CAYOM YEAR 1 - PART I - Movie Submission - READ THE RULES IN POST 1!!!

[Xillix]

The Defiler

Release Date: April 14th

Studio: MV Pictures

Genre: Supernatural Horror

Director: Michael J. Bassett

Theaters: 2,605

Premium Format: 3D

Shooting Format: Digital 4K (Red Scarlet-W) in native 3D

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1

Release Image Formats: 2K DCP, 2K 3D DCP

Release Audio Formats: 5.1, 7.1

Production Budget: $18 million

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence, terror, language, and suggestive content

Running Time: 91 minutes

Major Cast: Becky G (Ana), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Aaron), Melonie Diaz (Carmen), Deborah Kara Unger (Angela), Edgar Ramirez (Carlos)

 

Plot Summary:

Spoiler

 

When she was twelve years old, Ana's mother Carmen (Melonie Diaz) and father Carlos (Edgar Ramirez) adopted an orphaned boy named Aaron. Just a week after he moved in with the family, Carlos was brutally murdered - a case that has remained unsolved ever since. Though at first she was alienated from her new brother, somehow blaming him for her father's death, Ana eventually grew very close to Aaron as he became her greatest emotional support and best friend.

 

In the present, Ana (Becky G) and Aaron (Kodi Smit-McPhee), both having recently turned 18 and about to graduate high school, begin having nightmares about a demonic creature. Carmen tries to reassure them it's in their heads, a product of anxiety about moving on to the next stage of their lives - especially since they'll be going to different colleges. Soon, however, they both begin to see the demon stalking them in real life - first at school, then out at the movies, and finally in their house. On the recommendation of a neighbor, Carmen schedules them both an appointment with a local therapist, Angela (Deborah Kara Unger). Though she is friendly, Angela simply repeats their mother's theories about stress and hallucinations. The siblings leave the appointment early when they see the demon lurking in Angela's office. On the way back to the car, however, they are followed by the demon, closer than it has ever been before. They're chased into an alley where someone in a black cloak knocks them out and kidnaps them. The pair wake up in separate rooms in some sort of underground complex with Satanic markings carved into every wall. Ana manages to escape her room and begins to search the complex for Aaron. Meanwhile, a group of robed cultists enter Aaron's room and drag him, kicking and screaming, into a ceremonial chamber of some sort.

 

Back at home, Carmen calls Angela's office when the kids have been gone for too long. Angela explains that they left almost an hour early and should have been home a while ago. She says they seemed very troubled and may have been hallucinating. Carmen calls the police and reports them missing. As she returns home from the station she notices people in black cloaks watching and following her and becomes convinced her children were kidnapped.

 

Back in the underground cult lair, Ana continues her search for Aaron. She encounters a group of small but vicious demonic creatures, imps, which chase her through the corridors. She finds her way into a large room deeper in the complex and shuts the door behind her, locking the imps out. Unfortunately, she turns around to find she's in some sort of operating room, where a cultist in a red robe and demonic mask is performing a grotesque medical experiment on an unwilling captive with demonic symbols carved into his skin. The doctor and victim both turn to stare at Ana. The victim screams for help, but the doctor injects something into him with a syringe and he begins to mutate, flesh bubbling and deforming until he spontaneously combusts and burns away to a pile of ash. The doctor approaches Ana with another syringe, and she flees through another door. The door leads to a hallway full of cells containing partially-mutated prisoners with similar carvings in their skin. Ana unlocks some of the cells and the mutants escape, swarming and killing the doctor.

 

While leaving her office for the night, Angela notices the cloaked figures stalking her as well. She calls Carmen and says the kids may not have been hallucinating after all, and when Carmen confirms she is also being followed, Angela advises her to leave the house and find someone safe to stay without telling anyone where she's going. Angela gets into her car, not noticing the cloaked man who slowly sits up in the back seat where he has been waiting for her.

 

Carmen leaves her house but doesn't make it very far. As she drives down the street, a line of cultists block the road in front of her. She tries to back up but another group blocks the road behind her. She puts her car back in drive, intending to ram through the human roadblock, but suddenly a fully-mutated prisoner of the cult's smashes through her window and grabs her. The mutant combusts, catching her on fire as well. The two burn alive, and eventually the car explodes as the cultists leave the scene.

 

In the cult's lair, Ana finds Aaron back in the room where he originally woke up. He has carvings in his skin similar to the ones on the mutants. Ana warns him they're trying to turn him into a monster, but Aaron can't remember what happened at all. The two make a run for it, trying to find a way out of the maze-like complex. Just as they find a hallway they believe is an exit, a lanky, insect-like demonic creature is revealed clinging to the ceiling above them by a low-angle shot. It grabs them and drags them up into a grate in the ceiling, pulling them along through a series of claustrophobic air-vent-like passageways. Ana manages to kick herself free of the demon's grasp, but a second demon of the same type appears behind her and a chase through the winding, narrow tunnels ensues.

 

Ana escapes the monster and the tunnels, dropping down into the biggest room yet - an altar room with a gigantic statue of the demon from their nightmares. Inside, she sees Aaron talking to a shadowy figure in the corner. She approaches them and demands to know who's there. The man steps out of the shadows - it's her father, Carlos. Aaron turns to Ana with a look of rage and terror. Carlos explains to him that it's been exactly six years, six months, and six days since the cult kidnapped him. Since then, they've been preparing a ritual. Ana, he had discovered, was not really his daughter. She was the daughter of the demon Conspurux, the Great Defiler - the one they've seen in their dreams, who the cult worships. By murdering her human father, she would realize her destiny and attain her full evil powers. He had just managed to escape, but the cultists were coming now to start the ceremony. The only way to stop the apocalypse was for them to kill Ana.

 

Ana tells Aaron not to listen, and realizes the man is not really her father. She tries to warn Aaron of this, but his mind has been tampered with by the cultists. Aaron agrees to kill his sister, and "Carlos" gets him to say that he "accepts his destiny." At this point "Carlos" transforms, revealing he is in fact Conspurux. Aaron's eyes turn black and the room begins to shake. The cultists rush into the room and grab Ana. Among them are Angela and the neighbor who recommended her services to Carmen. Amanda reveals that Aaron is, in fact, her son, and also the son of Conspurux - but he never knew it. Carlos was killed because he was dangerously close to finding out. In order to summon Conspurux fully into the mortal realm, his son had to live among the humans, learn to love one - Ana - and then kill them. This would destroy the human half of his soul and allow Conspurux to use him as a conduit into the human world.

 

The cultists tie Ana to the altar, and Angela hands Aaron a ceremonial dagger. Ana begs Aaron not to hurt her, telling him he still has the human half of his soul and that it only needs to be stronger than the demonic half. Her words fall on deaf ears, and Aaron stabs her through the heart, killing her. Conspurux places his hand on his son's shoulder, and the two begin to merge into a single demonic being. However, as he stares at Ana's lifeless body, tears roll down Aaron's eyes, which return to their normal color. He takes the dagger and stabs himself through the heart as well. Evil and good energies surge around the room out from his and Conspurux' half-fused bodies, and the chamber collapses around them, crushing and burying everyone in the room as Conspurux' demonic scream echoes through the halls of the complex.

 

The next day, the police and rescue workers are at the site of the complex, the middle of a field where a large sinkhole was created by the collapsing altar room. As they remove bodies from the rubble, one of them hears something moving in the debris behind him. A badly-deformed Conspurux leaps out from the rocks and dirt and attacks him.

 

THE END

 

 

[Rorschach]

1999

 

Studio: LagerFilms

Genre: Thriller

Director: Trey Edward Schults

Cinematographer: Drew Daniels

Composer: Johann Johansson

Running Time: 118 minutes

Release Date: September 8th

Theater Count: 2,769

Budget: $20 million

MPAA Rating: R for Disturbing images and language

 

Cast:

Dacre Montogomery 

Jane Levy

Ben Mendelsohn

Mark Ruffalo

and Mark Rylance

 

Plot:

TBA

 

Edited July 21, 2017 by Rorschach

[Xillix]

The Beckinsville File

Release Date: July 7th

Studio: Red Crescent Pictures

Genre: Found Footage/Horror

Directors: Colin Minihan & Stuart Ortiz (The Vicious Brothers)

Theaters: 2,173

Shooting Format: Digital Consumer 4K (3840x2160) (Sony Handycam AX53 & GoPro HERO5 Black)

Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1

Release Image Formats: 2K DCP, 4K DCP

Release Audio Formats: 5.1

Production Budget: $1.5 million

MPAA Rating: R for graphic violence, language, terror, and some nudity

Running Time: 86 minutes

Major Cast: All unknowns

 

Plot Summary:

Spoiler

 

Three college history majors - bookish Hannah, her nerdy boyfriend Matt, and their superstitious "hot chick" friend Alice - recruit the help of film student James for a term project. They decide to make a documentary short on the wooded Vermont village of Beckinsville, which was abandoned during a smallpox epidemic in the 1710s and where demon worship was allegedly common. Their first day and night at the ruins of the village are fairly uneventful, as they examine run-down cabins and a perfectly normal Christian church, finding no evidence of any unholy rites - though excitable Alice is frequently startled by small animals and the like.

 

On the second day, the group find the makeshift hospital where victims of the epidemic were briefly treated. The small, decaying facility, built into the side of a hill, includes surprisingly little in terms of vintage medical equipment and the like, and there are no documents of any kind to be found. The group reasons the site has simply been picked over and anything of interest retrieved. As Alice is poking around one of the rooms in back, however, she discovers a false wall. When it is opened, centuries-old skeletons spill out. As Alice runs out of the room screaming, the others investigate. Matt, who researched smallpox for the project, notes that none of the skeletons show any signs of the bone lesions smallpox can cause. He writes it off, though, saying they likely died too quickly for them to form.

 

That night the group begin to hear and record whispering voices of people who aren't there. Alice swears she sees the ghost of a woman in eighteenth-century garb, but no one else is there to see it and she doesn't get it on camera. She freaks out and decides to leave, promising to wait for the rest of the group at a motel in the nearest town. The next morning the teens - whose cell phones actually have signals despite this being a horror movie - attempt to call Alice, but there's no answer. While James and Matt go back to the hospital to do more filming for the project, Hannah travels back to where their cars are parked. Alice's car is gone, but when she attempts to call her again there is still no answer. Hannah decides to drive into town to check on her.

 

In the hospital, the boys find nothing of major interest besides the bones. They return to the campsite and wait for a few hours before becoming concerned they haven't heard from Hannah. All attempts to contact her or Alice fail. They too head for the cars and decide to drive into town. They don't get very far down the dirt road, however, before coming across the wreck of Hannah's car, which has veered off the road into a tree. The inside is bloody, but Hannah herself is nowhere to be found. The pair call 911, and James waits at the crash site for the cops while Matt goes into the woods looking for Hannah.

 

Hours pass and night falls. The cops still haven't arrived, and Matt hasn't found Hannah. He returns to the campsite and finds Alice there, sitting silently in a tent. However, she is possessed and attacks him. He ends up killing her by bashing her head in with a rock. He tries to call James but something is interfering with his phone. Similarly, James tries to call the cops again but suddenly can't get a signal. He goes to drive into town when the ghost of a 1710s woman - the one Alice claimed to have seen - appears in the road in front of him. He swerves to avoid her, just barely managing not to crash, but soon after that his engine mysteriously dies and he's forced to set out on foot for town. Matt tries to return to his car but along the way he catches a brief glimpse of what seems to be a demon. He turns to run, pursued by the sounds of demonic roaring, whispering voices, and falling trees. He winds up near the hospital, but becomes trapped - either there is more than one demon, or it seems to teleport, as no matter which direction he tries to run it winds up in front of him. He's forced into the hospital to hide. 

 

On the road into town, James comes across an empty cop car. He tries to use the radio inside but is greeted only by static and the sounds of demonic roaring and cackling. Suddenly, he hears Hannah calling for help in the woods nearby. He rushes to the sound of her voice, and along the way encounters severed limbs belonging to the missing police officers strewn about the forest. He finds Hannah trapped at the bottom of a deep hole in the ground, crying and shrieking. As James attempts to help her climb out, demonic hands emerge from the soil at the bottom of the hole and drag her underground. James returns to the cop car but can't start it, and the radio still doesn't work. Too scared to go back outside, he hides in the car, using the camera's night vision to watch the woods around him.

 

In the ruins of the hospital, Matt is still trying to escape the demon. He finds another false wall which leads to a dark corridor. Inside the corridor are more skeletons, which look considerably less than 300 years old. Still, the roaring behind him forces him deeper into the tunnel. At the other end he finds a hidden temple filled with demonic sigils and statues of monstrous creatures. He opens another door and rushes down a flight of old stone stairs and finds a mass grave of mutilated, decaying bodies and skeletons. A deafening chorus of ghostly shrieks and cries fills the room. He tries to run back up the stairs but the door at the top slams, trapping him inside. Parts of the piles of bones and bodies begin moving and shifting, and demons begin to burst out from within. He pounds on the closed door helplessly until he is grabbed, dropping the camera. Off-screen, the sounds of his screams are heard for a while before coming to an abrupt end.

 

Back in the cop car, the radio suddenly begins working and the local dispatcher can be heard. James frantically answers, begging for help. The dispatcher says she'll send further assistance. The battery in James' camera dies, but as he's breathing a sigh of relief, the last thing we see is the face of the demon reflected in the car's rear-view mirror.

 

 

[Xillix]

Don't Go Outside

Release Date: September 1st

Studio: MV Pictures

Genre: Found Footage/Horror

Director: William Brent Bell

Theaters: 2,611

Shooting Format: Digital 4K & Consumer 4K (Panasonic HC-X1 & iPhone 7 Plus)

Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1

Release Image Formats: 2K DCP

Release Audio Formats: 5.1

Production Budget: $950,000

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence, language and terror

Running Time: 83 minutes

Major Cast: All unknowns

 

Plot Summary:

Spoiler

 

A group of teens decide to have one last weekend-long party during summer vacation before their senior year of high school begins. They pool some money and rent a cheap cabin out in the woods. The place is run-down and looks like it hasn't been used in a while, but is otherwise fine. One of the party-goers heads outside to pee and doesn't come back, but the irresponsible teens dismiss it as her getting drunk and passing out in the woods. Later a boyfriend and girlfriend who can't get any privacy in the house decide to head outside to have sex. The man is secretly trying to record a sex tape, so the camera is rolling when something just out of frame yanks him off of his girlfriend as they make out. 

 

As night falls the party-goers hear a loud banging on the front door. It's the girlfriend, in shock and babbling incoherently. The only understandable words they can get out of her are a warning not to go outside. A jock decides this is all ridiculous and heads out to find the two missing people. Near the spot where the couple were making out, the boyfriend's body drops out of a tree in front of him. Its skin is ashen and it's emaciated, almost mummy-like. He tries to make it back to the cabin but something off-screen grabs him as he approaches it and he drops the phone he was using as a camera.

 

Someone tries to call the jock after he's been missing for a while, and another party-goer who is looking out the window sees his phone's screen light up on the ground several yards in front of the cabin. She goes out to retrieve it against the traumatized girl's warnings, and several guests watch through the windows as a dark, shadowy figure, moving impossibly fast, rushes out of the forest and snatches her away. The teens panic as the power cuts out and they all mysteriously lose their cell phone signals. They barricade the doors and windows and try to hunker down for the night.

 

There's a series of knocks on the door and some idiot decides to go look out the front window in case it's one of the missing party-goers. We don't get to see what they do, but we do see as something smashes through the glass and drags them outside. The others re-cover the window and cower in fear as banging and crashing is heard from all around the exterior of the house - even on the roof. After several moments of silence, eventually a window in one of the back rooms breaks. The sound of the boards they put over the window being torn off echoes through the house, and the party-goers all hide. Into the main room walks the girl who disappeared first, dirty and bloody, with her hand cut up from smashing the window. She begs for help, and the shadowy figure rushes into the room behind her, grabbing her and sucking the life out of her, leaving her a mummy-like corpse. The person whose camera is still rolling manages to sneak past the creature while it's distracted attacking the others in the cabin, and flee out the broken window. As he enters the woods, however, he's surrounded by several creatures identical to the one in the cabin. He makes a run for it but they converge on him, and the last image we see before the camera cuts out is one of the creatures' faces staring directly into the lens, seemingly at the audience.

 

 

Edited August 7, 2017 by Xillix

[Xillix]

The Artificial Age

Release Date: January 27th

Studio: Gold Crescent Pictures

Genre: Sci-Fi/Action

Director: Paul W.S. Anderson

Theaters: 3,113

Premium Formats: 3D & IMAX 3D

Shooting Format: Digital 6K (Red Weapon) in native 3D

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1, 1.90:1 (Select scenes, in IMAX only)

Release Image Formats: 2K DCP, 2K 3D DCP, 4K DCP, 2K IMAX Digital 3D DCP, 4K IMAX Laser 3D DCP

Release Audio Formats: 5.1, 7.1, Dolby Atmos, IMAX 12-Channel (IMAX Laser DCPs only)

Production Budget: $67 million

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for action violence and language

Running Time: 94 minutes

Major Cast: Luke Evans (Sergeant Miller), Milla Jovovich (Stacy), Josh Hutcherson (Private Cooper), Keanu Reeves (Captain Johnson), Diego Boneta (Private Ramirez)

Plot Summary:

The year is 2120. Humanity is at war with a race of sentient machines. In the California desert, a human refugee camp comes under attack by the mechanical army, which slaughters men, women and children mercilessly. A rag-tag human military unit led by Captain Johnson (Keanu Reeves) is assigned to defend the camp and extract any survivors. The unit's second-in-command, Sergeant Miller (Luke Evans), rescues a human woman named Stacy (Milla Jovovich), whose entire family has been killed by the robots. He begins to fall in love with her. During a big attack by the robot forces, he is busy protecting Stacy when several soldiers, including Private Cooper (Josh Hutcherson) and Captain Johnson, are killed. Although he is now technically in command, the rest of the unit, save for his good friend Private Ramirez (Diego Boneta), threaten to mutiny because they believe Miller's affection for Stacy is too distracting and that she is a liability. Stacy volunteers to join the unit and is trained by Miller and Ramirez. In the climactic battle, she does surprisingly well as a soldier, saving Ramirez' life. Sadly, the battle is a lost cause and the camp is completely overrun. Knowing he and the rest of his men are going to be killed, Miller orders Ramirez and Stacy to retreat and report to a nearby military base. Despite Stacy's protests, they do so. Miller and what remains of his unit are slaughtered, and Stacy swears vengeance on the robot army for him and her family.

Edited August 12, 2017 by Xillix

[Xillix]

Faces & Voices: The True Story of Milli Vanilli

Release Date: December 8th (Limited), December 15th (Wide)

Studio: Gold Crescent Pictures

Genre: Biopic/Drama/Music

Director: F. Gary Gray

Theaters: 370 (Limited), 2,614 (Wide)

Shooting Format: Digital 5K (Red Scarlet-W)

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1

Release Image Formats: 2K DCP, 4K DCP

Release Audio Formats: 5.1, 7.1, Dolby Atmos

Production Budget: $35 million

MPAA Rating: R for language, drug use, and suggestive content

Running Time: 133 minutes

Original Song: "Silence and Secrets" written and performed by Fab Morvan

Major Cast: Unknown lookalikes (Rob & Fab), Christoph Waltz (Frank Farian), Cedric the Entertainer (Brad Howell), Jamie Foxx (John Davis), Taye Diggs (Charles Shaw), Teresa Palmer (Jodie Rocco), Julianne Hough (Linda Rocco)

 

Plot Summary:

A biopic about the formation, rise, and legendary fall of fabricated pop-rap group Milli Vanilli - one of the greatest music scandals of all time. Detailed summary in spoiler box below.

 

Spoiler

 

Robert "Rob" Pilatus, the adopted son of an American soldier and German prostitute, and Fabrice "Fab" Morvan, a former competitive gymnast forced to retire after a serious training injury, find themselves through dance and music and meet one another at a club. The two have polar opposite personalities - Rob is loud, proud, headstrong and brash, while Fab is reserved and prefers to think before he speaks - but the pair hit it off and become best friends. The pair, living near the poverty line in Munich, Germany, set out to make something of themselves as a duo in showbiz. They become popular at local clubs and take odd jobs as models and backup dancers.

 

Meanwhile, record producer Frank Farian (Christoph Waltz), one of Europe's most successful and powerful figures in the music industry, is searching for his next surefire hit after the embarrassing misfire of producing a flop album for Meat Loaf. He hears a pop-rap track by an obscure American group entitled "Girl You Know It's True" at a dance club and decides he can turn it into a European smash. He recruits a pair of American-born musicians - singer Brad Howell (Cedric the Entertainer) and rapper Charles Shaw (Taye Diggs) - to record lead vocals on his version of the track. For backing vocals, he pays American-born sisters Jodie (Teresa Palmer) and Linda (Julianne Hough) Rocco $64 to spend 20 minutes of their lunch break from another session singing the female parts. He's confident he has a hit on his hands, but he feels the real singers don't have a marketable image.

 

One night, Frank encounters Rob & Fab at a club and decides he wants them to be his frontmen. He invites them to his studio, where the pair are overwhelmed by the expensive equipment and the gold records hanging on the wall. Farian plays them a demo of "Girl You Know It's True" - without the vocals, though they've already been recorded - and asks if they can sing it. The pair enthusiastically agree, and Farian offers them a contract. The pair, who can't afford a lawyer, skim the contract and sign on to record the song. Farian gives them a small cash advance on their payment, which Rob & Fab spend quickly.

 

Time passes as Rob & Fab wait to be called into the studio to record, but Farian keeps stalling. Finally he summons them to his studio, where he claims there's simply not enough time to get them the proper vocal coaching and have them record. He admits to them he's had professional studio musicians sing the song, and that their jobs will now be to simply dance, lip-synch, and represent themselves as the vocalists. The pair become angry and demand to be let out of the contract. Farian tells them he'd be glad to let them go - as long as they can pay back the cash advance he gave them. Without any money, Rob & Fab are trapped. They agree to perform their duties as frontmen until the single earns them enough to pay off their debts.

 

"Girl You Know It's True" quickly becomes a smash hit all across Europe. Before they know it, Rob & Fab are shooting a music video, making television appearances, and signing autographs for crazed fans. Milli Vanilli's momentum grows and grows with no sign of stopping. Charles Shaw, who didn't expect the recording to be such a hit, feels short-changed. He knows he deserves credit for his work on the platinum-selling single. When Farian suspects him of trying to leak his involvement to the press, he fires Shaw from the group, banning him from ever working in his studio again. Unknown, at first, to the two lip-synchers, Shaw is replaced by John Davis (Jamie Foxx), and recording commences for a full album without their involvement.

 

With Rob & Fab sure they have paid off their debts, they ask Farian to stop the charade. It is only then that he reveals the contract they signed to perform "Girl You Know It's True" - and which they did not read and understand fully - was not, in fact, a contract for one single, but for three albums. Farian continues to string the pair along, telling them they will be more famous than they ever imagined, pointing out that Arista wants to sign them in the United States. They can spend their time training now, he says, and sing for real on the next album. Rob & Fab, unsure of how to deal with the revelation about their contract and tempted by the promises of worldwide superstardom, proceed.

 

The album - All or Nothing in Europe, Girl You Know It's True in America, where it's released with a different track list - becomes a worldwide smash hit. Rob & Fab become drunk on their sudden success. After a few trips to America for promotional appearances, the duo decide to move to Los Angeles permanently - against Frank's wishes. They can get into any club, get any women they want, and party all night long every night of the week. Both quickly become hooked on drugs and the hard-partying celebrity lifestyle. It seems all they can't do is escape the lie they're living. They can't be seen with any of the real singers, even Jodie or Linda - though they do meet them from time to time. They can't admit to anyone, even their own families, that they don't really sing on stage or on the records. They develop a sense of depression and paranoia, which they attempt to bury under more drugs and parties. At one point, Brad Howell approaches the pair to get an autograph. They have no idea who he is.

 

It quickly becomes an open secret in the music industry that the pair aren't really the singers behind Milli Vanilli. Anyone who performs at the same show or venue as them quickly discovers the fact. The pair even develop a feud with talk show host Arsenio Hall, who refuses to allow them on his show because they don't sing live. People inevitably begin to question how it is these two heavily-accented Europeans who barely speak any English could be singing in perfect American accents all the time. Charles Shaw even makes a statement to a small newspaper admitting he was the real rapper on the first single, but he's paid off by Farian to retract it.

 

Against Farian's advice, the pair sign on for the Club MTV concert tour. One night at a show at the Lake Compounce theme park in Bristol, Connecticut, the pair are lip-synching "Girl You Know It's True" when the recording begins to skip and repeat. "Girl you know it's - girl you know it's - girl you know it's..." and so forth, ad nauseum. A terrified Rob runs off-stage, convinced the ruse is over. Shockingly, no one in the audience seems to notice or care. The concert, and tour, continue. Milli Vanilli's success continues unabated. The pair win three American Music Awards. Even a hastily thrown-together album of remixes goes gold in America. Then comes the biggest news yet - Milli Vanilli is nominated for a Grammy for Best New Artist.

 

On the night of the ceremony, the pair lip-synch "Girl You Know It's True" on stage, in front of an auditorium full of music's hottest stars and a television audience of millions. Shortly after, the results are announced. Milli Vanilli are named the winners. The duo, shocked and distressed, put on an act for the cameras as best they can, but they are secretly terrified. Rob delivers a painfully awkward 15-second acceptance speech, in which he simply dedicates the award to "all the artists in the world." Fab, visibly shaken, merely adds a "thank you" before the two rush off-stage. Each of them realize on some level - Fab more consciously than Rob - that this is the beginning of the end, the peak from which they will inevitably fall.

 

Over the next several months, recording begins back in Germany on the group's second album. Farian urged Rob & Fab to return to Germany in order to keep up appearances, but they refuse unless they are guaranteed the right to sing on the album. This is ultimately a stalling tactic, as they know Farian won't agree, but the pair are attempting to set up a new record deal in the US that will allow them to finally do their own vocals without Farian's involvement. The real singers toil away in Farian's studio, with Linda and Jodie becoming especially disillusioned. Farian becomes seriously ill and is forced into an extended hospital stay, during which time he leaves the arrangement of several tracks to the Rocco sisters. Despite this, when he returns and the album is completed, he offers them each only $50,000 for their work. Rob, Fab, and the male singers are being paid millions each. Jodie snaps, and during a heated confrontation with Frank, demands more money. He offers them $60,000 instead but tells them he will burn the master tapes. Jodie tells him to go fuck himself. Ultimately she and Linda each receive $80,000, but agree never to work with him again - and set out to expose the Milli Vanilli charade. At the same time, Rob & Fab threaten to make the reveal themselves if their demands are not met.

 

Farian decides to launch a pre-emptive strike. He holds a press conference in Germany where he announces that Rob & Fab never sang and publically fires them from the group. The shockwaves are instant. In Los Angeles, Fab is out for a morning jog when one of his friends finds him and advises him to get back to his house before the shit hits the fan. Rob & Fab decide to hold their own press conference in response to return the Grammy, which they feel they don't deserve. Before their conference starts, however, the Grammy committee announces they are revoking it anyway - a literally unprecedented decision. Rob & Fab's conference is a media circus, with the two insulted and goaded into singing and rapping small bits of "Girl You Know It's True." They suggest the Grammy statues be given to John Davis and Brad Howell, but the Grammy committee decides to strike the award from the record completely, not honoring any Best New Artist winner for the year.

 

Within days, all the fairweather friends in the industry that Rob & Fab had made evaporate. Arista takes the US version of their album out of print - making it the single best-selling album in history to ever be taken out of print. Around the country, people throw out or destroy their Milli Vanilli recordings. Used music stores refuse to purchase them. Lawsuits are launched from every angle - not just against the record label, but Rob & Fab themselves. Fab realizes the need to clean himself up, but Rob leans into drugs even harder. Both become the object of public ridicule all over the world. Rob attempts suicide, cutting his wrists and dangling from a hotel balcony, though he is ultimately rescued.

 

In Europe, Farian re-works the group's second album, turning it into a ploy for publicity. He entitles it The Moment of Truth and credits it to "The Real Milli Vanilli." For the first time, Brad and John are shown on the cover and allowed onstage. However, Farian adds two entirely new, young, "hip" members to the group and gives them prominence in the marketing, although their only contributions to the album are harmonies and overdubs on tracks that had already been finished or the replacement of lead vocals previously recorded by actual Milli Vanilli members. Farian also decides to retroactively credit the new female member, Gina Mohammed, with the Rocco's vocals on the first album. The first single is a hit in parts of Europe, but the new iteration of the band quickly disappears from the charts and the second album is never released in America.

 

Rob & Fab don't land a record deal of their own for a couple more years. They sign with Joss Entertainment and Taj Records, small, under-funded companies that have never released an album before. Rob is suffering badly from the effects of drug addiction during the entire recording process, leaving Fab to do almost all of the singing. The two finally make a highly-publicized appearance on Arsenio Hall's show and perform their first single live. However, their label doesn't have the money to advertise or release the album widely. It sells just 2,000 copies before the label goes under. Rob & Fab go their separate ways.

 

In 1998, Rob - who has been going through rehab paid for by Farian, who is courting him for a new project - is about to leave on a trip to India to detox. The night before his departure he decides to go on one final all-out bender of drugs and alcohol. The next day he is found dead of an overdose in his hotel room. Even then, the jokes in the press don't stop as his death is reported.

 

Over the end credits, an original song written and recorded by Fab as a reflection on his life and partnership with Rob, "Silence and Secrets," plays.

 

 

[Xillix]

The Ultimate Prank

Release Date: May 19th

Studio: Rising Crescent Pictures

Genre: Family/Comedy

Director: Miguel Arteta

Theaters: 2,750

Shooting Format: Digital 3.4K (Arri Alexa SXT Plus)

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Release Image Formats: 2K DCP

Release Audio Formats: 5.1

Production Budget: $12 million

MPAA Rating: PG for rude humor and mischief

Running Time: 86 minutes

Major Cast: Ty Simpkins (George), Max Charles (Lenny), Skai Jackson (Emma), Steve Carrell (Principal Stern)

 

Plot Summary:

After finding out about high school "senior pranks" on the internet, eighth-grader George (Ty Simpkins) decides to pull off an amazing prank on his last day of middle school. He enlists the help of his best friends Lenny (Max Charles) and Emma (Skai Jackson), and the trio must sneak around and get into comedic mischief in order to set everything up under the watchful eye of the strict and seemingly emotionless Principal Stern (Steve Carrell). In the end they succeed in their plans, setting it up so that the goofy theme song to Principal Stern's favorite childhood cartoon plays on the PA system during the last school assembly of the year. Stern is reduced to tears and runs off-stage and the three are cheered on by the amassed crowd of children for emotionally tormenting a repressed adult with deep-seated emotional issues because his position of power inclines them to dislike him. Kid power!

Edited September 4, 2017 by Xillix

[Xillix]

Airframe

Release Date: June 2nd

Studio: Red Crescent Pictures

Genre: Thriller/Drama

Director: Tate Taylor

Theaters: 2,966

Shooting Format: Super 35 film, 3-perf (Panaflex Platinum PFX-P)

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Release Image Formats: 2K DCP, 4K DCP

Release Audio Formats: 5.1, 7.1

Production Budget: $35 million

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for language, peril, and alcohol consumption

Running Time: 128 minutes

Major Cast: Jodie Foster (Casey Singleton), Josh Brolin (Bob Richman), Jeffrey Wright (John Marder), Naomi Watts (Jennifer Malone), James Brolin (Harold Edgarton)

 

Plot Summary:

An adaptation of Michael Crichton's 1996 novel of the same name, albeit with major changes to make it more multiplex-friendly. Detailed description in spoiler box below.

 

Spoiler

 

One night, Transpacific Airlines Flight 545, en route from Hong Kong to Detroit, suffers a severe midair incident near the California coast. Reports from the crew are spotty and contradictory at first, but it eventually comes out that extreme turbulence was encountered which killed three passengers and injured dozens more people, including crewmembers. The plane in question was a Norton N-22, one of the safest planes in production. Media interest in the story becomes intense as the investigation into the cause of the accident commences and the pilot, apparently traumatized by the incident, commits suicide. Casey Singleton (Jodie Foster), Norton Aircraft's Vice President of Quality Assurance, is assigned to look into the matter while also fending off the press, especially cable news producer Jennifer Malone (Naomi Watts), who hopes to make a name for herself by producing a savage hit-piece on Norton Aircraft and the N-22 in particular. Assisting Casey is junior executive Bob Richman (Josh Brolin), a cocky and overambitious ladder-climber who she clashes with badly.

 

After investigating the crash site, and speaking with John Marder (Jeffrey Wright), the COO of the manufacturing plant where the N-22 is made, Richman comes to the same conclusion as the media - that the cause of the accident was a mechanical defect in the N-22's design, which was identified early in production but which, it appears, was not adequately fixed. This could spell doom for the company, as it would mean that every N-22 in service was vulnerable to the same type of incident. At first, Casey believes this is the most likely explanation as well. But the company's aging CEO Harold Edgarton (James Brolin) personally implores her to dig deeper, as he has a sense that something is not right.

 

During the course of her continuing investigation, Casey discovers the fault actually lies with Transpacific Airlines, and not the N-22. The pilot of Flight 545 had allowed his son, who was also a pilot but not trained or certified on that model of plane, to take over the controls during the flight. A mechanical problem did arise, but it was not a flaw in the plane's design. Instead it was caused by improper and infrequent maintenance of the plane by Transpacific. The N-22 had automated systems to recover from such a problem, and the actual pilot would have known this. His son, however, did not, and his attempts to correct the problem manually are what caused the accident. The son was killed in the resulting turbulence, but the airline had covered it up in order to shift blame to Norton. They disguised his body as that of a passenger and forced his father to go along with it, the stress of which caused his suicide.

 

On their way back to corporate HQ to reveal their findings, Richman makes sure to book them on an N-22 flight, saying it will look good for the company. However, he disappears just before takeoff, having left the plane. Midway through the flight, there is a mechanical failure and the plane begins to plummet out of the sky. The pilot manages to retain just enough control to make an emergency landing. Ten people die and over a hundred are seriously injured, including Casey. All N-22 planes are grounded, and Norton's stock plummets. In the hospital, Casey is visited by John Marder. Casey shares with him her suspicion that her flight was sabotaged by Richman or someone working with him, and Marder tries to kill her. She manages to escape her hospital room and summon help, but Marder flees before the cops arrive.

 

It soon becomes clear that Marder and Richman had actually been involved in Transpacific's cover-up from the start. The pair, along with several other Norton employees, had been paid off by a rival airplane manufacturer in competition for a government contract to covertly ruin Norton's reputation and force them out of business. Richman had Casey's return flight sabotaged in an attempt to kill her and keep the truth that the N-22 was safe from getting out. The pair are arrested trying to make their way out of the country, and several executives at the rival manufacturer are arrested - but the CEO manages to line up enough scapegoats to escape with just a slap on the wrist. Casey retires from Norton.

 

 

Edited September 4, 2017 by Xillix

[Xillix]

Signed in Blood

Release Date: March 24th

Studio: Red Crescent Pictures

Genre: Action

Director: Olivier Megaton

Theaters: 2,945

Premium Formats: IMAX & Dolby Vision

Shooting Format: 35mm anamorphic Panavision / Super 35 3-perf (Select scenes)

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1, 1.90:1 (Select scenes, IMAX only)

Release Image Formats: 2K DCP, 4K DCP, 4K Dolby Vision DCP, 2K IMAX Digital DCP, 4K IMAX Laser DCP

Release Audio Formats: 5.1, 7.1, Dolby Atmos, IMAX 12-Channel (IMAX Laser DCPs only)

Production Budget: $30 million

MPAA Rating: R for brutal violence, language, drug use, and suggestive content

Running Time: 91 minutes

Major Cast: Michael B. Jordan (Lee Clearwater), Sam Worthington (The Hitman), Gina Carano (Officer Samantha Seaver), Liam Neeson (Captain Willis), Camille Hyde (Stacy)

 

Plot Summary:

An LA gang member, Lee Clearwater (Michael B. Jordan), is seeking to get his life on a better path for the sake of his girlfriend, Stacy (Camille Hyde). He becomes a police informant under the supervision of Captain Willis (Liam Neeson), who is skeptical of his intentions. He takes part in a sting operation alongside police officer Samantha Seaver (Gina Carano) that leads to a major drug bust and the arrest of nearly a dozen gang members. Captain Willis' careless handling of the case, however, allows the leaders of the gang to discover that Lee was the rat. Not wanting to get their hands dirty personally since they're already under heavy pressure from the cops, the gang leaders hire a stoic, mostly-silent hitman (Sam Worthington) to take out Lee.

 

After an attempted killing in his apartment, Lee and Stacy go on the run through LA, eventually seeking out the help of Seaver. A relentless nighttime chase through the slums of LA ensues with lots of gunshots, fighting, explosions, and an ever-increasing bodycount as the hitman casually kills anyone who gets in his way. In the final confrontation in a condemned housing project, Stacy intervenes to save her boyfriend just before he is killed, ultimately losing her own life. While Seaver battles the hitman, Lee seemingly flees the scene. However, he takes control of a wrecking ball outside the building and, when he spots an opening, slams it into the part of the structure where the hitman is standing, killing him as he's crushed by tons of rubble. At Stacy's funeral, which Seaver also attends, Lee informs her of his decision to join the LAPD in order to honor his girlfriend's memory.

 

[Alpha]

Killer Plane

 

Director: Michael Bay

Composer: Steve Jablonsky

Genre: Action / Thriller

Date: January 6th

Studio: Redlight Films

Format: Live-action, 2D

Budget: $45 million

Theaters: 3,048

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Running Time: 90 minutes

 

Cast:

Mark Wahlberg as Dan Donovan

Paul Giamatti as Steve James

Riz Ahmed as Mohamed Jihadi

 

Plot: In order to make traveling safer, Country Airlines CEO Steve James (Paul Giamatti) introduces self-piloting airplanes, which will eliminate all risk of terrorist hijackers. But for one fateful flight, infamous terrorist Mohamed Jihadi (Riz Ahmed) gains remote access to the plane's controls and plans to crash it into the Space Needle in Seattle. Now, with only a hour before the flight reaches it's "destination", James must team up with Air Force officer Dan Donovan (Mark Wahlberg) to capture Jihadi and stop the plane before it kills it's passengers.

Edited July 31, 2017 by Alpha

[Alpha]

The Yellow Wallpaper

 

Director: Darren Aronofsky

Composer: Clint Mansell

Genre: Psychological Drama / Thriller

Date: June 23rd

Studio: Alpha Pictures

Budget: $10 million

Theaters: 2,679

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Running Time: 87 minutes

 

Cast:

Rose Bryne as Jane

Adam Scott as John

 

Plot:

 

Married couple Jane and John rent a large countryside home in the middle of a forest. However, Jane is feeling rather grey about spending the summer with her husband. Her John, who is also her doctor, however, disregards her “illness” as only her worrisome thoughts. He contrasts his practical, rationalistic manner with her own imaginative, sensitive ways. John says that Jane will be able to relax over the summer in the new home, as he’s made special arrangements for her that could combat her depression.

When they arrive, Jane marvels at the grandeur of the house and grounds her husband has taken for their summer vacation. She describes it in romantic terms as an aristocratic estate or even a haunted house and wonders how they were able to afford it, and why the house had been empty for so long. John tells her he was able to secure the house because of money he had earned over the years, as he had been saving up for this “special occasion.”

John guides Jane around the house. His description is mostly positive, but to Jane, disturbing elements such as the “rings and things” in the bedroom walls, and the bars on the windows, keep showing up. John introduces Jane to her “quarters,” and she is particularly disturbed by the yellow wallpaper in the bedroom, with its strange, formless pattern, and describes it as “revolting.” John closes and locks the door in the bedroom, which has a peephole.

Throughout the first few weeks, Jane is only allowed to come out for meals. John starts becoming more controlling, and tries to keep her inside the bedroom. She continues to long for more stimulating company and activity, and she complains to herself about John’s patronizing, controlling ways—although she begins thinking about the wallpaper, which begins to seem not only ugly, but oddly menacing. John is worried about her becoming fixated on it, but he has refused to repaper the room so as not to give in to her neurotic worries. Jane has hallucinations about people walking around the house, and is always enticed by their appearances, but John always discourages such fantasies.

As the Fourth of July passes, Jane rarely comes out of the bedroom on her own, and has become almost fond of the wallpaper, and that attempting to figure out its pattern has become her primary entertainment. John, who now has to force Jane out of the bedroom, becomes worried. As her obsession grows, the sub-pattern of the wallpaper becomes clearer. It begins to resemble a woman “stooping down and creeping” behind the main pattern, which looks like the bars of a cage. Whenever Jane tries to discuss leaving the house, John makes light of her concerns, effectively silencing her. John is determined to keep her in the house. Each time he does so, her disgusted fascination with the paper grows.

Soon the wallpaper dominates Jane’s imagination. She becomes possessive and secretive, hiding her interest in the paper and making sure no one else examines it so that she can “find it out” on her own. At one point, she startles John, who had been touching the wallpaper and who mentions that she had found yellow stains on their clothes. Mistaking Jane’s fixation for tranquility, John thinks she is improving. Jane sleeps less and less and is convinced that she can smell the paper all over the house, even outside. She discovers a strange smudge mark on the paper, running all around the room, as if it had been rubbed by someone crawling against the wall.

The sub-pattern now clearly resembles a woman who is trying to get out from behind the main pattern. Jane sees her shaking the bars at night and creeping around during the day, when the woman is able to escape briefly. The narrator mentions that she, too, creeps around at times. She suspects that John is aware of her obsession, and she resolves to destroy the paper once and for all, peeling much of it off during the night. The next day she manages to be alone and goes into something of a frenzy, biting and tearing at the paper in order to free the trapped woman, whom she sees struggling from inside the pattern.

Soon enough, Jane is hopelessly insane, convinced that there are many creeping women around and that she herself has come out of the wallpaper—that she herself is the trapped woman. She creeps endlessly around the room, growling, smudging the wallpaper as she goes. When John breaks into the locked room and sees the full horror of the situation, Jane starts attacking him. Jane starts choking him, and soon enough John passes out. Jane gets up, and begins creeping around the room again.

 

Edited July 31, 2017 by Alpha

[Xillix]

Dawn of Extinction

Release Date: March 17th

Studio: MV Pictures

Genre: Sci-Fi/Action/Horror

Director: Renny Harlin

Theaters: 2,812

Premium Formats: 3D

Shooting Format: Digital 5K (Red Scarlet-W) in native 3D

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1

Release Image Formats: 2K DCP, 2K 3D DCP

Release Audio Formats: 5.1, 7.1

Production Budget: $40 million

MPAA Rating: R for graphic violence, gore, and language

Running Time: 87 minutes

Major Cast: Scott Adkins (Lance), Val Kilmer (Dr. Andrews), John Cena (Dylan), Samuel L. Jackson (Commander Carter)

 

Plot Summary:

A government scientist obsessed with dinosaurs, Dr. Andrews (Val Kilmer), steals secret research in gene-splicing and uses it to create an army of enhanced raptors and a T-rex. He intends to sell them to a group of terrorists but the exchange is interrupted by a commando unit led by Commander Carter (Samuel L. Jackson). The unit has not been informed what the "special weapons" they're securing are and are overwhelmed when the dinosaurs escape, slaughtering most of the terrorists and the commandos, including Commander Carter. Only Dr. Andrews and Lance (Scott Adkins), second-in-command of the unit, survive. The government wants to wash its hands of the whole affair and cover up their involvement, so Lance is discharged under false pretenses and becomes subject to heavy surveillance. When the dinosaurs begin rampaging through San Diego, killing dozens of civilians, Lance has had enough and enlists the help of his mercenary friend Dylan (John Cena) to take the fight to the killer reptiles and exterminate them. This puts them at odds not only with the dinosaurs themselves, but Dr. Andrews and government forces - both trying to capture the creatures alive so that they don't lose all the data from their experiments.

Edited September 2, 2017 by Xillix

[Alpha]

Endurance

 

Director: Alfonso Cuarón

Composer: Steven Price

Genre: Historical Drama / Thriller / Adventure

Date: April 21st

Studio: Alpha Pictures

Format: Live-action, 2D and IMAX

Budget: $125 million

Theaters: 3,527

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Running Time: 126 minutes

 

Cast:

Tom Hiddleston as Ernest Shackleton

Ewen Bremner as Frank Wild

Karl Urban as Frank Worsley

Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Tom Crean

Tom Holland as Perce Blackborow

James McAvoy as Harry "Chippy" McNish

 

Summary: Based on a true story, Endurance chronicles the failed Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914, led by Ernest Shackleton (Tom Hiddleston). After the ship Endurance is trapped in ice, Shackleton and the crew are stranded during Antarctic winter, and must find a way home before time runs out.

 

Plot: UNDER CONSTRUCTION

[Xillix]

Séance

Release Date: March 3rd

Studio: Red Crescent Pictures

Genre: Horror/Thriller

Director: Mike Flanagan

Theaters: 2,908

Shooting Format: 3.4K Digital (Arri Alexa SXT Plus)

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Release Image Formats: 2K DCP

Release Audio Formats: 5.1, 7.1

Production Budget: $6 million

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence, terror, language, and some suggestive content

Running Time: 103 minutes

Major Cast: Téa Leoni (Myra), Sean Bean (Bill), Laura Dern (Mrs. Clayton), Matthew Modine (Mr. Clayton)

 

Plot Summary:

A loose adaptation of the 1961 novel Séance on a Wet Afternoon by Mark McShane, with more overt horror aspects and several cues taken from Kiyoshi Kurosawa's prior 2001 Japanese film adaptation. Details in the spoiler box below.

 

Spoiler

 

Myra (Téa Leoni) and Bill (Sean Bean) are a couple whose relationship has been unhealthy ever since the death of their five-year-old son Arthur, who fell into a lake during a fishing trip with Bill and later died of "dry drowning" that night. Myra blames Bill for his death and this has led to an incredible strain on their relationship. Soon after Arthur's death, Myra developed the ability to communicate with spirits of the dead. This began with Arthur's ghost and she has since begun seeing more and more ghosts, eventually becoming a spirit medium and hosting séances in her house. Business has been waning, however, and Bill has been laid off from his job. To keep the household afloat, Myra has begun to claim other psychic abilities she does not truly possess in order to bring in more clients.

 

One day, young girl named Amanda Clayton is kidnapped. Her parents, the very wealthy Mr. & Mrs. Clayton (Matthew Modine & Laura Dern), offer a generous reward for her safe return and the case becomes highly publicized in the media. Several nights later, Amanda, having escaped from her captors, collapses from exhaustion in the woods near Myra and Bill's house. Myra finds her unconscious after storming out of the house following an argument with her husband. Bill wants to call the police right away, but Myra quickly devises a scheme she hopes will boost her business and save the couple's long-term finances. They will keep Amanda hidden while Myra goes to the police and press offering her "psychic services" to help locate the girl. She will, of course, eventually "realize" her location and have her "rescued." She hopes the publicity will bring her fame and much more business.

 

Bill does not approve of the plan but is strong-armed by his wife into agreeing. The pair hide Amanda in an old abandoned cabin deep in the woods, locking her inside. Myra brings her food and water each day while wearing a mask. They successfully get the attention of the police, the media, and Amanda's parents, and Myra begins her ruse. However, one day Myra returns from the cabin in a panic, explaining that Amanda tried to escape and was accidentally killed in the struggle. Now afraid to be implicated in her death, both Bill and Myra become more committed than ever to the ruse. Amanda's vengeful ghost begins haunting and tormenting them, accelerating the unraveling of Myra's already-fragile mental state. Other ghosts she sees also begin to turn hostile toward her, though only Amanda's spirit appears to Bill.

 

Eventually Bill convinces Myra they can't continue the "search" indefinitely, and so she contacts the authorities and informs them she has "sensed" that Amanda is dead. The Claytons insist Myra perform a séance for them in order to contact Amanda's spirit. Irrational due to the stress and her declining mental state and worried she will be exposed if she turns them down, Myra accepts against Bill's objections. Knowing that they will either be exposed by Amanda's ghost or by Myra's own constant bungling of the situation, Bill leaves the house the night before the séance intent on turning himself in to the police. However, Amanda's spirit attacks him inside his car and forces him off the road, killing him in the crash.

 

At the séance, Myra's attempts to summon Amanda's spirit initially fail. Arthur's ghost instead appears to her, and begins to mock her. Myra explodes, at Arthur, whom only she can see and hear, saying it was him who told her to kill Amanda in the first place - thus admitting the truth, that she had murdered the young girl intentionally. More and more ghosts surround her as she breaks down completely. They close in on her, the Claytons looking on both horrified and perplexed, as they are experiencing none of this. Just as the ghosts reach out to grab her, they disappear. Myra flashes back to Amanda's death in the cabin with greater clarity. Arthur's ghost was never there. Neither were any of the other ghosts she thought she had seen. All were figments of her imagination brought on by the grief of her son's death. She collapses into a sobbing heap. Mr. Clayton leaves the room to call the police, and Mrs. Clayton confronts Myra, demanding to know what she's done with her daughter. That's when Mrs. Clayton sees Amanda - or rather, her ghost - standing in the corner of the room. She calls out to her daughter, who doesn't respond. Instead, the ghost approaches and kills Myra before smiling eerily at her mother and vanishing.

 

The police arrive and find Mrs. Clayton alone in the room with Myra's dead body. She is, obviously, unable to explain how Myra was killed and is arrested on suspicion of her murder. As she is taken away in a cop car, the officer driving sees a glimpse of Amanda's ghost in the rear-view mirror sitting beside her mother.

 

 

[Xillix]

Secret Searchers

Release Date: October 13th

Studio: Gold Crescent Pictures

Genre: Comedy

Director: Sean Anders

Theaters: 3,329

Shooting Format: Digital 3.4K (Arri Alexa SXT Plus)

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Release Image Formats: 2K DCP

Release Audio Formats: 5.1

Production Budget: $35 million

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for language, rude humor, suggestive content, and slapstick violence

Running Time: 91 minutes

Major Cast: Anna Kendrick (Lacey), Will Ferrell (Sean), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Danny "Spook" Spooner), Emma Roberts (Amy)

 

Plot Summary:

Lacey (Anna Kendrick) is a young woman looking to break into showbusiness, and best friends and roommates with Amy (Emma Roberts), who works as makeup artist and effects technician for live theatre. Lacey lands a job as a production assistant on Secret Searchers, a paranormal investigation reality show that Amy happens to be obsessed with. Amy tags along with Lacey on her first shoot, and it quickly becomes apparent to the two girls that the entire show is a blatant hoax. All the "supernatural" phenomena are rudimentary effects or staged scenes prepared by the show's director, Sean (Will Ferrell), and the host, Danny "Spook" Spooner (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), is a failed actor who only plays along for the money and attention, and doesn't even believe in any of the things he "investigates" on his show. Worse still, the pair are rude, sexist jerks who harass their staff constantly.

 

Lacey and Amy come up with a plan to humiliate Danny and Sean and expose their whole operation. Secret Searchers is doing a live Halloween night broadcast from an allegedly haunted old mental hospital. Lacey helps sneak Amy and a bunch of her theatre techie friends into the hospital before the broadcast, where they rig the place with a series of gags and effects designed to trick the crew of the show into believing they're experiencing real ghostly encounters. The plan works, leading Sean to flee the building in horror and Danny to have a terrified breakdown on live television in which he admits all his other shows have been fake. Lacey, Amy and the theatre workers then take over the broadcast to reveal their charade.

 

Secret Searchers is cancelled and the network calls in Lacey and Amy. The pair are afraid they're going to get sued, but instead the network offers them their own horror-themed prank show.

Edited August 2, 2017 by Xillix

[Xillix]

When Winter Comes

Release Date: December 22nd

Studio: MV Pictures

Genre: Psychological Horror

Director: Vincenzo Natali

Theaters: 2,474

Shooting Format: Super 35 3-perf

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Release Image Formats: 2K DCP, 4K DCP

Release Audio Formats: 5.1, 7.1

Production Budget: $10 million

MPAA Rating: R for violence, language and terror

Running Time: 92 minutes

Major Cast: Jennifer Connelly (Maria), Willow Shields (Bella), Erin Pitt (Aurora), Ethan Hawke (Donald)

 

Plot Summary:

Spoiler

 

Single mother Maria (Jennifer Connelly) and her teenage daughters Bella (Willow Shields) and Aurora (Erin Pitt) are settling in for the beginning of the holiday break from school. They have no real plans for Christmas or the rest of the break, as money is tight and their relatives live far away from their isolated rural New England home. However, the girls' estranged father, Donald (Ethan Hawke), calls on December 20th and announces he'll be visiting for Christmas weekend. Maria argues against it but the girls are eager to see him; the two divorced when the sisters were very young, and Donald moved far away. As such, his daughters have only had a few visits with him since. Maria has never told them why they divorced. Reluctantly, Maria agrees.

 

It seems like a moot point anyway, as the next day - the day of the winter solstice - the season announces its arrival with a surprise blizzard that cuts off the phone lines and power and makes the roads nearly impassable. But as Maria and her daughters hunker down for the night, Donald arrives at the house, saying he walked over a mile from his truck when it became stuck in the snow. Maria can instantly tell there is something off about him by the way he looks at her. She flashes back to just after the girls were born, when Donald became abusive and started to beat her. He would always get the same look on his face before attacking her. Still, she can't send him back out into the blizzard, and so he is allowed inside. 

 

The girls are happy to see their father at first, but they too soon notice he is behaving suspiciously. In the middle of the night they find him standing alone in the kitchen, staring out a window and whispering to himself. He simply claims the cold is keeping him awake and tells the girls to go back to bed. The next morning, Maria, Bella, and Aurora all notice their cell phones have gone missing. Maria confronts Donald but he refuses to admit he's hidden them, saying Maria was always losing track of things and that it must somehow be her fault. The situation becomes very tense, and just as it seems Donald is about to go berserk, there's a knock at the door.

 

It's Maria's sister, Camilla. All are shocked to see her, especially since she seems to be in improbably good condition for having trekked through the still-raging blizzard - though admittedly, she's wearing several layers of clothing which she refuses to take off. When asked why she's there, halfway across the country from her home, she claims only that she felt the need to make sure that her sister and nieces were okay, and that she had tried but failed to reach them by telephone. They assume she is referring to the hazards of the blizzard but are still suspicious, especially Donald, who seems equally angered and frightened by her sudden appearance. Camilla tries to get her sister alone, saying she has something very important to tell her, but Donald refuses to give them time alone, suspicious of Camilla's motives. That night, Camilla disappears with no trace of having ever been there.

 

In the middle of the night, just as the storm is beginning to lighten, Maria is awoken by screams from Bella's room. She enters and asks what's wrong, and Bella fearfully points to a shadowy corner of the room. Standing there is the ghost of a dead woman with bleeding stab wounds and a severed arm. Maria recognizes it as Donald's mother, Kate, though she does not mention this to her daughters, instead telling them to leave their rooms and sleep with her. Donald hears the commotion and asks what happened, but the girls lie and claim it was simply a spider that had Bella spooked.

 

The girls can't get back to sleep that night, as they hear the sounds of a restless Donald pacing around the house. Just as morning begins to dawn, with the storm having finally cleared away, a series of grotesquely wounded ghosts - many of whom Maria and the girls recognize as their family members - appear and begin chasing the girls around the house. Donald calls out to them, but the ghosts prevent them from going towards him. The spirits chase the girls out of the house and into the cold, bright morning, everything covered in deep snow. Donald soon follows them out, holding an axe and with a crazed look in his eyes, and the girls realize he is trying to kill them. 

 

A chase ensues with the girls struggling to wade through the deep snow. They try to hide but have no way of concealing their obvious footprints. Aurora tries to get into the family car to lock herself inside, but the doors are frozen shut. Suddenly Camilla appears in the distance, beckoning the girls to follow her. They comply but as they follow, they realize Camilla is leaving no footprints in the snow. They are led by Camilla into an abandoned old barn, where she suddenly disappears. Donald follows them in and a tense chase through the rickety old structure ensues, up onto an elevated level. Just as Donald corners his daughters and ex-wife, Camilla's ghost reappears next to him, pulling off her scarf to reveal her deeply-cut throat, an unearthly, gurgling shriek accompanying her appearance. This startles Donald into falling off the elevated level, breaking through the rotted old guardrail and falling onto a piece of farm equipment that impales him.

 

The movie's epilogue reveals that, shortly after calling to announce his visit on the 20th, Donald had first headed to Camilla's house where much of Maria's extended family was already gathered. In an insane rage he had brutally murdered them all, including Camilla, whose body he locked in his trunk and took with him to Maria's. The final scene shows the police examining the barn and collecting evidence. An officer hears a noise behind him and turns to see Donald's silhouette standing in a dark corner.

 

 

Edited August 4, 2017 by Xillix

[cookie]

The Adventures of Scrooge McDuck

 

Genre: Animation (2D) / Adventure 

Studio: Cookie Pictures Animation 

Cast: David Tennant (Scrooge McDuck), Danny Pudi (Huey), Ben Schwartz (Dewey), Bobby Moynihan (Louie), Keith Ferguson (Flintheart Glomgold), Chuck McCann (Duckworth, Burger & Bouncer Beagle), Frank Welker (Bigtime Beagle), Jim Rash (Gyro Gearloose), Corey Burton (Ludwig von Drake), Benicio Del Toro (El Capitan)

 

 

Cate Blanchett (Magica DeSpell)

  

 

Director: Mark Dindal

Producer: Sebastian Peters

Music: Danny Elfman (Composer), Walk the Moon ("DuckTales" theme cover during the end credits)

Budget: $130 million

Release Date: May 5th

Theater Count: 4,071

MPAA Rating: PG for scenes of peril, comic mischief and some frightening images.

Running Time: 108 minutes (1 hour, 48 minutes) 

Inspired by: DuckTales (1987-1990) by Jymn Magon, DuckTales (2017) by Matt Youngberg and Francisco Angones, The Son of the Sun (1987) and The Treasure of the Ten Avatars (1995) by Don Rosa. Characters created by Walt Disney and Carl Barks. 

 

Note: While many are familiar with Carl Barks work (which influenced the DuckTales TV series among others) I've decided to take heavier influence from Don Rosa's run on the series, which is the one I grew up with. While Rosa's stories and artwork often pay homage to Barks' style, Rosa's drawings tend to be more detailed and there's heavier emphasis on background gags. You can see some examples here.

 

Plot:

 

 

 

 

Due to the plot's length it's stored on Google docs, linked here.

 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BnksVyk0Wj306L2QmkGUmbMqooz8p5XxAprG-ar83BI/edit?usp=sharing

 

The film is a revised version of the 2.0 original with added/removed scenes and plotlines.

 

 

Edited September 2, 2017 by cookie

[Xillix]

Captain Planet

Release Date: January 20th

Studio: MV Pictures

Genre: Superhero Action

Director: Tim Story

Theaters: 3,502

Premium Formats: 3D

Shooting Format: Digital 4K (Sony CineAlta F55) (Post-converted to 3D)

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1

Release Image Formats: 2K DCP, 2K 3D DCP

Release Audio Formats: 5.1, 7.1, Auro 11.1, DTS:X
Production Budget: $60 million

MPAA Rating: PG for fantasy violence and peril

Running Time: 98 minutes

Major Cast: Chris Evans (Captain Planet), Toby Kebbell (Verminous Skumm), Gal Gadot (Gaia), Tim Curry (Smogulus), unknown child actors for the Planeteers

Plot Summary:

Adaptation of the terrible but iconic 90s cartoon. Detailed summary in the spoiler box below.

 

Spoiler

 

The rampant pollution and global warming wreaked upon Earth awakens the planet's spirit, Gaia (Gal Gadot), from her eons-long slumber. Realizing it is up to the next generation to save the world, she creates five special magic rings representing the elements of Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, and Heart. These are magically gifted to five preteens from around the world, all of whom inexplicably speak perfect English. They are magically transported to the mysterious Hope Island, where Gaia appears to them and explains the rings' powers and the ability for the five, who she calls Planeteers, to combine their energies and summon a superhero called Captain Planet, a pollution-fighter whose only weakness is, stupidly enough, pollution.

 

The Planeteers wonder how they can use superpowers to fight such a nebulous and systemic problem as pollution, but luckily Gaia informs them there's a finite enemy who is behind the worst of it. The terrible Verminous Skumm (Toby Kebbell), a rodent-like humanoid mutant born of pollution in the sewers beneath New York City, has sworn to destroy the environment and take over the world, conquering it with a race of rat-men who thrive in a toxic atmosphere. To that end, he and a group of rat-men have taken over several factories and laboratories in the New York area. The Planeteers are sent to investigate his plans.

 

The Planeteers sneak into a lab and discover that Verminous and his rat-men are trying to create a sentient, evil life-form from pollution itself. They are found and, at first, fight off the rat-men with their ring powers (except for Heart, which is predictably useless). When they are cornered by Verminous and a large swarm of the rat-men, they are forced to summon Captain Planet (Chris Evans), who manages to make short work of the troops and sends Verminous fleeing. However, the villain manages to take his vital data with him.

 

Weeks later the Planeteers are called back into action when Gaia discovers Verminous has re-created his experiment at a new facility and is close to finishing. The Planeteers arrive too late to stop the evildoer from finishing his creation - Smogulus (voiced by Tim Curry), a gigantic, humanoid, living golem made of toxic sludge surrounded by a thick layer of poison gas. The Planeteers summon Captain Planet, but he's helpless against Smogulus as the creature is itself a source of pollution. The creature traps Captain Planet in his goopy form, and the hero begins to weaken and fade from existence as he is forced to inhale the smog. At the last moment, the Planeteers manage to save him by combining their ring powers - again, except for Heart - to blow away the gas, break down Smogulus' body with hot water, and seal his remains in a dome of rock.

 

Captain Planet begins to regain his strength and takes out the remaining army of rat-men. Just as he goes to confront Verminous Skumm, however, the desperate and enraged villain starts to fling hurtful insults at the hero and the teens. Captain Planet begins to weaken again. He explains that since the power of Heart is part of what summons and creates him, hatred and other strong negative emotions weaken him as well, being "as toxic as any other pollutant." Verminous continues insulting and mocking Captain Planet, expressing his hatred of humans and the environment, and lays a serious smackdown on the blue-skinned hero. Finally the Planeteers manage to combine all their love and hope and respect for the planet and all that other touchy-feely junk, and the Heart ring's power is revealed, not only restoring Captain Planet's strength but giving him a glowing, golden upgraded form. The invigorated Captain Planet defeats Verminous Skumm, who apparently falls to his death.

 

Gaia congratulates the Planeteers on a job well done but tells them that there will always be more work to do in protecting the environment, even when they're not working as superheroes. The kids pledge to help raise awareness of environmental issues and empower their generation to save the world in simple ways.

 

In a mid-credits scene, a meltdown is occurring at a nuclear power plant. One worker rushes in and manages to stop it, but when he re-emerges, he has transormed into a yellow-skinned radioactive monster.

 

 

[Xillix]

Dino-Riders

Release Date: August 18th

Studio: MV Pictures

Genre: Sci-Fi/Action

Director: Len Wiseman

Theaters: 3,512

Premium Formats: 3D

Shooting Format: 35mm anamorphic Panavision (Post-converted to 3D)

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1

Release Image Formats: 2K DCP, 2K 3D DCP, 4K DCP

Release Audio Formats: 5.1, 7.1, Auro 11.1, DTS:X

Production Budget: $85 million

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for action violence and language

Running Time: 88 minutes

Major Cast: Aaron Eckhart (Questar), Paul Bettany (Emperor Krulos), Jeff Bridges (Mind-Zei), Nicola Peltz (Serena), Dylan O'Brien (Yungstar), Hayden Christensen (Rasp), Laurence Fishburne (Krok)

 

Plot Summary:

Adaptation of the obscure 80s cartoon of the same name.

 

The planet Valoria was once a peaceful, advanced world home to the Valorians, a human-looking race of aliens who sought knowledge and harmony above all else. Then it was attacked by the Rulons, a war-loving race of reptilian and amphibian humanoids out to conquer the galaxy. A great war waged for years, and it eventually became apparent that the Valorians, inexperienced and outmatched in combat, were going to lose. In a last-ditch effort to save their civilization, Questar (Aaron Eckhart), the leader of the Valorians, oversees the creation of a fleet of time-traveling spaceships. They attempt to evacuate the planet and travel dozens of millions of years into the past, before the Rulon empire existed. The ruthless Rulon army destroys all but one of the ships, and the Rulon flagship follows the last ship through the time-hole.

 

After a space dogfight through a time tunnel, both ships crash-land on Earth in the age of the dinosaurs. Among the few dozen Valorian survivers are Questar, Mind-Zei (Jeff Bridges), a blind warrior with mild psychic abilities, his granddaughter Serena (Nicola Peltz), who also has some psychic powers and a healing touch, and Yungstar (Dylan O'Brien), a hot-headed young soldier with a crush on Serena. From the Rulon flagship are Emperor Krulos (voice and mocap by Paul Bettany), a frog-like ruthless dictator, Rasp (voice and mocap by Hayden Christensen), a snake-like adviser and Krulos' treacherous second-in-command, and Krok (voice and mocap by Laurence Fishburne), a crocodile-like military general, along with several dozen soldiers of varying rank.

 

Using their technology, the Valorians manage to communicate with and befriend the dinosaurs. The Rulons, meanwhile, develop devices to mind-control and enslave the dinosaurs. A war ensues on Earth with warriors from both sides riding dinosaurs that have been outfitted with lasers and missiles and such. There's lots of bonkers action and a love story between Serena and Yungstar. The movie ends with the Valorians winning a decisive battle against the Rulons and forcing them to retreat to a distant wasteland to recuperate, swearing revenge.

[Xillix]

Go Go GoBots

Release Date: June 16th

Studio: MV Pictures

Genre: Sci-Fi/Action

Director: Robert Schwentke

Theaters: 3,808

Premium Formats: 3D & IMAX 3D

Shooting Format: Digital 4K (Red Scarlet-W), Digital 6.5K (Arri Alexa 65 with IMAX branding) (select sequences) (Post-converted to 3D)

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1, 1.90:1 (Select scenes, IMAX only)

Release Image Formats: 2K DCP, 2K 3D DCP, 4K DCP, 2K IMAX Digital 3D DCP, 4K IMAX Laser 3D DCP

Release Audio Formats: 5.1, 7.1, Auro 11.1, DTS:X, IMAX 12-channel (IMAX Laser DCPs only)

Production Budget: $135 million

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for action violence and language

Running Time: 140 minutes

Major Cast: Ben Affleck (Leader-1), Chris Pratt (Turbo), Matt Damon (Scooter), Henry Cavill (Cy-Kill), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Fitor), Mark Strong (Cop-Tur), Will Smith (Matt Hunter), Christopher Lloyd (Dr. Braxis)

 

Plot Summary:

Adaptation of the 80s cartoon Challenge of the GoBots. Detailed summary in spoiler box below.

 

Spoiler

 

On the planet Gobotron, a war has been raging for decades. The world was once home to an intelligent superhuman race of lifeforms called Go-Beings. However, civil war erupted between two factions: the Guardians, noble defenders of their peaceful civilization, and the Renegades, rebels who used terrorist methods to try and overthrow the government. The Renegades' plan to use a passing meteor to destroy the seat of government on Gobotron worked too well, leading to widespread disasters on the planet that made it unlivable for the Go-Beings. In order to survive, the Go-Beings had to use their advanced technology to transfer their minds into gigantic mechanical bodies known as GoBots, which could also transform into vehicle modes for greater mobility. Despite the horrible tragedy, the civil war continues to this day. The current leader of the Guardian forces is Leader-1 (voice of Ben Affleck), who transforms into a fighter jet. The current Renegade leader is Cy-Kill (voice of Henry Cavill), who transforms into a motorcycle.

 

After the prologue explaining the backstory, the movie opens on a heated battle in a ruined city on Gobotron. Leader-1 is engaged in combat alongside his most skilled and trusted warrior, Turbo (voice of Chris Pratt), who transforms into a sports car. They and their squad of Guardian soldiers are fighting against a group of Renegades led by Fitor (voice of Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who can turn into a fighter jet, and Cop-Tur (voice of Mark Strong), who turns into an attack helicopter. The battle is a stalemate, but also a diversion. Cy-Kill and a small infiltration squad break into a Guardian base, where the scientist GoBot Scooter (voice of Matt Damon), who transforms into... well, a scooter, is working on a prototype weapon called the Astro-Beam. Scooter sends out a distress signal but is badly damaged, and the Renegades successfully steal the Astro-Beam. The Guardians retreat from battle to assist him.

 

While Scooter is repaired, his appearance is changed substantially. Once fixed he is sent into the Renegades' fortress as a spy to uncover their plans for the Astro-Beam. He discovers that Cy-Kill plans to lure the Guardians into a trap before destroying them all, and Gobotron itself, with the Astro-Beam. He and the Renegades will flee to a nearby planet called Earth, home to an inferior race called "humans" which he believes will be easily conquered. Scooter is discovered and has to sneak and fight his way out of the fortress, with Leader-1 and Turbo arriving in the nick of time to retrieve him. He tells them of the Renegades' plan and asks what to do. Leader-1 decides that they must launch a surprise attack to destroy the Astro-Beam.

 

The Guardian forces attack the Renegade fortress, with Leader-1, Scooter, and Turbo leading a sneak attack at a hidden supply entrance while the main forces attack from the front. They manage to get in while Fitor, Cop-Tur and the majority of the Renegade army is occupied at the scene of the main battle. However, Cy-Kill is personally guarding the Astro-Beam. A battle ensues in which the Astro-Beam is accidentally fired into the ground, shooting straight through Gobotron and rupturing the planet's core. The Astro-Beam overloads and is destroyed, and the planet itself proceeds to break apart. Both the Renegades and Guardians scramble to evacuate, but most of the fleeing spaceships don't make it. Two of the ones that do are the Thruster, the Renegade flagship with Cy-Kill, Cop-Tur, Fitor, and many other soldiers on board, and the Guardian Command Center ship, on which Leader-1, Scooter, Turbo, and a handful of others escape. 

 

A space dogfight ensues between the two ships en route to Earth, and Leader-1 transmits a message to Earth warning the inhabitants of the coming invasion. NASA notices this only as interference and a possible malfunction on one of their satellites. An astronaut named Matt Hunter (Will Smith) is sent up to investigate. However, a mad scientist by the name of Dr. Zebediah Braxis (Christopher Lloyd) is able to unscramble the transmission and begins watching the skies with his equipment, managing to track the two alien spaceships. During his mission to repair the satellite, Matt is shocked when the GoBot ships zoom right by him, with the Thruster crashing into and destroying the satellite. He is rescued by the Guardians and taken aboard their Command Center where they explain the plight of Earth to him.

 

When the Renegades land, they are contacted by Dr. Braxis, whose lab happens to be nearby in the Arizona desert. He's always wanted to meet aliens and pledges allegiance to their cause in destroying the Guardians and taking over Earth so long as he is allowed to study them. He also equips the Renegades with some weapons of his own design. Meanwhile, Matt suggests landing at a NASA facility and explaining the threat to the government, but the Guardians' sensors detect the Renegades are already launching an attack on Phoenix. The climactic battle ensues in Phoenix, with the GoBots fighting in the streets as Matt is sent to capture Dr. Braxis, who continues to supply and recharge the Renegades' weapons. In the end, Braxis is captured and the Renegades are forced to retreat. The government sets up a meeting with the Guardians and Dr. Braxis is confined to a secret military prison.

 

In a post-credits scene, Fitor and Cop-Tur attack the military prison and free Dr. Braxis, saying Cy-Kill still has great plans for him.

 

 

Edited September 2, 2017 by Xillix