Ironclad
Netflix Streaming
DVD | Blu-Ray
Written and Directed by Jonathan English
Starring James Purefoy, Brian Cox, Kate Mara, Derek Jacobi, Paul Giamatti, Charles Dance, Jason Flemyng
Warner Bros. and ARC Entertainment
Originally Released: March 04, 2011

Claiming to be the largest independent production from Wales, Ironclad is a period conflict piece depicting King John‘s wrathful march against rebels following the signing of the Magna Carta. Complete with stellar performances, impressive casting, and exceptional action choreography, the movie is most unquestionably worth your viewing time.

Ironclad essentially is a recapping of the siege of Rochester Castle in 1215. Determined to seek revenge for being forced to sign the Magna Carta, King John (Paul Giamatti) begins a cause to reclaim his royal power over England. A small rebel power led by Baron William d’Aubigny (Brian Cox) and accompanied by Crusade veteran and Templar, Thomas Marshall (James Prefoy), take claim of Rochester before the King can do so. A solid and bloody battle ensues, as the revolutionaries hope to hold the location until their expected reinforcements arrive.

Ironclad
Directed by Jonathan English
Starring James Purefoy, Paul Giamatti, Kate Mara, Brian Cox, Derek Jacobi, Vladmir Kulich, Charles Dance, Jason Flemyng, Mackenzie Crook, Aneurin Barnard, Jamie Foreman
Release Date: June 8th, 2011

The name Jonathan English may not mean jack squat to you now, but after you see his latest film, Ironclad, you’ll remember it for goddamn sure. English is the writer (with Erick Kastel and Stephen McDool) and director of this latest entry in the medieval action genre that has gotten a major adrenaline fix recently with the success of the HBO series A Game of Thrones and the literal onslaught of blood and steel battle epics like Neil Marshall’s Centurion and Christopher Smith’s Black Death.

Armed with a tight script, a fantastic cast ready to chew scenery and kick ass, and buckets of blood and severed limbs, English saddles up to take on that hoariest of cinema sub-genres that’s easiest to do if you have little funding to work with: the siege movie.

Peep World
DIRECTED BY: Barry Blaustein
WRITTEN BY: Peter Himmelstein
STARRING: Michael C. Hall, Sarah Silverman, Rainn Wilson, Ben Schwartz, Judy Greer, Kate Mara, Alicia Witt, Taraji P. Henson, Stephen Tobolowsky, Ron Rifkin, Lewis Black
IFC Films
RELEASE DATE: March 25, 2011 (limited)

Ah, family. That’s what it’s all about, right? Spending time with the ones that you love as often as possible; sharing life and memories and laughter with them in the short time we’re on this beautiful big rock.

OK, so that’s what it’s about for a lot of people — it’s not so true for others. Like the Meyerowitz family, for example. Every single year they gather on their father’s birthday to celebrate the man that made them who they are today. Unfortunately, on this particular birthday gathering, one of them has the others not so happy and emotions are running high and hot.

Peep World is a movie about one person’s success at the expense of their own family. Nathan Meyerowitz (Ben Schwartz), an author whose book has gone on to massive popularity, skyrocketing him to the top of the world, is living the good life. The only problem is that his book is a tell-all, and it does not shine a positive light on his mother, father, two brothers, and sister.

127 Hours
Directed by Danny Boyle
Starring James Franco, Kate Mara, Amber Tamblyn, Clémence Poésy
Pathe Distribution
Release date: January 5, 2011 (UK)

Variety is the spice of life. With that in mind, director Danny Boyle decided to follow up his nicey-nicey, award-hogging sparkly dance-fest Slumdog Millionaire with a true story about a trapped canyoneer who is forced to cut off his own hand to save his life. Danny Boyle didn’t spice up his life, he destroyed the recipe.

127 Hours tells the real-life story of Aron Ralston, a prolific climber. Ralston’s story is a famous one: in 2003 he fell while climbing Blue John Canyon in Utah and landed at the bottom of a claustrophobic ridge. He dislodged a boulder which tumbled with him, crushing his right hand against the ridge wall. The boulder was too heavy to move let alone lift, and being a little arrogant he made the disastrous decision not to tell anyone where he was going. He desperately tries everything to escape: pushing and pulling at the rock every which way, chipping away at the rock with his multi tool, rigging a pulley system to try and heave the rock upwards, but nothing works. After six days he was forced to make a decision: stay and die, or cut off his hand and escape. As if that wasn’t hard enough, all he had to do it with was a cheap multi-tool with a small, blunt knife.

The first teaser trailer for Danny Boyle‘s follow-up to his Best Picture Academy Award winning Slumdog Millionaire has been released by Fox Searchlight.

The movie, titled 127 Hours, tells the true story of a mountain climber who finds himself fighting to survive a seemingly impossible situation while reflecting on the life he has lived and the people he has met. True story survival films such as Cast Away and Alive have always been incredibly compelling, and we’ve seen life reflection in the face of death stories in movies like Ladder 49, so just such a story as told by Mr. Boyle should be really fantastic.

Be sure to click on over to the other side to check out the trailer now!