POSTER FOR NEW SEAN PENN THRILLER “THE GUNMAN” ARRIVES

Poster looks really freaking cool and the supporting cast are just as awesome with Ray Winstone, Idris Elba, Javier Bardem and Mark Rylance.

From the director of Taken and The Transporter. Now, is that a good thing?? Well I thought Taken was great when it it first came out. If you turned off your brain then it was a great bit of escapism… However stupid and unbelievable/realistic it was.

Now for The Transporter…… Ok, thats enough about The Transporter.

If it didn’t have such a talented cast then I’d probably wouldn’t be giving this the time of day. Let’s hope there is a solid thriller here and not just guns blazing, nice cars and a high body-count.

I must say though, I am looking forward to seeing Sean Penn make a come-back. The man is a fine actor, as is his entire supporting cast.

Official Plot (IMDB)
An international spy must clear his name in order to save himself from the organisation he used to work for.

MOVIEHOOKER’S BEST OF NEW FOREIGN CINEMA PART 3

1: TO KILL A MAN

Although I didn’t quite get what I was expecting, there is no denying that this was one of the best indie world cinema releases of last year. The pace was rather slow and the film is very character driven and mainly focuses on one character.

That character is Jorge – a father of two that is becoming increasingly worried about the gangs who are starting to hang around near his family home. After Jorge gets mugged – his son then tries to get back what was stolen from him, but ends up getting shot in the process…. Which isn’t very nice, is it?

Disgusted by the the lack of help from the local authorities and the lenient sentences handed down by the courts – Jorge makes the decision that if his family is going to be safe then he will have to take matters into his own hands.

The description of the film (on Netflix) fooled me into thinking this was some sort of Chilean version of Dead Man Shoes – so I couldn’t resist. The acting was powerful throughout, although the pace was slow, I was dying to find out what Jorge would become when he snaps.

I do wish that the film was a little longer because I thought there was a lot more they could’ve done with the storyline, but they kept things simple, yet effective.

I was a little underwhelmed when the credits started to roll because I thought it ended very sudden. It was after I had watched it, I couldn’t get it out of my head. It was in there bouncing back and fourth and just wouldn’t leave. So I watched it a second time and enjoyed it even more. This is A slow-burning character driven story that gets inside right your head and under your skin.

The soundtrack for the movie was also an interesting choice and added to the feel of the movie. There would be scenes of Jorge sitting there in his pants playing some nice sounds on the harmonica.,. This is mainly the music for the entire film and I personally enjoyed that, it was definitely a different approach.

2: BIG GAME

This is the new film from Rare Exports writer/director and it looks a lot bigger and badder, and dare I say, weirder than Rare Exports – plus we have Samuel L jackson as the The President Of The United States (come on, that’s a wee bit epic, right?)

So what I gathered from the trailer is that a young kid somehow manages to rescue the president after airforce one gets shot down. I’m pretty sure the Big Game is The President of the USA and he is being hunted, with the kid as his guide and protector.

The trailer I thought was just ok – but I’m such a huge fan of Rare Exports that I’ve been waiting to see what these guys will release next. To be honest, I really couldn’t give a shit, whatever it is, it has my full attention.

3: 6 HOURS

A new disaster movie from Chile, and also the feature-length directorial debut from Chilean filmmaker Diego Ayala.

When a nuclear company announce that one of their reactors has suffered a critical and irreversible breach, the residents of a neighbouring town have just 6 Hours before the reactor goes into full meltdown and all hell breaks loose.

The premise sounds intriguing, very believable, and if done right then we could have a truly terrifying experience coming our way – seriously if that news was announced, what in the name of fuck would you do??

Most of the disaster movies we get are from America. They are predictable, full of mind-blowing and impressive special fx. They have some Hollywood A-lister like John Cusack, Dennis Quaid or Bruce Willis trying to save mankind.

These films cost so much money to make and spend the majority of the cash on special fx which results in poor and predictable scriptwriting, pointless character development, and characters that you wouldn’t mind seeing get swallowed up by Mother Nature.

These films are just eye candy, don’t get me wrong, they do deliver one hell of a cinematic experience, but the scripts are that poor that you could sit there with headphones on listening to Pink Floyd not paying any attention to the dialogue.

Now knowing that this Chilean filmmaker won’t have the budget to contend with Americas disaster movies, I believe that he will replace the special fx with gut wrenching intensity, with believable characters that we will care about.

Really looking forward to this one !!

Thanks for reading, there is so much great stuff coming our way this year and I’ll try my hardest not to miss a thing and keep you all constantly hooked.

Moviehooker’s Best Of New Foreign Cinema Part 2

1: Leviathan

It’s a really good to see something so strong come out of Russia. All the Russian movies I’ve seen, I’ve enjoyed, but I must admit, I ain’t seen an awful lot of them. This film has some of the strongest reviews I’ve read last year for any film and won top prize at last years Abu Dabi film festival. This is Russia’s Oscar entry for Best Foreign Language Film. We should be seeing it made available real soon.

OFFICIAL PLOT (imdb)

In a Russian coastal town, Dmitri is forced to fight the corrupt mayor when he is told that his house will be demolished. He recruits a lawyer friend to help, but the man’s arrival brings further misfortune for Dmitri and his family.

2: WHAT WE BECOME

New viral outbreak movie from Denmark directed by Bo Mikkelsen. The film focuses on a family in a quarantined town that has had some sort of super-flu outbreak and must fight against everything and anything in order to survive, and hopefully not pick up the flu-like virus.

Looks more like Outbreak than 28 Days Later, although there seems to be some sort of mayhem and murder thrown in for good measure… and that’s always a nice touch 😉

OFFICIAL PLOT

The Johansson family’s idyllic summer is brought to an abrupt halt as deaths stack up from a virulent strand of the flu. The authorities start off by cordoning-off the neighbourhood, but soon panic and force the inhabitants into quarantine in their hermetically-sealed houses. Isolated from the rest of the world, teen Gustav spies out and realises that the situation is getting out of control. He breaks out, but soon the family of four comes under attack from the riotous, blood-thirsty mob who forces them to the extreme to escape alive.

3: BLOODLANDS

New film from director of classic Australian revenge flick The Horseman . With The Horseman the director had a single father who worked as a pest controller take some justifiable revenge on a small seedy porn industry that drugged and forced his daughter to take part in their movies. His daughter then dies and the father sets out to take-down every single one of them … Using some pretty awesome and Imaginative weaponry!

Now the director takes an usual turn and heads to Albania for his next feature. The film will be a horror/thriller and will feature an entire Albanian cast and will focus on some sort of real-life family feuds.

Nothing more is available at this time but we should be a trailer very soon.
The Horseman is one of my favourite revenge movies of all time, this is a film that should be high up on everyone’s watch-list.

Thanks for reading 😉

MOVIEHOOKER’S BEST OF NEW FOREIGN CINEMA PART 1

As these movies are all relatively new and are only recently released or getting released soon, I’m gonna go with my gut instinct with them. The films I’ll be featuring in this 3-part-post have all been researched and are on my watchlist for future viewing. I am very rarely wrong when it’s comes to world cinema titles.. So let’s get this started!!

1: GRATEFUL DEAD
Without a doubt this film has the most insane trailer that I’ve seen in quite some time. I’m a huge fan of Japanese cinema because they are just bat-shit-crazy, they make movies that are so twisted and deranged that it takes a special kind of viewer to appreciate them….. Someone who is touched with a mild case of insanity… Thankfully, I fit that bill just perfectly, as does most of my readers… So we’re good to go!! I just have to point out that this film is listed for release in 2013 but is only starting make some waves now… It’s my list, it goes on!

Official Plot
A love-hate relationship develops between a deranged young woman and an old man. Nami inherits a large sum of money, freeing up time for her to engage in a series of bizarre hobbies, including spying on lonely people like herself. One day she spies on an old man as he watches porn DVDs in his home. After witnessing this, she begins relentlessly stalking him.

2: WHITE GOD

I had heard of this film before but had completely forgotten about it, thanks to Fangoria posting the trailer on Facebook recently, I’ve once again got it in my sights.. And this time, it’s not getting away. I am constantly on the hunt for movies, some manage to get away from me, or slip beneath the cracks, but it’s only a matter of time before I get my grip on them and get them up on Moviehooker

The film reminded me a little bit of Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, not that it was about loads of god Damn Hairy apes, but about dogs who aren’t full pedigree, and have had enough of being outcasts. They start up a dog army to teach us filthy humans just who’s boss which looks like it’s lead by a young teenage girl (the owner of the “Ceaser” like dog).

The one thing I loved about the trailer was that it wasn’t very CGI-heavy, it looked like real animals, just shot very cleverly. The premise sounds interesting and has already conquered Cannes Film festival…. So that alone gives us the reason to be eagerly awaiting this one.

3: Broken

We all know how big a fan of Korean cinema I am. Recently, I finally got my girlfriend to watch Castaway On The Moon, and I was blown-away all over again by the lead actors performance. I realised that I hadn’t done any research into any other movies that he’s been in. That’s when I found out about Broken. I purposely didn’t read too much into it in fear of spoiling it. All I know is that it’s a vengeance type of movie, and if anyone can do Vengeance – then it’s the Koreans. So without even knowing what this flick is remotely about, it goes on the list.

I’m really looking forward to this one

4: INUMBER NUMBER

Another film that has makes its way right to the top of my watch-list – No doubt this will be another solid entry from the guys of XYZFilms.

Official Plot (official site)

When honest undercover cop Chili Ngcobo (winner of the TV Talent show, ‘Class Act’, S’dumo Mtshali), and his by-the-book partner, Sello ‘Shoes’ Moshoeshoe (lead actor of the Oscar Winning film ‘Tsotsi’, Presley Chweneyagae), are cheated out of a large reward by their corrupt superiors, Chili finds another way of getting the money he feels they deserve. Chili penetrates a cash-in-transit heist gang, and instead of busting them, convinces his partner to participate in a once off score.

Stay tuned for part 2 of this post which i’ll have up in a few days. Thanks for reading

“THE LIVING” Is Independent Cinema At It’s Very Finest

The Living is one of those films that doesn’t waste anytime establishing the storyline. After the opening credits roll accompanied by a beautiful and haunting track “The Werewolf Song” by Michael Hurley we meet Teddy, who wakes from a heavy night of drinking. He is surrounded by the aftermath and carnage from the night before, the room is trashed and he has bloodied knuckles, but has no recollection of what happened. He searches the house for his wife, Molly, but she ain’t nowhere to be seen. He gets in the pickup and heads towards his in-laws. His wife is there, but Molly’s mother is hostile and threatens Teddy with a shotgun if he doesn’t get off the premises . Molly then comes out of the house, bruised and beaten. Teddy has no memory of what happened but it’s soon clear that in his drunken, animalistic state he has savagely beaten his wife.

The first 10 minutes of the film made me realise how relevant the opening track to the movie was. Teddy wakes up and has no memory of what happened, he turned into a monster, which in a way was like David from American Werewolf In London waking up in the zoo, having no memory of what happened, not realising that he has torn people to pieces. So The Werewolf Song was a perfectly fitting opening track that quickly set the mood for the film.

Later that day, Molly’s brother,Gordon, is working at the local supermarket – his friend tells him that he knows of someone that could take care of Teddy – Gordon doesn’t have much cash, but this hitman comes cheap enough..

And from this another plot is born and we get introduced to ex-con, Howard the hitman played brilliantly by Brian Mulkey. When Howard arrives on the scene I had no idea where the story was going to go, from that moment on, I was kept guessing right up to the end.

That’s all I’ll say about the plot of the movie. This was one of the best independent films made in 2014. We have two stories that meet at the start and then go their separate ways, then cross paths again at the end.

The acting and character development was fantastic. Everyone involved had an important role to play, and story to tell, and everyone did it with striking realism. The story played really well as a realistic drama that focuses on the effects of domestic violence, and then we meet ex-con, Harold, and a beautifully crafted thriller is born with both stories playing brilliantly into each other.

Director/writer Jack Bryan created something really special with this film, it just goes to show you just what can be done if you have a a solid story, powerful script, good direction, and the acting talent to bring it all to life. The movie was shot for an estimated $500.000 and on the scale of things that’s not very much. This is a prime example of classic independent cinema – absolutely fantastic filmmaking in every sense of the word.

The movie stars Fran Kanz (The Cabin In The Woods, Training Day, Donnie Darko, The Village, Dollhouse), Jocelin Donahue (The House Of The Devil, The Burrowers, Insidious Chapter 2, Summer Camp), Kenny Wormald (clerks 2, By The Gun, Footloose, Kid Cannabis) Chris Mulkey (Rambo: First Blood, Captain Phillips, Mysterious Skin, The Purge, Boardwalk Empire) and Joelle Carter ( Justified, Jessabelle, American Pie 2, new tv show Constantine)

The movie produced by Shooting Films, and if this is the caliber of movies that will be getting released via this company, then we’re gonna have to keep a close eye on all upcoming releases. No doubt Shooting Films is a name to watch out for.

NIGHTCRAWLER – A MOVIEHOOKER REVIEW

This is another film that I feel that I’ve been following forever. As soon as the first stills surfaced of Jake Gyllenhaal screaming into a mirror, I just knew deep down that this was gonna be his best performance to-date. No matter if you’re a fan or not of Jake Gyllenhaal there is no denying he has been growing into a fine actor with some memorable recent performances in movies like End Of Watch, Prisoners, Enemy

Although the film didn’t play out exactly how I imagined, I have to say that I was genuinely frightened of Gyllenhaal. There was just something about him that made your skin crawl and you constantly feel that he could explode and start murdering people at any stage of the film.

My brother pointed out to me last night that his character Lou Bloom was based on a Marvel character. He was fucking right!! From what I’ve read, Lou Bloom is a character called Nightcrawler from the X-men universe but i think it stops there, the similarity is just the name.

Gyllenhaal plays a petty thief who stumbles on a freelance news team filming a car crash so they can sell to the news stations. Lou Bloom says something like “does someone pay you for this stuff?!” And the cameraman replies “if it bleeds, it leads!”.

The next day Lou Bloom gets his hands on a camera and a police scanner, and starts up his own freelance business. He sits in his car at night, listening to the police scanner – when a crime or accident is called in, he tries to make it on the scene before anyone else. Not to help in anyway but to take footage of the injured or dying so he can make some easy cash. It’s not long before his thirst for blood and carnage starts to spiral out of control and takes over. He plays an absolutely fantastic sociopath who is genuinely unpredictable, you just never know how far this guy is willing to go.

As I said, the film didn’t play out like I imagined it would, but in saying that I was still blown away by both the writing and Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance . I wanted blood and guts and murder and was expecting it to be vicious as hell. By the end of the film I had completely reset my expectations and took it onboard as a dark drama which deals with the fear of God that the media pumps into you!!!

Very relevant in this day and age if you ask me.

Defo one of the best films of this year!!

The Team that Brought Us Broadchurch And The Slap Are Bringing The Dead Back To Life In GLITCH

It has just been announced that an Australian mini-series has started shooting in Melbourne. The 6-part series (each episode an hour long) Will be called Glitch and it seems to something in the style of Les Revenants aka The returned. I could be completely wrong though, but one thing is for sho, this is something we’re gonna love.

The show was created by Tony Ayres (The Slap) and was developed Ayres and Louise Fox (Broadchurch)

The story will take place in a fictional town called Yoorana – here’s the low-down

“Yoorana becomes the gothic rural backdrop to a tale of love and redemption, of second chances gained and lost, of vengeance and forgiveness. As the “Risen” discover who they are and why they have returned, those around them are also faced with a perplexing new reality, challenging all the beliefs and ideals they held dear.”

This is gonna be fantastic, the team behind this have written some superior television. They have also said “this is not a vampire or zombie show,” so I’m really excited to see what we’re gonna get.

More to follow as it’s announced

THE FALL SEASON 2 FINALLY ANNOUNCED

There is no denying that THE FALL is one of the finest serial-killer tv dramas ever to be written. The team behind the series also helmed classics like CRACKER (one of my top shows of all time. Fitz is my hero) and also PRIME SUSPECT starring the wonderful Helen Miren. Both shows were on-top of their game, the writing was fantastic, they had the right leads for the roles. As a result both CRACKER & PRIME SUSPECT have went down as some of the best crime programmes in television history.

I have often thought about that old saying “they just don’t make them like they used to” when watching new British cop shows. There has been a few good ones throughout the years (mostly mini-series) but nothing you could compare to the brilliance of the two mentioned above.

When I first heard about THE FALL I had no idea what it was about. I even thought that someone like Gillian Anderson was a strange choice for a new serial-killer drama that’s set in Belfast. I watched the first episode and was sucked straight in. I then took to imdb and started to check the writers, and wasn’t surprised in the slightest that this was the same team behind CRACKER & PRIME SUSPECT.

The problem I have is that I binge-watch everything. I had the full season available for streaming on Netflix and watched the entire thing just like it was one giant feature-length film. The writing was fantastic, clever and extremely dark. Gillian Anderson is phenomenal as the lead, and Jamie Dornan, (I’d say the will be huge now as he is playing Dorian Grey in 50 Shats Of Grey)he is perfect in the role of the serial-killer. I’ll not say anything about the plot in the hope that someone reading this hasn’t seen this yet. I haven’t revealed much of the plot as you get to know who the serial-killer is pretty much from the start.

Now after a year of rocking back-and-fourth like a junkie waiting for his next fix, the 1st episode for season 2 has just been announced. I have read two dates online RTE1-9TH NOV & BBC2 -13TH NOV (these channels are based in Ireland and UK only. Pretty sure both stations have an Iplayer available). As for Netflix, I’m still not sure guys but you’ll be the first to know when I get the info. I need this to be on Netflix, I need another binge-watch, I don’t think I can live on just one episode a week.

MOVIEHOOKER’S NETFLIX PICK OF THE WEEK – METRO MANILA

I have no idea why I haven’t been doing this sort of thing for a long time. Sometimes there is a gap between my posts because I usually write about more than one movie at a time and sometimes one post could take my a couple of days to write, so I’ve decided I’ll write about one movie each week that is available for instant streaming on Netflix.

So for this weeks choice I have chosen a Filipino movie METRO MANILA. I am almost certain that that I’ve written about on here before, but now it’s on Netflix…and you’re gonna watch it tonight, trust me!!!

So what can I tell yo about the movie without spoiling any of the storyline for you’s?. The film follows a hardworking man called Oscar who is just trying to give his wife and kids a decent life. He has worked some jobs, but they didn’t end well. He has even tried being a rice farmer but he ain’t making enough money to support his family. They have no other choice but to pack up what little belongings they have and head for Manila in search of work.

Just as he is about to give up hope, he gets a job driving an armoured vehicle. The pay ain’t great for the risk, but he has no choice. He has a family to feed and would do just about anything. The acting is just flawless, I felt every single rejection that Oscar got when looking for work. You really felt so sorry for him, a desperate father with only his family in mind. There is one scene in which his partner buys him a chicken sandwich and he keeps it in his pocket throughout the day so he can feed his family with it when he gets home.

What happens then on in just has to be left to you as the viewer to witness. I don’t want to tell you anymore than I already have. You guys need to watch this one,. You’ll be glad I hooked you up.

I enjoyed it that much that halfway through the movie I had to stop and find the lead actor. I sent him a message telling him that I was just blown away by his performance and that he did such a good job. By the end of the movie he got back to me saying thank you. Which is one of the most awesome things a film fan could ask for.

“Sometimes the only thing left to hold onto is the blade of the knife”

I can’t recommend this film enough guys.

UPCOMING KOREAN THRILLERS TO WATCH OUT FOR

Its a well known fact that I’m a huge fan of Korean cinema. I am constantly on the hunt for new releases to try and satisfy what seems like an uncontrollable hunger. Although I live in Ireland, I find myself checking what’s on in the cinemas in South Korea more so than Dublin Ireland.

I also try to follow all the film festivals as well, so I really do try to stay on-top of the game when it comes to Korean cinema… or cinema in general..

Sometimes I write about a film though,, then when the time comes and I’d actually get to see it, I’m let down, but thankfully that doesn’t happen too often.

So here is 3 upcoming movies that I’ve started to follow very closely. Obviously there isn’t a lot of information available but I’ll just go with what I got.

When I write about a film anyways, I like to keep the plot details to a minimum. After all this isn’t a review site and I’m not a film critic. I have one purpose, and that is to hook you fine bunch of people up with some quality viewing. So here is 3 films I believe are gonna be well worth checking out.

1: GANGNAM BLUES 1970

OFFICIAL PLOT(Asianwiki)
Jong-Dae (Lee Min-Ho) and Yong-Ki (Kim Rae-Won) grew up in an orphanage like real brothers. After they leave the orphanage, they make a living by picking up paper and empty bottles. Jong-Dae then becomes involved in a struggle of interests over development in Gangnam, Seoul. In the process, he lives with Gil-Soo (Jung Jin-Young) and Sun-Hye (Seol Hyun) as they accept Jong-Dae like a family member. Jong-Dae also becomes a gang member.

MOVIEHOOKER’S THOUGHTS
This just sounds all sorts of epic. I have found a trailer but there is no english subs. I can tell you one thing, there is gonna be a huge gang-fight which would remind you of the prison riot from THE RAID 2: BERANDAL. It looks pretty hardcore although the premise sounds a little bit familiar. Two friends grow up in an orphanage, they are like real brothers and can’t be separated, they get involved with some sort of criminal underworld and get dragged into a life of crime. One of the brothers will no doubt be able to reason and the other will take no shit from no one and will kill in the blink of an eye.

I’m hoping for a hardcore violent thriller, with lots of action and some beautiful choreography and judging from what little I’ve seen, I think it’s going to deliver.

2: MIZO

OFFICIAL PLOT (Hancinema.net)
“Stranger, kill me but love me for a few days…”

Mizo is a lost bird born in trash. She’s been sexually abused by her foster parents so she sets out to find her birth parents with the blood-stained uniform she was abandoned with.

Meanwhile, Woo-sang, the man who abandoned his baby girl in the trash, still lives a trashy life. Mizo approaches him to take revenge in the most painful way possible. The revenge steps over the line and they have no idea what gruesome end they are headed for…

MOVIEHOOKER’S THOUGHTS
For some reason, every post I write will feature something really dark and disturbing. I always find myself enjoying the films that push the boundaries of cinema and thankfully with Korean cinema that happens pretty much all of the time. This film MIZO sounds pretty fucking disturbing as you can tell from the plot. And if anybody can make a superior revenge movie, then its the Koreans.

This movie is listed as released in 2013 but is opening in cinemas in Korea soon. Either way I’ve never heard of it and I think it’s a worthy one to put on the site.

3: MANHOLE

OFFICIAL PLOT(hancinema.net)
In a neighborhood in Seoul, 10 or so people disappeared without a trace in a 6 month span. While the neighbors feel nervous about not being able to find a clue about it, hair and blood is found on the lid of a manhole. What happened down there?

MOVIEHOOKER’S THOUGHTS
Some of the finest serial-killer movies ever to be released have come from Korea. There is so much greatness in this sub-genre, and nearly all them are guaranteed to shock you to the core. You can always be sure that a Korean serial-killer movie will be deliciously datk, a film for the horror fan, a film that’s primarily aimed at a more mature audience, and a film that says “Go Fuck Yourself Censorship”. We need more of these movies.

THANKS FOR READING