Skip to main content

Battle of the Sexes and War for the Planet of the Apes (NEW)


As an outspoken fan of the directing duo Jonathan Davis and Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine & Ruby Sparks), when news broke that they'd be teaming with the Academy Award winning screenwriter, Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire & 127 Hours), Battle of the Sexes immediately sprung to the top section of my year's most anticipated releases. In her first performance since capturing the Best Actress Oscar, Emma Stone stars as famed tennis player Billie Jean King, who accepted the circus-show challenge of former champ, Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell), to square off in a man vs. woman tennis match. Battle of the Sexes unveiled its debut trailer yesterday and the September release could set an early bar for the awards season.





There are some positives and negatives hovering around the third venture into the Planet of the Apes reboot. Matt Reeves is back at the helm in a clearly escalating franchise, all things worth getting excited over. However, you can only pit man against beast so many times before you reach the saga's inevitable conclusion. The addition of the always fantastic Woody Harrelson provides another reason for optimism, as he stands as the latest opposition to the apes in what's sure to be an epic battle. Yet, the possibility of redundancy feels almost assured to set in with War for the Planet of the Apes. We'll find out soon enough, July 14th to be exact, as you can catch the final trailer for the sequel below.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Glass Castle

Destin Cretton is anything but a household name. Yet, the gifted filmmaker turned heads with his massively overlooked 2013 drama, Short Term 12 . The effort bridged together Cretton's singular story and vision with the remarkable acting talents of Brie Larson. Since then Larson has gone on to win an Academy Award ( Room ), but her career comes full circle in her latest collaboration with Destin Cretton in the adapted film The Glass Castle . Told non-chronologically through various flashbacks, The Glass Castle follows the unconventional childhood of gossip columnist and eventual Best-Selling author Jeannette Walls (Larson). Prior to her career as a writer, Walls grows up under the dysfunctional supervision of her alcoholic father (Woody Harrelson) and her amateur artist mother (Naomi Watts). But as Jeannette and her siblings begin to mature and fully comprehend their squatter-lifestyle and impoverished upbringing, they must work together to escape the clutches of their deadbeat par...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Best of the 2016 Philadelphia Film Festival

Sadly, the 25th annual Philadelphia Film Festival has come and gone. One of my favorite yearly events produced an amazing film lineup throughout its 11-day span of uninterrupted movie-watching, making 2016 the city's most impressive festival to date. I was only able to catch 17 films in total, a slightly lower figure than usual, but I'm thrilled to look back and recognize my "Best of the Fest" selections ( here's a look back at the 2015 festival ). Keep an eye out for these picks in the upcoming months, because many of them are guaranteed to garner acclaim during this year's Oscar run. Best Supporting Actress Honorable Mention:  Greta Gerwig ( Jackie ) and Janelle Monae ( Moonlight ) #3.  Naomie Harris ( Moonlight ) #2.  Haley Squires ( I, Daniel Blake ) And the winner is ... Michelle Williams - Manchester by the Sea Williams has always been a personal favorite of mine. And although her screen time is somewhat limited in this over two-hour drama, she most ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rapid Reviews: Despicable Me 3 and The House

If there's one current animated franchise I always look forward to, it's the Despicable Me films. Credited directors Kyle Balda, Pierre Coffin and Eric Guillon (co-director) bring to theaters the third installment of this series. Yet, with each subsequent journey into the hilarious and complicated life of former-super-villain Gru (voice of Steve Carell), the Despicable Me franchise seems to take a step backwards. After foiling an attempt at capturing the disgruntled former child star and 80s retro villain, Balthazar Bratt (voiced by South Park creator Trey Parker), Gru and Lucy (Kristen Wiig) are fired from the Anti-Villain League (AVL). And just as Gru breaks the unfortunate news to his trio of adopted daughters, he's visited by a man who reveals that Gru has a twin brother named Dru (also Steve Carell) who happens to possess a taste for villainy himself. The estranged siblings engage in some mischievous behavior behind Lucy's back and it leads on a path back to Bal...
Post a Comment
Read more