Posts tagged Movie
Paul is the best alien/nerd road trip movie yet
Mar 31st
Paul is the best alien/nerd road trip movie yet Posted Mar 31, 2011 By Mark Haskins
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MOVIE: Paul
STARRING: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kirsten Wiig, Jason Bateman and Seth Rogen
DIRECTOR: Greg Mottola
RATING: 14A
EMC Entertainment – Paul is a lot like E.T., if you can imagine the cute grey alien swearing a lot.
Graeme (Simon Pegg) and Clive (Nick Frost) are two British nerds on vacation in America. Their trip begins at the San Diego ComicCon, and then heads out on the road. They’re driving an RV across America to see all the major alien hotspots. It’s the nerd trip of a lifetime.
Then they meet Paul (Seth Rogen). Paul is a bona-fide honest-to-goodness alien. He crash landed on earth 60 years ago, and has been the ‘guest’ of the American government ever since. Paul has been influencing our science and culture, but now he wants to go home. So Paul got a signal to his planet, stole a car, and made a break for it. Unfortunately Paul drives cars as well as he pilots starships.
Fortunately Graeme and Clive were there when Paul wrecked his car. Shocked and surprised almost beyond reason the two nerds still decide to help Paul get home. It’s a journey fraught with danger. They’re on the run from government agents with orders to kill, they have a run in with some intolerant red necks, and they kind of kidnap a Christian-zealot shut-in named Ruth (Kristen Wiig). Along the way good times are had, Ruth’s faith is shattered, lessons are learned, and friends are made. It’s the best alien/nerd road-trip movie ever.
Paul is very funny, but I wouldn’t expect anything less from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. They’re very clever writers, but their real genius isn’t the absurdity or the outrageousness they create, it’s the heart. For all its goofiness Paul has a tremendous amount of heart and engages you on a real emotional level.
The characters are extremely likeable, and the story has that edge of real danger to it that makes the film, for all its absurdities, truly compelling.
As actors I think Pegg and Frost are one of the greatest comedy teams of our time. They’re outstanding.
It was interesting to see Jason Bateman play the heavy. As agent Zoil he’s responsible for getting Paul at any cost. It’s not the kind of role you’d expect to see Bateman in, but he was great.
Kristen Wiig was hilarious as the religiously sheltered Ruth. I’ve never heard anyone curse quite the way she did, or make it as funny.
I like Seth Rogen. I think he’s funny most of the time, but I wouldn’t call him a great actor. Mostly he plays different versions of himself. As the voice of Paul he didn’t even try to create a version of himself he was just himself. Oddly it was the best thing Rogen could’ve done. It’s what makes Paul such a likeable and relatable character even if he is a little rude.
I enjoyed Paul and I can’t wait to have it sitting beside my copies of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.
Mark Haskins’ column is a regular feature of the EMC.
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From www.emcstlawrence.ca
Movie Review: The Lincoln Lawyer
Mar 31st
After starring in a recent string of forgettable romantic comedies, Matthew McConaughey was essentially branded to the unfulfilling, yet profitable role of the talentless Hollywood hunk. In his latest role, McConaughey breaks down this persona with his confident demeanor and swayed-back hair, all while keeping his shirt on.
Based on Michael Connelly’s crime novel, “The Lincoln Lawyer” revolves around the hotshot attorney Mick Haller (Matthew McConaughey) who works out of the back of his Lincoln Sedan.
Famed for his reputation of freeing the guilty and imprisoning the innocent, he receives his biggest case when playboy Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillippe) comes to Haller exclaiming he has been wrongly accused of beating a prostitute.
The courtroom drama does not need to reach outside the boundaries of its genre to remain relevant. Elevated by a good supporting cast and a handful of clever plot twists and dialogue, “The Lincoln Lawyer” is able to stand out.
What is perhaps the film’s strongest, and also most surprising, attribute is leading man Matthew McConaughey. Starting off as a character devoid of a moral compass, he believably conveys the transformation of a man as he begins to recognize compassion among other people.
Coupled with his suave appearance and unquestioning masculinity, McConaughey puts himself back into the spotlight as one of the industry’s more compelling male leads.
A complex game of cat and mouse, “The Lincoln Lawyer” provides a fulfilling film during that time of year where quality is hard to come by. McConaughey breathes authority in his role, and if anything else, his performance is worth the price of admission.
From www.dailytarheel.com
Marvel Releases First Thor Movie Clip
Mar 31st
Marvel Releases First Thor Movie Clip March 30, 2011
With Thor rocketing toward its May 6 release date and the first substantial footage debuting at CinemaCon earlier this week, Marvel and Paramount are ramping up the marketing machine in the form of the first clip from the Avengers universe film.
The clip is easily recognizable if you’ve seen any of the Thor trailers or TV spots. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) has just been jettisoned to Earth as punishment by his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) in the dead of night. Disoriented, he his met by Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), Darcy (Kat Dennings) and Professor Andrews (Stellan Skarsgard) who struggle to figure out what to do with him.
It shouldn’t come as any surprise that this particular clip premiered on MTV. It’s Kat Dennings heavy who dialogue is written explicitly to tickle the funny bone of adolescents and the MTV crowd. Marvel and Paramount know they’ll get the geeks and comic faithful into theaters. The bigger question is can Thor find the same mass appeal that Iron Man did. Kat Dennings’ comedic relief is designed to help.
We should expect more Thor clips to surface online in the coming weeks.
From www.thehdroom.com
Jennifer Garner is Miss Marple in a movie by Disney Studios
Mar 31st
Jennifer Garner is Miss Marple in a movie by Disney Studios
American actress Jennifer Garner, the heroine of the television series Alias, will play a younger version of the famous female detective Miss Marple. After negotiations which lasted several months, Disney has managed to obtain the rights of using the stories of famous character that first appeared in a magazine in 1927.
It’s not very easy for us to imagine how Jennifer Garner will enter into the character of this old girl. This will require a ton of makeup although it seems that The Mouse House deals in an innovative character, trying to assign it with a younger generation.
Jane Marple is one of the most famous characters created by Agatha Christie, is a very good gaffer and knowledgeable of the dark side of human nature.
The character first appeared on big screen in 1961, in “Murder, She Said”performed by Margaret Rutherford, who was 70 at the time and it repeated that role in three films. Angela Lansbury played the role in “The Mirror Crack’d” in 1980, a film based on an Agatha Christie novel and she dedicated this role to actress Margaret Rutherford.
Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan, well known as Agatha Christie was a British novels writer who created short stories and plays. She also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, less known, having the same success. Her works, mainly those that are the main characters Hercule Poirot or Miss Jane Marple made Agatha Christie to be called “Queen of Crime”, it is considered as one of the most important and innovative writers of the genre.
Agatha Christie wrote 12 novels in which the main character is Miss Marple. Most of Agatha Christie’s books focuses on discovering the author of a crime who belong to middle and upper classes.
American producers hope the modern approach and choice for the role of actress Jennifer Garner will be the next Miss Marple films with a franchise to rival series “Sherlock Holmes”produced by Warner Bros. studios.
Jennifer Garner, became famous thanks to the role of the television series “Alias” and we will be seen her this year on the big screen in comedy “Arthur”, produced by Warner Bros. studios.
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From www.dailygossip.org
The Suite Life Movie Ranks #1 TV Movie of the Year
Mar 30th
The Suite Life Movie Ranks #1 TV Movie of the Year
Disney Channel has had some major success with The Suite Life Movie. It currently ranks as #1 TV movie of the year thus far. The premier night had 5.2 million viewers.
I am surprised that it did as well as it did. I doubted that it would rank so high since the show seems to be hurting. But maybe this will give Disney a hint about the series in order to keep it moving forward or maybe rewrite it. After all, it did make Disney a lot of money by ranking so high.
Did you watch it? Do you think that the movie did the show justice? I think that it did it justice, even dare I say that I enjoyed the movie more than the actual series? It felt more developed, which I think is a key to the success of it. It was well written, directed, produced and the actors were amazing. It is a shame that the show does not match the movie at all.
article source-Disney Dreaming
From www.bsckids.com
Movie Review: Source Code
Mar 30th
I can already see it at some virtual movie-revival house of the future: a “what-if?” double feature that teams Limitless and Source Code and points out that both films came out within a couple of weeks of each other in the same year.
The similarities don’t stop there. Both feature good-looking young actors – Bradley Cooper in Limitless, Jake Gyllenhaal in Source Code – who stumble into something much bigger than themselves and have to hang on for dear life if they want to survive.
But where Limitless posited a pharmaceutical that allowed the user to be all that he could be, Source Code is a time-travel thriller that spends a lot of time arguing against its being a time-travel movie.
The film’s central gimmick – that scientists have found a way to send someone back in time to the point eight-minutes before a certain individual dies, into that individual’s mind – is clever enough. And it makes a certain kind of Groundhog Day sense.
Gyllenhaal plays Capt. Colter Stevens, a soldier who served in Iraq who wakes up on a commuter train to Chicago. He can’t remember how he got there, he doesn’t know the woman sitting across from him (Michelle Monaghan), though she seems to know him, and he can’t figure out why, when he looks in a restroom mirror, he sees someone else’s face. And then the train explodes …
… and he comes to in some sort of flight-simulator capsule, or so it seems. He can hear voices talking military-computer jargon, trying to get his attention. Eventually, he finds out that he’s part of a desperate experiment.
Just back from fighting in Iraq, he’s somehow a perfect match for that guy on the train. Somehow, the military egghead in charge (Jeffrey Wright) has figured out how to insert Colter’s mind into the man’s brain – for the final eight minutes of the guy’s life.
And that’s his mission: To keep going back into the guy’s brain, in order to figure out who on the train set the bomb – and what he’s done with the dirty bomb he also plans to set off this same day. The catch: The train bombing happened earlier that morning and can’t be prevented, but Colter can affect the future by finding the bomber and bringing back that information.
Except that, as Colter makes his repeated leaps into the past, he discovers that he can change the events he’s experiencing. Does that mean he’s changing the past?
What’s the science here?
Click here: This review continues on my website.
Follow Marshall Fine on Twitter: www.twitter.com/hollywoodnfine
From www.huffingtonpost.com
Christopher Plummer-Ewan McGregor movie ‘Beginners’ opens SF Film Fest
Mar 29th
Click photo to enlarge
Actor Ewan McGregor and writer-director Mike Mills are set to appear with their picture “Beginners,” the opening-night movie at the 54th San Francisco International Film Festival, on April 21 at the Castro Theatre.
“Beginners” is an autobiographical film about Mills’ father finding happiness late in life with a younger man, adding to his perpetually unhappy son’s confusion. Christopher Plummer plays the dad, McGregor the son. The screening will be followed by a party at the art gallery Terra.
Tickets go on sale Wednesday for the film fest, which runs through May 5 in San Francisco at the Castro, the Sundance Kabuki, New People and other venues, and in Berkeley at the Pacific Film Archive.
On the marquee: 188 features and shorts, master classes and workshops, musical events, special programs and tributes.
Besides “Beginners,” the high-profile pictures include restored versions of Federico Fellini’s 1960 landmark “La Dolce Vita” and Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1973 two-part sci-fi TV series “World on a Wire”; Miranda July’s “The Future”; Errol Morris’ new documentary “Tabloid”; the new Catherine Breillat film “The Sleeping Beauty”; Takashi Miike’s Samurai swordsman epic “13 Assassins”; and the closing-night picture, “On Tour,” about America’s new burlesque performers, including two from the Bay Area.
“This year the trend is films that have found their own length,” Rachel Rosen, director of programming, said in a phone interview. Seven films run more than 130 minutes, with the longest, “The Mysteries of Lisbon,” clocking in at 4 hours, 32 minutes. (There will be an intermission, Rosen said.) At the other end of the spectrum, five films are 75 minutes or less, the shortest being the animated “A Cat in Paris” at 1 hour, 5 minutes — and a good pick for families and children, the programmer said.
Another trend that “bubbled up this year,” Rosen said, is “films dealing with the depiction of flat art through cinema”: “Cave of Forgotten Dreams,” Werner Herzog’s 3-D take on the prehistoric cave drawings in southern France; “The Mill and the Cross,” a film by Polish director Lech Majewski that drops viewers in the middle of a Breughel painting, and stars Rutger Hauer as the Flemish artist; and director Ami Dutta’s “Nainsukh,” a stylized bio about 18th-century Indian miniatures.
Festival honorees include screenwriter Frank Pierson, multimedia artist Mathew Barney and showman Serge Bromberg. Independent producer Christine Vachon (“Boys Don’t Cry,” the new “Mildred Pierce” miniseries) will deliver the annual State of Cinema address.
Programs are available at theaters and other locations throughout San Francisco and at Landmark theaters and the PFA in the East Bay. Ticket prices vary, but most screenings cost around $13. Contact www.sffs.org.
From www.mercurynews.com
Rodrick Rules And So Does His Movie
Mar 29th
It was supposed to be a neck-and-neck race at the weekend box office, according to analysts, with Sucker Punch edging out Diary of a Wimpy Kid Rodrick Rules . It didn’t turn out that way. Wimpy Kid was the winner by a wide margin, taking in $23.8 million versus $19.1 million for Sucker Punch, which was helped by IMAX surcharges. Indeed IMAX-equipped theaters accounted for 21 percent of the movie’s total take — a record. Two holdovers from last weekend also performed respectably. Limitless dropped just 20 percent from last week to $15.1 million, while The Linoln Lawyer dropped just 19 percent to $10.8 million. Overall, the box office was down 7.2 percent from the comparable weekend a year ago when it was led by the opening of DreamWorks’ How to Train Your Dragon with $43.7 million.
The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Box Office Mojo (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date) 1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid Rodrick Rules , 20th Century Fox, $23,751,502, (New); 2. Sucker Punch , Warner Bros., $19,058,199, (New); 3. Limitless , Relativity Media, $15,055,249, 2 Wks. ($41,111,231); 4. The Lincoln Lawyer , Lionsgate, $10,750,365, 2 Wks. ($28,717,548); 5. Rango, Paramount, $9,772,822, 4 Wks. ($106,335,987); 6. Paul, Universal, $7,856,800, 2 Wks. ($24,960,970); 7. Battle Los Angeles , Sony, $7,582,566, 3 Wks. ($72,562,110); 8. Red Riding Hood, Warner Bros., $4,311,312, 3 Wks. ($32,424,769); 9. The Adjustment Bureau , Universal, $4,290,795, 4 Wks. ($54,916,865); 10. Mars Needs Moms , Disney, $2,258,428, 3 Wks. ($19,224,641).
29/03/2011
From www.contactmusic.com
Did Natalie Portman Use Bottom Double in New Movie?
Mar 29th
Pretty soon people will be asking whether she’s actually been in any films at all – the latest rumour surrounding Natalie Portman is that she used a bottom double in her upcoming film, Your Highness.
It was only last week that Portman was in the news over whether she actually did any of the dancing in her Oscar-winning Black Swan role (‘Yes, she did’ said partner, Benjamin Milliepied; ‘No, she didn’t’ said body double, Sarah Lane). Now, mystery surrounds a medieval bikini scene in a trailer for the action comedy, also starring James Franco, Zooey Deschanel and Danny McBride.
In Your Highness, Portman plays tough warrior Isabel who joins a couple of hapless princes on a mission to rescue one of their fiancees. In one scene, Isabel strips by a lake, which is where the star’s head is supposed to have been digitally added to a double’s body (see pic above for analysis).
The rumour came about when an Irish newspaper congratulated a local actress, Caroline Davis, for winning a part in a US TV drama, saying: ‘Caroline landed her role after producers saw her stepping in as Natalie Portman’s ‘butt-double’ in the Belfast-shot movie Your Highness.’
According to FilmDrunk, who broke the story, a source close to the film said that the double was only used for a swimming scene and nothing else.
Double or not, the studio have rather primly altered the scene featuring the ‘butt’ in question by adding digital bikini bottoms over Portman’s thong – happily for the investigative amongst you, you can see the unaltered shot in the NSFW Red Band trailer or just stick with the safe trailer below. What do you think?
From moviefone.co.uk
