The Hangover

Celebrating his impending marriage to Tracy Garner, Doug Billings and his friends Phil Wenneck, Stuart "Stu" Price, and Tracy's brother Alan travel to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, staying at Caesars Palace.
The next morning, Phil, Stu and Alan awaken to find they have no memory of the previous night and Doug is nowhere to be found. Stu is missing a tooth, their hotel suite is in disarray, a tiger is in their bathroom, and a baby is in the closet. They find Doug's mattress impaled on a statue outside of their hotel and when they ask for their Mercedes, the valet delivers a police cruiser.

Following clues to their steps, the trio travel to a hospital where they discover they were drugged with rohypnol, causing their memory loss, and that they came to the hospital from a chapel. At the chapel they learn that Stu married a stripper, Jade, despite having a long-term relationship with his mean-spirited girlfriend. Outside the chapel, the trio are attacked by gangsters saying they are looking for someone. They flee and visit Jade, discovering that she is the mother of the baby, before being arrested by the police.
Having been told that the Mercedes has been impounded, the trio is released when they volunteer to be targets for a taser demonstration. While driving the Mercedes, they discover a naked man in the trunk who attacks them and flees. Alan confesses that he drugged their drinks to ensure they had a good night, thinking that they were ecstacy.
Returning to their villa, they find Mike Tyson, who orders the trio to return the tiger to his mansion immediately. Stu drugs the tiger with the remaining roofies and they drive towards Tyson's home in the Mercedes, but the tiger attacks them and damages the car's interior. After pushing the car the rest of the way to avoid the tiger, Tyson shows the trio footage of them stealing the tiger to help them locate Doug. While driving, their car is struck by another vehicle intentionally; the passengers are revealed to be the gangsters from the chapel and their boss, Leslie Chow – the naked man from their trunk – who accuses the trio of stealing $80,000 of his money and kidnapping him. Chow says he has their "friend", threatening to kill him if his money is not returned. Unaware of the location of Chow's $80,000, Alan, with help from Stu and Jade, uses his knowledge of card counting to win $82,400 playing Blackjack. They meet with Chow and exchange the money, only to find that "Doug" is the drug dealer who inadvertently sold Alan the roofies.
With the wedding occurring in hours, Phil tells Tracy they cannot find Doug. Following a conversation with "Black Doug", Stu realizes where Doug is. The trio travel back to their hotel where they find Doug on the roof, moved there on his mattress while he was asleep, as a practical joke by Stu, Phil and Alan. Before leaving, Stu makes arrangements to meet with Jade the following week to pursue a relationship. With less than four hours before the wedding and with no flights available, the foursome race home, with Doug revealing he has possession of Chow's original $80,000. Despite their late arrival, Doug and Tracy are married and Stu breaks up with his girlfriend. As the reception ends, Alan finds Stu's digital camera detailing the events they cannot remember and the four agree to look at the pictures together before deleting the evidence of their exploits.

Just Go With It

Danny Maccabee (Adam Sandler) is a successful plastic surgeon in Los Angeles who feigns unhappy marriages to get women, after having been heartbroken on his wedding day 20 years ago. The only woman aware of his schemes is his office manager and best friend Katherine Murphy (Jennifer Aniston), a divorced mother of two. At a party, Danny meets Palmer (Brooklyn Decker), a sixth grade math teacher, without his wedding ring on, and they have a connection together. The next morning, she ends up finding the ring, and she assumes he was hiding the fact he was married. She refuses to date him because her parents divorced due to adultery and doesn't want to be an adulteress herself.

Danny goes to Palmer's school to try to woo Palmer back. Instead of telling her the truth, he tells her that he is getting divorced from a woman named Devlin, named after Devlin Adams, whom Katherine had mentioned was an old college sorority nemesis. Danny informs her that they are getting divorced because she cheated on him with a man named "Dolph Lundgren" (not the actor). Palmer then insists on meeting Devlin, and Danny agrees. Danny asks Katherine to pose for him, and they go shopping on Rodeo Drive to buy her clothes, so she can look like a trophy wife.
At a hotel having drinks, Danny and Palmer are greeted by a made-over Katherine (posing as "Devlin"), who gives them her blessing. However, after hearing Katherine talking on the phone with her kids, Palmer assumes that her kids are Danny's as well, which Danny goes along with. Danny then privately meets with Katherine's kids, Maggie (Bailee Madison) and Michael (Griffin Gluck), to get them to play along. Initially, Katherine is furious, but she reluctantly agrees.

War Horse

Young Albert enlists to service in WWI after his beloved horse, Joey, is sold to the cavalry. Albert's hopeful journey takes him out of England and across Europe as the war rages on.

Director:

Steven Spielberg

Stars:

Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston, Peter Mullan, Eddie Marsan, Niels Arestrup

 

 

 

This is a beautifully built, classically framed movie, shot with the unshowy natural expressiveness of a John Ford Western by Spielberg's great cinematographer, Janusz Kaminski 

Pokémon: The First Movie

Pokémon: The First Movie, originally released as Pocket Monsters the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back is a 1998 Japanese animated film directed by Kunihiko Yuyama, the chief director of the Pokémon television series. It is the first theatrical release in the Pokémon franchise. The title can also be interpreted as Mewtwo's Counterattack.

The Pokémon Mewtwo was created in an island laboratory from the DNA of Mew, a rare Pokémon believed to be extinct, recovered from fossilized remains. Displeased with the concept of being nothing more than a mere lab experiment, Mewtwo destroys the laboratory.Shortly afterward, he meets Giovanni, the head of Team Rocket, who proposes a partnership with the Pokémon in exchange of helping it control its powers. Mewtwo is "trained" over the next few months, being pitted against challengers in Giovanni's gym and restraining Pokémon for Team Rocket to capture. Mewtwo eventually realizes that Giovanni is merely using him as a tool and destroys his headquarters.
Mewtwo reveals itself to Ash, his friends, and three other trainers who braved the storm battle as the "World's Greatest Pokémon Master," and that it had created the storm with its powers to test the trainers' wills. After being berated by Mewtwo for the relationships they share with their Pokémon, Ash and some of the other trainers challenge Mewtwo after witnessing Mewtwo's confession of having kidnapped Nurse Joy for his own personal purposes, the trainers pits their Pokémon against clones of Venusaur, Blastoise, and Charizard. The clones easily defeat the trainers' Pokémon. Mewtwo proceeds to steal everyone's Pokémon, including Ash's Pikachu, with a special set of Poké Balls; he also captures three trainers with these Poké Balls as well. Ash pursues his Pokémon as they are taken deep into a cloning facility on the island and rescues them while they are being cloned. The clones join with Mewtwo and the cloning machine explodes, releasing all the captured Pokémon. Mewtwo announces its intentions to overthrow humanity with its army of Pokémon and rule the world. Enraged, Ash lashes out at Mewtwo, who repels and blasts him away with its psychic powers. Ash is saved by Mew, the rare, playful Pokémon having appeared periodically before, who is engaged by Mewtwo. A brutal battle between the trainers' Pokémon and their clones erupts, although Pikachu refuses to fight with its own clone.

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve is the worst night of the year," declares Ashton Kutcher's character in one of the early scenes of this mishmash of a movie that takes a bunch of New York and romantic comedy cliches and strings them together like a set of Christmas lights."It's one big giant let-down."

This is probably the only time in life where I will find myself agreeing with Kutcher, whose New Year's Eve party-pooping mood is at odds with the film's opening narrative that praises New Year's Eve for its ability to unite people all over the world in celebrating the new year.
Alas for director Garry Marshall, Kutcher's sentiments are also a perfect summary for the entire film.

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Sacha Baron Cohen adopts another one of his famous altar-ego's in this movie. Borat Sagdiyev is a Kazakh reporter who travels to the "US and A" with film director and partner Azamat Bagatov to film a documentary on 'life in America'. Low and behold, the Movie whilst funny, has some rather obscene moments, for example Borat and his bordering-on-obese film director wrestling naked in a hotel room due to a disagreement over a 'baywatch' book.

Needless to say, the movie is interesting at best for most people, but for those who are childish and have a sense of humour (like myself) it is the funniest movie ever hahaha.

PEACE!

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Sacha Baron Cohen adopts another one of his famous altar-ego's in this movie. Borat Sagdiyev is a Kazakh reporter who travels to the "US and A" with film director and partner Azamat Bagatov to film a documentary on 'life in America'. Low and behold, the Movie whilst funny, has some rather obscene moments, for example Borat and his bordering-on-obese film director wrestling naked in a hotel room due to a disagreement over a 'baywatch' book.

Needless to say, the movie is interesting at best for most people, but for those who are childish and have a sense of humour (like myself) it is the funniest movie ever hahaha.

PEACE!

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

There's no doubt that this is a sequel to the last film, and it seems like the real goal of the film is to build a team that can last more than one movie. It's nice to see the way these characters reveal themselves and build connections, and Cruise seems more than happy to make room for Renner and Patton and Pegg. He's entertained by them, and they all make real contributions to the film. It's so easy when you've got a star as big as Cruise for that person to overwhelm the movie, but Bird never lets that happen. Bird's proven here that he can orchestrate mayhem with grace and style, and that he can absolutely adapt his voice to someone else's creation, and while that might not make this one of the very best films of the year, it does make it a significant one, because I get the feeling Bird's still just warming up.

Director:

Brad Bird

Writers:

Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec

Stars:

Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner and Paula Patton

Blog Layout

 

This is the layout of the blog at this point in time. The blog colour scheme is relatively neutral, utilising mainly, black and gray, which is offset by the white and red font colours. As you can see in the above screenshot, the title of the blog is found at the top of the page in large, bold, red font. To the right of the page, in a column type format, an image of a movie character, the 'followers' application, the archive for the blog posts and the rather limited author profile can be found. In the left and central sides of the page, the most recent blog posts are listed in chronological order.

The Three Musketeers 3D (2011)

The Three Musketeers 3D (2011)

 You know, I’ve never really understood why it’s called The Three Musketeers when it’s always about the fourth one — surely there’s an origin story (or three) we’re missing out on here – but to be perfectly honest, this features quite low on the list of things that baffle me about Paul W.S. Anderson’s adaptation. Far more pressing is the question of how Anderson, the man responsible for Resident Evil and Alien vs. Predator, is still permitted to stand behind cameras and yell things with any kind of authority. That should be a privilege! A privilege held exclusively by those who can stand behind cameras and yell things that do not, under any circumstances, lead to movies like The Three Musketeers 3D being made.

Release Date: 20/10/2011 Runtime: 110 minutes

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Director:  Paul W.S. Anderson Writer(s): 

Alex Litvak

Andrew Davies

Alexandre Dumas père

Cast: 

Matthew Macfadyen

Milla Jovovich

Luke Evans

Helen George

Marvel - The Avengers

The Avengers is an upcoming American superhero film produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures1, based on the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name. It is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which crosses over several Marvel superhero films including Iron Man (2008), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011) and Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). The film is written and directed by Joss Whedon and features an ensemble cast, which includes Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson.

Development of The Avengers began when Marvel Studios received a grant from Merrill Lynch in April 2005. After the success of the film Iron Man, Marvel announced that The Avengers would be released in July 2011. With the signing of Scarlett Johansson in March 2009, the film was pushed back for a 2012 release. Whedon was brought on board in April 2010 and rewrote the screenplay that was originally written by Zak Penn. Production began in April 2011 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, before moving to Cleveland, Ohio, in August and New York City in September.
The Avengers is scheduled for release on May 4, 2012 in the United States.

Muss-le Up.

(Above Image Courtesy of: http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ltb9wpCevu1qjphj8o1_500.jpg)

'Once Were Warriors' (1994) is a powerful film based on a gripping novel by Alan Duff that has become somewhat of a personal favourite for me. The film details the lives of a family of Maori (Indigenous New Zealander) and Samoan heritage, living in  that is constantly riddled by issues regarding: culture, financial wellbeing and most importantly, (Jake) the father's long-time drinking and violent behaviour.

The movie was such a success when first released, it outgrossed the original 'Jurassic Park' movie in New Zealand cinemas.

I admire the film's powerful and often brutal visual portrayal of the novel's storyline as well as film director Lee Tamahori's ability to build his characters with such depth.

Above: Screenshot of Jake 'The Muss' Heke. (Image courtesy of: http://www.getbig.com/boards/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=305032.0;attach=346609;image)

Above: Screenshot of Nig Heke and Beth Heke. (Image courtesy of: http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ltedg3qHOc1qbj6ujo1_500.jpg)

Above: Screenshot of Nig Heke (right) with Maori Bikies. (Image courtesy of: http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ludif3bvxY1r65uc6o1_500.jpg)








Peace!
Shaq.

Kick Off!

To kick things off, I have decided to use this first post to introduce the blog, its purpose and share something slightly related to that aforementioned purpose.

This blog is quite simply titled: The 'Movie' Blog. 

The 'Movie' Blog was created simply out of the necessity for four people to pass a certain subject at a certain educational institution. You should have guessed by now that those four people chose 'Movies' as the topic for this particular blog and as such every post from now shall contain some inherent link to the broad subject matter that is known as 'movies'. The four authors and moderators of this blog shall take turns to make regular posts so as to contribute to the level of success of The 'Movie' Blog. Haha, I'm just kidding, the only reason we wish to post regularly, is because it is a requirement of this assignment and we wish to milk every mark we possibly can out of this group task.

Now that I have all that out of the way, I have been spending an awful amount of the past 5 days watching movies thanks to a certain injury that was sustained as a result of mixing: a little too much alcohol, a slippery dance floor and flawed judgement. 
Anyways, one of the movies that I have not been able to stop watching, is 'The Football Factory'. 

The 2004 film set in England provides a view of the violent culture of 'football hooliganism' as it details the lives of the firm (army) of anglo-saxon males who use their allegiance to Chelsea F.C. (Football Club) and their hatred of rival football clubs as an excuse for getting high, drunk and belligerent on a saturday afternoon (the day on which most football games are played).


The movie is shot in a documentary style, from the voice of main character Tommy Johnson who is played by 'Danny Dyer' (pictured above) and proves to be extremely funny as you witness the story of the four main characters (Tommy, Bill Bright, Zeberdee and Bill Farrell) unfold.


I'd recommend this for anyone who liked 'Green Street Hooligans', 'Rise of the Footsoldier' or 'The Firm'.

Peace!
Shaq.