Thursday, September 8, 2011

Hollywood's Badass Girls


1

 

Milla Jovovich

Our number one badass actress is Milla Jovovich, no one can beat those russian eyes and her supermodel body.

Milla Jovovich started her modeling career at 9 years old, she received a job for Revlon at 11 years old and she dropped out of school at 12 years old to pursue modeling. Everybody wanted to work with her although she was very young and this caused a lot of controversy. At 23 years old she became a spokes person for L'Oreal after she appeared in magazines like Vogue, Cosmo or Glamour but also in commercials for Donna Karan, DKNY and Gap.

She got her big break in the film The Fifth Element and has since taken on the role of a kick-ass action hero in movies like the Resident Evil series and Ultraviolet. 

2

 

Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie's action resume is one of the longest and it includes the most hits. She's smart, she goes from heart-wrenching dramatic roles like Changeling to fast-paced shoot-'em-ups like Wanted.

Based on the popular video game series, Tomb Raider features the adventures of Lara Croft an antiquities hunter-for-hire. She travels to exotic locales in search of treasures and artifacts in the catacombs of ancient tombs and ruins remaining from age-old empires. A female Indiana Jones, Croft's expeditions are always chock full of action, danger, intrigue, suspense and her omnipresent knack for defying death in skin-tight outfits.

...Looking good and kicking ass is a winning combination.

3

 

Kate Beckinsale

Prior to her butt-kicking role as Selene the vampire warrior in Underworld, Beckinsale's on-screen image was that of an edgy but sweet and romantic young woman after roles in Shooting Fish, The Last Days of Disco, Pearl Harbor and Serendipity. When director (and future husband) Len Wiseman handed Beckinsale a couple of modified Barettas and a laser targeted P99 to be Selene's weapons of choice, a new female action hero was born.
Say what you will about the film series and all its flaws, but you can't deny that the lovely Kate Beckinsale made these movies better. From the very first scene of the film and she drops down off the ledge of the building only to stand up and walk away, you know you don't want to mess with her.

4

 

Charlize Theron

Charlize Theron is a classic beauty even without makeup and has never been afraid to show everything she's got. She has been a sexy nude female in movies like "2 Days in the Valley," "The Devil's Advocate" and "The Cider House Rules."

Glamorous looks notwithstanding, her talent extends beyond being pretty and sexy. She was named Best Actress for her role in Monster but she stole more hearts in Aeon Flux.

5

 

Uma Thurman

In Kill Bill Parts 1 and 2, Uma Thurman fought her way to the top of Hollywood's deadliest women.

It was a long time coming. All those years wasted, trying to figure out the truth about cats and dogs and being unfortunate enough to star in both 'The Avengers' and 'Batman & Robin'. Then finally in 2003, Uma unleashed her bad-ass side and we all thanked Tarantino.

As the multi-named heroine done wrong by her assassin ex-colleagues, Uma spent two entire films getting her own back. Blood was shed. Bodies fell. Daryl Hannah lost an eye. 




6

 

Halle Berry

A Cleveland native, Halle Berry hasn't let being the first Best Actress-winning black woman diminish her love of action flicks.

2000 and 2001 were two huge years for her: The X-Men series began, she flashed her breasts for the first time in Swordfish and won her Oscar for Monster's Ball.

She's made some questionable choices, though, like marrying Eric Benet and starring in Catwoman (although the cat suit was nice). 


7

 

Carrie-Ann Moss

Oddly enough, Carrie-Ann Moss starred in a short-lived 1993 TV show called Matrix, about the underworld's foremost hitman, Steven Matrix.

That would be just a small precursor of the fame should would win as Trinity, one of the best action heroines.

Cool and sexy under pressure, her soft blue eyes juxtapose her angular face to make her soft yet serious. 




Monday, September 5, 2011

The Grandmasters: Wong Kar Wai's Ip Man Biopic



In the past few years the legend of Ip Man, one of the most iconic martial arts masters, has been brought back to life by kung fu legend Donnie Yen in Wilson Yip’s films Ip Man 1-2 and in The Legend Is Born – Ip Man. Ip Man is famous as the father of Wing Chun kung fu and the martial arts instructor of Bruce Lee. Now Wong Kar Wai brings to the big screen another version of the legend in his film Grandmasters.  

The film will be the fourth recent film that tells the story of the Wing Chun grandmaster, Ip Man. Wong Kar Wai's Ip Man biopic should be a radically different take on the legend than provided by Yip's Ip Man films, which put Ip Man up on an idealistic pedestal. 

The film, Wong's first since 2007's My Blueberry Nights, stars Tony Leung, Zhang Ziyi, Song Hye-kyo, Chang Chen, Zhao Benshan, Julian Cheun Chi-lam and MMA fighter Cung Le. 

Martial arts movie producer Ng See-yuen is producing the film with martial arts choreography by legendary Yuen Woo-ping. Together, See-yuewn and Woo-ping have contributed to excellent kung fu movies including Snake In The Eagle’s Shadow, Drunken Master and Once Upon A Time In China II.

Wong Kar-wai  born 17 July 1958) is a Hong Kong Second Wave filmmaker, internationally renowned as an auteur for his visually unique, highly stylized films. Wong was listed at number three on the respected British Film Institute's Sight & Sound UK Critic's Top Ten Directors list of modern times.


The Grandmasters will be Wong’s third film in the martial arts genre after directing the wuxia film Ashes Of Time (1994), which was re-edited and re-released as Ashes Of Time Redux in 2008. Previously, Wong wrote and produced Jeff Lau’s wuxia comedy The Eagle Shooting Heroes (1993). He’s best known worldwide for arthouse dramas such as In The Mood For Love. The Grandmasters is scheduled for release in 2012.


Sources for this post: 24framespersecond.net; kungfucinema.com; twitchfilm.com; and bfi.org.uk

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Melancholia


Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg play sisters whose lives are drifting apart as the universe spectacularly unravels in what Von Trier describes as a beautiful movie about the end of the world.

 

"Stunning. A movie that leaves the viewer in a state of ecstasy. A moving masterpiece, marked by an astonishing profundity of vision." - Lisa Schwarzbaum, Etertainment Weekly

 

Cast & Crew

Cast:
Kirsten Dunst
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Alexander Skarsgard
Kiefer Sutherland

Directed by:
Lars Von Trier

Dakota Fanning Vogue Italia






Elle Fanning


Elle Fanning although just 13-years-old, the sought-after actress and Super 8 star has been gracing fashion editorials for several seasons now. 

Elle Fanning photographed by Yu Tsai for Black Book magazine

Elle Fanning photographed by Yu Tsai for Black Book magazine

Martha Marcy May Marlene



Martha Marcy May Marlene is a powerful psychological thriller starring Elizabeth Olsen as Martha, a young woman rapidly unraveling amidst her attempt to reclaim a normal life after fleeing from a cult and its charismatic leader (John Hawkes). 



 Seeking help from her estranged older sister Lucy (Sarah Paulson) and brother-in-law (Hugh Dancy), Martha is unable and unwilling to reveal the truth about her disappearance. When her memories trigger a chilling paranoia that her former cult could still be pursuing her, the line between Martha's reality and delusion begins to blur. -- (C) Fox Searchlight


Reviews: 

Anthony Kaufman for Screen: "The film skillfully cuts back and forth between Martha's life in Connecticut, as she fails miserably to connect with her sister and reintegrate into 'normal' society, and her time at the commune, which initially appears blissfully utopian, and yet quickly takes on greater shades of oppression, exploitation and violence. Martha, it seems, is trapped in either location. As the commune's patriarch, actor John Hawkes, looking even more emaciated and feral here than in Winter's Bone, perfectly captures the alternating charisma and menace so often seen in cult leaders."

David Rooney in the Hollywood Reporter: "The film impresses most in its ability to sustain a mood of quiet dread, kicking up several visceral notches in the occasional stunning explosion of violence or verbal altercation. Right through to its ambiguous ending, the spell is transfixing."

Anne Hathaway: Interview










Anne Hathaway
Marcus Piggott, Mert Alas
Karl Templer

A Dangerous Method


A Dangerous Method is an upcoming drama movie that focuses on the relationship between psychiatrist Carl Jung and his mentor Sigmund Freud and the events leading to the creation of psychoanalysis. The film is directed by David Cronenberg. A Dangerous Method is based on a play by Christopher Hampton, which is itself based on a book by John Kerr.


 Plot: "On the eve of WWI, Zurich and Vienna are the setting for a dark tale of sexual and intellectual discovery. Drawn from true-life events, the film takes a glimpse into the turbulent relationships between fledgling psychiatrist Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender), his mentor Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen), and Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley), the troubled but beautiful young woman who comes between them. Into the mix comes Otto Gross (Vincent Cassel), a debauched patient who is determined to push the boundaries.
 
In this exploration of sensuality, ambition and deceit set the scene for the pivotal moment when Jung, Freud and Sabina come together and split apart, forever changing the face of modern thought."


  
Cast:
- Michael Fassbender as Carl Jung
- Keira Knightley as Russian-Jewish patient Sabina Spielrein
- Viggo Mortensen as Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung's mentor
- Vincent Cassel as Otto Gross, a debauched patient who is determined to push the boundaries
.

A Dangerous Method is slated for 2011 release.