'Over Drive': An unrealistic racing flick puts the action into top gear

Car movies from Japan are few and far between, which is strange given the huge automotive industry and millions of car lovers here. Now industry leader Toyota has joined forces with Toho, Japan’s biggest film distributor and exhibitor, to fill that gap with “Over Drive,” a full-throttled cinematic ode to speed set in the world of rally racing.

Based on Sayaka Kuwamura’s original script, “Over Drive” is over-the-top in everything from its roaring action to its ripe theatrics. Both are trademarks of director Eiichiro Hasumi, whose credits include the smash-hit “Umizaru” films about the heroic adventures and weepy tribulations of Japan Coast Guard divers.

His heroes are Atsuhiro Hiyama (Masahiro Higashide) and his younger brother, Naozumi (Mackenyu Arata) — the former the chief mechanic and the latter the ace driver for Spica Racing Factory, a top team in the fictional Seiko Cup Rally Series for younger drivers. The winner of this Japan/Asia race series will advance to the World Rally Championship, a real-life circuit......

Read more on The Japan Time

More information on this movie (In Japenese)

Whitney - Official Trailer

Ocean's 8 - full New York Press Conference (2018)

Check out the full press conference for Oceans 8, with co-writer Olivia Milch, director Gary

 Ross, Anne Hathaway (Daphe Kluger), Mindy Kaling (Amita), Cate Blanchett (Lou), Sandra

Bullock (Debbie Oceans), Awkwafina (Constance) and Sarah Paulson (Tammy)



For more information on this movie click here

Priyanka Chopra Visiting Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh

Universal Wins James Bond International Distribution

Spectre,' Courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures/Columbia Pictures

'Spectre' (2015)

MGM will distribute the film domestically through its joint

partnership with Annapurna and has set a Nov. 8, 2019,

release date for its U.S. opening.

After a battle amongst major film studios, Universal has won the international distribution rights to the 25th installment of the James Bond franchise and has also secured rights for physical home entertainment. 

Domestic distribution for the film, currently titled simply Bond 25, will be handled by MGM through its joint venture with Annapurna that was signed last year.

Eon Productions and MGM announced the new partnership with Universal on Thursday evening. Under the deal, MGM will also retain digital and worldwide television rights.

The 25th Bond movie will be released first in the U.K. on Oct. 25, 2019, and will then hit U.S. screens on Nov. 8, 2019. Production is slated to begin Dec. 3.

The franchise's current leading man, Daniel Craig, is set to return for his fifth film as Agent 007, with Oscar-winner Danny Boyle directing the project based on a script penned by his Trainspotting screenwriting partner John Hodge......

The Hollywood Reporter

YA Novel Adaptation 'The Hate U Give' Lands Fall Release Date

Getty Images

Amandla Stenberg

The activist-minded film will open opposite 'Mowgli' and 'Halloween' in October.

The big-screen adaptation of Angie Thomas' 2017 best-seller The Hate U Give has landed a fall release date.

Fox on Wednesday announced that the George Tillman Jr.-directed film will open Oct. 19, opposite Andy Serkis vehicle Mowgli, the latest Halloween movie starring Jamie Lee Curtis and fellow book adaptation Where'd You Go, Bernadette?, the screen version of Maria Semple's popular 2012 novel.

Audrey Wells (Under the Tuscan Sun, A Dog's Purpose) is writing the screenplay, which follows a prep school student who turns to activism after she witnesses the shooting of her childhood best friend at the hands of a police officer......

Amandla Stenberg (Everything, Everything; The Hunger Games) is set to play the protagonist, Starr, while Russell Hornsby, Regina Hall, Common, Anthony Mackie, Issa Rae, KJ Apa and Algee Smith have also signed on to play key characters........

Read more on The Hollywood Reporter

Liam Neeson Joins Chris Hemsworth in 'Men in Black' Spinoff

Getty Images

Liam Neeson

Tessa Thompson is also starring in the revival.

Liam Neeson is in negotiations to join Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson in Sony's Men in Black spinoff.

Fate of the Furious filmmaker F. Gary Gray is directing the project, written by Iron Man screenwriters Matt Holloway and Art Marcum. The studio has the film dated for a June 14, 2019, release.

Hemsworth and Thompson are not playing the same alien-fighting and world-saving characters portrayed by Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in the initial film trilogy. The new movie is set in the same onscreen world, however.....

Read more on The Hollywood Reporter

Young filmmakers looking to follow in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s footsteps have their work cut out for them + Trailer

Master class: Director Hirokazu Kore-eda poses with his Palme d'Or trophy at the Cannes Film Festival on May 19. He won the event's top prize for his film, 'Shoplifters.' | AFP-JIJI

With his win of the Palme d’Or at Cannes for the family drama “Shoplifters,” Hirokazu Kore-eda has joined the short list of Japanese directors acknowledged as masters by the outside world. Yasujiro Ozu and Akira Kurosawa head that list, with Kore-eda’s own favorite, Mikio Naruse, a rank below.

Along with “master” status usually comes influence on younger filmmakers. Kurosawa’s impact has arguably been the greatest, with movies such as “Seven Samurai” (1954) and “Yojimbo” (1961) inspiring not only remakes but entire subgenres: the “men (or more rarely, women) on a mission” movie from the former and the “dirty hero” action movie from the latter.

Kore-eda has long been a mentor to younger directors, most prominently Miwa Nishikawa (“The Long Excuse,” 2016) and documentarian Mami Sunada (“The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness,” 2013). Launched in 2014, his company Bun-Buku produces everything from feature films to TV commercials with these and other filmmakers.......

Read more on The Japan Times

'Capharnaum': Film Review | Cannes 2018

Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival

Boluwatife Treasure Bankole and Zain Al Rafeea in 'Capharnaum.'

Actor-director Nadine Labaki explores the poorest slums of Lebanon through the eyes of a child in this Cannes competition entry.

According to one definition found online, Capharnaum means a "disorderly accumulation of objects."  Although that's a fantastically uncommercial title for a movie, the concept suits this latest work from actor-writer-director Nadine Labaki (Caramel, Where Do We Go Now?). She's made up a grab bag of ideas and plot elements that work surprisingly effectively as a melodrama with a message. Several messages, in fact, all illustrated through the ordeals suffered by 12-year-old Zain (Zain Al Rafeea), a child fighting to survive in the slums and shanty towns of Lebanon. Although the narrative is structured through a highly unbelievable instigating conceit — Zain is trying to sue his own parents in court for giving him life in the first place — Labaki lures such outstanding performances out of the almost entirely non-professional cast and sketches such a credible view of this wretchedly poor milieu that the flaws are mostly forgivable.

Labaki and casting director Jennifer Haddad have sought actors whose life stories track closely to the backstories of the characters they're playing. That means star Al Rafeea really is a kid who had until recently been working, per the press notes, as a delivery boy since the age of 10, while Cedra Izam, the girl who plays his 11-year-old sister, is a Syrian refugee who was discovered while selling chewing gum in the streets of Beirut, and so on.........

Read more on The Hollywood Reporter

Confirmed! Disha Patani joins Salman Khan and Priyanka Chopra in Bharat

Will Disha Patani join Salman Khan and Priyanka Chopra in Bharat?

Disha Patani might become a part of another big Bollywood project ‘Bharat’starring Salman Khan and Priyanka Chopra.

Bollywood diva, Disha Patani, has been already making headlines for her phenomenal performance in Tiger Shroff starrer ‘Baaghi 2’ which was a mega blockbuster at the box office. Now it is confirmed that the actress will become a part of another big Bollywood project ‘Bharat’starring Salman Khan and Priyanka Chopra.

Disha Patani is all set to be seen playing the second female lead in Ali Abbas Zafar’s Bharat. Rumour Mill has it that actress Shraddha Kapoor was being considered for the part but now Disha Patani will be playing it. Well, this definitely makes a stellar star cast for the film. Disha’s last release Baaghi 2 went on to earn Rs. 165 crore at the box office and Salman Khan and Priyanka Chopra are already the formulae for a blockbuster in Bollywood.

Director Ali Abbas Zafar took to Twitter to confirm the news saying, "Welcome @DishPatani to the journey of @Bharat_TheFilm @BeingSalmanKhan @priyankachopra".......

Read more on INDIAtv

Mission Impossible - Fallout | Official Trailer | Paramount Pictures International

The best intentions often come back to haunt you. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT finds Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team (Alec Baldwin, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames) along with some familiar allies (Rebecca Ferguson, Michelle Monaghan) in a race against time after a mission gone wrong. Henry Cavill, Angela Bassett, and Vanessa Kirby also join the dynamic cast with filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie returning to the helm.

'Deadpool 2': What the Critics Are Saying

Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

The Merc with a Mouth impressed reviewers days before the sequel to 2016's critical and commercial hits theaters.

The reviews for Deadpool 2 are in and it seems the Merc with the Mouth has sweet-talked critics into blessing him with good advance word.

Even with expectations high after the franchise's first outing, which gained an 83 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating and $783 million in global box office, critics from Indiewire, Uproxx and Gizmodo are among those arguing that the sequel has surpassed the first in terms of subverting superhero tropes and mixing sharp comedy with dynamic action. Some critics are more muted in their praise, pointing out what they believe to be ethnic stereotypes among supporting characters and some obvious franchise-building with its new X-Force team. Still, the overall advance buzz is good as Deadpool 2 looks to upset other titles at the Memorial Day box office.

The Hollywood Reporter's John DeFore argues that the sequel is just as funny as the first, if not more refreshing, given that its smart-mouthed hero is now in his sophomore outing. And though there's action aplenty, the film balances action with character development, DeFore writes: "With Reynolds' charismatic irreverence at its core, the pic moves from bloody mayhem to lewd comedy and back fluidly, occasionally even making room to go warm and mushy."......

Read more on The Hollywood Reporter

LES FILLES DU SOLEIL - Cannes 2018 - Press Conférence - EV

Press Conference LES FILLES DU SOLEIL de Eva Husson avec Golshifteh Farahani, Emmanuelle Bercot, Erol Afsin

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR : Deleted Scenes

Presentation of the film on our website is HERE

Céline Dion - Ashes (from the Deadpool 2 Motion Picture Soundtrack)

LYRICS 

What’s left to say?
These prayers ain’t working anymore
Every word shot down in flames
What’s left to do with these broken pieces on the floor?
I’m losing my voice calling on you

‘Cause I’ve been shaking, I’ve been bending backwards ‘till I’m broke
Watching all these dreams go up in smoke

Let beauty come out of ashes
Let beauty come out of ashes
And when I pray to God all I ask is 
Can beauty come out of ashes?

Can you use these tears to put out the fires in my soul?
‘Cause I need you here, oh

‘Cause I’ve been shaking, I’ve been bending backwards ‘till I’m broke
Watching all these dreams go up in smoke

Let beauty come out of ashes
Let beauty come out of ashes
And when I pray to God all I ask is
Can beauty come out of ashes
Can beauty come out of ashes

Paul Giamatti Joins Dwayne Johnson in Disney's 'Jungle Cruise' (Exclusive)

Tara Ziemba/Getty Images Paul Giamatti

Emily Blunt is also starring in the adventure project.

Paul Giamatti, who worked with Dwayne Johnson in the earthquake movie San Andreas, is reteaming with the box-office star for Disney’s Jungle Cruise.

The Oscar nominee and multiple Golden Globe winner has closed a deal to join Johnson and Emily Blunt in the studio’s adventure movie that takes inspiration from its theme park ride. Jesse Plemons, Jack Whitehall and Edgar Ramirez are also on the call sheet.

Jaume Collet-Serra, the filmmaker behind The Shallows and Liam Neeson films such as The Commuter and Non-Stop, will direct the project, which is set in the early 20th century and takes place in the Amazon jungle.


Johnson will play a boat captain who takes his sister (Blunt) and her brother (Whitehall) on a mission to find a tree believed to possess healing powers. Wild animals and a competing German expedition figure into the proceedings........

Read more on The Hollywood Reporter

Bollywood box-office report card: Hits and misses of April 2018

Photo:TWITTER

Bollywood box-office report card for April 

Check out how Bollywood films fared at the box-office in April.

April 2018 offered a wide range of movie genres to the audience. From unusual romance to horror comedy, Bollywood left cinema lovers spoilt for choices. While Irrfan Khan starrer Blackmail failed to impress the audience, Varun Dhawan’s cinematic charm in Shoojit Sircar’s October was widely appreciated. However, when it comes to box-office rating, did the films succeed in raking in the much-needed moolah? Well, find out right here.......

Read more on INDIAtv