Hollywood favourite: 2013

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Mila Kunis Best Wallpaper

Top 10 Most Anticipated Movie of 2014

Maleficent -- The fairy-tale re-imaginings haven't been wildly successful yet, but there is reason to believe that first-time director, Robert Stromberg, can bring the same look and feel he brought as the visual effects supervisor on Pan's Labyrinth to this dark tale told from the perspective of Sleeping Beauty's evil nemesis. It doesn't hurt that Angelina Jolie will fill the title role, or that the cast is rounded out by Elle Fanning (Princess Aurora), Juno Temple (Thistletwit), Sharlto Copley (Stefan) and Peter Capaldi (The Thick of It) as King Kinloch.

Noah -- Here's all you need to know about Noah: It comes from Darren Aronofsky, who I believe is trying to get his redo on The Fountain with a visually sumptuous and dark, existential Biblical tale. Aronofsky has described his Noah as "a man who loves Earth and all of its animal inhabitants but has become disillusioned with the way humans have treated their planet," so I expect something very dark and politically charged. Russell Crowe is set to play the title character, with Emma Watson, Jennifer Connelly, and Anthony Hopkins also on board. These images from Aronofksy's Noah graphic novel should give us some hint as to what to expect.

Robopocalypse -- Assuming that Steven Spielberg actually follows through on his promise to direct Robopacalypse, the film -- scripted by Drew Goddard and based on a Daniel H. Wilson novel -- holds immense potential. The novel is already a critical favorite, described as an Andromeda Strain for a new century. Comparisons to early Michael Crichton are aplenty. Set the not-too-distant future, Robopocalypse is about robots that have made our lives a lot easier: they help clean our kitchens, drive our cars, and fight our wars -- until they are turned into efficient murderers by a sentient artificial intelligence buried miles below the surface of Alaska. What? That sounds batshit. But, robots, murder, and Spielberg! Rumors that Chris Hemsworth could board the project in the lead role make it all that more appealing.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 -- Wait, wait. Before you loosen your bowels, hear me out: My opinion of the first The Amazing Spider-Man was that, if it weren't for the fact that the story had already been told, it could've been a great film, a better version of Sam Raimi's first movie. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone were an amazing pair, and Marc Webb did a good job with the film, too. What the movie was missing was a good, original screenplay. Now that the rebooted franchise has gotten the requisite origins story out of the way, they have the freedom to tell a better, darker story. Spider-Man 2 was the best in the Raimi trilogy, and I expect this one to be the best in Garfield's, especially if Sony decides to take it to a that place and kill off Gwen in this installment.

The Hobbit Part 3 -- I'm not that excited to be putting this on the list, but by the time it rolls around, The Hobbit Part 3 will be the most anticipated movie of the year, if only because it will finally see the end of a trilogy that has no business being a trilogy. How are they going to turn a very modest little book into three movies? I don't know, but I'm really excited for it to end. It also has a couple of cast members going for it that the LOTR movies did not, namely Benedict Cumberbatch (Smaugh) and Martin Freeman (Bilbo Baggins). The bad news: There's a lot of LOTR characters in the movie that don't belong.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part I -- I feel similarly about Mockingjay Part I as I do about three Hobbit movies: It shouldn't exist. Mockingjay is the weakest of the Hunger Games novels and therefore, the least designed to be broken in two. There's not even a natural break for the movie. However, my hope is that the screenwriters find a way -- in expanding the novel into two movies -- to bring some new elements, and more life to a novel that clearly was written under a tight deadline. There are great characters in The Hunger Games and it's a splendid universe. Hopefully, the two movies can give the final chapter the justice it didn't receive in the books.

X-Men: Days of Future Past -- 2011 was meant to be the year of the Superhero, but it turned out that the first one out of the gate, X-Men: First Class, was the best of a bunch that included Captain America, Thor and Green Lantern. The young X-Men are due again to compete against Captain America in 2014, and I expect a similar result: Matthew Vaughn is back, and James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Jennifer Lawrence are more popular than ever. It helps, too, that it's based on one of the most famous X-Men stories, a very dark one that involves a world where mutants are hunted mercilessly by sentinels. Lots of X-Men may die. That's my kind of superhero movie.

King Dork -- I cannot guarantee that King Dork will arrive in 2014 (though, that is its current forecast), as development on the film has stopped and started on several occasions. A director has finally been hired -- Matt Piedmont (Casa de mi Padre) -- and D.V. DeVincentis (High Fidelity) wrote the screenplay. Last I heard, Thomas Mann (Project X), Keir Gilchrist (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) and Nick Offerman were attached to the film. It is a brilliant, funny, amazing coming-of-age novel with a mystery twist -- probably one of my favorite books of the last decade -- and it's really well-designed for a movie. With the right people behind it, it could be one hell of an amazing film, one I've been anticipating since Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's production company bought the rights back in 2006.

Jupiter Ascending -- Nobody knows a ton about The Wachowski Sibling's Jupiter Ascending, except that it's being described as completely off-the-sh*t bat-wall, that it stars Charming Potato and Mila Kunis, an offer was made to Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and it's expected to be the first entry in another Wachowski trilogy. This is the story, as broken down by Vulture, based on an anonymous source:

The story centers on an unlikely and reluctant heroine, a recent Russian immigrant -- played by actual Ukrainian native Mila Kunis -- who scrubs toilets for a living. Unbeknownst to her, however, she possesses the same perfect genetic makeup as the Queen of the Universe and is therefore a threat to her immortal rule. These other evolved beings are categorized into various groups, but all of them share at least some human DNA. The rest is animal DNA, which heightens their best qualities -- e.g., soldiers obtain the fearlessness of wolves, workers obtain the industriousness of bees, etc.Soon, an evolved bounty hunter -- likely played by Channing Tatum -- is sent out to dispatch the cleaning lady with the Great Pair of Nucleotides. However, true to Matrix fashion, they fall in love. From there, calamity ensues.

The Wachowskis, plus Mila Kunis, is enough to get me excited. The sci-fi Snow White story is just gravy.

The World's End -- I am super stoked about The World's End the final part in the Cornetto trilogy that includes Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Once again, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost will reunite with director Edgar Wright. The team behind it is a big enough sell, but the premise seals it:

The film starts 20 years after five childhood friends attempted an epic pub crawl. The friends reunite when one of them becomes hell-bent on trying the drinking marathon again. They are convinced to stage an encore by mate Gary King, a 40-year-old man trapped at the cigarette end of his teens, who drags his reluctant pals to their hometown and once again attempts to reach the fabled pub, The World's End. As they attempt to reconcile the past and present, they realize the real struggle is for the future, not just theirs but humankind's. Reaching The World's End is the least of their worries.

Friday, July 19, 2013

Top 10 Movie Villians of All Time

Ah, the bad guys--a film just isn’t as complete unless there is at least one person to root against. But an all-time best list of baddies isn’t as easy to come up. You have to weed out the crazies (Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction), the inhuman monsters (Michael Myers in Halloween), the misunderstood (Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner)--and yes, even the plethora of animated evilness--and truly enter the Heart of Darkness. Here’s our top 10 list of the purely evil:

10. The Joker (Heath Ledger), The Dark Knight OK, to be fair, Ledger’s totally creepy, absolutely mesmerizing performance as Batman’s nemesis The Joker, the ultimate anarchist, should probably rank higher on this list, but it’s still so fresh in our minds, it needs to settle a bit with time. Check back next year.
Most Villainous Line: “Do you wanna know why I use a knife? Guns are too quick. You can't savor all the...little..emotions. And..you see..in their last moments...people show you who they really are. So, in a way, I know your friends better than you ever did. Would you like to know which one of them were cowards?”

9. Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), Die Hard
Rickman's Hans is our choice for the most diabolical two-bit criminal. He’s really only in it for the money, all $600 million of it, but he does rather enjoy tormenting his captors--until he comes across big, bad John McClane. Guess Hans didn’t figure on “Mr. Cowboy.”
Most Villainous Line: “When they land we blow up the roof, they spend a month sifting through rubble, and by the time they work out what went wrong, we'll be sitting on a beach, earning 20 percent.”

8. Stansfield (Gary Oldman), The Professional Technically, Stansfield is tad more on the psychotic side (see above criteria), but it’s the way Oldman plays the corrupted cop that chills us--from sniffing whatever that stuff he carries around with him up his nose, to his obsession with Beethoven, to shooting a little boy. He’s actually pretty sane when it comes to his mayhem. Shiver.
Most Villainous Line: “It's always the same thing. It's when you start to become really afraid of death that you learn to appreciate life. Do you like life, sweetheart?”

7. Dr. Evil (Mike Myers), Austin Powers Series
Come on, he’s got “evil” in his name! You’ve got to include Dr. Evil, even if he isn’t nearly as terrifying as he’d like you to think he is. Being that he was has been partially frozen for 30 years, throw him a friggin’ bone, will ya?
Most Villainous Line: “Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to my underground Lair. I have gathered here before me the world's deadliest assassins, and yet, each of you has failed to kill Austin Powers. That makes me angry, and when Dr. Evil get angry, Mr. Bigglesworth gets upset, and when Mr. Bigglesworth gets upset people DIE!”

6. Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton), The Wizard of Oz
[Cue the Witch’s theme song] Remembering the first time you saw The Wizard of Oz, it’s that image of the Wicked Witch’s green pointy face you can’t get out of your head--cackling at her crystal ball while her minion of flying monkeys stood by, waiting for her command (the character’s redemption in the musical Wicked doesn’t count, by the way).
Most Villainous Line: “The last to go will see the first three go before her. And her little dog, too.”

5. Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), Harry Potter SeriesFiennes has played a few evil men in his acting career (his Nazi colonel in Schindler's List almost made the cut), but it’s his He Who Should Not Be Named, the Dark Lord--or as I like to call him, ole Snake Face--who really stands out as the best of the baddies.
Most Villainous Line: “Astounding what a few drops of your blood will do, eh, Harry?”

4. Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), No Country for Old Men Perhaps we thought we’d seen every kind of assassin there was--boy, were we wrong! Bardem’s Oscar-winning performance as the cold-blooded Anton, whose single-minded determination to follow through on every job to its very end, is bone-chilling. Made even more so when he occasionally gives his victim’s a 50-50 chance by the flip of a coin.
Most Villainous Line: “Call it.”

3. Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
In those horrifying visions of a psycho nurse coming at you with a large hypothermic needle, the name that comes to mind is Nurse Ratched. Fletcher’s portrayal isn’t so much maniacal as it is sadistic as she thoroughly gets off on keeping her mental patients right there next to her, crazy as ever.
Most Villainous Line: “You know Billy, what worries me is how your mother is going to take this.”

2. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), Silence of the Lambs
Nothing can top Hopkins’ Hannibal. OK, maybe one villain can top him (click to the next page), but as far as cannibalistic serial killers are concerned, Lecter takes the cake. Bet you can’t say Chianti and fava beans the same way.
Most Villainous Line: “I do wish we could chat longer, but... I'm having an old friend for dinner.”

1. Darth Vader (James Earl Jones), Star Wars Series
And our No. 1? Yes, it’s Lord Vader. He personifies all that is dark and evil in The Force. When you see how he gets to be the way he is, you have to empathize, just a little--and of course, his salvation at the end is sweet. But honestly, folks, it’s hard to forgive all the other mean stuff he did.
Most Villainous Line: “I find your lack of faith disturbing.”

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Top 10 Celebrity Puberity

#10 Miley Cyrus

As the daughter of a famous rock star, Miley Cyrus was probably thrust into the spotlight as a lanky, awkward little girl. As she grew up, we saw her famous genes evolve into a beautiful young corrupter of little girls.

#9 Kristin Stewart

Alot of kids who bumped into Kristin Stewart in the elementary school hallway turned and said "Sorry Bro". They were not trying to be mean, they were sincerely mistaken.

#8 Christina Aguilera

You could say that Christina Aguilera was a Geenie in a Bottle of Sorts. As a child she was hidden from the world, just an awkward tween bubbling with talent. Then, ALAKAZAM! she was a curvalicious pop sensation taking over the nation!

#7 Britney Spears

Britney Spears is sexy, buzz cut or no buzz. However, if you ran into her during elementary school you probably would not pick her out as the future superstar.

#6 Hilary Duff

Hilary Duff might not be considered ugly as a child, but she certainly was not hinting at the knockout she would become. Today Hilary is one of the hottest women on Earth, a far cry from her days as Lizzie McGuire.

#5 Jaleel White

Or as you probably know him, Urkel. Urkel played Urkel because he was the biggest dweeb on Earth-rail thin, huge glasses, no macho bravado. As he has grown up and lost his celebrity, he has worked hard to shed the nerdy image.

#4 Joshua Jackson

Jackson established himself as a hearth throb as the sensitive video camera-toting creep next door in American Beauty. Clearly he did not audition for the role until he was done with puberty.

#3 Adam Lambert

Adam Lambert has truly embraced his homosexuality, which means we seem him with heavy makeup on 90% of the time. Even with the makeup, we can tell Lambert has come a long way since his chunky days.

#2 Christina Ricci

Ok, we know this is from the Addams Family and she was meant to look scary, but she really was an ugly duckling. Now, she is a bona fide bombshell.

#1 Kate Hudson

Kate Hudson is the daughter of fellow knockout Goldie Hawn, and you would think she might get her Mom's good looks from a young age. It took some time to develop, and we're glad she did.