The Playlist

Review: 'Star Trek Into Darkness' Often Thrills, But Undone By An Underwritten Villain & Thin Story

By Oliver Lyttelton
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May 3, 2013 5:44 PM
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25 Comments

Reviews

Cast your mind back four years or so, to stardate early May 2009, and remember a time when J.J Abrams wasn't yet the anointed savior of Hollywood. He had an ever-growing fanbase, and had already been behind at least one bona-fide small screen pop culture phenomenon. But his influence on the big-screen up to that point only extended to a few screenwriting credits, mostly forgotten, a producing credit on disposable sleeper hit "Cloverfield," and directing "Mission: Impossible III," an enjoyable, but somewhat interchangeable entry to the Tom Cruise spy franchise.

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Zoe Saldana To Get 'Out Of The Furnace' With Christian Bale

By Kevin Jagernauth
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March 5, 2012 4:47 PM
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0 Comments

News

While some our readers recently wishlisted Zoe Saldana for a role in Ridley Scott's "The Counselor," this project will do just fine. The actress is now lining the fast moving "Out Of The Furnace" from "Crazy Heart" director Scott Cooper with Christian Bale set to star.

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Mark Wahlberg, Marion Cotillard & Zoe Saldana Eye Guillaume Canet/James Gray Project 'Blood Ties'

By Oliver Lyttelton
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November 2, 2011 2:20 AM
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1 Comment

James Gray's 'Low Life' With Joaquin Phoenix, Jeremy Renner & Marion Cotillard Aims To Start Shooting In January 2012Given the Hollywood-friendly slickness of his directorial efforts to date, it was only a matter of time before French actor Guillaume Canet made a film in the U.S. The star of "The Beach" and "Love Me If You Dare," among many others, stepped behind the camera to much acclaim with 2002's Cesar-nominated "Mon Idole," the 2007 thriller "Tell No One" (which Ben Affleck is planning to remake), and followed it up with 2010's "Little White Lies," all of which showed an international sensibility.

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Zoe Saldana Is Half-Human, Half-Angel In Supernatural Thriller 'Dominion'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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August 26, 2011 8:49 AM
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2 Comments

We'll say this about Zoe Saldana -- she is just not getting the kinds of pictures she deserves. She's the rare breed of actress who can more than handle her own in genre fare and she's been underserved for the most part, with thankless roles in "The Losers," "Takers" and this weekend's "Colombiana." But she continues to push forward, but man, we wish we could be more excited about this project.

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Olivier Megaton Admits 'Colombiana' Inspired By Luc Besson's Unmade 'The Professional' Sequel Script

By Todd Gilchrist
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August 25, 2011 10:45 AM
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2 Comments

French Director Admits They Have To Step Up Their Game For Liam Neeson's 'Taken 2'; Says Maggie Grace Plays A Bigger RoleExclusive: If you’ve never heard of the director of “Colombiana,” it’s not because he lacks a cool-sounding name: Olivier Megaton. Rather it’s probably due to the fact that he made one movie in his native France, “Red Siren,” which failed to find its way to Hollywood, and then helmed a sequel, “The Transporter 3,” whose behind-the-camera bona fides were of less interest to viewers than the on screen body count. Perhaps appropriately, his new film is primarily noteworthy because it began its life as the follow-up to an imminently more famous one: “The Professional,” whose writer-director Luc Besson wrote and produced both of them. But at the Los Angeles press day for “Colombiana,” Megaton insisted that it became its own entity because too much time had passed between Besson’s 1994 classic and this would-be next installment.

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Review: 'Colombiana' Is An Exploitation Actioner Devoid Of Thrills & Humor

By Drew Taylor
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August 25, 2011 7:28 AM
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3 Comments

"Colombiana," an ornately florid title for a hopelessly pedestrian Euro-trash action movie, has been marketed and sold around various images of its comely star (Zoe Saldana) brandishing firearms while in her underwear. As far as exploitation hooks go, it's about as old as the format itself, and just as dependable. But "Colombiana," with its rapid-fire editing, humdrum supporting cast, and choked knot of superfluous subplots, doesn't have the thematic incisiveness of an exploitation movie, or the playfully go-for-broke, hands-in-the-air sense of naughty impishness.

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Zoe Saldana Says 'Colombiana 2' Could Happen If You Go See The Movie This Weekend

By Todd Gilchrist
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August 25, 2011 3:21 AM
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4 Comments

Actress Says She'll Sign On To James Cameron's 'Avatar' Sequels, Sight UnseenIn the past two years Zoe Saldana has become a force to be reckoned with in more ways than one: she helped J.J. Abrams resuscitate the "Star Trek" franchise as the lone female in the film’s boys' club, commanded the screen as the literal warrior princess Neytiri in James Cameron’s blockbuster game changer, ”Avatar," and now takes center stage as an ass-kicking assassin in "Colombiana," due Friday. Two of the three films already have sequels in the works – "Star Trek" is scheduled to start shooting later this year, and Cameron promised two more "Avatar" films arriving in 2014 and 2015. But speaking to the press on Wednesday, Saldana indicated she wouldn’t mind if her latest film became the next in her growing series of franchises.

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Danny Boyle Wants Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson To Join James McAvoy In 'Trance'

By Oliver Lyttelton
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July 4, 2011 10:27 AM
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11 Comments

Zoe Saldana and Mélanie Thierry Also In Contention, Michael Fassbender Definitely OutIf there was every any doubt, after work like "Shallow Grave," "Trainspotting" and "Sunshine," Danny Boyle has firmly planted his feet among the A-list of directors: he's had two Best Picture nominees in a row, with the first of them, "Slumdog Millionaire" winning a Best Director Oscar; he's scored a big stage hit in "Frankenstein"; and he's been handed the responsibility for the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics. While the latter will take up most of Boyle's next year, he's not going to be totally absent from the film world; it was announced a few months ago that he's planning a new heist thriller, "Trance," a remake of the 2001 British TV movie.

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Mark Ruffalo & Zoe Saldana Will Get Depressed In J.J. Abrams-Produced 'Infinitely Polar Bear'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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June 16, 2011 6:05 AM
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6 Comments

With Mark Ruffalo and Zoe Saldana getting set to flex their action chops in "The Avengers" and "Colombiana" respectively, don't worry about them leaving more serious fare behind as the duo are looking to team up on what sounds like a pretty grim drama.

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Olivia Wilde, Ben Barnes, J.K. Simmons & John Hannah Join Bradley Cooper In 'The Words'

By Oliver Lyttelton
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June 3, 2011 1:18 AM
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0 Comments

If there was any doubt before that Bradley Cooper is a fully-fledged movie star, the first few months of 2011 have wiped that away: he took an underdog genre picture "Limitless," sold almost entirely on his name, to an impressive gross of nearly $150 million worldwide, while "The Hangover Part II" overcame its poisonous reviews to make nearly that much in only a week of release in the U.S. alone. And, while we're not convinced of his charms just yet (he comes across as a little smug), Cooper's certainly made some interesting choices with his stardom.

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