Film Review: Pitch Perfect 3

Directed by Trish Sie, The Bellas are back in Pitch Perfect 3 for a second encore. After the highs of winning the World Championships, the group – Beca (Anna Kendrick), Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson), Chloe (Brittany Snow), Aubrey (Anna Camp), Emily (Hailee Steinfeld), Cynthia Rose (Ester Dean), Lilly (Hana Mae Lee) – finds itself split apart with job prospects thin on the ground. They get the chance to reunite for an overseas tour “supporting the US troops in Europe”, but their opposition play instruments and regard the Bellas as nothing more than a karaoke outfit.

New Poster & Trailer for ‘Mockingjay Part 2’ – “A Sister’s Bond Is Forever”

(Written for Filmoria)

With tickets set to go on sale on 1st October for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, we have a new trailer and poster for the final instalment that we’re all dying to see.

Reaching cinemas on 19th November, the new promotional items center on the strong bond and compassion between two of the most courageous sisters we know – Katniss and Primrose Everdeen.

Film Review: Pitch Perfect 2

Directed by Elizabeth Banks and after a humiliating command performance at The Kennedy Center, the Barden Bellas enter an international competition that no American group has ever won. The group – Beca (Anna Kendrick), Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson), Chloe (Brittany Snow), Aubrey (Anna Camp), Cynthia Rose (Ester Dean), Lilly (Hana Mae Lee) – have a new addition, Emily (Hailee Steinfeld), and will do whatever it takes to regain their status and right to perform.

Film Review: The Lego Movie

Written and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, The Lego Movie focuses on an ordinary Lego minifigure (voiced by Chris Pratt) who finds himself helping a resistance stop a tyrannical businessman (Will Ferrell) from gluing everything in the Lego world into his vision of perfection.

Book v Film: The Hunger Games – Catching Fire

“At some point, you have to stop running and turn around and face whoever wants you dead. The hard thing is finding the courage to do it.”

Directed by Francis Lawrence and the second adaptation in Suzanne Collins‘ The Hunger Games trilogy of novels, Catching Fire continues with the story of Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), as she returns home after winning the 74th Annual Hunger Games with fellow tribute, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson). But it doesn’t take Katniss long to learn that surviving the games doesn’t mean that she has won, especially as President Snow (Donald Sutherland) is angry with her for breaking the rules and defying the Capitol at the end of the last Games. Sensing that a rebellion is simmering, the Capitol make a point to prove their control as they prepare for the 75th Annual Hunger Games, The Quarter Quell, a competition that could change Panem forever.

Film Review: The Hunger Games – Catching Fire

Directed by Francis Lawrence and the second adaptation in Suzanne Collins‘ The Hunger Games trilogy of novels, Catching Fire continues with the story of Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), as she returns home after winning the 74th Annual Hunger Games with fellow tribute, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson). But it doesn’t take Katniss long to learn that surviving the games doesn’t mean that she has won, especially as President Snow (Donald Sutherland) is angry with her for breaking the rules and defying the Capitol at the end of the last Games. Sensing that a rebellion is simmering, the Capitol make a point to prove their control as they prepare for the 75th Annual Hunger Games, The Quarter Quell, a competition that could change Panem forever.

DVD Review: People Like Us

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Serving as the directorial debut of Alex Kurtzman and inspired by true events, People Like Us follows salesman Sam (Chris Pine) who, while settling his recently deceased father’s estate, discovers he has a sister, Frankie (Elizabeth Banks), and nephew, Josh (Michael Hall D’Addario), whom he never knew about. As their relationship develops, Sam is forced to rethink his perceptions about his family and his relationship with his mother Lillian (Michelle Pfeiffer), and to re-examine his own life choices in the process.

Film Review: Pitch Perfect

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Directed by Jason Moore and loosely adapted from the novel of the same name by Mickey Rapkin, Pitch Perfect follows Beca (Anna Kendrick), a freshman at Barden University who is tempted into joining her school’s all-girl a cappella group The Bellas, which includes the popular faces of Brittany Snow, Anna Camp and Rebel Wilson. Whilst Beca attempts to modernise and inject some much-needed energy into the group, The Bellas must take on their male rivals, the Treblemakers, in a campus competition.

Check The Details: New Trailer Released

(Written for Lost In The Multiplex)

This week we have another first trailer for The Details, which debuted at Sundance back in 2011.

Written and directed by Jacob Aaron Estes, the film stars Tobey Maguire as a married, philandering man who makes a series of very bad decisions and suffers through the repercussions.

Film Review: The Hunger Games

(Published in Issue 8 of my publication In Retrospect)

The first in a trilogy of novels written by Suzanne Collins‘ best-selling series, The Hunger Games is set in a dystopian future where, in order to maintain peace in the 12 districts of Panem, 24 young representatives are forced to compete in a televised game each year, where they must fight to the death until only one remains. With the film adaptation directed by Gary Ross, the story centres on the character of Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), a young woman living in the poorest of districts who, when her sister Primrose (Willow Shields) is chosen to compete in the games, volunteers herself as tribute alongside fellow district competitor Peeta (Josh Hutcherson).

Pitted against the richest of tributes, who have been training all their lives, Katniss is thrown into the colourful world of the rich in interviews with TV host Caeser Flickerman (Stanley Tucci), stylist Cinna (Lenny Kravitz), and Game escort Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks). But with only the mentoring skills of the drunk and bitter Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) to prepare her, does Katniss even stand a chance of returning home to her family? And how will seducing her district competitor in order to attract sponsors affect the harbouring romance she has with Gale (Liam Hemsworth) back at home?

Book v Film: The Hunger Games

“Deep in the meadow, hidden far away / A cloak of leaves, a moonbeam ray. / Forget your woes and let your troubles lay, / And when it’s morning again, they’ll wash away. / Here it’s safe, here it’s warm. / Here the daisies guard you from every harm. / Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true, / Here is the place where I love you.”

The first in a trilogy of novels written by Suzanne Collins‘ best-selling series, The Hunger Games is set in a dystopian future where, in order to maintain peace in the 12 districts of Panem, 24 young representatives are forced to compete in a televised game each year, where they must fight to the death until only one remains. With the film adaptation directed by Gary Ross, the story centres on the character of Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), a young woman living in the poorest of districts who, when her sister Primrose (Willow Shields) is chosen to compete in the games, volunteers herself as tribute alongside fellow district competitor Peeta (Josh Hutcherson).

Pitted against the richest of tributes, who have been training all their lives, Katniss is thrown into the colourful world of the rich in interviews with TV host Caeser Flickerman (Stanley Tucci), stylist Cinna (Lenny Kravitz), and Game escort Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks). But with only the mentoring skills of the drunk and bitter Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) to prepare her, does Katniss even stand a chance of returning home to her family? And how will seducing her district competitor in order to attract sponsors affect the harbouring romance she has with Gale (Liam Hemsworth) back at home?

‘The Hunger Games’ Pre-Game Special: New IMAX Banner & Character Images

(Written for Lost In The Multiplex)

Lionsgate has released a new IMAX banner for the first film in an adaptation of Suzanne Collins‘ best-selling and eagerly awaited trilogy of novels, The Hunger Games, with a set of new character images that have also made their way online this week.

Directed by Gary Ross, the big screen adaptation is set in a post-apocalyptic North America, now named Panem, where teenagers are chosen to battle to the death in annual televised games where only one can survive, an attempt to maintain control by those living in the Capitol in this very dystopian society.

Film Review: Man On A Ledge

(Published on Lost In The Multiplex and in Issue 7 of my publication In Retrospect)

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Directed by Asger Leth, Man On A Ledge is an American thriller that follows ex-New York policeman Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington), who is arrested for stealing a $40 million diamond from businessman David Englander (Ed Harris). Maintaining his innocence and claiming that he had in actuality been set up by Englander, Nick climbs out of a window on the 25th floor of the Roosevelt Hotel. Apparently ready to commit suicide, negotiator Lydia (Elizabeth Banks) tries to talk him down, but unbeknownst to her Nick has no intention of jumping and is rather acting as a distraction. In fact, Nick’s brother Joey (Jamie Bell) and his girlfriend Angie (Génesis Rodríguez) are meanwhile involved in something much bigger, as they attempt to break into Englander’s office to prove Nick’s innocence. But will it all go to plan?

11 New Hunger Games Images As New Tie-In Site Launches

(Written for Lost In The Multiplex)

As a new viral tie-in website launches for The Hunger Games, eleven new images have also been put online, giving us a closer look at many of the characters.

Based on the hugely successful novel trilogy by Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games is set in the futuristic world of Panem, as the story follows a young girl, Katniss (played by Jennifer Lawrence), as she becomes a contestant in the annual Hunger Games, a fight-to-the-death competition held by the government in which only one young person will survive.

The New ‘Hunger Games’ Jigsaw Poster Revealed!

Over the day, 100 different websites from all over the world have released a single, small piece of the new Hunger Games poster in a jigsaw-style puzzle viral event.

The film, directed by Gary Ross, follows twelve Districts who each send a girl and boy, trained in combat, into the heart of a jungle until only one is left alive. Adapted from Suzanne Collins’ 2008 young adult science fiction novel, it stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Wes Bentley, Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, Woody Harrelson, Lenny Kravitz, Toby Jones, and Donald Sutherland, and is set to be released on 23rd March, 2012.