Movies in Theaters This Friday, July 27, 2014: Transformers: Age of Extinction, Snowpiercer, and More
According to the calendar (and given school being out for the summer), it is officially summertime! What better way to celebrate summer than by going to a movie, right? That’s what studios hope at least.
This weekend sees the release of one of the biggest, and most-anticipated (for better or for worse), releases of the year. Michael Bay’s Transformers: Age of Extinction is the movie I’m talking about. The reboot, of sorts, brings in new blood with Mark Wahlberg and Stanley Tucci, so I’m hoping this movie can right some of the wrongs. I’m also not holding my breath.
Since Age of Extinction is such a big movie, no other wide releases are challenging for the top spot. However, there are two movies in limited release that are expanding later on. Those two are America: Imagine a World Without Her and Begin Again. The latter looks like it could be one of the better films of the year (I am a little biased towards Once director John Carney).
The other limited release I’d check if possible is Bong Joon-ho’s (Mother) Snowpiercer adaptation. Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton, Octavia Spencer, and Ed Harris are just a few of the names involved in that movie.
The rest of the limited releases are Drones, The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz, Jackpot, La Bare, They Came Together (starring Amy Poehler and Paul Rudd), and Whitey: The United States of America v. James J Bulger
Transformers: Age of Extinction
An automobile mechanic and his daughter make a discovery that brings down the Autobots – and a paranoid government official – on them.
America: Imagine a World Without Her
Someone once observed: “America is great because she is good; if she ever ceases to be good she will cease to be great.” Today that notion of the essential goodness of America is under attack, replaced by another story in which theft and plunder are seen as the defining features of American history—from the theft of Native American and Mexican lands and the exploitation of African labor to a contemporary foreign policy said to be based on stealing oil and a capitalist system that robs people of their “fair share”.
Our founding fathers warned us that, although the freedoms they gave us were hard fought, they could very easily be lost. America stands at a crossroads, and the way we understand our past will determine our future. America the movie takes 21st-century Americans into the future by first visiting our past.
Gerald Molen, the Academy-award winning producer of Schindler’s List, and Dinesh D’Souza, the creator of 2016: Obama’s America, invite you on a journey of discovery that will bring you face-to-face with the heroes who built America, in the times in which they lived, bled, and sacrificed in order to build a great nation: Christopher Columbus, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and others. You’ll be there as Columbus sets foot on American soil, as bullets whiz by Washington’s head, as Douglass demands that America live up to the promises of her Founding Fathers, and as Lincoln sacrifices thousands of lives, including his own, to right a great wrong of history.
We’ll also meet their present-day critics, hear their stories, and then let you decide which America you believe in. From the team that created 2016: Obama’s America comes the story not of a man but a nation, at the crossroads of hope or disaster, whose destination will soon be decided.
The latest film from writer-director John Carney (ONCE), BEGIN AGAIN is a soul-stirring comedy about what happens when lost souls meet and make beautiful music together. Gretta (Keira Knightley) and her long-time boyfriend Dave (Adam Levine) are college sweethearts and songwriting partners who decamp for New York when he lands a deal with a major label. But the trappings of his new-found fame soon tempt Dave to stray, and a reeling, lovelorn Gretta is left on her own. Her world takes a turn for the better when Dan (Mark Ruffalo), a disgraced record-label exec, stumbles upon her performing on an East Village stage and is immediately captivated by her raw talent. From this chance encounter emerges an enchanting portrait of a mutually transformative collaboration, set to the soundtrack of a summer in New York City. The film is produced by Anthony Bregman at Likely Story, Tobin Armbrust of Exclusive Media and Judd Apatow at Apatow Productions.
DRONES is a military thriller that explores the unique set of moral dilemmas that confront our military and our nation as the United States expands its use of robotic weapons to prosecute its wars. The story follows two Air Force pilots (O’Leary and Mumford) operating an RPA (remote piloted aircraft) from a trailer in Nevada. Their mission is to surveil a remote compound in the rugged Afghan mountains in hopes of identifying and assassinating an HVT (high value target) believed to be a high-ranking member of Al Qaeda. As the two pilots monitor a quickly evolving situation on the ground, a straightforward mission grows more and more complicated. Soon the pilots are forced to question not only their mission but also the very nature of U.S. military policy. With time ticking down on their fuel levels and a potential terrorist in their gun sights, the pilots must choose between their own personal integrity and the honor and safety of the United States.
The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz
The Internet’s Own Boy follows the story of programming prodigy and information activist Aaron Swartz. From Swartz’s help in the development of the basic internet protocol RSS to his co-founding of Reddit, his fingerprints are all over the internet. But it was Swartz’s groundbreaking work in social justice and political organizing combined with his aggressive approach to information access that ensnared him in a two-year legal nightmare. It was a battle that ended with the taking of his own life at the age of 26. Aaron’s story touched a nerve with people far beyond the online communities in which he was a celebrity. This film is a personal story about what we lose when we are tone deaf about technology and its relationship to our civil liberties.
Terrified and bloody, Oscar Svendsen awakes clinched to a shotgun in a strippers joint. Around him 8 dead men, and police aiming at him. To Oscar it’s clear that he is innocent. It all started when four chaps won 1,7 million on the pools…
They’re gods. They’re rock stars. They’re the ultimate fantasy. They are the men of LA BARE. A documentary film that goes behind the curtain, behind the stage and behind the magic of the world’s most popular male strip club – La Bare Dallas. Featuring a unique ensemble of the club’s most popular dancers, LA BARE takes a provocative look into their rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle and offers a front row seat to their lives, loves, laughs and losses.
In a future where a failed global-warming experiment kills off all life on the planet except for a lucky few that boarded the Snowpiercer, a train that travels around the globe, where a class system evolves.
When Joel and Molly meet, it’s hate at first sight: his big Corporate Candy Company threatens to shut down her quirky indie shop. Plus, Joel is hung up on his sexy ex. But amazingly, they fall in love, until they break up about two thirds of the way through, and Molly starts dating her accountant. But then right at the end…well you’ll just have to see. (Hint: Joel makes a big speech and they get back together.)
Whitey: The United States of America v. James J Bulger
From Academy Award-nominated documentarian Joe Berlinger (the PARADISE LOST trilogy) comes the shocking true crime story of infamous gangster James “Whitey” Bulger. Number 2 on America’s Most Wanted list after Osama Bin Laden, Bulger terrorized the city of Boston for years without ever being charged with so much as a misdemeanor. Bulger was a monster, murdering over a dozen known victims, but did the FBI and local law enforcement give his reign of terror over South Boston a free pass? With shocking, never-before-seen evidence, WHITEY shines new light on this still evolving, gripping case.
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