Our first look at Alicia Vikander in the role of Lara Croft, Tomb Raider, is here.
On Monday, the official “Tomb Raider” Twitter account shared the movie’s first poster and a peek at its upcoming trailer, due out Tuesday. In the poster, Vikander is looking as badass as you’d expect (although some cried Photoshop fail).
“I grew up playing the games, and I was thrilled when I was 15 and I saw the films with Angelina Jolie,” the star told The Hollywood Reporter last week at the Toronto International Film Festival. “She really made her into an icon with those films.”
Jolie’s “Tomb Raider” hit theaters back in 2001. The revived version is due out March 16.
In the trailer preview, Vikander does some serious action shots. A background in dance helped her prepare for the physically tolling role, according to Entertainment Weekly.
“For one action scene, we used the London venue for Olympic rafting,” she said. “They threw me down that river — with my hands tied — about 50 times. I didn’t need to act, just react!”
Here's an unconventional romantic comedy if there's ever been one. "The Lovers" begins as a divorce dramedy, Debra Winger and Tracy Letts playing a sedentary married couple who reignite an unlikely spark in the midst of steady affairs. They are lovers, cheating on their lovers by becoming lovers. Azazel Jacobs' charismatic flurry is about the ripening of middle age and the ambiguities of elapsed time, expressed in small gestures, like whether to share a bottle of wine one evening or retire to separate quarters as usual. Winger and Letts bear every complicated crease of a life spent together, wistful for the past and marching toward a farcical fresh chapter.
"Wonder Woman"
This year is doing a number on my superhero agnosticism. I quite liked the gritty Western stylings of "Logan" and the clever high school humor at the core of "Spider-Man: Homecoming." But it's "Wonder Woman" -- part comedy of manners, part espionage saga -- that convinced me Hollywood's domineering genre finally has something to offer. Patty Jenkins' film bypasses the self-pity that defines some of Wonder Woman's male counterparts, instead giving our Amazonian champion a dignity and wherewithal that runs circles around Batman's hardened vigilantism. It's a story about altruism, virtue and a fish plucked out of her remote island's water and into the chaos of London during World War I. It's what future comic-book spectacles should be modeled after: actual movies.
"The Lost City of Z"
In the 1920s, British military vet Percy Fawcett and his teenage son vanished while mapping an ancient civilization in the Amazon. In the hands of "We Own the Night" and "The Immigrant" director James Grey, Fawcett's (Charlie Hunnam) is a yarn about nature's compelling power and the need to preserve one's legacy. Lush greens crackle, World War I battle sequences glide by, and fragile family drama anchors "The Lost City of Z," making it a well-rounded hallmark that's both adventurous and serene.
"The Big Sick"
All great romantic-comedy leads need a hurdle to overcome. "The Big Sick" has two. Cultural differences pull the central comedian (Kumail Nanjiani) and budding therapist (Zoe Kazan) apart, and the latter lands in a coma, complicating any possible reconciliation. Written semi-autobiographically by Nanjiani and wife Emily V. Gordon, Michael Showalter's gem is the rare movie that navigates incessant tone shifts without sacrificing nuance or delicacy. Its jokes are constant and airtight, and its story of exchanging ancestry for personal identity is reverential and progressive. They don't make rom-coms like this anymore, but then again, they never really did to begin with.
"Get Out"
The buzz surrounding the year's surprise hit is justified. "Get Out" satirizes horror tropes by keeping us one step ahead of its conventions, until those conventions become charged and twisty enough to take us along for the ride. Proving that studios don't need splashy effects or pre-meditated sequels to attract blockbuster-quality profits, Jordan Peele's scalding directorial bow arraigns an America where black identity suffers at the hands of white posturing (and worse). Peele was able to accomplish that while making a boffo comedy with a hint of sci-fi surreality, turning "Get Out" into one of the most assured debuts in recent memory.
"Colossal"
2017 has given us a King Kong bummer, more noisy Transformers and a franchise-launching "Mummy" reboot. Forget all of it: The year's primo monster flick is Nacho Vigalondo's "Colossal," a clever dramedy that uses kaiju trappings to indict virulent masculinity. It's one of those movies where the twist is actually the premise, so the less said, the better. Anne Hathaway plays a down-and-out party gal who returns to her sleepy hometown, reunites with a childhood pal (Jason Sudeikis) and discovers an odd connection to a behemoth causing terror in South Korea. The right blend of quirk and thrill, "Colossal" zigs where every other beastly adventure zags.
"War for the Planet of the Apes"
When the "Planet of the Apes" trilogy began in 2011, who knew it would become the decade's finest franchise? In "War for the Planet of the Apes," director Matt Reeves conducts a symphony of existential strife, staking out a melancholy denouement that pits the simian population against the Homo sapiens who infiltrated their peace. "This is a holy war; all of human history has led to this moment," an unsparing colonel (Woody Harrelson) hell-bent on maintaining his race's dominance tells Caesar (Andy Serkis), our graceful protagonist. The ensuing battle unfolds amid snow-capped mountains and breathtaking serenity, tugging at our devoted emotions. Tentpole movies could learn a thing (or a dozen things) from these monkeys.
"The Beguiled"
And now presenting the quote of the year: "Bring me the anatomy book." Nicole Kidman, playing the Confederate headmistress at a Civil War-torn boarding school, hisses these words, preparing to operate on a wounded Union soldier's (Colin Farrell) leg after declaring she is no surgeon. The scene cuts to black, and we know that whatever will follow cannot be promising. "The Beguiled" is a genre piece from Sofia Coppola, the masterful director known for minimalistic plots and sun-kissed soul-searching. Those qualities are on display here, too, but they teem with a concise Southern Gothic carnality that morphs into summer's most slyly uproarious film. Come for the dinner scenes where the schoolgirls (including Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning) compete for the solder's affection; stay for the battle of the sexes that plays out in a candle-lit plantation home with scarce natural resources. This is "The Bachelor," 1864 edition.
"Okja"
Here's something alien: a summer movie with a thrilling midpoint action sequence that isn't cacophonous, where nothing explodes, where no superpowers are needed to thwart destruction. A band of animal-rights militants infiltrate the titular super-pig's abduction, telling its captors they come in peace. The ensuing chase across a South Korean highway and through an underground shopping mall may not be peaceful, per se, but it's so entrenched in human ambition that you'll hardly notice its clamor. Bong Joon-ho, who gave us haunting dystopian parables in "Snowpiercer" and "The Host," has crafted an epic of Spielbiergian proportions. "Okja" is a fable fixated on a young girl (Ahn Seo-hyun) and her colossal pet, thrust into a battle about corporate avarice, the meat-processing industry and the wealth of the human spirit.
"A Ghost Story"
Drawing parallels to "A Ghost Story" is a fool's errand. It has influences -- Terrence Malick meets "Poltergeist," if you will -- but David Lowery has made a singular masterwork that transcends its thin conceit and slips (nearly wordlessly) through past, present and future. No plot synopsis would do this film justice. A dead man (Casey Affleck) returns to the Texas home he shared with his wife (Rooney Mara), wearing a Halloween-style bedsheet with peepholes. But the central couple are almost beside the point: This is a tale about mortality's grip and the marks left on places and people we love. New tenants replace Mara's mourning widow, specters communicate through windows while awaiting darlings who will never return, and history suddenly melds with the hereafter. There is nothing like it.
Jason Fitz is joined by Senior NFL Reporter Charles Robinson and former NFL running back Damien Harris to give their initial thoughts and takeaways from a wild first night of the 2024 NFL Draft. The trio dive into a few standout selections, including plenty of time analyzing what the Atlanta Falcons could possibly be thinking by taking Michael Penix Jr, J.J. McCarthy and Drake Maye and their respective fits with the Minnesota Vikings and New England Patriots, why Tennessee Titans fans should be ecstatic about the J.C. Latham pick, Xavier Worthy's instant impact potential with the Kansas City Chiefs and why the Las Vegas Raiders took a tight end in the first round two years in a row.
Matt Harmon and Charles McDonald breakdown the five biggest fantasy storylines from night one of the draft and provide instant draft grades and dynasty rookie rankings.
The NFL world shook with the news of the Bills trading star receiver Stefon Diggs to the Houston Texans. Matt Harmon analyzes the move for fantasy football.
