Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Lupita Nyong’o and Adam Driver are the main stars of this promising final chapter of the Star Wars….
I must admit that he start of this trailer had me thinking that maybe this was a non-official, fan-made edit because I didn’t expect the older clips. The latter half is great, of course; especially thanks to the final revelatory image at the end. My hand definitely went to my mouth in surprise.
What are your thoughts on this new trailer edit? Let me know in the comments.
Co-written and directed by J.J. Abrams, Other key cast includes Mark Hamill, Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleeson, Carrie Fisher, Dominic Monaghan and Keri Russell…
Triple Frontier, the action / adventure about five former Special Forces operatives who’s planned heist in South America becomes an epic battle for survival is a movie I found to be just okay.
Starring Oscar Isaac, Ben Affleck, Charlie Hunnam, Pedro Pascal and Garrett Hedlund, the performances were generally good. In terms of the themes featured, I like what director J.C. Chandor’s film had to say about the high price of greed. I’m also happy that Triple Frontier shed some light on the plight of US veterans. Particularly the general discontent in reference to how they really could be better taken care of.
As for the reasons why I didn’t find the finished product quite as thrilling as hoped, it firstly has something to do with how easily I was able to predict an outcome or two early on. Secondly, considering how each character’s backstory was presented so very briefly, it didn’t allow for me to properly connect with a fair amount of them, if any in a meaningful way. This too relates to the villain who barely had any screen time. I needed to see more evidence of why he was really deserving of the attack. Intellectually it’s clear, yet more visual evidence would certainly have been great.
Lastly, I know that Affleck’s character is in essence quite depressed and therefore not fully himself. However, I somehow still find it hard to completely believe that he behaved the way he did during the actual heist. Or that no one else stood up and stopped his ‘madness.’ To put it another way, I really thought that they’d have planned better generally and in regards to how to deal with anyone who tried to go beyond the agreed plan of action.
I certainly don’t regret giving just over two hours for this movie but I do wish it had me half as hooked and was as well written as Sicario (2015). Now that’s a tension filled thriller and a half.
At Eternity’s Gate (2018), Willem Dafoe, CBS Films
There’s plenty of beauty in director Julian Schnabel’s At Eternity’s Gate, a biography / drama about highly celebrated artist Vincent Van Gogh. The beauty lies first and foremost in the stunning cinematography, but also in the dialogue, editing and musical score.
As a big fan of colour and light, there’s certainly plenty of it to take in and enjoy in Schabel’s movie; whether it’s the scenes in nature that Willem Dafoe’s Van Gogh is mesmerised by, or the beautiful blue of the jacket on the artist’s back.
Thanks to Schabel’s great execution, I enjoyed At Eternity’s Gate in its entirety. Even the heartbreaking moments that highlighted the truth of just how challenging Van Gogh’s experience of life must have been. The moments of suffering he endured made me sad and simultaneously grateful that he, at the very least had one of the most loving brothers anyone could ever wish for.
So engaging and immersive is the viewing experience of At Eternity’s Gate that it felt as though I was often there with Van Gogh; whether running with him through the beautiful vistas, laying down to take in the beauty of the sky and surrounding nature or even during his most tormented periods. Periods when there was next to zero colour in his days.
Watch At Eternity’s Gate because you appreciate visual art. Watch it to learn some truths about Van Gogh and for the mesmerising footage of an artist at work. By the very end, you may even be inspired to take a trip to Amsterdam for the Van Gogh Museum; or perhaps pick up some paint and brushes.
Time for me to look up Schnabel’s other films.
At Eternity’s Gate also stars Rupert Friend, Oscar Isaac, Mads Mikkelsen, Mathieu Amalric, Niels Arestrup…
At Eternity’s Gate is a Julian Schnabel directed biography that takes us inside the world and mind of a person who, despite skepticism, ridicule and illness, created some of the world’s most beloved and stunning works of art.
If you hadn’t already guessed based on the above picture, the artist in question is of course, Vincent van Gogh who’s played by Willem Dafoe. Also starring Mads Mikkelsen, Oscar Isaac and Rupert Friend, At Eternity’s Gate features scenes based on Van Gogh’s letters, common agreement about events in his life that present as facts, hearsay, as well as purely invented moments.
Other key cast includes Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Niels Arestrup…
This trailer reminds me so much of how painful the lives of many great artists often are. ‘Maybe God made me a painter for people who aren’t born yet.’ Such heartbreaking words because of all that it could possibly mean.
Definitely looking forward to this one and I’m quite sure that Dafoe and Mikkelsen will do a wonderful job in their roles.
Operation Finale is the true story of the team of secret agents brought together to find Adolf Eichmann, the infamous Nazi architect of the Holocaust.
Set 15 years after World War II, Operation Finale is directed by Chris Weitz and stars Oscar Isaac, Ben Kingsley, Mélanie Laurent, Joe Alwyn…
I’m excited at the prospect of seeing Ben Kingsley in a movie that looks worthy of his talents. I also want the bad guy caught, of course.
As I watched this trailer, it occurred to me that so iconic is Christoph Waltz’s turn as Col. Hans Landa in Inglorious Basterds (2009), I will probably always think of him every time I see another actor in the Colonel uniform of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi army. I confess that I say this as someone who’s yet to watch Schindler’s list.
Nick Kroll, Lior Raz and Haley Lu Richardson also star.
Written and directed by Dan Fogelman, Life Itself is a movie about people from New York to Spain whose lives intersect over the course of different generations…
Annette Bening, Oscar Isaac, Antonio Banderas and Olivia Wilde star…
If you were thinking ‘wait a minutes. that synopsis sounds kind of familiar’, you’d be right, for director Fogelman is the creator of This Is Us, a hit TV show about the lives of the members of one family captured over the course of different generations.
I like This Is Us. It pretty much makes me cry at least once every episode. That’s because what’s captured very well in the writing is so true. One might also argue that I’m easily moved. I expect the same thing will likely happen with Life Itself – but of course, a different story with new characters.
Olivia Cooke, Samuel L. Jackson and Laia Costa also star.
Annihilation is the latest movie starring Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Oscar Isaac and Gina Rodriguez. Adapted from novelist Jeff VanderMeer’s best seller of the same name, Portman plays a biologist on a dangerous secret expedition where the laws of nature don’t apply…
There are a number reasons I want to watch this. 1.) Acting queen and all round smart woman, Natalie Portman. 2.) Alex Garland, writer and director of my favourite Alicia Vikander movie, Ex Machina (2015) – I’m still fantasising about a sequel that I know will very likely never happen.) 3.) This trailer is great! It made me so happy that I punctuated watching it with the words ‘Yeah baby!’ and the thought, ‘This is what I’ve been waiting for.’ I’m so ready. I just hope it isn’t too similar to Arrival (2016), a movie I’m still yet to watch.
Tessa Thompson, David Gyasi, Cosmo Jarvis and Sonoya Mizuno also star.
Directed and co-written by George Clooney, Suburbicon stars Matt Damon, Julianne Moore and Oscar Isaac in what looks like a 1950s set story about a home invasion that disturbs a quiet family town…
The humour plus the talents of Matt Damon and Julianne Moore are my key reasons for tuning in. There’s also the 1950s iconography including the spectacles on Damon’s characters face to look forward to.
Glenn Fleshler, Jack Conley, Noah Jupe and Gary Basaraba also star.
The Movie My Life 