Catching fire gets a new poster

Two great things from the second installment of The Hunger Games. One being a great new poster and the second is a new trailer in support of FindAnyFilm.com's 'Moments Worth Paying For' Campaign...

 

THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE begins as Katniss Everdeen has returned home safe after winning the 74th Annual Hunger Games along with fellow tribute Peeta Mellark. Winning means that they must turn around and leave their family and close friends, embarking on a "Victor's Tour" of the districts. Along the way Katniss senses that a rebellion is simmering, but the Capitol is still very much in control as President Snow prepares the 75th Annual Hunger Games (The Quarter Quell) - a competition that could change Panem forever.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire will now be released in UK cinemas on November 21, 2013

Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works DVD and Blu-ray Short Review

4 stars for this well made tale of swords and sorcery.
 
Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works is directed by Yuji Yamaguchi and is based upon and features the characters from the TV series of the same name.

This film finds us firmly in the middle of the war for the Holy Grail ( a powerful artefact, able to grant any wish to it's owner), a war in which the seven Mages compete against each other in a fight to the death. 

To assist them in their endeavours they can each summon a powerful ally in the form of any one of seven hero classes, Saber, Archer, Rider, Berserker, Lancer, Caster and Assassin.


Read the rest of the review over at Road Rash Reviews

The Last Exorcism Part II DVD and Blu-ray Short Review

3.5 stars for the latest offering from Eli Roth.


The Last Exorcism Part II is directed and written by Ed Gass- Donnelly (Small Town Murder Song, This Beautiful City) and produced by Eli Roth (Aftershock, Cabin Fever).

It takes off directly after the end of the first film, with Nell Sweeter (Ashley Bell - The Last Exorcism, The Day) trying to recover from a harrowing exorcism, knowing little about what happened except that she is the only remaining member of her family.

Read the rest of the review over at Road Rash Reviews

Naruto Shippuden Box Set 14 Short Review

3.0 stars for this latest release in the Naruto series.

This box set starts at episode 167 in the story, and comprises the last seven episodes of the Invasion of Pain arc and the first four episodes of the Konoha History arc.

Again, this stars our hero Naruto and his friends as they battle the forces of evil.

At the start of the box set , we see Naruto battling with Pain, who has angered him enough to cause his six- tails transformation. As he reaches eight tails, the situation becomes desperate. Will the appearance of the Fourth Hokage be enough to turn the tide and will Naruto be able to track down Nagato and prevent the destruction of his village?

Read the rest of the review over at Road Rash Reviews

Cuban Fury

London, UK, 17th September 2013 – STUDIOCANAL today announced that CUBAN FURY will be released in cinemas across the UK & Ireland on 14th February 2014.

Beneath Bruce Garrett's under-confident, overweight exterior, the passionate heart of a salsa king lies dormant. Now, one woman is about to reignite his Latin fire. Spotlight hits, sweat drips, heels click - Nick Frost IS Cuban Fury.

CUBAN FURY stars Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Paul), Rashida Jones (The Social Network, I Love You, Man), Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids, The Boat that Rocked), Olivia Colman (Hot Fuzz, “Broadchurch”), Ian McShane (Snow White and the Huntsman, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Sexy Beast) and Kayvan Novak (Four Lions, “Fonejacker”).

1987: Poised to sweep the floor at the UK Junior Salsa Championships, 13-year-old Bruce Garrett has fire in his heels and the world at his feet... Until a freakish bullying incident robs him of his confidence and his life is diverted down a very different path. So it is that 22 years later, having locked away his boyhood dreams, Bruce finds himself out-of-shape, unloved and well and truly wedged in his “comfort zone”. It takes Julia (Jones), his smart, funny, gorgeous new American boss, to shake him from his emotional stupor and force him to re-examine his dull, passionless existence. But she’s out of his league, and with expert lothario and alpha-male office nemesis Drew (O’Dowd) overtly in pursuit of her, it’s enough to make Bruce want to give up on himself all over again. Can his loyal sister (Colman), childhood dance instructor (McShane), and crazy new amateur salsa pal (Novak) help Bruce unshackle his dancing beast, regain his long lost fury and claim the love of his life?

CUBAN FURY is written by Jon Brown (“Miranda”, “Misfits”, “Fresh Meat”), from an original idea by Nick Frost, and marks the feature film directorial debut of James Griffiths (“Up All Night”, “Free Agents”). It is produced by Nira Park and James Biddle (Big Talk), and executive producers are Nick Frost, Matthew Justice and Rachael Prior (Big Talk), Danny Perkins and Jenny Borgars (STUDIOCANAL) and Tessa Ross (Film4).

Win a holiday to NASA with Ender's Game

Ender’s Game is looking for new recruits! Join the Battle School here and play a brand new game every week for your chance to win an array of hardware or be entered in to a prize draw to win a holiday to NASA in Florida!

Put your skills to the test every week and see where you place on the leaderboard. The leaderboard will be hosted on the official Facebook page.

Enlist your friends by sharing the recruitment video, featuring Harrison Ford here:

Good Luck Soldiers!

IN CINEMAS OCTOBER 25TH

Sir Billi DVD Release Short Review

1 star for this misguided attempt at a children's film.

Sir Billi is written by Tessa Hartman (her writing and producing début, rather embarrassingly) , directed by Sascha Hartman (again, a first attempt) and produced by and starring Sir Sean Connery (Indiana Jones, James Bond).

This film is the first Scottish full length animated feature film, and it shows.
The animation is very strange, dated looking for sure, but almost as if they have tried way too hard. Everyone and everything looks shiny, like it's wet and there are white lines around all the objects in the foreground, making them look badly superimposed over the backgrounds (these are pretty good however).

Read the rest of the review over at Road Rash Reviews

Mandella gets a new trailer

The film celebrates Nelson Mandela’s extraordinary journey from his childhood in a rural village through to his election as President of South Africa. It explores the Mandela unknown to most of the world – the lover of fast cars and women, the boxing enthusiast and playboy, the skilful lawyer and the gun-toting freedom fighter - an intimate portrait of the making of a modern icon.

Mandela Long Walk To Freedom – In cinemas January 3, 2014

Bleach Series 11 DVD Release Short Review

4 Stars for the next instalment of this epic tale.

Bleach series 11 is directed by Noriyuki Abe and based upon the Manga by Tite Kubo. This series comprises episodes 213 - 229 and is called Arrancar: Decisive Battle Of Karakura Arc.

It begins back in time, during the Hueco Mundo Arc (Series 7) for the first two episodes, where we see Kisuke Urahara pit his comedy super hero team against the Hollows and then erect a protective shield around Karakura Town.

Find out more over at Road Rash Reviews

Robocop is back

The first trailer and images have just hit the web. A lot of people are up in arms about what they have done in this remake. I, in part, agree with them but on the other, that film was almost 30 years ago and a lot has changed in that time, both in technology and film making. i will just leave you to decide.

In RoboCop, the year is 2028 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the center of robot technology. Their drones are winning American wars around the globe and now they want to bring this technology to the home front. Alex Murphy (Kinnaman) is a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit. After he is critically injured in the line of duty, OmniCorp utilizes their remarkable science of robotics to save Alex's life. He returns to the streets of his beloved city with amazing new abilities, but with issues a regular man has never had to face before.

RoboCop will be released on February 7, 2014

The Body DVD and Blu-ray Release Short Review

5 stars for this outstanding psychological thriller.

The Body (El Cuerpo) is directed by Oriol  Paulo (writer of Julia's Eyes) and is a Spanish film, subtitled in English, with well deserved rave reviews after its screening at the London film festival.

After Ángel Torres (Miquel Gelabert - Box 507, El Greco), the night security guard at the local morgue, sees something that frightens him so badly that he runs in front of a car and falls into a coma, the police are called in.


Find out more over at Road Rash Reviews

Deadman Wonderland DVD and Blu-ray Short Review

4.5 stars of glorious 18 certificate anime at its best.

Deadman Wonderland is based on the Manga by Jinsei Kataoka and Kazuma Kondou and is the directorial début of  Koichi Hatsumi (key animator on Cowboy Bebop and Ghost In The Shell: SAC) and I can't wait to see what he comes up with next!

It tells the story of Ganta Igarashi (Romi Park - Fullmetal Alchemist, Bleach), a middle school kid wrongly accused and imprisoned for the brutal slaughter of his classmates.

Find out what else we thought over at Road Rash Reviews

David Walliams is Pudsey

STAR TO VOICE BRITAIN’S BEST LOVED DOG IN PUDSEY: THE MOVIE

LONDON – 5th September, 2013 – Vertigo Films, Syco Entertainment and ROAR Global today announced that David Walliams will voice the character of Pudsey in the Britain’s Got Talent winner’s debut big screen outing, PUDSEY: THE MOVIE. The six-week shoot for the British family film began on September 1st, 2013 on location in the south of England.

Directed by Nick Moore (Wild Child, Horrid Henry: The Movie) and written by Paul Rose (‘Dani’s House’), the film will also star a host of British quality acting talent, including Jessica Hynes (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger), John Sessions (Filth; The Iron Lady), Luke Neal (Jupiter Ascending; ‘Starlings’), Izzy Meikle-Smith (Snow White and the Huntsman) and Luke Tittensor (‘Emmerdale’, ‘Holby City’).

A heartwarming, quintessentially British adventure for all the family, PUDSEY: THE MOVIE follows cheeky London stray dog, PUDSEY, who is quite happy being a lone ranger and looking out for number one until he meets siblings Molly (Izzy Meikle-Smith), George (Spike White) and Tommy (Malachy Knights). Following her divorce, their mother Gail (Jessica Hynes) is moving the family to the sleepy village of Chuffington-on-Sea and Pudsey tags along, to the dismay of their landlord, Mr Thorne (John Sessions) and his cat Faustus. As Pudsey starts to settle in with the family and realize what he was missing when he was alone, he stumbles across Thorne and Fautus’ evil plan and he determines to save them and the whole village.

Produced by Vertigo’s Rupert Preston and Marshall Levitan and executive produced by Allan Niblo, James Richardson, Jonathan Shalit, Mark Brittain, Ben Todd, Nigel Williams and Jamie Carmichael with co producer Michael Ford, the film is slated for release in the UK in May 2014 by Vertigo Distribution. Content is selling international rights.

David Walliams said of the project, “I am thrilled to be providing the voice of Pudsey. I have been coming up with different voices for him ever since that first audition.”

Rupert Preston of Vertigo states: "We're delighted to be working with Syco on such a family friendly British film and with such British icons as David Walliams and Pudsey, and we can’t wait to share this with audiences.”

Mark Brittain of Syco Entertainment added: “We are delighted to be working with Vertigo on this project and particularly thrilled that, little more than a year after Pudsey wowed the nation by winning Britain’s Got Talent, he is now becoming a bona fide film star.”

Jamie Carmichael from Content said: “Content is really excited to be working with Vertigo and Syco on what is clearly going to be a hilarious and classic British family film – and we can’t wait to help make Pudsey into the most famous dog in the world!”

A Vertigo Films and Syco Entertainment production in association with Infinite Wisdom and Backwell Productions.

Transformers 4 gets a title

“TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION” stars Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, Kelsey Grammer, Jack Reynor, Nicola Peltz, Sophia Myles, TJ Miller, Han Geng and Chinese actress Li Bingbing in the fourth installment in the hit series of movies based on the best-selling Hasbro toyline. Paramount Pictures will release the film on June 27th, 2014.

Shooting in multiple locations in the U.S. and China throughout the summer, the film is directed by Michael Bay and re-unites the filmmaking team from the hit franchise, including producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Don Murphy & Tom DeSanto and Ian Bryce; and executive producers Steven Spielberg, Bay, Brian Goldner and Mark Vahradian. “TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION” is written by Ehren Kruger, based on Hasbro’s Transformers™ Action Figures.

Bay’s first “TRANSFORMERS” film was a box office sensation in 2007, opening at #1 and earning more than $700 million worldwide. His second installment “TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN” in 2009 grossed more than $830 million worldwide. In 2011, “TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON” was an even bigger hit worldwide, grossing more than a billion dollars to become the 5th highest grossing film of all time. To date, the franchise has earned more than $2.6 billion worldwide.

Breakout DVD Release Short Review

3.5 stars for this thriller starring Ray Liotta.

Breakout is written by Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games, The Underland Chronicles) and directed by Doug Logato (Wild Wild West, Best Shots) and was originally released under the name of "Ticket Out".

Breakout tells the story of Jocelyn (Alexandra Breckenridge - She's The Man, Family Guy), a mother desperate to keep her children safe and away from her abusive and dangerous husband, Dennis (Billy Burke - The Twilight Saga, Red Riding Hood).

Find out what else we thought about the film over at Road Rash Reviews

More of a Rush

Two great features have just been released for the film. One showing us how Chris and Daniel were told how to "drive" a formula 1 car and the other is a nice feature about how to play James Hunt on film.

Driving An F1

On The Set With Chris Hemsworth

Two-time Academy Award® winner Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind, Frost/Nixon), teams once again with fellow two-time Academy Award® nominee, writer Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon, The Queen), on Rush, a spectacular big-screen re-creation of the merciless 1970s rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda.

The epic action-drama stars Chris Hemsworth (The Avengers) as the charismatic Englishman James Hunt and Daniel Brühl (Inglourious Basterds) as the disciplined Austrian perfectionist Niki Lauda, whose clashes on the Grand Prix racetrack epitomized the contrast between these two extraordinary characters, a distinction reflected in their private lives.

Set against the sexy and glamorous golden age of Formula 1 racing, Rush portrays the exhilarating true story of two of the greatest rivals the world has ever witnessed—handsome English playboy Hunt and his methodical, brilliant opponent, Lauda. Taking us into their personal lives on and off the track, Rush follows the two drivers as they push themselves to the breaking point of physical and psychological endurance, where there is no shortcut to victory and no margin for error. If you make one mistake, you die.

Driving into UK cinemas September 13, 2013

Runner Runner

Hopefully we haven't seen all the best action from the trailer but that can't be guaranteed today. The one good thing is that it has Ben Affleck playing the baddie...

Richie (Justin Timberlake), a Princeton college student who pays for school with online gambling, bottoms out and travels to Costa Rica to confront the mastermind, Ivan (Ben Affleck), whom he believes has swindled him.

Ivan sees a kindred spirit in Richie and brings the younger man into his operation. When Richie comes to fully understand the deviousness of his new boss, he tries to turn the tables on him.

Runner Runner is released in the UK on 27th September 2013

Crocodile Shoes DVD Release Short Review

4 stars for this classic 1990's TV series, 3 stars for the conversion.

Crocodile Shoes was first shown on BBC One in 1994 and was written by the star, Jimmy Nail (Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Spender) who also had a successful music career on the back of the series.

This tells the story of Geordie factory worker Jed Shepperd, played by Jimmy Nail, who operates the "magic lathe" for a living, but writes country music for a hobby. When his sister Emma (Melanie Hill - Waterloo Road, Stardust) sends copies of his demo tape to record companies in London, his talent is spotted by Ade Lynn (James Wilby - Maurice, Gosford Park). With the prospect of redundancy on the horizon, Jed is forced to make a big decision, does he leave his old life behind and try to make it big in the country music scene, or stay in Newcastle to face an uncertain future? 

Read the rest of the review over at Road Rash Reviews

Hannibal DVD and Blu-ray Release Short Review

4 stars for this tense thriller, familiar names with unfamiliar faces.Hannibal is the latest incarnation of the well known characters created by Thomas Harris (Red Dragon, Silence Of The Lambs, Hannibal) and is set during the time of Red Dragon.

The series was created by Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies, Heroes) and directed by David Slade (Twilight: Eclipse, 30 Days Of Night).

Hannibal tells the story of Will Graham (Hugh Dancy - Black Hawk Down, King Arthur), a brilliant and talented FBI criminal profiler, struggling to come to terms with his own demons, while trying to catch the worst of the hardened criminals that society has to offer.

Find out what we think about this well thought out TV series over at Road Rash Reviews