123movies - Featured Movies

123movies Twelve (2010)
Just caught the premier of "Twelve" today and left the theater shocked. Having never read or heard of the book before now, i entered the cinema knowing two things; first that it was directed by Joel Schumacher an astounding filmmaker, and second that because it was accepted into Sundance, it must have some exceptional parts. Needless to say, the film exceeded expectation and moved into the realm of surreal. Like every film at Sundance, the director said a few words before screening started. Now most people know Schumacher from his hits like, "Phantom of the Opera", "Phone Booth", or his flawed Batmans. However Ive been privileged to see his early work, which includes, "The Lost Boys", "Flatliners", and "8MM". Yet despite the high mark which his previous films set, "Twelve" pulls up to and even surpasses some. Chace Crawford was an inspiration in the lead role and though it was the first film Ive seen him in, i hope he continues a successful career. The other actors all give supreme performances, though my personal favorite in the film is one you might despise me for. Billy Magnussen as Claude, who carries out his character in magnificent form and had the role been given to anyone else, the movie wouldve been sorely injured. The insight into teenagers, especially the rich, stands unrivaled. Nick McDonell wrote true people, characters that are 3D and whom you can relate to. As a seventeen year old myself i am grateful for his gift to our generation. The five million dollar budget which this film was made on, and the twenty-three days in which it was shot, proves the genius of everyone working on it. And when the cast and crew stood on stage at the end to answer questions, i felt the need to clap till my hands bled. And to stress the point Joel made, there is a comedy in this film that supersedes anything youve seen before. But to truly appreciate every aspect and genre in it, you must be of an open mind, and willing to see even the gritty parts in teenagers.
Director: Joel Schumacher
Cast: Chace Crawford, Emma Roberts and Rory Culkin

123movies Monsters (2010)
The Monsters is a unique masterpiece written and directed by Gareth Edwards in the year 2010. The Monsters was kind of a B-movie, or at least didn't get the attention it deserves. By my opinion it's almost a perfection, it's really well written, and all the speeches are made up by the writer/director Gareth Edwards. The Boondock Saints is the 34 year old Gareth Edwards's first movie, and his second one, The Monsters 2: The Repentanence is in production and is coming later this year. The Monsters is a action/crime and drama film and for all I know, a pretty good one (believe me, seen it about 30 times). The Monsters tells the story of a cynical journalist agrees to escort a shaken American tourist through an infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the US border. The Monsters is just amazing, great, a masterpiece. It's well written and Whitney Able and Scoot McNairy are amazing as the 'Monsters'. I gave the Monsters 10/10 (excellent). It's probably the best movie I've ever seen, I don't know how many times I've watched it, but it must be at least over 30 times. The Monsters did not get the attention it deserves and still doesn't, being one of the greatest ever made. Especially in this genre (Action/Giant Squid/Romance). If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend that you do it as soon as possible and if you've already seen it, do it again.
Director: Gareth Edwards
Cast: Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able

123movies Legendary (2010)
Because of this being a WWE Films release, there are going to be some that will automatically condemn the movie. It's a shame, because this is a really good film. John Cena's involvement is actually minimal. The focus is on his younger brother. The story is about a young man named Cal who had a dad and an older brother, who were great amateur wrestlers. The father is killed in a car accident while he and the older brother Mike(played by Cena) are going to scout an opponent. The death causes a rift in the family. Mike blamed himself, and the mother (played by Clarkson) blamed him too. Ten years after the accident, Cal has decided to start wrestling. Being awkward and clumsy, he seeks out Mike to train him. He uses the amateur wrestling in hopes of not only coming out of his shell, but also in putting his family back together in. This is by far the best of the films WWE has put out. It has a lot of heart, and tells a good story. Even if you are not into amateur wrestling, they still make it easy to follow. I wish WWE would have actually gotten more behind this rather than releasing it to just a few select screens, and then rushing it to DVD. They didn't even advertise it outside of WWE programming. This is a film that they could have made more money on.
Director: Mel Damski
Cast: John Cena, Patricia Clarkson and Danny Glover

123movies 30 Days of Night: Dark Days (2010)
I haven't seen the original mainly because movies filmed with no color turn me off, so I can't compare it to the the fist one. As a stand alone movie Dark Days works very well. Stella, who I understand is a survivor from part I, is giving lectures at universities about vampires. Since she knows no one believes her, this time around in LA she has a demo planned. High intensity UV lights are turned on, and sure enough, some vampires among the audience go up in flames. Stella then is approached the by a group of vampire hunters who want to kill Lilith, the queen vampire, to put an end to it all. They are mentored by a reformed vampire named Dane, who also sent letters to Stella. They embark on their mission but their early attempts in the sewers are unsuccessful. Then they board a ship where Lilith is. The group only consists of 4 people. Stella, two guys and another girl, who initially presents herself as the tough chick and hates Stella, but turns out to be a complete fool and pretty annoying, too. This movie is very enjoyable and entertaining. It takes the vampire genre seriously and doesn't turn it into a comedy or romance. There are plenty of good gory death scenes. What impresses most though is Kiele Sanchez's performance. She gives it her all, as she has done in some of her other work. And she is very attractive. Also nice is that a good part of this movie is filmed during the day and the colors are vivid. The story itself is nothing spectacular but, as mentioned, the virtue of this movie is that it's a much needed return to a good serious vampire movie and has good performances and lots of gore.
Director: Ben Ketai
Cast: Kiele Sanchez, Rhys Coiro and Diora Baird

123movies Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (2010)
I loved the first Superman/Batman movie, "Public Enemies". And I love this one even more. It has everything that made the first one great while fixing some PE's flaws. First, the plot: a girl crashes to Earth in a spaceship and it turns out she's Superman's cousin, Kara. She tries to adapt to her new life and powers, but is soon targeted to by alien tyrant Darkseid to be molded into the ultimate soldier. Superman, along with Batman, Wonder Woman and Big Barda, goes to the evil planet Apokolips to rescue his cousin from being brainwashed into a heartless killer. For starters, "Apocolypse" looks better than its predecessor. While PE based its animation on Ed McGuinness' ridiculous art style, this one tries (though doesn't always succeed) in imitating the gorgeous artwork of the late Micheal Turner, which greatly helps it. It also gives its characters more depth. In PE, a number of DC Comics characters just showed up almost randomly, many not even identified by name, let alone telling us about them. I watched it with some non-fan friends in the room and they were confused by the lesser known heroes and villains who seemed to show up out of no where and they didn't learn anything about. Here, we get to learn about many of the characters, at least to some degree. Fittingly, Kara gets a lot of focus let us get to know her well quickly and her relationship with Superman is quite stirring. It even benefits from more time. While PE was the shortest DC Animated film, this one is the longest (even if it's just by a few minutes), it makes good use of every second. However, it's not perfect. While most of the voice cast does a wonderful job, Andre Braugher is surprisingly underwhelming as Darksied. The spot on dialog would've sounded better and been more intimidating if they'd used Micheal Ironside or even Frank Welker, but Braugher's performance just isn't very menacing. It also drops a few too many things from the original comic storyline. One such unfortunate side effect of the dropped material is Lyla/Harbinger, whose death is treated with much sadness and importance by the characters, but viewers have little reason to sympathize. To be fair, the character had been so underused/misused in the comics that by the time the storyline happened I doubt many fans cared. But I can imagine her getting enough depth in the comics to give us more reason why we should be as moved by her death as the characters are. Other things I miss are Mr. Miracle, the Justice League's appearance at the end, and explanation why the Doomsday clones are such wusses. Though there are elements I'm glad they dropped like Batman fighting Darkseid and the Source Wall. As far as I'm concerned, this is one of DC's best animated films. It has everything that made "Superman/Batman: Public Enemies" cool, while surpassing it in a number of areas. A great movie for any DC Comics fan.
Director: Lauren Montgomery
Cast: Andre Braugher, Kevin Conroy and Tim Daly

123movies The Last Seven (2010)
I enjoy thrillers and twists and after reading the other reviews was considering not watching this movie...I am glad that I ignored some of the other reviews because I thought this movie was brilliant. There is violence but not to an excessive degree and you have to pay attention, but all in all the buildup of suspense is good and the story is original. The cast is small but the acting is good and the scenes of a deserted City of London are excellent. The only thing that I didn't get was the last scene and at the beginning, a figure darts across the back of the scene that I thought might be part of the story, but it didn't seem to develop. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys thrillers.
Director: Imran Naqvi
Cast: Tamer Hassan, Simon Phillips and Daisy Head

123movies The King of Fighters (2010)
The King of Fighters is a recent adaptation based on a fighting video game. The previous one is Tekken. I believe this is only released in Singapore. I prefer Tekken to this. Actually, this isn't so bad, it is just...average? Again, I am not a video game fan but by seeing the comparison chart between the video game's characters and movie characters, this fails. And the thing is the acting isn't that good, even Maggie Q's is sort of sloppy. Still, the acting is better than Street Fighter: Legend of Chun Li but that is not saying much. The only thing good is the fighting scenes with some CGI added. The story: Nothing much actually...it is actually boring if not for the fight scenes. The story is straight forward, the good guys want to catch/kill the one and only bad guy. I can clearly see that this has a small budget and I think this will be released straight to DVD in other countries. The acting is disappointing. Maggie Q is also not doing her best acting. Ray Park, well, acts like a generic bad guy. Evil eyes and laughing evilly. The fight scenes are okay, the CGI is okay for a movie with a small budget. The music is over-the-top and generic. I feel that the music does not even match some scenes and is just there for the sake of being there. When they talk, there is techno music...just plain weird. Overall: It is just mediocre. It is nothing special. It is just disappointing too. I believe it can be improved in ways. Gordon Chan's directing is also disappointing. This is a movie that if you miss it in cinema, you won't miss much. Except for the cool fight scenes with CGI and Maggie Q, there is nothing much this movie can offer.
Director: Gordon Chan
Cast: Maggie Q, Sean Faris and Will Yun Lee

123movies Vampires Suck (2010)
If you are a fan of Twilight you will enjoy this. There are more funny moments - laugh out loud moments than you'd expect. Without giving away any jokes for enjoyment - there were a lot of things to make fun of and the contemporary references were spot on. For this kind of movie they did as good a job as possible given the subject matter. Compared to other spoof movies its less corny and slapstick. Of course there are some exaggerated parts and overkill on certain jokes but overall it was well done. It was nice that they used famous dialog from the movies to spoof like "about 3 things I was certain" and "i know what you are ..." They of course had to combine and condense the stories of 2 long movies into one and it was quite cleverly done. Left me wishing could have spoofed even more scenes. The leads are good. Jenn Proske gets K Stew's mannerisms down well maybe she does them a little too often. Matt Lanter gets the Edward broody look quite well and looks the part. Chris Riggi as Jacob is OK and the vampire trio are good. Some of the supporting cast are a bit insipid like the Sullens. And some Volturri could have been better cast. The familiar scenes were well recreated - forest, Bella's room, school etc. Clothing was well copied. Didn't have a cheap feel at all. It was fun to see how well they recreated things like the truck accident etc. Overall watch it if you are a Twilight fan. I think a lot of critics weren't fans of the series so of course they found it boring.
Director: Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer
Cast: Jenn Proske, Matt Lanter and Diedrich Bader

123movies Tekken (2010)
First thing to be stated is that this is not tied to the original story that we see in the games. What this movie tries and manages quite successfully I might add, is to bring the tournament into a realistic setting, where there is actually a basis for it, rather than just a unreal mindless chain of fights (see Mortal Kombat: Annihilation). Because it is not based on the games, Dwight H. Little has a little wiggle room as to how the characters are fleshed out. Familiar names such as Bryan Fury, Nina Williams and Kazuya Mishima are there, but there are subtle differences between many of the characters that unfortunately, leave fans of the game scratching their heads. The main protagonist of the movie is Jin Kazama, a young man living in the Anvil, a slum area encircling Tekken City. After a jack raid which results in the death of his mother, Jin decides to enter the Ironfist Tourmanent to get at the man who he believes is responsible, Heihachi Mishima. His training given to him by his mother, and presented in flashback moments as he fights his opponents in the arena, allows him to progress through various battles against the likes of Miguel Rojo and Yoshimitsu, leading up to the final battle against the Tekken Champion. Like any decent movie there are twists and turns that keep people interested from beginning to end and the majority of the cast, while being relative unknowns, are reinforced by those we do know such as Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Tamlyn Tomita and Gary Daniels. Overall, this movie is very solid and certainly a much better attempt at bringing the game world to the silver screen. I expect to see much more in the future from many of the actors and actresses in the years to come.
Director: Dwight H. Little
Cast: Jon Foo, Kelly Overton and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa

123movies Salt (2010)
Two years ago, the CIA field agent Evelyn Salt (Angeline Jolie) is captured in North Korea and tortured. Her beloved husband and entomologist Mike Krause (August Diehl) presses the US Government to make a swap and bring Salt back home. On the present days, the highly efficient Salt performs administrative work with her boss Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber). When a Russian defector turns himself in to CIA, Salt is assigned to interrogate him. Out of the blue, the man accuses Salt of being a Russian agent in charge of killing the President of Russia during his visit to New York to attend the funeral of the American Vice-President. Salt claims that she is innocent and asks Ted to call her husband, but she is not successful in her attempt. Salt asks Ted to give protection to her husband but she decides to flee to seek out Mike. Ted does not believe she is a Russian spy but the Secret Agent Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor) orders his agents to capture Salt dead or alive. "Salt" is full of action film that combines "The Manchurian Candidate" com "No Way Out". Angeline Jolie is very beautiful and surprisingly performs a pleasant heroine. Despite the twists, the story is predictable and flawed, but the action scenes make it worth seeing.
Director: Phillip Noyce
Cast: Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Daniel Olbrychski, August Diehl, Daniel Pearce, Hunt Block, Andre Braugher, Olek Krupa, Cassidy Hinkle, Corey Stoll, Vladislav Koulikov, Olya Zueva, Kevin O'Donnell, Gaius Charles

123movies Valhalla Rising (2010)
"Valhalla Rising" is a strange movie that will split the audience into lovers and haters like you can see in the comments here. To me its these movies that are most interesting. If a movie goer sees a movie like this with breathtakingly beautiful and artistic cinematography on a low budget and still rates it with one or two stars, its either pure ignorance or something was struck that resonated in a negative way. I already loved the previous movies of director Winding Refn but this one goes into a totally different direction. Its hard to explain the plot because most of it happens in the viewers head. What you see is mostly mythological and religious symbolism all revolving around the main character "One eye". A warrior who fights with a raw power of which we never know its human or not because he is mute and keeps the same empty expression in his face throughout the movie (only in some scenes it seems like hints of a smile shine through). The movie starts with "One eye" held captive and has to fight battles to the death in which he always prevails. This first part of the movie has some raw violence in it and could be viewed as the "most entertaining" part because after this "Valhalla Rising" turns into a slow moving journey to an unknown place with barely any dialog and a droning ambient soundtrack. Its hard to say what really happens in the several segments the movie is split into but the religious tone ("Hell", "Sacrifice") already show this is not a movie on a more existential level. And as I am still trying to piece the impressions of "Valhalla Rising" together I find that its a movie that sticks with you long after watching if you let yourself dive into the dense atmosphere. The imagery is stunning throughout, the most simple shots like a close up of knifes being washed in a river look like a beautiful painting and the constant difference between the beauty of the cinematography and the cold colors, raw violence and the dark droning soundtrack are as captivating as Mads MIkkelsen playing the cold expressionless "One Eye" like a force of nature. I can't put my finger on what sucked me into this movie but "Valhalla Rising" is an experience open minded movie fans should not miss and I am looking forward to future projects from this promising director.
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Maarten Stevenson and Alexander Morton

123movies The Ghost Writer (2010)
Polanski is a master of subtlety, grace, and wit. His eye creates breathtaking and beautiful shots. His ear adds a malevolent and demented humor to the score of a film. There is most always something unspeakable, indescribable beneath the surface of a Polanski film. Something unnerving about the tone but never overbearing, or pounding the audience over the head with it. This is certainly true of The Ghost Writer. What I found surprising, not being familiar with the novel on which it is based, was the political statement being made. Humorously portraying certain key figures in the political environment of the last decade. In any other hands, this could never have been done so believably and deftly. All the key performances are on target. And how could they not be. For Polanski knows how to work with actors and guide them in creating such memorable characters. Ewan McGregor certainly fits his role seamlessly as does Olivia Williams. So many could learn from Polanski how a thriller needs to be constructed in order to hold an audience to the very end. The word entertainment means to 'hold in between' which is what The Ghost Writer does from beginning to its haunting and inevitable conclusion.
Director: Roman Polanski
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan and Olivia Williams

123movies Nanny McPhee Returns (2010)
Overall, this sequel is almost over the top and as usual for sequel, seemingly more dramatic, more spectacular, more impossible, and yet Emma Thompson's script is in some ways even more compelling and more emotively intimate and powerful. The early scenes of various contraptions seems to take away the charm and seemingly gimmicky and yet Emma's screenplay ties them together. The scene of London seems also to be overly fantastical and yet Emma's writing never seems to definitely cross the boundaries of acceptability and fantasy. This sequel is even more touching and powerful in its presentation of children and their issues, especially the the spoil boy and his father in one of the most carefully refined and strongest scenes. Maggie Gyllenhaal does a nice job in a character that doesn't reflect her general starlet persona. While there are the usual stereotypical antics there seems to be an added flair to most. Overall while this movie is slightly a mixed bag, its presentation, its message, and the characters of the kids are both obnoxiously overly dramatic and yet again at the same time there's some underlying restraint and dignified at the same making this sequel an improvement on the first in many places. An intelligent and highly above average movie for children.
Director: Susanna White
Cast: Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Ralph Fiennes

123movies Survival of the Dead (2010)
In the Plum Island, off the coast of Delaware, the long feud between the families of the patriarchs Captain Patrick O'Flynn (Kenneth Welsh) that intends to eliminate the zombies and Seamus Muldoon (Richard Fitzpatrick) that intends to keep his undead relatives waiting for a cure culminates with O'Flynn expelled from Plum. Meanwhile in the continent Sarge "Nicotine" Crocket (Alan Van Sprang), Chuck (Joris Jarsky), Cisco (Stefano DiMatteo) and Tomboy (Athena Karkanis) are plundering and seeking a safe place to stay. When they rescue the young Boy (Devon Bostick) from group of sadistic hunters, Boy decides to join the group and suggests them to head to Plum Island since he had heard a O'Flynn's broadcast inviting people to move to the island. When Sarge and his team arrive in the island, they are attacked by Muldoon's men and they see that the place is crowded of undead. Sarge's friend Chuck is killed and they decide to fight against Muldoon.
Director: George A. Romero
Cast: Alan Van Sprang, Kenneth Welsh and Kathleen Munroe

123movies Creation (2009)
What happens when a world-renowned scientist, crushed by the loss of his eldest daughter, formulates a theory in conflict with religious dogma? This is the story of Charles Darwin and his master-work "The Origin of Species". It tells of a global revolution played out the confines of a small English village; a passionate marriage torn apart by the most dangerous idea in history; and a theory saved from extinction by the logic of a child.
Director: Jon Amiel
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Bill Paterson, Catherine Terris, Ellie Haddington, Guy Henry, Ian Mercer, Jennifer Connelly, Jeremy Northam, Jim Carter, Ken Drury, Paul Bettany, Paul Campbell, Richard Ridings, Robert Glenister, Teresa Churcher, Toby Jones, Zak Davies

123movies Extraordinary Measures (2010)
A Portland couple have two children with Pompe disease, a genetic anomaly that kills most before a child's tenth birthday. The husband, John, an advertising executive, contacts Robert Stonehill, a researcher in Nebraska who has done innovative research for an enzyme treatment. He has little money to fund his laboratory, and a thorny personality that drives away colleagues and funders. John and his wife Aileen raise money to help Stonehill's research and the required clinical trials. John takes on the task full time, working with venture capitalists and then rival teams of researchers. Time is running short, Stonehill's angry outburst hinder the company's faith in him, and the profit motive may upend John's hopes. The researchers race against time for the children who have the disease.
Director: Tom Vaughan
Cast: Alan Ruck, Ayanna Berkshire, Betty Moyer, Brendan Fraser, Courtney B Vance, David Clennon, Dee Wallace, Derek Webster, Harrison Ford, Jared Harris, Jeanine Jackson, Keri Russell, Lily Mariye, Patrick Bauchau, PJ Byrne, Robert Blanche, Sharonlee McLean, Shelly Lipkin, Sherilyn Lawson

123movies And So It Goes (2014)
Oren Little has turned his back on all his neighbors and shunned the notion of being kind to others after the death of his wife. Next door neighbor Leah has put her soul, and her tears, into her stagnant singing career after the death of her husband. But then Oren's son shows up needing Oren to take care of his daughter Sarah. Oren has no patience for children, Leah never had any of her own, but 9-year-old Sarah just might be the spark that allows these two lonely souls to turn their home into a Little Shangri-La.
Director: Rob Reiner
Cast: Michael Douglas, Diane Keaton, Sterling Jerins, Annie Parisse, Austin Lysy, Michael Terra, Sawyer Tanner Simpkins, Maxwell Simkins, Maurice Jones, Yaya DaCosta, Scott Shepherd, Andy Karl, Frances Sternhagen, Frankie Valli, Luke Robertson

123movies The Iceman (2012)
The Iceman is based on the life of Richard Kuklinski, who is thought to have murdered somewhere between 100 and 250 people from the 50s through the 80s (authorities suspect there were many more slayings than the roughly 100 he confessed to). Most of those occurred while he worked as a contract killer for various New York and New Jersey crime families, but Kuklinski also admits to numerous killings outside of his hit-man duties. His story gained a wider audience with a couple of HBO documentaries in 1992 and 2002, respectively, where Kuklinski recalled his crimes while demonstrating a disturbing lack of remorse for committing them (he died in prison in 2006 while serving the five consecutive life sentences that were handed down in 1988).
Director: Ariel Vromen
Cast: Michael Shannon, Winona Ryder, Chris Evans