KILLER ELITE To Be Released Nationwide Sept 23 from Open Road Films

KILLER ELITE WILL HIT MOVIE THEATRES  SEPTEMBER 23, 2011

Action Thriller Starring Jason Statham, Clive Owen and Robert De Niro To Be Released Nationwide from Newly Launched Open Road Films

Los Angeles, CA, June 8, 2011 – Open Road Films will release Omnilab Media’s Killer Elite, the action thriller starring Jason Statham, Clive Owen and Robert De Niro and directed by Gary McKendry, in U.S. theatres nationwide on September 23, 2011.

Based on a true story, Killer Elite races across the globe from Australia to Paris, London and the Middle East in the action-packed account of an ex-special ops agent (Jason Statham) who is lured out of retirement to rescue his mentor (Robert De Niro).  To make the rescue, he must complete a near-impossible mission of killing three tough-as-nails assassins with a cunning leader (Clive Owen).

Financed by Omnilab Media, Killer Elite was produced through Omnilab’s Australian production arm, Ambience Entertainment, with Inferno Entertainment handling worldwide sales.

More information on Killer Elite is coming soon at: www.OpenRoadFilms.com
www.facebook.com/KillerEliteMovie

ABOUT OPEN ROAD FILMS
Founded earlier this year by AMC Entertainment Inc. (AMC) and Regal Entertainment Group (Regal), the two largest theatrical exhibition and entertainment companies in the United States, Open Road Films is a dynamic, acquisition-based domestic theatrical distribution company.

ABOUT OMNILAB
Omnilab Media is a leading Australian and New Zealand integrated media and technology company. Amongst its broad range of sixteen businesses it specialises in film and television content development and production, finance, P&A finance and distribution, visual effects and post production, software and technology IP and development, broadcast channel playout, media asset management and distribution.

Shoot ‘Em Up (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

Pulse pounding action from beginning to end!  Prepare yourself for a wild ride with guns, bullets and carrots galore! Definitely one of the coolest Blu-ray’s to demonstrate awesome picture quality and lossless audio!  Video and audiophiles will love this release!

Image courtesy of © MMVII New Line Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Shoot ‘Em Up

DURATION: 86 Minutes

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (2:35:1 Widescreen), English 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish

COMPANY: New Line Home Entertainment

RATED: R (Pervasive Strong Bloody Violence, Sexuality and Some Language)

RELEASE DATE: January 1, 2008

Written and Directed by Michael Davis

Executive Producer: Cale Boyter, Douglas Curtis, Toby Emmerich

Producer: Rick Benattar, Susan Montford, Don Murphy

Associate Producer: Jeff Katz

Music by Paul Haslinger

Cinematography by Peter Pau

Edited by Peter Amundson

Casting by Deirdre Bowen

Production Design by Gary Frutkoff

Art Direction by Patrick Banister

Set Decoration by Carolyn “Cal” Loucks

Costume Design by Denise Cronenberg

Starring:

Clive Owen as Smith

Paul Giamatti as Hertz

Monica Bellucci as Donna Quintano

Stephen McHattie as Hammerson

Greg Bryk as Lone Man

Daniel Pilon as Senator Rutledge

Sidney Mende-Gibson, Lucas Mende-Gibson, Kaylyn Yellowlees as Baby Oliver

Ramona Pringle as Baby’s Mother

A gritty, fast-paced action thriller, Shoot Em Up kicks into high gear with a memorable opening scene and never relents. Clive Owen stars as Mr. Smith, a mysterious loner who teams up with an unlikely ally (Monica Belluci) to protect a newborn baby from a determined criminal (Paul Giamatti) who hunts them throughout the bowels of the city.

Action-packed, adrenaline driven and all-out action is what you can expect from “Shoot ‘Em Up”, a 2007 film directed by Michael Davis.

Sure, Davis wrote the 1994 video game based stinker “Double Dragon” but he did rebound with “Eight Days a Week” in 1997.  A decade later, Davis has crafted a film that is not only mindless action but it’s the kind of action that is plenty of fun, never boring and on Blu-ray, it’s a title that sports awesome picture quality and lossless audio.

Davis teams up with well-known martial arts cinematographer Peter Pau (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, “The Promise”, “Perhaps Love”, “The Forbidden Kingdom”) and composer Paul Haslinger (“X-Men Origins: Wolverine”, “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans”, “Death Race”).

“Shoot ‘Em Up” is an action comedy about a drifter named Mr. Smith (played by Clive Owen, “Sin City”, “The Boys Are Back”, “The International”) who is waiting for his bus ride but sees a pregnant woman running away.  Next thing you know, a gun wielding man is after her.  At first, Smith wants nothing to do with it but decides last minute to help her out.

As the woman tries to defend herself with a gun, the man is about to kill her but the carrot chomping Mr. Smith quickly acts by stabbing the man with a carrot.  All of a sudden, the woman is giving birth and at the same time, more men have arrived with guns ablazing and Mr. Smith shows his excellent marksmanship and gun skills and takes many of them out and eventually helping the woman give birth to a baby boy.

We then see the man who is calling all the shots, a man named Hertz (played by Paul Giamatti, “Sideways”, “Cinderella Man”, “Duplicity”) who doesn’t seem too scared of Mr. Smith.  Smith knows he is in a bind without a weapon and thus he tries to get the woman and baby to safety but unfortunately the mother is killed.  Smith must decide to leave or take the baby with him and he decides to help the baby.

And next thing you know, Smith becomes a major target as everyone seems to be after the baby for some reason and will do anything to kill it.

Smith goes to the only person he knows to take care of the baby for a day while he tries to find out who the men chasing the baby are.  The woman is a prostitute named Donna (played by Monica Bellucci, “The Passion of Christ”, “Matrix Revolutions”, “The Matrix Reloaded”) who has no interest in helping Mr. Smith at all.

As Smith leaves, it appears that the men who are after the baby are always a step behind in finding it.   But this time, they have traced Smith and the baby at the whorehouse and immediately Hertz starts to scare and torture Donna for information on Mr. Smith (which she knows nothing).  Fortunately, Smith is able to rescue her in time but now, Mr. Smith, Donna and the baby are on the run from Hertz and his men who will do whatever it takes to kill him and the baby.

Will Smith find out why the baby is a target?  Will he be able to protect both the baby and Donna?

VIDEO:

“Shoot ‘Em Up” looks fantastic on Blu-ray.  Presented in 1080p High Definition (2:35:1 aspect ratio), the film tends to be saturated with focus on a few colors as you can see blues, greens, blacks, orange and reds being the primary colors of the film.  You literally can see the detail and the hair stubble, the skin pores and the grime on Mr. Smith, you can see the overall grittiness of the city and for the most part, detail is captured quite well on Blu-ray.

Blacks are nice and deep, I see no artifacts, DNR (Digital Noise Reduction) or any problems with the picture quality.  This is literally perfection when it comes to PQ for a film on Blu-ray and “Shoot ‘Em Up” looks absolutely fantastic.

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

“Shoot ‘Em Up” is presented in English 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and what an incredible lossless soundtrack this film is presented with.  For one thing, this is an action film that just doesn’t show signs of any long moments of inactivity.  There is just action throughout with maybe a brief segment of dialogue and then more action.   And the keyword to describe this 7.1 lossless soundtrack is “immersive”.  Gunshots, bullets whizzing, car crashing, you name it…you hear it all around you.  From sound effects, footsteps, the music, the baby crying, there is just a feeling of sound that envelops your soundscape and for audiophiles, you will more than likely gush with this soundtrack.

Subtitles are presented in English SDH and Spanish.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Shoot ‘Em Up” features the following special features presented in 1080p and 1080i High Definition, 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, 5.1 DTS and 2.0 Stereo DTS.  Subtitles in English SDH, Spanish on selected features only.  Included are the following features:

• Enhanced Visual Commentary – While watching the film, you will see a picture-in-picture box with video featuring commentary by cinematographer Peter Pau and the film crew discussing the making of the film.
• Audio Commentary by Writer/Director Michael Davis – Director Michael Davis gives an in-depth commentary on the making of “Shoot ‘Em Up” and his inspiration from John Woo and setting up the various scenes and giving the viewer insight on what Davis wanted to accomplish in the making of the film.
• Ballet of Bullets: The Making of SHOOT ‘EM UP – (52:51) Featuring the making of “Shoot ‘Em Up” and interviews with director Michael Davis who talks about his inspiration from a John Woo film and interviews with the talent and film crew.  Learning about the guns, the use of the baby and creation of an artificial baby and more.
• Writer/Director Michael Davis’ Original Animatics with Optional Commentary – (22:23) 16 animatics are featured.  Michael Davis created the animation for the purpose in getting the film made and instrumental in getting Clive Owen to do the role.  How Michael Davis created the frames and used his iMovie to create the animatics.
• Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary by Writer/Director Michael Davis – (8:05) A total of nine deleted/alternate scenes with optional commentary.
• Theatrical Trailer – (2:10) The original theatrical trailer.
• Addictive TV Remix Trailer – (2:37) The TV remix trailer edited to go along with electronic music.
• Red Band Trailer – (1:54) The red band (for mature audiences) trailer for “Shoot ‘Em Up”.

What an enjoyable ride has “Shoot ‘Em Up” turned out to be.

In some way, the film could have gone the “Leon the Professional” direction but instead of being a drama, “Shoot ‘Em Up” ends up being an action comedy as the film showcases Mr. Smith taking out dozens of people with his quick gun skills and excellent marksmanship.   He loves chomping on carrots, loves his guns and shows sign of being quite an intelligent man.  We don’t know his background, but we know that he kicks major butt!

And the film is pretty much representative of the fact that Mr. Smith is just the epitome of a man who can kick some serious tail.  Your eyes are literally glued to the screen as there is a sense of choreography when Smith shoots his enemies but you add the sexy Monica Belluci and these two literally set off sparks in the film.  One of the most hilarious and sexiest moments of the film are when Smith and Donna are making love and as he is doing his thing, he is taking on the bad guys while having sex, while Donna is enjoying every minute of it.

Another hilarious scene features a mother spanking her child.  Mr. Smith not liking the mother punishing her child in that manner, starts spanking the mother and telling her if she likes how that feels.

And there are many of these enjoyable and fun moments of the film but at the same time, the film has its sense of B-movie gore as we see carrots gouging a man’s head through the eye socket to body part dismemberments throughout the film.

The film is a violent, action-packed film but all its violence and humor just works for this film and definitely enhances the enjoyment of it.  Granted, I’m sure there are some people who may balk about how the baby is put through many violent situations throughout the film but this is an action comedy with farfetched situations. There is no realism, this is all crazy entertainment that resembles the experience of  playing a one player action/adventure video game shooter and instead of you controlling the character and picking people out, Mr. Smith does that for you.

As mentioned, the Blu-ray sports awesome picture quality and lossless audio.  I was very impressed by this Blu-ray release and the fact that you can find it for a pretty good price these days is great.

Overall, if you are looking for an action film full of non-stop action and humor with less focus on the drama, then definitely check out “Shoot ‘Em Up”.  Definitely a Blu-ray worthy of being in your collection if you are interested in an action comedy film with mindless violence!  Prepare yourself for one wild and crazy ride with “Shoot ‘Em Up”.  A film that is definitely recommended!

The Boys Are Back (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

A delightful, heartwarming film.  Clive Owen’s with his best performance yet!

Images courtesy of © BVHE.  All Rights Reserved.

DVD TITLE: The Boys Are Back

DURATION: 104 minutes

DVD INFORMATION: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, Spanish Language Track, English SDH and Spanish Subtitles, Widescreen (2:35:1) – Enhanced for 16×9 Televisions

COMPANY: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment

RATED: PG-13 (For Some Sexual Language and Thematic Elements)

RELEASE DATE: January 26, 2010

Based on the novel “The Boys Are Back in Town” by Simon Carr

Directed by Scott Hicks

Adaptation by Allan Cubitt

Executive Producer: Peter Bennett-Jones, Clive Owen, David M. Thompson, Jane Wright

Producer: Greg Brenman, Timothy White

Associate Producer: Jessica Beiler

Line Producer: Paul Ranford

Music by Hal Lindes

Cinematography by Greig Fraser

Edited by Scott Gray

Casting by Nikki Barrett, Nina Gold

Production Design by Melinda Doring

Art Direction by Janie Parker

Set Decoration by Glen W. Johnson

Costume Design by Emily Seresin

Starring:

Clive Owen as Joe Warr

Laura Fraser as Katy Warr

Emma Booth as Laura

George MacKay as Harry Warr

Nicholas McAnulty as Artie Warr

Emma Lung as Mia

Julia Blake as Barbara

Natasha Little as Flick

Erik Thomson as Tom

The death of his wife leaves wisecracking sportswriter Joe Warr (Clive Owen) with a curious six year-old (Nicholas McAnulty) and a rebellious teen from a previous marriage (George MacKay) to bring up in a household devoid of feminine influence. So Joe takes on parenting the only way he knows how—full throttle. With an exuberance born of necessity, he teaches his boys to meet the joy and fragility of life head on. The Boys Are Back chronicles the fierce love and loyalty the three Warr men discover for each other as they make their way through the trials of everyday life.

In 2009, “The Boys are Back” is a film from BBC films, adapted from the novel “The Boys are Back in Town” by Simon Carr and was distributed in the US from Miramax Films.

The film is directed by Scott Hicks (“”Snow Falling on Cedars”, “No Reservations”, “Shine”) and a screenplay adaptation by Allan Cubitt (“The Hound of Baskervilles”, “Anna Karenina: TV Series”).  The film features cinematography by Greig Fraser (“Spider”, “Last Ride”, “Bright Star”) and music by composer Hal Lindes (“Apparitions”, “Little Devil”, “Losing Gemma”).

“The Boys are Back” is about a busy sportswriter in Australia named Joe Warr (played by Clive Owen, “Sin City”, “Children of Men”, “Shoot ‘Em Up”).  Because he travels so much, his wife Katy (played by Laura Fraser, “The Passion”, “The Flying Scotsman”, “No Holds Bard”) raises their five-year-old son Artie (played by Nicholas McAnulty).

For Joe, his connection with Artie is brief since he works a lot and their main emotional connection is when he brings over gifts when he comes home.  But fortunately Katy and her parents have been there for Artie.

But one night as he goes out with his wife to a dinner party, she feels sick to her stomach and collapses.  She has cancer and it has spread throughout her body and she doesn’t have much time left.  Joe tries to prepare Artie for his mom’s inevitable death but both are not prepared of how life would be afterward without their mom.

Without his mother, Joe now wants to connect with his son and be there and takes time off from his work.  Joe sees life differently now as he is forced to be a father for his son but most importantly, asking his son Harry (played by George McKay, “Defiance”, “Peter Pan”) from his first marriage to come stay with him in Australia.

But Joe realizes that he never really had any connection with his sons.  When Harry was six, he left him to be with another woman who was pregnant with Artie.  And thus, this is the first real time in their lives Joe and his son Harry are together and a similar situation with Artie who was always dependent on his mother.  Now the three must live as a family but will Joe be the father that they need?

VIDEO & AUDIO:

“The Boys are Back” features beautiful cinematography from Southern Australia.  Director Scott Hicks knew of what scenes he wanted in the film and Greg Fraser does a great job in showcasing the ocean, the blue skies, the yellow and green landscapes.   The scenery is absolutely breathtaking.  Shots of Joe and his wife Katy was well-filmed as with Joe and his sons.  Key scenes showing the family bond and him trying to be there for his loved ones.  The film is presented in Widescreen (2:35:1) – enhanced for 16×9 televisions.

As for audio, the film is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound with a Spanish language track included.  The film is primarily dialogue driven with the occasional music.  Dialogue is clear and understandable and is primarily front and center channel driven.

Subtitles are in English SDH and Spanish.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“The Boys are Back” comes with the following special features:

• The Boys are Back: A Photographic Journey – (16:22) The following featurette showcases photography taken on the set of the film and behind-the-scenes.  Optional commentary by director Scott Hicks is included as Hicks talks about working with the various talent and crew and filming in Southern Australia.
• A Father and Two Sons, On Set – (1:42) Author Simon Carr talks about the day his sons met the talent playing them and how the real life sons and the movie sons got a long quite well with each other.

A delightful, heartwarming film.  Clive Owen’s best performance yet!

“The Boys Are Back” is a film inspired by a true story and where films about life after a deceased parent is nothing new, what makes this film so special is the connection between father and two sons that he has never been close with because of his commitment of being one of the best sports writers out there.  Always traveling to major sports competitions, he has always trusted his son with his wife.

But it’s when the character of Joe is forced to take on the role of father, you can feel that wall between him and his son.  He knows that he hasn’t been much of a father but he’s trying.  But when his son Harry from a previous marriage comes to stay with them, this is when we see Joe start to learn about himself.  Things he was not conscious about.  He’s only thought about his young son Artie with his current wife, its when he sees his son Harry, a son that he has not really been too close with, you realize that Harry has missed out on having a father and now Harry is learning first hand that even though he had this new family in Australia, he has always made decisions that would benefit himself and never realizing how his children were feeling.

It’s a real-eye opening story that you don’t really see too often in a film.  As mentioned, Clive Owens does a great job with his performance as Joe but credit also goes to the children played by George McKay and Nicholas McNaulty.  Also, the characters of Barbara played by Julia Blake.  Blake plays a good grandmother but having lost her daughter to cancer, she wants to make sure that her only living connection with her daughter, which is her grandson, is taken care of.  And Julia has a hard time trusting Joe who has made some bad decisions.

Another actress that deserves credit is model Emma Booth who plays the character Laura.  A woman who takes care of Artie when Joe is gone and a single parent who has chemistry with Joe but doesn’t know where there relationship/friendship is going.  Is she just his babysitter or does Joe really care about her?

As for the film being rated PG-13, there are some scenes with profanity and some situations that you just don’t want your young children to recreate in real life, such as riding on the hood of a vehicle to jumping into a bath.  But there is no violence, no scary situations for children but some sexual language and certain elements that parents may not want their children to see.

The fact is that this is a dysfunctional family.  A child losing his mother and having to deal with the person closes to him not there anymore, is hard for a young child.  And the same with the character of Harry.  A boy that loves his father but they have not been together since he left him and his mother.  So, there is resentment.  And for Joe, its just being put in the role of a single parent while having this major career which is now being affected.  All three individuals are facing challenges that they have never faced before.  But together as a family, they try to make things good and that is what the heart of the film is about.

Overall, “The Boys are Back” is a delightful, heartwarming film worth watching.  Definitely recommended!