Hercules is a 2014 American action-adventure fantasy film starring Dwayne Johnson as the titular character. It is directed by Brett Ratner from a screenplay written by Ryan J. Condal and Evan Spiliotopoulos. The film also stars Ian McShane, Rufus Sewell, Joseph Fiennes, Peter Mullan, and John Hurt. It is based on Steve Moore's graphic novel Hercules, specifically The Thracian Wars limited series.[8] The film follows Hercules, a self-proclaimed demigod, and his band of mercenaries as they are hired to lead the Thracian army against a warlord.
latest english action movies list 2014
Distributed by Paramount Pictures, Hercules was released on July 25, 2014.[9][10] It was one of two Hollywood-studio Hercules films released in 2014, the other one being Lionsgate's The Legend of Hercules. The film became a box office success, earning $244 million on a $100 million budget and received mixed reviews from critics, with some praise for Johnson's performance and the action sequences.
Scott Foundas, chief film critic for Variety, wrote in a positive review that "It's a grandly staged, solidly entertaining, old-fashioned adventure movie that does something no other Hercules movie has quite done before: It cuts the mythical son of Zeus down to human size (or as human as you can get while still being played by Dwayne Johnson)". Foundas praised Ratner, stating that "in terms of sheer scale and craftsmanship, Hercules represents something of a quantum leap for Ratner" and that the action sequences are "coherent pieces [...] that build steadily in intensity." He concluded that "[Hercules's] strongest asset is surely Johnson, who continues to foster one of the most affable, guileless screen personas in movies today."[31]
According to co-star Alan Ritchson, who played one of the turtles, Raphael, in the movie and its sequel, Alan hated working on the film and its sequel because of the production issues going on. At first, Alan Ritchson was not sure about playing Raphael because he didn't want to play a motion-capture character, but the promise of being a star-making career move by the producers, Paramount, and pleasing his son, a huge TMNT fan, convinced him to accept the part. The TMNT actors were then not given the same special treatments as their live-action co-stars Megan Fox and Will Arnett and often seemed to be mistreated and afterthought by most of the producers (including Michael Bay) and Paramount Pictures during and after filming of both movies, not even allowing many opportunities to do press for the picture and were not invited to the premiere as promised and instructed them to not give press interviews while claiming they (the turtles) were the ones refusing to give interviews but denying saying they wanted interviews. Ritchson personally emailed the late Brad Grey many times about the situation, Alan did not want to return as Raphael after having an unhappy experience making the first movie, but was bound by his contract to do so and then was promised it would not happen again on the sequel and then will be giving interviews for the film sequel and even made appearances at the film sequel's premieres, but nothing much changed during filming the sequel either.[74][75][76]
The Equalizer is a 2014 American vigilante action film directed by Antoine Fuqua, loosely based on the 1980s TV series of the same title. Written by Richard Wenk, it stars Denzel Washington in the lead role, Marton Csokas, Chloë Grace Moretz, David Harbour, Bill Pullman and Melissa Leo. The film focuses on a former U.S. Marine turned DIA intelligence officer who reluctantly returns to action to protect a teenage prostitute from members of the Russian mafia. Principal photography began in June 2013 in Massachusetts. The Equalizer had its world premiere at 2014 Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2014, and was released worldwide on September 26, 2014, in conventional and IMAX theaters.
The British film industry produced over six hundred feature films in 2014. This article fully lists all non-pornographic films, including short films, that had a release date in that year and which were at least partly made by the United Kingdom. It does not include films first released in previous years that had release dates in 2014.
Of the 130 major British releases of 2014, 79 were co-productions with at least one other country. As with other years, the largest number of co-productions were made with the United States, with 40 films, which include all ten of the top ten highest grossing British films of the year. They are listed in full below.
Listed here are the highest grossing British films of 2014, with their total earnings listed in British pound sterling. It includes films released in previous years that made money in 2014, particularly those that had minor releases in 2013 but their main releases in 2014.
Listed here are the top ten best and worst British films of those released in 2014, and listed above as major releases, as per the review aggregators Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. The critical scores for Rotten Tomatoes are out of a maximum score of 100, as is the critical score for Metacritic.
Transformers is a series of science fiction action films based on the Transformers franchise of the 1980s.[note 1] Michael Bay directed the first five films: Transformers (2007), Revenge of the Fallen (2009), Dark of the Moon (2011), Age of Extinction (2014), and The Last Knight (2017),[1][2][3] and has served as a producer for subsequent films. A sixth film Bumblebee, directed by Travis Knight and produced by Bay, was released on December 21, 2018. A seventh film, Rise of the Beasts, directed by Steven Caple Jr. and produced by Bay, is to be released on June 9, 2023.
A 13 episode long web mini series released in 2010 and set within and using the Transformers design from the continuity of the live action movies. It was released on Hasbro's website and in 2011 re-released on Transformers official YouTube channel.[150] The series was made by TG Studios in only three months.[151][better source needed] It is set between the events of Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon.[152]
The 2018 spin-off film, Bumblebee, received positive reviews with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 90%, making it the highest-rated film in the series. Critics praised it for its lighter tone, story, visuals, acting, direction, and faithfulness to the 1980s Transformers show.[198][199] Glenn Kenny of The New York Times praised the plot, Christina Hodson's script, and Hailee Steinfeld's performance, calling her possibly the only appealing main human character in the franchise so far.[200] James Dyer of Empire magazine gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, praising aspects such as Travis Knight's directing, the screenplay, Steinfield and John Cena's acting, and the film's '80s nostalgia; he praised the film for acting as a love letter to Steven Spielberg's Amblin films.[201] In a review for The Hollywood Reporter, Justin Lowe praised the improved digital effects, including the "sharp visual details, realistic color shading and seamless transitions between robot and vehicular forms." Lowe also noted the film's focus on a PG tone despite its PG-13 rating, its character-driven story, and its improved humor compared to its predecessors.[202] David Fear of Rolling Stone noted the film for borrowing elements from E.T., The Iron Giant, and John Hughes films, and commented: "the usual Americana-on-steroids vibe of the Bay movies are M.I.A., replaced with a less bombastic combination of bot-outta-water shenanigans... and sensitive, not-at-all sappy Y.A. drama."[203]
Kingsman: The Secret Service is a 2014 spy action comedy film directed by Matthew Vaughn from a screenplay by Jane Goldman and Vaughn.[1][6] The first instalment in the Kingsman film series, it is based on the comic book of the same name by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons.
Kingsman: The Secret Service premiered at the Butt-Numb-A-Thon festival on 13 December 2014, and was theatrically released in the United Kingdom on 29 January 2015 and United States on 13 February 2015, by 20th Century Fox. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who highly praised the stylised action sequences, direction, acting performances, villain, visual style, score and its dark humour, although some scenes were criticised for being too over-the-top.[7] The film grossed over $414 million worldwide, becoming Vaughn's most commercially successful film to date.[8] In 2015, it won the Empire Award for Best British Film.
The film's premiere was held in London on 14 January 2015, with director Vaughn and stars Firth, Egerton and Strong attending; Take That performed the film's theme live.[28] A regional premiere was held in Glasgow at exactly the same time as the London event, and live footage was streamed from the premiere to Glasgow.[29] Mark Millar also hosted a charity screening of the film ahead of its release in Glasgow to raise money for his old school, St. Bartholomews.[30] The film opened in the United Kingdom on 29 January 2015.[31] In the United States 20th Century Fox planned to release the film on 14 November 2014,[32] but later delayed it to 6 March 2015.[33] It was later moved up to 24 October 2014,[34] before being delayed again to 13 February 2015.[35] The film was released in most of Latin America and Indonesia, with the action scene set in the church removed. The scene, considered vital by the director and film critics, was excised almost completely, leaving only the set-up and immediate consequences.[36][37][38][39]
Some reviewers were critical of the film's depiction of violence, which was considered to be too graphic for a comedy. Anthony Lane of The New Yorker stated, "Few recent movies have fetched quite as far as 'Kingsman', and countless viewers will relish the brazen zest of its invention." However, Lane was critical of the film's use of stereotypes.[64] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times enjoyed the film, but criticised Vaughn's use of violence as a cinematic tool, calling it "narrative overkill".[65] Jason Ward of The Guardian wrote that "[e]verything about Kingsman exists to disguise the fact that it is solidly conservative". His examples include "[t]he depiction of Valentine's plan as a throwback to a less serious era of spy movies [which] is revealed as a feint, with the ulterior motive of undermining environmentalists".[66] Likewise, The A.V. Club's Ignatiy Vishnevetsky commented that, "Far from being a Team America-style send-up of gentleman spy movies, Kingsman is actually even more reactionary than the movies it's referencing; it traffics in the kind of Tory values Bond flicks merely suggest ... the thing is, the movie is fun, at least from a visual design standpoint, even though it's hard to separate its bespoke fashions, future-vintage gadgets, and aristocratic décor from its fusty worldview".[67] Peter Sobczynski of RogerEbert.com, who gave the film two out of four stars, likened Vaughn's script to the spy film equivalent of Scream and also criticised the overuse of graphic violence, despite its cartoonish rendering.[68] 2ff7e9595c
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