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Hollywood
The 5th Wave, Review: Earthnic cleansing
Aliens want the earth, without the baggage of humans. Obviously, 6.5 bn humans are not going to commit mass suicide, to oblige the extra-terrestrials, so the aliens decide to exterminate them. But, for reasons unclear, they are unable to do so in one attempts; several ‘waves’ are launched, some of them literal and tidal, to carry out operation decimation. Nothing new, except plot structure. And the not entirely credible premise that childre...
The 33, Review: Deep, Down, Dark, and Die-hard
A Chilean-Colombian co-production, The 33 (Los 33 in Spanish) has a Mexican director, Puerto Rican and the son of Guatemalan immigrants as two of the writers, American, British, Irish, French, Brazilian and Filipino members in the cast, and even more nationalities in the production. This is what we can call an international ensemble film, in the real sense of the world. It is an almost true reproduction of a mining disaster that trapped 33 miner...
SPOTLIGHT MEDIA PRODUCTIONS
AKIRA KUROSAWA RETROSPECTIVE, By AP
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The Hateful Eight, Review: Bounty-hunters v/s cowboy gangs
Some things are characteristic Tarantino: Crime, betrayal and revenge; several guns going off at regular intervals; chapter-wise narrative; a central black character, repeatedly referred to as ‘nigger’; flash-backs or intertwined narrative; a large ensemble cast, with good footage to each actor; direct or indirect reference to the Bible or Jesus Christ. The Hateful Eight has all these elements, and even more QT traits. And...
Daddy’s Home, Review: The Ex factor
A sensitive, sentimental true story goes through Hollywood’s spin doctors and comes out with a load of slap-stick comedy, a few sharply contrasting stereo-types, and some above the PG-13 certification content. If you can detach yourself from identifying with a well-intentioned hubby who goes crazy when faced with the prospect of losing his nuclear family, you can enjoy several laugh-out-loud moments. If you stay with the plot, however, these lau...
Our Brand is Crisis, Review: Dirty politricks
On one hand, Our Brand is Crisis dispels all delusions anybody might still have about elections being the ultimate manifestation of democracy…and how! On the other, it makes mud-slinging look exceedingly simple to indulge in, with pictures and quotes being the only real weapons you need. Of course, there are the obligatory debates, baring of hearts on live television, and the dirty tricks department of state machinery, that play their parts...
Point Break, Review: Death-defying spectacle and spectacular deaths
Point break: Noun. In surfing, a type of long-lasting wave, found off a coast with a headland or point. Example: A point break is formed when a swell moves around the land, almost at a right angle to the beach, and a break, which begins near the point, gradually progresses along the wave.
A young Johnny Utah (Luke Bracey) watches helplessly as his extreme sports partner Jeff (Max Thieriot) falls to his death from a mou...
SPOTLIGHT MEDIA PRODUCTIONS
112 Original Scores In 2015 Oscar® Race
By Adrienne Papp
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on December 18th that 112 scores from eligible feature-length motion pictures released in 2015 are in contention for nominations in the Original Score category for the 88th Academy Awards®.
The eligible scores along with their composers are listed below, in al...
Red Carpet Footage, Interviews & Photos From The Premiere at The Hammer Museum
In Theaters November 20, 2015
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9 November 2015
For Immediate release
OTTAWA, ON – The credits have rolled and the ballots are in! The audiences of the second annual Cellar Door Film Festival name Liza, the Fox-Fairy (Liza, a rókatündér) and The Prime of Life (La force de l‘âge) as the winners of the Audience Award for Best Feature Film and Best Short Film, respectively. Liza, the Fox-Fairy, directed by Károly Ujj Mészáros, is a dark fantasy/comedy f...
Goosebumps, Review: BlackJack Stine and the ‘loose’ characters
It’s enough to give you goosebumps: over 400 million Goosebumps books have been sold worldwide, in 32 languages, with author R.L. Stine recognised as one of the highest rated, bestselling, children’s authors in history. Goosebumps had its TV adaptation running from 1995 to 1998. Now, here comes the movie, with so much material that the makers were spoilt for choice. A clever technique is used to get past th...
Hotel Transylvania 2, Review: Vampa ire
When you want to turn horror into comedy, what better ploy than to make them animated/CGI characters? Add 3D to that, and the spell is cast. Only problem is, the funnier it gets, the less scary it remains, and vice versa. Like the passers-by in Hotel Transylvania 2, who are far from scared at the past-their-prime monster brigade’s pathetic attempts at instilling fear in them, the audience might find the proceedings short of being very scary or too...
Rock the Kasbah, Review: Afghan star, American war
In all probability, the plot of Rock the Kasbah was worked out backwards. Somebody saw an Afghan girl named Setara (meaning ‘star’) Hussainzada sing and dance on a loca...
The Last Witch Hunter, Review: Witch one will Vin?
Like the aliens in Men in Black, the witches here could pass off as persons next door. That is, until they are found out by an 800 year-old man in black, the last surviving witch-hunter. The Last Witch Hunter is not the last movie...
A Bridge of Spies, Review: Spyelberg on spy-swapping--one of theirs for two of ours
Old school film-making at its charming best is what Steven Spielberg delivers in this potential thriller, that is, instead, crafted as a compelling commentary--on the sordid business of spying, the acceptance of the hard truth that a foreign spy operating in your country is as loyal as your spies indulging in espionage abroad, and the sacred right of every accused in America to a fair trial, be it a US citizen...
Pan, Review: Flying Pantasy
Once you pick up a hundred year-old children’s story and decide to invent its unwritten prequel, 3D and CGI are obvious choices. Yes, you could go overboard on both counts, but so long as you have packed it with a generous dose of thrills, and given it break-neck pace, you can make a fantasy both exciting and interesting. Pan offers above par performances, not so common in fairy-tales, mounts a huge canvas and makes sweeping brush-strokes. There are issues ab...
Sicario, Review: One drug cartel is better than two
Breath-taking aerial shots of the US-Mexico border area and amazingly choreographed encounter scenes are the highlight of Sicario, a drug cartel crime thriller about an FBI-CIA joint operation that does on land what the US army and air-force have been doing in foreign countries for decades: seek, find and eliminate the enemy. Every player has questionable motives, except a couple of conscientious FBI operatives, and even they eventually fall...
KEITH COLLINS-DOUG BOLLINGER-SAMANTHA ARTESE-MICHAEL BILLY
STAR IN NEW THRILLER
"CLEAN CUT"
Award-Winning Team To Have World Premiere In Atlantic City, NJ
"The straightest people can be the most twisted"
The psychologically disturbing new Thriller feature film "Clean Cut" will have its highly antici...
The Intern, Review: Good turn
A 30-something Internet start-up founder finds a soul-mate in a 70-something company ‘intern’. So, what does she do? Get involved with him romantically? Banish the thought. She is looking for a CEO to run the company more efficiently, and the old man has been a marketing manager. So, what does she do? Promote him to CEO? No way. She finds that her house-husband is cheating on her. So, all hell breaks loose? Not a chance. The Intern carefully avoids al...
SPOTLIGHT MEDIA PRODUCTIONS
Jessica Bazan custom designs for Plus Size Women in high-fashion style!
Adrienne Papp of Youthful and Ageless wearing Jessica Bazan Divine Creation
A Born Natural Talent
By Adrienne Papp
It’s always exciting to find new talents in creative fields. Jessica Bazan is a shining example of an emerging new fashion designer in Los Angeles who is now on the verge of...
(Maze Runner II)-The Scorch Trials, Review: Trial and terror
Titles can mislead. Read in standalone mode, The Scorch Trials can easily be mistaken to be a film chronicling a series of court-room cases about burning issues. Of course, it is “no issue”, if ...
In the only Urdu/Hindi film he ever made, Indian cinema’s Bengali language grandmaster Satyajit Ray used chess as a metaphor, setting it against the backdrop of the crumbling Navabi rule over Avadh (Lucknow), and its imminent take-over by the British East India company. It was simply called Shatranj Ke Khilari (The Chess Players). Another chess film, a 30-minute short made in 1988, was called Queen Sacrifice. The present film manages with just a pawn sacrifice! Two feature-length recent ...
Black Mass, Review: Whitey’s black deeds and the FBI’s blind eye
Black Mass is a term used to indicate a reverse Christian mass, the inversion of the traditional Latin Mass celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church, one that celebrates the occult. People who know this would think that a film with such a name was another supernatural horror drama. It is nothing of the kind. So, the makers toyed with the idea of changing the title, but for reasons best known to them, stuck with the or...
SPOTLIGHT MEDIA PRODUCTIONS
How to Age Fantastically? By Adrienne Papp
By Adrienne Papp
Aging Fantastically© will host the Aging Fantastically Festival on Sunday, October 4th, 2015. The event will include lifestyle information on health, education, beauty aids and procedures, technology, exercise, Self-Employment Training, (SET), and financial planning. For men and women this festival will embrace the philosoph...
Instagram founder Kevin Systrom sold his company for a billion dollars, so what are these four coming-of-age ‘bro’s doing wasting their time? In between luring young music lovers to ‘socials’ and gigs, for a fee, they are doing drugs, while nursing hopes of hitting big time. Since they live on the other side of the Hollywood valley, in San Fernando, one of them, not surprisingly, wants to become an actor; another hopes to make it as a Disc Jockey (DJ), with at least one...
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Dear filmfestivals.com Visitor: can you please tell us which is your profession? Thanks
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41%
A festival organizer
19%
A journalist
5%
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7%
A film student
12%
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16%
Total votes: 3978
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