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John Wick: Chapter 2 Review

Very Good

Keanu Reeves picks up his supremely efficient hitman immediately where the 2015 original left him: regrouping with his new, as-yet-unnamed dog after taking down the New York mob that he used to work for. Director Chad Stahelski and writer Derek Kolstad have created another unusually satisfying action thriller, with sharply developed characters and a plot that holds more water than most of these kinds of movies. Obviously, it can't be as fresh as the first film, but it's thoroughly entertaining.

Reeves' John still just wants to be left alone, but after taking care of one loose end, he is contacted by Italian mafioso Santino (Riccardo Scamarcio), who calls in a blood oath. Unable to refuse, John heads to Rome to carry out a hit he knows will make his life exponentially more precarious, especially as it puts him into conflict with his old friend Cassian (Common). Sure enough, he now has an army of goons chasing him, led by mute thug Ares (Ruby Rose). So he returns to New York and gets in contact with an underground guru (Laurence Fishburne) who might be able to offer some respite from the hordes trying to kill him. And manager Winston (Ian McShane) is also willing to help John, as long as he abides by the rules of the criminal underworld.

The film is another superb mix of cool imagery and coherent action that moves briskly from one brutal encounter to the next. Vicious gunfights and car chases abound in this movie, and all are staged with bracing energy and a heightened sense of realism. Through all of this, Reeves maintains a sense of weary dignity in finely tailored suits that are refreshed after each messy encounter. How he keeps walking and fighting after each bruising fight is another question.

Continue reading: John Wick: Chapter 2 Review

Common Learnt Jiu Jitsu For John Wick 2

By Holly Williams in Movies / TV / Theatre on 01 February 2017

Common

Some serious skills were learned for this intense sequel.

One thing that you're going to really have to take notice of in the upcoming 'John Wick: Chapter 2' movie is the style of combat that the actors have taken on to make their moves look as seamless and realistic as possible. After all, these guys are assassins.

Common Common stars in 'John Wick: Chapter 2'

Only the best in the world of martial arts were asked to take on the challenge of training up the likes of Keanu Reeves and Common for the movie, a sequel to 2014's 'John Wick', and sure enough they came away with fighting skills more potent than they've ever mastered before.

Continue reading: Common Learnt Jiu Jitsu For John Wick 2

John Wick: Chapter 2 Trailer

Former hitman John Wick is in Rome following events in the first movie where he sought bloody revenge on the man who killed his dog and stole his car. He's still bereaved from the death of his wife Helen (who died before events in the first film) but he has at least got himself a new puppy. While it can be argued that his revenge massacre doesn't necessarily mean he's back in the game even if it did find him in the company of his former associates, this time his vow of retirement is broken for sure. An old friend is trying to takeover over a nefarious group of international assassins, and he is forced to join him because of the blood oath he made many years ago. This is not the kind of job you can quit easily.

Continue: John Wick: Chapter 2 Trailer

Suicide Squad Trailer

When there's nowhere left to turn, the bad guys might just turn out to be your only option. Amanda Waller is the leader of a task force who keeps on losing members of her team, she comes up with an idea to form a specialised task force formed with some of the most dangerous criminals that are currently in jail.

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Rapper-Turned-Actor Common Joins Cast Of 'Suicide Squad'

By Michael West in Movies / TV / Theatre on 23 April 2015

Common

Common has joined the cast of Suicide Squad,

The Oscar-winning rapper-turned-actor Common has signed on to join the cast of Suicide Squad - Warner Bros' new all-star action movie featuring DC Entertainment super villains.

Common Common has joined the cast of Suicide Squad

Fury filmmaker David Ayer is directing the feature, which stars Jared Leto as the Joker, Will Smith as Deadshot and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. Co-stars include Joel Kinnaman, Cara Delevingne, Viola Davis, Adam Beach, Ike Barinholtz, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Scott Eastwood.

Continue reading: Rapper-Turned-Actor Common Joins Cast Of 'Suicide Squad'

"What Happened, Miss Simone?" Makes Waves With Sundance Premiere

By Victoria Pavlova in Movies / TV / Theatre on 23 January 2015

Nina Simone John Legend Common

The movie hasn't really clicked with the critics, but its Sundance premiere was something special.

It’s Sundance weekend again and the star of the show this year is definitely What Happened, Miss Simone? The Netflix-produced Nina Simone documentary traces the life of the famed Jazz singer from her beginnings as a classical pianist, through her rise to fame on the jazz and blues scene. What Happened, Miss Simone does not gloss over Simone’s involvement in the Civil Rights Movement or her struggles with mental illness.

John Legend performed a stunning tribute at the What Happened, Miss Simone? Premiere

The Park City premiere was made into a real event, followed up with a concert by soul star John Legend in tribute to Simone’s life and work.

Continue reading: "What Happened, Miss Simone?" Makes Waves With Sundance Premiere

Common, Kendrick Lamar Lead The Charge On MTV's #THETALK Campaign For Martin Luther King Day

By Victoria Pavlova in Music / Festivals on 19 January 2015

Common Big Sean Ava DuVernay Kendrick Lamar Jordin Sparks Penn Badgley Pete Wentz

MTV's MLK Day celebration is a bit different this year.

Today, in honour of Martin Luther King Day, MTV is returning to its progressive, socially conscious days with a special twist on its programming. For twelve straight hours, the channel will air all its shows and music videos (all two of them) in black and white, in an effort to draw attention to racial tensions in the US.

Kendrick Lamar (pictured), Common and a host of other celebrities want Americans to have #thetalk.

Commercials will still air in colour though, presumably because capitalism trumps social justice.

Continue reading: Common, Kendrick Lamar Lead The Charge On MTV's #THETALK Campaign For Martin Luther King Day

Oscar Nominations Court Controversy

By Rich Cline in Movies / TV / Theatre on 16 January 2015

Academy Of Motion Pictures And Sciences Michael Keaton Common John Legend David Oyelowo Ava DuVernay Jake Gyllenhaal Jessica Chastain Amy Adams Jennifer Aniston Roger Ebert

The 87th Academy Award ceremony is already off to a controversial start for certain film and actor emissions.

The reaction to this week's Oscar nominations was a loud one, because Academy voters played it so safe in a year when films expanded to explore a diverse array of themes. Throughout 2014, actors and filmmakers bravely took on big challenges, and many were recognised with nominations. But critics have been quick to point out that all of the acting and directing nominees are white, and #OscarsSoWhite was the trending hashtag on Twitter.

Neil Patrick Harris is hosting this year's Academy Awards

The most obvious snub was for Selma, which only received nods for Best Picture and Best Song (for Common and John Legend's 'Glory'), leaving out the acclaimed actor David Oyelowo and director Ava DuVernay, who would have been the first African-American woman ever nominated for Best Director.

Continue reading: Oscar Nominations Court Controversy

Common, Ferguson, The Golden Globes: It Was A Long Night

By Victoria Pavlova in Music / Festivals on 12 January 2015

Common John Legend

Common's speech seemed to call back to the Ferguson protests, without explicitly mentioning them.

Guys, we gotta talk about Ferguson again. The protests have been off the radar lately, with so much other horribleness going on, but at last night’s Golden Globes, Common took the chance to remind everyone: it’s still going on.

Common
Common used the Golden Globes stage as a soapbox.

The reference made sense after the rapper, along with singer John Legend won Golden Globes for Original Song for the Selma soundtrack, Glory. And here’s how Common made us all squirm in our seats.

Continue reading: Common, Ferguson, The Golden Globes: It Was A Long Night

Golden Globes 2015: Common References Ferguson, NYPD In Acceptance Speech

By Nick Hill in Music / Festivals on 12 January 2015

Common

The hip-hop star made a very emotional acceptance speech when he and John Legend were awarded the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for their track 'Glory' from the movie 'Selma.'

The 72nd Golden Globe Awards took a political turn when Common and John Legend were awarded the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for their track 'Glory' from the movie 'Selma,' which depicts Martin Luther King's campaign for equal voting rights with a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1955.

Common
Common made a very emotional speech when accepting the Golden Globe for Best Original Song

After being presented with the prestigious honour, Common made reference to the killing of the unarmed black teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, as well as the killing of two police officers in Brooklyn, N.Y., late last year.

Continue reading: Golden Globes 2015: Common References Ferguson, NYPD In Acceptance Speech

Run All Night Trailer

Jimmy Conlon is a former hit man for the mob whose life of crime have left many mental scars. His best friend is the mob boss Shawn Maguire, but things get complicated for their relationship when Conlon's son Mike finds himself being hunted down by Maguire's own boy Danny. In a bid to defend his son, Jimmy arrives on the scene and shoots Danny dead. Jimmy knows the drill and after a meeting with Shawn realises he must do everything within his power to keep Mike from being killed by the rest of the gang, as he and his family are targeted once again. Jimmy is forced to kill old friends as he takes on the most dangerous task of his life, in taking care of the family he has led to death. Meanwhile, he's on the run from a police officer desperate to put him behind bars for his past crimes.

Continue: Run All Night Trailer

Kim Kardashian, Accompanied By Kendall & Kylie Jenner, Seemingly Ignores VMA Moment Of Silence

By Elinor Cosgrave in Lifestyle / Showbiz on 26 August 2014

Kim Kardashian Kylie Jenner Kendall Jenner Common

Kim Kardashian and Kendall and Kylie Jenner spotted during a moment of silence chatting to one another and using their phones. Suffice to say, many are less than impressed with the trio.

In a world where we rely on our mobiles phones for just about everything, we still don't have a set etiquette on when and where we should or shouldn't use them. Still, there are some places and times when it's just not acceptable at all, including in moments of silence in honour of the dead or social struggles. Unfortunately some audience members didn't take heed and surprise, surprise it was these three...

Kim Kardashian, Kendall and Kylie Jenner
Kim Kardashian (C) with Kendall Jenner (L) and Kylie Jenner (R).

Continue reading: Kim Kardashian, Accompanied By Kendall & Kylie Jenner, Seemingly Ignores VMA Moment Of Silence

Video - Common And Fergie Are Snapped On The Red Carpet At The Showcase Case Mate Launch

Hip-hop artist and actor Common (real name Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr.) is snapped on the red carpet at the Showcase Case Mate launch party in New York City. The Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie is also photographed after having a brief interview with the press.

Continue: Video - Common And Fergie Are Snapped On The Red Carpet At The Showcase Case Mate Launch

Just Wright Trailer

Sometims the girl just doesn't get her dream guy, and for Leslie this has always been the case. A physiotherapist by trade, she's got to the point in her life where she's all but given up on finding true love. However, when she meets NBA All-Star Scott McKnight she can't believe how perfect he is, the only problem is Scott doesn't notice Leslie's attempts to woo him, instead he turns to her beautiful best friend Morgan to seek affection. Finally Leslie accepts that her best friend is going to get the guy and she'll let again be left alone.

Continue: Just Wright Trailer

Date Night Trailer

Watch the trailer for Date Night

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American Gangster Review

By Chris Barsanti

There's something dead in Denzel Washington's eyes nearly all of the way through Ridley Scott's American Gangster, which takes what should have been a mesmerizing slice of urban historical grit and grinds it into roughly two hours of standard issue cinema. Washington is playing Frank Lucas, a real-life crime boss who for a period lasting from the late 1960s into the following decade, ran Manhattan "from 110th to 155th, river to river." A real slick character who doesn't need to strut his worth on the street, Lucas hates flash like a junkie hates rehab: It reminds him of all he truly is but doesn't want to be. Facing off against him is New Jersey narc Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), a womanizing tough guy with a short fuse but a heart of gold (aren't they all), who's so clean that when he and his partner come across $1 million in untraceable cash he had the bad manners to turn it all in without taking a single bill for himself. In a big-city police department in the 1970s, boy scout behavior like that will just plain get you killed -- the guy who's not on the take is the guy who could very well sell you down the river when the grand jury comes sniffing around for who is on the take.

Ridley Scott has a good thing going here, tossing these two Hollywood bigshots into the ring and letting them play cops and robbers while he slathers on the period detail with a trowel. There's some serious Superfly outfits (including a godawful $50,000 chinchilla coat that plays a surprisingly key part in a plot twist), a generous helping of soul music, enough fantastic character actors to choke a horse (Idris Elba, Jon Polito, Kevin Corrigan, an incredibly sleazy Josh Brolin, and so on), the specter of Vietnam playing on every television in sight, and the odd enjoyment one gets from watching cops in the pre-militarized, pre-SWAT days take down an apartment with just revolvers, the occasional shotgun, and a sledgehammer to whack down the door. Scott's smart enough to let the story cohere organically and without rush, keeping his main contenders apart for as long as could possibly be borne, making them fully developed characters in their own right and not just developed in opposition to the other. But there's something in this broad and expansive tale that can't quite come together, and it seems to start in Denzel's eyes.

Continue reading: American Gangster Review

Smokin' Aces Review

By Chris Cabin

A double-decker, monster-man sandwich of a movie with all the condiments dripping off and the tomatoes soaking through the bread, Joe Carnahan's Smokin' Aces grabs you by your lipstick-smudged collar and chucks you headfirst into a car-crash dizziness of crime, punishment, and bureau hobgob.As with most directors, Carnahan is eager to put the giddiness of his debut, Blood, Guts, Bullets & Octane, on top of the professionalism of 2002's brooding Narc, only too happy to throw in a who's-who of dynamite character actors to add flavor. Flipping scene-to-scene with a racecar driver's patience, Smokin' Aces quickly engages the viewer but just as quickly stuffs the plot with enough peripheral storylines to garner an Advil intermission. Carnahan, however, seems only the merrier to turn the mayhem up to eleven.Here's the scoop: Buddy "Aces" Israel (Jeremy Piven) has turned states evidence and has been marked to be deposited in an unmarked grave, heart removed and in the hand of the invalid Don of the Las Vegas mafia. Quicker than you can say Vincent Vega, a plethora of gun-totting, knife-brandishing assassins are descending on the Lake Tahoe hotel where Israel has commandeered the penthouse suite and filled it with enough blow and prostitutes to garner a Motley Crue reunion gig. There's a sexually-ambivalent pair of Jackie Brown's (scene-stealers Alicia Keys and Taraji P. Henson), a trio of Nazi-punk, south-bred Mad Max's (led by dirtied-up pretty-boy Chris Pine), a relentless torture artist (Nestor Carbonell), and a superbly vicious Ethan Hunt-type mask-wearer named Lazlo Soot (Tommy Flanagan). Oh, and not to mention a bail bondsman and two ex-cops (Ben Affleck, Peter Berg, and Martin Henderson) hired by a Herpes-positive lawyer (Justin Bateman).Israel's right-hand man Sir Ivy (hip-hop ingénue Common in a solid acting debut) has suspicions on Buddy's loyalty as the bureau chief (Andy Garcia, his cheeks tight enough to brandish a diamond ring from a lump of coal) deliberates on whether Buddy is essential to the FBI's case or not. To fast-track the proceedings, two FBI agents are sent to pick Israel up, played with welcome integrity by Ray Liotta and Ryan Reynolds. This is all confounded by a paint-by-numbers mystery about the Las Vegas Don's origins and his hand in an FBI agent's death.Not for nothing, Carnahan's big mess has a stunningly concise tone to it, not trashy enough to be campy and not serious enough to be harshly considered. There's no denying, however, that Smokin' Aces is a backpedal from the grimy cop paranoia of its predecessor. Ultimately, many of the characters are superfluous to the kinetic frenzy of the film and come off as cameos (Bateman, Affleck, and a surprise Matthew Fox head the list). This also lends itself to a problem of absurdly curt storylines that seem to mass into a rubber-band ball of narratives. That being said, it's still a kick to watch Carnahan go all in, pulling out some primo action scenes including a climactic shoot-out that ends with an assassin taking a chainsaw up the keister. The effect sprays about as much bodily fluid to the ironically-named Nomad hotel as one could imagine from a Tarantino disciple with time and money on his hands.Aces high.

Smokin' Aces - Clip Trailer

Buddy "Aces" Israel (Jeremy Piven) is a Vegas card sharp come gangster and former member of the La Cosa Nostra (LCN), one of the largest criminal organizations in the United States. In exchange for a vanishing act with Witness Protection, Israel (who is currently hiding out in the penthouse of The Nomad Casino in Lake Tahoe with his posse of bodyguards and hookers), has agreed to testify against his former mentor, Primo Sparazza, and the LCN.

Continue: Smokin' Aces - Clip Trailer

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