Luc Besson, master of the spy movie and the female assassin, created perhaps his best work in the genre with his 2019 action thriller Anna. Poor distribution and studio problems caused the film to get only a minor theatrical release, but it’s at last widely available, streaming to anyone free on iMDB TV. If you’re like most movie fans and missed it, you’re in for a surprise that rivals many similar action thrillers by one of the greatest writer-directors of our time, including his 1990 film Le Femme Nikita with Anne Parillaud (and its English remake, Point of No Return with Bridget Fonda), and the 1994 movie The Professional (Natalie Portman, Jean Reno). Besson also wrote the screenplays for The Transporter starring Jason Statham (2002), Taken starring Liam Neeson (2008), and Colombiana starring Zoe Saldana (2011). So he knows action, and that’s several assassins, spies, and action sequences in Besson’s personal dossier in additional to his greatest feats, the epic science fiction films The Fifth Element and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. It’s that last film he tapped for the star of Anna, a spy movie that’s not a retread on the director’s past work but a superb achievement, with a badass lead and story even better than another spy favorite, Atomic Blonde.
It’s no surprise the movie studios are releasing trailers more frequently this time of year. In the weeks leading up to San Diego Comic-Con, just as studios are holding back more genre and “pop culture” trailers to showcase in San Diego, they’re giving audiences a peek now at everything else. We have five new trailers today, three for films we haven’t yet previewed, and two are new trailers for films you already know about. What do they all have in common? They all feature stars from the British realm.
So what’s new from Keira Knightley (why doesn’t she have an Oscar yet?), Ralph Fiennes, Matt Smith, and Katherine Kelly? You’ll find them in the political thriller Official Secrets, based on the story of Katherine Gun, who leaked a secret memo exposing an illegal U.S. spying operation. The Good Liarstars master thespians Dame Helen Mirren and SirIan McKellen in a swindler story about meeting online. Luke Evans and Ed Skrein lead a new World War II historical drama in Midway. And from the two films you’ve probably heard of: Jason Statham, Vanessa Kirby, Idris Elba, Helen Mirren, and Eddie Marsan all star in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, and Margot Robbie plays Sharon Tate and Damian Lewis plays Steve McQueen in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Finally, don’t forget, another Brit, Tom Holland, stars in next week’s latest Marvel movie, Spider-Man: Far From Home. Check out these trailers:
It emerges from the nearly 20-year franchise about cars and action that began in 2001 with The Fast and the Furious. The ninth movie in the Fast & Furious franchise is on its way to theaters this summer, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, and Universal Pictures has released its second trailer–check it out below. The five leads have ample action movie street cred, beginning with Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham, not only from their previous roles in the franchise. In addition to his Time Magazine cover appearance as one of the most influential people of today, Johnson has busted heads in films including Walking Tall, The Mummy series, Get Smart, The Other Guys, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Central Intelligence and the new Jumanji series, and, of course, there’s his wrestling days (and he wrestled Seven of Nine in a memorable Star Trek Voyager episode). He’s already played Hercules, but coming soon look for him as Black Adam, Doc Savage, and he’s said to be in talks to play Jack Burton in a Big Trouble in Little China remake. Statham’s own on-screen fight record goes back to three action movie series: The Transporter, The Expendables, and The Mechanic, plus The Italian Job, The Bank Job, and a bunch more, from Parker to last year’s The Meg.
Although she hails from Plaza Sésamo, Eiza González earned her action film cred in Baby Driver, Alita: Battle Angel, and the From Dusk Till Dawn TV series. Vanessa Kirby climbed the big peak in Everest and had her breakout performance just last year in Mission Impossible: Fallout. As the film’s villain, you couldn’t ask for a better tough guy than Idris Elba, playing Heimdall in the Marvel movies, plus key roles in Star Trek Beyond, Prometheus, 28 Weeks Later, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Pacific Rim, and The Dark Tower). And that’s Helen Mirren in the trailer, too, who also has a slate of badass roles in action films including the RED series, The Fate of the Furious, years of Prime Suspect, and the coming Luc Besson action movie Anna.
The Fast & Furious series has seen plenty of break-out performances along the way, including the span of the career of Paul Walker, and memorable roles for Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Ted Levine, Ludacris, Lucas Black, Sung Kang, pre-Wonder Woman Gal Gadot in four of her first films, John Ortiz, Luke Evans, and Kurt Russell. Former Brad Pitt and Jean-Claude Van Damme stunt double-turned-director David Leitch(John Wick, Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2) is directing this entry, bringing even more action movie experience to the film.
Check out the second trailer for A Ninth of Furious, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw:
The master of the assassin sub-genre is back again. You may know him for writing and directing The Fifth Element (starring Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich), and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (starring Cara Delevingne and Dane DeHaan), but you may also know Luc Besson as the writer and director of the 1990 film Le Femme Nikitawith Anne Parillaud (and its English remake, Point of No Return with Bridget Fonda), and the 1994 movie The Professional(Natalie Portman, Jean Reno). He’s also written the screenplays for The Transporter starring Jason Statham (2002), Taken starring Liam Neeson (2008), and Colombiana starring Zoe Saldana (2011). Then he tied together his science fiction sense with his trademark badass woman leading role in 2014 with Lucy, starring Scarlet Johansson. That’s several assassins, spies, and action sequences in Luc Besson’s personal dossier.
Besson is writing and directing his next film, too. It’s called Anna, and he’s tapped the actress behind the unforgettable alien woman from Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets,Sasha Luss (who played the ill-fated Princess Lïhio-Minaa) as the title character. From its first trailer (check it out below), Anna seems to be part Red Sparrow and part Atomic Blonde. Or another La Femme Nikita. But it’s going to be very difficult for fans of spy movies to differentiate this latest entry from Atomic Blonde, especially if the film is really structured as revealed in the trailer. It looks like it could be a remake, but it isn’t.
Some credibility and gravitas come from the presence of Academy Award-winning actress Helen Mirren, whose own badass spy and assassin role in REDand RED 2should come to mind. Other actors in the film include Luke Evans(The Fast & Furious series, The Hobbit series) and Cillian Murphy(28 Days Later, Tron: Legacy, The Dark Knight Rises).
It’s a nearly 20-year franchise, all about cars and action in the world of illegal street racing, and it’s fun moviegoing from the first movie, 2001’s The Fast and the Furious, to the latest, 2017’s The Fate of the Furious. The ninth movie in the Fast & Furious franchise is on its way to theaters this summer, Fast & Furious Presents:Hobbs & Shaw, and Universal Pictures released its first trailer today. The latest is a spinoff focusing on two of the newest characters joining the series, with Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs, a Diplomatic Security Service agent who began pursuing ex-con Dominic Toretto, played by series star Vin Diesel, his close circle of friends, and their turbo-charged, four-wheeled co-stars beginning with 2011’s Fast Five. Along the way Hobbs adjusts his loyalties, and in 2015’s Furious 7, Hobbs pursues Deckard Shaw (played by Jason Statham), on a mission of vengeance for Toretto murdering his brother. For the 2019 sequel, Hobbs and Shaw are joined in an unlikely alliance, as it’s Shaw’s turn to switch loyalties and he redeems himself, at least partially, in The Fate of the Furious. For the first look at what’s happening next, check out the trailer for Hobbs & Shaw below.
Former Brad Pitt and Jean-Claude Van Damme stunt double-turned-director David Leitch(John Wick, Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2) is directing this entry, which should mean fans are in store for a new level of action within the series. Idris Elba(Thor: Ragnarok, Star Trek Beyond, Prometheus) plays the show’s villain and superhuman, Brixton. Eiza González(Baby Driver) and Vanessa Kirby (Mission Impossible: Fallout) co-star.
If you decide to jump in and get caught up on the previous eight films in the series (and why wouldn’t you?) you need to know that you’ll find some bouncing around of characters throughout the series. It’s Universal’s biggest franchise of all time and currently the eighth-highest-grossing film series of all time, so it’s worth diving into. Take it from someone who watched the series in the order in which the films were released, you’re better off watching the series with one movie pulled out and added back in later. And that film is 2006’s The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. As the third film in the series, Tokyo Drift came as a bit of a surprise, a detour from the regular cast to pull in a new character (and the result of actor and studio conflicts), but once you climb onboard it’s another fun ride on par with the rest of the series. But there’s a twist at the end of Tokyo Drift that doesn’t get explained until the end of Fast & Furious 6. So skip the third film and view it sixth. Got it?
First, check out the first trailer for Furious’s ninth, Hobbs & Shaw:
Previewed last year here at borg.com and teased even earlier here, the live-action version of Beauty and the Beast, starring the Harry Potter series’ Emma Watson as Belle, is on its way to theaters this year. Disney just released a new television spot and theatrical poster showcasing leads Watson and Dan Stevens and the all-star cast. You can’t understate how significant this film will be for Disney this year at the box office, with the potential to rival both Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: Episode VIII, based on early responses to the first release of images from the film.
An Academy Award nominee for Best Picture, Disney’s animated Beauty and the Beast is arguably the finest Disney production to come from the studio in its more than ninety year history, and no actress today has such a large and devoted fan following as Watson. More than 20 million viewers saw the first teaser, and nearly 30 million viewers watched the first trailer. Watson’s first major genre role since Harry Potter will make this a big box office winner for Disney.
This is the first time audiences get to see Watson singing as Belle. She evokes Julie Andrews in a very The Sound of Music-inspired setting. Here is the new trailer for Beauty and the Beast:
An Academy Award nominee for Best Picture, Disney’s animated Beauty and the Beast is arguably the finest Disney production to come from the studio in its more than ninety year history. Coming next year to the big screen is a new, live-action version of Beauty and the Beast (teased earlier this year here at borg.com), starring the Harry Potter series’ Emma Watson as Belle. Academy Award-winning screenplay writer Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters, Chicago, the Twilight series) is directing the picture.
Despite press accounts to the contrary, don’t look for an adaptation of the classic fairy tale, but a close adaptation of the animated Disney film (as the original did not have the talking furniture or most of the other characters created for the 1991 film). Just like the first teaser was quite pretty as set design goes, so is this fuller trailer. More than 20 million viewers watched the first teaser, so make no mistake: Emma Watson’s first major genre role since Harry Potter will make this a big box office winner for Disney.
The previews remind us of the grand production of Phantom of the Opera back in 2004, a sleeper, but a visual spectacle, too. Jacqueline Durran (Pride and Prejudice) adapted the animated costumes for the film, which look close but not quite as amazing as the 1991 animated versions. Everything else looks like this could be a near scene-for-scene copy of the 1991 version except in the animated movie Belle had dark brown hair and a distinct, different hair style from other “Disney princess” characters that set her apart from the rest of the blonde fairy tale leads, something you’d think Disney would have kept the same at least for cross-marketing its toy tie-ins.
Who doesn’t love each new appearance of Kevin Kline? He’s featured prominently in this new trailer. Check it out:
You probably saw the television series starring The Terminator’s Linda Hamilton and pre-Hellboy Ron Perlman. You’ve also probably seen the Academy Award nominee for Best Picture, Disney’s animated Beauty and the Beast–arguably the finest Disney film in its animation vault. Coming next year to the big screen is a new, live-action version of Beauty and the Beast, starring the Harry Potter series’ Emma Watson as Belle. Academy Award winning screenplay writer Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters, Chicago, the Twilight series) is directing the picture.
Despite press accounts to the contrary, don’t look for an adaptation of the classic fairy tale, but an adaptation of the animated Disney film as the original did not have the talking furniture or most of the other characters created for the 1991 film. The first teaser trailer dropped this week for the 2017 release, and viewership surpassed Star Wars: The Force Awakens with more than 91 million views in its first day of release. You haven’t watched it yet? We have queued up this very pretty teaser for you below, after the break.
Dan Stevens (Night at the Museum 2, Sense and Sensibility) co-stars as The Beast, and the rest of the cast is full of familiar genre favorites. The Hobbit’s Luke Evans is the swaggering Gaston, Kevin Kline (Dave, Silverado) is Belle’s father Maurice, the Star Wars prequels’ Ewan McGregor is Lumiere, the candelabrum (originally voiced by the late Jerry Orbach), Stanley Tucci is the harpsichord, Audra McDonald (Kidnapped) is the wardrobe, and anglophiles will be happy to see The Hobbit and X-Men’s Ian McKellen as Cogsworth the clock and Emma Thompson (Much Ado About Nothing) as Mrs. Potts, the teapot.
Check out this popular first trailer for Beauty and the Beast:
Our annual “All the Movies You’ll Want to See…” series has been one of the most viewed of all of our entries at borg.com each year. So this year we again scoured Hollywood and its publicity machine for as many genre films coming out in 2016 as have been disclosed. Usually we select the 24 that look like the biggest hits, but we’re going all out for 2016. The result is a whopping 48 movies, many you’ll probably want to see in the theater or catch on video. We bet you’ll find a bunch below you’ve never heard of. Bookmark this now for your 2016 calendar!
Most coming out in the second half of 2016 don’t even have posters released yet, but many do. We’ve included descriptions and key cast so you can start planning accordingly.
What do we think will be the biggest hits of the year? How about Star Wars: Rogue One? Or Star Trek Beyond? You’ve heard endlessly about Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but 2016 will also see Doctor Strange, Captain America: Civil War, and X-Men: Apocalypse. There’s even a handful of Westerns, with The Hateful 8, Jane Got a Gun, and another remake of The Magnificent Seven heading our way.
The Hateful Eight – January 1
Tarentino’s Western! Ennio Morricone score! Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Channing Tatum!
The 5th Wave – January 8
Chloe Grace Moretz and Liev Schreiber in an alien invasion.
400 Days – January 12
The CW’s Brandon Routh, Caity Lotz, and Tom Cavanaugh in a movie about astronauts that seems to be a play on Ender’s Game.
Peter Jackson’s final installment of his screen adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic novel The Hobbit is a breathtaking piece of film which aspires to the almost insurmountable heights that his masterpiece The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King achieved. The goal is a worthy, if almost unrealistic one, and Jackson spares no expense in trying to soar to those heights where he took us ten years ago.
I’m of two minds about this movie, and have been struggling to combine them into a single piece for you, our faithful readers. But like Jackson with this trilogy, I am not quite up to the task. And so, like Jackson, I will split something that should be in a single piece into multiple pieces, and although I am aware that they will likely not equal the sum of what a whole, single review should, I will try nonetheless because I have too much to say on the subject and am utterly unable to edit myself. Much like a certain director we all know and admire.
Review by a fan of fantasy cinema
The Battle of the Five Armies is a really good film. Is it great? Well, that will be up to each viewer, honestly. It is big and bold, and gives good screen time to the multitude of characters we have come to know over the course of the last two films in the trilogy. The movie opens where the previous film left off, a different approach from other films in both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogies, which tended to open with flashbacks or clever recaps to bring the viewer back into the world of Middle-earth which may have faded slightly since the previous film. Not so here, as the audience is plunged directly into the story right where we exited it last year.
The dragon Smaug, scary and crazy in the second Hobbit film which bears his name, is magnificently rendered and feels vibrantly alive in the dark theater, the screen aglow with dragonfire and the air electric with his howls of rage and vengeance. Benedict Cumberbatch captures the right amount of menace and vanity, bringing the drake alive in ways that superb CGI just could not do on its own. The poor people of Laketown would surely stand in awe of Jackson’s creation if they were not fleeing for their very lives before it.
Martin Freeman knows how to play the everyman, which is essentially what Bilbo Baggins represents. An everyday man who is snatched up from his comfortable if boring life and thrown headlong into the exciting, unpredictable and oft-times dangerous unknown. His subtlety and good humor shine through his portrayal of the Hobbit and it is to Freeman’s credit that he can simultaneously stand up to the chiefest and greatest of calamities and also stand up for himself to Thorin, pointing out the sickness that everyone else can see but dare not mention. The dwarves are also a humorous, entertaining lot, but far too much time would be required to provide the multitude of them a lot of individuality or backstory. The few who are selected for the spotlight are well worth the time. Lee Pace, Richard Armitage and Luke Evans play three leaders of different races whose loyalties lie to their people but with widely different styles and personalities. As with the previous films, Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Hugo Weaving as Elrond and even Christopher Lee as Saruman himself all put in appearances, though not in a way most might expect!
