Watch Online Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) - MovieTimeUs

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Synopsis:

A war begins to brew between man and ape in this sequel to the 2011 hit Rise of the Planet of the Apes. It's been ten years since the Simian Flu wiped out most of humanity, and somewhere deep in the woods outside of San Francisco, Caesar (voice and performance capture by Andy Serkis) and his primate companions have established a thriving village built on the principles of peace and community. Shortly after welcoming a baby brother into the family, Caesar's son Blue Eyes (Nick Thurston) is walking through the forest with his friend Ash (Doc Shaw) when they cross paths with a human named Carver (Kirk Acevedo), who impulsively draws his gun and shoots Ash at the first sign of aggression. As it turns out, Carver is part of a human expedition led by Malcolm (Jason Clarke), who, along with the rest of his crew, races to Carver's side just as Caesar and the rest of the apes answer Blue Eyes' desperate call for help. An enraged Caesar drives the humans away after realizing they are no longer a threat, and decides to dispatch a small crew to follow them rather than yield to the pleas of his aggressive advisor Koba (Toby Kebbell) to launch an all-out attack. Instead, he decides to show the apes' strength by amassing outside of the humans' makeshift community at the base of an unfinished tower, making it unmistakably clear that the two species should remain apart. Meanwhile, the point of the human excursion was to get a dormant dam running again in order to power their community, which will soon be thrust into darkness should they fail to take action. Convinced that he could strike a truce with Caesar that would allow the humans to repair the dam, which is located on the apes' land, Malcolm gets permission from human leader Dreyfus (Gary Oldman) to set out on his mission. Incredibly, thanks to the help of his girlfriend Ellie (Keri Russell), his son Alexander (Kodi Smit-McPhee), and a few other key allies, Malcolm succeeds. Still, his truce with the apes is a fragile one, and just when it seems that the primates and humans have learned to coexist in peace, a shocking act of betrayal threatens to spark a war that will determine the dominant species.

Review:

A potent blend of sci-fi spectacle and substance, Matt Reeves' exhilarating interspecies-war drama Dawn of the Planet of the Apes may be the best film in the franchise since the 1968 original, thanks to a perceptive screenplay that delves deep into the tragic nature of conflict and cutting-edge special effects that constantly dazzle.

It's been ten years since the Simian Flu wiped out most of humanity, and somewhere deep in the woods outside of San Francisco, Caesar (voice and performance capture by Andy Serkis) and his primate companions have established a thriving village built on the principles of peace and community. Shortly after welcoming a baby brother into the family, Caesar's son Blue Eyes (Nick Thurston) is walking through the forest with his friend Ash (Doc Shaw) when they cross paths with a human named Carver (Kirk Acevedo), who impulsively draws his gun and shoots Ash at the first sign of aggression. As it turns out, Carver is part of a human expedition led by Malcolm (Jason Clarke), who, along with the rest of his crew, races to Carver's side just as Caesar and the rest of the apes answer Blue Eyes' desperate call for help. An enraged Caesar drives the humans away after realizing they are no longer a threat, and decides to dispatch a small crew to follow them rather than yield to the pleas of his aggressive advisor Koba (Toby Kebbell) to launch an all-out attack. Instead, he decides to show the apes' strength by amassing outside of the humans' makeshift community at the base of an unfinished tower, making it unmistakably clear that the two species should remain apart.

Meanwhile, the point of the human excursion was to get a dormant dam running again in order to power their community, which will soon be thrust into darkness should they fail to take action. Convinced that he could strike a truce with Caesar that would allow the humans to repair the dam, which is located on the apes' land, Malcolm gets permission from human leader Dreyfus (Gary Oldman) to set out on his mission. Incredibly, thanks to the help of his girlfriend Ellie (Keri Russell), his son Alexander (Kodi Smit-McPhee), and a few other key allies, Malcolm succeeds. Still, his truce with the apes is a fragile one, and just when it seems that the primates and humans have learned to coexist in peace, a shocking act of betrayal threatens to spark a war that will determine the dominant species.

For a while, it was starting to feel as if the best Planet of the Apes films were behind us; between Tim Burton's failed attempt to relaunch the franchise back in 2001 and Rupert Wyatt's commendable yet anticlimatic Rise of the Planet of the Apes a decade later, it seemed as if the original series would forever remain a relic of the tumultuous times when they were made. In Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, however, Reeves and screenwriters Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, and Mark Bomback all display an acute understanding of the deeply humanistic themes that made the initial films resonate so strongly with audiences.

Working with the special-effects wizards at Exceptional Minds, Weta Digital, and Soho VFX, the director and writers create a compelling alternate reality that's not only a convincing extension of our own, but one that's inhabited by creatures that are every bit as expressive and believable as their human counterparts. The eyes of the apes in this movie contain a full spectrum of emotions, including heartache, fear, anger, compassion, and shame. In a story examining the complexities of warfare, it's crucial that viewers are able to identify and relate to those feelings, and there isn't a moment in this film when those emotions fail to ring true -- both on the human and simian sides.

The ability to recognize those emotions also enhances the impact of the battle between the two species, and each time conflict arises in the movie, there's a tangible sense of the stakes involved. Although the violence in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes at times tests the boundaries of its PG-13 rating, every act of aggression reflects important aspects of the plot and characters. While occasionally excessive, the violence is far from gratuitous, and director Reeves occasionally adds stylistic touches that give it added impact -- especially in a showstopping scene set on a tank. And as the catalyst for this brutality, the character of Koba is played with chilling, warmongering efficiency by British actor Toby Kebbell, who easily holds his own opposite the immensely talented Andy Serkis. On the human side,Clarke continues the solid streak he's been riding ever since his role in Zero Dark Thirty, and Oldman serves as the frightening personification of the power of fear.

So while it's undeniable that Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is science fiction, it pays to remember that the most effective sci-fi holds a mirror to the surroundings in which it was conceived. By fully immersing us in a fantasy world that feels completely authentic, Reeves and his team not only succeed in recapturing the spirit of the original series (which is also echoed in Michael Giacchino's knowingly retro score), but in making its thought-provoking themes of sociopolitical tolerance relevant through skillful storytelling and stunning effects work. If we can just set aside our prejudice and arrogance long enough to recognize the value in this type of movie, perhaps we can learn to start building each other up again, rather than constantly tearing each other down.

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Watch Online Creed (2015) - MovieTimeUs

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Synopsis:

Adonis Johnson Creed (Michael B. Jordan), the son of former heavyweight champion Apollo Creed, attempts to follow in his father's footsteps and become a boxing legend in his own right. Apollo died in the ring in the 1980s at the hand of Russian pugilist Ivan Drago, forcing Adonis to grow up without his dad in his life. The young man travels to Philadelphia to find his late father's nemesis-turned-best friend, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), in order to recruit him as a trainer. Balboa soon takes the young Creed under his wing and helps him get in shape for a shot at the title. Ryan Coogler directs this spin-off of the hugely successful Rocky franchise.

Review:

Adonis Johnson (Michael B. Jordan) never knew his biological father, famed boxer Apollo Creed, who died in the ring before his birth. He's the illegitimate child of the former heavyweight champ, and spent his early life in juvenile detention and floating between group homes in Los Angeles, until Apollo's widow Mary Anne (Phylicia Rashad) tracked him down and adopted him. Flash-forward to 2015: Adonis fights (and dominates) in unlicensed matches in Tijuana at night, then returns to a promising office job in L.A. the following morning. He resents his father's legacy and is desperate to make his own name in the ring, but wants to do so without relying on the fanfare of his bloodline.

Against the wishes of his adoptive mother, Adonis quits his job and heads to Philadelphia, where he seeks out the only man who stood toe-to-toe with his father in his prime: Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone). Adonis is a self-taught boxer with a raw style, and he asks Rocky to train him to become a serious contender. The aging fighter begrudgingly accepts after much pestering, and Balboa takes young Adonis under his wing. The public quickly become aware of Adonis' heritage, and after knocking out a celebrated young fighter, he's catapulted into the spotlight and arranged to face reigning champ "Pretty" Ricky Conlan (Anthony Bellew). Meanwhile, Rocky's health suffers as the title fight nears, testing the fortitude of both men as the seventh installment of the Rocky franchise reaches its final act.

The 28-year-old Jordan breathes remarkable life into the title role, balancing the cocksure, boastful attitude of his character's late father with his own sense of exuberance and loyalty. In addition, his scenes with love interest Bianca (Tessa Thompson) are tender and candid. Jordan escaped the tire fire that was The Fantastic Four relatively unscathed, and here he reminds us that he's a tremendous talent.

Likewise, Stallone is a treasure as the aging Balboa, who's been beaten down physically and mentally from a hard life. As his health deteriorates over the course of the film, it's shocking to see him look so withered while steadfastly training the young Adonis. Sly is able to distill the most vulnerable and amiable elements of Balboa, which have persisted throughout the franchise, into an earnest, emotional performance.

Sure, there are rehashed plot points from earlier Rocky flicks; the underdog-boxer tale only has a finite number of routes it can take. But director Ryan Coogler (who previously teamed with Jordan for 2013's fantastic Fruitvale Station) forgoes scenes of drinking raw eggs and meat-locker boxing, instead helming the movie like any true prodigy would -- by making Creed distinctly his own. He taps into the heart of Philadelphia the same way Stallone and John G. Avildsen did in 1976, even if Rocky's home looks vastly different nearly 40 years later. Coogler and cinematographer Maryse Alberti use the gritty cityscape as a backdrop for Adonis' transformation: While the young man grew up fighting all the time in group homes, he was able to live a life of luxury after Mary Anne found him. Thus, his move to Philadelphia signals a shift in his character, and the city represents the type of the fighter he wants to become under Balboa's tutelage. And just as previous Rocky films focused on Italian neighborhoods in the blue-collar city, Coogler takes Creed into historically African-American pockets of Philadelphia, where Meek Mill blares on gym stereos and wheelie-popping dirt bikes are heard outside. Despite hailing from Oakland, CA, Coogler (who also co-wrote Creed with Aaron Covington) manages to bring this milieu to life without it feeling forced or disingenuous.

Creed is as artfully crafted as any pugilist flick in recent memory. Adonis' fight scenes are choreographed with both technical fluidity and a palpable intensity: Heads don't dramatically snap back like they did when the Italian Stallion fought Drago in Rocky IV -- instead, the blows land with a realistic force. With all the potential pitfalls that could have stunted Creed before its opening bell rang, it's no minor achievement that the pieces come together into such a bold, funny, and satisfying whole. Big-budget, studio-produced franchise films don't get any better than this.

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Watch Online The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) - MovieTimeUs

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Synopsis:

Martin Scorsese reteams with Leonardo DiCaprio for this adaptation of Jordan Belfort's memoir about his exploits as a crooked banker. Terence Winter provides the screenplay. Jonah Hill and Oscar winner Jean Dujardin co-star.

Review:

With The Wolf of Wall Street, Martin Scorsese's adaptation of Jordan Belfort's memoir, the legendary director has made his most playfully rambunctious and funniest film ever. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Jordan, an ambitious stockbroker who learns all too well from his coke-snorting mentor (Matthew McConaughey) that the trick to the business is making your own money from commissions -- the customers don't matter.

Jordan sets off on his own hawking penny stocks, and quickly figures out that -- because the commission rate is so much higher on them -- he can quickly amass a personal fortune by convincing millionaires to invest in these probably worthless companies. Setting his plan in motion, Jordan puts together a loyal if dim-witted team of salesmen -- including his eventual second-in-command Donnie (a skeevy Jonah Hill) -- teaches them his tenacious, never-take-no-for-an-answer verbal patter, and eventually becomes so successful that Forbes magazine writes an article about him that gives the film its title.

Of course, all of this obscene wealth comes at a price. Jordan, who starts out as a classic nice guy who wants to do right by his wife, quickly drops her for a model whom he later marries. He develops a seemingly insatiable appetite for drugs, hookers, and extravagant displays of conspicuous consumption. If he doesn't implode from debauchery first, he might get taken down by FBI agent Patrick Denham (Kyle Chandler), a straight arrow who has made it his mission to uncover the illegality at the center of Jordan's financial empire.

Scorsese maintains a nearly relentless sense of momentum for the film's just shy of three-hour running time, which is all the more impressive because Terence Winter's script is very talky: The movie has numerous monologues and a handful of epic verbal confrontations -- none better than when Jordan and Denham have their first face-to-face meeting. Thankfully, the words are as seductive as the images, and Scorsese lets you feel the buzz that Jordan experiences as he ingests more and more substances and throws around increasing amounts of cash.

With its rise-and-fall tale of a man who spins out of control on drugs, wealth, and power, it's tempting to think of Wolf as a revisit of Goodfellas. However, there's a fundamental difference in Scorsese's feelings about his two lead characters that explains why they are very distinct movies. As ridiculous as Henry and his cohorts got, there was a lethalness to them that the director feared. Their actions were too somber to joke about -- as Joe Pesci's character famously asked, what was so funny about them?

However, Jordan Belfort is the kind of slick corporate shark that Marty has spent decades trying to squeeze money out of in order to make movies, and he uses this opportunity to unload all of his contempt at these modern masters of the universe. For the first time, it feels like he has genuine disdain for his main character, and this frees him to humiliate Jordan in endlessly entertaining ways. Religion has always been central to Scorsese's work and iconography, and with Wolf he gets to unleash some Old Testament wrath on a sinner who deserves everything the Almighty can summon.

No sequence makes that more clear than when Jordan, after taking too many powerful quaaludes, has a physical breakdown and must drive back home while suffering seizures. DiCaprio, as he does throughout the movie, throws himself into this scene with the commitment of a silent-era comic. It's hard to think of another A-list leading man so willing to make himself look ridiculous, and working with someone he trusts as much as Scorsese only inspires him to push even further. It's an outrageously funny sequence, one that few actor/director combinations would have the talent to execute this well.

But don't be misled into thinking that Wolf is just modern slapstick. The movie is unafraid to let people talk for extended stretches of time, yet it almost never feels improvised; the scenes are structured as tightly as Jordan's script to potential clients. That fact comes through in a showpiece scene late in the picture when Jordan must address his frenetic employees and tell them he's stepping down as the head of the company. The scene pivots, though, as he works up yet another head of steam and you realize he's so far gone from the person he was at the beginning of the film that he now buys his own line of crap.

That's the moment that exposes the movie's point -- America itself is so drunk on its own excesses and drive for success that it has absolutely lost its way. The Wolf of Wall Street is a hilarious, angry, and scathing indictment of greed. It's so funny you might not notice how deep it cuts.

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Watch Online Krampus (2015) - MovieTimeUs

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Synopsis:

After losing his faith in Christmas and tearing apart his letter to Santa, a young boy (Emjay Anthony) accidentally summons the malevolent holiday demon Krampus. The following day, his family awaken to find that a massive blizzard has knocked out the power in their house, and they are soon forced to fight for survival as the fearsome folklore creature and his minions proceed to wreak havoc on the dysfunctional clan. Adam Scott, Toni Collette, and David Koechner co-star in this hybrid of black comedy and horror from director Michael Dougherty (Trick 'r Treat).

Review:

An old Alpine folktale posits that Santa Claus has a dubious adversary: the hoofed and horned Krampus, who punishes misbehaving children instead of giving them gifts. Writer/director Michael Dougherty and his co-screenwriters Todd Casey and Zach Shields take this legend and run with it in the half dimwit-comedy, half creature-feature film Krampus. Yet despite some pretty inventive design work, the flick is neither funny nor scary.

Max (Emjay Anthony) is a grade-schooler enamored with Christmas. He's written a long letter to Santa, and is looking forward to baking cookies with his grandma Omi (Krista Stadler) and rewatching Charlie Brown's TV special. But, much to his dismay, his parents Tom and Sarah (Adam Scott and Toni Collette) and older sister Beth (Stefania LaVie Owen) have lost interest in the holiday, and are dreading the arrival of their foulmouthed, redneck relatives Howard and Linda (David Koechner and Allison Tolman) and their two tomboy daughters. The families immediately clash when the latter brood arrive two days before Christmas, and things are made even worse by the unexpected appearance of their coarse Aunt Dorothy (Conchata Ferrell). After an argument at the dinner table, Max retreats to his room, tears apart his letter to Santa, and throws the pieces of it out the window, where the wind carries them into the night sky.

The next day, the family awaken to find that a massive blizzard has knocked out the power in their house. The snowstorm is unrelenting, and tensions begin to run high as a series of creepy occurrences outside cause alarm. Suddenly, the family are thrown into an all-out fight for survival when the evil spirit Krampus and his army of gingerbread minions and horrifying masked monsters descend upon the home, and start picking them off one-by-one.

Dougherty made waves with his acclaimed 2008 Halloween anthology film Trick 'r Treat, and he transfers his focus to the yuletide season with less impressive results in Krampus. The first third of the movie is a bumbling comedy of manners, with the uptight suburban couple of Scott and Collette on one side, and the gun-obsessed Koechner and drunken Ferrell on the other. While some of their interactions might seem familiar to viewers who are forced to reunite with quirky families at Christmastime, this worn-out dynamic has been done far better in other holiday films.

The German-speaking Omi adds a bit of backstory to the movie's folklore, since she confronted Krampus when she was just a girl. This flashback is done in stop-motion animation reminiscent of The Nightmare Before Christmas, and it's a nice reprieve from the idiotic plot line of a family under siege. As for the rest of the film, at least it's interesting to look at: Costume designer Bob Buck and the art department deserve a lot of credit for their work. In particular, Krampus' army of macabre monsters are well-crafted, and the demon himself is an imposing force when he appears. The problem is that he isn't onscreen nearly enough.

Horror-comedies almost always feel like a round peg being not so subtly hammered into a square hole. This is definitely the case with Krampus: A failure at both genres, it's less than the sum of its middling parts. There might be an interesting horror film and a campy comedy to be made about the folklore of Krampus, but Dougherty's awkward amalgamation is neither of them.

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Watch Online The Big Short (2015) - MovieTimeUs

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Review:

This adaptation of Michael Lewis' nonfiction book The Big Short explores the 2008 financial crisis through the lens of four unorthodox moneymen, who foresaw the consequences of the fraudulent mortgage-lending practices of large banks on Wall Street. Christian Bale plays Michael Burry, a former hedge-fund manager who was one of the first to forecast the collapse of the credit bubble due to excessive subprime lending. Steve Carell is Mark Baum (based on the real-life Steve Eisman), a money manager who rose to fame after successfully betting against subprime mortgages. Directed by Adam McKay. Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, and Marisa Tomei co-star.

Review:

After the rise of alternative comedy, driven in large part by the creators and alumni of the Upright Citizens Brigade, several performers known for their funny work successfully managed to branch out. Stars like Louis C.K. and Jenny Slate have won accolades for their dabblings in pitch-black humor, and actors such as Steve Carell (Foxcatcher) and Sarah Silverman (Masters of Sex) have excelled in dramatic roles on both the big and small screens. Now, Adam McKay, former Saturday Night Live writer and the director of just about every funny Will Ferrell film from the past decade (Anchorman, The Other Guys, etc.), has helmed a movie about the disastrous 2008 collapse of the housing market, based on a nonfiction book by financial journalist Michael Lewis. The subject matter is heady, but McKay pulls out all the stops in an effort to underline how misplaced hubris and greed resulted in millions of people losing their homes and jobs, with no real consequences for the majority of the bankers and managers truly responsible for the carnage.

To help stir up the requisite outrage and laughs needed to pull this movie off, McKay brought in heavyweights like Carell, Christian Bale, and Brad Pitt, and utilizes fourth-wall-breaking commentary to give this wide-ranging tale the feel of a cautionary documentary. In addition, Ryan Gosling pulls double duty as both the de facto narrator and the character of Jared Vennett, a smooth-talking, successful mortgage trader based on the real-life Greg Lippmann. Vennett decides to short the housing market after learning about a hedge-fund manager (Bale) who has been betting against a variety of subprime mortgages to the tune of 1.3 billion dollars. As Vennett discovered in his work for Deutsche Bank, a variety of high-risk housing loans are being grouped together as CDOs, which eventually cause the whole system to...well, we'll stop there, because a good deal of the film's acidic laughs come from having this dilemma explained to us by Gosling and several unexpected guests.

Vennett partners with a team from an independent money-management firm, which is led by a cynical, tightly wound executive portrayed by Carell in another performance worthy of high-level accolades. Pitt provides some dry levity as a skilled former trader roped back into the game by a couple of shrewd young investors (played by John Magaro and Finn Wittrock in capable turns), who require his financial backing and guidance.

The high-quality actors benefit from a superb screenplay by McKay and Charles Randolph that allows them to casually siphon humor from their characters' anger, paranoia, and disgust. After several terrific films that mined guffaws from outsize and outlandish individuals, McKay relies on real-life subtlety, tics, and gravitas here to bring these players to life. The explanations of mortgage bonds, subprime loans, and tranches sometimes come off as slightly smug, which makes us crave more of Pitt's dry, prescient financial veteran. The Big Short is also guilty of laying its moral agenda on pretty thick with the pair of upstart investors, employing them as a Greek chorus who practically spell out the movie's themes in bright neon lights.

These are minor qualms, though, considering that this is an impressive, out-of-left-field turn from an established comedy director. Carell delivered an all-time-great comic performance as Anchorman's Brick Tamland in his prior collaboration with McKay, and the actor achieves another career milestone here by playing the smartest guy in the room, one who's burdened by the weight of both professional foresight and personal grief. Meanwhile, Gosling has never been funnier, and Bale makes us feel the inner turmoil of a lifelong outsider finding himself on an island yet again. The Big Short is a well-crafted and important comedy wrapped around a genuinely harrowing drama. It will make viewers both belly laugh and ponder the highly unsettling relationship between big banks and the government, all within the same scene. In what feels like another debut, McKay has made an enlightening and engaging picture that shouldn't be missed.

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Watch Online Lucy (2014) - MovieTimeUs

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Synopsis :

Morgan Freeman and Scarlett Johansson headline this EuropaCorp/TF1 Films co-production directed by Luc Besson, and released by Universal Pictures. The story centers on a woman (Johansson) who falls prey to sinister underworld forces, but who gains superhuman abilities that allow her to strike back at her oppressors.

Review:

Following in the recent tradition of high-concept sci-fi action thrillers like Inception, Lucy is at its best when it's either reveling in explosive action sequences, or delving into deep, metaphorical philosophy. The moments in between, when the characters actually attempt to explain the pseudo-science that drives the plot, as always, are this genre's weak points. But while you're in the middle of enjoying the ride, it probably won't matter.

The story rests entirely on the oft-quoted factoid that human beings only use 10% of their brains, proposing that thus, activating that unused 90% could offer us wild and crazy superpowers. Of course, any nerd worth their salt knows this figure isn't even true -- it's a bastardization of the assertion by early 20th century neurologists that they only understood how we use around 10% of the brain. But in the end, this probably isn't a deal-breaker for most viewers, because director and writer Luc Besson (The Fifth Element, The Professional) is adept at distracting us with sweet car chases and tense shootouts. He eventually eclipses the dumb exposition from the movie's first act with some way-smarter content, which comes in the form of subtext. It's sort of like The Matrix (the first one, anyway), where the story makes a lot more sense if you take it as an analogy for more abstract, spiritual ideas. But in the meantime, you get to follow a badass woman as she rapidly evolves beyond the human understanding of the universe and exacts unflinching, hardcore beat downs on the Taiwanese gangsters who get in her way.

That woman is the titular Lucy (Scarlett Johansson), who is kidnapped by Asian drug kingpins and used as a drug mule to cart a bag of a new, uncut synthetic superdrug across borders. The only catch is that the criminals do this by surgically implanting it into her abdomen. So when one of her captors (who apparently didn't get the message from his superiors not to beat the hostage) beats the hostage, the bag leaks and Lucy gets a rapid overdose of the mysterious substance, which instantly sends her body into evolutionary overdrive, granting her access to the latent abilities offered by that heretofore unused 90% of her brain. She can do everything from control her own metabolism and heart rate to perceive and manipulate electromagnetic fields, and as the process that the drug set into motion continues, she only gets more powerful. She's free from attachment and fear, and injury doesn't mean much when she can control the divisions of her own cells. With the gangsters still on her tail, she tracks down Professor Norman (Morgan Freeman), a neuroscientist who focuses on the evolution of the brain.

You may remember one of the last times Besson focused his movie around a female supreme being, the orange-haired Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) from The Fifth Element. But Lucy is a very different character; she's not cute or bubbly, she's cool and calculated. Like Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen, part of Lucy's character arc is that her abilities make her so removed from her ego, her attachments, and her former perceptions of space and time that she's in danger of no longer relating to the human experience.

But this isn't to say that Lucy is cold -- as a film or as a character. Besson's directorial style is kinetic: His edits and cutaways crackle with hyperactive references, and Lucy's exploits in superhuman badassery are dotted with tongue-in-cheek humor. The plot points may sound kind of silly on their own, but by the end, Lucy literally sits through a sequence in which she realizes that time isn't linear, humans just perceive it that way. The idea of utilizing 100% of her brain's "capacity" emerges as a metaphor for profound, nonphysical enlightenment. This is where the Matrix comparison becomes apt. Remember "There is no spoon,"? It's like that.

It's possible that Besson (or the studio) tried to balance out the fact that the movie gets so heavy in the final act by making it kind of stupid in the first act. This would explain the apparent lack of a science consultant, who could have made the brain stuff at least sound like it kind of makes sense. But if you can forgive or ignore those faults, Lucy delivers the goods by the end, both as a brainy thought experiment and as a summer popcorn flick.

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Watch Online Goodnight Mommy (2014) - MovieTimeUs

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Synopsis :

Their mother's face wrapped in bandages following plastic surgery, two young Austrian twins begin to question her identity, and resort to torturous tactics in a bid to discover the fate of their "real" mommy. In the aftermath of an unexplained trauma, nine-year old twins Lukas and Elias (Lukas and Elias Schwarz) spend their days playing in and around their secluded Austrian home as their increasingly short-tempered, single mother (Susamme Wuest) seeks peace and quiet while recovering from facial reconstructive surgery. Distressed at her unusual appearance and disturbed by her borderline abusive behavior, Lukas and Elias soon begin to question whether the woman under the gauze is truly their mother at all. Those fears are apparently confirmed when the siblings stumble across a photo album containing a picture of their mother with a woman who appears to be their twin, and decide to torture the suspected intruder into confessing her true identity.

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Watch Online Pan (2015) - MovieTimeUs

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Synopsis:

An orphan boy (Levi Miller) discovers his destiny as Peter Pan in this vividly realized fantasy, and is whisked away to an enchanted land to battle the fearsome pirate Blackbeard (Hugh Jackman) with the help of the warrior woman Tiger Lily (Rooney Mara). Directed by Joe Wright (Hanna) and Atonement). Cast includes Garrett Hedlund, Amanda Seyfried, Adeel Akhtar, Nonso Anozie and Kathy Burke.

Review: 

A viewer's reaction to Pan, the Joe Wright-directed origin story of how an orphan in WWII-era London became the legendary Peter Pan, will likely depend on his or her age. Kids -- and those who are kids at heart -- will probably relish the truly bizarre phantasmagoria on display, while more discerning moviegoers will be appalled by its lack of originality, unsettling tonal shifts, mysterious musical choices, and scenery-chewing acting. In other words, there's something here for everyone to praise or pick apart.

Pan begins with a distraught woman (Amanda Seyfried) leaving her baby Peter in a basket outside of a London orphanage. We then flash forward a dozen years: The Nazis are relentlessly bombing the city, and the mischievous lad (played by wonderful newcomer Levi Miller) is investigating why some boys in the orphanage suddenly go missing during the night, and whether the disappearances are linked to a bevy of gold coins being hoarded by cruel caretaker Mother Barnabas (Kathy Burke), who runs the Dickensian institution with an iron fist and a steely heart. He soon finds out. Mother raises the Jolly Roger and pirates swoop down on bungee-like ropes to snatch him and several other boys out of their beds; they are whisked away in a floating buccaneer ship to Neverland, where they join hundreds of other boys and men in digging for fairy dust in a mining camp at the behest of Blackbeard (a hammy but effective Hugh Jackman). The notorious pirate, it turns out, inhales the stuff in order to retain his youthful appearance.

"Here we are now, entertain us," Blackbeard sings, along with his fellow pirates, when he makes his first appearance hoisted high above the enslaved assemblage on his airship. (It remains a mystery why the characters in a 1940s-era nonmusical story are singing Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" -- or later, the Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop" -- and that's only one of many jarring and questionable choices by the filmmakers.) Peter is soon brought before Blackbeard for a minor offense, and is forced to walk the plank into a rocky abyss. But when he steps off, he begins to fly instead of falling to his death. Blackbeard immediately realizes that Peter is the chosen one of prophecy, a messiah-like figure who can fly, was born of a fairy prince and a human mother, and who will one day rise up and defeat him. Peter is imprisoned, but he eventually escapes with the help of wisecracking fellow miner James Hook (Garrett Hedlund, desperately trying -- and failing -- to channel Harrison Ford as both Indiana Jones and Han Solo) and bumbling buddy Smee (Adeel Akhtar). The trio hijack one of Blackbeard's ships and quickly crash-land in a wooded area occupied by Neverland natives, who are enemies of Blackbeard and are also awaiting the arrival of the chosen one. The ethnically diverse community (their multicultural vibe might have been a way to justify having the Caucasian Rooney Mara play the originally Native American Tiger Lily) take in the escapees, and together they work to bring down Blackbeard.

Curiously for an origin story, there isn't an original idea anywhere to be found on Pan's bloated canvas. Screenwriter Jason Fuchs steals liberally from Dickens, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Avatar, and utilizes tired themes (a hero who doesn't realize his true destiny, to name just one example) to spin a new tale out of recycled parts. Wright does generate some arresting action sequences, especially in the film's final showdown with Blackbeard, but they aren't enough to lift the movie out of its sullen state. Younger viewers, however, will likely be absolutely delighted by all of the onscreen derring-do and impressive CGI work, which includes a massive crocodile out to consume our heroes. Pan is never boring and families who flock to it will be entertained, but it's still a shipwreck of jumbled ideas that never quite pan out.

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Synopsis :

Jake Gyllenhaal stars as troubled boxer Billy Hope in this high-stakes drama from director Antoine Fuqua and Sons of Anarachy creator Kurt Sutter. At the height of his fame and success, Hope is convinced by his loving wife Maureen (Rachel McAdams) to retire from the sport in order to spend more time with the couple's daughter Leila (Oona Laurence). On the night of his retirement announcement, a rival boxer calls out Hope and an altercation breaks out, killing Maureen. Hope's self-destructive behavior worsens, and Leila is taken away by child services. In order to redeem his life and get his daughter back, Hope must return to boxing under the tutelage of hardened trainer Titus "Tick" Willis (Forest Whitaker).

Review :

Screenwriters can put words in a character's mouth, but it takes aconscientious actor to spin what's on the page into a person's truth. That's exactly what Rachel McAdams does in the first few minutes of Southpaw, playing a woman named Maureen who is sitting ringside at a boxing match while her fearsome, tattooed husband, Billy Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal), paces the mat like an animal and pounds his way through a particularly gory round. He's got a sparrow in flight inked on his neck, and in the cutaways, we can discreetly see that she has the same tattoo, as well as a word inked around her finger where a wedding ring should be. There's no tight zoom and freeze frame revealing exactly what that word is -- in fact, the audience never finds out. It's a private communication between husband and wife, something that speaks to their bond as clearly Maureen texting "Daddy won" to their daughter at home, or the way she rushes to Billy when it's over, unafraid to get his blood on her face during a post-match kiss.

Billy loves his wife, and we can see why: She's loyal, tough, shrewd, loving, and beautiful. She is his rock, and if he weren't equally devoted to her, whisperers would say she's too good for his mumbly, thuggish self. That's why Billy can ignore the taunts of an upstart palooka (Miguel Gomez) looking to goad him into a fight -- until one night, when the trash talk after a charity gala includes a slur against Maureen. That does it: Billy throws a punch, a fight breaks out, and a shot is fired. Maureen the courageous and true dies in her husband's arms.

Southpaw isn't a movie about simpleminded revenge, about how "finding the man who killed my wife" will put everything right. That's not how it works in life. Terrible things happen that can't be undone and then we're thrust back into our lives, forced to make it all up on the spot as time marches on. Things soon get worse for Billy. He loses his house. He gets a DUI. He blows a multifight deal engineered by an avaricious manager (50 Cent). He loses custody of his daughter. The downward spiral continues until he meets Tick (Forest Whitaker), an ex-boxer now running a small gym for troubled kids. Tick refuses to train professionals, but he offers some free advice: When you lack control over your own anger, anyone can yank your reins.

It's impossible to watch Southpaw without reflecting on how different Billy Hope is from Gyllenhaal's previous role, the predatory weirdo Louis Bloom from Nightcrawler. Louis was glib where Billy is inarticulate, sociopathic where Billy is loving, gaunt and sickly compared to Billy's 200 pounds of angry, determined muscle. With this role, Gyllenhaal proves he's now entered that rare class of actors (which include, among others, Christian Bale) who are such chameleons that they seem able to transform into any character. It's extraordinary work, but it's still not the best performance in a movie that also contains bravura turns from Whitaker and newcomer Oona Laurence as Billy's daughter. Instead, that honor goes to Rachel McAdams, whose Maureen appears in only the first quarter of the film, but whose goodness and tragedy color the rest of the story.

Written by Kurt Sutter (Sons of Anarchy) and directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day), Southpaw has some stiff competition in the boxing-film subgenre: Rocky, Raging Bull, Million Dollar Baby, The Fighter, Cinderella Man, Requiem for a Heavyweight (and coming in the near future are Bleed for This, Creed, and Hands of Stone). But it succeeds not only as an exhilarating sports movie with some top-notch fights (Fuqua builds on the visual grammar of televised boxing to create a visceral experience), but as a character portrait in every sense of the word "character." We might not be able to read the tattoo on Maureen's finger, but it's obvious that Billy's forearms are inked with the words "Father" and "Fighter"; when he loses both of those core parts of his identity, he redeems himself by taking on the true mantle of manhood. Southpaw wins on much more than a judge's decision.

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Synopsis :

A talented young jazz drummer experiences a trial by fire when he's recruited by a ferocious instructor, whose unyielding search for perfection could destroy both of them. Andrew Neyman (Miles Teller) has been watching his father fail for most of his life. Determined to make a name for himself no matter what it takes, he enrolls in a prestigious East Coast music conservatory, and his talent quickly catches the attention of Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), an esteemed music teacher notorious for his caustic approach in the classroom. The leader of the school's top jazz ensemble, Fletcher promptly transfers Neyman into his band, giving the ambitious young drummer a shot at true greatness. He may achieve it, too, if Fletcher's methods don't drive him to madness first.

Review :

You don't have to have a working knowledge of jazz music or history to be riveted by writer/director Damien Chazelle's Whiplash; all that's required is a working knowledge of dreams and how they function. Dreams in a figurative sense, that is, as this blistering psychological drama takes you into the vulnerable headspace of a talented young jazz drummer suffering acute mental anguish under the tutelage of his relentless music instructor -- a man driven by the singular goal of molding the next Charlie Parker or Buddy Rich.

For as long as Andrew Neyman (Miles Teller) can remember, he's been watching his father fail. Determined to make a name for himself no matter what it takes, he enrolls in a prestigious East Coast music conservatory. His talent quickly catches the attention of Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), an esteemed music teacher who's notorious for his caustic approach in the classroom. The leader of the school's top jazz ensemble, Fletcher promptly transfers Neyman into his band, giving the ambitious young drummer a shot at true greatness. He may achieve it, too -- if Neyman's methods don't drive him to madness first.

We've all had those teachers whose expectations seem somewhat unrealistic, but Simmons' Terence Fletcher is much more than that: Like a volatile mix of Swimming With Sharks' Buddy Ackerman and Full Metal Jacket's Gny. Sgt. Hartman, he's an absolute force of nature who's capable of summoning a hurricane in the blink of an eye. A veteran supporting player whose recognition is long overdue, Simmons is nothing short of terrifying in his portrayal of a teacher who wouldn't think twice about breaking 100 students if it meant that one had a shot at legendary status. Unlike those aforementioned antagonists, however, the thing that makes this character so positively compelling are the nuances with which Chazelle paints him in the film's uncompromisingly intense screenplay, as well as the seemingly effortless manner by which Simmons can turn from soulful to savage in the clash of a cymbal. From the moment we first encounter Fletcher, it's apparent that he has a reputation, and though his gruffness is almost endearing at first glance, the manner in which he manipulates young Andrew during his very first session with the band hints at something far more sadistic beneath the surface. Fletcher would have been completely unsympathetic in almost any other film, but together with Chazelle, Simmons reveals the character's human side at just the right intervals to make him utterly fascinating.

Of course, a character of such stern conviction can't exist in a vacuum, and in talented up-and-comer Miles Teller, Chazelle finds the perfect foil for Fletcher's unrelenting wrath. In his role as the young drummer as determined to succeed as Fletcher is to break him, Teller portrays a potent mix of ambition, vulnerability, and hubris that leaves him particularly susceptible to his teacher's ethically compromised methods. He also sells his performance scenes with sweaty conviction, a factor that gives his character's obsessive drive to become "one of the greats" true substance. But while each scene between Teller and Simmons bristles with tension, the scenes that find Neyman pulling away from seemingly perfect match Nicole (Melissa Benoist) exist solely to emphasize his all-consuming focus on drumming. As a result, they're more functional than profound, despite a commendable effort from charismatic Glee veteran Benoist.

Far more interesting and relevant are the moments between Neyman and his father (Paul Reiser), an aspiring writer-turned-teacher who has long since given up on his dreams, yet never wavers in support of his son. In addition to providing a satisfying contrast against his onscreen son's swelling hubris, Reiser's paternal warmth delivers a much needed respite from Simmons' severe volatility.

But make no mistake: It's Simmons' explosive, career-defining performance that really brings Whiplash to life. His Fletcher is a deeply passionate, fatally flawed character whose obsession with molding the next jazz great has clouded his good intentions with inky, malicious acidity. We never quite know what to expect from him, especially after his relationship with Neyman has gone beyond the breaking point, and that's the singular factor that gives their final confrontation a near-agonizing intensity. Even with an experienced veteran like Simmons firing on all cylinders, that's an impressive feat for a first-time director, and should Chazelle succeed in summoning a fraction of that passion in his future films, he's unlikely to be just another one-hit wonder.

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