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Comedy has always been an extremely popular genre of cinema. It has consistently offered audiences a chance to laugh and escape from the troubles of daily life, with both slapstick classics and witty, dialogue-driven powerhouses achieving similar, dopamine-rushed results. Humor driven films have produced timeless gems that continue to resonate today, with few cinematic genres boasting such a rewarding appeal. As the world has just recently been greeted by 2025, now is the perfect moment to revisit some of the best comedy movies of all time that have just celebrated their 20-year milestone of life after release.

Comedy in 2005 was an era of its own. It rolled out numerous effective gut-busters while also flexing its deep variety, as shown through films like Wedding Crashers, Robots, and The Longest Yard. These films not only brought laughter but also checked off different boxes of comedy, striking an imperative balance between clever humor and heartfelt moments.

Four-time Oscar® nominee Ethan Hawke (Best Supporting Actor, Boyhood, 2015) stars as an ex-mercenary who’s given one last shot at redemption in the wall-to-wall nonstop action-thriller 24 Hours to Live, exploding on Blu-ray (plus Digital), DVD and Digital February 6 from Lionsgate. The film is currently available On Demand. Directed by Brian Smrz, known for his stunt work on films like Live Free or Die Hard, Minority Report and Iron Man 3, and written by Ron Mita, Jim McClain, and Zach Dean, the film is produced by John Wick’s Basil Iwanyk, Gregory Ouanhon, and Mark Gao. This action-thriller is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat.

The 24 Hours to Live Blu-ray and DVD will be available for the suggested retail price of $21.99 and $19.98, respectively.

Official Synopsis

Ethan Hawke gives an explosive performance in this epic action-thriller from the producers of John Wick. Travis Conrad (Hawke) is a...

Sometimes all you need in Hollywood is an idea that executives don’t have to think too hard about. So when screenwriters Zach Dean, Jim McClain, and Ron Mita sent “24 Hours To Live” around town, they must’ve rattled off “John Wick,” “Flatliners,” “Jason Bourne,” “In Time,” and “Edge Of Tomorrow” as similar movies, because this trailer sure plays like an unholy mix of all of those.

Continue reading ’24 Hours To Live’ Trailer: Ethan Hawke Flick Is Like ‘John Wick’ Meets ‘Flatliners’ Meets ‘Jason Bourne’ at The Playlist.

Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our weekly Rundown of everything that’s been picked up around the globe. Check out last week’s Rundown here.

– The Orchard has acquired the rights to “Kings,” the drama starring Halle Berry and Daniel Craig and directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Deadline reports. The film focuses on a foster family in South Central a few weeks before the city erupts in violence following the verdict of the Rodney King trial in 1992.

Ergüven previously directed “Mustang,” which received an Oscar nomination in 2015 for Best Foreign Language Film. Charles Gilbert and Vincent Maraval served as the producers on “Kings.”

Read More: Film Acquisition Rundown: IFC Films Picks up ‘Sweet Virginia,’ Oscilloscope Buys ‘Song of Granite’ and More

– Lionsgate has acquired the U.S. distribution rights to the crime-thriller “Dragged Across Concrete” The film will be released by the...

Saban Films has acquired Us rights to Brian Smrz’s assassin thriller 24 Hours To Live starring Ethan Hawke and Chinese actress Xu Qing.Sierra/Affinity handles international sales and will screen the film in Cannes.Paul Anderson, Liam Cunningham and Rutger Hauer also star in the story of a hitman who turns rogue when his latest mission goes wrong.Thunder Road’s Basil Iwanyk and Fundamental Films’ Mark Gao and Gregory Ouanhon produced, and Fundamental Films fully f

Saban Films has acquired Us rights to Brian Smrz’s assassin thriller 24 Hours To Live starring Ethan Hawke and Chinese actress Xu Qing.

Sierra/Affinity handles international sales and will screen the film in Cannes.

Paul Anderson, Liam Cunningham and Rutger Hauer also star in the story of a hitman who turns rogue when his latest mission goes wrong.

Thunder Road’s Basil Iwanyk and Fundamental Films’ Mark Gao and Gregory Ouanhon produced, and [link=co...

Saban Films has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Brian Smrz's 24 Hours to Live, starring Ethan Hawke.

Chinese actress Xu Qing, Paul Anderson, Liam Cunningham and Rutger Hauer also star in the thriller from the producer behind the John Wick franchise and Sicario. It will receive a theatrical release later this year.

Penned by Zachary Dean and based on an original script from Ron Mita and Jim McClain, 24 Hours to Live follows a career assassin who turns rogue after his latest mission goes awry.

Thunder Road’s Basil Iwanyk and Fundamental Films' Mark Gao and Gregory Ouanhon produced...

Saban Films has picked up U.S. rights to Brian Smrz's 24 Hours to Live starring Ethan Hawke and Chinese actress Xu Qing. Paul Anderson, Liam Cunningham and Rutger Hauer also star in the upcoming thriller, which will receive a theatrical release later this year. Zachary Dean writes based on an original script from Ron Mita and Jim McClain. Story follows a career assassin who turns rogue after his latest mission goes awry. Thunder Road's Basil Iwanyk and Fundamental Films'…...

Shanghai-based Fundamental Films and Thunder Road Pictures of Los Angeles announced the casting additions on Tuesday.

Thriller 24 Hours To Live stars previously announced Ethan Hawke and China’s Xu Qing. CAA handles Us rights and Sierra/Affinity international sales.

Brian Smrz directs from a screenplay by Zachary Dean based on an original script from Ron Mita and Jim McClain and principal photography is underway in Cape Town, South Africa.

The story centres on an assassin who is given a chance at redemption after his employer brings him back to life temporarily when he dies on the job.

Fundamental Films is fully financing the project and Basil Iwanyk of Thunder Road, Fundamental chairman Mark Gao and international president Gregory Ouanhon serve as producers

Jon Kuyper, Kent Kubena, Jonathan Fuhrman and Gary Glushon are the executive producers.

Fundamental and Thunder Road are also collaborating on Outlaws Inc., announced earlier this year. Fundamental is also the lead financier on [link...

The actors have joined Ethan Hawke in the upcoming thriller from China’s Fundamental Films and Thunder Road Pictures.

Brian Smrz is lined up to direct 24 Hours To Live in Cape Town in June. Fundamental fully finances the project and Sierra/Affinity continues international sales in Cannes.

Zachary Dean wrote the screenplay based on an original script from Ron Mita and Jim McClain about a career assassin who gets a chance of redemption after his employer brings him back to life temporarily.

Basil Iwanyk of Thunder Road, Fundamental Films chairman Mark Gao and international president Gregory Ouanhon serve as producers on 24 Hours To Live.

Jon Kuyper, Kent Kubena, Jonathan Fuhrman, and Gary Glushon are executive producers.

Common (Selma) and Chinese actress Xu Qing (Looper) have joined Ethan Hawke (Boyhood) in Brian Smrz’s thriller 24 Hours to Live. Fundamental Films and Thunder Road Pictures are producing with shooting set to commence this June in South Africa. Sierra/Affinity is handling international sales at Cannes. Penned by Zachary Dean and based on an original script from Ron Mita & Jim McClain, 24 Hours to Live follows a career assassin who is given a chance at redemption after his…...

Rapper Common and Chinese actress Xu Qing are set to join Ethan Hawke in the cast of the Brian Smrz-directed thriller "24 Hours to Live" for Fundamental Films and Thunder Road Pictures.

Scripted by Zachary Dean and based on an original story from Ron Mita and Jim McClain, the story follows a career assassin who is given a chance at redemption after his employer brings him back to life temporarily - just after being killed on the job.

Mark Gao and Gregory Ouanhon are producing and filming begins in South Africa next month.

Source: Variety...

Nick Meyer and his sales team have licensed key territories at the Efm led by deals with Snd in France and Square One in Germany.

Ethan Hawke will star for Thunder Road Pictures and China’s Fundamental Films in 24 Hours To Live as a hitman brought back to life who must team up with the female super-spy that killed him to bring down a crime syndicate.

Sierra/Affinity has close deals in: Italy (Eagle Films); Spain (Key2Media); Latin America (Gussi Films); Canada (Vvs Films); Benelux (The Searchers); Middle East, India Turkey, Greece (Italia Film); and South Korea (Woo Sung).

Japan has gone to Klockworx, Indonesia to Cinemaxx, South Africa to Ster Kinekor, Vietnam to Noori Pictures, and airlines to Cinesky. Fundamental Films finances the film and will distribute in China.

Brian Smrz will direct and Basil Iwanyk produce with his Thunder Road colleague Kent Kubena, and Mark Gao and Gregory Ouanhon of Fundamental.

Zach Dean is writing...

Extending his working relationship with Fundamental Films, the Chinese production company spearheading Luc Besson’s space odyssey Valerian, Ethan Hawke has inked a deal to headline new thriller 24 Hours to Live.

That’s according to Deadline, after the outlet revealed that news first came to light on the eve of Berlin Film Festival, where Sierra/Affinity intends to handle international sales. Fundamental, on the other hand, are partnering with Thunder Road Pictures to finance and produce the motion picture, appointing second unit director Brian Smrz at the helm in the process.

Zachary Dean is penning the script, working from a treatment first pitched by Ron Mita and Jim McClain. A redemption story at its core, 24 Hours to Live will orbit around an expert assassin (Hawke, we assume) who is literally given a second chance at life after his employer resuscitates him. Living up to the evocative title, Smrz’s thriller...

The Efm dance card is filling up as Sierra/Affinity announced it will launch sales on the Ethan Hawke assassin thriller 24 Hours To Live, while Foresight Unlimited arrives with Alec Baldwin and Demi Moore as illicit lovers in the drama Blind.

Fundamental Films is fully financing 24 Hours To Live and produces with Basil Iwanyk’s Thunder Road Pictures.

Second unit director Brian Smrz will direct the story of a hitman who gets a chance of redemption after his employer brings him back to life temporarily after he is killed on the job.

Zachary Dean wrote the screenplay based on an original script by Ron Mita and Jim McClain. Iwanyk, Fundamental Films chairman Mark Gao and international president Gregory Ouanhon are producing.

Fundamental Films’ Gary Glushon and Thunder Road’s Kent Kubena and Jonathan Fuhrman will serve as executive producers.

Michael Mailer directs Blind, in which Alec Baldwin plays an author who lost his wife and his eyesight...

China’s Fundamental Films and Basil Iwanyk’s Thunder Road Pictures have found the leading man for their thriller, which Sierra/Affinity will introduce to Efm buyers next week.

Second unit director Brian Smrz will direct 24 Hours To Live and Fundamental is fully financing the project.

Zachary Dean wrote the story based on an original script by Ron Mita and Jim McClain about a hitman who gets a chance of redemption after his employer brings him back to life temporarily when he is killed on the job.

Iwanyk of Thunder Road, Fundamental Films chairman Mark Gao and international president Gregory Ouanhon are producing.

Fundamental Films’ Gary Glushon and Thunder Road’s Kent Kubena and Jonathan Fuhrman will serve as executive producers.

Ethan Hawke will star in the thriller 24 Hours to Live, which will be directed by Brian Smrz. Zachary Dean wrote the latest script based on an original script from Ron Mita and Jim McClain. The story follows a career assassin who is given a chance at redemption after his employer brings him back to life temporarily, just after being killed on the job. Basil Iwanyk of Thunder Road, China's Fundamental Films Chairman Mark Gao and International President Gregory Ouanhon are producing the film, with Fundamental fully financing. Fundamental Films’ Gary Glushon and Thunder Road’s Kent Kubena and Jonathan Fuhrman will

read more...

Variety has news that John Boorman, the man who brought us Excalibur, Deliverance and, most importantly, Zardoz, is attached to direct a $25 million, CG-animated “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” The adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s original novel will be Boorman’s first animated film. The film is written by Boorman, Ron Mita and Jim McClain ("Robots") and will be produced by Laurent Rodon, Claude Gorvsky and John Boorman’s longtime associate Kieran Corrigan. Currently in pre-production, the film is scheduled for a summer 2010. The English-language adaptation maintains the tale’s main characters and settings. Unlike the MGM classic, however, it’s not a musical. “Oz" comes as the $35 million Gallic 3-D French toon “A Monster in Paris” has suspended production, reportedly out of financing concerns. “Oz” consolidates Snd’s push into animated feature financing.

Director/writer/producer John Boorman is set to direct a CG-animated adaptation of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, per Variety. This is Boorman's first animated movie, and it is not a musical. Set for release in summer 2010, this movie features a screenplay by Boorman, Ron Mita and Him McClain (Robots). Produced the move are Laurent Rodon and Claude Gorvsky of France's Films Actions and Boorman's longtime producing partner Kieran Corrigan.

http://enews.cynopsis.com/html.asp?XZY1256802UTF60...

John Boorman (The Tailor of Panma, Excalibur) is attached to direct The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a CG-animated flick based on L. Frank Baum’s classic children’s book. Oz follows Dorothy, who is swept away to a magical land in a tornado and embarks on a quest to see the Wizard who can help her return home. Along the way she befriends the Scarecrow, the Tin man and the Cowardly Lion, all of whom are convinced by Dorothy that the Wizard can help them too. The adaptation, which will be Boorman’s first animated film, maintains the tale's main characters and settings, but, unlike MGM’s 1939 film, it's not a musical. Produced by Laurent Rodon (Doogal) and Claude Gorvsky (The Magic Roundabout), Oz was adapted by Boorman, Ron Mita (S.W.A.T) and Jim McClain (Robots). It's scheduled for release summer 2010.

Opens Friday, March 11

If sheer cleverness were everything, "Robots" would be the best computer-animated cartoon yet. The movie invents an entire robot world in which all things mechanical take on a life force of their own. Dazzling landscapes feature Rube Goldberg contraptions and visual gags that turn our world on its head. Yet, unlike the very best CG animation, "Robots" doesn't quite connect with the emotions and humor for which one yearns in cartoons. The film is just a bit too ... well, mechanical.

"Robots" comes from director Chris Wedge and Blue Sky Studios, which gave us the frisky prehistoric cartoon "Ice Age" in 2002. The Blue Sky trademark now is clear: slapstick comedy and manic energy. It's Looney Tunes times four (at least), with the screen crammed with more visual gags than eye or brain possibly can register, which undoubtedly means repeat theater visits by youngsters and huge sell-through in the video/DVD market. "Ice Age" took in more than $176 million, and "Robots" should repeat if not surpass those totals.

As is Wedge's habit, his simple, likable (or unlikable) characters mostly are a collection of running gags. There is a robot named Fender (voiced by an equally manic Robin Williams), whose body parts fall off at inopportune moments, and his kid sister, Piper (Amanda Bynes), who is a tightly wound ball of energy. Some characters truly are marvelous. Jim Broadbent of all people raises his voice a few octaves to play the villainous Madame Gasket, an erratic design of mismatched parts that seem to leak red grease.

The screenplay, designed by David Lindsay-Abaire and the comedy-writing team of Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel, envisions a world inhabited entirely by robots. Unlike "Monsters, Inc". no rationale is given for such a world. Nor do we understand how it came to be invented, no Big Clang theory as it were. It just exists. Cups of oil replace cups of coffee and a fire hydrant can talk back to a dog.

Our hero is Rodney Copperbottom (Ewan McGregor), assembled and raised by parents to believe anything is possible. He is fed a similar notion through TV broadcasts by Bigweld (Mel Brooks in a kind and gentle mode), the master inventor who rules the only corporation that seems to exist. The door always is open to any new inventor, Bigweld declares. So when Rodney leaves his hometown for Robot City with invention in hand, he is shocked to find that door firmly shut.

The back story is vague, but it seems that Madame Gasket and her sleekly robotic son, Ratchet (Greg Kinnear), somehow have shunted Bigweld aside. They scheme to take off the market all spare parts needed by the robot citizens to live and function. Instead, they manufacture only expensive "upgrades." Thus, many otherwise fine robots who can't afford these upgrades find they have become "outmodes," vulnerable to city sweepers that can snatch them off the street and deposit them at Madame Gasket's Chop Shop.

So Rodney, Fender and Fender's gang of outmodes -- this includes eternal pessimist Crank Casey (Drew Carey), big-hearted Lug (Harland Williams) and Diesel, who lacks a voice box -- set off to challenge the greedy rulers of the massive corporation. Along the way, Ratchet's female assistant with a great 'bot, Cappy (Halle Berry), rebels and joins the good guys.

There are marvelous set pieces: A cross-town express flings Rodney and Fender through the mechanical metropolis like a cross between a monorail and roller coaster. Bigweld surfs a sea of dominos. The climatic battle between the corporation's robotic army and the retooled and refitted robot misfits explodes into a frenzied spoof of action-movie fights.

Much of the animation is spectacular. Even the colors somehow have a metallic look. Yet, as complex as this imagined world is, Wedge keeps his characters rudimentary. Thus, audiences never develop much emotional attachment to any of them. The emphasis here is entirely on the timing of gags and a steady flow of action.

ROBOTS

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox Animation presents a Blue Sky production

Credits:

Director: Chris Wedge

Co-director: Carlos Saldanha

Screenwriters: David Lindsay-Abaire, Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel

Story by: Ron Mita, Jim McClain, David Lindsay-Abaire

Producers: Jerry Davis, John C. Donkin, William Joyce

Executive producer: Christopher Meledandri

Production designer: William Joyce

Music: John Powell

Editor: John Carnochan.

Cast:

Rodney: Ewan McGregor

Ratchet: Greg Kinnear

Bigweld: Mel Brooks

Fender: Robin Williams

Cappy: Halle Berry

Piper: Amanda Bynes

Crank: Drew Carey

Madame Gasket: Jim Broadbent

Tim: Paul Giamatti

Mr. Gurk: Dan Hedaya.

MPAA rating: PG

Running time: 91 minutes...