New "Kung Fu Panda 2" Poster!

Following the success of the first installment "Kung Fu Panda" back in 2008, Po the panda will be back on theatre this year! Check out the newest "Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom" poster below.

Jennifer Yuh directed the movie replacing Mark Osborne and John Stevenson who did so in the first movie. The voice talents; Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Seth Rogen, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, and Lucy Liu will reprise their roles as the martial artist animals, while Gary Oldman will play a new character named Lord Shen.

Catch "Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom Of Doom" on May 27, 2011 for USA and Canada, May 26 for Singapore and Malaysia, and June 17 for UK. Available in 2D and 3D! Po will get you a stomachache of laughs!

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"The Social Network" won Best Picture at Los Angeles Film Critics Association

Andrew Garfield at Los Angeles
Film Association Awards event.

Oops, "The Social Network" did it again! The Los Angeles Film Critics Association awarded the Best Picture to the David Fincher's directed movie last night, as well as Best Screenplay for Aaron Sorkin. The Best Director award was given to two tied-winners, David Fincher and Olivier Assayas for "Carlos", which was the runner-up for Best Picture. Another tied-award for "The Social Network" is Best Music Score for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross along with Alexandre Displat for "The Ghost Writer".

Colin Firth and Kim Hye-Ja were the Best Actor and Actress respectively, with Edgar Ramirez from "Carlos" and Jennifer Lawrence from "Winter's Bone" as the runner-ups. "Toy Story 3" won Best Animation, while "Inception" won only an award for Best Production Design. Please click here for the full list of LAFCA winners.

After LAFCA Awards ended, the stars were gathered in a Golden Globes afternoon tea in an event held by cooperation of BAFTA/LA. The Golden Globes nominees were having a good time even though they will be contending tomorrow at the award show. From Jeff Bridges, Jeremy Renner, Nicole Kidman, Diane Warren (composer of "Burlesque"), Jane Lynch, Tom Hooper (director of "The King's Speech"), Vanessa Williams, Ryan Gosling, and Michelle Williams were spotted spending a nice time together.

"The King's Speech" director Tom Hooper with Andrew Garfield at the BAFTA/LA Awards Season Tea at Four Seasons. Both are nominated for Golden Globes Award, aired tomorrow.

Andrew Garfield (hmm, yeah, my favorite), who's nominated as Best Supporting Actor at the Golden Globes, was spotted with his British actor pal Eddie Redmayne (star of "The Yellow Handkerchief" and "Pillars Of The Earth"). "It's nice being in a room with such inspiring, wonderful people to talk to," Andrew said. He also expressed he couldn't believe that he's been invited to attend such honorable award shows ever since "The Social Network" came out to a blast.

Trust me Andrew, if you keep playing like you did in "The Social Network", "Boy A", and "Never Let Me Go", they will keep inviting and nominating you to those great award shows until you become a grandfather.

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Elijah Wood talks "The Hobbit" and will be back as Frodo Baggins

Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" will start filming next month, and people have been talking about who's returning and who's not. A few days ago, it was announced that Ian McKellen will reprise his role as Gandalf, as well as Andy Serkis as Gollum. Now it's Elijah Wood's time to talk about some tidbits about the prequel of "The Lord Of The Rings" trilogy.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Elijah will also make a comeback in "The Hobbit" as his previous role Frodo, as well as other characters. "(Ian) McKellen is back, Cate Blanchett is back, Andy Serkis, and Orlando (Bloom). It's going to be like going back in time,". When asked about whether Sean Astin will make a comeback as well, he said he had no idea. "I haven't even read the script."

Elijah knows that he will only make a small appearance, since the character Frodo isn't actually appear in "The Hobbit" novel. However, his reprisal to play Frodo is to show how much he respects the work of this movie.

Martin Freeman has been casted to play Bilbo Baggins, the leading character in "The Hobbit" (which was previously played by Ian Holm in "The Lord Of The Rings" trilogy). Saoirse Ronan, David Tennant, and Leonard Nimoy are rumored to play Itaril, Thranduil, and Smaug respectively. This movie will be made into two parts, with the first part to release in December 19, 2012.

I am so excited that Peter Jackson decided to film "The Hobbit", I think I need to watch more epic colossal movies as great as "The Lord Of The Rings" trilogy—it's been a 'draught' of epicness in the movie industry lately! All I can say is welcome back and good luck to all cast of "The Hobbit"!

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Michael Bay Talks About 'Fixing' "Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen" Through the Third Installment

Michael Bay came forward in talks about how Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen was a mess, and that he’s going to make it up through Transformers: Dark Of The Moon—saying that this movie is going to be superior than the previous two, and will be the last Transformers movie he directed.

"It was kind of a mess, wasn’t it? Look, the movie had some good things in it and it was entertaining and it did very well, but it also failed in some key ways. I learned from it. And now with this third movie we’re going back to basics and I absolutely believe this is going to be a much better film than the second one," he said.

Michael also explained that the writers' strike affected the production process of "Revenge of the Fallen", that he only had three weeks to get the story and almost going through the movie without a script. "It’s tough to do that. It was too big of a movie. There were too many endings or too many things that felt like endings. There was so much animation [in the visual effects postproduction work], too, and we ran out of time."

Check out the teaser trailer of "Transformers: Dark Of The Moon" below.

Well, I believe in you Michael. I really hope you bring the third movie into something like you did to "Armageddon", "Bad Boys", and "Pearl Harbor". Catch Shia LaBeouf and his new co-star Rosie Huntington-Whiteley on "Transformers: Dark Of The Moon" in July 1, 2011, also available in 3D.

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My "X-Men: FIrst Class" Curiosity

"X-Men: First Class" is one of my most anticipated movies this year, yet it is the one which leaves many questions. I've been reading a lot about X-Men recently, and it's so nice that Matthew Vaughn (director of "Kick-Ass") decided to make a storyline about the beginning of X-Men. We all know that this superhero group is super popular, but most of us aren't actually familiar with their origins, unlike the story of Superman, Batman, or Spider-Man.

So this movie takes place in 1960s. Charles Xavier (played by James McAvoy) and Erik Lehnsherr (played by Michael Fassbender) were still best friends, and they discovered their unusual power for the first time. They gather all mutants to protect them from the real threat, 'everyone else' (this phrase refers to the 'humans', as mentioned in the previous X-Men movies). Finally they took their infamous code name, Professor X and Magneto respectively. They worked together until there's a 'rift' between them which eventually tore them apart into two sides, Magneto's Brotherhood and Professor X's X-Men.

Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Raven Darkholme (Jennifer Lawrence). I didn't know Professor X and Mystique were friends until I found this photo! They look cute though.

The movie is scheduled to be released in June 3, 2011, but until now we don't even get the sneak-peek of the movie poster or even teaser trailer ("Transformers: Dark Of The Moon" has a latter release date and its teaser trailer has actually published since the end of last year.) Simply, I'm uber-curious yet excited about this.

From the cast list, I'm actually a bit disappointed because my favorite X-Men Jean Grey and Cyclops will not present. It's quite funny because Jean Grey was the first mutant student of Professor X's institute, and I safely say that no Jean Grey means no X-Men. Another thing is, Havok (played by Lucas Till), Cyclops' younger brother, will be featured in this movie. Havok's often described as being jealous of Cyclops' authoritative leadership in X-Men, and I don't know how Matthew will bring this love-hate relationship of the brothers without including Cyclops.

Besides Lucas Till, a lot of young actors will portray the younger version of the X-Men. Nicholas Hoult will play Dr. Hank McCoy aka Beast, Jennifer Lawrence is Raven Darkholme aka Mystique, and Zoe Kravits is Angel Salvadore. Emma Frost, the unlikely heroine and is famous for stealing Cyclops from Jean Grey, will be played by January Jones—which is another funny thing because she seems to be one of the 'grown-ups' mutants in this movie. (I mean, Emma's supposed to be the same age as Jean Grey and Cyclops, so she should be a lot younger if Professor X isn't even bald and sit on the wheelchair yet.)

The mutant Azazel (played by Jason Flemying) will likely be the ultimate enemy in this movie. Yes, he was named after the demon Azazel. His son, Nightcrawler (previously portrayed by Alan Cummings in "X2: X-Men United"), is my most favorite X-Men after Jean Grey, because he got a cool ability to teleport and described to be very religious, in contrary to his father. Nightcrawler won't be featured in this movie though.

By this post I'm begging to 20th Century Fox to release at least a still or teaser poster of "X-Men: First Class" as soon as possible—I'm dying to see it!

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Quote Of The Day: Andrew Garfield

I hope I never blow up. I hope that I have to audition for every single job I want. I hope that I’m always struggling, really. You develop when you’re struggling. When you’re struggling, you get stronger. —Andrew Garfield

Source: DETAILS Magazine

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"Priest" New HD Trailer

A new trailer for one of this year's horror movies, "Priest". I'm a huge fan of vampire movies, and I really hope that "Priest" will bring a different story like "Daybreakers", which I really enjoyed. The story is about a priest who decided to disobey the law to track down vampires that kidnapped his niece. The trailer displayed a few promising action sequences. Watch it below.



Cam Gigandet, Maggie Q, Paul Bettany, Karl Urban, Christopher Plummer, Lily Collins, and "True Blood" star Stephen Moyer star in this Scott Charles Stewart directed movie. It will be released May 13 in USA, May 12 in Malaysia and Singapore, and March 3 in Russia and Norway.

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Critics' Choice Movie Awards: "Inception" and "The Social Network" are the King and Queen!

Cast and crew of "The Social Network", winner of Best Picture.

After the disappointing Best Movie winner selection of People's Choice Awards earlier this month (it went to "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse"—surprise, surprise!), I am so glad that finally the real deal came up in this award season. Critics' Choice Awards which was held in Hollywood Paladium last night, and it truly chose the best of the best winners.

Natalie Portman

"Inception" led the night with 5 awards; Best Action Movie, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Editing, and Best Visual Effects. While "The Social Network" came in behind with 4 awards; Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Score, and the ultimate award Best Picture. Colin Firth and Natalie Portman won Best Actor and Best Actress respectively, while the Best Supporting Actor & Actress went to Christian Bale and Melissa Leo.

"Alice In Wonderland" won Best Costume Design and Best Makeup, "Toy Story 3" is the Best Animated Movie, and "Easy A" won Best Comedy. Matt Damon and Quentin Tarantino both won the Honorary Awards, the John Siegel Award and Music + Film Award respectively.

Christian Bale

What attracts me the most is that it gave an award special to young talents called Best Young Actor/ Actress, which went to Hailee Steinfeld for "True Grit". Chloe G. Moretz was nominated for this award in her two movies "Kick-Ass" and "Let Me In". Her "Let Me In" co-star Kodi Smit-McPhee was also nominated, as well as the "Winter Bone" star Jennifer Lawrence and Dakota Fanning's little sister Elle Fanning in "Somewhere".

This award reminds me that I have to watch "Black Swan", "The Fighter", "True Grit", and "The King's Speech" as soon as possible, because I don't want to miss anymore wonderful movies of 2010. Especially I gotta do this before the Oscars.

Full winners list and acceptance videos are available here on Critics' Choice Awards official site.

Photos from the red carpet are available under the cut. Click Read More! :)

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New Kick-ass "Sucker Punch" Poster

Even though moviegoers already 'doubt' the storyline and screenplay of this movie (including me), we're all inevitable 'blown away' by the glorious graphics, action, and special effects of the trailer. Zack Snyder is truly a revolutionary director, and one of my most favorites.

In my opinion, Zack never put aside the substantial values of his movies, because I personally enjoyed "Watchmen" and "300" (I watched "Sin City" as well but I didn't get 'the feel' like I did in the previous two movies). He's been bringing 'realism' through his movies, the one's that audience could relate to and understand because it makes us think "Well if I were them (the characters), I'll do the same way).

"Sucker Punch" tells a story about a young girl who's institutionalized by her wicked stepfather. Retreating to an alternative reality as a coping strategy, she envisions a plan which will help her escape from the facility. It will hit theatre in March 25, 2011 with no 3D. Emily Browning, Jenna Malone, Abbie Cornish, and Vanessa Hudgens star as the ass-kicking girls.

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My Favorite Actors in "W" Magazine's Best Performances of 2010

The year 2010 might not be a blockbuster year like what happened back in 2007 (but "Toy Story 3", "Inception", "Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part I", and even "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" had significant numbers in box office), but it truly had a LOT of new talent discoveries and ground-breaking movies. "W" Magazine listed 20 Best Performances of 2010 and I'm really glad that they included some of my favorite young actors.

Other seniors like Julianne Moore, Helena Bonham-Carter, Javier Bardem, Michael Douglas, and Colin Firth also made the list.

NATALIE PORTMAN IN “BLACK SWAN”

“The movie that I watched the most when I was growing up was Dirty Dancing. I always loved Penny, probably because I was really like Baby. I was a Jewish girl from a Jewish family, so of course I liked the tall, skinny blond girl.”

JESSE EISENBERG IN “THE SOCIAL NETWORK”
“I started acting to be included in a group, because I felt excluded in school. The final product was out of my control, so it didn’t really matter to me. I just liked being in a group of people that didn’t kick my shin.”


JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE & ANDREW GARFIELD IN “THE SOCIAL NETWORK”
“What if Mark Zuckerberg and Sean Parker suffered from the same insecurity and fear and paranoia? Mark dealt with those feelings by inventing Facebook. And my character, Sean Parker, invented Sean Parker. He created his own persona.”—Justin Timberlake

“I found The Goonies very inspiring. I identified with every character: Mikey, the leader; Mouth, the trickster; Data, the inventor; and Chunk, this lovely, beautiful, sad, misunderstood, slightly larger kid. The Goonies is boys needing to be boys on their path to manhood. It’s a classic.”—Andrew Garfield


JONAH HILL IN “CYRUS”
“I connect most with things that are uncomfortable and heartbreaking. And I think comedy is very uncomfortable and heartbreaking. Discomfort is extremely amusing to me.”


DAKOTA FANNING IN “THE RUNAWAYS”
“It was important for me to go to a normal high school. I have a locker, which was a big deal. My mom had to buy me a lock and teach me how to use it. It’s the little things: Where do you go at lunch? How do you open the locker? I wanted a yearbook! Now I have a lot of signatures in my yearbook—‘Have a good summer’ and all that.”


MILA KUNIS IN “BLACK SWAN”
“Before Black Swan, I had never danced in my life, and I will never dance again. I lost 20 pounds in three months, danced five hours a day, for seven days a week. I tore a ligament. I dislocated my shoulder. I have two scars on my back. It was worth every minute, but I will never put on toe shoes again.”


ELLE FANNING IN “SOMEWHERE”
“The first movie I really fell in love with was The Seven Year Itch. I love Marilyn Monroe. I went as her in the white dress for Halloween. I did the mole and the little cat eye.”

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Closer Look at Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's Character 'Carly' in "Transformers: Dark Of The Moon"

Michael Bay did a lot of 'correction' after "Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen" failed to attract critics despite its glorious $ 800 million worldwide box office revenue. In the upcoming installment "Transformers: Dark Of The Moon", Michael assured that the script will be 'better and darker' without forgetting to make an even bigger and more advanced special effects.

One of the significant change is to cast a new love interest for Sam Witwicky (the leading character played by Shia LaBeouf). Megan Fox who used to play Mikaela Banes was reportedly dropped out of the production. Michael made a switch by choosing a rather inexperienced Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, who's well-known as supermodel instead of an actress. She previously worked with Michael Bay for an advertisement of Victoria's Secrets. Even so, Michael and Steven Spielberg (the producer of three "Transformers" installments) said that Rosie was 'mind-blowing' in her audition tape. Rosie ultimately 'defeated' her contenders for this role, with the popular names like Gemma Arterton, and other supermodels Bar Rafaeli, Miranda Kerr, and Brooklyn Decker.

Rosie will play Carly, a girl who works at the British embassy in United States. Michael said in an interview that "Carly and Sam live together," as they start another adventure with the Autobots to fight the rise of Decepticons.

The original Carly Witwicky from "The Transformers" (1984).
Photo taken from WikiPedia.

I surfed around the internet and found an interesting 'origins story' of this Carly character. Based on the 1984 animated series, Carly was actually the one and only love interest of Sam Witwicky (which used to be called 'Spike' in the animated series). She was pictured as a beautiful blonde girl, who was only 16 when Sam first met her. They grew closer as Carly followed Sam in the Transformers adventure, even travelled to the Cybertron as well.

But then their romantic relationship came into the more serious way, until they finally got married and Carly attached 'Witwicky' to her last name. Carly gave birth to their first son Daniel Witwicky, who eventually continued Sam's adventure to protect the Earth from Decepticons along with the Autobots.

This is quite interesting since I didn't really get into the characters and origins of "Transformers". I believe Michael Bay will do his best to 'recover' this installment since the failure of the previous movie (even though the dollars did speak, but I gotta say the movie was a complete failure since it does fail).

Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, John Turturro, Kevin Dunn, Julie White, and Ramon Rodriguez all reprise their roles. Besides Rosie, new characters will also be featured, Patrick Dempsey will play as Carly's boss, which has a 'significant role' to the plot, and John Malkovich will star as Sam's first boss. "Transformers: Dark Of The Moon" will be released in July 1, 2011 in 3D.

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Evan Rachel Wood Talks "The Ides Of March"

Evan Rachel Wood spilled some tidbits about her upcoming movie "The Ides Of March" at the HBO Winter 2011 TCA Panel, in which George Clooney will 'act' as the director, screen writer, as well as one of the leading actors.

Evan said that she's going to start filming in February, and it is mainly about politics and democratic primaries. "More the politics of politics. Behind the scenes of the press secretary and what goes on in that world. I play an intern,".

She also said that her intern character could have relations with someone 'higher up' like Monica Lewinsky. "Could be. But I wouldn't necessarily say Monica Lewinsky. But she does get a bit in trouble,".

"The Ides Of March" is due to be released December 2011 based on a play by Beau Willmon. The story tells about 'an idealistic staffer for a newbie presidential candidate gets a crash course on dirty politics during his stint on the campaign trail.'

Besides Evan and George, it has been confirmed that Ryan Gosling, Phillip Seymour-Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei, and the newcomer Max Minghella (who played Divya Narendra in "The Social Network") will also star.

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