David Fincher is a cherished director around here with FIGHT CLUB being one of the favorites amongst a lot movie fans.  His CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON received mixed reviews, but there’s no denying the director’s talent.  After wrapping up THE SOCIAL NETWORK (aka; The Facebook movie) with Justin Timberlake, the director is set to tackle another real-life story with PAWN SACRIFICE.  The film is the life story of troubled chess prodigy Bobby Fischer.  Steven Knight wrote the script.

What little I know about Bobby Fischer I learned from the wonderful film SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER, but it seems like his life is ripe for a movie.  ESPN writer Jeremy Schaap did a piece on Bobby Fischer a few years ago and it seems like Fischer lost himself after his big chess match with Boris Spassky.  I’m anxious to see who they cast in the lead for this…maybe his other SOCIAL NETWORK star, Jesse Eisenberg?

Along with PAWN SACRIFICE, Fincher may also direct an English remake of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO for producer Scott Rudin.  Interesting enough, Variety claims that Fincher is the first director to get a “final cut” authority for Columbia pictures.

Source: Variety

Judy Greer is one of those actresses that I’m just waiting for her to become a star.  I liken her to Emily Blunt in the sense that she’s very beautiful and very talented, but just can’t seem to break through to that next level.  Greer will get a little more exposure as she’s signed on to the cast of Alexander Payne’s next film THE DESCENDANTS.  We had already told you that George Clooney and Shailene Woodley would be starring in the film.  Along with Greer, Matthew Lillard, Beau Bridges and Robert Forster have also just signed on to a cast that already included Nick Krause, Amara Miller and Mary Birdsong.

The film is about a wealthy man that attempts to reconnect to his estranged daughters as he tries to find his wife’s lover.  A darker film for sure, but I’m guessing Alexander Payne will be able to get the most out of George Clooney’s subtle charm, similar to what Jason Reitman got from UP IN THE AIR.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

The premise seems simple. A perfect 10, Molly, (without the Bo Derek braids) played by the truly incredible Alice Eve, falls for the dorky airport security agent, Kirk, played by Baruchel. His friends and his family all reinforce his insecurities at this newfound relationship, as does most of society, and he struggles with it throughout, even though their dates seem sweet – the parts we get to see. They switch to musical montages too quickly, not letting us really know what these two have together. Kirk’s friends, led by Stainer ( T.J. Miller), reiterate the differences in their rankings – Molly as a 10, Kirk as a 5 maybe 6 if not for his Dodge Neon – to an obnoxious degree. Stainer is part of a Hall & Oates tribute band, which is good for a chuckle, but really just odd. Kirk’s other friend Devon (Nate Torrance) tries to play the sweet, awkward guy which should be played by Jack McBrayer, and brings up unfunny Disney references. And Kirk’s family is just a horrible collection of oblivious, rude jerks who have befriended Kirk’s ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend. These are supposed to lead to funny situations. “Supposed to.”

Instead, we really only get one good laugh after an airplane altercation between Kirk and all his detractors, and the rest of the movie is a collection of awkward, unfunny attempts at humor and the only redeeming quality is Molly’s hotness and the fact that we still like Baruchel and always root for the sweet, dorky guy. The writer’s tried to go for cheap laughs with a bit about genital shaving, and a back and forth with Molly’s ex-boyfriend (Geoff Stults) about Kirk being gay, but even the cheap jokes fell flat, though male nudity is accounted for. What isn’t accounted for is the socio-economic difference between the two characters, which is still a factor, and while their insecurities come to a boil at one point, their reconciliation is contrived and too quick.

Baruchel has been involved in great movies before, in both ALMOST FAMOUS and MILLION DOLLAR BABY. And he knows how to bring the funny in bit parts in KNOCKED UP. His agent was doing pretty well up until this movie. He did, however, get some half-naked quality time with the gorgeous Alice Eve, so there are compensations. But still…come on, Jay.

My surprise at the success of Tim Burton’s ALICE IN WONDERLAND continues as the film scored $62 million this weekend, despite the foursome of new movies that challenged it.  The most successful of those challengers was the Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass collaboration GREEN ZONE, which managed $14.5 million.  Although I didn’t like it, I’m not surprised it did moderately well considering we don’t have many “action” type movies in theaters right now.  Robert Pattinson’s still bruiting, but not a vampire love story REMEMBER ME took in $8.1 million, which was good enough for fourth place.  And the AVATAR update puts its grand total to $732 million.

Next week is also a big release week with the horrible looking Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston rom-com THE BOUNTY HUNTER, the kid-friendly DIARY OF A WIMPY KID, the sci-fi action film REPO MEN and a limited release of THE RUNAWAYS with Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning.  Judging by how popular the trailer for DIARY OF A WIMPY KID was, I think that film could surprise a lot of people with its box office take.

1. Alice in Wonderland  $62 million

2. Green Zone $14.5 million

3. She’s Outta My League $9.6 million

4. Remember Me $8.1 million

5. Shutter Island $8.1 million

6. Our Family Wedding $7.6 million

7. Avatar $6.6 million

8. Brooklyn’s Finest $4.4 million

9. Cop Out $4.2 million

10. The Crazies $3.65

It was odd that Mickey Rourke was taking on two somewhat similar roles with CONAN and WAR OF THE GODS.  Both were period, fantasy pieces and apparently, Rourke and his agent felt the same way and now they’ve dropped out of CONAN.  There was talk that Rourke was actually dropping out of WAR OF THE GODS, but as far as we know, he’s still on board.  Stepping into the role of Conan’s father (Corin) is Hellboy himself, Ron Perlman.

We had just learned that the up and coming Rachel Nichols would be starring in Conan and Perlman would seem to be the last of the major casting announcements.  He joins a cast that includes Jason Momoa as Conan, the aforementioned Rachel Nichols, Bob Sapp, Leo Howard and Stephen Lang.  That cast list doesn’t seem as impressive without Mickey Rourke’s name in there.

Source: NY Mag

Normally, these would be two separate posts, but since they’re only rumors at this point and there isn’t much information on them, I decided to combine them.  The first bit of news should excite everyone that’s following the casting drama with CAPTAIN AMERICA because it looks like Hugo Weaving will be starring as the film’s villain, Red Skull.  There might be some validity to this since Weaving just starred in Joe Johnston’s THE WOLFMAN.

The next bit of news is more of a head scratcher and therefore I’m less likely to believe it.  But Sam Worthington is reportedly considering starring as DAN DARE: THE PILOT OF THE FUTURE.  I say it’s a head scratcher because no one under the age of 65 knows who or what that is.  I had to look it up and it turns out that it was a “British Buck Rogers” and was a comic strip back in the 1950’s.  Worthington can do anything he want right now and I think he could do something more relevant than Dan Dare.

Source: Comingsoon.net, Pajiba

Whenever the bearded one even reads a script, it’s considered movie news.  At any given time, there are always about five or six projects that might be his next.  Now we can add another film to that list in the apocalyptic-robot film ROBOPOCALYPSE.  This film is based on the not-yet published book by Daniel H. Wilson, who typically writes funny, non-fiction books about how to survive disasters.  Screenwriter Drew Goddard is already working on the script.  Goddard is no stranger to disaster films as he wrote the script for the great CLOVERFIELD.

As cool as it would be to see Steven Spielberg direct a humorous film about robots taking over the world, I’m not holding my breath.  We’re still waiting for him to do that Abraham Lincoln movie.  Right now, he’s hard at work on the TIN TIN movie and typically, after he does a large project, he chooses something small.  I don’t think ROBOPOCALYPSE would qualify as small.

Source: Deadline New York

The new, full-length trailer for ROBIN HOOD is out and this time we learn more about the story, although to be fair, it’s a Robin Hood story and I think we all have a basic idea of what happens.  We do see some more action scenes and more of the supporting characters and it looks like director Ridley Scott is really going for a historical epic feel for this.  The film stars Russell Crowe as Robin Hood, Cate Blanchett as Maid Marian, Matthew Macfadyen as the Sheriff of Nottingham, Kevin Durand as Little John and Mark Strong as Sir Godfrey.  The film hits theaters on May 14th.

This film has all of the ingredients to be something I would love; great cast, historical epic, great director, elaborate sets, etc., but  just can’t get into it.  It looks too much like every other Robin Hood movie we’ve seen and especially similar to ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES with Kevin Costner.

Watch the trailer here.

Robert Downey Jr. is on the hunt for a project to work on while he waits to shoot SHERLOCK HOLMES 2 in the fall.  If Alfonso Cuaron gets his way, that project will be his science fiction film GRAVITY.  RDJ is in talks to star in the 3D space film as a leader of a space station team who along with a female colleague, are the lone survivors of an exploding satellite.  Cuaron wrote the script with his son, Jonas.

The idea sounds great, but it also sounds a little like the upcoming science fiction film that Keanu Reeves signed on for, PASSENGERS. That film has a different story of course, but the same idea in that a male and a female are alone in space.  I’m interested in both films, but Alfonso Cuaron and Robert Downey Jr. together sounds like a great team and an exciting project.

Source: Deadline New York

John (Steve Buscemi) is an insurance rep that gets his big break when his boss (Peter Dinklage) assigns him to investigate a fraud case in Las Vegas with Virgil (Romany Malco).  The case is pretty standard, but the two of them have trouble proving that ‘Tasty D Lite’ (Emmanuelle Chriqui) is lying.  Their investigation leads them on a weird journey where they encounter a nudist colony, a circus act and a mob-owned junkyard.  All the while, John has to fight his natural urge to gamble.

Steve Buscemi is an actor that needs dialogue and an opportunity to showcase his acting ability.  He’s an ugly dude and he won’t draw in an audience on his name alone.  Where he fails is when he plays a normal guy in somewhat pedestrian situations.  I want to see him screaming and flailing about while the world is falling down around him.  That’s kind of the problem with the film in that it didn’t push the envelope enough.  We had a scene in a strip club where he elicits a lap dance from a crippled dancer.  That should have been hilarious, or at the very least, awkward.  But it wasn’t.  We had another scene where John and Virgil encounter a nudist colony with nothing but older guys with guns.  That should have been hilarious, but as I watched it, the film made it seem so normal.  In a road trip movie (which this basically is), we need either a) spectacular dialogue or b) outlandish events.  This movie didn’t provide either.

The highlight of the film, and really the only source of comedy, was found in a costumed John Cho as a troubled circus performer.  At one point, John and Virgil have to question a circus performer that’s trapped in his explosive suit.  So while John and him are talking, his suit sporadically bursts into flames.  The idea was great, but once again, it just didn’t go far enough.  There were so many things that could have happened with that gag and the entire scene consists of the two characters standing or sitting in front of one another and talking.

Considering the low expectations and the independent stature of the film, I will say that I was pleased with it.  I was invested into John’s plight, even if I was disappointed with how his journey progressed.  I really enjoyed the flashes of brilliance from Buscemi and the always great Romany Malco.  But at the end of the film, I felt letdown with the fact they didn’t take advantages of the opportunities they had.

The second trailer for SHREK FOREVER AFTER is out and it looks strikingly like the previous three movies.  Not that I was expecting much since they have to stick with what works, but this is the fourth movie with almost the exact same storyline.  The twist this time is that Shrek makes a wish that he could be a real ogre for a day and of course, things go crazy when his wish comes true.  Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy, Justin Timberlake and Antonio Banderas all return.  Oh, and a quick glance at the cast list also revealed that Megan Fox also does a little voice work as “the girl in the tower”.

The saving grace to the past few films has been Puss ‘n Boots, voiced by Antonio Banderas, but even he ran his schtick to the ground.  I can only assume that they’ll be setting him up in this one to take on his own film.

Watch the trailer here.

Matt Damon is Roy Miller, a Chief Warrant Officer with the United States Army that’s the leader of the search team for weapons of mass destruction (WMD).  After receiving intelligence about the location of WMD’s and then finding they’re not there, Miller becomes frustrated with the intelligence and makes his voice heard.  This grabs the attention of Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson), a CIA operative that’s being ignored.  Somehow, Miller ends up working for Brown and Miller gets sent out on a one-man show to find the WMD’s himself and eventually to find the source of the intelligence.

In the first fifteen minutes or so of the film, Miller is part of an infantry unit that he’s responsible for.  But he inexplicably ends up a rogue soldier doing what he wants, when he wants to.  But no one seems to care that there’s a soldier running around on his own.  And it’s not like Miller is a high ranking officer or in a position that would afford him this luxury.  But it doesn’t really matter because the world in which Greengrass has created is one in which every American in power is an amoral liar and can’t be trusted.  Miller is the lone soldier, just trying to do what’s right, despite his inability to follow orders.  This isn’t a real example of the Iraq war; this is a world that allows Greengrass to tell his story and deliver his message and that served to undermine the film.

There is zero character development in this film.  We barely learn Miller’s name and we have no idea who he is or why he cares so much.  There’s an Iraqi sidekick (Freddy) that lost a leg, but we don’t know how or why.  Matt Damon is great as usual, but not much was required of him other than to look determined for two hours.  So with zero interest in the characters, all the pressure is on the story, which is basically Miller’s hunt for WMD’s, or the hunt for the source of the intelligence.  If you followed the news from 2002 through 2005, you know that there are no WMD’s in Iraq and that there probably haven’t been for almost 20 years.  So we know how the story ends and the journey Greengrass takes us on felt like a waste of time.

Paul Greengrass received a lot of praise for his direction of the BOURNE SUPREMACY.  Critics loved the frantic pace and quick editing because it was something new in an action movie.  But after repeating it in BOURNE ULTIMATUM and completely overdoing it here in GREEN ZONE, he deserves to be chastised for ruining his own technique.  It’s not fun or cool anymore and it doesn’t move the story along or get the audience more involved.  He went overboard with the editing this time to the point that the audience lost interest in his story.  After directing this many movies, Greengrass should be getting better, not worse.

I wasn’t really expecting too much from this film and I didn’t really receive anything.  This film is about five years removed from being relevant and the “government is evil” schtick in war movies has been played out too many times.  There was not one single aspect of this film that was original or fresh.  It all felt recycled and with characters I didn’t care about and poor directing from Paul Greengrass, it proved to be a wasted effort from two talented individuals.

Jason Segel is a busy guy lately.  He just signed on to star as a gym teacher in the Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz film BAD TEACHER and now he’s set to star in the stoner comedy JEFF WHO LIVES AT HOME.  THE HANGOVER’s Ed Helms will also be starring in the film following the day in the life of two brothers.  Segel will be playing the loser brother that still lives at home while Helms will be playing the successful, overbearing brother.  Jay and Mark Duplass will write the script and direct.

The first thing that stands out about the film is that it takes place in one day.  The next thing that stands out is that it somehow feels a lot like DUDE, WHERE’S MY CAR.  Obviously, the talent involved is much, much greater, but the idea of two stoner brothers going through a single day doesn’t exactly get me excited for the film.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

I’m a huge Steve Martin fan and I’ll watch anything he’s in, but he’s had a rough go lately when it comes to movies. Between the CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN and PINK PANTHER movies, the guy needs a box office hit in a bad way. Hopefully, he can find it with THE BIG YEAR. He’s starring with Owen Wilson and Jack Black as three bird watchers that try and outdo each other in a bird-watching competition as they try to spot the rarest birds in North America.

At first glance, you might be thinking that a movie about bird-watching will be lame and mind-numbingly boring. But the script is based off the book ‘The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession’ by Mark Obmascik and judging by the general regard for the book, it should turn out to be a funny film. Supposedly, the bird-watching is just a metaphor for the various stages the three guys are at in their life.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Clint Eastwood has tackled many, many difficult projects over his incredible career and he’s set to take on one more now that he’s chosen the biography of J. Edgar Hoover as his next project.  Eastwood will reteam with producers Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, who he previously collaborated with on CHANGELING.  MILK scribe Dustin Lance Black has already written the screenplay.

Billy Crudup just recently portrayed Hoover in the Michael Mann film PUBLIC ENEMIES and he’s appeared in many films over the years, albeit in very small parts.  The problem I see for Eastwood is what stories does he tell and which ones does he omit?  Hoover did a lot of great things for the country and how America fights crime, but towards the end of his career, he became a very controversial figure.  It seems nowadays there are more rumors about the guy than there are facts.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Is there a more in-demand actor in Hollywood these days than Ryan Reynolds?  Marvel is still crying about a Deadpool movie, he’s starring as THE GREEN LANTERN and he just singed on to do voice work in THE CROODS.  Today, we learn that he’s going back to his comedic roots in the comedy CHANGE-UP.  Ryan will star with Jason Bateman in the film written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, who wrote THE HANGOVER.  David Dobkin will direct.

The film is about a straight-laced family man (Bateman) that switches bodies with a lazy slacker (Reynolds).  Yes, you read that right; this is a body-swap movie.  As cool as this duo sounds, and as much as I loved THE HANGOVER, I have to say that I’m sick of body-swap movies.  But to be fair, we haven’t seen an R-rated body-swap movie in a while and if given the right material, Bateman and Reynolds could knock this change-up out of the park.  Okay…sorry about that.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

It’s here!!!  Finally!!!  The new trailer for THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE, featuring a dreamy Robert Pattinson, a forlorn Kristen Stewart and a shirtless Taylor Lautner.  What’s going to happen to our love triangle?  Will Bella choose the noble Jacob, or will she follow her heart and become a vampire for Edward?  Director David Slade (HARD CANDY) will tell us on June 30th.  That seems like such a long ways away, but it’s only 3 months.

Sigh.  How was that?  Did I feign excitement well enough?  I’ve been accused of not respecting the Twilight series and I’m trying to do better.  But no matter how hard I try, I just don’t care.  I appreciate that people all over the world love this story and these characters, but I don’t get it.

Watch the trailer here.

Producer Nina Jacobson is making the rounds for THE DIARY OF A WIMPY KID and dropped a nugget about her next project, which is an adaptation of David Nicholls’ ONE DAY.  As of right now, it looks like Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess are both attached to star, although it should be clear that neither have signed on the dotted line yet.  Lone Scherfig, who most recently directed AN EDUCATION, will be directing.

The film is described as a romantic comedy about a couple that meet at their graduation in the late 80’s and then make a pact to reunite one day a year for the next 20 years.  It sounds like a sweet, romantic film and I’m digging the casting of Hathaway and Sturgess.  But it could also be depressing if it doesn’t end well.  It almost makes me want to read the book…almost.

Source: Comingsoon.net

by: Jeremey Gingrich

The only time we really hear about the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is when they have a seemingly juvenile dispute with Kevin Smith over the title of a movie (COP OUT was originally A COUPLE OF DICKS, and they hated ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO and its posters) or when a director really wants to keep a nude scene or sex scene in a flick and the MPAA wants to give the film a rating of NC-17. In both of those cases it’s easy to view them as a No-Fun type of organization, made up of old timers with no libido and no sense of humor, but I saw something the other night that made me change my way of thinking.

While watching the recent release BROOKLYN’S FINEST, a scene occurred in which Richard Gere (no stranger to prostitution after AMERICAN GIGOLO and PRETTY WOMAN) has graphic – and yet still sensual – sex with a prostitute played by Shannon Kane. Immediately after this scene, Gere tells her about his day while she performs a “service” for him. As this scene progressed, a mother of two kids got up in the audience and informed her kids, and the theater, that they were leaving. The kids were vocal in their objections and confusion as to why they were leaving as they worked their way through the aisles on their way out. The audience got a laugh out of it, and though it was a distraction from the movie, which I’m not really a fan of, it brought up an interesting issue regarding the MPAA and their ratings. They were actually looking out for this mother of two. BROOKLYN’S FINEST was rated R, specifically listed “Rated R for bloody violence throughout, strong sexuality, nudity, drug content and pervasive language.” This is what they’re here for.

One of the actual stated purposes of the MPAA, as listed on their website, is “to help parents make informed decisions about what their kids watch.” Not having kids, I cannot say with exact certainty that when/if I do, and I take them out to the movies, I will only see G rated films in their earlier years. But when I do decide to take the kids to something of a stronger rating, you better believe I’ll be paying attention to that little blurb of information provided by the MPAA. I suggest other parents do the same. Maybe if my parents did that, I wouldn’t have seen THE ACCUSED at age 10. I’ve never looked at pinball machines the same way since.

My particular distaste here comes from the subject matter.  Rape, child abuse and domestic violence are a volatile mixture, and one that doesn’t ever go down smooth.  I genuinely feel for Precious’ character here, but my personal complaint stems from the fact that many people endure these things in life and the idea of having them printed on paper or filmed just doesn’t set right with me.  These problems are far too real to be taken lightly, even if the film is geared toward giving victims of these types of abuse hope.  Furthermore, when I see these types of things happening on screen I think back to flicks like Paul Walker’s RUNNING SCARED where this type of behaviour was solved by shooting the perpetrators in the face.  Now that’s my brand of justice.

The one aspect of this film I truly enjoyed was the raw strength Precious held onto despite the odds and her horrible situation.  There is something to be said about that, and if I had to sum this film up in a word it would be strength.  Sadly, there’s far too much else going on to focus on this alone, my emotions were a tangled mess leaving me ultimately troubled.  Some of this confusion was brought on by a particularly awkward score that (like my emotions) was all over the place.  Some of these songs (matched up with the wants and dreams of a kid who wished she was someone else) felt wrong and in the end played a serious number on the film’s tone.

I’m not at all surprised to see Oscar winners among the cast (especially from Monique and Gabourey Sidibe) as their portrayals were certainly believable and moving in a uniquely shocking way.  However, when several musical sensations all appear in the same cast roster it does tend to raise a flag or two for me.  Nothing against Mariah Cary or Lenny Kravitz but they stuck out like sore thumbs and for the amount of lines and screen time (which was thankfully not much) I just don’t see the point of them being a part of this unless it was a vain attempt at rekindling hurting careers.

PRECIOUS was a lot of things, but a fun night at the movies is definitely not among them.  I understand that drama gives actors and actresses a venue to really push themselves emotionally so they can show us another side of things, but these are not areas I want to explore in film.  There’s enough pain and anguish in life to go around, so when I go to the movies I’m one of those people who likes an escape from reality, not a depressing reminder of how messed up the world truly is.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: 1.85:1 Widescreen in 1080p HD with AVC codec.  Nothing too plush visually as most of the film takes place in an apartment and a classroom.

Audio: 5.1 DTS-HD in English, French and Spanish with the same subtitle options.  Nothing wrong with the audio, though the verbal abuse is hard to listen to at times.

Commentary with Lee Daniels: The director  walks us through the film and you can tell that even he is a bit shaken by some of the more graphic content.  Can’t say I blame him really.

From Push to Precious (15:22): “Push” author Sapphire gives us some details pertaining to her own life experiences as well as a look into the mindset of the story.

A Precious Ensemble (18:32): Here the producer tells us that the key to this film was finding the right actress to play Precious and how incredibly hard the task turned out to be.

Oprah and Tyler:  A Project of Passion (9:31): A look into what pulled Oprah and Tyler Perry into the project.  Oprah I get, but this was a little different for Perry.

A Conversation with Author Sapphire and Director Lee Daniels (8:27): This plays out like an ass kissing contest between the two, so much so that it feels rather fake.

Audition:  Gabourey Sidibe (2:33): Here we get a brief two minute peek at a clip from Gabourey’s Precious audition.  She didn’t even look nervous.

Deleted Scene (1:45): The Incest Survivor Meeting:  No need to explain why they cut this one, the title pretty much says it all.  No need to beat a dead horse.

Reflections on Precious (0:43): Director Lee Daniels and actress’ Gabourey Sidibe and Paula Patton throw down about the film and as you can imagine it’s all good across the board.

Previews: We a theatrical trailer as well as a handful of other trailers for upcoming Lionsgate features.

TRON LEGACY seems to have quite a bit of buzz around it and an insane amount of people that are excited for it.  The release of the trailer was an event in and of itself and people seem to be pleased with what they’ve seen so far.  The film stars Jeff Bridges, Michael Sheen, Olivia Wilde, John Hurt, Garrett Hedlund, Serinda Swan and is directed by Joseph Kosinski.  It hits theaters on December 17th.

Personally, I wasn’t that big of a fan of the original and I can barely remember what happened in it.  I remember the video games and the neon bikes, but that’s about it.  I also find it strange that so many people are still excited for this.  For Disney’s sake, I hope that translates into box office sales.  Sometimes fanboy hype doesn’t equal a successful movie.

Watch the trailer here.

Famous 80’s heartthrob Corey Haim was found dead early this morning.  Exact cause of death is still unknown, but the actor was suffering from flu-like symptoms before he passed.  A police sergeant on the scene said that Haim had taken various over-the-counter prescription drugs to combat his illness, but it was too early to say that drugs of any kind were involved.  Haim had a long history of drug abuse, and was in and out of rehabilitation clinics over 15 times.

News just recently broke of Haim’s death, but of everyone I’ve talked to that was alive in the 80’s, he was in at least one of their favorite movies.  The tandem of Haim and Feldman was a staple amongst 80’s films and Haim appeared in such films as LUCAS, THE LOST BOYS and LICENSE TO DRIVE.  He had struggled recently, but appeared in the A&E show ‘The Two Coreys’ with Feldman.

Source: The Associated Press

Fresh off the erroneous news that he was in the lead for Captain America, John Krasinski has signed on to star in the upcoming romantic comedy SOMETHING BORROWED.  The Office actor will star with Ginnifer Goodwin, who signed on to the film in early February.  The film is about a 30-something NYC lawyer (Goodwin) that falls for her best friend’s fiancee.  The film will be directed by Luke Greenfield and is based on the series of novels by Emily Giffin.

You might be thinking that Krasinski is going to be playing the fiancee, but you’d be wrong.  Krasinski actually signed on for two movies in this series and in the first one, he’ll be playing Goodwin’s best friend and confidant.  In the second, his role will develop into the main lead.  I think this is a risky endeavor for Alcon productions as Goodwin is less than a proven talent to carry a film, let alone an entire series of films.  As for Krasinski, this is a bit of a letdown considering we were talking about him becoming Captain America.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Out of nowhere an alien, or humanoid, ship lands from the sky.  American astronaut, Captain Charles “Chuck” T. Baker (Dwayne Johnson without “the Rock” in between his name) believing he is alone, immediately emerges from the ship, prepared for a moon like atmosphere and sticks an American flag into the ground.  After stepping on a dog’s squeaky toy, he looks around to see that he has landed in white picket fenced suburbia full of green people.  With the help of a local, Lem (Justin Long) Chuck must navigate his way back to his ship to get home before General Grawl (Gary Oldman) and zombie predicting obsessive, Professor Kipple (John Cleese) catch him and distract his brain.

The voice actors all did a fair job but no one was necessarily exceptional.  This is one of those cases where the studio is paying for a few famous names to put on their poster rather than finding great voice talent.  Jessica Biel is barely used as Neera, a neighbor girl and love interest of Lem.  Seann William Scott is probably working the hardest as Skiff, the high energy, dim-witted friend.  Ironically, the best character is a silent WALL-E esque robotic dog name Rover working for NASA.  Rover has his own little adventures with a fetish for rocks avoiding capturing any living specimen.  Thus, ill preparing the humans for life on Planet 51.

PLANET 51 is a super cutesy, sweet animated film.  But with today’s complex animated story lines, clever and fun for kids and adults alike, PLANET 51 comes off a little flat and boring.  Containing a few funny scenes with a pretty neat premise, it’s definitely more for kids but I kind of think that it may not be able to even hold their attention fully.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: The 2.35:1 transfer looked real nice.  The animation pops right off the screen.

Audio: The 5.1 DTS-HD track sounds clean with the soundtrack being really the only sound to showcase.

Target 51 Game: This is like the old Atari games but with less fluidity.  You’re the ship, you move left to right and shoot other ships.  The last round is a bit like Asteroids but again worse.

Extended Scenes (2:49): These are 3 scenes that added about 30 seconds each.  They didn’t really make much of a difference.  The first two are longer versions of Chuck in Lem’s bedroom and the third are the two doofy soldiers trying to be better zombies.

The World Of Planet 51 (2:54): Basically a virtual tour through the town and every location within the movie, really showing off the fantastic art direction.

Life On Planet 51 (12:04): This is the only feature worth anything.  The first half showcases the voice actors talking about how they came up with the sound of their character and the difficulties of working by themselves.  The second half showcases the writers and animators coming up with their ideas for the movie.  Grabbing a small camcorder video taping themselves during certain movements so they might animate more authentically.  It was quite funny.  I would equate it to a garage band making it big.

Planetariu- The Voice Stars of Planet 51 (3:17): A typical fluff piece featurette with the actors talking about how great the movie is as clips from the film are shown.

Music Video Montage (2:11): This is lots of clips of the movie put to music.  More like an extended preview set to music.

Animation Progression Reels (15:45): 6 animation progression scenes with 4 boxes of the same scene, each containing a different stage during the animation process.  For the most part the scenes chosen were the best scenes in the film.

Patrick Wilson, Liv Tyler and Charlie Hunnam have joined the cast of the suspense film THE LEDGE with Terrence Howard.  The film is about a man standing on a ledge that insists he has to jump by noon that day.  Howard will play a policeman trying to control the situation.  Hunnam will play the man about to jump.  The film will be directed by Matthew Chapman, who also wrote the screenplay.

At first glance, this feels like a film that has a great idea, but not enough of a story to make up a full two hours.  There’s only so much you can do with a guy standing on a ledge, but I have to assume that there’s another story since they have two recognizable actors that haven’t had their roles defined.  It almost feels a little like the Joel Schumacher film PHONE BOOTH, which also had a good idea.  But that film had other problems, mainly Joel Schumacher.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Fox 411 (perhaps the least reliable source I’ve ever sited) is claiming that ‘The Office’ star John Krasinski is now the clear frontrunner to land the coveted role of Captain America.  They go on to mention that he has read for the part 4 times, screen tested twice and they’ve even brought him in to read with actresses that are up for the female lead.  Supposedly, the “big bosses” love him and are eager to get the casting lined up.

First, let me reiterate that this is speculation and Fox 411 is a rumor blog.  However, this jives with what we learned a while ago in terms of who was up for the part.  I think John Krasinski is a fine actor, a cool guy and I really like him as an actor.  Unfortunately, I don’t see him as Captain America.  I see Captain America as a chiseled, Superman-like actor that commands the screen.  As great as Krasinski is, I don’t think of him as having a commanding screen presence.  Am I wrong?

UPDATE: If there’s a lesson here, it’s to trust your instincts, folks.  Fox 411 was completely off base and apparently, Krasinski isn’t even in the running anymore.  The Hollywood Reporter (a VERY reliable source) is reporting that Mike Vogel, Chris Evans, Wilson Bethel and Garrett Hedlund are all still in the running.

After winning the Oscar on Sunday night for Best Supporting Actor, it was only natural that Christoph Waltz would have so many job offers that he couldn’t possibly take them all.  In this case, David Cronenberg’s THE TALKING CURE is getting denied as Christoph will move forward with WATER FOR ELEPHANTS instead.  But all is not lost for Cronenberg and now he has the chance to reteam with his A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE and EASTERN PROMISES star Viggo Mortensen.  You get the feeling that he wanted that all along?

The film is based on the play by Christopher Hampton and is about Sigmund Freud (Mortensen) and his tumultuous relationship with his pupil Jung (Michael Fassbender).  Keira Knightley plays Sabina, a young woman brought in to see Jung.  Filming begins in May.

Source: Deadline Hollywood

Anna Faris and Chris Evans are set to star in the upcoming comedy WHAT’S YOUR NUMBER.  In the film, Faris will play a woman that promises herself she will only sleep with 20 men and by the time she does that, she will find her true love.  But after a drunken night out, she realizes she hit her limit and out of desperation, she tracks down all 20 guys in hopes she missed out on one of them.  The film is actually based off the book ’20 Times a Lady’ by Karyn Bosnak, but the script was rewritten by Jennifer Crittenden and Gabrielle Allan.  The film will be directed by Mark Mylod.

I like the idea for this, but I think you could have more comedy chances if the roles were reversed.  A guy imposing a limit on himself and then tracking down his ex-girlfriends seems like a more awkward situation than a girl doing it.  I am glad they went with an R-rating on this because trying to make it PG-13 would be ridiculous.

Source: Variety

Liam Hemsworth is probably going to be a name we’ll be hearing a lot of in the coming months and years.  He’s a virtually unknown right now, but everyone is a flutter over his performance in the upcoming THE LAST SONG with Miley Cyrus.  Not content with being the pop superstar’s boy toy, Hemsworth is jumping on the high-concept 3D adventure ARABIAN NIGHTS for director Chuck Russell (THE SCORPION KING).  The film is about a young commander that joins forces with Sinbad and Aladdin to rescue a queen.  Liam’s older brother is Chris Hemsworth who is currently shooting THOR with Kenneth Branagh.

The concept for the movie seems like it’s going to be tricky to pull off.  Any time you combine mythical heroes, it has a tendency to turn out cheesy more often than not.  It’s also interesting that Liam is getting so much attention for THE LAST SONG, considering the previews didn’t do much for me.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Well the Academy Awards are over and I found myself crying in the corner on Monday, which was just about the only prediction I got right.  I’ve decided to gather myself together and vent out my frustrations with a little bit of love as well.

Firstly, I’m gonna tackle the big issue which will probably alienate more than half the readers.  I’m talking about the vastly overrated THE HURT LOCKER.  I feel very alone in my view of thinking this movie was just OK.  I know a few of us here at Flix66 didn’t feel the impact of this film that everyone else did.  So let me ask you this, is THE HURT LOCKER better than a few of these films: BLACK HAWK DOWN, THE THIN RED LINE, THREE KINGS, GLORY, FULL METAL JACKET, DAS BOOT, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and APOCALYPSE NOW?  Let me tell you a little secret, none of these movies won Best Picture.   Most of these didn’t deserve to win except maybe SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and APOCALYPSE NOW but I do think all are better war films than THE HURT LOCKER.  THL also won 6 awards Sunday night.  These are a just a few Best Picture winners that THL won more Oscars than: BRAVEHEART, CASABLANCA, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, GLADIATOR, and THE GODFATHER.  Trust me, I could continue on.  Now lets fast forward ten years from now and look back at this year’s films and decide what movie people will still be remembering and influenced by.  Exactly.  Hurt what?  I’m not taking anything away from Katherine Bigelow being the first female director to win the award.  I congratulate her on the great achievement.  Plus everyone is a little annoyed at James Cameron’s public speaking ability, but I can name 6 films that were nominated for best picture that were better with a more lasting impression than THL.  If we had our normal 5 it would be all of them.  I don’t always agree with the top winner.  I understand that my favorite can’t always win, it rarely does but not since A BEAUTIFUL MIND won in 2001 have I felt the Academy and public alike have got it so wrong.  Think about how many still talk or care about that film.  Now how many talk about the loser films THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING or MOULIN ROUGE?  Exactly.  I could keep my statistics going but realize I probably just sound like a whiney baby so I will shut up and move on.

Here are a few highlights, lowlights and questions that popped up during the telecast.

The night kicked off in a great fashion with the always entertaining, Neil Patrick Harris singing the opening number.  Seriously, can he get a full time gig hosting all awards show?  NPH makes everything infinitely better.

Our two hosts have a musical lead in as they angelically descend from the rafters.  Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, I thought did a fantastic job, if only they could have been given a little more time toward the end of the evening.  Martin: “Precious and I have something in common, we both grew up a poor black child.”

Supporting Actor goes to the best performance of the year, Christoph Waltz in INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS.  He wins classiest speech as well.

Martin: “There’s that damn Helen Mirren”.  Baldwin: “That’s Dame, Dame Helen Mirren.”  These types of jokes continue on and I love every minute of it.

Original Screenplay goes to THE HURT LOCKER and not INGLOURIOUS BASTERS or any of the other nominees.  I realize then it’s going to be a long night of THL winning and unhappiness ensues.  Explain to me what this screenplay consisted of other than a soldier diffusing bombs.  I respect that soldier’s job but the film did not technically tell a story.  Side note:  THL is being sued by a soldier who claims the story is about him.

Best Costume winner, Sandy Powell for YOUNG VICTORIA, struts up, brags how it’s her third award and seems put off that she has to carry this thing around.

MoNique wins Supporting Actress and ruins all the goodwill she has garnered by basically saying if anyone else had won, it would have been political and undeserved.  Wow, that was one of the rudest things I’ve ever heard anyone say at the Academy Awards.  I want to personally slap all other nominees in this category in the face.

Ben Stiller in full on AVATAR makeup.  He has no shame and I am thankful.  Yay, STAR TREK wins that award.

Best Documentary Short director gets interrupted by the producer of the same film during speech.  Apparently they didn’t get along.  It was definitely awkward but they were on the same team.  That’s a new one.

What was the deal with George Clooney and his grumpy faces?

My personal favorite moment was a video consisting of a night camera set up a la PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, catching what the two hosts do while they sleep together.  I was cry laughing during the entire scene, topping it off with Martin staring over Baldwin and ending with a slap to the face.  Good times.

The constant ribbing on Meryl Streep.  She is the best in every sense of the word

The Dude, Jeff Bridges, finally wins an Oscar.

Sandra Bullock wins Best Actress, and although I still don’t think her performance warranted the award or nomination her humility, wit and charm during her acceptance speech won me over.  Bravo Sandy.

Katherine Bigelow is the first female to win Best Director award

Finally THL wins picture, the event that causes my rant at the start of this article.  I cry alone.

Irony= I usually hate the blockbuster film that wins and root for the small town favorite that loses.  This year the opposite happens.

The three story arcs that converge in a weeks time in Brooklyn have Richard Gere playing the retiring cop Eddie Dugan who starts his day off with a low ball of Irish Whiskey right as he wakes up before putting an unloaded gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger. He is separated from his wife, either causing or due to his affinity to frequent a prostitute (played by Shannon Kane), and he just needs to survive the week to collect his pension. He is not liked in the department, and has had an unimpressive career, which is why he still walks the beat after 22 years. Don Cheadle plays Clarence/Tango, a cop who has infiltrated the drug trade of the Brooklyn projects through a friendship with gangland heavy Casanova “Caz” Phillips (played well by Wesley Snipes – ironic that his character is recently released from prison). It is the friendship between Tango and Caz (yes, I thought about that movie, too), that causes Clarence’s conflict, especially as a Federal agent (a real ball-breaker played by Ellen Barkin) turns up the heat to send Caz right back to prison. And finally Ethan Hawke plays Detective Sal Procida, an intensely religious man with 4 kids and two more on the way with a wife (Lili Taylor) expecting twins who needs to move out of their house because of mold in the wood exacerbating her asthma. Sal is a “first through the door” guy in countless drug busts where mountains of cash are confiscated. He needs that cash for his family, and the lengths he will go to to get it are revealed quickly and shockingly.

Hawke almost seems to be playing a continuation of his character Jake Hoyt from TRAINING DAY, with that toughness and grit, but with a moral compass that is all out of whack, and we see him struggle with it affectively throughout the film. Gere plays Eddie Dugan as a complex character, who runs the gamut from apathetic to compassionate to suicidal through his final days and in a variety of situations, but he plays them all with subtlety, nothing over the top. He has a well-played scene with the New York actor Isiah Whitlock Jr. (from 25^TH HOUR and countless “Law & Order” episodes) in which Gere really sells his sickness with the job he has done for 22 years. But Cheadle is the one that sells his character the best. As said before, this is a character we’ve seen before, but Cheadle is such a fine actor he creates it anew, and he plays the slow boil in a sympathetic manner that when he finally boils over, we genuinely care about its outcome. Wesley Snipes, Michael Kenneth Williams (Omar from “The Wire” who plays the Number 2 man in Caz’s gang) and Cheadle play well off of one another, and almost make you long for their story to have a movie all to themselves.

But nobody gets a movie all to themselves here. BROOKLYN’S FINEST is three tales converging on the projects of Brooklyn in a manner that didn’t seem thrown together. The characters bump into one another, or cross paths by happenstance, but their three stories are totally separate, and that is a credit to the screenwriter Michael C. Martin for resisting the temptation to converge them all to one final meeting spot for all the characters. Each story plays out as it should, and though the ending is somewhat anti-climactic, and oddly shot, we have tied up all loose ends…and been given a gut-wrenching glimpse into the lives of three cops in the borough that is Brooklyn.

Funny Random tidbits: This movie is released the same day as ALICE IN WONDERLAND, and in a scene between Richard Gere and his prostitute girlfriend, they are intimate (if you can be intimate with a prostitute) while Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” plays in the background.

When John Hughes passed away in August of 2009, many of us thought that we’d seen the last of the famous filmmaker’s work.  As it turns out, we may get several more John Hughes movies after all.  As the family is digging through his work, they’re finding several unpublished works, including books and screenplays.  One of the scripts making its way through Hollywood studios is ‘Grisbys Go Broke’ which revolves around a wealthy family that is forced to live poor when they lose everything.  It’s thought that Paramount would pick up the film since Hughes made most of his more popular films.  Hughes’ last script to see a feature film was 2008’s not-so-memorable DRILLBIT TAYLOR with Owen Wilson (under the pseudonym Edmond Dantes).

Hughes received a touching tribute at last night’s Oscar show, even if it was a little scary to see all of our 80’s kids grown up.  What happened to Judd Nelson?  The guy is 50 years old and he’s dressed like he’s 20.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

The second trailer for IRON MAN 2 was released today and it’s odd that they would release this the day after the Oscars, but apparently no time is a bad time to plug a summer blockbuster.  The second (and presumably final) trailer features a little more of the storyline, which sees Mickey Rourke’s Whiplash defining his hatred for Tony Stark and of course, a lot of action between the two.  I’m still not sure how Scarlett Johansson and Black Widow fit into the story, but we see more of her in action as well.

The film also stars Robert Downey Jr., Sam Rockwell, Samuel L. Jackson, Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle.  Jon Favreau directs once again and the film hits theaters everywhere May 7th.

Watch the Trailer here.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND is not a remake or retelling of the original story, but actually a whole different story of Alice returning to Wonderland as a 19-year-old, who must realize her destiny and choose her journey to destroy the Red Queen’s dragon, the Jabberwocky, to end her reign of terror…a la THE LORD OF THE RINGS style. Alice is unaware of ever being in Wonderland as a child, except from her dreams. In her “regular” life, Alice has recently lost her father, who seemed to be the only one who understood her whimsical manner, and is expected to marry a man whom she does not love before chasing the famous White Rabbit (voiced by Michael Sheen) down the hole all over again. Alice does unknowingly repeat some of her steps from the original story line and meets a few of her original friends along the way, including Tweedledee and Tweedledum (voiced by Matt Lucas), the Blue Caterpillar (voiced by Alan Rickman) and my personal favorite, the Chesire Cat (voiced by Stephen Fry). They all help her on her path and most get kidnapped by the Red Queen in doing so, but none more helpful than the Mad Hatter, who Alice will miss most of all…a la Scarecrow from THE WIZARD OF OZ style.

All the voice actors did a wonderful job and Mia Wasikowska as Alice was terrific. She definitely brought a more a likeability to the role than the younger version of Alice that I’m use to. Johnny Depp as the Hatter showed his usual charisma and oddness he brings to a role. But am I being a little too picky when I think the Mad Hatter just wasn’t quite mad enough? I’m use to a little more nonsensical Hatter rather than a sane, right-hand man for the White Queen (Anne Hathaway). Don’t get me wrong, I’m not bashing Johnny Depp. The film is much better with him in it, but I do think the script created a more watered down version of the Hatter, so he might relate to Alice a little better. The big stand out was Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen who is wickedly cruel and funny at the same time. Her quips and meanness coming out of her unusually gargantuan head made me giggle out loud more than a couple of times.

The adventure and story worked in it’s own way except for the last act which seemed to fall into a formulaic hole itself. In typical Hollywood fashion the film ends with a big action sequence that doesn’t really offer anything new or fresh. I found it a little tired and easy with each side matching up in their own battle that lacked creativity. And while technically great the colors seemed a little muted rather than vibrant. The Red Queen is ruling so Wonderland is a little more dark and run down than usual but through my 3D glasses any object in the background seemed a little flat and fuzzy.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND is enjoyable enough for adults, but minus a few dark moments, will work mostly for kids. It is visually creative but after AVATAR, I may be a little spoiled when it comes to the look of a 3D film. While Alice In Wonderland was neat it just didn’t live up to the standard of AVATAR before it.

In what might be considered a bit of an upset, THE HURT LOCKER managed to beat out the uber-successful AVATAR for Best Picture honors at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards.  THE HURT LOCKER was nominated 9 times and took home 6 awards, including Best Director for Kathryn Bigelow, who became the first woman to ever win the award.  Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges won top acting honors, while Mo’Nique and Christoph Waltz took home supporting actor awards.  THE HURT LOCKER received the sound awards while AVATAR (of course) won all the major visual awards, including Best Cinematographer.

As for hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, I’d say they did pretty well, although the opening performance was owned by Neil Patrick Harris.  But the single best moment at the Oscars came from Sandra Bullock, who leaned in to hug Meryl Streep and then pulled out, leaving Meryl hanging.  It seems like those two have a friendly banter back and forth and it was a nice moment that livened up the show.  Also, watching Jeff Bridges give his acceptance speech was fun, only because the Dude seems like a laid back, fun guy.  If I have one complaint, it’s that the telecast is still too long, but maybe if I lived on the West Coast, I wouldn’t feel that way.

Click here for the complete list of nominees and winners.

Best Picture

“Avatar” James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
“The Blind Side” Nominees to be determined
“District 9” Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers
“An Education” Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers
“The Hurt Locker” Nominees to be determined
“Inglourious Basterds” Lawrence Bender, Producer
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers
“A Serious Man” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers
“Up” Jonas Rivera, Producer
“Up in the Air” Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers

Actor in a Leading Role

Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart”
George Clooney in “Up in the Air”
Colin Firth in “A Single Man”
Morgan Freeman in “Invictus”
Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker”

Actor in a Supporting Role

Matt Damon in “Invictus”
Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger”
Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station”
Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones”
Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”

Actress in a Leading Role

Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”
Helen Mirren in “The Last Station”
Carey Mulligan in “An Education”
Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia”

Actress in a Supporting Role

Penélope Cruz in “Nine”
Vera Farmiga in “Up in the Air”
Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart”
Anna Kendrick in “Up in the Air”
Mo’Nique in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

Animated Feature Film

“Coraline” Henry Selick
“Fantastic Mr. Fox” Wes Anderson
“The Princess and the Frog” John Musker and Ron Clements
“The Secret of Kells” Tomm Moore
“Up” Pete Docter

Art Direction

“Avatar” Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Art Direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; Set Decoration: Caroline Smith
“Nine” Art Direction: John Myhre; Set Decoration: Gordon Sim
“Sherlock Holmes” Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
“The Young Victoria” Art Direction: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Maggie Gray

Cinematography

“Avatar” Mauro Fiore
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” Bruno Delbonnel
“The Hurt Locker” Barry Ackroyd
“Inglourious Basterds” Robert Richardson
“The White Ribbon” Christian Berger

Costume Design

“Bright Star” Janet Patterson
“Coco before Chanel” Catherine Leterrier
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Monique Prudhomme
“Nine” Colleen Atwood
“The Young Victoria” Sandy Powell

Directing

“Avatar” James Cameron
“The Hurt Locker” Kathryn Bigelow
“Inglourious Basterds” Quentin Tarantino
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels
“Up in the Air” Jason Reitman

Documentary (Feature)

“Burma VJ” Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller
“The Cove” Nominees to be determined
“Food, Inc.” Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein
“The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers” Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
“Which Way Home” Rebecca Cammisa

Documentary (Short Subject)

“China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province” Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill
“The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner” Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher
“The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant” Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
“Music by Prudence” Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett
“Rabbit à la Berlin” Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra

Film Editing

“Avatar” Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
“District 9″ Julian Clarke
“The Hurt Locker” Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
“Inglourious Basterds” Sally Menke
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Joe Klotz

Foreign Language Film

“Ajami” Israel
“El Secreto de Sus Ojos” Argentina
“The Milk of Sorrow” Peru
“Un Prophète” France
“The White Ribbon” Germany

Makeup

“Il Divo” Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
“Star Trek” Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
“The Young Victoria” Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore

Music (Original Score)

“Avatar” James Horner
“Fantastic Mr. Fox” Alexandre Desplat
“The Hurt Locker” Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
“Sherlock Holmes” Hans Zimmer
“Up” Michael Giacchino

Music (Original Song)

“Almost There” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
“Down in New Orleans” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
“Loin de Paname” from “Paris 36″ Music by Reinhardt Wagner Lyric by Frank Thomas
“Take It All” from “Nine” Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston
“The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart” Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Short Film (Animated)

“French Roast” Fabrice O. Joubert
“Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty” Nicky Phelan and Darragh O’Connell
“The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)” Javier Recio Gracia
“Logorama” Nicolas Schmerkin
“A Matter of Loaf and Death” Nick Park

Short Film (Live Action)

“The Door” Juanita Wilson and James Flynn
“Instead of Abracadabra” Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström
“Kavi” Gregg Helvey
“Miracle Fish” Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey
“The New Tenants” Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

Sound Editing

“Avatar” Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
“The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson
“Inglourious Basterds” Wylie Stateman
“Star Trek” Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin
“Up” Michael Silvers and Tom Myers

Sound Mixing

“Avatar” Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson
“The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
“Inglourious Basterds” Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano
“Star Trek” Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson

Visual Effects

“Avatar” Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
“District 9″ Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken
“Star Trek” Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

“District 9″ Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
“An Education” Screenplay by Nick Hornby
“In the Loop” Screenplay by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
“Up in the Air” Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Writing (Original Screenplay)

“The Hurt Locker” Written by Mark Boal
“Inglourious Basterds” Written by Quentin Tarantino
“The Messenger” Written by Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
“A Serious Man” Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
“Up” Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy

Sandra Bullock is probably going to do something no other actor has done before and that’s win a Razzie and an Oscar on the same weekend.  Bullock is poised to take home a Best Actress award tonight for her turn in THE BLIND SIDE, but couldn’t live down her horrible performance in ALL ABOUT STEVE that came out several months earlier.  The Razzies were announced yesterday, with TRANSFORMERS 2: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN taking the top “honor” as the worst film of 2009 and for having the worst screenplay.  Other acting “awards” include Sienna Miller for worst supporting actress for GI JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA, The Jonas Brothers collective received the worst acting award for their 3D concert film and Billy Ray Cyrus was named worst supporting actor.

LAND OF THE LOST and TRANSFORMERS 2 were tied for most nominations, but if not for a tie-break from Razzie creator John Wilson for Worst Sequel, LAND OF THE LOST would have been shut out.  The Razzies also announced their worst of the decade awards with BATTLEFIELD EARTH named worst movie, Eddie Murphy named worst actor and Paris Hilton worst actress.  Although to be fair, Paris Hilton is far from an actual actress.

I think all of us thought Tim Burton’s ALICE IN WONDERLAND would be #1 at the box office this weekend, but I definitely didn’t see it raking in a whopping $116 million, making it the highest March opening in history.  Aside from the obvious benefits, this showing at the box office means a lot more for the industry than you might think.  Alice was the source of contention between Disney and theater chains around the world because of Disney’s plans to release the Blu-ray a mere three months after the theatrical release.  Obviously, the theater chains didn’t like that and threatened to refuse to release the film before finally caving in.  But like I wrote about a while ago, theater chains have to adapt.  The industry is changing and everyone seems to get that but theater owners.  This haul by Alice is a good sign that audiences don’t care when the Blu-ray or DVD is coming out, at least not on opening weekend.  For those of you still on the AVATAR watch, it brought in another $7 million, bringing its total to $720 million.  An Oscar win could almost get that to a billion.

BROOKLYN’S FINEST was the other movie opening this week and it managed $13 million.  Last week’s #1 film, SHUTTER ISLAND, managed to do pretty well in its third week, despite the competition and pulled in another $13.5 million.  Kevin Smith’s COP OUT continues to disappoint and only managed $9.  Next week sees the release of GREEN ZONE, with the re-teaming of Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass.  It’s a spy movie in which Matt Damon plays a government agent that gets betrayed.  Sound familiar?  But we also have the release of SHE’S OUTTA MY LEAGUE and Robert Pattinson’s REMEMBER ME.

1  Alice in Wonderland (2010)  $116,300,000

2  Brooklyn’s Finest  $13,500,000

3  Shutter Island  $13,300,000

4  Cop Out  $9,145,000

5  Avatar  $7,700,000

6  The Crazies  $7,016,000

7  Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief  $5,100,000

8  Valentine’s Day  $4,270,000

9  Crazy Heart  $3,350,000

10  Dear John  $2,850,000

Source: Box Office Mojo

Where has Ryan Gosling been lately?  His main squeeze Rachel McAdams is everywhere lately, but he seems to be staying low.  He used to be attached to every comic book movie in production, but none of the roles ever panned out for him.  Today we learn that he’s going to be starring alongside Steve Carell in an untitled comedy.  In it, Gosling will play the smooth best friend while Steve Carell will play a man struggling with his kids.  The film will be directed by John Requa and Glenn Ficarra (I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS).

This sounds more like a supporting role for Gosling and oddly similar to Dane Cook’s character in DAN IN REAL LIFE, which this film already sounds too much like.  Gosling is no stranger to subtle comedy, but I still enjoy him more in the darker, more serious roles.

Source: Variety

When I read this news, I was shocked to learn that ESPN analyst Rachel Nichols was now getting into movies, and in a CONAN film of all places.  Sadly, I was disappointed when I found out that my favorite sideline reporter was not actually going to be starring in the film, but rather this Rachel Nichols is the one from G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA and STAR TREK.  She will star alongside Jason Momoa, Mickey Rourke, Bob Sapp and Leo Howard in the Conan film directed by Marcus Nispel.

Nichols will play a bodyguard to the queen that must team up with Conan to defeat an evil, ambitious king played by Mickey Rourke.  I would say that given her previous credits, this film seems about right for Nichols.  And I guess I’ll have to wait until football starts in August to get more of the other Rachel Nichols.

Source: Latino Review

Is Katy Perry still cool?  I can’t keep up with pop singers anymore, one minute they’re hot, the next they’re cold.  See what I did there?  Anyway, Katy Perry, George Lopez and Alan Cumming will all be voicing Smurfs in the upcoming film adaptation of THE SMURFS.  The film already stars Neil Patrick Harris as the lone live-action character cast so far.  But what’s more exciting for long time Smurfs fans is that Jonathan Winters will also be doing voice work in the film as the one and only Papa Smurf.  Winters voiced the character in the original cartoon show.

I don’t think the addition of any of these voices makes me any more excited for the film, but what do you think the odds are that Katy Perry (as Smurfette) will burst into song at one point in the film?  And George Lopez as Grouchy Smurf could make for some good lines, but Alan Cumming as Gutsy Smurf (side note: who?) doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.

Source: Variety

Wild women, rock ‘n roll, drugs and living on the edge; reminds me of junior high…or not.  But the second trailer for THE RUNAWAYS with Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning and Michael Shannon actually looks really good.  For the first time in her career, Kristen Stewart managed to go almost two full minutes without completely annoying me.  I actually think Stewart is a decent actress, but she picks roles that have her complaining constantly.  And I didn’t even realize until this trailer that ‘Arrested Development’s Alia Sawkat is also in this.   The film is directed by Floria Sigismondi and hits theaters everywhere on April 9th.

The real highlight of this film is Dakota Fanning.  Since she was just a little girl, she just has a way of commanding the screen.  I think this will thrust her into stardom as an adult.  Not an “adult” film star, but you know, an actress that’s grown up.

Watch the trailer here.

by: Jeremey Gingrich

You can’t go out and party every weekend, so on those nights you want to take it easy, Flix66.com has put together a bi-weekly column to help you with your movie selection. The Trifecta is a recommendation of three movies that set a mood, that showcase an actor or director, that acquaint the viewer with a geographic location, or maybe even have some obscure link like a Best Boy or Key Grip.

Trifecta #18: WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE + AWAY WE GO + UP IN THE AIR

Folks, as much as we like to think of movies as purely entertainment, sometimes they can touch at parts of our psyches and act as either a mirror or a foil to our lives that lead us to a level of introspection that therapists can’t break through no matter how many sessions they bill you for. 2009 had no shortage of such movies, and they ran the gamut through the stages of development, and if you’re prepared for it, if you can wrap your head around it and emotionally prepare yourself, you can take that emotional head trip in 311 minutes of movies that showcase characters in diverse situations but still hit on the hopes and fears of the average human being, and to do that in the same medium that produces stuff like DUDE, WHERE’S MY CAR? is a feat to be respected.

To tackle this celluloid exploration into the human psyche chronologically (by developmental stage), we will start with the recently released Blu-Ray WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, directed by Spike Jonze. Jonze is no stranger to the realm of psychological filmmaking after helming ADAPTATION back in 2002, but here he helped pen the script with Dave Eggers based on only 10 sentences from Maurice Sendak’s famed children’s book. In the film, young Max, played with a myriad of emotions by Max Records, deals with his loneliness and confusion by creating an imaginary world of frightening creatures, all of which represent the different emotions he himself is experiencing. A licensed therapist would charge you $100 bucks a session for this ability, to remove yourself from your situation, to look at it as an outsider, and grow from that aspect as a spectator. Catherine Keener plays the struggling single mother with exasperation which gains instant sympathy, even in limited screen time, and her cathartic ending with her son will have you interrupting your trifecta to make a phone call back to Mommy Dearest (not a reference to the movie MOMMY DEAREST).

AWAY WE GO is our second foray into the human mind, but this time viewing growth through the newfound realization of parenthood. John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph play new parents as Rudolph is pregnant through most of the film as they try to find a new place to call home to raise their child. They visit friends in Phoenix, Tucson, Wisconsin, Montreal and Miami, with each visit giving us examples of the different types of parents or adults they could be. The close of the movie has one of the best parental moments as Burt and Verona help their niece through a tough time, and then contrast that with their fears of becoming new parents; fears most every new parent has, but expressed in a realistic and funny way. The close of this movie makes us wish for the happiness of this couple as we would wish for the impending happiness of every average, regular couple. It’s their ability to represent that average couple that makes us applaud their efforts, and love the ending of this gentle film that much more.

The last film in the trifecta comes out on DVD and Blu-Ray on March 9^th, so you’ll have to wait a bit on this one, folks. It’s UP IN THE AIR, starring George Clooney and directed by a man who has done no wrong from THANK YOU FOR SMOKING to JUNO and now with this great film. Clooney still looks like Clooney, but he still has to deal with the question of settling down or living his life of travel and random hook ups. He then finds what could be the way out in a sexy Vera Farmiga, but her cool exterior hides something inside that maybe we aren’t ready for. But that doesn’t even matter. What matters is Clooney’s journey, best seen in the marriage of his sister, and that journey, perfectly conveyed through something as simple as facial expressions, is what gives the viewer the best opportunity to look inward and see what he himself is made of. I know I’m ending a lot of sentences with prepositions but it just flows that way. Such films need to be expressed in that way.

So how will you react to this trifecta? Will you weep uncontrollably at the futility of attempting to solve life’s mysteries in 311 minutes? Or will you simply fold to one way of thinking over another? Psychiatrists would prescribe medicine either way. The important thing is continuing to use movies to look inward, not just outward. And let the ProZac rain down like dollar bills in a strip club.

Percy Jackson is a teenager who has dyslexia, ADHD and father issues.  He soon discovers that he is a demi-god (half human, half god) and that his father is one of the top three gods: Poseidon.  Percy sets out on a quest to rescue his mother from the underworld and along the way encounters classic mythological creatures and trials.

Although entertaining, the one major flaw in this film was the screenplay.  The plot was decent but the lines the actors were forced to say were just plain bad.  This movie is based on a children’s book series so it’s to be expected that the jokes are lame and hit the floor with a thud, but if they would have made the film with more adult oriented dialogue, it would have been so much better.  The books are geared towards 9-12 year old kids but with less cheese the movie could have easily been geared towards an older audience as well.  We’ve seen plenty of movies recently that have managed to be safe enough for kids, but still keep the story and dialogue intriguing enough for the adults, so it definitely can be done.

The special effects in this film were very well done.  A good example would be Medusa (Uma Thurman, who seems to only look good when Tarantino’s behind the camera).  Just a quick reminder, Medusa is the lady with a head full of snakes who would turn people to stone if one looked her in the eyes.  This character really stood out in a very sophisticated and non-cheesy way.  CGI has come a very long way but shockingly it’s still very common to see crappy special effects in films (see 2012).  PJO did an excellent job in the special effects department and this really made the mythological characters and creatures come to life.

The best thing about this film was just the concept and story.  Percy Jackson’s character has a lot of potential as a demi-god and the adventures he can go on in the future could be exciting to see.  Chris Columbus does a really good job of taking these kids books and then turning them into films, which is really not an easy feat.  Granted, he has practice with this sort of thing since he got the Harry Potter franchise started.  Whether or not Percy Jackson merits a number of sequels remains to be seen.

Sometimes films about Greek mythology don’t do well because the filmmakers rely too heavily on the great characters and don’t bother with a story.  That was partially true here as the characters are so interesting and the stories are absolutely fascinating but they didn’t have the chance to shine.  PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTENING THIEF has plenty of good qualities, but older audience members might be bored by the juvenile dialogue and tired script.

Rachel McAdams, Owen Wilson and Marion Cotillard have all agreed to star in Woody Allen’s next film that will shoot in France.  Unfortunately, that’s all we know.  I hate posting news about Woody Allen films because there’s nothing really to report other than who’s joined the cast.  He hasn’t even announced a title for the movie yet, let alone a plot summary.  Finding out it’s shooting in France is actually more in-depth than what we usually know this early in the process.

And does anyone still care about Woody Allen?  I thought he had made a bit of a comeback with MATCH POINT, but that success didn’t last long.  WHATEVER WORKS was a letdown considering how many fans Larry David has, but his latest film YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER with Naomi Watts and Josh Brolin is generating good buzz early on and was just picked up by Sony Pictures Classics.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

My first thought when watching the trailer for Zack Snyder’s LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS was; “who is responsible for this pansy voice”?  The answer, in case you were wondering, is Jim Sturgess.  I feel kind of bad because I actually like Sturgess, but his voice in this just grated on me.  And that’s for a two minute trailer, I can’t imagine what it will be like for an entire movie.  The film also features the voice talents of Emile de Ravin, Hugo Weaving, Geoffrey Rush, Helen Mirren and Sam Neil.  In case you don’t recognize the title, this is the film based on the popular children’s book ‘Guardians of Ga’Hoole’ by Kathryn Lasky.

The animation is impressive, but I definitely get that HAPPY FEET vibe to it, which makes sense because it’s done by the same animation studio.  But it looks like they stepped it up a notch for this one.

Watch the trailer here.

Bradley Cooper’s foray into real acting got a welcomed boost as Robert De Niro has signed on to star alongside Cooper in the upcoming drama THE DARK FIELDS.  We just heard unconfirmed reports that Elizabeth Banks could be playing the female lead in the thriller and so the cast is beginning to fill out.  The film is about a man that takes a drug to make himself smarter and receives financial and social success because of it, only to find out there are harsh side effects.  Leslie Dixon wrote the script based off the book by Alan Glynn.  Neil Burger will be handling directing duties.

Robert De Niro has had a string of bad films recently, but he’s still one of the best actors around.  I’m hoping Burger knows what to do with him.  The real question is whether or not Bradley Cooper can handle a role that doesn’t require him to woo a leading lady.

Source: Variety

A while ago, it was believed that Robert De Niro would be playing Alabama Governor George Wallace in SELMA, but that is still not confirmed.  What is confirmed is that Hugh Jackman is the only star officially attached to the film.  We don’t know yet what he will be playing, but we do know he’s in.  Admittedly, it seems odd to have Hugh Jackman be the main star of a film about the Civil Rights movement in the South, but Jackman does have the range to pull it off.

The film is about the Civil Rights marches that started in Selma, Alabama, where segregation was probably the worst.  The character of George Wallace is an important one for the film since Alabama was in the condition it was in because of his refusal to accept the desegregation laws.  However, Daniels claimed in an interview that the film is really about Lyndon Johnson and his change in values.

Source: USA Today

However, the curiosity and frustration I had about the political and religious beliefs of Kansas never led to me making a movie about it and it was by pure accident that I stumbled upon this little documentary from Laura Cohen and Joe Winston.  In a surprisingly unbiased fashion, they set out to research “what’s the matter with Kansas” and nail it down to specific incidents by interviewing various political figures and residents.  The film follows three separate people; a struggling farmer, a born again Christian mom and a young Christian girl on her way to college.  They have different experiences and views on politics and religion and the filmmakers are careful not to paint any of them as “wrong” or “right”; they just want to show you they exist and that they have particular views.

One of the best parts about watching documentary films like this is that you get to be a part of people’s lives that you otherwise wouldn’t see.  In this case, listening to these people and hearing their reasoning was interesting, but extremely frustrating at the same time.  The film really blurs the line between religion and politics (regardless of what you think, “republican” is not, and never has been, synonymous with “Christian”) and so at times feels like you’re watching a movie about Kansans and religion and not Kansans and politics.  I think both are valid topics and ripe for debate, but I was more interested in why Kansas is such a republican state now and less interested in their religious views.  Perhaps that was the intent of the filmmakers; to draw a parallel between the Christianity in Kansas and the switch to supporting the republican party.

As much as I enjoyed following these people and listening to them talk about their political and religious views, what I was really interested in was finding out what happened to Kansas.  We get a little bit of a tease when we learn about some of the Populist and Socialist history of the state, then we get a great interview with Dan Glickman when he recounts the Summer of Mercy, but the question remains unanswered when the film closes.  The filmmakers seemingly wanted the audience to answer the question on their own, but I wanted more of a history of the politics in the state to better judge why the state changed so drastically.

I’m curious as to how people outside of Kansas will view this film.  I was slightly embarrassed by it, but I also recognize that the film completely ignored anyone in cities like Kansas City, Lawrence, Topeka and even in the heart of Wichita.  The vast majority of Kansans live in those cities and I think they could have gotten a more diverse reaction had they focused on the politics within the major cities.  Even still, I enjoyed the film and I join the filmmakers in asking; what’s the matter with Kansas?

by: Rebeca Surber

Finding diamonds in the rough is a wonderful feeling, but in order to do so, you usually have to watch a lot of bad movies. Flix66.com takes the pain away by recommending a movie that you may have never heard of, or missed when it first came out.

Once upon a time Reese Witherspoon (WALK THE LINE) decided to produce and take on a very small part in a fairy tale that captured my heart with the unique twist on a standard storyline, imaginative scenes and perfectly cast actors. PENELOPE is the tale of an aristocratic family cursed by their great, great, great grandfather after he rejects the servant girl and marries another instead. Legend has it that the servant girl’s mother, the town witch, cast a spell commanding the next daughter born in the Wilhern family would have the face of a pig so they would endure the pain & rejection her daughter experienced. The spell would only be broken when one of their own kind claims his daughter as their own til death do they part. As predicted, the curse comes true generations later with the birth of the first Wilhern girl, Penelope, (Christina Ricci).

To keep reporters at bay, they fake Penelope’s death and keep her hidden away; grooming her for the day she will find love and the curse will be broken. The world created within the mansion for Penelope is visually impressive; her room is rich in color and whimsical fantasy. Lush greens, rare flowers, butterflies and a large swing hanging from the ceiling give the room a fresh outdoor ambiance.

Match-making ensues as the family interprets that the curse can only be broken by blue bloods – one of their own kind. Catherine O’Hara (BEST IN SHOW, HOME ALONE) is her usual brilliant self playing Penelope’s forever meaning well, over-bearing, loud mother and controller of the match-making despite witnessing the constant rejection Penelope faces once her potential suitors see her snout and run. After one suitor gets away without signing a legal gag swearing him to secrecy he teams up with a reporter (Peter Dinklage) hatching a plan to capture a picture of Penelope to show the world. They find Max Campion (the ever hot James McAvoy), a down and out blue blood, to go in as a spy for a small sum. The chemistry between Ricci and McAvoy, though slow to develop is charming and sweet. From their first encounter I’m rooting for their relationship to develop into something life-changing for the two characters.

When Max rejects Penelope’s proposal for reasons not yet explained, she flees her home, the only place she had known for 20-something years and discovers a whole new world of stores, parks, pubs, street fairs and friends. She teams up with Annie (Reese Witherspoon) and learns how to be on her own all while hiding her swine like features.

Ricci is wonderful as the tender hearted, optimistic Penelope. Witherspoon on the other hand, tries too hard to be the tough chick image she chose for her character. It seems a bit forced and unnatural. McAvoy always does well as the wrong guy who finds love then rejection (as seen in BECOMING JANE or ATTONEMENT) is once again perfect in this role. His facial scruff, blue eyes and fresh attitude make him irresistible to Penelope (and this viewer). In short, this movie is full of heart and the underlining theme of liking yourself as you are (pig snout and all) is touching and a good reminder to us all.

I’m constantly amazed at the casting choices that are made on a daily basis in Hollywood.  Sometimes you think a role is ridiculous and then it turns out great, but Neil Patrick Harris starring in a G-rated (probably) movie about The Smurfs is a head-scratcher.  I don’t remember a blond, thirty-something adult having a part in the Smurfs cartoon.  Granted, I only remember the Smurfs, that one dark-haired kid that carried a sword and the older, evil guy that wanted to eat/kill the Smurfs.  Admittedly, my memories of the Smurfs are fuzzy at best, but I digress.   The point is that of the characters I want to see NPH play, this probably isn’t one of them.  To be fair, NPH is great in anything, so I’m sure he’ll do well in this.

The movie is a CGI-live action hybrid in the vein of ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS and is due to start shooting in April for a July, 2011 release date.

Source: Deadline Hollywood

The trailer for AFTER.LIFE is out and to be perfectly honest, I’m not sure what it’s about.  It feels a little like the Hayden Christensen film AWAKE and presumably, it involves someone stuck in between life and death.  The movie stars Christina Ricci, Liam Neeson and Justin Long and is directed by Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo.  It looks a little creepy, but it also has a little bit of a PG-13 vibe to it.  I don’t know what the rating is or will be, I’m just saying it feels a little pre-teen to me.  The movie opens up in the US on April 9th.

On the plus side, it does star Christina Ricci, who is a favorite around here for her ability to shed the innocent girl image in virtually every movie she’s done since CASPER.  She’s one of those actresses that deserves more credit than she gets and always turns in a great performance.

Watch the trailer here.

Between this and starring as Conan’s father in the upcoming Conan film, I’m afraid Mickey Rourke might be doing his best John Travolta impersonation.  He was big, then he fell off, then he had a huge comeback, now he’s doing (seemingly) bad movies again.  To be fair, this and the new Conan might be spectacular films, I just don’t have good feelings about them in these early stages.  Not many stars get multiple chances in Hollywood, so Rourke needs to be more careful about what roles he takes.  But he will be playing the villain in the upcoming film WAR OF THE GODS.  We just learned that Freida Pinto will be starring along with Henry Cavill.

Tarsem Singh will direct the film about a young warrior (Cavill) that leads some Greek Gods to defeat some evil Greek Gods in order to save the world.  Rourke will play King Hyperion.

Source: Variety

James McAvoy has dropped out of the upcoming, still untitled cancer comedy and has been replaced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  The other stars attached remain with the film and include Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, Anjelica Huston and Philip Baker Hall.  Jonathan Levine will be directing and Will Reiser wrote the script, based off his real life experiences as he battled cancer.

I have some very conflicting emotions about this because McAvoy is one of my favorite actors and I was looking forward to a role that would give him the chance to show off his charm and charisma.  But I also really like Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  My only question about Levitt is how he’ll play off of Seth Rogen.  That seems like an odd pairing.

This is very strange since McAvoy had just recently talked about how excited he was about the project and “circumstances beyond his control” is a unique term to describe why an actor has left a film.  It should also be noted that rumors have already started to surface that one of the reasons McAvoy dropped out is because he’s been cast as Bilbo Baggins in Guillermo Del Toro’s THE HOBBIT.  As of right now, that’s not true and there’s not validity to that rumor whatsoever.  My guess is that McAvoy made a commitment to a project that didn’t have a start date and the start date happened to coincide with the cancer film.

Source: Summit Entertainment

It’s time for the big guns!  The 6 major categories are somewhat usually decided beforehand with a lot of clear front-runners.  The key is picking the upsets or the close races.  Unfortunately, I don’t see any true upsets but there are some close races.  The Picture and Director are the two categories that do not seem to have one clear front-runner.  So without further ado, here are my picks for the final 6 major categories.  You can thank me by giving me a portion of your office pool or Vegas winnings.  If you lose, you can cry alone in a corner as I usually do on Mondays.

Supporting Actress – Penelope Cruz in NINE, Vera Farmiga in UP IN THE AIR, Maggie Gyllenhaal in CRAZY HEART, Anna Kendrick in UP IN THE AIR, Mo’Nique in PRECIOUS:  BASED ON THE NOVEL ‘PUSH’ BY SAPPHIRE

Monique in PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL ‘PUSH’ BY SAPPHIRE- While the two girls from UP IN THE AIR are great and Penelope is always beautifully terrific, Mo’Nique has this one in the bag.  She was a villain that I have never fully been aware of, which is scarier because her character exists everywhere more than we realize.  I’m not quite sure why Maggie Gyllenhaal was nominated.  It’s ironic because she has had plenty of better performances that have never been nominated.

Supporting Actor – Matt Damon in INVICTUS, Woody Harrelson in THE MESSENGER, Christopher Plummer in THE LAST STATION, Stanley Tucci in THE LOVELY BONES, Christoph Waltz in INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

Christoph Waltz in INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS- Waltz had the best performance of all the acting nominees in every category.  He was wickedly evil while being charismatically charming.  One of the most captivating performances I have ever seen.

Actress – Sandra Bullock in THE BLIND SIDE; Helen Mirren in THE LAST STATION, Carey Mulligan in AN EDUCATION, Gabourey Sidibe in PRECIOUS:  BASED ON THE NOVEL ‘PUSH’ BY SAPPHIRE, Meryl Streep in JULIE & JULIA

Sandra Bullock in THE BLIND SIDE- Completely ridiculous that Bullock is going to win, let alone even being nominated, especially when all the other nominees were far more impressive with such stronger performances.  Each of these women were amazing in their respective roles.  If Carey Mulligan and Gabourey Sidibe had a little more experience they would easily win in different years.  If Meryl Streep wasn’t so revered having been nominated a whopping 16 times and won twice, she would win.  I hope I’m wrong.  I so hope I’m wrong.  I would gladly lose any Oscar pool, as long as it’s because I was wrong in this category.

Actor – Jeff Bridges in CRAZY HEART, George Clooney in UP IN THE AIR, Colin Firth in A SINGLE MAN, Morgan Freeman in INVICTUS, Jeremy Renner in THE HURT LOCKER

Jeff Bridges in CRAZY HEART- He did do a fantastic job but this is still more of a win for his lifetime of work.  Jeremy Renner might have been an upset if Bridges had won before.  Clooney had one of his strongest performances to date and Colin Firth was amazing- I foresee an eventual win for him in the future.  Bridges is well deserved of this award.

Director – James Cameron for AVATAR, Kathryn Bigelow for THE HURT LOCKER, Quentin Tarantino for INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, Lee Daniels for PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL ‘PUSH’ BY SAPPHIRE, Jason Reitman for UP IN THE AIR

Kathryn Bigelow for THE HURT LOCKER- I keep going back and forth on this one.  As much as I would love to see Tarantino win, it’s between the one time husband and wife, James Cameron or Kathryn Bigelow.  Cameron totally deserves it; he’s been working on this film for 10 years.  He made a movie that people love, becoming the top grossing film of all time beating the record set by him.  He invented new technology for filmmaking.  But he is just so awkward and unlikeable when receiving awards.  His speech from his TITANIC Oscar and his AVATAR Golden Globe makes you not want to vote for him.  He himself has gone on record supporting his ex-wife Bigelow to win this award because he already has one.  I’m sure he thinks that’s sweet but it comes off more egotistical than anything.  Here is how I think it will go down.  They announce Cameron as the winner but he does something unknowingly pompous, embarrassing and stupid by offering his award to Bigelow.  She would be the first female to win this award, but I’m sure that is not how she would want to win it- pity from her ex-husband.

Picture – AVATAR, THE BLIND SIDE, DISTRICT 9, AN EDUCATION, THE HURT LOCKER, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS , PRECIOUS:  BASED ON THE NOVEL ‘PUSH’ BY SAPPHIRE, A SERIOUS MAN, UP, UP IN THE AIR

AVATAR- I do hope it wins over the slightly over rated THE HURT LOCKER.  It’s ironic, that most years I root for a smaller film that never wins and this year a smaller film that I won’t be rooting for, THE HURTLOCKER, could pull off the win.  I would be disgusted if AVATAR loses…unless of course it’s to the all around great film INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS.  How come the Academy never seems to agree with me? Easy on the smart-alec answers.

Click here to read Part 1 of our Oscar Predictions

Max (played wonderfully by Max Records) is a little boy struggling to find his place in the world.  His sister is becoming a teenager and is too old to play with him, his mom is single and stressed at work and he doesn’t have any friends close to him.  When his loneliness culminates into an outburst at his mother, he runs away from home and travels to a distant island where he encounters several weird looking creatures.  They’re instantly enamored with little Max and make him their king.  While “ruling” his kingdom, Max befriends the creatures and that sets off a journey of discovery that changes Max forever.

I’ve never seen a movie that was able to capture a particular emotion in a film as well as this exemplified what it meant to be lonely as a child.  Loneliness is tough to deal with at any age, but as a child, it can be devastating and can lead to confusion and any other gauntlet of dysfunctional emotions.  Some kids act out on these feelings by misbehaving in school, others immerse themselves in their toys and some kids create imaginary friends, but Max created a world of strange creatures, each one representing something he was feeling or something he wanted to feel.  Doubt, anger, depression, pride, fear and frustration are all manifested into furry creatures that Max interacts with.  But as Max interacts with these creatures, he tries to fulfill various emotions that he wants to feel; security, support, love, reassurance, calmness, only to realize the difficulty of pleasing everyone.  These interactions lead him to accept his situation and basically, to grow up.

Your childhood might be the key to appreciating this film.  If you were an only child, or came from a broken home, you should be able to relate to Max and the emotions that he goes through.  But if those emotions are foreign to you and you grew up with two loving parents and a supportive sibling, then you just might not get it.  This movie, more than any in recent memory, is one that you have to be able to relate to in order to appreciate.  Needless to say, this movie hit home for me and I found myself transported back to my childhood, albeit not necessarily in places I want to be.  But any movie that can have such an emotional impact on an audience is impressive in my book.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

A lot of how I base my Blu-ray review rating is related to how much I got compared to how much I wanted.  In this case, it’s a shame we didn’t get a commentary or an in-depth documentary about the film.  There was a lot going on and I would have loved to hear Spike Jonze talk about it.

Video: The 2.40:1 transfer isn’t perfect, but it is nice.  The transfer fell a little flat during some of the darker scenes, but overall it was a fine transfer.

Audio: The 5.1 DTS-HD track was very nice and when it had a chance, it really boomed.

Higglety Pigglet Pop, or There Must Be More to Life (24:02): Meryl Streep and Forest Whitaker voice characters in this insanely odd animated short.  This is actually based on another Maurice Sendak book and…it’s just odd.  I’m not sure how to explain it.  It’s not really animated or stop motion, but rather a hybrid of the two, combined with some live-action.  It’s cute, in a quirky kind of way.

HBO First Look (13:21): We’ve seen a thousand of these and this one is no different.  If not for Jonze’s unique directing methods, it would have been a waste, but getting some insight into what went on during filming was nice.

Where the Wild Things Are Shorts (37): This is a series of about 8 mini-featurettes by Lance Bangs and cover a variety of topics.  Most of them focus on little Max Records and his trials and tribulations filming the movie.  I enjoyed the “Absurd Difficulty of Filming a Dog Running and Barking at the Same Time”; it’s great because of how much work went into filming a small scene in the very beginning.  Overall, these are fun to watch and they won’t bore you.

Oh no!  What’s going to happen between Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel?  Is she going to be okay with her man working with his ex-girlfriend for the next few months?  What about their engagement?  Oh my gosh, so many questions.  But to be fair, I don’t care.  The point of the article is to say that Mr. J-T will be starring in the upcoming film BAD TEACHER.  The Jake Kasdan directed film just recently added funnyman Jason Segel and Lucy Punch.  The film, of course, stars Cameron Diaz as a teacher in search of a husband that sets her sights on the boyfriend (Timberlake) of a fellow teacher (Punch).

This is a brilliant, brilliant move on the part of Columbia pictures.  I guarantee you that there is not one person in all of Hollywood that could draw a bigger crowd for this movie than Justin Timberlake and it has nothing to do with his acting ability.  But everyone is excited/interested about this because they want to see the former couple back together on the big screen and then follow the drama with Jessica Biel in the background.  You’ll probably hear a thousand breakup rumors between now and this film’s Blu-ray release.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Jake Gyllenhaal, his new muscles and his what-country-is-that-from accent are back in the second trailer to the film PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME.  This one actually doesn’t look that much different, but we get a slightly better idea of the story and of course, more shots of Jake G. in action.  The film stars the aforementioned Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Ben Kingsley and Alfred Molina in the film directed by Mike Newell.  Jake is Prince Dastan who teams up with a beautiful Princess to stop an evil ruler from unleashing a devastating sandstorm that could destroy the earth.

As I’ve mentioned, the video game was one of my all time favorite Playstation 2 games and I like what I’ve seen so far from the film.  The only question is still whether or not Jake Gyllenhaal can pull off the tough guy character and make us accept that accent.  Kudos to anyone that can tell me what nationality that accent is supposed to be.

Watch the trailer here.

I have nothing against Nicole Kidman or her choices in film.  In fact, I would say I respect her hankering for indie films and her reluctance to do romantic comedies or big budget films (at least exclusively).  So I’m a little surprised that she’s looking to do the romantic comedy THE WEDDING DOCTOR, especially right after she agreed to do a part in Adam Sandler’s next film.  In the film, Kidman is a relationship analyst that gives pre-marital advice to couples.  Comedy ensues when she decides she’s a better fit for the groom of her latest couple.

This is being described as HITCH for women, but judging by the synopsis, I think most of the film is going to focus on the “fight” between Kidman’s doctor and the soon to be bride.  That would make this a three-movie-star film and I’m not sure who they’re going to get to star opposite Kidman in this kind of role.  I don’t want to be mean, but Kidman isn’t a spring chicken anymore and so the couple will have to be at least as old as her.

Source: NY Mag

When ZOOLANDER first came out, I was a huge fan.  I was that guy that was doing “Blue Steel” for months after the movie came out.  To this day, I can pop it in the DVD player and laugh out loud several times.  With that said, I’m a little surprised they’re moving forward with a sequel.  It’s not that it doesn’t deserve one (because it does), I just don’t get the feeling that it still has an audience.  But Ben Stiller and writer Justin Theroux (TROPIC THUNDER, IRON MAN 2) are working on a script right now that sets our favorite male model 10 years from the events of the first one as he and Hansel (Owen Wilson) are trying to make a comeback in the fashion industry.

That implies that Owen Wilson is on board, but what about Will Ferrell’s Mugatu?  Stiller said that he wants Ferrell back, but Ferrell hasn’t committed one way or the other.  He went on to say that the reason we haven’t seen a sequel sooner is that he didn’t know how to continue the story after the character’s creator (Drake Sather) passed away.  But it looks like ZOOLANDER 2 is going to happen.  Is it too late?

Source: MTV

Normally, I’m against remakes, but in this case, I might actually be for it.  Truth be told, I did not like the original ARTHUR.  I just didn’t find it funny or interesting in the slightest, so if the remake keeps the basic idea but does everything differently, I’ll be on board.  The challenge will be the responsibility of Jason Winder, who is one of the people behind the TV show ‘Modern Family’.  Russell Brand will be taking over the role that was made famous by Dudley Moore.

The original was about an alcoholic womanizer who’s family pressures him to marry a wealthy woman, but he falls in love with a working-class woman.  He then turns to his valet for help with his predicament.  I’m looking forward to finding out who will be playing the female lead as Liza Minnelli made the role so famous back in 1981.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

I love the Oscars.  I don’t think there are many people who can really say that.  Every year I hear criticism about it being too long and boring or not caring about any of the movies nominated.  Well, I love the entire thing through in through, the whole kit and caboodle.  It’s never too long for me (I wish it could be longer), I laugh at all the host’s lame jokes, and I always see nearly every movie with a nomination (because I’m a nerd).  Seriously it’s like another Super Bowl for me except I actually have a few teams with a shot at winning every year.  With that said, the Academy did do something that I’m not completely sure I agree with, and that is bump the Best Picture nominations from 5 to 10.  Now I know they want to boost the shows ratings and maybe honor a few films that are deserving and never get a shot (last year’s WALL-E and THE DARK KNIGHT).  OK I understand some of that but aren’t you hurting the integrity of the award if you’re just picking them to please people?  Isn’t that pretty much what the PEOPLE’S CHOICE or MTV Awards are all about?  Nonetheless, I was a little excited thinking a few of my favorite films will now get a shot at some of those open spots (DISTRICT 9).  But my excitement changed to disappointment at the apparent sacrifice of allowing films that are nowhere near deserving (THE BLIND SIDE).  After seeing THE BLIND SIDE recently it made me appreciate PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL ‘PUSH’ BY SAPPHIRE” far more.  I hope that all of you who are rooting for the sweet, corny flawless characters in THE BLIND SIDE check out the raw, heart wrenching flawed characters in PRECIOUS.  But I digress and my love for the Oscars continues on.

If you read my top 10 list you will have a good idea what I think was snubbed or who I will be rooting for, but I am going to get a little more specific with each of these categories.  For the record, I will be rooting mainly for INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS along with DISTRICT 9 but completely respect AVATAR winning.  I think 10 years from now those are the three films nominated that will be remembered.

I begin my predictions with all the smaller categories.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

THE HURT LOCKER, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, THE MESSENGER, A SERIOUS MAN, UP

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS- There is no denying this was by far and away the most well written script, as is most Tarantino films.  I just hope it doesn’t lose out to the momentum of THE HURT LOCKER, which while a great film with an insight to an endlessly dangerous job, the story itself and character development was lacking.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

DISTRICT 9, AN EDUCATION, IN THE LOOP, PRECIOUS:  BASED ON THE NOVEL ‘PUSH’ BY SAPPHIRE, UP IN THE AIR

UP IN THE AIR- An excellent script and probably the only chance this film has at an award, but I will be rooting for DISTRICT 9 which probably won’t win any.

ANIMATED

CORALINE, FANTASTIC MR. FOX, THE PRINCESS AND THE FOG, THE SECRET OF KELLS, UP

UP- I really enjoyed CORALINE and thought FANTASTIC MR FOX was great, but when you’re up against a Pixar film, you just don’t stand a chance.

EDITING

AVATAR, DISTRICT 9, THE HURT LOCKER, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL ‘PUSH’ BY SAPPHIRE

THE HURT LOCKER- This is one category where THE HURT LOCKER did achieve greatness.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

AVATAR, HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE, THE HURT LOCKER, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, THE WHITE RIBBON

THE HURT LOCKER- AVATAR could win but may be too computer generated to pull off this award. I hope I’m wrong and IGLOURIOUS BASTERDS wins.

SCORE

AVATAR, FANTASTIC MR. FOX, THE HURT LOCKER, SHERLOCK HOLMES, UP

UP- I love the music from FANTASTIC MR. FOX but mostly the non-original stuff.

ART DIRECTION

AVATAR, THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS, NINE, SHERLOCK HOLMES, THE YOUNG VICTORIA

AVATAR- Odd, eccentric films like THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASUS often win but that mostly happens when Tim Burton is at the helm.  AVATAR was breathtaking beauty that no one can deny.

COSTUME

BRIGHT STAR, COCO BEFORE CHANEL, THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASUS, NINE, THE YOUNG VICTORIA

YOUNG VICTORIA- The Victorian time period always wins when it comes to costuming.

MAKEUP

IL DIVO, STAR TREK, THE YOUNG VICTORIA

STAR TREK- It’s the only nominee with interesting unusual makeup and one of my favorite films of the year.

VISUAL EFFECTS

AVATAR, DISTRICT 9, STAR TREK

AVATAR- DISTRICT 9 was so seemless in its achievement that I never once thought I was watching special effects, but actual Aliens interacting with humans.  Unfortunately it came out the same year AVATAR invented new technology advancing the way films will be seen forever.

SOUND EDITING

AVATAR, THE HURT LOCKER, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, STAR TREK, UP

AVATAR- STAR TREK and THE HURT LOCKER were good but AVATAR will dominate all categories technically.

SOUND MIXING

AVATAR, THE HURT LOCKER, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, STAR TREK, TRANSFORMERS:  REVENGE OF THE FALLEN

AVATAR- See above

SONG

“Almost There” from THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG, “Down In New Orleans” from THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG, “Loin De Paname” from PARIS 36, “Take It All” from NINE, “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from CRAZY HEART

“The Weary Kind” from CRAZY HEART- I also really enjoyed “Almost There” from THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG but it will ultimately loose out because everyone wants to announce the writer T-Bone as the winner.

FOREIGN

AJAMI, EL SECRETO DE SUS OJOS, THE MILK OF SORROW, UN PROPHETE, THE WHITE RIBBON

THE WHITE RIBBON- I saw the previews and it looked pretty magnificent.  Plus, it’s the only foreign film with two nominations.

DOCUMENTARY

BURMA VJ, THE COVE, FOOD, INC, THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA:  DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS, WHICH WAY HOME

THE COVE- The crew goes to great lengths with advance technology to capture evidence of some horrific treatment to dolphins in a Cove in Japan.  We owe them at least an award for endangering themselves to bring us this shocking animal abuse and danger to human health.

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

CHINA’S UNNATURAL DISASTER:  THE TEARS OF SICHUAN PROVINCE, THE LAST CAMPAIGN OF GOVERNOR BOOTH GARDNER, THE LAST TRUCK:  CLOSING OF A GM PLANT, MUSIC BY PRUDENCE, RABBIT A LA BERLIN

CHINA’S UNNATURAL DISASTER: THE TEARS OF SICHUAN PROVINCE- The next 3 categories are basically decided by me reading their synopsis.  RABBIT A LA BERLIN sounded interesting but CUDTTOSP seems to be more relevant with all the terrible natural disasters our world continues to face.

ANIMATED SHORT

FRENCH ROAST, GRANNY O’GRIMM’S SLEEPING BEAUTY, THE LADY AND THE REAPER (LA DAMA Y LA MUERTE), LOGORAMA, A MATTER OF LOAF AND DEATH

A MATTER OF LOAF AND DEATH- Wallace and Gromit rule all and have a history of doing so during award ceremonies.

LIVE ACTION SHORT

THE DOOR, INSTEAD OF ABRACADABRA, KAVI, MIRACLE FISH, THE NEW TENANTS

KAVI- The story sounds a little like the beginning of SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE when the leads were children and it won Best Picture…so why not?

Check back tomorrow for the rest of the predictions, including Best Picture and Best Director

It took about 20 minutes before I understood anything that was said in the film.  It’s not because they were speaking “too technical” or that the script was over my head, it’s because the dialogue was nonsensical and completely random.  It sounded like a little kid wearing a doctor’s coat and pretending to be smart.  That’s when I knew that the people who wrote the script had absolutely no comprehension of science beyond a fifth grade level.  And this is coming from a guy that thought they did a good job in ARMAGEDDON of making it seem believable, so I’m not quick to insult the intelligence of a screenwriter.  But anything involving the science of 2012 was ridiculous.

By now, you’ve probably heard that the world is going to end on December 21^st of 2012.  This particular date is “famous” because to the ancient Mayans, this was their day for Armageddon (the end of the world, not a screening of the Michael Bay film).  In the film, we start in 2009 when two scientists discover the increased temperatures of the earth’s core and that leads them to deduce that the world will end in 2012.  We pick up again in 2012 as the prediction has started to come true.  Aside from a few government types, we also follow the events through the eyes of Jackson Curtis (John Cusack), a struggling author and divorcee that’s taking his kids to Yellowstone.  For some reason, Yellowstone is the center of where all of this destruction is taking place and Jackson and his kids get a firsthand look at what’s about to come.

As of this point, we haven’t seen anything interesting.  This is a big-budget, high concept, end of the world film and it took almost 30 minutes to get to the first action sequence.  The first action sequence is Jackson and his family racing through LA in a limousine while the city is destroyed around them.  You’ve probably heard that this scene is great and the effects are amazing.  I hate to break this to you, but this is one of the worst CGI scenes we’ve seen in the past five years.  The destruction of the city is great, but any scene involving the car and especially scenes that cut to the actors in the car are embarrassingly bad.  Remember those old SNL skits where people would be in a car and extras would hold cardboard cut outs behind them to make it look like the car was moving?  That’s exactly what this looked like.  But the path of the car and the scale of the car to rest of the world was completely off.  At times it either looked gigantic or miniature; and that’s just a lazy effort from the special effects team.

But it’s an end-of-the-world film and so they have to have some sort of human element to keep people emotionally involved.  Love him or hate him, Michael Bay understands this and usually manages to excel in that arena.  He should give Roland Emmerich some lessons because Emmerich seems to have no understanding of how to get audiences emotionally involved in characters.  Even with the likeable John Cusack, I couldn’t have cared less about the fate of Jackson Curtis and during his blatant POSEIDON rip-off at the end, I was just waiting for the film to end.

I didn’t want to be another critic that took shots at 2012, but this was a horrible film.  So to sum up, this film had bad acting, atrocious dialogue, b-grade special effects and screenwriters that couldn’t be bothered with research.  Audiences don’t need much to be entertained, but I don’t even think these guys were trying.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

I have admit that as I started watching these special features, I kept waiting for someone to burst out laughing.  Something just didn’t seem right as everyone was talking about “what an important movie they were making” or how this is “the best film we’ve made”.  Were they joking?  Was this just a gag to make fun of the audience?  I guess not because they kept their serious tone throughout.

Video: There’s no denying that this 2.40:1 widescreen transfer was wonderful.  Although the CGI needed some work, it at least looked beautiful.

Audio: As good as the video was, it couldn’t compare to the 5.1 DTS-HD audio track.  This track is booming throughout and made the movie somewhat tolerable.  This had some scenes that would work great to show off your system.

Commentary with Roland Emmerich and Harald Kloser: Like I just mentioned, these guys take this film way too seriously.  I felt like I was in a lecture where the guest speaker didn’t want to be there.  As they move along in a very monotonous manner, they keep mentioning how important the film is and just dive into various aspects of the movie.  I found it to be dry and a little forced.

Picture-in-picture: Roland’s vision: This is an alternate track you can play and serves as a picture-in-picture commentary where they cut to different interviews with the cast and crew and show some behind the scenes footage on the special effects.  I thought it was a cool track and definitely a worthy extra for those that dug the film.

Alternate ending (3:58): This ending was a little odd and I guess this was the first theatrical ending.  Neither were worth writing home about, but this ending is the lesser of the two.

A while ago we learned that Bradley Cooper was going to be starring in Neil Burger’s DARK FIELDS.  The story is about a writer that stumbles upon a drug that makes you smarter and after taking it, he becomes financially and socially successful, only to learn that the drug has harsh side effects.  Today we have an unconfirmed report that Elizabeth Banks will be starring opposite Cooper in the thriller.  To date, this will seemingly be the first time Cooper has really challenged himself as an actor, so I’m looking forward to this.

Banks is one of those actresses that I tend to go back and forth on.  Sometimes I really like her and other times she’s very unappealing.  I do like that she chooses different roles and has managed to avoid being pigeon holed in a particular genre.

Source: Comingsoon.net

Apparently, Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis didn’t learn anything from Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger (THE GETAWAY) or Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman (EYES WIDE SHUT) about starring in a movie with your significant other.  The duo are set to star in the Lasse Hallstrom film MY AMERICAN DREAM.  In it, Depp will star as Nelson Algren and Paradis will play French author and feminist Simone de Beauvoir.  The film will chronicle their long distance relationship through the late 40’s and their travels through South America.

This project seems right for both Depp and Hallstrom since it combines a sweeping, melancholy love story with a political undertone.  The real question is whether or not Vanessa Paradis can hold her own with Johnny Depp.  Although she has appeared in several films, this will be her first real Hollywood film and it’s a pretty good way to introduce yourself to American audiences.  We can presume she has a natural chemistry with Depp and Hallstrom is a talented director.

Source: The Playlist

We just found out about the dramedy THE ORANGES and now we get more casting news as Alia Shawkat (‘Arrested Development’), Adam Brody (COP OUT), and Allison Janney have joined the cast that already includes Leighton Meester, Catherine Keener and Hugh Laurie.  We’re still kind of stuck with “almost-stars”, but they definitely have some recognizable names.  To recap, the film is about a man that has a relationship with the daughter of a family friend.  Julian Farino will be directing.

It’s hard not to love Alia Shawkat, who gave a great performance in the underrated WHIP IT and even though I shouldn’t like him, I actually find Adam Brody to be pretty good.  The only drawback to this film is Catherine Keener.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

We’ve been wondering what Angelina Jolie would be doing next.  She was supposedly set to star in WANTED 2, but pulled out to do the space film GRAVITY with Alphonso Cuaron.  But then we learned that she passed on that and was left without a project, which is unusual for Jolie; she had roles planned during her pregnancy.  Today we learn that she may have turned down those other offers to team up with Darren Aronofsky in the period drama SERENA, which is based off the book ‘Serena: A Novel’ by Ron Rash.  The film would have Jolie as the powerful wife of the founder of a timber empire and her insistence that he become more powerful and more ruthless as time goes on.  The film will take a dark turn when she sets out to murder his illegitimate son.

Jolie is an extremely rare actress that can combine enormous talent and beauty, but I’m always impressed when she takes a role as challenging as this.  Having Aronofsky at the helm would be great for her since he has a way of getting the best from his stars.  Let’s hope they can find the financing and get the details worked out on this one.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

by: Nathan Swank and Rebeca Surber

He Said/She Said is a weekly column where a male and female reviewer from the site team up to debate the merits of a particular film.

HE SAID

I don’t know what happened to Adam Sandler.  For the record, I think he is a talented guy.  He showed so much promise on SNL.  Then he went on to Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore, which I love.  Then to a lesser extent he had the Wedding Singer.  Then the films started to go down hill- I know I’m in the minority when I say BIG DADDY was just ok.  After that everything his Happy Madison Company produces is awful (THE HOT CHICK, BENCHWARMERS, YOU DON’T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN) save for a few funny moments…and GRANDMA’S BOY.  But regardless if you disagree with my take on his films as a whole lets look at them one by one and today let’s start with MR. DEEDS.

The jokes are so forced and sophomoric (a kitty landing safely in an afro), which don’t get me wrong I can appreciate at times but it’s as if no effort was given at all.  I can respect that Sandler uses all of his friends in his movies, giving them work, making them money but it also proves the point that he may not be trying to make anything of quality rather than just goof off with friends.  I’m okay with that as well, but lets not pretend that the work they are doing is good. Winona Ryder is completely out of her element. And using the term “wicked” before every comment doesn’t mean you’re using a funny New England accent.  But I’m obviously missing something because his films keep raking in the dough

The laughs all seem pretty cheap (Crazy Eyes likes pizza with odd combinations).  We’ve progressed too far with comedies to waste our time with these cheap laughs.  Why pick this one to watch, when it lacks cleverness, creativity and humor.  If a 4 year old wrote these jokes I would find it funny and I would giggle because it’s cute what a little girl finds funny.  Kids do say the darndest things; unfortunately successful adults wrote these darndest things, which make it more sad than funny.  On a positive note it does give everyone out there without originality or wit, hope that they too can live the dream of getting paid to produce crap.

SHE SAID

Being a tried and true Adam Sandler fan, from his SNL days and early films (GOING OVERBOARD) I am always excited to see Sandler and his Happy Madison entourage in new movies. MR. DEEDS is the story of an absurdly wealthy gentleman, Preston Blake, dying as he climbs Mount Everest without a will thereby leaving his 40-billion dollar fortune to his long lost great-nephew, pizza shop owner Longfellow Deeds (Sandler). Deeds must survive those who try to swindle the small-town heir out of his money; from the executives at his great-uncle’s company (Peter Gallagher and Erick Avari) to a tabloid television anchor (Winona Ryder) and her producer.  Gallagher (and his fantastic eyebrows) is a superb ‘villain’; his character is overacted to the perfect degree when compared to Sandler’s nice guy routine. It is fun to see Ryder (REALITY BITES, BEETLEJUICE) tackling a goof-off role and having a good time playing opposite of Sandler.

Always willing to help, Deeds’ do-good actions tend to get him into trouble thanks to the undercover camera footage carefully edited by Rider’s character, Babe Bennett.  This movie is fun, easy and loaded with laughs. Sandler does the typical performance that I always love, including the random and unnecessary wicked sick ‘black foot’. His character’s desire to be a greeting card writer for Hallmark is hysterical, but my favorite character in this movie is John Turturro’s Emilio, butler to the late Preston Blake. Emilio’s “sneaky-sneaky” tag line and desire to change everyone’s socks is hilarious.  Seeing the rest of the Sandler crew in tow is fun – you never know which role his pals will assume in these films.

The hokey ending to this movie, where everyone chimes in with what they wanted to be when they grew up, is a bit off and totally overacted but it makes me grin nonetheless.

First, the title. Kevin Smith initially wanted to call this movie A COUPLE OF DICKS. The studio, fearing the small box office of his last movie with the word “Porno” in the title, made him change it. So in an effort to stick it to the studio he titled it COP OUT. Ha ha very funny…but it still leaves movie-goers scratching their heads. Next, the actors. Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan are funny guys, and I did get a few laughs out of this movie. But most of the jokes either seemed forced or juvenile… and in most cases were just stupid. The funniest ones were used in the trailer. There’s the typical rival cop partners played by Kevin Pollack and Adam Brody, and they exchange insults as the rivals do, but their scenes together and side stories are just dumb. But then the plot of the movie itself is dumb, a generic construct used to put these characters in funny situations. It starts out with a search for a drug dealer – then becomes about Willis’ character, Jimmy Monroe, needing to sell an old baseball card to pay for his daughter’s wedding – leading to a robbery of said card by sensitive idiot Sean William Scott – leading to a stolen car with a beautiful woman in the trunk – leading back to the drug dealer.

Tracy Morgan has a side story with his wife played by Rashida Jones, a funny actress in her own right but this is a Boy’s Club here, and she couldn’t even fake chemistry in her limited scenes with Morgan and despite being his wife never kisses him. The villain is played by Guillermo Diaz, in a menacing turn he is used to after his character in “Weeds,” with the ridiculous name of Poh Boy. And though most of Sean William Scott’s character annoyed the hell out of me, he did have some funny lines as the thief who steals Willis’ prized baseball card, and then the writer’s (Robb and Mark Cullen, who are apparently in middle school), put in a stupid aside in which Scott breaks into houses just to use their bathrooms. And though I say I should expect more from Kevin Smith as a director, I have to remind myself in DOGMA he did have a 6-foot Poop Monster.

But no, we should expect more. Kevin Smith is funny and talented. Bruce Willis has a resume riddled with great action/buddy pictures. Kevin Pollack is a funny, respected actor. And Tracy Morgan was Dominican Lou on “Saturday Night Live.” Okay, lowered expectations a bit. But by and large, this movie is a waste of time and money, both on the part of everyone who made it, and everyone who watches it. And I realize, in retrospect, that that last statement was a little harsh, so I wanted to apologize to Bruce Willis…but come on. Poop jokes, Bruce?

Our review will post Monday, but I’ll give you a preview; COP OUT was terrible.  Even still, I’m surprised it didn’t manage a better showing, but given the lame previews and the fact the movie wasn’t very good, I guess $18.5 million isn’t bad for a Kevin Smith film.  I think Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio should be pleased with how well SHUTTER ISLAND is performing.  It will easily hit the $100 million+ mark over the next couple of weeks.  The other new release of the week was the horror film THE CRAZIES, which managed $16 million.  I’m guessing THE CRAZIES will easily beat COP OUT next week.  For those of you still on the AVATAR watch, it took the fourth spot with $14 million and brought it’s grand total to $706 million.

Next week sees the release of ALICE IN WONDERLAND and BROOKLYN’S FINEST, but of which look like great films.  Alice will almost definitely be #1 next week, but the marketing for BROOKLYN’S FINEST has been scarce, so I’m not sure how well that will do.

1  Shutter Island  $22,200,000

2  Cop Out  $18,565,000

3  The Crazies  $16,521,000

4  Avatar  $14,000,000

5  Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief  $9,800,000

6  Valentine’s Day  $9,505,000

7  Dear John  $5,000,000

8  The Wolfman  $4,123,000

9  Tooth Fairy  $3,450,000

10  Crazy Heart  $2,540,000

Source: Box Office Mojo

I liked WATERWORLD.  There, I said it.  It’s a relief to finally admit to that after so many years of hiding it from everyone.  I feel like a new man.  With that said, Kevin Costner is reteaming with his WATERWORLD director, Kevin Reynolds for a new spy comedy called LEARNING ITALIAN.  Not much is known about the film, but the description of “spy comedy” doesn’t sound good.

Costner is a busy man these days.  He just signed on to star in and direct the film A LITTLE WAR OF OUR OWN and is getting praise for his turn in THE COMPANY MEN.  Although I enjoyed ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES and WATERWORLD, I can’t say I’m too excited about Costner starring in a spy comedy.

Source: Variety

Showtime’s ‘Dexter’ is by far and away one of my favorite shows on television.  Michael C. Hall embodies that character perfectly and maybe so much so that audiences can’t accept him in anything else.  But he’s going to give it a shot in the upcoming film EAST FIFTH BLISS.  The indie comedy is about a middle-aged man that starts a relationship with the teenage daughter of a former high school classmate.  Obviously, things don’t go well.  Brie Larson and Lucy Liu have just recently joined the cast.

The film sounds a little similar to the Michael Caine film BLAME IT ON RIO (hopefully not as awkward), but especially similar to THE ORANGES, which we just heard about.  I’ll give Hall a shot in this, but if I can’t shake the feeling he’s about to brutally kill someone, I’ll have to walk out.

Source: Variety

The first trailer for THE JONESES is out and it has a lot of things working for it.  First and foremost, it has David Duchovny and I’ll watch him in anything.  Second, we have Demi Moore in a role reminiscent of her early 90’s days when she was a sex symbol, but that wasn’t the only thing she relied on to carry her through a movie.  But probably most important is that the film has a cool story.  David Duchovny and Demi Moore play the parents while Amber Heard and Ben Hollingsworth play the kids of a seemingly perfect American family.  Only, they’re too perfect because they were placed there by a stealth marketing campaign to push various products on to unsuspecting neighbors.  As the line in the trailer says; if they want you, they’ll want what you have.

Watch the trailer here.

There’s a rumor circulating that Christopher Nolan will be directing the long planned JUSTICE LEAGUE movie and that his brother, Jonah Nolan, will be directing the upcoming THE MAN OF STEEL.  We just found out that David Goyer would be writing the script and now it appears Warner Brothers and DC have their director.  Furthermore, it looks like Greg Berlanti (writer of the upcoming GREEN LANTERN) is the early favorite to direct the FLASH movie.

I will reiterate that all of this is rumor at this point, but all of this makes perfect sense.  Warner Brothers has a long history of screwing up franchises and now it looks like they’ve realized they have someone that knows what to do with their two most valuable franchises and they’re not going to let him get away.  Giving the reigns to Christopher Nolan in this fashion is the perfect way to go because this way, he’ll have control but will still be able to do some of the films he wants to do on his own.  We already have the perfect Batman movie, but if we can get Flash, Green Lantern and Superman movies on a level close to Batman, the Justice League film will be unbelievable.  Oh, and there’s that pesky Wonder Woman that we don’t hear anything about anymore.

Source: IESB

Until this very moment, I couldn’t have picked Leighton Meester out of a lineup.  But the ‘Gossip Girl’ star will appear in THE ORANGES with Hugh Laurie and Catherine Keener.  The film is about a man’s relationship with the daughter of a family friend.  It’s described as a “dramedy”, but I would imagine this film is going to take a dark turn at some point.  Jay Reiss and Ian Helfer wrote the script and Julian Farino will direct.

I’ve noticed a lot of cast members from ‘Gossip Girl’ are signing on to movies lately.  I never watched one episode all the way through, but the little I have watched was hard to get through.  Hugh Laurie I understand because ‘House’ has a huge following, but Leighton Meester?  I guess I shouldn’t be too hard on her; she is an attractive woman and maybe she’ll do better with some decent writing.

Source: Variety

Apparently, having anything to do with the Twilight films means you’re guaranteed at least one follow-up movie.  What you do with that is up to you, but you get one guaranteed free pass.  Billy Burke (who plays Bella’s father)  is no exception and he’s using his pass to star in the indie film DRIVE ANGRY.  The film stars Nicolas Cage as a mysterious man racing across the desert to find the man that killed his daughter.  William Fichtner and Amber Heard also star in the film directed and written by Todd Farmer.

More power to the Twilight alum.  It’s rare that a film comes along that inspires so much success and given that the first one was such a “small” movie, many actors that wouldn’t otherwise get a shot are now getting roles they wouldn’t dream of.  The real question is; how many of these Twilight alum will be around in five years?

Source: Variety

Nicole Kidman, Brooklyn Decker and Dave Matthews have all signed on for small parts in the upcoming Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston romantic comedy JUST GO WITH IT.  The film was previously titled PRETEND WIFE, but just recently underwent a name change.  In the film, Sandler will play a guy that hires a woman (Aniston) and her kids to play his soon-to-be ex-wife and family.  All of this in hopes of landing the girl of his dreams (Brooklyn Decker).  Kidman will be taking an uncredited comedic role.  Dennis Dugan will be directing.

This sounds pretty formulaic to me, but it also sounds like it’s going to make a ton of cash at the box office.  Adam Sandler will play his usual goofy-nice-guy self, Decker will play the hot-but-not-nice girl and Aniston will play the charming-mature (read: annoying) woman that Sandler will grow to love.  Sound like something we’ve seen before?

Source: Variety

The Farrelly brothers’ comedy HALL PASS is racking up the talent the past few days.  We just learned that Amanda Bynes had joined the cast and now comes word that Alyssa Milano and Christina Applegate will be joining the cast as well.  The film is about a man that’s given a “hall pass” to cheat on his wife and the comedy that ensues from that new found freedom.  Jason Sudeikis, Jenna Fischer, Stephen Merchant, J.B. Smoove, Derek Waters, Larry Campbell, Vanessa Angel and Nicky Whelan also star.

I’m assuming that Applegate, Milano and probably Angel are going to be playing women that have encounters with Wilson’s character.  The Farrelly brothers are hit and miss, but I still like the idea of this movie.  I’m curious to see if it’s going to be similar to the untitled infidelity comedy that Ron Howard is working on.  One can assume that the Farrelly’s will make their film just a little more raunchy than Howard.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

This is a B-movie, through and through.  I know it was released at theaters, but nothing about this film is on par with even the lesser theatrical releases.  Even the story itself is a little off.  Obviously, it’s basically Chun-Li’s origin story as she copes with her dad’s kidnapping and then somehow gets “called” on this weird spiritual journey.  That’s where she meets up with Gen, who helps guide her and helps prepare her for a battle with Bison, the man responsible for kidnapping her father.

As for Street Fighter characters you recognize, there’s Chun-Li, Bison and then they throw in a half-hearted attempt to add Vega, who comes and goes with barely a whimper.  So there are three characters from the video game, none of which bare much resemblance to their gaming counterparts.  This has little to nothing to do with Street Fighter universe and is nothing more than a sloppy movie using the name to sell some tickets.  Bison was the worst; at least give the guy a general’s uniform.

The story reminded me of a little kid trying to tell you what a movie is about.  You know how kids say things like “and there was this girl…and then she was in a fight…and then this older guy beat up someone…”?  That’s exactly what this movie was like.  One scene ran into the next with no explanation and there was seemingly no plot or point to any character’s actions.  Couple that with some homemade special effects and you have an instant so-bad-it’s-good movie on your hands.

Kristin Kreuk gave up Smallville for this and she gives an intense, dramatic performance that’s obvious she’s taking it seriously.  That’s kind of the problem with her and her character; she takes it way too seriously.  It’s as if no one told her that they were making a cheesy, campy movie, which makes me think that no one believed they were making a cheesy, campy movie.  Neal McDonough was the only one that appeared to know what kind of film he was in and he piled on the over-the-top acting to a point it was funny.

I feel a little bad for ripping a film that everyone already knew was going to be bad, but I just can’t help myself.  With all of the struggling filmmakers and actors out there, movies like this shouldn’t be made.  Anyone with a Best Buy digital camera and an ounce of creativity can make something better and more interesting than this.

Freida Pinto from the insanely popular SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, is set to star as Phaedra in the upcoming WAR OF THE GODS.  The film is about a young warrior named Theseus that has to defeat evil, Greek Gods to prevent the destruction of the world.  Tarsem Singh will direct and Henry Cavill will star as Theseus.  Really, this film can go either way; you never know with films about mythical Greek Gods.  If they pile on the special effects, this will be cheesy, but if they focus on a story, it could turn out alright.

I was wondering when we’d hear Freida Pinto’s name again.  When SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE was getting so much attention last year, I found it odd that Pinto hadn’t already lined up a few projects.  Dev Patel hopped on to THE LAST AIRBENDER pretty quickly, while Pinto took a small part in YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER.  I guess I just thought she’d find a starring role a little faster.

Source: Variety

Dreamworks animation is moving forward with the film THE CROODS and have enlisted the voice talents of Nicolas Cage and Ryan Reynolds.  In the film, Cage will voice Crug, a caveman that has to try to keep his family safe after an earthquake destroys their home.  Reynolds will play a free-thinking nomad that charms Crug’s family and especially his daughter.  Obviously, their personalities clash and comedy ensues.  Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders (LILO AND STITCH) will write and direct the film that is scheduled for a 3D release in March of 2012.

I’ve learned not to rely too heavily on a plot synopsis when judging an animated film, so I won’t even bother trying to decide if I’m interested in this.  When I read the synopsis for HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, I had zero interest and then when I saw the trailer, I thought it looked pretty good.  But I do like Reynolds as a voice actor, especially in this type of role.

Source: Variety

Every geek’s favorite actress, Natalie Portman, has signed up the road trip comedy BEST BUDS that she will star in and produce.  The film, written by Jamie Denbo is about a woman that freaks out right before her wedding and decides to take a road trip with two of her best friends.  It goes on to mention that marijuana is involved, but to what extent is anybody’s guess.  Maybe Portman was on it when she signed up to do this.

The film sounds like a cross between CROSSROADS and THE HANGOVER and it doesn’t sound very funny.  I like road trip comedies as much as the next guy, but when the person on the road trip is a woman about to get married, it kind of limits what you can do with it.  But to be fair, we don’t have a very good plot description and we don’t know who else will star or who will direct.

Source: Variety

Matt Damon is Mark Whitacre, a fast rising executive at food chemical company that seems to have everything going for him.  When his boss is made aware of a potential saboteur within the company, they call the FBI in to investigate.  That sets in play a series of lies and manipulations on the part of Mark Whitacre who is constantly on the fence about who to trust and how far he wants to take the investigation.  Soon, the film’s story (and the FBI’s case) becomes more about Whitacre and less about the company they were investigating.

The issue with the film is that we never have any motivations on the part of Whitacre.  He tells the FBI about the price-fixing scheme his company is concocting with other companies, but it’s not clear why.  We know Mark is stealing money from his company, but with a high salary and big bonuses, his theft doesn’t make sense.  But this isn’t a fault to screenwriter Scott Z. Burns, this is just who Whitacre is.  I don’t think he would be able to tell you why he did the things he did and why he made specific decisions.  Although at times frustrating, it turned out that watching Whitacre go from lie to lie was actually fascinating because the audience learned about the lies around the same time the other characters in the film learned about them.  And we never really knew for sure what was a lie and what wasn’t.

Of course, with a lesser actor, this movie would have been a complete failure.  But Matt Damon is on his game as Whitacre and he delivers a wonderful performance as the wily executive.  It was a very natural and convincing performance that should have garnered him more attention than it did.  However, the funniest parts of the film came in the form of short voiceovers where Damon would go off on random thoughts while in the middle of a scene.  I found myself looking forward to those voiceovers and it was a nice way to break up the film.

If you know that you’re not getting a slapstick comedy, but rather an intelligent, quirky drama that happens to be funny, I think you’ll be impressed with THE INFORMANT.  It featured a fantastic performance from Damon and proved to be a very enjoyable film.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: Soderbergh typically uses a flat, slightly fuzzy way of filming and this is no different.  However, the transfer looks great, but it’s only as good as the source material.

Audio: The TrueHD audio track was efficient, but the front channels were heavily used and overall I felt like this was holding back a bit.  It’s a dialogue heavy film, but I was a little disappointed in the audio track.

Commentary with Steven Soderbergh and Scott Z. Burns: If you’re a fan of commentaries, then you’ve probably heard a Soderbergh track before.  He does commentaries for almost all of his films and they’re all a joy to listen to.  He and Burns had a lot to talk about here, but they stick to the choices they made and avoid boring you with details, which I very much appreciated.  I recommend any Soderbergh commentary and this one is no exception.

Deleted Scenes (6:25): These were as good as anything in the movie and could have been left in without missing a beat.  You’ll recognize a couple of these from the previews and overall, these were worth watching.

Today is a big news day for comic book movie fans.  First we learn that David Goyer is writing the new Superman movie and now we get the first word about possible actors in the running for Captain America.  So far, the following actors have auditioned for the role of Steve Rogers in Joe Johnston’s upcoming film: John Krasinski (‘The Office’), Mike Vogel (CLOVERFIELD), Scott Porter (‘Friday Night Lights’) and Patrick Flueger (BROTHERS).  Chace Crawford (‘Gossip Girl’) and Garret Hedlund (TRON: LEGACY) are also being considered, but have not yet tested.  It should be clear that these are just auditions and that one or none of them might actually be picked.  THOR went through similar casting issues before they chose Chris Hemsworth.

They need to take all the time they need to find an actor that’s perfect for Captain America.  He’s arguably the central character for any upcoming Avengers movie and he needs to be able to hold his own against more established actors (Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L. Jackson).  I don’t like that they’re going so young for the role and I think they’d be better off looking at someone with more experience.  But at least we now have a feel for what kind of actor they’re looking at.

Source: Heat Vision

If the name David Goyer doesn’t mean anything to you, then know that he worked on both of Nolan’s Batman films and also wrote JUMPER and THE UNBORN.  Aside from the Batman films, he doesn’t have much of a resume, but he is generally regarded as a comic book guy that believes in holding true to the original storylines.  For right or wrong, he’s credited for keeping Nolan’s films grounded and true to the source.  So, as the title suggests, he is now tasked with reviving the Superman franchise and Warner Brothers has tabbed him to write the screenplay.

We also have a few other tidbits about the film.  First, it will be called THE MAN OF STEEL.  Second, Brandon Routh will not be playing Superman and Bryan Singer will not be directing the film.  The film will be a more modernized tale and will feature both Lex Luthor and Brainiac.  Finally, there will also be a kryptonianmythology that will be developed.

Overall, this is exciting news for Supes fans.  WB had hinted for a while that they were going to poach what they could from their Batman success and try to recreate it in the Supes world.  I’m not ready to hail Goyer as the savior just yet; they need a great director and, of course, someone to play Superman.  Personally, I thought Routh was perfect, but I guess WB doesn’t see it that way.

Source: Latino Review

Jonah Hill is another actor that is racking up movies lately.  We just saw trailers for GET HIM TO THE GREEK and CYRUS and now we get word that he will be teaming up with the director of PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, David Gordon Green, for the film THE SITTER.  In the film, Hill will play a guy forced to babysit three rambunctious kids.

This sounds a little like UNCLE BUCK, but probably with more raunchiness.  With Green directing and Hill starring, it will be interesting to see how far they can take it.  Working with kids is challenging enough and now they’ll have to walk the fine line between being raunchy-funny and being offensive.  The kids in the film will probably limit some of what they can do.

Source: Variety

Anjelica Huston and Philip Baker Hall have joined the comedy that used to be called I’M WITH CANCER.  The film already has an impressive cast that includes Seth Rogen, James McAvoy, Anna Kendrick and Bryce Dallas Howard.  Jonathan Levine (THE WACKNESS) is directing from a script by Will Reiser.  The film follows a man (McAvoy) that discovers he has cancer and his ensuing long battle to fight it.  It’s based off the real story of Will Reiser who also successfully battled cancer.

And no, I don’t know how they’re going to make that funny either.  It helps that it’s written by someone that actually had cancer, so any comedy involved in the film should come from the right place.  And with Rogen and McAvoy in the leads, I think this has a high potential to be a pretty good film.  Oh, and I would also suggest they come up with a name for the film that doesn’t have the word “cancer” in the title.  No reason to turn people away before they even buy the ticket.

Source: Variety

A trio of not-quite-famous actors are set to star in A MISFITS’ CHRISTMAS.  Brittany Snow (PROM NIGHT), Kellan Lutz (TWILIGHT) and Ashley Tisdale (HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL) are set to star as three of eight friends that spend consecutive Christmas Eve’s together.  The film will follow each of them as they grow up, experience life and eventually grow up together.

Twilight fans will have to help me out on this one; is Lutz one of those characters you swoon over?  I think anyone that appears in the Twilight films for any amount of time gets lavish praise and attention from Twilight fans, but I don’t know if he’s one of the big ones or not.  I’m a fan of coming of age films, so I’m intrigued by this, even if it doesn’t necessarily have “star power”.  However, eight friends is a lot to cover in 90-minutes to an hour, so I don’t know how first time writer-director Michael Tabb is going to manage that many characters.

Source: Moviehole

Matt Damon is everywhere these days.  After agreeing to Soderbergh’s CONTAGION and circling THE TRADE with Ben Affleck, he’s now looking to star as Robert F. Kennedy in a planned biopic on the late Senator.  Gary Ross will be directing from a script by Steven Knight.  The story will follow RFK from his time in the shadow of his older brother to his days as a natural leader and will be based on the Evan Thomas biography HIS LIFE.

No deal is officially done yet, but this looks like it will happen.  At first, I was taken aback by having Matt Damon star as Robert F. Kennedy, but after I thought about, I think it might actually work.  Damon has the accent and the look to make this really work.  But any film about the Kennedys is tricky because they still resonate in the minds of the American people so much.  It will be a fine line between portraying them and mimicking them.  But Damon definitely has the talent to pull it off, so they’re going to have to surround him with talent.

Source: Deadline Hollywood

The naturally funny Jason Segel will star as a gym teacher in the upcoming comedy BAD TEACHER.  Cameron Diaz stars as a raunchy, gold digging teacher that starts a feud with a fellow teacher (Lucy Punch) who is dating another teacher.  Segel will play a gym teacher, John Michael Higgins will play the principal.  It seems all the major parts are cast except the teacher Punch’s character is dating.  Jake Kadan (WALK HARD) will be directing.

It sounds like Segel’s part will be limited in the overall story, but this also sounds like a role where people will walk out saying “it was okay, but that gym teacher was hilarious”.  I’m not the biggest Cameron Diaz fan, but I do prefer her in comedies…well…except for WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

I know I’ve said this before, but I think Isla Fisher is as cute as a button, but is not cut out to be a leading lady.  I really enjoy her as an actress, but if CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC is any example, too much of her is not a good thing.  But the folks at Universal don’t seem to agree with me as they’ve signed her on to the romantic comedy KISS & TELL.  In the film, Fisher will play a woman that can see how long a relationship will last just by kissing a man.

At first glance, the concept seems pretty interesting, but after I thought about it, I realized that there’s not much they’re going to be able to do with it.  Obviously, as soon as she kisses a man and sees the relationship lasting forever, the movie is over.  Unless of course, she’s with that man, but has her heart set on another man with a relationship that won’t last as long.  That could get confusing, but luckily, Hollywood rom-coms aren’t known for confusing plots, so I’m sure screenwriters Dax Shelby and Robert Stevens will keep it simple.

Source: Production Weekly (via Twitter)

I’ve had an internal debate about Kevin James for many years now.  I hated his TV show, but in movies (and even some standup), I found myself laughing at him and his jokes.  So I’ve come to the conclusion that I like him, but only in small doses, like HITCH.  Now he’s going to be starring with Vince Vaughn in an as-yet-untitled Ron Howard comedy and I think that could actually be a good fit.

The premise of the film sounds great, with Vaughn playing a man that discovers his best friend’s wife is cheating on him.  James will play the best friend.  That’s a great situation as far as comedy goes, but one of those murky moral situations that we all hope we’re never in.  That’s pretty much what Vaughn strives in, so at least he’s in his element.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

There have been some good tidbits from the COP OUT junkets.  We’ve already learned about Sean William Scott’s involvement with another American Pie movie.  Yesterday, Bruce Willis “announced” that DIE HARD 5 will start shooting next year.  When he said that, I thought for sure he was either joking or that someone from Fox would quickly release a statement saying Bruce was cuckoo.  But then I thought; if you’re an executive at Fox and Bruce Willis said DH5 is starting next year, wouldn’t you go ahead and get things going, even if you didn’t know about it?  So whether or not anyone else in the world knew that DH5 was starting next year, the fact that the one person in the world that needs to be on board is, in fact, on board basically means this thing is going to happen.  But anyway, the man boldly declared “I think we’re going to do a Die Hard 5 next year”.  So there you have it.

But he also mentioned that he’s had continued talks with Mr. Shyamalan about an UNBREAKABLE 2 and mentioned that if Samuel L. Jackson is on board, he is too.  I thought UNBREAKABLE got a bad rap and was a better movie than what its domestic box office totals said.  Personally, I’d like to see a sequel to either of these and if Bruce is up for it, they can make a Die Hard movie every year.

Source: MTV

by: Nathan Swank

Our Driver’s EDitorial is a weekly column designed to express our opinion on something going on in Hollywood today. Sometimes we whine and complain about something we wish was different, other times we heap praise on the system for getting it right.

It is time for my top 10 list of 2009.  I know we are into February of 2010, but it usually takes another month after the New Year to see all those “Oscar” contending movies that the studios cram in before the year is up.  It really didn’t make much of a difference since most of those films did not make my list, but I believe I saw most everything I think would matter with the exception of a few stragglers.  This year was a fairly decent year.  Overall, I liked more movies this year than last, however my top couple of movies last year may have been better than my top few this year.  At first, I felt there were no overwhelming standouts but after some time and a few repeat viewings, I disagree with that notion.  Surprisingly, the Horror/Sci Fi genre represents half my list.  Which is unusual but definitely makes for a more people friendly list than usual with all films that are rewatchable.  The Academy Awards decided to nominate 10 Best Pictures this year.  So if I were in sole control of the Academy, these would be my nominees.  I will count them down.  You can click on any of the titles to read their full reviews.

Honorable Mentions: (In no particular order but all struck a chord with me in some fasion)

Precious: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE, Food Inc., This Is It, The Hurt Locker, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Road

10.  Up In The Air- I like this film more as time goes on.  I can relate and appreciate the concept of being your own island without any material possession, traveling, just being responsible for you.  However not being able to share those good moments with people you love ultimately loses any argument for that life style.  Good performances all around and an interesting insight to a job of firing people.

9.  Zombieland- Wild, crazy, brain-bashing fun!  I can’t wait for the sequel.  A how to hand guide on what to do and what not to do when the world is over run by zombies, which will obviously happen in our lifetime, so we better start preparing.  Quite possibly contains the best cameo ever.

If some of you think this would be a ridiculous nomination, you can plug in PRECIOUS instead…or you can just shut up and deal with it.

8.  Up- It has its flaws but a Pixar film with flaws is still better than most any other movie out there.  There is an 11-minute opening montage that has more character development, story, depth and heart than most films have in 2 hours.  I’ll admit I teared up but then Dug the talking dog and his fellow canines entered the scene with brilliant laughable gems like, “Ha, it is funny because the Squirrel gets dead” or “I like you temporarily.”  Oh the loveable positivity and short term attention of dogs. “Squirrel!”

7.  The Hangover- I love it when a comedy comes together.  How many of us were a little disappointed when the bachelor party is about to start their night only to cut to the next morning?  Shame on us for that inkling of doubt because the journey of discovering what they went through was like a comedic LOST episode only actually tying up all the loose ends.

6.  500 Days of Summer- The opening says, “This is not a love story.”  But it’s my favorite love story I’ve seen in a very long time.  Told in a clever fashion by randomly pulling out days within the 500 to see the gauntlet of emotions one goes through in a relationship.  Whether or not we are meant to be with someone they might just be the reason we find the right one.  The editing, structure, and style mixed in with great actors and an awesome soundtrack makes it hard not to smile all the way through this film.

5.  Star Trek- Wow what a ride!  This is funny without being cheesy, action filled without being ridiculous, smart without ever loosing the plot.  All summer blockbusters should take note, this is how to make a fun action movie but still have a brain.  Dare I say, Best Star Trek Ever.  Ok, maybe I should rewatch WRATH OF KHAN.

4.  Avatar- I struggled with where I wanted to put this one, but the overall movie theater experience in 3D was one of the best I’ve had in so many years.  Sure the story has been told before but never with so much style.  So I have to give it up for Avatar, especially since I had my doubts.  James Cameron created a world where we would all want to live and with the 3D technology we get just that for 3 hours.

3.  Paranormal Activity- I think I’m in the minority putting this film at number 3 or even in my 10 list at all, but this is the scariest movie I’ve seen in a loooong time.  I don’t care about you naysayers.  This is not overhyped and I will gladly argue against whatever film you put it up against.  Not since the Exorcist has a film affected me after I saw it.  I dare you to try to sleep alone peacefully the first night after watching this one.

2.  District 9- A film truly ahead of it’s time, touching on so many political and social aspects.  I have to appreciate the originality and raw realism even when dealing with aliens.  The effects are the best I’ve ever seen because it was seemless interaction between humans and CGI.  It’s a film that makes you see both sides of every story making it difficult to know just what to root for.

1.  Inglorious Basterds- What can I say, Quentin Tarantino can do no wrong in my book.  Easily my favorite film of the year.  Interesting story, great dialogue, humorous, dramatic, with action and continuous tension, this film is typical greatness for Tarantino.  He has the ability to keep me on the edge of my seat no matter what the scene is.  This is entertainment and creativity at it’s best with a brilliant ensemble cast.  If only this was how things really went down during WWII.

Gerard Butler is Clyde Shelton, a seemingly normal man that we immediately see fall victim to a random act of violence when two men force their way into his home, rape and kill his wife and daughter, all while Clyde is helpless to do anything about it.  We skip to the court date when the prosecuting attorney, Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) strikes a plea deal with one of the intruders and avoids trial.  Clyde feels that the system has failed him and is angry that the intruder most responsible for the murder of his family is going to walk free in five years.

At that point, we skip ten years in the future and Clyde begins his assault on the Philadelphia justice system.  So far, we’ve only witnessed about 15 minutes of screen time, so it’s clear that the goal is to get to the violence and revenge of Clyde.  He starts out by going after the intruders and during this time, the audience is on board with him.  We didn’t like watching them kill his wife and therefore, watching them suffer a horrible death is disturbingly satisfying to us.  But that doesn’t last long because soon Clyde starts going after people that had less and less to do with the murders (a paralegal, a judge, the DA, etc.).  That was kind of the point of the film, which was to switch the roles of victims and abusers and let the audience decide where that point occurred.

Unfortunately, what probably should’ve been a deep, thought out film turned out to be a somewhat routine vengeance film.  Yes, there was a twist, but the majority of the film was spent watching Clyde kill people and Rice trying to stop him.  They also attempted to throw in a subplot with Clyde being some sort of super-spy that specialized on killing people from afar and it lost sight of the story.  They already had the major points covered and the effort at furthering the story should have been on getting into the mind of Clyde and Rice and developing them as characters.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that the final product was trimmed out of a much longer, deeper film where all the character and story development were cut out.  Gerard Butler has yet to match his performance in 300 and has managed to turn in disappointment after disappointment.  Jamie Foxx isn’t much better and he continues to give uninspired performances.  Overall, the lack of inspiration was a problem for everyone as LAW ABIDING CITIZEN managed to fall flat and well short of what it could have been.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: The 2.39:1 video presentation was nearly flawless, but it wasn’t much to look at.  Gray didn’t use many colors and the overall palette was flat.

Audio: The TrueHD soundtrack is efficient, but nothing special.  I actually felt it should have been better than what we got as the explosions and action scenes failed to provide that “oomph” that I’m used to.

Commentary with Lucas Foster and Alan Siegel: This was a surprisingly informative commentary, which you usually don’t get from producers.  But they offer a ton of insight into the film and discuss some of the more complex themes.  They might have an inflated opinion of the film, but it was still a nice commentary track.

The Justice of Law Abiding Citizen (6:15): I was a little surprised by this featurette, only because I thought it was very interesting and original.  Basically, they bring in an LA prosecuting attorney and have her discuss the details of the case in the movie and the various options, and possible outcomes, in the film.  This was a very cool featurette.

Law in Black and White (15:06): They couldn’t go too long without having a failure and sure enough, they have a 15 minute featurette in black and white.  Everyone shows up for a pretty basic behind the scenes featurette (aside from the fact it’s in black and white).  They offer a few interesting tidbits, but overall it’s fluff.

Preliminary Arguments: Visual Effects Progressions (7:48): This is actually six separate featurettes that all deal with various special effects shots and how they were filmed.  There’s nothing too fascinating here.

The premise of the film WIN WIN is that a runaway teenager joins a suburban New Jersey family and helps the local high school wrestling team.  We’ve heard this story before in a movie called THE BLIND SIDE, so I’m a little frustrated that we get a copycat so soon.  But WIN WIN stars Paul Giamatti and Amy Ryan and will be directed by Tom McCarthy (THE VISITOR).

McCarthy tends to go for the artsy, more mature films, so this seems like a departure for him.  It also just seems like a boring film.  I like Giamatti, but nothing about this film sounds right.  On the McCarthy front, he’s achieved directing success, he’s nominated for a screenwriting Oscar for his work on UP and he’s also an actor, appearing in the last season of HBO’s ‘The Wire’.  So the guy defines versatility.

Source: Vulture (NY Mag)

Ian McShane, who played Al Swearengen brilliantly on HBO’s ‘Deadwood’ is now going to play a different type of villain, this time as Blackbeard in the upcoming PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES.  Blackbeard, as you may know, is actually a real character, but I’m sure Disney and screenwriter Ted Elliot will take their liberties.  McShane joins Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz in the fourth installment of the Pirates series.  The fourth film’s story revolves around the fountain of youth, but little else is known.  Rob Marshall will be directing and he’ll no doubt be looking to rebound from the disappointing NINE.

At first, I had little to no interest in a fourth Pirates movie.  The story was over and it felt like they were just milking the franchise.  But with Marshall as the director, Cruz as the leading lady and now McShane as the villain, I’m officially on board with this.  Plus, you have to have faith in Johnny Depp.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson will play a star college running back that faces personal tragedy in the upcoming film THINGS FALL APART.  The film, to be directed by Mario Van Peebles, also stars Lynn Whitfield, Mike P and Steve Eastin.  They start shooting the film in Michigan in May.

50 Cent starring in and producing a film in which he plays a football player falls under the category of ‘yeah, that seems right’, but what is interesting about the story is that 50 Cent will be funding the entire project himself.  As they say, he will “write a check” for a film that otherwise couldn’t get funding.  You have to love the freedom that comes with being a successful rapper.  It doesn’t matter if the public doesn’t like your movies; if you have money and the time, you can make yourself a movie star.

Source: Variety

Sean William Scott recently sat down for a press interview for his upcoming film COP OUT and the conversation turned to the AMERICAN PIE series, which Universal recently announced they wanted to bring back to theaters.  Even though Scott is clearly the most successful of the former Pie stars, it turns out that he’s not completely opposed to revising the popular Stiffler character.  In fact, he’s actually talking to them about appearing in another film.  He had this to say:

“We came up with an awesome idea and I’m kind of at the point where I’m already known as that character forever anyways. As much as I want to do a part like Christoph Waltz in ‘Inglourious Basterds,’ I did ‘American Pie’ three times and then versions of that in ten other movies. If it makes sense and if it makes people laugh than maybe.”

That’s actually an awesome quote from Scott, who basically admits that he does the same type of characters and he’s cool with that.  It’s refreshing to see a movie star talk so openly about their career and public perception and then to have them be dead on is a welcomed surprise.  Personally, I think the Pie franchise is dead and Scott needs to stay far away from it, but there’s no reason they can’t get the rest of the cast back.  Chris Klein and Tara Reid should be begging Universal for a chance to be extras on another Pie movie.

Source: Comingsoon.net

by: Brad Sturdivant and Kristy Sturdivant

He Said/She Said is a bi-weekly column where a male and female reviewer from the site team up to debate the merits of a particular film.

HE SAID

I feel that THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE is one of the most misunderstood films of the 90’s.  Maybe it’s the star power of Will Smith, Matt Damon and Charlize Theron that threw people off.  I think people saw their names and naturally assumed that this was going to be a summer blockbuster with quick editing and maybe a couple of fistfights.  Instead, they got a deeply moving film about finding who you are and overcoming past mistakes to achieve success.  It’s a golf movie, but golf here is purely a metaphor for finding that balance in life that sets all of us straight.  It sounds corny, but the movie makes it work.

Matt Damon is Rannulph Junuh, a down and out former prodigal golfer that now spends his days drinking and gambling, but turns to golf to get his life back on track.  That’s the basic premise and what you’ll see on the back cover.  But the real story is Rannulph’s use of golf as a physical metaphor for reaching a turning point in your life when you stop feeling sorry for yourself and start living your life.  Will Smith is Bagger Vance, a mysterious caddy that helps him get his swing back.  But Bagger Vance is more of an “angel” that guides and inspires Rannulph on his journey.  The “swing” is just another way of saying “life”, “spirit”, “mojo” or whatever word you want to use to describe that inner quality we all have that inspire us to be successful or to live a good life.

With two talented actors turning in great performances, Robert Redford was left focusing on beautiful scenery and captivating art direction.  Even if you don’t buy into the deeper meaning (which I obviously did), the beautifully shot golf scenes and landscapes are worth the price of admission.  Many films are more than what they appear, such is the case with THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE.

SHE SAID

I couldn’t stomach THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE and I’m not completely sure why.  I like Damon, Smith, Theron and Redford but there was something about this film that just didn’t work.  Probably the fact that it was about golf and it ran over two hours- when there isn’t a lot of interesting stuff going on, two hours really seems like an eternity.

The scenery was the only redeeming quality of this film which really shouldn’t be the case with stars like Damon and Smith.  These characters felt shallow and unauthentic for the entire movie.  I love Will Smith but seeing him as a meek and mellow character is unacceptable, I would have had enjoyed the film more had the roles of Damon and Smith been reversed.  I expect this kind of character more from Damon than Smith.  I like Smith intense and full of emotion and a role like this just doesn’t work for him.  He has a lot of emotional range as an actor, but this isn’t the range of emotions moviegoers like to see from him. But even if you can buy Smith in this role, the film still feels awkward and pointless. There were times when it wanted to be more than a sports movie but it just didn’t know how to get there.

The often delayed SHUTTER ISLAND turned out to be a hit after all.  The Leonardo DiCaprio thriller raked in over $40 million at the box office, giving it a very impressive opening day weekend and more than good enough to beat out last week’s #1, VALENTINE’S DAY.  In what should come as no surprise, AVATAR managed to regain the third spot with yet another $16 million, taking its grand total to $687,821,000.  Yep, that’s right; another $13 million and it will pass the $700 million mark.  Is it too far off to think it might make a billion dollars?

Next week sees the release of Kevin Smith’s COP OUT with Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan.  The film looks funny, but K-Smith has a long history of disappointing box office numbers.  And I’m not sure Bruce Willis is going to be able to reverse that trend.

1  Shutter Island  $40,200,000

2  Valentine’s Day  $17,160,000

3  Avatar  $16,100,000

4  Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief  $15,300,000

5  The Wolfman  $9,846,000

6  Dear John  $7,300,000

7  Tooth Fairy  $4,500,000

8  Crazy Heart   $3,025,000

9  From Paris with Love  $2,500,000

10  Edge of Darkness   $2,210,000

Source: Box Office Mojo

The film takes place in 1954 and begins with US Marshals Teddy Daniels (Dicaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) ferrying onto Shutter Island, the mental institution for the criminally insane. They are investigating the disappearance of a patient, Rachel Solando, played in different incarnations by both Emily Mortimer and Patricia Clarkson as two radically different people. They meet the chief physician, Dr. John Cawley (Ben Kinsley), who is cryptic in almost all he says, but also in his insistence on cooperation and his refusal to show patient records. They also meet another of the hospital’s top physicians, Dr. Naerring (Max von Sydow), who’s German accent Teddy does not trust after liberating Nazi death camps at the end of the war. But Teddy also has motives for requesting this case. He has nightmares of the death of his wife (Michelle Williams), who he says was burned in a fire set by a fire bug named Andrew Laeddis (Elias Koteas), who may or may not be imprisoned on the island. And with his knowledge of the evil men from his experiences in the war, he also suspects that the institution may be experimenting on the patients for knowledge of brain and behavior modification. All of these factors lead to a suspicion of everything around him, the doctors, the orderlies… even so far as to suspect his new partner, a recent transfer who he only just met on the ferry. And as Teddy’s paranoia grows, we question his sanity as well, but is it really paranoia if they are really out to get you? This may all seem like too much for one movie to tackle, but the way the storylines all come together in the end make me long for more great work by Dennis Lehane (MYSTIC RIVER, GONE BABY GONE).

Leo Dicaprio gives us a great performance in all aspects of this character. His passion for the job is seen through interrogations of patients and his anger in his first meeting with Dr. Naerring speaks well to how the horrors of war effected him personally. But in his dreams, as he is haunted by the visions of his dead wife, we see the effect the loss has had on him and that gives us pause to question just how badly that loss twisted his mind. Sir Ben Kingsley plays Dr. Cawley as an enigmatic and ambiguous character who seems to care for patients deeply, but that only makes us suspect him more as his passion to save the institution could drive him to do anything to protect it. Both Emily Mortimer and Patricia Clarkson do well as Rachel Solando, but Mortimer plays her scene eerily with Dicaprio, while Clarkson plays her as sarcastic, suspicious and wise. Finally, Michelle Williams plays into Teddy’s dream sequences and flashbacks as heartbreaking and yet with a tinge of something else we can’t place until later, and when we figure it out it makes us look back at all the things we may have missed throughout. The actors sell this difficult story to an incredible degree lesser actors would not be able to pull off.

But the director had a vision of what he wanted to portray and that’s who should get the credit here. Scorsese wanted to build an old school Hitchcock thriller and we have it. My only problem is his use of music, though I know Marty is a music lover. He hits the hard notes of his score too early in the film, with loud cellos and violins used too strongly too early, so the tension that could be built later by a gradual buildup has nowhere to go. But even with that limiting factor I believe this to be a great addition to Mr. Scorsese’s already diverse filmography. He and Dicaprio do pretty well together.

Apparently, Leonardo DiCaprio didn’t get enough of the suspense thriller genre in this weekend’s SHUTTER ISLAND because now he is looking to star in PRISONERS.  In this one, he will play the vigilante father of a kidnapped girl that abducts the man he feels is responsible for the disappearance.  Antoine Fuqua was set to direct the film, but he has since dropped out.

Of course, Leo is very choosy about who he works with as far as directors go, so whether or not he accepts the role will depend greatly on who they find to direct it.  The script has generated a lot of buzz in the industry, so I’m sure it’s safe to say it’s more complicated than TAKEN, but involves more action than LOVELY BONES.  Obviously, most of the film is going to have to center on whether or not the kidnapped man actually took the girls.  It’s an interesting concept, but it could be tricky to actually make it work.

Source: Deadline Hollywood

Ethan Hawke and Kristin Scott Thomas have signed on to star in the upcoming indie thriller THE WOMAN IN THE FIFTH.  Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski will direct the film from Douglas Kennedy’s story.  Filming is set to begin in March.  The story is about an American film teacher that flees to Paris after a scandal and moves in with a widow, who is possibly connected to a series of murders.

I’m a big fan of Kristin Scott Thomas, although she hasn’t been hitting homeruns lately.  The story sounds a little Lifetime-movie-ish to me, so I can only assume there’s some sort of big twist at the end.  I also wish they would’ve set this somewhere other than Paris.  I’m getting sick of the whole “American in Paris” idea.

Source: Variety

I’ve been waiting for Matt Damon and Ben Affleck to team up again, but I didn’t think they’d team up to play former New York Yankees pitchers.  But the die-hard Boston Red Sox fans are tentatively looking to play the infamous pitchers in a film called THE TRADE, with a script written by Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Dave Mandel.  It looks like Affleck will at least direct the film and then it’s possible he and Damon will star as the pitchers.

A little more research on this topic uncovered a fascinating story.  In 1972, New York Yankees pitchers Mike Kekich and Fritz Peterson famously decided to swap wives and families.  The affair(s) had begun earlier than that, but they officially announced the swap in spring of 1973.  They didn’t just trade wives for a night, they traded complete families; wives, houses, dogs, kids, everything.  Ultimately, it worked out well for Peterson, who is still married to the former Mrs. Kekich, and Kekich didn’t last long with the former Mrs. Peterson.

Oh, and on a side note, Fritz Peterson has the all time lowest ERA (2.52) at the old Yankee stadium.

Source: Deadline Hollywood

The full length trailer for Oliver Stone’s WALL STREET 2: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS is out and this time, we get more of an idea about the plot.  It looks like Gekko is out for some kind of revenge and he’s taking his daughter’s fiancee down with him.  Aside from a horrible title, I like everything about this film.  The trailer is fast paced and exciting, Shia LaBeouf and Michael Douglas are great in their roles and this looks like a good time.  I was nervous when they started using the Rolling Stones’ ‘Sympathy for the Devil’, (great song, but severely overused in film) but they made it work.  Maybe I just have a thing for this kind of stuff, but I’m definitely excited for this film.

The movie also stars Carey Mulligan and Josh Brolin, and I’m still not sure how Brolin fits into the story.  Money never sleeps on April 23rd.

Watch the trailer here.

by: Nathan Swank

You can’t go out and party every weekend, so on those nights you want to take it easy, Flix66.com has put together a bi-weekly column to help you with your movie selection. The Trifecta is a recommendation of three movies that set a mood, that showcase an actor or director, that acquaint the viewer with a geographic location, or maybe even have some obscure link like a Best Boy or Key Grip.

The eyeballs are a disgusting little body part.  They are just fine inside our head but once they pop out of our eye socket they become a whole other world of disgusting.  These are three films that feature the eyeball being removed yet still functional in some memorable scenes.  Lets be clear, the eyeball must still be functional.  Movies like KILL BILL VOL. 2, HOSTEL and I’m sure countless horror films where the eye is being gruesomely destroyed are out of contention.  This may seem like an R rated discussion but I will cover the spectrum so people of all ages can enjoy an eyeball out its socket.

THE DARK CRYSTAL-  This PG rated Jim Henson Muppet world was a classic in our household.  It’s a wonderment to behold with some very strange and scary creatures.  Even the plants are Muppet made.  One such odd creature is Aughra, the wise old lady wizard, who helps one of the last Gelflings, Jen; pick out a shard to a crystal on his path to heal their world.  Aughra has the unusual talent of popping her eyeball out.  She can hold it or set it down and it will still see things.  It’s like a little mobile camera.  These are oddly dark creatures in a sort of a creepy film and I appreciate Jim Henson adding these characters in his children/family movies.  I was raised on them and I’m a better person for it.  Now if only the nightmares would stop.

MINORITY REPORT-  An undervalued intelligent sci-fi thriller, directed by the always great Steven Spielberg, this PG- 13 film is full of scenes involving the eyes or happening because of the eyes.  In the future everything identifies you by one’s optical organs.  Even walking down the street, advertisements can scan your eye then advertise directly toward you.  Police are able to stop murder crimes before they happen with the aid of Pre Cogs who can see the future.  This system is called Pre-Crime and raises the question that if you stop something before it happens does it exist?  Could there be a flaw in the system?  Tom Cruise must find out to prove his innocence before being hunted down by his peers in the Pre-Crime division.  The only way to not be identified is to replace his eyeballs from an unlicensed surgeon about as trusty as Dr. Nic of Simpsons fame.  He then uses his old eyeballs to get back into the Pre Crime agency and kidnap a Pre Cog.  All very exhilarating with eyeball cringe-inducing importance, especially when his eyeballs slip from his fingers as they go rolling away.

PAN’S LABYRINTH-  Directed by the imaginative Guillermo del Toro, this is an R rated story about a little girl who creates a horrific fantasy world to deal with an even more horrific real world in 1944 Spain.  The specific scene in reference is when the little girl is on a mission to retrieve a blade from a mysterious room underneath the floor of her bedroom.  She retrieves the blade but stops and steals some food, awakening the pale man, who is a tall man like monster with yellowish skin and no eyes….well so you think.  His eyes are resting on a small plate in front of him as he sits motionless in front of a large table full of food.  The little girl steals a couple of grapes, which I can’t imagine how hungry you have to be to steal from a child-eating monster.  This awakens the creature, who picks up his eyes and inserts them into his eye sockets.  Did I mention his eye sockets are located in the palm of his hand?  Yeah, freaky.  He chases her down the hall eating a couple of fairy friends along the way.  Mmmmmm.  I’m getting hungry.

AMELIA is the story of Amelia Earhart (Hillary Swank) and her rise as one of the first truly ambitious female pilots.  The story follows her as the first woman to fly across the Atlantic and how she became America’s sweetheart.  She was thrust into the spotlight doing advertising and giving inspiration to women everywhere.  In the midst of that she married her promoter George Putnam (Richard Gere) and had an affair with fellow flight enthusiast Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor).  She eventually gets the best navigator to join her on an attempt to fly around the world.

As a kid, I always had a tinge of curiosity about Amelia Earhart- she’s from my home state of Kansas, she was a pilot, she disappeared over the Pacific trying to fly around the world and I went to school with a kid who was related to her in some fashion and was learning to fly at a very young age.  Those are positive thoughts about a great woman in American History.  Now when I hear her name I’m going to think of an extremely boring movie.

The film felt very stagnate without any real driving action or purpose.  The characters didn’t have any true development.  They were more like cardboard cutouts.  Everything seemed nice and safe without any real problems or danger.  Even the hint of an affair that Amelia has is glossed over like it wasn’t really any hardship for anyone.  The only suspense consisted of the characters talking about how her flight would be dangerous and how she was a thrill seeker, but then it’s her in a plane flying peacefully.  I understand there are dangers to flying solo but they are mostly unseen and don’t transfer well visually.  In fact, I felt that many times danger was forced into the story.  One scene in particular is like a three stooges routine where they keep almost falling out the door of the plane one after the other.

The acting was decent.  After looking at old footage of Earhart, Hillary Swank completely looks the part.  Richard Gere however, is the one actor who seems to slip in naturally making the character seem more like a real person than what the story provides.  Visually the film looks fantastic.  Everything pops out and the plane flying in the skies throughout the world were intoxicatingly beautiful like fish in a fish tank only a little less interesting.

The film basically consists of everyone else doting on Amelia and Amelia is happy to accept the compliments.  This is a case where the film makers liked their subject so much that they refused to give the character flaws or step back and see what is actually interesting.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video: The 2.35:1 Widescreen transfer looked magnificent.  This was the one major thing the film had going for it.

Audio: The 5.1 DTS-HD audio track was also solid.  It was very clean and crisp.

Deleted Scenes (13:53): More pointlessness, however, it is interesting that most of these scenes contain Virginia Madsen (SIDEWAYS) as George Putnam’s (Richard Gere) wife before he married Amelia.  Apparently her part got cut from the film.  It was definitely needless and took away from any emotion you might feel for the two leads relationship.

Making Amelia (23:06): This is mostly the actors and director talking about Hillary Swank becoming Amelia.  The second half is the other actors and their character then the scenery as a character.

The Power Of Amelia Earhart (10:45): Basically all the people involved in the film talk about how great Amelia is and how empowering she was to women.

The Plane Behind The Legend  (4:33):  “Without the Electra (type of airplane Amelia flew) we would have no movie.”  No kidding.  This is about the difficulties they had finding and using the plane which was so vital to the movie

Re-Constructing The Planes Of Amelia  (6:36): The challenges of making old planes that don’t exist anymore for the accuracy of the film.  How they constructed them so they would be easily moveable.

Movietone News Reels: (6:35) These were actual old footage news reels that were played before movies back in the day.  They are each extremely short but interesting.  I like seeing old footage.

In a bit of a cryptic story, Jeremy Renner revealed that he is in talks to star in the big screen board game adaptation BATTLESHIP for director Peter Berg.  At the same time, he mentioned that he has had multiple meetings to star in another high profile project, but he wouldn’t give the name of the film.  So it looks like THE HURT LOCKER has proven to be the catalyst Renner needed to become a superstar.  Of course, now the question is what is he going to do with it?

Renner will be starring in the indie film RAVEN, which Ewan McGregor is looking at co-starring.  We’ll probably be seeing a lot of Renner for at least the next few years.  As for BATTLESHIP, I’m not so sure how that’s going to work.  I’m assuming it will be a basic submarine movie, but hopefully it will have at least something to do with the board game.

Source: Reuters

Christoph Waltz is capitalizing on his great turn in INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS and has just signed on to star with Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon in the upcoming drama WATER FOR ELEPHANTS.  He will be playing a cruel, crazy animal trainer that’s also married to the show’s female star (Witherspoon).  Pattinson will play a young veterinarian that joins the traveling circus.  The role was originally intended for Sean Penn.

As much as I like Waltz, I’m a little disappointed that Penn isn’t going to be playing this role.  I would have liked to see what Penn could have done with a role like that, but I’m sure Waltz will do well, too.  It seems like a wild character and there are a ton of things an actor could do with it.  Hopefully Waltz will be able to recapture some of that craziness he managed to bring to Basterds.

Source: Deadline Hollywood

The severely underrated Carla Gugino is set to star as a federal agent on the trail of an ex-con out for revenge in the upcoming action film FASTER.  Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson will star as the ex-con with Billy Bob Thornton, Maggie Grace, Moon Bloodgood and Oliver Jackson-Cohen also starring.  The film will be directed by George Tillman Jr. (NOTORIOUS).

You might remember that we just told you Salma Hayek had dropped out due to “scheduling conflicts”, and it’s not completely clear Gugino is her replacement, but it would at least appear so.  In this case, I think I prefer Gugino, since it sounds like she’ll be playing a tough, sexy character, which is exactly what Gugino is.

Source: Variety

Set in the 1880’s in the Victorian-era Great Britain, Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro) has returned home to investigate the mystery behind his brother’s disappearance and death.  He learns of an ancient curse of a monster empowered by animal rage during a full moon, which seems to match the evidence of the missing victims in town.  After being bitten by the creature, he is nursed back to health by his father (Anthony Hopkins) and his brother’s fiancé (Emily Blunt).  While attempting to unlock the mystery behind the monster, he must battle the monsters of his past and within himself.

The film contained a few nice camera shots of chases within the trees and the fog lit by the moonlight but overall was too unclear.  The color pallet seemed set far too dark, making it difficult at times to even appreciate some of the Victorian style clothing and structures.  As for scariness, it did provide a few jump moments but as whole I never felt the intensity and exhilaration of a possible scare.   The impending doom never felt front and center, as a story about Wolfman should.  There is a particularly creepy dream sequence, which contains most of the real scares.

The special effects and makeup were really cool and the transformations from man to Werewolf were my favorite moments.  However, the transformation from man to wolf in the 1980 film AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON were done just as good if not better than the current WOLFMAN.  The film feels dated and slow as if it was released in an earlier time.  If it had been, like before all the other countless wolfman movies or in place of the original, I’m sure it would be considered great, but that is not the case and it’s 2010.

I’m a fan of Benicio who seems bred for this role.  I guess that’s why he got cast as Duke the Dog-Faced Boy in BIG TOP PEE-WEE.  It was nice to see Anthony Hopkins in a role again who is definitely a veteran to this type of film (see: BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA).  Emily Blunt is consistently beautiful.  The actor I really enjoyed though was Hugo Weaving as an inspector who is investigating the deaths.   He brought an interesting energy that I wished could have had more screen time.

THE WOLFMAN was apparently plagued with production problems that I am not fully aware of.  It has been delayed several times over with an original release date set all the way back in 2007, which I’m sure did not help it’s cause much.  Well it’s three years later and not much to show for it.  The film isn’t horrible with a couple of ok scenes; it’s just that it didn’t provide anything really worth seeing and begs the question, why do it?

by: Rebeca Surber

Finding diamonds in the rough is a wonderful feeling, but in order to do so, you usually have to watch a lot of bad movies. Flix66.com takes the pain away by recommending a movie that you may have never heard of, or missed when it first came out.

One Valentine’s Day some of us gals were tired of feeling left out during the romantic holiday and decided it was time to figure out how to get a guy. Naturally we looked to the movies for inspiration. A few bottles of Boone’s Farm and several Google searches later we came across the Betty Grable, Lauren Bacall and Marilyn Monroe gem HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE. What a perfect ‘how to’ taught by iconic vixens! We were ready to learn. We weren’t, however, ready to be swept off our feet by this classic comedy and were thrilled when we were!

In this film, the gold-digging trio design a fool proof plan to land wealthy husbands. They rent a fully furnished apartment in a swanky part of New York to up the odds of meeting men with deep pockets. What they don’t consider is the plan taking longer than anticipated and that love and money might not coexist.  Throughout their quest the fashionable dames (seriously awesome wardrobes in this flick) meet a variety of men ranging from dirt poor, filthy rich and the one random guy who sports a fake eye patch for no explained reason.

Loco Dempsey (Grable) plays up the sweet as can be bubbly airhead with theatrical perfection. With her sugar and spice attitude, she manages to get guys to buy her everything from groceries to furs and takes the time to introduce the hunks to her roommates Schatze Page (Bacall) and Pola Debevoise (Monroe). Bacall’s run as the haughty ringleader of the group is phenomenal, demanding attention in every scene. She is the pickiest out of the bunch dictating who each girl should date by setting the ground rules with things like “gentleman callers have got to wear a necktie”. We wrote that tip down for our Valentine’s induced quest for love. Bacall’s blunt attitude toward the men she dates or avoids dating is fun to watch; you never know what will come out of her mouth. She is steely and keeps her eye on the prize doing what she can to keep her distance from the one who makes her weak in the knees.

Having only been introduced to Monroe in posters of her dress blowing in the infamous scene from THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH or her breathy version of Happy Birthday, I was pleasantly surprised with her comedic timing.  Her character is blind as a bat yet she refuses to wear her glasses fearing it will destroy any chance she has with a man creating some surprise slapstick moments that make her all the more endearing and loveable; she is a favorite of mine in this movie. Grable, Bacall and Monroe as a team are fantastic, each playing her part flawlessly.

From the opening orchestra scene to the closing credits we fell in love. This is the best single girls Valentine’s Day film. It is not overly sappy or heart wrenching but makes you happy and optimistic for love.

Doug Liman will tackle the 1971 Attica State prison riot in which guards and prisoners clashed, resulting in the death of 42 people.  History seems to paint the riot as more of a rebellion and it’s hard to get a true account of what happened.  But the real question is going to be how Liman and screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher tell the story.  Do they start in the beginning and try to justify the riot, or do they pick up when the riot starts and focus on the government and police force that stormed the prison?  I think Liman has his work cut out for him with this one.

Doug Liman is one of those directors that never seems to get credit for his work, but he turns out some pretty good films.  THE BOURNE IDENTITY and MR. AND MRS. SMITH are good, fun films and I thought he added a nice touch to them.  I’ll be interested to see what he does with a politically charged movie like ATTICA.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

TRUMB HEIST (possibly renamed TOWER HEIST) seems to be one of those projects that has been around for a while.  It’s about a group of guys that con a bunch of people that inhabit the famous Trump Tower in New York.  Think OCEAN’S ELEVEN, but with comedians, which is exactly how they should go about casting this; get some superstar comedians and put them in their element.

Right now, Brett Ratner is attached to direct and Ben Stiller is in talks to star in the film.  Previously, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle and Chris Tucker were all rumored for parts in the film.  The story says they would have to go in a “new direction” now that Stiller is in talks, but I don’t think they’d have to go in too new of a direction.  Tucker and Chappelle wouldn’t have done it anyway, but getting Murphy and Rock on board should definitely still be in the cards.

Source: Los Angeles Times

We all love Hugh Jackman, but I don’t consider him a consistently good actor.  He takes on some roles that aren’t always great, but his natural charm and charisma usually make the film enjoyable.  I think he’ll have his work cut out for him in Kevin Lima’s AVON MAN, which he is currently in talks to star.

The film is a comedy in which a successful salesman (Jackman) is laid off and resorts to taking a job as an Avon sales rep to earn a living.  Of course, he’s not happy at first, but he quickly finds that his good looks and charm lead to a very successful business.  (note: this part I’m okay with)  Once successful, he recruits his buddies to sell with him and they compete to win a regional contest.  (note: this is where the story takes a nosedive)

Source: Production Weekly (via Twitter)

We haven’t seen much from Amanda Bynes lately.  For a while there, she seemed to be everywhere, but never in anything that I wanted to see.  Today we learn that she has joined the cast of the Farrelly brothers comedy HALL PASS.  She will star alongside Owen Wilson, Jenna Fischer and Jason Sudeikis.  The film is about a woman that gives her husband a pass to sleep around.

The Farrelly’s are hit or miss, but I like the idea of this film.  Obviously, cheating can lead to a number of humorous events and I’m assuming the film will turn at some point where the guy is freaking out that his wife will use a pass as well.  If done properly, this could be a really funny movie.

Source: Variety

It’s about time Kristen Wiig get her own film.  She’s been a bright spot in every movie she’s appeared in and almost everything she says is funny.  She and Annie Mumolo wrote a comedy about two friends fighting each other to plan a wedding party.  I’m okay with this as long as it doesn’t turn out anything like BRIDE WARS.

Paul Feig will direct the film and his ‘Freaks and Geeks’ executive producer Judd Apatow will produce the film.  You might remember this film as the one that James Bobin turned down in order to direct the new Muppets movie.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Buried in a story about Steven Soderbergh not selling his film CONTAGION is the news that yet another A-lister has joined the cast.  This time, Gwyneth Paltrow is the latest actress to jump at the chance to star in a Soderbergh film and she joins the already announced Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard, Jude Law and Kate Winslet.  Gwyneth, of course, can be seen in the highly anticipated IRON MAN 2 this summer.

The film is about several people dealing with an outbreak of a deadly virus.  Supposedly, studios are lining up to purchase the rights, but the bidding continues.  With a cast like this, I’m sure