work for Eguchi as a hitman. As he gets deeper into the criminal underworld in Shinjuku, he finds it hard to dig himself out.

With pretty much an all-star Asian cast from Hong Kong, China and Japan, this film looks like a pretty solid, gritty film.

Watchmen Posters

As requested by one of DoctorPopcorn’s most faithful reader, Eka, here are some amazing Watchmen posters. I hope you enjoy. I made them extra big but you can always click to make them even bigger.

Which was your favorite? Let me know.

New Half-Blood Prince Character Posters

Before getting into today’s post, let me remind you that Earth Hour is happening tomorrow. In support of Earth Hour, DoctorPopcorn will be inaccessible from 830pm to 930pm Malaysian time (GMT +8) on March 28, 2009.

I urge all of Doctorpopcorn’s faithful readers to turn off your lights, don’t surf the internet and don’t watch television just for 60 minutes. Earth needs a break. This is our chance to let her have that break.

Now onto the awesome, awesome new Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince character posters. Check ‘em out here.

Harry

Hermione

Ron

Dumbledore

Draco

Snape  

Remember people, 830pm to 930pm March 28th, turn out your lights!

[Review] Knowing

[This review may contain spoilers]

2009 is turning out to be a good year for movies for me. In my opinion, one of the best movie experiences you can have is when you are misled by all the promotional hoo-haa like posters and trailers, then be completely surprised by what the movie is really all about. I just had this experience watching Alex Proyas’ latest film, Knowing.

The plot is simple enough. John Koestler (Nicolas Cage) is a Professor at MIT whose son is a student at an elementary school that buried a time capsule 50 years earlier. When John get a hold of a piece of paper with a bunch of numbers on it from the time capsule, he discovers the numbers are predictions of when, how many people were killed and where every major disaster has happened since 1959, except for three. He then is determined to make sense of these predictions, try to prevent and dig up the mystery and history behind these predictions, only to uncover unworldly circumstances.

During and immediately after watching this, my mind was blown. I really do regard watching the film as one of the best movie experiences I’ve had. And I’ll tell you why. I went into the movie expecting a typical disaster-type film ala The Day After Tomorrow. The film managed to keep me pretty much in the dark up until 10 minutes before the end. I was completely blown away at the fact that I was watching a Science-fiction film the entire time and I didn’t know it. Call me clue-less or whatever, but it truly gave me incredible viewing pleasure. I walked out of the cinema feeling invigorated in respect to my interest in the Sci-fi genre. I honestly think this was a kick-ass Sci-fi film. Best in years.

The film started out pretty slow, bordering on dull, giving the audience a chance to be introduced to the characters, their relationships as well as the basic plot to the story. For the first quarter or so of the film, it felt like it was stuck in 2nd gear but instantaneously jumped straight to 5th gear with the plane crash scene as seen in the trailer. Knowing has the perfect mix of reaching out to the audience through the personal and sentimental father-son relationship as well as the high octane disaster scenes. Being completely cliche, I felt like I was actually there when the plane crashed and the subway disaster happened. The effects were that good.

Other than having sensational effects, the story was so brilliantly put together it maintained a sense of horror and fright in a movie that was far from scary. Looking deeper into the themes of the movie, it talks about determinism and randomness, referring to the Universe as the former. Making discrete references to fate, Science versus religion, God and heaven; Knowing presents us with fascinating thoughts.

The ending is anything but predictable and typical. It took Proyas a lot of guts to end the film the way he did and I loved it the way it was. It is so rare to see an ending that is so determined and ambitious.

To find out what I’m talking about, just go see the film. I’m not saying you’ll like the film because this film is far from being a film for everyone. Fans of the disaster and Sci-fi genres, I urge you to see the film. Special effects junkies, you too. To sum up the film, I thought it was mind-blowingly good, blowing my mind in more ways than one. I really loved it. So far, almost on par with Watchmen for my movie of the year. But then again, we’re still in March.

Popcorn Meter – 8/10 Popcorns

Special mention – 10/10 for SFX

Also, head on over to Louis' blog for his take on the movie.

New Angels & Demons Posters

I just got back from the premiere of Knowing with Louis, courtesy of Cinema Online. With high expectations of the movie, I was very satisfied. It was an awesome movie. I really loved it. Expect a review soon.

Just a quick post tonight. Check out these brand new posters for the upcoming Tom Hanks blockbuster Angels & Demons.

When WALL-E Meets Watchmen: The Trailer

Ever wondered what a mash-up between WALL-E and Watchmen would look like? Nope, neither have I. But some guy wondered. And he made this brilliant mash-up trailer. Take a look. Gotta love the music.

New Astro Boy Poster

For all you Astro Boy fans out there. If any of you even read this blog.


Check back later for another post.

56 Second Preview of 'Up'

The animated movie of the year to watch out for is undoubtedly Pixar's Up. Set for release on May 29 in USA, Up unfortunately does not hit Malaysian screens until August 20. Real bummer. For the meantime, check out this first look of Up.

[Opening This Week] 12 Rounds of Knowing Unborn Confessions at Talentime

This week there are tons of films coming to our theaters. 6 to be exact. But I will only be previewing 5 of them in this week's 'Opening This Week'. This week I will be previewing a new local film called Talentime directed by the famous Yasmin Ahmad who brought us films like Sepet and Gubra. The other films that are coming out this Thursday are Knowing, Confessions of a Shopaholic, 12 Rounds, The Unborn and My Bloody Valentine, which I will not be previewing today.

Lets get straight into things then. Starting off with some local flava.

Talentime (2009)
Starring: Jaclyn Victor, Harith Iskandar, Pamela Chong, Adibah Noor
Directed: Yasmin Ahmad
Release: 26 March 2009
Country: Malaysia
Language: English, Malay, Cantonese, Mandarin, Tamil
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Runtime: 124 mins
Rated: U

A music teacher puts up an inter-school talentime show. When practice and rehearsals commence, emotions run high exposing human feelings like jealousy. This funny yet serious film is described by Yasmin Ahmad as "a story full of joy and pain, hope and despair, a host of beautifully-written songs, and rich, rich characters."

I am ashamed to say that I have never seen any of Yasmin Ahmad's work. Not even Sepet, Gubra or Mukhsin. I don't really know why but if there is anybody out there reading this who is willing to lend me the films, I'll be more than happy to watch them. In any case, this film should be watched. Support the local entertainment industry people!

Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009)
Starring: Isla Fisher, Joan Cusack, John Goodman
Director: P. J. Hogan
USA release: 13 February 2009
Msia release: 26 March 2009
USA gross to date: $42,186,358
Worldwide gross to date: $73,203,616
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Runtime: 105 mins
Rated in USA: PG for some mild language and thematic elements
Rated in Msia: U
IMDb User Rating: 5.8/10
Rotten Tomatometer: 23%

Based on the popular Chick-lit novel by the same name, Confessions of a Shopaholic is about Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) who is an obsessive shopper. When she lands a job at a economics magazine by accident, she finds herself closer to realizing her dream of writing for the fashion magazine, Alette.

Looks very much like your typical chick-flick. But looks can be deceiving. To get a better grip of what the film's about, check out Louis' review.

Knowing (2009)
Starring: Nicolas Cage
Director: Alex Proyas
USA release: 20 March 2009
Msia: 26 March 2009
USA gross to date: $8.8mil opening, est. $24mil opening weekend
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Sci-Fi
Runtime: 115 mins
Rated in USA: PG-13 for disaster sequences, disturbing images and brief strong language
Rated in Msia: U
IMDb User Rating: 7.2/10

After a time capsule is dug up and opened in front of an elementary school, a teacher finds some frightening predictions in the form of numbers. Some of the predictions have already come true but all doubt of the predictions is removed when horrible disasters start to happen.

Its been out for barely 3 days and Knowing is getting some positive reviews. From the trailer, the films looks awesome. I must say, I'm a big fan of disaster movies. I'm excited for this one.

12 Rounds (2009)
Starring: John Cena
Director: Renny Harlin
USA release: 27 March 2009
Msia release: 26 March 2009
Genre: Action
Runtime: 110 mins
Rated in USA: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action
Rated in Msia: 18SG
IMDb User Rating: 6.0/10

When a cop's girlfriend is kidnapped by an ex-convict who holds a grudge against him, he needs to complete 12 challenges before he gets her back.

This movie reminds me so incredibly much of Die Hard 2 which was my favorite of all the Die Hards and Speed which is my favorite Keanu Reeves movie of all-time. No surprise there seeing that its directed and produced by the guys who made Die Hard 2 and Speed.

The Unborn (2008)
Starring: Odette Yustman (Grannie Undies wearer), Gary Oldman
Director: David S. Goyer
USA release: 9 January 2009
Msia release: 26 March 2009
USA gross to date: $42,670,410
Worldwide gross to date: $62,213,489
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Runtime: 87 mins
Rated in USA: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and terror, disturbing images, thematic material and language including some sexual references
Rated in Msia: 18PL
IMDb User Rating: 4.6/10
Rotten Tomatometer: 13%

Casey Bell hated her mother for leaving her as a child. However, when inexplicable things start to happen, Casey begins to understand why she left. Plagued by merciless dreams and a tortured ghost that haunts her waking hours, she must turn to the only spiritual advisor, Sendak. With his help, Casey uncovers the source of a family curse dating back to Nazi Germany - a creature with the ability to inhabit anyone or anything, which is getting stronger with each possession. With the curse unleashed, her only chance at survival is to shut a doorway from beyond our world that has been pried open by someone who was never born. (Source: Cinema Online)

This actually looked like a decent movie early on. But it hasn't gotten great reviews so I don't really know. Take a look at the trailer for yourself.

New ‘Terminator Salvation’ Poster and Photos

Here are some new photos from McG’s summer blockbuster, Terminator Salvation. All the way at the bottom is the new poster for the movie. Enjoy!