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Spirited Success Story: Oldest NFL Cheerleader Gets Movie Deal
Apr 2nd
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Laura Vikmanis is living proof that you truly are only as old as you feel. The last place you’d expect to find a 42-year-old mother of two teenage daughters is on an NFL football field, dancing in a skimpy uniform. But that’s exactly where you’ll find Vikmanis, who currently reigns as the NFL’s oldest cheerleader. And soon, you will be able to see her story projected on the big screen.
Vikamanis, a registered dietitian and trainer, first tried out for the Cincinnati Ben-Gals cheer squad when she was 39, after going through a tough divorce. While at first she didn’t make the cut, she spent the next year working on fitness and routines before trying out again, determined to pursue a dream she had let fall by the wayside. This time, she was successful, becoming an inspiration for her daughters and a mother figure to the squad members who are almost 20 years her junior.
(More on TIME.com: See a brief history of cheerleading)
If you’re thinking that this tale sounds like a movie, you’re spot on. Writing duo Emily Cook and Kathy Greenberg — of Gnomeo & Juliet and Ratatouille fame — penned a pitch about Vikamanis’ life and sent it out to New Line Cinema, who picked it up immediately, hoping to turn it into the next Blind Side.
And with the football season in indefinite limbo, now seems like the perfect time to turn audiences’ attention to the role of the iconic cheerleader, as well as validating the belief that it is possible to reinvent yourself at any age.
But what NewsFeed really wants to know is who is going to be cast as the blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty in the movie? We hear Cameron Diaz is available. (via The Hollywood Reporter)
(More on TIME.com: Oscar Fashion: The 9 Best Women over 40)
From newsfeed.time.com
Leighton Meester In Talks For New Adam Sandler Movie
Apr 2nd
- News
Leighton Meester In Talks For New Adam Sandler Movie
April 2nd, 2011 at 1:34 PM
Photo: CC David Shankbone
Leighton Meester fans could see a different side to the actress in a new project, as she’s wanted for a comedy movie.
The Gossip Girl star, who recently appeared in The Roommate, is currently in talks to star in the forthcoming I Hate You, Dad, reports Variety.
The movie stars Adam Sandler and the storyline sees the actor moving in with his son (who will be played by Andy Samberg) and his fiancée (Meester), and sees him start to interfere in their lives.
Others linked to the film are Ice Ice Baby rapper Vanilla Ice, who could play a gay wedding planner. James Caan is also wanted for the role of Meester’s dad.
I Hate You, Dad will open next summer, on June 15, 2012.
Meanwhile, Leighton stars in the upcoming Monte Carlo, opposite Selena Gomez, Katy Cassidy and Glee’s Cory Monteith.
From www.omgmusic.com
The Green Lantern comic is the basis for a movie due in June
Apr 2nd
Allison Carey/The Plain DealerThe Green Lantern is going from comic book to the big screen.The big news around town is that The Avengers are coming to Cleveland.
Much of the big-budget “Avengers” movie, scheduled for a summer 2012 release, will be filmed here in Superman’s hometown.
Movie types are scouting locations and involved in pre-production work. Principal filming begins in August and will run through September.
So keep an eye out for Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) wandering around town.
And contact your local office of S.H.I.E.L.D. if you see Loki (Tom Hiddleston).
Hemsworth attended the recent C2E2 (Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo) convention but said nothing about the movie and little about his own Thor movie that opens next month, in that sometimes mysterious, anti-publicity campaign Hollywood does. But he smiled often and signed a lot of autographs.
The other big movie represented in Chicago was “Green Lantern,” starring Ryan Reynolds, which opens Friday, June 17. Everything was green, and the Emerald Avenger was everywhere at the con.
Books, comics, shirts, rings and bling were all over the place. It seemed like you couldn’t swing a three-eyed, Kryptonian baboosh without hitting someone in a Green Lantern outfit.
Some looked better than others.
The DC booth was showing the Green Lantern trailer; the movie looks good.
SPEAKING OF THE AVENGERS …
Original Avenger Hank Pym (who will not be in the movie) finally is being portrayed properly in the pages of “Avengers Academy” starting with issue 11.
He’s still upset over the death of his ex-wife, The Wasp, who was killed in the final moments of the Skrull war and is trying to figure out a way to bring her back to life. In doing so, he accidentally brought back to Earth one of the the most powerful foes the Avengers have ever fought, the godlike Korvac. He’s not happy.
Thor drops in to help put Korvac on ice, and is dispatched quickly. Considering the only reason the Avengers beat Korvac last time was by persuading him to commit cosmic suicide (which turned out to be an incomplete suicide), they are in for trouble.
The academy series is an adventurous, small book in the Avengers universe with fine writing by Christos Gage and wonderful art by Tom Raney.
COMPLETE COMICS
If you’re looking for some light reading, avoid “Comics: The Complete Collection” (Abrams, $40). The tome weighs more than 7 pounds and costs pennies a page.
At 674 pages, Brian Walker’s exhaustive look at newspaper comic strips is a librarian’s dream. The book begins with artists from the mid-1800s like Rodolphe Topffer and later, Ohioan Richard Outcault’s “Yellow Kid,” and runs right up to this century with “Red and Rover,” “Cul De Sac” and “Get Fuzzy.”
In between are stories about the men and women who brought the funny pages to life for more than 100 years with characters like Popeye, Beetle Bailey, Opus from “Bloom County,” Pogo and hundreds of others. But for comic lovers the true joy comes with the thousands of reprinted panels of classic newspaper comics. It’s worth it just for the full page of Hal Foster “Prince Valiant” reprints.
This is a book to be savored, enjoyed a page at a time, perhaps the perfect coffee-table tome.
FREE COMIC BOOK DAY!
Each year we are proud to mention Free Comic Book Day held throughout the country on the first Saturday in May. This year’s event is May 7.
Held since 2002, the event’s mission is simple: To promote comics. So mark your calendars and stay tuned to the Arts & Life section. We’ll be reporting on local details before the event.
From www.cleveland.com
Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively Talk Green Lantern At WonderCon SF
Apr 2nd
Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively Talk Green Lantern At WonderCon SF 
Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, the acting pair that star in the upcoming movie take of the legendary comic book series called The Green Lantern, were introduced to the WonderCon crowd to cheers and ovations, mostly for Ryan Reynolds, the man People Magazine once gave the title “Sexiest Man Alive” to.
Because of that, came almost immediate yells for Reynolds to take off his shirt, to which a minority asked to see Blake Lively’s legs.
Hey, the Gossip Girl star’s sexy too!
But the subject really was The Green Lantern Movie.
Before Reynolds, Lively (who plays Carol Ferris), and DC Entertainment Chief Creative Officer Jeff Johns (the “Green Lantern guru”) were introduced, the standing-room only crowd was given a taste of The Green Lantern movie to come: a well-done 10 minute segment that starts with a visit to “Section 2814,” and has Abin Sur, the best warriors of the Green Lantern Corps, escaping near death from a space creature by getting away in a pod headed for Earth. Upon crash-landing, he’s rescued by Hal Jordan, a test pilot, but dies before Hal can get help. As he’s dying, Abin Sur explains that the “ring” chose Jordan.
The clip was very well done, and should go a long way toward silencing people who speculated that there may be a problem with the special effects in the movie. What this blogger and the audience saw was breath-taking, and will look even better in 3-D, even though the effect really isn’t necessary.
That set the stage for Reynolds, Lively, and Johns.
Some highlights from this 31 minutes of video – the entire talk is on it:
1) The movie was made in Louisiana, which points to another trend of Hollywood going to the South (The Last Dance, for example) to make movies.
2) The Green Lantern was the first “super-heavy” special effects movie for both Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, causing Reynolds to deliver a number of funny quips. “You know. Spending six months in a sound stage in Louisiana, staring at the color blue, until you have two large occular cavaties actually feels pretty good when you see that shit right there,” Reynolds said, “I highly recommend it.” (Referring to the clip that was just shown.)
3) Blake Lively shared that turning brunette to fit the character of Carol Ferris was a “matter of national security” to her bodyguard, who’s normally quiet, but is such a Green Lantern fan he was instructing Lively on what to do with respect to her role.
4) Johns says that the movie is “sticking pretty much to the mythology,” which shows the high level of respect DC Entertainment has for The Green Lantern’s fan base.
5) Ryan Reynolds said his diet while filming in Louisians was awful “All I ate were orphaned children.” Mr. Reynolds shared that he spent six months in training before filming, including learning gymnastics. “I’m not an old guy, but I’m not a young guy anymore, when landing from 20 feet onto concrete was hilarious…You can’t tell that those (gymnastics guys) aren’t six-two. It’s pretty hard to back-flip when you’re over five-foot-seven.”
6) Reynolds says he’s a “Star Wars kid” and sees his character as a mix of Chuck Yeger and Han Solo. Someone who can whip out a wise crack and set everyone back to reality.
That’s some of the highlights of the panel discussion. The video, at 31 minutes, has it all.
Will Green Lantern Score?
With all of the super hero movies coming out, it’s going to be an exciting, yet rocky year for sci-fi movies. The reason is with so many special effects, the audience may be less interested in a movie driven by visuals and want more story. To the extent The Green Lantern delivers on the latter, it may overcome such issues, and if that’s the case, it could be considered one of the best movies of its kind ever made.
Stay tuned.
Posted By: Zennie62 (Email) | April 01 2011 at 11:26 PM
From www.sfgate.com
WC 11: Green Lantern Movie Preview
Apr 2nd
The hottest movie panel on WonderCon’s opening day was the presentation for Green Lantern. The Warner Bros. panel included new footage from the DC Comics adaptation and appearances by stars Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively and Peter Sarsgaard.
Fans gathered inside the Esplanade Ballroom of the Moscone Center watched with rapt attention as the Green Lantern footage was screened. Here’s the breakdown of the series of scenes that were shown (SPOILER WARNING):
It began with a shot of space and Abin Sur’s ship with a subtitle letting us know what quadrant it’s in. Inside the ship, Abin-Sur is communicating with a holographic projection of Sinestro when the ship comes under attack from Parallax. Abin-Sur valiantly wards off Parallax, a monstrous, almost formless creature of energy, but must ultimately flee his vessel via escape pod. Abin-Sur sets course for the nearest life-sustaining planet in the hopes of continuing his original mission: to find another deserving being to join the Green Lantern Corps.
His ship’s crash-landing on Earth is witnessed by test pilot Hal Jordan (Reynolds), who rushes to the glowing wreckage to discover the mortally wounded Abin-Sur. The dying alien gives the confused Hal his ring and tells him to recite the oath before dying.
Back in his apartment, Hal has the green lantern/power battery sitting on his coffee table where, amusingly, he tries reciting the oath … but what’s the oath? He was never told, so he starts a modified version of the Pledge of Allegiance (to the lantern rather than the flag) when suddenly the power battery bursts to life. Hal’s eyes glow green as he begins to recite the Green Lantern’s oath. (“In brightest day …” you know the rest.) The battery and ring have formed some sort of psychic bond with Hal, imparting information to him.
Then the ring’s power envelops him in a green cloud and he soars into space, past astronauts on a spacewalk, through the cosmos and finally to Oa, the homeworld of the Green Lantern Corps. There Hal, garbed in the green energy “uniform” and mask of a Lantern, is met by Tomar-Re (whose voice was done by Geoffrey Rush; yes, he’s already recorded his lines). Tomar-Re will serve as his first mentor in the ways of the Corps.
From there, Tomar-Re and Hal hover down to an amphitheater carved out of rock to witness Sinestro, now the greatest of the Lanterns following Abin-Sur’s death, address the troops. His speech is about the coming doom that is Parallax and, at the end of the speech, the Lanterns let loose their battle cry of “The Corps!” as the green light of their collective ring projections beam off Oa and into space.
They then showed a new trailer, which will be attached to the May release of Thor. This trailer showed a lot more special effects, action and Oa awesomeness, including much more of a mutated Hector Hammond. My favorite bit from the trailer was Hal using his power ring to create badass .50 caliber guns out of green energy and then letting loose on his off-screen enemy.
So what did I think of the new Green Lantern footage? Check out the embedded video below for my reaction.
Green Lantern opens June 17.
From movies.ign.com
‘Win Win’ Ready to Move Up in Weight Class This Weekend
Apr 2nd
“Win Win” has one win. Will it get a second?
The Fox Searchlight film, directed by Tom McCarthy (“The Visitor,” “The Station Agent”) and starring Paul Giamatti and Amy Ryan, is well on its way to becoming a quiet indie success. It picked up rave reviews, strong word-of-mouth and solid grosses in its first two weekends in theaters, averaging between $26,000 and $42,000 per screen in limited release.
It expanded to 149 screens on Friday, a significant acceleration of Searchlight’s original plan because of the film’s initial success, and should reach 200 next week.
In the indie world, so far so good.
“In a way, I feel as if the movie has already done what we wanted it to do,” said the film’s producer, Michael London, who noted that second-weekend grosses fell a negligible one percent in New York and Los Angeles, the two cities where it had opened the week before.
“That was a really clear signal that word-of-mouth is as good as it could be, and that the movie will fulfill its potential within the indie arthouse/smarthouse universe,” he told TheWrap on Friday
But there’s a whole other universe out there, as London knows from producing the $70 million-grossing Best Picture nominee “Sideways.”
“Now that we’ve accomplished our first goal,” he said of “Win Win,” “here comes this crazy second level that we never allowed ourselves to think about: can the movie find a real audience outside of the urban, indie community?”
With the film shifting tone from drama to comedy in its story of a small-town lawyer and part-time wrestling coach (Giamatti) embroiled in financial troubles, London always figured it would be a tough sell to mainstream audiences.
Now he thinks a crossover is conceivable, though hardly guaranteed; the next two weekends, he said, are the crucial moments for a film that Jeff Sneider called “charming, surprisingly affecting” and “easily the best movie I’ve seen at Sundance” earlier this year.
The film’s 94 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating is tops among 2011 releases, which has enabled Searchlight to trot out the multiplex-friendly ad line “The Best Reviewed Movie of the Year.”
And before those reviews kicked in, the studio and the filmmakers employed a strategy that started with what London called “relentless” screenings around the country, with McCarthy hitting 18 different cities and reporting back that the movie connected in a way that his previous films (both critical favorites) had not.
“I don’t know if it’s the wrestling or the fact that it’s the only movie out there to deal with how hard it is to make ends meet these days, but audiences are responding,” London said.
“And one of the things that really helps is that it plays as a comedy. If a movie makes you laugh, you don’t care if it’s an indie movie or a studio movie – you just laugh, and some of those rules go out the window.”
Related Wrap Stories
From www.thewrap.com
Henry Winkler’s son makes a movie
Apr 2nd
Thanks to Reitman’s encouragement, Winkler stands on ‘Ceremony’
When USC film school graduate Max Winkler submitted his first screenplay to Jason Reitman, the Oscar-winning filmmaker advised the young writer to script a more personal story. Winkler complied.
“I locked myself in the office and wrote the first draft of ‘Ceremony’ in two weeks,” recalls the son of Henry Winkler. “It was this crazy, marathon therapy session.”
“Ceremony” follows a young man (Michael Angarano) who attends his former college roommate’s wedding intent on winning over the bride-to-be (Uma Thurman). As for the woman who inspired Winkler to write the romantic comedy, he says, “I don’t think she’s seen the movie, but let’s hope she will.”
For his directorial debut, Winkler reassured financial backers by putting together a scrapbook of sorts outlining his vision for the film. “A lot of people are afraid to give a first-time director the reins to make a movie, so I tried to answer as many questions as I could before we started shooting by creating a big visual blog. It had pictures showing costume and production design, what I wanted the house to look like, how I wanted the characters to look. I made a CD of all the music I wanted to use and handed that out. That sort of helped paint the picture.”
Citing character-driven pieces from the 1960s and ’70s as key influences, Winkler explains, “I consider ‘The Graduate’ to be a romantic comedy, yet it’s also filled with drama and dark stuff. Getting the right tone is such a difficult thing because you have to walk the balance between humor and sadness and emotion. When it’s done right by somebody like Woody Allen, you feel all kinds of things. But if a movie commits to much to one genre, either it’s too broad and you don’t get the emotions, or else it’s too romantic and the funny doesn’t land.”
New Bingen book looks at MGM during the studio’s heyday
Movie historian Steven Bingen earlier chronicled the behind-the-scenes action and drama that unfolded during Warner Bros.’ golden years. Now he has co-authored “MGM: Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot” (Santa Monica Press; $35), which uses a collection of archival photographs to offer fresh insights about the studio that produced “The Wizard of Oz” and many other classics.
The 312-page hardcover volume illustrates how MGM artisans recycled props and transformed the studio’s huge sun-baked back lots into settings for Paris (“An American in Paris”), ancient Rome (“Ben-Hur”) and other locations for iconic films.
AT&T hopes Team Coco will carry the day
The “Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop” documentary got picked up for distribution last month at Austin’s South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival in a multiplatform deal involving a relatively new player in the film distribution business: AT&T.
On the eve of the movie’s theatrical release, the media giant will show the movie to TV viewers and mobile phone users who subscribe to its AT&T U-verse plan.
Abramorama Films is handling the theatrical release. CEO Richard Abramowitz says he’s not worried that small-screen exposure will cut into box-office revenues when the movie opens this summer.
“Conan O’Brien sold 130,000 tickets to his live show with one tweet – that’s a rabid fan base,” Abramowitz says. “Conan is so visible that I’m convinced people will go see this film in a theater, first night.”
Rodman Flender‘s warts-and-all documentary follows O’Brien during the tumultuous period when the red-haired talk show host left NBC and channeled his need to perform by touring 42 American cities.
Abramowitz, who distributed last year’s Oscar-nominated Banksy doc “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” says he’s happy to play ball with new media conglomerates but has no plans to abandon the traditional theatrical model. {sbox}
E-mail Chronicle correspondent Hugh Hart at pinkletters@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page Q – 25 of the San Francisco Chronicle
From www.sfgate.com
‘Source Code’: The Reviews Are In!
Apr 1st
The beginning of March brought us a well-reviewed sci-fi movie in “The Adjustment Bureau.” The first day of April gifts us with a far superior, and deservedly better reviewed, genre flick called “Source Code.”
Here’s the funny thing (and the enduring, head-scratching nature of the box office): The new movie, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, isn’t likely to pull in more bucks over its opening weekend than Matt Damon’s “Bureau” ($21.2 million). That’s a shame, because more people than are expected to buy tickets — experts are predicting around $15 million in receipts — should check out “Source Code,” the second feature from Duncan Jones (“Moon”). But don’t just take it from us. Check out what the critics are saying about the film:
The Story
“Army Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) awakens on a commuter train heading to Chicago, and doesn’t know where he is. He finds the delightful Christina (Michelle Monaghan) sitting across from him. … Colter doesn’t know — and neither do we — that he’s part of a highly classified military research project and has been sent into the immediate past to find out who bombed that train. The ‘source code’ — a kind of shorthand for computer shorthand — is given a breezy but satisfying enough explanation by its inventor (Jeffrey Wright), but what it does, basically, is provide Colter with an eight-minute window, in a parallel reality, to find the bomber and prevent what is expected to be a subsequent terrorist attack on Chicago itself.” — John Anderson, The Wall Street Journal
The Performances
“‘Source Code’ clicks along with swift, crisp tension, with Gyllenhaal delivering an assured lead performance as a man at once out of his depth and supremely self-assured. … Indeed, it’s the persuasive turns of all the cast members — within an otherwise preposterous setup — that allow filmgoers to surrender to the propulsive force of ‘Source Code.’ Monaghan and Farmiga are especially winning as the sympathetic women who coax Stevens along a path that, while preordained, he insists on twisting.” — Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post
The Direction
” ‘Source Code’ is nimbly directed by Duncan Jones, whose 2009 ‘Moon’ was probably the past decade’s smartest, most ambitious science-fiction film. Although ‘Source Code”s premise is a Philip K. Dick-style mindbender, Jones plays the story straight. The movie triggers memories of those classic Hitchcock suspense stories starring Jimmy Stewart or Cary Grant as a bystander abruptly thrust into life-or-death intrigue. Setting the action on a train gives the story a claustrophobic sense of urgency and a nice thematic resonance: Is Stevens’ future also moving with unstoppable momentum on a fixed path?” — Colvin Colbert, Minneapolis Star Tribune
The Dissenters
“‘Source Code’ can’t help but come down with the conceptual sillies from time to time. The situation is so preposterous and the characters’ attempts to explain it make for such bogus high-tech gobbledygook — Jeffrey Wright does what he can with the stock role of the crippled Dr. Strangelove behind the experiment — that you need a weed whacker just to keep sight of the plot. The movie plays with the metaphysics of time and causality, and it gives Gyllenhaal a big Sisyphean rock to push uphill over and over, but in no way does it enter the cosmically profound through the back door the way ‘Groundhog Day’ did.” — Ty Burr, Boston Globe
The Final Word
“Superficially, ‘Source Code’ plays with some of the same themes as last month’s ‘The Adjustment Bureau.’ But it’s made with so much more skill and craft and impact that it’s as if that other film were its made-for-TV doppelganger. This is hair-raising, clever and winning entertainment. Even if his protagonists aren’t entirely what they seem to be or think they are, Mr. Jones is, it’s increasingly clear, the real thing.” — Shawn Levy, The Oregonian
Check out everything we’ve got on “Source Code.”
For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.
From www.mtv.com
Bad news for industry; some good news for moviegoers
Apr 1st
With movie theater attendance in North America down a grim 20 percent so far this year compared with 2010, as reported by the Los Angeles Times, it’s natural to point fingers at the biggest flameouts. “The Green Hornet.” “Sucker Punch.” The early 2011 list of unprofitable pain is long; if it weren’t, AMC Entertainment Inc. honcho Gerry Lopez wouldn’t have said in the LA Times piece that sluggish business at the multiplex “boils down to the quality of the movies.”
There are, however, medium-budget films of considerable quality to help us through these doldrums. “Source Code,” made for around $30 million, opens Friday. It deserves an audience; it plays fresh variations on familiar science fiction ideas, time travel and alternative realities for starters. It’s genuinely exciting. And it believes in love, which for the record I’d like to point out is a nice thing.
I felt the same way about a very different, lower-keyed picture, still in theaters. “The Adjustment Bureau,” which cost about $60 million and has grossed about $100 million worldwide (no smash, but no flop), carries the courage of its unformulaic convictions straight through to the end. It is a sincere fantasy about soul mates passing the ultimate test. My second time, I brought my 10-year-old son. My hunch proved correct (you never know, do you?) He fell headlong into the movie and came out dazed, but pleased. It gave him a few things to think about.
The second time through, I realized something truly remarkable about the film: First-time feature director George Nolfi, handling his own screenplay adaptation of the Philip K. Dick short story “Adjustment Team,” managed to make a star-driven studio picture, a thriller (though more of a thinker) wrapped around a romance, without a single gun being drawn. Not one.
I confirmed this with Nolfi on Wednesday. “Nope, no guns,” he said. “I mean, come on. The Adjustment Bureau’s a supernatural force. They don’t need guns. And anyway, films should have the minimum amount of violence needed to tell the story.” He added that plenty of stories require plenty of violence. Just not this one.
Subconsciously, I suspect, the absence of firearms may have been the reason I was keen on taking my jaded 10-year-old sophisticate to “The Adjustment Bureau.” It’s an antidote to all the assaultive diversions aimed his way every week, on television and in the movies. The film contains a single use of the F-word, in a throwaway context, and a discreet, non-exploitative scene of lovemaking. Millions of Americans, more nervous about language and skin than I am, will wonder about the film’s appropriateness for a 10-year-old. But my concerns as a parent lie almost wholly with how much violence, and what sort, my kid is being fed by the media, as facilitated by his parents.
“The studio,” Nolfi said, “didn’t market the movie to young people at all, but when they did their market research they found it scored best with audiences younger than 21. They were shocked.” He told me he has received a surprising amount of mail from people who took their kids to “The Adjustment Bureau.” They’re grateful, he said, for the way the film handled the story.
“It doesn’t seem like a kid-appropriate film, yet there’s no reason to think kids aren’t interested in those large questions of fate and free will, or can’t be taken in by the love story. … It’s an odd movie, no question. It’s uncynical, which for those expecting a harder science fiction movie is something to get angry about. Maybe that’s why some younger kids have responded to it: It isn’t a cynical, dystopian vision of the world.”
As my son begins to explore more and more films not necessarily marketed at his patronized, coarsened, coveted age group, the movies (even if they’re good, not great) that dare to engage without the usual bullying tactics will always get my money.
mjphillips@tribune.com
From www.kdvr.com
