Movies: First-Look: “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood”

Leonardo DiCaprio has just posted the first-look photo for his upcoming film, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” via his Instagram.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bkh21lOH6rf/?taken-by=leonardodicaprio

The film will star Academy Award® winner Leonardo DiCaprio and Academy Award® nominees Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Burt Reynolds, and Tim Roth, as well as Oscar® winner Al Pacino, Timothy Olyphant, Kurt Russell, Dakota Fanning, Damian Lewis, Luke Perry, Emile Hirsch, James Marsden, Michael Madsen, Clifton Collins, Keith Jefferson, Nicholas Hammond, Scoot McNairy and Julia Butters.

Movie Review: Allied

Two spies posing as husband and wife, plan to take out a Nazi Ambassador in the French Morocco in WWII. The setting is unique and you will just love the costumes and the culture, which you can't help but notice and appreciate despite the tense situation. 

It is "good old spies" as Max Vatan (Brad Pitt) and Marianne Beausejour (Marion Cotillard) try their best to convince neighbors that they are a blissfully married couple, when in fact they have just met! Just an everyday occurrence in the life of espionage and spies, I guess. 

In a story where spy meets spy, the attraction is intense (those were some pretty intense sex scenes, hence the R16 rating and probably the film just trumped "Titanic" in best car sex scene-yes I said it) and pretty soon Max and Marianne become husband and wife for real and have a child together. 

With WWII is raging, Marianne has resigned from spy work and is a happy house wife while Max still continues his work battling Nazis. It is a relatively happy marriage and family life until Max is presented with evidence that Marianne is a sleeper spy working for the Germans, if proven that she is, it is on protocol for Max to kill her himself  or be face being executed for failing to obey orders. 

Max sets out on a desperate mission to prove her innocence. 

I have to commend on the good old spy work that Max and Marianne did, unlike modern movie spies like James Bond and Ethan Hunt, Max and Marianne did not have the help of a back up team made up of individuals who are expert in their fields. No extraction team to get them out when shit hits the fan. Just the two of them in a den of Nazi soldiers and I have to admire this and its WWII there were real spies on real missions at this time! 

Speaking of real, one of the gems of "Allied" is that it is actually based on a true story! 

Allied's Oscar-nominated screenwriter Steven Knight (Eastern Promises) heard the story of two undercover WWII spies who fell madly in love only to be set mortally against each other when their true identities were exposed. (Read more here). 

Which makes "Allied" even more sad, to think that two people who love each other are set at opposite sides because of war. It leaves you with a heartache that you will bring with you even days after seeing the movie. 

Oscar winner, Robert Zemeckis the innovative mind behind Forrest Gump, Cast Away and Flight (aaand "Back to the Future" you can read more here) helmed "Allied" and I love his use of symbols throughout the film. The way Max (Brad Pitt) would "spy on"  Marriane through mirrors like they never got "being a spy" of their system and how there was always suspicion. Or when Max and Marianne made love for the first time in the car with a dessert storm just outside them, I think it was a foreshadowing of the "storm" that would test their love. 

Brilliant performance from Marion Cotillard, she is perfect as Marianne! Brad Pitt looks gorgeous! Okay so there was a little controversy before the film came out with the whole "Brangelina" split but putting that aside, you can still appreciate the movie. 

Can I also just add that those aerial dog fight scenes are the most beautiful (yes, I know that's a disturbing statement) that I've seen.  

7 out of 10. They say that all is fair in Love and War but that is not always the case. Sometimes, one wins over the other, good if its love over war but when it's war who wins over love, then that is just another reminder of how humans can be so miserable and should always serve as a reminder for us, for those of us who live in peace, to never let it happen again. 

Allied is now showing in cinemas and is distributed by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures.

Movies: BRAD PITT PLAYS A HUSBAND LEFT OUT IN THE COLD IN “ALLIED”

n a career that has made him a superstar, Brad Pitt has played a particularly broad range of roles – garnering Oscar® nominations for some of his most unexpected: as an activist gone mad in Terry Gilliam’s Twelve Monkeys, a man who is aging in reverse in David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and colorful Oakland Athletics’ general manager Billy Beane in Moneyball.

Now, in Paramount Pictures' gripping romantic thriller Allied, Pitt plays Max Vatan, a man of action expected to act against his wife, a man caught in a trap between his undying love and his duty to a country fighting for a freer world.

In the film, Max Vatan has been trained by the British SOE to be intrepid, coldly focused and silently deadly. He knows exactly how much to show of himself and what to omit. He can leave behind his Canadian upbringing at a moment’s notice and assume any identity. And yet, nothing in his training prepares him for what he goes through when he meets the woman known as Marianne Beauséjour (Marion Cotillard) in Casablanca. They are supposed to be a temporary, pretend couple – but even though Max’s cautious head tells him not to get involved, his heart cannot help but be magnetized to Marianne, with her vivacious wit and probing questions. As they turn, against all odds, from make-believe couple to real one, the line between their false identities and the real truth threatens them more than any mission they have yet survived.

Pitt had all the qualities the role demanded, says director Robert Zemeckis, but he also brought unexpected shadings. “Brad is always such a compelling actor to watch with his remarkable screen presence. But here he does something tricky – carving out a portrait of a man who goes from a dashing secret operative to a man experiencing profound confusion and emotional anguish as he faces the first real threat to everything that means something to him. Brad really, really rose to the occasion with his emotional portrayal of Max,” says Zemeckis.

Pitt devoted himself to getting inside Max’s skin, even working with a dialect coach to learn the very specific kind of Quebecois French accent Max has when he arrives in Casablanca. Pitt also asked Robert Zemeckis if the director could shoot the film as much as possible in chronological order. It was important to Pitt to let his character evolve authentically from the cool indifference he displays in the film’s opening scenes to his steamy passion with Marianne to the seeds of paranoia and finally, to his all-out determination to get at the truth. Indeed, Pitt’s performance shifts as Max’s perceptions of his wife also shift from one view to another.

Says producer Graham King: “It was a very smart idea because when the audience sees Max meeting Marianne for the first time in the Casablanca night club, the two actors really were meeting for the first time on screen. Then, you see their relationship building in real time and that adds even greater realism to the suspense.”

Everyone was gratified by the volatile chemical reaction Pitt and Cotillard seemed to have the minute they were put together on the screen – and that became the underpinning to every twist of the mystery between Max and Marianne. “If you’re making a love story, you just pray your two leads will have that incredible chemistry that you can feel coming off the screen,” concludes Zemeckis. “That is what happened on this film: Brad and Marion had that movie star spark. They each gave so much emotionally and it was magnified by the chemistry every time they’re in the frame together.”

Opening across the Philippines on Nov. 23^rd, Allied is distributed by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures.

Movie News: OSCAR-WINNER ROBERT ZEMECKIS TAKES THE HELM FOR “ALLIED”

From Oscar® winner Robert Zemeckis, the innovative director behind Forrest Gump, Cast Away and Flight (aaand "Back to the Future") comes Allied, at once a mesmerizing espionage thriller, sweeping war drama and passionate romance between two assassins who may be fated soulmates or deadly enemies – or both.

In a sumptuous, visually evocative production that roams from Casablanca to London’s Blitz days to German-occupied France, Zemeckis creates the kind of grand tale that flourished in Golden Hollywood – full of mystery, thrills and romantic heat – yet told with all the richly immersive power of 21st Century cinema.

For secret World War II operatives Max Vatan (Brad Pitt) and Marianne Beauséjour (Marion Cotillard), the key to survival is never being truly known by anyone. They are experts in deception, play-acting, second-guessing and assassination. When they accidentally fall for each other in the middle of an extraordinarily risky mission, their one hope is to leave all the double-dealing behind – but instead, suspicion and danger become the core of their wartime marriage as husband-and-wife are pitted against each other in an escalating, potentially lethal test of loyalty, identity and love…with global consequences.

Zemeckis’s long and varied career has been marked by both visual innovations and cultural influence, with films ranging from the seminal Back To The Future series to the comic special-effects fantasy Death Becomes Her to the historical adventures of Forrest Gump to the recent The Walk, which recreated the extraordinary tightrope journey between New York’s former World Trade Center towers. But Zemeckis has equally been associated with films that are about the raw power of storytelling as in Cast Away, the story of one shipwrecked man reckoning with his life, or Flight, which excavated a heroic pilot’s inner battle with alcoholism.

And yet, for all the wide span of stories Zemeckis has explored, he’d yet to tackle the genre of the period romance. Nor had he brought his visual style to the evocative landscapes of WWII -- and both called to him as a filmmaker. He was drawn to Allied at once as an absorbing mystery, a web of deception, a fresh look at survival in WWII and a love story of unusual depth and power that becomes about lasting honor. Above all, he saw a film full of visual potential that could match the story’s themes.

Says Zemeckis: “The screenplay had a sweeping, epic, romantic feel. The thing I most love to do as a director is to move audiences -- and when you have a story as powerful as this one, and with so many emotional twists and turns, you have immense opportunities to do that. This type of story is perfect for a filmmaker like myself because I like to make audiences really feel and use all the tools as my disposal to do that.”

Zemeckis saw the story as one that asks questions we all ask of loved ones – Do I really know you? Can I trust you completely? Will you betray me? How far would you go to save what we have? -- but these same questions take on a deadly, mounting ferocity within the high-wire world of WWII spies.

“Allied is absolutely a story of betrayal and that’s the universal theme of this film: how we react when we start to think someone we love isn’t who they say they are,” Zemeckis comments. “It’s something that happens in life, but in the realm of Max and Marianne, you have two people already pretending to be someone else from the get-go and the truth is elusive to them. So how do you establish trust? And how can you even talk to your loved one if you believe the enemy is listening in on you?”

“I especially loved how the screenplay really evoked the feeling of war-torn London,” Zemeckis says. “London was being bombed nightly but despite that, the people carried on with the life of the city. That was even their slogan: carry on. So that was something I wanted to capture in this: a world where the machinery of war is always there in the background – and sometimes in the foreground – yet people are living with a kind of total abandon because they realize that life could end at any moment. There was a kind of fatalistic quality both to the way people behaved and the way that London looked in that time. That really interested me – and that’s what I wanted to created both in the atmosphere of the film and its design. It’s a world where people are trying to defy death at every turn, including Max and Marianne, whose love develops in danger and cannot escape it even when they marry.”

Opening across the Philippines on Nov. 23^rd, Allied is distributed by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures.

Movies: “ALLIED” – BASED ON A TRUE STORY OF LOVE, WAR, DECEIT

OMG! I'm a big history buff and I didn't know this was based on a turned story...should be interesting....

Some true stories you hear once and can never forget.

That was the case when Allied's Oscar-nominated screenwriter Steven Knight (Eastern Promises) heard the story of two undercover WWII spies who fell madly in love only to be set mortally against each other when their true identities were exposed.

They say all is fair in love and war, but when the two combine in the most volatile of ways, the moral certainties of the world can quickly spin out of control.

The story that instantly obsessed Knight centered on a Canadian spy and a French school teacher turned resistance fighter who met on assignment, then defiantly decided to marry, a practice that was discouraged by intelligence agencies. Still it seemed a happy ending – until abruptly, one was outed as a double-agent providing vital intel to the enemy, putting their love and their lives in imminent danger.

Sudden romances were known to spark among some World War II operatives working in life-and-death situations at close quarters, especially since men and women often posed undercover as couples. But there was a daunting rule – the so-called “Intimate Betrayal Rule” -- that hung over them: should two agents marry and should one discover their partner divulging secrets to the other side, that agent was expected, in heartbreaking self-sacrifice, to execute his or her lover without delay … or face immediate hanging for high treason.

The idea of lovers facing the ultimate dilemma between the shatterproof promises of marriage and their profound loyalty to country in a must-win war for the world’s future fascinated Knight and became the jumping off-point for a script that soon was drawing lots of attention.

Knight re-envisioned the story to center on a particularly hard-nosed and proficient assassin, Max Vatan (Brad Pitt), who is not the type to let flirtation cloud his thinking. He made Max a member of the legendary, highly-trained British Special Operations Executive (SOE) – the top-secret intelligence agency that was ordered by Winston Churchill to “set Europe ablaze,” and did exactly that, collaborating with the French Resistance in a series of audacious sabotage missions and assassination attempts behind Nazi lines.

Then, Knight created the alluring, enigmatic woman even Max could not resist with the French resistance fighter Marianne (Marion Cotillard), who is every bit as smart, skilled and tough as he is – yet might not be what she seems. The mistake people make in such situations is feeling, says Marianne, but neither can turn off their longing for the other. From the start, Max and Marianne are constantly testing and teasing one another in playful ways – but that play becomes deadly serious when Max is forced to shadow his beloved wife to answer the most unthinkable question: could she truly be a traitor?

The snowballing intensity, shifting trust and sheer danger between the two, unraveling across several war-torn countries, made for a read that was as sensuous as it was relentlessly suspenseful.

As director Robert Zemeckis’s first foray into WWII territory, executive producer Patrick McCormick notes that the film heads in a different, more psychologically thrilling, direction than the battles that have long been a cinematic staple. After all, the danger for Max and Marianne goes beyond the gunfire of their missions and the bombs showering London; they also face a more insidious peril: the hidden truth.

“Though the film is set against the stunning backdrop of World War II’s different warfronts, Allied is a story of double lives, one that is incredibly compelling on a human level,” McCormick observes. “What’s so exciting is that in every scene in this story, the two main characters of Max and Marianne are operating on two different levels – what you see and what you don’t -- and their every action resonates with unspoken secrets. That makes for a powerful and unique subtext to both the thriller elements and the love story, because there is a boiling cauldron of suspicion coming to a head beneath them just as the war is building to its climax.”

Opening across the Philippines on Nov. 23^rd, Allied is distributed by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures.

Movies: LOVE IS A LIE IN NEW “ALLIED” POSTER, TV SPOTS

Undertones of deception and betrayal pervade in the new one-sheet art and two TV spots that Paramount Pictures has just launched in support of Allied, the World War II romantic thriller from Oscar-winning director, Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, Cast Away).

Check out poster below with the intriguing tagline, The Enemy is Listening and watch the TV spots athttp://youtu.be/gGyPadGZIpM and http://youtu.be/fyhT4Bg8KKo.

Written by Steven Knight (Eastern Promises, Locke), the film stars Brad Pitt, Marion Cotillard, Lizzy Kaplan and Matthew Goode.

Allied is the story of intelligence officer Max Vatan (Pitt), who in 1942 North Africa encounters French Resistance fighter Marianne Beausejour (Cotillard) on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Reunited in London, their relationship is threatened by the extreme pressures of the war.

Opening across the Philippines on Nov. 23^rd, Allied is distributed by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures.

Movie News: “ALLIED” POSTER HAS PITT, COTILLARD UP IN ARMS

Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard are dressed to kill in the international poster of Paramount Pictures' Allied, the World War II romantic thriller from Oscar-winning director, Robert Zemeckis.

Check out the poster below and watch the film when it opens nationwide on November 23.

Written by Steven Knight (“Eastern Promises,” “Locke”), the film stars Brad Pitt, Marion Cotillard, Lizzy Kaplan and Matthew Goode.

“Allied” is the story of intelligence officer Max Vatan (Pitt), who in 1942 North Africa encounters French Resistance fighter Marianne Beausejour (Cotillard) on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Reunited in London, their relationship is threatened by the extreme pressures of the war.

“Allied” is distributed by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures.

Movies: PITT, COTILLARD ARE SPIES IN LOVE IN FIRST TRAILER OF “ALLIED”

Paramount Pictures has released the first trailer for director Robert Zemeckis‘ World War II spy, romantic thriller “Allied” starring Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard. Watch the trailer at http://youtu.be/6duhivRqg-oand see the film when it opens nationwide on November 23.

“Allied” is the story of intelligence officer Max Vatan (Pitt), who in 1942 North Africa encounters French Resistance fighter Marianne Beausejour (Cotillard) on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Reunited in London, their relationship is threatened by the extreme pressures of the war.

Written by Steven Knight (“Eastern Promises,” “Locke”), the film also stars Lizzy Kaplan and Matthew Goode.

“Allied” is distributed by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures.