Academy Award-nominated actor Bradley Cooper has officially joined the cast of Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy," lending his voice to the fan-favorite raccoon that will join Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Drax (Dave Bautista) on their epic adventure.

Cooper has previously starred in "Silver Linings Playbook," for which he was nominated for an Oscar®, "Limitless," "Place Beyond the Pines" and the "Hangover" trilogy, the latter of which has grossed $1.4 billion globally. He will next be seen in "American Hustle" which will reunite him with "Silver Linings Playbook" director David O. Russell. "Guardians of the Galaxy" will mark Cooper's first voiceover work.

In the far reaches of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, an unlikely cast of characters including Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, Groot and Rocket Raccoon must join forces to defeat a cosmic force of epic proportions. Directed by James Gunn, the live-action "Guardians of the Galaxy" will take fans to new corners of the Marvel Universe when it hits theaters August 1, 2014.

Marvel.com: 

James Spader will face off against Earth's Mightiest Heroes as the villain in Marvel's "Avengers: Age of Ultron," the sequel to 2012's record-breaking "Marvel's The Avengers." The Emmy Award-winning actor will play Ultron in the Avengers' much anticipated return to the big screen from writer/director Joss Whedon. The film comes to theaters on May 1, 2015.

A three time Emmy-winning actor, Spader is best known for roles on television series The Practice, its spin-off Boston Legal, and a brief but memorable run on The Office. On the big screen, Spader has demonstrated his versatility as an actor, starring in the teen romance film Pretty In Pink, playing an eccentric and intense attorney in Secretary, and most recently starring in the critically lauded Lincoln. He’s even won acclaim on stage during his starring role in David Mamet’s Broadway play Race.

Source: Marvel.com

It is official. Ben Affleck is the Batman in the upcoming Superman sequel which is tentatively being referred to as Batman vs. Superman.

More to come shortly....


Source:  Screenrant.com 

Neil Blomkamp finally gets the allegory he always wanted,with his sophomore production titled - Elysium.His debut movie,the oscar nominated, District 9 did not measure up as an apartheid allegory. Elysium in Greek mythology, is a concept of the afterlife. In the movie, however, it is an advanced space station Utopia, where the super rich live faraway from the disease, poverty of a ruined Earth.

The movie spends 20 minutes in typical Blomkamp documentary like fashion, introducing the characters to the audience.During this period, we discover that Elysium's defense is headed by Secretary Jessica Delacourt , who employs a pyscotic South African mercenary Kruger to eliminate the illegal immigrants attempting to reach Elysium. The President Patel disagrees with her methods and threatens to dismiss her, but fires Kruger. Delacourt then convinces Armadyne's CEO, John Carlyle, to write a computer program that can override Elysium's controls and make her Dictator in return for renewing Armadyne's defense contracts on Elysium for the next two hundred years. Carlyle creates and stores the program in his own mind for safekeeping until he leaves Earth for Elysium. 

Meanwhile,Matt Damon plays Max Da Costa, an ex-car thief who lives in the city slum and has a day job at  one of Armadyne's factories. He is assaulted by droid police while on his way to work and deters to a local hospital where he reconnects with his childhood friend ,Frey , who is now is a nurse and has a daughter, Matilda, who is dying of leukemia.He gets exposed to radiation at work and doctors tell him that he has four days to live.

Desperate, Max makes a deal with Spider to steal corporation information from Carlyle in exchange for a  ticket to Elysium. The mission requires Max's ailing body be reinforced with an exoskeleton to improve his movement and strength. The procedure is gruesome but the next day, Max is ready.The heist gets underway. Carlyle's spaceship is brought down before it can make supersonic speed. The crew intercepts the craft as it crash lands. After overwhelming Carlyle's bodyguard droids,proceeds to extract the information from Carlyle's mind by syncing his mind to Max's via an interface. The sync process is tad similar to how one syncs one's iTunes playlist on different devices.

Kruger is sent to stop the robbery and does so effectively.Taking down all but one of the robbers. Max, now a fugitive and badly injured, escapes to his childhood friend's home. Frey treats him of the injuries sustained in the heist. The next day, Frey pleads with Max to escort her daughter to Elysium where she can get cured of cancer. He refuses. and leaves her home.Kruger's probes sight him come out of Frey's home and make chase but he manages to elude them.

Meanwhile Kruger kidnaps Frey. And soon apprehends Max after he surrendered when Spider informed him of the potential value of the information within his mind. With Frey, the child and Max in his custody, Kruger and his crew jet out to Elysium. Closely followed by Spider, who is latched on to a tracking signal on Max's exoskeleton.Kruger's ship crash lands on Elysium when a grenade goes off during a scuffle onboard. Pandemonium ensues . That provides cover for Spider to infiltrate the facility to locate Max who is in the process of having his mind wiped.In the facility , Max is able to overpower the medical staff before the procedure is completed and rendezvous with Spider.

They fight their way to the central control station where they intend to reboot Elysium so that everyone becomes its citizen. Kruger is on their tail though. Present himself as a formable obstacle.I struggled to understand his motivations .After all, he had previously killed his boss, Delacourt,after she scolded him for escalating the situation. He seemed too crazy. Anyway, Max kills him after a melee of fighting while on their way to the central control room.

Uploading the reboot sequence payload from Max's brain to Elysium's computer has the unfortunate side effect of killing him. Knowing the risk, Max gives up his life for "the greater good".His action makes everyone, citizens of Elysium.Med-pods are sent to Earth.

Elysium certainly will have its fair share of fans.I expected more from Neil. The movie fell short of the high standards set by District 9. At times, it felt like a regurgitation of that formular. Social themes are rife throughout the film;Class divisions , healthcare and Immigration where explored. It seemed like a stretch at times. Then again, it is just a sci-fi movie. An average one at that.

5.5/10

Sources:Wikipedia

by Chinedu Efoagui

Peter Capaldi is the 12th Doctor.Announced today at 2pm ET on a special live show on BBC America.Capaldi is best known for his role as foul-mouthed spin-doctor Malcolm Tucker in the BBC series The Thick of It.

The actor had been the bookmakers' favorite to take on the role, with betting on him becoming the next Doctor suspended on Friday.It is not the first time Capaldi has appeared on the show - he played Roman merchant Caecilius in 2008 Doctor Who adventure The Fires of Pompeii.

He will be replacing the outgoing Doctor, Matt Smith at the christmas special program .

Lets hear what you think. Do you like the choice?

There are a lot of fight movies released every day from Hollywood. But there are few that have etched their names in our hearts.
With much further ado and in No particular order, I present my list of best fight movies.


10.  Enter The Dragon (1973)

Enter the Dragon was Bruce Lee's final film appearance before his death on July 20, 1973.  The movie became iconic in the minds of movie buffs worldwide soon after its released shortly after Bruce lee's death.It featured some of the best fighters of its time. The first Hollywood produced Chinese movie and was well received by critics and is regarded by many as one of the best films of 1973.Enter the Dragon grossed an estimated $25,000,000 in North America,and an estimated $90,000,000 worldwide,on a tight budget of $850,000.(Wikipedia)

2. Karate Kid (1984)
Not the Smith remake but the original.The Karate Kid is an underdog story in the mold of a previous success, Avildsen's 1976 film Rocky. It was a commercial success upon release, and garnered favorable critical acclaim, earning Morita an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

3. Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)

The Quentin Tarantino directed movie is is the first of two films that were theatrically released several months apart, the second one titled Kill Bill Volume 2. The movie drew inspiration from greats of the past like Bruce Lee's Game of Death.Thurman erases the flop of Cut Throat Island as she stars as The Bride, a woman who goes on a revenge rampage after surviving a head shot murder attempt by her lover Bill. 

4. The Fight Club (2008)

Is based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk.In 2008, Fight Club was named the 10th greatest movie of all time by Empire magazine in its issue of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time. The movie Featured stars like Edward Norton and Brad Pitt.

5. The Matrix (1999)

Everything has been written about this movie. Probably the most revolutionary movie of our time. Keanu Reeves plays Neo, the One. He who will save mankind from an unending nightmare in computer generated world.The Matrix grossed over $460 million worldwide. It was generally well-received by critics,^[and won four Academy Awards as well as other accolades including BAFTA Awards and Saturn Awards.

6. The Gladiator (2000)

Russel Crowe played the General,Maximus Decimus Meridius, who became a slave, then a slave who became a gladiator.Gladiator was a box office success, receiving positive reviews, and was credited with rekindling interest in the historical epic. The film was nominated for and won multiple awards, notably five Academy Awards in the 73rd Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor for Crowe.

7. Crouching Tiger , Hidden Dragon (2000).

This movie with its wire assisted stunts blew our minds.The film was directed by Ang Lee The film was based on the fourth novel in a pentalogy, known in China as the Crane Iron Pentalogy, by wuxia novelist Wang Dulu. Made on a mere US$17 million budget, with dialogue in Mandarin, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon became a surprise international success, grossing $213.5 million. It grossed US$128 million in the United States, becoming the highest-grossing foreign-language film in American history. It has won over 40 awards. The film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (Taiwan) and three other Academy Awards, and was nominated for six other Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

8. Rocky (1976)

Rocky  tells the rags to riches American Dream story of Rocky Balboa, an uneducated but kind-hearted debt collector for a loan shark in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Rocky starts out as a club fighter who later gets a shot at the world heavyweight championship.The film, made on a budget of $950,000 and made over $225 million,becoming the highest grossing film of 1976, and won three Oscars, including Best Picture. The film received many positive reviews and turned Stallone into a major star.It spawned five sequels: Rocky II, III, IV, V and Rocky Balboa, all written by and starring Stallone, who also directed all sequels except for the Rocky V 

9. 300 (2006)

300 is a 2007 American action film based on the 1998 comic series of the same name by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley. Both are fictionalized retellings of the Battle of Thermopylae. The film was directed by Zack Snyder.

It was filmed mostly with a super-imposition chroma key technique, to help replicate the imagery of the original comic book.The plot revolves around King Leonidas (Gerard Butler), who leads 300 Spartans into battle against Persian "god-King" Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and his army of more than 300,000 soldiers. 

The film received mixed reviews, receiving acclaim for its original visuals and style, but criticism for favoring visuals over characterization and its controversial depiction of the ancient Persians; however, the film was a box office success, grossing over $450 million, with the film's opening being the 24th largest in box office history at the time, and it has since developed a cult following.

10. The Warrior (2011)

Warrior is a 2011 American sports drama film directed by Gavin O'Connor and starring Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy, and Nick Nolte. Warrior tells the story of two estranged brothers entering a mixed martial arts (MMA) tournament and deals with the brothers' struggling relationship with each other and with their father. The film was released on September 9, 2011, to overall positive reviews, and earned an Academy Award nomination for Nolte. Warrior is dedicated to the memory of MMA clothing brand Tapout co-founder Charles "Mask" Lewis, Jr.

Notable Mention

Blood Sport (1988)
Bloodsport is a 1988 American martial arts drama film directed by Newt Arnold, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme,Roy Chiao, Donald Gibb and Leah Ayres. The film is based in part on fiction as well as in part inspired by claims made by American martial artist Frank Dux. It sold well at the box office, grossing $11,806,119 domestically on a budget of $1,100,000. Bloodsport was one of Van Damme's first starring films and showcased his athletic abilities. He performs numerous physical feats such as helicopter-style, jump spinning heel kicks, and a complete split.

Sources: Wikipedia


by Chinedu Efoagui

 

We have the first view of the sentinels from the upcoming Xmen Movie title Xmen:Days of Future Past. The Director, Byran Singer tweeted the first pictures.

Source:http://gizmodo.com