The Original Trailer for "The Exorcist" is Way Freaky!

Hello ghouls and ghoulettes!

I was randomly surfing online when I stumbled upon the original theatrical trailer for the movie The Exorcist. According to online info, this trailer was banned by several theaters for being too scary.

Movie Review: The Wolverine (2013)

Synopsis:

Logan (Hugh Jackman) is living a solitary life in the woods, riddled with guilt after the death of Jean Grey (Famke Janssen). Yukio (Rila Fukushima) shows up and informs him that Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi), a Japanese soldier he befriended during the bombing of Nagasaki, is dying and wants to see him to say goodbye. Logan travels to Japan to see his old friend, who is now incredibly wealthy. Yashida informs him that he has found a way to cure Logan's immortality and offers him a normal life -- one where he can grow old and die. After Yashida dies, Mariko's life is suddenly in danger. Logan steps in to protect her but finds that his power is weakening.

Main Cast:

Hugh Jackman - Logan
Tao Okamoto - Mariko
Rila Fukushima - Yukio
Svetlana Khodchenkova - Viper
Hal Yamanouchi - Yashida
Will Yun Lee - Harada

Trailer:

Movie Review: Django Unchained (2012 Western film by Quentin Tarantino)

Django Unchained is a 2012 Western film directed by Quentin Tarantino. It is about the adventures of a former slave and the man who freed him. Although there are some similarities, the movie is not a remake or a sequel of the 1966 film called Django.

Synopsis:

The German ex-dentist and now bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) frees Django (Jamie Foxx) from slave traders to help him identify his targets. He trains Django in bounty hunting and treats him as an equal, much to the chagrin of white Americans they encounter along the way. Schultz learns about Django's wife Broomhilda and decides to help him find her. Upon locating her in a plantation owned by Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), they set an elaborate plan in motion in order to save her.

Main Cast:
Jamie Foxx - Django
Christoph Waltz - Dr. King Schultz
Leonardo DiCaprio - Calvin Candie
Kerry Washington - Broomhilda von Shaft (aka Hildi)
Samuel L. Jackson - Stephen

Movie Review: The Elephant Man (1980 Drama Film Based on a True Story)

The Elephant Man is a 1980 movie by David Lynch. This was his second movie (the first being Eraserhead) and his first commercial one. The film is in black-and-white and tells the story of a real-life 19th century man named Joseph Merrick.

Image credit: impawards | Wikipedia

Synopsis:

The Victorian doctor Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins) hears about a severely deformed young man named John Merrick (John Hurt) working at a freak show. This man is called the Elephant Man since some people believe that his appearance is due to his pregnant mother being knocked over by an elephant. Treves pays the show's owner Bytes (Freddie Jones) so that he can examine and use Merrick at a medical presentation. The deformed man is so odd-looking that he has to wear a hood and those who see him flee in terror. After learning that Bytes is abusive towards Merrick, Treves hides Merrick in one of the hospital's isolated rooms. Things become more complicated when he finds out that Merrick is aware and quite intelligent.

Main Cast:
Anthony Hopkins - Dr. Frederick Treves
John Hurt - John Merrick
Anne Bancroft - Mrs. Kendal
John Gielgud - Carr Gomm
Freddie Jones - Bytes

Director: David Lynch

Trailer:

Video credit: David00Banner | Youtube

Movie Review: Sleeping Beauty (2011 Drama)

Sleeping Beauty was an entry in the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. It was the directorial debut of the novelist Julia Leigh, who also wrote the screenplay for the dramatic movie.

Synopsis:

Lucy is a beautiful but aloof college student who has several odd jobs. She works at a coffee shop, as well as a human test subject at a research center and as an office clerk. She goes to a bar to drink, pick up sex partners, and occasionally do drugs. Every now and then she visits her good (and seemingly only) friend Birdman. Lucy responds to an advertisement and begins working for a mysterious employer named Clara who gives her a new name, Sarah. First, she serves food in a fancy dinner while wearing white lingerie, looking virginal and fragile compared to the other girls who are taller and black-haired and who wear black lingerie and extreme make-up. She then gets a new assignment from Clara: being drugged into a deep sleep while rich old men do what they want with her naked body.

Main Cast
Emily Browning - Lucy
Rachael Blake - Clara
Ewen Leslie - Birdmann
Peter Carroll - Man 1

Director: Julia Leigh

Review of Ninety Seconds (Short Sci-Fi Thriller)

Ninety Seconds is a short sci-fi thriller set in the near future, where people can hire "techs" -- private detectives who have access to surveillance equipment similar to those used by intelligence agencies.

Check out my review of Ninety Seconds at the Cyberpunk World blog. The post contains the embedded video, so you can watch this short film in full.

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The Beaver (2011 Drama) Movie Review

The Beaver is a 2011 drama film about a depressed man who adopts a beaver hand puppet to communicate with people around him.

Synopsis: Walter Black (Mel Gibson) is suffering from a deep depression. His relationship with his family is strained and the toy company he inherited from his father is nearing bankruptcy. After his wife Meredith (Jodie Foster) asks him to move out, he finds a beaver puppet in the dumpster and puts it on then begins drinking heavily in a hotel room. At the end of his wits, he prepares to end it all. Right before he jumps off a high ledge, the puppet begins talking to him, causing him to fall back and saving his life. He begins talking to himself and others through the puppet, claiming that the puppet is a treatment program to create a psychological distance between Walter and the negative aspect of his personality. With this new personality, he finds renewed vigor, gets close to his family again, and sparks creativity within his company. The success gets him a lot of publicity and respect. Things go smoothly until the beaver begins taking over his life.

Movie Review: Green Guys (2011)

Green Guys is an indie crime drama/thriller released last year. It won the Silver Ace Award at the 2012 Las Vegas International Film Festival.

Synopsis:

Travis Howard, Andrew Thomas, Billy Adams, and Levi Charles are four young men running an investment scam (Ponzi scheme). They decide to victimize the biggest Mexican drug lord, Tan'el Garcia, who, unknown to them, is being monitored by the FBI. Their meeting with Garcia attracts the attention of FBI agent Mike Northcutt. Northcutt offers Billy immunity if he cooperates with the FBI and gives information about their scam. As problems begin to surface, the four main characters are slowly torn apart. Will they take their white collar crime into something more serious, like murder?

Main Cast:
Kris Lemche - Travis Howard
David J. Phillips - Andrew Thomas
Christopher Redman - Billy Adams
Darrel Davenport - Levi Charles
Nathan Marlow - Mike Northcutt
Roberto 'Sanz' Sanchez - Tan'el Garcia

Director: Cole Mueller

Trailer:

Review:

Green Guys is a relatively obscure film since it was released straight-to-DVD last year. Its IMDB rating boggles me -- when I came across a DVD copy of this film a few months ago, I remember looking it up at IMDB and seeing a 7.+ rating. Now, its rating is only 4.0.

Don't let the low rating discourage you, though. It's a decent film. There are no A-list Hollywood stars in it, no fancy stunts or CGI but the story is engaging and the actors are good.

Johnny English (2003) vs Johnny English Reborn (2011)

When Johnny English was released in the Philippines almost a decade ago, Rowan Atkinson was, for all intents and purposes, "Mr. Bean", the hilariously eccentric British guy who doesn't speak. Seeing Atkinson in a speaking role and a new persona was a refreshing thing.

I really enjoyed the first Johnny English movie. I liked it so much that I gave it a 10 star rating in IMDB. I actually found it funnier than the first Mr. Bean movie and for years I wondered why the moviemakers were not making a sequel.

When news of a sequel came out, I was excited, but after watching the sequel Johnny English Reborn, the excitement quickly turned to disappointment.

Movie Review: The Avengers (2012)

Synopsis:

Loki teams up with an alien race in order to rule Earth. Traveling through a portal created by the Tesseract, a powerful energy source, he is able to control the minds of Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) and physicist consultant Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård). S.H.I.E.L.D, headed by Nick Fury, forms a team of superheroes called The Avengers to stop Loki.

Main Cast:
Robert Downey Jr. - Tony Stark / Iron Man
Chris Evans - Steve Rogers / Captain America
Mark Ruffalo - Bruce Banner / The Hulk
Chris Hemsworth - Thor
Scarlett Johansson - Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow
Jeremy Renner - Clint Barton / Hawkeye
Tom Hiddleston - Loki
Samuel L. Jackson - Nick Fury


Trailer:

Review:

Finally got to see The Avengers last Saturday night. I'm a big Loki fan and the primary reason for me to see The Avengers was to see Loki again. The movie began showing here in the Philippines last April 25 but since I dislike big crowds and was expecting everyone and his mom to be lining up for this film, I went to the cinema more than a week after the movie's opening. I checked the film's schedule at the IMAX Theatre at SM City North EDSA before leaving the house and was aiming to see the film on either the 2:15pm or 5:10pm screening. Upon arrival, though, we learned that both screenings were already sold out, so we just waited for the 8:05pm screening.

The movie was fun and awesome! It was long (142 minutes) but you wouldn't notice the time because there were no dull scenes. There were lots of funny scenes and dialogues and the humiliating but highly hilarious confrontation between Loki and Hulk had the audience in stitches. There was a death scene but it was not prolonged and overly sentimental like in most films. And thank goodness Natalie Portman's character Jane wasn't here! I liked Pepper Potts and Tony Stark's love angle because it was believable since they had known each other for a long time; I dislike the idea of "pure and undying" love between characters that just met each other a few days ago.

Movie: Unthinkable (2010)

Synopsis:

Muslim convert and ex-military bomb expert Steven Arthur Younger sends the US government a tape showing him in three rooms, each with a nuclear bomb. The bombs are to go off in a few days and will kill six to ten million people. Helen Brody, an FBI agent, must find the bombs while H, a CIA "consultant" questions the suspect after the latter has been arrested. The terrorist does not crack even as H tortures him. H may have to do the unthinkable.


Main Cast:
Samuel L. Jackson - Henry Harold 'H' Humphries
Carrie-Anne Moss - Agent Helen Brody
Michael Sheen - Steven Arthur Younger

Trailer: