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Luc Besson’s THE FIFTH ELEMENT Snags A Two-Day 20th Anniversary 4K Theatrical Screening Event In May

I remember first catching the trailer for Luc Besson’s upcoming sci-fi, Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets and likening it to the director’s equally splendid intergalactic futuristic sci-fi bid, The Fifth Element. Granted the film’s over-the-top bravado and almost anime-style delivery, the formula itself applied a groundbreaking tale that garnered the film’s succession at the box office nearly 20 years ago. 20 years later, The Fifth Element is now heading back to limited theaters this May for a two-day anniversary screening event. The presentation will be shown on May 14 and May 17 at 2:00pm and 7:00pm (both local time), in 4K resolution hosted by Fathom Events and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment prior to the film’s then-homebound release debut on 4K Ultra HD on July 11. Per the announcement: From its opening scenes in 1914 Egypt to its towering views of 23rd Century New York City, and its […]

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KABANERI OF THE IRON FORTRESS Kicks Off Anime Movie Night Later This Month!

Crunchyroll is ramping up its proliferation a little more this Spring as per its January announcement for Anime Movie Night, among other things. With that in mind, they’re ringing it in with their first event feature in the form of the Kabaneri Of The Iron Fortress Double Feature: Part 1: Light That Gathers and Part 2: Life That Burns. SYNOPSIS: During the industrial revolution, mankind is threatened by a sudden emergence of undead monsters who can only be killed by piercing their heart through an iron plate. Those bitten become one of them. Called “Kabane,” these monsters exploded in number. The Hinomoto people built fortress stations and barricaded themselves inside. Only steam locomotives, the Hayajiros, can travel between them. The 12 episode series aired on Fuji TV last year before releasing as two aforementioned compilation films in December prior to Crunchyroll’s merchandising acquisition thereafter. Tickets are available for purchase by […]

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Catch THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS Cast & Crew World Premiere Live In NYC This Saturday

The marketing is in full swing with just one week through to the release of the new movie, The Fate Of The Furious. The official Facebook page will have its own live feed from New York City for its world premiere on Saturday, April 8 at 6:30pm EST to which you can tune in through the player just below via its fan page. While you’re at it, I came across YouTuber Rossatron’s latest video dissecting the Fast franchise and exploring just what it is that makes it so successful. He makes some pretty staunch points about it, and all worth keeping in mind as we look toward the next two films rounding out the saga from Universal Pictures. Sidebar: As for how they’ll do it…well, I’m pretty sure they’ll find a way to make it work, though the Diesel V. Johnson beef still puzzles me some.

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See The Elric Brothers In Action In The Official FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Trailer

Manga author Arakawa Hiromu’s 2001-2003 Enix publication, Fullmetal Alchemist, has stood the test of time with two animated series and films and further posterity on home release platforms. Given this, I guess the next obvious step would be to take things further and test the waters with a live-action approach, a feat that is never easy to do and especially with a story as big, sprawling and emotionally compelling as this one. It brings us the story of two brothers, held together only by the bond as strong as their skills in alchemy following one of the most peak, tragic moments in their childhood, and an act of blasphemy that would gravely change their lives. It’s a story that only thickens more and more as you go with military drama and upheaval as part of the central narrative, and with characters both real, and twice as supernatural. There’s conspiracy, danger, […]

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CANNIBALS AND CARPET FITTERS Offers A Helluva Way To Watch What You Eat In The First Official Trailer

In for some action and horror with heavy doses of blood, gore and other reasons to watch your eating habits? Then Predator: Dark Ages helmer James Bushe’s Cannibals And Carpet Fitters is right up your alley with post-production already underway, building on its previous shortfilm successes from a few years earlier. SYNOPSIS: A group of carpet fitters are sent on a job to an old country house in the middle of nowhere. However they soon discover it is a trap set up by the savage, cannibalistic family, the Hannings. The carpet fitters are forced to fight for their lives or risk ending up being the evenings dinner. Unfortunately they are not quite your typical heroes! Darren Sean Enright and Richard Lee O’Donnell wrote the script as well as return to star themselves next to actor Dominic Holmes, martial arts exponents – actress Zara Phythian (Marvel’s Doctor Strange) and actor Grant […]

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JOHN WICK: CHAPTER TWO Locks And Loads On Blu-Ray And 4K Ultra HD This Summer

John Wick: Chapter 2 (4K Ultra HD) [Blu-ray] If you went and saw John Wick: Chapter Two in theaters this past Winter or at all on the big screen, chances are you’ve endured one of the best action movies and sequels therein by far. Some will try, or have tried, to present counterpoint on this, but I reckon that the John Wick canbase that began flourishing in 2014 isn’t staying quiet over this one, and now its heading to Blu-Ray and 4K Ultra HD this summer. Peep the details and specs below courtesy of Blu-Ray.com and pre-order your copies today. Summit Entertainment and Lionsgate Home Entertainment will bring to 4K Blu-ray and Blu-ray director Chad Stahelski’s action film John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017), starring Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, Bridget Moynahan, Ruby Rose, and Laurence Fishburne. The two releases will be available for purchase on June 13. Official Synopsis: In this […]

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CHUCK: Rocky Meets ‘The Real Rocky’ In The First Trailer

Last year’s news saw no shortage of boxing movie titles and director Philippe Falardeau’s latest, Chuck, was one of them. Dealing with the life and times of one of boxing’s celebrated figures is a script from Jeff Feuerzeig and Jerry Stahl with actor Liev Schreiber (Ray Donovan) leading the tale both inside the ring AND out. SYNOPSIS: He was the pride of Bayonne, New Jersey, a man who went fifteen rounds in the ring with Muhammad Ali, and the real life inspiration for Rocky Balboa. But before all that, Chuck Wepner (Liev Schreiber) was a liquor salesman and father with a modest prizefighting career whose life changed overnight when, in 1975, he was chosen to take on The Greatest in a highly publicized title match. It’s the beginning of a wild ride through the exhilarating highs and humbling lows of sudden fame—but what happens when your fifteen minutes in the […]

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Alexander Nevsky Thriller, BLACK ROSE, Gets An April Outing In The U.S.

Don’t fall asleep on multifaceted action star/producer/director Alexander Nevsky. His latest U.S. release with the long-awaited thriller, Black Rose, is finally poised for a North American release with word of ITN Distribution’s acquisition of the film hailing from Nevsky’s Hollywood Storm banner. The film, which opens in the U.S. on April 28, is a mix of what our own James Couche described in his review as, among other things, “a gutsy move for a first-time director” in his debut following a spate of locally produced action thrillers in his native Russia, and here with a more cerebral formula in the vein of Red Heat. Nevsky is joined by Kristanna Loken (Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines), and actors Adrian Paul, Robert Davi and Matthias Hues for the story of a Russian police major who sets out to bolster the LAPD’s investigation into a series of gruesome murders of young women […]

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BLACK SITE DELTA: Military Prisoners Battle Terrors High And Low In The Latest Trailer

I have to say the most recent trailer for Jesse Gustafson’s new movie, Black Site Delta, is a bit off-throwing in terms of one or two editing choices in the second half. That’s not to suggest anything about the film and it is Gustafson’s directorial feature debut, and given most of the footage and the premise, this looks pretty serviceable. In it, we have Cam Gigandet (Never Back Down, In The Blood) leads a pack of military prisoners in an armed effort against a horde of terrorists. Little do our captives know that their mysterious black site jailhouse is cover for a secret drone facility, opening up several cans of worms for this “Dirty Dozen” style thriller written by The Last Heist scribe Guy Stevenson. Joining Gigandet is actress Teri Reeves with Benjamin Charles Watson, Dion Mucciacito, Casey Hendershot, John Brodsky, Michael Dale and Arash Mokhtar. Benattar/Thomas Productions and XLrator […]

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Yang Mimi Is In A Race Against Time In The First RESET Trailer

Stopping nothing short of ambitious by next year, The Target helmer Chang’s newest thriller, Reset has itself a full-on official teaser trailer to quell curiosities a bit. And yep… you get all your time-travel tropes, slick re-windy footage and actress Yang Mimi caught at the center of it all with Wallace Huo oozing with menacing villany. SYNOPSIS: Sia Tien is a strong mother who raises her child alone and is a key researcher in time-slip research based on parallel theory, developing a method of traveling through time using black holes. When Choi I-hoo kidnaps her son and demands that she hand over the new technology, Sia Tien uses the as-yet-unfinished time machine to go back in time two hours. While trying to save her son, meets 3 of her own selves. The trailer below is the first of the bunch and with action star Jackie Chan laying claim solely as […]

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Survival Video Game, WE HAPPY FEW, Lands Feature Film Development

Enter another video game property staking its claim on the film front by way of Compulson Games’s 2016 hit game, We Happy Few. Producing are Paul Brooks’ Gold Circle Films and dj2 Entertainment’s Dmitri M. Johnson and Dan Jevons, with dj2’s Stephan Bugaj executive producing according to a press announcement that went out on Tuesday. Writers are now being sought for to adapt the film; Set in an alternative, dystopian, semi-futuristic 1960’s London in the fictional, isolated town of Wellington Wells, one of its residents ceases his intake of a government-imposed drug that induces happiness, drawing him out as public enemy number one and forcing him on a quest to uncover a deadly and dangerous conspiracy that dates as far back as World War II; Think the Cornetto trilogy set in a darker millieu but without the beer, robots or flippant action movie references. dj2 reportedly saw the video game […]

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Rob Cohen Tapped To Direct Futuristic Actioner, SPEEDHUNTERS For 2018 Release

Jiaflix Pictures and China Movie Channel shingle, 1905 Pictures, are reportedly teaming up with di Bonaventura Pictures for the futuristic car chase action thriller tentatively titled Speedhunters. The Fast And The Furious and The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor helmer Rob Cohen is set to direct the $100 million film which begins rolling cameras in Shanghai and Germany’s famed Studio Babelsberg with other exotic locations worldwide starting this June. Set in the near future, SPEEDHUNTERS is an action-thriller in the world of Formula racing where a colorful team of racers and crew get drawn into high intrigue around a revolutionary technology threatening to change the world as we know it. Free Country scribe Josh Parkinson wrote the script for the film’s 2018 release. “SPEEDHUNTERS has all the tenets of a global franchise with its action sequences, visual effects, relatable characters and a storyline that takes ordinary people through a […]

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Spirited Kendo Drama, MUKOKU, Lands A Second Official Trailer

Dias Police: Dirty Yellow Boys helmer Kumakiri Kazuyoshi’s new martial arts drama, Mukoku, is coming this summer and the intial teaser presented to us back in November was quite the stir. Not to be outdone though is the latest trailer which brings us actors Ayano Gou and Murakami Nijiro front and center for the adaptation of Fujisawa Shu’s 2012 novel. SYNOPSIS: Kengo has a great skill in Kendo but he quits after a tragic incident and now works as a security guard, spending his days drinking. One day, he encounters a high school student Toru, who has a natural high ability in Kendo and fond of rap music. Meeting Toru evokes Kengo a spirit of Kendo again and both of them start devoting themselves to grow up as a fencer and human. And soon, they are destined for a fatal battle…. It’s not often you see Kendo used practically as […]

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The Cast Begins Assembling For Asian Action Ensemble, TRIPLE THREAT

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. For this, I think it’s safe to say this particular picture is self-explanatory, but for the uninformed, you’re looking at just the start of a new campaign for thrilling action cinema with pre-production heavily underway for Triple Threat, the new movie from director Jesse V. Johnson. Pictured below are just two of the film’s headliners of the ensemble cast, Tony Jaa and Iko Uwais – both having been central to fan curiousity for the last seven years regarding if ever these two would see a film set together. Uwais recently completed filming Timo Tjahjanto’s Joe Taslim-starrer, The Night Comes For Us following the release of Indonesian action hit, Headshot, while Jaa, fresh from his latest online music video premiere, Groundbreaking, scored big with his appearance in D.J. Caruso’s xXx: The Return Of Xander Cage this past winter. Joining the two will […]

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THE PURGE Is Heading To Television

Blumhouse is already setting course for a 2018 outing with New Purge Chapter, the fourth purge film in association with Universal Pictures and Platinum Dunes. With franchise creator and solo helmer James DeMonaco serving only as writer for the new film, plans are not yet known on how that will bode but the franchise has been a commercial success at the box office through and through with a dystopian narrative placing American in a futuristic survival nightmare where the government issues a one-night anniversary of nationwide leagalized crime to sustain low criminal activity rates every year. As it turns out, Blumhouse has also staked itself interest in standing as an independent production shingle for television, here and now in partnership with ITV for a spate of shows and concepts. It just so happens that The Purge, according to a new report at Deadline is one of them with word that […]

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Shortfilm Review: EXPRESS DELIVERY (2017) Delivers The Goods

Full disclosure: Multifaceted actor and director Beau Fowler (Chameleon) messaged me at some point late last year to discuss a certain shortfilm script he was working on. Being that I’m a New York City native, he took interest of my opinions regarding his own accentual delivery for a character he was building for this particular project and he even gave me a whiff of it late last year as we were chatting it up. In short, I thought it was pretty good. Granted he had some issues over the script he wanted my input on; Interestingly, the draft he wrote included an action sequence although I honestly thought this was going to be something a bit more on the comedy drama front. Needless to say, I was curious as to what this would look like, and I honestly say that after screening the new shortfilm, Express Delivery, I’m pretty pleased with […]

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THE HIT LIST: April 3, 2017

My weekend saw a MAJOR curveball regarding my android phone, folks. So, if you’ve been following me on Instagram and haven’t heard anything, now you know why. Needless to say, I have somewhat returned to normalcy and, preferably, in kickass fashion with The Hit List. Actor, stuntman and stunt coordinator John Kreng lights things up this week with an illustrious new work reel chock-filled with stunt action and interview segments he’s done over the years with the likes of Cynthia Rothrock, Benny “The Jet” Urquidez and Keith Vitali. Rounding out the Hit List are reels by Jade Dregorius, Bruce Concepcion, Ariel Lee, Connor Dunn, Malin Kirjonen, Simon Potter, Rosslyn Luke, Gaetan Geloen, Natasha Paul, Noah Schultz, Alli Dunn, Narayana Cabral, Katie O’Donovan and all-around stuntmascot, Zoltan Berencsi. Peep it! Next up are four new trailers; Leading off are two channel trailers by way of two of France’s finest, Cedric Tellier and […]

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[UPDATED] Amy Johnston Debut, LADY BLOODFIGHT, Scores Its Official North American Trailer

Kiss Of The Dragon helmer Chris Nahon’s latest action adventure, Lady Bloodfight, took quite the time from its elongated development as a loose female-centric sequel to the 1989 hit, Bloodsport, to a movie all its own. Such the shape it has taken now lends Hollywood stuntwoman and actress Amy Johnston her first major stab at a lead role with a bevy of female screenfighting talents showcasing stylish action sequences by Hung Yan Yan (Coweb [U.S. title: Ninja Masters]). SYNOPSIS: Jane is a beautiful but troubled American girl backpacking her way through Hong Kong. When she successfully fends off three thugs trying to rob her, she draws the attention of Shu, a Wudang champion, who is impressed by her raw street fighting abilities. Shu recruits Jane and trains her to fight in the vicious, all-female, underground martial arts tournament known as “The Kumite.” After months of rigorous preparation, Jane is ready […]

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Did FOXTROT SIX Just Confirm Iko Uwais?

Reports as early as December of 2015 confirmed that famed Rambo and Terminator franchise producer Mario Kassar’s participation in the development of high-end Asian sci-fi action thriller, Foxtrot Six. For this, we had info of The Raid and The Raid 2 producer Ario Sagantorio also on board as well as the addition of two martial arts stalwarts who worked on both films Yayan Ruhian and Cecep Arif Rahman. As things now stand with cinematographer and camera assistant Randy Korompis set to make his feature debut at the helm for the new film, this could very well serve as the stellar Indonesian action movie reunion fans might have been craving since the three cameoed in J.J. Abrams’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens. As such, it appears the official Twitter account for the film’s production at Paradigma Pictures recently confirmed the addition of The Raid franchise star, actor and martial artist Iko Uwais. You can […]

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KARATE KILL To Deliver The Finishing Blow U.S. Martial Arts Fans Crave This June!

Dark Cuts/Petri Entertainment/Mamezo Pictures You don’t have to take my word for it when it comes to Mitsutake Kurando’s new movie, Karate Kill…however, I sincerely hope you do. Or that of any other critic for that matter while our dear director, with only a small raft of films to his credit, continues to perform nothing short of impressively behind the lens. The film has already been the center of progressive festival success in select events around the world. It’s even moreso to his credit and that of our cast led by actor and martial artist Hayate whose debut lead role finds him landing in the U.S. from Japan in search of his missing sister – a mission that gets real violent, REAL fast! When a mysterious loner and Karate master Kenji’s little sister goes missing in Los Angeles, whoever stands in his way of finding her will face the wrath of […]

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