Sunday, June 24, 2018

Photos of the Day: A Q&A Panel for EATING ANIMALS...

Natalie Portman and director Christopher Quinn take part in a Q&A panel (that's moderated by the L.A. Times' Amy Kaufman) for the documentary film EATING ANIMALS...at Landmark Theatres in west Los Angeles on June 23, 2018.

Last night, I went to the Landmark Theatres in west Los Angeles to attend a screening of the documentary film Eating Animals. This movie, which was directed by Christopher Quinn and narrated as well as co-produced by Natalie Portman (and based on a bestselling book of the same name by Jonathan Safran Foer), was about how the proliferation of factory farms around the United States (and in other nations like India) are having a profound impact on independent farmers, humans in general, the environment, and obviously the farm animals themselves. Quinn and Portman were on-hand after the film to take part in a Q&A panel that was moderated by the Los Angeles Times' Amy Kaufman. Very interesting stuff.

Natalie Portman and director Christopher Quinn take part in a Q&A panel for EATING ANIMALS at Landmark Theatres in west Los Angeles...on June 23, 2018.

If you're in the mood to watch a documentary that will make you think twice about eating meat, and maybe even become a vegetarian, then you should definitely check out Eating Animals at the theater. Or at the very least, this film will make you advocate for a more humane treatment of farm animals before their lives are cut short. Eating Animals will also show you just how much influence that corporations have on the U.S. government—which isn't anything new as big conglomerates have had a major impact on American legislative policy for over a century. But the fact that 30 states, according to the movie, advocate "Ag-gag" laws (which allows farms to take legal action against whistleblowers who venture near their property to covertly videotape farming activity taking place) shows that factory farms are not going away anytime soon. Too bad.

Natalie Portman takes part in a Q&A panel for EATING ANIMALS at Landmark Theatres in west Los Angeles...on June 23, 2018.

On the plus side though, research is being done to extract protein from plants and place them in food products that resemble real meat (hence veggie burgers). That's nice to know. I might actually go back to McDonald's to buy a Big Mac once again if the hamburger patties are actually comprised of plant protein! Carry on.

Craig Watts is a poultry farmer who features prominently in EATING ANIMALS.

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Images of the Day: WONDER WOMAN 1984...

A fan-made artwork of Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) in 2019's WONDER WOMAN 1984.

Just thought I'd share these images, plus the cool fan-made artwork above, that's been gracing the Internet since Wonder Woman 1984 began filming about a week ago. The photos below come from director Patty Jenkins and star Gal Gadot themselves. It's interesting to see Chris Pine's Steve Trevor back from the dead (If you didn't see last year's Wonder Woman, then MY BAD. Spoiler alert!), but I definitely can't wait to see how Kristen Wiig will look as the villainous Cheetah. Wonder Woman 1984 hits theaters nationwide on November 1, 2019.

And yes, I'm fully aware that pics for this December's Aquaman have been publicly released as well. Black Manta (who I admittedly never heard of till last week) looks pretty cool. Happy Tuesday!

A promo pic of Diana Prince staring at a group of TV sets in WONDER WOMAN 1984.

A promo pic of Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) back from the dead in WONDER WOMAN 1984.

A promo pic of Diana Prince in all her Amazonian beauty in WONDER WOMAN 1984.

Tuesday, June 5, 2018

BUMBLEBEE...

The teaser poster for BUMBLEBEE.

Earlier today, Paramount Pictures released the teaser trailer for the Transformers spin-off film Bumblebee...out in theaters nationwide on December 21. Unlike the five previous Transformers movies—which were all directed by Michael Bay—Bumblebee is helmed by Travis Knight, who previously directed the 2016 animated film Kubo and the Two Strings. Leading the cast of the Autobot flick are Oscar-nominated actress Hailee Steinfeld and John Cena, as well as Martin Short, Vanessa Ross, John Ortiz, Kenneth Choi and Peter Cullen (who's once again voicing Optimus Prime). Bumblebee was supposed to be the first of various spin-off movies that would form Transformers' new cinematic universe (a la the DC, Marvel and Star Wars franchises), but in the wake of The Last Knight's 'underwhelming' box office last year (it made $605.4 million worldwide, while Age of Extinction and Dark of the Moon both earned $1.1 billion globally in 2014 and 2011, respectively), is unfortunately no longer the case.

Bumblebee and Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld) meet each other for the first time in BUMBLEBEE.

It was refreshing to hear a voice-over by the late Bernie Mac—who played Bobby Bolivia in the first Transformers movie—at the beginning of the trailer. Optimus Prime aside, Bumblebee is the most popular Autobot in the entire cinematic franchise...and those memorable quotes from the 2007 film help convey the feel that the Bumblebee movie will go back to what made the original live-action Transformers film so endearing in the first place: a human buys a car that he (now she) suddenly discovers is actually a giant alien robot that the person eventually befriends and goes on many adventures with. And in case you're wondering, Dario Marianelli (who worked on such flicks as 2015's Everest and 2005's V for Vendetta) is scoring the music for Bumblebee, not long-time Transformers composer Steve Jablonsky.

You can view the preview itself at the very bottom of this entry.

Charlie Watson tends to Bumblebee underwater in BUMBLEBEE.

Agent Burns (John Cena) will apparently be hunting down Transformers in BUMBLEBEE...including the titular Autobot himself.

Disguised as an F-4 Phantom in this film, Starscream is back in BUMBLEBEE.

With his visor down, Bumblebee is ready to do battle in BUMBLEBEE.