Posts Tagged ‘Sandra Bullock’

Bullet Train

Director: David Leitch

Cast: Brad Pitt, Joey King, Sandra Bullock, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Michael Shannon, Logan Lerman

Film Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Running Time: 2 hours and 6 minutes

Based upon the novel by Kotaro Isaka, Dead Pool 2 director David Leitch stitches together a complex crime film in Bullet Train featuring a lot of dialogue and some bizarre action sequences, referencing Pulp Fiction but set on a high speed train from Tokyo to Kyoto involving a group of very weird assassins including the twins Lemon and Tangerine wonderfully played by Brian Tyree Henry and Golden Globe winner Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Nocturnal Animals), the Hornet played by Zazie Beetz (Joker) and the main star Ladybug played with charisma by Oscar winner Brad Pitt (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood).

Bullet Train involves a sinister crime boss named White Death, a Russian emigrant who infiltrates the Yakuza or Japanese organized crime and the length he goes to to draw out his arch rival The Elder, played with panache by Hiroyuki Sanada (Mortal Kombat, Mr Holmes, The White Countess) and the Elder’s son Kimura played by Andrew Koji.

As the Bullet Train speeds from the Japanese capital of Tokyo to the artistic capital Kyoto, a menagerie of assassins appear on board including Lemon and Tangerine, The Prince played by Joey King and Ladybug whose simple task it is to steal a briefcase filled with cash and alight at the next station. Literally everything goes wrong, from bad guys drinking sleeping tablets to an escaped boomslang slithering through the high tech train.

Using multiple flashbacks to such places as Mexico and Johannesburg to establish backstory, the assassins square off against each other, as one by one they get eliminated or so we think, as they speed ever faster with deadly efficiency to the showdown in Kyoto whereby The Elder is going to meet The White Death.

Fortunately Brad Pitt’s charm carries Bullet Train to its thrilling conclusion amidst lots of witty dialogue, the occasional samurai sword, many guns and an errant poisonous snake. Amidst all the nuanced innuendo’s and gory action, there is a complicated plot which unravels itself like a boa constrictor killing everything in its path.

With flashes of anime, traditional Japanese imagery and sparkling with originality, Bullet Train is a fascinatingly bizarre film with sufficient action and fight sequences to keep audiences glued to the screen. Of particular note is the brilliantly choreographed fight sequence between Tangerine and Ladybug played by Aaron Taylor Johnson and Brad Pitt.

If audiences are looking for a weirdly entertaining film filled with cameo appearances, gory action and an exotic location, then buy a ticket for Bullet Train and make sure not to disembark before the showdown in Kyoto. It’s a riveting ride.

Bullet Train gets a film rating of 7.5 out of 10 and will find an audience that enjoys quirky action with strangers fighting each other on a high speed locomotive.

The Lost City

Directors: Adam and Aaron Nee

Cast: Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Brad Pitt, Daniel Radcliffe, Oscar Nunez, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Bowen Yang, Hector Anibal, Thomas Forbes-Johnson

Running Time: 1 hour and 52 minutes

Film Premiere: South by South West Film Festival – Austin, Texas, USA SXSWFF – March 2022

Film Rating: 7 out of 10

Directing duo and brothers Adam and Aaron Nee bring the fun filled adventure comedy The Lost City starring Sandra Bullock as best selling romance novelist Loretta Sage and Channing Tatum as her handsome buff cover model Dash as they have to contend with an evil media mogul wonderfully played with a sort of British panache by Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe.

The Lost City had its world premiere at the South by South West Film Festival in Austin, Texas, USA in March 2022 and clearly the brothers drew massive inspiration from the highly successful 1984 adventure film Romancing the Stone starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny Devito.

The onscreen chemistry between Oscar winner Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side) and Magic Mike star Channing Tatum is undeniable and clearly both actors had loads of fun making this popcorn adventure film. Audiences should look out for a brief appearance by Oscar winner Brad Pitt (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) who plays the action man Jack Trainer who when initially rescuing Loretta Sage says to him:

“Why are you so Handsome?”

Trainer replies casually after taking out six swarthy looking Dominicans, “My Father was a Weatherman!”

Other notable performances is Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The United States vs. Billie Holiday) as Loretta’s exasperated publisher and book agent Beth Hatten who takes it upon herself to track down her No. 1 wayward romance adventure novelist Loretta Sage after mysteriously being kidnapped by the crazy Abigail Fairfax played by Daniel Radcliffe (Victor Frankenstein, Kill Your Darlings, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) who clearly relished the chance of playing the villain in The Lost City.

It was comforting to see a near full auditorium when watching The Lost City and if audiences love an entertaining action adventure comedy then this film is for them.

Directors Adam and Aaron Nee kept the tone of the film extremely light making it a pure escapist adventure film helped by the sheer entertainment value of seeing the Miss Congeniality star Sandra Bullock act opposite two much younger leading men: the hilarious Channing Tatum and the super talented Daniel Radcliffe.

Take the kids, go and watch The Lost City, it’s a well-rounded adventure film shot in the Dominican Republic. The Lost City gets a film rating of 7 out of 10 and is recommended viewing.

Oceans 8

Director: Gary Ross

Cast: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter, Sarah Paulson, Elliott Gould, Richard Armitage, Dakota Fanning, Mindy Kaling, Awkwafina

Pleasantville director Gary Ross assembles a truly star studded female cast in the feminine version of Steven Soderbergh’s Oceans 11 starring Oscar winners Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side), Cate Blanchett (The Aviator, Blue Jasmine), Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables) alongside Oscar nominated British actress Helena Bonham Carter (The Wings of the Dove), Rihanna and Sarah Paulson (Carol, 12 Years a Slave) as together they pull off a daring jewellery heist during the prestigious Met Gala held annually by Vogue Magazine at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Sandra Bullock plays Debbie Ocean, a newly paroled con artist who teams up with the streetwise New Yorker Lou played by Blanchett as they devise a cunning plan to rob the Met Gala and place the blame on Debbie’s egotistical art dealing ex-boyfriend Claude Becker played by Richard Armitage.

In short, Oceans 8 is a cleverly written revenge flick with lots of diamonds, a fabulous cast and glamorous settings beautifully assisted by comedian James Corden as the extremely thorough insurance investigator John Frazier, who adds some dry British humour to the entirely fashionable affair.

Audiences should watch out for some well-placed cameo’s by veteran Oscar nominated star Elliott Gould (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice) as Reuben and Dakota Fanning (Man on Fire, War of the Worlds) as Penelope Stern.

What holds Oceans 8 together is the fantastic onscreen chemistry between Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett and Anne Hathaway, all of whom make this fashionable heist film thoroughly entertaining.

Oceans 8 is an enjoyable con film with a refreshingly female take on the heist genre, proving that women can do it just as brilliantly as men, which is especially pertinent in the wake of the momentous MeToo movement which rocked Hollywood in 2017 amidst a series of sexual abuse scandals.

Definitely a glittering film for the ladies, Oceans 8 is an ideal girls night out adventure heist with beautiful clothes, diamonds to die for and an inside peak at possibly one of the most glamorous events on the American social circuit, the incredibly gorgeous Met Gala.

Oceans 8, with its slick cons and twisting narrative definitely proves the line immortalized by Marilyn Monroe that Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend. The film gets a rating of 7.5 out of 10.

67th Golden Globe Awards

Took place on Sunday 17th January 2010 hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association

Golden Globe Winners in The Film Categories:

Best Film Drama: Avatar

Best Director: James Cameron – Avatar

Best Film Musical or Comedy: The Hangover

Best Actor Drama: Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart

Best Actress Drama: Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side

Best Actor Musical or Comedy: Robert Downey Jr. – Sherlock Holmes

Best Actress Musical or Comedy: Meryl Streep – Julie and Julia

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds

Best Supporting Actress: Monique – Precious

Best Foreign Language Film: The White Ribbon (Germany)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/67th_Golden_Globe_Awards

Gravity

Director: Alfonso Cuaron

Cast: George Clooney, Sandra Bullock, Ed Harris

If brevity is the soul of wit, then gravity is the point of origin. Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron’s fascinating space disaster film Gravity is brief, sublime and an inspiring cinematic message to protect and appreciate the Earth. Cuaron’s impressive filmography includes Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Children of Men and the 1998 version of Great Expectations.

Unlike his friend fellow Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro, Cuaron’s elegant space adventure avoids the clunky spectacle of Pacific Rim, but retains the awe setting almost the entire ninety minutes of Gravity in space, with superb sound effects and brilliant visuals.

Director Alfonso Cuaron emphasizes not just the physical weightlessness of space, but also the terrifying silence and infinity balanced by a deep visual appreciation of Planet Earth retaining all the emotional resonance as seen through the eyes of two astronauts medical engineer Ryan Stone (played against type by Oscar Winner Sandra Bullock) and the smooth talking Matt Kowalsky (naturally played by Oscar winner George Clooney).

Houston we do have a problem as American astronauts Stone and Kowalsky have to deal with being stranded in space after debris from a Russian satellite hits their NASA space ship near the international space station.

Space, the gravitational pull of the earth and the will to survive are just as much featured characters as these two stranded astronauts grapple with an escape plan to return to Mother Earth. Cuaron deliberately avoids the sophisticated social dichotomy of rich and poor so gorgeously illustrated in Neil Blomkamp’s Elysium providing no counterpoint to Stone and Kowalski’s space adventure except the enduring will of the human spirit to survive at all costs.

Gravity is really a 3D visual spectacle with an ambient score by Steven Price and beautiful groundbreaking cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki to tell a very simple story of the emotional and physical impact of human beings stranded in space. For viewers suffering from vertigo or dizziness, Gravity is not for you, as Cuaron’s direction makes the viewer feel that they are in space throughout the film, an astounding and groundbreaking visual trick, helped by strong performances by Hollywood A Listers’ Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.

Images of Engineer Stone in Gravity pay homage to Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and the central female character with a man’s name becomes an allegorical symbol of all mankind seemingly helpless against the celestial powers, not to mention Mother Nature’s central gravitational pull. Gravity is inspiring, underwritten yet beautifully shot.

Fans of Moon and 2001: A Space Odyssey will find Gravity spell bounding. See Gravity in 3D to experience the visual and digital impact otherwise not at all.

Oscar Winners for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards: ~

Sunday 7th March 2010

The 82nd Academy Award Winners

Best Film – The Hurt Locker

Best Director – Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker 

Best Actor – Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart

Best Actress –Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side

Best Supporting Actress – Mon’que – Precious

Best Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds

Best Original Screenplay – Mark Boal for the Hurt Locker

Best Adapted Sreenplay – Geoffrey Fletcher for Precious based upon the novel Push by Sapphire

Best Foreign Language Film – The Secret in Their Eyes by Juan Jose Campanella (Argentina)

Best Film Editing – The Hurt Locker

Best Cinematography – Avatar

Best Costume Design – Sandy Powell – The Young Victoria

Best Visual Effects – Avatar

Best Original Score – UP

Best Original Song – Crazy Heart – The Weary Kind

Best Cinematography – Avatar

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/82nd_Academy_Awards