REEL DEAL: “LUCY” Disarms Hard-To-Please Critics WIth Intentive Thrills

“The summer’s coolest, juiciest, smartest action movie.” This is how respected film critic Richard Corliss of Time Magazine, describes Universal Pictures' action-thriller “Lucy” from director Luc Besson and starring Scarlett Johansson.

“This female-glorifying picture not only shames all PG-13-rated summer spectacles for their wimpitude but also lures the audience into accompanying it on a third-act trip of ambitious movie madness,” continues Corliss in his review. “It begins with a vision of the first known hominid, the 3 million-year-old female discovered in Ethiopia in 1974 and nicknamed Lucy, then bombards you with allusive montages and the intricate drizzle of computer algorithms, and ultimately spirals into transcendent, Kubrickian speculation, all while satisfying the basic movie appetite for twists and thrills.”

REEL DEAL: Scarlett Johansson Frees Her Mind In “LUCY”

Portraying strong, unique female characters on the big screen is always a welcome challenge for Scarlett Johansson. So when casting his latest action-thriller “Lucy,” and writer-director Luc Besson needed to find an actress who could be believable as extremely vulnerable, as well as superpowered, when her exposure to an illicit substance inadvertently makes her acquire incredible skills, Johansson quickly came to mind.

Producer Virginie Besson-Silla describes the unlikely heroine of this story: “Lucy is an average girl who’s having fun with her friends in Asia, and there’s a lot of partying going on. She’s discovering life, but she’s going to discover it the hard way…and go much further than she would ever expect.”

REEL DEAL: Morgan Freeman An Expert On The Human Brain In "Lucy"

Universal Pictures' new mind-bending action thriller “Lucy” examines the possibility of what one human could truly do if she unlocked 100 percent of her brain capacity and accessed the furthest reaches of her mind.

As her abilities keep evolving, Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) reaches out to Professor Samuel Norman, an expert on the human brain, to try to understand what is happening to her. Soon after she is supercharged, she finds herself able to do anything from learning Chinese in an hour to beginning to control space and time.

The production was fortunate enough to have Academy Award® winner Morgan Freeman join the team as the world-renowned neurologist whose lifelong focus is how we access the information stored in our brain.

REEL DEAL: Luc Benson Merges Science With Fiction In Action-Thriller “LUCY”

The human brain and its capabilities have long puzzled and deeply fascinated the most accomplished of scientists. While it has customarily been understood that we tap into much less of our mind’s capacity than we are capable of using, the exact percentage has remained uncertain…and ever fluctuating. With that arresting thought in mind, writer/director Luc Besson took the premise as a starting point for a storyline for his new film, the rip-roaring action-thriller “Lucy” starring Scarlett Johnsson.

Besson imagined what it would be like if we could access the furthest reaches of our brain, asking himself how that would affect our understanding of life…and our role in it. He pondered: “Would we have more control over ourselves and others?”

The result is the incredible story of Lucy (Johansson), a woman accidentally caught in a dark deal who turns the tables on her captors and transforms into a merciless warrior evolved beyond human logic

REEL DEAL: Witness "Lucy" Transform Into Warrior Beyond Human Logic

From “La Femme Nikita” and “The Professional” to “The Fifth Element,” writer/director Luc Besson has created some of the toughest, most memorable female action heroes in recent cinematic history.  Now, Besson directs Scarlett Johansson and Academy Award® winner Morgan Freeman in Universal Pictures’ “Lucy,” an action-thriller that examines the possibility of what one human could truly do if she unlocked 100 percent of her brain capacity and accessed the furthest reaches of her mind. 

REEL DEAL: The Family

Robert DeNiro and Michelle Pfeiffer return to their Mafia roots in the dark comedy, The Family, When a notorious mafia family crosses the mob by committing the ultimate crime of snitching, they are put into the Government Witness Protection Program and shipped off to Normandy, France. Although they pretend to want to change their lives, old habits die hard, and they soon resort back to their old criminal ways of doing business and settling scores.

REEL DEAL: Taken 2 - Box Office

“TAKEN 2” DOMINATES LOCAL (PHILS.) BOX-OFFICE AT P64.82 MILLION NATIONWIDE

“Taken 2” opened (Oct. 4) to a very strong weekend in the Philippines, dominating the local box-office with its 4-day nationwide opening weekend at P64.82million. The figure translates to an astounding 60% slice of the domestic market nationwide who came to see Neeson return as Bryan Mills, an ex-CIA whose special skills are unmatched and stops at nothing to protect his family.

REEL DEAL: Taken 2 REVIEW

What happens when something horrible experience in the past comes back fueled with revenge? Years ago, his daughter was taken and we went to to find them and killed them. Now years after the traumatic event, comes the families of the suspects to get back on a very dangerous man.

Taken 2  brings us to the Turkish city of Istanbul where it took place a year after the events in Paris, on a trip to Istanbul, Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) gets a surprise visit from his daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), and his ex-wife, Lenore (Famke Janssen). The happy reunion turns sour when Lenore is taken by people working for Murad Hoxha (Rade Šerbedžija), the employer of the men working in the Paris building where Kim's friend, Amanda, was found dead and the father of Marko Hoxha, whom Bryan killed in the previous film. With Lenore held hostage and Kim on the run, Mills must utilize all his lethal skills to rescue them and eliminate any who are seeking revenge against him.

REEL DEAL: Taken 2 - Liam Neeson Up Against Another Father's Hell-Bent Revenge

“Taken 2” braces for a down-to-the-wire action sequence between two fathers, one exacting revenge and the other trying to keep his family alive.  Liam Neeson reprises his role as Bryan Mills, a CIA operative with an unmatched set of skills who is pitted against Murad (Rade Sherbedgia) who in turn is hell-bent on taking down Mills and the rest of his family for the death of his son in Bryan’s hands. 

“TAKEN 2” reunites Neeson with his co-stars Famke Janssen and Maggie Grace, who play Bryan's estranged wife and his precious daughter. “Bryan's a total superhero,” says Janssen, weighing in on what made audiences connect with the first film. “TAKEN really came at a time when people needed that in their lives, because it's about family and protecting your family. He's a very American hero.”

REEL DEAL: Taken 2 - Istanbul SPOTLIGHT

TAKEN 2” PANS ISTANBUL IN RAW NORMALCY FOR ITS HIGH-OCTANE ACTION SCENES

Olivier Megaton who helms Liam Neeson’s sequel starrer “Taken 2” panned Istanbul with a fast-moving crew that’s rarely done on this sort of scale of a movie.  The director has stripped the crew to its bare essentials and took them into the streets of Istanbul.

Liam Neeson returns as Bryan Mills, the retired CIA agent who stopped at nothing to save his abducted daughter in “Taken.”  When he is targeted by a mysterious figure seeking vengeance, Bryan must employ his “particular set of skills” to protect his family against an army out to kill them. 

REEL DEAL: Taken 2 - Liam Nelson SPOTLIGHT

Shot in Istanbul, Turkey and directed by Olivier Megaton , “Taken 2” reunites Liam Neeson with his co-stars Famke Janssen and Maggie Grace in this rocket-paced action sequel that rivals some of the greatest gun-handlers in cinema history.

Neeson reprises the role of Bryan Mills, a father and an estranged husband who would do anything for his family in the movie.  Mills’ daughter having been kidnapped the first time. But he faces a different kind of conflict in “Taken 2.”  Liam Neeson returns as Bryan Mills, the retired CIA agent with a particular set of skills who stopped at nothing to save his daughter Kim from Albanian kidnappers.  When the father of one of the kidnappers swears revenge, and takes Bryan and his wife hostage during their family vacation in Istanbul, Bryan enlists Kim to help them escape, and uses the same advanced level of special forces tactics to get his family to safety and then systematically take out the kidnappers one by one.