The Disaster Artist: A movie about a Movie

James Franco did more than throw in a couple of famous scenes when he had this biopic comedy drama about the movie The Room, he took it to a whole new level by recreating 25 minutes worth of scenes, including a lot of them in The Disaster Artist.

The movie tells the story of Greg Sestero, (Dave Franco) an aspiring film actor, who meets the weird and mysterious Tommy Wiseau, (James Franco) in an acting class. When Wiseau decides on a whim to write and direct his own film which he and Sestero will star in they form a unique friendship and travel to Hollywood to make their dreams come true.

Let’s get the main points out of the way before we go any further with this. No, you don’t explicitly need to have seen The Room in order to enjoy The Disaster Artist, but it certainly adds to the overall flavour of it. Yes, Dave Franco’s beard looks ridiculous and so does James Franco’s accent and facial ticks. Yes, there are some cameos by some famous people, including Judd Apatow, Sharon Stone, and a few others. No, it doesn’t explain any of the urban myths around The Room. If anything, The Disaster Artist uses these urban myths and the troubled production to examine something else entirely – specifically, creative freedom and the nature of what you are perceived versus who you are… Read more from Entertainmnet.ie

The Man Who Invented Christmas

We all know the Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol; this festive season brings us a new movie, The Man Who Invented Christmas, starring Christopher Plummer as Ebenezer Scrooge, and Dan Stevens as Charles Dickens. The movie tells of the magical journey that led to the creation of Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim and other classic characters from A Christmas Carol. The film shows how Charles Dickens mixed real life inspirations with his vivid imagination to conjure up unforgettable characters and a timeless tale, forever changing the holiday season into the celebration we know today.

The Man Who Invented Christmas is not your typical Christmas Carol and its not trying to compete. Instead of retelling Dickens’s fictional tale, Director Bharat Nalluri (Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day) takes the baton from author Les Standiford and tells us the story of Dickens himself as we watch him slowly overcome his writer’s block.

Don’t worry – all the familiar faces are still there. The Fezziwigs are still charming, Jacob Marley is still creepy, and Scrooge (given a refreshing, comedic twist by Christopher Plummer) is still grumpy. The catch with The Man Who Invented Christmas is we learn how these characters came to life. Each one mirrors a figure in Dickens’s own life. The Ghost of Christmas Past is one of his inquisitive housekeepers who also serves as a muse, The Ghost of Christmas Present is his dear friend Forster, Jacob Marley is his stingy lawyer, etc. read more…

The New Heroes in Justice League

Gal Gadot and Ben Affleck are heading up the team of metahumans, with new heroes Aquaman, the Flash and Cyborg when Justice League hits the Movie Junction screen this week.

Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince (Gal Gadot), to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes-Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and the Flash-it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.

DC and Warner Bros announced Momoa as Arthur Curry, the Atlantean king and underwater hero, more than three years ago, planning to introduce him in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Although the three metahumans who join Batman and Wonder Woman in Justice League didn’t figure into the plot of the 2016 Superman sequel, the filmmakers wanted to give fans a glimpse of their upcoming versions of Aquaman, the Flash and Cyborg.

They shot one scene of Momoa as Aquaman, and then enlisted Ray Fisher as Cyborg and Ezra Miller as the Flash during production of Dawn of Justice.

“It was a learning experience because we actually shot that underwater,” Deborah Snyder told the Los Angeles Times. “After we shot it Zack said, ‘Are you kidding me? We can’t shoot all these [underwater] scenes.’… read more

Murder on the Orient Express

With plenty of star quality on board the remake of Murder on the Orient Express, Judi Dench was the actress they were most in awe of…  Michelle Pfeiffer (who plays Mrs. Hubbard in the film) admitted she felt emotional when she first saw the British actress, who portrays Princess Dragomiroff. “I wept when I met Judi Dench” she said at the film’s premiere at the Royal Albert Hall in London. “The first day of filming was a little intimidating.”

In this retelling of Agatha Christie’s classic murder-mystery, a shady businessman (Johnny Depp) is stabbed to death aboard an opulent train service, and everyone among the eclectic array of first-class passengers is a suspect. It is up to the meticulous mind of Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) to solve the riddle.

When Agatha Christie watched Sidney Lumet’s celebrated 1974 adaptation of Murder On The Orient Express she said that while she liked it, she felt that Hercule Poirot’s moustaches were not quite luxuriant enough. If she’d lived to see Ken Branagh’s adaptation she would have been delighted with the bristles; Poirot’s ’tache lies atop his lip like a silvery feathered boa… Read more from Empire Movies