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Cinematical Seven: Alec Baldwin is God
4 hours ago
He's thickened around the waist and his hair has grayed, yet the boyish charm remains. As 58-year-old Jake in Nancy Meyers' It's Complicated, which opens on Friday, Alec Baldwin (for the record: 51 years of age) epitomizes the ladies' man gone only slightly to seed. He exudes a husky masculinity, his face cracking wide open with joy when he unexpectedly beds his ex-wife Jane (Meryl Streep). It's not so much a devilish triumph as it is a recognition that his wildest dreams have come true: he can't believe how lucky he is.
Streep is the star but Baldwin is the motor that drives the story -- even if he is more of a burr under the saddle. It's a sterling performance, fully deserving of awards consideration, and a potent reminder that, given the right role and the right framework, Alec Baldwin's complicated charm easily commands the spotlight. His comedic …
- Peter Martin
The Geek Beat: Bury My Heart On Pandora
5 hours ago
As you've seen and enjoyed, 2009 has been a great year for sci-fi. But as we come to the end of our mini-renaissance, and breathlessly wait to see where it will go, I can't help but see some very troubling themes within sci-fi fandom. For a genre that's all about being open minded and exploring the unknown, we're incredibly comfortable with it taking massive shortcuts right into the land of cultural and sexual stereotype.
If you've seen even a trailer for Avatar, you can't help but notice the obvious similarities between the Na'vi and Native Americans. There wouldn't have been a million Dances with Wolves jokes if it was subtle. It's no surprise that the movie paints them with an even broader tribal brush, though to be fair, it throws in some African and Aboriginal Australian anthropology so as to seem a little less obvious. But when you've cast the great …
- Elisabeth Rappe
Will "I See You" Become the Next "You Complete Me"?
6 hours ago
I will fully admit to having a blast while watching James Cameron's Avatar, but there were a few lines of dialogue that felt oddly manufactured for girls to swoon over and guys to want to barf in their bag of popcorn. One such line was "I see you", which, of course, is also the name of the film's theme song by Leona Lewis. In the film itself, "I see you" is used by the characters when they're involved in really deep conversations and all caught up in the spiritual moment. It's a way for them to verbalize their intense connection, and to Cameron's credit he sets it up and pays it off in ways that maximize its schmaltz factor. The director seems to have a knack for piecing together these lines of dialogue and promoting them in a way so that they remain in the public consciousness (and as …
- Erik Davis
'Sex and the City 2' Trailer Brings Glitz, Glamour, and ... Camels?
6 hours ago
That's right, I wrote camels. But it's not just camels! The first trailer for Sex and the City 2 is upon us, and it's full of the bling, runway fashions, and over-the-top flavah we've come to expect ... plus a whole desert twist. Yes, movie fans, I shudder to write that that's Sarah Jessica Parker's Carrie in a glam-turban.
While we've heard rumors of financial hardships and romantic drama, they are nowhere in sight in this first trailer. Instead, there's a new exotic locale for the girls to lounge in that actually has them riding flippin' camels through the desert. Oh, I can just imagine the xenophobic jokes that will descend this time around. It seems like a missed opportunity that they didn't make Charlotte into a bubble girl for this latest burst of travel! (Although she does get a rather bubbly hat in the picture above.) One thing is …
- Monika Bartyzel
Free Flick of the Day: O. Henry's Full House
7 hours ago
One of the greatest Christmas short stories of all time is "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry (a.k.a. William Sydney Porter), that all-but-forgotten master of "the twist." If you don't know the story (published in 1906), I won't tell it to you, except that it's about a young couple who dearly wish to get each other something for Christmas but lack the means. But director Henry King very nicely adapted it to film as part of this 1952 five-part anthology film based on five great Henry stories. It's definitely not your typical feel-good Christmas tale, and its heartstring-tugging might be a nice alternative to the usual chirpy, colorful stuff on TV (like The Santa Clause 3, which I accidentally caught the other night).
As great a story as "Magi" is however, it's not even the high point of this film. In Henry Koster's segment "The Cop and the Anthem, …
- Jeffrey M. Anderson
Man Who Inspired 'Rain Man' Passes Away
8 hours ago
The name Kim Peek might not mean anything to you. But what if I said he was the man who inspired Rain Man?
MSNBC reports that the 58-year-old Peek had a major heart attack on Saturday and was pronounced dead at the hospital. While Rain Man was a fictional narrative, screenwriter Barry Morrow was inspired to create the story after meeting Peek at a convention in the early '80s. Morrow was charmed by Peek's ability to memorize everything he heard, and went on to write Raymond Babbitt, the character that earned Dustin Hoffman an Academy Award.
Kim's father, Fran Peek said of his son: "It was just unbelievable, all the things that he knew. He traveled 5,500 miles short of 3 million air miles and talked to nearly 60 million people -- half have been students." As the years went on, the younger Peek became a "mega-savant," having become a genius in …
- Monika Bartyzel
Are These The Sexiest Movies of All Time?
8 hours ago
There is no shortage of sex in the movies, but sometimes it does feel like there is a shortage of sexy. Over at Entertainment Weekly they have compiled the list of what they claim are the 25 sexiest movies of All-Time, and while I agree with most of their picks, I do think in a few cases they have managed to confuse love with sex (but haven't we all?). The list covers everything from full on sex flicks like 9 1/2 Weeks to more subtle fare like Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence. So first let's take a look at the films that earned a spot on EW's hall of fame, and then we'll get to five movies that get my pulse racing.
The top five is pretty much what you would expect: you've got the baseball comedy Bull Durham in the number five spot, followed by the 80's noir classic Body Heat, …
- Jessica Barnes
'The Karate Kid' Remake Gets a Trailer
9 hours ago
As a ridiculous fan of the original Karate Kid, naturally I was extremely disheartened to learn that Hollywood was going to attempt a remake of the 1984 film about a whiny kid from New Jersey who moves to California and gets his ass kicked a handful of times before learning karate from some wacky old Asian handy man. This new version would star Will Smith's kid Jaden (in the role originally populated by Ralph Maccio) with Jackie Chan taking on Pat Morita's role of mentor and trainer. Ugh, I know, but Yahoo just released the first trailer and I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but ... it doesn't look half bad.
Note: The Yahoo trailer doesn't seem to be working, but you can also watch it by clicking here, or by downloading one of the HD versions available here.
First off there are a slew of references to the original film, …
- Erik Davis
Tarantino: "Next Film is Less Epic", "Germans Loved 'Basterds'"
10 hours ago
Where on earth do you go after relaying the epic story of Shosanna Dreyfus and the Inglourious Basterds? According to Quentin Tarantino, you dial things back a bit. The verbose director recently talked with New York Magazine about the reception of Inglourious Basterds, and (yay!) where he's planning to go from here.
While he has 40 pages written for a prequel to Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino isn't looking to stay on that track right now. A big tease, he won't say what the next film is about, but he did reveal that it will be a "smaller, less epic" film in a "different genre entirely." The magazine writes: "He says he thinks he can finish it in a five- to six-month period of intensive writing." Smaller? Less epic? Does that mean we might get back to something more like Reservoir Dogs? While I loved Basterds, I have been yearning for a small …
- Monika Bartyzel
Tom Cruise Returns to Action in 'Knight and Day' Trailer
11 hours ago
For those of you disappointed that Tom Cruise bailed on the upcoming action film Salt (Angelina Jolie took his place), we've got the trailer for the equally ridiculous-looking spy thriller Knight & Day (formerly Wichita), courtesy of E! Online. The movie reunites Cruise with his Vanilla Sky costar Cameron Diaz in a plot about a lovelorn woman romanced by a secret agent. And against her wishes, she ends up involved in his latest mission. On paper it sounds like 27 Dresses meets Mission: Impossible (with a little Bourne Identity mixed in), and unfortunately there's not much shown in this spot to make it look any better than that.
Given that it's directed by James Mangold (Walk the Line; 3:10 to Yuma) and features the always appealing Peter Sarsgaard, I'm trying to overlook the sitcom-friendly title, contrived premise and, most of all, Cruise's smiley performance, which seems to combine Ethan Hunt with Jerry Maguire. …
- Christopher Campbell
Spin-ematical: New on DVD for 12/22
11 hours ago
(500) Days of Summer
One of the best releases of the summer movie season, (500) Days of Summer took all the tropes we know from the land of romcoms and made them work beautifully by instilling them with a real-life spin. In his Sundance review, Erik Davis wrote that the film "does not, in any way, re-invent the rom-com wheel; it's not the prettiest, the sexiest or the most hot-to-trot -- but she's a looker and a feeler and way too easy to fall in love with if you give her a little room to work that magic." Buy it. Also on Blu-ray.
Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon
Neill Blomkamp reinvigorated the SciFi scene with District 9, an alien film that made the intelligence of the story just as important as the space creatures themselves. In his review, Peter Martin wrote: "Refreshingly, District 9 upends expectations that have …
- Monika Bartyzel
Create Your Own 'Christmas Story' Bunny Costume
12 hours ago
You know at some point this week you're gonna sit down and watch A Christmas Story, and you know you're gonna get to the part where Ralphie walks down the stairs in that silly pink bunny costume and, though you'll chuckle like you do every year, there will definitely be a part of you that desperately wants to don a pair of ridiculous pink bunny pajamas just because you like to experience new things ... and because you're really that cheesy (we won't tell anyone -- promise!).
For those who don't want to piece together Ralphie's bunny costume by hand, you can hop on over to the official Christmas Story House gift shop and pick up a pair for $100. That's a lot of money, though, and something tells me every household has at least one Aunt Clara who's capable of creating a delightful (and adorable) bunny costume for a lot less …
- Erik Davis
MPAA Thinks You Pot Smokers Are Bad Examples
13 hours ago
If you smoke even a single marijuana cigarette, the MPAA thinks you're a bad example and should not be viewed by children unless accompanied by a parent or adult guardian. Nancy Meyer's It's Complicated, a romantic comedy starring Meryl Streep as a divorced woman who must decide between two suitors, one of them her architect (Steve Martin) and the other her ex-husband (Alec Baldwin), earned an R rating from the MPAA, despite an appeal by distributor Universal Studios. And it wasn't for profanity or nudity, but for "pot smoking with no bad consequences," according to sources cited by the Los Angeles Times. Total number of joints smoked: one.
When I first read that story, I thought that surely there were other factors involved; the MPAA site shows the rating for "some drug content and sexuality." Well, when I finally saw the film at an advance screening, I kept an …
- Peter Martin
The Best of the Decade: Musicals
14 hours ago
Film musicals used to be some of the most popular cash cows in Hollywood, but sometime over the years, the musical fell out of vogue. I blame the '80s, when we got disco dreck like The Apple and Xanadu (guilty pleasures, I admit), or perhaps the '90s (in two words: Spice World). So it was heartening for this musical fan to witness the revival of the genre that happened during the '00s, when movie musicals re-entered the Oscar race and everyone from Tim Burton to Lars von Trier put a little razzle dazzle in their step!
Of course, this rebirth had its highs and lows. Rent was still annoying as ever, even when adapted for the screen. The Producers didn't really work, either. On the other hand, we learned that our friends and neighbors (and husbands and boyfriends) shared our secret love of song, of seeing A-list, …
- Jen Yamato
Magneto's Origin Movie Is Now 'X-Men: First Class'
15 hours ago
Last week, Bryan Singer revealed he had signed on the dotted line, and was re-enrolling with Fox to direct X-Men: First Class. The response from fans has been mixed, ranging from "I don't like post-Superman Singer" to "Stupid X-Men!" to "Yay! X-Men!" It is tough to get excited about yet another prequel, though I try to look on the bright side when it comes to my favorite superhero team.
Singer caught up with THR's Heat Vision to drop the usual "I know what the story is, but I can't tell you" hints, but he did reveal that First Class had essentially absorbed Magneto's spin-off movie. "It's basically about the formation of the X-Men. How they began and the relationship between a young Xavier and a young Magneto ... This story would probably utilize some of the Magneto story because it deals with a young Magneto, so it might supersede that [origin movie] because …
- Elisabeth Rappe
Discuss: Is the R-Rated Hit-Girl 'Kick-Ass' Trailer a Little Disturbing?
15 hours ago
If you're still not sold on the subversive superhero movie Kick-Ass, even after hearing the "bananas" buzz out of this year's Butt-Numb-a-Thon, maybe a new trailer spotlighting the character Hit-Girl will entice you. You just might not want to admit that you got excited for a movie based on a spot focusing on a little girl who says the f-word and the c-word nonchalantly and shoots bad guys in the cheek and chops off their legs with even less of a thought.
Really, who is this trailer for? People who thought Natalie Portman wasn't young enough, foul-mouthed enough or violent enough in Leon (The Professional)? Guys who went to see Kill Bill Vol. 1 for the meteor hammer-wielding schoolgirl? Nostalgic audiences who will be too busy enjoying the Banana Splits theme song to realize what they're watching?
Okay, so it's all over-the-top enough to get the simple defense, "dude it's just a comic book movie. …
- Christopher Campbell
What to Buy the Twilight Mom for Christmas
16 hours ago
Any self-respecting vamp fetishist would slap on a little fake blood in two precise dots on their neck, ignoring the comments of the masses in their quest for immortality and vampiric allegiance. But not in the age of The Twilight Saga. With Stephenie Meyers' teen vamp romance, the toothed beings sparkle more than they draw blood, and their bite is as nice as cashmere. Literally.
Meekssandygirl over at Etsy has crocheted the lovely vamp bite necklace you can see over to the right. It's made of cashmere and silk, and takes all the horror out of a pair of fangs. As far as fan art goes, it's a pretty spot-on way to mimic the sentimentality of the books and films, and it will make a hell of a gift for the Twilight mom. I can't bring myself to say Twi-hards in general, because even in fiction, the thought of seeing …
- Monika Bartyzel
Peter Jackson Taking Flight With 'Mortal Engines'?
17 hours ago
With The Hobbit, Tintin, and Temeraire all on the pre-production slate, you'd think Peter Jackson would have enough to do. But perhaps he's feeling a need to compete with his Hobbit pal and co-conspirator Guillermo Del Toro, because he's reportedly taken on another fantasy epic. According to The Dominion Post, Jackson will adapt Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines series. (I must note that in the U.S. they're called the Hungry City Chronicles. Pick whichever title you like best.)
Now, I'm not familiar with the series but the collected wisdom of the Internet informs me that the Mortal Engines books are best described as "post-apocalyptic steampunk." After the world as we knew it was blown to bits by nuclear holocaust and geological instability, cities took to the air. From what I understand, these "Traction Cities" barter resources and war with one another in a Mad Max-style scrabble. The only Traciton …
- Elisabeth Rappe
The Best of the Decade: Science-Fiction
21 December 2009 7:15 PM, PST
The biggest problem turned out to be, of course, how to separate what's "science-fiction" from what's, well, everything else. The easiest approach turned out to be exclusion. The genre doesn't have a precise, agreed-upon definition, as far as I know, but I decided to go with the strictest one that seemed reasonable. Mostly, this meant: no superhero flicks (sorry Mr. Raimi), no fantasy (with apologies to Peter Jackson), and nothing that seemed to lean closer to horror (eliminating the 28 franchise, the likes of The Host and, heartbreakingly, The Mist). That left a list of films that I am comfortable calling "sci-fi."
Unlike some of my cleverer co-bloggers, I decided to go with a more conventional "top 10" for this exercise, though I also offer some bonus categories at the bottom of the post. The digital revolution obviously made the aughts a banner decade for the genre, though the extent to which …
- Eugene Novikov
Discuss: Who Cares If It's Hand-Drawn or Computer-Animated?
21 December 2009 6:32 PM, PST
Disney shut down the last of its traditional animation studios in 2004, and it was a big deal. Disney ceasing the production of hand-drawn cartoons was like Keebler ceasing the production of cookies. But computer animation was the wave of the future, the Disney bosses figured, and the old-fashioned hand-drawn stuff wasn't bringing in audiences anymore. Home on the Range, Disney's 44th hand-drawn feature, was to be its last.
I thought at the time that this was an ill-reasoned decision. People weren't flocking to Shrek and Monsters Inc. instead of Treasure Planet and Atlantis: The Lost Empire because the former were computer-animated while the latter were hand-drawn. Those movies were more popular because people thought they were better movies. Or at least that's how it seemed to me. Computer animation definitely has a different look to it, but do kids really care? Do kids think a movie is liable to be "better" because of it? …
- Eric D. Snider
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