/ Register

Account / Logout

Facebook Twitter Google+ Pinterest StumbleUpon

Bill Pullman Page 2

Follow Bill Pullman

Bill Pullman

Bill Pullman Quick Links

News Video Film Quotes RSS

« Prev 1 2

Independence Day: Resurgence Review

Good

Two decades is a long time to wait for a sequel, especially one starring much of the original cast. (The record may go to the 32 years between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens.) But clearly filmmakers Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin have long wanted to follow up their 1996 blockbuster hit Independence Day. The result is a big, fast sci-fi action thriller that lacks both the original movie's enjoyably raucous tone and its break-out star Will Smith.

After the events of 20 years ago, America has taken alien technology to heart, improving transportation and military defence, including creating a base on the moon to keep an eye out for returning tentacled baddies. Then an orb-shape ship appears, followed by a new mothership so large that it spans the entire Atlantic Ocean. President Lanford (Sela Ward) turns to the surviving heroes of the previous invasion for help: scientific expert David (Jeff Goldblum), former president Whitmore (Bill Pullman) and mad genius Brakish (Brent Spiner). Meanwhile, a young team of next-generation pilots dives into the fray, including Dylan (Jesse T. Usher playing Will Smith's now-grown son), Jake (Liam Hemsworth), Patricia (Maika Monroe as Whitmore's daughter and Jake's fiancee) and Charlie (Travis Tope).

The film is assembled in standard disaster movie style, quickly introducing characters and their personal little melodramas before throwing them into the mad chaos of this new invasion. Emmerich is an expert at this structure, using it to hugely entertaining effect from Independence Day to Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow, 2014 and White House Down. So it's odd that this film feels so lifeless by comparison. The story rushes past at a breathless pace that never allows the characters or events to gain any real traction with the audience. The only sharp wit on hand this time comes from throwaway one-liners apparently improvised by Goldblum. And the action feels eerily derivative, rehashed from Emmerich's filmography with added elements from Star Wars and Apocalypse Now.

Continue reading: Independence Day: Resurgence Review

Independence Day: Resurgence - Teaser Trailer

Everyone knows the tale of David Levinson and Captain Steven Hiller, the two men at the forefront of the last Alien invasion. Since that last fateful day, Levinson has worked tirelessly to protect the world and strengthen it from alien attacks, even using the technology they discovered on board the alien spaceship to counter their possible attack methods.

When the people of Earth learn that Aliens are on their way back to our planet, there's automatic hysteria and a hope that the newly installed space defences will help counter the attack. Whatever stringent plans David develops he, more than anyone, realises that it will probably not be enough to protect us.

Independence Day: Resurgence takes place twenty years after the original movie and sees many of the cast taking up the same role again. The film is directed by Roland Emmerich (known for The Day After Tomorrow, Godzilla and the first Independence Day movie.)

The Equalizer - Featurette and Clip

Director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Olympus Has Fallen) talks about what makes The Equalizer (Denzel Washington) different from other action movie heroes. The name comes from how he spends his days as a "regular Joe", but uses hand-to-hand combat in order to fight his way through legions of bad guys "levelling the playing field". Producer Todd Black (A Knight's Tale, The Pursuit of Happiness) goes on to explain The Equalizer's skill set. He uses impeccable awareness of his surroundings to manipulate his environment into a weapon - this leads to stunt coordinator Keith Woulard discussing Washington's desire to make the fight scenes "dirty and gritty, but he want[ed] it smart".

Continue: The Equalizer - Featurette and Clip

A Week In Movies: Neeson Is Taken Again, Statham Goes Dramatic, Depp Cuts His Hair

By Staff Writer on 28 June 2013

Liam Neeson Jeff Goldblum Bill Pullman Seth Rogen Johnny Depp Tom Cruise Ryan Gosling Paul Rudd Emile Hirsch Michael Fassbender

Sequels to Taken and Independence Day get going, Depp promotes The Lone Ranger on both coasts, and new trailers reveal glimpses of against-type turns from Scott Thomas, Rudd, Hirsch and Diaz...

Taken Poster

The big news this week is that a reported $20 million paycheque has lured Liam Neeson back for a third Taken movie. There's no word yet on the plot, but does it really matter? Meanwhile, Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman will be back for Roland Emmerich's long-awaited sequel to his 1996 blockbuster Independence Day, although apparently Will Smith's character isn't in the script.

This week's top cinema releases include the animated sequel Despicable Me 2 and Jason Statham's dramatic thriller Hummingbird. which has been re-titled Redemption for its American release. Meanwhile, British audiences are catching up with Seth Rogen's A-list apocalyptic comedy This Is the End, while Americans have a chance to check out Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan as rogue mother-daughter vampires in Byzantium.

Continue reading: A Week In Movies: Neeson Is Taken Again, Statham Goes Dramatic, Depp Cuts His Hair

Independence Day X 2 + (Jeff Goldblum + Bill Pullman) - Will Smith = Independence Day 2

By Jack de Aguilar in Lifestyle / Showbiz on 26 June 2013

Will Smith Jeff Goldblum Bill Pullman

Let's see who's coming back for more alien action, and who isn't

It’s official Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman are back for the Independence Day Sequel – imaginatively named Independence Day 2. Will Smith, however, is too expensive, so he can’t come out to play.

Will Smith and his son Jaden star in After Earth, which was so bad

Pullman played President Thomas J Whitmore, while Goldblum appeared as a geeky computer expert called David Levinson, and both characters will be returning to reprise those roles. Perhaps, with Smith rules out, Goldblum could prove to be an unlikely hero in this one. It might just not work though; Smith was a brilliant hero in the original 1996 film, and launched his Hollywood career off the back of it. So high was his launch, though, that his $50m 2-year deal request proved a little too steep.

Continue reading: Independence Day X 2 + (Jeff Goldblum + Bill Pullman) - Will Smith = Independence Day 2

The Killer Inside Me Trailer

Lou Ford leads -what looks to be a pretty unremarkable existence, he's the deputy Sheriff of a small town but has two girlfriends one who works as a schoolteacher and the other a prostitute. When murders start happening in the sleepy West Texas town, no one is quite sure who's committing the murders. As investigators lean toward Lou as their prime suspect, he finds himself in a spiral of death as he struggles to clear his name. Things are never as they seem, the unassuming person the townsfolk thought they knew in Lou soon unravels and it becomes clear that all they were seeing was a facade.

Continue: The Killer Inside Me Trailer

Liebestraum Review

By Christopher Null

Very Good

Mike Figgis channels David Lynch and the Coen brothers' Barton Fink in this atmospheric neo-noir about a journalist who gets involved with an old friend's wife on the eve of the destruction of a historic cast-iron building. Ironically enough, the building is the site of a years-earlier triple-murder/suicide, in which a vengeful husband killed two cheating lovers.... Putting this all together isn't simple, as Figgis's way-convoluted tale takes you down many a dream-sequenced road. But the ride is a fun one, and the cast is surprisingly apt.

A League Of Their Own Review

By Pete Croatto

Excellent

Ah, baseball. The mere mention of America's pastime brings forth images of fresh grass, sunny days, endless labor disputes and another round of steroid controversy.

If you're tired of the ugliness surrounding the summer sport, or just need to be entertained, than you should check out A League of Their Own, now out on DVD. Like most great sports movies, League is more than just a series of dazzling feats between the lines. It features laughs, drama, and excitement... in short all of the aspects that make the sports section of the newspaper so captivating.

Continue reading: A League Of Their Own Review