Friday, August 23, 2013

It's The World's End! Better Give Some Stuff Away!





In celebration of the world coming to an end, Wright/Pegg/Frost style, we are giving away some items everyone probably needs before the Apocalypse. 

Our friends at Focus Features are offering to one lucky reader,


·         $25 Visa Gift Card to see The World’s End
·         T-Shirt & Pint Glass
·         The World’s End Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

AHH HOORAY THE BEST!!!

To enter the contest, just rock out the rafflecopter below. And trust me when I say you want to see this movie. It's perhaps Wright's weirdest outing yet and a fantastic time at the movies, with the best climax of any film yet this year. Hyperbole shmyperboyle, I can't think of anything better right now, so just go with it, I'm probably right. As is the case with all of their films, it also examines something deeper, in this case, friendship and maturity. 

From our Film.com monthly preview, edited by @davidehrlich,
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost reunite with Edgar Wright behind the camera in the third and final chapter of their ice cream and blood trilogy, this installment concerning  a group of childhood friends who reunite in their 30s for an epic pub crawl, at the end of which lies the fabled pub The World’s End. During this epic trek of bros and booze, they realize the world is actually coming to an end. Let the action/comedy ensue! The film also stars Martin Freeman, Rosamund Pike, and an array of recognizable faces from not only the Edgar Wright repertoire, but all of British everything. What’s more, it surprisingly features some of the best fight scenes in recent memory. And a special treat for you Spaced fans: Keep an eye out for Mark Heap (Brian) and Julia Deakin (Marsha).










Pre-Order the Album: http://bit.ly/WorldsEndSoundtrack

THE WORLD’S END ONLINE
Visit the official website
Like The World’s End on Facebook
Watch the trailer & clips on YouTube
Follow the Cornetto Trilogy on Tumblr
#TheWorldsEnd

ABOUT THE FILM
A signature brew of camaraderie, knockabout humor, excessive quaffing, questionable life choices, hand-to-hand combat, and explosive surprises, The World’s End reteams director Edgar Wright with actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, following their hits Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Hot Fuzz (2007).

The tale of The World’s End begins on June 22nd, 1990. In their suburban U.K. town of Newton Haven, five boys in the prime of their teenage youth celebrate the end of school by attempting an epic pub crawl together. Despite their enthusiasm and the downing of a slew of pints of beer, they fall short of seeing their quest through, to the last pub on their list, The World’s End.

Twenty-odd years later, “the five musketeers” have each left their hometown and are now husbands, fathers, men with careers – with the flashing-red-light exception of their voluble onetime ringleader, Gary King (Simon Pegg), who is now a 40-year-old man trapped at the cigarette end of his teens. The irrepressible Gary, keenly aware of his estrangement from his onetime closest friend Andy (Nick Frost), becomes hellbent on trying “The Golden Mile” drinking marathon again. He convinces Andy, Steven (Paddy Considine), Oliver (Martin Freeman), and Peter (Eddie Marsan) to stage an encore, and one Fridayafternoon they are all reunited. Gary is in his element: the mandate is one night, five guys, twelve pubs – imbibing at least one pint apiece at each establishment. Arriving in Newton Haven, they re-encounter Oliver’s sister Sam (Rosamund Pike), for whom Gary and Steven each still carry a torch.

As the gang attempts along the way to reconcile their past and present, an increasingly insane and dangerous series of encounters with old haunts and acquaintances makes them realize that the real struggle is for the future, not just theirs but humankind’s. Reaching The World’s End is the least of their worries…

Genre: Comedy
Cast: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine, Eddie Marsan, Rosamund Pike
Directed by: Edgar Wright
Written by: Edgar Wright & Simon Pegg

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Thursday, August 1, 2013

Indie Watch: August 2013

Full monthly preview on Film.com
edited by @davidehrlich



 The Spectacular Now

This film from the director of “Smashed” comes a love story between a teenage alcoholic and the slightly nerdy girl he befriends after a bad senior year break up. While it may sound trite on paper, the festival darling (one of many hitting theaters in limited release this month) surprises with its deliberate lack of showiness, understated nature and simple, effective performances. Miles Teller and in particular Shailene Woodley shine with their nuanced naturalism and easy chemistry.
Although parts of the film feel too reliant on improv to achieve this realism, a rather rampant problem with a lot of indie filmmaking nowadays, the good ultimately outweighs the bad. And you’ll never look Coach Taylor the same way again. Since both Teller and Woodley appear in YA adaptation “Divergent”, and the film’s marketing focuses more on the teen love story than teen alcoholic story, expect high critical praise and potentially low cinema scores from the inevitably confused 13-18 year old set.

The Canyons
This movie!! Guys!! This movie!!  Lindsay Lohan, renaissance porn star James Deen, Bret Easton Ellis, and the inimitable Paul Schrader join forces to create this masterpiece/sh*t show, which is finally coming to theaters and VOD after what seemed like an eternity of gossip. In any event, nothing is keeping me from taking in this “contemporary LA noir about the dangers of sexual obsession and ambition,” so good job stoking the strange fires of controversy, this NY Times piece and this New York Magazine article!


Ain't Them Bodies Saints
Another one of those aforementioned festival darlings that wowed at Sundance, SXSW, and LA Film Fest, to name a few. This neo-Western set in 1970s Texas Hill Country, stars Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck and Ben Foster and was developed through the Sundance Writing and Producing labs. David Lowery’s  film currently has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, but can this swooningly romantic drama break out from the art house audience?  At the very least, the Sundance US Dramatic Cinematography Award winner will be beautiful to look at, and allegedly features one of the most compellingly strange scores of the year.


The Grandmaster
As if a Wong Kar Wai movie would be opening and we *wouldn’t* put it in our movie preview. What, were you expecting? “Planes”? “Mortal Instruments”? PSHAW I SAY. “The Grandmaster” is yet another biopic about Ip Man, the legendary martial arts master who trained Bruce Lee, Wong’s take following the martial artist as his world collides with that of another kung fu master, Gong Er, during the Japenese invasion in 1936. Choreographed by Yuen Woo-Ping, mastermind behind “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon”, “Kill Bill” and “The Matrix”, “The Grandmaster” certainly promises to be a different and decidedly unique take on both biopics and martial arts movies.


You're Next
It has now been a solid TWO YEARS since “You’re Next” started playing the festival circuit to much acclaim, but finally the twist-on-the-home-invasion horror flick will be available for consumption nationwide. Opening weekend, grab a giant group of horror loving friends and get thee to a theater. Oh fun fact for you fellow geeks out there -  that cat mask you see in the trailer? Very popular random item floating around at Comic-Con, that was even discovered backstage by Michael Fassbender and shown off during his Comic-Con panel for “X-Men.”


Short Term 12
This little movie from director Destin Cretton won both the Grand Jury and Audience Award at SXSW, and then the Audience Award at LA Film Fest, and mark my words, will be making plenty of noise come Film Independent Spirit Awards time. Although the film was the second Cretton made, after “I Am Not A Hipster”, he began work on “Short Term 12″ long before, having worked with foster kids himself and becoming inspired to tell this story of the people who find hope in such facilities, whether they are the ones being cared for, or the ones attempting to do the caring. This beautiful, moving uncliched drama stars Brie Larson in a star-making role and an excellent John Gallagher Jr (“Newsroom”) as her sympathetic boyfriend.

Recommended: 
Europa Report (Aug 2nd, on VOD now)
In A World (Aug 9th)
Prince Avalanche (Aug 9th)
Drinking Buddies (Aug 23rd, On VOD now)
Afternoon Delight (Aug 30)
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